Museveni’s 40 Year- Rule is the Genuine Manifesto worth the Scrutiny - Part II

 by Valerian Kkonde

Pearl News Service

 

National Unity Platform Presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu- also known as Bobi Wine- runs his campaigns on a promise of a new Uganda where rule of law and respect for human dignity prevail

 As demand for regime change intensifies, Museveni has been forced to drop all pretense at good governance and turn to the Museveni Protection Agencies to secure his hold on power. The army’s takeover of the electoral commission powers and the targeting of civilians all point to this desperation. So is the Buganda for Museveni Campaign.

 

The Buganda for Museveni campaign is NRM’s bid to reclaim mass support in the Buganda region. Buganda bore the greatest brunt of the guerrilla war that catapulted Museveni and cohorts to state power. Lives, livelihoods and properties were lost. But forty years later, all Buganda has to show is economic oppression, systematic environmental destruction and evil schemes to undermine the kingdom progress and pride.

 

As the guerrilla war came to the close, there was a quiet and systematic elimination of people from Buganda. They were seen as a threat much as they had played crucial roles in the success of the struggle. To this day key Baganda whether civilian or military, continue to disappear under suspicious circumstances which have come to be known as the “hand of the poisonous cup.”

 

To the chagrin of many, forty years later the region stands in shambles but regime puppets expect Buganda to be grateful any way. And there seems to be a deliberate plan to keep the region lagging behind, save for the extraordinary vigour of the Buganda government to be on top of the situation- “Buganda ku ntikko.”

 

Rosemary Namayanja, the deputy secretary general of NRM does not hide her disappointment with Buganda’s insistence that the NRM is plotting evil. For Namayanja, it is Museveni who single handedly restored the traditional institutions after their abolition by Milton Obote. Buganda maintains that the institution of the Kabaka was never a gift from Museveni but the outcome of their own blood.

 

The deputy secretary general of NRM is aware of the hostility towards the name Buganda that her party continues to display. In the first place, they claim that Kampala is not part of Buganda. NRM does not want the Buganda region to appear on the map and dictate that “Central region” be used to refer to Buganda! Why all this effort not be spent on poverty eradication?

 

Museveni has, unsuccessfully, tried to set up parallel unheard of traditional institutions simply to antagonize Buganda’s pride and destabilise the development programs being pursued. Indeed Museveni’s hatred saw the coming up of tittles like the Ssabanyala, Ssabaruli and Mwogezibutamanya. He even set up alternative traditional leaders in Kooki county.

 

The logical response to these maneuvers still remains: why does Museveni’s exceptional love for traditional institutions not extend to the Ankole kingdom which he has denied the opportunity to see the light of day?

 

The 2021 general elections were the climax of peoples’ anger and the explosion of the dynamite ignited by oppression, injustice and humiliation. The predatory NRM is horrible than Obote and is not working for Ugandans. People are paid peanuts and, coupled with the broken health and education systems, the result is unprecedented desire for regime change.

 

Government is occupying a number of the Buganda government facilities but paying occupation fees for these facilities often takes years in a deliberate attempt to starve the Kingdom of the finances to offer services to the people. Government owes Buganda kingdom at least 500 billion shillings!

 

The intended suffocation of the Kingdom has miraculously transformed it into a success story through the contributions of the people. With these meagre funds, education, health, agriculture, sustainable use of the environment and moral rehabilitation have been raised to standards that starkly compare with Museveni’s government policy prioritisation. The political will has been scrutinised and found lacking.

 

The robbery of 10 trillion shillings every year of tax-payer money will certainly triple when the oil taps begin to flow. At least 7 trillion shillings is expected every year from Uganda’s oil.

Among the most widely spoken languages in Uganda, Luganda comes first. Numerous novels and text books have also been written in Luganda and it is being taught even outside the Buganda region. But the Museveni government has not pretended about its love for the suffocation of the Luganda language.

 

When the Odoki commission was created to help establish the system of governance that the country preferred, it was evident that the whole country preferred federalism. In Buganda alone, over 80% categorically called for federalism. Museveni instead came up with a foreign and artificial system called decentralization. This too could not be allowed to fully function because it denied him the absolute power he yearns for.

Buganda region has 105 slots for members of parliament. With a population of 11,171,924 according to the National Population and Housing Census of 2024, each MP represents 106,399 people. Wakiso district has a population of 3,411,177 people while the Ankole sub region, with thirteen districts, has a population of 3,608,968. This alone reveals the deliberate policy to deny Buganda region appropriate representation at policy formation and decision-making level.

Nansana municipality has a population of 609,021. Kira municipality has a population of 396,189. But in the region where the rulers come from, the districts of Kiruhura has 203,502, Mbarara has 174,039 and Rwampara boasts of 162,967 people! Not counties or subcounties but districts.

There is nothing new that Museveni is capable of doing after forty years in power. Nothing. All Museveni can do is to keep promising that better days are ahead but none will surely be on the table. This is where the trouble begins; he clings on power while the country demands for change and better service delivery. In the long run he becomes melancholic, brutal and very insecure. He will hit at whatever dares cross his path.

Gen. Muhozi Kainerugaba with South Sudan President Salva Kiir

 Security agencies have turned into state-terror machines with their only preoccupation being entrenching Museveni in state power. Many regimes in Africa and the world over have trodden this path but with dire consequences. But Museveni and cohorts deceive themselves that they are very wise, have a lot of money to buy off any opposition and also have all the guns they need to keep themselves securely in power.

