BWANIKA JOSEPH: The 10-year empire vs 40-year throne. How Anita Among shook Uganda’s political foundation

The dramatic exit of outgoing Speaker Anita Annet Among from the speakership race marks a watershed moment in Uganda’s contemporary political history.

In a career spanning roughly ten years, the Bukedea District Woman MP engineered a rapid consolidation of power that bypassed traditional structures, establishing an autonomous base within the legislature that sent ripples all the way to the State House.

Her sudden retreat, reportedly formalised after high-stakes meetings with General Yoweri Museveni and a subsequent joint security raid on her properties, highlights a fundamental reality, when a sub-epicenter of power grows strong enough to rival the ultimate center, the 40-year regime will ruthlessly assert its dominance.

Historically, the Parliament of Uganda functioned primarily to rubber-stamp executive directives. However, upon assuming the Speakership following the death of the late Rt. Hon. Jacob Oulanyah in 2022, Among fundamentally altered the institutional dynamic.

She transformed the legislature into an independent patronage machine by leveraging its immense budgetary allocations, parliamentary commissions, and massive Corporate Social Responsibility funds.

By insulating lawmakers from external vulnerabilities and ensuring bipartisan loyalty, Among effectively built a fierce defensive shield of over 400 MPs.

This total control meant the executive could no longer take legislative outcomes for granted; instead, it was forced to negotiate directly with the Speaker’s office. This newly found constitutional muscle posed a latent threat, signaling to the 40-year hegemony that the legislature could frustrate state bills, block budgets, or trigger a systemic crisis if provoked.

While the old guard of the National Resistance Movement historically managed state resources through calculated, discreet networks, the Anita Among era was defined by highly visible, unyielding luxury.

Her multi-billion shilling rural complexes, custom specialized vehicles, including a controversial multi-billion shilling Rolls-Royce and grand public cash donations became symbols of an extraordinary accumulation of wealth. However, this unapologetic display of opulence, unfolding against a backdrop of widespread economic hardship, backfired.

It triggered intense public digital accountability campaigns, drew international sanctions, and ultimately pulled back the curtain on the state’s internal political economy.

By inadvertently exposing the scale of systemic self-enrichment, Among’s lifestyle stripped away the regime’s traditional narrative of revolutionary modesty. This public outcry left the executive with little choice but to intervene to preserve its own survival and manage domestic and international blowback.

The handling of the crisis surrounding the Speakership race has clearly exposed how power is truly brokered in Uganda. Rather than utilizing constitutionally recognized anti-corruption institutions like the Inspectorate of Government or the Auditor General to resolve these systemic issues, the fate of the legislative head was ultimately decided through closed-door State House summits and direct presidential decrees.

The presentation of intelligence dossiers detailing her vast accumulated assets directly to the President emphasizes that formal governance frameworks remain secondary to personalist, family-centered arbitration. When the survival of the political system is at stake, formalized checks and balances are bypassed in favor of direct intervention by the core executive authority.

This absolute supremacy of personal orders over constitutional institutions is a defining characteristic of the contemporary state. Nowhere is this more vividly illustrated than in the conduct of the General’s son, the Chief of Defence Forces General Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

In an unforgettable demonstration of raw, uninstitutionalized power, Muhoozi previously issued a stern public warning on social media demanding a written apology from the Supreme Court after it ruled against the military.

He openly declared that “people in red gowns and funny wigs can never scare us,” and threatened that if an apology was not received, “other things will follow.” When challenged by Parliament to answer for his inflammatory digital edicts, Muhoozi flatly refused, branding lawmakers “clowns” and threatening to arrest them.

Muhoozi leveraged this exact same personal digital authority to completely upend the legislative leadership structure, by taking to his personal X account to publicly blast Among’s wasteful parliamentary budget and luxury vehicles, followed by a swift online directive withdrawing the Patriotic League of Uganda’s endorsement of her candidacy, his singular internet edict effectively dismantled her entire political network.

Instead of correcting this parallel authority, the state’s highest judicial and legislative organs bowed down, and the government spokesperson quickly rationalized the behavior, confirming that the decree of the family supersedes the rule of law.

Though Among remains the unopposed legislator for Bukedea, her forced retreat from the helm of Parliament signals a re-centralization of authority by General Museveni’s family that felt acutely threatened.

Her downfall was ultimately triggered because her political maneuvering expanded far beyond the walls of the Parliament by launching massive donations, flanking General Museveni on 2026 presidential campaigns across the country, and cementing an absolute, bipartisan consolidation of power in Parliament, she effectively built an empire, national political profile.

To a 40-year regime built on the absolute monopoly of power, these actions looked less like loyal support and more like the creation of an alternative power base capable of challenging the General.

Her decade-long journey shows that while an individual can successfully build an unprecedented empire within the state’s machinery, the structural foundations of the old guard will aggressively move to neutralize any internal force that grows large enough to cast a shadow on the throne.

Author is a social development specialist and CEO Bridge your mind Centre.

Email: bwani.jose@gmail.com