African despots will tell you, "Put up with my torture, or the colonialists will return to torture you."
On May 23, 2025, former Ugandan journalist—and now political commentator and government acolyte—Andrew Mwenda posted a lengthy rant on X, accusing European ambassadors in Uganda of engaging in “Colonialism 101.” His outburst was prompted by a statement made two days earlier, in which European Union ambassadors expressed concern about the use of torture in Uganda.
Specifically, a delegation of these ambassadors had travelled 336 kilometres to Uganda’s northern city of Gulu, officially to monitor EU-funded development programmes in the region, but also to meet with the country’s de facto vice-president: President Museveni’s brother, Salim Saleh. It was on this occasion that they expressed concern over tweets by another relative of the president—his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba—who had both admitted to and celebrated acts of torture on X.
The commentator said that “to interfere was colonial”
After the ambassadors’ criticism of these tweets, Mwenda—who, for no clear reason, also happened to be present at the Gulu meeting—responded by stating that “the West should stay out of Ugandan matters” and that “to interfere was colonial.” He later doubled down on the 'colonialism' argument on X.
It would be hard to find a person—in the West, in Uganda, or anywhere, for that matter—who would not have at least some concerns about the tweets in question. The president’s son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, is also the head of Uganda’s army, the Uganda People’s Defence Force and he was holding someone prisoner—and, by his own admission, torturing him—at the time.
A most handsome man
It must be noted that many Ugandans do not take Muhoozi—as he is simply called—very seriously. Firstly, although he is commander of the army, the closest record one can find of him as a soldier are pictures of him posing at an undisclosed location that his supporters claim is “somewhere in the middle of war.” In the recent past, his tweets have mostly been a source of amusement, dealing with his crush on Beyoncé, the general’s expressed desire to invade the Kenyan capital Nairobi, and his claim to be the most handsome man in the world. Some of his vassals have regularly explained these tweets as jokes to be laughed off; others have likened them to “the genius of Donald Trump.”
Recently, however, Muhoozi’s tweets have taken on a more sadistic tone. In one, he declared his intention to hang Kizza Besigye, a four-time opposition candidate and current political prisoner. In another, he threatened to “behead” Bobi Wine, the runner-up in the last presidential election, whom he labelled a “traitor,” as he had previously done with Besigye. These tweets targeting Bobi Wine were subsequently followed by similar threats directed at Eddy Mutwe, Bobi Wine’s chief bodyguard.
“Learning Runyankore”
These, like the tweets about Beyoncé, were also supposed to be jokes—but they were not. Late last April, Eddy Mutwe was abducted by armed men in a Toyota Hiace—Ugandans call them “drones”—the vehicle type that has become synonymous with state-sponsored abductions in the country. It was very likely that the state was holding him. Yet how it played out was shocking, even to Ugandans used to Muhoozi’s tweets. Tweeting three days after the incident, in response to a tweet from Bobi Wine asking about the whereabouts of his bodyguard, Muhoozi responded that he was “…in my basement learning Runyankore.” Perhaps to prove what he said, Muhoozi then shared a photo of the missing man—visibly shaken, beaten, and shirtless. Everything about these tweets was alarming. And the celebration of torture was not even all there was to it.
Everything about these tweets was alarming
Muhoozi is a Munyankore—the people who speak Runyankore. The current government of his father, President Museveni, is predominantly made up of Banyankore (the plural name for this ethnic group), who have proudly adopted an image as veterans of the guerrilla war against dictator Milton Obote in the 1980s. President Museveni’s veterans, now in power for close to forty years, rode to power on the back of that image.
However, there is a sentiment among Uganda’s largest ethnic group, the Buganda — to which opposition leader Bobi Wine and his bodyguard Eddy Mutwe belong — that they did much of the actual freedom fighting, only to be sidelined and even turned against once in power. In this context, Muhoozi’s tweet that he, a Munyankore, was “teaching” a Muganda his language touched several raw nerves among both ethnic groups. Condemnations came swiftly, and the word “genocide” trended on Ugandan Twitter for days. Significantly, many of his usual supporters remained silent, seemingly embarrassed both by the tweet and the treatment of Eddy Mutwe.
