ICYMI: The day Gen Moses Ali revealed his pivotal secret pact with Museveni

What the report says

Watchdog Uganda published an opinion piece by Norbert Mao recounting remarks attributed to Gen. Moses Ali at a Muni University meeting held “last year,” where the former finance minister and senior military figure reportedly departed from the investment theme of the event to discuss power, war and Uganda’s political transitions. Mao said Ali framed his account around the idea that durable peace is necessary for economic progress.

According to the article, Ali revisited the period after Idi Amin’s fall, arguing that Amin’s ouster came through a neighbouring country’s invasion rather than a liberation struggle. He reportedly described how former Amin soldiers stayed organized in exile while post-Amin governments under Yusuf Lule, Godfrey Binaisa, Paulo Muwanga and later Milton Obote were marked by instability and internal conflict. The piece also links Obote’s eventual overthrow to grievances within the army after the death of Oyite Ojok and the elevation of Smith Opon Achak.

The central claim in Mao’s account is that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi mediated a secret understanding among anti-Obote rebel groups that they would not fight one another. Ali reportedly said that after Gen. Tito Okello took power, his forces joined Okello’s side while Yoweri Museveni’s NRA continued its push despite the Nairobi peace agreement of December 1985.

Mao writes that Ali said he was summoned to Libya, where Gaddafi brought him face to face with Museveni and reminded both men of the pact. Ali allegedly agreed to withdraw his fighters from Katonga, clearing the way for the NRA’s advance on Kampala. The account matters because it offers one participant’s version of a behind-the-scenes decision that may have shaped the final phase of Uganda’s 1985-86 power struggle.