This is good—seeing Museveni’s govt giving food to Ugandans for free

This is good—seeing Museveni’s govt giving food to Ugandans for free. Well, we don’t have that here in the UK. So, Uganda should celebrate their ‘Napoleon Bonaparte’, at least for now. For all his faults Napoleon, unlike most dictators, had some respect for the rights of individuals. The Napoleonic code, written under his rule, is still the basic legal system in France.

I hope Museveni does more by providing free water to residents, at least, for 3 months. He should also let opposition leaders give out food to the people. Of Course, social distancing must always be observed. He shouldn’t dominate TVs and food distributions alone.

Throw back: Yoweri Museveni standing on the extreme right in a sweater at Ntale High school in Mbarara in 1963.

Throw back: Yoweri Museveni standing on the extreme right in a sweater at Ntale High school in Mbarara in 1963.

Throw back: Yoweri Museveni standing on the extreme right in a sweater at Ntale High school in Mbarara in 1963.

This is where his plans for presidency all started– he didn’t just jump into it, like some people I see now. He formed a debating club at the high school that had the likes of late Eria Kategeya, Mwesigwa Black and Valeriono Rwaheru. He once, reportedly, told his classmates that he’s going to be president of Uganda, but they all laughed him. They couldn’t vision a poor boy from a disjointed family becoming something as important as president.

After high school, both Eria Kategeya and Museveni joined Dar-er-salaam university where they continued sharpening their debating skills and forming revolutionary student organisations– they recruited the likes of late John Garanga(former SPLA leader in Sudan), Mulyanyamuri Ssemogerere( who ended up being an RDC under M7, and later PM of the Buganda kingdom).

I think Mwesigwa joined Nairobi university, and he also recruited the likes of late James Wapakhabulo — a figure that never trusted Museveni ‘s leadership at an early stage. Museveni had to get someone else to turn him around — It was the late Sam Kalega Njuba that literally, later convinced him to join NRM while he was lecturing in Papua New Guinea. Yes, it’s true that Wapakhabulo was at Dar es Salaam university, but he wasn’t totally sold on Museveni’s revolutionary ideas. Other people came in to convince him to join NRM, and that is a skill Museveni has maintained up to now:1.he recruits people(young and old, educated and uneducated, his enemies), and he is still recruiting; 2. if he can’t turn your head around, he sends someone else you are comfortable with, to help him.

Well, I fully admit that listening to Museveni isn’t a thrilling and pulsating experience, but I sometimes wonder how he managed to pull it all off. It’s not easy to manage big egos such as Dr.Kiiza Besigye, Gen.David Sejjusa, Dr.Sulaiman Kiggundu, Selwanga Lwanga, e.t.c, but Museveni did, at least, till after the war.

Now, the trick is to take this and make a proper plan for presidency and make Uganda a better country. Don’t just sing a few songs and then start dreaming of the presidency– it won’t work.

Life can change for anybody if it’s God’s will!

Museveni greeting his dad after becoming president of Uganda in 1986

Anybody can become great if their destiny is to become great. Success today cannot be a yardstick for generational dominance. I spent Eid Fitri with a few of my non-Muslim friends at my home.One of them mentioned something, in our conversations, that bothered me up to now- he said,’one can only succeed in opposition by working with Museveni. What’s the point of opposing someone who isn’t going anywhere soon?’. I’m sure this mate of mine is reading this now.

Museveni with his wife,Janet, in their humble life before he became president of Uganda

A lot of people are now convinced that Museveni and his clansmen will never leave power peacefully, but just because they are dominating everything, doesn’t mean that they dont have a weakness, or weaknesses, somewhere that can be exploited by the opposition to get into power. 40 years ago, Museveni and his ‘balaalo’ friends were literally unknown and insignificant, Museveni himself became a president without even a house to his name. He only owned a plot of land at Rwakiitura where his presidential mansion is now seated,but things could easily change and somebody else comes in unexpectedly. That’s how nature corrects itself- garbage out, old out, new products in, young ones in. Who knows how the political land scape of Uganda will look like in a few years’ time?

A lot of people are now convinced that Jews are God’s favourites in this world, but just because there are a significant amount of ‘Jewish winners’ in a lot of fields is a fortuitous coincidence. In 300 years, the list and percentages will be entirely different. During the Renaissance and Baroque period there were a large amount of great Italian architects and artists. Doesn’t mean much (and hasn’t panned out) over the course of 500 years.Iran is still a great nation but Israel seems stronger,but it could change.

A lot of people are now convinced that America has always been the measuring yardstick to success, but before 1776 there was no USA, and the US has only come into its own as a world power when it entered World War I. So really it’s been a possible measuring stick only since WW II. Today the US is a great nation (meaning powerful)- tomorrow, who knows?

A lot of people are now convinced that Muslims are inferior to other religious sects because of the way the media portrays Muslims,but they have already achieved the same success as Jews and Americans – 1000 AD. Islamic culture was what carried traces of Greek/Roman literature and thought into medieval Europe. And it may happen again- who knows? Muslim and Asian countries do have a film industry, which produces good films as well as the kind of garbage Hollywood produces. Just because those films are not widely distributed in Europe and USA,speaks more of US cultural hegemony (or tunnel vision, some would say).

As the Baganda say, ‘togayanga kyezinze’, anybody can become something if pushed in the right direction. And with God’s blessings, anything is possible!

WHO WROTE NRM’s 10- POINT- PROGRAMME?

