by Valerian Kkonde
Pearl News Service
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.”
