Like I promised Ugandans, we are going to get a detailed evidence of how the 1980 elections were rigged by UPC .I found this topic very interesting because whatever means UPC used to steal the 1980 elections are the same means NRMO are now using to steal the presidential elections in Uganda. It shows that Ugandan leaders never learn anything from history and that makes us doomed. So how did Obote’s UPC steal the 1980 elections?

 Obote while in exile in Tanzania wrote to Paul Muwanga ,who was then  a cabinet minister under Binayisa’s government, to do everything possible to get UPC back to power even if it meant staging a coup. The letter is a public document which can be seen by anybody in various textbooks and is dated 06/02/1980. Muwanga ,Rwakasisi and group implemented this plan in July 1980 by getting rid of president Binaisa through a ‘coup d’état’. Before the 1980 elections were held, Muwanga wrote to the UPC tabliqs to start laying grounds for the rigging of the 1980 general elections and they awarded him handsomely. Muwanga’s letter is also public property to those who want it.

 Another document written by Obote on 12/08/1980 reveals how Obote personally laid out the master plan as to how UPC would stop the election, or, if it was held, rig it, or seize power by military force if his party lost. This document is also public property if any one fancies it.

 The appointment of the Electoral Commission was also strongly part of the process of rigging the 1980 elections. First, the military commission was full of UPC people and there were the ones that appointed the Electoral Commission (EC)- just like the current EC is full of people loyal to NRMO and Museveni. The few voices in the military commission who were anti-Obote like Yoweri Museveni could not change anything. Secondly, the chairman of the electoral Commission appointed by Muwanga and group was a strong UPC cadre called Kosea S.M. Kikira. Furthermore, the EC was both partisan and incompetent. Most of the people appointed did not have any experience in election monitoring apart from the chairman himself.

 The military commission (MC) was the one that kept announcing the election programs instead of the EC as required by the constitution. The MC reached to the extent of dismissing the 14 DCs who had been appointed as Registration Returning officers by the EC, because they had refused to be comprised by UPC and Muwanga. Muwanga replaced them with 15 UPC members to pave a way for the rigging within the EC.

In addition, the MC interfered with the voter registration exercise such that a certain man who was acting as the UPM publicity secretary called George Grace Bakulu Mpagi, decided to challenge the irregularities in the courts of law. However, the judge came out with almost a similar ruling as the judges in the Besigye Vs Museveni cases of 2001 and 2006, when he said that everything was unlawful but his hands were tied.

The nomination exercise was also flawed and almost every electoral law was broken by the Muwanga and group for the sake of winning the 1980 elections. For example, polling stations in the 4 Kampala constituencies did not open until mid-day which broke the EC laws but was done with the intention of showing common wealth observers that the situation was the same all over the country where there were few observers.

As if that was not enough, UPC made violence and intimidation part of the rigging process just like we have got the Kakoza Mutale of NRMO. For instance, a rally organised by DP candidate,Mr.Anthony Ocaya was disrupted by the UPC gangs while he was campaigning in Gulu. Muwanga also wrote to the Kayihura of that time-directing him that potential DP candidates particularly: Martin Aliker , Hajji Akbar Nekyon, Yoweri Kyesimira and  James Kaigiriza, be banned from speaking at public meetings and rallies.

UPC did a lot of things to rig the 1980 elections but the most embarrassing one was when Paul Muwanga stopped the returning officers from announcing the election results and he directed he alone  was to announce the results and declare the elected candidates. He took over full control of the EC when he realised that UPC was losing to DP. Obote refutes this in his memoirs published in the monitor newspaper before his death but that was expected from a fulltime politician like him. Muwanga then released the doctored results after 18 hours to the EC whom he asked to announce them on the radio Uganda.

The question that bothers me from all this is that:’ why would Museveni employ the same tactics used by Obote to rig elections in 2001 and 2006 yet he was part of the MC and witnessed how the country went into decline after the rigging of the 1980 elections?’ Does this make Museveni a better politician than Obote or they are birds of the same feather.

Tulabye nyo banange.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

UK

1. It is true that USA has got no official language . It is again true that official languages are those designated by the law. However, a language can be considered to be de facto official language, meaning that although a language may have no official status in a particular country, it is the most commonly used language in that country and the one usually used in official settings. In other words, English is the de facto official language of the USA. It is considered the official language in practice if not in law. The US constitution and all federal legislation are also written in English. 30 of the US states already have got official languages. US naturalization laws standardize English.

2. It is also true that the US Senate voted in favour of making English the national language in 2006 according to the BBC(2006) (internet: available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4996512.stm ). 83% of the population of USA speak English. What I’m trying to say is that English is both the ‘official’ and ‘national’ language of USA whether it is endorsed by the law or not. It has got the hallmarks of both an official and national language of USA. That’s why I stated in my earlier message that Ugandans don’t need government legislation if they want to support Luganda as the national language. All they need is to promote it in their homes and the rest will just be a piece of cake.

3. Swahilli is already one of the official languages of Uganda, but like I stated, the decision was just political. Swahili does not qualify to be an official language of Uganda if we are to look at the basis of an official language. English is rightly the No 1 official language of Uganda and Kenya and I hope this status quo remains forever.

4. It is true that Swahili has got a bigger following in Sub Sahara Africa than Luganda. On the other hand, Luganda is more spoken than Swahili in Uganda.Luganda is also spreading very fast in Rwanda and south Sudan. If we are looking for something national, then Luganda fits the bill very well.

5. In terms of technological advancement, both Swahili and Luganda are being technologically promoted in East Africa and Uganda respectively. Last year (2008), African software and language experts launched a project to translate Mozilla’s Firefox web browser into the local Ugandan language of Luganda.

6. A-China will always be on board with or without our people learning Chinese languages. China itself is promoting English for strategic reasons. Angola and DRC are some of the African countries that have got China as a strong key economic partner but they have got Portuguese and French as their official languages respectively. Angola president’s second visit to China in five months in December 2008 was an example of the strong partnership that exists between the two countries. Angola is now China’s largest-supplier of crude oil. The DRC government has also signed a series of landmark asset-backed deals with China, totaling around US$9.25 billion.

B-However, Language is a concern for foreign patent applicants. Both Chinese and English are the official languages of the Hong Kong SAR and it is only necessary to provide limited information in Chinese. In Hong Kong, traditional characters are still used, but in mainland China an application for a patent must be in simplified Chinese characters. Further, while some patent offices allow applicants to file in their own language and submit translations later, the Chinese Patent Office does not allow this.

7. Fifty-five countries in the world have got English as their official language. So it’s not a delusional for any country to get on the band wagon anymore. So probably Rwanda is on the right track to promote English rather than the French. Again, the politics between the current Rwanda government and France are very complicated just like the tensions between Tutsi and Hutus. So I don’t want to read much into why Lunyarwanda did not directly replace French. Kagame is really making the right decisions so far. Remember Rwanda was the first to come up with the idea of free primary education before Uganda.

Abbey

While I would like to agree that regional development is very important and I support every one to develop their regions, I can’t see how this can affect negatively the development of a capital city or commercial city such as Kampala. Kampala is apparently so jammed because there is nothing like public transport in that country. Brother Alhajji Sebagala who is the current mayor of the city, had promised commuter buses or city buses in his manifesto but I have never personally seen them. Oh, I only saw one while I was waiting for a taxi on Entebbe road near the mosque at Najjannankumbi this year. I saw one heading to Entebbe but they aren’t many. I’m sure of this

The increasing number of car users in Kampala is causing a lot of problems for everybody in the city and that is why we need an immediate introduction of public transport like commuter trains. Nevertheless, the population in Kampala will just keep growing despite the developments taking place anywhere else in the country. For instance, the population of London has been increasing despite the fact that UK has now got other larger cities such as Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool with almost everything which is in London. These other cities some times act as the ‘magnets of investment’ for themselves and later on London thus creating some form of parasitic relationship among cities.

In a similar vein, preference for public transportation is higher when commuters believe that it is less environmentally damaging than the car. At the moment, all the environmental activists like Ken Lukyamuzi have kept quite about the increased use of cars in Kampala and how much these old cars are destroying the environment. When I was in Kampala, I was surprised to find out that almost all the people I considered friends were driving or owning cars and they could do anything to make sure that I see their cars, but some of their cars were too old to be on the road but nobody cared. There is a lot of ‘showing off’ with cars and I think I understand where it is coming from. Basically, the issue of the environment and cars needs to be addressed because it is a reality.

All in all, the population in Kampala is not gonna go anywhere because of the introduction of public means of transport such as trains. Kampala will keep growing and expanding- whether the central government takes over the city management or not, or whether Soroti or Gulu becomes another city or not.

Kampala is similar to India’s Mumbai in a lot of ways. Mumbai has grown from an island city – or rather a city that grew out of the joining together of seven islands – into a vast urban agglomeration .Similarly Kampala is a product of joining together several hills though some people want to extend its boundaries for reasons best known to themselves.

The growth of other cities in India has neither reduced the population of Mumbai nor affected its development negatively. By 1990, Mumbai was the world’s sixth most populous metropolitan centre and it also generates more wealth, both through production from its industrial base, now mainly on the outskirts of the city, and from its service sector, than many cities in India put together. The city produces 10 per cent of India’s industrial output, handles 60 per cent of the maritime trade, accounts for 33 per cent of total income tax collection and 60 per cent of customs duty, and has the single largest share of the services sector. It registered an employment growth of 59 per cent between 1971-91.

Unlike Kampala, Mumbai is served by five railway corridors. All originate in the south of the city and then branch out to the north and north-east. The government there encouraged people to use public transport to beat the traffic jam such that an incredible 88 per cent of all travel in Mumbai is by bus and rail. This statistic in itself illustrates the popularity and the necessity of the public transport system, particularly the railways.

The trains can carry four times the traffic load of city buses in terms of passenger kilometres of travel. The local trains carry 5.5 million passengers every day. Although the normal capacity of each train is 1,700, at peak hours more than 4,000 people crowd onto them. On a typical day, according to the Mumbai Metro Planning Group study, Western Railways operate 923 trains and Central Railways 1,072 trains. During the peak period between 9 and 11 am, 118,000 passengers.

