On October 30, the front page of Daily Monitor emblazoned with a powerful editorial, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” went viral on both online and offline media outlets.
The cover was protesting an illegal ban to Nation Media Group from covering parliament. A directive from Speaker Anita Among, the ban seemed to be a response to a series of lead stories that DM had done highlighting the unfair nature in which she had returned to parliament unopposed.
(I guess DM has committed many other crimes against our God-blessed speaker, but these ones needed an immediate and serious message).
Without going into the details of Among’s unopposed return, the DM editorial (despite all its very likeable aura and revolutionary posture) shocked me deeply.
I could not stop wondering: Does DM really believe Uganda is a democracy or there is a democracy project being worked on – which Among/ Museveni’s bans risked killing?!
But beyond my initial shock, something more tragic became apparent: It revealed a mutually-agreed pretension that all political actors in Uganda – including the media and civil society – have signed to uphold. In truth, this fakery denies us the opportunity to be serious about the work of building the country.
In truth, especially under Gen. Yoweri Museveni, we are not in a democracy and neither are we trying to build one. It is not “democracy that dies in darkness.” It is the country that dies. In fact, the better way to frame the job that DM does is nation-building – not seeking to perfect any democracy.
There is power in language and framing. Perhaps we need to start framing our questions and conversations in the language of nation building, growing the country. This language will communicate directly, precisely – and connect to large majorities of peasants.
THE RABBIT HOLE OF DEMOCRACY
You cannot go into an election where the most consequential results – the presidential results – are a public secret and pretend to be a democracy.
You cannot participate in an election where the incumbent is the one who appointed the person in charge of counting the votes – and the incumbent still has the power to remove this person even two days to the polls – and you claim this to be a democracy.
That we expect this man to have the courage to announce an opposition candidate, and that the incumbent Yoweri Museveni will concede defeat, and the Commander of the Defense Forces (CDF), his son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, will humble himself and salute the (potential) winner Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu as the new president!
These jokes we tell ourselves. You cannot go into an election where the leading opposition presidential candidate has to wear a bullet-proof vest; journalists are sure to be brutalised or banned from covering certain segments of the process and pretend we are a democracy.
Neither can you go in a parliamentary election where you fully understand the incumbent will have the majority and decisions in parliament are taken on numerical strength and claim to seek to change anything.
You go into an election where leading opposition figures (including esp. Col. Kizza Besigye, Obed Lutale) and many others are in jail for simply being opposition. Add NUP’s Eddie Mutwe, Waiswa Mufumbiro, and others. What is this?
I will say one more time: We are not a democracy, and neither are we working on building one. Not only because this language is not original to our context – agrarian/peasant context – which makes it exploitable and incomprehensible to majorities, but also because it emerges in a context of extraction.
In fact, the formula for our western world icon is democracy = free markets (and we all know the ruins free markets have done to us).
BOYCOTT, THEN WHAT?
One of my biggest puzzles is how, after going on for extended periods, arguing that Museveni is an autocratic man – which indeed he is – prominent folks in the opposition will go ahead and “compete” against him like they were in the UK and then complain about shrinking democratic space.
But the man is an autocrat – a fact that was well established from the beginning. How do autocrats behave? How does one expect a snake to behave like a rabbit when it bites you? That we endlessly return to this process, even when we fully understand the odds, speaks not only to the incumbent but to our sense of seriousness as well.
People tend to ask: boycott, then what? It is perhaps the laziest excuse one can come across. Yes, boycott and then start on the hard road to reclaim the country. Who said a country can only be reclaimed only through elections?
How did people engage in struggles before elections were born? That you simply sign up to a circus, which you also know does not work, but because it is the only one available?
Of course, one will then ask me: What are you doing about it? Although it is a selfish question born out of arrogance, my response has always been that I see myself as a fellow located in the lab at a medical facility.
The point is that all successful treatments have to start with the right diagnostic tests. I am the guy in the lab. I have provided immense amounts of diagnostic analyses, but sadly both doctor and patient follow the same witchdoctor.
The point I am labouring is this: We need a language that directly and precisely articulates our project. It is not democracy. Democracy is perhaps the most elitist, incomprehensible word we use to describe our governance challenge. Nation building is more direct, more precise.
yusufkajura@gmail.com
The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University.
ONLY a rank African fool can blame Western countries for the mess in Africa. Africans are responsible for their suffering because of bogus policies and dishonesty.
true. africans lack a joint vision. the west sees this and takes advantage of our weakness
True Dr., Dr. Yusuf, “… It is the country that dies …” because e.g. 40 years and counting under our now 85-years-old PROBLEM OF AFRICA, Gen Tibuhaburwa; Uganda is like someone dying from a SLOW POISONING (courtesy of Prof Mamdani in his recent bombshell Book titled “Slow Poison” sic Museveni Worse than Amin).
