HAM’S IGNORANCE EXPOSED; Ham’s Video Message Was Outrageously Lacking In Substance And Inciting Xenophobic Attacks On Investors

 

HAM’S IGNORANCE EXPOSED; Ham’s Video Message Was Outrageously Lacking In Substance And Inciting Xenophobic Attacks On Investors

When the Ugandan court ruled that Diamond Trust Bank had to pay Ugandan entrepreneur and businessman Hamis Kigundu and his company a sum of 120 billion shillings together with interest following a legal technicality in the process, most Ugandans thought it was fairly based on justified reasons.

Without going into the details of the court ruling, you have to listen to the video clip of Ham himself in which he seemed to address Ugandans on Independence Day 9^th October 2020 last week.

In the video message which was shared widely on social media networks Ham makes statements which expose the weaknesses and lack of substance in his submission in regard to the misunderstandings he has with the bank.

He made around five outrageous claims which I want to dwell on for the sake of objective analysis.  I listened to the video clip and concluded that my compatriot is purely ignorant on how the economy works especially in regard to the investors.

Claim One; Foreign Owned Banks

Ham claims that Ugandan banks are mostly owned by foreigners who oppress Ugandans and pumper their fellow foreigners. He also went on to say that these banks have low capital float which cannot afford to run their banks effectively. That they use the money deposits from the locals to give out loans because they are undercapitalized.

The question then is, why did Ham choose to opt for a foreign owned bank? Are there no local banks owned by local Ugandans?

We have banks that are purely owned and run by Ugandans and have sufficient capital float capable of giving out any amount of money. . A case in point is centenary bank which has been doing very well for very many years and continue to do well up to the present day. Why didn’t he go to centenary bank that is owned by locals?

But most important of all, in the video clip, Ham doesn’t explain how he got into a misunderstanding with the bank. He openly evades the fact that he had a financial relationship with the bank. He even doesn’t explain circumstances of how he got involved the bank, leave alone whether he picked a loan from the bank or not.

This in itself simply means that he is not being truthful.

CLAIM TWO; Discriminative Loan Offers

Ham goes on to claim that these foreigners give out less money to Ugandans in a very discriminative manner. That these banks give bog money loans to foreigners compared to Ugandans.

Question then is, if these banks are known to give little money to local Ugandans as compared to the feigners whom they give a lot, how did he manage to get all those billions of loan money from the same bank?

Did he first disguise himself as a foreigner to qualify for the big money loan?   Can he explain to Ugandans how he managed to maneuver and get access to such a loan facility which he claims was a preserve of foreigners.

CLAIM THREE; Illegal Withdraw Of Shs 120bn

Ham claims that diamond trust bank managed to withdraw money illegally from his accounts to a tune of 120 billion shillings in a space of ten years.

Question is, how DTB managed to get access to his bank accounts in the first place. Was he already having a financial relationship with the bank or not?

Why did it take him ten years to realize that the bank had withdrawn all that huge sum of money from his accounts?

Ten years is not just a walk in the park. It’s such a very long time.

The truth is that DTB withdrew all those colossal amounts of money from his accounts in a prearranged process of paying back the loan he had got.

CLAIM FOUR; Discriminative Interest Rates 

Mr Ham also asserts that DTB is so discriminative that it charges higher interest rates to Ugandans and offers lower interest to foreigners.

By making such a claim, Ham failed to do us a favor by breaking down the discriminatory process of the interest rates of the bank.

Ham should have explained the rates given to Ugandans vis-à-vis the rates given to foreigners.

He for instance failed to reveal what interest rate was imposed on him in the first place, when he picked the loan. But he didn’t.

By not revealing the discriminatory details of the interest rates, Ham did not seem to be truthful at all.

CLAIM FIVE; Capital Flight

Ham tried to incite Ugandans to rise up against the foreign investors by claiming that these banks owners do what is termed s capital flight when they make a lot of profit which they take to their countries.

Ham was trying to tell Ugandans that these foreigners are not entitled to the profit they make from their investments in Uganda. Oh dear!

By making such a claim Ham is trying to suggest that investors should invest money in Uganda and keep the profits in Uganda for the good of Uganda!

 Oh, what a pack of ignorance!

When the president goes to foreign countries and pleads for investors to come to Uganda, the first incentive he promises these investors is the profitability of the country called Uganda. He tells them that they will make more profits here more than they would in any other country in the world.

In fact when the president was making his Independence Day speech, he quoted an Indian who described Uganda as a country of three Ps, 1; pleasant,2; peaceful and 3;profitable.

What Ham should know is that Uganda needs investors more than ever before to the extent that we give them tax holidays to seduce them to pump big money in our economy.  Where does he get the audacity to question the way they use their money in Uganda?

If Ham makes investments in Kenya, can he keep that money in Kenya or he brings it back home?

In any case Ham is ignorant of the fact that Uganda benefits from investors through indirect means like offering employment to Ugandans, paying taxes, paying for utilities like electricity and water etc.

By Him questioning the capital flight by investors exposed his ignorance about how the economy runs. There are inward, forward and backward linkage benefits involved with investors which I expected Ham to know.

XENOPHOBIC HAM

Finally, Ham makes what he termed as a patriotic call to Ugandans to shun these foreigners and their impunity. This patriotic call was nothing but a xenophobic attack on investors.

