Veteran politician and opposition stalwart Muwanga Kivumbi is no wallflower on Uganda’s volatile political landscape.
He is as plucky and tenacious as a free- range chicken from his home district, Butambala. Today, some may question why Kivumbi sounds increasingly defiant, confrontational, even radical. The better question may be: what radicalized him?
To answer that question requires revisiting key moments that have defined his political journey. On any frontline for the advocacy of good governance, you can count on Kivumbi’s stout figure being there – from public protests (and the arrests and courtrooms that follow), parliament, to the Constitutional Court in defense of freedoms.
Kivumbi cut his teeth in the trenches of the Uganda Young Democrats in the Democratic Party, though he would later part ways with DP after a bitter fallout with the party leadership under Norbert Mao.
From DP, he joined the National Unity Platform (NUP) where he hit the ground running (for the regime has not allowed the ground under NUP a moment’s rest), rising to become one of the NUP deputy presidents.
For the media, Kivumbi is a darling; astute and quick-witted. He can be counted on for quotable quotes.
Over the years, he has racked up several court cases, arrests, and countless quotable quotes – a few cited here: “Let us speak truth to Museveni. Let us speak truth to the powers that be, that what is given in the Constitution can’t be taken away by a declaration. Uganda can’t return to the days of Idi Amin.”
“We’ve come to realize that money can be just as destructive as an AK- 47,” …This isn’t about policymaking anymore. It’s about control – about buying influence, silence and obedience. Parliament is no longer a watchdog of the people but a marketplace of backdoor deals.”
On the age limit debate, he quipped: “Museveni has never lost in my constituency but the people of Butambala said enough is enough. They simply said what they have not seen is a peaceful transfer of power from one president to another and that’s what they want to see.”
Kivumbi’s rhetoric did not emerge in a vacuum. It was forged by events that have shaped and reshaped both his political career and his perception of the state itself. Perhaps the most defining moment of his career – the 2026 election.
The aftermath of the 2026 election left the NUP leadership scattered – in exile or abducted, only to surface in far-flung jails. In Kivumbi’s constituency, where he lost the parliamentary race, the election left blood stains and bullet holes in his home when state security gunned down at least seven unarmed civilians there.
Kivumbi maintains that 10 people were killed on that gory election day – ordinary supporters as opposed to the State’s claims that Kivumbi and his supporters were panga-wielding terrorists attacking polling stations.
One’s imagination might wander and wonder about the heart-stopping temerity of panga-wielding terrorists taking on the might of the armed-to-the-teeth and trigger-happy soldiers.
Dear reader, now is a good time to dim the lights on that wandering imagination and also hush those wispy reports of army officers faking intelligence reports. In the dark of the state internet blackout, the stories that eventually trickled out of Kivumbi’s home painted a harrowing nightmare of unarmed civilians brutally gunned down – with many reportedly shot in the back – by the military.
A viral video shows the inhabitants of Kivumbi’s household crouching under tables and on the floor as shots ring out outside – one can hear Kivumbi’s wife and others pleading with him not to get out as Kivumbi wavers in between running to the aid of his supporters or listening to his wife’s pleas to stay put and, therefore, alive.
In his victory speech, President Yoweri Museveni exulted how the security forces contained Kivumbi and his panga terrorists whom he claimed had attacked polling stations. Yet as the internet says, the maths was not mathing.
In media reports that followed, neither a single picture of a polling station set upon by panga terrorists could be found nor evidence of the blood-soaked pangas themselves. No petrified electoral officer came forward to tell the nation of this panga gang that attacked a polling station.
One might even speculate – it’s almost like this panga gang never existed. (Of course, one would do well to put that speculation aside for it’s that sort of brainless speculation that has the Nation Media Group still closed.)
A 23-minute investigative video by two independent media houses, Africa Uncensored and Ukweli Africa, titled “Uganda: Death in Darkness”, documented accounts by survivors of the killings.
One of the survivors tells of the horror of seeing her mother, Ruth Nakanjako, gunned down in cold blood. She is visibly traumatized as she recounts how she, alongside other supporters of Kivumbi, had gathered at his Butambala residence to await the electoral results.
With pain etched into her tear-stained face, she refutes the President’s claims; “I was there…we had nothing, not even a single stone, not even a stick. We had no guns, we were at home, at Honorable’s place…”
Agora Discourse, a social justice platform, further profiled the people killed in Butambala and lists Nakanjako, a mother of five, as one of Kivumbi’s campaign agents. Agora documents that she was shot dead in front of her two daughters who had escorted her that fateful day. Her dead body fell on one of her daughters.
Within days of the killings, security forces grabbed Kivumbi from his residence on charges of terrorism, which his party dismissed as trumped-up. Last week, it came as a surprise when the State granted Kivumbi and others bail because bail is now another weapon in the toolkit of state repression.
Hence, we are staggered, even grateful, when bail is granted in the manner of one accustomed to being abducted instead of being killed. In Kivumbi’s own words, he is a lifelong activist and ‘foot soldier number one.’
Out on bail, Kivumbi addressed a crowd of jubilant supporters in the same home where his supporters were callously killed. As he spoke, he evoked memories of that bloody day, riling up his audience that the work of liberating Uganda was far from done.
Ebullient, he declared that his prison stay had only strengthened his resolve to fight the impunity of the ruling regime. In his brief remarks, he boldly fingered the ruling family as being at the heart of this impunity.