Please let us encourage our governments to start investing heavily in public transport such as commuter trains in cities or linking up cities because it will help reduce the problems in Kampala. I remember listening to Dr. Besigye one time on KFM when he was promising Ugandans a modern railway system across the country if elected in power. How is wish we had put him in state house and then start asking him about this.

Byebyo banange

Abbey

Dear Ugandans,

Could some one do us a favour and send a detailed programe which was unveiled by the new Katikiro,J.B .Walusimbi. We would like to know how the growth of coffee in Buganda is going to be boosted. Uganda used to be a strong coffee grower and I remember my grandfather paying school fees for most of us because of coffee. New records show that Uganda’s Coffee exports jumped by 24% in 2007.  According to the Uganda’s Coffee Development Authority, statistics point to a 24% year-on-year (y/y) increase in the volume of coffee exported in 2007 and a further 36% increase in revenues. According to the statement, reported by Reuters, total export volume increased from 2.17 million bags in 2006 to 2.7 million bags, with total earnings increasing from US$21.6 million to US$29.5 million.
Uganda’s coffee exports have performed strongly through 2007 on the back of better disease control, stronger prices, and an initiative to double production by 2015. High global coffee prices have helped to drive growth in export earnings for the sector, but poor productivity, a constrained supply of inputs, and infrastructure bottlenecks continue to hamper growth.

Coffee remains Uganda’s main export and its revival is indeed good news for an ailing current-account deficit. The documented, continued rise in production and value through the season marks a strong comeback for the crop and will also, if sustained, benefit the rural population, which relies heavily on this sector. This proves that the government made a mistake of asking people to cut their coffee trees to promote non-traditional crops in the 1990s.

Indeed coffee has been one of the external conditions that have supported Uganda’s strong currency. The continued strength of the shilling is supported by projected stronger export growth, remittances, and a near-60% expected rise in transfers to non-governmental organizations. With strong increases in these foreign-exchange earners and drivers, total foreign-exchange earnings increased by 22% in 2007. Implicit in the finance minister’s budget is strong expected growth in export earnings. Indeed, total exports are expected to rise 21% from US$1.4 billion to US$1.7 billion supported by a 34% increase in coffee export revenues and a 31% increase in non-coffee exports such as cotton, tobacco, tea, soap, fish, and horticultural products. However, the Ugandan shilling experienced some pressure and depreciated through the end of December 2007, but remained fairly level through January 2008.

Kenya is one area that has hampered with regional trade and stability. Kenya’s stock market and exchange rate took a significant, with all financial markets closing early on 3 January 2008, and the postponement of the tea and coffee auctions. The World Bank estimates that around 25% of Uganda and Rwanda’s GDP relies on the trade running through the corridor to the port of Mombasa, with Burundi’s reliance climbing to 33% of GDP. However, if aid flows continue to increase Uganda will expect to receive sizable support, given its favourable position with the international donor community.

It is my hope therefore that the new Katikiro of Buganda strongly supports Coffee growth in his newly availed development program.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

United Kingdom

I can’t understand how some Ugandans can develop and enjoy themselves in a federal arrangement like Canada but they could not support it at home. Uganda is a country with different ethnicity and welcoming federalism will provide a viable framework for people who can live together even as they maintain their diversity. The need to reconcile diversity (ethnic, religious, linguistic or others), while maintaining national unity has prompted a growing number of states to adopt or take a serious look at a federal political system. Switzerland, Canada and India are all run on federalism. Spain adopted it in 1978 while Belgium welcomed it with open hands in 1993(when Museveni had been in power for almost 6 years).The EU is also moving towards some form of federalism. So is our East African Community. Zanzibar is already a ‘special status federal arrangement’ within East Africa Federation or Tanzania.

The idea of federalism involves two different trends and aims: a concentration of power at a level above that of the state in order to tackle big issues like competition, monetary equilibrium and international relations; and a greater autonomy at local levels (state, regions), enabling them to choose what suits them best in matters close to their communities’ lives. It also involves mechanisms of cooperation among the different levels, so that concentration at the higher level helps to empower the levels below.

Yes, the federalism in Uganda may not be at Canada or USA level but there but it is undeniable that federalism and evaluation have been good friends. For instance, the founding Fathers of USA federalism, the Federalists, created unity out of a multiplicity of small states. They recognised the importance of the sovereignty of their states, but they knew that they needed a ‘national’ government to preserve their liberty and democracy. Is this possible in Uganda? Yes. Do we need to support it as Ugandans? Yes

All these noises some Baganda are making about secession or Buganda getting a ‘special- status- arrangement- federo’ as it was in the 1962 constitution are all symptoms of a country yearning for federalism. It has happened in Canada where some Ugandans are living and that’s how Quebec came about. Asymmetrical federalism or ‘special status arrangement’ is one of the strategies adopted by federal systems to satisfy the demand of national groups for political and cultural autonomy. Canada was perhaps the first modern federation to take recourse to ‘special –status-arrangement-federo’ way back in 1867 before most of us were even born. This was intended to accommodate the aspirations of the French speaking majority in Quebec province. Is this possible in Uganda for the central government to give Buganda ‘special status’ federalism? Yes

There were a lot of Kyanjos, Beti Kamyas and Nambozes in Quebec in the 1960s who were asking for secession from Canada as some Baganda are now asking for Buganda secession. Two attempts by the Canada Government to meet these demands, through the Meech Lake Accord in 1987 and Charlottetown Accord in 1992, failed because of strong opposition from the English speaking majority in the rest of Canada. This was the background of the Quebec referendum of October 1995 on the question of separation from Canada. Like the earlier referendum of 1980, this was also defeated but by a margin of only 1 per cent. Since then, the issue of Quebec nationalism appears to have been put on hold.

Now, most of the Baganda are only asking for federalism or ‘special status’ arrangement federalism not secession. Why can’t the Uganda or Museveni government subject this to a referendum (if they are democratic as they claim) or just grant it to Buganda if the rest of the regions aren’t interested. As far as I know, the north,Busoga and Toro welcome federalism apart from Bunyoro which has embraced just regional tier arrangement as Mirima Ford enlightened recently. Both Uganda and Canada are from the common colonial past.

What happened in Canada can happen in Uganda. Both these countries are diverse and plural societies faced with demands from constituent parts for greater autonomy or self-determination. The only differences I see between Uganda and Canada but they are negligible are: Canada is a parliamentary and federal democracy while Uganda is not but that can be sorted out. Canada has got institutionalized judicial reviews on constitutional matters while Uganda’s judicial reviews are put in place when it is necessary. That’s why we keep calling the constitutional reviews commissions as sempebwa and Odoki.

Byebyo ebyange

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

As far as I know, Black mambas were in existence during Obote 2 as has been the case in Museveni’s government too . Whatever Obote did during his reign, Museveni can do better. When president Museveni sent the ‘black mambas’ in the case of Dr.Kiiza Besigye and other PRA suspects Vs the state of Uganda during the 2006 presidential elections , and black mambas surrounded the court, he was just polishing what he had been taught by his political master, Milton Obote.

Similarly,when Obote stole the 1980 elections just like most political thieves, he started manipulating the judiciary as a way of keeping himself in power. Lawyers who tried to represent people in courts were either intimidated, detained or killed. For example, Cprian Kawoya was abducted from the high court while the court was in session and later murdered by Obote’s ‘black mambas’. Other lawyers killed or tortured under similar circumstances include: Hon. George Bamuturaki, Gideon Mutanga, Sewava Sempala,e.t.c.

Another incident is when Barak Kirya was acquitted of treason charges in Dec 1984, he was rearrested in the same way Dr. Besigye was rearrested and taken back to Luzira Prison. Kirya just like Besigye was co-accused with others on treason charges( who included captain Mark Kodili, major Hussain Ada, Captain Sajjad Soori, Frank Kivumbi and James Balamu), who were also acquitted by the judge but the Obote’s ‘black mambas’ surrounded the court and these guys could not leave the court room. They were eventually forced out and taken back to Luzira prison.

So Ugandans, the black mambas you saw in 2006 who surrounded the high court did not start with president Museveni. He is doing exactly what Obote used to. We shall see all these things as we continue throughout this year and see how UPC and NRM are now similar in the way they approach national issues. The man (Matsiko) who wrote an article in the monitor about the similarities between NRMO and UPC did not just dream about these things. We have got UPC 111 now in Uganda.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

An article written in 2008 before the Buganda riots

Dear patriots,

Besigye has already proved himself more than any body else that he can take anything thrown at home. I can’t see General Mugisha Mutu, Mao Robert, Mr.Amanya Mushega or Otunnu Olara take up all this ‘Museveni’ heat when the kitchen gets hot. Mutu is the FDC national mobiliser and in that position he should have waged a lot of swords against the regime in power but he has not done enough. I don’t know whether this was a strategy agreed between him and Besigye as a way of keeping the limelight on the party president, but for me, he has been disappointing enough.Olara Otunnu is not known by majority of Ugandans despite his international profile but he can play a part in the 2011 elections.

Mutu and Mushega have not used the leverage they have got on president Museveni to shake him up. Just writing carefully selected words in the newspapers is not enough. Actually, Mr. Ruzindana has done more work for FDC than Mushega by keeping FDC in the media at least every month. Mr.Ruzindana and Ms.Anne Mugisha have done an incredible job. It’s not easy job to sit down and research what you are going to write week in and out. Most of Ruzindana’s articles are well researched and he deserves a pat at the back.

Besigye is such a very important figure for FDC and they should make sure that they keep him till when that party gets to a better level that allows the likes of Abdu Katuntu, Semujju Nganda, Wafula Oggutu, Otto and others to easily stand for party presidency or nominated for presidential candidate.

The first time I watched Dr.Besigye speak on TV was like listening to Adolf Hitler giving a speech. Besigye’s voice is so unique and it just takes your attention whether you like it or not. It’s unfortunate we can no longer listen to Monitor FM audios which used to be on their website. Hitler was  great in the way he could put the audience in his palms before he even starts a speech. Besigye can become a great leader if Ugandans in the army and elsewhere give him a chance to become the president of Uganda in 2011. Besigye is very charismatic and this can be seen in his speeches that we can watch today on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giEoqo5Wp_4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLD7YdOm0UU

It’s unfortunate that unlike Hitler, Besigye has not been able to inspire his followers to gladly follow him to their deaths. That’s why he has lost the likes of Beti Kamya and Michael Senyonjo to supposedly DP.

