The Alternative View ;Why The Age Limit Is Too Weak To Deter President Museveni’s Longevity Project

The Alternative View ;Why The Age Limit Is Too Weak To Deter President Museveni’s Longevity Project

The age limit is the easiest obstacle he has ever faced in his quest to keep power

Immediately after the 2016 elections, the age limit debate picked momentum amongst the Ugandan political elites.

Why? Because it was the only remaining obstacle to president Museveni’s continued stay at the helm of this country.

Almost the entire intellectual class was of the view that the age limit clause 102 (B) had to be maintained to create a more predictable political transition in a country that had seen chaotic change of power from one leader to another.

But I quickly realized that although the desire to maintain article 102 of the constitution was strong and passionate, it was logically too weak to hold the ground, if subjected to thorough critical reasoning.

My view was that the grounds for its amendment were far stronger than against the amendment.

Because, one; it was and has never been a tenet of democracy

Two; it is not part of the democratic practice in developed countries.

Three; it infringes on the right of the young people below 35 years and above 75 years from exercising their democratic right to contest for the highest office in the land.

Four; it can easily be regarded as a discriminatory constitutional clause which is in contravention of the laws regarding labor which states that no single individual will be discriminated against on the basis of tribe, religion or age , in the process of offering himself for work.

Therefore, I was of the view that it was a very easy clause to strike out of the constitution. In fact it much easier to remove than the term limits.

Embarrassing m7 ?

The only concern was that it was going to embarrass president Museveni who was once interviewed saying that he never thought that it was feasible for him to continue ruling beyond 75 years.

But at it turns out today , it seems president Museveni’s utterance of not vying for power after clocking 75 years is becoming a very small contradiction.

And in any case, one can say, that leaders contradict themselves all the time as long as the contradiction doesn’t break the law, it can be permissibly waved off.

Actually one person once said that good leaders are those ones who tell a lie to fit the circumstances-as long as it creates a semblance of harmony. While a bad leader is the one who tells the truth and it results into trouble!

In fact, the momentum to clear out that statement has grown, with most Museveni enthusiasts saying that president Museveni’s statements are not enough to affect the position of the party.

Yes, the party can overrule the position of their chairman. Therefore alth0ugh president Museveni argued that he wouldn’t vie for the presidency beyond 75years, the party has decided to overrule him and forced him to stand again in 2021.

Uganda in chaos with M7?  

Now, there are those who reason that president Museveni’s continued grip on power will plunge the country in anarchy.

But when you interrogate that argument closely you will find an interesting answer that perhaps the situation might even get worse if president Museveni vacates power.

One; because there are no guarantees that when Museveni steps down, the leader who will come after him will not make dangerous decisions that can plunge the country in chaos.

Two; secondly, there is a possibility that since Museveni has presided over a militarized group for over forty years , this same group can easily undermine the group that will take over from him.

Thirdly;, the argument about pacifying and containing possible uprisings (the kogikwatako , or togikwatako group)that can emerge when Museveni continues in power is weak since he has been containing more dangerous military groups (ADF, LRA, JOSEPH KNOY ETC )than these kogikwatakos.

M7 Enjoys Challenges

Even then, if you have been veryu inquisitive enough you should have noticed that president Museveni has spent all his life fighting one obstacle after another. The obstacles have not only been military in nature but also procedural as well.

And in any case, Ugandans should know that Museveni enjoys these challenges more than they think.

When you talk of kogikwatako, and you even threaten, you are playing directly in his hands. Those are the sort of things he wishes to find on the menu.

When Col Kiiza Besigye talked of unleashing a tsunami, president Museveni waited for the tsunami, but it never materialized.

WHAT NEXT FOR UGANDA?

At the moment, the people of Uganda will have to bear with what the Ugandan parliament will deliberate.

If they manage to amend the constitution and indeed amend article 102 ( as expected )that paves way for president Museveni to contest again in 2021, then Ugandans will have to take the following measures.

One; agitate for constitutional reforms with particular emphasis on instituting an independent electoral commission.

Two; the reforms should also include the idea of coming up with an independent judiciary which is not directly appointed by the president.

Thirdly; they should also agitate for a probable power sharing arrangement, in case of a political stalemate, of let’s say when an election gets closely controversial (like it was in 2001 and 2006 when the constitutional court ruled that there were irregularities in the elections but they were not substantial enough to warrant the overturning those particular elections) , then a power sharing arrangement should be instituted.

