KALANGALA – General Mugisha Muntu, the presidential flagbearer for the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), has publicly detailed the specific incident that caused his irreversible fallout with President Yoweri Museveni, tracing it to the meddling in a local government election in Ntungamo.
While campaigning in Kalangala, Gen Muntu narrated that the rift erupted when the top leadership of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) attempted to impose a preferred candidate in the Ntungamo LC5 elections against the will of the local populace.
At the time, Gen Muntu was the Commander of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF). He revealed that he took it upon himself to advise President Museveni that such actions were a betrayal of their struggle’s principles and would ultimately corrupt the nascent political system from within.
“I tried to advise Museveni that such actions would corrupt the new system from within and plant the seeds of division,” Muntu told supporters. “However, he couldn’t listen.”
He explained that when his warning was ignored, the events in Ntungamo served as a stark confirmation that President Museveni had begun to drift from the core principles that guided their liberation struggle—namely, unity, honesty, and equal opportunity for all.
Further illustrating that his disagreements were rooted in principle rather than personal gain, Gen Muntu disclosed that in 1998, after he was relieved of his duties as army commander, President Museveni offered him a ministerial position. He flatly rejected the offer.
The ANT leader stated that he directly told President Museveni in a phone call that he could not, in good conscience, join a cabinet that practiced a two-tiered system of justice.
“I told off Museveni on a phone call how I could not join a cabinet that rewarded corruption while punishing minor offenders,” Gen Muntu added.
This revelation provides a historical backdrop to the upcoming 2026 general elections, framing Gen Muntu’s challenge to the NRM as a long-standing ideological conflict over governance and integrity, rather than a recent political rivalry.