The old man with a hat unashamedly told the world that his soldiers each has 120 bullets. Such reckless and desperate statements have always preceded genocidal acts as in Rwanda, Sudan, Burundi and unfortunately Tanzania of recent.

By 1980 Luweero was Buganda’s economic backbone: numerous heads of cattle, coffee plantations and prosperity all over the region. All this was lost during the guerrilla war that brought Museveni to State Power. But forty years later, he has deliberately left the area in shambles.

Luweero can only boast of having borne the brunt of war and lost all in the name of bringing an end to primitive and savage regimes. In terms of sustainable development one needs a magnifying glass in order to the see the gains. The pineapples and mangoes that abound have not stirred the old man with a hat to bring a juice processing plant for the farmers. Even the roads, similar to sweet potatoes gardens, the broken and rotten health and education systems cannot move the rulers to act. All the hope and expectations that steered the armed struggle are long buried in the mass graves that adorn the triangle.

As if these are no insult enough, Museveni has refused to compensate the people for all they lost. Instead they are being forcefully displaced from their land by those with powerful connections to state power. As if to tell them that they are mere condoms!

Could this explain why, many factories in Luweero are constructed in wetlands? With ecosystems and surrounding environments destroyed, fauna and flora lost, the beauty of life in this area is forgotten once and for all. And when life becomes unbearable, what else is left for the inhabitants to be proud of? Nothing. Is it the yellow t-shits and caps and the empty promises that they should treasure instead?

 

After forty years in power does it even make sense for Museveni to go to the people of Luweero and make promises or give excuses? Does it make sense to vote for such people and whatever they represent? For how long do people have to wait for service delivery, sustainable peace and development?

 

It is only someone with mental challenges who can be surprised with the discontent with Museveni’s rule in Buganda. People are simply confronting injustices with courage.

 

On 18 and 19 November 2020 at least 50 people were summarily killed during presidential and parliamentary campaigns. Instead of compensating the victims, many more are being abducted, tortured and imprisoned without trial. Others have disappeared without trace for opposing the establishment! No different from Obote and Amin regimes.  

 

Claims of peace without justice are nonsense to say the least. You grab our land, deliberately make us poor, kill the institutions that would have worked for us and even rob us of the hard earned shillings and you have the guts to tell us that you are protecting the gains attained! This is a way of saying that you want to squeeze the few drops of sap remaining in us; meaning you are after our own life.

 

Museveni is not working for the common good. The flooding of the buildings in the business district, on October 31^st 2025, clearly brought out the greed, arrogance and insensitiveness of Museveni and cohorts. And to show they don’t care, the old man with the hat said that the illegal construction must continue. The sham investors like Ham and the rest are not making any positive contribution to the country; they are mere fronts being used by those in power to siphon the resources of the country. By now many have seen the determination to strike the oppressive blow as hard as it can hit. Accumulation of obscene wealth has to go on.

 

One year ago, people lost their lives and properties in Kiteezi due to the rampant robbery of public funds and resources. But nothing has been done to address the situation. This is one instance of turning Ugandans into refugees in their own country. Museveni and cohorts call it the peace that they brought.

 

Very unfortunate for Museveni, even those who would have brought that moral teaching, that moral voice into the regime have long given up or taken to feathering their nests. They have become complacent, grown comfortable with the status quo, whilst ignoring the call for justice, peace and reconciliation, which are the foundation for upholding the common good.

 

Forty years later it has been revealed that Museveni was just an imposter and opportunist who simply wanted a go at the presidency but did not wish the country well. He grabbed the presidency with a gun, has used the gun to remain in power and rather sees the country up in flames than let go the state power in a civilised exercise like voting.

 

As of June 2025, Uganda's public debt was UGX 116.2 trillion, representing 51.3% of its GDP. This figure consists of UGX 60.3 trillion in domestic debt and UGX 55.9 trillion in external debt. The total debt keeps increasing significantly from the previous year due to new borrowing to support the budget and the so called development programs. 

 

The 40 years of Museveni’s rule offer the best standard for weighing the true character of a man who wants to pass off as a patriot and freedom fighter. The forty-year rule has exposed a man who is ready to do anything to hold to power. The situation in which Uganda finds herself today is dire although many of the signs are not being given the attention they deserve.

 

The environmental degradation that the country is going through is one sign that is warning of dangerous times ahead. The forest cover is perishing at a supersonic speed. Wetlands, water sources and all the natural beauties are vanishing and at the hand of state-led greed and wickedness! To all these add the land-grabbing, poverty and the crippling of institutions and the true picture is complete. For Museveni and cohorts that is peace. These are the gains Ugandans are invited to protect!

 

When Museveni keeps boasting that he brought peace to Uganda, one just has to look at the dehumanising poverty, rotten health systems and the lack of respect for human values and try to figure out what exactly he means. Can there be peace amidst statelessness that is being brought about by land-grabbing, abductions and torture of political opponents? Can there be peace amidst the replacing of institutions with himself? How about the nepotism, tribalism and impunity that characterises his rule?

 

The moral decadence being witnessed in Uganda under Museveni is enough for anyone, with a conscience, to refuse any form of attachment to this evil regime.

 

Museveni has put in place a system which criminalises innocent people. Many are abducted, tortured, jailed without trial, some have disappeared while others have been killed in cold blood. The survivors who are lucky to face a judge, their cases collapse for lack of evidence.

He is promoting a model that does not create the same opportunities for everyone. Ugandans have a duty to take a stand where human dignity is trampled. This has to be carried out consistently and boldly.