Fourth; the power sharing component should also include an element of accommodating the second runner up in government as the leader of opposition in parliament rather the current system which is ambiguous and almost insignificant, to say the least.

Once you have the runner up is co-opted as leader of opposition in parliament, it might certainly create a semblance of political harmony in the country.

Fifthly; we should crusade for the trimming of the powers wielded by the president because that’s where all the troubles originate from. Why should the president appoint all the critical leaders of the  critical institutions in the country?

Sixth; we should also agitate for a parliamentary system which will make the power with most members of parliament to form government. This will reduce on the political tension in the country which has been created by the presidential system.

IN CONCLUSION

I think , if there is anything that you can call an obstacle to president Museveni’s continued stay in power then I don’t think its article 102 because it’s too weak to block him.

In our next blog we shall deliberate on why Museveni is still clinging firmly on power.

The Author, Fred Daka Kamwada Is A Ugandan Blogger and proponent of the THRID FORCE ,, you can chat him up at kamwadafred@gmail.com

Succession Talk; Pertinent Reasons Why Gen Salim Saleh Can Succeed President Museveni As Ugandan President

Succession Talk; Pertinent Reasons Why Gen Salim Saleh Can Succeed President Museveni As Ugandan President

Gen Saleh's brand is powerful enough to fit the presidency

During the bush war that rocked Uganda in the mid 1985, there emerged an interesting scenario; a faction of the UNLA led by Gen Tito Okello had shockingly Overthrown President Apollo Milton Obote’s UPC Government and were stuck because they ‘seemed not to know’ what to do with the reins of power.

The Okellos (Brigadier Bazilio and Gen Tito) therefore opted to call upon the NRA rebel group and other factions to come to Kampala and join in forming the next government. Gen Tito Okello particularly called upon comrade Yoweri Museveni to stop fighting but join the new government in kampala.

But at that time, July 1985, the Okellos never knew that Museveni was not in the bushes of Luwero but had traveled to Sweden where his family was holed up.

So who was in charge of the command and control of the NRA rebel group?

The man in charge was a 25 year old youthful rebel leader called Salim Saleh also officially known as Caleb Akandwanaho.

Gen Saleh during the bush-war

Soon after realizing that Museveni was not on the ground to heed radio communications to join them in a power sharing arrangement,  the military junta  focused on convincing this 25 year old NRA commander to abandon war  and join the new system in Kampala.

It’s not clear what went on in Salem Saleh’s mind, but it was clear that he had the capacity to make a decision that would have changed the course of the NRA bush war in particular and Uganda’s history in general.

Apparently, it’s safe to suggest that if Saleh had made that grave decision to join the Okellos, maybe Museveni would never have become president of Uganda!.But that is a matter of absolute conjecture.

The brutal truth is that Saleh’s patience worked in Museveni’s favor, and enabled him to return  from Sweden and arrived in the bush in early August 1985 and assumed command of the NRA.
Four months later, the NRA stormed Kampala and took over power from the Okello junta.

Its 31 years since Museveni became Ugandan president, and as the saying goes, the rest is history.

Threats On Museveni's Life 

It was not the first time that saleh had played a pivotal role in securing Museveni out of irrelevance.

 Soon after the 1980 elections, some elements within the UPC government had wanted to eliminate Yoweri Museveni-because he had promised to wage war if UPC won the elections.

The plot to capture and probably kill Yoweri Museveni was rumoued to have been hatched by the UPC holy trinity comprising of Paulo Muwanga, Oyite Ojok And Chris Rwakasis.

On his part president Obote underestimated Museveni’s capacity to wage a successful war and chose to ignore plans to eliminate him at that point.

 But Paulo Muwanga And Chris Rwakasis insisted that Museveni must be either jailed or eliminated completely to avert the possibility of war.  

SO Maj Gen Oyite Ojok ordered for the capture of Museveni who was therefore intercepted at a roadblock at kireka.

But it was a 21 year old Salim Saleh together with Fred Rwigyema who managed to rescue Museveni from the kireka road block which had looked like the end of the road for a man who would later rule Uganda for three decades and more.

Later Saleh paid for his loyalty with a detention in Moroto barracks (I will narrate the whole story in the next blog about how Saleh was almost killed in Moroto).

After that kireka incident, Museveni realized that he had no option but to fight for his freedom.

