Is bravery sometimes natural in some people?

I took this picture inside the Royal Scots Regimental Museum of Scotland. The building is among those located in the Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.

The guy in the picture behind me was called Donald McBain. Before the battle of Malplaquet in 1709, his wife abandoned him leaving a 3 year old boy with him. His regiment was matching into the battle against the French; so, do you know what this guy did? He stuffed the child in his haversack, and fought the whole battle with a child at his back as shown in the photo.

Is bravery sometimes natural in some people?

MUSEVENI TOLD HIM. DIDN’T HE?

Olara Otunnu and President Museveni

Venue: Nairobi Peace talks, 1985
Mediator: Daniel Arap Moi
Olara Otunnu(OO): ‘Hello Mr.Yoweri Museveni’

Yoweri Museveni ignored him, and instead pointed his finger at OO:”You young man, you are the one misleading the old man.We shall see”

The old man Museveni was referring to here was Gen. Tito Okello-Lutwa, and Olara Otunnu was then minister of Foreign Affairs, a position that left a sour note among some UPC members. Few months later, Museveni became the president and OO was on his bike to exile.

OO makes a promising come back to Uganda in 2010 with a CV Museveni could only dream of. He becomes the UPC president the same year, then the Kampala crafty boys get to work and made one ‘proposal’ after the other that supposedly drained all his money. He became financially strained,all the talk of him having been roommates with Tony Blair at Oxford University didn’t help, he went on a war path with the Obote family over who controls what; then Museveni seizes an opportunity and releases his ‘dogs’ on him, bite him harder, and guess what? Now UPC is in Akena James’s hands, or one could arguably say ‘Museveni’s soft hands’.

He told him, didn’t he? That he will see, and I guess OO has seen it all now! Museveni is a very serious person . These are very serious people. They planned to get into power for years. They plan to stay in power for a very long time. And you can only know their seriousness when you study them.

That’s all I can say for now!

Ssemogerere was a weak leader!

F-R: Paul Ssemogerere, President Museveni, Obote

Dr.Paul Semogerere was just a DP icon and not a good one.These “front men” are a sad lot in politics.Most of them die of old age.Any “leader” without a strong following cannot do much harm.In fact, more political organisations are weakened at the expense of such leaders.
I can understand why Dr. Semogerere accepted to serve in Museveni or NRM transitional BROAD-BASED govt in 1986, but I can’t understand why there was never a written agreed road map between DP and NRM. Secondly, I can’t also understand why Semogerere never, in any way, supported his fellow DP, Wasswa Ziritwawula, when the later opposed the bill before the NRC to extend the NRM term in office. Yes, Semogerere wasn’t in the country when the Bill was being debated but he had been in the cabinet when it was presented and passed. Hurtingly, he came back to the country after it had been passed and quietly kept his position in cabinet as Ziritwawula resigned.

Is it possible that Semogerere knowingly or unknowingly contributed to the slow death of DP with the political moves he made in 1986-1990? Otherwise, you must give it to Museveni for keeping his enemies closer to him in 1980s-90s with a long term plan of ‘eliminating them. Even Adolph Hitler kept Robert Schumann, an apparent Jewish origin, on his side in his phoney fight with his Philistines, Prof. David Bargnesi. Semogerere was spineless and gullible, subsisting on a steady diet of Museveni and Obote lies. Obote several times rightly called him a ‘weak leader’. Museveni just used him whenever it was convenient for him.DP got the key ministries of Justice, finance, Agriculture, Commerce, housing and AG in Museveni’s broad based gov’t, and that was literally the end of DP. He insisted on being the minister of Internal Affairs in both Lutwa and Museveni govt but there was almost nothing to show for it.

Who was Hajji Kasimu Semuwemba?

late Hajji Kasimu Semuwemba

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Hajji Kasimu Semuwemba, a founding member of the Uganda Muslim Education Association (UMEA), was 5 years old when his father died. Both of his parents were Baganda by tribe and Muslims. His father, Abdallah Kiberu, worked for the Buganda kingdom- the then king donated the whole of Senene in Butambala to him as a reward for his services. He had two brothers and three sisters. One of his elder brother, Hajji Jalilu Kiberu, commonly called ‘Twamulabilawo’, worked as a housing officer at UMSC during Idi Amin’s times, and after Amin had been removed from power. One of his sisters, Hajjati Lukiya, was a grand mum to former Greenland Bank Chief Accountant, Cassim Mukiibi.

When his father died, he was taken under the guardianship of his uncle,Hajji Ssudi Matumbwe, who was a resident of Namayuba, Mukono, at the time. He looked after Semuwemba throughout his childhood, and that’s how the late became best friends with his cousin,Ambassador Swaibu Musoke, whom they went to school together in Mukono. Hajji Semuwemba went to Mukono bishop as his primary and secondary education. He used to walk to school together with Ambassador Swaibu musoke. He was very bright in class. Semuwemba’s parents

Semuwemba was born in 1920s. His father wasn’t born a Muslim as he was a revert. His father was a brother to Magala in Debe, Entebbe. When he became a Muslim, he decided to start up his own burial grounds in Senene,Butambala.

After the death of his father, his mother, Halima Naziwa, commonly called Biibi, moved back to Namayuba to stay near her brother, Hajji Sudi Matumbwe. The whole village in Namayuba are kind of related to one another.

It’s not known exactly when he married his first wife, but he did so while working as a teacher in Kibuli Teacher Training College, an institution he helped to found. While there, he got a scholarship to go study in USA (a photo attached of when Semuwemba was being welcomed back from USA).

Though mostly oblivious to the political upheaval in Uganda at the time, he paid close attention to promoting education in the country. On coming back from USA, he joined the ministry of education. He later worked in Mukono as a DISTRICT EDUCATION OFFICER (DEO) for a while before moving to Arua. He was DEO in both Arua and Luwero, and Regional Education Officer– Masaka. As already mentioned, he taught at Kibuli TTC for years. From there, he moved to crested towers. He also had offices at Agha khan.

The career of a high-wattage teacher demands not only prowess but also politesse: pressing the flesh, dining with patrons, smiling at audiences. Mr.Semuwemba seems to have done this very well. He was a very friendly man and liked by many. Among his many friends include: late Abu Mayanja, Jumba Masagazi, Hajji Abassi Kawaase, Hajji Kawadwa(Bukoto), current Vice president of Uganda , Edward Ssekandi, and so many others. Hajji Jumba Masagazi became a permanent Secretary in the ministry of education during Amin’s times.

”He was a good man, my best friend. He used to write me letters while I was a t school. He used to drive me in his car. He used to give me advise about anything, from girls to anything’’, remarked Casimu Mukiibi.

He was one of the most prominent educationists in Uganda at the time. After the formation of Uganda Muslim Student’s Association and Uganda Muslim Supreme Council(UMSC), President Idi Amin transferred Hajji Semuwemba from Ministry of education to UMSC, to help boost Muslim education in Uganda. While working at UMSC, he gave lot of scholarships to different Muslims to study abroad. He also helped in the promotion of several Muslim schools, and making sure they get Muslims as their head teachers. For example, he is responsible for transferring Ahmed Seguya to Kibuli S.S as headmaster between 1975 and 1976.

He was among the pioneers and founders of UMEA. His daughter, Nakiiwolo, now based in Denmark, worked as a secretary for UMEA when it had just started. He was very close to Prince Badru Kakungulu and Gaava .He was known to be incorruptible and a very straightforward man.

By 1930, there were approximately 120,000 Muslims in Uganda, with Prince Mbogo as the chief patron of the Muslim community. UMEA was founded in 1944 to oversee factionalism and unify Muslim educational efforts. The East African Muslim welfare also constructed schools, mosques and provided fellowships to Muslim students.

His first wife died in 1977 while still at UMSC. He had one wife, Hajjati Rehema Semuwemba, at the time of his death in 1979. They had five children together, with their last born called Abbey Semuwemba Kibirige. He was murdered in cold blood at his house in Nansana on the outskirts of Kampala. He was shot and killed–an actuarially unorthodox end for a humble teacher.His killers were never caught or found and it’s not known why he was killed.

Besides his family at Nansana, survivors include his ex-wife at Kawempe whom they had two daughters, and his eldest children with his late wife at Kibuli. His eldest son, Issa Semuwemba, was living in Russia before he finally settled in Sweden. Another daughter is in France. Three of his eldest daughters are living in London, United Kingdom, married with children.Some of his eldest children, including Ali Ssebulonde Semuwemba, are living peacefully in Uganda. He didn’t have any grandchildren at the time of his death. Semuwemba was buried at the family burial grounds in Senene, Butambala, where he is resting along with his elder brother, Jalilu Kiberu.

How come Grace Ibingira is rarely mentioned in our independence celebrations?

Grace Ibingira

So, the Uganda flag was designed by Grace Stuart Ibingira. How come he is rarely mentioned in our independence celebrations?
—————————–
Abbey,
I don’t really know. May be because he sat in jail most of the 1960s so his name fell off that way. But then again, The late David Kakoma who composed the Uganda National anthem is seldom mentioned either. So, what do the colors represent? I see British Royal Guard parade with those colours and Germany, Belgien, Syd Afrika, Zimbabwe mm do have the same colours. Yet, West African countries have yellow, Green and Red.

What made Ibingira choose just the Black, Yellow and Red?
Noc’la via UAH
—————————
It is true.

Grace Ibingira, was made the head of the committee that designed the national flag, because he was an artist.

Ocen Moses via UAH

HE TOLD HIM. DIDN’T HE?

Venue: Nairobi Peace talks, 1985
Mediator: Daniel Arap Moi
Olara Otunnu(OO): ‘Hello Mr.Yoweri Museveni’

Yoweri Museveni ignored him, and instead pointed his finger at OO:”You young man, you are the one misleading the old man.We shall see”

The old man Museveni was referring to here was Gen. Tito Okello-Lutwa, and Olara Otunnu was then minister of Foreign Affairs, a position that left a sour note among some UPC members. Few months later, Museveni became the president and OO was on his bike to exile.

OO makes a promising come back to Uganda in 2010 with a CV Museveni could only dream of. He becomes the UPC president the same year, then the Kampala crafty boys get to work and made one ‘proposal’ after the other that supposedly drained all his money. He became financially strained,all the talk of him having been roommates with Tony Blair at Oxford University didn’t help, he went on a war path with the Obote family over who controls what; then Museveni seizes an opportunity and releases his ‘dogs’ on him, bite him harder, and guess what? Now UPC is in Akena James’s hands, or one could arguably say ‘Museveni’s soft hands’.

He told him, didn’t he? That he will see, and I guess OO has seen it all now!

Uncovering some of the hormones between Otunnu and Museveni!

olara Otunnu

Venue: Nairobi Peace talks, 1985
Mediator: Daniel Arap Moi
Olara Otunnu(OO): ‘Hello Mr.Yoweri Museveni’
Yoweri Museveni ignored him, and instead pointed his finger at OO:”You young man, you are the one misleading the old man.We shall see”

The old man Museveni was referring to here was Gen. Tito Okello-Lutwa, and Olara Otunnu was then minister of Foreign Affairs, a position that left a sour note among some UPC members. Few months later, Museveni became the president and OO was on his bike to exile.

