Monday 29 August 2016

The Kayihura Trial Is A Test On Whether The NRM Is Still A Peoples Revolution Or Degenerating Into A Fascist Organization



The Kayihura Trial Is A Test On Whether The NRM Is Still A Peoples Revolution Or Degenerating Into A Fascist Organization 



Justice Steven Kavuma’s Injunction Represents the Fascist Tendencies within NRM
 Today is the day the inspector general of police Gen kale Kayihura was supposed to appear before court to defend himself on allegations of aiding and abetting the torture of Ugandans.  But Justice Steven Kavuma has lodged an injunction stopping KK from appearing before court.
And the Ping-Pong reflects Uganda’s history which has largely been shaped by the character of the various political administrations that reigned since the advent of the 19th century and most specifically in the last 150 years.

The African chiefs and kings governed their African subjects through a strict uncompromising totalitarian rule. The pre-colonial African rulers had the authority of life and death of their subjects. They openly engaged in extra judicial killings-as the case of the Namugongo martyrs who were killed by Kabaka Mwanga testifies.
So when the colonialists came, they largely interfered with the dictatorships of the African traditional kings.  

 They convinced the African kings to respect human rights. There is a story of how the Arabs convinced a very brutal Kabaka Mukaabya not to kill his subjects. Kabaka Mukaabya managed to get convinced to change his brutal ways and changed his name from Mukaabya (the name means the one who tortures people and they cry) to Mutesa (the name means the one who prefers negotiation)
Such was the brutality that reigned in Africa at the time that the African kings even sold their subjects to salve traders. .

Why Slave Trade Was Stopped By The Whites
 The white men got concerned and were got at the forefront of the fight against slave trade.
Much as the pan Africans argue that it’s the whites who benefitted from slave trade (with a  big claim that big global cities like London , Brussels , New York city were built by African slaves), the truth is that the African kings reaped more from the vice.
And when the agitation to end it started, it was the Whiteman who struggled to end slave trade and not the Africans.  The likes of William Wilberforce stood their ground against slave trade.

In fact part of the reason why the Europeans decided to colonize Africa was to stop slave trade.  This is because the Europeans had realized that they couldn’t stop slave trade when they were not in control of the African territory.  The white men knew that even if they stopped the slave trade in their backyards, the Africans would sell to the Arabs.
So a decision was made to colonize Africa.

But our pan Africanists will not want to tell us this bitter truth because they try to posture as the liberators and portray the Whiteman as the oppressor.
That’s why we study history that was largely written by afro centric historians who enjoy bashing the Whiteman.

Yet the truth is that the Whiteman interfered with the dictatorship of the African rulers.
So when the Whiteman was convinced that he had stopped slave trade and other evil vices like cannibalism by the African kings, he voluntarily granted independence to countries like Uganda.

Extra Judicial Killings And Torture
When we got independence, these post colonial rulers got another opportunity to revive their pre-colonial tendencies of killing and torturing their fellow countrymen.

The post colonial African rulers immediately embarked on torturing and killing their own people. In the case of Uganda, the governments of presidents’ Amin and Obote took the country to the point of anarchy.
During the Obote 2 regime, Uganda witnessed what can be termed as a reign of terror.

It was on that ground that Yoweri Museveni and a group of very young Ugandans declared war on that reign of terror that had started in the early 70s.
Although there have been suggestions that the five year bush war was premised on several factors (rigged elections), the restoration of the dignity of Ugandans was at the core of it all. Museveni himself was almost killed at a road block at Kireka.
Something had to be done to stop the torturing and killing spree.

The Peoples Revolution
It was therefore a sigh of relief when President Museveni’s NRA managed to restore the dignity of the Ugandans by eliminating extra judicial killings of the time.  And over the years there has been no direct contradiction to that philosophy of respect to life and property of Ugandans-with a few isolated exceptions of course.

Well, I have every reason to believe that president Museveni has been loved by Ugandans because of this factor. In fact when some few body guards of presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi beat up some NRTM supporters in Ntungamo , president Museveni angrily reacted by arresting all the culprits.
President Museveni categorically stated that ‘’nobody had the right to beat up any Ugandan’’. He even went on to say that anyone who does so ‘’would be poking his hands in the anus of the leopard’’.
So when some sections of the Uganda police started unleashing havoc on harmless Ugandans standing on the roadside, it was a test on whether president Museveni meant what he was saying or he was simply being populist

Ugandans wanted to see if the leopard would come out to protect Ugandans. But wapi, there was instead total silence from the principal.
It seems as if  the president was more concerned about NRM supporters and not Ugandans as a whole.

Suing Kayihura
It was for this reason that some concerned lawyers decided to sue the inspector of police for condoning the actions of the policemen.

Some of us who used to believe in the NRM ideology as a people’s revolutionary movement thought that Gen Kayihura had to appear before court as a gesture of working for a people’s revolutionary organization.
The most important point here is that KK’ court appearance in court would largely portray the NRM government as a people’s revolution that respects the rights of its citizens.


But KK seems to be falling into the trap which has been laid by the opposition. In their heart and souls, the Ugandan opposition doesn’t expect Gen Kayihura to lose the case, but they are laying a trap for him not to appear so that they fortify their claims that the NRM is a fascist organization.

  And in situations like these, Gen Kayihura should have appeared to debunk such evil intentions.
If KK doesn’t appear in court, the claims that the NRM government is a fascist government will gain more credibility.

WHAT DOES KK LOSE IF HE APPEARS IN COURT?

KK should have appeared in court because (1) he can easily argue that the errant police officers have already been put on trial.
(2) that he (KK)was not aware that the police officers were caning by-standers and not rioters.
 (3) that he only sanctioned the use of canes in the case of rioters and not on innocent Ugandans.
But it appears, Justice Steven Kavuma has put an injunction to stop Kayihura’s trial.
 Yet a more tactical way to deal with this would be to get there and argue the case out, to revive the belief that the NRM is law abiding.
As it stands KK’S trial is a contest between NRM posturing as a people’s revolution that respects the law or a fascist organization that rules by law. Its a trend that will determine its future as a peoples revolution.
End
The author Fred Daka Kamwada writes columns for Uganda’s major dailies and is a fast rising blogger. Engage him at kamwadafred@gmail.com

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