PRIVATISING UGANDA: Indigenes lost everything and a few families own everything

By Oweyegha-Afunaduula

Let me begin this article with a word on globalisation. Globalization is a term used to describe how trade and technology have made the world into a more connected and interdependent place. Globalization also captures in its scope the economic and social changes that have come about as a result.With the Information Age, globalization went into overdrive.

Advances in computer and communications technology launched a new global era and redefined what it meant to be “connected. The sense that there is a global village, a worldwide “us,” has emerged. (Shnayder, 2025). We thus use the term globalisation to describe the increasing connectedness and interdependence of world cultures and economies in the global village. There are of course advantages and disadvantages of being integrated in the global village but I will not go into that.

While it is difficult to definitively declare any single country as the first to embrace globalization, Uganda did implement significant economic reforms in the 1990s that aligned with the principles of globalisation. These reforms, influenced by the Washington Consensus, included liberalisation of trade, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and deregulation of various sectors. 

In 2000 the NRM regime became the first ruling regime in Africa to embrace globalisation and declare that itwas going to be the way forward for development in and of Uganda. Some of the regime’s functionaries, such as former Vice-President Dr. Specioza Kazibwe, told Ugandans that those who would not embrace the idea of globalisation would be left in the past. It was the same functionary who said that the poor will never rule in Uganda.

That was many years before President Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba who is his Chief of Defense Forces (CDF), declared that civilians will never rule in Uganda again. It was a few years after President Tibuhaburwa Museveni declared that the ballot -a mare piece of paper – can never remove him from power; that he can never hand power to the opposition politicians because they are criminals; and that he is like a quarter pin of a bicycle which goes in by knocking and come out by knocking (meaning only death can remove him from power). Despite all this, the President, through his chain of electoral commissions, organises regular elections to create illusionary democracy.

The new rulers from the bush did not want Ugandans to remember that through their armed wing, the National Resistance Army (NRA), which they commanded, and which was full of refugees from Rwanda and Mulenge in the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), they robbed and destroyed banks, cooperative unions, cooperative societies,railways, factories and the industries of Jinja and highjacked Uganda Transport Company (UCT) and People’s Transport Company (PTC) buses, thereby undermining the economy.

The NRM regime’ President Museveni had also declared that the economic tool for development in Uganda would be privatisation because public ownership had failed to spur Uganda’s development.Privatisation has been defined as the transfer of a business, industry, or service from public to private ownership and control. Others see privatisation as the robbery of what belongs to the poor and needy by the rich and powerful.Otherwise, privatization occurs when a government-owned business, operation, or property becomes owned by a private, nongovernment party.Privatization also may describe a transition that takes a company from being publicly traded to becoming privately held. This is referred to as corporate privatization (Marshall Hargrave,Khadija Khartit and Vikki Velasquez,2024).Proponents of privatization argue that privately owned companies run businesses more economically and efficiently because they are profit-incentivized to eliminate wasteful spending. Furthermore, private entities don’t have to contend with the bureaucratic red tape that can plague government entities (Marshall Hargrave,Khadija Khartit and Vikki Velasquez ,2024).

Uganda embarked on a large-scale privatisation programme in the early 1990s, driven by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, to address a struggling public enterprise sector. The primary goals were to foster enterprise development and reduce government subsidies. The program initially focused on smaller commercial SOEs but later expanded to include larger, more strategic ones. 

Dr. Julius Kiiza (2015), cited by EPRC (2015), maintained that privatisation in Uganda was premature and that Uganda needed to hold onto to its parastals. He said,“Government has business in business; successful states have provided leadership in development”. Almost simultaneously, President Tibuhaburwa Museveni sought to make a U-turn on privatisation after being its advocate (Daily Monitor, 2015). After 20 years of experimenting,the President said that he should not have blindly adopted privatisation, which he said was forced down his throat by World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He declared, “We are not going to allow more privatisation of government institutions”.

In the President’s view privatisation policy had actually failed. This surprised many since he had single-handedly touted it as the best economic development tool in modern times. Despite expert advice he had listened to World Bank, IMF and himself. Joyce Namutebi (2006) cited him in her article “Uganda: Bad Governance failed Privatisation -Museveni”in New Vision saying that privatisation had failed because of bad governance. According to Joyce Namutebi, he did not blame bad governance during his time. Instead, he cited the acts of bad governance in Africa, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, saying the problem was the interference by African governments in the private sector. However, Roger Tangri and Andrew Mwenda (2001) blamed corruption and cronyism in Uganda’s privatisation in the 1990s.

It should be remembered that despite saying that privatisation had failed, there is no evidence to suggest that President Tibuhaburwa Museveni officially recanted the policy of privatisation. It, and liberalisation, remained the official economic governance policy. The President never publicly announced that the public sector leadership of the economy was going to be revived. Never did he say that what had been grabbed from the public- by mainly the NRM/A functionaries and their fronts – the Indians – would be returned to the public.Instead, the NRM regime continued to liberalise the economy, not political governance, and to privatise Uganda, leading to a few regime families –in the first family, in families connected to the first family and other beneficiaries – to not only own the country but also every major property, including land. Some former combatants of the NRA who weaned off as Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPA) have to this day properties, including land, in Uganda.

It will be remembered that through the scheme of privatisation, the NRM regime sold off virtually all the public enterprises, including banks and the industries of especially Jinja. However, Ugandanshave never been told where the proceeds went.  However, almost simultaneously the participants in the NRA activities in the bushes of Luweero, and many connected to them, became stinkingly rich. Today, they do not only dominate power and the public sector, but also the private sector.

Thus, over the years, since 1986, Uganda has become privatised into the hands of former NRA combatants and those connected to them, either as brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, fathers-in-law, mothers-in law or uncles or aunties. They do not only own Uganda as their private property but also Ugandans and everything in Uganda. Since their ethnic group predominates in the army, police, intelligence institutions and paramilitary groups, they are assured of their protection and the protection of their properties as well as theregime that has created opportunities for them.

Therefore, when the NRM/A celebrates, at very high cost to the taxpayer, what they call “Liberation of Uganda” they are celebrating their nearly perfect capture and ownership of Uganda, its economy, Ugandans and almost everything at the expense of the indigenes.  The financial haemorrhage the country has suffered and continues to suffer will be remembered as a tragedy that befell the country and Ugandans.

They grabbed public ranches, parts of forests, banks and residences.

They grabbed the chain of Uganda Hotels, Dr. Kiggundu’s Greenland Bank and the People’s Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB). The latter was converted into Stanbic Bank.

They also grabbed the natural resources of Uganda such as Gold, diamonds, oil and rare earth minerals, which they clandestinely export and the proceeds are never reflected in the national budget. The grabbers even don’t pay taxes.

They used and continue to use public money, under the private-public partnership, scheme to establish and sustain factories, mobile phone firms such as MTN and Airtel, hotels and the oil palm plantations in Kalangala surrounded by Lake Victoria, posing serious environmental repercussions.One school of thought holds that public money somehow flows into the privately-owned properties and is used to sustain them. The school argues that most likely the Members of Parliament who allocate money in the National budget, and even allocate money in the supplementary budgets, do not know where the money they allocate ultimately ends up.

We now know that trillions on money ends up in the so-called Classified Account directly owned and managed by the President. The President uses the Account to do anything he wants, including politics, waging wars, building roads, schools, hospitals and other infrastructures in neighbouring countries, and buying the political support of politicians and/orwhole regions of Uganda.

It is now public knowledge that recently the President gave each Member of ParliamentNRM and NRM-leaning Independents and some Opposition MPS) UGX 100 m, ostensibly to thank them for helping him to transfer Uganda Coffee Development Agency (UCDA) and promptly entice them to pass legislation requiring a change in the UPDF Act so that civilians are tried in military courts. While reacting, in a lengthy letter, to denials of the MPs said the money came from the Classified Budget. He was not bothered by ethics and morality of his action yet the country’s roads, schools, hospitals and universities are in pathetic condition.

 It is also now known that following the North declaring that he will not get votes from there the President has decided to give Acholi and Lango 50 billion shillings each, ostensibly to compensate them. That too will come from the Classified Budget. The President does not have to explain how he uses the money and why.  Since he is the substantive Minister of Finance, he only needs to submit his budgets to Parliament and have them approved. It is said It is said that the Classified Account has so far got 16.8 trillion Shillings (3.3 trillion shillings per year) in the last 5 years, according to a revelation by the Leader of Opposition (LOP) in Parliament, Hon Joel Ssenyonyi. The LOP ascribes the mushrooming poverty industry in the country to this careless allocation of money to the Classified Budget. He gives the example of how Italian-Arab Enrica Pinetti has been given 700 billion shillings to build Lubowa Hospital, which is far from being completed. Yet the same amount in Turkish money enabled a state-of-the-art hospital in Turkey.

Musevenomics may be summed up as robbery of public money, natural resources and properties and overtaxation of Ugandans by people connected to the bush war in the Luwero Tringle in Uganda from 1981 to 1986.

Below are some private enterprises that emerged after the introduction of privatisation and the sale of the public enterprises believed to be owned by a few ethnically-related individuals in the NRM/A. There is need to research and establish the owners of these enterprises, most of them hotels. I would be very happy if any researcher (academic or non-academic establishes the different owners or investors in these enterprises and how much public money has been channelled into them. When successfully done, the research will establish whether or not Uganda has been ethnically privatised, with most of the public properties now owned or erected by people belonging to one ethnic group. I take exclusion of people of other ethnicities from participating in the economy and owning property as ethnic clenansing.