OO makes a promising come back to Uganda in 2010 with a CV Museveni could only dream of. He becomes the UPC president the same year, then the Kampala crafty boys get to work and made one ‘proposal’ after the other that supposedly drained all his money. He became financially strained,all the talk of him having been roommates with Tony Blair at Oxford University didn’t help, he went on a war path with the Obote family over who controls what; then Museveni seizes an opportunity and releases his ‘dogs’ on him, bite him harder, and guess what? Now UPC is in Akena James’s hands, or one could arguably say ‘Museveni’s soft hands’.

He told him, didn’t he? That he will see, and I guess OO has seen it all now!

Imagine someone seeking your help at a gun point?

I think this sums up the character of the 1979 Liberators. They weren’t any different from the 1986 liberators. They looted as much as possible after the fall of Idi Amin, but this is deep:

I hated Museveni, but he saved my life – Rwakasisi

In 1979 , after the fall of Idi Amin, Chris Rwakasisi went to visit Sam Njuba’s at his legal chambers to seek legal assistance. Apparently, he was dressed in an army uniform carrying an AK 47 Riffle. He wanted Njuba to ” pressurise Gordon Wavamuno to surrender the Merecedez Benz franchise of which he claimed to own”.

Imagine someone seeking your help at a gun point?

”In the 1960s Chris Rwakasisi rose through the UPC ranks to become the party’s youth organizer at the headquarters. In 1963, he got a scholarship to study in Russia, graduating in 1968 and later getting a job at the National Trading Corporation, as the the company’s legal secretary and public relations officer.

After the 1971 coup Rwakasisi was arrested and held in Makindye military barracks for six months and when he was released he went into private business. In 1972 he fled to exile in Nairobi until 1979 when he returned as one of the liberators under the UNLF.

After the 1980 elections Rwakasisi was appoimnted the Minister of Security under the second UPC regime, serving in that capacity from 1980 to 1985. After the Okello coup of 1985, Rwakasisi was arrested and later in 1988 convicted for kidnap with intent to murder and sentenced to death.

In 2009 he was pardoned by President Museveni and released from Luzira maximum prison, where he had spent twenty years.

He is currently a Presidential Advisor.”

MUWANGA WAS ONE OF UGANDA’S FORMER PRESIDENTS BUT HE NEVER GETS A NOD IN?

Friends,

Paulo Muwanga(c. 1921 – 1 April 1991) President 12–22 May

I’ve always wondered why Paulo Muwanga is rarely listed as one of Uganda’s former presidents, yet he run the country longer than President Yusuf Lule. He was occupying the president’s office and making executive decisions for the country, after the removal of Godfrey Binaisa. The ‘Presidential Commission,.’ headed by Saulo Musoke,didn’t have powers at all. Muwanga was the man for the show. Whoever got arrested for political reasons had to run to the president’s office occupied by Muwanga to get a sniff of freedom. That’s how Njuba also got released the third time he was arrested, because the DP elders had abandoned him. The difference between Muwanga and Lule is that the former(Muwanga) knew that he was temporarily warming up the chair for Obote who was still in a self imposed exile in Tanzania, and this is the reason why Obote felt confident to clandestinely visit Uganda a couple of times before officially ending his exile.

Kakooza Mutale was battered and put in prison while Muwanga was the president. According to Sam Njuba in his book, the ‘Betrayal’, he was tortured badly such that his wife had to visit him everyday in prison to attend to his wounds. Sam Njuba was in the same prison at the same time with Kakoza Mutale.

Sam Njuba further states that Museveni was powerless as vice chairman of the six-man Military Commission. He was apparently in prison with FRONASA guys, and they also used to get whipped and killed almost every week, but Yoweri Museveni wasn’t in position to help them.

Sam Njuba also stated that the British had identified Oyite Ojok as Obote’s successor in case he was rejected again. That they never envisaged Museveni taking over because he wasn’t popular anywhere in Uganda.

Hitler and Stalin were two sides of the same coin!

Here we go again with silly “……I am willing to go to hell and ally with the devil to defeat the extremism and intolerance of the radical faction of FDC.” This statement, once again, refers to an enlightened intelligentsia who presumably read and still think for themselves, but when you look deep into it, it sounds like someone who wanted to find a way of letting the world know that he’s now officially working for a certain ‘devil’. A worse case allegory would be ‘I don’t give a damn about the FDC radicals as long as I somehow get paid’.

Unfortunately, high-profile historical personalities (such as Hitler, Churchill, Stalin,e.t.c) are easy targets for PR people and there is much around on which to base solid arguments without rambling on about ‘FDC’. By the way, I had promised myself not to respond to anything ‘MWENDA’ but for him to ally himself publically with the really revolutionary ‘revolutionaries’ in Uganda might not have been such a wise political move.There is no such thing as “worse” dictator. Any and all of them represent evil in the same measure regardless of how many crimes they committed.

Hitler only gets the worst rap in the history curriculum because Stalin indirectly aided the allied forces in overthrowing Nazi Germany. If it was the other way around the same would be said for Stalin who killed millions more of his own people and the Ukrainian famine instigated by Stalin killed over 7 million people alone.See Timothy Snyder’s “Bloodland” and study the section on Stalin’s starvation of Ukraine. To ringfence whole towns in order to let the inhabitants starve to death is fairly equal to a death camp in my mind.

Hitler and Stalin were two sides of the same coin.All too easily did we forget these two men were allies complicit to a joint crime before their greedy scuffle years after they got started. Stalin was the first to join the Nazi Germany in fight in September 1939 attacking Poland and having a combined German Soviet victory parade.Stalin was invading left and right, took the Baltic states in a pact with Hitler, Eastern-Poland and Moldova too.

Therefore, there is no point in trying to put a human face on Stalin( Mwenda’s ally). Hitler is considered pure evil and so should be Stalin. If you just add up body count, he was far worse than Hitler. Of course, using the same measure, Mao is the champion homicidal maniac of the 20th century.

What I don’t understand is how anybody would equate ‘extremists’ or ‘radicals’ in the FDC to Hitler unless something has totally gone haywire. Anyway,the history is written by winners. Now, there’s one supposedly calling himself a ‘Churchill’ in the above mentioned allegory. But then again, most of the problems we are having around the world today are in former British colonies or territories, Israel, Iraq Syria, Afghanistan, China, Egypt, India, most of Africa, now America, and the UN have to clean up their mess,…… but Churchill had a say in the whole process.

We all try to read the future when we make our political decisions. Amazingly, we usually get it wrong. I onetime looked at Museveni as the Messiah of Uganda but he changed to a ‘devil’ or ‘Stalin'(to borrow from one of his supporters). Now, what if the people you are calling ‘radicals'(opposing your ‘Stalin’) today end up being in power tomorrow, what do you do?

Gold allegation scandal by Daudi Ochienge was “kiwanyi”

Bob Astles

Friends,
I’m reading Bob Astles’ book and it looks like Daudi Ochieng got it wrong on both Obote and Amin when in 1965 and later on February 4th 1966, he accused them of helping themselves to gold and ivory from Congo.

This is Bob Astles account of the ‘gold allegation’ scandal. In his book, he says that the money Amin banked belonged to the Congolese rebels whom he was officially working for, and it was meant to buy them radios.It was probably just in the same spirit money has seemingly exchanged hands every time Museveni has helped out in Rwanda(1994), Sudan, Somalia and DRC!

He further explains that Daudi Ochieng just wanted to use Amin as a proxy to bring down Obote to further his leadership ambitions. He contends that Ochieng onetime confided in him that he was gonna become PM one day whether Obote liked it or not, but unfortunately he never put KANKYA(cancer) in the equation!

May be, and this a strong MAY BE,…….One needs to be closer to a situation, like being in govt, to know exactly what’s happening. There’s a possibility that a lot of decisions leaders make, or things happen, and the public never gets the true picture simply because somethings aren’t meant for public consumption!

It looks like one needs to get all the facts right before one starts throwing accusations around. The thing is I don’t find it well read or literate to make a glaring misinterpretation of facts. That’s why I will never be part of those that accuse JPAM of being corrupt when Museveni himself cleared him publicly! Interestingly, those (NRMs) that continue to bring up all his past aren’t angels themselves. It’s bad form to expect more from other people than you are willing to do yourself.

BTW, I’m looking for testimonials from actually people who knew something about Bob Astles who surprisingly had a low opinion of Idi Amin. He thought Amin was mentally Ill and vengeful! He also clearly admired Obote as a leader and person, and he hated the Baganda for frustrating the later.

One thing is for sure, there is some heavy handed stuff in his book that runs counter to what the traditional books have told us.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

HISTORY MYSTERY:Have a history teacher explain this if they can but I can’t.

HISTORY MYSTERY -Interesting historical coincidences & really creepy. Have a history teacher explain this if they can but I can’t.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy’s Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theatre named ‘Ford’.
Kennedy was shot in a car called ‘ Lincoln ‘ made by ‘Ford’.

Lincoln was shot in a theatre and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theatre.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

LULE WAS A REAL PROFESSOR

Lule had his own faults( for example, changing his religion) but he was admirably an intelligent man. I don’t know if any of his sons took after him because I don’t know them very well. I have only spoken to Dr.Ntwatwa a few times and I never got a chance to chart with Wasswa Lule when he attended my undergraduate party in Uganda.

Anyway, according to Professor Ali Mazrui, Y.K. Lule acquired the title of “Professor” when he was elected to head the Association of African Universities with its headquarters in Accra, Ghana, after his Makerere years. Let us also remember that Late Lule already had 2 degrees in something I have forgotten. He did his masters degree from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland).

Prof.Mazrui also explained why Obote was afraid of the return of Mutesa’s 1’s body by saying that he(Obote) was afraid that the return of Mutesa’s body to Uganda would provoke another Baganda intifadah like that of 1966.

Lule would have made Ugandans very proud as the president of Uganda if UNLF, the Musevenis and Nyerere Julius had given him a chance. The world never gave him a chance. It was also unfortunate that he died before NRM had taken over power because he would have played a crucial role in the Museveni government. He was the first chairman of NRM and he had very good ideas. He was the one that partly influenced people like late Dr.Sulaiman Kiggundu into the NRM. A lot of Baganda respected him.

As for Obote and being called a ‘DR’, he was a ”Dr” without any degree or any piece of research or anything like that. By the way, even the Liverpool FC captain is supposed to be called Dr.Gerald after getting one of those like Obote, but he never uses it. Oh, even Museveni is now called Dr. Museveni after getting ‘OBOTE’ honours recently from the Law Development Centre. I’m not sure if he uses the tittle. Hon. Sarah Kagingog can clarify on this one!

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

PERFECT BOSS:Ex president of India Dr. Abdul Kalam, inpite of all his achievements was an extremely humble person

Ex president of India Dr. Abdul Kalam

PERFECT BOSS:Ex president of India Dr. Abdul Kalam, inpite of all his achievements was an extremely humble person.There were about 70 scientists working on a very hectic project. All of them were really frustrated due to the pressure of work and the demands of their boss but everyone was loyal to him and did not think of quitting their job.

One day, one scientist came to his boss and told him, “Sir, I have promised my children that I will take them to the exhibition going on in our township so I want to leave the office at 5:30 pm.”

His boss replied, “OK, You’re permitted to leave the office early today.”

