Category: Daily Monitor

Uganda faces significant gaps in access to palliative care, experts warned on Saturday, citing limited knowledge among stakeholders and a shortage of trained personnel as major obstacles.

Speaking at the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day Commemoration 2025 in Kampala, Mark Donald Mwesiga, Executive Director of the Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCA), highlighted the country’s challenges despite its reputation as a continental leader in palliative care.

‘The country has yet to establish a national-level policy strategic framework to guide the programming and implementation of palliative care at all levels. The number of trained palliative care professionals is still limited to only 300 health facilities providing this form of care in 107 of the 146 districts, leaving out many places without a nearby health facility offering palliative care,’ Mwesiga said.

He explained that community and public health approaches have yet to fully embrace palliative care, leaving services ‘scanty and only implemented by a few charitable stand-alone hospices and a limited number of private hospitals in Uganda.’

Mwesiga also pointed to insufficient data and research as a barrier, noting that Uganda is experiencing ‘a rise in the incidence of non-communicable diseases and an aging population.’

An estimated 500,000 Ugandans currently require palliative care, yet only 11 percent have access to pain relief and related services, according to Ministry of Health statistics.

‘The global theme emphasising universal access to palliative care is therefore applicable to the real needs of Uganda. The World Health Organisation explains that the goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is to ensure that everyone can obtain necessary health services without facing financial difficulties, thereby reducing the risk of poverty due to health-related expenses,’ he said.

Mwesiga stressed the holistic nature of palliative care, urging leaders to understand its role in addressing ‘physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs, ensuring that patients and their families receive compassionate support throughout the course of illness from diagnosis to end of life and into bereavement care.’

Dr Charles Olaro, Director of Curative Services at the Ministry of Health, echoed the call for expanded services.

‘Strengthening palliative care requires skilled practitioners, public awareness, and health system integration. There is a need for intensified advocacy, deeper health integration, and public awareness, ensuring palliative care is recognized as a human right,’ he said.

Olaro added: ‘Every patient deserves to face illness with dignity, love, and compassionate support. Let us continue to strengthen human resource capacity and fund essential palliative and chronic care services, ensuring no one suffers in silence.’

Dr Kedrace Turyagyenda, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education and Sports, highlighted the role of schools in fostering empathy. ‘If I don’t teach the heart, I will leave the hands. True education goes beyond grades; it shapes compassionate, empathetic, and humane individuals. Palliative care in schools teaches students to care, to feel, and to act with love. Let’s build a generation that learns not just to excel, but to heal,’ she said.

The event was held under the theme: ‘Amplifying Palliative Care Awareness through Introducing Palliative Care in Primary and Secondary Schools in Uganda.’

President Museveni and his National Resistance Movement (NRM) government are banking on Musevenomics, an approach that combines several strategies, to drive Uganda to an upper-middle-income economy by 2040. To increase the size of the economy by tenfold to $500b by 2040, the government is relying on pillars like agro-industrialisation, tourism development, infrastructure, mineral development, including oil and gas.

To support agro-industrialisation this financial year, the government is prioritising investment in appropriate agro-processing and value addition technologies, high-quality agricultural inputs, construction of key water storage and irrigation infrastructure and diseases, pests and vector control. While presenting his 2025 State of the Nation Address in June, President Museveni disclosed that the country’s economy was projected to grow to Shs224.9 trillion by the end of June 2025. Economic growth was projected at 6.3 percent this financial year (FY), and further projected to grow at 7.0 percent in FY2025/2026. This trajectory is estimated to triple once the commercial production of oil and gas starts in 2026. With the continued implementation of the Parish Development Model (PDM), Museveni said achievements in a bid to alleviate poverty are not by accident.

‘They are due to deliberate and focused government interventions. Cumulatively, over the last 10 years, the government has injected over Shs8.03 trillion in strategic wealth creation initiatives, which have boosted economic performance,’ he noted. Yet experts have warned that unless the country integrates its new growth model with policies and investments that boost productivity growth, especially in the agriculture sector, to achieve its Fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV) and Vision 2040, all could fail.

Infrastructure

For nearly two decades, the government has prioritised infrastructure development, especially roads, railways and electricity. Just last year, President Museveni flagged off the construction of the yet-to-begin Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). Road projects like the construction of the 23.6km Yumbe-Ure road and bridge and the 69.3km Katine-Ochero road, to mention but two, are deemed noteworthy.

The World Bank Group has, regardless, warned that unless the government recognises the need to prioritise high-vulnerability geographies and sectors, besides aggressive implementation of additional targeted adaptation interventions, climate change and its associated impacts could leave quite the trail of destruction. Under the energy, transport, and digital infrastructure, the Group says climate shocks could damage Uganda’s power network, roads, and bridges if a climate-responsive approach is not considered. Besides privately run electricity generation facilities, Uganda boasts of four large hydropower plants at Nalubaale, Kiira, Isimba and Karuma, with a combined generation capacity of 1,163.2 megawatts.

This, alongside, other generation sources like Kigwabya, XsaboNkonge solar power in Mubende, among others, brings the total installed generation capacity to 2,052 megawatts. More than half of the country’s electricity transmission and distribution network is, however, exposed to landslide and flood risk. The risk road networks grapple with comes up to about 60 percent at national level.

‘Flood damage could increase annual road maintenance costs by between $13.6m (Shs46b) and $26m (Shs89b), on average, in the 2040s, with associated road delays causing 2.6-3.5 million labour hours lost, under optimistic and pessimistic general circulation models of climate change, respectively,’ the group warns.

