A sharp public disagreement has erupted between veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda and President Yoweri Museveni after Mwenda accused the Ugandan leader of growing too old to properly assess major government investment decisions, prompting a fiery response from the President defending both his leadership and controversial state-backed projects.
In a strongly worded opinion article titled “When old age strikes a leader,” Mwenda claimed that Museveni has increasingly become vulnerable to manipulation by individuals selling questionable business proposals to the government. He alleged that some businessmen and investors have taken advantage of the President’s trust to secure billions of shillings in public funding for projects whose economic value remains doubtful.
Mwenda specifically cited businessman David Senfuka, who he said convinced the President that he had developed medicine capable of curing cancer and diabetes. According to Mwenda, Senfuka allegedly told Museveni that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk had offered him $50 billion for the patent but that he wanted the innovation to remain Ugandan-owned.
The journalist claimed Museveni directed government officials to find funding for Senfuka to establish a pharmaceutical plant despite concerns raised by some officials who reportedly questioned the credibility of the proposal. Mwenda further alleged that people familiar with Senfuka consider him a conman rather than a legitimate businessman.
Mwenda also turned his attention to Dei Pharma founder Matthias Magoola, claiming the businessman secured government backing worth hundreds of millions of dollars for pharmaceutical projects in Uganda. He alleged that Magoola’s company received support amounting to Shs735 billion and that cabinet later approved an additional $430 million after pressure from the President.
The political commentator further questioned the value of several other government-supported projects, including the controversial Lubowa International Specialized Hospital project linked to Italian investor Enrica Pinetti, funding for construction firm Roko, Atiak Sugar Factory, and coffee processing ventures in Ntungamo.
According to Mwenda, Uganda risks concentrating enormous amounts of public money into a few politically connected projects instead of spreading support across smaller startups that could generate broader industrial growth and reduce financial risk.
He argued that while industrial policy is important for developing countries, Museveni’s current approach exposes Uganda to huge losses if the projects fail. Mwenda further claimed that people close to power now exploit what he described as the President’s “advanced age” and exhaustion to push through dubious deals.
“At 81 years and having worked all his last 40 years under conditions of extreme pressure, the intellect is giving way to stubbornness,” Mwenda wrote, adding that Museveni had become less willing to listen to dissenting opinions once he made up his mind on an investment proposal.
However, the President responded angrily, dismissing Mwenda’s criticism and defending both his leadership and the projects under attack.
“Thank you for declaring me senile and incapable of judging right,” Museveni wrote in a lengthy rebuttal. “You will, however, discover that at 82, I am still able to defend Uganda and myself with the Bible, the AK-47 and the pen.”
Museveni challenged Mwenda to personally investigate the projects and individuals he criticised instead of relying on allegations. The President urged the journalist to visit Dei Pharma factories in Matugga and Kamuli, inspect Nelson Tugume’s coffee processing factory in Ntungamo, and interview people who claim to have benefited from Senfuka’s herbal medicine.
The President accused Mwenda of undermining Uganda’s industrialisation agenda and promoting what he described as neo-colonial thinking that confines African countries to exporting raw materials instead of producing finished products.
Museveni pointed to Uganda’s gold refining industry, coffee exports, dairy production, banana farming, steel manufacturing and palm oil projects as evidence that government intervention in strategic sectors was delivering results. He noted that Uganda’s gold exports had reportedly reached $7.48 billion and argued that value addition remains essential for economic transformation.
He also defended government programmes aimed at supporting ordinary Ugandans, including the Parish Development Model (PDM), saying such initiatives have helped increase coffee production from three million bags to 8.8 million bags annually.
The President further accused Mwenda of leaking internal government discussions to social media in order to scare away investors and development partners. Museveni alleged that the journalist had previously opposed projects such as the Bujagali power dam, which he said delayed Uganda’s electricity expansion.
In a mixture of political defiance and cultural proverbs, Museveni insisted that mistakes made during industrialisation efforts should not discourage Uganda from pursuing economic transformation.
“Failure from which we learn lessons, is success,” he wrote, comparing Uganda’s industrial ambitions to a child learning how to walk.
The unusually personal exchange between the two long-time allies has sparked intense debate across Uganda’s political and business circles, with supporters of both men divided over whether the President’s industrialisation drive represents visionary leadership or risky spending driven by unchecked influence around power.
