Politics is about getting power and keeping it. To do that those who don’t have power are prevented from getting it. So you have those with power and those without it struggling with each other.
In Uganda the Tutsi-dominated National Resistance Movement (NRM) has had power since 1986 and wants to keep it forever by keeping others out. Similarly in Rwanda, the Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) has had power since 1994 and wants to keep it forever. That is why these two countries have become vulnerable to political shocks because there is a very tiny minority of Tutsi trying to dominate the majority by using all sorts of methods including dubbing their opponents sectarian or genocidaire to keep them silent.
Tutsi have devised a sophisticated method of using others and money for their ultimate and possibly permanent benefit in Uganda and Rwanda. Without wishing to offend anyone, let me say this: To capture power in Uganda, Museveni carefully mobilized Baganda support by offering them some carrots. He made Lule (RIP) chairman of NRM. Baganda assumed that with power in NRM hands Lule would become president and Museveni vice president. Sadly, Lule passed on a year before power was captured. Museveni then became acting president and would not allow an election to have another Muganda in the chair until NRM captured power and he became president by default or through the backdoor if you will.
Museveni knew Baganda were upset, so he gave them another carrot. He named them at different times to high profile positions including vice Chairman of NRM, Speaker of Parliament and cabinet posts including Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Local Government and Attorney General etc. At one time two Baganda, a Catholic and a Muslim, were made second and third Deputy Prime Ministers respectively. However, they had no authority because that went to Ministers of State who were mostly Tutsi. The posts of Vice President and Prime Minister have also been dominated by Baganda as well as the strategic position of chairman of the Land Board since Tutsi are determined to acquire land at the expense of indigenous owners throughout Uganda.
With Tutsi fairly entrenched, the number of Baganda in key positions has declined precipitously. They only have a vice president with undefined functions.
In Rwanda while Tutsi were still weak before and after capturing power in 1994, they fronted Hutu as Chairman of RPF, President of Rwanda, Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs etc. Like Museveni before him, as soon as Kagame was secure in Rwanda, he removed all of them: some went to jail, others fled into exile and one of them was gunned down in Nairobi, Kenya.
Because Museveni is getting worried that NRM could lose power because of mounting opposition at home and in the diaspora, he has come up with a scheme to keep Tutsi in power. It is rumored, subject to confirmation, that Ugandans to the Resque (UTR) has Museveni hand in it. Duncan Kafero who admitted yesterday that he is Tutsified, is the ceremonial head. He also confessed that there are Tutsi in his military wing of UTR. Knowing how Tutsi behave in military matters, the majority of commanders could be Tutsi that operate secretly. Kafero also admitted for the first time that UTR has structures but are not for public consumption and will therefore continue to operate secretly.
It is also rumored subject to confirmation that David Sejusa is in London, not as a refugee, but working for NRM to break the back of opposition in the diaspora. He has neither denied it nor the $1 million alleged to have been transferred to his bank account in Switzerland by Museveni. There is another rumor that Sejusa, Kafero and State House are working together to suppress the opposition. That a senior member of UTR attended the Sejusa conference in London in December 2013 that created FUF indicates a connection. I appeal to interested Ugandans to investigate these rumors and report back their findings.
To mobilize Ugandans, Kafero set up Radio Munansi. A reasonably good team for the English program was hired to attract Ugandans. A Luganda program specifically for Baganda was also set up. I was hired on the English program together with two colleagues who eventually left. I stayed on – I was dismissed and then brought back – worked around the clock to mobilize listeners around the world.
When Kafero and Tutsi behind him realized that I was becoming popular – some commentators tried to break my back and force me out using acidic language and it didn’t work – they abruptly, without explanation, kicked me out the second time in three and half years. Those who did not like my messages and rising profile are naturally happy and have said so.
Kafero who had refused to appear on the program – probably fearing that I might ask him questions that would make him uncomfortable – suddenly showed up yesterday, a week after my ouster. Unfortunately without adequate preparation which was clear in his presentation and especially when answering questions, Kafero did not perform well at all. As questions piled up Kafero couldn’t take it, lost his temper and referred to some of my statements made earlier as “total rubbish”. He said that three times.
Comments flying around from all corners following Kafero’s presentation have one thing in common: Kafero did not rise to the occasion and chances of becoming the next president were severely damaged. Those who had hoped Baganda had finally picked a candidate with a national appeal were definitely disappointed. It is not too late to look somewhere else. Kafero could be a good man but he is possibly in a wrong place and likely being used as a cover for Tutsi that are working hard to retain power in Uganda and Rwanda.
I am requesting Ugandans especially Baganda to take another look: there are potentially good leaders out there. They don’t necessarily have to come from one’s region. All that is needed is to look for a Ugandan that has articulated a message to create a national space for justice, dignity, tolerance, prosperity and equality of opportunity for all Ugandans in present and future generations. Those aspiring leaders who keep silent supposedly in the interest of neutrality are either not sincere or have no clear ideas as Kafero demonstrated yesterday about what they would do once in power.
As the struggle rages on to snatch power from NRM, politics will sadly remain divisive along many lines including ideological, regional, religious and ethnic. We need to learn to live with this reality provided we develop shared values and a common purpose for the entire country around which politics will be practiced while respecting one another as human beings born free and equal in dignity and rights. Not least, Ugandans should stop the habit of being used for the comfort of others.
Eric Kashambuzi