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.