Besigye is a very dynamic and powerful public speaker, which is what got so many to follow him in both 2001 and 2006. I will give him credit for that and that’s about the best thing I can say about him. I believe that Besigye is a brilliant leader. He could have been one of the most important and glorious historical president if NRM had accepted defeat and not went behind the back door to rig the elections in 2006.
People some times attribute Besigye’s toughness in the speeches to the Personal hatred he has got against Museveni but I don’t think there is anything in it. The only hatred between these two people is political and not any personal feuds.

Some people have attributed the rise of Mao in the race as the ‘Obama’ of Uganda. There wont be any ‘Obama’ for Uganda in the next 15 years. Uganda is not like USA where you can become a president because you are genius or just charismatic or something. To become a Uganda president now, you first of all need the army and media behind you. You also need a strong network of people behind you within the army and the executive. If Uganda was like USA, then almost a half of UAH members are all capable of becoming presidents because we have got a lot of brilliant minds on that forum.

In a nutshell, it is my prayer that FDC stick with Besigye as the presidential candidate in 2011. The moment Besigye is out, that party can as well have a funeral. They need him for the time being till when they have sorted themselves out. Obviously, all NRMO people are working hard behind the scenes to see Besigye out and it will make their day if Besigye is not a presidential candidate anymore. Please stick with Besigye for just ONE MORE TIME.

Abbey

Dear people,

The government needs to do more to prepare us for the East African federation. One of the things they need to do is to sort out the acceptable system of governance in their own respective countries. Uganda should become a federal state before it even thinks of establishing itself as a power in the East Africa federation. I wrote about this issue some time two years ago in the Monitor newspaper and on UAH about why the EAC collapsed and how we can make the current East African federation work afterall Uganda,Kenya, Tanganyika and Zanzibar had developed common services and institutions since the 1920s.Matters such as posts and telecommunications, harbours, railways and currency were run jointly.

Nyerere was one of those that tried very hard to push this idea of East Africa federation without doing enough research on the subject and encouraging countries to sort out their houses first.He was even prepared to delay his country´s independence if the four countries of East Africa could come to independence at the same time and form a federation. But the whole thing failed lateron after independence during Amin’s reign because the leaders concerned never gave it a goood foundation.Mr..Kategeya should have people like Dan Nabudele on his team since the later already has enormous experience about this project. As a lawyer by profession,Nabudere was brought in by Nyerere to advise Zanzibar’s Karume on the draft submitted by Tanganyika.

Abbey

Dear readers,

Africa is all about culture and traditions. Politics in Africa are embedded in the cultural institutions. When religion was introduced on the scene in Africa, it also joined the equation of things. Therefore, anybody knocking on your door and starts telling you that you can separate culture and religion from politics, just send them away because they will be pulling a blanket over your eyes.

When UPC and Obote wanted to defeat DP and Kiwanuka in the 1960s, it is alleged that Obote organized several meetings with the representatives of the Kabaka. These representatives of the Kabaka clandestinely called themselves the KAKAMEGA CLUB OF BUGANDA and are the ones that had started up the KY party. S.K.Masembe Kabali who was the main founder of the KY party was himself not a member of the Kakamega club but he again had to consult with Mengo before he launched his party.

All political leaders in Uganda have made  it where they are with Mengo’s approval and this is a historical fact:

• Besigye or Mao will never be a president of Uganda without Buganda’s support.For instance, when Mao Knelt for Kabaka Mutebi while the king was touring Masaka, he scored more political points than somebody who held several rallies in Buganda villages in Masaka
• Obote would never have become a prime minister in 1962 and later a president of Uganda  without Buganda’s support.The KY-UPC alliance set the presidential foundation for him.
• KY would not have been a force in Uganda politics in 1961 without Mengo support.  When in May 1961, Masembe, a retired prison officer and wealthy land landowner, was planning to launch his KY party, he had to visit mengo for approval and the Kabaka advised him to  consult the friends in Kakamega club.

• DP’s Ben Kiwanuka would never have won the elections in March 1961 if it had not captured 20 of the 21 seats within the Buganda kingdom. Again Kiwanuka did not last long because he had no Mengo/Kabaka blessings.

• Museveni would never have become a president of Uganda  without Buganda’s support. Actually, if Buganda pulls a full plug on him in 2011, then he will just have to lead us by force. That is the truths.All NRM cadres know this and are monitoring the situation very critically. The recent Museveni press briefings published in the Bukedde Newspaper  about some updates on his dialogue with Kabaka was some form of a boost for NRM cadres. He threw them a life line to spread NRM evangilism in Buganda/

Buganda is not just a cultural kingdom despite those clauses in the 1995 constitution. Nobody should deceive you on this. Mengo remains a pure political center aleast for now. People don’t go there to learn how to speak Luganda; dance traditional dances  such as NANKASA or AMAGUNJU; or whatever one thinks is cultural in one’s mind. When Kabaka makes Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba one of his  ministers today, it means I’m going to Mengo to play Buganda politics because Mengo has always been political.

Similarly, FDC’s Dr. Besigye is tapping into mengo politics by sending his delegation there before he starts his Buganda tour. Besigye needs Mengo’s blessing by all means.If the people of Buganda give him their full blessings all the way till 2011, then he will be a few inches away from state house provided other factors remain constant.

Byebyo banange

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

I would like to thank all Ugandans who responded to my original article about sports in Uganda and I hope that the government listens to us and sort out the sports problems which are mainly caused by inadequate funding. Politicians only remember sports when it is putting them in the lime light. For instance, president Museveni ’stole the show’ when he hosted a function for the successful 2006 Commonwealth Games team in April 2006.

The government has remained detached from sports as far as I can remember. NCS is inadequately funded. The UOC is independent of government funds because it is funded by the Olympic solidarity. Only five athletic clubs are recognised in the country of almost 31 million people. Some Athletes decide not to return to Uganda when they go for training or conferences abroad because they see no future of sports in the country( as was the case in 1998 when two of them decided to remain in USA and sought asylum).

Organisations like The uganda Amateur Athletic Foundation(UAAF) are totally reliant on the poorly funded NCS though they sometimes get help from big compnaies such as MTN.

Football is the best sport in the world. For me, it’s my best entertainment at the moment and i’m happy that my team(Chelsea FC) are doing well in the premiership.

Back in Uganda, the Federation Uganda Football Association (FUFA) where my former headmaster, Hajji Abbasi Kawase Mukasa in an influence, is one of the most illequipped and corrupt organisations in the country. Football and other sports is a big force in schools like Kibuli S.S because the admnistration there has got a budget for sports and they put too much effort in it. Sadly,I hear that sports in Kibuli S.S have declined ever since Hajji Kawase Mukasa was replaced as Headmaster.

Big national clubs such as Villa, Express and KCC are mainly funded by their companies and not the government or NCS. For instance, KCC is funded by Kampala City Council while Maji FC is funded by National Water Company.

Some people have tried to ‘clean’ FUFA by forming pressure groups such as ‘Save Our Soccer’ but they have had little impact. Some time in 2005, FUFA had to be suspended by FIFA till when Elections were held and Lawrence Mulindwa was elected as the new FUFA boss. FUFA has not been able to maintain good coaches such that the national coach had to be sacked in 2006 and compesated to the tune of $3500. Sports minister then, Charles Bakkabulindi, oversaw everything.

The truth is that there is no adequate funds to pay professional footballers, referees, and sports workers. Sport is almost dead in Uganda and few people are bothered with it. As for Boxing, I think it is one of the least funded sport in Uganda at the moment. The Uganda Amateur Boxing Federation had to withdraw from the Kings Cup organized by the International Boxing Association because there was no money to fund the whole thing.

Let’s hope that the next government, probably Besigye’s FDC, will look into this issue and galvanize sports again in Uganda.

Byebyo ebyange

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Dear readers,

Yes, there is a lot of literature to back up arguments that radio RTLM was responsible for the Rwanda genocide but  like i said two weeks ago, a genocide has never happened anywhere I know in the world unless it is supported and caused by the government in power. So this thing of a radio caused the genocide is an escape route for those who are supposed to prevent it in the first place. In the case of the Rwanda genocide, the United Nations and other big nations sponsored a lot of research after the genocide that supported your view because it gave them escape routes for their responsibilities. Former president of USA, Bill Clinton, may be a darling to Africans but he stood aside and watched while Rwandese were butchering one another and this will never be forgotten.

RTLM may have been the key thing that helped transform the genocide from a state-led campaign into a nationwide project but media alone cannot account for citizen mobilization during the genocide . The same thing can be said of CBSfm radio during the 11^th September riots in Kampala. There were underlying causes that made the youths to protest or riot last month and these are the ones that the government in power needs to address instead of blaming it all on the media or bimeeza.

Several people have biasely blamed RTLM for the genocide in Rwanda but it should not be forgotten that military officials had separate communication networks, and moderate Rwandans were not convinced by such broadcasts .It’s the governments in power that push people to kill and hate each other by continuously dividing the population. For instance, if the Banyara and Baluli had for years accepted to be under the Buganda sphere of influence, what the hell could attempt a national leader to awaken up and support historical grievances within this community. It still beats my understanding up to now. National leaders should instead work towards uniting all people they lead and resist any temptations to divide them. It never occurred to me that one could be called Semuwemba when he is actually a Mukoki or munyala or mululi ( and not real muganda) until when I started reading the so called ethnic propaganda in newspapers and on this forum.

During the Rwandan genocide, radio RTLM did not reach all areas of Rwanda where violence occurred and very few people had access to it. This is backed up by United Nations statistics that indicate that less than 10 percent of the Rwandan population in 1994 owned radio transmitters yet the genocide spread like fire. RTLM broadcasted in very few rural areas despite the fact that more than 90% of the Rwandan population was in rural areas.

Similarly, after Buganda/Uganda radio CBS was cut of air on 11^th September, riots continued for another day in different parts of the country.I don’t think a man in Luwero was ordered to riot by CBS other than their own individual convinctions that something needs to be done to express their hunger towards the government. Probably, if CBSfm had remained open, the Kabaka or the Katikiro would have had a voice to call upon the youths to stop doing silly things like torching Banyankole businesses or forcing non-baganda to sing the Buganda national anthem.These things were not thought through by those concened. The government just acted on impulse and in the process ended up disregarding the laws in place about radio closures.