In other words, except through deceit, it is foolhardy for any right thinking person to believe or accept that: someone who could not and cannot democratically persuade the populace to vote for him, but came to power through bloody undemocratic means (violence), can lead through democratic principles.
Competing in a rigged system isn’t naïveté — it’s strategy. Participating exposes the regime’s illegitimacy and keeps the struggle visible. Boycotting would only hand the dictator an uncontested victory and silence dissent.
Elections under dictatorship aren’t about winning power; they’re about winning visibility — forcing the world to see the rot the regime hides behind ballots. In otherwords, you don’t race a dictator to win — you race him so everyone sees he moved the finish line.
Moses, “Competing in a rigged system isn’t naivete!” What is it? This is what Kyagulanyi told us in the 2021 bogus “rigged” elections that they were meant to “make us jump” [ku tu buusa], or what you call exposing the regime’s illegitimacy! Kyagulanyi also asked us then that, get IDs, go and vote and leave the rest to Kyagulanyi [byona mu bikwase Kyagulanyi]! But most importantly, Kyagulanyi clearly told us that there’s democracy in Uganda. He blamed the rigged system on Besigye who stood 4 times and lost to M7, then [Besigye] claimed that there’s no democracy in Uganda! Kyagulanyi promised us that he would show us that democracy works in Uganda! Moses, does it?
Moses, what is strategic about participating in a known rigged system, in which you clearly know the winner beforehand, but claim that your intention is to “expose the regime’s illegitimacy and keeps the struggle visible.”
Moses, what is it that you still need to expose? Without talking about clearcut incidents which happened in the 2021 elections, like the massacre of about 200 innocent people, and over 3,000 who’re still detained since the Nov 2020 saga, and countless others who are missing, not counting Kibalama who sold NUP to Kyagulanyi. These are incidents which clearly exposes who Kyagulanyi is, a coldhearted politician who is selfish to the core! Yasin Kawuma, Kyagulanyi’s driver, was killed on the evening of August 13, 2018, in Arua town, in hail of bullets which were meant for Kyagulanyi. That evening, Kyagulanyi and Zaake were arrested and tortured to near death! Why? Arua by-bogus and violent elections! On April 27, 2025, Gen. Muhoozi M7 kidnapped Kyagulanyi’s best friend and bodyguard, Eddie Mutwe, took him in is his basement, tortured and taught him Lunyankole! To this date Mutwe is still held in detention. Dr. Besigye, whom Kyagulanyi hates with a passion, mbu because he stood against M7 4 times and lost, was kidnapped from Nairobi, Kenya, on November 16, 2024, held and tried in the militant court! To this date Besigye and Haji Lutale, who was kidnapped with Besigye, are still held in detention. Why? Because bogus and violent elections?
Moses, the aforesaid is just a mere fraction of what shows what M7, his family, relatives, tribesmen and militants have done to innocent Ugandans! Not to include what happened before, all the above is what has happed since Kyagulanyi stood against M7 in the 2021 bogus and violent elections. Do you mean to tell me that you still need more bogus and violent elections in order to expose the regime’s illegitimacy or prove that there’s no democracy and rule of law in Uganda? If those who are close to Kyagulanyi don’t matter, and are not worthy to trigger a protest, how will the already known outcome of the winner of the 2026 bogus and violent elections trigger a protest? Protest vote, my ass!
Doc, “You cannot go into an election where the most consequential results – the presidential results – are a public secret and pretend to be a democracy.” This brings me to ask, what is meaning of Kyagulanyi/NUP the protest vote? The presidency [executive], parliament, and judiciary are clearly won beforehand, thus the reason why Kyagulanyi/NUP are announcing the protest vote. If that is the case, why Kyagulanyi/NUP are waiting for the obvious results in order for them to protest? Mbu, they are looking for a trigger! Really? M7 is already guaranteed winner, Anita Among Already [AAA] guaranteed speaker and Owiny Dolo [Chief of organized criminals is simply waiting to swear in M7 as president, which is clearly what Kyagulanyi/NUP knows! As if that isn’t enough, Kyagulanyi/NUP clearly know that they can’t and won’t win even 40 seats of parliament, which is also another indicator that bogus and violent elections are completely no good and serve no useful means to bring desperately needed change.
