Monthly Archives: December 2010

Assessment of Museveni’s accomplishments in 25 years

Summary: The assessment of Museveni’s 25-year record in economic and political areas at national, regional, continental and global levels demonstrates triumph of failure over success.

To undertake a proper assessment of Museveni’s record one has to fully understand his overall goal. Museveni wants to be remembered as a great and bold leader at the regional, continental, commonwealth and global levels. He made this clear in early interviews after he became president. In one of them he said he would quit Uganda politics for pan-Africanism as soon as peace returned to Uganda. Thus, he has used Uganda and Ugandans as a spring board in pursuit of that larger goal. In short, leading Uganda and promoting Uganda interests were not his main reason for waging the devastating guerrilla war. Neither was it in sympathy with Baganda nor Catholics that felt had suffered under Obote leadership. Rather Museveni wanted a starting point – using Baganda and Catholic frustrations – which he failed to get in 1980 elections. The ten-point program and broad-based government at the start of his presidency were designed to consolidate his support among all Ugandans because he captured power in 1986 with a very narrow base.

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As father of the nation Museveni has failed Uganda children and must go

In my culture – and I believe in all cultures – parents have three principle responsibilities: to feed their children adequately so that they do not fall sick; prepare them for successful adulthood; and preserve land for them. I watch movies about wild life a lot. What is common among all creatures – birds and animals alike – is that they make sure their young are fed well and protected against danger; the young are taught how to survive and succeed in a dangerous environment on their own and cared for when need arises; and protect the territory for present and future generations. Recently I watched a movie in which a lion strayed into monkeys’ territory. All the monkeys – young and old, male and female – gathered around the lion and harassed her until she left the area. The monkeys re-conquered their territory with great joy!

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Psychological warfare as a tool in Uganda’s political domination

Whenever I write something it leads to another. Some readers of my blog www.kashambuzi.com have asked me to elaborate on what psychological warfare means and how it leads to political domination including in Uganda.

In general, psychological warfare involves anything said or done that affects your mind or feelings about yourself, relatives and others in a negative way, leading to hopelessness, voicelessness, powerlessness and ultimately resignation including to your opponent.

Since Museveni came to power, you have heard him refer to his opponents as bankrupt, empty cans, liars and saboteurs etc. He has especially used these expressions when referring to opposition parties. This is intended to weaken them in Uganda political context and put Museveni on top of the political pyramid as a super star. And it has worked but will it continue now that Museveni is sounding like an empty can based on broken promises?

In the great lakes region psychological warfare was used to the maximum by Batutsi over Bahutu in Rwanda and Burundi and by Bahima and Bahororo over Bairu in Ankole district and Rujumbura county of Rukungiri district.

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Museveni wasn’t born to rule, but to destroy

People who know Museveni well will tell you that during his secondary education life he exhibited restless rather than leadership behavior. Two developments appear to have disoriented him fundamentally in the late 1950s and early 1960s. First, during negotiations for Uganda’s independence, Bahororo (Museveni is a Muhororo) of Ankole demanded a separate district to recover part of former Mpororo kingdom. Bahima refused. It is believed that in retaliation, Museveni, as president, has refused restoration of Ankole kingdom. Second, Bairu’s political ascendancy in Ankole kingdom as independence approached was disturbing. Until then Bairu had been treated like slaves by Bahima and Bahororo. Bairu – a term coined by Bahima according to Speke (1863, 2006) – means slaves.

Realizing that numerically, Bahororo are insignificant and could not change Bairu’s political trajectory democratically, Museveni opted for a military solution: to stop Bairu’s political advance and restore Bahororo’s lost glory. His military participation in the overthrow of Amin was supposed to catapult him to Uganda’s presidency in 1980 election which he lost. He used the excuse of rigged 1980 elections which had been certified by the Commonwealth Observer team (which he has used to certify his rigged elections since 1996) to start a devastating guerrilla war. Museveni was aware that he would not win the next elections – hence the military option.

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Principal characteristics of Bahororo people

A teacher determines the popularity of a topic by the number of questions asked, comments made and clarifications sought during and after the class. I have written over four hundred articles on Uganda and other states in the Great Lakes region. These articles are posted on www.kashambuzi.com which I urge you to visit free of charge. The article on Bahororo has been the most popular in terms of questions asked, clarifications sought and comments made. Some readers including Ahmed Katerega have asked me to write more on the subject. My focus has been and hopefully will continue to be about the behavior and not the individuals as such. Since Bahororo have been in power for 25 years try and compare what I am writing with what you are observing on the ground and let us compare notes as and when appropriate. I come from Rujumbura where Bantu/Bairu people have interacted with Nilotic Bahororo people for 210 years – since 1800.

