Tag Archives: external

External factors in Uganda politics

It would be a big mistake to discuss Uganda politics since independence in 1962 without a consideration of the role of external factors. External support can be in the form of commission or omission. The pre-independence politics was manipulated externally to defeat DP and Catholics and pave the way for Protestant UPC/KY and Obote as leader of the coalition and executive prime minister at independence. The coming to power of Amin in 1971 had a huge external involvement and sustained him in power until 1979. The overthrow of Obote II government in 1985 involved a heavy external hand operating from within and without Uganda. Obote was denied external funding at a particularly difficult time under the pretext he didn’t stick to one of the conditions set by the IMF and the World Bank cut off funding after Kanyeihamba and his colleagues convinced it at a conference in one of the Scandinavian countries on the basis of human rights violations and the World Bank switched support to NRM while still in the bush.

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External reporting on Uganda is misleading the public

The people of Uganda are hurting very badly under the NRM regime. Their conditions are getting worse. Ugandans are eating poorly, dressing poorly, sleeping poorly. When people struggle to get one meal of cassava a day; when people can only afford used clothes not even appropriate for their climate; when a whole family sleeps in one room on the floor sometimes with domestic animals; when parents force their daughters into early marriage to make ends meets that is a society in real trouble. I am describing Uganda society which is beginning to say Amin administration was better than Museveni’s. I am saying this from first-hand knowledge accumulated over many years. In my research, I have had the opportunity to interact with many people from all walks of life. I have visited churches, administrative offices, schools, homes, market places and vendors on the street. I have even travelled by bus many times between my home town of Rukungiri and the nation’s capital Kampala to hear passenger stories. I have visited homes at critical moments – at meal times, at bed times. I have also conversed with Uganda bureaucrats, politicians and donors. I have heard and seen it all: not from books but from real people. Some of the stories I have heard and things I have seen are horrible. People want enabling environment (roads, affordable electricity, etc) to struggle on their own but they are not getting it.

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Role of the military in restoration of democracy and human rights in Uganda

As Museveni reminded us, the principal role of the military is to defend the country’s borders against external invasion. He also indicated that when the government denies citizens the right to exercise their democratic and human rights the military steps in on the side of the people. Before considering why the Uganda military should be on the side of the people demanding the exercise of their rights, let us briefly review a few examples where the military has supported the people against oppressive governments.

1. During the French Revolution that began in 1789, sections of the army joined the people in their demands to reduce the excessive power of the king and privileges of the nobility and high clergy. The people also formed a national guard under the leadership of Lafayette to defend themselves. In desperation the king hired mercenaries, an arrangement that made him even more unpopular. This action together with an attempt to flee the country resulted in his arrest, trial for treason and execution.

2. The collectivization of agriculture in Russia under Josef Stalin generated intense resistance. Stalin ordered the army to intervene and force peasants to comply. Some sections of the Red Army refused because peasants had a right to resist and these soldiers came from peasant families.

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Museveni and external backers have made elections meaningless and wasteful

Museveni who was unpopular in student, youth and party politics before becoming president has remained so since 1986. After hard political and military campaign, Museveni was disappointed and humiliated at the Moshi conference when he failed to get elected to either of the two most important positions of leader of the transition team to replace Amin or chairman of the military commission. During the transition period (1979 to 1980), he also realized that he could not lead either UPC or DP parties. Consequently, he formed his own party – Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) to contest the 1980 elections. UPM won one parliamentary seat! Museveni concluded that he would never realize his dream of becoming president or any other public office through the free will of the people of Uganda. He decided he would use force, bribes and tricks to achieve his goals.

That is how he began the destructive guerrilla war that lasted five years. He deliberately destroyed Luwero to put blame on Obote and have him overthrown (EIR 1997). Knowing that Baganda and Catholics were unhappy with Obote and his UPC government, Museveni tricked them that he would provide military backing to get them into power if they came together and form a political movement. Museveni showed no external interest in wanting the post of president for himself. He presented himself as a liberator with no political ambitions.

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External influence has destroyed Uganda’s independence

Ugandans struggled for independence to have freedom and determine their destiny. They had seen their resources exploited for the benefit of the mother country. They had witnessed their industries and markets destroyed to make room for European manufactured products. Uganda’s demand for independence grew out of the struggle by Africans to have a stake in the cash economy which was dominated by Europeans and Asians, keeping Africans as small holder farmers.

When British authorities finally agreed that Uganda should become independent, they retained the power to decide who would be the leader and which party would form the government. The Catholic dominated Democratic Party (DP) under the leadership of Benedicto Kiwanuka, a Catholic, won the 1961 pre-independence elections. The British and Church of England leadership was not happy. They wanted a Protestant Party led by a Protestant leader. Fresh elections were held and a coalition of Protestant parties (Uganda Peoples’ Congress {UPC} and Kabaka Yekka {KY}) formed the independence government in 1962 with Milton Obote (Protestant) as prime minister and Freddie Mutesa II (Protestant) as president. The Vice President was also a Protestant. The Democratic Party complained after it lost the 1962 elections that the Church of England led by the Archbishop of Canterbury played a decisive role in its defeat.

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Is Uganda’s national unity idea dead?

When the National Resistance Movement (NRM) came to power in 1986, it had a clear domestic and external policy message which was compressed into the ten-point program. It was a program that had been based on compromise with national unity in mind which became a cornerstone in Uganda’s development discourse in the early years of the NRM administration.

Earlier, the late Grace Ibingira had written about the absence of national consciousness in Uganda brought about by the retention or intensification of ethnic differences during the colonial period. He observed that “Since the colonial system kept them alive through indirect rule and the policy of minimal inter-ethnic contact, the idea of Britain bequeathing a new state uniting all the divergent groups with a government of nationalist politicians from different groups, some historically enemies, generated intense fear in the country, most especially among the group that had more to lose, the Baganda” (G. S. Ibingira 1980).

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Is Uganda’s new development plan dead on arrival?

Before we examine the emerging fear that Uganda’s new development plan may be dead on arrival, let us outline the background to, and major players in the death on arrival of NRM’s mixed economy ten-point program launched in 1986.

The serious development challenges of the 1970s marked by slow economic growth, rising inflation, unemployment and external debts undermined the Keynesian economic model based on state demand management with a focus on full employment and welfare benefits. The model was replaced by the neo-liberal economic model with inflation control as its principal goal. (It was feared that inflation rather than unemployment constituted a more serious challenge to governments).

The 1980s witnessed elections of conservative governments in developed countries including in the United States and United Kingdom. The leaders in USA and UK believed that governments were the problem and not the solution to development challenges. Consequently, they favored a return to the invisible hand of market forces and laissez faire capitalism. There was no room for mixed economy models because they contained elements of socialism and central planning.

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