Deportation threats
Muhoozi was not done. In response to an order by the constitutionally created Uganda Human Rights Commission to free Mutwe, instead of complying, he demanded an apology, tweeting: “Lol! If these people value the lives we gave them, (sic) they MUST NEVER even think of sending me such a STUPID letter again! This is the last warning! I expect an apology.” He subsequently threatened to “deport” ambassadors after European Union diplomats visited the opposition National Unity Platform headquarters. (It apparently didn’t matter to the Army Commander that ambassadors have always visited political parties, including the ruling National Resistance Movement, NRM.) It was in this atmosphere—especially the threat to deport them, and the celebration of Eddy Mutwe’s torture on Twitter—that the delegation of EU ambassadors travelled to Gulu.
The person they chose to raise their concerns with, and who resides there, General Salim Saleh, is another interesting figure of Uganda’s ruling elite, -or, more accurately, ruling family. In contrast to Muhoozi, General Salim Saleh, born ‘Caleb Akandwanaho’, has at one point really been a soldier. Once described (by American journalist Andrew Rice) as a "(a) hard-living… ganja-smoking, gun-toting, Billy Carter figure," (1) President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s younger brother once fought with him, long ago, in the guerrilla war against Milton Obote’s dictatorship. It was in this guerrilla war that he acquired the name Salim Saleh, and it stuck.
The president’s brother is officially in charge of ‘Wealth Creation’
Now retired, Saleh is one of hundreds – perhaps thousands – of Museveni’s “Senior Presidential Advisors,” meaning he's paid by Ugandan taxpayers to advise his elder brother. He's also the “Chief Coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC),” an outfit that, on paper, is supposed to spearhead government poverty alleviation efforts. Saleh’s successes in actual poverty alleviation are questionable, however, as not much poverty appears to have been alleviated in Uganda since the program's start. According to the World Bank, in 2013, upon the OWC's establishment, 31% of Ugandans lived in poverty; by 2024, this figure was projected to rise to 42%. Ssemujju Nganda, a prominent opposition Member of Parliament, has critically described Operation Wealth Creation as a "disaster". (2)
Still, many who have described Salim Saleh in the corridors of Ugandan politics have stated he is nothing short of “second in command”—Uganda's power behind the throne. Not many Ugandans, therefore, were surprised that the EU ambassadors, like many ministers, foreign investors, senior military officers, and diplomats—and even musicians who, claiming their songs can “chase poverty,” keep requesting his support (though he has stated their visits are making him “tired of them”)—chose to meet him when in Gulu.
Though the meeting with the ambassadors was private, a clip emerged showing these seasoned Western dignitaries respectfully engaging with a retired military general about an army commander. Both are relatives of Uganda's 80-year-old autocratic president, in a country where significant segments of the population—including the opposition, youth, independent media, and human rights lawyers—have grown weary of the trio. Such, however, is the nature of diplomacy.
A bad image
It is in this clip that the German Ambassador to Uganda, Matthias Schauer, asks Salim Saleh to rein in army commander Muhoozi, saying his tweets are giving Uganda “a bad image.” Specifically, Schauer points out that the comments about torture are unacceptable. The clip then features opinionista and Muhoozi ally, Andrew Mwenda, stepping in to claim that the ambassadors are agents of “imperialism meddling in the affairs of Uganda.”
One almost feels sorry for these Western ambassadors in Uganda, who live the “doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t” life. While activists always criticize them for “not speaking up” or “issuing meaningless statements” when they do issue them, they are routinely called “imperialists” and “colonialists” by our government and its PR cohorts whenever they do so.
One almost feels sorry for these Western ambassadors
The response from General Salim Saleh to the ambassadors’ comments was, perhaps predictably, underwhelming: acknowledging “genuine concerns” and saying he “could apologize,” he then added he “could not guarantee” that the unruly first son would not send out similar—or worse—tweets that same night. The colonialism discussion, however, continues to rage, and Andrew Mwenda was finally even taken to task.
If Mwenda had expected support from Ugandans—those not in jail or being tortured for their political views, that is—he got the exact opposite instead. “What is the point in fearing colonialism,” wondered one person in the comments, “if the black Ugandan leaders were torturing their own people?” After more such exchanges, during a televised talk show, an opposition MP put a burning question to Mwenda: who actually funded him? In what capacity was he even at the Gulu meeting?
