Museveni and evolution of government by the military

President Museveni chairs a meeting of the UPDF High Command and Army Council at State House Entebbe in 2019. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • When President Museveni took power in 1986, efforts to return Uganda to a civilian government were apparent. But as the incumbent edges to four decades in power, he is increasingly turning to the military as the only trusted institution to run both his government and State institutions, writes Stephen Kafeero.

Uganda is perhaps the only country in Africa where the army has official representation in Parliament. The move, once less controversial and marketed as a mechanism of keeping the military abreast with the activities of government, has morphed into the army having a say in almost every aspect of Ugandan public life.
In the past one month, a routine operation to enforce trade order by Kampala Capital City Authorities can easily be mistaken for a rebel purge from the city. Military police personnel from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), assisted by the police and pursuing vendors to get them off the streets were a common sight. 
The UPDF soldiers are also present at almost, if not all, police stations in Kampala Metropolitan area. The politico-military fusion in the country is widespread.  The army dominating police and other civilian work has been clothed as “joint security” work. 
The Constitution, the Police Act, 2006, and the UPDF Act, 2005, permit the army to work with the police on matters of national security. 
A 2004 Defence White Paper on “defence transformation” is perhaps the most cogent official document to explain or even understand the direction President Museveni has taken.
In the paper, a defence review identifies 134 potential threats which are then grouped into nine generic threat categories, including border insecurity, destabilising external influences, political instability, environmental stress and resource constraints, human underdevelopment, internal insecurity, economic shocks and stress, social polarisation and civil disaster. 
Most of the threats identified were non-military in nature but the regime appears to see the military as a solution to them. 
President Museveni has over the years, through statements and actions, including the military raid on Parliament and law courts, made clear his distrusts of institutions such as Parliament, the Judiciary and the police, among others. In most of the cases, if not all, he has turned to the military for the silver bullet. 
President Museveni has in the past few years deployed the military (both in active service and retired) to key civil service jobs, as political appointees. Ministries such as that of Internal Affairs, which supervises the police, immigration, and the prisons, are effectively in the hands of the military. 
To stretch it, President Museveni, who is a UPDF General, is deputised by Maj (rtd) Jessica Alupo. The President’s son, who is yet to dismiss the flattery on social media by his supporters and fans that he will be president after his father, has been on a foreign affairs charm offensive. 
Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has made tweets about Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, and Burkina Faso that would, ideally, get any soldier in trouble.
His trip to Kigali to meet with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has been branded as the decisive factor that led to Rwanda reopening its land border with Uganda after an impasse of more than three years. 
There are currently two serving four-star Generals, Katumba Wamala (Works) and David Muhoozi (State minister for Internal Affairs) in President Museveni’s Cabinet. Generals (rtd) Moses Ali, Kahinda Otafiire, Jeje Odongo and Jim Muhweezi also occupy senior Cabinet roles.
Generals David Muhoozi, Katumba Wamala and Jeje Odongo have also previously commanded Uganda’s military. Other former army officers in Cabinet are Col (rtd) Charles Engola, Lt Col (rtd) Bright Rwamirama, and Col (rtd) Tom Butime.
Two other serving Generals were recently appointed as top civil servants in two key ministries. Maj Gen David Kasura Kyomukama is Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, while Lt Gen Joseph Musanyufu is the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Gen Musanyufu’s appointment meant that the Internal Affairs ministry is led by three military Generals. 
Soldiers who are not part of the 10-member UPDF representation in Parliament sit in the House as ex-oficios when appointed as ministers. 
Under the Internal Affairs ministry is Uganda Police, Uganda Prisons Services, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), and the Directorate of Citizenship, which also doubles as the Secretariat of the National Citizenship and Immigration Board. 
Of these, only the Uganda Prisons Service is not run by career soldiers. 
