Moving Uganda

A Political Life of Museveni Volume II. C.1986-2017

by Xavier Ogena

Whilst much ink has been spilt on “Museveni’s Uganda”, far too little ink has been spilt on the life of the country’s eponymous leader, which is now in its eighth, eventful decade. The little information on Museveni’s life that is in the public domain comes mostly from his autobiography, in which he is, in any case, understandably much more engaged in personal justification than an objective and disinterested essay. Hence this volume. This is the first, full political biography of Museveni. This book also presents that increasingly uncommon commodity in “Museveni’s Uganda”: a balanced assessment of Museveni’s abilities and activities.

The second volume of Xavier Ogena’s political biography of President Museveni takes the reader from its subject’s successful handling of the formidable economic problems that he inherited from previous regimes—through his somewhat successful struggle against poverty; his largely subsequently-reversed reform of state institutions; his curiously delayed ending of the insurgency in the north and the east; his rather heavy-handed approach to consolidation of power; his reluctant re-introduction of democratic pluralism; his primarily self-serving deployment of Ugandan troops to Somalia; and his particularly repressive and sexually-discriminatory legislations of the middle of the 2010s—to his controversial removal of the presidential age limit in the dry season of 2017-18, leaving him eligible to seek a sixth presidential term. This book is, like the prequel, an essential reading for anyone who is interested in the history and politics of post-colonial Uganda, even Africa.

£39.00

About the author

Xavier Ogena

Xavier Ogena was born
in Uganda in 1968. He was educated in Uganda at St Joseph’s College
Layibi, City High School (Kampala), and Kololo Senior Secondary School.
He was also educated in the United Kingdom at Emile Woolf College of
Accountancy, Accountancy Tutors Limited, and the University of London,
where he obtained a BA in Politics, Philosophy and History, and an MA in
Philosophy. He had been successively employed for about 20 years as a
management accountant by various not-for-profit organisations in the UK,
and was also an executive member of the UK and Ireland chapter of
“Museveni’s” National Resistance Movement (NRM), when he returned
permanently to Uganda in 2010. He made, under the banner of the NRM, an
unsuccessful bid for the Oyam County North parliamentary seat in the
Uganda general elections of 2011, whereupon he became a member of the
NRM National Executive Council (NEC) for the next five years, before
reverting to rank-and-file membership of the party, which he has
maintained to date. This is his first published work. The second volume
of his political biography of Museveni is forthcoming. He lives in Oyam,
where he divides his time among farming, reading, and writing.