He went for the jugular, weaving a tale about four personalities disturbing the peace of Uganda. A few voices in the background of Kivumbi’s speech can be heard worriedly oohing and aahing through Kivumbi’s bare-knuckled words.
Dear reader, why this memory lane of the highlights of Kivumbi’s political career? Context matters. We dare not forget the context of our current ‘situationship’ with the ruling regime.
Within 24 hours of his audacious speech, Kivumbi was abducted or arrested (depends on your privilege) by state security. Regime apologists have blamed Kivumbi for being so reckless as to insult those who have the power to disappear him, the demigods beyond the reach of offense.
One netizen was so miffed that Kivumbi squandered his bail so quickly. Meanwhile, the state is yet to officially announce itself on Kivumbi’s whereabouts. It’s a strange thing to go missing in the hands of a strongman-state that continually demonstrates that if or when it wants to find you, it will.
In the late 1970s, in Argentina, a military junta led by General Jorge Rafael Videla had the country in a chokehold. Human rights organizations reported that the military junta abducted, illegally detained, and killed without trial approximately 30,000 political dissidents.
In December 1979, General Videla famously stated about the missing political prisoners, “They are an unknown, they have no presence, they are neither dead nor alive, they are disappeared.”
Dear reader, a man watches his supporters brutally gunned down in his home. Blood stains, bullet cartridges, bullet holes are now part of the authentic décor of his home. He is accused of terrorism. He is imprisoned. He is released on bail.
He returns to the scene of the killings – his home, criticizes those in power, and is disappeared again. If he sounds angry, confrontational, or radical, the mystery is not why; the mystery is why anyone expects otherwise. So…what radicalized Kivumbi?
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The writer is a tayaad muzzukulu.
Thanks Tayaad Tuzzukulu.
According to what happened at Hon Kivumbi home and/or Constituency, maybe it is high time the doubting Thomas of this country; knew exactly who committed the ATROCITIES in Luweero, between 6th Feb 1981 and 25th Jan 1986 BUT squarely blamed on Obote (RIP) and the UNLA/F.
In other words, what radicalized Muwanga Kivumbi, was e.g., what radicalized demonized Alice Auma Lakwena (RIP) to pick stones and Shear Butter into mobilizing barehanded youth to face off the NRA up to Magamaga?
It was also the endless atrocity that radicalized a former Alter Boy, Joseph Kony to pick up the pieces from where Lakwena stopped.
E.g., what would you do, if the Kinyarwanda speaking NRA soldiers had stormed you home the way the UPDF did to Kivumbi’s home, where women sat on their mats (waiting for election results), shot all the young male, turn the huts inside out, urinated in the drinking water and marwa pots and defecated in your mother’s cooking pots and walked away?
In other words, who exactly were cutting the lips and ears of supposed LRA victims? Who in brand new combat uniform massacred innocent countrymen women and children in their sleep in Barlonyo villages at dawn?
I do not know whether there is the equivalent of the 9th Commandment “thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour” in the Koran.
Otherwise, how and why would anybody in his/her right state of mind murder innocent countrymen/women and children in cold blood and blame it on the head of the home state (Muwanga Kivumbi)?
In other words, some women married to the SFC/UPDF and their children, are very unfortunate souls because; their boyfriends/husbands/fathers always come home and embrace them with the bloody abomination of torture and/or cold-blood murder of innocent countrymen/women and children (Chinua Achebe, Arrows of God) .
Olivia should be commended for yet another one that is not an interestingly witty read , but also a serious revelation of hidden truths. Hon Kivumbi`s depressing story is available for everyone to see and form an opinion; but not many know or have heard of Nakanjako, a mother of 5 who was shot dead and her dead body fell on her two kids.
Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi was right there inside his house when Nakanjako and others were brutally murdered ; he counted the bodies and smelt the blood of his own helpers ; yet you get to hear some people saying that he should not have spoke in anger .
Whats wrong with us ?!
” They are an unknown , they have no presence , they are not dead or alive ”
Miriam Wangadya must have read a book . These were the same words she used when asked to probe the the question of NUP missing persons
A few days ago , the lady was weeping because some baaaadi people had placed her under a nasty choke hold .
Like AAA and her numbers .
We need to understand why Museveni is resorting to brutal violence in the twilight of his life ….which is obviously peculiar and unbecoming of a sensible leader.
Truth be told: he is tormented by the agony of defeat. Defeated because he set unrealistic goals for his level of competence. He has great skill to capture and retain power but absolutely no skill to manage a country.
It is for this reason that he tends to cling to the past to feel a sense of achievement. While dwelling on past versions of himself and old memories may bring him a certain element of comfort and offer him space to convince people that he used to be successful, it has also led to dangerous nostalgic depression that keeps him stuck in the past. Hearing his speeches, the man appears frozen in 1986…..no longer forward looking. ..with no hope.
Notice that he is currently self-sabotaging by behaving in ways that confirm the negative biases he has toward himself. To that end, his parting position appears to be: if my family and I cannot make Uganda great, nobody should… (therefore, I would rather destroy Uganda on my way out).
Of course, his self-sabotaging behaviors are also informed by his past childhood trauma and toxic lack of self-esteem…both of which appear very prevalent in the twilight of his life.
Museveni needs our help not our rebuke.