Category: Daily Monitor

In the fifth part of our summary capturing what all 25 witnesses said in a case where Molly Katanga is being tried for the murder of her husband, Henry Katanga, on November 2, 2023, we capture what experts from the Uganda Police Force and Naome Nyangweso said while on the stand.

Molly is facing trial together with her two daughters-Martha Katanga and Patricia Kakwanzi-as well as a medical worker Charles Otai and long-serving Katanga shamba boy George Amanyire.

The latter four are facing charges relating to evidence tampering and being accessories after the fact.

The court will render a decision on February 19, 2026 as to whether the prosecution has established a prima facie case against the accused persons. Below is a summary of what witnesses 17, 18 and 19 told the court.

Emmanuel Odong

The 30-year-old police officer who has been in police since 2019, Odong testified in June, 2025.

At the time, he was a police officer attached to the Directorate of ICT – National Command and Control Centre at the Police headquarters in Naguru, where he works as a CCTV analyst. His job is to analyse CCTV footage, write reports and tender evidence in the courts. He holds a diploma in Computer Science from Kampala International University (KIU) and certificates in software development and cybersecurity.

In this case, he was instructed by his supervisor, SP Vincent Etuket, to join the investigating team at the Katanga residence on Chwa II Road, Mbuya on November 2, 2023, the day Henry died. He was led to the CCTV room by Ms Kakwanzi, one of the Katanga daughters. They were given passwords, reviewed the footage and identified the persons in the footage.

He said there were some missing events when electricity went off. This was explained by the defence as a result of Umeme units getting spent but the CCTV recording was restored as soon as the power token was bought. They provided a letter from Umeme and a copy of the account statement to back up their claims.

Mr Odong also analysed police and private CCTV footage in the neighbourhood of the Katanga residence. He spoke about the time Mr Otai entered the Katanga household with a backpack, the time the ambulance took Molly to hospital, as well as the time the funeral van took Henry’s body to the mortuary.

He showed footage of a car entering the Katanga residence at 7.23am, most likely one in which the Katanga daughters arrived, and then another car driving out towards Bugolobi Medical Centre at 7.35am, most likely the one that rushed Molly to that medical centre for first aid.

Mr Odong then told the court, on cross examination, that he saw footage of an ambulance that had Molly approaching IHK at 8.05am. On re-examination, he was asked if he could tell that CCTV footage had been tampered with and he said no.

Aisha Birungi

Ms Birungi is a detective, who at the time she testified in June 2025, was attached to parliamentary police. She has been in the police for more than 35 years. She’s said to have collected the samples from Molly’s palms, fingers and mouth that were used for analysis of DNA and Gunshot Residue (GSR).

The State is hoping to rely on this evidence to link Molly to the killer gun. The argument being that the presence of her DNA and presence of traces of GSR on her somehow proves she fired the gun.

Ms Birungi’s evidence in chief was led by Chief Prosecutor Jonathan Muwaganya.

Back in November 2023, she said she was a Scene-of-Crime-Officer (SOCO) attached to Kabalagala Police Station in the IHK vicinity.

As a SOCO, her job entailed: viewing scenes of crime, fingerprinting, collecting vital evidence from the crime scene, making reports and going to court to testify in case there’s need. She said on November 2, 2023, she was called by her boss to go to IHK to take samples from a murder suspect, Molly, who she said was admitted there in the ICU.

Ms Birungi said she arrived at the hospital around 2pm, signed in at the main gate, went to the reception where she met with a one nurse Flavia and then later was introduced to a Dr Brian, whose office she went to.

She then signed a visitors’ book and was ushered into the ICU where Molly lay on bed ‘without any life support machines.’

Ms Birungi then said nurse Flavia showed her a light-skinned lady whose entire arms were wrapped in bandages. She was asleep.

Ms Birungi didn’t greet or talk to Molly because she’d been told not to.

Ms Birungi went ahead to swab the palms of her hands and got a buccal (mouth) swab, which she said was meant to get her DNA.

On cross examination led by Mr Elison Karuhanga of Kampala Associated Advocates, Ms Birungi seemed to walk back the claim that she signed in the book at the main gate, saying instead she signed in a one ‘Dr Brian’s’ office book.

At the instruction of his client, Mr Karuhanga put it to her that there wasn’t a Dr Brian on Molly’s care team and there might not be one at IHK.

In a dramatic twist, Mr Karuhanga pulled out a medical chart from the hospital and put it to Ms Birungi that at the time she said to have seen Molly in the ICU, between 2pm and 3pm, the matriarch of the Katanga household was in fact in theatre having an operation and was only brought to ICU at 5pm.

The defence counsel consequently wondered how Ms Birungi could have swabbed Molly’s hands that she said were wrapped to the tip or how she could shove ‘things in her mouth’ without incident.

The defence said there’s no record of Ms Birungi having gone to IHK since she neither provided proof of registration nor a photo or video of her at the scene or one of the scene itself.

The defence called her entire evidence ‘fabricated’ and in a particularly feisty exchange, MacDusman Kabega, who seemed exasperated, because the witness couldn’t recall the time she left her duty station for IHK, didn’t record it, couldn’t remember when she handed over exhibits to the Lead Investigator DSP Bibiana Akong and couldn’t provide any specific details as to time and place, which compelled Kabega to call Birungi’s conduct of the process ‘incompetence.’

The witness was asked on re-examination by Jonathan Muwaganya why she didn’t take a single picture or even video during her alleged time in Molly’s ICU room.

Ms Birungi said she had been stopped by a one Dr Brian.

Asked why she didn’t take fingerprints, she said: ‘My Lord, I was not allowed by the doctor to do anything to the suspect’.

She said for her to take fingerprints, she needed to have made Molly sit up in her bed and that this wasn’t allowed by Dr Brian. She couldn’t identify Dr Brian or nurse Flavia beyond mentioning their first names.

Ms Birungi also didn’t take their IDs and neither did she know their second names. When asked by Mr Muwaganya why she hadn’t taken their identification documents, she said ‘they’d been introduced to her so she saw no need of taking their IDs.’

When asked how she managed to swab the palms of Molly (despite her hands being wrapped in a cast to the fingertips), she said she slipped a swab ‘underneath the bandage’ and swabbed the palm of her hands.

Rashida Naluzze

She is a regional CID officer in her late 30s, currently stationed at Busoga North Regional Headquarters. She was previously stationed at Katwe police post. Her Evidence-in-Chief given before presiding Judge Rosette Comfort Kania, was led by Chief State Attorney, Jonathan Muwaganya.

In a rather stunning revelation, Ms Naluzze told court that the DPP charged Molly with murder long before she had her statement. Molly was, at the time of the charges, in IHK (hospital) fighting for her life.

According to Molly’s medical team at the hospital, she was admitted in hypovolemic shock, had multiple injuries to the head and had broken limbs. They had to amputate one of her fingers because it couldn’t be salvaged.

