Uganda: Uganda Government Profile

Yoweri Museveni has been in office for additional than a quarter of a century, having seized power at the chief of a rebel army.

He won a fresh term in office in presidential elections in February 2011, having amended the constitution before the 2006 election to remove the previous limit on the number of terms a president could serve.

In 2011 he took 68% of the vote. Challenger Kizza Besigye - who won 26% - rejected the result, alleging election fraud. EU observers said there had been improvements in the conduct of the electoral process since 2006, but still noted some shortcomings.

Mr Museveni has been credited with restoring relative stability and economic increase to Uganda following years of civil war and repression under Milton Obote and Idi Amin before him.

Mr Museveni co-founded one of the rebel groups which, with the help of Tanzanian troops, ousted Idi Amin in 1979. He again formed a new rebel army which from presently on seized power in 1986.
Ugandan president Museveni's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba Mr Museveni has appointed his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba as commander of Uganda's appropriate forces

His National Resistance Movement ran Uganda as a one-party national until a referendum brought back multi-party politics in 2005. He won presidential elections in 1996, and again in 2001, 2006 and 2011.

He has faced UN criticism his role in the conflict in DR Congo between 1998 and 2003. Additional recently Uganda has been accused of aiding rebels there.

The government has as well faced growing criticism for failing to take action against senior officials implicated in corruption scandals.

There is speculation that Mr Museveni is grooming his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba to succeed him.

Born in western Uganda in 1944, Yoweri Museveni studied political science in Tanzania and fought with the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), where he picked up the techniques of guerrilla warfare.

Political parties in Uganda were restricted in their activities beginning in 1986, in a measure ostensibly designed to reduce sectarian violence. In the non-party "Movement" system instituted by Museveni, political parties continued to exist, but they could only operate a headquarters office. They could not open branches, hold rallies, or field candidates due (although electoral candidates could belong to political parties). A constitutional referendum cancelled this nineteen-year ban on multi-party politics in July 2005. Additionally, the constitutional term limit for the presidency was changed from the previous two-term limit, to enable the current president to continue in active politics.

Presidential elections were held in February 2006. Yoweri Museveni ran against several candidates, the majority prominent of them being Dr. Kizza Besigye.

Government and politics

On Sunday, 20 February 2011, the Uganda Electoral Commission declared the 24-year reigning president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni the winning candidate of the 2011 elections that were held on 18 February 2011.

The opposition were, however, not satisfied with the results, condemning them as full of sham and rigging. According to the results released, Museveni won with 68% of the votes, easily topping his nearest challenger Kizza Besigye. Besigye, who was formerly Museveni's physician, told reporters that he and his supporters 'downrightly snub' the outcome inclunding the unremitting policy of Museveni or any person he may appoint. Besigye added that the rigged elections would definitely lead to an illegitimate lead and that it is up to Ugandans to critically analyse this.

The EU Election Observation Mission reported on improvements and flaws of the Ugandan electoral process: "The electoral campaign and polling day were conducted in a peaceful manner [...] However, the electoral process was marred by avoidable administrative and logistical failures that led to an unacceptable number of Ugandan citizens being disfranchised."Since August 2012, hacktivist group Anonymous has threatened Ugandan officials and hacked official government websites over its anti-gay bills. Some international donors have threatened to cut financial aid to the country if anti-gay bills continue.

Museveni is expected to chief Uganda until the next elections anticipated to be held in 2016.

Uganda is rated part nations perceived as very corrupt by Transparency International. It is rated at 29 on a scale from 0 (perceived as most corrupt) to 100 (perceived as clean).

According to the US National Department's 2012 Human Rights Statement on Uganda, "The World Bank's most recent Worldwide Governance Indicators reflected corruption was a severe problem" and that "the country annually loses 768.9 billion shillings ($286 million) to corruption."[25] Understandably, Uganda was ranked 130th out of 176 nations on the Corruption Perceptions Index.

Ugandan parliamentarians in 2014 were earning 60 times that being earned by most national employees and they were seeking a major increase. This was causing widespread criticism and protests, inclunding the smuggling of two piglets into the parliament in June 2014 to highlight corruption amongst members of parliament. The protesters, who were arrested, were using the word "MPigs" to highlight their grievance.[32] A specific scandal, which had significant international consequences and highlighted the presence of corruption in high-level government offices, was the embezzlement of $12.6 mil in donor funds from the Office of the Prime Minister in 2012.

These funds were "earmarked as crucial support for rebuilding northern Uganda, ravaged by a 20-year war, and Karamoja, Uganda's poorest region." This scandal prompted the EU, The UK, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Norway to suspend aid.[33] What may compound this problem – as it does in a lot of developing nations (Resource curse) – is the availability of oil. Widespread grand and petty corruption involving public officials and political patronage systems have as well seriously affect the investment climate in Uganda. One of the high corruption risk areas is the public procurement in which non-transparent under-the-table cash payments are often demanded from procurement officers.

The Petroleum Bill – passed by Ugandan Parliament in 2012 – which was touted by the NRM as bringing transparency to the oil sector has, failed to please domestic and international political commentators and economists. For instance, Angelo Izama, a Ugandan energy analyst at the US-based Open Society Foundation said the new law was tantamount to "handing over an ATM (cash) machine" to Museveni and his regime.[35] According to World Witness, an international law NGO, Uganda presently has "oil reserves that have the potential to double the government's revenue within six to ten years, worth an estimated US$2.4bn per year."

Other contentious bills have been passed by parliament and confirmed by President Museveni during his tenure. For example, The Non Governmental Organizations (Amendment) Act, passed in 2006, has stifled the productivity of NGOs through erecting barriers to entry, activity, funding and assembly within the sector. Burdensome and corrupt registration procedures (i.e. requiring recommendations from government officials; annual re-registration), unreasonable regulation of operations (i.e. requiring government notification prior to making contact with individuals in NGO's area of interest), and the precondition that all foreign funds be passed through the Bank of Uganda, part others things, are severely limiting the output of the NGO sector. Furthermore, the sector's freedom of speech has been continually infringed upon through the use of intimidation, and the recent Public Order Management Bill (severely limiting freedom of assembly) will only add to the government's stockpile of ammunition.

Political divisions

Uganda is divided into districts, spread across four administrative regions: Northern, Eastern, Central (Kingdom of Buganda) and Western. The districts are subdivided into counties. A number of districts have been added in the completed few years, and eight others were added on 1 July 2006 plus others added in 2010. There are presently over 100 districts.[38] Most districts are named next their major commercial and administrative towns. Each district is divided into sub-districts, counties, sub-counties, parishes and villages. Political subdivisions in Uganda are officially served and united by the Uganda Local Governments Association (ULGA), a voluntary and non-profit body which as well serves as a forum for support and guidance for Ugandan sub-national governments.

Parallel with the national government, five traditional Bantu kingdoms have remained, enjoying some degrees of mainly cultural autonomy. The kingdoms are Toro, Busoga, Bunyoro, Buganda and Rwenzururu. Furthermore, some groups attempt to replace Ankole as one of the officially recognised traditional kingdoms, to no avail from presently on.

Several other kingdoms and chiefdoms are officially recognized by the government, inclunding the union of Alur chiefdoms, the Iteso paramount chieftancy, the paramount chieftaincy of Lango and the Padhola national.