Potent mix

Uganda seeks to expand power generation from 2,048 to 52,400 megawatts by 2040, a development that arguably requires private sector participation and improved institutional project management and procurement capacity. The Energy ministry’s power generation and transmission expansion plan for 2025-2040 envisages a largely renewable electricity generation mix. The Group says building a climate-resilient and low-carbon infrastructure system is an effective way to increase private investment and leverage international trade opportunities.

Based on A and R scoring, Uganda has put several key foundational measures in place for rapid, robust, and inclusive growth, facilitating the adaptation of people and firms, and enabling prioritisation, implementation, and progress monitoring, and needs to implement these. It is projected that by 2050, more than 40 percent of Uganda’s total population could be living in cities, with urban populations expected to grow to 42 million, 30 million more than in 2023. The spread of people across Uganda’s urban centres is, however, uneven, particularly between secondary towns and the rapidly growing metropolitan area of Kampala.

In 2021, the government promoted 10 secondary cities (Fort Portal, Arua, Gulu, Jinja, Mbarara, Mbale, Masaka, Hoima, Lira, and Soroti) as regional hubs for job creation and improved social services. It also upgraded five urban areas (Entebbe, Kabale, Moroto, Wasiko, and Nakasongolo) to cities as alternative migration destinations to Kampala. Uganda, however, has an acute housing shortage, with 66 percent of the population living in slums and informal settlements where over 70 percent of urban housing units are made from temporary materials.

‘With up to 85 percent of the city’s population living in slums and informal settlements, climate change impacts are amplified. Nearly 45,000 people are impacted every year by river flooding in Uganda, but fortunately, only around 40 education and health care facilities are inundated,’ the report says. In contrast, 10 and 50-year floods can inundate as many as 200 and 250 facilities, respectively, causing $150m (Shs512.4b) to $250m (Shs854.1b) in damage to buildings alone. Expected annual damages from inland flooding amount to more than $60m (Shs204.9b), or 0.1 percent of capital by 2050 under the SSP3-7.0 mean climate future, the Group says.

High building density compounds the urban heat island effect, increasing energy consumption (as people rely on air-conditioning to combat heat) and GHG emissions, as well as the risk of heat-related illnesses and chronic conditions. ‘Disregard for the natural landscape when building roads and housing development destabilises the terrain, and can result in landslides when climate events occur,’ the group notes.

Agro-industrialisation

Candidate Museveni has anchored his re-election bid on the two planks of protecting the gains made during his nearly four-decade-long rule and taking a qualitative leap as Uganda’s oil plans gain traction. An oil refinery is scheduled to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2029 or the first quarter of 2030, according to Michael Nkambo Mugerwa, the General Manager of Uganda Refinery Holding Company. With construction set for late 2025, the $4b (Shs13.6 trillion) refinery is expected to fuel growth and enhance exports.

The World Bank, on its part, says landscape management measures are vital for resilience to climate risks and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. They will also safeguard nature-based tourism, a key growth sector in Uganda. The NRM party is deeply interested in growth. Should it win the people’s mandate during the 2026 polls, the party promises to double the size of the economy between 2026 and 2031 by transforming livelihoods and turning every adult Ugandan into a producer of goods and services for sale and focus on generating more gainful jobs, expanding wealth creation opportunities and empowering Uganda to take charge of its economic destiny.

‘The overall goal is full monetisation of the economy through commercialisation of agriculture, investing in manufacturing, investing in young people’s talents, among others. For these objectives to be realised, the NRM will continue to prioritise macroeconomic stability and lower the cost of doing business by bringing down the cost of electricity, Internet, transport and capital,’ the party’s manifesto reads in part. According to candidate Museveni, the NRM’s onslaught on the subsistence economy has resulted in reducing the number of Ugandans ‘working only for the stomach’. ‘Households in subsistence in the different parts of the country reduced to 33 percent in 2024 from 69 percent in 2014. The target is to fully monetise all Ugandans.’

To stop over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture and stabilise agriculture, the government is currently constructing three major irrigation facilities. It has also prioritised investment in water for production and irrigation by investing in seven large-scale irrigation schemes. In the past few years, it has also claimed to have constructed more than 4,300 micro-scale irrigation facilities and 5,251 small and medium-scale irrigation schemes in 135 districts across the country, benefiting thousands of smallholder farmers. Besides constructing valley tanks to address water shortage in the cattle corridors across the country, it also promised to build valley dams.

The World Bank, however, notes that climate change-induced soil erosion is expected to compound this volatility, with additional yield decreases ranging from 0 to 12 percent, with relative negative impacts on crop production concentrated in the north and northeast. To counter the impact, the lender’s report suggests that the government will need to expand climate-compatible irrigation to moderate volatile yields, noting that in some regions, expanding irrigation will result in unmet irrigation demands.

‘At the farm level, expanding irrigation and improving soil quality can help counter expected increases in crop yield variability due to climate change. Between 2022 and 2050, crop yields could fluctuate between -12 per cent and +12.5 per cent, compared to the baseline,’ the report reads. ‘It will also need to develop and operationalise a plan that details infrastructure needs, establishes community-based management of irrigation schemes, controls water abstraction, monitors compliance, and promotes micro-irrigation,’ it adds.

Whereas Uganda’s economic transformation hinges on trade opportunities with the African Continental Free Trade Area alone, estimated to deliver up to $2.5b (Shs8.5 trillion) export boost by 2035, this, it says, will require significant improvements in energy, transport, and digital systems.