Ms Naluzze, quoting Molly’s doctors, said the latter couldn’t record a statement back in November 2023 due to multiple challenges with her health.

The same was recorded in January 2024 after an independent medical examination had been done that found Molly in good enough health and cognitive state to record a statement. In the statement, Molly said she’d learnt of her husband’s death in hospital, she had been in an uninterrupted marriage with Henry until his death.

She added that her lawyers, Bruce Musinguzi, Jet and Kabega, had informed her while in hospital that she had been charged with murder. She refused to go into details of the events leading to the death of her husband, saying whoever charged her with murder should say how she is supposed to have done it. She didn’t know. Molly spoke about the people she stayed with in her household, including a young son. She said the rest would be said in court.

Evidence

CCTV footage

Showed several vehicles, including an ambulance and a funeral van, entering and leaving the Katanga home on the morning of November 2, 2023.

Contained gaps caused by a power outage; recording resumed after electricity units were bought.

CCTV footage was not tampered with.

DNA and Gunshot Residue (GSR) samples

Swabs were taken from Molly Katanga’s palms, fingers and mouth for DNA and GSR analysis when she was admitted in hospital.

No clear record was produced showing when the samples were handed over to investigators.

Medical charts showed Molly was in theatre between 2pm and 3pm on November 2, 2023.

She was transferred to ICU at about 5pm

No hospital visitor registration records were produced to confirm when the samples were taken.

No photographs or video recordings were presented to document the sample collection process.

Charging timeline evidence

Records showed Molly was charged with murder before a formal police statement was recorded from her.

Her statement was later taken in January 2024 after medical clearance.

This was the year that the remaining pillars of the late-20th-Century order were shattered, exposing the hollow core of what passed for a global system. Three blows sufficed.

The first was Russia’s impending victory in Ukraine over Europe’s combined leadership. For almost four years, the European Union and Nato engaged in a perilous double game.

On one hand, they committed rhetorically to a Ukrainian victory they were unwilling to bankroll. On the other hand, they exploited this never-ending war to advance a new political and economic domestic consensus: military Keynesianism would be their last-ditch stand against Europe’s deindustrialisation.

In a continent where debilitating political constraints forbade significant deficit-funded green investments or social policies, the war in Ukraine provided a powerful rationale for funnelling public debt into the defence-industrial complex.

The unspoken truth was that a forever war served a critical function: it was the perfect engine for Keynesian pump-priming of Europe’s stagnating economy. The contradiction was fatal: If the Ukraine war ended with a peace deal, it would be hard to sustain this economic pump-priming.

Yet to achieve a victory that would justify the spending was deemed too expensive financially and too risky geo-strategically. Thus, Europe settled on the worst possible strategy: sending just enough equipment to Ukraine to prolong the bleeding without altering its course.

Now that Russia is set to prevail (a predictable result that US President Donald Trump merely brought forward), the EU’s best-laid plans lay in ruins. Europe has no Plan B for peace because its entire strategic posture had become dependent on the war’s continuance. The second shock was that China won the trade war against the United States.

The US strategy, initiated under Trump’s first administration and intensified under Joe Biden, was a pincer move: tariff barriers to cripple Chinese access to markets, and embargoes on advanced semiconductors and fabrication tools to cripple its technological ascent. In 2025, this strategy met its Waterloo, and Europe was again the primary collateral damage.

China responded with a masterful two-part response. First, it weaponised its dominance over rare earths and critical minerals, triggering a supply-chain seizure that paralysed not so much American, but European and East Asian green manufacturing.

Second, and most injuriously for America’s standing as the global tech leader, China mobilised its ‘whole-nation system’ toward a single goal: technological autarky. The result was a staggering acceleration in domestic chip production, with SMIC and Huawei achieving breakthroughs that rendered the US-led Western embargo not just obsolete, but counterproductive.

This is probably the shock with the longest-lasting repercussions. The US proved incapable of slowing China’s rise and, instead, unwittingly propelled its tech sector toward full independence.

And Europe, having dutifully imposed on China the sanctions dictated by the White House, was left with the worst of all worlds: increasingly shut out of the lucrative Chinese market for its high-value goods, yet receiving none of the lavish subsidies and on-shoring benefits of the now rescinded US Inflation Reduction Act.

The third shock was the ease with which Trump won his tariff war with the EU. At the end of their meeting at one of Trump’s golf clubs in Scotland, choreographed by his men to maximise her humiliation, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, struggled to portray a surrender document as a ‘landmark agreement’.

Tariffs on European exports to the US jumped from around 1.2 percent to 15 percent and in some cases to 25 percent and 50 percent. Long-standing EU tariffs on US exports were cancelled. Last but not least, the Commission committed to $600 billion of European investment in US industry on US soil.

This was more than a bad deal. It was an unprecedented capital extraction treaty. It formalises the EU’s transition from an industrial competitor to a supplicant. Europe is to be a source of capital, a regulated market for US goods, and a technologically dependent junior partner.

This new reality was codified in a binding commitment, to which all 27 EU member states have now agreed, stripping the bloc of any pretence of sovereignty.

Part of the capital Trump needs to consolidate his vision of a G2 world structured around the Washington-Beijing axis is now contractually obligated to flow from Europe westward.

When many Ugandan farmers think about cattle keeping, they imagine vast grazing fields stretching over many acres. But for a growing number of small-scale farmers, limited land is no longer a barrier to running a productive, profitable cattle enterprise. With the right feeding system, improved breeds, and good management practices, even one or two acres can support a thriving herd. Ms Johaifah Nabukenya a livestock specialist and smallholder farmer based in Maya Wakiso District, believes the shift toward intensive, smart cattle farming is long overdue.

‘You don’t need 50 acres to keep healthy cattle. What you need is proper planning, good pasture management, and the discipline to feed your animals onsistently. I have trained farmers who are earning more from five well-managed cows on small land than others with 40 cows on 20 acres.’ She says

Starting small, thinking smart

She says that for most small-scale farmers, the biggest challenge is deciding where to start, beginning with what the land can realistically support. ‘Start with two or three animals instead of buying ten cows you cannot feed. Cattle keeping is not a competition. It’s about productivity per cow, not the number of cows you own,’ she says.

Ms Nabukenya adds that farmers with less than one acre are encouraged to adopt zero-grazing or semi-intensive systems, where animals are housed and fed in one place. This reduces disease exposure, protects pasture, and allows farmers to control feeding. ‘Zero-grazing has changed lives and if you can grow enough fodder and provide clean water every day, you will be shocked at how much milk a single cow can produce.’ She says

Feeding

Ms Nabukenya says that feeding remains the largest determinant of productiviy, insisting that 70 percent of small-scale failures come from poor fodder planning.

‘A cow cannot produce milk from air, if you want steady milk, you must plant grass deliberately or buy silage , the same way someone plants beans or maize for human consumption’ she says

She adds that many farmers plant just a small patch of napier, hoping it will feed multiple cows but it’s the fastest road to disappointment because it cannot satisfy the cattles. She recommends that a farmer dedicates at least half an acre strictly to fodder production, using high-yielding varieties and practicing rotational harvesting.

