Uganda, May 11 -- By the numbers, 40 years is a milestone. But by the story of the National Resistance Movement time in power, it is a transformation even when debate has been divided.

When President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni took leadership of the country in 1986 (40 years ago), Uganda was not a country that investors queued for following decades of instability and political unrest. It was a country that had to rebuild trust, security, and its own sense of purpose before coming to where it is now.

Four decades later, that foundation is set in all aspects of the economy, and it is evident. Peace holds as has been seen in several parts of the country, and even when some institutions have been bedevilled by corruption and other ills, they st...