Keynote Address

by
H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
Chairman NRM
to
The newly elected NRM MPs Retreat

On
Understanding the NRM Revolution and Ideology

KYANKWANZI

13th March, 2016

THE NRM REVOLUTION AND IDEOLOGY

In the Book of Mathew Chap: 23:23. it says that: "They left

undone what they ought to have done and did that they ought
not to have done and there is no truth in them".

In exact

quotation it says:Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected
the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. These you
ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Verse 24
says: .. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a
camel.

All this means that you concentrate on peripheral

issues but neglect much more fundamental issues.

That was exactly the problem of Uganda and many parts of

Africa prior to the rise of the NRM in the 1960s as part of the
Student Movement and also the rise of the other Liberation
2

Movements.

Prior

to

1862,

when

the

first

European,

Hannington Speke, came to Uganda, this area was under tribal

kings and chiefs ruling over the fraternal but divided peoples of
this area. You had the kingdoms of Bunyoro, Buganda, Nkore,
Rwanda and the chiefdoms of Mpororo, Busoga, Lango (Bukiri),
Buhaya, Acholi (Gani), etc. On many occasions, these kingdoms
and chiefdoms were at war fomented by the myopic and egocentric kings fighting for looting kunyaga. There had been,
according to mythology and history, some period of peace, prior
to 1500 AD, during the time of the Bachweezi, when much of
Nkore, Bunyoro, Buganda, Bukiri, etc, had been united.
However, the Bachweezi dynasty had collapsed and had been
replaced by the new dynasties of the Kabakas in Buganda, the
Babiito in Bunyoro-Tooro, the Bahiinda in Nkore-KaragweBuhaya and the Bainginya in Rwanda.

It is these that were

promoting wars among our people.

Our

peoples

are

either

similar

or

linked.

Certainly,

linguistically, all the interlacustrine Bantu speak, more or less,

one language with different dialects. These Bantu dialects have
linkages with the Nilotic dialects which, more or less, are one
language, so do the Bantu dialects have linkages with the NiloHamitic and the Sudanic languages (Ateso-Akarimojong and
Lugbara-Madi). Examples: the Madi word for home is aku.
What is the Bantu word for home? It is eka for many of the
dialects. The Lugbara word for syphilis is: oyaa.
In some Bantu dialects, the word for syphilis is: ebihooya.
The word for daughter in Luo is nyara.

Those who speak

Bantu dialects know what that word means very much

connected with daughter-making. The word for anthem in
Acholi is Lubala. The word for clan anthems in Luganda is
Mubala.

One of the first European visitors to come to Africa, was HM

Stanley. In his Book: Through the Dark Continent Vol II on
page 3, he wrote as follows: The Wajiji, Wazinja, Wazongora,
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Wanyambu, Wanya-Ruanda, Kishakka, Wanyoro and Wanyankori, Wasui,

Watuusi, Wahha, Warundi and Wazige; all these tribes are related to each
other and their language shows only slight differences in dialect.

On page 366, of his other Book: The Rescue of Emin Pasha he

further, says as follows:
By a gradual rise from Amranda southward we escape after a few miles
out of the unlovely plains to older land producing a better quality of timber.
Before we were 100 feet above the lake a visible improvement has taken
place, the acacia has disappeared and the myombo, a tree whose bark is
useful in native cloth and for boxes and which might be adapted to canoes,
flourished everywhere. At Bwanga, the next village, the language of the
Wahuma, which we had heard continually since leaving Albert Nyanza,
ceases and the Unyamwezi interpreters had now to be employed, which
fact the skeptical Zanzibaris hailed as being evidence that we were
approaching Pwani (the Coast). There you are.

This complete stranger, who had only been to this area two
times, could quickly notice that the Bantu dialects spoken
between the Ituri Forest and Mwanza in Tanzania were,
essentially, one language which he called the Wahuma
language. Indeed, many Bahima speak different dialects of the
same language. Stanley had noticed what some people, these
days, call Runyakitara language.

However,

our

ego-centric

chiefs

were

promoting

tribal

chauvinism, division and wars among these fraternal peoples.

When the foreigners, therefore, came, we could not resist them
because we were divided. By 1900, the old arrangement had
been defeated and a colonial one was put in place. In addition
to the old tribal chauvinism that had been being promoted by
the kings and chiefs, a new pseudo polarization was added
that of religious polarization.

This meant Catholic against

Protestant and vice-versa, Christian against Moslem and viceversa.

This was due to importing into Central Africa the

nonsensical conflicts of Europe (Catholics vs Protestants) and

the Middle East and the Balkans (the Christian crusaders vs
the Moslems).