All in all, governments have a got a responsibility to ensure that media freedom is protected.The media has also got a responsibility to self regulate and follow the laws of the land. The state have also got a responsibility to serve the people they lead fairly because unfairness normally leads to packaged bitterness among the population. This bitterness can sometimes come out as a volcano if people have been pushed so much on the walls. I think this explains the riots on september 11^th in Uganda. The whole thing had nothing to do with radios or Bimeza in Uganda. That is the truths.

Byebyo ebyange

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Dear readers,

I know the president is very angry at the moment but leaders of the independent media council should have come out sooner and put their cards on the table when the five radio stations were closed and Bimeza were banned. This is the meaning of promoting institutions. Just holding a public dialogue is not enough and may not achieve that much under the current political environment.

The government brought in the Press and Journalists Act (1995) and a major point of contention under this legislation was the provision on regulating media practice by restricting it to journalists only. I believe journalists have been self regulating ever since this act came into place but as a young media in Uganda, the state should not be so strong on where mistakes are made by the media houses.

The banning of Bimeeza has been on the cards for a long time and measures should have been in place from the independent council on how to protect this big part of journalism. In 2002 the government threatened to ban bimeeza, claiming that during these public debates and talk shows people were not observing ethical standards and that the broadcast licences issued were being misused. Media houses responded by starting to hold these debates within their premises apart from radio one which continued to hold public debates at its drinking joint (Club Obligato). CBS has been observing these laws very well and sometimes they could interrupt callers who appeared abusive to the president or NRMO but obviously this has not been enough. Iam reliably informed that CBS were not breaking any laws on the day of the riots. Soldiers just acted on impulse to switch off some of these stations because of what was going on, and now the president is using them as bargaining chips during his dialogues or predicted meetings with Kabaka.

Ebimeza have been banned because they are dominated by the opposition and human rights activists despite being few in numbers compared to NRM cadres. In all honesty, I think Mr.Museveni needs more of these Bimeza now than before if he can get better NRM cadres out there to sell him. The only reason he has banned them is because NRM cadres are not doing a good job. The opposition seems to have some leverage in this department and this is not good in his books.

I think the regular use of YouTube to communicate to Ugandans in diaspora is a direct result of the closure of radio stations (CBS FM and SUUBI FM).Ugandans abroad have been listening to Suubi FM online and they are missing this. People are now finding other ways of communicating to others and this is going to lead to a lot of underground rumours (OLUGAMBO) as it happened after the 1966 crisis when Obote abolished kingdoms.

The truth is that Ugandans in general are missing programmes like: Ekimeeza and Spectrum of Radio One; Capital Gang of Capital radio; Parliament Yammwe, Kiriza oba Gana and Mambo Bado of Central Broadcasting Service; Simbawo Akati and Gasimbagane ne Banamawulire of Simba FM; Hard Talk of Monitor FM; Katuhurirane of Radio West, and others. Banning all these programmes by the state was unnecessary because it drives all this communication underground which can be dangerous.

Please the government needs to accept the media as a public sphere, where all voices can be heard. Now my grandfather is missing CBS fm and his rights have been violated by the very state that is supposed to protect them. He finds other stations boring and his rights are not even fought for by the likes of vice president who supported its closure.

 Please I ask the president to reconsider and reopen up CBSFM and other stations since we are told he is the only man who can do so. Bimeeza should also be allowed back on radio stations because this is some form of therapy to some Ugandans frustrated with the system.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

United Kingdom

Dear readers,

The solution lies in president Museveni or whoever becomes the president in 2011 to start listening to the people they lead.All this arrogance of ‘i can do anything i want as long as I’m in power‘ should stop.Suharto (who came to power in 1966 in Indonesia) also had almost similar media measures as Museveni has put up in Uganda but he was brought down after three decades in power.

For instance,the Kedaulatan Rakyat daily in Yogyakarta was once ordered by telephone (typical in the then popular ‘telephone culture’) not to print reports about the collapse of a stage built over a swimming pool belonging to a bupati (regency head), who had been hosting a traditional ceremonial meal. The incident was caused by a live concert given by a group performing dangdut, a popular local style of music. The second case, also involving the Kedaulatan Rakyat, was a ban on printing news about a plane which crashed in Klaten, a town close to Yogyakarta. They were never told the reason behind the ban.

Suharto did everything in his powers to intimidate the media as we are witnessing today in Uganda but as they say:’even good or bad things come to an end’. As long as a leader does not respect the wishes of the people they lead, then you know we have got a problem.If people want their CBS and its representing the views of the people, then this should not be a problem

Radios were not spared either during Suharto:

1.   The editor of CDBS FM in Bali was summoned by the local prosecutor’s office; he was even told to report to that office every day for a period of time. This was due to a prediction by the station that unrest would occur during the forthcoming elections (1997).

I can see this happening to any of the media outlets in Uganda before the 2011 elections. I put my money on Mwenda’s independent after that cartoon trouble that has led to Mwenda being charged with sedition

2.  Periodically, the officials from min of information summoned representatives of all private radio stations and informed them of violations. They once accused Radio Arbes and SIPP, its sister station, of misdemeanors without giving a clear explanation or writing an official letter.

This has already happened in Uganda. The govt threatened to ban bimeza in 2002. Several FM presenters have been summoned to the police stations and by the people from the Broadcasting corporation.Radio licences have been revoked every now and then

3.Radio station Dikara Bawana was charged with producing a program that contravened the SARA doctrine. SARA stands for Suku,Agama, Ras, dan Antar Golongan, which means, ‘Ethnicity, Religion, Race, and Groups’. Any discussion of these four issues constituted a very serious taboo on the Indonesia media scene.

I think we have already seen this in Uganda. You discuss federalism as a Baganda wish only may land one in trouble because the 1995 constitution bans journalists from discussing issues that promote any form of tribalism.

The Suharto administration was very serious but the media especially the local ones resisted all these intimidation measures till when the regime was booted out of power.

Dear good people,
What happened to our brothers and sisters in Rwanda is regrettable and hope it never happens in Uganda but so many factors led to the genocide in Rwanda, and therefore it cannot be compared to CBS and the recent riots.It cannot be entirely the propaganda spread by the radio RTLM alone that caused the genocide in Rwanda.

That said, there is some evidence of conditional media effects and that Radio RTLM catalyzed a small number of individuals and incidents of violence, framed public choice, and reinforced messages that many individuals received during face-to-face mobilization.

On the other hand, i have received information that on the day of the riots in Uganda, CBS radio broadcasts were not racist or tribalist in nature or openly inflammatory as was the case during the Rwanda genocide. But if there is any presenter or moderator of CBS or Suubi FM who was calling Baganda/Ugandans to slaughter Banyankole, then he or she deserves punishment.

The problem with policy makers in Africa is generalizing debates on genocide.In policy circles, debates on how to contain the genocide often focus on jamming the radio which is not right. Genocides are caused mainly by long term problems in the country which leaders tend to ignore for a long time. Just closing a radio station does not remove these problems. Without sounding seditious, i think you all know why some Ugandans feel aggrieved by the Banyankole in Uganda right now. The leaders need to address the root causes of this and probably radio stations will have no reason to talk or discuss about it anymore.Closing a station just burries the issue in people’s minds and hearts.

Again, in comparison to Rwanda,Radio-Télévision Libredes Milles Collines (RTLM), which began broadcasting in July 1993, was owned and controlled by Hutu hard-liners within the ruling regime who ultimately organized the genocidal violence . Before the genocide,RTLM broadcast a steady digest of belligerent, nationalist, antirebel, and often openly inflammatory statements. During the genocide, RTLM announcers encouraged listeners to fight, and in some cases, the announcers broadcast names of individuals and places, which were subsequently attacked by citizen bands.

CBS on the other hand is a radio which is privately owned and nobody in the ruling party(NRMO) has got a stake in it. It is easy to control and close if the government wants to.It only encouraged people to go and attend the Kayunga function in big numbers and i see nothing wrong with this. This was all politics, my friend.

During and before the genocide in Rwanda,Rwandans could listen to the more state-owned station, Radio Rwanda. The government of Rwanda was mainly responsible for the genocide as they promoted the killing of the Tutsis. If the govt had no stake in it, then this genocide would not have taken place. So how can a genocide take place in Uganda if the state does not want it to take place.They have got all  the mechanism to stop it from happening. So CBS should be the least problem for anybody in Uganda. It’s just CBS gets more audience than the state owned radio, Radio Uganda, and probably the government does not like it.

Let us also not forget that the Tutsi-led rebels, who were fighting the government in a war that began in 1990, operated a station called Radio Muhabur.I’m yet to find out whether their radio also promoted genocide but all indications are that a genocide is mainly caused by the government in power as was the case in Rwanda. Radio stations have got a responsibility to report what’s happening during a genocide or riots and probably this is what CBS, was doing on ,9th,10th and 11th September 2009.

Nze bwendaba

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Yes, Savimbi’s clandestine radio played an important role in the 30-year war in Angola.It provided UNITA rebels broadcasting, provided a means of recruiting supporters, sustaining rebellion and appealing for external support . This is totally different from CBS since Buganda is not in some form of armed struggle against the government. However, CBS can be used by the Kingdom and the state to communicate important messages to Ugandans as has been the case for a long time.

What is similar here is how radio stations in Uganda owned by the state and NRM people do not say so much bad things against the governemt in power or the president. Radi stations owned by the likes of the vice president and others always refrain from criticizing government violations such as corruption and censorship. This was the same during UNITA days when the Angola state owned radio publicized Savimbi’s human rights abuses only without saying anything bad against the state. We need to strike a balance here if journalism is to be respected as a professional in Uganda.This imbalance has made people to stop listening to state owned radios.

As with other clandestine broadcasters, Savimbi’s station did not reveal the location of the transmitter relaying its programmes. In this case, however, the main reason for concealment was UNITA’s alliance with South Africa, which provided the rebels with a secure base to carry on their propaganda war as well as the military means to rebuild their guerrilla forces, which had been largely destroyed by Angolan and Cuban troops three years earlier.

On the otherhand, CBS radio is not a clandestine radio at all. It’s purposes are well published and it had a licence to carry its duties officially in Uganda before it was revoked 2 weeks ago.