 

Fr. Deusdedit Ssekabira was abducted by the Museveni Protection Agencies in a manner similar to the dreaded regimes of Obote and Amin. How history repeats itself!

 The security agencies have long ceased to be so; they have been transformed into Museveni Protection Agencies. As such they are preoccupied with stifling human rights and freedoms that challenge Museveni’s continued grip on power.

 

Police and army are notorious for beating, torturing, abducting and killing members of the opposition. There is no doubt that all these are taking place because Museveni wants everything that way. The National Unity Platform presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu has been subjected to all forms of humiliation- his supporters as well- as he mounts pressure on the old man with a hat in the campaigns.

 

The NUP presidential candidate has even been barred from campaigning is areas like Gulu, Fort Portal and Kiruhura. The formidable opposition put up by NUP has forced Museveni to abandon his pretense at democracy and rule of law. Police and army have not only come out to campaign for him but they also ferry NRM supporters to campaign venues in their trucks. In Entebe and Kamunga, Lt. Col. Mercy Tukahirwa, the commander of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU), has even had the guts to intimidate voters with ruining their livelihoods if they do not vote for Museveni! Talk of absolute power.

 

Article 208 of the 1995 Constitution states that the UPDF shall be nonpartisan but many soldiers, after the Commander of the Defence Forces- Gen. Muhozi Kainerugaba- are openly campaigning for Museveni. Captain Isaac Mugalu is seen campaigning in Ziroobwe and stupidly refers to Museveni as the god of this country. Yes, Uganda has degenerated to such levels!  

 

Museveni has not only run out of options and ideas but has become the problem for Uganda. And because life is about solving problems, then Museveni should be voted out of power at the earliest opportunity available. This is the civilised option that the Uganda constitution provides for regime change, but other ways, like the one he used, cannot be ruled out either especially when he replaces institutions with himself.

 

The scars of the 40-year rule are predatory systems, absolute power, promotion of hatred, selfishness, intolerance, authoritarianism and lack of integrity.

 

Lt. Col. Mercy Tukahirwa. The indiscipline displayed by an officer at this rank is testimony to the arrogance, impunity and incompetence at the core of Uganda’s institutions under Museveni.

 

The much taunted “socio-economic transformation, bankruptcy of religious sectarianism, political balkanization, regional integration, wealth creation and the four-acre model” are some of the high sounding slogans that have characterised the 40-year rule. Museveni looks very proud of them. But they are mere grandiose slogans with nothing to prove in reality.

 

Museveni is dividing the country into irreconcilable factions wrongly thinking that he, his family and cohorts are best protected that way. Africa’s dictators often slip into that sort of dreaming only to wake up when it is too late.

 

The artificial peace that Museveni boasts about has come at the expense of fundamental rights, including private and family life, freedom of conscience and information, and the right to a fair trial.

 

Museveni’s greed, indifference, selfishness, and violence have shattered the dreams of peace, hope and prosperity of young people. As a result Uganda faces political disputes, violations of fundamental human rights, robbery of public funds and resources, and loss of trust among citizens. The more Museveni clings to power the more these wounds bleed.

 

Ssebudde Kassim one of the National Unity Platform supporters who have been abducted, tortured and seen again alive. Many are missing without trace.

The crises he promised to resolve have, 40 years later, instead become more pronounced and grounded in the life of Uganda. The indiscipline being displayed by the UPDF and other Museveni protection agencies, exemplified by the Commander in Chief and the Chief of Defence Forces, amount to the incitement of hatred and violence. This is deliberate sowing of anarchy and extrajudicial acts so as to cling to state power. This explains why Museveni is proud of a peace that comes at the expense of human dignity.

 

In the ongoing suffering, oppression, injustices and robberies Ugandans are seeking relief and are determined to secure the relief through the ballot box. Museveni and cohorts must not be deceived that this system is incapable of bringing about the much desired change where those who do not want the change have all sorts of guns and money. It is one thing to have the guns and another to have the support and blessings of the country.

 

 

          “Injustice against Comrade Ssebudde Kassim

After more than two weeks under incommunicado detention and torture, our comrade Ssebudde Kassim was driven to Namboole in the dead of the night and dumped near Namboole Stadium.

He was abducted alongside comrade Eddie Mutwe, who was separated from them a day later. His story is not different from that of other victims — he was severely tortured, and upon release, ordered not to speak about his ordeal, otherwise they would kill him.

The cowardly regime is doing all this to silence us, but our voices must get louder and our actions stronger.” NUP PRESIDENT’S Statement ON ABDUCTIONS OF PARTY MEMBERS

 

Apart from Museveni and cohorts chanting that “Buganda for Museveni” they have arrogantly done nothing to address the concerns of the people. Soon after the 2021 elections, Masaka witnessed numerous murders at the hands of panga-wielding goons. The best the government did was to tell the residents that the murders were the result of electing people from the opposition. That is all the Internal affairs minister, Gen. Kahinda Otafire did!

 

As Museveni desperately asks Ugandans to vote for him, one gets the impression that if he had utilised well his forty years in power, he would not be using all this energy and resources; the time he has spent in state house all these decades should be able to speak for him. There is no doubt that the manifesto, documentaries and all the songs and slogans put together cannot speak better to the voters than the deeds of the four decades.

 

 Does Museveni, at his age, need to be taught that change is a fact of life! Change comes at its own timing, in different ways and for different reasons. But above all, change is irresistible.