The Turning Points 

Those two close shave incidents, (when Saleh rescued Museveni as kireka roadblock in 1981 and when he had to make a decsion on either to join the Okellos military government in 1985), turnout to be the turning points regarding Museveni’s relevance in Ugandan politics.
if saleh had not rescued museveni from the kireka roadblock ,there is a high chance he would have been killed.
likewise is Saleh had decided to join the Okellos , the NRA would have faded into oblivion. 

Yet the man (Salim Saleh) who oversaw those TWO CRITICAL incidents is never mentioned anywhere when it comes to the succession debate in Uganda.

What am I trying to say?

Am saying that under normal circumstances, and holding the other factors constant (citerus peribus) Gen Salim Saleh is the man who deserves to be the next president of Uganda

He is the man who has played the most critical role in setting the ground for the success and continuity of the NRM revolution.

Although the Ugandan constitution provides for the vice president to succeed the president, the most acknowledged and most popular choice for the Ugandan presidency right now, is none other Than Gen Salim Saleh.

Although he has been making underground contribution especially in the field of wealth creation, Saleh has managed to quietly build a powerful countrywide appeal to become president of Uganda.

Saleh has the social capital to convince Ugandans from all corners of the country to an extent that even the enemies of the NRM have a secret admiration for him.

For instance LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony named his first son Salim Saleh out of respect for the humble UPDF general.

Saleh built his name through his bravery, humility, sincerity and generosity.

BRAVERY

We have already mentioned the two acts of bravery which Saleh undertook before, during and after the bush war.

Bu there is another risky mission when he used a chopper to land in enemy territory to meet the rebels that culminated into a peace agreement between the Ugandan government and the UPDA rebel group.  Although the rebellion never ended entirely it scaled down to manageable proportions.

 Generosity

Most Ugandan normally talk about president Museveni’s generosity without realizing that it was salim Saleh who pioneered that concept-of giving out whenever a need arose.

Saleh’s generosity created a gravitas to an extent of being a darling of both the opposition and neutrals within the Ugandan society.  

SINCERITY

Saleh has not been without scandals of his own but has faced them with unbelievable honesty and amazing sincerity.

For instance when he got entangled in the chopper scandal, he openly admitted that he got a bribe of $80,000 from the European firm that sold military choppers but was wiling to refund it to government. In fact he also suggested that a plea bargain approach should be adopted to recover money from corrupt officials which was rejected.

Yet many government officials swindle money and only serve prison sentences but without returning the money to state coffers.
The Saleh Brand 

Although some Ugandans claim to be tired of the NRM system , many of them are not hostile to gen Salim Saleh. Infact Saleh is the most marketable brand from the NRM that can be easily sold to most Ugandans around the country at the moment.
in fact saleh's presidential bid provides a win-win incentive because even president Museveni himself would feel much safer with him than with any other Ugandan president
PRECEDENCE

Saleh’s presidential bid is not without precedence. In Cuba, Fidel Castro stepped down to pave way for his brother Raul Castro, who has performed very well so far.

In Malawi the late president Bingu Wa Mutharika passed away paving way for his brother Peter Wa Mutharika to takeover.

CONCLUSION

Therefore as Ugandans speculate and counter-speculate about whether president Museveni should run again in 2021, after lifting the age limit, they should also think of a good option of having Gen Salim Saleh for the Ugandan presidency.

The Author Fred Daka Kamwada Is political analyst and Blogger

Lessons From The Obote Coup ; Chris Opoka And North Korean Ambassador Were Five Minutes Away From Repelling The 27thjuly 1985 Tito Okello Coup

Lessons From The Obote Coup ; Chris Opoka And North Korean Ambassador Were Five Minutes Away From Repelling The 27thjuly 1985 Tito Okello Coup 

 

Gen Tito Okello overthrew president Obote\s government

Today is 27^th July, a day that will always be remembered for the military coup that toppled president Milton Obote in 1985 for the second time after the first one that was orchestrated by Gen Idi Amin in 1971.

As an enthusiast of Uganda’s political history, I have read widely and researched about the political events in this country-most especially contemporary history and found very interesting revelations about these coups.

In 2008 I endeavored to find out what really caused the 1985 whose actors were almost from the same ethnic group;-both president Obote who was overthrown and Gen Tito Okello who orchestrated the coup were from the luo ethnic group.

The 27^th July 1985 Inside Story

So I used my opportunity as a journalist to interview as many members of the former UPC government as possible with the motive of finding out what really went wrong.

