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About Museveni 7.0: Compatible or reboot?

Mr John B. Candia. Photo/Courtesy

What you need to know:

  • So we all waited to hear the alternative options that Besigye had to offer. By the end of the election, President Museveni had won. With a little under four decades at the helm, Museveni has changed, evolved, and adapted and he doesn’t look like calling it quits. 

One crispy evening in 2005 at St Joseph’s College Ombaci, Arua, we sat with some schoolmates on a fading desk around an old three-band pocket radio; the school was dead silent, save for the distant chirping of the crickets; you could have heard a pin drop. 

Kizza Besigye was in town, and he was hosted at the recently opened Radio Pacis in a political talk show that literally paralysed the whole town; the whole school listened with rapt attention when the legendary journo Kefa Atibuni interrogated Besigye. 2016 presidential elections were in earnest.

“When I come to Arua, I can hardly see because the iron sheets blind me.” One of the ruling party politicians had joked earlier insinuating that Arua under the NRM regime was undergoing an economic transition that saw the common grass-thatched houses being replaced by the iron-roofed houses, a supposed sign of improved economic status. 

Arua and West Nile were unfazed; the reality on the ground was far from rosy. The road that led to Arua from Karuma was untarmacked and took buses a minimum of 12 hours to move from the capital, Kampala, to Arua; the old diesel generator that supplied the town with electricity would run for only five hours every day. 

So we all waited to hear the alternative options that Besigye had to offer. By the end of the election, President Museveni had won. With a little under four decades at the helm, Museveni has changed, evolved, and adapted and he doesn’t look like calling it quits. 

To put it in perspective, he has seen seven American presidents, three popes, and six countries win the football World Cup. So much has changed from 1986; for instance, our GDP (nominal) in 2024 is $43.8 billion in contrast to the $1.4 billion in 1986 (Source: World Bank). 
Life expectancy at birth in 1986 was 48.3 years, while now it is 63.4 years (Source: World Health Organisation). True to form, many high-rise buildings have sprung up all over the country, a lot of the major trunk roads modernised, and people’s lives improved, with the relative stability and peace envy of many of our neighbours. 

While Uganda has made significant progress in various areas, challenges persist. The country still struggles with high levels of poverty (20.3 percent, UNHS 2020) and income inequality, limited access to quality healthcare and education, and the behemoth of corruption whose eradication would save the country approximately Shs9.1 trillion per year or 7.3 percent of our GDP (IGG, 2021).

Just like with computers and devices, compatibility is the ability of a new system or application to work with older versions, future versions, or on different operating systems. 

In this context, compatibility would imply continuity, and stability without necessitating significant changes, while a reboot would be an opportunity for a renewed and revitalised Uganda that works for everybody, and for good measure, a need for change is needed, notwithstanding the challenges to be met in doing so.

It is certain that we will have President Museveni throwing his hat in the ring again, and if he wins the 2026 election, will we see a brand new version of Museveni, packed with innovative features, bug fixes, and performance enhancements? 

Or is it going to be simply a patched-up version with the same underlying issues? Will it be a transformative paradigm shift or merely a perfunctory upgrade? So, what can Ugandans expect from Museveni 7.0? Will it be a compatible continuation that is more of the same or a genuine reboot? 

As a matter of fact, everyone would love a system upgrade that has attributes of commitment to good governance, willingness to tackle endemic corruption and entrenched inequality, and that comes with new features such as enhanced transparency and accountability and bug fixes such as targeted interventions to address poverty and income inequality and achieve equitable last-mile service delivery.

The people of Uganda deserve a better operating system – one that prioritises our needs, promotes inclusive growth, and ensures a brighter future for all.