Musevenomics

On September 2, the government, during the annual ambassadors’ conference in Gulu City, unveiled its new flagship programme, the Economic and Commercial Diplomacy Strategy (ECDS). It is born out of a 2016 presidential directive to the Ministry Foreign Affairs (MFA) to cause all the country’s foreign missions and embassies to embrace and pursue economic and commercial diplomacy. At the launch, meanwhile, the Senior Presidential Advisor on Defence and Security, Gen Caleb Akwandanaho, alias Salim Saleh, challenged Uganda’s ambassadors and high commissions to synchronise the operational strategies with the vision of President Museveni, to boost their success.

Gen Saleh said the country has so far shifted from sector-based to programme-based planning, adding that the embassies need to urgently adjust. In ‘Musevenomics,’ President Museveni emphasises a deliberate social-economic transformation in which he seeks to rid the country of the peasantry of our society and become a middle-class money economy.

After a nasty divorce with his former party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), Nyendo-Mukungwe legislator Mathias Mpuuga went on to form his own party, the Democratic Front (DF). Many thought this would be his platform to contest for president in 2026, but this week, he announced his intention to contest for a fourth term as MP. Monitor’s Arthur Arnold Wadero had a wide-ranging interview with him.

Mid this year, you launched the Democratic Front. As party president, many expected you to be in the presidential race. What happened?

First of all, political parties by their nature are meant to provide leadership and leaders to the nation. They are supposed to be the midwives of political leaders. And when those leaders are produced by political parties, it is up to those parties to make a choice as to what they want to do with those leaders. The decision to stand for the presidency of the country was never supposed to be a personal decision, as long as l am subjected to the whims of the party.

Whereas I harboured and still have the ambitions, at some stage probably they will come to fruition. But in the meantime, the party outed what they called the party’s minimum political agenda to cover the period of the ongoing political season and discounted the presidency as one of its minimum programmes. And they gave reasons. The DF, from the onset, intended that for an election and the presidency to be consequential, we needed reforms, electoral and political reforms, to even give credence to this argument.

What is the update on the reforms you submitted to Parliament?

We had the two constitutional amendment Bills. We had an Election Commission Amendment Bill, we had the Presidential Election Amendment Bill, the Parliamentary Election Amendment Bill, Referendum Amendment Bill, Local Government Amendment Bill, and the Political Parties Amendment Bill. All these Bills were meant to try and crack what is a state of political inertia in the country. And while we tabled all of them before Parliament, and they were received by the Speaker’s Office and the Clerk, only the Political Parties’ (Amendment) Bill was given leave. But even when it was given leave, it has never been given a Certificate of Financial Implication to be able to proceed to the next stage.

The presidential campaigns have started. We have seven Opposition candidates. Is this the group that will finally uproot President Museveni? Unfortunately, the spirit is willing, but the bodies and action speak differently. Of course, I’ve seen even some of them pressing self-defeating buttons. I’m wondering whether they are actually committed to the campaign of defeating Gen Museveni. I have seen some of them spending their little energy fighting colleagues in the Opposition, and then I wondered whether they are committed or actually hired.

But also, I don’t want to speak like a political novice. The political Opposition failed to organise prior to the election. Probably, you people in the media need to put these questions to the various leaders of the political parties in the contest: Why didn’t they organise? Why are they pretending to be organising during elections when they had four years to prepare?

We have a presidential race in which two contestants got more than 90 percent of the vote in 2021. What do you say to those calling for a single Opposition candidate?

I think there are two layers to this argument. First of all, it’s not simply a single candidate to the Opposition that is an issue because that’s a no-brainer. That matter has been discussed over several electoral cycles we have gone over. To recollect, the TDA [The Democratic Alliance], which became a debacle eventually, there are several attempts to a single candidate which have not given us any outcome. But then you say if that has failed, what are the other possibilities that can help the Opposition to have a chance at power? That’s why some of us talk about clawback legislation. Clawback legislation is the kind of legal regime that can give the Opposition a chance to compete. Which is why we were debating and proposing a departure from the current winner-takes-all system.

Because if we are going to have an opportunity as the Opposition to really make a demand to the population to give us power, we must have some opportunity at entry clawback legislation, which will mean we have more MPs in Parliament, and it will mean you have more representation in Local Government. It’s a form of power-sharing that the Opposition can take advantage of if you did that.

DP president general Norbert Mao, while taking over the leadership of IPOD [Inter-party Organisation for Dialogue] recently, said the transition is already taking place behind closed doors. Do Ugandans deserve to have a say in what happens to them after President Museveni’s 40 years in power?

Well, even the wrong clock at some time counts, right? I have spoken variously before that our political DNA is a civil-military relationship. The time Gen Museveni changed the Uganda People’s Deence Forces (UPDF) structure, it was part of managing the transition, albeit in a manner I call fraudulent because it was done without the knowledge of Parliament and other stakeholders. The process of changing the UPDF structure was not consulted upon.

And as long as our politics remains a civil-military relationship, one part of the relationship has migrated; only the civil side has not yet migrated. If it goes on without the participation of the population through their institutions, people, institutions, the political parties, civil society groups, cultural institutions, and religious institutions, it is a fraudulent transition.

What should a transition process for Uganda look like?

The transition conversation must be an honest conversation between those in power and those without power. Between those who intend to keep power and those who aspire to take power, there must be an honest conversation preceded by an agreeable framework of issues to be discussed, the mode of implementation of those issues, including the nature of legislation that must be undertaken to midwives.

That is the nature of transition that I think we need to engage in, not a transition where people seek positions in government. I’m talking about an honest conversation about governance of this country, including a debate on a new national consensus, which is the new Constitution. Your former party, NUP, recently announced its parliamentary flagbearers, and some MPs who were previously thought to be close to you lost the party card.

Are you going to woo them as DF?

