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of the Kingdom of Buganda (Opens in a new window) to the British government. The IBEAC (Opens in a new window) relinquished its control over Uganda after Ugandan internal religious wars had driven it into bankruptcy.[30] (Opens in a new window)

In 1894, the Uganda Protectorate was established, and the territory was extended beyond the borders of Buganda by signing more treaties with the other kingdoms (Toro (Opens in a new window) in 1900,[31] (Opens in a new window) Ankole (Opens in a new window) in 1901, and Bunyoro (Opens in a new window) in 1933[32] (Opens in a new window)) to an area that roughly corresponds to that of present-day Uganda.[33] (Opens in a new window)

The status of Protectorate (Opens in a new window) had significantly different consequences for Uganda than had the region been made a colony like neighboring Kenya (Opens in a new window), insofar as Uganda retained a degree of self-government that would have otherwise been limited under a full colonial administration.[34] (Opens in a new window)

In the 1890s, 32,000 labourers from British India were recruited to East Africa (Opens in a new window) under indentured labour contracts to construct the Uganda Railway (Opens in a new window).[35] (Opens in a new window) Most of the surviving Indians returned home, but 6,724 decided to remain in East Africa after the line's completion.[36] (Opens in a new window) Subsequently, some became traders and took control of cotton ginning and sartorial retail.[37] (Opens in a new window)

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From 1900 to 1920, a sleeping sickness (Opens in a new window) epidemic in the southern part of Uganda, along the north shores of Lake Victoria, killed more than 250,000 people.[38] (Opens in a new window)

World War II (Opens in a new window) encouraged the colonial administration of Uganda to recruit 77,143 soldiers to serve in the King's African Rifles (Opens in a new window). They were seen in action in the Western Desert campaign (Opens in a new window), the Abyssinian campaign (Opens in a new window), the Battle of Madagascar (Opens in a new window) and the Burma campaign (Opens in a new window).

Independence (1962 to 1965)

Uganda gained independence from the UK on 9 October 1962 with Queen Elizabeth II (Opens in a new window) as head of state and Queen of Uganda (Opens in a new window). In October 1963, Uganda became a republic but maintained its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations (Opens in a new window).

The first post-independence election, held in 1962, was won by an alliance between the Uganda People's Congress (Opens in a new window) (UPC) and Kabaka Yekka (Opens in a new window) (KY). UPC and KY formed the first post-independence government with Milton Obote (Opens in a new window) as executive prime minister, with the Buganda Kabaka (King) Edward Muteesa II (Opens in a new window) holding the largely ceremonial position of president.[39] (Opens in a new window)[40] (Opens in a new window)

Buganda crisis (1962–1966)

Main article: Mengo Crisis (Opens in a new window)

Construction of the Owen Falls Dam (Opens in a new window) in Jinja (Opens in a new window)

Uganda's immediate post-independence years were dominated by the relationship between the central government and the largest regional kingdom – Buganda (Opens in a new window).[41] (Opens in a new window)

From the moment the British created the Uganda protectorate, the issue of how to manage the largest monarchy within the framework of a unitary state had always been a problem. Colonial governors had failed to come up with a formula that worked. This was further complicated by Buganda's nonchalant attitude to its relationship with the central government. Buganda never sought independence but rather appeared to be comfortable with a loose arrangement that guaranteed them privileges above the other subjects within the protectorate or a special status when the British left. This was evidenced in part by hostilities between the British colonial authorities and Buganda prior to independence.[42] (Opens in a new window)

Within Buganda, there were divisions – between those who wanted the Kabaka (Opens in a new window) to remain a dominant monarch and those who wanted to join with the rest of Uganda to create a modern secular state. The split resulted in the creation of two dominant Buganda based parties – the Kabaka Yekka (Kabaka Only) KY, and the Democratic Party (Opens in a new window) (DP) that had roots in the Catholic Church. The bitterness between these two parties was extremely intense especially as the first elections for the post-Colonial parliament approached. The Kabaka particularly disliked the DP leader, Benedicto Kiwanuka (Opens in a new window).[43] (Opens in a new window)

Outside Buganda, a soft-spoken politician from Northern Uganda, Milton Obote (Opens in a new window), had forged an alliance of non-Buganda politicians to form the Uganda People's Congress (UPC). The UPC at its heart was dominated by politicians who wanted to rectify what they saw as the regional inequality that favoured Buganda's special status. This drew in substantial support from outside Buganda. The party however remained a loose alliance of interests, but Obote showed great skill at negotiating them into a common ground based on a federal formula.[44] (Opens in a new window)

The Uganda printers building on Kampala Road, Kampala, Uganda

At Independence, the Buganda question remained unresolved. Uganda was one of the few colonial territories that achieved independence without a dominant political party with a clear majority in parliament. In the pre-Independence elections, the UPC ran no candidates in Buganda and won 37 of the 61 directly elected seats (outside Buganda). The DP won 24 seats outside Buganda. The "special status" granted to Buganda meant that the 21 Buganda seats were elected by proportional representation reflecting the elections to the Buganda parliament – the Lukikko. KY won a resounding victory over DP, winning all 21 seats.

The UPC reached a high at the end of 1964 when the leader of the DP in parliament, Basil Kiiza Bataringaya (Opens in a new window), crossed the parliamentary floor with five other MPs, leaving DP with only nine seats. The DP MPs were not particularly happy that the hostility of their leader, Benedicto Kiwanuka, towards the Kabaka was hindering their chances of compromise with KY.[45] (Opens in a new window) The trickle of defections turned into a flood when 10 KY members crossed the floor when they realised the formal coalition with the UPC was no longer viable. Obote's charismatic speeches across the country were sweeping all before him, and the UPC was winning almost every local election held and increasing its control over all district councils and legislatures outside Buganda.[46] (Opens in a new window) The response from the Kabaka was mute – probably content in his ceremonial role and symbolism in his part of the country. However, there were also major divisions within his palace that made it difficult for him to act effectively against Obote. By the time Uganda had become independent, Buganda "was a divided house with contending social and political forces"[47] (Opens in a new window) There were however problems brewing inside the UPC. As its ranks swelled, the ethnic, religious, regional, and personal interests began to shake the party. The party's apparent strength was eroded in a complex sequence of factional conflicts in its central and regional structures. And by 1966, the UPC was tearing itself apart. The conflicts were further intensified by the newcomers who had crossed the parliamentary floor from DP and KY.[48] (Opens in a new window)

The UPC delegates arrived in Gulu (Opens in a new window) in 1964 for their delegates conference. Here was the first demonstration as to how Obote was losing control of his party. The battle over the Secretary-General of the party was a bitter contest between the new moderate's candidate – Grace Ibingira (Opens in a new window) and the radical John Kakonge. Ibingira subsequently became the symbol of the opposition to Obote within the UPC. This is an important factor when looking at the subsequent events that led to the crisis between Buganda and the Central government. For those outside the UPC (including KY supporters), this was a sign that Obote was vulnerable. Keen observers realised the UPC was not a cohesive unit.[49] (Opens in a new window)

The collapse of the UPC-KY alliance openly revealed the dissatisfaction Obote and others had about Buganda's "special status". In 1964, the government responded to demands from some parts of the vast Buganda Kingdom that they were not the Kabaka's subjects. Prior to colonial rule, Buganda had been rivalled by the neighbouring Bunyoro (Opens in a new window) kingdom. Buganda had conquered parts of Bunyoro and the British colonialists had formalised this in the Buganda Agreements. Known as the "lost counties", the people in these areas wished to revert to being part of Bunyoro. Obote decided to allow a referendum, which angered the Kabaka and most of the rest of Buganda. The residents of the counties voted to return to Bunyoro despite the Kabaka's attempts to influence the vote.[50] (Opens in a new window) Having lost the referendum, KY opposed the bill to pass the counties to Bunyoro, thus ending the alliance with the UPC.