The pertinent question was; how could president Obote lose power so easily to a section of illiterate military officers who speak the same language as he does?

I was able to interview some former ministers from the Obote government like Mr James Rwanyarare who gave me an interesting version of events of the time.

The Rwanyarare Version

And he told me that after the death of Maj Gen David Oyite Ojok, president Obote developed a paralysis of some sort. He withdrew from public circulation and was almost inaccessible.

THE Late Maj Gen David Oyite Ojok

The death of David Ojok had hit president obote so hard that he was inconsolable. Ojok had managed to train and retrain the UNLA to some level after the departure of the Tanzanians who had overthrown president Amin in 1979.

It must be recalled that by 1981, the UNLA was still struggling to assert its control on the country, but before it could even stamp its authority on the country, a civil war broke out in central Uganda orchestrated by over a dozen rebel groups.

President Obote assigned Ojok to fight the insurgency was suddenly killed in a helicopter crash in the jungles of luwero. That was the time a section of Acholi civilian officials (not military) working in government started plotting to overthrow Obote..

 

They convened meetings code named, Let Acholi Also Try In several parts of Kampala like Apollo hotel (now Sheraton hotel)  and Kampala club.

At that time, James Rwanyarare says, president Obote had not even appointed anyone to replace Oyite Ojok as army chief of staff. 

So he says that it’s wrong to deduce that Acholi officers decided to overthrow Obote because he had decided to appoint his tribes mate, Brigadier Smith Opon Achak as the chief of staff instead of an Acholi.

And in any case, Rwanyarare says, Smith was a Sandhurst trained and therefore more trained than either Brigadier Bazilio Okelllo or any other officer in the UNLA who desired to take the post.

But Rwanyarare insists that by the time of his death in 1983, Museveni’s NRA bandits had been defeated completely and relocated to Zaire. Kayiira’s UFM had also been defeated completely.

He recalls the moment when information leaked that the rebels were fleeing towards the Rwenzori mountains and obote assigned him, Peter Otai And Gen Tito Okello to take care of the situation.

But gen TitO Okello took the situation lightly. If the army had deployed, there is no chance that Museveni would have managed to win the war, he says.

It’s that section of the NRA that managed to make decisive attacks on government from fort portal which eventually led to Museveni’s final takeover of government in 1986.

So, Rwanyarare says , the Acholi’s undermined the UPC government to a point of no return and Obote couldn’t do much about it because he considered them as his ‘people’.

Chris Opoka Narrates

Then I managed to talk to chris Opoka , now EALA representative who says that he was a political commissar of the UNLA at the time and was aware of what was going on in the country.

He says that when it became apparent that the two Okellos ,( Bazilio and Tito) were in advanced stages of doing something militarily nasty, he drove to the residence of the then army chief of staff , Brigadier smith Opon Achak whom he found not only very drunk but in the company of women.
At that time on the morning of 27th July 1985, Opoka had

got wind of the secret that the president had fled the country.
His close minister led by Chris Rwakasis had thrown in the towel after realizing that the okello UNLA loyalists had crossed karuma.

‘’ We found Opon Achak sipping a bottle of jack Daniels, and we asked him to deploy on Bombo road to intercept the renegade UNLA officers who were advancing towards Kampala.

Several other ministers including chris rwakasisi pleaded with Opon acak to do something about the situation.

But Brigadier Achak simply assured them that he was going to take immediate action, which he never did!!!.

Meanwhile, according to Opoka,  a contingent of  UNLA soldiers were inching towards Kampala.

They managed to easily co-opt Masindi barracks into the coup project, but after killing a UNLA captain and a major who had refused to join them.

As they reached Bombo, Opoka realize the untenability of the situation and ran to the official residence of the North Korean ambassador and told him that it was possible to avert the coup by taking over radio Uganda and announcing a counter coup.

The radio announcement would have the effect of confusing the okellos as the other battalions of Tororo, Mbarara were mobilized to intervene to stop the okellos.

At that time the UPC government had concrete bilateral military engagements with the North Korean government to an extent of providing weaponry and personnel who trained the UNLA.

Opoka says that the ambassador agreed but delayed on his breakfast.

So when he finished his breakfast and created a convoy of five well armed jeeps and drove with chris Opoka to radio Uganda at around 10;45, bullets started  raining at their destination; radio Uganda.

They tried to drive on but it became impossible to do so without first finding out what was going on.

As they were still fidgeting, a UNLA officer by the names of Lt Walter Ochora announced that the army had overthrown president Obote’s government!

