A national language alone is not enough to foster nation-building Tuesday April 13 2021 Summary Advertisement In 2005, I wrote an article in the Daily Monitor about the turbulent post-independence political history of Uganda, in which I attributed the turbulence to two factors; lack of a national language and having gotten independence on a silver platter. In that article, I explained how these two factors shaped our post-independence era, all the while comparing the pre to post independence data sheets on governance – one for Uganda and the other for Kenya and Tanzania. The argument I put across then was that unlike Uganda, the two countries had remained relatively stable politically because of the universal use of Swahili language that transcends ethnic and cultural horizons. I also postulated that the violent independence struggle – the Mau Mau rebellion that Kenya fought had galvanised national unity amongst all Kenyans that it was responsible for the county’s stability. Uganda had none of this, hence the lack of solidarity.