Choosing the Right Breed

Ms Nabukenya says that for farmers with limited land, breed selection is crucial. High-yielding dairy breeds such as Friesians or Jerseys can thrive under zero-grazing if fed and watered well. ‘Farmers should buy fewer animals of better quality than buying many which are not productive, it’s better to keep two good cows than ten poor ones. Quality always wins,’ she emphasises.

She adds that small spaces can quickly become hotspots for disease if hygiene is neglected. Regular cleaning of the cowshed, routine deworming, and vaccinations are non-negotiable. ‘It costs less to prevent disease than to treat them , you must ensure that clean water, clean feed, and a clean shelter are the true medicine for cattle.’ She says

Profits on small farms

Ms Nabukenya says that while large farms often struggle with feeding costs and labour, small-scale farmers can track expenditure more easily and respond quickly to animal needs. Many earn from milk, manure, breeding heifers, and selling silage. ‘If you manage well, one cow can pay school fees, another can handle household bills, and a third can build your savings. The size of your land does not determine your success your management does,’ she says

She also revealed that climate change continues to reduce grazing land, farmers are being pushed to adopt smarter, land-efficient systems.’I believe the future of dairy lies not in large ranches but in well-planned smallholder units,’ ‘ Cattle farming is evolve those who embrace intensive, informed practices and they can thrive, even on one acre. The secret is simple: take care of your cows, and they will take care of you,’ she concludes.

Making the Most of Limited Land

To maximize production on small plots, farmers must treat cattle farming as a planned system rather than a free-range activity. ‘These can be done by mixing fast-growing and slow-growing grasses to ensure feed availability year-round, preserving grass during rainy seasons prevents shortages during droughts and making silage a daily routine your cows will never starve, even in the dry season,’ Ms Johaifah Nabukenya a livestock specialist says.

Farmer community seed banks in Uganda are vital local initiatives preserving crop diversity, ensuring food security and empowering smallholder farmers by promoting the saving, sharing and use of indigenous and improved seeds. There are about 40 farmer community seed banks across the country in the districts of Hoima, Sheema, Masaka, Gulu, Nakaseke, Bwikwi, Apac, and with recent established in Nyatonzi, Masindi district amidst sugarcane plantations serving Kinyara Sugar Ltd.

These seed banks focus on conserving local crop diversity such as beans, groundnuts, sorghum and millet among others to improve farmer livelihoods and seed sovereignty. According to experts, community seed banks first appeared towards the end of the 1980s. Countries that pioneered various types of community seed banks include Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Zimbabwe. In countries such as Australia, Canada, UK community seed banks are commonly known as a seed savers network.

Over time, the number and diversity of seed banks has grown, including in Uganda, with the support of scientists from the National Research Organisation and non governmental organisations Experts note that seed is a reproducible resource that is the most important input for agricultural production and the foundation of a farmer’s livelihood and food security. Seed links conservation, cultivation, production, consumption and trade to the commercialisation of agriculture.

Telling the difference

Quality control is the basis of a community seed bank’s reputation and farmers are called upon to differentiate seeds from grains. Farmers are also are required to observe the properties of quality seed which include maintaining genetic purity, high germination rates and being disease-free. Quality control mechanisms can reinforce a positive change in seed quality can boost the crops’ yielding potential more than any other input.

Seed banks in Western Uganda

There are two community seed banks in Hoima and Masindi districts, with the latter launched this week though it has been in operation since 2023. The two seed banks have been established with the help of scientists at the Plant Genetic Resource Centre (PGRC) in collaboration with Alliance Bioversity and CIAT with funding from the government of Netherlands. Ms Joyce Adokorach, a research officer at PGRC who has been leading the team explains that the seed banks were established under a project initiative which started in 2016

The first phase of the project which was implemented in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania namely ‘Open source Seed system for common beans, finger millet and sorghum climate change adoption’ led to formation of Hoima Community Seed bank in 2018. The initiative was so that the three countries to exchange seed of the three crop varieties and test them in farmer fields. In Uganda several varieties of finger millet and common beans were tested, multiplied on station and given to farmers for on farm trials.

The results emerged successful with 40 varieties being selected by farmers. However, farmers cannot yet use the selected varieties from Kenya and Tanzania because the current multilateral law of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) does not allow. Experts are working around the clock to amend the law to enable farmers use indigenous seed from other countries because for now, it can only be used for research. The second phase of the project named ‘Enabling and Scaling open-source seed system for common beans, finger millet and sorghum in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania for climate change adaptation’ is ongoing.

It involves three community seed banks – namely Hoima Community Seed Bank, Nyatonzi Community Seed bank in Masindi district and another in Soroti. The component of the Seed banks includes storing seed for conservation and milling machine for processing flour for value addition. Ms Adokorach explained that farmers are not limited to conserving seed for the three crops but include all crop varieties of their choice including vegetables and fruits. ‘The focus right now is on seed multiplication and value addition in a bid to provide food and nutrition security,’ she says.

Sensitisation key

Ms Agatha Banganyire, the Hoima Community seed bank secretary notes that they have about 20 members from eight villages across Hoima. The team has been sensitised on how to preserve seeds which includes use of air tight containers to avoid moisture infiltration. ‘They use beads tied in cloth which are placed in the seed container to suck any moisture in case of any,’ she says. ‘To avoid weevil attacks, the team uses local methods of preserving including use of red pepper and leaves of local plants known by community members.’

The distribution method involves giving farmers seed during planting season. Quantities vary from one farmer to another depending on the land size. In return, farmers are expected to bring back double the quantity they obtained from the seed bank. On the other hand, the coordinator of the project from Alliance Bioversity and CIAT, Daudi Mubiru expressed gratitude to farmers in Nyatonzi for their cooperation since 2023 and encouraged them to fully utilize the seed bank facility to their own benefit. ‘The food system today is faced with challenges of climate change, pests and diseases and increased food price.

To address this challenges is for farmers to have access to diverse crop seed types. By keeping their seed collectively in seed bank, they will be able to access various seed varieties some of which are early maturing, pest and disease free and this will enable increase production for food security and for earning income,’ he says. The bank’s chairperson Bosco Jadri said having their own facility is a big achievement because they will be able to regenerate the lost biodiversity. The major seeds being conserved are finger millet, common beans and sorghum. The team has gone ahead to preserve cow pea seed, Nakatti and Soybeans. Since the facility has a milling machine, their major focus will be on processing flour from soy bean, finger millet, sorghum and package the same as income earning initiative.

As children, my brothers and I loved martial arts movies. There was Billy Chong’s Sun Dragon, Bruce Lee’s Big Boss, Jackie Chan’s Master with Cracked Fingers and anything that featured the blonde ammunition of Cynthia Rothrock. It was puppy love at first sight when I saw her in the movie No Retreat, No Surrender 2.

