Updated by HICGI News Agency at 1128 EAT on Monday 11 May 2026

Dr. Rumanzi Benita Bushari, Director of the Africa Population Institute and former Rukiga County MP aspirant, has described the last four decades under the National Resistance Movement (NRM) as a period that transformed Uganda from instability into a nation of peace and opportunity.

In a personal testimony marking 40 years of NRM leadership, Bushari recounted his childhood experiences during the 1986 liberation struggle, saying his family was forced to flee Muhanga Town Council in then-Kabale District as conflict intensified.

“I was born on 7 November 1980, and by the age of five, I had become a child of war,” he wrote. “When the NRM liberated Uganda in January 1986, my father carried us to safety in our grandmother’s village. That was the Uganda before NRM.”

Bushari said the return of peace enabled him to pursue education from Nyeikunama Primary School to Bukinda Secondary School, Kigezi College Butobere, and later Makerere University, where he studied Social Sciences, Economics and Rural Economy under government sponsorship.

He later attained a Master’s degree in Population and Reproductive Health and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Education Administration.

Bushari credited the NRM government for expanding access to education through programmes such as Universal Primary Education (UPE), Universal Secondary Education (USE), and the Students’ Loan Scheme.

He also highlighted the role of Kyankwanzi ideological training, saying it deepened his belief in the NRM’s principles of patriotism, Pan-Africanism, democracy and socio-economic transformation.

“As an NRM youth winger at Makerere, I fell in love not with a party, but with a vision,” he noted.

Bushari further praised the leadership of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, describing the past 40 years as Uganda’s longest uninterrupted period of peace and stability.

“Before 1986, Uganda had eight presidents in 23 years marked by coups, Amin’s terror and the turmoil of Obote II. Under President Museveni, Uganda has experienced four decades of uninterrupted peace,” he wrote.

He said Uganda had since emerged as a regional food basket and political anchor in East Africa, while the Uganda People’s Defence Forces had contributed to regional peacekeeping efforts in countries such as Somalia and South Sudan.

Bushari, who also founded Kiga College Bushari and Mama Africa International School, called for renewed efforts to fight corruption and accelerate Uganda’s transition to middle-income status.

“The next frontier is consolidating these gains by defeating corruption and accelerating socio-economic transformation,” He said. “We are not just celebrating history; we are custodians of its future.”

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