NEW AND GRABBED ENTERPRISES                                         OWNER/INVESTOR           

Kampala

1. Roofings                                                                     Dr. Sikander Lalani
2. Aya Hotel                                                                   
3. JM Hotel
4. Hotel Equatoria                                                           Karim Hirji
5. Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel                                  Sudhir Rupellaria
6. Hilton Garden Inn Kampala
7. Explorers Hub
8. Kampala Serena Hotel
9. Golf Course Hotel
10. Kakira Sugar Works
11. Protea Hotel by Marriott Kampala
12. Villa Kololo
13. Bujagali Hydropower
14. Uganda Telecoms
15. Garden City                                                               
16. Kampala University                                                    Professor Badru Keteregga
17. St Lawrence University
18. Victoria University                                                      Sudhir Rupellaria
19. Akamwesi Hotel                                                         Salim Saleh & Hope
20. Warid Airtel                                                                Amelia Kyambadde
21. Greenland Tower                                                       
22. Kakira Sugar Works                                                    Madhivan+ Uganda Govt
23. Malaysian Furniture                                                   
24. Crested Towers
25. Kampala International University                              
26. Golden Tulip Canaan Kampala
27. Prestige Hotel Suites
28. Keelan Ace Villas
29. Hotel Bougainviller
30. Nyumbani Hotel
31. Kampal Forest Resort
32. Saracen
33. WBS Television
34. Javelin Hotel
35. Le Petit Boutique Hotel
36. Fairway Boutique Hotel
37. Kampala Serena Hotel                                                                        Aga Khan
38. Onomo Hotel Kampala
39. Best Western Plus the Athena Hotel Kampala
40. Mestil Hotel anf Residences
41. Excelsis Garden Hotels Kampala
42. Royal Victoria House LtD
43. Hera Hotel Kampala
44. Hotel Acacia View
45. Medine Square
46. Sheron Hotel Kampala
47. Hotel Intertropics
48. Millennium Terrace Hotel
49. Speke Hotel 1966 LtD
50. Victoria Mews Hotel
51. Mt Zion Hotel Annex
52. Royal Hotel Apartments
53. Munyonyo Hotel                                                                    

Entebbe

1. Entebbe Palm Hotel
2. Umeme
3. Cohen Tower
4. Adma Grand Hotel
5. Hotel Horizon Entebbe
6. K Hotels Entebbe
7. Best Western Premier Garden Entebbe
8. Gorllla Guest House
9. Karibu BB Suites
10. Discovery Courts Hotel
11. Frontiers Hotel and Conference
12. Airport Side Hotel Entebbe
13. Rosemary Courts Bed and Breakfast
14. No 5 Boutique Hotel
15. Pelican Lodge and Marina
16. Airport Shoebill Hotel
17. Gately Inn Entebbe
18.  Entebbe Airport
19. Uganda Airlines
20. Imperial Royal Hotel
21. Beach Hotel

Jinja

1. Jinja Nile Resort Hotel
2. Nile Front Cottages
3. Living Water Resort
4. Brisk Hotel Triangle
5. Cool Breeze Hotel
6. Nile Village Hotel and Spa
7. Jinja Safari Hotel
8. Pearl on the Nile Hotel
9. HomeStayStudios62
10. BN Private Beach & Resort
11. Royal Parl Hotel
12. Hotel Paradise on the Nile
13. Source of the Nile Suites

For God and My Country

Further Reading

Daily Monitor (2015).  Why Museveni has made a U-turn on Privatisation. Daily Monitor, March 30 2015. https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/business/prosper/why-museveni-has-made-a-u-turn-on-privatisation-1605714 Visited on 16 April 2025 at 15:14 pm EAT

EPRC Uganda (2016). Privatisation in Uganda was a mistake -expert. EPRC Uganda, July 31 2015 https://eprcug.org/eprc-in-the-news/privatisation-in-uganda-was-a-mistake-expert/ Visited on 16 April 2025 at 15:05 pm EAT.

Marshall Hargrave,Khadija Khartit and Vikki Velasquez(2024). What it is, How it Works, and Examples. Investopedia, June 06 2024 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/privatization.asp Visited on 17 April 2025 at 13:06 pm EAT

Namutebi Joice (2006). Uganda: Bad Governance failed Privatisation -Museveni. New Vision, https://allafrica.com/stories/200611200984.html Visited on 16 April, 2025 at 15:28 pm EAT

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2024). When Ugandans Lose Everything. The Kampala Report, February 2 2024.https://www.thekampalareport.com/talk-back/2024020234642/oweyegha-afunaduula-when-ugandans-lose-everything.html Visited on 17 April 2025 at 12:28 pm EAT.

Roger Tangri and Andrew Mwenda (2001). Corruption and Cronyism in Uganda’s Privatization in the 1990s. African Affairs Vol, pp. 117-133 (17 pages): Published By: Oxford University Press

Ronald Musoke (2019). Museveni reversing Privatisation after 33 years. The Independent, 20 May 2019. https://www.independent.co.ug/museveni-reversing-privatization-after-33-years/ Visited on 16 April 2025 at 14:59pm EAT.

Sharona Shnayder (2025). April 24 2025 Explorer Classroom: Learn about the global village crisis. National Geographic, https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/globalization/ Visited on 17 April 2025 at 12:40 pm EAT