When Museveni swore never to arrest Miria Matembe

• Matembe wrote in her 2019 memoir that Museveni promised she would never be arrested or killed under his rule.

• She was charged on June 30, 2026, with promoting sectarianism and remanded to Luzira Prison after denying the charge.

• Prosecutors accuse her of making remarks on DK TV Uganda that allegedly promoted hostility against the Banyankole community.

• Her memoir recounts her political fallout with Museveni over constitutional changes and governance.

Tuesday’s court arraignment and remanding of former Ethics and Integrity minister Dr Miria Matembe has brought to the fore a key promise that was reportedly made to him by his former boss, President Yoweri Museveni, that has now been broken.

President Yoweri Museveni is said to have personally promised to never arrest or kill Mrs Matembe under his rule.

This was during one of the meetings they had after she denounced and left his government.

Writing in her 2019 memoir, The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Betrayed, Matembe recounted a private meeting with Museveni after she openly challenged his leadership following the removal of presidential term limits.

In the meeting, she confronted the president about his wartime record, telling him she feared she had become his enemy after disagreeing with him politically.

"He responded by saying that they were at war then and he was killing enemies. I told him that was the reason why I was scared, because now that I disagreed with him, I was an enemy and could be killed," she wrote.

She said Museveni was surprised by her fears before making what she described as a personal oath.

"In his own words, the president swore to me that he would never put me in prison or kill me. He said, 'Mbwenu Matembe, buzima notiina ngu ninza kukwita? Mbwenu hati nakurahirira tihariho obundiba nkukomire nari nkwitsire,' loosely translated as: 'Matembe, I give you my word. Under my watch, you will never be arrested or killed.'"

The passage has attracted renewed attention after the 73-year-old veteran politician appeared before the Luzira Grade One Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, where she was charged with promoting sectarianism and remanded to Luzira Prison.

Prosecutors allege that during an interview on DK TV Uganda earlier this month, Matembe made remarks claiming that "all our taxes are being spent on the Banyankole women ministers", comments the state says were likely to promote hostility, hatred or ill will against members of the Banyankole community, contrary to Section 38(1)(d) of the Penal Code Act. Matembe denied the charge.

Her lawyers immediately applied for bail, arguing that she was in poor health and required urgent medical attention. 

However, Grade One Magistrate Sheilla Gloria Atim declined to hear the application, saying the defence had not presented medical evidence and that it was too late in the day to determine the request. 

The case was adjourned to today, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, for a formal bail hearing, and Matembe was remanded to Luzira Prison.

Matembe's court appearance came days after she disappeared following a security raid on her Luzira home. 

Family members later said she had escaped arrest after receiving a tip-off while out jogging, hid for two days, and was eventually arrested from a friend's house before being taken to Mbuya. 

Her disappearance prompted the Uganda Law Society and several civil society organisations to demand that security agencies disclose her whereabouts and either release her or produce her before court.

In her memoir, Matembe described her relationship with Museveni as one that deteriorated after she concluded that he had abandoned the ideals that had attracted her to the National Resistance Movement.

At another meeting, she said she compared Museveni's constitutional legacy to those of former presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin.

"I told him that to me Obote and Amin were the same in as far as abrogating the National Constitution was concerned. He abrogated it through corruption by bribing members of parliament to amend it. Obote, by making a 'pigeon hole' one, and Amin, by simply abolishing it."

She said she also accused Museveni of becoming a different person from the leader she had once admired.

"I told him I had followed one person but they were now two in one. Demonstrating with my hand, I told him I joined one who looked like the face of my hand, but now the one I saw was like the back of my hand. So I asked him, 'Which one of you is calling me to re-join him? I joined you when you were travelling along a certain clear path, but now you have abandoned that path and have jumped into the bush.'"

Published in 2019, The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Betrayed chronicles Matembe's years inside Museveni's government and her eventual fallout with the ruling establishment. In the book, she accuses the government of abandoning the democratic ideals that inspired the 1986 liberation struggle and embracing corruption, patronage and constitutional manipulation to entrench what she calls "Musevenism."