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We’re not your grandchildren, angry Ugandans tell Museveni
President Museveni. PHOTO/FIL/PPU
What you need to know:
- Young adults are confronting President Museveni with messages demanding he acts against high flying corruption.
- Uganda is considered a young country with 50.5% of the country's 45.9m population aged under 17, according to 2024 government data.
A section of angry young Ugandan adults have told off President Museveni that they “are not his grandchildren,” urging him to jail high profile corrupt officials and free at least 104 citizens facing prosecution for participating in this week’s anti-graft March to Parliament protests.
On Thursday, Museveni, condemned planners of the protests saying they were “foreign funded to do bad things in Uganda.”
Additionally, the 79-year-old near 4-decade president praised and offered backing to security officers for arresting more than 100 marchers to suppress the demonstrations in Kampala.
A Ugandan identifying as @Jacky Kemigisa claimed Uganda’s leader since 1986 was calling them grandchildren to “create a false connection of kinship that does not translate into material benefits other than making light of an overstay in power.”
She added: “Museveni attempts the old divisionary tactic of any African leader failing his people. The (foreign forces) meddling in Africa, what he deliberately leaves out is his part, for example, neoliberal policies he implemented that killed all welfare sectors.”
Quoting Museveni’s X post that had been viewed more than 2.3 million times by Saturday morning, celebrated international Ugandan sports journalist Aisha Nassanga said: “I’m not your muzzukulu (grandchild). We know our grandparents and they don’t behave like that.”
Disagreeing with Museveni, Ugandan Charles Gava said “grandparents don’t tear gas, maim or imprison their bazzukulu” as Annah Ashaba wrote: “How many times should we tell you that we are not your grandchildren? We reject that infantilization.”
Defending the marches organized by young Ugandans seeking to emulate Kenyan Gen Zs, Author Sakwah Ngoma accused the president of being iron fisted.
“It is ironic that a man who used the back door to gain power in Uganda, under the guise of struggling for liberation of Uganda from a military rule, has morphed into a dictator,” he noted.
Dozens of X accounts quoting the same post also confronted the Ugandan leader with messages demanding the unconditional release of anti-corruption protestors who Museveni emphasized “should have listened to his “playing with fire” warning against the demonstrations.
According to charge sheets, almost all those arrested in line with the protest are largely charged with being a "common nuisance, idle and disorderly,” save for comedian Obed Lubega aka Reign who is facing prosecution for “attempt to commit hate speech.”
“Those very bad things [planned by foreigners] will come out in court when those arrested are being tried,” Museveni said on Thursday.
Museveni, who led a bush war to become president, has always referred to majority Ugandans as his bazzukulu, a domestic Luganda tribe word to mean grandchildren. His supporters usually call him Jajja (grandpa).
Museveni has several times admitted that graft by high-profile officials, positioning Uganda 141 out of 180 countries on Transparency International's corruption index, remains one of the wars he is yet to win.
“Otherwise, if it was a patriotic, anti-corruption, peaceful demonstration, coordinated with the Police, I would have been the first to join. The fight against corruption, is in my hands. I just need evidence and action will be taken,” he said on Thursday.
