Museveni stands in Uganda’s Path to Peaceful Transition and Development

by Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

As he once again rigs the elections, in effect suspends the Constitution and resorts to jungle law.

Ugandans turned out in big numbers to vote for a new president. But the electoral commission messed up the whole process by announcing  Yoweri Museveni who is said to have been defeated by Dr. Kizza Besigye.

Ugandans are seething with anger as President Yoweri Museveni once again takes to rigging the elections thus denying them the opportunity to elect leaders of their choice, witness and cultivate a culture of peaceful change of government.

The disgraced Electoral Commission chairman, Badru Kiggundu, on February 20 declared Yoweri Museveni as the winner of the 2016 presidential election with 60.75%. Dr. Besigye was declared runner up with 35.37% while under house arrest.

The President General of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), General Mugisha Muntu said that the results declared by the EC are a fraud and they will not accept them as the representation of the will of the people of Uganda. Besigye was FDC’s candidate.

Museveni, who came to power after a five-year bloody guerrilla war in 1986, has been ruling Uganda for now thirty years.  The three decades have been characterised by human rights violations, oppression of dissenting views, moral decay and destruction of institutions to replace them with Museveni’s personality. Uganda today is a cult and in the firm control of criminals.

The European and Commonwealth election observers referred to the sham elections as anything but free and fair. The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) however white washed the elections as “orderly, peaceful and transparent.”

On February 18, 2016 as Ugandans came out to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections, government made heavy military deployments in known Opposition strongholds. There was also ballot-stuffing in the areas of Ssembabule, Kampala and Mukono.

Pre-ticking of ballot papers in favour of president Museveni was also rampant. The army was also out to intimidate Opposition supporters as well as beating them like they were beasts.

Government also switched off social media connections making it difficult for voters to share information and freely participate in the electoral process. The internet was also inaccessible. Opposition candidates and supporters were the target of security agencies as they were subjected to arbitrary arrests, detentions and intimidation. At least three Opposition members are known to have been killed.

In the capital city Kampala and the districts of Wakiso district, known Opposition strongholds, voting did not take off until 1.00 pm! It is believed that government was worried by the massive voter turn up which was in favour of Besigye in these areas. It took to disorganizing and disenfranchising the voters by delaying the arrival of voting materials and ballot papers. As a result the massive voter turn up was frozen.

Some polling stations in Kansanga and Ggaba had to vote the following day because the voting materials and ballot papers were delivered thirty minutes to the official closing time. All these polling stations are in Makindye division which is one of the divisions that form Kampala district.

To some extent the trick worked in Museveni’s favour as some voters gave up the whole idea altogether. Voting was supposed to start at 7.00 am and end at 4.00 pm. This was not a result of “unavoidable circumstances” as the EC wants the public to believe; this was a deliberate plan to disorganize Opposition voters. All this points to the fact that, the EC is not independent and is working under the orders of president Museveni. The EC is an accomplice in the rampant vote- rigging that dogs Uganda’s elections.

Some voters in Wakiso and Makindye Division were outright denied the opportunity to elect leaders of their choice. That was the decision of the EC.

But for how long is the country going to be subjected to the whims of lumpens and continue being denied the opportunity to exercise civilised politics? Time is overdue to have this message sink in the heads of Museveni and Badru Kiggundu that Ugandans are mature enough to choose their leaders without being arm-twisted.

At this time the slogan of keeping peace has become redundant and irrelevant. Ugandans cannot keep peace at the expense of their rights and dignity. Vote-rigging tantamounts to a coup d’état. Even the constitution empowers Ugandans with a responsibility to stand up against a coup.

If South Africans had not stood up to fight for their rights and dignity, to this day they would be under the apartheid demagogues.

Museveni has now made it a habit to rig votes and then subject Ugandans to dehumanising treatment as if they are “biological substances.” Respect for the choice of Ugandans is what many now dream of. That explains why many Ugandans have been turning up in big numbers to choose the leaders they consider most capable to take the country to another level. Museveni has denied them this opportunity; not twice but thrice!

Uganda is so vulnerable and in a precarious state as there are no institutions that can resolve this political impasse. The Judiciary that would be at the centre of this has long been turned into a club of dunderheads and social misfits as president Museveni strives to stuff it with personnel he can use and dump like condoms.

The remaining alternative is to dismantle the dictatorship, albeit at a very high cost. That apartheid was finally dismantled at a very high cost, should give Ugandans the courage and consolation to take on Museveni’s dictatorship.

For the last thirty years there is no tangible development to talk of. All is mere rhetoric devoid of substance. What is evident is that Ugandans have been turned into refugees in their own land. Museveni has humiliated Ugandans so much so that even refugees can afford to reduce them to door mats!

