Academician Idi Menya Announces bid to Unseat Museveni come 2026

Ugandan academician and Diplomacy student of Canvedish University Menya Idi on Thursday announced he would run for president in the 2026 presidential election.

Speaking to reporters at Forest Cottages, Naguru Hill, Bukoto, in Uganda’s capital Kampala, Menya highlighted several grounds that tickled him to take the mantle for the country’s top seat including fighting corruption , championing Peace and security, Infrastructural development, Youths and Women empowerment, Healthcare improvement , Water & Sanitation among others. He also mentioned improving International & Regional Cooperation, Education, Transport and building the Economy which he claims the ruling government has failed.

Below is his full speech

It is now a public secret that there is a shrinking democracy space in Uganda which has caused human rights violations and that is observed from where Uganda starts to from in the  east to west,  from north to where democracy is really in a big bad situation right now.

As we talk ,during this regime, many Ugandans with dissenting views against the government have been arrested and detained in various prisons.

Some have been tortured, some have died in detention centers. But when I become the president of this country, the first thing I’ll do is to release all political prisoners. Can you imagine the people’s president is now the prisoner’s president? He was relegated from the people’s president to prisoner’s president. So, starting from those high profile men, I’m to release all political prisoners, mostly who are rotting in prison.

Some are being detained without any case being mentioned in court. I’m to release all of them and I grant Ugandans their freedom of expression, freedom of the press and other types of freedom.

The other reason why I’m coming to stand for president is the increasing poverty rate in the country. As I talk, there are some clubs that have been monitored by the United Nations that are highly indebted to poor countries.

For us we get loans, we get credits from foreign countries, we get from International Monetary Fund, we get from World Bank, we get from Western countries but we poorly manage those debts. We get them for different things and end up being shared for personal gains.

The recent poverty index report released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics this month indicates many Ugandans, especially in Karamoja, Busoga, Bukedi, Teso and Uganda are living below the poverty line.

This has been the case in previous years despite the assurance by the government that the economy is doing well. The Uganda National Bureau of Standards statistics are saying something different from what the government is also saying.

I can’t miss mentioning the corruption cases in Uganda. Corruption is a parasite which has eaten all departments,  institutions of this government of our current leaders.

The IGG report revealed that as a country we lose over 10 trillions annually in corruption scandals. This money, when well utilized, would help in servicing the divide.

The IGG was going to go on tracking corrupt officials in the country. But the president’s response was, if you attack, if you start tracking those people, they will start exporting the money they steal in Uganda. Meaning, the shopping malls they have in the country, the hotels they have in the country, they will construct them in our neighboring countries . Meaning the president was protecting the corrupt officials.

Right now we have over 50 million people with a huge parliament and they are earning highly. The Ugandan parliament earns more than many European parliaments whose wages are under those of Ugandan parliamentarians.

First of all, I don’t believe in such a huge number of MPs. I’m going to reduce the number of MPs in Parliament. At least we remain with half of them and  reduce their wages. They’ll not be earning that. It’s almost 10,000 US Dollars . They have their fixed amount, then they have allowances, then they have whatever.

I’m going to reduce that. Right now we have a functioning parliament, but I believe General Idi Amin’s regime in terms of policy, law making was better than the current government because Amin did not spend that much money on MPs. He rather used that money to facilitate service delivery.

The government is now highly paying lots of money to MPs. But if it comes to human rights issues concerning the citizens, they just put on a deaf ear. And if the government wants to change the age limit, term limit and recently to amend the constitution to allow the court martial to try civilians, you find that all MPs are there and they supported it.

So Amin was better because such an amount of money was not given to MPs to change any law.

About import substitution , we are going to produce our own local products. Uganda now imports almost everything. We have a few, these matchboxes, but we still import some. A country importing even matchboxes, how do you expect it to develop? And how do you expect such a country to manage its budget? By the way, Uganda, I believe almost 60% of its budget is either funded by grants , sponsored by western countries and some will just get loans so it’s like a poor man whatever you use at your home every day you just borrow. If you are borrowing for investment then it is fine to develop infrastructure , education but here we are borrowing for consumption not development.

We need to put much effort into industrialization so that we can produce our own products and those for exports.

In Busoga young boys and girls attempt early marriage because they lack education. First of all, the government always in its statistics mentioned Busoga and Karamoja as the poorest regions in Uganda. Being the poorest region in Uganda, yet education is expensive. They just opt to leave education.

If someone sits home for a few years, they just lose focus and end up in such situations. As I made it clear before, education under my regime will be free of charge and we shall enforce it.

Every country has to know its potential. Uganda, we know ourselves that we are farmers. The government has done less to support farmers. And the government’s support is to look for foreign markets. We had our coffee. We just hear it right now in history.

Our neighbor in Western Rwanda, Rwandan coffee is known. And on the international market, the president went to Germany, the president went to different countries to look for a market for his coffee. So our country has totally done nothing to promote or to look for a market for our local products.

In a united opposition , I’m ready as long as our principles and our goals are on the same path . It is not a mere change that Uganda needs change. Uganda needs a positive change.  I’m free to negotiate with anyone who needs to make a coalition with us.

Currently, civilian alliance is our group right now, our vehicle which is riding us . It is not a registered political party, though expect any news from now onward.