KAMPALA — Members of Parliament, opposition leaders, and former MP candidates have lauded the Minister of Water and Environment, Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Kahinda Otafiire, for a transparent and intellectually profound address that offered a philosophical blueprint for resolving political contradictions in Uganda.
The Elected Member of Parliament for Ruhinda County, Mitooma District, on the National Resistance Movement ticket, and former Minister of Internal Affairs, was addressing the House during the 2nd sitting of the 2nd meeting of the 1st session of the 12th Parliament on Wednesday, 30th September 2026.
In a speech now being described as both doctrinal and deeply reconciliatory, Otafiire elevated the debate from partisan contestation to the very essence of civilization.
The Core of the Doctrine:
“We have one country and we must serve one country. I always say that when you see two people living together and they do not disagree for a month, it means one of them is a fool. This means that disagreement is not a problem but how to resolve the contradiction is a problem,” Otafiire told the House.
He then delivered his most piercing admonition on militarism in politics:
“When you see a Military General who prefers violence as means of solving problems, then there is a problem. The greatest generals I know are those who resolve problems without shooting a bullet.”
Unpacking the architecture of statecraft, the veteran bush-war general outlined a hierarchy of conflict management that begins with intelligence — understanding what your adversary intends — and moves to prevention and tactical adaptation to avoid confrontation. When that fails, diplomacy must take precedence. War, he argued, is never an end in itself, but a final instrument to achieve a resolution.
“It’s only when diplomacy has been exhausted or failed that you go to war but you don’t go to war as ending itself, you go to war in order to achieve the end state which is resolution and we learn to tolerate each other,” he said.
A Tripartite Lesson in Leadership:
Otafiire’s most magnanimous and politically resonant statement was reserved for the meaning of victory itself.
“NRM you are winners, the whole mark of civilization is that all those who win are magnanimous in victory and those who don’t win respect the winners but they have a right to be heard.”
In a metaphor that has since captivated the House, he framed the opposition not as an enemy, but as a democratic necessity:
“You know you never see how beautiful or ugly your face is until you look into the mirror and colleagues in the NRM side, this opposition is our mirror reflection.”
What It Means:
For *Leaders and the Ruling NRM*, it is a call to magnanimity. Victory without grace is pyrrhic. True leadership is validated not by dominance, but by the ability to listen and to govern with temperance.
For *The Opposition*, it is a profound validation. Their dissent is not treason; it is the mirror through which the state sees itself, corrects its blemishes, and refines its beauty.
For *Former Candidates*, whom Otafiire patronizes as Patron of the Former Parliamentary Candidates Forum, it is restoration. Having pledged full support to members as they rebuild, mobilize and establish socio-economic initiatives after the 2026 general elections, the General has affirmed that losing an election does not extinguish the right to be heard, to serve, and to belong to one country.
In one speech, the General has reminded Uganda that civilization endures not when we agree, but when we disagree without destroying each other.
