ADDRESS

BY

H.E YOWERI KAGUTA MUSEVENI

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

AT

A JOINT LEADERSHIP RETREAT -

KYANKWANZI -NALI

8TH JULY, 2024

1
Honourable Members of the retreat, it is now clear
that corruption is a big problem in Uganda. IGG
estimates that the country loses Ug.sh 9.7trillion per
year on account of corruption. This is not
acceptable.
Therefore, corruption should be crushed and will be
crushed. Before the advent of the NRM leadership,
corruption was endemic in Uganda, both during the
time of the British and afterwards. I have told you
before that, my father who was a traditional cattle
keeper, with no school education, was always in
possession of an injection syringe (eboomba) and all
the anti-Rwakyipumpuru (trypanosomiasis)
Government controlled drugs in use at that time in
both Uganda and Rwanda. Out of the Uganda
Government Veterinary stores, Mzee Kaguta and all
his colleagues, would buy, illegally, antrycide and
pro-salt, known in Runyankore as Kachuungwa and
machuunda; from Rwanda, they would buy katuku

2
(berenel, I think they called it). Mzee Kaguta would
store both syringe and the drugs in our traditional
huts (ebifuuha) where there was indoor cooking and
house –warming from the amahega (the fire-place). I
do not know what effect the fire indoor warming,
would have on the drugs. On the human drugs side,
there was a thriving illegal business of abebuunzi
(illegal, un-trained medical operators), using
penicillin and other human drugs bought from the
Government health centres and the syringes to
inject them into human beings.

The colonial African policemen, behind the back of

their White supervisors, would take bribes from the
Wakadaara (African taxi operators) (–) operators, to
ignore the mechanical defects of the vehicle or over-
loading. The chiefs were taking bribes from the
Wanainchi for some service provision, e.g. issuing
cattle movement permits (kufurura ente). The

3
teacher’s main crimes were sexually preying on
school girls, beating learners, etc.
With Independence, a new problem came on the
scene – the brutality, impunity and extortionate
conduct of the small neo-colonial Armies. They could
kill, they could rape women and they could loot
Wanainchi’s property, with impunity.
When the NRA came on the scene, all this
misconduct stopped. In the Luwero Triangle, the
area the NRA controlled between 1981-86, any
extra-judicial killings, were punished, starting with
the public execution of Zabuloni and his colleague
who had killed 3 Wanainchi, under the influence of
alcohol, in Mulule village, near Semuto. A boy called
Lubale and his group, killed some North Korean
military experts on Gulu road, initially presenting
themselves as war heroes who had killed Koreans in
an ambush. Later on, it was discovered that the
Koreans had surrendered peacefully and the Lubale

4
group had killed them in order to keep the loot they
had taken from their car without surrendering it to
the NRA as was mandated by the code of conduct.
They were promptly arrested, tried and punished,
although I do not remember the punishment
because we were entering the difficult time of the
counter-offensive of Obote of 1982-1983 and when
we had to make a strategic withdrawal out of upper
Bulemeezi to Ssingo and lower Bulemeezi. These
tough measures created an Army of a new type. That
is why one of our mobilizers, Sumini, one time
crafted a verse in a song that said: “Abaserikale
abali nga Ababikira - Soldiers that are like nuns”.
A large part of that heritage has been kept. The
Amin- Obote road blocks by the Army where the
Wanainchi would be brutalized and robbed,
disappeared forever. However, some corruption by a
few elements in charge of money, supplies and
deployment, has manifested itself. However, the
patriots in the UPDF are handling this. The bulk of

5
the UPDF is not involved and are, in fact, victims of
these corrupt people. The recent attack on our FOB
in Somalia and the loss of soldiers there, was
partially due to this corruption of some UPDF
officers.
It was, therefore, the NRA that showed that
corruption in Uganda can be defeated.
The corruption we are facing now, has got two
dimensions. One dimension is the stealing of
Government money; taking bribes from the Public to
provide Government Services; misusing the
procurement procedures to cheat the state; and
corruptly handling personnel issues- e.g. Nepotism
and selling Government jobs. Professionally,
constitutionally and logically, it is the following
people that are in charge of Government money,
procurement and personnel (administration): the
Permanent Secretary in a Ministry; A CAO in a
district; a Town Clerk in a City or Municipality; a

6
Gombolola Chief in a Sub-County; a Managing
Director in a Para-statal; and the Clerk of
Parliament. In the Army, it is the Chief of Staff, the
Division Admin Officer, etc. It is, initially, not the
work of the Political leaders to fight corruption.
However, ultimately, they are responsible for
defending the interests of the people, if the
Accounting officers, do not do their work.
The other dimension of corruption, is employee
disloyalty in a private company. The employees who
steal from their employers, are also enemies of the
Country. If the employers blacklist Uganda as a
Country where employees steal money from their
employers with impunity, Uganda’s economy will get
stunted. Therefore, it is the work of the Police to
ensure that those who steal from Companies, private
or Government, are held fully accountable, including
paying back the money they stole on top of prison
sentences.

