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We’re losing Uganda before our eyes

The behavior of so-called Uganda leaders and potential leaders is unprecedented, to say the least. We have become overly obsessed with being MPs, ministers, ambassadors, councilors, mayors and bishops that we have virtually forgotten everything else. To get and retain these positions we have surrendered ourselves to one man – the appointing authority who is Museveni. Some have even described Museveni as godsend because they were given or promised gifts including cows and others cannot question what he says lest they annoy him and lose their comfortable jobs or miss a promotion.

Those who had principles and expressed opinions different from those of the appointing authority were silenced by offers of jobs with high-sounding titles and nothing else. After a while they would be blasted for incompetence and humiliated with dismissal or marginalization. Many others have succumbed to brown envelopes. When Museveni travels in Uganda or abroad Ugandans follow him hoping they will get a chance to shower superficial praises on him for an excellent job he is doing for the country and hope to get noticed in case a vacancy becomes available. Museveni has unleashed hecklers against the few that have stuck to their principles hoping to break their backs some day. The effort could be counter-productive.

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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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Museveni’s absolute power and 2011 election fraud

Greetings fellow Ugandans and friends

There was a time when monarchs in Europe had absolute powers and ruled by divine right (the right to rule came from God, not from the people). In the 18th century, leading (enlightenment) thinkers in Western Europe challenged the power of absolute monarchy.

To prevent one leader or a group of people from becoming too powerful and gain total control of government, Baron de Montesquieu suggested separation of power into three independent branches. The legislative branch would pass laws; the executive and judicial branches would implement and interpret them respectively.

The independence of the legislative and judicial branches has kept the executive branch in check in mature democratic countries. Consequently executive branches do not meddle in election matters.

However, in some countries separation of powers exists in theory only. For example, in Uganda presidents have reduced the independence of legislative and judicial branches and strengthened the power of the executive branch. Legislative and judicial branches have virtually become rubber stamps for the presidency – hence opposition leaders’ decision not to go to the Supreme Court after the rigged 2011 elections.

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Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

The Rome Statute came into force on July 1, 2002 and Uganda is a signatory.

The States Parties to this Statute are “Determined to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus to contribute to the prevention of these crimes”.

It is the duty of every State to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for international crimes.

Article 5: Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court

(a) The crime of genocide;

(b) Crimes against humanity;

(c) War crimes;

(d) The crime of aggression

Genocide (Article 6) any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

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Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

OBJECTIVES

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (the Statute) was adopted on 17 July 1998 at a United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court. The Statute establishes an international criminal court to try individuals for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole and seeks to establish a fair and just international criminal justice system with competent and impartial judges and an independent prosecutor. Unlike an ad hoc tribunal, the Court is a permanent institution, which ensures that the international community can make immediate use of its services in the event of atrocities occurring and also acts as a deterrent to those who would perpetrate such crimes.

KEY PROVISIONS

The Statute establishes a Court composed of the following organs: the Presidency, an Appeals Division, a Trial Division and a Pre-trial Division, the Office of the Prosecutor and the Registry. Its judges will be persons of high moral character and integrity and in their selection the Parties will take into account the need for the representation of the principal legal systems of the world, equitable geographical distribution and a fair representation of female and male judges.

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When people are sufficiently angry and brave, change can’t be stopped

There is overwhelming evidence that sufficient frustration and anger alone are unlikely to bring about major changes. Frustration and anger must be combined with bravery for change to occur. England’s 1381 peasant revolt, France’s 1789 peasants and Parisian mobs, Tunisian and Egyptian youth uprisings were successful because frustration and anger were combined with bravery.

When vans and fire trucks ran over some demonstrators and men on horses charged into other peaceful demonstrators there were fatalities and injuries. But the Egyptians who survived did not run away. Instead they gathered courage, picked up stones and fought back. Their bravery encouraged other compatriots to join them while others at home and abroad cheered them to continue until their goal was realized. Hosni Mubarak saw the writing on the wall when demonstrated defied security forces and peacefully camped outside the presidential palace. He stepped down, packed his bags and left the presidential palace.