The Scientist started working. He continued his work after lunch. As usual, he got involved to such an extent that he looked at his watch only when he felt he was close to completion. The time was 8.30 PM.

Suddenly he remembered the promise he had made to his children.

He looked for his boss but he was not there. Having told him in the morning himself, he closed everything and left for home. Deep within himself, he was feeling guilty for having disappointed his children. He reached home. The children were not there.

His wife alone was sitting in the hall and reading magazines. The situation was explosive; any talk would boomerang on him. His wife asked him, “Would you like to have coffee or shall I straight away serve dinner if you are hungry?”

The man replied, “If you would like to have coffee, I too will have but what about the children?”

Hi wife replied, “You don’t know? Your boss came here at 5.15 PM and has taken the children to the exhibition.”

What had really happened was … The boss who granted him permission was observing him working seriously at 5.00 PM. He thought to himself, this person will not leave the work, but if he has promised his children they should enjoy the visit to exhibition. So he took the lead in taking them to exhibition.

The boss does not have to do it every time. But once it is done, loyalty is established. That is why all the scientists at Thumba continued to work under their boss even though the stress was tremendous.

By the way, can you hazard a guess as to who the boss was?

He was none other than the mastermind behind India’s successful nuclear weapons and missiles program – Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President of India. A Muslim by religion and one of the fathers of India

Wafula and Charles Onyango deserved medals In Rukungiri

Friends,

 There’s no journalist I respect as much as HonWafula Oguttu. He and Charles Onyango Obbo are probably the best journalists Uganda has ever produced. I’m surprised they missed out on the medals at Rukingiri (Independence Day) yet the Mozambique president got one. Rumor has it that they risked their lives to do their job at some point when they started sneaking into the bedrooms of presidents and m…inisters. They could listen, listen and listen to the big men and women ‘singing’ in different languages whole night, record conversations, and then thereafter sneak back into their own bedrooms at 4 am in the morning, write articles the following day with statements such as: ‘a fly on the wall told me……’. I understand they have kept such videos somewhere safe as insurance policies in case anything is to happen to them. Yes, both are still alive, rich, successful, well connected and bouncing! You would also be glad to know that they never stole anybody’s teddy bear while doing these covert operations.A quick read of the life of Wafula Ogutu makes it clear that he was born into poverty, but with determination, he is now a member of parliament(Bugiri), having shares in the Daily Monitor and owning lots of legit businesses.

The brilliance of Charles too took him as far as recently in Somalia, and that is where he came up with that famous article that squeezed Museveni’s head on the wall. This is the age of information warfare, and details of how the UPDF was faring in Somalia rubbed the president’s feathers a little bit. I thought about Charles’s beard, the single most important asset he has and how he probably disguised himself to look like a proper ‘al-shabab’ in Somalia to get us all the facts needed.

I’m still wondering why the president decided to surround himself with journalists: Tamare Mirundi and Kakooza Mutale, instead of the famous Waf and Charles. What Tamare sometimes pours out can send anybody to sleep. Yes, it’s understandable why Kakoza Mutale is doing what he’s doing…..Obote’s men messed him up upstairs in the 1980s when they beat the hell out of him, but what excuse has Tamare got? This chicanery is what makes the NRM stink at the moment.

 

Abbey

‘Gladiator’ remains the best film ever. No wonder Hitler and Napoleon were obsessed with restoring the Roman Empire

Friends,
I have watched the ‘gladiator’ for the 5th time and It still remains the best film ever. The only film next to it is the ‘Braveheart’. In Gladiator they show a corrupt leader of Rome, but would it be corrupt if Maximus was the leader? That would be much better than having the lame senators running Rome. The senators of Rome make you think about the current MPs in the Uganda parliament …..with that Lunyankole headline of ‘banyampire mu parliament’ that showed them ‘sleeping at work’.

The film just confirms my point- that we wholly blame leaders yet sometimes the blame is with the people they lead. We have people now in Uganda that cheer the government in the same way the Roman mob used to cheer for their favourite gladiator in the Colosseum, but what for?. Why would you cheer anybody ‘killing’ another living thing or something? Why would that be anybody’s live entertainment? In the film, the elite of Rome are shown pacifying their peasants with gladiator fights to keep them from revolting.

I understand both Hitler and Napoleon were obsessed with restoring the Roman Empire. The first Roman Empire was a republic for 300 years then a dictatorship for the next 300 years (ever notice that Caesar and der Fuehrer are basically the same title?). Then when Rome was taken by the Germans, Constantine moved the empire to the east where it stayed until the 1500.

Hitler may have died a coward but he was an extremely intelligent man. If you read his book: Mein Kampf, he stated his beliefs and ideas for Germany’s future, which included plans to overthrow regimes of countries he perceived to be dangerous to Germany’s security or had natural resources needed to fulfil its destiny as the most powerful nation on earth. This is an agenda, unfortunately, that is being pursued in the post Hitler by most of the big nations including USA.

Hitler took advantage of the slump in the Germany economy in 1929 to sell his Nazism ideas and it worked perfectly well for him. Nazism promised the Germans economic help, political power and national glory. The farmers, middle and laboring classes were attracted to the promise of social reform. He basically provided employment to almost all Germans in some way or the other.

Hitler then began to assemble some of the people who would help him rise to power, and this included Joseph Goebbels, the chief Nazi propagandist, and others.

When you try to analyse all leaders, they take advantage of a gap in the market to get a following. In the 1980s, Museveni saw a gap in the market and sold his policies to Baganda, Banyarwanda and other groups that later helped him to become the president of Uganda. MDC’s Morgan Kyangalayi also saw this ‘gap in the market’ in Zimbabwe but Mugabe has proved to be wiser than him, and he is heading for a downfall.

Some people in Uganda have already seen a gap in the market as far as Musevenism is concerned but Mr. Museveni has proved to be a master tactician than them, and that is why he is still the president, and that is why i believe he may succeed in having his son as president at some point.

Honestly, how do you oppose a Muhoozi takeover through letter writing in a newspaper as Bidandi Ssali has been doing? It just means that your opposition to the issue is at the mercy of the person you are opposing, and that sucks a little bit.

‘Braveheart’ was based on real events, and a real person. While the movie took many liberties with what is known to have happened they were mainly to make the story appeal to more people.

Wallace was not in line to be King, but he was a leader. He was named protector of Scotland after his victory at Stirling Bridge. That was the first big battle in the movie that he won. They couldn’t figure a way to put the bridge in and make it exciting. After he lost at Falkirk and he lost power. He was captured later and executed in much the way it showed in the movie, with a few extras thrown in that would have made ‘The Passion of the Christ’ look like a kiddie flick.

I think I will write an article out of this very soon. So, please keep an eye on this blog . The ‘gladiators’ and ‘emperors’ of this century and their propagandists should be remembered in some way.”
—

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Stalk my blog at: http://semuwemba.com/

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‘”The three separate branches of government were developed as a check and balance for one another. It is within the court’s duty to ensure that power is never condense[d] into a single branch of government.” – Judge Anna Diggs Taylor

Was John Speke right to describe an African as “a creature of impulse-a grown child”?

Rehema Uganda wrote:
Here is an example of history the English taught us ! ‘ Speke discovered this source of the Nile ‘! As if it wasn’t there before he came there. Rather, it should have been that he ‘ reached ‘ this place on that particular day. Or better still he was the first white boy to set eyes on it. Kids play at this place and the govt does not really take it seriously. A lot of people die around this area because the water is not protected

The way some Ugandans on the Ugandans At Heart(UAH) forum have been arguing out their points in reference to the discovery of the source of the Nile just confirms what John Speke and other European explorers wrote about Blacks/Africans when they went back to their respective countries.

Anyway, when Speke discovered the source of the Nile in 1860s, he described an African as “a creature of impulse-a grown child”, but this is the man you would find an African praising in class and debates as much as possible. Not that we shouldn’t talk about him but I believe our teachers make it a big deal in class when it comes to these so called explorers.

But then again, you get leaders in Africa that are spending on new private jets and cars when majority of their people are still living in the same way they did in 1975 when Mungo Park explored West Africa(Gambia and Niger) and described us(Africans) as living in “small and incommodious hovels: a circular mud wall about four feet high, upon which is placed a conical roof, composed of bamboo cane, and thatched with grass, forms alike the palace of the king and the hovel of the slave”. The only thing that has changed in Mungo’s description of Africa is the fact that few Africans are now living in better houses and we have got some written languages on the continent but a lot has not changed.

Both John Speke and Mungo Park described us as people with short time horizons such that we do not look ahead at the likely future consequences of our actions, and I’m slowly getting to accept that something is fundamentally wrong with us. Honestly, how do you wish to torture, arrest, threaten,……………. someone because they started up a forum that allows Ugandans to express their views or because they criticize the govt in power? We have really got narrow minds, believe me! Such characteristic are not restricted to our leaders but the population too has got fundamental problems.

In 1860s, Anthony Trollope, the British novelist, made a tour to Caribbean Islands. When he came back, he wrote a book he called: ‘The West Indies and the Spanish Main’. In the book, he describes the characteristics of the Blacks, Whites, Chinese, Indians and Mulattos, and wrote of the Blacks that “they have no care for tomorrow, but they delight in being gaudy for today. Their crimes are those of momentary impulse”. Honestly, was he writing about anyone you know in our country?

I really hate all these books because of what they represent but the more I read Uganda newspapers, interact with Ugandans on facebook and elsewhere, and visit back home, the more I realise that Africans/ blacks have not changed that much from colonial days. Probably, John Speke and his friends were right and I hate them for nothing, I don’t know. No wonder even the Asians have started to slowly dominate us again in our own country and president Museveni is happy to praise them in his latest state of the Nation speech. Yes, he called them better investors and manufacturers than indigenous Ugandans but how much has the government done to help the indigenous investors? India does help these people to invest in other countries, by the way.

As the Basoga say: ‘TWADANKANA………………’

Abbey.K.S

Violence has always been part of mankind

Adolf Hitler

Friends,
I have come to accept that Violence has always been a problem of the human condition. Violence has always been with us such that when I watch TV, read newspapers and see the way people are killing, torturing and beating each other, I don’t get surprised anymore. Murder, torture, enslavement and similar crimes are happening all over the world. The Bukedde newspaper in Uganda has been consistent in showing all forms of violence in Uganda, and it should be applauded for this.

I have read messages showing that Idi Amin and Obote killed more Ugandans than the current leaders, which may not even be true. But even if it is true, murder becomes no less murder because it is directed against a whole tribe (as Obote did against Baganda) instead of a single person. A Fuehrer-Order, announcing the death of classifications of Jews can have no more weight in the scales of international justice than the order of a blogger or journalist who writes anti-government articles or an opposition figure such as Andrew Kayiira( RIP) who was killed in late 1980s.

USA

Violence may be of different forms and on a different scale but the violence in Africa is happening too elsewhere in the world in one way or the other. For instance, as anti-violence educator Jackson Katz documents in his film “Tough Guise,” over the past twenty years violence has come to be the defining feature of manhood in America. Violence and masculinity have become nearly synonymous.’’ What Jackson is saying is that most of the men are violent and go around pretending to be Rambo of some kind.

