Museveni, Yoweri
Museveni, Yoweri 1944-
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, president of Uganda, was born “among the Banyankore Bahima nomads of south-western Uganda in about the year 1944” (Museveni 1997, p. 1). In 1970 he graduated with a BA in political science from Tanzania’s University of Dar-es-Salaam. While there, Museveni enjoyed the tutelage of the pan-Africanist scholar Walter Rodney (1942–1980) and the Trinidadian American civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998). Museveni’s early Marxist inclinations evolved during this period, although he is more of a nationalist cum pragmatist than an ideologue. When the dictator Idi Amin (c. 1924–2003) took power in Uganda in 1971, Museveni joined the anti-Amin movement. After Amin was overthrown in 1979, Museveni occupied several ministerial portfolios in two interim governments in Uganda before a rigged general election in 1981 resulted in a second government for Milton Obote (1924–2005). Museveni and his National Resistance Movement (NRM) and National Resistance Army (NRA) then launched a protracted guerrilla war against Obote that ended in 1986 with Museveni’s takeover as president.
Upon assuming power Museveni was faced with two daunting challenges: a collapsed state and a subsistence-level economy. The NRM initiated several reforms geared toward the reconstruction of the state: the institutionalization of local councils (LCs), general elections for parliament and president, constitutional reform, the construction of a national army, the resuscitation of civil society, and a crusade against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. By 1996 Museveni had reestablished statehood, security, and relative peace, but his nineteen-year ban on political party activity and his role in the constitutional repeal of presidential term limits have constrained political competition and blocked the much-heralded transition to democracy. Political corruption among top government officials including cabinet ministers has tarnished the image of the NRM government at home and abroad. Most notably, scandals such as the “ghost soldiers” debacle, through which military officers were paid for nonexistent staff, and the importation of defective helicopters from Belarus in 1997 earned Uganda the ignominious rank of 113 in the Transparency International’s corruption index. Finally, Uganda has received a lot of criticism for its counterinsurgency tactics against the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group that has destabilized northern Uganda and brutally massacred thousands.
Museveni revolutionized Uganda’s economy by enacting liberal reforms in monetary and fiscal policy and paving the way for a free-market economy; in particular, the Uganda shilling was devalued and floated against other currencies, and forex bureaus facilitated foreign exchange. Government subsidies and state controls were removed. Through privatization, parastatals were sold and social expenditures cut. Finally, trade was liberalized, deficits minimized, and inflation kept in check. However, over 50 percent of Uganda’s recurrent expenditure is serviced by donors, and notwithstanding the poverty-reduction programs such as Entandikwa, Bonna Baggaggawale and Universal Primary Education (UPE), unequal wealth distribution and poverty continue to be major challenges. A small, politically well-connected clique has emerged that is adept at rent-seeking and wealth accumulation, and with a per capita income of about $170, in 2007 Uganda ranks among the poorest countries in the world.
In the mid-1990s Museveni was hailed as one of a new breed of African leaders, but his exploits in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, and Sudan have harmed his status. Uganda’s incursion into the DRC in 1998, ostensibly conducted to rout out antiUganda rebels, became a pretext for exploiting Congo’s wealth. In December 2005 the International Commission of Jurists ruled that Uganda had violated Congo’s sovereignty and plundered its natural resources, and it identified top Ugandan military officers, including the president’s brother, Salim Saleh, as culprits. Relations between Uganda and Rwanda deteriorated as the two sought control over the mineral-rich area of eastern Congo. Until recently, Uganda has perennially accused Sudan of providing safe haven to the LRA. Sudan in turn has blamed Uganda for supporting the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA). Thus the off-and-on relations between Kampala and Khartoum have been shaped by these cross-border conflicts.
Museveni has been at the vanguard of reestablishing the East African Community (EAC). Although the EAC is still in its infancy, he can be credited for providing strong leadership by speaking to the virtues of an expanded and integrated regional market. The jury is still out with regard to the success of the EAC, and only history will determine the achievement of Museveni’s statesmanship in the region.
SEE ALSO Amin, Idi
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bussey, Erica. 2005. Constitutional Dialogue in Uganda. Journal of African Law 49 (1): 1–23.
Hansen, Holger B., and Michael Twaddle, eds. 1998. Developing Uganda. Kampala, Uganda: Fountain.
Kassimir, Ronald. 1996. Reading Museveni: Structure, Agency, and Pedagogy in Ugandan Politics. Canadian Journal of African Studies 33 (2–3): 649–673.
Mugaju, Justus, and J. Oloka-Onyango, eds. 2000. No-Party Democracy in Uganda: Myths and Realities. Kampala, Uganda: Fountain.
Museveni, Yoweri K. 1997. Sowing the Mustard Seed: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Uganda. London: Macmillan.
Rubongoya, Joshua B. 2004. Political Leadership. In Democratic Transitions in East Africa, ed. Paul Kaiser and F. Wafula Okumu, 64–82. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate.
Joshua B. Rubongoya