First of all, I left the NUP a long time ago and, therefore, whatever they do with themselves is their business. Secondly, for those members who were denied tickets, they should have known better because NUP works without a constitution. So, there’s no premise for them to explain to you why you have no ticket. Thirdly, the DF is a political party. We are open to receiving every citizen who believes that the DF could be a vehicle worth working with to the end. Then fourth, if any member of the NUP denied a ticket on account of their closings, to me, that kind of inductiveness is unacceptable. I think it’s very dangerous for our parties.

Parties should never mirror the expressions of individual characters. They should only mirror the expressions of the people and the membership.

Mr Medard Sseggona is one of those who were denied the NUP party ticket. Have you talked to him about joining DF?

The Honourable Sseggona and I are not involved in politics as the first issue. We are brothers. We actually speak every day on several matters. If they are not about our practice as lawyers, they are about our families, they’re about our kingdom, they’re about our country, and they are about Parliament. We talk about so many things. We even spoke when he was denied a NUP ticket. The decision of where he goes is a personal decision. I cannot compel him even when we share so much in common.

Kampala Central MP Muhammad Nsereko recently went hard on you with the allegation that you rescinded your support for him as he sought to contest for the presidency. What do you make of his claims?

I was not around, I was not in the country, but I heard what he said. I have not spoken to him, but reading what he said, I can only advise him as my brother. I want to ask him to do a self-evaluation; where he wants to go, if he wants to still keep the confidence of the people.

Your parting shots?

My parting issue, especially to the Opposition, is to continue speaking to each other even when there are so many issues over which we disagree, including issues of candidates. Yes, we disagree on who is standing where, for what position. But the one door which should never close is the door over which we speak.

The start of the new Uganda Premier League (UPL) season has been overshadowed not by exhilarating football, but by a dangerous administrative crisis.

A fierce power struggle between the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) and several of the country’s biggest clubs has brought the game to a painful standstill, threatening to reverse years of hard-won progress and scare away critical investment.

At the core of the conflict is a deep rift in governance and a clash over financial control, triggered by Fufa’s unilateral introduction of a new, complex league structure and controversial revenue-sharing model.

The federation’s attempt to “modernize” the Uganda Premier League with a multi-phase, three-round format has ignited unprecedented fury among key stakeholders.

Clubs like reigning champions Vipers SC and giants SC Villa argue the reforms were imposed without consultation, a move they have branded “undemocratic” and a direct threat to their financial sustainability.

The most contentious part of the reforms is the new financial distribution system, which mandates that a significant percentage of match-day gate collections-traditionally the backbone of big clubs’ income-must be shared with the federation, UPL management, and the winning team.

For major clubs with large fan bases, this redistribution is viewed as financial penalization. SC Villa owner, Omar Mandela, captured the sentiment, stating the changes had “no justification… save for selfish financial gain by Fufa that is taking away even the little that the clubs have been collecting to keep them going.”

The resistance is powerfully led by Vipers SC President and former Fufa head, Dr. Lawrence Mulindwa. His club’s outright rejection of the new format, which included boycotting an opening fixture, has thrown the season into chaos.

In a scathing public statement, Mulindwa highlighted the unequal relationship between club investors and the governing body, famously declaring:”Me I don’t feed on football; it is football that feeds on me. But FUFA feeds on football; remove football and they will not exist. If you want to dismiss Vipers out of Ugandan football, I have no problem.”

Mulindwa’s ultimatum is significant. He represents the kind of “blank cheque” private investment-funding infrastructure like the state-of-the-art St. Mary’s Stadium-Kitende and youth pipelines-that Ugandan football desperately needs.

His potential withdrawal signals a massive loss of private capital, which the league’s fragile financial ecosystem can ill afford. Mulindwa also detailed other financial grievances, including Fufa’s alleged failure to pay his club prize money for winning the previous season’s trophies, further fueling the atmosphere of mistrust.

The standoff is already inflicting severe damage across the football ecosystem.

League Credibility and Integrity: Match boycotts and a confusing format-which many fans and even club officials struggle to understand-have created an atmosphere of instability. The UPL appears unpredictable and commercially risky, severely denting its integrity in the eyes of the public and potential partners.

Erosion of Commercial Deals: Corporate sponsors, who require stability and clear audience engagement metrics, are watching nervously.

StarTimes, the league’s broadcast partner, has reportedly failed to televise early matches under the new format due to the instability.

The ongoing conflict makes it difficult to market the league product, risking a long-term erosion of confidence that could see existing sponsors cut back and potential investors avoid the Ugandan market altogether.

The new revenue-sharing model directly cuts into the operational budgets of self-sustaining clubs, many of which rely on gate collections to pay player wages and cover costs. Combined with stricter, mandatory compliance rules (like submitting sophisticated data), the reforms impose new financial burdens that small clubs are ill-equipped to handle, potentially creating a two-tier system favoring only government-backed institutions.

The current turmoil is eerily familiar, echoing a cycle of governance and financial crises that have hampered the development of Ugandan football for decades: The infamous 22-0 win by SC Villa over Akol FC on the final day of the season to clinch the title on goal difference remains a low point. The resulting disillusionment caused fans to desert the stadiums, leading to a major financial downturn for clubs and a severe loss of public trust.

Before the current administration took charge, Ugandan football was marred by internal wrangles and administrative conflicts so severe that at one point, two parallel national leagues were being run by competing factions. This chaos severely damaged the sport’s image, led to sponsor flight, and stifled player development.

Historically, most Ugandan clubs have operated on a precarious foundation, relying heavily on single patrons or government subsidies, with little financial diversification. The swift collapse of previously successful clubs (like SC Victoria University) after the loss of a single major backer is a testament to the persistent lack of institutional and financial stability, a problem the current crisis only deepens.