Donald Trump
That debate turned chaotic; the host could not bring it to order, and it ended prematurely. But just before it could end, Mwenda answered questions with questions. “Who funds (US President Donald Trump’s first son-in-law) Jared Kushner?” he asked. Secondly, he stated that going into the Iraq War, then-US President George Bush could not rely on official channels of diplomacy to get the job done, implying that he, Mwenda, might be such an ‘unofficial channel’ himself.
It was enlightening to see a regime acolyte, pretending to be patriotic and anti-colonial, having no other example of patriotic leadership to put forward than to compare Uganda’s leadership with a white Western government that has been criticized for its bombing campaigns and, under Donald Trump, for corruption. As for the MP who asked the question, Mwenda described him as “ignorant and stupid.”
The colonialism argument is used to silence criticism
Uganda was one of many African countries colonized and subjected to British colonialism for decades. In Uganda, as in most parts of Africa, reference to colonialism invokes strong negative sentiments. President Museveni’s ruling party NRM has added to this ‘colonial’ reference also other previous regimes, such as those of dictators Milton Obote and Idi Amin, as bogeymen. However, it is mostly the ‘colonialism’ argument that is used to silence criticism. Yet, as the Twitter comment quoted above wondered, what are Ugandans supposed to hate about colonialism if their own Black government does the same things that made colonialism so hated?
The question becomes all the more urgent since repression in East Africa has become regional. In May 2025, Tanzanian authorities arrested Ugandan activist, Agather Atuhaire, and her Kenyan colleague Boniface Mwangi, who had travelled to Tanzania as part of a team to observe proceedings in the trial of opposition leader, Tundu Lissu. They were held incommunicado for days, tortured and then driven for hundreds of kilometres and dropped at their respective borders. They, then, too, were accused by pro-government social media accounts of being ‘instruments of colonialists,’ and even of being paid agents, whose only reason for being activists was that ‘colonialists’ were paying them to oppose black African governments.
Insult and injury
The ordeal, where insult was added to injury, prompted Hanifa Adam—another observer from the group from Kenya, who was deported and prevented from getting into Tanzania—to cry out on social media: “When Boni and Agather were released and told us what happened to them, I actually cried and had a panic attack. My heart was shattered for them. I honestly can’t believe some of y'all mfs would think your imaginary mzungu (3) dollars would make one tolerate such ordeals!”
Given that more than 75% of Uganda’s entire population is aged below 35 years, the kind of argument Andrew Mwenda and other regime acolytes make continues to lose ground. Not because colonialism or previous dictators like Idi Amin are to be celebrated, but a people who live a life of watching videos about abductions on social media—including abductions of well-known figures like Eddy Mutwe, Agather Atuhaire, and Boniface Mwangi—can’t realistically be expected to fear past regimes for abducting people. Yet, our gerontocracy—which is what Uganda is—stitched together by patronage that cannot build roads, schools, or improve healthcare or education, will increasingly resort to that lame argument without seeing the irony.
It is abductions, torture and extrajudicial killings we hate
So, rather than being cowed under the volleys of the likes of Muhoozi and Mwenda, Ugandans keep making themselves clear: it is the abductions, torture, and extrajudicial killings we hate. Whether the same is done under the instructions of a white man employed by the British Crown, or a Ugandan or East African from the north, east, or south, that doesn’t matter.
Rather than discussions about who is a ‘colonialist,’ Ugandans need the international community to show more support. After all, some of the guns used to kill them, like some of the men behind the abductions and kidnappings, are funded by the same Western regimes Andrew Mwenda lectures about “colonialism”. If EU representatives speaking up against the torture of Africans, and those who celebrate it, is colonialism, I am damn sure Ugandans will not mind some more colonialism.
(1) The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda, Andrew Rice.
(2) General Salim Saleh may have even contributed to poverty in Uganda due to his reported role in illegal logging, which has harmed forest communities, see Investigations - Nigeria & Uganda | Into the Woods
(3) Mzungu: A term referring to a white Western person.
For safety reasons, the author's name has been changed.