Many religious leaders continue to refrain from pointing out the ills in society because they are after being in good books with the president so that money can flow their way. A leadership that thrives on buying its way out cannot steer the country to sustainable peace and development. At every turn one witnesses the robbery of public funds and resources, moral decay, institutional destruction, nepotism and oppressive policies. People continue to be denied access to information so as to make informed choices and hold leaders accountable. It is all a mockery of democracy.

For Museveni to impose himself on Ugandans for another five years has a lot of implications and repercussions for the country at large. Drawing from the last thirty years, the country is going to witness more oppression. This will be physical and at other times meted through oppressive policies.

Robbery of public funds and resources will reach unprecedented levels driving the quality of service delivery to its lowest in the history of this country. Already many roads are like sweet potato gardens, hospitals lack even the drugs like pain killers which many would take for granted. Museveni’s thirty year rule is best captured by the rampant bed bugs and cockroaches in the city, and the jiggers destroying generations in the East of the country. The quality of education, health care and morals will all decline further.

Museveni is going to act like a real emperor clearly knowing that he does not need the support of any one; all he needs is the support of the security agencies that have been earmarked for his safety, his family and cronies. As a result more than half the country’s GDP will end up on helping him cling to power.  But for how long is he going to live a fugitive? And for how long are Ugandans going to tolerate this type of primitive politics in the dot com era?

General Mugisha Muntu put it plainly: the election results announced by the EC were a fraud and cannot be accepted, and that it was as good as a coup. Besigye complemented his president general saying that this was the most fraudulent election ever.

Denied of the right to elect their leaders, Ugandans have a right to ensure that their voice is heard and their choices respected. It is up to them to use all means available to ensure that they are governed according to the way they so wish.

The day Ugandans decide to put to use the power they have and stop Museveni’s dictatorship and wasteful rule will mark the beginning of redeeming their country and assure their children and grand children of a bright and sustainable future.

Uganda on Edge as Campaigns Close, Elections on February 18

by Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

Electoral Commission chairman, Badru Kiggundu ranks high in frustrating attempts by Ugandans to cultivate a culture of peaceful regime change by conniving with president Museveni to rig elections.

Campaigns for the presidential and parliamentary elections have come to a close, two days to Election Day, but on a charged note. The leading contender for the presidency, Dr. Kizza Besigye of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) says that government is planning to engage in massive election rigging but that that will not be acceptable.

Besigye goes on to say that he will not resort to Courts of Law because they all are compromised by the incumbent Yoweri Museveni. The Judiciary, which is supposed to be the mediator in such a situation, is suspected to instead aggravate the situation. The Institution is no longer trusted by those who would go there for arbitration.

Sources in Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) camp told PNS that there is panic after being overwhelmed by the demands for change, even deep in the villages where they have always enjoyed massive following. Sources further said that what happened in Kenya could easily surface in Uganda because there seems to be no willingness to hand over power peacefully.

PNS further learnt that there is likely going to be fast tallying of results, followed by fast announcement of “the winner” and immediate swearing in.

NRM sources added that there is discontent in the army and that should there any struggle for leadership, it is suspected that the army will side with the Opposition.

“This will most likely be the source of violence.”

In other quarters, information making rounds is that there will be a re-run for the presidential vote.  For the NRM camp, the blame is squarely on president Museveni who frustrated John Patrick Amama Mbabazi the former Prime Minister and Secretary General of the ruling party. Mbabazi is also running for the presidency under the Go Forward umbrella. There is fear that he has dealt a final blow to the NRM party, and when the power Besigye is using to lure supporters is put into perspective the NRM is on the losing side.

The NRM camp is beginning to admit that the thirty-year reign has turned out to be counter productive. Even those who were peddling around the slogan that “only Museveni has a vision for Uganda” are today unanimous in condemning him for over staying and failing to address issues of great importance to the people.

NRM supporters believe that the continued displacement of people has turned out to be a boomerang. They say that they warned the president but he kept promising to do something about it, but ended up doing nothing. The team is blaming the Captain for all the mistakes.

The NRM has always been known to splash money during campaigns but the campaigners are complaining that this time round it has not been forthcoming. Sources told PNS that for the one hundred days they have been on the campaign trail they have received money only twice.

Sources say that the first time each village was given 250, 000 shillings for mobilizing voters. The second time they received 170,000 shillings when the president was campaigning in the County. It was meant for transporting people to the rallies.

The most unfortunate bit about the February 18, 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections is the high level of rigging and violence anticipated. Some people have decided to go out of the country. Others are retreating to the villages to stay away from any eventualities.

After thirty years in power many people consider Museveni a stumbling block to justice, human rights, good governance, sustainable peace and development. People fear that Museveni is going to rig the elections and will not hand over power peacefully. Too much for a man who keeps reminding everyone that he is a freedom fighter.

Dr. Kizza Besigye has not only attracted mammoth crowds but he has also set standards very high. Wherever he went, people collected money to assist his campaigns! He has received gifts ranging from produce, poultry to animals.

