Andrew Mwenda apologises to President Museveni over 'senility' comments

Journalist Andrew Mwenda has issued an apology to president Yoweri Museveni after the president described him as a do-nothinger and neo-colonial agent over his remarks that the fountain of honour was incapable of making correct investment decisions due to age. 

In an article published in his The Independent Magazine, Mwenda praised the president for finding his opinion worthy of debate and responding to it in a long missive. 

He revealed that he read the president’s response while on a flight to Beijing and received several calls from several anxious people worried about him. 

 “Museveni is a ferocious intellectual able to hold his own in a policy debate. If he were as angry at me as the callers imagined, he would have sent a team from the police or SFC to apprehend me. The fact that he chose to write back was evidence that he disagreed with me but recognized that this is a difference of opinion worthy of a debate, not a shooting match or jailing response,” part of his article read. 

In regards to ‘senility’ remarks, Mwenda apologised to the president. 

“The only place we disagree is on the choice of partners Uganda has selected. Where I went wrong, and to this I apologize to him without any reservations, is saying his decisions [that I disagree with] are because of his age,” he said before adding. 

“In fact, I personally should have been the last person to make such an argument for two reasons.

“First, I detest ad hominem arguments. I should have focused on the merits and demerits of his decisions, not the age at which he made them. Besides, these decisions are not new, nor is my criticism. I disagreed with him in 2003 when he supported Tri Star Apparels to do garments for export to the USA under AGOA. It failed. And I also opposed him when he supported BIDCO in 2004. It succeeded.”

Mwenda also added that billionaire Bill Gates encouraged African governments to fund local start-ups and disagreed on the sidelines of one of his famous TED Talks. 

“It is in this context that Bill Gates spoke to me in New York. He said I was wrong to criticize Museveni for giving money to private business startups. He argued that the biggest constraint to business development in Africa is the absence of risk capital, ‘ he recalled. 

Mwenda further stated that he would apologise to Ugandan entrepreneurs he described as witches in his article to whom the president wondered whther he bothered to find out their side of the story. 

 “I want to apologize to the President and also to Magoola and Senfuka. I was unfair to them when I called them conmen and witch doctors. It is utterly unjustified to insult someone that way. In fact that framing undermines the policy argument I was making. Besides, I always advise young people that we can disagree without being disagreeable. I feel bad that I wrote in such a bad language, like a NUP activist rather than a journalist and an intellectual that I aspire to be,” he said.