ENTEBBE.
President Museveni, also Commander-in-Chief of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), has emphasized the need for disciplined democracy in Uganda.
“On the issues of democracy, which is one of the four principles of the NRM, we want disciplined democracy not hooliganism, not bad language because we want Ugandans to decide what they want without intimidation,” President Museveni stated.
He made the remarks today at State House, Entebbe while chairing a meeting of the Defence Forces Council(DFC), the supreme decision-making body of the UPDF.
The president’s remarks comes on the heels of widespread condemnation of the highhandedness of security agencies particularly Special Forces Command(SFC) ,an elite unit of UPDF which guards him and Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force(JATF) in handing Opposition politicians particularly members of National Unity Platform (NUP) which is led by Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu.
The latter accused security agencies of being partisan ,abducting members and held in incommunicado .
The latest victim is Kyagulanyi’s chief civilian bodyguard Edward Ssebuufu aka Eddie Mutwe who went missing on April 27 but after five days the Chief of Defence Forces and First Son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba revealed that he was in his custody being held in the basement learning Runyankore ,a local dialect .
During the Thursday DFC meeting ,the President criticized certain politicians he did not mention for engaging in practices that intimidate citizens, calling an end to such behaviour.
“This must stop; this is not the African way. That is going to stop. The security agencies have discussed it, and it’s going to stop. You must speak very well in public, don’t try to speak badly,” he added.
The Defence Forces Council meeting followed a High Command meeting held yesterday, May 7, 2025, at State House Entebbe, which was also chaired by the President.
President Museveni highlighted cultural expectations regarding respectful discourse.
“With the Banyankore, if you talk badly, they will ask you whether you are feeding them,” he noted.
President Museveni further addressed issues of corruption, recalling the early days when soldiers received very small salaries.
He emphasized initiatives undertaken to improve their welfare.
“When we started, soldiers had very small salaries, but we built army schools so that children of the soldiers, study freely.
We constructed barracks so that soldiers don’t have to hire houses. Then we started SACCOs so that the soldiers, even with small salaries, could solve their problems,” he explained.
He tasked the army leadership to continue working on these initiatives to enhance the welfare of soldiers.
On wealth creation, President Museveni advocated for intensive and extensive agriculture, especially for families of the soldiers with small land holdings.
“If you have a small piece of land, like in the Lugbara area where a family has about two acres, and you put that land in tobacco or cotton, it’s little money per acre per annum.
You must produce a good or service for sale, but you must do it with ‘ekibalo’ (calculation),” he advised.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Hon. Jacob Oboth Oboth, UPDF top leadership, among other officials from the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs.