At 50, Museveni the worst to happen to Uganda

By Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

Uganda's agricultural potential is so enormous and diverse that farmers can earn a living from subsistence farming. The sector has not only been neglected but it has been turned into a highway for robbing billions of public funds.            Photo by Valerian Kkonde/ PNS

The Latin adage: Nemo dat quod non habet- meaning that you cannot give what you do not have, has brutally come to life in Uganda under President Yoweri Museveni. The country is witnessing total moral decay, systematic robbery of public resources and finances by the very people supposed to manage them, institutional break down and state-inspired torture.

At the time of getting her independence from the British Colonialists, Uganda based her optimism in the future on agriculture; and is still referred to as an agricultural country as 80% of the population is employed in the sector. Commercial crops like Cotton and Coffee brought success, joy and hope to Ugandans.

That was on 9^th October 1962. Fifty years later, agriculture, the backbone of the economy has been neglected to the extent of Uganda becoming a basket case in a region that envies her for the climate that allows everything to grow, even without any human attention.

Majority post-independence leaders like Obote, Amin and Titto Okello used the gun to get to state house.  Yusuf Kironde Lule, Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa and Paul Muwanga were all products of these armed struggles.

The exception is Yoweri Museveni; the primitive and savage tactics deployed set him apart. His disregard for the implications of putting people in harm’s way exhibited unprecedented greed for political power, the Machiavellian style. Most probably that is what he meant when he said that his “was a fundamental change.”

Veterans and survivors of this brutal guerrilla war that raged for five years, narrate with savvy and skill their brush with death as well as the barbarian methods used by Museveni to woe the public to his side and subsequently overthrow the Obote regime.

The most lethal tactic was to adorn military uniforms similar to those worn by government forces, attack villages during the night and massacre people! They would then come early in the morning and commensurate with the aggrieved. Museveni’s rebels would then urge them to join their ranks so that they fight the “murderers.”

Such massacres were also carried out within the rebel ranks; those suspected to be informers or accused of other crimes, would be summarily executed. The most popular method was to tell the accused to dig a hole measuring up to the knee. After, the accused would be told to stand in it and the co-accused would be told to hit the one in the hole on the head using a hoe. They called this kafuni.

It was only the last of the accused that would be killed and buried by the accusers who were the prosecutors and judges at the same time. Jungle law at its best!

Many rebel fighters were put in harm’s way by being ordered to stand guard in difficult positions. They would be ordered to climb a tree and if they happened to see the enemy approaching, they were told to shout at them to stop or just raise the alarm!

Under such circumstances, the enemy would simply open fire at random. That was the tactic of letting the Museveni rebels know that the enemy was approaching, and they immediately retreated. The wise centurions would just keep quiet and let the enemy advance. The next thing to do would be to desert and join other rebel groups or the government side. If the Museveni rebels laid their hands on the deserter, the kafuni would be administered immediately.

Then the much dreaded kandooya. This was the tying of the victim’s hands backwards until the elbows kissed. In the process the chest would be stretched to the point of bursting at the slight knock at it. Many members of the Uganda Peoples Congress, the then ruling party, were victims of this cruelty.

The gun-politics was introduced by Milton Obote in 1966. His general Idi Amin Dada copied it and used it to overthrow him in 1972. Museveni, who captured power on January 26 1985, promised to bring this to an end. Twenty seven years later, he has not only failed to stop it but has maintained it to great proportions. In 2005 he bribed parliamentarians with five million shillings to remove presidential term limits.

Having spent most of his active years gun-trotting, the gun is the alpha and omega in Museveni’s politics of amassing savage wealth, turning opposition into treason and shooting to death members of opposition in broad day light. Effects of this gun-rule will remain evident in Acholi land and Teso for years after a generation was subjected to two decades of dehumanizing confinement in Hitler-like concentration camps dubbed as Internally Displaced Persons’ camps (IDPs). That explains the mass graves that this regime has sarcastically erected in almost every region.

Guns have been at the front in the destruction of the Kasubi Royal tombs, during political elections and demonstrations. Armed soldiers, police and militia are all over the place and it seems like a state of emergency is already in place, though unannounced.

Obote’s politics of the gun seems to have been influenced by inferiority complex rather than hatred, greed, hostility to democracy and selfishness as is the case with Museveni. Previous presidents struggled to economically, politically and socially empower Ugandans but Museveni is turning them into refugees in their home land. Chinese and Asians are being pampered and empowered economically while Ugandans are loaded with strangling taxes and economic policies.

 That aside, Uganda has become a magnet for criminals and all sorts of fraudsters posing as investors. They dump their garbage here in the name of imports.

The philosophy of this suppressive regime is to keep Ugandans at bay, politically, by denying them economic power.