He tried to call on the judiciary and government to make sure that they don’t bend to the calls from investors because they are exploitative. Was he trying to persuade government and the people of Ugandan to turn against these investors?

HAM’S BANK REFORMS

Lastly, Ham claims that he had proposed bank reforms, but failed to narrate which reforms he was talking about. Was he trying to say that foreigners shouldn’t own or run banks in his reforms?

Was he trying to suggest that profits made by investors must stay in the country?

Why doesn’t he elaborate on those bank reforms he claims he was championing?

Although I have not dwelt on the court judgment itself , I suspect that once the bank makes an appeal , which Is obviously inevitable , Ham will lose the case.

 I rest my case for now with the hope that Mr Hamis kigundu has leanrt the importance of the investors and how they operate.

 The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a social critic and a blogger

Contact him on kamwadafred@gmail.com

Ends

AS FRAIL AS MAHTMA GHANDI; President Museveni’s Radical Weight Loss Program Is Affecting The Way He Is Running The Affairs Of The State

 

AS FRAIL AS MAHTMA GHANDI; President Museveni’s Radical Weight Loss Program Is Affecting The Way He Is Running The Affairs Of The State

president Museveni now resembles Mahtma Ghandi who was also malnourished because of constant fasting

Just around last week president Museveni celebrated his 76^th birthday. When he appeared to make another covid-19 update speech on Sunday, he looked a little jetlagged and much older than the 76 years he clocked.

The television images cast a figure of a man who has done more than eight decades on earth. This deterioration of the Ugandan president is not without reason.

Some conspiracy theorists have tried to claim that president Museveni is actually much older than the age he professes.   

Some of us resist the claim that Museveni is actually older than 80 years because we have followed his growth pattern by looking at his childhood photos and following his school and working history.

When you look at the footages of his swearing in ceremony at the steps of parliament on 29^th January 1986, you really see a man in his mid forties-which makes his claim of being forty-four years in 1986 a correct assertion.

So why has Museveni aged like this?

If you speak to members of the opposition, they will claim political pressure arising from the heat wave of the 2021 elections.

But there is a scientific reason to explain the trend.

Look here; president Museveni himself claims that at one time he had gained 105 kilograms of weight. And when he became health conscious he started a crush program to cut the weight.

Mahtma Ghandi was so frail because of fasting 

And indeed, according to him, he has so far managed to cut the weight as low as 76 kilograms!. This obviously shows that he has lost over 30 kilograms which almost 30% of his body weight!

30 kilograms is a lot of weight to an extent that even if a cow was to lose them, there will be immediate invitations for the vet.

While weight is a taboo in most circles, it must also be known that it’s the one that gives us some degree of respectable appearance.

For instance the facial appearance largely depends on the fat that hangs around the skull. When you shade more than 30% of your body weight, you automatically look much older than your biological age.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

I once accumulated weight from 75 kilograms and rose to 92 kilograms. So I tried to cut it down and embarked on a regimen that involved exercising a lot, not eating lunch, starving myself of supper , avoiding meat products , etc.

But guess what happened.

Of course the jogging was becoming more enjoyable because I was lighter. I even started playing some football with the lads.

But on the negative aspect of it was that I started getting aching knees and joints because I was not taking meat products that would nourish them with the required nutrients.

I started getting weaker, less effective and sickly. While the scales showed that I was losing some fat, my appearance also suffered a huge setback.

I was becoming unrecognizably older. Most people wondered whether I had escaped from prison.

I could have fought on and maintained the same regimen, but the aching knees and sickly feeling compelled me to rethink my weight loss strategy.

I therefore started eating meat, because I realized that my body needed the cholesterol and fat which I was burning while exercising.

I had stopped eating posho because I had realized it as the number one contributor to my increase in weight.

I had reverted to a diet that glorified greens, and light food. But the net effect was that I had become a walking corpse of some sort and weaker than ever.

I was suffering from memory loss probably because of hunger and lack of the necessary food nutrients.

Once in a while I painfully breached my eating discipline and ate some meat and posho and felt very vigorously stronger again.

That’s the time I realized that a balance was needed between controlling weight by adopting measures that don’t hurt my health much further.

So I started eating my meat and my face regained its looks.

The biggest Lesson I leanrt was that not everybody is designed for a small frame of a body. We are naturally born different.

Some of us are born with genes that easily convert food into immediate body mass.

What you need to do in such a situation is to work out that body mass rather than starve the body of the nutrients it needs. Losing 10% of your body weight is understandably safer.

As stated earlier ,President Museveni lost 30% of his body mass, which puts his overall health in jeopardy.

The mistake of starving the body of the food that has the nutritional value it needs to re-energize and renew itself is suicidal.

 When someone wants to cut weight the first thing s/he does is to cut out meat and fat. Yet the body needs those fats to regenerate itself and to boost the body hormones.

President Museveni revealed that he cut his weight by eating a lot of vegetables, less meat or no meat at all etc.

Having lost 30 kilograms already, he has already done well and needs to balance by eating the crucial food nutrients, even if they bring on some weight in the process. Then he can cut it out by exercising regularly. 

REPERCUSSIONS

If he doesn’t eat, then his health will suffer terrible setbacks. The body is like a car. It thrives on what we feed it.

The popular saying that ‘you are what you eat’ is more than accurate. We are indeed what we eat.

If the NRM chairman feeds as well as he should, he will regain his youthful looks again. I have seen people much older than Museveni looking much younger than he is.

