KAMPALA UGANDA: 23 MAY 2026-Andrew Mwenda—the Managing Director of The Independent magazine recently penned a sharp critique touching upon the governance style of President Museveni. He implied that as Museveni is aging, he has gradually become vulnerable to “conmen” who present before him fake investment projects and the old man just approves them with billions of taxpayers money.
Mwenda cited Mathias Magoola (founder of the pharmaceutical company Dei BioPharma), Herbalist Dr. David Senfuka, Dr. Florence Muranga of Banana Industrial Research Development Center (BIRDC), among others who according to him fleeced President Museveni with their fictitious projects.
Bellow is President Yoweri Museveni’s response (Unedited) to Andrew Mwenda;
Mr. Mwenda, thank you for declaring me senile and incapable of judging right. You will, however, discover that at 82, I am still able to defend Uganda and myself with the Bible, the AK-47 and the pen.
You are supposed to be a journalist. Why do you not interview these “conmen” such as Magoola, Ssenfuka, etc.? They are here in Uganda. They are where you can reach them and even the assets they have put on the ground. Visit Magoola’s factories in Matugga and Kamuli. Interview People who testify that they were cured by Senfuka’s mixture of herbs. Visit Tugume’s factory in Ntungamo. Visit Professor Muranga’s banana project in Bushenyi.
You are ashamed and you dare not talk about the Kiira Motors because that is a shamer of the neo-colonial agents like Mwenda. The Do-nothingers like
Andrew Mwenda, always running around noisily telling lies, claim to save government money from loss-making projects. Yet, they happily cohabit peacefully and gleefully with the neo-colonial status quo of confining Africa to producing and exporting unprocessed raw-materials where we lose so much value.
The other day I gave the example of Gold where the parasites that abound in Africa export gold at 84% purity and get USD 60,000. A Kilogram of fully refined gold of the purity of 99.9% goes for USD 168,000. How much loss is that? A kilogram of processed coffee, goes for USD 25 to USD 40 depending on the brands and yet for raw materials we get USD 2.5 per kilogram.
The Stubborn old man of Uganda who is senile, banned the export of all unprocessed minerals. There are now 10 gold refineries in Uganda. The gold exports from Uganda have now hit USD 7.48 billion.
The great Mwenda is talking about small capital for small holders. Does this great Andrew Mwenda live in Uganda? Have you heard of PDM and the other funds? If you are a patriot, why do you not participate in making them work? Where they have been implemented, they do wonders. What caused the boom of coffee from 3 million bags to now 8.8 million bags bringing into the country USD 2.4billion?
As a freedom fighter, I am always stubbornly standing for patriotism, Pan-Africanism, social-economic
transformation and Democracy. I am never swayed by traitors and foreign agents. That is how we overcome all the challenges. What could be the real motive of Andrew Mwenda of
externalizing in the social-media our internal discussions, including the Cabinet? It is to scare away our partners because the likes of Andrew Mwenda are worried by the success of Uganda’s economy, now growing at 6.3% per annum.
This is not the first time Mwenda has done it. He was part of those that caused load-shedding in Uganda in 2005 and onwards, having sabotaged our partnership with AES (American Energy Service) in the year 2003 on the Bujagali Electricity Project where they were going to produce electricity at US cents 4.9 per Khwr. Ebikorimo by’enkoko, tebitta Kamunye- the curses of the chicken do not kill the kite. Ugandans, ignore the likes of Andrew Mwenda. They are always trying to sabotage our growth and transformation.
The growth of the commercial dairy industry in the cattle corridor boosting milk-production from 200 million litres to 5.3 billion litres; the banana industry; the fruit industry in Teso, Luwero, Kayunga and Masaka; the Palm oil industry in Kalangala, Buvuma, Bundibugyo and Maruzi; the coffee industry already referred to; the steel industry; etc., are always opposed by the likes of Andrew Mwenda. We have succeeded in spite of their sabotage. Even if we were to make a mistake in the effort to industrialize Uganda, achieve import-substitution and export promotion, it would be better than merely careening on in the neo-colonial doldrums.
We attacked Kabamba two times, not succeeding. On the third attempt, we had great success. Failure from which we learn lessons, is success. With the Banyankore, if a baby is learning how to walk and falling down, we encourage the baby saying: “Siinga abarezi, siinga abarezi, tengerera, tengerera.” We do not do what Mwenda is doing by saying: “The child will never stand.” You, then, become omwinazi (an ill-wisher).
Aluta Continua
Victory is certain.
Signed:
Yoweri K. Museveni
Ssaabalwanyi.
