News •
Constitutional framework
Until 1967 Uganda was a quasi-federal polity that included five subregional monarchies, non-monarchical districts, and a central government. The republican constitution adopted in 1967 abolished the monarchies and assigned ultimate political power to an elected president. The president was to be aided by a ministerial cabinet drawn, in the British tradition, from among members of the unicameral National Assembly. In theory, the judiciary, legislature, and executive were to be autonomous, if coordinate, institutions of governance, but in reality the powers of the different branches of government have varied widely with each president. Under Idi Amin’s presidency (1971–79), representative institutions were abolished altogether, and, with the first of several military coups in 1985, the constitution was suspended.
Under the new constitution promulgated in October 1995, and since amended, the president is the head of state, government, and the armed forces and is assisted by a prime minister and cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the unicameral Parliament. Most members of Parliament are directly elected to five-year terms; the remaining seats are reserved for one female representative from every district and representatives of specific groups, such as the army, youth, labour, and persons with disabilities. The constitution also recognizes the right of ethnic groups to pursue their own cultural practices. Uganda had a “no-party” political system until a 2005 referendum overwhelmingly supported a return to multiparty politics. The next year the country held its first multiparty elections since 1980.
Local government
Uganda is divided into districts. Each district is administered by an elected chairperson and a district council. Subdistrict administrative units are governed by a tiered structure of elected councils. Each council consists of elected members with the political and judicial power to manage local affairs.
Justice
The Supreme Court is the court of highest appeal; it also acts as a constitutional court. Below the Supreme Court is the Court of Appeal and the High Court. The Magistrates’ Courts were established in 1970 and decide criminal and civil matters. Islamic and customary law also exist in the country.
Political process
Nonparty elections were held in May 1996, the first popular election since 1962. Lieutenant General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni came to power in 1986 as the leader of the National Resistance Movement (NRM). He was elected president in 1996, although he ostensibly represented no political party. The country does have many parties, however, such as the Democratic Party, the Uganda People’s Congress, and the Forum for Democratic Change.
Women played a significant role in the formulation of the 1995 constitution, and the NRM government has assisted them in a number of ways. The Ministry of Women in Development was established in 1988 to formulate and implement women’s programs and especially to make the public aware of women’s issues. By 1990 eight women held ministerial posts in the government, and the first woman vice president in sub-Saharan Africa, Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, was appointed in 1994. In the 2020s, women held about one-third of the seats in Parliament and about two-fifths of the cabinet positions.
Security
Uganda’s armed forces, named the Uganda People’s Defense Forces, consist of air force, marine, and army contingents as well as paramilitary forces. Security problems in the north of the country have kept them active, as have foreign engagements in such countries as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Border disputes with Kenya (in the 1980s) and Sudan (in the 1990s) have also occupied Uganda’s military. Ugandan troops have participated in United Nations-led international peacekeeping missions and are part of the African Union’s standby peacekeeping force.
Health and welfare
Only about half of the population has access to medical facilities, though since 1986 an internationally funded program has been under way to improve health-care infrastructure, training, and supplies. There are more than 100 hospitals; slightly more than one-half are government-operated. In addition, numerous health centres provide medical care throughout the country.
Malaria, measles, anemia, acute respiratory infections and pneumonia, gastrointestinal diseases, sleeping sickness, venereal diseases, schistosomiasis, guinea worm (dracunculiasis), tuberculosis, chicken pox, and typhoid are all serious problems in Uganda. At the root of many of these diseases is a lack of clean water.
AIDS, known locally as “slim” because of its debilitating effects, spread widely in the early 1980s and has placed stress on families and an already frail health-care infrastructure. However, there has been a vigorous campaign to educate and inform the public about AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, and in 1998 Uganda became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to report a significant decrease in the rate of HIV infection. Although HIV/AIDS persisted among Uganda’s population into the first decades of the 21st century, the adult prevalence rate showed an overall decline during 1990–2020.
Housing
The government has sponsored housing development projects in urban areas such as Kampala, where there is a tremendous need to provide new housing units in order to keep up with the rising population.
Rural houses are often made of mud and wattle. For the Nyoro, houses were traditionally built around a central courtyard. Ganda settlements, usually located on hillsides, can include as many as 40 to 50 homes.
Education
Primary education begins at six years of age and continues for seven years. Secondary education begins at 13 years of age and consists of a four-year segment followed by a two-year segment.
In early 1997 Uganda revolutionized education policy by introducing an initiative called Universal Primary Education, under which the government would pay tuition fees for all orphans and for up to four children per family. The policy, aimed at rapidly expanding literacy throughout the population, resulted in an increase in school attendance. A similar program for post-primary education was initiated in early 2007.
Many of the oldest schools in Uganda were established by Christian missionaries from Europe. Since independence their role has been superseded by that of the government, but, because of the limited number of secondary schools, private schools have remained an important component of Uganda’s educational system.
Makerere University in Kampala, which began as a technical school in 1922, was the first major institution of higher learning in East and Central Africa. In addition to its medical school, Makerere’s faculties include those of agriculture and forestry, arts, education, technology, law, science, social sciences, and veterinary medicine.
A number of new institutions of higher learning have opened since the late 1980s, including Mbarara University of Science and Technology (1989), Uganda Christian University (founded as Bishop Tucker Theological College in 1913; present name and university status conferred in 1997), Uganda Martyrs University (1993), and Islamic University in Uganda (1988). In addition to these, there are primary-teacher training colleges, technical schools and colleges, and business colleges.
Cultural life
Cultural diversity—from the Ganda culture in the south and Acholi and Lango cultures in the north to the influence of South Asians past and present—has produced a wide variety of lifestyles and interests among Ugandans. The country possesses a rich tradition of theatre, ranging from the very active National Theatre in Kampala to hundreds of small, local theatrical groups. Theatre has played an important role in educating and informing the public on a range of issues from gender relations to sexually transmitted diseases. Another popular and widespread form of entertainment is the small video booth, many hundreds of which are spread throughout the towns and small rural trading centres. A video booth, which can operate on a vehicle battery, provides an opportunity—mainly for young people—to see a variety of films; but, more important, the booths also show occasional short informative films supplied by government agencies. Television is widely available in urban centres and in some smaller rural centres, where it is not uncommon to see a large group of people clustered in front of one set.
