Uganda’s autocratic deep slide

On Monday, we launched a new book titled Autocratisation in Contemporary Uganda: Clientelism, Coercion and Social Control. The book is an anthology for which I had the distinct pleasure and privilege of serving as the editor and project-lead. 

The word ‘autocratisation’ might sound arcane, even bewildering, to not just an ordinary reader but also a non-specialist intellectual. It derives from ‘autocrat rule’, meaning being under one president or party or both for so long as to deepen a system of rule that erodes independent institutions and hallows out the governance landscape. 

The fact that President Yoweri Museveni has ruled Uganda uninterrupted for nearly 40 years under the NRM political party means that Uganda is firmly on a path of autocratic rule with one man as the fixture. Whichever way one looks at it, this is antithetical to the ideal of a democratic system to which most people subscribe, including Mr Museveni, at least rhetorically.

Given my diffidence, I often refrain from self-praise or claiming credit, but in any event, I should say that the book is an important scholarly intervention, providing a wide range of angles to understanding the state of politics under Mr Museveni. 

The book’s 11 substantive chapters, plus an introduction/theory chapter and a concluding chapter, are authored by an impressive line-up of scholars. 

From veterans Nelson Kasfir of Dartmouth College, USA and Roger Tangri who for decades taught at the University of Botswana and Makerere to Uganda-based academics Tabitha Mulyampiti of Makerere, Mesharch Katusiimeh of Kabale University and Sabastian Rwengabo of Centre for Basic Research; the book provides a fine-grained yet detailed account of Museveni’s long rule. 

Other contributors include well-known names on the academic circuit and Uganda public commentary scene like journalist-cum-power broker Andrew Mwenda, former Daily Monitor journalist now Canada-based political scientist Gerald Bareebe, independent scholar Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, Swedish scholar Anders Sjogren, and two UK-based academics Jonathan Fisher and Rebecca Tapscott. 

The core focus of the book is why Mr Museveni ruled Uganda this long and why has his rule become increasingly and patently personalist – making him an imperial president. This is not just a fantasy academic question to quench the curiosities of distant and disinterested academics, it is a fundamentally practical puzzle relevant to all civically aware Ugandans.  In fact, my interest in the book came less from my scholarly pursuits and more from my civic concerns as a Ugandan. 

Shortly after leaving graduate school, and having settled into a full-time academic appointment, I felt somewhat freed from the straitjackets of doing research to fit the gatekeepers of the academe. Therefore, I wanted to take up the challenge of researching and writing a broad-sweep monograph of Uganda’s contemporary political development focussing on the puzzle of our time – Museveni’s long rule and its implications for the present and future of the country.  Realising the magnitude of the question at hand, and recognising my limited intellectual bandwidth, I later concluded that pulling together a line-up of scholars with better brains would do better justice to the issues than I was capable of doing on my own.  I believe that the resultant anthology that we managed to put out is a comprehensive and compelling work, one that anyone interested in making sense of the politics of Mr Museveni and the NRM will find worthwhile. Also, an ordinary Ugandan reading this book will most likely find it handy in helping 
shed light on the dilemmas we face and the political conundrum that is staring at us. 

All that said, obviously the reader who manages to get hold of the book will make what they think of it. Unfortunately, since London-based Zed Books and Bloomsbury are the publishers of the book, it is not readily available on the Ugandan market. But even if it is brought in, it will undoubtedly be very expensive. 

Such is part of the hopeless situation we are in today. A direct implication of the autocratic system under which we are ruled. Ideally, a scholarly work like this, however critical to the political status quo and even if it carries ideas that the rulers may deem ‘subversive’, should nevertheless be published locally so it is readily and cheaply available to the citizenry. 

Yet, no serious local professional publisher can dare publish such a book. If they did, at a minimum they would never get publishing business from the government. Dear reader, just in case you do not quite appreciate this, please know that no business can survive in our small national economy without government contracts because the government is the biggest source of business! 

What does the book accomplish in taking stock of the direction and trajectory of our present politics? For academically inclined and intellectually curious readers, what is the book’s core argument? For the Ugandan citizen, what are the practical implications? It is to these questions that I shall turn next week.

Moses Khisa, 
[email protected]