When my late father, Benjamin Matogo, received his posting in Dar es Salaam in 1988 after serving as High Commissioner to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 1986, we stayed in Kampala for about a month or more before heading to Dar. In Kampala, we stayed at The Fairway Hotel.

Kampala was a different place back then. The buildings had not worn any bulletproof vests during the five-year Bush War and so were bullet-holed so badly that they whistled in the breeze. The streets were relatively deserted, a legacy of Kampalans hiding under their beds as bullets whizzed overhead.

Fairway Hotel had fairly stringent rules on pets, so we couldn’t keep our dog, Lucy, there. She was a small and blanched Ethiopian terrier that had more bark than bite. So, the late Sam Bigombe, my uncle, and his wife Betty, who was a Member of Parliament representing Kilak County, Gulu District, at the time, kept the feisty little dog at their home.

Fairway Hotel was under construction at the time, so a posse of Philippine labourers were on the job, building the place up from the ruins of a war that ravaged the country.

My brothers Derek and Michael befriended these Chinese-looking fellows because they believed that every Asian person must have some kind of knowledge of martial arts.

Seeing two children take an interest in them while everyone else treated them as mere hired hands excited the barrel-chested men. Hence, they fed into my brothers’ delusions. Accordingly, my brothers asked them about all the Kung Fu movies we had all seen up until that point and many others we wished to see like Billy Chong’s Crystal Fist.

In answering, the Philippine constructors said, ‘I have seen’ to every single movie my brother mentioned! My brothers were gobsmacked, these guys were cinematic encyclopaedias. They had literally watched thousands of movies.

My brothers were overly impressed until my late father said: ‘But these are labourers who do crushing work from dawn to dusk, how on earth can they watch all those films at the same time as they work? They don’t even know English.’

They say disillusion follows illusion and this is what occurred as my brothers were disillusioned by the shocking reality that these labourers were too committed to their work to commit to Billy Chong and they probably heard utter gibberish every time my brothers spoke in English to them. Their three little words, ‘I have seen’, suddenly evaporated into the airy thinness of time.

However, they did not go away. Words spoken often have a strange power that makes them linger and transform into what they originally were not. Thus, these words were abridged and repurposed into the singular word: ‘seen.’

Defining word

The word ‘seen’ implies a familiarity that breeds indifference and apathy towards its subject. For once we have seen something, we don’t need to see it again. This leads us to treat what has been seen as commonplace and not worth our continued attention.

This year, we heard former opponents of Uganda such as Norbert Mao praise President Museveni, particularly for ending the wars in the country and promoting peace/stability, his pan-African vision, and his experience, despite historical political differences. Ugandans, in response, replied: ‘Seen.’

To be sure, we had seen this all before. On June 28, we saw President Museveni pick up his nomination forms to be the ruling National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) presidential flag-bearer. He was subsequently confirmed as the NRM party’s candidate for the January 2026 presidential poll, in which he is seeking a seventh consecutive term. And we said, ‘seen.’ It was predicted by everyone that he would run again, so we treated it as something we had already seen coming.

On December 6, National Unity Platform presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi’s (Bobi Wine) campaign rally in Gulu City experienced violent altercations where security personnel beat civilians and supporters were injured. A 16-year-old reportedly died after being hit on the head during the Gulu rally. Were we surprised? Seen.

Taxes

Earlier in the year, there were protests over the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (Efris). Traders were protesting the mandatory use and enforcement of the Efris system, which automatically transmits transaction data to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to combat tax evasion.

The traders argued that the system is costly to acquire and complex to implement, especially for smaller businesses. We had seen such protests before. The 1940s had the Luwalo tax, which fuelled Nubian identity struggles, then there was post-independence unrest over the coercive Graduated Personal Tax (GPT), culminating in its abolition due to political pressure and widespread dissent. The contempt that these familiar tax measures bred were labelled ‘seen’ by Ugandans dead and alive. There was nothing new: ‘Seen.’

Voting

Voter turnout in Uganda has generally experienced a steady and concerning decline over the past few decades. The Electoral Commission (EC) chairperson, Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama, has decried the low turnout in past elections, which results in wasted resources.

Official data from the EC shows a clear downward trend in voter participation over several election cycles-1996: 72.9 percent; 2001: 69.3 percent (approx); 2006: 59.3 percent (approx); 2011: 57 percent (an all-time low at the time); 2016: 67.6 percent (some sources cite lower, at 48.37 percent below 50 percent for the first time); and 2021: 59.3 percent (official turnout, though this figure has been questioned due to reported irregularities).

Several factors have been identified by experts and civil society groups as contributing to this trend, namely: firstly, voter fatigue and disillusionment, thanks to persistent election irregularities such as ballot stuffing and altering results, which have caused disillusionment among sections of society.

Secondly, loss of confidence in the electoral process, thanks to manipulation tactics by the ruling party, like creating new administrative units for political gain, have led to a loss of confidence in the integrity of the elections.

Thirdly, violence and intimidation headlined by campaigns marred by widespread violence, arrests of Opposition supporters, and security force crackdowns deter people from participating.

Fourthly, shrinking civic space that has resulted in a sharp decline in voter education due to shrinking resources that means voters are less informed about the process.

Fifthly, youth disengagement typified by many young people feeling ignored or exploited by political leaders and believing their votes do not matter, leading to disengagement. Lastly, the EC’s failures as seen in issues like failure to supply election materials in some areas, poor time management, and perceived partiality. These have damaged the EC’s image. In a word, ‘seen.’

Media unfreedom

In late October, Nation Media Group-Uganda (NMG-U) journalists were barred from entering Parliament by security personnel, who cited ‘instructions not to let them in’ without providing specific reason. Earlier in the year, in March, NMG-U journalists were excluded from directly covering presidential events and the President’s public rallies.

A deputy presidential press secretary stated that President Museveni personally stopped NMG from covering him due to alleged ‘biased and unfair coverage’ and ‘persistent instances of misreporting.’ To which Ugandans who keep their eyes open and mouths shut chorused: ‘seen.’

In the past, President Museveni has accused this newspaper of being full of foreign agents and working against the country’s recovery. In 2018, he described the newspaper as ‘evil.’

In March 2021, Museveni threatened to sue the Daily Monitor and make them bankrupt over a story that claimed he and his wife had secretly vaccinated themselves against Covid-19. The government has forcibly closed the Daily Monitor offices multiple times.

In May 2013, police raided and shut down the paper’s offices and two affiliated radio stations (KFM and Dembe Radio) for more than a week. The closure was triggered by the publication of a letter, purportedly from an army general, which alleged a plot by President Museveni to groom his son for succession and eliminate those who opposed it.

Futuristic power

The word ‘seen’ developed within English as the past participle of the strong verb ‘see,’ used with auxiliary verbs like ‘have,’ ‘has,’ or ‘had’ (e.g., ‘I have seen it’). Thus, one could argue that Ugandans have developed proprietary rights over the word since they have had it so long, it belongs to them.

This carries a distinct power. That’s because if you can see where you are going by extrapolating trends and happenstances based on past occurrences, Ugandans can ably divine the future. This makes Ugandans ‘far-sighted’, which is a metaphor for strategic, long-term thinking and planning, as opposed to the medical condition of hyperopia.

The primary benefit of this political ‘far-sightedness’ to Uganda is that Ugandans now have the ability to create enduring stability, prosperity, and security for future generations, especially by making difficult decisions that may be unpopular in the short term.

President Museveni acknowledged this in January 2021, when he said, ‘I am not the only one with the vision. There are other people (especially NRM cadres, army) with patriotic vision.’ To which Ugandans, noting the President’s promotion of his own party in this statement, will likely reply: ‘Seen.’

In the fifth part of our summary capturing what all 25 witnesses said in a case where Molly Katanga is being tried for the murder of her husband, Henry Katanga, on November 2, 2023, we capture what experts from the Uganda Police Force and Naome Nyangweso said while on the stand.

Molly is facing trial together with her two daughters-Martha Katanga and Patricia Kakwanzi-as well as a medical worker Charles Otai and long-serving Katanga shamba boy George Amanyire.

The latter four are facing charges relating to evidence tampering and being accessories after the fact.

The court will render a decision on February 19, 2026 as to whether the prosecution has established a prima facie case against the accused persons. Below is a summary of what witnesses 17, 18 and 19 told the court.

Emmanuel Odong

The 30-year-old police officer who has been in police since 2019, Odong testified in June, 2025.

At the time, he was a police officer attached to the Directorate of ICT – National Command and Control Centre at the Police headquarters in Naguru, where he works as a CCTV analyst. His job is to analyse CCTV footage, write reports and tender evidence in the courts. He holds a diploma in Computer Science from Kampala International University (KIU) and certificates in software development and cybersecurity.

In this case, he was instructed by his supervisor, SP Vincent Etuket, to join the investigating team at the Katanga residence on Chwa II Road, Mbuya on November 2, 2023, the day Henry died. He was led to the CCTV room by Ms Kakwanzi, one of the Katanga daughters. They were given passwords, reviewed the footage and identified the persons in the footage.

He said there were some missing events when electricity went off. This was explained by the defence as a result of Umeme units getting spent but the CCTV recording was restored as soon as the power token was bought. They provided a letter from Umeme and a copy of the account statement to back up their claims.

Mr Odong also analysed police and private CCTV footage in the neighbourhood of the Katanga residence. He spoke about the time Mr Otai entered the Katanga household with a backpack, the time the ambulance took Molly to hospital, as well as the time the funeral van took Henry’s body to the mortuary.

He showed footage of a car entering the Katanga residence at 7.23am, most likely one in which the Katanga daughters arrived, and then another car driving out towards Bugolobi Medical Centre at 7.35am, most likely the one that rushed Molly to that medical centre for first aid.

Mr Odong then told the court, on cross examination, that he saw footage of an ambulance that had Molly approaching IHK at 8.05am. On re-examination, he was asked if he could tell that CCTV footage had been tampered with and he said no.

Aisha Birungi

Ms Birungi is a detective, who at the time she testified in June 2025, was attached to parliamentary police. She has been in the police for more than 35 years. She’s said to have collected the samples from Molly’s palms, fingers and mouth that were used for analysis of DNA and Gunshot Residue (GSR).

The State is hoping to rely on this evidence to link Molly to the killer gun. The argument being that the presence of her DNA and presence of traces of GSR on her somehow proves she fired the gun.

Ms Birungi’s evidence in chief was led by Chief Prosecutor Jonathan Muwaganya.

Back in November 2023, she said she was a Scene-of-Crime-Officer (SOCO) attached to Kabalagala Police Station in the IHK vicinity.

As a SOCO, her job entailed: viewing scenes of crime, fingerprinting, collecting vital evidence from the crime scene, making reports and going to court to testify in case there’s need. She said on November 2, 2023, she was called by her boss to go to IHK to take samples from a murder suspect, Molly, who she said was admitted there in the ICU.

Ms Birungi said she arrived at the hospital around 2pm, signed in at the main gate, went to the reception where she met with a one nurse Flavia and then later was introduced to a Dr Brian, whose office she went to.

She then signed a visitors’ book and was ushered into the ICU where Molly lay on bed ‘without any life support machines.’

Ms Birungi then said nurse Flavia showed her a light-skinned lady whose entire arms were wrapped in bandages. She was asleep.

Ms Birungi didn’t greet or talk to Molly because she’d been told not to.

Ms Birungi went ahead to swab the palms of her hands and got a buccal (mouth) swab, which she said was meant to get her DNA.

On cross examination led by Mr Elison Karuhanga of Kampala Associated Advocates, Ms Birungi seemed to walk back the claim that she signed in the book at the main gate, saying instead she signed in a one ‘Dr Brian’s’ office book.

At the instruction of his client, Mr Karuhanga put it to her that there wasn’t a Dr Brian on Molly’s care team and there might not be one at IHK.

In a dramatic twist, Mr Karuhanga pulled out a medical chart from the hospital and put it to Ms Birungi that at the time she said to have seen Molly in the ICU, between 2pm and 3pm, the matriarch of the Katanga household was in fact in theatre having an operation and was only brought to ICU at 5pm.

The defence counsel consequently wondered how Ms Birungi could have swabbed Molly’s hands that she said were wrapped to the tip or how she could shove ‘things in her mouth’ without incident.

The defence said there’s no record of Ms Birungi having gone to IHK since she neither provided proof of registration nor a photo or video of her at the scene or one of the scene itself.

The defence called her entire evidence ‘fabricated’ and in a particularly feisty exchange, MacDusman Kabega, who seemed exasperated, because the witness couldn’t recall the time she left her duty station for IHK, didn’t record it, couldn’t remember when she handed over exhibits to the Lead Investigator DSP Bibiana Akong and couldn’t provide any specific details as to time and place, which compelled Kabega to call Birungi’s conduct of the process ‘incompetence.’

The witness was asked on re-examination by Jonathan Muwaganya why she didn’t take a single picture or even video during her alleged time in Molly’s ICU room.

Ms Birungi said she had been stopped by a one Dr Brian.

Asked why she didn’t take fingerprints, she said: ‘My Lord, I was not allowed by the doctor to do anything to the suspect’.

She said for her to take fingerprints, she needed to have made Molly sit up in her bed and that this wasn’t allowed by Dr Brian. She couldn’t identify Dr Brian or nurse Flavia beyond mentioning their first names.

Ms Birungi also didn’t take their IDs and neither did she know their second names. When asked by Mr Muwaganya why she hadn’t taken their identification documents, she said ‘they’d been introduced to her so she saw no need of taking their IDs.’

