Kampala, Uganda: Nearly a decade after President Museveni issued a far-reaching directive to establish 25 regional industrial parks across Uganda, the plan remains unfulfilled, and the latest Auditor General report points to deep institutional paralysis at the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), worsened by sustained leadership infighting.
In 2016, Museveni directed UIA to roll out industrial parks nationwide to decentralise investment, stimulate manufacturing, create jobs and narrow regional inequalities. Ten years later, the audit verdict is stark: not a single regional industrial park has been established.
While UIA succeeded in mobilising tens of thousands of acres of land across several districts, the Auditor General found that the land remains largely idle, producing no factories, no employment and no economic returns for host communities.
At the heart of the failure is a protracted and highly publicised power struggle between UIA Executive Director Robert Mukiza and State Minister for Investment Evelyn Anite, a feud that critics say derailed focus from implementation to survival politics.
Their clashes, ranging from control of funds and procurement decisions to authority over strategic direction, have repeatedly spilled into the public domain, drawing in State House, Parliament and oversight agencies. Instead of accelerating industrial delivery, the authority became consumed by internal wars, institutional mistrust and stalled decision-making.
The Auditor General’s report reflects the cost of that dysfunction. It cites failure to develop industrial parks, inadequate infrastructure in existing facilities, weak monitoring of licensed investments and public land left exposed to encroachment due to inactivity.
The industrial parks directive was never a symbolic policy. It was designed to take factories closer to farmers, youth and small-scale entrepreneurs in upcountry Uganda. Its collapse has instead entrenched the over-concentration of industry around Kampala and a few urban centres, undermining inclusive growth.
While Mukiza and Anite have traded blame over the years, the audit makes clear that the institution itself failed to translate presidential authority into execution. The inability to act on such a high-level directive raises fundamental questions about accountability, command and coherence within UIA.
The report warns that prolonged inaction has weakened investor confidence, delayed structural transformation and damaged government credibility. When a presidential directive remains unimplemented for ten years, it signals a deeper governance breakdown, where leadership conflict overwhelms national priorities.
In response, the Auditor General highlights the need for urgent reforms, including removal of implementation bottlenecks, ring-fenced funding, clearer institutional roles and decisive leadership to finally operationalise industrial parks.
But beyond technical recommendations, the failure leaves a troubling question unanswered: how did internal fights at UIA overpower a presidential industrialisation agenda for an entire decade?
As Uganda pursues its industrial ambitions under successive National Development Plans, the cost of leadership conflict is no longer theoretical. It is visible in idle land, lost jobs, stalled regions and an industrialisation dream deferred.
DISCLAIMER: This story is based on official audit reports and publicly available records. References to disputes are matters of public record and do not imply criminal liability. All individuals mentioned are presumed innocent until proven otherwise!