The present Fufa-Vipers standoff is more than a dispute over rules; it is a battle for the soul and structure of Ugandan football.

While the federation insists the reforms are necessary for long-term professionalization, the manner of their imposition has undermined the very stakeholders whose support is essential for success.

Until dialogue replaces defiance, the silence at stadiums will continue to speak volumes, threatening to dismantle the foundations of a sport striving for stability.

As Uganda gears up for the 2026 General Election, voters have been urged to keep away from politics of excitement and focus on leaders who can address critical issues affecting them.

The call was made by several speakers during a thanksgiving prayer service for Mbarara District National Resistance Movement (NRM) party chairperson, Mr Prosper Tuheise Kururagire at his home in Bukiro town Council in Mbarara District on Saturday.

The Minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Mr Francis Mwebesa who represented the Vice President, Maj (Rtd) Jessica Alupo at this function, told the gathering that politics of excitement will compromise them to make wrong choices of leaders.

‘You need to be careful; that music, drinks and simple handouts that some of the candidates normally use during elections will lead you to elect leaders who will not help in addressing the challenges being faced. Look at the critical issues affecting you and interrogate those who want to get elected if they are offering solutions to address them,’ Mr Mwebesa said.

He cautioned the youth, whom he said are usually used by politicians during the electioneering period for selfish interests.

‘It is mostly the young people who get excited and forget the issues that affect them, where they have come from and what the future holds for them,’ Mr Mwebesa added.

The Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Mbarara, Rev Fr Severinus Ndugwa, who presided over the ceremony, challenged Ugandans to keep away from the politics of sectarianism.

‘Whether your colour is brown or black, the tribe or religion you belong to is just an accident. We are all children of God. So, avoid any sectarian tendencies that normally surface during this election period. What is important are the services for the good of humankind,’ Fr Ndugwa said.

He also cautioned leaders to avoid segregating people because they never supported them or were of opposing political parties.

‘When elected as a leader, do not look at only those people who supported you or the political party that brought you in a position of leadership. Render services to all people equally without discrimination,’ Fr. Ndugwa appealed.

Mr Sedrack Nzeire Kaguta, the former Kiruhura District NRM party Chairperson, also brother to President Museveni, said people should not get excited about being in power or being associated with those in power to discriminate against others.

‘That clan, tribe or connections you have today will one time wane. So, do not get excited and start discriminating against one another. For some of us who have travelled around the world, you get to a situation where you can’t reach that one person you were born with, your village mate, a friend and you find someone willing to help is a foreigner. So, why do you become sectarian? You never know who will help you in future,’ Mr Nzeire said.

According to Mr Benjamin Cadet, the NRM flagbearer for Bunyaruguru Constituency in Rubirizi District, voters at times gamble when choosing leaders because of being misled.

‘Leadership is not about gambling. We need to have leaders who can move this country forward but in politics, there can be a temptation where voters may get excited and end up voting for incapable leaders. As the NRM party, we need to educate our people to make rightful decisions during elections,’ he said.

Mr Tuheise, whose party has been in power for four decades, said they have since launched a sensitisation campaign targeting, especially the youth, on how to make the right decisions during elections.

‘The challenge we have been having is with the youth who are easily taken up by excitement during elections. We are sensitising them on the choice of leaders they should vote for but also trying to address some of the issues they face, especially unemployment,’ he said.

While campaigning in Luuka District, on October 1, NUP presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, castigated the Parish Development Model (PDM), a policy of government targeting the over 33 percent Ugandans who are still outside the money economy. In fact, he vowed to freeze the fund if he is elected President. Instead, in his view, he would put that money into the health and education sectors.

His wayward political statement notwithstanding, it is totally inconceivable what exactly informed Mr Kyagulanyi to make such a statement. Is it because the programme has been so successful and, therefore, he thinks it will give President Museveni milage or was he less thoughtful in the heat of the moment?

Mr Kyagulanyi should know by now that even if the government were to commit half of its annual budget to education and the health sector to attain world-class standards, this alone would not shift our people out of poverty.

For the people to make an economic shift from a subsistence lifestyle, the government must pursue deliberate programmes of capitalising the citizens and offer proper guidance for them to engage in profitable ventures that generate regular income. The PDM policy is not set in stone. Countries all over the world have pursued similar programmes to shift their people to the wealth cluster, and the results are there for everyone to appreciate.

Indeed, President Museveni saw this much earlier. Even when he built schools, hospitals and modern roads, he knew so well that Ugandans needed to shift substantially from their subsistence lifestyles and move into the money economy. He, therefore, began socioeconomic programmes aimed at changing their economic outlook.

Even before PDM, there was Boona Bagagawale, Entandikwa. Operation Wealth Creation and now Emyoga, Youth Livelihood, among others. The usual naysayers are quick to say these programmes were all in vain. However, they forget that it is through such deliberate programmes that poverty in Uganda has been reduced to 16.1 percent, according to the National Household Survey 2023/2024.

They forget that it is through such interventions that we are currently the leading exporter of most cash crops in the region. Uganda is now the Number One coffee exporter in Africa. We feed the region and the rest of the world with maize, milk, beans, cocoa, vanilla, etc. For one to fully appreciate the value of PDM, one must study Muhammad Yunus and his microfinance support programmes that turned around the Indonesian poor masses.

Prof Yunus pioneered microfinance to give the unbanked rural poor, especially women, access to credit for self-employment and small businesses. The aim was to create bottom-up development where economic growth starts with the most marginalised. In 1976, Yunus took matters into his own hands, loaning very small sums of money, reportedly between $27, and $42 local women who needed to buy materials to produce their products.