Later on the late Walter Ochora who rose to become a colonel said that he did not overthrow the Obote government but only helped to bury it!

COL Walter Ochora announced the coup on27th July 1985

In other words, it was already dead. Ochora wonders how a few soldiers could easily drive to the capital city and manage to overthrow a sitting government!.

The military junta of the Okellos only managed to rule for six months before it was inevitably overthrown in January 1986 by president Museveni’s NRA.

It’s now 31 years since that coup and the people who lost power have tried but failed to regain it.  

There is a rumor that while entering the car that drove him to exile, president Obote cursed the Acholi by saying that they will regret their action. And indeed the counter revolutionary civil war that was designed to return the Acholis to power led by Joseph Kony affected Acholi for more than two decades.

Lessons From The 1985 Coup

In Africa, there is a presumption that leaders from the same ethnic group can form a cohesive government because (1) they speak the same language and. (2) they believe in the same values.

That explains why African presidents usually engage in absolute nepotism, sectarianism and tribalism when making appointments. 

But Obote (who was langi by tribe) lost power to a Gen Tito Okelo (an Acholi) with whom they almost shared the same language since both tribes are from the same luo sub ethnic group.

  Therefore the 1985 coup proves that theory as a bankrupt form of analysis.

 Obote’s paradoxical story has strong similarities to the story of Liberia’s Sergeant Samuel Kenyon Doe who overthrew president Tolbert whose was a close relative.

It also has resemblance to the one of Equaltorial Guiniea where incumbent president Theodore Mbasogo Nguema came to power by overthrowing his uncle Francis Mathias Ngeuma.

What does this show; it simply proves that nepotism, sectarianism, cronyism, and tribalism is not a guarantee that a leader who surrounds himself with friends, relatives and tribesmen is immune to getting overthrown.

Leaders who survive for a longtime in power do so through sustained goodwill of the people and not necessarily through, tribalism, nepotism favoritism and cronyism.

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

The late Mulindwa Muwonge Never Recovered From Peter Sematimba’s Betrayal

The late Mulindwa Muwonge Never Recovered From Peter Sematimba’s Betrayal 

The late Mulindwa Muwonge was a self made intellectual

One chilly evening (it must have been 2013) I met a colleague and former work mate Mr Tony Owana on Parliament Avenue and he told me that he felt I should defend one of the articles I had written in the print media ( am not mentioning the name of that media house).

I had written an article about NRM Mps who had opted to rebel against their parent party- which I thought was a total breach of a principle and in effect corruption of the highest order.

In my view I thought that we shouldn’t define corruption as a form of embezzlement or theft of public funds alone but rather define it as a breach of a set of principles. 

If we agree in principal that all party members must adhere to the party principals, then anyone who deviates from those principals must be considered as a corrupt person.

At that time NRM’s Hon Muhammed Nsereko had campaigned for DP’s Hon Mathias Nsubuga  as opposed to the Hon Nsambu , who belonged to NRM.

The pertinent  question of that moment was ;How could a party member use the party logo to enter parliament, but then turn around to campaign against the same party that he used to get  to the august house??

My view was that if we were to have a mature multi party democracy, then we should stick to the rules of multipartism.

So I got a call from Mr Semakula Gyagenda who also got interested in the article and he invited me to the UBC television studios for a program that was supposed to start at 8am to discuss that article.

So I maneuvered through the early morning traffic and did the show , code named Good Morning Uganda.

Meeting Mulindwa Muwonge

But I was leaving the UBC premises, I met  Mr. Mulndwa Muwonge in the compound and labored to talk to him.  I cheekily introduced myself to Mulindwa Muwonge thus;  “my name is Dosie Malor of the BBC World Service”

To which MM, unaware of my prank, answered, please come again?

I then told him that I was playing a prank on him derived from a program he did with that man Dosie Malor when he visited the BBC studios in London some years ago.

But Mr Gyagenda let the cat out when he told him that i was Fred Kamwada , who writes THE FACTS LOGIC AND RATIONALE column in the media.

To which he laughed heartily and wondered how I had listened to that show.

I then told him that I mostly listen to the BBC radio and East Africa fm because Uganda radios are full of clowns.

To which he replied in the affirmative that it’s true that Ugandan radios have been invaded by clowns.

He then went on to remind me of an article I had written about him in which i had made the mistake of caling him a clown.