When asked how she managed to swab the palms of Molly (despite her hands being wrapped in a cast to the fingertips), she said she slipped a swab ‘underneath the bandage’ and swabbed the palm of her hands.

Rashida Naluzze

She is a regional CID officer in her late 30s, currently stationed at Busoga North Regional Headquarters. She was previously stationed at Katwe police post. Her Evidence-in-Chief given before presiding Judge Rosette Comfort Kania, was led by Chief State Attorney, Jonathan Muwaganya.

In a rather stunning revelation, Ms Naluzze told court that the DPP charged Molly with murder long before she had her statement. Molly was, at the time of the charges, in IHK (hospital) fighting for her life.

According to Molly’s medical team at the hospital, she was admitted in hypovolemic shock, had multiple injuries to the head and had broken limbs. They had to amputate one of her fingers because it couldn’t be salvaged.

Ms Naluzze, quoting Molly’s doctors, said the latter couldn’t record a statement back in November 2023 due to multiple challenges with her health.

The same was recorded in January 2024 after an independent medical examination had been done that found Molly in good enough health and cognitive state to record a statement. In the statement, Molly said she’d learnt of her husband’s death in hospital, she had been in an uninterrupted marriage with Henry until his death.

She added that her lawyers, Bruce Musinguzi, Jet and Kabega, had informed her while in hospital that she had been charged with murder. She refused to go into details of the events leading to the death of her husband, saying whoever charged her with murder should say how she is supposed to have done it. She didn’t know. Molly spoke about the people she stayed with in her household, including a young son. She said the rest would be said in court.

Evidence

CCTV footage

Showed several vehicles, including an ambulance and a funeral van, entering and leaving the Katanga home on the morning of November 2, 2023.

Contained gaps caused by a power outage; recording resumed after electricity units were bought.

CCTV footage was not tampered with.

DNA and Gunshot Residue (GSR) samples

Swabs were taken from Molly Katanga’s palms, fingers and mouth for DNA and GSR analysis when she was admitted in hospital.

No clear record was produced showing when the samples were handed over to investigators.

Medical charts showed Molly was in theatre between 2pm and 3pm on November 2, 2023.

She was transferred to ICU at about 5pm

No hospital visitor registration records were produced to confirm when the samples were taken.

No photographs or video recordings were presented to document the sample collection process.

Charging timeline evidence

Records showed Molly was charged with murder before a formal police statement was recorded from her.

Her statement was later taken in January 2024 after medical clearance.

The Electoral Commission has denominated Arnold Ankunda Best, the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) candidate in the race for the Isingiro North County parliamentary seat.

In a letter signed by the EC chairperson, Justice Simon Byabakama, the commission found out that Ankunda had nine valid supporters out of the required 10 to support his nomination, contrary to section 28 (1) (c) of the Parliamentary Elections Act Cap. 177, thus rendering the nomination invalid.

The disqualification of Ankunda from the race leaves the incumbent Member of Parliament and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party candidate, Bright Rwamirama, who serves as the Minister of State for Animal Industry, with only one competitor, Anthony Rutahwire of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT).

Mr Ankunda’s denomination follows a complaint filed by Edgar Agaba and Stella Naiga, registered voters in Masha Sub-county, Isingiro North County, accusing him of using their names and signatures to sign and support his nomination.

Justice Byabakama said the commission deliberated over the issues raised by the complainants, together with their lawyers’ submissions, the response and submissions of the respondent and his lawyer, and observed that the Petitioners appeared before the Commission and denied signing, endorsing, or writing their names on the respondent’s nomination form.

‘In view of the foregoing, the Commission, under MIN. COMP. 048/2025, resolved that given the stated invalidity, the Respondent’s nomination is annulled, and the decision of the Returning Officer, the lsingiro Electoral District, in nominating Ankunda is hereby quashed.

He said that during the cross-examination of Ms Naiga, she did not appear to be a credible witness, but also the submitted evidence by Ankunda of the phone conversation between himself and Edgar Agaba was not verified, hence the Commission could not rely on it.

Stanley Katembeya, the Ankole region PFF Coordinator, said Ankunda’s denomination is no surprise to him, noting that the Electoral Commission is being used to allow the National Resistance Movement elders to go through unopposed.

Mr Anthony Rutahwire of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) described the disqualification of Ankunda as unfortunate, but said it gives him more chances to defeat Mr Rwamirama on January 15, 2026.

Mr Samuel Baguma, a voter in Nyarubungo Ward, said Ankunda’s disqualification is not a surprise, noting that some senior NRM members in the district have long been associated with such political schemes.

Mr Alex Turyamwijuka, also a resident, said from the petition, all this was expected, stating that politics of the area have been characterised by ‘force, intimidation, and bribery.’

This reporter couldn’t get Akunda for a comment as his known mobile phone numbers were not going through.

Earlier, other contenders, James Atwiine King was disqualified from the race by the Electoral Commission for lack of academic documents.

Atwiine lost to Rwamirama in the NRM party primaries and had chosen to contest as an Independent candidate.

The other candidate, Kassim Kagwisagye of the Democratic Party withdraw from the race after reaching a mutual agreement with Mr Rwamirama.

In this country, gender conversations have settled into a familiar rhythm. When women suffer, the nation listens. When men suffer, the nation hesitates then jokes, shrugs, or looks the other way. This is not always done out of malice; often it is cultural reflex. But the effect is the same: male pain remains largely invisible.

Violence against women is real, widespread, and deserving of the attention it receives. That truth is not in dispute. What is rarely acknowledged, however, is that in building awareness around one form of suffering, society has quietly trained itself to ignore another. Today, a man can be abused in his own home and still feel that speaking up is more dangerous than staying silent.

A recent Daily Monitor story about Pallisa briefly disrupted this silence.

The paper reported accounts of men being beaten by their wives-slapped, struck with household items, denied food, and forced out of their homes. The most revealing part of the story was not the violence itself, but the public reaction to it. The response was largely amusement, disbelief, and mockery.

Masculinity, not violence, became the focus of judgment. That reaction was telling. It showed that the issue was never the men in Pallisa. The issue was us.

Across the country, men are raised with a narrow definition of strength. From childhood, they are taught to endure, not express; to absorb pain, not explain it. Vulnerability is treated as failure.

When a man admits he is being hurt-especially by a woman-he is assumed to have lost control, dignity, or relevance. Sympathy is replaced with suspicion.

This mindset does not stop at social attitudes; it shapes institutions as well. Gender-based violence programmes, shelters, and campaigns overwhelmingly speak to women, often leaving men unsure whether they qualify as victims at all. When men report abuse, they are frequently met with advice instead of action, humour instead of help. The system is not designed to respond to male vulnerability because society has not accepted that it exists.

There is an irony in all this. Men are constantly encouraged to ‘open up,’ to communicate better, to be emotionally present. Yet when they do exactly that, they are ridiculed or dismissed. We ask men to speak, then punish them for being honest.