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Britain put Museveni into power, it must take him out

Britain through its citizens put Museveni into power. Tiny Rowlands funded the guerrilla war and facilitated Museveni’s travel. William Pike has led the media and publicity work for Museveni since the guerrilla war days. Linda Chalker a trusted former minister in Thatcher’s government was the first foreign dignitary to meet Museveni as president and has remained a very close adviser since then. Paul Collier has been the chief foreign macroeconomist that constructed structural adjustment program (SAP) based on Thatcherism – get socialism and state out of Uganda’s economy; focus on inflation at the expense of employment; discipline trade unions and facilitate labor flexibility to hire and fire at will and pay low wages; and privatize all public enterprises so that laissez faire capitalism and invisible hand of market forces drive Uganda’s economy and society. Structural adjustment program has been implemented by British economists in the powerful ministry of finance and central Bank. The Department for International Development (DFID) has also been active in Uganda’s economy.

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Museveni has failed, he must go

One of the tasks of teachers is to identify students with potential leadership qualities and prepare them accordingly. A student who is always punctual is made a time keeper. A student who likes reading is made a librarian. A student who is the best soccer/football player is made captain. A student who does well among scouts is made troop leader, and student who has overall leadership qualities is made prefect etc. These student leaders observe the behavior of their fellow students and identify those that could succeed them and on some occasions recommend them to the headmaster who finally takes the decision.

People who know Museveni very well as a student are in general agreement that he did not exhibit leadership qualities. During the interim period between the fall of Amin in 1979 and the elections of 1980, Museveni did not impress Ugandans as a national or constituency leader. He lost an election for Member of Parliament in 1980, yet he had been one of those who fought and defeated Amin.

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How Museveni has used structural adjustment to strangle opponents

People close to Museveni will tell you (on condition you do not quote them) that he believes very strongly in dominating others. Deep in his heart he thinks God created him specifically for that role which he must bequeath to a member of his family. Some Ugandans who want Museveni to favor them call him God send to save Uganda! Museveni has a mission much larger than Uganda. On April 4, 1997 he disclosed that “My mission is to see that Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire [DRC] become federal states under one nation [and one leader]” (EIR Special Report 1997). He might add on Somalia at a later stage if his troops perform well there.

Earlier Museveni had revealed that as a pan-Africanist he had larger ambitions and would quit Uganda politics as soon as security had been restored. His dream of Tutsi Empire and political and military involvement in Burundi, Rwanda and DRC as part of that dream is well known. In fact Mugabe joined the DRC war in 1998/99 principally to stop Museveni from creating a Tutsi Empire in Middle Africa (Joseph N. Weatherby 2003).

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How educating girls can contribute to Uganda’s demographic transition

Authorities and development partners are worried that Uganda’s population ‘explosion’ (which has been exaggerated as one of the highest in the world which is not true because there are countries with over four percent versus Uganda’s 3.2 percent growth rate which has remained stable for decades) will constrain economic growth, social progress and aggravate environmental degradation. If Uganda’s economy is growing at an average annual rate of 6 percent and projected to increase and population at 3 percent and projected to decline albeit slowly then population growth will not fundamentally undermine economic growth. Poverty is high because of skewed income distribution in favor of a few rich families connected with the first family and in-laws. Rural environment has been damaged largely by reckless extensive agriculture and draining wetlands that leads to clearance of large swathes of vegetation and commercial ranches owned by few rich families as in Kabale and Nyabushoz districts. Urban decay has been caused basically by mismanagement, corruption and lack of planning.

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Museveni lost Uganda’s sovereignty in 1987

When you examine closely what Museveni – and senior officials – says and does you find there are glaring contradictions most of the time. This is because Museveni is torn between two forces – the people of Uganda on the one hand and donors on the other whose interests are different. Museveni speaks a socialist language which is popular with Ugandans but acts in capitalist terms favored by donors and foreign business community that control Uganda mostly through British experts and the business community (most Asians are British citizens). In his speeches Museveni uses socialist/populist language based on the defunct ten-point program (which had been designed to end colonial economic structures of producing and exporting raw materials in exchange for manufactured products) which was replaced in 1987 by structural adjustment program based on capitalist principles borrowed largely from Thatcher’s ideology. At the rhetorical level Ugandans like what they hear only to be disappointed by what Museveni then implements that disproportionately benefits foreigners and Uganda surrogates mostly connected with the first family.

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