Below are the duo’s submissions, verbatim:
ANDREW MWENDA: When old age strikes a leader
A Ugandan “businessman” called David Senfuka recently went to President Yoweri Museveni with a proposal. He told our president that he (Senfuka) had invented a medicine that cures cancer and diabetes. He added that the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, had offered him $50 billion to buy his patent, but Senfuka refused. Being a great nationalist, Senfuka wanted his invention to be produced in Uganda and owned by him, a Ugandan, not an African American upstart called Musk – (Musk was born in South Africa). He then suggested to the president that the government of Uganda give him capital worth $1 billion to build a world-class pharmaceutical plant in our country to produce these cancer and diabetes drugs.
Now Senfuka is not a businessman. I have talked to the people who know him, and without exception, they have told me that he is actually a conman. Besides, they have added, this great Senfuka is, in fact, not an educated man; he has perhaps completed primary school only. But like all conmen, he has great wit and knows best how to sell stuff. “He can even sell refrigerators to the Eskimos (Innuits),” one person who knows him told me. Museveni bought the story and ordered the government to find billions for Senfuka to build his pharmaceutical plant in Uganda. Some people tried to dissuade the president against throwing public money at this scam, but he wouldn’t listen. Senfuka’s claim may soon be cashed.
Yet Senfuka is not the only one to sell tall tales of groundbreaking and highly innovative inventions to Museveni and win a “lottery” from the financially crippled state of Uganda. Another “businessman”, a one “Dr” Matthias Magoola won his own lottery from Museveni and has even cashed it. Claiming to be a doctor, perhaps a witch doctor, Magoola is the founder and managing director of Dei Pharma, which the AI of Google, Gemini, calls “a major pharmaceutical and biotechnology company aimed at revolutionizing healthcare in Africa”. Apparently, Magoola’s “company” is going to produce mRNA, cancer, malaria and HIV drugs in Uganda.
With this tall tale, Magoola convinced Museveni to force the government of Uganda to give him Shs 735 billion ($200m) for this venture. Part of this money was supposed to clear a debt he owed Equity Bank worth Shs 250 billion. Instead, Magoola colluded with people at the ministry of finance. So, when money to clear this loan was released, it was sent to one of the multinational banks in Uganda, not Equity. The bank thus remained with a huge non-performing loan, which led to the firing of its CEO, Athony Kituuka. Magoola had once been arrested in India for fraud. This is the man the president trusted with public money worth Shs 735 billion to build Dei Pharma.
Now last month, March 9th, the president, during a heated meeting, literally forced cabinet to approve another $430m (Shs 1.6 trillion) for Magoola. I am reliably informed that when officials said the government did not have money, the president said angrily, “borrow it.” And so, the decision went through. Magoola’s $630m lottery from the government of Uganda is not unique. Enrica Pinetti got $376m (Shs 1.4 trillion) to build a hospital in Lubowa that Uganda does not need and cannot afford. Of this, Shs 925 billion was the money to build and equip the hospital; the balance was interest on the loan. Every expert I talked to and all other comparative projects showed that Uganda could have built and equipped Lubowa for one third of that money. But Museveni forced cabinet to accept it.
Projects of this type have proliferated in the last few years. We pumped Shs 200 billion into Roko after the company went bankrupt. Then we have invested $89m (Shs 400 billin) into a coffee plant owned by my friend Nelson Tugume in Ntungamo. Last month, the president got cabinet to approve another $79m (almost Shs 300 billion) as extra cash for this company. Then we have given Atiac Sugar Company, owned by my other friend, Amina, Shs 560 billion to produce sugar. I question the economic value of these projects, most especially the concentration of so much money in these few projects.
Even if these investments were good, the risk concentration is too high. The Ugandan government had, in the 1990s, adopted a policy of avoiding state involvement in the economy. In many ways, this policy was not good for a developing country which needed industrial policy to drive manufacturing. Such a policy would ensure the state helps raise capital to finance investment in manufacturing – directly as a productive agent in its own right, as in Kiira Motors, or as a source of venture capital for the private sector. Under such a policy, the prudent thing is to support many small startups, not a few big ones, as we are going right now. If Magoola and/or Senfuka fail, the loss to the country is huge. But if the money they were given was spread over 1,000 startups, the chance that 10% of these will succeed and become the next Apple or Huawei is reasonably high.
This brings me to the choice of the title of this article. Museveni has grown old. He has become less able to rigorously assess the economic and business viability of the ideas and projects sold to him by the myriad wheeler dealers who surround him like vultures do an animal carcass. Worse than that, when he has made up his mind on these proposals, he is less inclined to listen to contrary views and opinions. At 81 years and having worked all his last 40 years under conditions of extreme pressure, the intellect is giving way to stubbornness. As a result, project proposals of clearly dubious value get his approval without guardrails within the state to protect the national interest of the country.
