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Gen (Rtd) Salim Saleh used the launch of the Uganda Coffee Group at Kapeeka Industrial Park on October 13, 2026, to publicly dispute the message of King Saha's song "Kimala," telling attendees that the crop the singer mourned is back. According to Pulse Uganda, Saleh asked the DJ to play the track, referencing its coffee refrain, "Akamwanyi Kaliwo," before challenging the singer's account of how Uganda's coffee sector declined.
The remarks placed Saleh, a senior figure in Uganda's security and business circles, in direct disagreement with a popular musician whose lyrics blame the government for the loss of cash crops. Pulse Uganda reports that Saleh acknowledged a personal connection to King Saha even as he criticized the song's premise.
Why it matters
The exchange at Kapeeka highlights a widening gap between two narratives about Uganda's agricultural economy. King Saha's "Kimala" presents a portrait of decline, naming coffee, vanilla, moringa and cotton as crops that once supported Ugandan households but have since been lost. Saleh's response, delivered at an event built around reviving coffee investment, offers the opposite view: that the sector's troubles are past and that growers and investors should now commit to expansion.
The timing is significant. The Uganda Coffee Group was formed as a private sector-led effort to strengthen investment across the coffee value chain, and Saleh's comments gave the launch a headline moment that tied the initiative directly to a cultural debate already playing out in Uganda's music scene. According to Pulse Uganda, the launch brought together coffee industry stakeholders with the aim of mobilizing capital, coordinating strategic investments and widening participation among those with a stake in the crop.
What King Saha said in the song
Pulse Uganda reports that "Kimala" laments the disappearance of crops that once sustained Ugandans. Coffee features prominently, along with vanilla, moringa and cotton. The song attributes their decline to government action, a claim that Saleh rejected from the podium.
Saleh's choice to have the song played at the event was deliberate. By invoking its refrain, he set up his own counter-argument in the same breath, telling the audience that the theft the lyrics describe is no longer the reality. Pulse Uganda quotes him describing King Saha as someone he has a relationship with, while also calling him crafty. He then stated plainly that coffee is back.
The exchange carried an added personal dimension. Pulse Uganda notes that King Saha has a son with Saleh's daughter, Rachael Kente, and that Kente has supported the singer's music. That family tie did not soften Saleh's public criticism of the song's claims.
The Uganda Coffee Group's agenda
The launch event was not organized as a response to the song. According to Pulse Uganda, it convened coffee industry stakeholders around a private sector-led initiative intended to strengthen investment throughout Uganda's coffee value chain. The group's stated goals include mobilizing capital, coordinating strategic investments and broadening stakeholder participation.
A second objective centers on commercialization through value addition, a push that would move Uganda's coffee beyond raw bean exports toward processing and branded products. Saleh's remarks, delivered at the same gathering, framed the initiative as evidence that the decline described in "Kimala" has been reversed.
Video coverage of the event circulated with a caption quoting Saleh's challenge to the singer and his call for Ugandans to join the Uganda Coffee Group. Pulse Uganda attributes the reporting to Geofrey Mutumba and Busein Samilu.
A song, a crop and a public argument
The dispute touches on more than musical criticism. Coffee is one of Uganda's most important agricultural exports, and the question of whether the sector is recovering or still struggling carries weight for the farmers, processors and traders the new group hopes to organize. King Saha's lyrics speak to a sense of loss among communities that once depended on those crops. Saleh's remarks, made in front of industry stakeholders, assert that the loss has been reversed.
Neither position was presented at the launch with supporting figures, and Pulse Uganda's reporting does not include data on production or prices. What the event did produce was a clear public disagreement between a government-linked figure and a musician whose song has given that disagreement a soundtrack.
For now, the Uganda Coffee Group moves forward with its investment and value-addition agenda, while "Kimala" continues to circulate with its own account of what happened to Uganda's coffee. Whether Saleh's declaration that coffee is back will be measured against production numbers, farmer incomes or simply the next public appearance by either man remains to be seen.