 

Catholic Church will not be a Silent Bystander amid Challenges to Peace - Pope Leo XIV

By Crux Staff

Dec 6, 2025

Pope Leo XIV receives Letters of Credence from ambassadors on Saturday, 6 Dec. 2025. Image © Vatican Media

Pope Leo XIV promised on Saturday that the Holy See will not be a mere spectator to global affairs, especially regarding inequality, injustice, and questions of basic human rights.

“The Holy See will not be a silent bystander to the grave disparities, injustices and fundamental human rights violations in our human and global community, which is increasingly more fractured and conflict-prone.” Leo said.

The pope’s remarks came during an audience with ambassadors to the Holy See from Bahrain, Fiji, Finland, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Micronesia, Moldova, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Uzbekistan, who presented the pontiff with their Letters of Credence in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican on Saturday morning.

“The Holy See’s diplomacy,” said the pontiff, “is consistently directed toward serving the good of humanity, especially by appealing to consciences and by remaining attentive to the voices of those who are poor, in vulnerable situations or pushed to the margins of society.”

The diplomatic efforts of the Holy See are “shaped by the values of the Gospel,” Leo said, and in particular by the desire for peace.

“Peace,” said the pope, recalling the very first words he spoke to the world as Leo XIV on the day of his election and his May 16, 2025 remarks to the whole corps of diplomats accredited to the Holy See, “is not merely the absence of conflict, but ‘an active and demanding gift,’ one that is ‘built in the heart and from the heart’.”

 

“The Holy See’s diplomacy is consistently directed toward serving the good of humanity, especially by appealing to consciences and by remaining attentive to the voices of those who are poor, in vulnerable situations or pushed to the margins of society.” –              Pope Leo XIV

 

“Peace calls each of us to renounce pride and vindictiveness and to resist the temptation to use words as weapons,” Leo said.

“This vision of peace has become all the more urgent,” Leo said, “as geopolitical tension and fragmentation continue to deepen in ways that burden nations and that strain the bonds of the human family.”

Leo expressed gladness at the chance to meet the new ambassadors in what are still the early days of his pontificate, and in the context of the Jubilee Year of Hope inaugurated by his predecessor, Pope Francis.

Leo quoted Francis’ Bull of Indiction for the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025, Spes non confundit – “Hope does not disappoint” – emphasizing the need to recover trust in our common institutions and in each other.

Leo said the Jubilee “calls everyone ‘to recover the confident trust that we require, in the Church and in society, in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations, and in our task of promoting the dignity of all persons and respect for God’s gift of creation’.”

 

Museveni’s 40 Year- Rule is the Genuine Manifesto worth the Scrutiny- Part I

 

by Valerian Kkonde

Pearl News Service

President Yoweri Museveni after forty years in power is applying all sorts of means to cling to it. Are the past forty years the best way to gauge his uniqueness or failure to solve the crises he promised and used to justify his guerrilla war?

   When Yoweri Museveni was sworn in as President of Uganda in 1986, he gave the country a renewed hope for good governance, rule of law, peace and prosperity. This hope was hinged on the statement he emphasised that: “This is a fundamental change. It is not a mere change of guards.” Museveni kept rallying for local support with the promise of never witnessing the savage and primitive acts that brought a grim toll on our politics, economy and identity.

   The swearing-in was the result of a bloody five-year guerrilla war that rocked the country after the flawed, sham and contested 1980 elections. As one of the presidential candidates, on the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) party ticket, Museveni must have had first- hand experience of the effect and impact of an election that is nowhere near being free and fair. He gave the impression of a person best placed to bring this to an end.

   On January 15, 2026 Ugandans will be voting for their next President and Members of Parliament. Yoweri Museveni is one of the eight candidates vying for the presidency on the National Resistance Movement (NRM) ticket. He will be clocking forty solid uninterrupted years as president!

   Forty years as president of Uganda is no mean achievement; he will be the first in the history of Uganda. But on the African continent other “great” men have accomplished this feat. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea. In power since August 1979, he has ruled for over 46 years, making him the longest-serving current president in the world. Paul Biya of Cameroon has been president since November 1982. He has been in office for over 43 years.

  Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Central Republic of the Congo has ruled for a total of approximately 41 years across two separate periods (1979-1992 and 1997-present), allowing him to reach the 40-year mark. 

   Of great concern and interest, is not merely the number of years but the quality of those years. Has Uganda witnessed a fundamental change as regards good governance, rule of law, peace and prosperity? What I consider as the greatest achievement of the forty-year Museveni rule is the demystifying of a man who always, and continues to do, portrayed himself as the missing link in Uganda’s realisation of good governance, rule of law, peace and prosperity.

   If Museveni had died early in his presidency, many Ugandans would have mourned him as the greatest and the man who was to lead the country to the promised land. But equating politics to the beautiful 90-minute game of football, Museveni has played the 90 minutes and has no excuse, nothing new to offer to the coach and the team as a whole. It’s time out for him!

   At stake is good governance, rule of law, peace and prosperity. After forty years as president, what else new can Museveni claim to be able to offer to Ugandans? At least he is no different from the previous dictators he claimed he wanted to have their chapter closed, but at most he has been worse than them all.

   While African history is abundant with cases of modern-day demagogues who have ruled for over forty years it is devoid of success stories. All there is to show is anarchy, dehumanising poverty, politically aggravated murders of opponents and robbery of public funds and resources. These so called “great” men have mutilated their constitutions and have accumulated obscene wealth. They have as well excelled in human rights abuses.

