Uganda: Will Museveni’s statues salvage his waning popularity?

Museveni’s statue unveiled by his son Lt.Gen. Muhoozi at the new Special Forces Command HQs also named General Yoweri Museveni House.

A day before the 40^th commemoration of ‘Tarehe Sita’, (6, February),  a date commemorated for  the founding of Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), Museveni’s son and commander of the  Special Forces Command(SFC) Lt.Gen. Muhoozi Keinerugaba, unveiled a statute to honour his father President Yoweri Museveni.  

Muhoozi called on other UPDF services to have such statues,  “so that the young soldiers can know who President Museveni was and how he led them to victory for over 40 years without losing a single battle”, a statement posted on several Uganda intelligence linked websites said.  “It’s my great pleasure to unveil this statue of our great leader Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as part of our Tarehe Sita commemoration.

Once again SFC is leading the way as the first service to have such a statue,” Museveni’s son said. It was on February 6, 1981, when the National Resistance Army (NRA) attacked Kabamba barracks which marked the beginning of the five year guerrilla war that brought Museveni and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) to power in 1986.   

Museveni’s statue attracted a public backlash on various social media platforms in Uganda. On NBS television facebook page, one Daniel called it,  “a wastage of tax payers’ money,” Eyaru Paul said, “We shall remove it when time comes,” while  Ojara Benjamin  commented that,  “it will be taken down in the near future just like that of Saddam Hussein and the likes.”

I caught up with a historian and museum curator and asked him the significance of putting up Museveni’s statue at this time, after a tightly contested presidential election and a petition still pending in court.  “This is a project by Gen. Muhoozi who is the president’s son to salvage the waning popularity of his father, Yoweiri Museveni.

The last election was a litmus test to show how unpopular Museveni has become with his NRM party.  NRM lost many key constituencies and many of Museveni’s trusted ministers were voted out by young men from the newly formed National Unity Platform (NUP).”

Experts tell us that the significance of statues is that they teach us about history, but they do not convey some immutable truth from the past as captured at a particular point of time. I again asked the historian and curator why such an important statue in the history of Uganda was not put in a public place like the Kampala City Square so that it can serve as a memory to all Ugandans.

“Gen. Muhoozi knows very well that the selling point of his father Yoweri Museveni to Ugandans has already expired, and that’s why he chose to put the statue at his office where he knows it will be guarded. Ugandans have already expressed their need for change. If it was put in a public place, I do not think it would last for a day.”

The historian further observed that, the problem arises when such a monument seem to represent a person and an ideology that is no longer acceptable to majority Ugandans. “What I agree with Gen. Muhoozi is that his statue and others he asked military commanders to put up in other places, will only serve to remind “young soldiers” about Museveni and not all Ugandans. 

 Few people probably know that in 2019, Museveni’s statue was put up in Entebbe by the Entebbe Technical welders youth brigade only to find the statue was missing in 2 days. The youth reported the matter to Entebbe Police under file no. SD REF: 23/06/12/19, but it has not been found until today.  The youth brigade chairman Daudi Kakooza called a press conference and begged the youth to continue supporting president Museveni in the 2021 elections, which we have just concluded.

The stolen statue

In an article titled, Museveni regime and arrogance of Power, published in the Daily Monitor on Tarehe Sita, by Moses Khisa, an assistant Professor at North Carolina State University (USA), argues that ‘’the Museveni regime (and the army of hangers-on) is so consumed by the trappings of power; there is no imagining the end in sight even when the writing is on the wall.”

 Khisa also talked about Museveni’s family arrogance in running Uganda’s affairs. “There is a certain sense of bravado, assuredness and arrogance. You hear it in the sardonic voice of Salim Saleh on the Capital Gang talk show and in the tweets of Muhoozi Keinerugaba.

 Empty space where the statue had been erected. 

In the recent past, Saleh has become the definitive chief of finance while his nephew presides over control over the use of force.” Museveni is a very proud man…. he is willing to forcefully fight whoever dares to challenge him; Moses Khisa further says. He concludes by saying that, everything has its own shelf life…., unfortunately for Museveni and his regime, a combination of both internal dynamics and external forces doom his shelf life being past the sale-by-date.