The conflicts between the Protestants and

Catholics in Europe had been called the Thirty years wars

between 1618 and 1648.
The combined sectarianism of tribalism and religion, reinforced
by gender chauvinism, was, therefore, the dominant ideology of
the opportunistic political elite by the time of Independence in
6

1962.

It is this sectarianism and gender chauvinism that

could not allow our Independence leaders to build a capable

State (Army, Police, Judiciary, Civil Service, etc., etc).

They

could also not build wide unity to guarantee peace (obusingye)

and stability (obutebekana). Hence, the unstable, unprincipled
political arrangement of the coalition government of UPC and
Kabaka Yekka of 1962-64.

It was called: Omukago.

It

reminds me of The Democratic Alliance (TDA). It soon

collapsed, with disastrous consequences for Uganda the 1966
crisis, the 1971 coup detat, the killings of 1966 to 1986. You
could even add the Kony wars and the cattle-rustlers of
Karamoja.

They all had linkages with these ideological

mistakes.

Some of us had belonged to the old political parties:

Democratic Party (DP), Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) and
Kabaka Yekka, formed on the basis of religious and tribal

sectarianism; DP for Catholics, UPC for Protestants and

Kabaka Yekka for Baganda Protestants.

This was a pseudo-ideology trying to base itself on peoples

identity rather than people's interests. Exploiting identity and
eclipsing people's legitimate interests.

This is when the pre-

cursors of the NRM the student study groups, USARF

(University Students African Revolutionary Front), etc., came in
and started rejecting this pseudo-ideology based on the
legitimate interests of the people. What is primary to people's
prosperity and security: identity or interests?

The real most

positive element of human interaction is interests especially

prosperity. As a Munyankore, who guarantees your prosperity?
Is it the Banyankore that do so or not? The answer in the precolonial, colonial and post-colonial times is categorical, clear
and unambiguous. It is not the Banyankore that guaranteed
our prosperity but the other communities (tribes) of Uganda,
the Great Lakes and East Africa.
8

In the colonial times and post-colonial times, I went to school

because of Baganda money. How? It is the Baganda traders
Walusimbi and Bukyenya that were buying our cattle
during the monthly cattle auctions (at Ntungamo, Rubaare or
Kagarama). That is how Mzee Kaguta got money to pay for my
school fees.
known as

Later, these traders were joined by a European,

Shear, operating out of Ishaka town, who was

buying cattle for Kilembe Mines when it started operating

around 1956.

Our cow, Mpuuga ya siina, tossed this white

man with its horns and it earned a praise-name (ekikubyo)

from Mzee Kaguta for that feat. He refused to sell it.

Today, the mutual support for our people's prosperity is much

clearer.

The Banyankore are prosperous because the other

Ugandans and other Great Lakes people buy their milk, beef
and bananas. The international community buy their coffee,
their tea, etc.

Even in the pre-colonial times, Banyankore

prosperity was assisted by cloth (emyeenda) from the East

9

African Coast, by ebitooma (embugu) from Kookyi and Buhaya,

etc.

They would adorn themselves with emiringa (copper

bracelets) from Buleega (Congo).

It is parasites who attempt to eclipse people's interests with the
issue of identity: Hutu vs Tutsi, Cattle-keeper vs Cultivator,
Northerners vs Southerners, Christians vs Moslems, Whites vs
Blacks, etc., etc. It is parasites who push these lines. When
such parasites push that line, we have no alternative but to
deal with it as we did in South Africa, the Sudan, RwandaBurundi or here in Uganda.

Otherwise, the legitimate interest of the people is prosperity

and that prosperity is, most of the times, supported by intertribal linkages rather than the intra-tribal linkages. It is the
different tribes that buy what we produce rather than our own
tribes. With this realization, the NRM, therefore, evolved, quite
early,

two

principles:

patriotism

and

Pan-Africanism.

Patriotism meant unity within Uganda so as to ensure our

10

prosperity and security. Pan-Africanism was so as to promote

unity in East Africa and Africa in order to guarantee the same
prosperity and security even better. The unity of Uganda, the
market of Uganda, is not enough to guarantee our prosperity
(buying what we produce) and strategic security (to defend our
sovereignty against the imperialists).
The unity of East Africa, the unity of Africa can do these two
better than the mere unity of Uganda.

Therefore, the two first principles of NRM became patriotism

and Pan-Africanism. However, to benefit from Pan-Africanism
and from Ugandas unity, the society had to undergo a group
metamorphosis a socio-economic transformation.