   First accusation is that they have not led their countries to the status of developed nations. Characteristic of them all is dehumanising poverty and debts that have crippled their countries. Nothing meaningful has come out of the decades-long rule of these power-greedy men. Nothing at all. Overstaying in power has undoubtedly proved to be a curse to them and the countries.

   One of Uganda’s laughing stock is the 1995 Constitution which Museveni oversaw and has also turned into a state terror machine. Presidential term limits and age limits were literally mutilated like the Female Genital Mutilations among the Sabiny women. This is horrible! And once this was effected, all the dreams of a fundamental change were dashed. The constitution has been so trivialized that the order of the day is to go to bed in one constitution only to wake up in a new one!

   By the close of the 2024/25 Financial Year, Uganda’s debt stands at a whopping 116 trillion shillings! In the same period, the Inspector General of Government (IGG) disclosed that 10 trillion shillings is stolen every year! But that whenever the IGG tries to prosecute these thugs they hide in State House. This is frank speaking! The IGG then shuttered the mask when she called for a life-style audit of the newly rich.

   Typical of Africa’s demagogues who have outlived their usefulness and are driven by greed and wickedness, President Museveni ordered the IGG to back off because the money will then have to be invested outside the country! The Old Man with a hat has overstayed to the extent of replacing institutions with himself. For anything to have a semblance of going forward the Old Man has to physically be involved and he always dedicatedly honours the pleas of the people, for his magic hand, with a broad smile.

   In September 2005, donors agreed to write off US $ 3.7 billion of Uganda's foreign debt owed to institutions like the World Bank, IMF, and African Development Bank. The IMF and World Bank officially extended 100% debt relief to Uganda in December 2005 and June 2006, respectively, which effectively wiped out most of its remaining external debt to these institutions. 

   These cancellations were intended to redirect funds towards critical social services and infrastructure, such as education and health, to help the country achieve its Millennium Development Goals. But what is the state of education, health and the roads?

  One wonders what the situation would have been like today if the country had not received the write off of 2005.

   In 1987 among the steps taken to improve the economy was the devaluation of the Uganda shilling by 77 per cent. This is remembered as the removal of three zeros from the money every person owned.

Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu also known as Bobi Wine is the presidential candidate on the National Unity Platform party. He is calling for a new Uganda where rule of law, justice, peace and respect for human  dignity are the norm.

   One reason for lack of meaningful financial transformation is the institutionalised robbery of public funds and resources. For an economy like the one for Uganda it is suicidal to allow it to be robbed of 10 trillion shillings a single year. Imagine what will happen when the oil taps begin to flow. At least seven trillion shillings is expected from the oil revenue every year. The extent of robberies being witnessed in the country simply confirm that oil in Uganda, like in other African countries, is a curse.  

   Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate Nandala Mafabi castigated the Electoral Commission for designating few days for the campaigns. Nandala says that the roads are in a dire state and they cannot connect to districts easily. At times they need a full day of travel to catch up on campaign program but they have proved to be bad miracles-workers so far.

   As Uganda continues to writhe under Museveni’s hazardously conceived policies, students have had to cope without teachers for the greater part of this third term. The strikes were the result of the decision to pay science teachers high salaries while the arts teachers were neglected. Even the doctors are faced with similar neglect, forcing many to flee the country for greener pastures. But remember, ten trillion shillings is stolen every year before a man with a hat who has been in power for forty years and is clinging on at all cost!

   The 40-year rule has shown how Museveni is so confident with the magic in his family that he has had to appoint his wife Janet Kataha as the Minister of Education and Sports. Their son Gen Muhozi Kainerugaba is the Commander of the Defence Forces.

   General Salim Saleh, the President’s younger brother is in charge of the billion shillings Poverty Alleviation project. He doubles as the Presidential Adviser on security. Other relatives too occupy key government positions to ably demonstrate the high level of commitment Museveni has to keep things moving. Feel free to call this nepotism, impunity, arrogance or whatever.

   And on many occasions Museveni has accused Ugandans of not being appreciative of what he has done to help them be president for forty years. Ugandans definitely are not happy about the family-rule system. To some, this is what it means to get drunk with power.

Senior Counsel Erias Lukwago is the Lord Mayor for Kampala. His unwavering demand for and defence of rule of law and human rights makes him a reliable partner in search for good governance.

    For majority Ugandans, the forty years of Museveni rule are synonymous with poverty, rotten health and education systems and oppression. Uganda’s educated and youthful generation is being wasted away in the Middle East in what is termed as modern day slavery.

   Nandala Mafabi painted a dramatic picture about Ugandan youth riding boda-boda (motorcycles used for transport). He said that the youth ride boda-boda which are worn out, putting on worn out trousers and the youth themselves are worn out.

   Land-grabbing is an evil that is synonymous with the Museveni rule. People are becoming refugees in their own country and losing their treasured identity. This evil is getting a lot of protection from the security agencies and further entrenches the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

   The continued toiling of Ugandans who do not reap the rewards of their sweat confirms that there is a policy problem and not a resource problem. It is only in Uganda where Chinese who came as investors are now accomplished hawkers like the hapless Ugandans. The tax regime is so hostile to Ugandans that even when they complain, it is the interests of foreigners that have to get the upper hand fueling rumours that the foreigners are mere fronts for the powerful politicians. Instead of investing here, they are siphoning the country of the meagre resources. The debate rages on whether to call them investors or leaches. 

   Museveni has publicly boasted that in his family, peasants ended with his parents. But he has not whispered to Ugandans the secret to his success. This has left many guessing that it is the state coffers that he is privy to that can explain the fundamental change the family has undergone.

