Tribute: Frank Muramuzi was a very courageous and effective leader of the environmental struggles
The reality now is that of all three people who combated destructive development with reference to Bujagali Dam, I am the only one still alive. Martin Musumba died in 2013. And Now Frank Muramuzi has died.
By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
The news of the demise of environmentalist Frank Muramuzi early Monday, 11 August 2025, found me when I was still in bed recuperating from an illness. I had not heard that he was sick. All the time I was involved in environmental struggles in Uganda, East Africa, the Nile Basin, and the world, I never saw him sick. He was always active defending the environment in all its dimensions against national and international political and corporate plots against the environment.
I did not know Frank Muramuzi until Ms Byaruhanga, formerly in the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at Makerere University, took me to his office at Makerere University, where he taught refugees English, etc. That was in 1998. Martin Musumba and myself had formed a civic crusade called the Save Bujagali Crusade (SBC). We wanted to link our effort to a fearless, environmentally focused civil society organisation (CSO) adequately committed to environmental conservation in all the dimensions of the environment (ecological-biological, socioeconomic, sociocultural, and temporal). Muramuzi was the director of an environmental NGO called the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE).
The reality now is that of all three people who combated destructive development with reference to Bujagali Dam, I am the only one still alive. Martin Musumba died in 2013. And now Frank Muramuzi has died. But as William Shakespeare wrote, the world is a stage where we all come, play our different roles, and then leave.
It was not easy to fight environmental causes in Uganda, because the leaders of Uganda were greatly in love with building a money economy at the expense of nature, people, and the environment. Frank Muramuzi was a very courageous and effective leader of the environmental struggles in Uganda, Africa, and the world. He quickly agrees that for the struggle against big dams in Uganda, Save Bujagali Dam should operate as a project under the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE). Under NAPE, Save Bujagali Crusade became very effective, not only in Uganda but also in the whole world.
Under Muramuzi’s leadership, NAPE extended its influence all over the world as the NGO in Uganda that confronted political and corporate forces with alternatives to destroying nature and the environment.
Here are some of the struggles that Muramuzi led.
- Struggle against Bujagali and other dams.
- Struggle again to use dangerous chemicals to remove the water weed, water hyacinth, from Lake Victoria.
- Struggle against the destruction of Mabira Rainforest for sugarcane growing.
- Struggle against destruction of freshwater resources in Western Uganda by oil development.
- Struggle against oil palm growing in Kalangala and the rest of Uganda.
- Struggle against Genetically Modified Organisms.
- 7. Struggle against the use of DDT to combat the Anopheles mosquito and malaria.
- Struggle against the destruction of indigenous agroecological systems.
- Struggle against desertification by embracing analog forestry.
- Struggle to popularise alternative energy resources (biogas, solar, and geothermal) in Uganda.
Uganda and the environmental fraternity have lost a fearless, courageous leader who believes that words, environmental knowledge, awareness, and concern alone will not save the environment, but ACTION will.
In all the struggles, Frank Muramuzi recognized that the world was now a small global village, necessitating that environmental issues generated locally can manifest themselves globally, and that therefore, all humanity should be united in resolving them. This way he maintained an array of civil society organisations such as Friends of the Earth and International Rivers, which. Building a viable network of civil society organisation for the environment. We shall miss his environmental leadership, wisdom, and courage.
May Frank Muramuzi’s soul rest in peace!NAPE
For God and My Country
Oweyegha-Afunaduula is a Conservation Biologist and member of Center for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis
