The proverb “a fish rots from the head down”, whose origin is lost in the antiquity underlines that, in addition to being a major contributing factor in the success of any human enterprises, be it a country, company or a household, leadership is also the root cause of failure and demise.
In our country – Uganda, the current President Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Museveni, who in his youth was identified as Yoseri Tibuhaburwa Rutabasiirwa is apparently invested with the title of the nation’s Fountain of Honour in Article 98 of the so-called Constitution.
Many people have been prosecuted for not kowtowing sufficiently to Mr Tibuhaburwa or even his portrait on the country’s public spaces. This status of “Fountain of Honour” even puts Tibuhaburwa above the law.
In 2025, then Uganda Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga warned; “The President is the “Fountain of Honour” and enjoys ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY FOR WHATEVER actions and enjoys structural advantages. You can not just pull down his pictures under whatever circumstances.”
In Enanga’s view of the “Fountain of Honour” there’s no obligation whatsoever for Museveni Rutabasiirwa to be worthy of that status which is just as well because all the indicators already show that he presides over the most corrupt state Ugandans have ever seen. And the rot from the head did not start today but right from the day Tibuhaburwa Rutabasiirwa took over power on 26 January 1986.
His half brother, then Commander Salim Saleh aka Caleb Akandwanaho embarked on his career of looting public assets starting with the trucks of the then National Transport Company Transocean (Uganda) Ltd. Neither Saleh nor Tibuhaburwa’s other many family members (including his wife for embezzlement of Global Fund money) has ever been made to account for the billions of public resources they have looted over the last nearly 40 years.
Neither for the junk helicopters purchased by Salim Saleh for the then NRA (currently UPDF) from Ukraine at an exorbitant price, not the illegal acquisition by Tibuhaburwa of the Kisozi Ranch land; not for the billions of Bank of Uganda which disappeared mysteriously at Entebbe Airport, not for the trillions allocated for the construction of the Lubowa Hospital which remains a hole in the ground, and definitely not for any of the long list of similar scandals involving Museveni Rutabasiirwa and members of his family, including the tens of his illegitimate children (born out the wedlock) who still live off the hard-earned tax revenues of the rest of Ugandans.
But to return to the genesis of this story, a fish rots from the head down. Apparently, the rot has spread everywhere in the Ugandan administration. Recently, Ugandan diplomats were expelled including some from the UK who were given “persona non grata” for running a personal human trafficking ring under the guise of diplomatic privileges, by smuggling Ugandan women into the UK under the pretext of hiring domestic workers for diplomatic households.
The Nile Post reported that this was just one episode in a pattern of diplomatic scandals involving Uganda’s foreign missions. That reports in August 2024, had revealed that “Ugandan diplomats in Dubai were embroiled in an illegal gambling operation within the Consulate.” Other reports indicate the expulsion of Uganda’s envoy in Canada, also in August 2024, who Ottawa declared “persona non grata”.
Those scandals are just the tip of the iceberg in a long list of similar scandals by our diplomats, including money laundering in Abuja, Algiers, embezzlement in New York, Tax evasion in Kinshasa, and mysterious fires at our High Commission in Nairobi – undoubtedly, to destroy the evidence of similar or related scandals.
Yes, as the head goes so does the rest of the body. Rutabasiirwa Museveni and his family have set an example that the rest of those who work in his government follow.
Tibuhaburwa Rutabasiirwa, A Fountain of Honour? Definitely Not! He, his family and a large number of those in senior positions in his government are a never-ending source of our pauperisation and national dishonour.
I am not sure whether we shall ever be able to clean out the stables once he and his family have been thrown out in the garbage-heap of our history. All we can really do for now, is to pray.
It is evident that this bloody stained power-hungry criminal tyrant Museveni has deliberately destroyed our country- Uganda 🇺🇬 beyond repair.