I recently saw former super minister in president Obote’s government Chris Rwakasis claim that he is much older than Museveni. But he has just made 80 years of age.

But Rwakasis looks superbly younger than museveni even when he is at 80 years probably because he has maintained a much bigger weight that fits with his body. Former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda maintained an averagely good body frame because he never attempted to cut it down.

The way forward

It’s not a given that a bigger person is unhealthy

 You can maintain better health by exercising on a bigger body frame. 

President Museveni can look much better with a body frame of around 86 kilograms. Anything less than that will make him look older, weak and less healthy, suffer memory loss etc.. 

By the way museveni now resembles Indian nationalists Mahtma Ghandi who was so frail because of constant fasting. 

Somebody should advise president Museveni not to overindulge in weight loss because its affecting the way he is running the state.

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a social critic and a blogger

kamwadafred@gmail.com

 

 

 

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Most Ugandans Cannot Contextualize Political Jargons; To What Extent Is Balaam Barugahaare A Useful Idiot?

 

Most Ugandans Cannot Contextualize Political Jargons; To What Extent Is Balaam Barugahaare A Useful Idiot?

Last week Mukono municipality Member of Parliament Hon Betty Namboze stirred a powerful storm in the cup when she cunningly referred to music promoter cum self appointed NRM mobilizer Mr. Balaam Barugahaare as a ‘useful idiot’.

The witty Namboze was later attacked for being abusive and using foul language to address his fellow countryman Balaam Barugahaare on a talk-show hosted on national television.

Balaam himself rose to the occasion and authored a stinging rebuttal which was supplemented by other social media gurus like Titus Seruga.

On his part Titus Seruga, out of probable ignorance about the actual meaning of the word ‘useful idiot’, lambasted Hon Namboze for abusing Balaam and being what he called a ‘political prostitute’ who jumps from one camp to another for personal convenience.

Titus went on to wash dirty linen in public when he revealed that Hon Namboze had quietly worked with Hon Patrick Amama Mbabazi in the TDA alliance and at the same time met president Museveni in state house in the night during the 2016 elections.

Revealing secret workings with colleagues is one of the most unfortunate tendencies of human nature. Its raw betrayal of sorts since it exposes you as a poor keeper of secrets.

Therefore Mr. Seruga Titus should have attacked Hon Namboze basing on the merits and demerits of the statements she made rather than revealing what they had done together in the past. 

UNDERSTANDING POLITICAL JARGON

Having read from several briefs, I concluded that perhaps most Ugandans have not contextualized the use of political jargons.

If they had known, they would simply use counter jargons to rebuttal Hon Namboze.

Ordinarily, the world useful idiot is a political jargon which explains the person who supports an organization or leader without a firsthand understanding of the mission of that particular leader. 

It also means a person who passionately supports a political movement without considering or taking into account the negative social ramifications of that movement on society.

It’s actually believed that this word was first coined and by Russian leader Vladmir Lenin in his reference to those he considered as his political opponents. 

It is a political jargon that is mostly descriptive rather than abusive, like most Ugandans have ignorantly portrayed it.

It must be stressed that the use of political jargon is the way political discourse is conducted in civilized societies when political adversaries are engaging in each other in a debate of some sort.

A ‘useful idiot’ is like a supporter of a cult. Like we all know, cults have a miserable ending.  It’s uncouth, for instance, to call your opponent stupid, foolish because these are directly veiled abusive words.

Once you fail to use the words that describe the behavioral tendencies of the person then you will certainly be considered abusive, which is not acceptable in civilized societies.

For instance instead of calling someone a fool or a stupid man, you can simply say, he is a sycophant to describe his proclivity for offering blind support to the regime or an organization.

You can also use other political jargons like influence agent, bootlicker, a pawn and words of that nature.

WHERE DOES BALAAM FIT?

When you look at the way Mr. Balaam has conducted himself in the run up to the recent years when he came out to proclaim his devotion to NRM, you cannot deny the fact that he exhibits elements of being an influence agent, a sycophant bootlicker or even useful idiot.

Why?

 Here is a man who claims to use his own money to buy off president Museveni’s political opponents.

But the same man claims that he is not a political actor, holds no political position in the NRM party, but goes on to spend his own money to buy off those he considers as political opponents of the president. This is bizarre!

We understand that citizens can raise funds for a political party to pursue and actualize a given cause. During the American elections presidential candidates raise money to support president candidates.

But it’s totally unheard of or probably unthinkable to hear someone use his own funds to buy off the political opponents of another.

Mr. Balaam brags to having used his own money to buy off NRM political opponents like radio talk show political demagogue Bassajja Mivule, social media activists like Ashburg kato, musicians like Butcher man, Full-figure and many others.

Now listen to this carefully; does it make sense for someone to use his own money to fish out political opponents of an organization where he holds no position?

The act of buying off the political opponents makes sense to the apologists of the regime. That’s why we consider it to be useful.

But the fact that you use your own money to do so is very idiotic indeed.

In a more organized setup you would expect Balaam to take those funds to the coffers of the NRM party secretariat at plot ten Kyadondo.

That’s what most of the powerful entrepreneurs like Sudhir Ruparelia , Mulwana and many other companies do when they decide to fund the ruling party during elections.

    Mr. Balaam considers himself as a high rate tax payer whose business empire ranks within the second tier of companies that pay most taxes in Uganda.

He therefore claims that he has an interest in having a party that can sustain the peace and stability in the country in order to do business. That is granted, no problem.