In 1983, Yunus formally opened the Grameen (Village) Bank, which served as a way to offer microcredit to entry-level and subsistence entrepreneurs. By June 2020, Grameen Bank had given $30.48 billion worth of loans to some of the world’s poorest people. Similarly, introduced in 2022, PDM is Uganda’s flagship poverty eradication and wealth creation programme. It targets the 39 percent of Ugandans in the subsistence economy, aiming to transition them into the money economy using parish-level Saccos.

The President’s call that everyone must join the money economy with a clear calculation is being realised. Every one of the 10,594 parishes nationwide receives Shs100m annually, directly credited to parish Sacco accounts. PDM funding for Greater Kampala Metropolitan will rise to Shs300m per parish, with special grants for persons with disabilities, village leaders, and religious leaders.

Mr Kyagulanyi should pick a lesson from President Museveni and Yunus. PDM emphasises borrower responsibility and accountability, trains and supports local financial institutions (Saccos) in the way Grameen trained its staff.

As Uganda celebrates its 63rd Independence anniversary and 30 years of the 1995 Constitution, we need to reflect on the extent to which our legal system has been liberated from the claws of the colonial British Administration. In this, we should reflect on one of the ‘Ds’ that characterised the campaign by the Radical New Bar (RNB), ‘decolonisation’. To what extent has our legal system been decolonised? In this short piece, I endeavour to answer the question.

The colonial system never intended to promote access to justice. In its architecture, the system was intended as a tool of dominance, to be used to support the colonial enterprise of subjugation. Although disguised as necessary to maintain law and order, the legal system, and especially in the area of criminal justice, was intended to be a tool to stamp the authority of the colonial master.

In the case of Uganda, concrete judicial power was introduced in 1902 through the Order in Council (OiC) of that year. Under Article 15 of the OiC, His Majesty’s High Court of Uganda was established, with ‘full civil and criminal jurisdiction in all cases and over all persons in Uganda’. Judges of the High Court would be appointed by His Majesty the King, who could also dismiss them at any time. The Commissioner, by the OiC empowered to adopt ordinances establishing Subordinate Courts. In addition, all laws in force in England would be applicable.

However, what stood out most was the use of the courts to stifle political dissent and struggles for political independence. A barrage of offences, properly calibrated for this purpose, were used; these, in the context of Uganda, included the following: Treason, promoting war on chiefs, publication of information prejudicial to security, inducing a boycott, inciting violence, unlawful society, and defamation of foreign princes, among others.

In addition to the law, the colonial administration imposed a foreign system of adjudication of disputes, laced with British traditions, dress codes and language. The common law, precedent and adversarial approaches became entrenched. The legal profession and legal education were also based on the traditions of the colonial state.

As we celebrate 63 years of Independence, it is clear that we have failed to decolonise our legal system. During the drafting of the 1995 Constitution, the Odoki Commission took note of the negative impact of having a foreign system of law on Page 442 of its report:

‘17.25. Most of Uganda’s laws derive from English law, and in the past were used by the colonial masters to rule Uganda. Following independence, the whole legal system should have been transformed to suit our own culture, norms and customs. The opportunity was never taken and so much of our law has remained foreign to most of the people of Uganda both educated and uneducated, with the exception of the members of the legal profession.’

The Commission then enumerated three aspects of concern arising out of the above: Alien orientation of the criminal justice system; failure of the statutory law to take into account local cultural norms; and language, dress code and procedures of courts.

Unfortunately, in spite of the acknowledgement above, the recommendations of the Commission largely maintained the foreign system. Judicial officers still rob in the same way as English judges, sometimes with pompous wigs which do not serve any purpose. Also, except for wigs, lawyers appearing before courts don the black gown, English dinner shirts/blouses and flaps. English remains the language of the court, even when all actors would comfortably proceed in a local language, which could be translated later if necessary.

From the point of view of jurisprudence, we still largely train lawyers to draw guidance from English precedents. Efforts to publicise local judicial decisions by the ULII and increase reliance on these should be acknowledged. However, the lack of consistency on the part of judicial officers, sometimes overlooking their own previous decisions, is undermining these efforts.

Also, the process to adopt use of the alternative justice systems is acknowledged. This, though, is still peripheral. From the governance point of view, the legal system has been used as a tool of control. The promulgation of laws which criminalise otherwise legitimate political conduct is an issue. Some judicial officers are demonstrating a willingness to use the courts in the same way their colonial counterparts did. This needs to be addressed. As we celebrate independence and the 1995 Constitution, the time is now to decolonise our legal system. Ensure transparency in the role of judicial officers, remove obnoxious offences and Africanise judicial procedures.

It was a day Lt Col Anthony Kyakabale said he would never forget. And, no, this was not from the Bush War in Luweero where his acts of valour would see him registered in the army as RO/00058. But it could have been. Kyakabale claimed May 13, 2001, saw him check into a clinic in Kabale Town after grappling with the debilitating effects of a bout of malaria. Another narrative, though, had him at the centre of the fracas that marred a rally in Muhanga. It went on to add that Kyakabale used his firearm in a reckless manner, firing a couple or so of bullets when tempers flared.

‘I wasn’t at the rally,’ Kyakabale told this publication in a 2015 interview, adding: ‘The then Chief of Military Intelligence sent a van full of soldiers to arrest me, basing himself on the rumours. My driver was later arrested, beaten, and he later died. Having received information about the death of my driver, I had to flee to Rwanda because I feared for my life.’