When Tutsi youth assaulted a Hutu local administrative chief in 1959, the Hutu population concluded that they had had enough. Spontaneously, they gathered courage and decided to defend themselves against well armed Batutsi. And the result was the social revolution that chased away Tutsi, abolished the monarchy and achieved independence in 1962. Hutus had all along been considered passive and docile who would never have the courage to even chase away a ‘fly’! They are now down, not out.

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Is Uganda ready for change?

During and since our last broadcast on radio Munansi (February 20, 2011) many questions have been raised including whether Uganda is ready for change, where are the leaders, when should the change take place and, will Museveni and his security forces behave like Qaddafi in Libya? Let us look at history lessons for guidance.

Is Uganda ready for change? Yes it is. Historically, in countries where rebellions, revolts or revolutions take place, societies are characterized by extreme inequalities, high unemployment especially among the youth, high levels of poverty and high prices. For example, at the time of the French Revolution, France was characterized by high inequalities in wealth and privileges between the monarch, nobility and high clergy on one hand and commoners on the other. Also, poverty and unemployment levels were high and food prices were high. Uganda meets all these characteristics as discussed in previous debates.

Where are the leaders? Changes have taken place with or without leaders. History shows that some revolutions have had leaders that mobilized the discontented people through advocacy. The England’s peasants’ revolt of 1381 was prepared through agitation by priest John Ball and peasant Wat Tyler. After this revolt, no medieval English government attempted to impose a poll tax again. When Margaret Thatcher attempted to restore it she was forced out of office as prime minister.

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A beautiful country is about to go down the drain

February 18, 2011 signaled the beginning of the end of Uganda’s history as we have known it. On February 18, 2011 Museveni massively rigged the election while the whole world watched and got re-elected to another five-year term. According to the interim report of the Commonwealth Observer group it was an election that lacked a level playing field. Museveni is now in a position to end the history of Uganda. In the next five years he is going to do the following things to achieve that goal.

1. Following his swearing in ceremony Museveni will form a cabinet of ‘yes’ men and women that will rubber stamp his wishes particularly in the ministries of foreign affairs, finance, internal affairs, petroleum and energy, lands and east African affairs. Ugandans are urged to also watch carefully the ministers of state he will appoint in these ministries. In many cases ministers of state are more powerful than full ministers. We need to know the profile of each minister and minister of state.

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Uganda’s transition from speeches to action

Greetings fellow Ugandans and friends

History repeats itself and in Uganda it is about to happen.

In the 1980 Uganda elections, Paul Ssemogerere and his DP were expected to win general elections. Yoweri Museveni warned the late Milton Obote and his UPC that if they rig and win, Museveni would wage a guerrilla war and remove the government from power.

Obote won and formed Obote II government in December 1980. True to his word Museveni waged a very destructive guerrilla war. In July 1985 Okello and a section of the national army removed Obote and his government from power. In January 1986, Museveni entered Kampala and formed NRM government.

While in the bush, Museveni also waged a vicious attack on Obote’s structural adjustment program for its contribution to poverty, unemployment, hunger, poor quality education and health care services.

While in power Museveni has repeated exactly what he accused Obote of. He has rigged elections against Paul Ssemogerere in 1996, Kiiza Besigye in 2001, 2006 and 2011. Museveni also launched a structural adjustment program which has aggravated poverty, unemployment, hunger, poor quality education and health care services and environmental degradation.

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The worst electoral fraud in Uganda’s history

The presidential and parliamentary exercise that ended yesterday fell far short of expectations. It is unprecedented in Uganda’s elections since 1961. This was not an election in the true meaning of the word. Elections follow norms or standards with minor unintended irregularities here and there which can be excused. The whole electoral cycle was a fraud. The electoral commission chairman’s remarks that irregularities occur in young democracies should not be accepted. To facilitate debate, here are some illustrations of what went wrong throughout the electoral cycle.

1. The Electoral Commission was partial. Museveni refused to appoint an independent commission implying he planned to rig the election.

2. Inflated voter register was compiled by a partial electoral commission. In Museveni’s home area of Ntungamo district where his wife contested a parliamentary seat, there were more than 2 million registered voters. This is outrageous! Earlier warnings that the register in Ntungamo had been inflated were denied. In Kawempe a small residential area in Kampala City another outrageous voter figure of more than 1 million was recorded.

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