Lastly, Savimbi’s Voice of the Resistance of the Black Cockerel (VRBC or VORGAN) served as the main propaganda channel for his National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) in its 30-year war against the governing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). On the other hand, I highly doubt whether the Kabaka is using CBS for Buganda to secede from Uganda or fight for buganda independence because this will be breaking the rules or the Press Act 1995 as written in the Uganda constitution.Yes, Some Baganda may raise this issue but majority of Baganda are agitating for federalism and this is where I fall.

Byebyo munange

Abbey

http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=171

5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKNzSfoKeK8&mode=related&search=

6.

Dear Ugandans,

I don’t know whether Besigye is right that Kabaka can have political power or not. I’m still thinking about it. All I know is that president Museveni has now got unbridled political power in Uganda such that nobody can stop him from doing anything he wants and that is why we need to all struggle to get federalism in the country. I feel let down by our some of our brothers in Bunyoro who claim that they want the regional tier, a system or a deal which was negotiated between former Katikilo of Buganda, Mulyanyamuri Semogerere, and the central government, without Bunyoro’s input. The people who negotiated this thing don’t want it and that would have been enough for Bunyoro to back off.

What is federalism?

Federalism is a mode of political organization that unites independent states within a larger political framework while still allowing each state to maintain its own political integrity (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994, vol. 4, p. 712). While the distribution of power between states and the federal authority will vary from system to system, all federal systems preserve the ability of state governments to decide matters of local importance without interference from the federal superstructure.

In the American system, for example, the states are considered to be the source of political power; it is the states that call the federal government into existence, and it is the states that have the right to legislate on matters of local concern. I think this is what Besigye meant when he said that Buganda will determine its own constitutional rule under a federal arrangement.

So, If we are to have federo in Uganda as supported by Besigye and asked by Mengo, the federal government headed by Museveni or any president will enjoy delegated power, i.e., power that the states hand over to the  federal government for the purpose of dealing with issues of national  scope. This can only be a good thing because it will stop any president from standing in a national parliament and make announcements like ‘any civilian found attacking another civilian or security operative will be short’’ or ‘ I don’t kneel for fellow human beings’.

Media in Uganda

The media is all living in fear because they fear running anything against NRM or the president, and I have no doubt they would shut any radio or newspaper down in a heartbeat in the pretext of protecting “national security” – the age old catchall bullshit excuse for doing  whatever they damn please.

Fascism in NRMO

As history frighteningly and repeatedly demonstrates, unchecked government power invariably leads to fascism and totalitarianism – a fact realized by millions of Germans, Russians, and Chinese in the 20th century. In Uganda, we had fascist parties like UPC but we never learnt from it because all signs are that NRMO has overnight turned into a UPC plus.

One of the common characteristics of fascist movements is totalitarian ambitions and this is where NRMO has headed very fast without any breakers on the paddle. For instance, although Hitler had not revealed the full extent of his totalitarian aims before he came to power, as Führer (“Leader”) of the Third Reich, he attempted not only to control all political power but also to dominate many institutions. Similarly, we have been telling Ugandans that president Museveni is dominating institutions in the country and something needs to be done. Now look where we are at the moment. The signs were there for everybody to see but we ignored them.

Again, before they came to power, Hitler and Mussolini, despite their dislike of democracy, were willing to engage in electoral politics and give the appearance of submitting to democratic procedures. When Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933, he abandoned his military uniform for a civilian suit and bowed profusely to President Paul von Hindenburg in public ceremonies. In 1923 Mussolini proposed an electoral reform, known as the Acerbo Law, which gave two-thirds of the seats in Parliament to the party that received the largest number of votes.  Although Mussolini insisted that he wanted to save Parliament rather than undermine it, the Acerbo Law enabled the Fascists to take control of Parliament the following year and impose a dictatorship.

This is no different from the time when Museveni came to power and we all welcomed him with open hands. He started the LC system in Uganda and he also started as a democrat, at least on the face of things. Probably, this is how most of us were duped into singing this movement fallacy. Baganda supported and loved Museveni because they believed that he was gonna restore our ‘ebyafe’. Instead, he has played games with them for 23 years. Yet the longer he takes to resolve this political problem, the more his ratings will slip — diminishing his power to achieve anything.

Now we are in state where by to criticize Museveni’s pernicious power is the most egregious societal taboo in Uganda. Actually, I have turned this statement into my email signature for a while. One risks being beaten up, tortured, imprisoned or even probably killed just to be anti-Museveni and I don’t think this is right.

Byebyo banange

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Ugandans,
I’m happy that some of you have put in the bin the myth that FDC is the same as NRM based on membership. So let’s move on to the next level some people have raised which is about ‘same policies’ between them. I wish to say that this is also a very wrong assumption and I hinted on it in my last paragraph in the link : http://semuwemba.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/fdc-is-different-from-nrm/. 
 
The fact still remains that FDC policies are different from NRM. For instance, the FDC election manifesto 2006 was talking about “Delivering Social Security for All” and they promised “strategies to ensure sustainable incomes for senior citizens …who have no pension cover…..They will have a monthly stipend provided by the state”. This wasn’t in the NRMO manifesto but instead they(NRMO) promised ‘prosperity for all’ or ‘ Bonna Baggagawale’ which Dr. Besigye was criticising recently while in Busoga.
 
I must also mention that NRM has been copying FDC and Besigye’s policies since 2001 when Besigye stood as an independent. They copied the ‘delivering the social security for all’ (FDC, 2006) and ‘getting rid of graduation tax’ (Besigye, 2001) policies. If NRMO manifesto or policies was an essay, they could easily have been accused of plagiarism because they don’t reference the sources where they get their policies from.
 
Mr. Augustine Ruzindana also recently wrote something interesting which got pro-federalists like me smiling. I think he was responding to some UAH members who asked for FDC’s proposed draft on federalism. In his article on September 4, 2009, he wrote:’….. Finally, in my last article the allusion to the FDC position on federalism has resulted in demands for documentation. After explaining that in a federal system each state/region/province would have a constitution providing for qualifications for leadership I concluded as follows: “The FDC has worked out an arrangement the various regions would have such constitutions”. This was already stated in the 2006 FDC election manifesto, page 9, thus: “The FDC will uphold the aspirations of Uganda in respect of a Federal System of governance as contained in the Justice Odoki and Prof Sempebwa Constitutional Reports. We…”.
“Within the first year of the FDC Government, we will institute a genuine dialogue for the establishment of a Federal System of Governance”. Anyway, I still think Mr. Ruzindana should avail us with a detailed document about federalism to put our minds at rest.
 
The NRM manifesto of 2006 was talking about issues such as: professionalising the army and police force, women emancipation, UPE and USE, industrialisation of Uganda……. and more ‘paper lies’. UPE and USE are functional but not effective. They still need more planning and improvement provided donors don’t pull out of the deal.
 
 Having said this, I don’t see any thing wrong with parties having some similarity in policies. For instance, I would love FDC to come up with a better planned UPE or USE program than that of NRMO. Policies are designed using empirical data and opinions among the Uganda population. Then after a policy has been implemented by the party in power, the people responsible look at the results to determine whether the policies were efficacious. It is not easy to tell whether the results were CAUSED by the policy, but there is a STRONG correlation that a bad policy will always produce bad results. With UPE, I think the policy itself is ok, its just that it was either not well planned or wrongly implemented. Another problem is that most of Museveni’s policies are based on prejudices and fears and not on results.
 
Nze bwendaba
 
Abbey

Dear Ugandans,
As a lover of football particularly the premier league, I feel disturbed that our governments in Uganda have not taken sports very seriously since independence. Sports in Uganda are not taken so seriously by the government because they say there have got to put money in other more pressing areas such as health and roads. Unfortunately, even the other ‘pressing issues’ like poverty alleviation, health or infrastructure, have not improved so much from the government funding due to poor leadership and corruption.

 
The British colonialists gave us a good foundation in sports by forming the first international sports organization in 1954 called The Ugandan Olympic Committee (UOC) . This gave us a chance to Ugandans to participate in the Olympics in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1956. The Olympics Movement in Uganda was started by a Cambridge graduate called Richard N. Posnett, who arrived in Uganda in 1941 and he was the first chairman of the UOC until he left the country in 1958.

 
Since 1956, we have participated in all subsequent Olympic Games, with the exception of 1976, when most African countries did not participate as a protest against New Zealand’s continued rugby contact with apartheid South Africa. Iddil Amin despite his dictatorial policies,put a lot of effort in sports such that we ended up having about 32 representatives Uganda in the Olympics compared to any other time. There was also a lot of boxing during Amin’s time and we registered some success in 1972 when John Aku-Bua won the gold medal in the 400-m hurdles in Munich. Yes in 2006 under president Museveni, we were represented by about 49 athletes but most of the funding was not from the government.

 
The UOC is apparently independent of government aid, but are reliant on the Olympic Solidarity Fund. This is where they get the money to pay for their staff and most of their activities. The UOC does not receive funding from the government, but there is provision to appeal to the government for funds to finance its participation if necessary.
Uganda had no representatives in the Paralympics mainly due to lack of funds, though it did have one disabled athlete compete in the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

 
When Mutesa 2 was the president of Uganda,the Ministry of Education and Sports was established in 1962 as the overall governing body of sport and physical education in Uganda but several ministers would feel as if they are being demoted when they are given this ministry, mainly because there is no money in it. In June 1964,the Ministry of Education and Sports established the National Council of Sports (NCS) by an Act of Parliament. The NCS is funded with grants from the government, loans from the government, or any monies generated by the government. It is responsible for financing the organization and administration of sport, financing the training of sports coaches, providing facilities and equipment, financing local and international activities, and financing the training and preparation of sportsmen and sportswomen for the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth . With all these activities, the NCS has been getting a lukewarm reception from the Museveni government to finance their activities. They only get a grant of Sh150 million from the government which is clearly not enough to fund even a quarter of their activities.
Then we have always got a problem of politicians who just want to use sports to push their hideen agendas because theydon’t have sports at heart. For instance, late Obote tried to play his fascist politics between the UOC and NCS in 1965 which led to a lot of conflicts in relation to areas of responsibility. Therefore,in November 1965, the NCS used its new political power as an arm of government to take over the UOC and make it a subsidiary of the NCS. This adversely affected the role of the UOC as an independent body affiliated with the IOC. However, Iddil Amin sorted out this problem out by eventually reaffirming the independence of the UOC in October 1975 ,in conjunction with the constitution of the IOC (IOC, 1980) .