In black African politics, the frail, senile and aging leaders are slowly destroying countries in Africa because of their diminished capacity and a reluctance to pass on power to a democratically elected new leader. Former Tanzanian president Nyerere once observed ” you are not regarded successful as a leader unless your successor is successful”. That is no longer happening in Africa, pointing to obvious catastrophic stupidity playing out on the continent.
in fact Africa is entering modern day “Dark Ages”.
Dr, thank you for the sobering article.
It’s only a fool who does the same thing over and over and he expects different results…its a matter of time everything will come down on every one it will be biblical Ugandans think there special,my friends you will know you don’t know…mtajua mjue
Doc, “People tend to ask: boycott, then what? It is perhaps the laziest excuse one can come across. Yes, boycott and then start on the hard road to reclaim the country. Who said a country can only be reclaimed only through elections?” They also add, “M7 will create his own opposition parties.” So be it! Who cares. We’re in a quagmire, mainly because of Kyagulanyi who is misleading mostly the youths. From day one Kyagulanyi claimed that there’s democracy in Uganda. That is the essence and/or crux of the false belief that our participation and continuation in repeated bogus and violent elections will yield different results. And if they don’t, Kyagulanyi is leading us to believe that they [NUP] will protest! Mbu, this is a protest vote. Not only that we, Ugandans, have failed to protest in 40 years of M7’s autocracy, and bogus and violent elections, but we’ve turned the problem into a money-making business/system in which Kyagulanyi/NUP are thriving and unable to let go! Everyone who is involved and/or supports bogus and violent elections is motivated by greed and nothing else. How many times did Besigye try to lead a protest after bogus and violent elections and failed? Even in the US, which is considered to be the measurement of democracy, when Trump claimed that Biden rigged him out, Trump ordered his supporter to protest but failed to change the outcome. Trump’s supporters attacked the capitol hill to stop the senate from ratifying Biden as the winner but failed. To this date Trump still believes that Biden rigged him out. The point here is, we, Ugandans, can’t [and never will] bring change through the genal elections because, M7 has designed his autocratic system on M7/NRM as the only guaranteed winners of the bogus and violent elections. Kyagulanyi is misleading us to believe that time they [NUP] are going to protest after M7 riggs him out! We don’t have to look far but the recent Tanzania’s elections. If the protests in Tanzania have not and won’t change the outcome, how’ll they change the outcome of the 2026 election here in Uganda? Among and Tayebwa have been already declared as the winners and are guaranteed to return as Speaker and deputy speaker respectively. So, Kyagulanyi wants us to believe that he is the only one who would be rigged, thus the protest vote. In other words, we don’t need to protest now after Among and Tayebwa have rigged the elections, but we’ll protest after M7 rigs Kyagulanyi out, right?
Fellow Ugandans, I have maintained that Kyagulanyinyi is a fugazi and/or a fraud. He claims that NUP is built on “people power, our power,” however, in reality it’s a hoax which proves that Kyagulanyi is a fraud as they come. Here is why:
1. In this election cycle alone M7, his family, relatives, tribesmen and militants have maintained the status quo, and nothing has changed but worsened. Kyagulanyi claims that M7 rigged the 2021 elections, however, without any electoral reform(s), and/or M7 has maintained the same Byabakama electoral commission which declared him the winner of 2021 elections, so how does Kyagulanyi trust that this time it’ll be different from 2021? As we speak, in this election cycle alone, and as Yusuf has alluded to above, M7 has jailed [and charged them with treason] key opposition figures like Besigye, Lutale, add NUP’s Eddie Mutwe, Waiswa Mufumbiro, and others [just like what is happening in Tanzania]. M7 has maintained his usual violence and always brags that he is the mother of all violence. and he has not disappointed us because, Kyagulanyi was seen on news begging the militants to clear the way for him to take his wife to the hospital after she was teargassed and couldn’t breathe. LoP, Ssenyonyi, was seen on news visiting a dentation center in Mbarara after NUP supporters were violently arrested and brutally beaten. Ssenyonyi, Lubongoya and lawyers for the victims were denied access to the victims!
2. Gen. Muhoozi M7 has declared that no civilian will ever lead Uganda again after his father M7. As a serving militant, Muhoozi has endorsed his father as the NRM candidate for president! All the above [and many more others] clearly show that the 2026 elections are already won by M7/NRM and nothing going to change.
So, if that isn’t enough to trigger a protest now, why is Kyagulanyi misleading us to believe that they [NUP] are going to protest after M7 rigs the 2026 elections? Mbu, this is a protest vote. Protest vote, my ass.