The tribal nature of Ugandan politics was also manifesting itself in government. The UPC which had previously been a national party began to break along tribal lines when Ibingira challenged Obote in the UPC. The "North/South" ethnic divide that had been evident in economic and social spheres now entrenched itself in politics. Obote surrounded himself with mainly northern politicians – A. A. Neykon, Felix Onama, Alex Ojera – while Ibingira's supporters who were subsequently arrested and jailed with him, were mainly from the South – George Magezi, B. Kirya, Matthias Ngobi. In time, the two factions acquired ethnic labels – "Bantu" (the mainly Southern Ibingira faction) and "Nilotic" (the mainly Northern Obote faction). The perception that the government was at war with the Bantu was further enhanced when Obote arrested and imprisoned the mainly Bantu ministers who backed Ibingira.[51] (Opens in a new window)

Grey Crowned Crane (Opens in a new window) – a symbol of Uganda

These labels brought into the mix two very powerful influences. First Buganda – the people of Buganda are Bantu and therefore naturally aligned to the Ibingira faction. The Ibingira faction further advanced this alliance by accusing Obote of wanting to overthrow the Kabaka.[51] (Opens in a new window) They were now aligned to opposing Obote. Second – the security forces – the British colonialists had recruited the army and police almost exclusively from Northern Uganda due to their perceived suitability for these roles. At independence, the army and police was dominated by northern tribes – mainly Nilotic. They would now feel more affiliated to Obote, and he took full advantage of this to consolidate his power. In April 1966, Obote passed out eight hundred new army recruits at Moroto (Opens in a new window), of whom seventy percent came from the Northern Region.[52] (Opens in a new window)

At the time there was a tendency to perceive central government and security forces as dominated by "northerners" – particularly the Acholi who through the UPC had significant access to government positions at national level.[53] (Opens in a new window) In northern Uganda there were also varied degrees of anti-Buganda feelings, particularly over the kingdom's "special status" before and after independence, and all the economic and social benefits that came with this status. "Obote brought significant numbers of northerners into the central state, both through the civil service and military, and created a patronage machine in Northern Uganda".[53] (Opens in a new window) However, both "Bantu" and "Nilotic" labels represent significant ambiguities. The Bantu category for example includes both Buganda and Bunyoro – historically bitter rivals. The Nilotic label includes the Lugbara, Acholi, and Langi, all of whom have bitter rivalries that were to define Uganda's military politics later. Despite these ambiguities, these events unwittingly brought to fore the northerner/southerner political divide which to some extent still influences Ugandan politics.

The UPC fragmentation continued as opponents sensed Obote's vulnerability. At local level where the UPC dominated most councils discontent began to challenge incumbent council leaders. Even in Obote's home district, attempts were made to oust the head of the local district council in 1966. A more worrying fact for the UPC was that the next national elections loomed in 1967 – and without the support of KY (who were now likely to back the DP), and the growing factionalism in the UPC, there was the real possibility that the UPC would be out of power in months.

Obote went after KY with a new act of parliament in early 1966 that blocked any attempt by KY to expand outside Buganda. KY appeared to respond in parliament through one of their few remaining MPs, the terminally ill Daudi Ochieng. Ochieng was an irony – although from Northern Uganda, he had risen high in the ranks of KY and become a close confidant to the Kabaka who had gifted him with large land titles in Buganda. In Obote's absence from Parliament, Ochieng laid bare the illegal plundering of ivory and gold from the Congo that had been orchestrated by Obote's army chief of staff, Colonel Idi Amin (Opens in a new window). He further alleged that Obote, Onama and Neykon had all benefited from the scheme.[54] (Opens in a new window) Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favour of a motion to censure Amin and investigate Obote's involvement. This shook the government and raised tensions in the country.

KY further demonstrated its ability to challenge Obote from within his party at the UPC Buganda conference where Godfrey Binaisa (the Attorney General) was ousted by a faction believed to have the backing of KY, Ibingira and other anti-Obote elements in Buganda.[47] (Opens in a new window) Obote's response was to arrest Ibingira and other ministers at a cabinet meeting and to assume special powers in February 1966. In March 1966, Obote also announced that the offices of President and vice-president would cease to exist – effectively dismissing the Kabaka. Obote also gave Amin more power – giving him the Army Commander position over the previous holder (Opolot) who had relations to Buganda through marriage (possibly believing Opolot would be reluctant to take military action against the Kabaka if it came to that). Obote abolished the constitution and effectively suspended elections due in a few months. Obote went on television and radio to accuse the Kabaka of various offences including requesting foreign troops which appears to have been explored by the Kabaka following the rumours of Amin plotting a coup. Obote further dismantled the authority of the Kabaka by announcing among other measures:

The abolition of independent public service commissions for federal units. This removed the Kabaka's authority to appoint civil servants in Buganda.
The abolition of the Buganda High Court – removing any judicial authority the Kabaka had.
The bringing of Buganda financial management under further central control.
Abolition of lands for Buganda chiefs. Land is one of the key sources of Kabaka's power over his subjects.

The lines were now drawn for a show down between Buganda and the Central government. Historians may argue about whether this could have been avoided through compromise. This was unlikely as Obote now felt emboldened and saw the Kabaka as weak. Indeed, by accepting the presidency four years earlier and siding with the UPC, the Kabaka had divided his people and taken the side of one against the other. Within Buganda's political institutions, rivalries driven by religion and personal ambition made the institutions ineffective and unable to respond to the central government moves. The Kabaka was often regarded as aloof and unresponsive to advice from the younger Buganda politicians who better understood the new post-Independence politics, unlike the traditionalists who were ambivalent to what was going on as long as their traditional benefits were maintained. The Kabaka favoured the neo-traditionalists.[55] (Opens in a new window)

In May 1966, the Kabaka made his move. He asked for foreign help, and the Buganda parliament demanded that the Uganda government leave Buganda (including the capital, Kampala). In response Obote ordered Idi Amin to attack the Kabaka's palace. The battle for the Kabaka's palace was fierce – the Kabaka's guards putting up more resistance than had been expected. The British trained Captain – the Kabaka with about 120 armed men kept Idi Amin at bay for twelve hours.[56] (Opens in a new window) It is estimated that up to 2,000 people died in the battle which ended when the army called in heavier guns and overran the palace. The anticipated countryside uprising in Buganda did not materialise and a few hours later a beaming Obote met the press to relish his victory. The Kabaka escaped over the palace walls and was transported into exile in London by supporters. He died there three years later.

1966–1971 (before the coup)

In 1966, following a power struggle between the Obote-led government and King Muteesa, Obote suspended the constitution and removed the ceremonial president and vice-president. In 1967, a new constitution proclaimed Uganda a republic and abolished the traditional kingdoms. Obote was declared the president.[25] (Opens in a new window)

1971 (after the coup) –1979 (end of Amin regime)

Main article: History of Uganda (1971–79) (Opens in a new window)

After a military coup on 25 January 1971 (Opens in a new window), Obote was deposed from power and General Idi Amin (Opens in a new window) seized control of the country. Amin ruled Uganda as dictator with the support of the military for the next eight years.[57] (Opens in a new window) He carried out mass killings within the country to maintain his rule. An estimated 80,000–500,000 Ugandans died during his regime.[58] (Opens in a new window) Aside from his brutalities, he forcibly removed (Opens in a new window) the entrepreneurial Indian (Opens in a new window) minority from Uganda.[59] (Opens in a new window) In June 1976, Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France (Opens in a new window) flight and forced it to land at Entebbe airport (Opens in a new window). One hundred of the 250 passengers originally on board were held hostage until an Israeli commando raid (Opens in a new window) rescued them ten days later.[60] (Opens in a new window) Amin's reign was ended after the Uganda-Tanzania War (Opens in a new window) in 1979, in which Tanzanian forces aided by Ugandan exiles invaded Uganda.

1979–present

Main article: History of Uganda (1979–present) (Opens in a new window)

Belligerents of the Second Congo War. On 19 December 2005, the International Court of Justice (Opens in a new window) found against Uganda, in a case brought by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Opens in a new window), for illegal invasion of its territory, and violation of human rights.[61] (Opens in a new window)

Yoweri Museveni (Opens in a new window) has been president since his forces toppled the previous regime in January 1986.

Political parties in Uganda (Opens in a new window) were restricted in their activities beginning that year, in a measure ostensibly designed to reduce sectarian violence. In the non-party (Opens in a new window) "Movement" system instituted by Museveni, political parties continued to exist, but they could operate only a headquarters office. They could not open branches, hold rallies, or field candidates directly (although electoral candidates could belong to political parties). A constitutional referendum cancelled this nineteen-year ban on multi-party politics in July 2005.

In 1993, Pope John Paul II (Opens in a new window) visited Uganda during his 6-day pastoral trip (Opens in a new window) to urge Ugandans to seek reconciliation. During mass celebrations, he paid homage to the slain Christian martyrs.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Museveni was lauded by western countries as part of a new generation of African leaders (Opens in a new window).[62] (Opens in a new window)

His presidency has been marred, however, by invading and occupying the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the Second Congo War (Opens in a new window), resulting in an estimated 5.4 million deaths since 1998, and by participating in other conflicts in the Great Lakes region of Africa (Opens in a new window). He has struggled for years in the civil war against the Lord's Resistance Army, which has been guilty of numerous crimes against humanity, including child slavery (Opens in a new window), the Atiak massacre (Opens in a new window), and other mass murders. Conflict in northern Uganda has killed thousands and displaced millions.[63] (Opens in a new window)

Parliament abolished presidential term limits in 2005, allegedly because Museveni used public funds to pay US$2,000 to each member of parliament who supported the measure.[64] (Opens in a new window) Presidential elections (Opens in a new window) were held in February 2006. Museveni ran against several candidates, the most prominent of them being Kizza Besigye (Opens in a new window).

On 20 February 2011, the Uganda Electoral Commission declared the incumbent president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni the winning candidate of the 2011 elections (Opens in a new window) that were held on 18 February 2011. The opposition however, were not satisfied with the results, condemning them as full of sham and rigging. According to the official results, Museveni won with 68 percent of the votes. This easily topped his nearest challenger, Besigye, who had been Museveni's physician and told reporters that he and his supporters "downrightly snub" the outcome as well as the unremitting rule of Museveni or any person he may appoint. Besigye added that the rigged elections would definitely lead to an illegitimate leadership and that it is up to Ugandans to critically analyse this. The European Union's Election Observation Mission reported on improvements and flaws of the Ugandan electoral process: "The electoral campaign and polling day were conducted in a peaceful manner. However, the electoral process was marred by avoidable administrative and logistical failures that led to an unacceptable number of Ugandan citizens being disfranchised."[65] (Opens in a new window)

Since August 2012, hacktivist group Anonymous (Opens in a new window) has threatened Ugandan officials and hacked official government websites over its anti-gay bills.[66] (Opens in a new window) Some international donors have threatened to cut financial aid to the country if anti-gay bills continue.[67] (Opens in a new window)

Indicators of a plan for succession by the president's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, have increased tensions.[68] (Opens in a new window)[69] (Opens in a new window)[70] (Opens in a new window)[71] (Opens in a new window)

President Yoweri Museveni has ruled the country since 1986 and he was latest re-elected in January 2021 presidential elections (Opens in a new window). According to official results Museveni won the elections with 58% of the vote while popstar-turned-politician Bobi Wine (Opens in a new window) had 35%. The opposition challenged the result because of allegations of widespread fraud and irregularities.[72] (Opens in a new window)[73] (Opens in a new window) Another opposition candidate was 24 year old John Katumba.[74] (Opens in a new window)

Geography

Main article: Geography of Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Uganda is located in southeast Africa between 1º S and 4º N latitude, and between 30º E and 35º E longitude. Its geography is very diverse consisting of volcanic hills, mountains, and lakes. The country sits at an average of 900 meters above sea level. Both the eastern and western borders of Uganda have mountains. The Ruwenzori mountain range contains the highest peak in Uganda, which is named Alexandra and measures 5,094 meters.

Lakes and rivers

Much of the south of the country is heavily influenced by one of the world's biggest lakes, Lake Victoria, which contains many islands. The most important cities are located in the south, near this lake, including the capital Kampala (Opens in a new window) and the nearby city of Entebbe (Opens in a new window).[75] (Opens in a new window) Lake Kyoga (Opens in a new window) is in the centre of the country and is surrounded by extensive marshy areas.[76] (Opens in a new window)

Although landlocked, Uganda contains many large lakes. Besides Lakes Victoria and Kyoga, there are Lake Albert (Opens in a new window), Lake Edward (Opens in a new window), and the smaller Lake George (Opens in a new window).[75] (Opens in a new window) It lies almost completely within the Nile (Opens in a new window) basin. The Victoria Nile drains from Lake Victoria into Lake Kyoga and thence into Lake Albert on the Congolese border. It then runs northwards into South Sudan (Opens in a new window). An area in eastern Uganda is drained by the Suam River (Opens in a new window), part of the internal drainage basin of Lake Turkana (Opens in a new window). The extreme north-eastern part of Uganda drains into the Lotikipi Basin, which is primarily in Kenya.[75] (Opens in a new window)

Biodiversity and conservation

Main article: Conservation in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Uganda map of Köppen climate classification.

Side view of Victoria Nile (Opens in a new window)[78] (Opens in a new window)

Uganda is home to a vast number of species, including a population of mountain gorillas (Opens in a new window) in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, gorillas and golden monkeys (Opens in a new window) in the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, and hippos (Opens in a new window) in the Murchison Falls National Park.[79] (Opens in a new window)

The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index (Opens in a new window) mean score of 4.36/10, ranking it 128th globally out of 172 countries.[80] (Opens in a new window)

Government and politics

This section does not cite (Opens in a new window) any sources (Opens in a new window). Please help improve this section (Opens in a new window) by adding citations to reliable sources (Opens in a new window). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed (Opens in a new window). (March 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message (Opens in a new window))

Main article: Politics of Uganda (Opens in a new window)

The President of Uganda (Opens in a new window) is both head of state (Opens in a new window) and head of government (Opens in a new window). The president appoints a vice-president and a prime minister (Opens in a new window) to aid him in governing.

The parliament is formed by the National Assembly (Opens in a new window), which has 449 members. These include; 290 constituency representatives, 116 district woman representatives, 10 representatives of the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces, 5 representatives of the youth, 5 representatives of workers, 5 representatives of persons with disabilities and 18 ex officio (Opens in a new window) members.[81] (Opens in a new window)

Foreign relations

Further information: Foreign relations of Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Uganda is a member of the East African Community (Opens in a new window) (EAC), along with Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. According to the East African Common Market Protocol of 2010, the free trade and free movement of people is guaranteed, including the right to reside in another member country for purposes of employment. This protocol, however, has not been implemented because of work permit and other bureaucratic, legal, and financial obstacles. Uganda is a founding member of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Opens in a new window) (IGAD) an eight-country bloc including governments from the Horn of Africa (Opens in a new window), Nile Valley (Opens in a new window) and the African Great Lakes (Opens in a new window).[82] (Opens in a new window) Its headquarters are in Djibouti City. Uganda is also a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (Opens in a new window).[83] (Opens in a new window)

U.S. President George W. Bush (Opens in a new window) met with President Yoweri Museveni in Entebbe, Uganda, 11 July 2003.

Military

Further information: Uganda People's Defence Force (Opens in a new window)

In Uganda, the Uganda People's Defence Force (Opens in a new window) serves as the military. The number of military personnel in Uganda (Opens in a new window) is estimated at 45,000 soldiers on active duty. The Uganda army is involved in several peacekeeping and combat missions in the region, with commentators noting that only the United States Armed Forces (Opens in a new window) is deployed in more countries. Uganda has soldiers deployed in the northern and eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the Central African Republic (Opens in a new window), Somalia (Opens in a new window), and South Sudan (Opens in a new window).[84] (Opens in a new window)

Corruption

Main article: Corruption in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Transparency International (Opens in a new window) has rated Uganda's public sector as one of the most corrupt in the world. In 2016, Uganda ranked 151st best out of 176 and had a score of 25 on a scale from 0 (perceived as most corrupt) to 100 (perceived as clean).[85] (Opens in a new window)

The World Bank (Opens in a new window)'s 2015 Worldwide Governance Indicators ranked Uganda in the worst 12 percentile of all countries.[86] (Opens in a new window) According to the United States Department of State (Opens in a new window)'s 2012 Human Rights Report on Uganda, "The World Bank's most recent Worldwide Governance Indicators reflected corruption was a severe problem" and that "the country annually loses 768.9 billion shillings ($286 million) to corruption."[70] (Opens in a new window)

Ugandan parliamentarians in 2014 earned 60 times what was earned by most state employees, and they sought a major increase. This caused widespread criticism and protests, including the smuggling of two piglets into the parliament in June 2014 to highlight corruption amongst members of parliament. The protesters, who were arrested, used the word "MPigs" to highlight their grievance.[87] (Opens in a new window)

A specific scandal, which had significant international consequences and highlighted the presence of corruption in high-level government offices, was the embezzlement of $12.6 million of donor funds from the Office of the Prime Minister in 2012. These funds were "earmarked as crucial support for rebuilding northern Uganda, ravaged by a 20-year war, and Karamoja, Uganda's poorest region." This scandal prompted the EU, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and Norway to suspend aid.[88] (Opens in a new window)

Widespread grand and petty corruption involving public officials and political patronage systems have also seriously affected the investment climate in Uganda. One of the high corruption risk areas is the public procurement in which non-transparent under-the-table cash payments are often demanded from procurement officers.[89] (Opens in a new window)

What may ultimately compound this problem is the availability of oil. The Petroleum Bill, passed by parliament in 2012 and touted by the NRM as bringing transparency to the oil sector, has failed to please domestic and international political commentators and economists. For instance, Angelo Izama, a Ugandan energy analyst at the US-based Open Society Foundation said the new law was tantamount to "handing over an ATM (cash) machine" to Museveni and his regime.[90] (Opens in a new window) According to Global Witness in 2012, a non-governmental organisation devoted to international law, Uganda now has "oil reserves that have the potential to double the government's revenue within six to ten years, worth an estimated US $2.4 billion per year."[91] (Opens in a new window)

The Non-Governmental Organizations (Amendment) Act, passed in 2006, has stifled the productivity of NGOs through erecting barriers to entry, activity, funding and assembly within the sector. Burdensome and corrupt registration procedures (i.e. requiring recommendations from government officials; annual re-registration), unreasonable regulation of operations (i.e. requiring government notification prior to making contact with individuals in NGO's area of interest), and the precondition that all foreign funds be passed through the Bank of Uganda, among other things, are severely limiting the output of the NGO sector. Furthermore, the sector's freedom of speech has been continually infringed upon through the use of intimidation, and the recent Public Order Management Bill (severely limiting freedom of assembly) will only add to the government's stockpile of ammunition.[92] (Opens in a new window)

Human rights

Main article: Human rights in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

There are many areas which continue to attract concern when it comes to human rights in Uganda.

Conflict in the northern parts of the country continues to generate reports of abuses by both the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (Opens in a new window) (LRA), led by Joseph Kony (Opens in a new window), and the Ugandan Army (Opens in a new window). A UN official accused the LRA in February 2009 of "appalling brutality" in the Democratic Republic of Congo.[93] (Opens in a new window)

The number of internally displaced persons (Opens in a new window) is estimated at 1.4 million. Torture continues to be a widespread practice amongst security organisations. Attacks on political freedom in the country, including the arrest and beating of opposition members of parliament, have led to international criticism, culminating in May 2005 in a decision by the British government to withhold part of its aid to the country. The arrest of the main opposition leader Kizza Besigye (Opens in a new window) and the siege of the High Court (Opens in a new window) during a hearing of Besigye's case by heavily armed security forces – before the February 2006 elections (Opens in a new window) – led to condemnation.[94] (Opens in a new window)

The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants reported several violations of refugee rights in 2007, including forcible deportations by the Ugandan government and violence directed against refugees.[96] (Opens in a new window)

Torture and extrajudicial killings have been a pervasive problem in Uganda in recent years. For instance, according to a 2012 US State Department report, "the African Center for Treatment and Rehabilitation for Torture Victims registered 170 allegations of torture against police, 214 against the UPDF, 1 against military police, 23 against the Special Investigations Unit, 361 against unspecified security personnel, and 24 against prison officials" between January and September 2012.[70] (Opens in a new window)

In September 2009, Museveni refused Kabaka Muwenda Mutebi, the Baganda king, permission to visit some areas of Buganda Kingdom, particularly the Kayunga district. Riots occurred and over 40 people were killed while others still remain imprisoned. Furthermore, 9 more people were killed during the April 2011 "Walk to Work" demonstrations. According to the Humans Rights Watch 2013 World Report on Uganda, the government has failed to investigate the killings associated with both of these events.[97] (Opens in a new window)

LGBT rights

Main article: LGBT rights in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Protests in New York City (Opens in a new window) against Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill (Opens in a new window).

In 2007, a Ugandan newspaper, the Red Pepper (Opens in a new window), published a list of allegedly gay men, many of whom suffered harassment as a result.[98] (Opens in a new window)

On 9 October 2010, the Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone (Opens in a new window) published a front-page article titled "100 Pictures of Uganda's Top Homos Leak" that listed the names, addresses, and photographs of 100 homosexuals alongside a yellow banner that read "Hang Them".[99] (Opens in a new window) The paper also alleged that homosexuals aimed to recruit (Opens in a new window) Ugandan children. This publication attracted international attention and criticism from human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International (Opens in a new window),[100] (Opens in a new window) No Peace Without Justice (Opens in a new window)[101] (Opens in a new window) and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (Opens in a new window).[102] (Opens in a new window) According to gay rights (Opens in a new window) activists, many Ugandans have been attacked since the publication.[103] (Opens in a new window) On 27 January 2011, gay rights activist David Kato (Opens in a new window) was murdered.[104] (Opens in a new window)

In 2009, the Ugandan parliament considered an Anti-Homosexuality Bill (Opens in a new window) that would have broadened the criminalisation of homosexuality by introducing the death penalty for people who have previous convictions, or are HIV-positive, and engage in same-sex sexual acts. The bill also included provisions for Ugandans who engage in same-sex sexual relations outside of Uganda, asserting that they may be extradited (Opens in a new window) back to Uganda for punishment, and included penalties for individuals, companies, media organisations, or non-governmental organizations that support legal protection for homosexuality or sodomy. The private member's bill (Opens in a new window) was submitted by MP (Opens in a new window) David Bahati (Opens in a new window) in Uganda on 14 October 2009, and was believed to have had widespread support in the Uganda parliament.[105] (Opens in a new window) The hacktivist group Anonymous (Opens in a new window) hacked into Ugandan government websites in protest of the bill.[106] (Opens in a new window) The debate of the bill was delayed in response to global condemnation but was eventually passed on 20 December 2013 and signed by President Yoweri Museveni on 24 February 2014. The death penalty was dropped in the final legislation. The law was widely condemned by the international community. Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden said they would withhold aid. The World Bank (Opens in a new window) on 28 February 2014 said it would postpone a US$90 million loan, while the United States said it was reviewing ties with Uganda.[107] (Opens in a new window) On 1 August 2014, the Constitutional Court of Uganda (Opens in a new window) ruled the bill invalid as it was not passed with the required quorum (Opens in a new window).[108] (Opens in a new window)[109] (Opens in a new window)[110] (Opens in a new window) A 13 August 2014 news report said that the Ugandan attorney general had dropped all plans to appeal, per a directive from President Museveni who was concerned about foreign reaction to the bill and who also said that any newly introduced bill should not criminalise same-sex relationships between consenting adults.[111] (Opens in a new window) Progress on the continent of Africa has been slow but progressing with South Africa being the only country where same sex marriages are recognised.[112] (Opens in a new window)

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Uganda (Opens in a new window)

As of 2022, Uganda is divided into four Regions of Uganda (Opens in a new window) and 136 districts (Opens in a new window).[113] (Opens in a new window)[114] (Opens in a new window) Rural areas of districts are subdivided into sub-counties (Opens in a new window), parishes, and villages. Municipal and town councils are designated in urban areas of districts.[115] (Opens in a new window)

Political subdivisions in Uganda are officially served and united by the Uganda Local Governments Association (Opens in a new window) (ULGA), a voluntary and non-profit body which also serves as a forum for support and guidance for Ugandan sub-national governments.[116] (Opens in a new window)

Parallel with the state administration, five traditional Bantu (Opens in a new window) kingdoms have remained, enjoying some degrees of mainly cultural autonomy. The kingdoms are Toro (Opens in a new window), Busoga (Opens in a new window), Bunyoro (Opens in a new window), Buganda (Opens in a new window), and Rwenzururu (Opens in a new window). Furthermore, some groups attempt to restore Ankole (Opens in a new window) as one of the officially recognised traditional kingdoms, to no avail yet.[117] (Opens in a new window) Several other kingdoms and chiefdoms are officially recognised by the government, including the union of Alur chiefdoms, the Iteso paramount chieftaincy, the paramount chieftaincy of Lango and the Padhola state.[118] (Opens in a new window)

Economy and infrastructure

Main articles: Economy of Uganda (Opens in a new window), Energy in Uganda (Opens in a new window), and Agriculture in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Graphical depiction of Uganda's product exports in 28 color-coded categories.

The Bank of Uganda (Opens in a new window) is the central bank (Opens in a new window) of Uganda and handles monetary policy along with the printing of the Ugandan shilling (Opens in a new window).[119] (Opens in a new window)

In 2015, Uganda's economy generated export income from the following merchandise: coffee (US$402.63 million), oil re-exports (US$131.25 million), base metals and products (US$120.00 million), fish (US$117.56 million), maize (US$90.97 million), cement (US$80.13 million), tobacco (US$73.13 million), tea (US$69.94 million), sugar (US$66.43 million), hides and skins (US$62.71 million), cocoa beans (US$55.67 million), beans (US$53.88 million), simsim (Opens in a new window) (US$52.20 million), flowers (US$51.44 million), and other products (US$766.77 million).[120] (Opens in a new window)

Change in per capita GDP of Uganda, 1950–2018. Figures are inflation-adjusted to 2011 International dollars.

The country has been experiencing consistent economic growth. In fiscal year 2015–16, Uganda recorded gross domestic product growth of 4.6 percent in real terms and 11.6 percent in nominal terms. This compares to 5.0 percent real growth in fiscal year 2014–15.[121] (Opens in a new window): vii

The country has largely untapped reserves of both crude oil (Opens in a new window) and natural gas.[122] (Opens in a new window) While agriculture accounted for 56 percent of the economy in 1986, with coffee as its main export, it has now been surpassed by the services sector, which accounted for 52 percent of GDP in 2007.[123] (Opens in a new window) In the 1950s, the British colonial regime encouraged some 500,000 subsistence farmers to join co-operatives.[124] (Opens in a new window) Since 1986, the government (with the support of foreign countries and international agencies) has acted to rehabilitate an economy devastated during the regime of Idi Amin and the subsequent civil war.[4] (Opens in a new window)

In 2012, the World Bank still listed Uganda on the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (Opens in a new window) list.[125] (Opens in a new window)

Economic growth has not always led to poverty reduction (Opens in a new window). Despite an average annual growth of 2.5 percent between 2000 and 2003, poverty levels increased by 3.8 percent during that time.[126] (Opens in a new window) This has highlighted the importance of avoiding jobless growth (Opens in a new window) and is part of the rising awareness in development circles of the need for equitable growth (Opens in a new window) not just in Uganda, but across the developing world.[126] (Opens in a new window)

Coffee fields in southwestern Uganda

With the Uganda securities exchanges established in 1996, several equities have been listed. The government has used the stock market as an avenue for privatisation. All government treasury issues are listed on the securities exchange. The Capital Markets Authority has licensed 18 brokers, asset managers, and investment advisors including: African Alliance Investment Bank, Baroda Capital Markets Uganda Limited, Crane Financial Services Uganda Limited, Crested Stocks and Securities Limited, Dyer & Blair Investment Bank, Equity Stock Brokers Uganda Limited, Renaissance Capital Investment Bank and UAP Financial Services Limited.[127] (Opens in a new window) As one of the ways of increasing formal domestic savings, pension sector reform is the centre of attention (2007).[128] (Opens in a new window)[129] (Opens in a new window)

Uganda traditionally depends on Kenya for access to the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa (Opens in a new window). Efforts have intensified to establish a second access route to the sea via the lakeside ports of Bukasa (Opens in a new window) in Uganda and Musoma (Opens in a new window) in Tanzania, connected by railway to Arusha (Opens in a new window) in the Tanzanian interior and to the port of Tanga (Opens in a new window) on the Indian Ocean.[130] (Opens in a new window)

Workers at a textile factory in Jinja (Opens in a new window)

Uganda is a member of the East African Community (Opens in a new window) and a potential member of the planned East African Federation (Opens in a new window).

Uganda has a large diaspora, residing mainly in the United States and the United Kingdom. This diaspora has contributed enormously to Uganda's economic growth through remittances and other investments (especially property). According to the World Bank, Uganda received in 2016 an estimated US$1.099 billion in remittances from abroad, second only to Kenya (US$1.574 billion) in the East African Community.[131] (Opens in a new window) and seventh in Africa[132] (Opens in a new window) Uganda also serves as an economic hub for a number of neighbouring countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo,[133] (Opens in a new window) South Sudan,[134] (Opens in a new window) and Rwanda.[135] (Opens in a new window)

The Ugandan Bureau of Statistics announced inflation was 4.6 percent in November 2016.[136] (Opens in a new window) On 29 June 2018, Uganda's statistics agency said the country registered a drop in inflation to 3.4 percent in the financial year ending 2017/18 compared to the 5.7 percent recorded in the financial year 2016/17.[137] (Opens in a new window)

Industry

Since the 1990s, the economy in Uganda is growing. Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an average of 6.7% annually during the period 1990–2015, whereas real GDP per capita grew at 3.3% per annum during the same period.[140] (Opens in a new window)

Poverty

Main article: Poverty in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Uganda is one of the poorest nations in the world. In 2012, 37.8 percent of the population lived on less than $1.25 a day.[141] (Opens in a new window) Despite making enormous progress in reducing the countrywide poverty incidence from 56 percent of the population in 1992 to 24.5 percent in 2009, poverty remains deep-rooted in the country's rural areas, which are home to 84 percent of Ugandans.[142] (Opens in a new window)

People in rural areas of Uganda depend on farming as the main source of income and 90 per cent of all rural women work in the agricultural sector.[143] (Opens in a new window) In addition to agricultural work, rural women are responsible for the caretaking of their families. The average Ugandan woman spends 9 hours a day on domestic tasks, such as preparing food and clothing, fetching water and firewood, and caring for the elderly, the sick as well as orphans. As such, women on average work longer hours than men, between 12 and 18 hours per day, with a mean of 15 hours, as compared to men, who work between 8 and 10 hours a day.[144] (Opens in a new window)

To supplement their income, rural women may engage in small-scale entrepreneurial activities such as rearing and selling local breeds of animals. Nonetheless, because of their heavy workload, they have little time for these income-generating activities. The poor cannot support their children at school and in most cases, girls drop out of school to help out in domestic work or to get married. Other girls engage in sex work. As a result, young women tend to have older and more sexually experienced partners and this puts women at a disproportionate risk of getting affected by HIV, accounting for about 5.7 per cent of all adults living with HIV in Uganda.[145] (Opens in a new window)

Maternal health in rural Uganda lags behind national policy targets and the Millennium Development Goals (Opens in a new window), with geographical inaccessibility, lack of transport and financial burdens identified as key demand-side constraints to accessing maternal health services;[146] (Opens in a new window) as such, interventions like intermediate transport mechanisms have been adopted as a means to improve women's access to maternal health care services in rural regions of the country.[147] (Opens in a new window)

Gender inequality is the main hindrance to reducing women's poverty. Women are subjected to an overall lower social status than men. Many women believe this reduces their power to act independently, participate in community life, become educated and escape reliance upon abusive men.[148] (Opens in a new window)

Entebbe International Airport

Air transportation

There are 35 airports (Opens in a new window) in Uganda. Commercial airlines operate scheduled passenger services out of four airports. Uganda currently has one functioning international airport, Entebbe International Airport (Opens in a new window), which is located 25 miles (40 km) south-west of Kampala (Opens in a new window). In 2017, the airport traffic hit 1.53 million passengers, 8% more than the previous year.[149] (Opens in a new window) A second international airport, Hoima International Airport (Opens in a new window), is currently under construction.[150] (Opens in a new window)

Road network

Road to Murchison

Road transportation is the most important way of transportation in Uganda. 95% of freight and passenger traffic is handled by road traffic. The road network in Uganda is approximately 129,469 km (80,448 mi) long. About 4% of these roads are paved which equates to only about 5,300 kilometres (3,300 mi) of paved road. The different types of roads are national roads (22,009 km (13,676 mi)—17%), district roads (33,661 km (20,916 mi)—26%), urban roads (9,062 km (5,631 mi)—7%), and community roads (64,734 km (40,224 mi)—50%).[151] (Opens in a new window) The national roads make up about 17% of the road network but carry over 80% of the total road traffic.[152] (Opens in a new window) In Uganda there are 83,000 private cars which means 2.94 cars per 1000 inhabitants.[153] (Opens in a new window)

Railroad

The rail network in Uganda is approximately 1,260 kilometres (780 mi) long. The longest lines are the main line from Kampala (Opens in a new window) to Tororo (Opens in a new window) (249 kilometres (155 mi)), the western line from Kampala (Opens in a new window) to Kasese (Opens in a new window) (333 kilometres (207 mi)), the northern line from Tororo (Opens in a new window) to Pakwach (Opens in a new window) (641 kilometres (398 mi)).[154] (Opens in a new window)

Communications

Main article: Communications in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it (Opens in a new window). (January 2013)

Mobile operators offer money sending, receiving services, bill payments among many more services.

There are seven telecommunications companies serving over 21 million subscribers[155] (Opens in a new window) in a population of over 34 million.[156] (Opens in a new window) More than 95 percent of internet connections are made using mobile phones.[157] (Opens in a new window)

The total mobile and fixed telephony subscriptions increased from over 20 million to over 21 million yielding an increment of over 1.1 million subscribers (5.4 increase) compared to the 4.1 percent increases realised in the previous quarter Q4 2014 (October–December).[155] (Opens in a new window)

Mobile & fixed telephony[155] (Opens in a new window) Indicators Q4 2014 Q1 2015 Change (%) Mobile Subscriptions (prepaid) 20,257,656 21,347,079 5.4 Mobile Subscriptions (post-paid) 108,285 110,282 1.8 Fixed subscriptions 324,442 349,163 7.6 Tele-density 56.5 62.5 10.6 National status 20,690,383 21,806,523 5.4

Energy

Uganda is richly endowed with abundant energy resources, which are fairly distributed throughout the country. These include hydropower, biomass, solar, geothermal, peat and fossil fuels.

In the 1980s, the majority of energy in Uganda came from charcoal and wood. However, oil was found in the Lake Albert (Opens in a new window) area, totaling an estimated 95 million cubic metres (3.4×109 cu ft) barrels of crude.[122] (Opens in a new window) Heritage Oil (Opens in a new window) discovered one of the largest crude oil finds in Uganda, and continues operations there.[158] (Opens in a new window)

Uganda and Tanzania signed a deal on 13 September 2016 that will see the two countries build a 1,445 km, $3.5bn crude oil pipeline. The Uganda–Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline (UTCOP) (Opens in a new window), also known as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Opens in a new window) (EACOP) will be the first of its kind in East Africa, will connect Uganda's oil-rich Hoima region with the Indian Ocean through the Tanga port in Tanzania.

Uganda's favorable enabling environment and broad presence of private sector investment presents a unique opportunity to deliver on Power Africa (Opens in a new window) goals.[159] (Opens in a new window) Uganda is one of the few sub-Saharan African countries to have liberalized and financially viable energy markets, with generation, transmission and supply segments unbundled since 2001.[160] (Opens in a new window) There is an independent Electricity Regulatory Authority (Opens in a new window) that undertakes sector regulation and oversight. The largest distribution company, UMEME (Opens in a new window) is privately owned and has a 20-year concession for distribution and retail. The country, however, is divided into 13 rural service territories, and 6 of these are being managed by small distribution companies. Independent power producers (Opens in a new window) (IPPs) currently account for nearly 60% of generation capacity. Issues with integrated planning and the financial ecosystem persist.

Water supply and sanitation

Main article: Water supply and sanitation in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

According to a 2006 published report, the Ugandan water supply and sanitation sector had made substantial progress in urban areas since the mid-1990s, with substantial increases in coverage as well as in operational and commercial performance.[161] (Opens in a new window): 3–4 Sector reforms in the period 1998–2003 included the commercialisation and modernisation of the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (Opens in a new window) operating in cities and larger towns, as well as decentralisation and private sector participation in small towns.[162] (Opens in a new window): 15

Although these reforms have attracted significant international attention, 38 percent of the population still had no access to an improved water source (Opens in a new window) in 2010. Concerning access to improved sanitation (Opens in a new window), figures have varied widely. According to government figures, it was 70 percent in rural areas and 81 percent in urban areas in 2011,[163] (Opens in a new window) while according to UN figures it was only 34 percent.[164] (Opens in a new window)

The water and sanitation sector was recognised as a key area under the 2004 Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), Uganda's main strategy paper to fight poverty.[165] (Opens in a new window): 182–188 According to a 2006 published report, a comprehensive expenditure framework had been introduced to co-ordinate financial support by external donors, the national government, and nongovernmental organisations (Opens in a new window).[166] (Opens in a new window): 5 The PEAP estimated that from 2001 to 2015, about US$1.4 billion, or US$92 million per year, was needed to increase water supply coverage up to 95 percent, with rural areas needing US$956 million, urban areas and large towns needing US$281 million, and small towns needing US$136 million.[165] (Opens in a new window): 182–183

Education

Main article: Education in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Uganda's educational system, while lacking in many areas, has seen significant change since the late 1990s. The educational system is set up so that children spend seven years in primary school, six years in secondary school, and three to five years in post secondary school. In 1997, the government declared that primary school would be free for all children.[167] (Opens in a new window) This amendment has had huge benefits. In 1986, only two million children were attending primary school. By 1999, six million children were attending primary school, and this number has continued to climb. Following significant gains in access to primary education since 1997 when universal primary education (UPE) was introduced, Uganda in 2007 became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to introduce universal secondary education [168] (Opens in a new window)(USE). This bold step by the Government of Uganda led to an increase in lower secondary enrolment of nearly 25% between 2007 and 2012.

Students in Uganda

At the 2002 census, Uganda had a literacy (Opens in a new window) rate of 66.8 percent (76.8 percent male and 57.7 percent female).[4] (Opens in a new window) Public spending on education was at 5.2 percent of the 2002–2005 GDP.[169] (Opens in a new window)

As of 2020, the NCHE (Opens in a new window) website listed 46 private accredited universities.[170] (Opens in a new window) to mention a few, Makerere University (Opens in a new window), Mbarara University of science and technology (Opens in a new window), Kyambogo University (Opens in a new window), Gulu University (Opens in a new window), Uganda Christian University (Opens in a new window), Kampala international University (Opens in a new window) among many more.

Health

Main articles: Health in Uganda (Opens in a new window) and HIV/AIDS in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

There were eight physicians per 100,000 persons in the early 2000s.[169] (Opens in a new window) Uganda's elimination of user fees at state health facilities in 2001 has resulted in an 80 percent increase in visits, with over half of this increase coming from the poorest 20 percent of the population.[171] (Opens in a new window) This policy has been cited as a key factor in helping Uganda achieve its Millennium Development Goals and as an example of the importance of equity in achieving those goals.[126] (Opens in a new window) Despite this policy, many users are denied care if they do not provide their own medical equipment, as happened in the highly publicised case of Jennifer Anguko.[172] (Opens in a new window) Poor communication within hospitals,[173] (Opens in a new window) low satisfaction with health services[174] (Opens in a new window) and distance to health service providers undermine the provision of quality health care to people living in Uganda, and particularly for those in poor and elderly-headed households.[175] (Opens in a new window) The provision of subsidies for poor and rural populations, along with the extension of public private partnerships, have been identified as important provisions to enable vulnerable populations to access health services.[175] (Opens in a new window)

Development of life expectancy

Life expectancy (Opens in a new window) at birth was estimated to be 63.4 years in 2019.[176] (Opens in a new window) The infant mortality (Opens in a new window) rate was approximately 61 deaths per 1,000 children in 2012.[177] (Opens in a new window)

In July 2012, there was an Ebola (Opens in a new window) outbreak in the Kibaale District (Opens in a new window) of the country.[178] (Opens in a new window) On 4 October 2012, the Ministry of Health officially declared the end of the outbreak after at least 16 people had died.[179] (Opens in a new window)

The Health Ministry announced on 16 August 2013 that three people had died in northern Uganda from a suspected outbreak of Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (Opens in a new window).[180] (Opens in a new window)

Uganda has been among the rare HIV (Opens in a new window) success stories.[169] (Opens in a new window) Infection rates of 30 percent of the population in the 1980s fell to 6.4 percent by the end of 2008.[181] (Opens in a new window)[182] (Opens in a new window) Meanwhile, the practice of abstinence was found to have decreased.[183] (Opens in a new window)

Less than half of all sexually active unmarried women use a modern contraceptive method, a fraction that has barely changed from 2000 to 2011. However, only ~26% of married women used contraceptives in 2011. The use of contraceptives also differs substantially between poor (~15%) and wealthy women (~40%).[184] (Opens in a new window) As a result, Ugandan women have ~6 children while they prefer to have around ~4. According to the 2011 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), more than 40% of births are unplanned. In 2010, the Ugandan Ministry of Health estimated that unsafe abortion accounted for 8% of the country's maternal deaths.[184] (Opens in a new window) The 2006 Uganda Demographic Health Survey (UDHS) indicated that roughly 6,000 women die each year from pregnancy-related complications.[185] (Opens in a new window) Pilot studies in 2012 by Future Health Systems have shown that this rate could be significantly reduced by implementing a voucher scheme for health services and transport to clinics.[186] (Opens in a new window)[187] (Opens in a new window)

The prevalence of female genital mutilation (Opens in a new window) (FGM) is low: according to a 2013 UNICEF report,[188] (Opens in a new window) only 1 percent of women in Uganda have undergone FGM, with the practice being illegal in the country.[189] (Opens in a new window)

Crime and law enforcement

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it (Opens in a new window). (January 2013)

In Uganda, the Allied Democratic Forces (Opens in a new window) is considered a violent rebel force that opposes the Ugandan government. These rebels are an enemy of the Uganda People's Defence Force and are considered an affiliate of Al-Shabaab (Opens in a new window).[190] (Opens in a new window)

Tourism

Main article: Tourism in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Rwenzori mountains in Uganda

Tourism in Uganda (Opens in a new window) is focused on Uganda's landscape and wildlife. It is a major driver of employment, investment and foreign exchange, contributing 4.9 trillion Ugandan shillings (Opens in a new window) (US$1.88 billion or €1.4 billion as of August 2013) to Uganda's GDP (Opens in a new window) in the financial year 2012–13.[191] (Opens in a new window) The Uganda Tourism Board is responsible for maintaining information pertaining to tourism in Uganda. The main attractions are photo safaris through the National parks and game Reserves (Opens in a new window). Other attractions include the Mountain Gorillas found in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (MGNP), Uganda having some of the oldest cultural kingdom in Africa has many Cultural sites (Opens in a new window). Uganda is a birding paradise boasting a massive bird list of more than 1073 recorded bird species ranking 4th in Africa's bird species and 16th internationally.[192] (Opens in a new window) Uganda has landscapes ranging from white-capped Rwenzori mountains (Opens in a new window) to the Great Rift Valley (Opens in a new window).

Science and technology

Main article: Science and technology in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

The National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy dates from 2009. Its overarching goal is to ‘strengthen national capability to generate, transfer and apply scientific knowledge, skills and technologies that ensure sustainable utilization of natural resources for the realisation of Uganda's development objectives.’ The policy precedes Uganda Vision 2040, which was launched in April 2013 to transform ‘Ugandan society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years,’ in the words of the Cabinet. Uganda Vision 2040 vows to strengthen the private sector, improve education and training, modernize infrastructure and the underdeveloped services and agriculture sectors, foster industrialization and promote good governance, among other goals. Potential areas for economic development include oil and gas, tourism, minerals and information and communication technologies (ICTs).[193] (Opens in a new window)

Uganda was ranked 119th in the Global Innovation Index (Opens in a new window) in 2021, down from 102nd in 2019.[194] (Opens in a new window)[195] (Opens in a new window)[196] (Opens in a new window)[197] (Opens in a new window) Research funding climbed between 2008 and 2010 from 0.33% to 0.48% of GDP. Over the same period, the number of researchers doubled (in head counts) from 1 387 to 2 823, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (Opens in a new window). This represents a leap from 44 to 83 researchers per million inhabitants over the same period. One in four researchers is a woman. Uganda has been able to manufacture prototype of cars called kiira in which the government invested 70usd. [193] (Opens in a new window)

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Uganda's population grew from 9.5 million people in 1969 to 34.9 million in 2014. With respect to the last inter-censal period (September 2002), the population increased by 10.6 million people in the past 12 years.[198] (Opens in a new window) Uganda's median age (Opens in a new window) of 15 years is the lowest in the world.[4] (Opens in a new window) Uganda has the fifth highest total fertility rate (Opens in a new window) in the world, at 5.97 children born per woman (2014 estimates).[4] (Opens in a new window)

There were about 80,000 Indians in Uganda (Opens in a new window) before Idi Amin required the expulsion of Ugandan-Asians (Opens in a new window) (mostly of Indian origin) in 1972, which reduced the population to as low as 7,000. Many Indians, however, returned to Uganda after Amin's ouster in 1979. Around 90 percent of Ugandan Indians reside in Kampala.[199] (Opens in a new window)

According to the UNHCR (Opens in a new window), Uganda hosts over 1.1 million refugees on its soil as of November 2018.[200] (Opens in a new window) Most come from neighbouring countries in the African Great Lakes (Opens in a new window) region, particularly South Sudan (Opens in a new window) (68.0 percent) and Democratic Republic of the Congo (Opens in a new window) (24.6%).[200] (Opens in a new window)

Languages

Main article: Languages of Uganda (Opens in a new window)

An ethnolinguistic map of Uganda

Swahili (Opens in a new window), a widely used language throughout the African Great Lakes region, was approved as the country's second official national language in 2005.[2] (Opens in a new window)[201] (Opens in a new window) English (Opens in a new window) was the only official language until the constitution was amended in 2005. Although Swahili has not been favoured by the Bantu-speaking populations of the south and south-west of the country, it is an important lingua franca (Opens in a new window) in the northern regions. It is also widely used in the police and military forces, which may be a historical result of the disproportionate recruitment of northerners into the security forces during the colonial period. The status of Swahili has thus alternated with the political group in power.[202] (Opens in a new window) For example, Idi Amin, who came from the north-west, declared Swahili to be the national language.[203] (Opens in a new window)

Religion

Main article: Religion in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Saint Mary's Cathedral Rubaga (Opens in a new window), is the parent cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala (Opens in a new window).

The Roman Catholic Church (Opens in a new window) had the largest number of adherents (39.3 percent, down from 41.6 in 2002), followed by the Anglican (Opens in a new window) Church of Uganda (Opens in a new window) (32 percent, down from 35.9 percent). The category of Evangelical (Opens in a new window)/Pentecostal (Opens in a new window)/Born-Again (Opens in a new window) showed the most growth, rising from 4.7% in 2002 to 11.1% in 2018. Adventist (Opens in a new window) and other Protestant (Opens in a new window) churches claimed most of the remaining Christians, although there was also a small Eastern Orthodox (Opens in a new window) community.[204] (Opens in a new window)[205] (Opens in a new window) The next most reported religion of Uganda was Islam (Opens in a new window), with Muslims representing 13.7 percent of the population, up from 12.1% in 2002.[204] (Opens in a new window)

The remainder of the population according to the 2014 census followed traditional religions (0.1 percent, down from 1% in 2002), other religions (1.4 percent), or had no religious affiliation (0.2 percent).[204] (Opens in a new window)

Largest cities and towns

Culture

Main articles: Culture of Uganda (Opens in a new window), Music of Uganda (Opens in a new window), Ugandan cuisine (Opens in a new window), List of African writers (by country) § Uganda (Opens in a new window), and List of Ugandans (Opens in a new window)

Cultural celebrations in Northern Uganda

Woman in Rwenzori (Opens in a new window) – Western Uganda

Owing to the large number of communities, culture within Uganda is diverse. Many Asians (mostly from India) who were expelled during the regime of Idi Amin have returned to Uganda.[206] (Opens in a new window)

Media

Further information: Mass media in Uganda (Opens in a new window)

Uganda has a number of media outlets that broadcast domestically and globally. They cover news, magazines, sports, business and entertainment.

The most popular television stations in Uganda (Opens in a new window) include:

All of the media is controlled and regulated under the Uganda Communications Commission (Opens in a new window) (UCC).[207] (Opens in a new window)[208] (Opens in a new window)

Sport

Further information: Uganda at the Olympics (Opens in a new window) and Uganda at the Commonwealth Games (Opens in a new window)

Mandela National Stadium (Opens in a new window) in Kira Town (Opens in a new window).

As of 2020, Uganda at the Olympics (Opens in a new window) has won a total of two gold, three silver, and two bronze medals; four of which were in boxing (Opens in a new window) and three in athletics (Opens in a new window). Uganda at the Commonwealth Games (Opens in a new window) has collected 13 gold medals and a total 49 medals, all in boxing and athletics.

In cricket (Opens in a new window), Uganda was part of the East Africa team (Opens in a new window) that qualified for the Cricket World Cup (Opens in a new window) in 1975 (Opens in a new window).

The country has an increasingly successful national basketball team (Opens in a new window). It is nicknamed "The Silverbacks,"[212] (Opens in a new window) and made its debut at the 2015 FIBA Africa Championship (Opens in a new window).

In July 2011, Kampala, Uganda qualified for the 2011 Little League World Series (Opens in a new window) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania (Opens in a new window) for the first time, beating Saudi Arabian baseball team Dharan LL, although visa complications prevented them from attending the series.[213] (Opens in a new window) Little League teams from Uganda qualified for and attended the 2012 Little League World Series (Opens in a new window).[214] (Opens in a new window)

Cinema

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (January 2020)

Main article: Cinema of Uganda (Opens in a new window)

The Ugandan film industry is relatively young. It is developing quickly, but still faces an assortment of challenges. There has been support for the industry as seen in the proliferation of film festivals such as Amakula (Opens in a new window), Pearl International Film Festival (Opens in a new window), Maisha (Opens in a new window) African Film Festival and Manya Human Rights Festival. However, filmmakers struggle against the competing markets from other countries on the continent such as those in Nigeria and South Africa in addition to the big budget films from Hollywood.[215] (Opens in a new window)

The first publicly recognised film that was produced solely by Ugandans was Feelings Struggle, which was directed and written by Hajji Ashraf Ssemwogerere (Opens in a new window) in 2005.[216] (Opens in a new window) This marks the year of ascent of film in Uganda, a time where many enthusiasts were proud to classify themselves as cinematographers in varied capacities.[217] (Opens in a new window)

The local film industry is polarised between two types of filmmakers. The first are filmmakers who use the Nollywood (Opens in a new window) video film era (Opens in a new window)'s guerrilla approach to film making, churning out a picture in around two weeks and screening it in makeshift video halls. The second is the filmmaker who has the film aesthetic, but with limited funds has to depend on the competitive scramble for donor cash.[215] (Opens in a new window)

Though cinema in Uganda is evolving, it still faces major challenges. Along with technical problems such as refining acting and editing skills, there are issues regarding funding and lack of government support and investment. There are no schools in the country dedicated to film, banks do not extend credit to film ventures, and distribution and marketing of movies remains poor.[215] (Opens in a new window)[217] (Opens in a new window)

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is preparing regulations starting in 2014 that require Ugandan television to broadcast 70 percent Ugandan content and of this, 40 percent to be independent productions. With the emphasis on Ugandan film and the UCC regulations favouring Ugandan productions for mainstream television, Ugandan film may become more prominent and successful in the near future.[217] (Opens in a new window)