It is because of these oppressive policies that many Ugandans are selling all they have to begin a life of slavery abroad; they prefer living and working as slaves in foreign lands to being refugees in their home land. Some of the country’s best brains are being lost as   politically connected criminal rackets promise them heaven but end up as whore ladies, drug traffickers and house attendants in foreign countries like China, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Africa.

As Uganda readied herself for the 50^th Independence anniversary, Parliament threatened not to pass the 2012/13 Financial Year budget because the decayed health sector was not allocated funds to resuscitate it. Museveni and his Prime Minister Amama Mbazi told the country that the health issues can wait as long as their security was assured!

In the meantime 14 billion shillings was being spent on beautifying the Independence grounds. Even the president graced the celebrations in a new Mercedes Benz worth 3.3 billion shillings!

Retired High Court judge James Ogoola calls this the “rule of tear gas and not the rule of law.” Ogoola is the former Principal Judge and is currently the head of the Judicial Service Commission. He is aware of government’s refusal to appoint judges to the Appeal and Supreme Courts on the pretext that there are no resources for that. That is the regime’s mentality towards the administration of justice to ensure harmony and development.

The president went as far as telling the country that he will appoint cadre judges to ensure that his wishes and interests are taken care of. That is the position of the “visionary freedom fighter” on the administration of justice.  

 

Soon after capturing power, Museveni published his confessions euphemistically called: Sowing the Mustard Seed. It was here that he revealed his role in the murders that characterized Amin’s rule. He boldly wrote that they used to sneak into the country and murder people so as to discredit Amin’s regime.

That the leader of the biggest opposition party Dr. Kizza Besigye, the Kampala Mayor Erias Luwago, and Member of Parliament Mathias Mpuuga were under house arrest during the Independence celebrations is good pointer at the type of independence celebrated. More so the fact that they were being accused of mobilizing the public to engage in protests dubbed: Walk to Freedom.

Inspector General of Police Lieutenant General Kalekyezi Kayihura has turned the institution into a terror outfit whose role is no longer to maintain law and order but to suppress civil rights. Every time people come out to demand for their rights, services and accountability from the rulers police points the guns at them and many have lost their lives at the hands of the disenfranchised, ruthless police assisted by militias.

Although the police continue to exhibit unprecedented brutish force, arrogance and insensitiveness towards members of the opposition and civil rights activists, murders rock the country with impunity. This has led to suspicions that these are state inspired murders; the intention is to instill fear and divert public attention from crucial issues. Today the police has lost respect and trust from society because of its high handedness; its mode of operation clearly states that it is serving interests of the ruling party and not the country. Instead of maintaining law and order, Police is busy oppressing the opposition and coming up with trumped up charges against politicians, human rights activists and journalists.

Murders are rocking most of the districts forming the Buganda region. Murderers dig into the homes at night and kill whoever they find inside. They take no property belonging to the victims. More than ten people have lost their lives in this gruesome style. While police refers to these murders as acts of robbers and is yet to show any convincing attempts to nip them in the bud, these robbers who take none of the victim’s property are a new phenomenon.   

The media has been attacked and their equipment destroyed or confiscated in a bid to cover up Police and government excesses. The press’ role of informing the public has become a threat to the disenfranchised police. Some journalists have even been shot at in the course of their duty. But many talented journalists continue to report from this chaos and have succeeded in distilling the essence of this state-inspired anarchy.

No doubt Police is acting in a fascist move to prevent the media from reporting freely and fairly.

Belonging to the Opposition has been so criminalized that the president can come out boldly and accuse Buganda of changing allegiance. Why is government criminalizing the exercise of one’s right to belong and associate? Why not come out openly and declare that the country is being run on decrees like Amin did? While Buganda’s Katikkiro, John Baptist Walusimbi, responds to these attacks with diplomacy insisting that the Baganda are free to belong to political sheds of their choice, Museveni’s attempts to hold Buganda at ransom must be treated with the contempt they deserve.

The last 27 years have also witnessed the destruction of cohesion that has kept Uganda together since 1962. Different ethnic communities are being set against each other in a manner that brings the Rwanda genocide memories to life.  In Buganda, government is bringing forth all sorts of people and declaring them cultural leaders in an effort to weaken and disorganize Buganda. But the creation of puppets serves selfish, short term interests which sow hatred that will haunt their children and grand children.

Government has also refused to pay Buganda’s out standing rent arrears, amounting to over 18 billion shillings, because of the hatred and ill-will toward the Kingdom. Nevertheless the Baganda are soldiering on and have decided to overlook Museveni just as they did his mentor, Milton Obote. And the relationship is such strained that every bad omen that befalls Buganda is considered Museveni’s making! Most notable: the burning of Buddo Junior School, Kasubi Royal tombs and the house at the Naggalabi Royal site.  Not with the gusto the criminals are employing to exact their pound of flesh.

