Museveni’s war against women is not just about silencing individuals—it is about crushing the collective powers of women in Uganda.
THE UNSEEN WAR: MUSEVENI’S POLITICAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN UGANDA
By Betty Nambooze Bakireke, Woman MP Mukono Municipality (Speech at the celebration of belated International Women’s day held by NUP at the party headquarters on March 25, 2025)
For decades, political violence against women in Uganda has been a silent war—waged in the shadows, unspoken, unreported, and often dismissed as something women “deserve.” The brutality of Museveni’s regime against women is not a recent development; it is an institutionalized form of oppression, used as a weapon to instill fear, break resistance, and dismantle the growing strength of women in political activism.
The book And No One Wanted to Know details how dictators across the world deliberately target women with political and sexual violence—not just as a means of punishment, but out of fear of their power. In Uganda, this reality is painfully clear. Women have been harassed, tortured, violated, and killed at the hands of Museveni’s security apparatus, yet their suffering has often remained a private agony, dismissed by the state and overlooked by society.
Today, as the National Unity Platform (NUP) belatedly commemorated International Women’s Day, the names of women killed in the struggle were read aloud. One by one, survivors stepped forward to testify. Their stories were harrowing. Even for those of us who have suffered at the hands of this regime—like myself, whose backbone was broken by soldiers when they raided Parliament in 2017—our pain seemed almost small in comparison to what these women had endured.
This war on women is not new.
In May 1999, The Monitor newspaper published a chilling photograph of a naked woman being pinned down as a soldier forcibly shaved her pubic hair. The photo was reportedly taken in Gulu army barracks. Soon after, a 24-year-old woman, Candida Lakony Ochola, came forward, identifying herself as the victim. Even more disturbingly, she accused her former boyfriend, Warrant Officer II Nelson Kisaale, a soldier in Gulu Barracks, of being the one shaving her.
The regime’s response was swift and brutal. Instead of investigating the crime, the government turned its wrath on the press. Three top-tier journalists, including the current Leader of the Opposition, Wafula Oguttu, were arrested and charged with libel. Security forces raided The Monitor’s offices in a desperate attempt to suppress the truth.
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As for Candida, she was taken to State House, where Museveni himself offered her “security protection” for two days—only to later hand her over to the police. She was charged with giving false information and prosecuted before the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court. Her lawyer, Jacob Oulanyah (the late former Speaker of Parliament), pleaded for leniency, highlighting the torture women endured in Gulu Barracks. But the regime had no interest in justice. Candida was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison. Shortly after serving her sentence, she died under suspicious circumstances.
The man she accused, Nelson Kisaale, was never punished. Instead, he was promoted and now serves as a senior officer under the notorious Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI). Meanwhile, the journalists who dared to expose the truth endured six years of legal persecution, their trial marked by convictions, appeals, and counter-appeals until the case was finally dismissed by the highest court in the land.
At the time, many Ugandans dismissed the incident as an isolated affair—one woman’s tragic misfortune. But two decades later, the same horrors are being repeated. Only now, the victims are more visible, their stories harder to ignore. Women have been raped in safe houses, detained in unknown locations, stripped naked and humiliated in the streets by security operatives, and shot dead for daring to resist dictatorship.
The list of Museveni’s female victims is long and painful:
Ritah Nabukenya, a vocal NUP supporter, was crushed to death by police in broad daylight.
Zainab Nassuna, a young mother, was gunned down by security operatives during the November 2020 protests.
Hajjat Nalwadda, an elderly woman, was beaten senseless by the military for supporting the opposition.
Dr. Stella Nyanzi, a scholar and activist, was jailed and humiliated for using her voice against tyranny.
Numerous young women have been abducted, tortured, and gang-raped in detention centers—stories buried by fear.
And yet, despite the mounting evidence, the regime continues to deny, deflect, and demonize its victims. Those who dare to speak out, like Isaac Ssemakadde, are hunted down and forced into exile. The judiciary, which should be the last refuge of the oppressed, has instead become a willing accomplice to persecution.
Museveni’s war against women is not just about silencing individuals—it is about crushing the collective power of women in Uganda. It is about maintaining a patriarchal, militarized state that sees women’s resistance as a direct threat to its existence. But history shows that no dictator, however brutal, can forever suppress the tide of justice.
Ugandan women are rising. They are speaking. And this time, no amount of intimidation, torture, or murder will erase their voices. The regime’s violence is a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable—the dawn of a new Uganda, where justice, freedom, and dignity belong to all, regardless of gender.
For the women we have lost, for those who continue to suffer, and for future generations who deserve better—we must fight on. Justice, democracy, and freedom will not be handed to us on a silver platter.
Lastly, women must understand that dictators tactfully fragment struggles by making different groups—women, youth, people with disabilities—fight separately for their rights. Rights are rights. The struggle for good governance must unite us all. Once Uganda achieves true democracy, the injustices faced by all marginalized groups will be addressed.
The time for division is over. The time for liberation is now.
People power our power
Thank you!