America itself was established by its founding fathers through violence. Oh, yeah… getting blasted with water cannons, clubbed by police thugs and chewed up by police dogs was an excellent use of violence in the effort to secure the right to vote back in the 50s and 60s.Violence has always been the American way, and it has been used to accomplish many things, like a 40 hour work week, and higher wages. It worked well for the black people too.

GERMANY

In Germany, hateful rhetoric and subsequent violence has an eerily parallel to what happened in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf is as vile as any book ever published.It was written in 1923 while he was in prison as a revolutionary agitator .The Jews were frequently referred to in “Mein Kampf” and Hitler had made plain his hated for them. In one section, Hitler wrote about how the Jews planned to “contaminate” the blood of pure Germans.

When he got into power, Hitler acted on the violent instincts in him to eliminate both the Jews and all his opponents. During World War Two the Germans put Jews and Communists in concentration camps. The USA locked also up the Japanese and their political opponents. At the end of the war there was a lot of deaths in the German camps from disease and starvation because Germany was being bombed to rubble.

Hitler and Stalin considered universal control of the educational system to be the means of achieving their own ends as well. One considered his own interests to be served by producing Nazi youth, the others interest was served by producing socialist youth.

Germany and France fought against each other several times, a reason i think the European Union was mainly started to stop the wars between the two. Germany was also 100% to blame for starting WW2. Germany started WW2 in Europe by invading Poland. Aside from the fact that, after Germany had signed the Treaty of Versailles to end World War I, which they had started by invading France (through neutral Belgium) in order to be able to attack Russia, and then violated one term of the treaty after another, and then signing the Munich Agreement, they invaded Poland. It was all done in order to fulfil Hitler’s dream of clearing the inferior race of Slaves from the eastern areas to make living space for Germans.

ARMED REVOLUTION

Some Ugandans are already calling for a revolution to get rid of NRM and president Museveni. They want to use the same means Museveni used to get rid of Obote and UPC in the 1980s, because they see no other way of getting rid of the current dictatorship, but I still believe we can do better than this. Violence never always produces good leaders for a country as has been shown now in Uganda and in history. The Luwero war was justified but did we get the deal we wanted? The answer is ‘no’.

For instance, In 1923 Germany was ripe for revolution. Adolf Hitler had 55,000 registered supporters, professional military officers (even Generals), the active support of hundreds of armed, trained, combat veterans, and public support, the like of which we could not even imagine!

On November 8, 1923, he attempted an armed revolution and failed. Think about it. If he failed in such an opportune situation which was probably better than our situation in Uganda at the moment, then why should we consider armed revolution in a country not ready for it – with no public support for violence, no known trained veterans supporting the opposition, no military officers openly calling for a revolution, and no organization within the opposition itself? Even the ‘walk to work’ never brought the government to a standstill or persuaded any of the foreign nations to help get rid of the government.

Even though in later years Adolf Hitler’s support grew and the threat of Marxist take-over increased, he never again considered armed revolution. Instead, he carefully built a solid, Folk-based movement which ultimately could not be denied power! Adolf Hitler was solution-oriented, and I think the Uganda opposition should do the same instead of resorting to violence.

I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of colour or tribe or their religious affiliation. I also believe that all human beings are military leaders in one way or the other to help them to curb down the situation when faced by violence. This does not necessarily mean that the best leaders are those with a military background but it is an essential element in leadership, I think, through some people misuse it apart from England’s Churchill.
Byebyo ebyange
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Nabakooba’s ‘’Bodaboda’’ Thighs may help us understand what beauty is.

Judith Nabakooba on a motorcycle downtown in Kampala

Dear friends,

It is well known that insecure men make fun of powerful women to hide their own feelings of insecurity. So I was not surprised at the pictures in the Redpepper newspaper showing police spokesperson, Judith Nabakooba, being ridden on a bodaboda, that raised a two-day debate on Ugandans At Heart (UAH) Forum. While I personally thought most of the male debaters were ‘crazy’ for not seeing the attraction in the smile always on her face, I saw nothing wrong in them finding her seemingly ‘big’ thighs the real point of discussion.

The fact is that a woman’s body has historically been a subject of regulation, discipline, debate and management. The woman’s body represents the place to project the memories and fantasies of racial,religious and cultural authenticity. Most African men tend to be attracted to the ‘big’ thighs and bums in women, and it is the main reason body image dissatisfaction, dieting, and disordered eating are more common in white than Black females. Racial differences exist in attitudes towards physical appearance and the stigma placed on weight gain and obesity. A black woman can be overweight but black men will still find her attractive which may not be the case with white men.

As a matter of fact, female beauty has always been so pervasive, so profoundly ambiguous such that we all interpret it differently. In her book The Character of Beauty in the Victorian Novel (1987), Lori Lefkovitz provocatively argues that ‘we have actually been trained to ignore descriptions of beauty’ (1984: 1), claims as applicable to the debates men tend to have everyday about women, such as Nabakooba legging it on a motorcycle in tight jeans. But I would argue that beauty has always been something we feel individually. Let me give you an example, I was told by some mates of mine about some beautiful girl in a place where my wife works, but I did not recognise her beauty the first time we met till when I came to appreciate her character( after some regular interactions between us). This girl may have been beautiful by default (because mum and dad are beautiful) but I only recognised her beauty after knowing her properly as a person.

This particular girl has long hair which even the Bible bases on to define beauty: ‘’If a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering’’—1 Corinthians 11:15, but I never appreciated her hair till when I started appreciating the inside of her, but then again, how do we explain the fact that some guys noticed her beauty before knowing her? Does this mean that we are different as human beings in this context?

Among the blacks, during the black Movement of 1960s and 70s, blackness was redefined such that afro centric or “naturally” Black hairstyles became associated with the authentic. As such, the only authentic Black hairstyles would be dreadlocks, afro, cane-row and plaits. However, this has changed tremendously in this century as most black women would love to look like other races. Eurocentric beauty standard of straight, long and flowing hair is now almost the dream of any black woman who visits a hair salon. They just hate the authenticity that defined them in 1960s and 70s. Even Nabakooba’s hair as she relaxingly looked on a ‘bodaboda’ (motor cycle) is not an authentic hair style. These changes have also been reflected in the way black women dress, talk, and smile or sometimes treat themselves in public. There is a semi erosion of Black/ African culture in all aspects of life.

One possible explanation about this change can be explained by Leon Festinger’s Social Comparison theory(SCT) that suggests that people compare themselves to others when they are not certain about themselves. Before slave trade, black hair styles were a reflection of cultural and spiritual meanings, and some of these historical styles are still in existence today, for example: twists, braids, Zulu knots, Nubian knots, and dreadlocks. When slave traders were transferred to other countries, they found it difficult to keep African hair styles, so they resorted to wearing head scarves or handkerchiefs atop their heads, something we still see in Afro- American ladies especially in some black American films.

SCT was also shown among black men in the 18th century where some resorted to wearing wigs just because it was fashionable for white men of the upper class to wear wigs at the time. I guess this explains why Michael Jackson (RIP) and his brothers used to wear wigs when their music band had just started up. It is something that started when blacks (slaves) got jobs in influential white homes or plantations. They adopted all sorts of white cultures in order to fit in.

Already some black women have started seeing beauty in the same way white folks do due to assimilation into mainstream culture and acceptance of mainstream culture ideals of attractiveness as thin. As a student of public health promotion, I should probably go with my brain on this one rather than emotions, by accepting that fat is causing a lot of health problems to people. May be this black evolution in definition of beauty may be a blessing in disguise as it will encourage healthy eating and also control the ageing process of our black women which wasn’t the case in the past.

I know its fashion to some people and probably most men like it, but I still think that women with big hips should not wear clothes that accentuate their girth. If you are a Muslim lady, try to ‘fashion-out’ with a ‘hijab’ as it may give you the same confidence as Nabakooba in tight jeans.

Byebyo ebyange

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Executing a dictator does not automatically bring democracy to a country, Gaddafi Should be Buried immediately

Putting Muammar Gaddafi’s ‘trophy’ body on show in Misrata meat store is so wrong at so many levels. This is so non-Islamic. Why can’t they just bury him? I cannot see any Black African treating any of their dictators like this. I cannot see any Ugandan treating a dead Museveni like this regardless of what he has done to some people. I can’t see Africans treating a dead African leader like the way Misrata NTC has treated Gaddafi, as in like, not according him burial as soon as he was killed. Gaddafi’s body is in a meat packer, on a washed out mattress and kids are taking photos of it. I cannot see a black African keeping a dead body on display for days. We fear ghosts (EMIZIMU).

It will be so sad if Gaddafi’s body remains on display for another day. He should be buried immediately. I can’t see Ugandans treating Museveni’s dead body like this because our culture does not allow us to do so. Yes, black Africans are capable of executing their leaders in the same way Doe or Gaddafi was killed but I cannot envisage a situation where Ugandans put a dead Museveni on display in Gulu town for days to become a temporary tourist attraction. If it ever happens, I will stop to publicly call myself a Ugandan.

Killing or executing a dictator does not stop other dictators from propping up unless a system is put in place that stops them from abusing the trust of the people they lead. Do people really want to tell us that Liberia has been the fountain of democracy in Africa ever since General Doe was executed by Prince Johnson in 1990? The way Gaddafi was killed is nothing compared to the way Doe was killed.

The Doe video became the best-selling in West Africa. He was stripped down to his underpants; his face was bruised and bloody. Doe asked to say something and asked for his hands to be untied but they instead cut off one of his ears. Then Johnson later chewed the ear in front of Samuel Doe. The following day, Doe’s mutilated body was paraded through the streets in a wheelbarrow.

You can watch this on YouTube if you wish at:

This guy was executed in 1990 when Museveni, Mubarak, Gaddafi, Ben Ali, Mugabe and other dictators were already presidents of their respective countries. Did this stop Museveni from becoming a dictator in Uganda? Actually, it is argued that Museveni started showing signs of dictatorship in 1990s. So, do proponents of such executions want to tell us that Museveni has never watched Doe’s execution? This is the same period Museveni abandoned his communist economic ideas and went for Obote’s economic policies because the former was not working.

Like I said, dictators usually feel the death of a fellow dictator for a few days but later things go back to normal. They don’t see themselves as in like it can easily happen to them. Current Dictators are going to mourn Brother Gaddafi for a while but this is not going to stop the dictatorship on the continent. If Africans don’t put in place systems that can create checks and balances, dictatorship will always be part of Africa.

Abbey

UPC is Falling apart as Chris Rwakasisi Unsurprisingly joins Museveni as presidential advisor

Guys,

The appointment of Chris Rwakasisi as one of Museveni’s presidential advisors should not come as a surprise to anyone but it has greater implications for UPC as a political party. Museveni has somehow succeeded in ‘finishing off’ UPC, a mission he started as soon as he got power in 1986. And if UPC make a terrible mistake and hand over the leadership of the party to Obote’s son, then they will be dead and buried because they are constant rumors in Kampala now that all Obote’s sons might have also been bought off before the elections. Jimmy Akena himself did not do himself any favours when he recently tried to punch Dr.Otunu at a press conference in Kampala.

UPC should leave the party in the hands of Dr.Otunu though he should also be watched 24/7. Otunu’s determination to seek a meeting with Museveni at some point last year made him look like a great loser. Generally speaking, UPC seems to be finished if one looks at how desperate some of their leaders have become.

