Opinion Posts

FDC IS ON DEATH ROW; BESIGYE, AMURIAT, ERIAS LUKWAGO CAN’T SAVE IT

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the short-lived and vanquished former leading opposing party is on a death row from suicide, and neither Kizza Besigye, Patrick Oboi Amuria nor Erias Lukwago can salvage it, at least not before the 2026 general elections. The return of Besigye, from ‘political holiday’ to use his own words will certainly complicate its political maneuvers with other opposition groups especially NUP that displaced FDC as the leading opposition party in and outside parliament.

OUTGOING AG JOHN MUWANGA AND PARLIAMENT 500M SWEETENER

The temptations are always present especially when the mighty dangle favours on your way into the wild world from the comfort zones. The knee-jerk decision by parliament to belatedly realign the retirement benefits including granting person-to-holder 500m ‘service award’ to outgoing Auditor General John Muwanga who still has two years of service sets a bad precedent although its architects may sneer. It points to absence of a coherent system, decisions based on personal whims, susceptible to abuse and stinks.

ALONE AND AFRAID; STARING AT OLD AGE INDUCED RETIREMENT BECKONING

If you have been in formal employment especially so in government service for over three decades mingling with the mighty, being called Sir, your official car and travel expenses, official leave, medical bills and even drivers are paid for from the public purse, you have to suffer some levels of trepidations of the unknown as you get into old age induced retirement. And yet however stupid, crafty, or clumsy you were, your opinions on a variety of issues mattered or at least appeared, and you probably even thought you were irreplaceable,

UN-GAZA CEASEFIRE RESOLUTION; A LULLABY TOO LATE TOO LITTLE

On Monday this week a temporary, misplaced euphoria greeted the UN Security Council chambers in New York and probably some parts of the world after the much-belated passage of a resolution demanding a ceasefire during Ramadhan and after by Israel on its ongoing genocidal in the Gaza Strip now in its 175 day with 32,337 dead civilians. Many have died for no fault of their own expect being in Gaza. The resolution, desirable as is, comes too late, too little and a lullaby to the world that US and its western allies care.

OPPOSITION, NRM MPS; CHEEKS OF THE SAME POLITICAL BACKSIDE

Money accumulated primitively may be good, but cannot buy love, although reports of underhand behaviours at parliament accompanied by silence across the aisle suggests it might still help one acquire a Leonardo da Vinci painted ermine. The nexus between money and political power aren’t new, as the House of Commons history whose tradition our parliament borrows demonstrates. 

MONEY HEIST IN PARLIAMENT AND MATHIAS MPUUGA’S FIGHT FOR POLITICAL LIFE

Uganda’s mainstream media houses with nearly 100 journalists accredited to cover Parliament all couldn’t sniff the stench from what appears to be fictitious expenses payouts until volunteer digital warriors exposed it in the ongoing #UgandaParliamentExhibition. Out of embarrassment they’re now diverting debate to the little fight of Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a. Bobi Wine and Mathias Mpuuga. Meanwhile MPs across the aisle are as silent as a tombstone fearing to rock a vicious top to which many of them have become surrogates.

BEYOND NRM MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION FAN-FARE LAUNCH; HEAVY CLOUDS HANG

In the yonder of this Wednesday’s re-launch of the membership registration, heavy-dark clouds hang over the vision and mission of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) ruling party of transforming Uganda from a backward peasant society to a united and modern country with a shared prosperity. NRM cadres, leaders and supporters, must therefore, rise to its leader Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s clarion call to vigorously articulate its Vision and Mission through sustainable and persuasive ways to lure Ugandans especially the young people back into its warm fold.

MK MOVEMENT, PATRIOTIC LEAGUE, NRM, AND QUARRELSOME OPPOSITION IN 2026

Uganda’s general elections are still two years away, but signs show contenders elbowing to have a foot ahead of potential rivals especially at the presidential and parliamentary levels where contests are usually stiff and brutal, but hopefully this time not. President Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni previously YKM, the man not to be under-estimated, and NRM’s presumptive candidate is leaving many including within to guess whether he is retiring after forty years at the helm or willing to stretch his record. 

Pages