   With 70% of the population engaged in agriculture, one would expect that this is the sector that would have received priority in the last forty years but it is not the case. The numerous poverty alleviation programmes that have characterised this regime have flatly failed to alleviate Ugandans from the clutches of dehumanising poverty. It is under Museveni that the country continues to witness the would-be beneficiaries of poverty alleviation programs becoming poorer and poorer, while those who head the programs become richer and richer.

   The Cooperative movement that was responsible for the thriving of the agricultural sector and the economy at large, were scrapped by Museveni after he had robbed them of their money to fund his guerrilla war. They were, and would still be the best today, the solution to the problems of poverty afflicting regions of the country. In the North there was the tobacco, in the East it was cotton and in Buganda it was coffee. It is the latter that managed to revive coffee-growing while the other regions compete for the trophy of the poorest region in this once pearl of Africa.

   In the true spirit of protecting the gains, Museveni constructed a coffee plant in Ntungamo worth over five billion shillings. This is a region that has nothing to do with growing coffee. Was this in the name of value addition or envy for Buganda’s successful contribution to the coffee sector? To this add the dissolving of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority which had teamed up with the Buganda kingdom to revive the growing of coffee in the kingdom. Today Uganda is ranked first in Africa, in coffee export and earned at least eight trillion shillings. Seventy percent of the Uganda coffee is grown in Buganda kingdom. Indeed Museveni’s rule is a policy catastrophe not a resource one.

   Ntoroko and Bundibugyo are the main cocoa- growing areas in Uganda; they contribute 70% of the crop grown in Uganda. Forty years later, the region wallows in dehumanising poverty as they continue to sell cocoa beans. But when one hears Museveni talk about value addition, from morning to evening, fears arise whether the old man is becoming a parrot!

   Warning humanity against the temptation of accumulating obscene wealth, Pope Francis (RIP) had this to say: “When people become self-centred and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume. It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears. As these attitudes become more widespread, social norms are respected only to the extent that they do not clash with personal needs.”

   Politics remains as the only viable option out of poverty under Museveni. But here too one has to be a staunch supporter of the Old Man with a hat. Actions clearly tell the absurdity of Uganda’s bastard politics as introduced by Milton Obote continues to haunt the country. The words and actions from Museveni’s government clearly indicate that it is criminal to compete against Museveni. Since previous rulers too did exactly this, there is no fundamental change to brag about. May be for the newly rich! And they are right to “protect the gains.”

   Erias Nalukoola, MP for Kawempe East, accuses Museveni of the mentality that those who compete with him must be killed.

  “This is the opportunity to choose the people we want. You cannot call for elections yet order the security agencies to torture, abduct and beat your opponents. Those who don’t want to elect you must also be allowed to live.”

   During the 2021 election period, at least fifty young people were summarily killed in execution style. Many more were abducted and their where about still unknown. Abductions, torture and imprisonment without trial continue to this day specifically aimed at the members of the Opposition.

   For people’s voices and choices to be heard and respected, there must be systems, institutions and individuals deliberately positioned for this purpose. Pretence and incompetence are no substitutes for free and fair elections. Bastard politics continues to haunt Uganda because Museveni sees no life after State House. The more Museveni feels threatened or insecure, the more he becomes a threat and a danger to this country. He becomes melancholic when he thinks about a future without state power. This is where Uganda’s problems start.

   Winnie Byanyima, the wife of political prisoner Dr. Kizza Besigye, says that Museveni has overstayed to the extent that he is instead undoing the good he had been able to achieve. On November 16, 2025 politician Dr. Kizza Besigye and Haji Asadu Lutale made a year in jail since they were abducted in Nairobi from Riverside Hotel.

Martha Karua consults Dr. Kizza Besigye in one of their numerous court battles for human rights and constitutionalism in the Great Lakes Region.

   “Museveni is above the law and is doing what pleases him. But I want to tell him that time is coming to be out of power. He needs to retire. If he fails to make peace with Ugandans, they too will not treat him well and his family.”

   Elias Lukwago is one of the finest legal brains in Uganda. He is a member of People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) and the Lord Mayor of Kampala. He accuses the Judiciary to be in bed with Museveni when it comes to torturing political opponents and stifling democracy in Uganda.

  Dr. Besigye was Museveni’s personal doctor during the guerrilla war but ever since he accused Museveni of betraying the cause for which they waged the bloody war, he has been in and out of jail on a number of occasions. While a myriad of trumped up charges have been brought against him, he has always emerged on top of the evil plots.

   Lukwago maintains that the East African Community leaders have taken to collaborating to entrench authoritarianism in the region, and accuses Museveni of being the architect of this evil network.

   Kenyan lawyer come politician Martha Karua, is Besigye’s lead lawyer and concurs with Lukwago and the human rights activists.

   “There is a conspiracy among Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to trash rule of law and entrench authoritarianism in the region. This calls for concerted effort among all the stake holders in the region.”

Monsignor Joseph Mugambe shares Joy of 100 Years of life and 70 of Mowing Souls for the King of the Universe

 

by Valerian Kkonde

ACCPU

 

Msgr. Joseph Mary Mugambe during Mass. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ ACCPU

It was the perfect decision to celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King while congratulating Msgr. Joseph Mary Mugambe upon his 70^th priestly anniversary and 100 years of the gift of life.

