Moving Uganda

Whilst much ink has been spilt on “Museveni’s Uganda”, far too little ink has been spilt on the life of the country’s eponymous leader, which is now in its eighth, eventful decade. The little information on Museveni’s life that is in the public domain comes mostly from his autobiography, in which he is, in any case, understandably much more engaged in personal justification than an objective and disinterested essay. Hence this volume. This is the first, full political biography of Museveni. This book also presents that increasingly uncommon commodity in “Museveni’s Uganda”: a balanced assessment of Museveni’s abilities and activities.

The second volume of Xavier Ogena’s political biography of President Museveni takes the reader from its subject’s successful handling of the formidable economic problems that he inherited from previous regimes—through his somewhat successful struggle against poverty; his largely subsequently-reversed reform of state institutions; his curiously delayed ending of the insurgency in the north and the east; his rather heavy-handed approach to consolidation of power; his reluctant re-introduction of democratic pluralism; his primarily self-serving deployment of Ugandan troops to Somalia; and his particularly repressive and sexually-discriminatory legislations of the middle of the 2010s—to his controversial removal of the presidential age limit in the dry season of 2017-18, leaving him eligible to seek a sixth presidential term. This book is, like the prequel, an essential reading for anyone who is interested in the history and politics of post-colonial Uganda, even Africa.