In Uganda no one is safe, not even the most pro-Museveni sycophants. Here is a recap of what marked the year 2023 mostly for people who considered themselves close associates to despot Museveni or those that claimed to work for him. 2024 will be bloodier.

The killing of blogger Isma Olaxes alias Jajja Ichuli was a heart shocking incident that showed Museveni was ready to eliminate own cronies and blame the opposition. Everybody remembers how Jajja Ichuli who was the president of Ugandan bloggers association and a noisemaker of criminal despot Museveni was murdered in cold blood.

Killed in May last year, the bloody regime of despot Museveni is yet to come clean on the real culprits behind the killing of Isma Olaxes, no investigation has ever been concluded and no justice has been given to the deceased family. Every sober mind who knows the killing modus operandi of criminal despot Museveni will definitely not question who killed Olaxes.

⁠The killing of Col RTD Charles Engola, former state minister for labor equally showed Museveni remained true to the principle of “use, abuse and eliminate.” While the media went awash with stories that a certain Wilson Sabiiti shot the minister and later killed himself after the latter was denied ransoms, the bigger picture of the story was that the killing was state planned.

When criminal despot Museveni murders his own in cold blood, his end motive is mostly to spread fear and terror among the public leaving many questions on the killing of associates of the Head of State. It then becomes very easy for the despot to attribute the killings to his enemies and hunt them ruthlessly.

The assassination attempt of Pastor Aloysious Bugingo, another sympathiser for despot Museveni, at the beginning of this year, shows Museveni will not relent to shed more blood in the year 2024 as long as his interests are met.

Being the third year into his 7th mandate and knowing exactly that he had overstayed his power against the will of people, criminal despot Museveni is always ready to pull his last card which is to shed more blood. He has always thrived through chaos, terrorism and violence.

2023 just like the preceding years was marked by systematic killings of despot Museveni’s so-called enemies and some of his closest associates. From the killing of Charles Engola, Isma Olaxes, Geoffrey Mwesigwa (former city businessman), john Mujumbi (a trader); Indian businessman by the names of Uttam Bhandari and many more, criminal despot Museveni runs a gun blazing, blood shedding Republic where no one is safe.

History will always recall the blood-thirsty regimes of Idi Amin Dada, the northerner who butchered Ugandans like grasshoppers, and Milton Obote’s terror regime of the early to mid eighties as truly terrifying times. But criminal despot Museveni has joined that terrible pantheon.