 
Under Museveni, the same story of little funding and more politics has continued when it comes to sports such that even the draft by the former minister of sports, Dr. Khiddu Makubuya, in 2004 which aimed at improving the funding of sports in Uganda has not been that effective as expected. We have not had so many medalists under Museveni apart from Dorcus Inzikuru, the women’s 2005 world champion and 2006 Commonwealth champion in the 3,000-m steeplechase, and Boniface Kiprop, the 2006 men’s 10,000-m Commonwealth champion.

 
People like Ouma Kassimu would not have been known in boxing if he had not deserted the army to go and push his dreams from USA. Ouma was one of the NRA child soldiers used by NRA to fight the Obote dictatorship from Uganda. If Ouma had remained in Uganda where there are little funds for sports, he would not have probably won the boxing world title in 2005.

 
I therefore appeal to the government to start putting money into sports and support the few academies in the country like the ones started by Vice president,Dr. Gilbert Bukenya and my Kibuli OB,Mujibu Kasule. Ugandans should be able to watch their teams on TV other than watching the premier league alone. I Love Chelsea FC but I would also love to watch Express FC from my sitting room in England without the need to travel to Uganda.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Obote 2 and Amin both banned the guild offices at Makerere University because they looked at them as power threats. Under Obote 2 the student Guild was abolished because UPC had lost popularity at Makerere. Therefore, The Guild was abolished in 1981, the then Guild President Mr Opiyo Oloya was driven into exile. After the Guild was abolished in 1981, the UPC leaders named Mr Mbaine-a Munyankole doing Bachelor of Commerce as the new chairman.

The Obote army intimidated and killed a lot of students at Makerere university in the 1980s purely because they wanted to devise ways of either UPC dominating the Guild or closing it altogether if UPC couldn’t have it. At one time, one George Bwanika was shot and damped in Namanve forests. UPC used the offices of the then Dean of students, George Kihuguru and the Deputy Vice chancellor,Gingera-Pinycwa, to plung the whole university into chaos with the help of obviously the army.

On 20th February 1981, Obote invited some UPC student supporters and Mr.Kihuguru for a meeting at state house and this is where they devised the plan to get rid of the then Guild president, Opiyo Oloya. I think this guy is now writing for the New Vision as I have read several articles authored by him in that paper. After this meeting, UPC students broke into the offices of the Guild, looted files, beat up the Guild officials and announced that they had overtaken Opiyo’s government. The whole thing was done in Amin style and then you wonder where Idd Amin learnt these coup tactics from.

Before Opiyo, there was a UPC Guild president in the names of Welikhe Watuwa who was the first to abrogate the constitution of the Guild(just like Obote did in 1966)-because he(Welikhe) was simply a fascist or rather neo-fascist. So a resolution of vote of no confidence was introduced and
tabled in the Guild General Assembly to boot him out. Opiyo Oloya was the one that was elected to replace Welikhe and in the press release of 6th Dec 1980, Opiyo warned that the majority of students he represented wouldn’t recognise any govt that would come in power illegally or fraud.So when UPC stole the election, they booted him out and that’s how he ended up in
Canada.

UPC used also used to steal guild elections at Makerere university. Ogenga otunnu was Guild President 1982-3, and was succeeded by Okuraba who was also rigged for by the same machinery. The late Paulo Muwanga rigged for Badru Ssebyala.

UPC is a party that trained and started rigging in Uganda. They rigged the 1980 elections because they wanted Obote to become the president of Ugandaby all means.For instance, Museveni who was in Uganda People’s Movement(UPM) in 1980, is quoted to have said that “Kategaya was a very bad UPC. He even stole our votes. He stole eight. He told us. He voted eight times”.

Probably Museveni learned all the tactics of rigging elections while still a member of UPC because he also been taken to court for the same after the 2001 and 2006 elections.

Abbey

The problem with some UPC supporters is that they just take things at face value without critically analysing issues.  Now let us analyse the internal dynamics of the war before they start comparing the silly Joseph Kony war and the NRA war (1980-86) again.

First of all, there is a difference between the conventional war and an irregular war (guerrilla war). Conventional wars have clear front lines in which attacks take place mostly from barricades and stable positions. Violence against civilians and combatants takes place in clearly distinguished spaces. Civilians are generally isolated from the battlefield: while some may live close to the frontlines, or even go there to visit combatants, their life is somewhat independent from the events taking place in it. The American Civil war (1861-1865) was a typical example of a conventional civil war. We have not had that kind of war in Uganda history since independence.

In Guerrilla wars (like Luwero Triangle), such a clear spatial distinction between battlefield and non-battlefield areas is lacking, as the war takes place unevenly all over the territory. In consequence, there is a greater mingling of civilians and combatants. So despite the fact that it is called the Luwero Triangle war, civilians were killed in other parts of the country as well. The battle lines were not limited in Luwero.

Civilians are killed in a guerrilla war when, for example, civilians hide potential victims, they help them to flee to other places; they give false indications to the groups, remain silent, or even engage in violent confrontation with the group. Going by this explanation, it is so likely that the Obote men or UNLA would be the one to exert violence on the civilian population during the Luwero Triangle war. Several people were killed between 1980 and 1985 because they were thought to be ‘Bayekela’ (rebels) or helping the ‘bayekela’. Obote had no support from Buganda where most of the killing took place. He had ‘lost’ an election in 1980 but he decided to impose himself on the people of Uganda. So the aggrieved party here were the people of Uganda.

In Kony’s case, civilians in the north are most likely killed by the rebels because of non-cooperation with an enemy or occupier (NRMO government), civilian disobedience, and ideological opposition- “civilian defence”. Actually, the war in northern Uganda is one of the trickiest civil wars in the world. It is very difficult to know who is doing the more killing between LRA and UPDF but my bet would be on LRA because they don’t have enough support where they are fighting from.

The difference between the Joseph Kony war or LRA war and Luwero Triangle war is that Joseph Kony failed to mobilise majority of the population in the north to support his cause unlike museveni who convinced majority of the population in the south of Uganda to support his cause to get rid of Obote dictatorship. Where there is a high level of mobilization of the population, armed groups are prone to target civilians in order to sweep the rears of potentially challenging enemies.

In a nutshell, there is no justification for the LRA war and that is why it is bound to end in failure. The best Kony can get out of this situation is saving his own skin. I know Mr. Matek,one of the UPC supporters, does not agree with us on this one but it is the truth.

Abbey

Dear Ugandans,

If you follow the speech made by Sir Andrew Cohen, the former Governor of Uganda at a joint meeting of the Royal African Society and the Royal Empire Society in 1957 before he handed the tools of leadership to Sir Frederick Crawford, then you will realise that Obote 1 inherited a good future plan from the British after our independence. Whether he implemented it well or not, that is another issue. I stand to be corrected with facts if I’m wrong on this.

 Uganda under Governor Cohen had a five-year development programme, from 1955 to 1960, involving capital expenditure of some £30m by the Government and another £8m to £10m for the Uganda Electricity Board. Frederick extended this programme though the independence in 1962 caught up with him. So Obote took over and continued with the program implementation.

  Under Cohen, agricultural organisations and farm institutes were introduced under the aegis of Agricultural Enterprises Ltd.,a subsidiary of the State-owned Uganda Development Corporation.These things did not start with Obote as they were already being implemented. The mining industry was already functional when Obote took over .The textile factory and Kilembe copper and cobalt mine were in production. Other projects are going forward.

 The Uganda Development (UDC) was set up with the aim of bringing private enterprise into partnership in these important projects. Things like electricity,  road and railway construction and rural and urban water supplies were already in place when Obote took over.

 Cooperatives which Museveni killed were introduced during the British time and Obote just strengthened the implementation process. This was a process intended to help Africans to play a larger part in trade and commerce. So long as commerce was mainly confined to Asians and Europeans there was a state of unbalance which held back the country. There were already 1,300 co-operative societies in Uganda before Cohen handed the administration to another governor. Their total turnover was £4 m a year. There were ten co-operative-owned ginneries. The Bugisu co-operative union, the biggest in the country, was playing a large part in the marketing of the arabika coffee. Also there were technical institutes put in place for the advancement of Africans in trade. The Public Service Commission was set up with the task of promoting the appointment of local people and the maintenance of standards in the civil service. Scholarships were set up and educational colleges built to get qualified people for the jobs. Regardless of the above, I think Uganda benefitted a lot from Obote’s first presidency economically though he made political blunders along the way which are haunting UPC up to now particularly attacking the Lubili in Mengo.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

United Kingdom

Dear Ugandans,
1.UPC was the first party to ban political parties in Uganda under Obote 1 in 1968 under the famous Lugogo ceremony.

2. Yes, it is true that UPC were more experienced in politics than any other group in Uganda and that’s why i called them the ‘tigers’ (1960-1980). They wanted to use their ‘tigerish’ status in 1980 elections but a few Ugandans under the leadership of Museveni decided to take the bull by its horns and kicked them out of the ring. Since then, all peaceful Ugandans have been working towards weakening them further and restricting them to ‘Uganda House’.However, it would be credible to franchise one of the chains of restaurants in England called’ Tiger Tiger’ on one of the floors at ‘Uganda House’ for the sake of remembering the UPC of 1960s.

3.Since I’m not a politician, I’m gonna be honest with UPC supporters:when Museveni banned political parties in 1986, he was targeting mainly one group and that was UPC.Trust me, i would have done the same during that time if i was the president of this country. NRM were still ‘young’ in politics and needed to learn on the job to stabilize the country. Guys likeDr. Besigye, Tumwine, Rwomushana, Salim Saleh,…….. and Museveni himself were so young when they took over offices in 1986. Therefore, they needed no disturbances from the experienced groups such as UPC. If UPC was not around or already weak at that time, i can bet you, with all my heart, that Museveni and group would not have banned political parties in Uganda in 1986. Parties were released when everybody was sure that UPC were in a ‘nursing home’ somewhere. Most of their young cadres had left the country after the fall of Obote 2 and gone abroad to start new lives, and several of them are still living abroad. So most Ugandans are not worried about them. They don’t want to come back to Uganda because they have become comfortable abroad with some career jobs or something like that. Even the few Ochienos(like my brother,Joseph Ochieno, in London here) who make trips back home every now and then, don’t wanna leave Europe  indefinitely.Ochieno went back to contest for some post in the last UPC delegates conference but he immediately came back to the UK as soon as he realised that there is less hope for him in Uganda

4.There was nothing in Moshi like ‘locking out’ as in like stopping Ugandans to attend the conference. Please, brother Ochieno, stop misleading readers. UPC wanted to cheat in the conference by bringing their majority in exile in TZ to the conference. So they had to be stopped because each group was asked to send in two representatives. However, UPC again went for their plan B of ‘cheating’ by creating bogus groups under different UPC leaders which represented them in the conference.

