Tag Archives: popular

Ugandans are ready for popular uprising

Greetings fellow Ugandans and friends

The verdict is out – loud and clear. The February 2011 presidential, parliamentary and local elections were massively rigged – there were many imperfections including lack of level a playing field and using public funds for NRM campaigns. The results are illegitimate. Therefore, governments at the central and local levels formed out of these illegitimate elections are also illegitimate, unacceptable and rejected by the people of Uganda.

Western congratulatory messages that have come in so far should be interpreted with a grain of salt.

The people of Uganda have decided to bring the new governments down through peaceful demonstrations, making room for a coalition transitional government to prepare for free and fair elections at presidential, parliamentary and local levels.

The massive election rigging has driven the last nail in Museveni’s presidency. He is no longer the darling of the west. Corruption, sectarianism, failure of structural adjustment, plunder of Congolese resources, interference in neighbors’ political affairs and alleged genocide of Hutu people in DRC by Uganda troops have immensely diminished his credibility.

The west has been sending messages of discontent with Museveni’s regime which we need to take into account as we drive him and NRM out of power.

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Adjustment and anti-terrorism policies have saved Museveni presidency

First and foremost, Museveni is president of Uganda to advance his own interests. In true democratic sense Museveni is not popular because of corruption and sectarianism as can be deduced from elite and peasant comments. He has used a combination of security forces, impoverishing Ugandans and collaborating with western powers in structural adjustment and anti-terrorism – areas that are not popular in the Horn and Great Lakes regions – to stay in power.

When structural adjustment ran out of steam in Ghana, the experiment was transferred to Uganda in 1987. Museveni adopted the extreme version (shock therapy) of structural adjustment favored by western sponsors the implementation of which required an authoritarian leader who would not tolerate riots. Museveni was also needed in great lakes geopolitics that resulted in changing governments in Rwanda in 1994 and in Zaire in 1997.

In return Museveni was saved from early multi-party politics which were imposed on others, allowed to strangle pre-independence Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC) and Democratic Party (DP), received huge amounts of money and training for his security forces and consolidated military, economic and political power in his hands. He threatened Ugandans that he would go back to the bush and cause another hell if not elected president in 1996. Most development partners did not raise a finger when all these things were happening because they did not want to upset a reliable ally.

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