Tag Archives: should

Why Uganda must not be rushed into the EA integration and federation

We should thank those individuals and institutions that have brought the issue of EA integration and federation to the center stage in political economy discourse. That this matter is being discussed at all is in itself a step in the right direction. This discourse has brought together people from different schools of thought including theoreticians and practitioners, those who think this is a matter for legislators and not the masses and those who advocate inclusiveness and full participation. What should be made clear at the outset is that there are few, if any, East Africans totally opposed to the EA integration and federation. Differences are about how to get there without leaving anyone behind or disadvantaged. Each participant must realize net benefits.

There are two major reasons why we should pause and reflect on this exercise: (1) Uganda’s current priorities and (2) lessons from integration and federation record.

What Uganda needs right now is to enable households put food on the table, help the unemployed and underemployed find remunerative jobs in decent working conditions, prevent Ugandans from falling sick and when they do have them cured, affordable energy to facilitate economic and social transformation, roads and communications infrastructure to facilitate mobility. These are issues that are better handled at the national level. Given the current economic, social and environmental crisis Uganda should focus at the national level, using regional facilities to enhance progress at that level.

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Security forces defend the state and protect citizens, not governments

Museveni was absolutely right when he stated in 1993 that “The army [security forces] should be just for guarding the borders [defending the state] and maintaining internal peace [law and order]… That is all… They should guard what the people want, not do what the people don’t want. I do not agree with military governments… I do not think the army has a role in government… The people are the sovereign force”(Africa Report July/August 1993).

Nobody can disagree with this statement. The problem is that Museveni practices what he does not preach. He does the opposite of what he says most of the time! And he has been doing this for the last twenty five years. The people of Uganda are now fed up because he has consistently and deliberately done what the people do not want – using security forces to violate their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

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Tired of repressive Bahororo-led government Ugandans want it removed

Major General Jim Muhwezi, son of an Anglican priest (RIP) and Member of Parliament for Rujumbura constituency, is reported in Observer and Orumuri to have said that he and his friends went to the bush to unite the country, end poverty and sectarianism. That was thirty years ago. Does twenty-five year governing record of Bahororo-led government confirm that? Certainly not. So what was the reason for going to the bush? Here it is.

The true reason is that Bahororo wanted to restore their supremacy over Bairu of southwest Uganda. It has now spread to the rest of the country. How else can we explain that preparations for the 1981-85 guerrilla war started in 1965 soon after independence as confirmed by Museveni himself! This story will be told over and over until a solution is found. Those who are tired of it should find a solution instead of disrespecting me because it will not stop me from repeating it.

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Should genocide and massacre be treated equally?

Genocide

According to Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is defined as “any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as: (1) killing members of the group; (2) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (3) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (4) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (5) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”. Genocide is a crime under international law whether committed in time of peace or in time of war.

Massacre

According to Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary massacre means: (1) the indiscriminate, merciless killing of a number of human beings or, sometimes, animals; wholesale slaughter; (2) an overwhelming defeat.

This could mean killing people of a particular group – ethnic, religious, racial or opposition, conveying the same meaning as in (1) above under genocide.

Examples from Rwanda

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Why it is hard to forget the ill-treatment of Bairu in Uganda

Some of the readers of my article on “Why Bahima will not marry Bairu women” and Ms. Phionah Kesaasi’s response titled “Bahima-Bairu theory is short on evidence” have advised that we forget Bahima-Bairu antagonism and move on. Others including Kesaasi have wondered “why a highly educated man like Kashambuzi” should spend time on minor issues like intermarriage. Here are some reasons why I have difficulties forgetting the past which has crept into the present.

First, in 1863, John Hanning Speke, a British explorer, wrote that he was told by Bahima (Wahuma) that all the people who occupied their land bordering Victoria Lake were given the name of Wiru (Bairu) or slaves. Bairu had to supply Bahima with food and clothing etc. Speke’s book was reprinted in 2006 and has become a text book in schools and universities around the world.

Because of comprehensive intermarriages (both ways) between Bahima and Bairu in Bunyoro, Toro and Buganda the ethnic differences have disappeared and people in these areas are living in relative peace with one another. Sadly in southwest Uganda (in former Ankole and Rujumbura of Rukungiri district where the limited intermarriage has been one way, the inter-ethnic or inter-tribal antagonism has remained very strong – let us be honest about it.

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Ugandans should speak up now to prevent human tragedy

There is convincing evidence that demonstration effects work unless preemptive measures are taken – and well in advance. The black people of South Africa were emboldened to confront the all powerful apartheid regime head on after neighbors had removed colonial oppression through armed struggle. The 1972 genocide in Burundi which was ignored by the international community including the Organization of African Unity emboldened those who committed genocide in neighboring Rwanda in 1994.

Because nothing has happened to those who instigated or committed massacres of 2007 in Kenya’s Rift Valley, Ugandans may be emboldened to do the same hoping they will get away with it if the 2011 elections are rigged.

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