During the 2011 campaigns, attempts to organise a debate for presidential candidates were not properly honoured by the aspirants. Most of them simply sent representative. This time round, the Inter Religious Council of Uganda, the Elders Forum and the National Consultative Forum took it to another level.

Two debates were organised and candidates had to come in person. The first debate, on January 15, 2016 had seven candidates around with the exception of president Museveni who said that debates were for primary kids, and had better things to do.

The public was elated by the performance of the seven candidates and gauged their capabilities for the presidency depending on the programs they presented. The president was ridiculed and accused of failing to account to the people he has ruled for thirty years. He swallowed his pride and attended the second debate on February 13. This was the first of such organisation in Uganda, offering value for the electorate.

Through the campaign period, Amama Mbabazi has been targeted by Museveni’s supporters; they often interfered with his campaign programme and staged parallel ones to his. Although it is illegal according to Parliamentary and Presidential Electoral Act, Police never intervened to maintain law and order. It was not until the Mbabazi supporters, in Ntungamo, fought back to protect their right to assemble. Even the Electoral Commission (EC) did not, even once, come out to warn the NRM supporters.

On February 15, 2016 Police arrested Kizza Besigye and dispersed his supporters as they marched into the city center for campaigns. The whole day Besigye did not campaign in Kampala central.

Instead of encouraging people to support and participate in the holding of free and fair elections, the EC is coming up with orders interpreted to mean that the Commission is planning to engage in malpractice during the election period. For instance, the EC is making announcements barring voters from going with their mobile phones and cameras. The EC is also telling voters to observe from a distance of 100 metres! The Presidential and Parliamentary Elections Act talks of 25 metres.

Through out the campaigns, people have been saying that now is the time for change; it the time to have a peaceful change of government. This has never happened in Uganda since her independence in 1962. Many are eager to be part of this historic election and are praying that Museveni and the EC do not stand in the way.

 

Will Museveni Handover Power Peacefully?

by Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

   

Retired Col. Kizza Besigye on the campaign trail. Ugandans are skeptical about Museveni's willingness to hand over power peacefully. Monitor Photo

      

It is unfortunate and shameful that after thirty years in State power, the old man with a hat- Yoweri Museveni- cannot comprehend the dignity of the office and that of the people he has subjected to his whims for such a long period.

Thirty years is not only a long period but it speaks for itself, volumes and volumes of messages, and is so evident and articulate that the blind can see its fruits, bitter or sweet, and the deaf can here its sobs, screams, wails and laughter.

The Uganda Constitution, promulgated by Museveni in 1995, talks of the Office of the President as a fountain of honour. But the most disturbing fact is that president Museveni has deliberately, and selfishly, refused to give due respect to democratic governance as the guiding criterion for his political life. He offers himself as the alpha and omega after crippling all the institutions.

For the last thirty years, a number of issues have remained unattended to despite the fact they are of significant importance to the populace. Of great concern is the displacement of villages by people having close ties with the regime and are often given protection and support by the Police. Hundreds of thousands of Ugandans have been rendered homeless, and in effect became refugees in their own country.

All president Museveni has done, and continues to do, is blame the Judiciary and even look the other side as regime demagogues exact their pound of flesh. It is shameful, and a disgrace, for the president to keep pointing a finger at “the rich people” as the ones displacing the poor Ugandans. Where is the government and all the resources and machinery at its disposal? What is the work of government?

If at all the president is having sleepless nights over land-grabbing why doesn’t he use the same force he uses to stifle the Opposition and other critics, to protect these now homeless and destitute Ugandans being stripped of their dignity and rights of ownership? He has been going around the country telling the people that he should be re-elected so that he handles the issue of land-grabbing using his Resident District Commissioners (RDC).

Museveni has tried to absolve himself of the sin of displacing people by blaming it all on the Courts of law. In any case, the RDCs have always been present and the people have witnessed how they sided with the grabbers. Even some grabbers have come from the president’s office. Where has Museveni been all these years? What is he going to do, and what stopped him from doing it earlier? This is an interesting case of what Museveni did, catching up with him. That is Mother Nature.  

Failure to categorically speak out against such injustices as well as failing to act decisively to end these gross human rights violations and robberies does not help the situation; instead it raises suspicion to the extent of concluding that the president is an accomplice with vested interests.

As Uganda goes to the polls, beginning February 18, 2016, there is worry among the public that the elections will not be free and fair. To start with, the public has no trust in the Election Commission (EC) chairman, Engineer Badru Kiggundu and his team.

On its part, the EC is sending out messages urging the public to turn up and vote, maintain peace and respect one another.  While these messages are being repeated over and over, the EC is not coming out to reassure Ugandans of its commitment to organise free and fair elections. Is this by coincidence or design?