One cause of parochialism and sectarianism of ideology is a

stunted society in terms of socio-economic transformation. The
absence of a productive middle class, national bourgeoisie,
compounds the problem of ideological bankruptcy. You either
11

have a bureaucratic bourgeoisie depending on Government

salaries who believe in exclusion rather than inclusion because
they stand better chances of getting jobs and promotions with
the principle of the fewer the better or you have the
comprador (agent) bourgeoisie who depend on imports for a
livelihood, thereby turning our market into a dumping ground
for foreign products and ensure a constant hemorrhage of our
forex that continues to enrich external interests and cause
economic anaemia to our own country.
The comprador
foreign

products,

foreigners.

bourgeoisie, by flooding our markets with

are

supporting

the

prosperity

of

the

The National bourgeoisie (the manufacturers, the

farmers, the exporters, etc), tend to be patriotic and also PanAfricanist because their interests compel them to look for
markets in the region and abroad.

The National bourgeoisie will, however, not grow by itself. This

is where our third principle comes in. This is the principle of
12

socio-economic transformation. The NRM and other reformers

before it had to trigger socio-economic transformation that
would see our mainly peasant society, with a heavy dose of a
petty

bourgeois

class

(civil

servants,

teachers,

etc),

metamorphose into a middle-class and skilled working class

society. The middle-class should have a high proportion of the
National bourgeoisie (the manufacturers, the farmers, the
service providers, the infrastructure developers) and not just
traders especially not importers of goods and services that
can, more economically, be made here.

This is, indeed, the

difference between Europe and Africa.

Around 1400 AD,

Europe was a three class society: the feudalists (aristocrats),

the peasants (farmers) and the artisans (black smiths, textile
people, carpenters, ceramics people, etc). By the time of the
French Revolution (1789) two new social classes had emerged:
the bourgeoisie (middle-class) and the proletariat (industrial,
farm and services workers). Africa in 1400 AD was similar to
Europe at that time, with feudalists, artisans and farmers
13

(cattle keepers or cultivators). Unfortunately, Africa did not go

through an industrial revolution (invention of machines).
Hence, by 1900 AD, at the dawn of colonialism, Africa was still
a

three

class

society:

feudalists,

artisans

and

farmers

(peasants). The colonialists destroyed the feudal class because

it was competing with the colonialists for political power and
also destroyed the artisan class because it was making goods
which colonialism wanted imported from outside plates,
spoons, hoes (chillington hoes rather the indigenous enfuka),
pangas, etc. It is only the peasants that survived. They were,
later on, joined by small groups of the petty bourgeoisie in the
form of clerks and interpreters and later by petty traders. It is
only now that the national bourgeoisie (the Mulwanas, the
Madhivanis, the Methas, the Sudhirs, the Mwebesas, etc), are
beginning to emerge. Those add to our economic strength by
producing products that we consume or we export; thereby,
ameliorating the hemorrhage on our economy where money
flows from here to the outside to our detriment.
14

Therefore, principle number three of the NRM that enables us

to understand the anatomy of the society so that we know the
elements that are able to strengthen us and those that can
weaken us, the need to understand the proportions of socialeconomic transformation, is very crucial and unique. It is
unique because it is only the NRM that understands the
importance of this.
What stimuli did we use to encourage this process? Apart from
peace, we used four other stimuli. These were: education for all
(UPE, USE), liberalization of the economy, improved health
(especially immunization) and improved infrastructure (roads,
electricity, telephone, the ICT backbone, piped water, safe water
in the villages etc). As a consequence of these steps, the literacy
rate is now 75%, up from 43% in 1986. The social base for
socio-economic transformation has, therefore, been laid.
We are going to use it to transform the society permanently.
We need correct policy stimuli to do so and I will bring those
out later. Liberalization helped the creation of the middle-class
15

by removing the State (Government) from doing business. The

State used to monopolize the business of hotels, transport,
imports, etc.

These sectors are now being manned by the

private sector. This creates efficiency and spreads wealth.

The fourth principle of the NRM is the democracy. Democracy

is clear enough. Ugandans democracy, the democracy pushed
by the NRM, is much richer than anything, anybody, has
attempted to do in the world, other than the ancient Greeks
who produced direct democracy, in the City States. We have
empowered women, the youth, the workers, the disabled, the
soldiers, etc. I must, however, condemn in the strongest terms
possible those who pollute our democracy by trying to cheat in
any election.

Some of the practices in our Primaries were

shameful. I corrected the few cases I had time to attend to.

These were Kanungu and Namutumba. In a recent article, I
analysed those mistakes.

I do not have to repeat here the

contents of that article. It is attached.