5.UPC or Obote’s men were ready to dominate the military Commission(MC) and UNLA  as the latter was under the direct control of the former.MC comprised mainly of UPC ‘TABLIQS’ such as: Paulo Muwanga(UPC) as the chairman,Col Zedi Maruru(UPC) as its secretary, Tito Okello(UPC), Oyite Ojok(UPC), Colonel Omaria(UPC) and others. ‘Musajja watu’, Museveni, who has now turned into ‘Gusajja wattu’, was only sneaked into the position of Vice chairman of MC at the intervention of Nyerere. Obote was controlling the MC and UNLA using a remote control in his sitting room in TZ.

Byebyo

Dear readers,

The reason why I think that banning political parties, particularly UPC, was justified could be found on why Binaisa lost his presidency. If Binaisa had started by banning political parties, rather UPC, he would have lasted in that presidency as probably Museveni. You cannot organise elections in an environment that was as volatile as Binaisa and Lule’s Uganda yet they both never had armies of their own. So in terms of political strategy, Museveni and his ‘friends’ were right to ban political parties when they had just come to power in 1986. Museveni knew that at some point political space or multi partism would have to be opened up and that’s what happened in 2004.

Several groups or parties cropped up during Binaisa and this made him not to concentrate on stabilising the country first before thinking of his leadership. His leadership was threatened from the beginning due to these unbanned political groups, among which included the following:

1. Uganda National Union (UNU): This was headed by Lameck Ntambi(RIP) who called on Binaisa to resign or risk being denied aid by ‘friendly countries’.
2. Obote in TZ: this guy was in TZ and he kept reminding Binaisa he was coming home to stand for presidential elections as if there were no other UPC candidates in Uganda. If he had banned UPC for some time, Obote would have become weaker and probably UPC would have considered him a liability to their resources in the process of reorganising their party
3. DP: This also created a problem for Binaisa as they kept fighting for multipartism instead of the so called UNLF umbrella.
4. The UPC ‘gang of four’: this included Paulo Muwanga, Professor Dan Nabudere, Professor Yash Tandon, Omwony Ajwok and Edward Rugumayo. These guys used the NCC to mobilise against Binaisa and Lule big time because they wanted to prepare for Obote’s return.
5. Museveni and his FRONASA: these were also ready to strike him any time they sensed any weakness or loophole anywhere.

Binaisa later realised that he should have put a stop to this political party nonsense in the first place but it was rather too late. In April 1980, Binaisa addressed a meeting of UNLF district chairmen and activists at Makerere University and said that all elections would be held under the UNLF umbrella.

On hearing this, DP was the first to send a delegation led by Semogerere Paulo, and included guys like professor Kyalwazi, Evaristo Nyanzi( probably not the one who knelt for Museveni b’se of ministerial appointment), Henry Semukutu and others , to have a 1:1 with Binaisa about Multipartism. Now you see how the man was not concentrating on other issues apart from ‘BIBINA’, consolidating his leadership and politics.

The UPC group under Luwuriza-Kirunda and notorious Rwakasisi also addressed a press conference some time later opposing Binaisa on this because they knew that it was their ticket to bring Obote back and possibly lead Uganda again. When UPC realised that Binaisa was very serious with retaining the presidency, they organised a coup since it was already their trade mark in the politics of Uganda. That Military Commision headed by Muwanga came to power through a coup: they ordered the soldiers to surround Radio Uganda, the post office and state house and putting the then president under detention.

The Musevenis were also cheering ‘AMUKUBYE’ since they were less influential at the time and just waiting for the big boys to finish their fights before they start theirs.

So how can anybody argue that UPC would not be still in power today if somebody had not taken a decision to fight them in Luwero bushes? They were not ready to follow the paths of democracy when one analyses all their actions before and after the fall of Iddil Amin Dada. They just wanted power at all costs and that was unacceptable. Good enough, they are no longer ‘tigers’ as they have been reduced to ‘parrots’(those birds that repeat words after you when in the house). Parrots are similar in behaviour as mynah birds. Nobody takes them so seriously when it comes to serious issues.

On a personal note, I’m still happy to stay in the UK at the moment; after all I’m not yet planning and probably will not plan to stand for any elective office in Uganda, unlike some people who are doing it from UK. It is like a person who plans to get a mango fruit from a mango tree using ‘OLUSOLOBYO’( a long, straight and light stick) instead of climbing the tree. In England, they use ladders or cherry pickers to get the fruits but at least they are near the fruit tree.

Byebyo Mukwano

Abbey

Readers,

I beg to differ from President Museveni on the issue of Banyoro-Bafuluki. What Museveni has proposed in Bunyoro will open a can of worms he will not be able to put back in the tins. Ethnic federalism don’t accomplish the goal of unity in diversity anywhere in the world. It only empowers tribalists to disseminate messages of hate to others and this is unacceptable in a semi-democracy like Uganda. I would much rather prefer to have equal rights for all Ugandans regardless of ethnicity.

What president Museveni has proposed in his letter is unconstitutional, unequal and unjust to discriminate an individual in politics based on the ethnicity. Let everybody be given a chance and the majority will sort out the end product.

President Museveni assumes, by going with his proposals, that all folks who share the same ethnicity should agree on everything. That comes from a mindset in which all of the Banyoro people he knows think alike, which is a scary prospect, to say the least. Such fallacy is that all races and ethnicities are at the same level.People who relate every question to ethnicity just assume that their unreconstructed obsessions are Uganda’s and that the country would find them riveting. Instead the country is yawning.They are playing dangerous politics and they should be stopped.

The point I’m trying to make here is that ethnicity -based law will be used to destroy what the titular citizenry of the Uganda is trying to build here. Such a law,if approved, will hold back individuals of talent for too long. If the Banyoro in Bunyoro have got talent, they’ve nothing to fear of other tribes in their regions. Let them copy the accommodative ways of the Buganda region where all tribes are living side by side with Baganda peacefully.

What Museveni proposed in his letter is comparable to the Jim Crow laws in the old USA which were segregating the blacks, where instead of the racist claiming that some races were lesser races and could thus have their rights reduced, they now claim that because other races worked hard to get ahead, they now should be discriminated against because their ancestors worked to get ahead. Banyoro should know that discrimination is discrimination no matter how one justifies it !

The one thing we can always count on is that young people like myself will rebel against any establishment that brings such draconian laws.  And in a 30 years time in Uganda liberalism and multiculturalism will be firmly established as the establishment.

Most of Museveni’s proposals can easily sail through parliament and become law because we have got a weak opposition at the moment.This country needs some form of a two-party system in a multi party environment if possible. We don’t want one party dominating politics to any great degree as is the case today in the country. We need a formidable opposition. Right now, the NRM Party is itself letting the tribalists and Museveni’s ethnic ideas drag it into oblivion as some members of the opposition are cheering and agreeing with the president as I have read somewhere.

It is indeed my hope that in the next 50 years we will not have to give preferential treatment to anyone based on ethnicity or religion.Federalism can be achieved regardless of ethicity, if all Ugandans can see the beauty of it.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

1. Uganda was under a military dictatorship under Iddil Amin during the Moshi conference and the government before Amin( Obote 1) was a semi-military government, of which both could have been only removed by either a military man or through military means. So what made Mr. Kanyeihamba and the group to underlook the military Commission during the Moshi Conference and let UPC/Museveni beat them in this game. Museveni knew that to remove a military man, you have to be a military man and that is why he formed FRONASA to prepare himself for both Obote and Amin scenarios in future. Both UPC and Museveni were very culturative in their approach to issues prior to Moshi Conference. Both UPC and Museveni knew and still know each other inside-out.Actually, Museveni feared no other party in his first 15 years of leadership more than UPC because they knew each other every well. They go back a long way.
2. Kanyeihamba and his friends drafted the UNLF ‘ baby’ laws as he states in his interview below but how they missed to put a clause that makes it clear that the UNLF government was gonna be governed under the 1967 Republican constitution, i dont know. Prof Lule  as Chairman of NEC just used his own initiative to start leading the country using the 1967 constitution but he later met problems as we all know. All the legal experts at Moshi just left this issue just like that for reasons best known to themselves.
3. Lule was tricked into dominating his cabinet with UPC after the moshi conference such that prof matia semakula kiwanuka predicted Lule’s downfall in an interveiw on BBC at the end of April,1979 by saying that Lule will not last b’se his administration was one sided. How can any leader of an African country get himself surrounded by ‘tigers’ (UPC) instead of friendly pussy cats, i will never know. Well they say, keep your enemies closer but UPC were more than enemies and anybody with an eye for leadership, needs to watch UPC very carefully. They are  very manipulative when it comes to politics. UPC wanted Obote as the president of Uganda after Amin, and both the Moshi conference and UNLF governments were just stepping stones towards that objective. The 1980 elections was a destruction that was ruthlessly dealt with though they later paid a very big price. This is what i have been telling Brother Ochieno and Mr.Matek last week before the former took me into lessons of how to spell his name yet it was an obvious typing error. The fact is that UPC never wanted to promote any democracy in Uganda after the fall of Amin.All they wanted was to be in power at all costs and Ugandans needed to do something.
4. I’m happy that judge Kanyeihamba  confirmed in his interview the bogus groups i keep telling UPC supporters- that were formed by UPC prior to the Moshi conference. These groups were led by Dr.Luwuliza Kirunda, Otema Alimadi, Akena Pojok, Paulo muwanga( the military uniform man who Museveni is copying these days by putting on military dressing to remind us the importance of the military in politics of Uganda).

http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4529&Itemid=59

We all know that Museveni was once a member of DP and UPC before he became NRM or NRMO or whatever it is at the moment. CP and UPM are off springs of UPC.