‘’Oh,,, so you are the Kamwada chap who wrote about me in the newspaper ?’’ he enthused.

He was a little bitter that I had put him in the same category of comedians who worked on radio.

He then went on to remind me that he had qualifications in mass communications and was still upgrading his qualifications ( by the time of his death he was doing law).

In that article in which i mentioned him as a clown, I decried the fact that the Ugandan media had sunk so low that comedians and clowns got jobs ahead of qualified students of mass communications from bigger universities like Makerere.

Below The Belt

I brought in Mulindwa Muwonge’s name as an example of one of the comedians who had taken the Ugandan broadcasting by storm. I had also hit him below the belt when I mentioned his ignorance that propelled him to oppose the value added tax which had been introduced in Uganda.

In that article I mentioned that Mulindwa Muwonge had been one of the few who vehemently opposed VAT prompting president Museveni to visit the CBS radio studios to enlighten Ugandans about the new tax.

So when I got the opportunity to meet him he said ‘’otyoo,,you man you said I was a clown ,, yet am a qualified journalist’’

“”I went back to school my dear”” as he pulled me to his office.

We had a lengthy discussion which ranged from the socio-economic, politics to the sensitive issue of land.

I must honestly confess that despite of the fact that I have read widely about land matters, I have never comprehended them in detail.

So I asked MM why the Buganda kingdom had monopoly of land in Buganda ahead of its citizens- what came first , the kingdom or the people?.

And he passionately explained that it was an anomaly which needed to be corrected.

I asked him where Mengo bought that land. To which he simply shook my hand and said, that is the question Ugandans need to ask those Mengo people.

I learnt from his office that Mulindwa had dedicated his life to reading a lot of books about a wide variety of subjects.

He had a book almost on most of the topics we were discussing.

its actually sad that it was the first and last time i met him.

Meeting His Son

But I also noticed that he was not the bullish, confident Mulindwa I used to hear on radio some years before.

This time his battery was a little low in energy and he was a bit not in the real moods I expected him to be.

he was the Omugabi Mulindwa Muwonge who used to roar on radio.

But some years later I was privileged to meet his son Bayola Moses on a radio talk show.

I asked Bayola (also a journalist working with UBC) why his dad was no longer the confident man he used to be. And he confided in me that his dad lost his steam after a very bitter spat with peter Sematimba.

He told me that both men (peter and MM) had combined brains to form Super FM but somehow disagreed either on procedure, administration or finances. 

Mulindwa Muownge felt that peter Sematimba (above )betrayed him so much

Bayola intimated to me that if both men met in streets, one of them would not come out alive!

It’s believed that Mulindwa felt betrayed by Peter Sematimba and never recovered his sense of self esteem.

There are time he would do a program, and then lament in reference to peter Sematimba by saying, “banange akassajja ako simanyi oba mukama katonda ali kasasula” (I don’t know if God will pay that man for betraying me).

So when I heard that he had passed on, I not only got shocked but also got a quick reminder of what had really brought his life to near collapse. 

The Man Of Reason 

I also noticed that despite of being modest (academic-wise), he was very intelligent and was someone who usually gave you a good intellectual conversation , a breed that is very rare in a country that is full of complete idiots.

Many people have spoken good and bad things about MM, but I will never forget him for the question he posed to Hajji Naduli during an interview  that “between president Obote who arrested the five ministers in 1966, and president Idi Amin who released them in 1971 , but started killing one by one who was a better person”

That question by Mulindwa Muwonge put Alhajji Naduli ‘s hatred for president  Obote to shame!.

Rest in peace Omugabi Mulindwa Muwonge

Ends

 Fred Daka Kamwada Is A Ugandan Blogger

Open Letter To President Museveni; If You Want To Build A Nation, You Kill A Tribe

Open Letter To President Museveni; If You Want To Build A Nation, You Kill A Tribe

president Museveni shakes hands with prince Charles Wesley Mumbere

Mr. President, I send my sincere greetings to you I particular and the people of Ugandan in general.

I must admit that the previous month of November has been a very tense one for you and your government. But most importantly November in particular and 2016 has exposed the wrong decisions you made more than twenty years ago.

Some of the horrifying mistakes you made in the early 90s include the following.

1.       The absolute privatization of the economy leaving Ugandans to the mercy of capitalistic forces

2.       The unilateral decision to restore traditional kingdoms without the consent of Ugandans.

The first one mistake of privatizing the economy has already proved to everyone that it was a fundamental mistake. Today the economy is limping because of that mistake.

