Former Deputy Attorney General Hon. Mwesigwa Rukutana has warned that passing the Protection and Sovereignty Bill 2026 would reverse Uganda’s hard-won progress and send the country backwards.
He shared his concerns during an engagement with our reporter about the bill currently before Parliament, which has raised questions over Uganda’s economy.
Hon. Rukutana recalled a difficult period when he served as Minister of State for Finance, during which Uganda was classified as a Highly Indebted Poor Country for five years.
He described that categorization as a nightmare because more than half of Uganda’s budget came from foreign sources such as the World Bank, the IMF, and donor countries.
He noted that Uganda could not set its own priorities, since budgets, development plans, and national projects all had to be approved by the World Bank, the IMF, and the donor community.
Hon. Rukutana advised that Uganda must increase production, grow exports, reduce luxury imports, control inflation, and fully liberalize capital flows — allowing foreign money to enter and investors to repatriate profits freely.
Source: Radio Ankole
