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Exiled Ugandan lawyer and author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has sharply criticized local musicians whom he accuses of siding with President Yoweri Museveni’s government instead of using their platforms to challenge state repression.
In a statement shared on X, Kakwenza drew parallels with South Africa’s liberation struggle, saying musicians there used their art to rally against apartheid, while in Uganda some artistes are “gathering themselves to whitewash the atrocities of the rogue regime for crumbs.”
According to him, true artistry should speak against “rampant and systematic kidnaps, torture, corruption and bad governance.”
He argued that those who choose to praise the regime under the guise of freedom of association are merely legitimizing oppression.
“You cannot praise the chains that are digging into my legs and arms and call it freedom,” he wrote.
Kakwenza contrasted regime-aligned entertainers with opposition figures like Bobi Wine, King Saha and Nubian Li, whom he described as revolutionary musicians admired by millions for standing with the oppressed.
He further cited the continued detention of opposition leader Kizza Besigye, the disappearance of activist Sam Mugumya despite court orders for his release, and claims that General Muhoozi Kainerugaba has openly boasted of detaining National Unity Platform supporters in his basement.
To Kakwenza, supporting or singing for those responsible for such acts amounts to “stupidity.”
The exiled lawyer insisted that torture and repression cannot be defended under the banner of ideology.
“Torture is not an ideology but backwardness and barbarism,” he wrote, urging Ugandans to reject entertainers who glorify the government while citizens remain impoverished.
Kakwenza, who fled Uganda after alleging torture in detention in 2021, has remained one of the fiercest critics of Museveni’s regime from exile.