16

The NRM democracy must be kukyenuura-based through

production of wealth and jobs creation. Kukyenuura means to
solve a solvable need.
Having seen the four NRM principles, let us cast a glance at the
way forward from where we are today. This is where our
quotation, the one we started with, comes in handy: They left
undone what they ought to have done and they did that they ought
not to have done and there is no truth in them. This is where the

political elites of Uganda and Africa let our people down. Over
the last 50 years, the NRM has identified 10 strategic
bottlenecks. Here below, they are restated.
(i)

ideological disorientation;

(ii)

weak

state,

especially

the

army,

that

needed

restructuring;
(iii) the suppression of the private sector;
(iv) the underdevelopment of the human resource (lack of
education and poor health);

17

(v)

the underdevelopment of the infrastructure (the railways,

the roads, the electricity, the telephones, piped water, etc);

(vi) a small internal market;

(vii) lack of industrialization;
(viii) the underdevelopment of the services sector (hotels,
banking, transport, insurance, etc.);
(ix) the underdevelopment of agriculture; and
(x)

the attack on democracy.

As you can see, we have been handling many of the strategic

bottlenecks:
emancipating
development

ideological
the

disorientation,

private

(education

sector,
and

the

health),

infrastructure, integrating the fragmented

weak

human

State,
resource

modernizing

the

markets, etc, etc.

Hence, we have got a better base than ever before.

We are,

therefore, in a position to tackle, step by step, the residual

problems and convert Uganda into a middle-income country by
2019 and an upper middle-income country by 2040.
18

In this term, the first step to take is for all of the political class
to remember what it says in the Church of Uganda Prayer
Book. It says: Omuntu omubi kwarihinduka, yareka ebyokushiisha ebi
yaakozire, yakora ebiragiro kandi ebihikire nebishemeire, aryakiza

amagara gye kuza omukufa . In English, it is translated as: But if

a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all
my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he
shall not die.

Therefore, if the political class repent their sins of being

estranged from the legitimate interests of the people, they will
have their political lives prolonged.
I am a veteran of fighting poverty and working for socioeconomic transformation in Uganda. I started this struggle, in
earnest, in the Christmas of 1966 in the Butaka area
(Rwakitura, Rushere, Naama, etc). That effort succeeded and,
since 1995, I have been drawing the attention of the political
class to that living example. Like the parable of the sower goes,
much of the seeds fell on rocky ground and did not germinate.
In that area, we were able to get the society to go through four
steps. Step one, end nomadism. Step two, go from subsistence
farming to commercial farming.

Step three, do so, with

19

ekibaro, cura, aimar, otita, (calculating profitability). Then step

four, stop land fragmentation through inheritance. The area is
now quite prosperous.

The whole exercise was described in

detail in my essay entitled: From Obwiiriza to Amatafaari.

However, the political class has refused to learn from that
lesson in many cases.

The population in the cattle keeping

areas have, however, totally changed.

In Nyabushozi, Kazo, Kashoongyi, Bukaanga, Isingiro, Kabula,
Ssembabule, Gomba, Ngoma, Kyenkwaanzi, etc, etc., the cattle
keeping communities have shifted from the indigenous long
horn cattle to the Friesian dairy cattle selling milk and
getting money per day. In the Government Research stations
and also working with some farmers, we also worked out a
packaging for the crop areas.

In the 1996 Manifesto, as a

sequel to my 1995 poverty eradication country wide tour, we

worked out the four acres plan. Have one acre of clonal coffee,
one acre of fruits, one acre of pasture for six zero grazing cows
and one acre of food crops (bananas, cassava or Irish potatoes).
20

Add to these, back yard activities of poultry for eggs, pigs,

rabbits, etc. and fish farming where there are wetlands nearby.
It is now 20 years plus when the NRM has been telling you
about how to get 68% of our households out of poverty through
commercial agriculture as far as those families with land are
concerned. Those with smaller pieces of land than the 4 acres,
can also earn good incomes from onions, from tomatoes,
vegetables, mushrooms, etc. In the Manifesto, I pledged to
enhance the wealth funds: NAADS, Youth, Woman, Microfinance and the Innovation Fund.
This is the medicine for the ones with small pieces of
agricultural land.
more flexibility.

Those with big pieces of land have much

They can commercially undertake anything

they fancy: maize, tobacco, cotton, sugarcane, beef ranching,

fruits, coffee or whatever. On account of scale, whatever they
do, will bring in good income.

21

Agriculture, however, will not be the only path for socioeconomic transformation although it will provide raw-materials
for a wide spectrum of industries dairy, beef, textiles, fruits,
grain milling, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, wood products, tobacco,
medicinal herbs, etc., etc. The other industries will be based
on minerals.

