President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s full speech at his Inaugural ceremony

“I don’t need your lectures when it comes to democracy” – President Kaguta Museveni to EU

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Wednesday, 12th May was sworn in as the President of the Republic of Uganda for next five years until 2026.

Below is his Full Speech

Your Excellencies, The visiting Heads of State and Their Excellencies the First Ladies;
Your Excellencies Heads of Delegation;
The Honourable Members of visiting delegations;
H.E. The Vice President of Uganda;
Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament;
His Lordship the Chief Justice;
Rt. Hon. Deputy Speaker;
His Lordship the Deputy Chief Justice;
Rt. Hon. Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly;
The Rt. Hon. Prime Minister;
Their Highnesses the Cultural Leaders;
The Religious Leaders;
All the other Leaders of the State and the NRM Party;
Your Excellencies High Commissioners and Ambassadors;
The NRM fraternity;
Leaders and Members of other Parties;
Distinguished Guests;
All the Wanainchi;
Ladies and Gentlemen.

Your Excellencies,
The people of Uganda and myself, welcome you to Uganda. I thank you for coming to show solidarity with us on this joyful occasion.

By 1900, the whole of Africa had been colonized, except for Ethiopia. This was a big shame to Africa and it was all due to the political fragmentation of Africa into small kingdoms and chiefdoms. Some of the traditional leaders, tried to fight to preserve their independence. They were, however, not co-ordinated and they were defeated one by one. Taking Uganda as an example, our society was, that time, a pre-capitalist, mainly non-money one, using barter trade (kuchurika) and comprised of 3 social classes: the feudalists; the artisans (black-smiths, carpenters, potters, etc.); and the peasants (agriculturalists, pastoralists and fishermen).

By 1962, at independence, this pre-capitalist economy and society had, somewhat, metamorphosed into a typical enclave colonial economy with a small island of modernity that had entered the money economy, surrounded by a sea of backward subsistence economic activities, that only catered for food and no cash. The small monetary enclave economy left by the British was described as the economy of the 3Cs and the 3Ts. The 3Cs being: Coffee, Cotton, and Copper, and the 3Ts being: Tobacco, Tea, and Tourism. This little enclave was growing well. In 1969, it grew at the rate of 11%. When the illiterate Idi Amin came in, in 1971, the small enclave collapsed, almost completely. By 1986, sixteen years after the onset of the Idi Amin regime, two of the 3Cs (cotton and copper) had disappeared and two of the 3Ts (Tourism and Tea), had either disappeared or radically shrank. Tea exports had gone from 23 million kgs in 1969 to only 3 million kgs. Hence, it was only coffee and tobacco that were still limping on.

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