KAMPALA, Uganda — Capt. (Rtd) Michael Mukula, the Vice Chairman of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) for the Eastern Region, has written to President Yoweri Museveni, calling for a strategic government-led initiative to establish a modern coffee processing plant in the Bugisu sub-region.

Framing the proposal as both an economic and ideological imperative, Mukula argued that the project would be a bold step in Uganda’s march toward industrialization and economic independence.

Mukula credited his economic insight to the mentorship of Gen. (Rtd) Salim Saleh, whose grassroots engagement, he said, continues to illuminate Uganda’s broader development trajectory.

The former pilot and seasoned politician hailed President Museveni’s leadership in demystifying Africa’s “historical economic syndrome,” a colonial legacy rooted in the export of raw materials like Coffee, Cotton, and Copper (3 C.C.C), later followed by Tea, Tourism, and Tobacco (3 T.T.T).

“You have persistently warned against this colonial legacy that traps Africa in cycles of economic dependency and vulnerability,” Mukula wrote, aligning himself with Museveni’s call for a radical economic transformation anchored in value addition and industrialization.

Citing the President’s recent intervention in Ntungamo District, where robusta coffee value addition efforts have begun to transform local economies, Mukula proposed a similar model for Bugisu, a coffee-rich region that he said is “ready” to become Uganda’s epicenter of processed coffee exports.

According to the petition, the proposed factory would expand Uganda’s capacity to export fully processed coffee products, create thousands of jobs, especially for the youth under the Parish Development Model, provide predictable and better-paying markets for farmers, boost foreign exchange earnings, reduce economic vulnerability, and revitalize Uganda’s historic cooperative movements.

Mukula positioned the initiative not only as a domestic economic intervention but also as a continental signal of Uganda’s readiness to shake off colonial economic shackles.

“Africa is watching,” he declared, adding that this would be a model of rural industrialization and East African trade integration.

The veteran NRM leader pledged to mobilize the region’s political, social, and economic structures to support the project once endorsed by the President.

“With humility, conviction, and loyalty,” Mukula concluded, “I seek your hand to ignite yet another economic revolution this time, one that will make Mbale the cradle of value-added coffee production in Uganda.”