Professional environmentalists' chief Frank Muramuzi dies

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National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) executive director Frank Muramuzi has died.

NAPE is an action-oriented organisation dedicated to finding sustainable solutions to Uganda’s most pressing environmental and economic growth challenges.

According to Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) chief executive officer Dickens Kamugisha, the outspoken environmentalist and civil society leader breathed his last at Nakasero Hospital on Monday, August 11, 2025.

“We are here at Nakasero (hospital) that’s where he died. Can you please call me after an hour? We are making a programme for his burial arrangements,” Kamugisha told New Vision Online on the phone.

A trained ecologist, he will be remembered for opposing the controversial 2007 giveaway of Mabira Central Forest Reserve to Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd (SCOUL), championing environmental and natural resources governance.

A Ramsar site is a wetland designated as being of international importance under a 1971 convention which was signed in Ramsar, Iran. 

The Mabira pandemonium led to riots that resulted in the deaths of three people.

However, following pressure from Buganda Kingdom and various organisations, including Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) who had vowed to sue the Government, it later buckled and reversed its plans.

He also led civil society campaigns for transparency on major dam projects such as Bujagali, protection of Ramsar sites and fair compensation for communities affected by palm oil and petroleum exploration in Bunyoro.

Environmental crisis

Two years ago, Muramuzi stirred controversy when he proposed reallocating funds meant for World Environment Day celebrations to finding solutions for climate change, forest and wetland depletion. A phenomenon, he blamed for the changing weather patterns, driving food insecurity.

“When you mine sand or cultivate rice on vast land, you weaken it, causing waterlogging that eventually flows into Lake Victoria. Then, the roads are destroyed. So, it is them to blame, nobody else. We have told them not once, not twice, and that is the reason why I cannot go to celebrate. I think my colleagues here also cannot go to celebrate World Environment Day,” he argued.

Majorly, he attributed the environmental crisis to the lack of implementation of laws and the indiscipline of some Government officials charged with the responsibility of protecting the environment.

“Why, probably NEMA is fearing to go to court and stop them, you may find that those who are growing sugarcanes in Bugoma, who are destroying that forest are coming from the state,” Muramuzi insinuated.