But what has caused all this? UPC was a party built on tribalism and religion contrary to what some people are saying. It was a protestant led and dominated party. Its top leadership was dominated by tribes from the north. Before independence, Shaban Opolot and Iddil Amin were on top of things in the army with the later deputising. The army was dominated by northerners throughout Obote’s leadership, and he never made any attempts to change what the British had started when he became the prime minister in 1962.

After the attempts on his life in 1969 at Nakivubo, Obote replaced Iddil Amin with an Acholi in Brigadier Okoya. After the murder of Okoya, some of Amin’s responsibilities were given again to two northerners (both Kakwas though fellow Muslims).

The Oyite Ojoks, Tito Okello, Bazilio Okello, e.t.c formed the nucleus of the army during Obote 2. The Obote 2 government fell mainly because of the rivalry between Acholis and Langis. The current UPC is falling before us because of the same rivalry. Apart from the fact that Rwakasisi owes his life now to president Museveni who gave him a presidential pardon after being in prison with a death sentence hanging over his head, the Rwakasisis no longer feel like they could be part of this anymore and Museveni has taken advantage of this. Anyway, Rwakasisi is an old man and he wants to make a few bucks for his family before he meets his creator. I’m sure the book is reportedly writing is going to make Museveni look like a Uganda ‘messiah’. May be he would have gone back to UPC if the Langis and Acholis had put their houses in order.

Rwakasisi knows that Museveni is using him. Moses Ali was appointed to Museveni cabinet in 1986 as Minister of Tourism despite looking like ‘Iddil Amin’ in so many ways. Museveni kept him for some years, used him, dumped him for a while and now he has brought him back. Rwakasisisi will go through the same drain, if he is lucky, till when he meets his creator.

The domination of northerners in UPC is unfortunately very true and the British were partly to blame. The British formulated the new Uganda in 1962 along two bases of power- economic and military. Economic power was concentrated in the south while the military was left in the hands of northerners. The Baganda, particularly, were more involved in a lot of economic adventures with the help of the British before any other region in the country. For instance, they were the first to start growing coffee in the 1920s before any region in the country.

When Obote came to power, he continued with this divide between the north and south instead of changing it. When you look at UPC of 1960s, it was mainly dominated by northerners and Protestants. Don’t be deceived by the names of some people from other tribes who were recruited in the party (especially from DP between 1964 and 1970) but the real people with power were northerners. They were running the show and they were the one that brought it to an end in 1985 because of  infighting amongst themselves.

Iddil Amin( a former UPC) tried to sort out this division or imbalance between the south and north but the world either never gave him a chance or he did not also help himself in the long run. For instance, when he expelled the Asians, most of the northerners benefited from it and somehow became so rich. But Amin also never recruited a lot of southerners in the army which I think helped people like Museveni to find a way of forming an army dominated by southerners too.

Amin did some things to bridge the gap between the north and south. I don’t know whether some of the things were intentional or not. He summoned an inter-religious conference to establish a dialogue between catholic, protestant and Muslim leaders. I think this conference was held in Kabale. He even claimed two of his own sons were to be trained as catholic priests though it never happened.

He released Ben Kiwanuka from the detention Obote had put him in earlieron, something which kind of brought both the Bganda and catholics closer to the northerners. He actually later appointed Ben as chief justice.

He brought the body of Sir Edward Mutesa who had died in exile in London, for a state funeral. This made an impression on southerners especially the Baganda.

He united Muslims and also initially tried to empower the Kakwas economically, something that created some form of balance economically between the north and south. The Kakwas, however, later tried to bring down their own tribes mate in March 1974 in the abortive coup attempt by Amins’ chief of staff, late Brigadier Charles Arube.

Political parties in Uganda tend to be directly linked to the army. That is why im not even mentioning the real organs of the UPC party. From 1966, Uganda politics have been shaped by the military and it has remained so up to now.

One of the factors that may help UPC to survive the current onslaught by its enemies will be the big recruitment of membership from other tribes, particularly from the south, into responsible positions in the party. To be fair to Otunu, I think he is exactly doing that. If he can find a way of sustaining this, then UPC’s image will change forever. Any party that wants to remain popular in Uganda must have a support base in the south of Uganda because the north has always been less populated and it is likely to remain so.

So UPC members should give Otunu a chance; help to guide him instead of fighting him, and then assess his performance at the end of his term. The Langis and Acholis should also stop looking at UPC as their party, and just let the party change itself for the better depending on the demands in the country.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Ignatius Kangave Musazi and his ANC wing had nothing to do with Obote’s UPC

Ignatius Kangave Musazi

Uganda People Congress (UPC) and Uganda National Congress (UNC) are different. Just because UPC came out of the original UNC, it doesn’t make it the same. It is like saying that FDC is the same as NRM which is not true. Or it is like saying that SDP is the same as DP which is also not true, at least officially. Obote was a snake at night and a friendly cat during the day as far as politics is concerned. He was one’s friend during the day but he could ‘bite’ his friends at night whenever he saw an opportunity to promote himself. In other words, he was an animal in politics. He broke Ignatius Musaazi’s jaw as UNC later disappeared off the map of Uganda. He also later broke Kabaka Yeka(KY)’s jaws as KY also later disappeared off Uganda’s political map.

Obote at the last independence celebrations he ever attended in Uganda. Entebbe Airport 1984

 

In 1959, the UNC split into two factions.  UPC was formed in March 1960 by merging Obote’s antibuganda wing of the Uganda National Congress (UNC) with the anti-Buganda party of Uganda People’s Union (UPU). UPU was led by Cuthbert Obwango at the time of the merger. Musazi’s ANC never had anything to do with UPC.

UPC was specifically an anti-Buganda party right from its inception  and this was to remain throughout its history .It was also originally an  anti-Catholic coalition, dominated by a Protestant leadership as well as  based on Protestant associations .

All political parties have been created in Buganda including UPC but it does not make them friends of Buganda. NRM, for instance, was created in Buganda but they are not friends with Buganda anymore as it’s seeking to weaken it. DP was also formed in Buganda but they were not friends of Buganda in 1960s though things have changed a little bit recently. The rest of the current political parties have all been formed and launched in Buganda but it means nothing, brother.

Anyway, the politics of Uganda at independence, like now, was unabashedly sectarian: DP was mainly for Catholics, UPC mainly for Protestants outside Buganda, and KY for Protestants in Buganda. That’s why it was easy for UPC and KY to form that short lived alliance.

DP, on the other hand, under Ben Kiwanuka was looked at as enemies of KY as Uganda’s ARGUS reported a demonstration that was held on Sunday, 10 June 1961, against Kiwanuka’s DP. Kiwanuka was a catholic who had opposed the protestant establishment (Buganda kingdom).

NRM’s 10-point Program was supposed to address the religious and tribal imbalances in the country especially when they quoted the religious sectarianism and the ‘ unprincipled struggle for jobs’ in Ankole in their 10 point program, but things have been more or less remained the same since Museveni came to power.  If they were different, we would not be mourning over westerners dominating everything in public service right now.

So, the same game continues: the Muslims in Uganda continue to be marginalized. So are other tribes at the expense of those tribes in power. The ‘cowards’ like us are working from abroad because we could not fit in Uganda’s ‘survival’ game. We feel more secure abroad than in our country of origin.

Byebyo banange

 Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Current Justice Minister,Otafiire, Should release the contents of the CIVHR report

Dear Ugandans,
A lot of atrocities have been committed against Ugandans since independence and this subject is dominating almost all debates among Ugandans on a daily basis. The real problem is that we have never had a real truth and reconciliation commission to help put certain questions to bed. More so, it would have helped if the current Uganda government had released the findings of the Commission of Inquiry into Violations of Human Rights perpetrated from 1961 until 1986. The Commission’s role was to inquire into “the causes and circumstances” surrounding mass murders, arbitrary arrests, the role of law enforcement agents and the state security agencies, and discrimination which occurred during that time.

Justice Arthur Haggai Okelo Oder.

The commission was chaired by Justice Oder and it was also supposed to suggest various ways in which we were to make sure that such human rights violations did not happen again in our country. Nevertheless, going by what has happened so far since 1986, it looks we shall need another commission for the period NRM have been in power. Apart from Oder, the other five commissioners were: John Nagenda(NRM),Dr. Edward Khiddu-Makubuya (now NRM),Dr. Jack Luyombya(NRM and he was in the bush with M7),John Kawanga( Neutral but I guess he is now NRM),Joan Kakwenzire( Women advocate and historian). I think the current Vice president, Edward Ssekandi, was also part of the commission.

Dr. Makubuya was not affiliated with any political party in 1986. He valued his Yale academic credentials so much then that he did not feel the need to join anything that might taint his good name. Remember, he had got a 1st class degree in Law at MUK before he went to Yale on a scholarship. He was just lecturing at MUK at that time, but he later joined the NRM after the findings of the commission. Mukubuya also later became the Minister of Education and Sport in Museveni government. I don’t know what he is up to now since the cabinet reshuffles this year.

Others like Naggenda John and Luyombya were later given heroes medals by the Museveni government. John Nagenda and Joan Kakwenzire later also became one of the many of Museveni’s special advisors (‘’NKUSIBIDE AWO KASITA NKUSASULA’’ meaning ‘’I have tied you there, after all, I pay you’’). Naggenda has also been keeping himself busy with his regular Newvision columns but I wonder what he exactly does in terms of being productive to the nation at the moment.Oder died of cancer in 2006 and he was among those judges that agreed with Besigye that the 2006 elections had been rigged.

So, I doubt whether any of these people can help us access the contents of that report. They have all been given positions that don’t allow them to say anything bad against the govt. But the guys in the media should help us please to dig the contents of this report.

The then Minister of Justice, Mulenga, who appointed the Commission in 1986, promised that the government would not bury the findings of the Commission. So, we can still push the current minister of justice, Kahinda Otafire, to release the report to the media. Ugandans deserve to know what is in that report. I believe that the Uganda Human Rights Commission have got a copy at their offices but I wonder how the rest of Uganda can access it. I’m sure it has got a lot of revealing information that could be interesting to read, and also help us find a way forward. The Danish embassy has also got a copy because they sponsored some of the commission’s work. But it’s up to us to demand that the government releases the official copy of this commission. However, I sometimes wonder why the current Opposition MPs do not pick on these issues and raise them in parliament. Ugandans deserve to read what was put in this report.

The report was tabled in October 1994 but I’m sure it’s one of those time and resource wasting projects governments in Africa don’t take seriously. As a result, we are all in darkness about some things that happened in our country’s history. I understand that Museveni’s heart is/was not in this commission. He introduced the Amnesty Commission before the 1986 ‘’Truth and Reconciliation’’ commission had finished their job. The commission lacked both political support and adequate funding.

Some people have been asking me why Muslim leaders are not bothered with finding out the atrocities that happened to fellow Muslims in the past but this is not true. Muslims are also searching for answers just like any other Ugandan. Muslims have been kind of disorganized and divided since independence such that it has been difficult to bring them together to discuss matters of importance to their community, but they have started sorting this out slowly.

Muslims have been killed under different regimes but it is very difficult to gather all this information together to bring it into the public domain. All Uganda’s leaders, apart from Iddil Amin, have been dividing and using Muslims to achieve their own political aims, but with more organization and unity, Muslims will eventually put a stop to this nonsense.