Over time, silence becomes safer than truth. This is not a call to reduce attention to women’s suffering, nor is it an attempt to turn pain into a competition. Violence is violence, regardless of who experiences it. Justice is not weakened by inclusion; it is strengthened by it. A society that listens only to certain victims does not achieve equality-it practices selective empathy.

The Daily Monitor story mattered because it cracked open a conversation many would rather avoid. It reminded us that men, too, can be victims, and that ignoring this reality does not make families safer or communities healthier. It only pushes suffering further underground.

If gender justice is to be meaningful, it must be honest. It must recognise that pain does not follow ideology, and victims do not always fit expectation. Raising women should never require silencing men. A society that can acknowledge all its wounded is not confused-it is finally mature.

Kidepo Valley National Park is about 10 hours by road from Kampala City, and that distance is part of the reward.

The road north eases you out of routine. From Kampala through Mukono, Lugazi, Jinja, Iganga, Mbale and on to Moroto, the country slowly opens up.

Sugarcane fields thin, traffic fades, and the horizon begins to stretch. You can do the journey in one long push. Or you can break it into days-sleep in new towns, stop for food, explore roadside attractions, and let the road become part of the experience.

A three-to-five-day itinerary allows you to sample Uganda along the way before Kidepo rises as the final reward

When you finally arrive, Kidepo unfolds in gentle waves of undulating plains, distant hills and wide valleys that glow at sunrise and soften at sunset. The light lingers and reveals horizons that seem endless.

Mr Andrew Seguya, the executive secretary of Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration, has described Kidepo as a park that does not announce itself.

‘It simply exists-vast, silent, and unapologetically wild,’ notes the former executive director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).

Set deep in Karamoja, Kidepo Valley National Park sits far from crowds and even farther from hurry. That remoteness defines it. It covers 1,442 square kilometres, which makes it one of Uganda’s largest and least disturbed protected areas.

‘In Kidepo, the land stretches so far it teaches you how small noise really is,’ says Mr Bashir Hangi, the communications manager at UWA.

Seasonal rivers, the Narus and Kidepo, cut through the valleys, drawing animals into the open. From the valley floors to the distant slopes of Mount Morungole, the scenery changes gently, offering wide views. More than 77 mammal species and nearly 500 bird species live here.

Buffaloes gather near waterholes while giraffes appear, walking gracefully and stopping to feed from acacia trees.

Game drives in Kidepo feel less like sightings and more like encounters. Lions are often seen resting on rocky outcrops, surveying the land. Ostriches stride across open ground as secretary birds patrol the grasslands.

Birdlife is constant. Mornings begin with layered calls drifting across the valley, and many species found here are rare or limited to the region, rewarding those who take time to listen. You leave Kidepo quieter than you arrived. Sunsets slow everything down. The land turns gold, and into different shades of colour, and when nights arrive, they are cold and clear, sometimes stitched with stars and distant animal calls.

Kidepo’s raw beauty has earned nominations at the World Travel Awards, placing it alongside celebrated landscapes like the Masai Mara and the Serengeti. Yet Kidepo remains quieter and more intact.

Activities include early morning and late afternoon game drives, guided bird walks, cultural visits to nearby Karimojong communities, and ranger-led night drives that reveal the park’s secret life after dark.

Accommodation ranges from basic bandas to comfortable lodges that sit lightly on the land.

‘Its remoteness is not a disadvantage, it is the reason everything still feels real,’ says Dr James Musinguzi, the executive director of UWA.

When you visit this national park, you might find a few reasons to rush, much like the road trip that leads you there. If you are patient enough, animals that are rarely seen appear, for example, the shy cats like leopards. And when you make certain rare sightings, Kidepo becomes the place to entertain you, and that way, it stays with you for memories created and experiences worth sharing about.

ABOUT KIDEPO

Getting there: By road, it is approximately 700 kilometres and about 10 hours from Kampala. The suggested route is from Kampala to Mukono, Lugazi, Jinja, Iganga, Mbale, Soroti, Moroto and Kidepo. Break the journey into two to four or five for a relaxed road trip with stopovers. By air, charter and scheduled flights operate from Entebbe to Kidepo Airstrip. They take about two hours, depending on the weather. Flights to Kidepo Valley National Park in Uganda are typically by small charter plane by Aerolink, costing roughly $300 (Shs1.1m) to $500 (Shs1.8m) one way from Entebbe/Kajjansi.

Park entry fees: Foreign non-residents pay $45 (Shs161,000) per adult per day as entrance to the park, foreign residents pay $35 (Shs125,000) per adult per day, East African Citizens pay Shs30,000 per adult per day and children from five to 15 years pay about half the prices.

Where to stay: Premium stay at Apoka Safari Lodge typically costs between $880 (Shs3.1m) and $1,250 (Shs4.4m) per person per night for an adult sharing a room, depending on the season.

Mid-range options include Kidepo Savannah Lodge for $180 (about Shs643,000) per person per night, full board.

Budget options include Narus Valley Camp for about $90 (Shs322,000) per person per night, full board, Kidepo Rest Camp for basic bandas for about $40 (Shs143,000) to $60 (Shs215,000) per person.

By the time the Catholic Bishop of Masaka, Serverus Jjumba, authored a one-page communication that forced Ugandan security forces to concede that they had arbitrarily detained Catholic clergy Deusdedit Ssekabira, the army had detained him for 10 days without admission.

According to people who witnessed the abduction of Fr Ssekabira, a curate of Bamangi Parish in Masaka, this operation followed a similar template that the Special Forces Command (SFC) have since 2019 used to abduct Opposition ‘foot soldiers’ who belong to the National Unity Platform (NUP).

Indeed, Bishop Jjumba said Fr Ssekabira had been kidnapped by army men who were in a Toyota Hiace, alias Drone, which has earned notoriety for being a symbol of torture and State-orchestrated disappearances.

The abduction of Ssekabira, which comes at the height of electioneering ahead of the 2026 polls, coupled with the army’s official explanation that he was picked off the streets because he was engaged in what they term as subversive activities, has once again brought into sharp focus the fading relationship between the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) government and the Catholic Church.

Throughout his nearly 40-year hold on power, Museveni, an Anglican, has repeatedly warned against the mixing of politics and religion. During the celebration of Uganda Martyrs Day, mid this year, Museveni once again made it clear that religious leaders should restrict themselves to spiritual matters.

‘Politics is about welfare on earth, and religion is about spirituality here on earth and life after in heaven, which aspects the religious leaders can speak better about,’ Museveni said.

Double standards?

Yet Museveni seems to have no problem when religious leaders have campaigned for him, with Sheikh Shaban Mubajje, a leader of a faction of Muslims that is recognised by the State, being his leading campaigner.

‘All the development you see that benefits Muslims from mosques, schools, hospitals, and the general respect and recognition has been possible because of President Museveni’s support,’ Mubajje said in October during a Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) Executive Committee meeting.

Mubajje, whose tenure has been riddled with scandals, added: ‘If the NRM says its goal is to protect the gains, then know that Muslim progress is among those gains.’

