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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