President Museveni makes another bold claim:- DRC’s Ituri Province belonged to Uganda

• Museveni says Ituri Province in DRC was historically part of the Bunyoro Kitara Empire.

• He cited Henry Morton Stanley’s 1887 writings describing extensive agriculture and dense settlement.

• The remarks follow other bold historical claims by Museveni that have sparked regional debate.

Ugandan President H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has come out to make another resounding historical claim, saying that Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was once part of the Bunyoro Kitara Empire found in present-day Uganda.

While hosting the End of Year Thanksgiving Prayers at State House, attended by religious leaders, diplomats, lawmakers, ministers, judges and senior military officers (as earlier reported), Museveni backed his assertion with historical writings by British explorer Henry Morton Stanley.

Quoting Stanley’s 19th-century accounts, Museveni cited an entry dated December 5, 1887, where the explorer described a journey through what is today Ituri. Stanley wrote:

“A march of an hour and a half in the afternoon, apparently not far from the river, brought us to the populous district of the Babusese.”

Museveni explained that Babusese, now located in Ituri, was at the time part of the Bunyoro system. He noted that Stanley was struck by the level of agricultural development in the area, which reminded him of Uganda—particularly Buganda, which Stanley had visited earlier in 1874.

Stanley further described the landscape as having extensive banana plantations, writing that the plantations were so vast that their shade covered large areas. He also documented fields of millet and sesame, along with large quantities of sweet potatoes on the outskirts of the plantations.

According to Stanley’s account, recorded in Volume One, page 298 of his book In the Darkest Africa, there was “ample evidence round about that the land was thickly peopled and industrially cultivated.” Museveni said these descriptions point to an organised and productive society that fit within the historical reach of the Bunyoro Kitara Empire.

It should be noted that the Bunyoro Kitara Empire was once vast, stretching across parts of present-day Uganda, the DRC, Rwanda and Tanzania, long before the colonial boundaries that define Africa today.

Museveni’s remarks have once again stirred debate, coming shortly after another controversial statement in which he suggested that Uganda should have unlimited access to the Indian Ocean from the Kenyan side. That claim sparked heated exchanges on Ugandan and Kenyan social media and prompted intervention by Kenyan leaders, including President William Ruto, who addressed the matter in a bid to calm tensions.