After initially staying in Rwanda, Kyakabale relocated to Sweden, where he spent a dozen years in exile. He always looked back on 2001 as something of a turbulent year. Way too many rumours that were flying targeted his person. If it was not that he was knees deep in illegal gold trade in the north eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Beni, it was his involvement with a shadowy rebel group-People’s Redemption Army (PRA)-then linked to Opposition leader and fellow Bush War hero Kizza Besigye.

When he returned to Uganda in 2015, Kyakabale disclosed that the process of returning home from exile got underway sometime in 2008. It followed a phone conversation he had with then Brig James Mugira. Kyakabale, who had raised eyebrows in 2001 when he fled the country while still a serving soldier, was doubtful that President Museveni would extend an olive branch that easily. So when Mugira sent a team to his residence in Sweden, an air of doubt hovered above the brief conversation. Kyakabale told the team matter-of-factly that he would only revert after consulting his friends and family.

They did not hear from him again. When then Brig Leopold Kyanda tried his luck in 2009, he too ran into a speed bump. So did then Brig Charles Bakahumura and then Brig Dr Musinguzi in 2014. It was Brig Bakahumura with whom Kyakabale worked closely in Gulu, where he was a battalion commander in the 1990s that eventually struck gold. Kyakabale agreed to return home and mend fences with President Museveni. After the reconciliation, Kyakabale was promoted from the rank of Lt Col to full Colonel and later appointed a senior presidential advisor.

After his promotion to the rank of Colonel in May 2016, Kyakabale was retired from the army. He then retreated to his home village of Rushebeya, Rwamucucu Sub-county, where he lived a quiet civilian life. This was in stark contrast to the publicity that he garnered in 2001 when, along with two other Bush War comrades-Colonels Samson Mande and Edison Muzoora (deceased)-he relocated to Rwanda where he made it clear that there was no love lost between him and President Museveni.

When news of Kyakabale’s passing in Sweden was announced two Sundays ago, a dark cloud hovered above Kigezi Sub-region. Herbert Turyagitura, a cousin of the deceased, who doubles as the Rushebeya Village chairperson, asked the government to repatriate his remains from Sweden to his ancestral home in Rukiga District for burial. ‘We also appeal to the government to financially support the children of the late Kyakabale as a way of appreciating his contribution during the NRA/NRM Bush War,’ Turyagitura said.

Kyakabale was aged 64 at the time of his death.

Road to exile:

“The then Chief of Military Intelligence sent a van full of soldiers to arrest me, basing himself on the rumours. My driver was later arrested, beaten, and he later died. Having received information about the death of my driver, I had to flee to Rwanda because I feared for my life,” Kyakabale told this publication in a 2015 interview.

A September 2025 report by the World Bank has revealed that the country’s tax system, despite its comprehensive design, continues to struggle with low revenue yield, significantly lagging behind the sub-Saharan Africa average and the government’s own medium-term targets.

The report shows that with a tax revenue-to-GDP ratio of only 13.9 percent in the Financial Year (FY)2025/2026, Uganda remains below the critical 15 percent threshold deemed essential for accelerated growth and sustainable development.

‘This persistent challenge is exacerbated by a personal income tax (PIT) system that has not been reviewed in over a decade, resulting in bracket creep,’ it indicates.

Compounding matters is the fact that a significant informal sector largely remains outside the tax net.

Furthermore, within the formal sector, high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) frequently under-report or evade taxes, and large firms capable of making additional new investments, as well as start-up small firms, are exempt from the corporate income tax (CIT), which undermines revenue collection.

The report suggests that to enhance both revenue generation and tax equity, this year’s edition of the Uganda Economic Update focuses on reforms and strategic interventions that provide policy options to redesign the PIT structure, strengthen HNWI taxation, and re-evaluate CIT exemption policies.

It adds that the policy reforms should be intended to broaden the tax base, reduce tax expenditures and improve progressivity and equity of the tax system. If implemented, it predicts, tax revenues could improve by 0.5 percent of GDP.

The report further states that the proposed reforms are consistent with the annual target of the government’s own strategy on domestic revenue mobilisation and the national tax policy.

These emphasise the need to reduce tax expenditures annually and also grow the tax-to-GDP ratio to Vision 2040 targets.

To address this, it is recommended that the government adopt a targeted policy option that enhances the progressivity of the PIT system, increases revenue, and provides relief to low-income earners.

The recommended reform would increase the exemption threshold to Shs4.02m up from Shs2.82m per annum, maintain existing tax rates for most taxpayers, and introduce a new marginal rate of 35 percent up from the current 30 percent for a chargeable income exceeding Shs5.82m.

As a result, low-income earners would remain unaffected, while only the relatively higher income individuals would see an increased tax burden.

The reform is expected to generate Shs149b (0.1 percent of GDP) in additional annual tax revenue.

The impact on individuals’ income would be modest for most, with increases ranging from Shs15,000 for those earning up to Shs1m per month to Shs444,917 for those earning at least Shs9.5m per month.

Overall, the reform is designed to update Uganda’s PIT structure to avoid bracket creep, improve equity and ensure a fairer distribution of the tax burden, while providing relief for low-income earners and strengthening the country’s fiscal position.

Mr Saadia Refaagat an economist with the World Bank says the under-reporting and evasion of taxes by HNWIs represent a significant leakage in Uganda’s tax system.

A multi-pronged approach is essential to effectively bring this segment into the tax net. This is in line with the FY2025/2026 budget, which aspires to close loopholes that cause revenue leakage.

Few subjects have aroused suspicion, bitterness, and disgust over the last 20 years in Uganda’s politics as the question of ‘moles’. Moles, loosely defined, are senior members of Opposition parties whom the National Resistance Movement (NRM) state recruits and maintains in their parties to inform the State on Opposition plans and activities.