For a long time, Uganda Police was led by Gen Katumba (briefly) and Gen Kale Kayihura for close to two decades.  After Kayihura, President Museveni appointed Maj Gen Steven Sabiiti Muzeyi as Deputy Inspector General of Police. Gen Muzeyi was replaced by the late Lt Gen Paul Lokech. 
Following Lokech’s death, President Museveni appointed Maj Gen Geoffrey Tumusiime Kasigazi as his successor in the police.
To cement the military hold on the police leadership, President Museveni also recently replaced CID director, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Grace Akullo, with Maj Tom Magambo. Maj Magambo was elevated from the rank of Private to that of Major.
Four key top roles below the IGP and his deputy in the police are headed by UPDF senior officers Christopher Damulira (director of crime intelligence), Jesse Kamunanwire (human resource director), Jack Bakasumba, the Chief of Joint Staff (CJS) and Godfrey Golooba (director of human resource development and training).
At NIRA, Maj Gen Apollo Kasita-Gowa sits on the board of the organisation staffed with many soldiers and headquartered at Kololo. Until recently, the organisation was led by a military officer, Brig Gen Stephen Kwiringira, with many other army officers in charge of operations. The Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) was, in 2019, handed over to the military with three senior UPDF officers named to lead the institution.  
Maj Gen Apollo Gowa Kasiita is the director of the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control. Brig Johnson Namanya is the Commissioner for Citizenship and Passport Control, while Col Geoffrey Kambere is the Commissioner for Immigration Control. 
Out of the seven-member top leadership of the DCIC, only Dr Josephine Ekwang Ali, the Commissioner for Inspection and Legal Services, is not a career soldier. 
In the fight against corruption, President Museveni named a military-led organisation with a mandate parallel to that of the Inspector General of Government (IGG) that is duly mandated under the Constitution. Calls to disband the State House Anti-Corruption Unit until recently run by President Museveni’s former aide, Col Edith Nakalema, fell on deaf ears. 
Government stance has been that the entity is giving extra support in the fight against corruption. 
Col Nakalema was recently replaced by a senior UPDF officer, Brig Henry Isoke. 
In Uganda’s Covid-19 fight, the military was often allocated more funds than the Ministry of Health in the security response to the pandemic. The military had representation on the committees to fight Covid-19. In July 2021, President Museveni directed that construction of schools and hospitals will be done by the UPDF Construction Brigade, a move, he said, would later be gradually extended to cover other sectors of government. 
The military also maintains a key and active presence in Uganda’s tax collection efforts. A unit of UPDF soldiers maintains a permanent presence in the operations of the tax body. Career soldiers have either been deployed in government ministries, departments and agencies or staff of the same have undergone military training. 
Staff at the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) have, for example, been receiving paramilitary training.
Martial law 
In the past two decades, the army has had a strong arm in effecting military justice on the civilians. This has been cemented by President Museveni’s impatience with the processes of the civilian court and his government’s interest to maintain the court’s trying of civilians. 
In a landmark ruling last year, the Constitutional Court ruled that the Court Martial has no powers to try civilians. In a majority ruling of three justices against two, the court ruled that although the Court Martial is a competent court under the 1995 Constitution, its powers are only limited to serving officers of the UPDF. 
The decision came five years after a 2016 petition by former Nakawa MP Michael Kabaziguruka, who challenged his trial in the General Court Martial. Mr Kabaziguruka was accused of being found with firearms, a preserve of armed forces.  
The Attorney General (AG), Mr Kiryowa Kiwanuka, has since appealed to the Supreme Court against the Constitutional Court ruling stopping the trial of civilians in the army court. Given the backlog of cases and the time precedent to render such decisions, the status quo which the Constitutional Court quashed may prevail for much longer. The Supreme Court’s decision can also not be predicted.
As the army celebrates Tarehe Sita, the day when the war to fight the government following the disputed 1980 elections was launched with an attack on Kabamba, it is fair to say that 41 years later UPDF is fully in charge. To what end?