You cannot abandon all economic activities to the private sector. A revolutionary government like yours that claims to have fought for the emancipation its people should have remained in charge of some critical areas of the economy.

While the principal of privatization was good in the beginning, the execution was fundamentally flawed. You shouldn’t have done it whole sale.

You cannot privatize institutions that are responsible for service delivery and claim to serve the people.

How do you embark on service delivery when you have sold the means of doing it?

Government should have remained in charge of a common people’s bank, to deliver low interest loans to stimulate economic growth (but you sold UCB). Government should have remained as a player in the transport sector by keeping the Ugandan railway in operation (but you chose to close the Uganda railway for reasons best known to you alone.

Government should have remained firmly in charge of electricity to make it user friendly to your citizens (but6 you chose to privatize its operation making it electricity very expensive and thus costly to stimulate industrialization.

And it’s a shame that while you brag about having surplus electricity, it (the unit cost of electricity) remains the highest in the region.

As a result of some of these small economic mishaps arising from your wrong decisions you made two decades ago, the economy has now slumped to its knees. 

It’s obvious that you need to get back to the drawing board to address these economic issues. Otherwise there is general perception that you have no grand economic plan for this country.

The Fundamental Contradiction

But as a matter of fact, my intention was not to address to you issues regarding the economy because it’s a wide subject--I will certainly dwell on the economy in another blog.

Today I thought we should discuss your blunder number two which I mentioned above-your unilateral decision to restore traditional institutions without the consent of Ugandans.

Mr. President, we know that you were a very big friend and admirer of former Mozambican president Samora Machel who once said that if you are to build a nation, you kill a tribe.

The late Samora Machel had a true perspective in regard to nation building 

By this he practically meant that a powerful tribe will always undermine or contradict the state.

That’s why most leaders who embarked on successful nation building, systematically destroyed chiefdoms and kingdoms.

In Tanzania where you did your university and spent almost a full decade in exile, there were so many chiefdoms and kingdoms. We also know that you were very close friends with Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere who is known to have destroyed tribes in Tanzania for the good of a united Tanzania.

What did you learn from Mwalimu Nyerere and Samora Machel in regard to the nation of nation building, if you went ahead and did exactly what they preached against?

Building a nation is not a simple game. You need to make very hard choices. You cannot make an omelet without breaking an egg.  For your case, you want to have an omelet and at the same time keep the egg!

Kaunda, Samora and Nyerere

In France, the 1879 revolution had to deal with the difficult issue of sorting out the French monarchy.

Russia gained its super power status after making the difficult decision of dismantling the Russian monarchy in 1914.

Ghana had the mighty Asante Empire, but nobody knows where it is at the moment. Nepal had the oldest kingdom on the globe, but the people decided to disband it completely.

You cannot build a nation and at the same time glorify tribes like you are doing at the moment.

Today Uganda is more divided than it was during president Idi Amin’s reign of terror.

By the time you made a decision to restore traditional leaders, you must have done enough home work.

But you unfortunately took it upon yourself to restore them without the absolute consent of Ugandans.

There are credible rumors that some patriotic Ugandans led by Col Serwanga Lwanga opposed you and briefed you about the repercussions, but you overpowered them.

By doing this, you took Uganda 50 years backwards.  We are back to square one. uganans are gettign killed for something that had been buried fifty years ago.

Yes, President Apollo Milton Obote had resolved that issue in 1966 by doing what you did to Mumbere’s palace last week. in fact your army killed more Ugandans in Kasese than Obote during the attack on lubiri in 1966 

At the moment Uganda is headed for a very uncertain future. The tribal groups that had surrendered their sovereignty to Uganda have now developed secessionist tendencies because you encouraged and empowered them.

The country is now divided into tribal cocoons. We need a nationalist to embark on a more vivid process of nation building because you seem to have failed to do it.
instead you have embarked on deliberate tribalization of the country by launching dictionaries for local languages , you even address the nation in vernacular etc etec..
This practically spells doom for the country. We expect to see more bloodleting than what happened in kasese because of your blind  tribal project.

THE WAY FORWARD

You need to get back to the drawing board by conceding that you made a unilateral decision to restore these traditional leaders.  You need to simply admit that Ugandans should participate in the continued stay of these kingdoms through a plebiscite.  

The author Fred Daka Kamwada is a blogger and a passionate proponent of the THIRD FORCE

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