Such accusations against the EC are of a grave nature that the Chairman should have resigned at once. If the public doubts Kiggundu’s moral ability to perform such an important duty, then who is he serving most especially after the Supreme Court declared him unfit for the position?

To make matters worse, even the president is evading important issues at this crucial moment in the life of Uganda. The country is going to elect the president and parliamentary representatives but Museveni is only talking about “decisively crushing those who will cause violence.” The president has also taken to calling the Opposition rats! During the 1994 Rwanda genocide, those in power referred to the Opposition as cockroaches. Of late, the army’s political commissar, Felix Kulayigye, talked of spraying people like bedbugs.

If Museveni is still allergic to political competition, he should do the country a lot of good by declaring himself the life president of Uganda. Idi Amin Dada did it and it can still be done in Uganda. The declaration would save the country’s meager resources from being spent on bogus elections. The electorate would as well be saved the dangers associated with electioneering in Uganda.

Museveni has avoided the issue of handing over power peacefully, in effect grossly failing to account to the people he has ruled for thirty years! Either way, actions speak louder than words. Signs indicate that Museveni is preoccupied with oppressing any dissenting voices after rigging the elections.

The arbitrary recruitment of the Crime Preventers and importation of tear gas vehicles all are signs of pre-meditated oppression and suppression by government. The president has a duty to come out clearly and say that he is committed to free and fair elections, and that he will hand over power peacefully to whoever will be elected.  

There are a number of cases that point to Museveni’s unwillingness to hand over power peacefully. For the last thirty years, Museveni has displayed unprecedented hatred for political competition. In 2005, presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye was arrested and trumped up charges brought against him. These included rape and treason after a hitherto unknown Peoples Redemption Army (PRA), a rebel outfit and a creation of government was said to belong to him.

All sorts of legal frameworks have been put in place with the sole purpose of impeding the Opposition’s ability to mobilise and recruit members. Notable among these is the Public Order Management Act of 2012. It strips Ugandans of their right to assemble and arbitrarily hands the Inspector General of Police the power to decide for the people as to when and where they can assemble, and for what reason.

The question as to whether President Museveni will handover power peacefully is as good as answered. He has been in power for thirty years but he is as nervous as someone who has never been in state power. Primitive advertising gimmicks are being employed meaning he is bent on winning the elections at any cost!

Adverts showing skulls and skeletons of those sacrificed for State Power in Luweero, during the five year bloody guerrilla war that brought Museveni to power, have once again been brought on the screens of the media. What a shame! The president has gone so native that he has told the nation and the world at large that if he is not voted back in power he will have to wage another war. He even goes around saying that the oil in Uganda is his. Pity the so called presidential advisors and the campaign team.

During the last five years, president Museveni has, at every event, been showering praises on the Kampala Capital City Authority’s (KCCA) Executive Director Jennifer Musisi for bringing order to the city. The street vendors and hawkers they have been demonizing and holding responsible for lack of planning in the City, have been called back to the streets!

Many of these vendors were imprisoned, severely beaten and their merchandise distributed among the Law Enforcement Officials. They have shed their blood to be able to fend for themselves and their families.

These people may be hawkers but they are human beings like Museveni’s children and grand children. And most importantly, they are victims of Museveni’s oppressive economic policies. Many of these hawkers bore the regime’s dehumanising treatment while they eked a living in the Park Yard market. This was the scene of constant fires lit by the regime’s cohorts who wanted the land for their mall.  The idea was to force them away without compensation.

There is no doubt that these atrocities, like those committed in Luweero triangle, are still fresh in the minds of many. They have not forgotten and they know that many such atrocities will be committed as long as these people are in power.

Many soldiers, perceived to be supporters of the Opposition, have been thrown in jail, mistreated and arbitrarily stripped of their benefits and dignity. Even members of the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) who are objective in their analysis of issues and events have not been spared.

The unwritten law in Museveni’s NRM is that you either sleep and wake up to vote for the NRM, shut up or quit. There is no room for critics and independent thinkers. These are no signs of a civilized regime; a regime that appreciates the fact that power belongs to the people. A regime like the one of Museveni, which looks to the gun for all solutions, cannot hand over power peacefully.

The public’s fear that there could easily be a war after elections is an enormous statement discrediting a government that has been around for thirty years. In the first place it means that the people have no trust in the government, and that it is a government that does not consider the common good.

The bitter fact is that the public is basing on the thirty years to judge Museveni’s potential and to thus conclude that it is time he left the stage. It is a general and genuine yearning for change; a change for good governance and peace of mind. The public continues to state categorically that Museveni has out lived his usefulness yet he does not want others to take over. But the call for change grows steadily, louder and firmly.

As Ugandans go to the polls on February 18, 2016 they want to state categorically that they want change. If President Museveni maintains that he will not hand over peacefully, then the people will have no option but to force him out.