Many Ugandans close to power have learnt this lesson. That the president is old and exhausted, both intellectually and physically. He has a limited ability to monitor many things across a large spectrum of sectors. So, they front individuals who sell him projects of dubious value, get blue letters instructing the government to release huge sums of money for these projects, then they earn huge commissions from them, and nothing happens. Because the persons involved are close to the president, they know that Museveni is disinclined to fight many wars at multiple fronts given his advanced age. Seeing that he is being duped right, left and centre by those closest to him, he just abandons the struggle. That is the state of Uganda.
MUSEVENI’S RESPONSE
Mr. Mwenda, thank you for declaring me senile and incapable of judging right.
You will, however, discover that at 82, I am still able to defend Uganda and myself with the Bible, the AK-47 and the pen.
You are supposed to be a journalist. Why do you not interview these “conmen” such as Magoola, Senfuka, etc.? They are here in Uganda. They are where you can reach them and even the assets they have put on the ground. Visit Magoola’s factories in Matugga and Kamuli. Interview People who testify that they were cured by Senfuka’s mixture of herbs. Visit Tugume’s factory in Ntungamo. Visit Professor Muranga’s banana project in Bushenyi.
You are ashamed and you dare not talk about the Kiira Motors because that is a shamer of the neo- colonial agents like Mwenda. The Do-nothingers like Andrew Mwenda, always running around noisily telling lies, claim to save government money from loss-making projects. Yet, they happily cohabit peacefully and gleefully with the neo-colonial status quo of confining Africa to producing and exporting unprocessed raw-materials where we lose so much value.
The other day I gave the example of Gold where the parasites that abound in Africa export gold at 84% purity and get USD 60,000. A Kilogram of fully refined gold of the purity of 99.9% goes for USD 168,000. How much loss is that? A kilogram of processed coffee, goes for USD 25 to USD 40 depending on the brands and yet for raw materials we get USD 2.5 per kilogram.
The Stubborn old man of Uganda who is senile, banned the export of all unprocessed minerals. There are now 10 gold refineries in Uganda. The gold exports from Uganda have now hit USD 7.48 billion. The great Mwenda is talking about small capital for small holders. Does this great Andrew Mwenda live in Uganda? Have you heard of PDM and the other funds? If you are a patriot, why do you not participate in making them work? Where they have been implemented, they do wonders. What caused the boom of coffee from 3 million bags to now 8.8 million bags bringing into the country USD 2.4billion? As a freedom fighter, I am always stubbornly standing for patriotism, Pan-Africanism, social-economic transformation and Democracy. I am never swayed by traitors and foreign agents. That is how we overcome all the challenges.
What could be the real motive of Andrew Mwenda of externalizing in the social-media our internal discussions, including the Cabinet? It is to scare away our partners because the likes of Andrew Mwenda are worried by the success of Uganda’s economy, now growing at 6.3% per annum. This is not the first time Mwenda has done it. He was part of those that caused load-shedding in Uganda in 2005 and onwards, having sabotaged our partnership with AES (American Energy Service) in the year 2003 on the Bujagali Electricity Project where they were going to produce electricity at US cents 4.9 per Khwr. Ebikokorimo by’enkoko, tebitta Kamunye- the curses of the chicken do not kill the kite. Ugandans, ignore the likes of Andrew Mwenda. They are always trying to sabotage our growth and transformation.
The growth of the commercial dairy industry in the cattle corridor boosting milk-production from 200 million litres to 5.3 billion litres; the banana industry; the fruit industry in Teso, Luwero, Kayunga and Masaka; the Palm oil industry in Kalangala, Buvuma, Bundibugyo and Maruzi; the coffee industry already referred to; the steel industry; etc., are always opposed by the likes of Andrew Mwenda. We have succeeded in spite of their sabotage. Even if we were to make a mistake in the effort to industrialize Uganda, achieve import-substitution and export promotion, it would be better than merely careening on in the neo-colonial doldrums.
We attacked Kabamba two times, not succeeding. On the third attempt, we had great success. Failure from which we learn lessons, is success. With the Banyankore, if a baby is learning how to walk and falling down, we encourage the baby saying: “Siinga abarezi, siinga abarezi, tengerera, tengerera.” We do not do what Mwenda is doing by saying: “The child will never stand.” You, then, become omwinazi (an ill-wisher).
Aluta Continua. Victory is certain.
Andrew Mwenda has been shaking up tables, including revealing that Rebecca Kadaga cried and apologized when Museveni played recordings of her instructing a witchdoctor to bewitch and kill him, Janet Museveni, Salim Saleh, and Muhoozi. (See Details Here).