LOGICAL ACTIONS

Even if we justify the buying off of political opponents as a good gesture, look at the people who have been bought by Balaam.

The unfortunate aspect of it is that they are not political actors at all.

We should weigh how much political relevance does Bassajja Mivule weigh in the politics of Uganda?

How much of a political threat does Mivule pose to the peace and stability of the country, so that we can gauge him as a threat to the stability that Balaam needs to do his businesses?

What is the political value of people like Ashburg Kato, Full figure, Catherine kusasira and others bought off by Mr. Balaam. How much value do they add to NRM.

How much of a threat do they pose to the peace and stability of the country?

Without being disrespectful, those aforementioned people are not even politicians. For instance a person like Catherine Kusasira fullfigure and Butherman were not political actors at all. They were only interested in their music and not concerned about the Ping-Pong involved in the politics of the country. 

In the most recent past Balaam was captured on live television paying off renowned socialite known as Bad-black a huge sack of money which she had failed to retrieve from the ministry of health for doing an advert alerting prostitutes from sleeping with truck drivers to contain the corona virus.

The whole sage was justified by stating that the money, rumored to be over 300 millions, was handed over by Balaam to Bad-black to protect the image of the national resistance movement and its chairman, President Yoweri Museveni!

When you think through this, you will find it not adding up at all.

If a business man is using his money to do such work then what name should we give him or her?

Look; someone is using his own money to buy off people who are not and have never been political actors to defend a political organization! Oh dear me!

The Nigerians will say, ‘’ heey ,,you de laugh naw, ,, to such a person’’.

To use the word ‘useful idiot’ to describe such a person is even an understatement.

In fact Hon Namboze was being civil in her description.

 Nevertheless we need to contend that the word itself is not necessarily an abusive word in a raw sense of the word, like most people have misunderstood it to be.

In more vivid terms, those who understand politics will tell you that it’s normal for someone to use a political jargon to define someone else.

We are not saying that Balaam is an idiot, for he seems to be an intelligent lad. But we are saying that his behavior patterns in regard to the way he has submitted his loyalty to the NRM put him in a very difficult indefensible situation.

It’s interesting to know how he brags to his wife and family about how much money he has used to buy off non-political actors just to show support to NRM.

How does his wife take the message?

Please describe that way you would feel when your father comes home and tells you  that ‘’I have just given Badblack 300 million , which government had failed to pay her for making the covid19 advert.

THE WAY FORWARD

Balaam needs to get back to the drawing board and change strategy to strengthen his attachments to NRM. For instance if he can make a swoop for rebel leader Joseph Kony and buy him out of the bush then nobody will contest his credibility.

Alternatively if he can fish out political actors like Norbert Mao , Abdu Katuntu Kiiza Besigye , Salaam Musumba and bring them back to the NRM fold then he will make it very difficult to be described as a ‘’useful idiot’. He will forever be regarded as a master strategist.

The Author Fred Daka Kamwada Is A Seasoned Social Critic And Blogger

kamwadafred@gmail.com

 

ENDS

 

 

 

 

‘’I DON’T BELIEVE IN HEAVEN’’; President Museveni Sterns Religious Leaders with His Blasphemous-Atheist Beliefs

 

‘’I DON’T BELIEVE IN HEAVEN’’; President Museveni Sterns Religious Leaders with His Blasphemous-Atheist Beliefs

·       M7 should know that where science fails, religion becomes a powerful option for hope in a hopeless society.

 

‘’for me I am here, I was born here; I will die here and get buried here. I don’t believe in heaven myself’’    said president Museveni.

He made the sacrilegious statement last Saturday (28^th August 2020) during the national prayer day which took place at state house Entebbe.

The prayers which were attended by almost the entire ‘high command’ of the religious leaders was aimed at bringing back the ‘Godly feel’ in a country whose religious places have been under lockdown for the last six months.

The religious leaders convinced the Ugandan president to have prayers together with the cryptic intentions of luring him to relax the restrictions and open up religious places for prayers.

After all had been said and done by a clique of religious leaders led by bishop Kizito Luwalira and pastor Joseph Serwadda , president Museveni exposed his lack of faith in religions when he labored to emphasize the importance of science in safeguarding life.

He occasionally used the bible by quoting verses where lockdowns were imposed when epidemics sprung up in the Old Testament.

He particularly referred to a verse in Jeremiah where it recommends the banishment of lepers from main stream society.

THE BOMBSHELL

Museveni then dropped a bombshell when he told the congregation that for him he doesn’t believe in heaven.

The fact that heaven is the pivotal objective of most religions (a particular foundation for Christianity and Islam) mean that anyone who doesn’t have faith in ‘life after death’ is fundamentally considered an outcast, pagan or at best an atheist.

Christianity was founded specifically to address the issue of assuring a life after death. The most important religious doctrines presupposes that Good behavior earns the believer a ticket to heaven while the sinners are confined to hell fire.

For very many years that is the principle that has made religion relevant.

Without that doctrine, religion is dead.

Therefore anyone who doesn’t have faith in the chance of going to heaven is largely considered to be an atheist.

There is no way people can be controlled without hope for life after death.  Life after death is the center piece upon which religion thrives.

Since nobody knows what happens when we die, religion has remained the most relevant option for the world in regard to offering assurance after death.

