Uganda’s Descent: When the State Becomes the Tormentor

By Alexander Luyima | The Hoima Post

Uganda is trapped in a chilling reality. The initial struggle for democracy has devolved into a daily battle for basic dignity and survival under the decades-long rule of Mr. Museveni. State institutions, created to serve the people, have been systematically turned against them, fostering an atmosphere thick with fear and repression.

The primary instruments of this control are the security forces. Once a symbol of protection, they now function as a machinery of oppression, routinely deployed to silence dissent through unlawful arrests, abductions, and torture. Journalists, ordinary citizens, and members of the National Unity Platform (NUP) live in a state of constant vulnerability.

Perhaps most disturbingly, this state-sponsored brutality has been normalized, fracturing the very fabric of society. An activist in Kampala lamented the public’s moral erosion, stating, “You find someone fully supporting injustice, happy about every single day that NUP supporters are abducted and tortured.” When a population is conditioned to cheer the suffering of its own people, justice loses all meaning.

The regime’s playbook is the weaponization of fear. A red beret, a critical social media post, or attendance at a peaceful rally can lead to disappearance. The Uganda Human Rights Commission has admitted it cannot locate 18 missing NUP supporters, closing their cases while their fates remain unknown. The NUP consistently reports abductions by armed operatives in unmarked vans, known as “drones.” In a stark admission of extrajudicial practice, the Chief of Defence Forces once confessed to detaining an opposition figure in his own basement; the victim later appeared in court bearing visible torture marks.

This repression is not random but a calculated strategy to dismantle opposition. Recent incidents in Isingiro District saw NUP supporters threatened, their phones confiscated, and forced to vote in the open under intimidation while their polling agents were driven away. These are not isolated events but a coordinated pattern to crush grassroots organizing ahead of the 2026 elections.

Dictatorship, like a cancer, has metastasized through Uganda’s institutions. Parliament is muted, the judiciary compromised, and the media under siege. As one observer noted, “The bandits who killed people to capture power still believe they alone have the monopoly over violence.”

Healing this nation demands a collective refusal to accept this status quo. The opposition is no longer merely a political alternative; it has become a moral imperative. Uganda’s struggle is fundamentally human—a cry for dignity and the right to speak without fear. As the NUP has declared, “When leaders become tormentors, opposition becomes our position.” The choice for Uganda is stark: succumb to the decay of tyranny or embrace the renewal that comes when a people reclaim their power.