1.
Anita Annet Among, speaker of the 11th Parliament of Uganda, seems unstoppable and full of life. In several pictures she is decked out elegantly, smiling widely, hand in hand with the president of the republic, Yoweri Museveni, the warmth between them palpable. In other photos she appears compassionate, her face pinched in concern as she hands out yet another donation worth millions of shillings to citizens who kneel or humble themselves before her. In yet more photos, shared on her X account, she is immaculate and demure in a long cream dress and matching shoes as she kneels before the Roman Catholic pontiff; she is said to have met Pope Francis multiple times in the past two years. We also see pictures of her on the premises of the parliamentary building as she steps out of her gleaming convoy and, soon surrounded by an attentive coterie of supplicants, strides purposefully or takes the hand of a lawmaker.
Parliamentary speakers are well looked-after, of course, but we live in strange times. Despite Among’s ongoing show of strength and grace, for months she has been troubled by corruption allegations triggered by revelations that her office had been withdrawing large sums of money through her confidantes in the parliamentary system. Billions of shillings purportedly earmarked as funds for corporate social responsibility, or justified as being part of her big donations budget, have accrued to her since she suddenly rose to her post after the death in 2022 of Jacob Oulanyah. Among, who had already been inaugurated as deputy speaker, moved quickly to strengthen her position as speaker with a firm carrot-and-stick approach, taking advantage of the extensive power and privileges at her disposal. Loyalists could expect not just her affection but also rewards such as frequent travel abroad, but those who crossed her risked alienation.
Things seemed to be going well for Among until March, when a group of activists organized the so-called “Parliament Exhibition,” during which serious corruption revelations against her came out. Ugandans and some of her colleagues in the national assembly demanded accountability, but she was adamant. She said she would not respond to rumors on social media, thwarting the attempts of lawmakers who tried to introduce the matter into the order of business and blaming her woes on homosexuals she believed were out to get her over her role in the passing of anti-gay legislation last year.
Days after refusing to allow a corruption debate in the House, Among retreated to her home in the remote eastern district of Bukedea, where her properties include a stately villa, a school, a teaching hospital and other assets that have enhanced the image of her as prosperous in a way that makes her an attractive figure before her followers. In Bukedea, at an event witnessed by President Museveni on March 23, she launched her hospital, an impressive facility indeed, and it was revealed that one of the buildings therein had been named after Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the president’s son, and several wards after other members of the first family. Despite occasional moments of tension, the president and the speaker seemed comfortable standing together, and later a truck came carrying long horns that Among gifted to Museveni. This was a smart if cynical move on her part, for the gifting of cows is an almost irrevocable sign of friendship among Museveni’s Banyankore people, and one suspects that the president, knowing this fact, stifled any criticism he may have had that day. But Among saved the best for last, saying in blasphemous comments as night fell that she was effectively an agent for hereditary rule in Uganda. Whatever she did, whatever she was accused of, she suggested, didn’t matter because she would continue to work in service of the president and, when he retired, his son too. What she said deserves to be repeated here:
I want to thank you for promoting our brother, Gen. Muhoozi, to become [Chief of Defense Forces]. For us we believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are still here with you the Father. When you tell us to move, we shall move to the Son and be guided by the Holy Spirit.
For a woman who makes every attempt to kiss the pope’s hand, this was a curious statement to make, and, for many Ugandans watching the speaker humiliate herself for the chance to keep her job, it marked a pivotal moment in our politics as Museveni, who is 80 years old today, approaches the twilight of his presidency. The speaker’s words cast Among as a conniving, calculating player who assumed, perhaps correctly, that affirming hereditary rule is what Museveni wants so badly right now. In other words, she seemed to be saying, the extraordinary greed of which she is accused – and the reputational damage to the national assembly – did not matter in the grand scheme of things if she did not interfere with what was at stake for Museveni.
This is part of what makes Among, the second woman to rise to the speakership, dangerous to wider efforts to encourage good governance in Uganda. On the one hand, by her forceful attempts to stifle parliamentary debate on corruption, she has set a precedent that other speakers may emulate in future. On the other, by appearing to accumulate wealth on a scale at odds with widespread poverty in Uganda, moreover doing so as a woman who was expected to behave better, she has muddied the view of women as perhaps more desirable leaders for this country while also causing many of us to lose sight of the bigger picture – that is, that Among, as even her own supporters point out, is not the only public official to have become fabulously wealthy.
The looting of public resources in the nearly four decades since Museveni took power has been nothing short of a massacre, so to speak, but these days it can seem as though all of the excesses of the Kampala regime have been concentrated into the figure of Among. More ominously, however, Among’s stance in the aftermath of the Parliament Exhibition risks escalating the normalization of corruption in our country.
2.
Corruption in Uganda has evolved in at least one significant way. Years ago, when Ugandan politicians found themselves backed into a corner over wrongdoing of one kind or another, they cried foul, blaming faceless political ‘mafia’ or saying they were misunderstood or misquoted in the press. Nowadays we also see claims to personal piety, with politicians holding ‘thanksgiving’ events as if to mobilize political support when they are accused of corruption. They cry ‘persecution’ and, inevitably, retreat to their villages where they address their supporters in dusty fields. The politician wears a halo, cites Scripture, and situates his or her personal scandal in a battle between the forces of good and evil. Some will even say they are being bewitched. A grand feast with food, drink, and live music will unfold. The cherry on top is having the president there, as Among has been able to repeatedly have Museveni around, bestowing on the politician a measure of clout. On March 23, in Bukedea, Museveni praised Among as a leader who had uplifted her people as he launched her hospital. And he said he agreed with her claims that she was being hounded by outside groups.
This was not the first time Among was retreating to Bukedea in a show of strength. Earlier, on August 3, 2023, she went there to unveil her palatial residence at a ‘thanksgiving’ event attended by hundreds of lawmakers and others. There, surrounded by friendly faces, she was photographed standing among her cows. Her very public display of wealth, as the government struggled to remain liquid and tax authorities pressed small businesses even harder, left many Ugandans disgusted. The woman who not long ago had given her husband a Range Rover for a birthday gift, the keys to the car giddily delivered by a couple of lawmakers as if such an errand was part of their duties, was on a roll.
Among’s display of her wealth has sometimes been so brazen that some critics see her behavior perhaps as a personality disorder. For Museveni and other regime bigwigs, Among appears threatening insofar as she gives name and weight to the excesses of the National Resistance Movement. As the political theorist Yusuf Serunkuma once wrote in an essay in the Observer:
Under Yoweri Museveni’s regime of politics, everyone is enjoying themselves. Everyone with political office has that one job of finding an easy way of fleecing the national purse without getting caught. But Anita Among has that annoying, irritating aura of exhibitionism, and arrivalism that has sadly put her under the eye of the storm.
Official corruption in Uganda today is rampant, or, to be more precise, endemic. Lawmakers are among the least trusted officers in our society. A survey in 2022 by Afrobarometer showed that Ugandans generally perceive their legislators as unresponsive and corrupt. And yet the national assembly has nearly doubled in size over the last quarter-century, to more than 550 members. In many ways, the House represents a heavy financial burden on Ugandan taxpayers. In addition to the huge cost of maintaining the bloated parliamentary system, a Ugandan lawmaker earns roughly Shs. 35 million each month – or close to $10,000 – more than the salaries of most legislators elsewhere in Africa and even in the European Union. As for Among, she has a donations budget to the tune of Shs 2 billion per year, in addition to generous perks like nearly $4,000 in daily per diem allowances if she travels and, as the Parliament Exhibition showed, even when she doesn’t.
3.
Born in 1973 in Bukedea, Among grew up in a large family of dozens of children. Surrounded by poverty, watching her sisters get married off at a young age, she wondered how she would ever escape a similar fate. She recalled in June, speaking at an event focusing on child marriage and teenage pregnancy, that her good grades in school were never going to be enough to deter her father from marrying her off when she completed grade school. She said, “In the tradition where I come from, having so many girls is being rich; the moment parents see breasts come from the girl, that girl is ready for marriage.” One day, she said, she ran away from her father’s homestead and found work as a housemaid in various homes, determined to continue her education. She said she survived sexual assault many times and that one of her attackers, a man her family had arranged to rape her, she hit violently until he “started bleeding and I took off.”
Among later found work as a cleaner at a local bank where, according to her story, her steely determination continually opened doors for her. She rose in rank from cleaner to branch manager. Driven by her hunger to show her family the value of education, she said, she resolved to become the most educated person in her family. Her resume says she is an accountant, university lecturer, lawyer, social entrepreneur, and other things. She cites her personal history especially now that she stands accused of corruption, not so much with contrition but with a sense that she will overcome the challenge before her no matter what. She’s saying, effectively, that now that she is here, she is not going anywhere. She said recently that she would “keep this seat jealously because I worked for it.”
Among came to the NRM by way of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change, where she was a close associate of Kizza Besigye. She had a reputation for being a good mobilizer, and some observers have long held that she is a ruthless but effective political operator. Perhaps these are the qualities that drew her to Museveni, or Museveni to her. While she was a member of the FDC, rumors swirled about her closeness to Museveni, and she was often branded a regime mole. She joined the national assembly in 2016 as an independent candidate after two previously unsuccessful runs as an opposition candidate. In 2021, when she was already a bona-fide member of the NRM, she stood unopposed for the Bukedea Woman Member of Parliament seat. After she was elected deputy speaker in 2021, she said one of her objectives was to bridge the gap between the opposition and the ruling party because she’d had experience in both camps.
By this time, in appearance if not in other attributes, she was hardly recognizable as the former FDC stalwart. Now she was of light complexion and she evoked a closeness to presidential power that made her seem even more NRM than others she had found in the ruling party. But, as the internet saying goes, she is who she thinks she is. This is her time.
It is important to reflect on the fate of Rebecca Kadaga, who served as parliamentary speaker from 2011 to 2021. By the end of her second term she was often in dispute with the presidency as she tried to protect whatever independence the legislature could still claim. Notably, after the fracas in Arua in 2018 during which the opposition figure Bobi Wine was violently arrested and tortured, in a letter to Museveni she asked why the perpetrators hadn’t faced justice. In his response Museveni said security officers could legally use reasonable force in order to protect civilians. Kadaga later boasted to reporters that without her steering of the House in 2017, when lawmakers removed age limits on the presidency, Museveni would not have been able to keep the presidency. Not surprisingly, Museveni did not back Kadaga when she sought a third term as speaker.
Perhaps Among learnt the lesson from Kadaga’s fall and now understands the assignment: a pliant legislature is an essential tool in service of the regime’s longevity. Parliament will be a crucial battleground in Uganda’s political transition after Museveni. As Museveni ages he will need a less cantankerous and more malleable parliament. The journalist Andrew Mwenda has described Among as the most dependable speaker for Museveni: she uses her money to buy off lawmakers and ensure the national assembly serves the presidency.
Among wields enormous influence over the House and enjoys popular support among both opposition and NRM lawmakers – so much so that at times it can seem like she has a cult following. As some observers have noted, some usually vocal opposition lawmakers failed to criticize the speaker when corruption charges against her emerged. In June, when the police arrested four lawmakers on corruption charges, Among questioned why she was not informed before the members were booked. She was reported to have said that if the police “want to arrest my members, give the summons to me.” She also rallied in defense of Cissy Namujju, one of the accused lawmakers, suggesting, in an audacious endorsement of corruption, that corrupt officials who share their loot with the people are not so bad after all. “You’re better having a child who eats and brings home,” Among reportedly said in Lwengo.
4.
The NRM government has made commendable strides in promoting female representation in public life. According to the Makerere University academic Yahya Sseremba, women constitute 43 percent of the Ugandan cabinet, occupy 33 percent of the seats in the national assembly, and hold 46 percent of positions in the local government. The vice president and the prime minister are both women. Unfortunately, all three women at the top of Uganda’s government have been implicated in corruption of some sort, notably their involvement in the diversion of roofing sheets intended for impoverished people in Karamoja.
According to Sseremba, studies have demonstrated that female representation does not always translate into women who have “the ability to shape their nation’s future.” In a 2021 essay in The Conversation, the scholar Aili Mari Tripp argued that “the inclusion of women is a double-edged sword. It has advanced the goals of the women’s movement but, at the same time, it has helped an autocratic regime remain in power and maintain legitimacy among certain sectors of society.” Accordingly, the NRM’s mode of governance by patronage has hindered women’s political performance by dumbing down women’s ambitions in favour of party interests. Most recently, the scholar Hannah Muzee has written that women in Uganda “are increasingly used as appendages and tools to further the political dominance of the ruling government. So, while they seem to be visible, their voices and substantive representation is controlled by the parties’ executive wings.”
At least for now, Among seems to have survived the storm. But she will forever be marked. Both the United States and the United Kingdom have sanctioned her over corruption. The U.S. State Department cited her role in “significant corruption” linked to her leadership of the national assembly. She faces travel bans and asset freezes.
In an Op-Ed piece in the New Vision in May, Chris Obore, the director of communication for Parliament, wrote thus of Among’s tribulations:
The particular focus is to keep Anita Among in bad press as a way to wear down President Museveni’s trust in her because, so far, all blackmail attempts have failed. A section of those local actors is obviously unhappy with the rise in political leadership of Speaker Among, and believe she is occupying space they deserve and are more entitled to. They, then, form an unholy alliance with political activists and civil society actors who are led by a furious, consuming hate, anger, arrogance and self-righteousness rather than a genuine pursuit of accountability and good governance.
He went on:
It is just bad that her undoing is constructing a house in her locality (certainly not the best house owned by a politician in Uganda), working hard to create wealth for herself and her family (and she would appear on the bottom of the list of wealthy politicians in Uganda).
One assumes that Obore’s article was approved by Among before it was sent to the New Vision. The argument is clear: Among is a victim of fractious politics, but she is on Museveni’s team. In a nutshell, an attack on Among is an attack on Museveni.
On July 23 young Ugandans, inspired by Kenya’s Gen Z-led protests, attempted to peacefully protest to the parliamentary building. They sought Among’s resignation as speaker. Museveni, who has repeatedly urged Ugandans to be vigilant against corruption, sternly warned those planning to march not to ‘play with fire.’ On the appointed day Uganda’s security forces barricaded the parliamentary building and deployed heavily in a show of force all over Kampala. Police arrested over 100 people, many of whom were roughed up. In an iconic headline the next day, the Daily Monitor summed up the state of affairs with a bold headline: Corruption Shield. The accompanying picture showed a line of police officers in full riot gear blocking the entrance to Parliament. Among, wherever she was, knew she was protected.▪
Cover image: Illustrated for TWR by Farouq Ssebaggala