Therefore fear of death drives people to believe that they need to die when they have reconciled their evil deeds with God.  If someone has been a sinner, he (the sinner) then goes on to repent in church for his sins to be forgiven.

That hope (for heaven) is what has made religion the opium of the masses (as Karl max is known to have said many years ago)

Any slight contradiction with that projection of life after death is blasphemy of the highest order.

President Museveni seems to have got away with it (with his lack of faith in life after death) but it is one of the biggest sins anyone can commit against most religions. Not even the fearless dictator Idi Amin could make such a statement.

If he had made that statement in a Muslim leaning country, a jihad would have been declared against him.

Psychologically speaking, that statement summed up the fundamental reason why churches and mosques have remained closed, six months after the lockdown was imposed in March 2020.

 

The fact that Uganda is regarded as a God fearing country makes it one of the terrible blunders he (M7) has ever made as a leader.

Although Ugandan is largely a secular country, it has a national motto ‘’For God and My Country’’ that projects it as a God fearing and religions country.

SEVO AND SCIENCE

Museveni has got a very big faith in science. When he imposed the lockdown he justified it by suggesting that he had been ‘science-led’

Some of us had to remind him (in our writings) that it was wrong to put total faith in the modern day medical scientists because they have so far failed to find vaccines and cures for  pandemics like HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika virus, SARS , and corona virus itself will not be an exception.

Today the world is still grappling with the idea of finding a vaccine that can cure the corona virus but the most realistic expectation is that it may take long before they find it.

China and Russia are quietly bragging that they have discovered their vaccines, but nobody can confirm their claims.

Therefore the science community is in such an embarrassing situation at the moment that there are reports that most of the innovations in medicine were actually coined in the 19^th century. This means that the young scientists of the 21^st century have been either redundant or incompetent.

Although there are powerful innovations in the field of technology where we have stuff like drones, there is almost nothing innovative in the field of medical science at the moment.

AND REMEMBER, WHERE SCIENCE FAILS, RELIGIOUS FAITH TAKES OVER.

Some of us have for many years argued that religion is a backward concept that has kept the world imprisoned in backward traditions , but some incidents have happened that have made it (religion) appear a powerful option.

In cases where science has failed to resolve fundamental question, the religious groups have emerged with powerful consoling messages of hope (not necessarily practical solutions but faith based psychological feelings)

President Museveni might be right in his absolute belief in science, like most of us, but he should be honest enough to admit that medical scientists are not as effective as we thought.

Like I said earlier, where science fails, religion becomes a powerful option for society.

That probably explains why he should consider opening up mosques and churches to give them the chance to pray for the evaporation of the corona virus.

The religious leaders may not condemn what president Museveni said in regard to his lack of faith in heaven or life after death as sacrilegious or blasphemous, but they now know that they are dealing with a very big atheist leader.

The Author Fred Daka Kamwada Is a Voluntary Think And Blogger

kamwadafred@gmail.com    

 

 

 

 

 

WHITES DON’T NECESSARILY HATE BLACKS; It’s Black American Police Officers Who Should Be Mandated with Apprehending Afro-Americans to Avoid Police Brutality

 

WHITES DON’T NECESSARILY HATE BLACKS; It’s Black American Police Officers Who Should Be Mandated with Apprehending Afro-Americans to Avoid Police Brutality

American president Abraham Lincoln declared the freedom of the black slaves was white

Last week another brutal shooting of a black American by a white officer took place in Wisconsin sparking outrage all over the world.

The protests have been so huge that the American National Guard has been deployed on the streets to assist the police to calm down the situation.

When George Floyd was strangled to death by a white police officer early this year it sparked off The Black Lives Matter campaign which seemed to send a statement that NEVER again will such a thing happen again.

But it has happened again barely a year after the George Floyd incident.

This time Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back in Wisconsin by this month but has miraculously survived with the bare straps of his life.

It’s a pity that these shootings and killings have taken a predictable phenomenon, but there has not been a lasting solution found to cut it out completely.

All we have had have been protestations, condemnations and speeches by world leaders and righting thinking members of the global village.

If racism is horrible, abominable, and totally unacceptable why don’t we get a legal instrument that makes it a criminal offense?

Why don’t we find solutions that can avert such shootings?

Why is the United Nations and other world bodies like the European Union silent about racism in the world?  Why are blacks not advancing lasting solutions to protect them from being killed by white policemen?

These white versus black confrontations that be easily dealt with if there was an interest in ending it.

When George Floyd was strangled to death by the white policeman, I came up with an idea (on my private blog) that could have prevented a repeat on Jacob Blake from being shot like a common thief.

My view was that the American system must make it mandatory for black Americans to be arrested by the fellow blacks. Once a black American police officer shoots a fellow black American, it will not spark off the racial debate we are having when a white police officer does it.

This alone will avert the kind of undertones that arise whenever a white police officer apprehends a black man.

It’s this procedure which can avoid this friction because normally some criminal situations are interpreted as racial, well as not.

Although the white policemen have also been very brutal, most times our fellow blacks have been violent in their reaction to the authorities.

This brutality of the police towards blacks has sometimes been misinterpreted as racism yet it’s not the case all the time.

THE DETAILS

For instance while the world was horrified with the way Blake was shot the American police officers issued a statement suggesting that Mr. Blake had strongly resisted arrest: He “forcefully fought” with officers even after being hit twice by a Taser and ignoring orders to drop a knife that he held in his left hand.