In the intelligence services, deploying moles in rival services is a standard operating procedure and even essential in how intelligence is gathered. In a multiparty democracy, it’s not necessary to have moles, at least in the clock-and-dagger sense of intelligence services. The State as the superstructure of the nation-state is expected to be neutral, serving all citizens and all sides in the political contestation. The police, intelligence services, Judiciary, and Electoral Commission, are examples of institutions of the State.

They exist to guarantee the safety and continuity of Uganda as an entity and are expected to serve whichever government is in power, as well as Opposition political parties. In the NRM state, as well as authoritarian states of the Soviet kind, all political power and the allocation of resources and contracts are fused with the ruling party. In the NRM state, all real power has been centred at State House or its related offshoots. That’s to say, the President’s Office and that office alone, is the major centre of power.

Even the national assembly that, on paper, is a second branch of State and has the primary role of allocating budgets, is in reality an extension of the President’s Office and subject to its directives. Over the past 39 or so years, the NRM has gone through the motions of democracy, but its actions show that it finds democracy in the Western liberal sense a great inconvenience and limit on its power. Lest we forget, President Museveni’s formative political years were forged in the sphere of Maoist China and the Marxist liberation groups in Mozambique and Tanzania.

This Uganda, that is, effectively, a one-party state, is the environment in which Opposition parties, the media, civil society, and the general population must live in.

Regardless of how they feel about the government of the day or the political system, human beings must live. They must feed their families, pay bills, and seek business opportunities. In a situation where all opportunity is tied to the President’s Office, those outside the NRM state or opposed to it find their way around it by making tactical choices.

During the 2011 election campaign, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate Kizza Besigye took to urging his supporters to take whatever money, T-shirts, or other handouts from the NRM they could but still vote for FDC. These resources were, after all, he would remind crowds at his rallies, Ugandans’ and so getting them was not a favour but a right. In this, Dr Besigye was acknowledging the situation: In a totalitarian or authoritarian system, where the ruling party or politburo is one and the same as the state, critics and opponents of the system are forced to exist under its hand.

So, if, for example, the State decides to hold up a dispatch of copies of Daily Monitor on their way to Gulu or Mbarara, this newspaper that has long been an irritant to the NRM state will seek information from sympathisers inside the President’s Office on how to retrieve the copies. Several times in the last 20 years, Daily Monitor and its sister brand, Monitor FM/KFM, have been shut down by the government for simply doing their job of reporting the news and holding the government to account.

Complex manoeuvres and behind-the-scenes discussions and engagements have had to be made, often including, discreetly, with some actors in the NRM state, in order for the shutdown to be lifted.

Direction the country is taking

This has never prevented Daily Monitor from persisting with the critical and questioning tone it started with in 1992. What is often forgotten by many is that inside the NRM state are thousands of senior or influential players who are as unhappy about the direction the country is taking as are the Opposition parties and independent media.

These NRM and President’s Office insiders have been a reliable and important source of information and tip-offs in some of the biggest and most influential front-page news stories Daily Monitor has published over the past three decades. Thus, the fact of moles cuts both ways. The NRM state will have its moles and informers in media newsrooms, but these same newsrooms also have their sources and moles inside the NRM system.

That’s why I, for one, I am hesitant to dismiss all Opposition politicians who either have been labelled moles or who have eventually crossed over to the ruling NRM.

All this question of moles would have been unnecessary had Uganda, since 1986, been a liberal democracy. Any true Ugandan at heart who has read or heard about the unapologetic corruption and waste of public resources by the NRM government and its leaders is bound to feel revolted or alarmed.

This holds much truer for older Ugandans who experienced the 1960s and 1970s where, their imperfections and excesses notwithstanding, had a basic respect for the formal Ugandan state.

So, who is a mole?

Opposition politicians recruited by NRM, often reluctantly and under duress, or people inside the NRM state who tip off the Opposition and media on the excesses of State House? In my view, the Opposition moles became so because they were preyed upon by the NRM state. Their financial stresses, ill health, private sexual indiscretions, and other vulnerabilities were manipulated and that’s how people known to be principled in their beliefs cross over to NRM.

Deep inside, I think after they realise their hopeless situation, they become even more bitter with the NRM state than they were at the height of their days in the Democratic Party (DP), FDC, Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), or National Unity Platform (NUP). The Biblical story in the Book of Genesis of Joseph and Moses in Egypt is instructive. Even after rising to high office as a result of his gift for interpreting dreams, Joseph knew at heart that he was a Hebrew, formerly a slave, and his innermost allegiance remained with his enslaved Hebrew people.

The incident in the Book of Exodus where Moses killed an Egyptian whom he came upon mistreating a Hebrew slave makes my point about Ugandan moles.

The general public had been traumatised by photos of Bobi Wine’s bodyguard and NUP activist Eddie Mutwe with bold and sweat on his face, or the many arrests and instances of rough justice meted out to Besigye.

Inside the NRM state, President’s Office, CMI, UPDF, ISO, and State House are human beings with feelings, pride, revulsion at injustice, and ethnic affiliations.

How do these blatant injustices make them feel? The former FDC, DP, and NUP members who are now NRM members are human beings too. They have memories and maintain friendships with former Opposition colleagues in their days of activism.

If I were to say who should be more worried about moles, the NRM state or the political Opposition, the NRM state has much more reason to worry.

The real moles are those in the NRM state, be it CMI, State House, the NRM Secretariat, or ISO, who leak information to the Opposition or the media.

They do this out of conviction and a sense of justice, since obviously the media and Opposition don’t have the resources with which to entice them.

There are many Josephs and Moses’ in the NRM state.