President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Friday surprised NRM leaders and supporters in West Nile after publicly praising American President Donald Trump for reportedly discouraging Africans from working and staying in the United States.
While addressing NRM structure leaders at Muni University, Museveni said he supports President Trump’s decision to “chase away Africans and foreigners who have left their own countries to go and stay in America.” Emphasizing the need to love, work for, and develop their own countries
Museveni noted that many people complain about poverty because they do not want to work hard and create wealth in their own homeland.
Museveni’s praise for the American president comes just two weeks after he strongly condemned the attack, capture, and attempted overthrow of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, which included imprisoning him in the United States, a move widely condemned by world leaders as a breach of international law.
More recently, Uganda was added to an expanded United States visa bond programme that will require some travellers to post refundable deposits of up to $15,000, a measure seen as limiting the ease of migration and formalizing stricter entry requirements.
The new rules, set to take effect on January 21, 2026, are part of a visa bond pilot programme aimed at reducing rates of visa overstays.
However, Museveni maintains that Africans should remain in Africa and focus on developing their own economies and defense capabilities, rather than seeking work in countries like the UAE, Europe, or the United States.
This, he said, is one reason he “appreciates” Trump’s actions against Africans wanting to live and work in America.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Gender, Labor, and Social Development, thousands of Ugandans leave the country every year for greener pastures in developed parts of the world, including America, Europe, and the Middle East, with Dubai taking a significant share for business purposes.
However, some political analysts argue that the uneven political environment in Uganda, coupled with increasing human rights violations, suppression of freedom of speech and association, rising poverty levels, and high unemployment, will continue to push Ugandans to seek livelihoods abroad.
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