Tag Archives: can

Uganda security forces can help solve the current political impasse

While security forces exist to defend the state and protect citizens, they can and have helped in addressing political challenges either by joining the people when there is a conflict between them and the government or by staying neutral. Governments come and go. States and people are permanent and security forces are created to defend and protect them.

There are many illustrations of security forces joining the people to stop or remove governments when they oppress the people. In 1789 the soldiers in Paris joined the people when king Louis XVI tried to suppress demonstrations that supported the National Assembly. Other soldiers outside Paris also refused to rally behind the king. His efforts to use mercenaries did not succeed. In this way, security forces prevented the king from dispersing the National Assembly that had gathered to draw up a new constitution for France.

In Ethiopia when there was a conflict in 1974 between the imperial government and demonstrators who were demanding improvements in their welfare including adequate food, the security forces stepped in on the side of the people. The emperor and his government that were not prepared to make necessary changes were swept away.

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Kale Kayihura can’t impose Museveni as president of Uganda

In 1993 Museveni declared that if the people who are the sovereign force don’t want their leader, then he/she should go. He added unambiguously that the role of the army is to guard borders and maintain internal peace. “The army should guard what the people want, not do what the people don’t want”. The police force also has responsibility to maintain law and order.

Following the massively rigged elections of February 2011 with some five million Ugandans disenfranchised and many foreigners brought in to vote, the people of Uganda have rejected the results of these rigged elections at the presidential, parliamentary and local levels. They want to exercise their right of peaceful assembly and freedom of speech to denounce the results and stop the formation of an illegitimate government. International instruments and Uganda’s constitution allow peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. Kayihura cannot violate these rights and freedoms with impunity.

By banning planned demonstrations under the pretext that they will be violent, Kale Kayihura is in effect imposing Museveni as president of Uganda. This imposition goes against Museveni’s own understanding of the will of the people as he articulated in 1993 namely that security forces should guard what the people want, not do what the people don’t want. The people of Uganda have rejected the February 18 elections so Museveni cannot be president without their consent. Millions of them were disenfranchised.

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Dividing Uganda into Nilotic North and Bantu South is not correct

When I wrote that dividing Uganda into watertight Nilotic North and Bantu South was not entirely correct, some people sought clarification and elaboration. Earlier on some people had also raised the question whether the people of southern Uganda who are linguistically the same (Bantu-speakers) are also racially (or ethnically) the same.

For Uganda’s northern region one can safely use the Nilotic classification. For Buganda, Bunyoro and Toro one can also safely use the Bantu classification since intermarriage between Nilotic and Bantu peoples was so thorough that new communities emerged, adopted a common Bantu language and practiced mixed farming thereby ending the pastoralist and agricultural specialization between Nilotic and Bantu peoples respectively. However, in south west Uganda (Ntungamo and Rujumbura in particular) the situation is different.

Bantu people who speak Bantu language or Bantu Bantu-speakers (BBS) from Cameroon/Nigeria border arrived in southwest Uganda first through the Congo region. They practiced mixed farming of crops, short horn cattle, goats and sheep and poultry. They also manufactured a wide range of products particularly those based on iron ore. Centuries later, Nilotic Luo-speaking people with long horn cattle arrived in the area. Their ancestors came from southern Sudan. Although the Nilotic people (Bahima and Bahororo) adopted Bantu language, hence Nilotic Bantu-speakers (NBS), culturally and economically they remained distinct from Bantu Bantu-speakers (BBS). Separate identities were retained through a combination of strict restrictions on inter-marriage and specialized economic functions.

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Unequal power relations and impoverishment of Rujumbura’s Bairu

Those who do not believe that unequal power relations can make some people rich and powerful and impoverish others and render them powerless need to visit Rujumbura county of Rukungiri district in southwest Uganda.

Rukungiri district of which Rujumbura is a part has been in the news for more than a year now. It will likely continue to be in the news because the increasing imbalance in power relations between Bairu and Bahororo people – the latter are rulers of Uganda since 1986 with a big number coming from Rujumbura – has continued to disadvantage Bantu/Bairu people. Bahororo people (Nilotic/Batutsi from Rwanda) have amassed so much power which they are using to end – once and for all – Rujumbura’s Bairu resistance to Bahororo domination since 1800. Under normal circumstances, one would have expected Bahororo to use their power to improve the welfare of all the people in Rujumbura. Sadly this has not been the case. The opposite has been the result.

Upon their arrival in Rujumbura in 1800 as refugees Bahororo people used their military power in collaboration with Arab slave hunters/traders and European weapons to defeat and subjugate the once rich, relatively peaceful and numerically superior indigenous Bantu people. Bahororo gave the defeated people the collective name of Bairu (slaves), still in use to this day in 2010.

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Rwanda government can do what it wants with impunity

I have read, listened to debates and conversed with many people in Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and the United Nations in New York to find out why Rwanda authorities – government and armed forces – are not held accountable for the atrocities they are reported to have committed since 1990 when RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) invaded Rwanda and are still committing in Eastern DRC and Rwanda itself.

In January/February 2010, I spent thirty days in Burundi, DRC and Rwanda and conversed with many people from all walks of life. I got a lot of information mostly from informal and anonymous conversations. The following information is what I have collected before, during and after the mission. I am making this contribution in an effort to find a durable solution to the challenges not only in Rwanda but in the Great Lakes region as a whole.

Enabling environment

Some developments have emboldened Rwanda government (and its army) to do what it wants with impunity. Here are some of them.

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International assistance as development, bribe or punishment

In this article I am referring to multilateral-to-government and bilateral or government-to-government development assistance. I have spoken and written that when development assistance is given, received and used strictly for development purposes it produces tangible outcomes that improve human quality and accelerate growth and development.

For example, assistance that was given to Uganda between October 1962 when the country became independent and December 1970 before Obote’s regime was overthrown in a military coup in January 1971 was put to good use in institutional and infrastructural capacity development.

Unlike in the past when health services were concentrated in towns, under Obote I regime, quality hospitals, clinics and staff houses were concentrated in rural areas. Doctors, nurses and midwives were trained, paid well and retained in Uganda. Because there was no need for moonlighting and corruption to make ends meet, patients received good services. Private health services were subsidized to reduce charges. Primary health care received a boost in immunization, safe drinking water, sanitation, general hygiene, housing and food and nutrition security.

In the area of education, quality schools and teachers houses on school premises were constructed again mostly in rural areas, teachers were trained, well paid and sufficient instructional materials provided.

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What can Uganda learn from Europe’s development experience?

Ugandans and their governments have attempted – since independence in 1962 – to transform their economies and societies to improve the quality of their lives, live in peace and security with one another and enjoy their human rights including the right to elect their representatives and hold them accountable. They have attempted development planning, ugandanization – by expelling foreigners – nationalization and privatization of the economy, have worked abroad and diversified exports to earn adequate foreign exchange to import technology and modernize the economy. On the political front they have attempted multi-party and no-party political systems with a view to finding a formula appropriate to Uganda’s diverse interests and past experience.

After nearly 50 years of experimentation, Ugandans are beginning to feel they have been riding on a wrong bus. They are at a crossroads wondering which turn to take as they enter the second decade of the 21st century. Against this background, it may be worthwhile to review Europe’s development experience and adopt lessons – if any –relevant to Uganda.

The development of Europe was driven by many factors including the emergence of the middle class and revolutions in agriculture, population, industry, commerce, transport, politics, scientific thinking and western values.

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