If Shakespeare was around today to stage his classic play: Merchant of Venice, Museveni and his Movement would have perfectly taken up the role of Shylock. Where money is involved, these criminals will stop at nothing to get it. It is unfortunate that they do not use this gusto to implement developmental programs; Uganda would be a first world nation by now.

Major positions in the country are being occupied by people from Western Uganda. Museveni is practicing nepotism hoping to galvanize him in the presidency. But the opposite is also true; he is dangerously pitting his people against the rest of the country.

While the numerous wars in the last 27 years have displaced a lot of people, there is another well crafted method which is being implemented through forced removal of hapless Ugandans from their ancestral land. The people behind this land-grabbing are politically protected and supported. Still police can not be visible unless it is protecting the grabbers.

Luweero district, one of the central victims of the war that brought Museveni and cronies to power but still lies in shambles, has not been spared. The villages of Kiyenje, Katundu, Kyambogo, Kijjukiro, Kigoye and Kananda are facing eviction because a so called Sudanese based company Goodman International was given the 120 hectares of land these people have been occupying. Many have already been displaced and others cannot tell what will follow next. Residents accuse police for supporting these criminal evictions.

On a number of occasions president Museveni has come out with all sorts of declarations aimed at stopping the evictions. Unfortunately they are devoid of good will and only intended for political expedience.

The continued evictions of the poor from their land have nailed the last nail in the agricultural sector. The youth, the future of this country look to riding motorcycles popularly called boda bodas as the only viable means out of the biting poverty. They are running to trading centers, towns and the city leaving cultivation to the aged and the children. Many youths have even sold off their valuable land to buy boda bodas; a case of selling gold to acquire silver. That is how desperate the situation is.

Then the oil curse; it is already hitting hard as people are evicted without any compensation! Once any area is confirmed to be home to oil deposits, soldiers are sent there and the residents declared persona non grata. Next the demagogues flash land tittles for the land!

It has become next to impossible, a miracle so to say, a week to pass by without revelations of hefty sums of money being stolen by government officials. Even the president has been sighted in dubious money deals like the awarding of 21 billions to his crony Basajjabalaba and the 200 billion contracts for the production of the national identity card controversially awarded to Germany Company Mauhlbauer. The 14 billion shillings meant for procurement of bicycles for the Local Councils, the more than 60 billions for pensioners were also swindled in a racket that involves Bank of Uganda. Only the invisible is what will escape the clutch of the gluttons. 

 The buying of Sukhoi fighter jets during the 2009/10 Financial Year, led to the raiding of the consolidated funds for 3.1 trillion without parliament approval. The jets are expected to have cost 1.7 trillion shillings. Basajjabalaba heads the ruling party’s Entrepreneurs League.

In Uganda fronts are becoming millionaires over night; they are used to rob public funds and to manage the obscene wealth belonging to the powers that be.

The loot of 2013 is the more than 60 billion shillings stolen right from the hands of the Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, the overseer of government business.

As if robbing this money meant for the Peace, Recovery and Development Programme of Northern Uganda was not evil enough, president Museveni took taxi-payers’ money to refund the money!  The donors had threatened to withhold further funds over this classic robbery.

And in a move interpreted to mean that because Museveni is president therefore owns the country, he immediately rewarded the Permanent Secretary in the PM’s office- Pius Bigirimana- with overseeing other government programs. But even an idiot will agree that a PS cannot be a whistle blower in his ministry.

However much Museveni may shout, the fact remains Bigirimana cannot be a whistle blower in the PM’s office.  Indeed if the Executive had no hand, in this robbery, Bigirimana would be in prison.

Sir Winston Churchill’s reference to Uganda as the Pearl of Africa was in admiration of the fauna and flora bestowed upon her by the Unmoved Mover. Under president Museveni’s rule, a well calculated plan of destruction of these marvels is being rolled out, and aggressively.

In August 2011 the country came face to face with this plot when the president declared that he is not bothered by any one trying to block him from cutting down Mabira Forest Reserve so that the Asians of Mehta Group grow sugarcanes. This was after the destruction of Buggala’s 10,000 hectares of virgin forest, an important rainfall catchment zone for Buganda. It was lost to palm-growers.

Mabira is more than just a water catchment area; it is a protection area of core conservation value, home to some 300 bird species and lies between L. Victoria and River Nile. The medicinal trees and plants, as well as rare tree species found there are precious to the present and future generations.

Uganda is losing her wetlands, forests and other water bodies at an alarming speed which has led to unpredictable seasons, rampart crop failures and animal diseases.

In Uganda’s history freedoms have never been this vulnerable and threatened as under Museveni’s rule. Unless there is another person engaging in these brutal acts and suppressive, oppressive policies to discredit the current government, these inhuman acts targeting Ugandans are glaring crimes against humanity perpetrated by those supposed to protect them.    

