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On May 8, President Yoweri Museveni’s wife Janet, who is also the minister of Education and Sports, responded to an article Daily Monitor published on May 3. It was written by one of the newspaper’s columnists, Philip Matogo, and was titled “When a revolution eats up its children”.
Mrs Museveni, who did not mention the writer’s name, said she was “saddened that a journalist could cast aspersions on someone who has passed away and is not able to speak or answer for themselves”.
“We must ask ourselves, ‘How would I feel if they were spreading lies about my loved one or family member?’” she wrote.
The article, published by the government-owned New Vision, did not, surprisingly, single out a single lie that the columnist wrote about Jimmy Bageire, whom she called “a vibrant and kind young man who came from a wonderful family that are still our friends to this day”.
But what struck me about the article are the following paragraphs, reproduced verbatim and to which I want to respond.
Through the years, we have done our best to serve the people of Uganda with a clean conscience before God. We serve all the people of Uganda whether we know them personally or not. Are we perfect? No, but I can say with a clear conscience that we have always done all that is in our power to do, to help and serve all Ugandans.
What we do or do not do for people that we have walked with as friends on this life’s journey is known by God and people who are close to us. We do not seek cheap popularity, and we do not work to please man, but rather to please the Lord ultimately. Our service is to him and we have spent our lives as servants of the people of Uganda and Africa.
If you live in Uganda and know what is happening, if you read newspapers, watch television news and see how supporters of the opposition are harassed and tortured by security forces, you are going to be surprised, even shocked, by Mrs Museveni’s comments.
A clean conscience before God? What does that even mean in a country where justice is selective, and suffering is systemic? Is the God the Museveni family keep talking about the same God all religious people across the world believe in? Is he happy with the family?
Let us consider evidence and facts. Just weeks ago, Mrs Museveni’s son, General Muhoozi Keinerugaba, who heads the army, shocked the country by callously announcing on social media that he was holding Eddie Mutwe, the bodyguard of National Unity Platform leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, aka Bobi Wine, in his basement, after the party announced he had been abducted. He later deleted his post, but major news outlets had picked it up.
When photos of Eddie Mutwe started circulating on social media, they showed torture marks. His abductors had also forcibly shaved his long dark thick beard.
Exiled writer/lawyer
Eddie Mutwe is not the first to be tortured. The writer and lawyer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, who is currently living in exile in the UK, was arrested in 2022 on the orders of General Kainerugaba and was so mercilessly tortured that his entire back is covered in ugly scars. Mr Rukirabashaija had criticised General Kainerugaba—but torture is not the punishment for critics when a country has courts of law.
Outsiders have also raised concerns. Last month, the US government issued a travel advisory and warned its citizens to reconsider travelling to Uganda due to violent crime, terrorism and laws targeting persons on the basis of sexual orientation. A US travel advisory for a country that is well managed is at level 1—not 3, where Uganda currently stands.
Mrs Museveni says “we have spent our lives as servants of the people of Uganda and Africa”. But Ugandans have a different story to tell. Ask them, for example, about corruption in Uganda and they are going to tell you the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, no less, is under sanctions over corruption.
Moral grandstanding from power is not new—but it is masking the real problems Uganda is facing. It demands scrutiny, not reverence.
🔴 Musaazi Namiti is the Founder and Editorial Director of OJ-UGANDA. He previously led the Africa Desk at Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, worked for Globe Media Asia in Cambodia and writes a widely read column for Uganda’s Sunday Monitor. His work has been quoted by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Jeune Afrique, The Africa Report—not for playing it safe, but for saying what others will not.
Email: musaazinamiti@ojuganda.com
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