For instance, there were some Muslims killed in Bushenyi district and president Museveni mentions this in his book (Sowing the Mustard Seed) on page 113. Museveni said that there were killed by fellow villagers who had been incited by someone whose identity was known. Museveni does not mention the name of the villager in his book though he gives this as one of the examples why Godfrey Binaisa had to be dislodged from power.

Imaam Iddi Kasozi also presented a paper at the Uganda Muslim Youth Assembly (UMYA) in 2008 and he talked about human rights and the murder of Muslims in Ankole and Arua. We saved the contents of this paper on the link below if anybody wishes to read it:

http://ugandamuslims.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/human-right-in-uganda-the-fate-of-the-1979-muslim-massacres-in-arua-and-ankole-paper-presented-at-umya-ramadhan-seminar-2008/

I wish more Muslims present this data to us such that we keep it on records instead of dying with all this knowledge. The Torch Newspaper has also been conducting weekly interviews among the Muslim elders in Uganda to help us gather information here and there. I don’t know if they have stopped doing this as I have not seen any more interviews posted to us for a while, but I reckon they were doing a good job, and they should be supported.

Byebyo ebyange

Abbey.K.Semuwemba

Who are the Nubians in Uganda? Where did they come from?

Nubians started as a colonial army in Uganda recruited in the upper Nile region(South Sudan) by Emin Pasha before they were integrated into the civilian communities in Uganda.This happened way before the Mahdist rebellion in 1882.But they later qualified as a tribe since they developed a culture,language and religion. All the original Nubians were Muslims. The Nubian language is a variant of the Arabic.OLUNUBI spoken by the Banubi in Uganda as a language is some kind of modified Arabic and all the original speakers served under Gordon, Samuel Baker and Emin Pasha.The numerals are in Arabic.

Islam was used as a determinant to recruit the tribes in the Nile region which some scholars came to call Nubinisation. Emin Pasha Himself later converted to Islam while recruiting Nubians in Sudan.The original Nubians used to be called Sudanese the moment they crossed to Uganda and were  integrated into the Uganda society as like any other immigrants. They were called ‘SUDANESE’ at that time when they entered into all sorts of agreements with Lugard.

They came as mercenaries to Uganda to fight alongside the British.Captain Fredric Lugard hired or used the Nubians in 1891 to bring the whole of Uganda under British control. They were specifically used by the British to fight the Banyoro who had resisted the British rule. Majority of them eventually settled in Buganda where they were already military barracks particularly in Bombo(Buganda) and some later integrated into the East African army called King’s African Rifles in 1901. They contributed a lot to the First World War.The first Kenyan police was composed of mostly Nubians.

Eventually, land was given to them in Bombo under the Buganda Land Law of 1908.Other Numbians were settled in different parts of the country especially the north. Those who settled in Bombo became land owners under the Buganda government.They accepted to be intergrated into the Buganda system and pay allegiance to the Kabaka of Buganda. A Nubian exheadman was appointed a Gombolora chief and they had to pay tax to the Buganda government.

In 1893 when the Baganda Muslims were dissatisfied with the British, the Sudanese or Nubians supported the former (Muslims) out of Muslim brotherhood. But the British acted swiftly to break this alliance by disarming all the Sudanese in Buganda and also deported their leader back to Sudan.

Nubians initially did not want to be part of Buganda. They wanted to be independent of Buganda yet Bombo where the majority were staying had become part of Buganda’s crown land. For instance, at one time 50 Nubians refused to pay tax to the king of Buganda and as a result 4 of their leaders were arrested. The fact was that the Nubians did not want to go back to Sudan but at the same time they wanted to be independent of Buganda. But In the end, they accepted to be part of Buganda

On that background, a Muganda who converts to Islam is not a ‘Nubian’ though Muslim Baganda lived a ‘ love – hate ’ relationship with the Banubi before the Nubian question was settled by the British. To be honest, I’m still not sure whether to call Banubi a tribe on its own because these were a mixture of different tribes. It’s like calling the BASWAHILLI or BAKYOTALA a tribe on its own. Both these groups are identified with Islam. Most of the Kakwas and Luguburas in northern Uganda who converted to Islam also came to called the Nubians. Some Nyoros were also ”Nubinised” after the Nubians helped the British to defeat the Banyoro. I think this is how some Banyoro became Muslims. As for former president, late Iddil Amin and Kakwas, they are found in both Sudan and Uganda.

Up to now I don’t know why the British colonialists settled on calling the Sudanese who migrated to Uganda, under the watchful eye of captain Lugard- Nubians, because the whole term meant a mixture of different tribes that went through a certain procedure to become abanubi as I explained earlier on. Again, how can we compare the Nubians in Uganda with the true Nubians of Upper Egypt, northern Sudan and the people residing in Nuba Hills in Sudan.

The original Nubians and their true ancestors may all be dead. What we have got now in Uganda is ‘diluted Banubi’ following the Nubian culture, religion (Islam) and dress.

I think the true or ‘concentrated’ Nubians lived in the north of Khartoum, up to the border with Egypt. While Nubian males here spoke Nubian languages at home, they tended to have a strong command of Arabic since they came from communities in which economically motivated migration to Egypt, and later to Khartoum and other Sudanese towns. Most of the tribes in northern Sudan(Darfurians, Nubians, Beja and Beni Amer) are all Muslims: the majority of Nuba are Muslims though their predecessors were Christians. The last Christian king of Nubia came to the throne early in the fourteenth century and was succeeded by a series of Moslem puppet kings imposed by the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt. They (Christian Nubians) used to put black crosses on their foreheads. Nubian king Silko was the first Christian king.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

http://ugandansatheart.org/
http://twitter.com/#!/semuwemba
http://jjanguonkwekule.blogspot.com/
https://semuwemba.wordpress.com/

NRM’s 10 point program and UPC’s Common Man’s Charter were Just Political Propaganda

Dear friends,

I recently had an online debate with Mrs. Nina Mbabazi Rukikaire, who also happens to be the NRM secretary General’s daughter, where she said that her political life has been influenced by both the NRM 10 point Program and the UPC’s Common Man’s Charter(CMC). I asked her to explain this and she came up with a lot of emotional explanations which had nothing to do practically with the two documents in question. So. I felt I should alert other Ugandans who may fall into the same trap and let them know that the two documents were just political propaganda than anything else. Propaganda simply means the systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause. It doesn’t have to be lies. Actually, the best propaganda is indeed true, but it is up to us to question its applicability in a situation such as Uganda.

Propagandists employ tactics that dehumanize those who support the opposing viewpoint through suggestion or false accusations. They influence public perception by disseminating negative and false information. For instance, Obote’s CMC wrongly portrayed most of the existing systems in the 1962 constitution as ‘inapplicable’ in Uganda. The document was more, for instance, against issues such as: kings, hereditary leadership, federalism or anything of that sort. For me, this kind of stereotyping by Obote and his CMS was not something that would have a lasting foundation in Uganda. Stereotyping is normally used by propagandists to arouse prejudices by labeling the object of the propaganda campaign as something the target audience fears, hates, or finds undesirable, and this is what late Obote and UPC were doing. This is what NRM is tactically doing now by starting a debate on cultural institutions in the country by presenting documents such as the traditional leaders Bill that are meant to humiliate cultural leaders and eventually lead to the abolishion of kingdoms. This means that even if that bill had not gone through, president Museveni’s propaganda against Kabakaship or traditional institutions had already been germinated, and it will not go away as long as he is in power.

I also noticed that Mrs.Nina Rukikairwe, herself, is feeding on old UPC propaganda through old guards such as Mathew Rukiikaire, as if UPC had all the out understanding of Uganda’s problems. The fact is that neither CMC nor the NRM documents were a ‘bible’ of truth on what direction the country is supposed to take. Uganda needs a new leaf from both these parties that seem to be identical twins in one way or ther other.For instance, Andrew Mwenda recently told us, while on capital fm, that Rwakasisi and Museveni used to work together and have been great friends for a long time.Rwakasisi, on other hand, was Obote’s right hand man throughout his leadership. Andrew Mwenda himself is a great admirer of Obote and UPC but also ‘loves’ Museveni in his own way.Nowonder UPC ‘old guards’ are now dominating Museveni’s cabinet than even the NRM historicals.

Propaganda can absolutely promulgate a democratic doctrine? The difference between political doctrine and propaganda is more like the one between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In most cases, doctrines have been tested elsewhere unlike propaganda. Doctrine is more like regular food on a menu but propaganda is more like a ‘food special’. For instance, ‘Cultural diversity’ is a political propaganda term stolen from theorists of anthropology in the 1970’s. It is effective only to the degree that cultures are not diverse but simply have different appearances and rituals for the same values. It is something that became popular in American during President Johnson’s administration as he made attempts to change parts of American values and encourage more integration.

Nonetheless;Let us also try to find distinctions between the Common Man’s Charter (CMC) and Museveni’s 10 point programme. I’m not a Museveni sympathiser but sometimes I’m forced to defend his paper policies when someone starts ‘sugar-coating’ Obote’s failures or when one starts confusing others by saying that they were influenced by the two documents. Ok, let us see what we know so far about these two political propaganda documents:

Obote’s first administration started off as market-oriented and pluralistic. Then in 1966 Obote changed for the worse as we all know by now. The Common Man Charter(CMC) was a step influenced by what was happening in Tanzania at the time. So basically Obote moved to the left in 1969 and the CMC was adopted by UPC at their delegates conference in the same year.Nyerere had a hand in most of Obote’s changes in Uganda from the 1960s till when his death.

On the other hand, Yoweri Museveni started on the left ideologically. In the 1970s he was virtually a Marxist-Leninist. People like Robert Mugabe were radicalised by armed struggle. Yoweri Museveni was de-radicalised by armed struggle. Robert Mugabe became more and more of a socialist in the heat of the liberation war. Yoweri Museveni became less and less of a socialist in the tensions of armed struggle against the Obote regime.

The CMC buried Obote 1 because it was a threat to both the British and USA interests in the region. The British had about 80 companies in Uganda that faced the threat of nationalisation. On May 1, 1970 President Obote announced that the state would take over foreign enterprises in the famous Nakivubo Pronouncements.So the British through the Isrealis hatched a plan from South Sudan to get rid of socialist Obote. The USA also looked at the relationship Obote had with Nyerere as a threat to their capitalist interests in the region.

On the other hand, the 10 point programme had the blessing of most of the international community. Austria is where the 10 point programme was galvanised from and the movement held a lot of meetings there in 1985. That’s why the International Institute for Peace (IIP) president, Erwin Lanc, Austria’s former internal and foreign affairs minister and his wife, Christianne, were invited to attend the 15th Heroes Day celebrations at Ssembwe-Nyimbwa, Luweero.

The CMC was bound to fail from the beginning because, according to prof Ali Mazrui, the state had entered the market place of enterprise and pushed away the real entrepreneurs. It felt the role of government was to actively control and own business. They felt an equitable and just environment can only be created by government owning and interfering with business. The Government then simply rewarded supporters and chased away political opponents. A bedrock of nepotism and corruption and mismanagement was born. The companies were run down.

In addition, the CMC was introduced to make everyone relatively with money into their pockets to curb down on ‘kondoism’ or thuggery which was going at the time. Instead it just increased ‘kondoism’ as the rich kept being scared of the people. So it was a total failure. Let us also remember that Obote’s CMC was not pure socialism as that of Nyerere. So it was a bit of a confusing document with intentions which only UPC can expain.

On the other hand, the 10 point programme had the support of the masses in Uganda mainly in the south of the country. Museveni’s point No.5 for an independent, integrated and self-sustaining economy, for which he is still fighting for, was and is a better attractive option for Ugandans than the so called CMC.Museveni has now supplemented this with the recently announced 5 year economic plan.

In addition, despite the fact that Museveni has not done much to get Ugandans out of poverty, his 10 point programme is even still popular among the opposition. For instance, DP former president, Sebana Kizito, was on record saying that DP will take up NRM’s 10-point programme and polish it in preparation for the 2011 general elections.Im actually wondering if Norbert Mao is running his campaigns and manifesto basing mostly on NRM’s 10 point program. May be that is why some people are suspecting him of being an NRM ‘mole’ in DP.

As far as I know, if president Museveni had genuinely implemented his 10 point program, then Uganda would have been on a totally different level. He just used the document as propaganda to make Obote unpopular in 1980s and subsequently help himself to an easy way to power. Museveni’s propaganda was sold to both Ugandans and the international community and it worked. There was nothing really serious in it. Time will come when somebody else will also come up with better propaganda than Museveni , and the population will be inspired to throw NRM out for good.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
UK

Political Murders And Commissions of Inquiry

Political murders happen all over the world, including Uganda, and in most cases such decisions are made by a few high profile people in the government. Obviously, those of the NRM cadre will keep telling you otherwise. Compared to Uganda, Kenya has got more stable military institutions such that even the murders of Tom Mboya in 1969 and J. M. Kariuki in 1975 did not lead to political instability.

Kenya’s political stability rests on several things: a balance within the military system, on the centralization of power within the state structure and on the neutralization of potential organized opposition. The way Kenyatta set up Kenya after independence has contributed to its long-term stability. Moi weakened the government institutions but Kibaki strengthened the principle of respect for institutions–despite his problems with corruption. If he had not done this, probably the Kikuyu and Luo would have fought each other indefinitely after the recently disputed presidential elections.

On the other hand, in Uganda, just losing a UPDF General has got a lot of tongues wagging. If a person like Salim Saleh or the president himself is murdered or assassinated it could destabilise the whole country, because of the way the UPDF is set up. Most of the institutions in Uganda are personalised around the person of president Museveni. Without him, we are in trouble!

Nevertheless, we can categorize all murders that happen between now and the 2011 elections as political murders because the NRM and Museveni have lost popularity among the wanaichi but wish to stay in power at all costs. Many Ugandans agree with Timothy Kalyegira’s version of Kazini’s death on the Uganda Record website because they have lost trust in the regime in power. That’s why we need an independent commission of inquiry to investigate into both Byran (Dr.Bukenya’s son) and Kazini’s death regardless of those who cheer brutality and murder of these NRM Generals.

Again I would like to say that all murders are about hate at some level. Even the guy who kills the cop trying to escape from a crime scene or riots- has hate in his heart. There must be a good reason why Mukyala Atim Draru decided to bat Kazini’s head to death. At what point did she decide to kill him?

As part of the murder probe, police must investigate the friends of lady Atim to see if she had premeditated thoughts to murder the General. Her mobile phone must be in police safe custody by now to establish the people she has been in contact with for the last 6 months. MTN and other communication companies can help on this one. The only problem is that the government does not set commissions of inquiry for purposes of getting to the bottom of the matter. That’s why Kazini’s family and friends should do their own investigations. Most African governments are corrupt. Anybody can murder anybody and get away with it. When governments agree to set up official investigations, they usually hope to divert public criticism of human rights abuses. They hope either that public interest will have waned by the time the inquiry is complete or, better still, that the investigation will find in the government’s favour.

For instance, in 1986, the Museveni Government set up a Commission of Inquiry headed by Joseph Mulenga, to investigate human rights violations from the country’s independence in 1962 until it seized power. Up to now, we don’t know the conclusions and recommendations of the report. Yet if they had made everything public, probably some Ugandans, like some UPC supporters, would not have continued to accuse the NRA rebels of murdering people in Luwero and blame it on the Obote two government. Mulenga later became our Attorney General in the same year. I wonder why he was given this post after heading such a sensitive inquiry.

Another example is when in June 1974, President Idi Amin Dada established a Commission of Inquiry chaired by an expatriate Pakistani judge, Justice Mohammed Saied, to look into the ‘disappearance’ of large numbers of Ugandans since his government came to power on 25 January 1971. But the report never came into public domain though the Commission concluded that the Public Safety Unit and the State Research Bureau, special security bodies set up by Amin, bore the main responsibility for the ‘disappearances’. It also criticized army officers for abuse of powers, as well as the activities of the military police and intelligence.

The bottom line here is that the current government should facilitate murder investigations into the country and reports from these inquiries should be made public. This builds public trust in the government. There is no point in the president ordering a probe into Bryan and Kazini’s death if the public never gets to see it.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

We Should All Try To Buy Dr.Kobusingye’s Book If Possible

Dear people,

I would like to thank the Monitor newspaper for agreeing to serialise Dr. Olive Kobusingye’s book, particularly after the drama we have been exposed to by Uganda Revenue Authority and Mr. Kivenjinja Kirunda as part of the reasons for holding her book. The Monitor is doing a lot of people a favour because most Ugandans I know don’t want to part with their hard earned cash to buy books. Yes, they can talk about it as in like:’ Besigye’s sister wrote a book which is giving Museveni sleepless nights’, but they never spend money on reading books. It will, however, be easy for them to part with shs.1500 daily to buy a copy of the Monitor just to read about the book chapters and other stuff in the paper. If in the process, so many people buy the Monitor and the sales shoot up, then definitely Dr. Kobusingye and other intended beneficiaries will get something out of it financially. As we all know, a newspaper cannot just serialize one’s book without any catch because writing a book is not that easy.

In the same vein, it would be good if the Luganda newspapers such as Eddobozi, Gwanga Mujje and possibly Bukedde(if it wants to prove its independence from the state), do crack a deal with Dr.Kobusingye to do what the Monitor is doing at the moment. This may be helpful to those Ugandans who cannot read and write English to also benefit from this beautiful literature.

From the few chapters I have read so far, the book offers a selected view on the Museveni of today in comparison with the one of 1980s thorough research. While this book paints a rather negative picture of the president, it does remain as a very factual source. The book is written with a lot of sarcasm opinionated in the various quotes made by president Museveni verbally and in writing. The facts I have read so far are entertainingly presented and to be honest, I just cannot stop smiling.

Let us also remember that the world has seen a lot of controversial books being banned and accepted elsewhere. In 1906 in Britain, a book titled:’’ The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion’’ caused a lot of storm as it claimed to have secret minutes of the Jewish elites planning to dominate the world. The ‘protocol’ became one of the best selling books of the century before it was overtaken by another one of a similar sort written by an American politician, David Duke, whose research was done in the same way as Dr.Kobusingye’s ,i.e. by quoting major Jewish figures and sources as Dr.Kobusingye has also done by quoting Museveni and other big people in the government. As a result, in 2000, the Jews in Russia filed a complaint in the Russian courts of law asking that the Duke’s book be declared anti-Semitic and illegal but the courts decided otherwise after one year of examination of the book.

In 1953, the Literature Commission in Georgia (USA) proposed that a book titled: ‘Southern Exposure’ and authored by Stetson Kennedy is banned because it is filled with filth. This book did a good job of exposing the ill motives of the Ku Klux Klan and racism in USA. The main citation that was picked on for its ban was a statement by one of the southern officials that:’’ “The only way we’re willing to give the niggers equality is by filling them white”. Common sense prevailed and the book was not banned such that the author is now recognised as an award winning one.

In 1999, a book about Adolf Hitler with the title: “Mein Kampf”, put the German media company, Bertelsmann, on a collusion course with its online book selling partner, Barnesandnoble.com, because they believed the book was full of hate literature. Amazon continued to sell the book despite protests in some political circles in Germany.

In 2004, I believe a teacher was banned from working in France for questioning the Jewish version of World War Two and he was later sentenced to two years in prison by a French court after he made a film contesting the official Jewish version of an alleged massacre by German forces during the war. The crime was termed a ‘thought’ crime by the media.

Up to now I cannot understand the definition of a “thought crime”.  I don’t know whether the term is a technical one. So I guess my quibble is that the French teacher was punished, not for thinking, but for expressing and distributing his thoughts in the form of film.  As a supporter of civil liberties, I have no patience for such absurd semantic quibbles.

I’m, however, surprised that the government of Uganda decided to give Dr.Kobusingye’s book free publicity by seizing it at the Entebbe airport. By the way, I remember telling a few Ugandans I interact with through online debates that several people will start writing about the years of NRM rule particularly when president Museveni is out of power, and this will bury the NRM for good, because there is a lot of evidence out there which Ugandans dread to read about. NRM will suffer more than UPC did when Obote left power, and they know it. That’s why they will do anything to make sure that they maintain the status-qou. For the meantime, let us all endeavour to buy Kobusingye’s book as we also welcome the reopening of CBS fm without any conditions.

Happy days!

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

United Kingdom

No wonder Kobusigye is smiling

Mao is the Best Gift the Opposition has ever given to Museveni’s political Career

Dear readers,

I’m one of those who rarely opens my mouth against anything I know that has been baked in Mengo because I believe ‘EBYOMUNJU TEBITOTOLWA’( in house matters should be resolved in-house’. Suubi is without a doubt a product of mengo and it’s Kabaka’s hidden stick.

Several people have been openly fighting Katikiro Walusimbi’s administration because they believe he has done nothing for Buganda and that he is working for the Museveni government, but I have been one of those who have been calming the waters down because I believe that if people start fearing that post(Katikirorism), we will end up with no kingdom at all as it happened in 1966.

Courtesy of John Nsubuga (member of UAH forum)

In 1964, S. Semakula, a member from the Saza (county) of Mawokota, was one of those hell bent on squeezing out Katikiro kintu , not knowing that he was slowly squeezing out the Buganda kingdom. Semakula kept on banging his chest about the same things some of you are doing so now in regard to the current Katikiro, Suubi and IPC, and Obote was just enjoying the movie being played in front of him waiting for his moment. Take it from me when i say that president Museveni is also just waiting for his moment as long as Baganda keep fighting each other.

The problems Kintu was facing then(in 1964) are the same problems Katikiro Walusimbi is facing now: Buganda’s worsening financial and political relations with the central government; the growing stagnation of the Ganda economy; the inefficiency of the Ganda administrative system. The first problem was majorly created by Obote who was hell bent on starving Mengo and Kabaka of funds, just as President Museveni is doing the same.

Unlike KY, Suubi has been formed after the current president of Uganda had shown his true intentions towards Buganda. KY was primarily formed to fight Ben Kiwanuka’s DP not Obote. The problems Buganda is facing now were not such a big deal at the time when KY was formed. These problems are affecting everybody in Buganda including those in DP-Mao who have made it their mission to fight Suubi and IPC in Buganda for selfish reasons. Surprisingly, they are not afraid to turn around and tell Ugandans that DP-Mao is Buganda’ s best ally which is a total lie. Which kind of ally is this who thinks that the only way Buganda can achieve its objectives is by having a divided opposition in the region?