For the Church of Uganda, retired Anglican Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi endorsed Museveni when the 80-year-old President was traversing West Nile hunting for votes. ‘We have recorded peace in this country, we have recorded growth and several other developments in this country; and yet Uganda is still a needy country,’ retired Bishop Orombi said, adding that thanks to Museveni, Ugandans can enjoy sleep in their houses.

‘On behalf of the people of Nebbi, I ask God to continue to lead you through the nation as you speak to the people, giving you health, strength and enabling you to accomplish your mission,’ Orombi, who reigned as the archbishop of the Church of Uganda between 2004 and 2007, said.

Yet there is no agreed position in the Anglican Church, with Rev Can Augustine Magala Musiwuufu, the retired dean of Namirembe Cathedral, pointing out earlier this year during a sermon that Anglican leaders need to speak out against injustices committed by the regime instead of focusing on handouts like four-wheel vehicles they get from government.

‘Speak about what is happening in the country, whether good or evil. These pictures we see on social media paint a different picture of this country,’ Musiwuufu said.

Frosty relations

If Orombi presented the rosy picture about Uganda under Museveni’s leadership, the Catholic Church doesn’t share the same. Relations with the NRM regime appear not to have thawed ever since the Catholic Church was accused of backing Robert Kyagulanyi’s presidential bid in 2021.

In fact, NRM cadres have attributed the party’s blood bath in Buganda to the backing the Catholic Church gave to Kyagulanyi, a Catholic, and his party. For instance, when Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempiija lost his Kalungu East slot to NUP’s Francis Katabaazi Katongole, he blamed the Catholic Church for his failure.

‘On voting day, a priest who led the queue for voters turned around after ticking and demonstrated how to tick to the rest of the voters among the 10 presidential candidates,’ Ssempijja explained his loss.

‘The priest, after getting his ballot paper, faced the voters, raised his hands and made a sign of the cross. How could I win? The priest influenced people on who to vote for.’ Ssempijja wasn’t the only NRM member who blamed the Catholic Church or the Buganda Kingdom for losses suffered.

‘In Buganda, it’s clear that the Mengo and the Catholic Church were involved. They were telling people to vote for the red coffee that had matured. What does that mean? We are now going into the politics of tribalism, sectarianism, and religion. The Catholic Church has come out to decampaign the government,’ Esther Mbayo, then minister for Presidency, said.

Additionally, Haruna Kasolo, the Minister of State in-charge of Microfinance, blamed his loss in Kyotera County on John Paul Lukwago Mpalanyi, then a member of the Democratic Party (DP), but who has since decamped to NUP, on the Catholic Church.

Those who are familiar with Kyotera politics say Mpalanyi was able to end Kasolo’s two-term reign in Kyotera, thanks to the backing of the Catholic Church, with top clergy and lay readers in the area openly backing what they termed as ‘one of their own.’

Bishop Kiwanuka dossier

Kyagulanyi’s push for the presidency, in a country whose leadership has been dominated by Anglicans, presents the Catholic Church with a conundrum that they faced in the colonial times. This was when one of their own, Benedicto Kagimu Kiwanuka, a member of DP, emerged as one of the prospective leaders of post-colonial Uganda.

Particularly, Bishop Joseph Kiwanuka, one of the mentors of Benedicto, was caught between a rock and a hard place. In their book titled Contesting Catholics: Benedicto Kiwanuka and the Birth of Postcolonial Uganda, Jonathon Earle and James Jay Carney, through Benedicto, tried to depict DP as by no means a Catholic Party by widening the net to incorporate Muslims and Anglicans, albeit with limited success; the Catholic clergy always found themselves in a tricky position.

With so many Catholics joining DP’s sworn enemies Kabaka Yekka and frequent political violence committed against DP Catholics, Earle and Carney say Bishop Kiwanuka, who had been appointed by the Vatican as the archbishop of Kampala, was forced to issue a pastoral letter to fellow Catholics titled ‘Church and State: Guiding Principles.’

Issued on November 23, 1961, Earle and Carney explain that Bishop Kiwanuka’s dossier turned out to be the most controversial Catholic pastoral letter in modern Uganda. The duo explain that Bishop Kiwanuka began the circular by lamenting the wounded Catholic neighbours who had approached him.

‘For the archbishop, their injuries had stemmed from their opponents’ convictions that ‘you are a traitor to the Kabaka to your country’,’ Earle and Carney explain, adding that Archbishop Kiwanuka noted that not all Catholics were, but only those who supported DP.

‘Even Archbishop Kiwanuka himself had been verbally accosted, accused with other bishops of being ‘the people who don’t want Buganda to receive what belongs to her’ and of underwriting DP movement. ‘What are you, bishops, looking for here? You don’t like the Kabaka! Wait until tomorrow and go to welcome Benedicto.’

Ssemogerere broadside

Currently, with the State-sponsored abductions not leaving out the clergy, the Catholic Church, just like in colonial times, finds itself in a position where it has to make its voice heard.

‘Who doesn’t know the reason why the people who are currently ruling us went to the bush? The sad thing is that rigging of votes has become endemic. Even the President has been mourning over this practice. He claims the Opposition rigs votes, more so in Buganda. The President isn’t a lone ranger in decrying rigging elections, even the Opposition is crying over the same thing,’ explained Archbishop of Kampala Paul Ssemogerere.

The Catholic prelate also cited a song that he said he no longer listens to, but the artist was telling Museveni that conditions that compelled him to go to the Luweero jungles to wage guerrilla war have resurfaced.

‘Those who are responsible need to hear the voice of the people because the voice of the people is the voice of God. We need to get real peace by welcoming Jesus Christ in our hearts,’ Archbishop Ssemogerere said.

He cited the New Testament in John 14:27, in which Jesus Christ said the peace he gives, the world cannot give.

‘Many times, those who are escorted by heavy security don’t have real peace in their hearts. They are even scared of their own shadows, and that is why they always use a lot of force to eliminate those who threaten their hold on power. We can only get real peace if we receive Christ in our hearts,’ he said.

Archbishop Ssemogerere’s predecessor, Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, who died in 2021, once warned the State against abductions, saying that those who are now in power claimed they were the preserve of the Idi Amin regime.

‘I remember when the NRM came to power, the President said they came to resist the politics of the Idi Amin and Milton Obote regimes. If this is still the National Resistance Movement, I call upon your government to continue resisting the evil abductions, torture and killings of people,’ Lwanga said.

Yet in his communication announcing the abduction of Fr Ssekabira, Bishop Jjumba pointed out that the abduction reminds the Catholic faithful of the way Catholic clergy Clement Mukasa was disappeared during Amin’s era, never to be seen again.

‘I’m doing this communication in our Lady of Sorrows, Kitovu Cathedral, where on 12 July 1976, Msgr Clement Mukasa was kidnapped and has never been seen again,’ Bishop Jjumba said.