Both the DP EXECUTIVE and the millitary government or commision never wanted Lule to come back. It is believed that Lule wrote to the Chairman of the Military Commission(MC),Muwanga, asking for permission to come back.Muwanga then wote to the then DP executive seeking their advice about this but to Lule’s disappointment, the DP executive wrote back to say that they had nothing officially to to do with Lule’s return to Uganda. In otherwords, the Bwengyes,Ssemogereres and the like did throw Prof Lule into the hands of the Lion without any fight. However,DP promised to welcome him as any other party member(not supporter) but they were not so much bothered about pressing the MC for his urgent security.

DP exective also sent a delegation led by Zachary Olum to go and tell Lule in  person that the party had nothing to do with his return. The delegation also scared him off by revealing that his return was unsafe. The fact of the matter was the DP executive did not want Lule to come back as guys like Semogerere and Bwengye risked losing their posts within the party in the looming delegates conference.They also feared and they were right that Lule’s return would divide  the party which wasnt in their best interests at the time.

When Lule realised that these guys were doing everything possible to block his return, his supporters formed an interim executive committe chaired by another DP CARD HOLDER,professor Senteza Kajubi. They then started negotiating with Yoweri Museveni(as Vice chairman of the MC) directly to help them guarantee the safe return of Professor Lule. Museveni initially gave them assurances that Lule would be protected but only lateron to connive with the Muwangas and Oyite Ojokos to stop Lule from coming back.

Ugandans are also right to say that ‘DP decided to organise a parallel function in Bushenyi the day Prof.  Lule was coming spearheaded by the then Publicity Secretary of the Party Dr. Kawanga Ssemwogere’.However, they later got AKAKUBA NSONYI or ‘BANATULABA BATYA’ and decided to send Bwengye,James Kahigiriza and Bernard Buzaabo to go and join the people that were welcoming Lule at the Entebbe International Airport.

Abbey.K.S

Dear UAH,

I don’t know why some UPC supporters are so obscessed with the name UPC because its associated with a lot of things in Uganda that makes some of us feel like we have had dinner as chilli sauce and chilli burgers coupled with chilli juice.  Names of parties are just political definitions which can change with times. Some of the UPC ‘Generals’ have acknowledged that some Ugandans have grown uncomfortable with the term. So it needs changing, as simple as that.

NRMO did not start as NRMO.It has been changing with the times and that is what i called rebranding the party.UPM was changed to Uganda Liberation Movement when some UNLA soldiers joined them. Uganda Liberation Movement later changed to MOSPOR(Movement for the Struggle for Political Rights) which later also changed to Peoples resistance Army(PRA)-more like a replica of the alleged rebel organisation MBU started by Besigye in 2004. PRA later united with Uganda Freedom Fighters(UFF) of professor Lule to form NRM.

 
Museveni saw it necessary to unite with professor Yusuf Lule because he needed the Baganda and some DP on board to fight the Obote dictatorship. He therefore met Lule in Nairobi while Lule was residing at one of his brother’s house.Lule’s brother is called Kabanda whom i personally know as a relative though we aren’t friends. The bottom line here is that one sometimes need to form alliances with others if one wants to achive something.UPC need to cooperate with other opposition parties to fight Museveni in the 2011 elections.The current IPC can compared to the alliance NRM formed with the UFM(of Kayiira) and the UNRF when they met in London to form what is called Uganda Popular Front(UPF).

 
UPC therefore should not be afraid of changing its name and also joining the IPC wholeheardetly because it is very necessary. By the way,It was also rumored that MJ was considering changing the name of neverland to ‘Hardly EverLand’ before he died. UPC can also out of ‘patriotism’ change ‘Uganda House’ to ‘Uganda’s Taxpayers’ House’ because it was allegedly built using tax payers’s money.

 Political leaders have also changed their names dependimg on circumstances. For instance, Russia’s Lenin  was once called Ulianov while Stalin  was once called Dzygasgvuku. Probably, Hon Akena was wise not take Obote’s name on board because it would have reminded some of us the ‘chilli’ dinners coupled with gun shots in the evening.But who knows, Akena may change his name in future to ‘Jimmy AKena Kalule’ because his mother is a Muganda.

 
Cities have also changed names because names are not religions as Mulindwa wants us to believe. For instance, India’s Bombay was changed to Mumbai as China’s Peking to Beijing , both reverting to the correct name from a pre-colonial era.

 
Terrorist also do some rebranding when they want to join the ‘political cake’. For instance,the terrorist group in northern Iraq, known until 2002 as the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and then as the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK) changed its name to KONGRA-GEL because they realised that the former names were reminding people of ‘chilli’ dinners yet people want to continue eating their MATOOKE and KAWUNGA in peace.
Byebyo munange
Abbey

Dear all,

How could any one have separated a supporter, sympathiser and a member efficienly at that time in the 1960s when Museveni was arguably a DP member or supporter.All i know is that there is a thin line between a supporter, sympathiser and a member because at the end of the day each group end up voting for the same party on election day.So it is so likely that Museveni voted for DP at that time when he was ‘whatever category’ some DP members wanna put him.

The fact of the matter is that the Bahima were traditionally DP supporters before NRM and Museveni changed this. The Bahima supported DP for historical reasons in Ankole. Just before independence the protestants who were sharing power with the Bahima protestants wanted to snatch power from the Bahima aristocratic system(Obugabe of Ankole). Therefore, the Bahima allied with the Catholics to foil the Bahiru protestant move. When DP was therefore formed in the 1950s, nearly all of them joined DP. That’s how the Muhiru prime minister, Nganwa, was toppled in 1962 and replaced with a catholic called Kabeirebo John.What i cannot definitely tell you is whether all the Bahima that joined DP at that time were DP card holders or not. There is a possibility that one was mainly identified with a certain party because they were openly supporting or sympathising with it, and if that was the case, then Museveni was a once member of DP.

This reminds us of the time in early 1980 when Professor Lule was planning to come back to bid for the DP leadership and then the then executive started panicking by saying that he wasn’t a DP ‘member’ or card holders as you called them.This did not however STOP DP card holders such as: Sam Njuba,Sam Sabagereka, George Kalanzi, Christopher Ntabazi, Sam mukasa, Paulo Kavuma ,……from campaigning for the ‘supporter’(LULE) without a card.Lule himself had to hold a press conference while in Nairobi to declare that he had joined the party in 1959 when Ben kiwanuka was the president general. So if i may ask, is Lule now remembered as a DP ’supporter’, ‘member’ or just a ’sympathiser’? OR does DP only categorise people when it suits them?

One DP member called Lawrence Mukasa wrote:’……………. Re-read Bwengye’s “The Agony of Uganda” (Regency Press), it is a long time since I read it, but the facts are that Museveni came to DP leaders and asked them to give him the party leadership.….’’

According to Bwengye(1985),Museveni never approached the DP leaders as it was the other way round. In the first week of May,Bwengye was informed of the imminent launching of the party called ‘Uganda Labour Congress’ and that Museveni was behind it. In order to stop this launch,Bwengye in his capacity as the Sec General of DP made a personal approach to Museveni to persuade him to join DP instead. Museveni was later again met by other DP ‘generals’ in his office NOT their offices, in the Nile Mansion, a delegation that included 3 people:Dr.Semogerere,Boniface Byanyima and Bwengye himself.

Museveni agreed to rejoin DP as ‘ his people at home,including his own father, were all DP supporters’.He later changed his mind and the rest is now history. Just open page 95 of the book and you will find everything there.

As regards DP and FEDERO as an historical tie, EBYO NZE SINDIBIMANYI as Kayanda used to say in a certain song that goes like:’Kayanda onkwatira otya kumukyala wange.Lelo luno Nkusse’

Byebyo Munange

Abbey

The resignation of Mbale Municipality MP Wilfred Kajeke is one thing that will not go down unnoticed in the history of Uganda. It’s not a light matter considering the country where we come from where every man is more like for himself. I’m still surprised that Kajeke made this kind of decision not because it isn’t easy, considering what was happening in the country, but it takes a real man to do what he did. Most people cannot leave that parliament willingly as we all remember the case of Brigadier Tumukunde after he run into trouble with the regime in power.Most Ugandans can do everything possible to be or remain members of the parliament.

In South Korea in the year 2006, a member of the opposition party, Mr. Choi Yeon-hee, refused to give up his parliament seat after he was found grabbing the breasts of a female reporter while drunk. He only accepted to resign from the party’s secretary-general post and quit the party but not from the parliament. In South Africa, Mandella’s ex-wife, Madikizela-Mandela was found guilty on 43 charges of fraud and 25 of theft in the Pretoria court but she never immediately resigned her seat in parliament.

Therefore, Kajeke’s resignation can be seen either as a protest to a bad government and parliament or it can become the first step in the accountability process in parliament. Mr.Kajeke reminds me of the resignation of England’s Robin Cook(RIP) before the Iraq war, the difference being that Kajeke is not a member of Museveni’s cabinet as Cook was a member of Tony Blair’s government. Three days later in his landmark resignation speech, Robin Cook made the first public declaration that US companies had sold anthrax to Iraq. It took a real man for Robin to say what he said then.

Without thinking about the reduction in the number of FDC MPs in parliament, Kajeke’s powerful reasons for resignation have won him great respect within the opposition and those within the NRM with a subconscious mind. He cited a lot of reasons for his resignation but I’m going to stick with the issue of corruption that has embedded the Museveni government for a long time.

President Museveni’s reign will probably be remembered as the most corrupt in Uganda’s history. Almost the whole system is now designed to bury corruption, not expose it. Complaining about the corrupt is now more like wastage of time because if the complaints are all swept under the rug and everyone knows that complaining is futile, they don’t exist, right? NRMO and corruption go together like bacon and eggs in restaurants in the UK where I live.

Kajeke is summarily telling us that we must never again give our votes to the corrupt. More than anything else he is telling us that we have a moral duty to protect our country against corruption and other evils happening now. It is down to us to stop our governments. It is our duty to stand up and to demand the resignation of all MPs who are responsible for the removal of presidential term limits because of the Ug shs.5m bribe and arguably now the arrogance of those in power who thinks that their words are now laws themselves in the country. We must remember that voting in a non-ethical politician makes us all into active shareholders in a criminal company.

Abbey