7
Going back to the Government money, now that the
accounting officers have let themselves down, we are
coming in indirectly. Apart from the State House
Anti- Corruption Unit, I am also setting up both a
tax investigation Unit and an accountancy and audit
unit. They will be able to investigate all tax evasions,
under-declarations, money diverted by Parliament
and stolen, etc.
On account of my experience in the colonial and
immediate post-colonial times, I insisted on
organizing the people to empower them to defend
their interests. That is why, we set up the RC
system- the Resistance Councils.
On account of our experiences with veterinary
officers and medical personnel selling veterinary and
human drugs, Gombolola Chiefs taking bribes,
Police-men taking bribes, etc., we decided to create
our own parallel popular structures – the LCI,II,III,
IV and 5, Chairpersons, in addition to the Muruka,

8
Gombolola, Saza Chiefs and the DC. Our
expectation, was that these elected people would not
fail to defend the interests of their people. What has
happened? How does corruption take place when
these kalisolisos of the people, are there? This
retreat should discuss that.
In the meantime, I am linking directly with the
victims of the corruption of the Government people
and these are the people (the Wanainchi). They have
all the information. Besides, we have the young
people, the Kampala Parents and allied Products,
who have a different attitude from the present
accounting officers who are originally villagers with a
careerist and mercenary mentality. The Kampala
Parents group are moved more by “passion” than by
“remuneration”.
The excuse of low pay, should be rejected. The
Fronasa-NRA-UPDF, have, ever since 1971, worked
for no pay or low pay, but we always excel. Uganda

9
is not a fully monetized economy and society.
Between 1979 and 1980, my family was staying at
Kololo and we were getting a low pay. However, my
sister-in-law, Kyamunyonyi, from Buhweeju, would
always bring us esaano (millet flour) and we would
have perfect meals. Everybody knows why the
salaries were low or there was even no pay. The only
mistake, was by elements in the Parliament who
distorted our historical movement by paying
themselves high salaries. This distorted our strategy
of voluntarism instead of careerism and
mercenarism. They have now realized their
mistakes. However, high you put the salary, it
cannot run a constituency. Collective efforts are
better – PDM, Emyooga, free education in
Government schools, etc.

I could have blocked the moves by the MPs to award

themselves high salaries. I opposed but did not
block because it is not always correct to block

10
everything you consider a mistake. It is better,
sometimes, to oppose but also allow people to learn
from their mistakes or for the issue at hand to be
clearer. In 1982, around August, my idea to the
High Command to effect a strategic withdrawal from
upper Bulemeezi and encourage the civilian
population to leave the war zone and report to Obote
so that we did not have to pointlessly scatter our
small Army between fighting the Government Army
and guarding the huge population, was rejected.
The majority of the High Command members, partly
influenced by the need to remain near their girl-
friends among the civilian population rather than by
strategic thinking, argued that off-loading the
civilian population and encouraging them to report
to Obote, would mean that we would “appear”
defeated. Hence, “appearance” was more important
than reality. I had now two choices: either to split
from the majority and cause an internal conflict or
go along with a course of action I knew to be a
mistake until reality proved me right. That is exactly

11
what happened in the war. Around July, 1983, after
the successful attack on Kiboga, in spite of the
overall bad situation, I called another High
Command meeting at Nyambiindo. I re-introduced
the issue of sending away the civilian population so
that we remain free to concentrate on fighting the
Government Army. What was the reaction? The
reaction was: “Kati embeera wetuse, tulina okuta ba
Wanainchi nebagenda” - “where the situation is
now, we must encourage the civilian population to
go away from the warzone.” This is called the
struggle between the two lines: the correct
revolutionary and objective line and the incorrect
subjective reactionary line. There is time for
everything, the Bible says.
The mistake by elements in the Parliament could not
have been solved correctly at that time. It was better
that they learn from their own mistakes, preserve
the unity of the Movement and give us time to
improve the geo-strategic situation of the region with
Mobutu’s Congo, Bashir’s Sudan, Mzee Moi in Kenya

12
who would sometimes close our borders , as well as
still having a young Army that needed
metamorphosis. Besides, the MPs, unlike the other
Public Servants, were not very many in number.
Their disruption was in the bad example and not in
the magnitude of the money involved. They have
now learnt that mistake. That is why fund-raising is
now very unpopular among MPs now.
We should easily defeat the corruption. The only
support we need from the Judiciary is no bail for
these accused of murder, treason, terrorism, rape,
defilement, corruption (embezzlement) and village
thefts, if the prosecution is ready for trial. Let the
case be tried or use alternative justice but no bail
and no impunity for the above cases.

Once we deal with the corruption, we, then, have the

other elements of the mass- line that I talked about
at Kololo recently, different from the elite line. Apart
from security for all, we insisted on Immunization

13
for all and health care for all; education for all UPE
and USE and BTVET; prosperity for all; clean water
for all; infrastructure development; and continental
and regional economic integration for the market of
our wealth products. With these, we cannot go
wrong.

I thank everybody.

Yoweri K. Museveni
PRESIDENT

14