In a way, these are signs of the times; announcing that change is overdue. Uganda urgently needs regime-change for hope to be restored in the populace. People feel persecuted, deprived, oppressed and thus see no future under Museveni who has outlived his usefulness and become another problem instead of solving problems. It is only Museveni, his family and cronies who have undergone a fundamental change; they are overnight billionaires, Uganda’s newly rich.

The crops, animals and money they stole during the guerrilla war have not been paid to date; even the areas they used as their launch pads stand in ruins! Apart from rewarding their agents with ministerial posts, the Cooperative Banks that funded their bloody campaign were disbanded leaving the agricultural sector to collapse together with the millions of Ugandans to who it meant everything.  Museveni has refused to help people uprooted by his wars and violence, to survive, rebuild their lives and move on.

Uganda has, in the last 27 years, won the accolade for being the only agricultural country without a functioning railway net work. In turn poverty ravages the country and farmers have decided to abandon the gardens for trading and urban centers.

And it is only in Museveni’s regime that a program worth US $ 77.5 meant for the development of the Agricultural sector can be called off reasoning it is not viable! That is what has befallen the National Agricultural Advisory Services- NAADS. This program was started in 2001 and meant to run up to 2026 to increase farmers’ access to information and agricultural technology.

The program is remembered for grand robberies and hiring of private farmers, who have never received a single shilling from government, to deceive the public and donors that all is well. Then what went wrong all over a sudden?

Now Museveni unknowingly admits that the highly taunted NAADS is a flop and rather replaces it with a gambling venture commonly known as SACCOS. That is Uganda and Museveni; things move upside down and backwards.  

And given this government’s hostility to democracy, arrogance, greed, allergy to political competition and determination to cling to power at all costs, it is hard to convince anyone that these are genuine mistakes; Museveni wants total control over Ugandans so as to realize his life-presidency strategy.

To realize this, he is putting a lot of money into the hands of some few who support this scheme and even made them untouchables. The majority either has to scramble for the crumbs or join the dinning table and look the other side as the country undergoes systematic destruction.

The poverty afflicting Ugandans is deliberately designed to keep them on edge. It is insensitive bordering on cruel. Farmers in Mubende who expected to improve on their condition by selling their maize are instead contemplating abandoning farming. This was after the president’s daughter grabbed their maize, in July 2011, but has refused to pay them up to now. Farmers told PNS that whenever they complain they are told that “the maize was sold to UN and the girl has to go outside to meet these people.”

Some farmers had stored maize for two seasons so that they could get their pay in a lump sum and engage in other activities that would see them rise to another level!

Towards the end of October 2012 the farmers sought the help of Inspector General of Police, Lt. General Kalekyezi Kayihura, but were told to go to hell. The farmers told PNS that Kayihura simply told them that he was fed up with the girl’s unending escapades which stretch back to 2002.

The farmers went on to reveal that the IGP told them that he has 15 registered cases with him about the president’s daughter. That he even made reference to a Luweero farmer who survived lynching by angry farmers after Natasha refused to pay them. The IGP told the farmers that he raised the issue with the first lady but nothing was done.

All in all the Mubende farmers were fleeced of 20 tones of maize valued at 14 billion shillings! (Wait for this story in full on this site-Editor) 

By 1986, though a number of Uganda’s industries were limping they kept alive the hope of employment and self reliance. But as soon as Museveni and cohorts grabbed power, they were completely grounded through mismanagement by his henchmen. But earlier, the money-exchange exercise had robbed Ugandans to the tune of 30%.   Even the money meant for World War II veterans and the former workers of the defunct East African Community disappeared in thin air!

Some analysts refer to Museveni’s Movement as a cult. And they are right. But it has another face about it; is a collection of people of no character, non entities. People who can do anything for anything are at home here. The people who live for themselves, have no shame, cannot see beyond their nose and only think after acting are the best choice for this Movement. Talking to Leander Komakech Senior in the early 90s, he said that during a meeting in Tanzania Museveni told them that he pities those who trust people. That he believes in using them.

It is over a year since Libya’s flamboyant emperor, Col. Muamar el Gadhaffi, was disgracefully killed. Having clung to power for more than four decades of terror and self aggrandizement, an uprising was started and subsequently toppled him. When the hour struck, he fled from his armored vehicles and sought refuge in the drainage system! He was buried in the desert, lost his sons; the remaining family members are scattered in forced exile and lead a life of fugitives. It was a befitting end to a demagogue’s reign of terror, some say.

True, whatever has a beginning has an end. And whatever you do, soon or later catches up with you; even Museveni’s regime, during which the worst of humanity has emerged, will soon or later show Ugandans its back like the other regimes.  But at the end of it all, Museveni’s legacy will be that of unprecedented destruction in Uganda's history.