These will include: cement in Hima, Tororo,

Bugisu and Karamoja; fertilizers Tororo; steel - Tororo, Muko

and Kanungu; gold Buhweju, Mubende, Busia, etc, etc;
petroleum Hoima; marble Karamoja; copper Kilembe;
aluminium Busoga; tin Ruhaama; vermiculite Bugisu;
coltan Kisoro; uranium-nuclear energy many places; etc.,
etc.

Apart from industries based on agriculture and those based on

minerals, there are also those based on human skills such as
the Kiira electric car, the Kayoola electric bus, the multiple
computer applications developed by our computer scientists,
etc., etc.
22

The services sectors are already providing important stimuli for

modernization

tourism,

transport,

banking,

trading,

insurance, professional services, etc., etc.

Therefore, the future is bright. We, however, need to provide a
conducive policy framework to assist this transformation. Let
us, for instance, take the issue of second-hand clothes, secondhand shoes, second-hand vehicles, etc. These products came
in to keep our people going when our industries collapsed
under Idi Amin.

We, however, need to review them because

they cause huge hemorrhage of our forex and also cause huge
loss of jobs to the outside. When you produce textiles from our
cotton, you create 6 levels of jobs: growing the cotton, ginning
the cotton, spinning it, weaving it, tailoring it and printing the
colours into the fabric. The total demand of textiles in Uganda,
annually, is 226 millions of metres, worth US$270 million.
If all these textiles are manufactured here, we shall need about
400,000 bales of cotton, each weighing 185 kilogrammes. All
these dollars will remain here and we shall create direct
23

employment of 80,000 people.

A vertically integrated leather

industry producing shoes for us, will do the same, taking

advantage of our millions of skins and hides. In Ethiopia, the
assembling of cars and motor-cycles rather than importing
already built cars has created 160,000 jobs.
There are our groups that have made a livelihood out of
importing second-hand clothes, second-hand shoes, secondhand cars, second-hand computers, etc. We need to discuss
with them and assist them to re-orient their businesses. Why
dont you distribute the locally manufactured goods instead of
distributing the foreign goods that kill the jobs for your
children? The logic is not that difficult to understand.
The five wealth and job creation funds will assist those who
cannot raise their own capital. These funds are: the NAADS
Fund, the Youth Fund, the Women Fund, the Micro-Finance
Fund and the Innovation Fund. These should be interest free
or low-interest loans to those who cannot borrow from banks.
24

These funds will do three things: First, help us to eliminate the

68% baroreezi (spectators) of the homesteads that were
identified by the 2002 census as being outside the money
economy. Wealth creation is one area where we do not welcome
abaroreezi (spectators). I am a fan and spectator for
Chameleon, Bebe-Cool, Kusasira, etc.

However, with wealth

creation, we must all be players. No spectators. Many of the

68% of the homesteads will be converted from subsistence
farming to commercial, small scale farming.

This will boost

greatly agricultural production and provide a huge amount of

raw-materials to the agro-based factories.

Milk is already a

good example; so is maize.

Secondly, these wealth and job creation funds will assist our
youth groups, women groups to enter and progress forward in
the

activities

of

cottage

industries

(wine-making,

wood

products, cloth weaving, knitting, etc.), small scale industries

25

(maize-mills, fruit processing, etc.), services and internal

distribution (produce buying, oxen fattening, etc).

This money can be used to acquire common user facilities for

the youth groups, women groups, etc., or any other relevant
machinery. I have assisted some of the youth groups to start
maize-milling operations, animal feeds mixing, etc.

Thirdly, these funds will help our scientists to actualize their

inventions the Kiira electric car, Kayoola mini-bus, etc.

Through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the activities of

the bigger investors, we shall create bigger units factories for
sugar, steel, fertilizers, etc. As already pointed out above, the
sky is now the limit.

The market of Uganda, that of the region and the international

market access we have negotiated for with the USA, India,
26

China, WTO and EU, will help us to absorb the huge

production consequent to these efforts. We cannot go wrong.
Africa

is

the

epi-centre

for

the

huge

socio-economic

transformation that is coming next. Let us not miss the bus

again.

There is, however, one problem that must be dealt with. This is
the corruption of public servants judicial staff, medical
personnel, staff dealing with licensing projects, etc. as well as
some elements of the political class.

This corruption will be

eliminated. There will be no equivocation on this issue.

Enjokyi, ihakuurwa omuriro (you use fire to tame aggressive
bees). The way we defeated the indiscipline of the army, is the
way we are going to defeat corruption.

I thank you.

27

13th March, 2016

Kyankwanzi

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