This Solemnity, in the Roman Catholic Church, marks the end of the Liturgical Year, thus proclaiming aloud that Jesus is the King of the Universe; He is the Centre of everything. So Christ the King Parish- in the centre of Kampala- had every reason to celebrate on November 23, 2025 as it also marked 95 years of being a tent of encounter with God, and even recognise their long-serving and dedicated parishioners both living and resting in the Lord.

“According to the Baptism Register at Gayaza Catholic Parish, I was born on December 5, 1925,” says Msgr. Mugambe in his reflections on this tremendous journey of winning souls for the King of the Universe.

 

How can I repay the Lord’s goodness to me? Some of the gifts brought to the Altar. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ ACCPU

Born to the Catechist, Peter Kabbankolo and the Sacristan Mary Nakayima in Gayaza, Msgr. Mugambe recounts that it was, the now Servant of God, Msgr. Aloysius Ngobya who presided over the Holy Mass when he completed his first religious instructions.

“I still remember well telling me to be firm in the faith. And when I reached home, I asked my mother and brothers whether they had heard what the priest had told me.

My mother responded that she, together with my father, had dedicated me to God. She kept repeating these words from time to time and they stuck in my mind.”

Indeed the call to priesthood kept ringing aloud and in 1942, together with 41 companions, he joined St. Joseph’s Seminary Nyenga. That was after P.5 in St. Peter’s Nsambya. He had studied P.1 to P. 4 in Gayaza. While in Nyenga they studied Mathematics, Geography, Latin, English and Science.

 

The choir animating the Mass. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ ACCPU

“Being obedient and interested in learning from our European formators played a key role in my success.”

Academics aside, Mugambe learnt to mow grass and even taught himself to use the mowing machine to the great delight of his Rector. This he has done in many places where he has worked as a priest. Talk of holistic formation.

    “Through your ministry, countless souls have been touched, comforted and inspired to grow closer to God. Thank you for being such a steadfast shepherd, teacher of faith and a living witness to God’s grace”- Daughters of St. Paul

 

In 1949 he joined St. Mary’s Major Seminary Ggaba. They were five from the number that had started the formation in Nyenga, but were joined by one companion from Kenya.

On October 2, 1955 Bishop Vincent Billington ordained Joseph Mary Mugambe a priest in Nsambya. The thanksgiving Mass was at the Parish in Gayaza.

As a priest, the first appointment was in the present day Jinja Catholic diocese. He was posted in St. Joseph Parish which is the present day Cathedral, for two years, and then moved to Kiyunga. He also worked in Kabimbiri and Nkokonjeru which are in present day Lugazi diocese. Nsambya and Our Lady of St. Jude Naggulu have too experienced his zeal for the priestly ministry.

 

A section of the congregation. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ ACCPU

From September 9, 1994 to date, Msgr. Mugambe has been a zealous and exemplary priest in the capital city Kampala- Christ the King Parish. Today he is confined to the wheelchair and bed and is assisted by a nurse; he has indeed accepted to diminish while Christ the King increases.

“Msgr. Mugambe Joseph has lived and served here at Christ the King Parish for the last thirty one years which is 45% of his seventy years in the priestly Ministry. This community has been blessed by your presence and service especially in the confessional box.

In your life story you indicate that you were very gifted in taking care of compounds and beautifying them: in Nyenga Seminary, Ggaba Seminary and Namugongo Martyrs Shrine,” the Parish Priest Msgr. Gerald Kalumba complimented the Centenarian.

 

Media apostles, the Daughters of St. Paul, were part of the congregation. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ACCPU

“Here at Christ the King Parish you have mowed the souls of many of us and made them beautiful before the Lord. You have been so devoted and dedicated and the confessional box is the landmark of your stay at Christ the King. It is a pleasure and gratification to be remembered for doing the work for which you were ordained.”

Msgr. Kalumba praised and thanked the nurse, Isaac Magomu for “being brave and courageous, and for supporting Msgr. Mugambe with dignity and honour.” He complimented Msgr. Mugambe for discipline and hard work. He said that Msgr. would have breakfast, and work the whole day without lunch. He added that this made the other priests to ensure that they are around for supper so as to give him company.

In his homily, the Archbishop of Kampala Paul Ssemogerere pointed out that Pope Pius II instituted the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe in 1925 in response to the secularism that was rampant. He invited us to honour Christ because He loved us and came to serve us.

 

Archbishop Paul Ssemogerere congratulates Msgr. Mugambe with a gift. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ACCPU

“Christ’s kingship is rooted in the cross. It is on the cross that He saves us and defeats death. On the cross the thief recognised His Kingship and on behalf of other sinners, he pleads for mercy. This reminds us that Christ’s Kingship is of mercy and forgiveness. It is different from the kingdoms of giving orders and commands.”

The Archbishop urged the faithful to take courage like the thief on the cross, to go to Jesus because the whole of humanity is weak and sinful. He told them to embrace Christ’s qualities of compassion, integrity and service.

“Christ the King invites us to embrace service rooted in love for others.”

At the time when Msgr. Mugambe came to Christ the King Parish, the Archbishop was the parish priest. When he was chosen as Bishop for Kasana- Luweero Catholic diocese in 2008, it was Msgr. Mugambe who presented him to the ordaining Bishop.

“Msgr. Mugambe left me in Kasana- Luweero but I later found him here again.”

 Msgr. Mugambe with the priests. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ACCPU

The Archbishop referred to Msgr. Mugambe as a very disciplined and obedient priest. He added that even if he is in pain, he will never complain. He too thanked Isaac Magomu, the caretaker, for a job well-done.