The truth is that Mao was the best gift DP has ever given to president Museveni’s political career. We were hoping that the opposition will be united in 2011 such that president Museveni is beaten hands down in elections, and then we leave him to force himself on us, but Mao made sure that he spoils the party. So our champagne bottles have gone back to the freezers till 2016, if we are still alive by then.

The Baganda fighting Suubi now are not different from the same Baganda who were fighting KY and Katikiro Kintu in 1964. Coincidentally, the Ben Kiwanuka supporters in Buganda continued to oppose KY and Kintu’s administration till when KY buried itself some years later.  Surprisingly, some of the KY members also started fighting Katikiro Kintu yet he had openly endorsed them. So let’s hope that the current Katikro, Walusimbi, will not openly be seen fighting or supporting Suubi anymore than it is necessary, because they could both go down together if the situation is not handled properly.

So I call upon members of Suubi to stick to their objectives and aims whatever thorns are put in front of them by some DP and NRM members. Let them emulate men such as: Antoni Tamale, (a member KY and of the Ndaiga investigation committee and a Lukiko member since 1962 and secretary of the Lukiko Elected Members Organisation (LEMO)), and Hajji Busungu, who did everything possible to keep KY intact, only to be betrayed by a few people. As people in Kampala say: ‘BALEMELE KUNSONGA’. Let Suubi work with IPC and Besigye whatever DP throws at them.

If we are to go by what has been quoted by some DP members as their party’s contribution to Mengo, then i think we are in trouble, because president Museveni and NRM have done a lot for Mengo in that respect than all political parties combined. The government contributed a lot of money to Kabaka’s Mutebi’s coronation and his wedding to Nabagereka Sylivia lateron but in what spirit did they do these things. The truth is that there is nothing that much DP has ever done for Mengo. Ben Kiwanuka was once a friend of Sir Edward Mutesa as president Museveni was once a close ally of Kabaka Mutebi.

It will be interesting to see both Mao and Museveni in 2011 de-campaigning  Honourable Beti Nambooze in Mukono north elections while Besigye, Otunu, IPC and Suubi campaigning for her. I think we have started getting the picture of how things are gonna be: Mao & Museveni Vs IPC and Suubi. Obviously, newsmen are gonna have a field day in the coming elections.I can only compare this to a Liverpool manager supporting Manchester United for a tittle! I’m sure if a manager does that at Liverpool, the fans will call for his sack straightaway, but surprisingly Mao can get away with it and i wonder why.

Byebyo banange

ABBEY

Massive Industrialisation in all East African countries will reduce the dominance of Kenya

Dear people,

The remake of the East African common market or community (EAC) is the utopian dream of all good globalists / global socialists like me. “Community” is sometimes called “space” for everybody to enjoy but the EAC goal is clear: a common economic space for all people in the region, a space in which trade, capital, and people flow freely. Therefore, the EAC’s “integrated” strategy calls for a more open border for the movement of goods and people.

However, it is absurd to believe that suddenly we can create a global free trading area, a common market with, for example, Kenya, without massive changes leading to consequences that we cannot anticipate. For example, in common market countries college education is free but where is the room for this in our EAC recently reborn.

The East African Common market was started in 1917 at a pre-industrialisation stage in the region. It was also started to serve the British business interests and those of settlers in Kenya. Therefore, it came as no surprise that when joint services were established in 1945, Kenya benefited more than Uganda and Tanganyika.
Kenya benefitted in terms of :value added to their Gross Domestic Product(GDP); more employment benefits and revenue. For instance, according to the Common market & Economic Affairs Secretariat, in 1971, the East Africa Railways employed: 55% Kenyans, 33% Tanzanians and 12% Ugandans.Kenya also had a higher manufacturing base than either Uganda or Tanzania, a situation that has not changed up to day. Our system is second rate at best, we are far behind Kenya and Tanzania.

As a way of correcting this inequitable situation the British had created in the first place before independence, the colonial government established the Raisman Commission in 1960. According to Professor Brown, who was a member of the Raisman Commission, Kenya gained most from the common market, Uganda gained marginally and Tanzania broken even. Therefore, fiscal compensation to Tangayika and Uganda through the distribution tool was recommended, as one of the solutions to this inequity. Nevertheless, the fiscal compensation failed to solve this problem because the sums involved were far short of what would be needed to lead to developments of industries in the two marginalised countries(Uganda and Tanganyika), and the sums that would be considered adequate would be too great for Kenya to accept. I’m now wondering what exactly was negotiated recently by the architects of the East African community to solve this problem.

In addition, the experience of the European Union and the World Trade Organization makes it clear that a common market requires a court system, so it will be in order for us to have an East African court as soon as possible where cases of higher magnitude will be settled.

But just as in Europe, where such a Common Market led to a European political union, a hemispheric EAC will mean an eventual end of Uganda’s separate identity and national sovereignty. Much as this is good, how do we integrate ideas such as: Buganda federalism or Uganda federalism instead of dreaming that they will just go away with the East African federation? This is something the architects of the E.A.C need to think about now instead of constantly brushing it under the carpet.

We also need a thought through East Africa Constitution that can, for instance, help with guiding the election process and rigging among member countries.Elections have been rigged in Uganda in 1980,2001 and 2006 and Uganda courts admitted this but nothing really changed.We probably need an East African court that can help such things. For instance, In USA, there was “free trade” or common market between the states from 1787 through 1865, and It was the whole point of the new Constitution.

Overall, the main way the East African common market will economically benefit all the member countries is if they all undertake large scale industrialisation projects, because with appropriate distribution, this can reduce substantially the inequality that mainly led to fall of the community in 1977.If we don’t address all this economic imbalances, Kenya will continue to benefit more than others and the EAC Common market will dissolve in future and every country will return to its everyone against everyone else mentality.

Byebyo ebyange

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
United Kingdom

Obote started militarisation of politics in Uganda

 

   

  

obote and mutesa

 

Dear readers,  

   

   

I’m going to create this as the background to show you how Obote’s evils nurtured Museveni of today. I want to show you where Museveni learnt all the tactics he using in running the UPDF today.  

   

In his book African Upheavals since Independence (Westview, 1980), Grace Ibingira, ex-Minister of Justice, recalls a conversation he had with Obote at the Governor General’s Garden Party on the 12th of October: ‘as I accompanied Obote through state guests’, he writes, ‘he pointed out Karugaba to me at a distance and inquired whether I knew him. I replied I did not. He then confided that the senior British Officers were recommending him to command the Army and to retire  Opolot and Amin, who had reached the highest ranks they could reasonably attain. Obote then told me Karugaba was a Roman Catholic and as such could not be trusted and he would not accept him to head the Army’ (p. 92).  

   

Ibingira goes on to claim that the chief reason for Obote’s dismissal of Major Karugaba,which he proceeded to have carried out, was not primarily one of religion but of ethnicity, since he was a southerner and stood in the way of Amin whom Obote had chosen in his mind to be his hatchet man. This was in the face of strong advice to the contrary from the Governor General, Sir Walter Coutts, and the British Officers, Colonels Cheyne and Tillett, following charges brought against Amin of using great brutality against the Turkana tribe in the Kenya border area late in 1961.Have you ever wondered why people like Salim Saleh commit crimes but nobody punishes them but they keep being promoted in the army instead.Where did Museveni learn that from?  

  At Independence the Uganda Rifles consisted of one battalion and though it was very largely composed of northerners from the Acholi, Iteso, Lugbara, Kakwa tribes and other West Nile groups, it did not have within it many men from Lango in the north, Obote’s home area.However, Obote portrayed tribalism of the highest degree with the introduction of the para-military wing of the General Service Unit, almost wholly recruited from Lango.  

  Again Obote kept on promoting Iddil Amin Dada in the Army despite the ridiculous procedure which was being used by the British before in these promotions.Amin should not have reached where he was in the army if Obote had a good vision in the matters of military promotion.Like Lieutenants Opolot and Amin, they had risen from the ranks. To quote Major Grahame again, ‘On recruiting safaris we went for the chaps who were tough and strong and ran quicker than anyone else. It was a terrible mistake.’  

  When eventually the Kabaka’s Palace, the Lubiri, was attacked at 5.30 am on 24 May 1966, the army had established itself in an indispensable position in the politics of Obote’s UPC government in Uganda. Many university students and their families suffered, if not loss of life, certainly extreme humiliation by having their faces trodden on and their wallets stolen by the oft-times drunken soldiery. From May 1966 until the end of Obote’s Presidential rule on 25January 1971 Buganda was judged to be in ‘a state of emergency’ and was held so by the Ugandan army and the police.  

  Obote hated Baganda and the viceversa is true. This is clarified by an incident of his attempted assassination. One student of Makerere University in the names of Fred Serwada lived to tell this story. He was driving home from Entebbe airport on the night of the attempted assassination of President Obote at Lugogo Stadium on 19 December1969 when his car was stopped at the roundabout just below Mulago Hospital,Kampala. He was asked his name. An army officer in civilian clothes but carrying a revolver reacted strongly on hearing that it was a Baganda name and, on being told that the owner of this name worked in the Faculty of Agriculture at Makerere, replied that he would then have to shoot him. In fact, FredSerwanga received two bullets through the stomach and thanks to the skill and devotion of Professor McAdam, Senior Surgeon at Mulago hospital, lived totell his story. As Archbishop Luwum was to write so courageously in his letter to Amin some seven years later, the guns of the army were being used not to protect but to terrorize the people of Uganda.  

  Increasingly in Uganda, and in particular from the time of ‘The Government Proposals for a New Constitution’ of 9 June 1967, more and more powers were vested in the Head of State. Increasingly too, private or public criticism either of the Army or of the government became a dangerous matter for Uganda. Obote’s cousin, Akena Adoko, was the head of the state intelligence services and the ultimate recruiter of government agents.  

  As Professor Mazrui shown, ‘It was Milton Obote, not Idi Amin, who began the militarization of Uganda’s political system’ (Soldiers and Kinsmen, p. 139). When Obote made Amin the head of the army in 1966 he clinched the idea of an alliance between the brains of Uganda and the guns of Uganda, with the brains as the senior partner. Amin’s gun was to be manipulated by the calculating intellect of Milton Obote’ . By the late 1960s the partnership which Amin,with his shared crisis with Obote, Onama and Nekyon of gold smuggling across the Congo border in 1965/66, and with the uprooting of the Kabaka of Buganda and his Kingdom behind him—the partnership, which Amin had engaged in so energetically—was beginning to fall apart. After being so actively Obote’s man, Amin began to go his own way.  

 As a way of removing Major-General Amin temporarily from having any opportunityto participate in military action against him, Obote sent Amin to attend Nasser’s funeral and strongly suggested he should follow this up with a pilgrimage to Mecca. In his absence, Obote made new appointments in the top command of the army and air force and largely separated the latter from army control. On returning from Mecca, Amin was reported to have been placed under house arrest, but to the cheers (and some jeers) of the Makerere university students, and to the evident anger of Obote, he appeared in the seats reserved for the academic staff at the inauguration ceremony.  

  Guess who was having the last laugh? Amin and later Museveni.  

   

Abbey.K.Semuwemba