When you look at the Joe Blake video, you see him adamantly running away from the police sparking a possible confrontation. If Jacob Blake had stood and spoke to the policemen, it’s improbable that such an incident would have arisen at all.

It’s true that that there are white supremacists not only in America but also in the world in general. But our blacks also make it inevitable to be treated in such a way.

In fact Blake had been reported for cries he had committed several months ago.

The marginalization of the black race

It is obviously true that the black race has suffered marginalization for very many years. For very many years blacks were enslaved by the whites.

 But it’s also important to note that most of the people who fought against slave trade and its practices were whites. American president Abraham Lincoln who banned slavery was white.

British antislavery trade activist William Wilberforce was white.

This therefore means that it’s not necessarily true that whites hate blacks.

The marginalization of the blacks was brought to its peak when the South African government introduced apartheid that compounded the differences between the two races. Blacks were not allowed to share hotel rooms, bus seats, and may other facilities with whites.

Although apartheid was legal in the South African legal system, it was morally wrong.  It was the American and British government which strongly supported the apartheid regime in South Africa while the rest of the world opposed it.

When apartheid was finally defeated with the eventually release of Nelson Mandela from a 27 year jail term, most of the whites celebrated with us , the black race .

When the Americans rallied and voted for a black president Barrack Obama, the whites celebrated equally with the blacks.

It’s also important to also note when George Floyd was killed by a white policeman, the majority of the protestors were white.

This demonstrates that there is nothing fundamental fueling hatred between the two races. This is also another indication that the white supremacists are the minority.

 

 

 The way forward

The international community should a draft a law that criminalizes racism and its tendencies with long prison sentences and fines.

Secondly, the American security system must ensure that black police officers are the ones mandated to arrest blacks.

This will be similar to the global tradition where women police officers are the ones mandated to arrest women criminals to avert gender abuse between men and women.

But most important of all, we should desist from interpreting the criminal tendencies as racism, well as NOT.

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a social political analyst and a blogger

Chat with him on kamwadafred@gmail.com

 

 

 

WINNERS NEVER QUIT ,; Besigye Should Borrow The Inspirational Stories Of Senegalese Former President Abdalla Wade And Railla Odinga

 

 WINNERS NEVER QUIT; Dr Kiiza Besigye Still Stands A Good Chance Of Becoming Ugandan President If He Doesn’t Waste Way

·        Besigye Should Borrow The Inspirational Stories Of Senegalese Former President Abdalla Wade And Railla Odinga

After contesting and losing four consecutive times Dr Kiiza Besigye announced that he will not avail himself for the 2021 elections.

Although the news of Besigye’s exit from the political space was largely expected, it was also bad news of some sort for the Besigye brigade (to mean those who have total faith in his brand of politics).

Believe it or not, the man from Rukungiiri had cut a cult figure as the enduring brand of Ugandan opposition politics.

He had endured persecution, harassment, sprinkled with tear gas and shed tears and holds the record being the most arrested person in the world.

Every year Besigye has been arrested and detained an average of not less than ten times.

BESIGYE’S CONTRIBUTION

But it’s fair to say that Besigye has made his contribution to the political landscape of the country

His political activism will be remembered the reforms that have changed the social sphere of the country. For instance In 2001 when he first declared his intentions to contest against president Museveni, Besigye declared that he would scrap graduated tax which had been a thorn in the flesh for Ugandans above 18 years.

The obnoxious tax had been introduced by the British colonialists not only to contribute to the revenue of the colonial government, but to make Ugandans above 18 years more productive.

The defaulters of this annual tax were normally humiliated by tying them on a rope, dragged to the district headquarters and given corporal punishments or imprisoned.

Most men used to ‘takeoff’ whenever they interfaced with the tax collectors.

The tax was so embarrassing that men dreaded the day they forgot their graduated ticket at home or had not paid at all.

So when announced that he was going to scrap graduated tax, all Ugandan men above 18 vowed to give him their votes. Museveni was faced with a real possibility of losing the 2001 elections mostly because of this graduated tax. Museveni had no choice but to quickly comply and promise to scrap graduated tax. Most Ugandans breathed a sigh of relief thanks to Besigye.

Besigye also put Museveni on task when he announced that he would increase the intake of students to Makerere University by over 2000 students. Ooh, Museveni had to make another concession allowing an extra 2000 students to be admitted at Makerere University.

Although Besigye was eventually defeated, he had put a mark on Ugandan society. He was the master of social change that Ugandans had craved for.

TABS ON MUSEVENI

The situation got so messy that Museveni who revels in having ideology was forced to get native with Besigye.  Instead of preaching ideology as a point of strength, Museveni sank as low as accusing Besigye of having contracted HIV/aids.

Museveni was warning Ugandans that they were wasting time voting for Besigye because he was soon going to die of HIV/aids!

It’s now almost twenty years, but Besigye has not died of the terrible pandemic.

When Besigye contested again in 2006, 2011 and 2016, he was not as effective in pushing the agenda as he was in the 2001 election but he still managed to shake the state to its core.

He had lost some steam and run out of ideas that could put Museveni in an uncomfortable position. Alternatively Museveni’s machinery had eventually leanrt how to deal with his former doctor.

DILUTION OF THE BRAND

Along the way Besigye inadequacies started getting exposed. He was accused of failing to build durable structures for his FDC party.