“Whenever there is work to do, he will simply say that if the Parish Priest says that I do that, I will do it. And he will do it obediently. That is a very good example to us as priests and religious. When I arrived this morning, I asked him what he would want me to do for him and he said that I should join him to thank God for the one hundred years.

We pray that God keeps you going.”

 

Msgr. Mugambe with family members. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ACCPU

Spicing up the day, the Archbishop remarked that he knows Msgr. Mugambe as a priest who loves eating cakes and drinking Coca Cola. But that God has spared him the diabetes challenge, adding that he is as old as the St. Mary’s Cathedral Lubaga. Centenary celebrations of the Cathedral were held on October 26, 2025.

Among those inspired by Msgr. Mugambe’s priestly ministry were his younger brothers and sister. Sister Maria Redemptor Namugambe (RIP) joined the Mary Reparatrix Congregation - Ggogonya and rests there. Emilio Ssenkubuge (RIP) too joined the seminary but did not make it to priesthood, but his two daughters: Sr. Flora Jude Namugambe and Sr. Clare Thaddeus Nabikolo followed their paternal aunt to the Mary Reparatrix Congregation. Fr. John Chrysostom Luyambi died while working in Kiyinda- Mityana diocese and is buried there.

Msgr. Mugambe is further grateful to the Lord for other priests who proudly refer to him as their inspiration to priesthood. Msgr. Richard Kayondo, the Vicar General of Lugazi diocese, and Fr. Professor Chrysostom Maviiri also of Lugazi diocese are some of the priests he inspired. More so, he says that he baptised the latter in 1957!

 

Msgr. Mugambe with his nieces Sr. Clare Nabikolo and Sr. Flora Namugambe. Younger sisters with grey hair are to his sides. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ACCPU

Sr. Clare Thaddeus Nabikolo threw the congregation into a bout of laughter when she revealed that at her time of celebrating 25 years in religious life, she came and invited her uncle to join the family in the celebrations. She narrated how Msgr. Mugambe replied that the Christians will come for confession while he was away, and turned down the invitation.

No one can doubt the Lord’s goodness to His faithful priest and for granting him his prayer which is drawn from Psalm 27:4

“There is one thing I ask of the LORD, only this do I seek: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD to inquire at his temple.”

Msgr. Mugambe is not forgetful of the parishioners and the priests he continues to work with. His former Parish Priest- the Archbishop of Kampala- His Grace Paul Ssemogerere as well as the current one Msgr. Kalumba Gerald are highly appreciated. Even before speaking, the

Fr. Frederick Kiwanuka shows the congregation one of the thrones made by Msgr. Mugambe. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ACCPU

Centenarian embodies gratitude, contentment, happiness and a life well lived. The memory is very stable, the eye sight and voice are all clear; more reasons to glorify the name of the Lord.

“In my time of illness, the Lord gave me a young man Isaac Magomu, who has looked after me so devotedly. He is my nurse twenty-four hours. God gave him to me as a gift. I am ever grateful. Thank you so much, Isaac.”

It is worth pointing out that Msgr. Mugambe also embodies resilience and faith; he is the priest who by his body language, words and actions speaks of firmness in his conviction and trust.

True to his pastoral zeal, when asked to address the congregation, Msgr. Mugambe talked about one of the enduring acts of ensuring that Christ reigns in the hearts of the people he is shepherding, that he is leaving the faithful.

 

Msgr. Mugambe addressing the congregation as Isaac Magomu holds the microphone. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ACCPU

The inspiration of making thrones for the Ostansorium whenever the Holy Eucharist is displayed for veneration and praises, came about when Pope Francis visited the country in 2015.

“I was one of the people who met the Pope in Lubaga Cathedral. At the end of the meeting I stayed behind while others went out. My mind was on the chair the Pope had used. But I was sad because the chair looked too ordinary to fit the successor of St. Peter. I went and kissed it.

Later I got inspired to come up with a chair that would fit the glory of the King of the Universe; at least something that would bring out something similar to that. I got a pen and started sketching the throne that had been drawn in my mind,” Msgr. Mugambe narrated to the attentive congregation.

Behind all this was the burning desire to help fellow priests and all the faithful to know more and praise God better. Bringing out the majesty of the King of the Universe was an assignment that he had to accomplish with perfection.

 

A section of the congregation. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ACCPU

The great surprise that Msgr. Joseph Mugambe met was that when he went out to get a carpenter to design the throne, the person he approached was a Muslim but that he perfectly brought the idea to life!

Msgr. Gerald Kalumba supported the project and the Centenarian then took it upon himself to contact the priest in charge of Liturgy in the Archdiocese. He too approved the project and what remained was getting the nod of the Archbishop who at that time was the late Cyprian Kizito Lwanga.

That the Archbishop immediately told him to make thrones for all the Parishes in the Archdiocese was proof that the project was indeed a divine undertaking. There is no further proof of this other than the request by two other dioceses to have thrones made for them.

Once the frame of the throne is completed, Msgr. Mugambe then goes out to look for materials to adorn it. This he does himself. At the end of the day, it is indeed a throne befitting the King of the Universe. The Wisdom of the King of the Universe guides his actions and decisions.

 

Msgr. Joseph Mary Mugambe blessing the congregation. Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ ACCPU

 Msgr. Mugambe’s words may at one time skip the memory of his parishioners but the thrones for the Divine Master to meet His people in the Sacrament of the Altar will have a lasting effect just like the Sacraments he has administered.

“I thank God for all the gifts in my priestly ministry. May He bless all the people who have come into my life all these years, more so this Community of Christ the King. God bless you all abundantly. AMEN.”