President Museveni pays tribute to veteran general Moses Ali at Parliament

President Yoweri Museveni joined MPs at the sitting on Tuesday, laying a wreath on the casket of the man he had known for four decades and recounting the journey the two had shared through some of the most turbulent chapters of Uganda’s history. He described Gen Ali as a patriot, a freedom fighter and a leader devoted to the country’s development.

The cortege carrying the general’s body arrived at parliament earlier in the morning, where the casket was received by MPs ahead of the tributes.

A motion for a resolution to honour Gen Ali was moved under the rules of procedure by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja and seconded by the Leader of the Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi. It described him as a courageous soldier and an astute leader whose service in the military, civil and public life spanned more than 50 years.

The resolution conveyed parliament’s condolences to Gen Ali’s family, the people of the West Nile sub-region and the people of Uganda, and appreciated what it called the distinguished service he had rendered to the country.

Gen Ali died on Saturday 18 July at Nakasero Hospital in Kampala, where his family said he had been receiving treatment for a long illness. His close friend, Capt Mike Mukula, was among the first to announce the death publicly, saying the general had died at 4.25pm.

At the time of his death, Gen Ali was the MP for Adjumani West County, a seat he had held since 2016. He had served as Second Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of Government Business in parliament from 2021 until he was dropped from the cabinet after the 2026 general elections, though he retained his parliamentary seat.

His public life stretched back more than half a century and moved through strikingly different eras. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1969, he rose quickly through the ranks of the Uganda Army, becoming a major in 1971, a colonel in 1972 and a brigadier in 1974. He served as minister of finance in 1975 under Idi Amin.

Returning to government under Museveni, he went on to hold a string of senior positions over the decades, including minister of internal affairs, minister of tourism, and minister for disaster preparedness and refugees, before rising through the offices of third, first and second deputy prime minister. He was a member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted Uganda’s 1995 constitution and briefly chaired the Federation of Uganda Football Associations in 1994.

The motion also credited him with supporting the peace efforts that helped end the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency in northern Uganda, and with championing the Amnesty Act that granted pardons to fighters who renounced rebellion.

Before entering the military, Gen Ali had begun his working life as a teacher, and those who knew him say education remained a lifelong passion. Residents of his constituency remember a leader who quietly paid school fees for children from struggling families.

Parliament was expected to adjourn after the tributes to allow MPs and members of the public to take part in the general’s final send-off. His body is to be flown to Adjumani District, where he is due to be buried on Wednesday at his ancestral home.