Although he still enjoyed mass support around the country, he was also exposed as a poor man manager by fellow party members. Many of them including the likes of Hon Alex Onzima, Hon Betty Kamya, Hon Beatrice Anywar and many others abandoned him and joined Museveni’s government.

Besigye also suffered from the proclivity of speaking with a lot of aggressiveness which meant that his brand soon suffered from the image of being anger-driven than issue-driven and lost most moderates.

The last kick in the teeth for Besigye’s bid for the Ugandan presidency is contained in the judgment by the high court which stated that the 2001, 2006, and 2012 elections had been rigged with lots of inconsistencies but they (inconsistencies and irregularities) were not substantial enough to affect the outcome of the aggregate vote.

That court verdict put Besigye in a position of resignation from the electoral process tot eh extent that he never went to court for the 2016 elections.

If the courts indeed agree that Besigye had been unfairly denied of victory, then what alternative did he poses at his disposal?

Indeed Besigye had o choice but to abandon the process. Contesting for the fifth time in a flawed process was not going to be a viable option.

Besigye now knows that an election is not a viable instrument for actualizing regime change.

A MOLE?

Besigye’s continued attempt of acquiring power through the election process was beginning to appear like a project of legitimizing president Museveni’s regime.

The conspiracy theory was advanced by the fact that since Besigye comes from western Uganda like Museveni, and then his participation in the election is geared at rubber stamping the continued stay of the NRM.

Besigye couldn’t extricate himself from another conspiracy which stated that he has powerful business empire which has never been sabotaged by the regime like it has been done to other members of the opposition.

He was thus declared a mole with an agenda for legitimizing Museveni’s stay in power.

Having contested four times, Besigye holds the world record for having contested and lost more than four times.

If Besigye quits completely, he will have joined the league of other serial opposition leaders who tried hard but failed to capture power like Morgan Tsivangirai who failed to remove Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe , Etienne Tsesekedi tried but failed to remove Joseph Mobutu in Zaire , Mohammed Eri Baradei failed to defeat Hosni Mubarak  of Egypt.

But Besigye should be inspired by the story of another man who endured long spells of contesting many times in an election for the Senegalese presidency.

Former Senegalese president Abdalla Wade contested four consecutive times but lost to poet president Sedar Senghor in 1978 , Abdou Diof in 1980s before wining on the fifth attempt in 2000.

But it must be told here that by the time Wade won in 2000, he was almost heading straight into his 80s.

Having been born in 1926, there are those who believe that Wade was born much earlier. This means that wade was almost twenty years older than Besigye’s age today.

Born in 1956, Besigye is around 66 years old. Even if he takes a break for this five year term, he will have the opportunity to comeback in 2026 when he will be around 71 years age, an age at which h will still be much younger than Museveni is today. By that time (in 2026) Museveni will be deep in his 80s with probably ready to retire and handover.

But that is a matter of complete conjecture. What we can state here is that by 2026, it will be very difficult for Museveni to beat Besigye again in an election.

For this we can speculate that Besigye still has a very good chance of becoming Ugandan president if, he doesn’t get wasted along the way.

What he needs to do is back up the NUP candidate Hon Robert kyagulanyi and then contest again in 2026.

If he does become a kingmaker in this 2021 election he will be following closely in the same league of enduring politicians like Railla Omoro Odinga who started contesting many years ago, became kingmaker by supporting Mwai Kibaki , getting cheated along the way but he is now in contention again.

As I speak now Railla Odinga looks like a very good bet to become the next president of Kenya. Besigye must contend with the famous saying that quitters never win and winners never quit.

The author, Fred Daka Kamwada is political risk analyst and a blogger

kamwadafred@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gen Tumukunde’s Assertion That 7,000 NRA Troops Dislodged a Government Force of 65,000 Must Be Put into Proper Context

 

 Gen Tumukunde’s Assertion That 7,000 NRA Troops Dislodged a Government Force of 65,000 Must Be Put into Proper Context

·        Gen Museveni’s 1986 Victory Was 20% Military And 80% Luck

2021 Presidential aspirant and former NRA commander Gen Henry Tumukunde revealed that the National Resistance Army had 7,000 guns which they used to dislodge 69,000 government troops from Kampala.

The retired general who was appearing on the capital gang, a Saturday radio talk-show that transpires on Capital Fm was trying to suggest that it’s possible for a relatively despised force to dislodge a well equipped army from power-which is entirely true.

While Gen Tumukunde was making a very strong statement to motivate the current forces that seek to remove Museveni from power notwithstanding the disadvantages they face, we thought it’s also fair that we make a fair assessment on what happened on the run up to the NRA takeover in 1986.

I am  are not in any way trying to contradict or disagree with Gen Tumukunde but trying to build on what he was trying to say in regard to how the NRA managed to snatch power from a well resourced military government.

Some of us are not soldiers and don’t actually wish to be involved in anything military, but we are very big military enthusiasts and big time students of world history. We therefore claim some degree of knowledge on what caused regime change in most of the countries around the world.

So many military enthusiasts, especially the ambitious politicians have used the NRA victory as a benchmark for forces that start humble without looking into the circumstances under which the NRA secured victory.

And I must state here, with all due respect to the NRA commanders and its leader that theirs was more of miracle than anything else.

When you look at how they kicked off the war, how they managed to elude government forces and how they eventually managed to take power, you will reach the same conclusion that it wasn’t necessarily a well planned military venture but a fortunate undertaking.

Yes, you need luck in most of what we do, and the NRA had plenty of it.

