40 Years, Same Thieves: How the ‘London Court’ Scam is Bleeding Uganda Dry

By Alexander Luyima, a concerned and weary Ugandan citizen

[KAMPALA] – Let’s be honest with each other. When you hear another story about billions of shillings vanishing into the pockets of the connected, you no longer feel shock. You feel a familiar, heavy tiredness the kind that settles in when you see a pothole swallow a car, when you find no medicine in a hospital, or when you try to stretch a salary that has not grown in years.

The recent parliamentary “debate” over paying 142 billion shillings to Umeme was a perfect and painful example. One MP’s voice cracked with frustration as he asked, “It is completely unacceptable… When did Umeme become an international company? There is nothing like a London court!”

But we all know what happened next. Nothing. The outrage was recorded, the headlines were written, and the money, as always, found its way to the intended pockets. This is the Uganda we live in after forty years of President Museveni’s rule a nation where corruption is not a flaw in the system but the system itself.

This so-called “London court” they keep frightening us with is not a real threat to them. It is their favorite excuse, a sophisticated lie told to justify what, in plain Luganda, is obunyazi( grand theft.)

A regime that boasts about crushing armed rebels suddenly becomes helpless against a legal document in a foreign country. We are expected to believe that powerful ministers, permanent secretaries, and the Attorney General are powerless before a corporate lawyer’s letter.

“The ‘London court’ is the favorite ghost story this government uses to scare us into silence,” says a veteran civil society activist who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. “It’s a manufactured crisis. They create the contract, they trigger the dispute, they inflate the claim, and then they use the arbitration clause they themselves signed as the reason they must pay. It’s a closed loop designed to steal from you and me.”

We know the characters in this tragic comedy by heart now. They simply change seats every few years. The Parliament that should defend our money has become a costly applause machine for the Executive. Members shout and grandstand for the cameras, but when the moment comes to block these illegal payments, they fold. They have failed in their most basic duty: protecting public funds.

Then there are the compliant technocrats the Keith Muhakanizis, the Irene Mulonis, the William Byaruhangas highly educated individuals who provide the technical and legal cover for theft. They are the architects of our poverty, using complex words to disguise simple crimes.

And at the center of it all sits State House. After four decades, the buck must stop there. This culture of impunity did not sprout by accident; it was cultivated. A government that cannot stop the looting of billions in its own energy sector is not a government it is a criminal syndicate with a flag.

Now, as we head toward the 2026 elections, the cycle begins again. The intimidation. The whispers. The sudden appearance of a kilo of sugar or a cheap T-shirt. They believe we are so hungry, so broken, that we will sell our nation’s future for a moment’s relief.

But what is that kilo of sugar worth when your child sits in a classroom of two hundred others? What is that T-shirt worth when the clinic has no drugs? We are not voting for a party; we are voting for our survival.

This is why the message from the National Unity Platform and its leader, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine), resonates with millions. It is not merely about change—it is about accountability. The NUP manifesto directly confronts this institutionalized theft. It commits to auditing and annulling corrupt contracts, taking a zero-tolerance approach to deals like the Umeme concession that were designed to fleece the public. The “London court” blackmail will end the day we have a government that prioritizes Ugandan law and Ugandan interests.

The party has also pledged to strengthen national institutions the Police, Judiciary, and offices such as the IGG and Auditor General by making them truly independent and removing the President’s power to appoint and control every official meant to hold him accountable. Above all, NUP promises to prosecute grand corruption, treating the theft of public funds as a treasonous crime against the people. This means not only recovering stolen assets but ensuring that those responsible, no matter how powerful, face justice.

“We are not just fighting a bad government; we are fighting a system designed to corrupt and impoverish,” Bobi Wine has often said. “Our promise is to break that system and ensure that every shilling paid in tax builds a school, a health center, or a road not the bank accounts of a few thieves in suits.”

Fellow Ugandans, the dots are there. We connect them every day when we struggle to make ends meet. The broken system in Kampala is directly responsible for the empty plates in our homes.

In 2026, let us not vote out of fear or for a fleeting gift. Let us vote like our lives depend on it because they do. Let us vote for the overhaul we so desperately need. Let us vote to finally bring our money home.