But most important of all is the fact that the disorganization from within the UPC government contributed over 80% to the NRA victory than the strategic military knowledge of Museveni and his commanders.

THE HISTORY IN PERSPECTIVE

President Museveni had been part of the post Amin government and served as minister of defense. There are claims that he had recruited over 9,000 troops in FRONASA.  This in effect means that he had over 9,000 weapons at his disposal.

How come he attacked Kabamba with just 27b guns?

This simply means that he had not expected to go to the bush in the first place but was forced by forces beyond his expectations to do so.

Alternatively, if indeed he had plans for waging war, as it is being postulated, then we can say that he was not a military strategist of any measure. Going to war with only 27 guns was not only suicidal but a very lunatic undertaking.

Bu using just 27 guns to wage a war simply implies that Museveni was largely treading on very slippery grounds. But a few factors worked in his favor.

The one fundamental factor that played in his favor was that the Obote government had not built enough administrative capacity to fight an insurgency. 

When Amin was overthrown in April 1979, Uganda was largely in the hands of the Tanzanians until close to 1982.

The Ugandan army had been dismantled by the Tanzanians.  By the time the Obotes took power in December 1980, they were beginning to recruit a national army.

Before they could even build that army, the Museveni’s and Kayiiras , were already running to the bush to wage war in February 1981, just two months after UPC had taken power!.

As an occupation force, the Tanzanians couldn’t engage into the hullabaloo of chasing around a few armed men like Museveni and Kayiira, whom they knew very well to be of not much military threat anyway.

The same two gentlemen had tried to fight Amin but failed to even hold a very small village as territory for their guerilla activity. For them to claim waging war, was therefore one of the biggest jokes of the time.

So Obote and his men had nothing to worry about them waging war because they had failed together in the fight against Amin.  Obote knew, more than anybody else, how difficult it was to wage war against a sitting government.

THE RISKS

You also need to weigh the risks undertaken before to wage war. While kayira attacked lubiri barracks with his UFM rebel outfit, Museveni ran over a 100 miles from Kampala to attack kabamba.

I must however state here that both military attacks on Lubiri and Kabamba failed miserably. 

But credit goes to kayiira’s UFM , as statement of intent, because they attacked a fully fledged military garrison in the capital city of the country

Museveni’s option of attacking Kabamba was cowardly. Why? Because kabamba was a military training school and not necessarily a fully fledged military installation.

Now when you go to the events of how he captured power, you also need to look at a few factors that played out.

When Gen Tito Okello removed Obote from power on 27^th july 1985 , they called all rebel groups to join them in forming a government. This more than else created space for the NRA to grow as formidable force from the miserable force it had been.

In fact the NRA took advantage of Gen Tito Okello’s peace overtures to overrun 14 government positions in one day!

The military junta couldn’t defend positions because they thought they were due to form government with NRA. By the time the Okellos woke up, the NRA had taken over the whole of western Uganda.

The NRA took total advantage and recruited in western Uganda but still only managed to get 7,900 troops which Gen Tumukunde talked about on the capital gang which they pitied against Okello’s junta that had over 69000 troops.

In military terms, the NRA was outnumbered by an astronomical military ratio of ten to one soldiers.

Without aerial power in term s of jet fighters,or strong artillery such a small force couldn’t  dream of victory against such a big force unless it was backed up by advanced technological weapons in form an air force or superior artillery weaponry-which the NRA never possessed. 

But a few factors played in their favor.

THE JULIUS NYERERE INFLUENCE

One was that influence of Tanzanian president Nyerere dissuaded Gen Okello Tito from defending Kampala. Okello had made the fatal mistake of recalling former Amin soldiers.

President Julius Nyerere picked the phone and blasted Gen Tito for being stupid enough to recall back evil forces they had chased away less than five years ago in 1979.

As a consequence, Nyerere gave Museveni more support weapons and cars which beefed up his onslaught on Kampala. Gen Tito was left with no choice but to flee and leave Kampala without putting up a dignified fight.

Meanwhile there is another untold story to explain the mass withdraw of the UNLA from Kampala.

The second reason was because Museveni struck a deal with some elements in the junta like Gen Moses Ali whose deal was to withdraw rather than putting up a fight for Kampala, which they did.

This explains why the NRA literary marched through the undefended Kampala and only faced individual troop resistance.

Had the forces decided to defend Kampala, Museveni was not going to get beyond Busega.

Therefore Gen Tumukunde’s assertion that the NRA used 7.900 soldiers to overrun a government that had 69,000 troops must be understood contextually because there are other factors that helped the NRA to achieve victory.  

 

Otherwise it’s largely misleading to judge the NRA victory by basing purely on military terms. The truth of the matter is that the NRA was aided by very many factors which are not military in nature.

 This obvious weak state of the NRA largely explains why Museveni was humble in the beginning and managed to embrace people of divergent views in the broad based government.

Yet today he sounds very arrogant because he has built genuine military power base that doesn’t require luck to sustain itself in power. That’s why he openly tells the world that ‘nobody can disturb Uganda’. 

The truth is that Museveni takeover was more of miracle of the highest proportions than a measure of military might. Although Museveni must be credited for taking the risk of waging a war under very difficult circumstances, a lot of outside factors played 80% in his favor. 

The Author Fred Daka Kamwada Is A Political Risk Analyst And A Blogger

 

kamwadafred@gmail.com