Mzee Byanyima (seated 2nd R) and some members of his family—courtesy of the Observer Newspaper

The Ten point program was written by Museveni himself in consultation with his white sponsors. Winnie Byanyima and her sister, Edith, contributed to that document too. According to Winnie Byanyima, one day in June 1981, she received a call while at university in Manchester, and it was Museveni. He wanted to meet her in London. And yes before you ask, they were lovers then. She only told her sister,Edith Byanyima, about the affair because they needed her to type out the draft 10 point programme of the NRM,and other confidential documents.

Museveni is just a lucky guy!

BY ABBEY KIBIRIGE SEMUWEMBA
UK
We have all heard scurrilous stories about Mr. Museveni Yoweri- and believed some of them -even if we would never make any such claims in public. I don’t think anyone who had dealings with Museveni was in any doubt about his attraction to politics whether dirty or otherwise.His outsize personality remains a strong drawing card, and even his lifelong ugly hat and suits, and jokes, guarante headlines.

Although it is anyone’s speculation as to why he has lasted long in power, the most charitable interpretation is that he is just a lucky man. Hypothesising apart,however, his luck has been seen in several incidents. Starting from the 1980s Bush war when Oyite Ojok’s plane crushed, at a time when NRA was losing the war, to current events, you see lady luck following Museveni in all he does.

Kony came and went, and Museveni is still standing. Besigye came and is probably the closet to see him leave power, but Museveni is still everywhere. Gen.Tinyefunza came, threw his toys out of the pram, but he is now as quiet as an eldery in a nursing home. There was a massacre in Kasese after the 2016 elections but there wasnt any mention of it in the international press. Amama Mbabazi came, excited some people but he is now morelike a smiling duck on a lake waiting to drown. There has not been a single coup, atleast officially, ever since he became president in 1986. He has sold almost all state enterprises and the public are just suffering in silence. He has passed rubish laws in our parliament and everybody is just looking on. He has told so many lies and nobody has ever tried to hold him accountable. The donors love him to bits to the desperation of majority of Ugandans.

He published no views whatsoever about “elimination” of Muslims self- or otherwise. But Uganda Muslim leaders have been assasinated, Muslims jailed in bigger numbers, e.t.c, and Museveni is still defended by a lot of Muslims. Some are even my friends.

Museveni is financially predatory, but then as some have famously remarked, he has to be because he had nothing before the presidency. A less grasping man would have gone under and not enriched himself using state resources, as former Presidents did, but not him. He has openly been doing it since 1986 and he now feels comfortable putting his fingers in national coffers for anything he wants. He has borrowed more money than any president in our history, such that it will take generations to pay it back, and he keeps going away with it.

Without wishing to be unduly rude, I’d suggest that unless his opponents study the man himself especially get into his brain, none other than God himself will take him out of power.Lets analyse some of the opponents people are now parading against him, minus Besigye. Mr. Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, for example, although he can find the heart of a character, is not an intellectual presence and he is a novice. His ability to sing music in the true sense of the word is in question. People only support him because they are super desperate for change, and they’ve seemingly lost hope in Besigye. Mr. Mugisha Muntu , in contrast, is an excellent speaker with an analytical mind but his FDC presidency was probably the weakest moment of the party. The fact that he is a Munyarwanda by tribe, though not his fault, is likely to be used against him. Not that i have personally got anything against Banyarwanda, It’s just that ethnicity is still a big factor in our politics. Nevertheless, I still think that majority of FDCs saw Muntu as a saboteur within the party. Few shed tears when he quit the party. I believe a man is not punished for the good he does, but for the evil he does. Now, Muntu is spending most of his energy on weakening FDC rather than Museveni. Pity!

As a PS to this, I find it interesting that when personal heroes are questioned, we seem to find this wall of defensiveness and something verging on screeching personal attack, and a recourse to notions of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ and other such nonsense. This totalitarianism of the mind ,I feel, is the one keeping opposition supporters at each other’s throats, instead of targeting Museveni.

Mr. Museveni has, however, had his uncomfortable moments in recent years. His proclivity for gaining weight and a sickly arm, have become a topic of public discussion. He has been booed off a few times especially whenever he visits sights of on going assassinations. People have nicknamed him ” Bosco” in reference to his failed bicycle irrigation scheme. One can characterize his lapses as sinister; but can be attributed, rather, to a happy-go-lucky style, a large ego and a certain carelessness.

DONORS ARE BEATING BESIGYE WITH STICKS NOT CARROTS!

I like the clean politicians, feels clean. That is the feeling i’m increasingly getting as I start reading Daniel Kalinaki’s book, ”Kiiza Besigye And Uganda’s Unfinished Revolution”. Besigye critics have long argued vehemently that if a politician has been around the bloke for a long time, he must give a chance to someone else to take over. But truth be told, we are a little bipolar on that subject. Though they criticize Besigye for having contested against the incumbent since 2001, the same critics rarely make the same argument against Mr.Museveni. Our attitude towards people that have been fighting for freedom in Uganda is so sickening. We want to replace them as fast as they come, with an avalanche of abuses, yet freedom itself is still a long journey away.

Let’s smile and appreciate an intelligent politician in Besigye. His last press conference on current security in Uganda was awesome. I’ve not seen anybody explain things from the head systematically as this guy did.He’s really a gifted person. As Kalinaki puts it mildly,Besigye has paid a big price to try to remove Museveni from power,’he has been assaulted, teargassed, pepper-sprayed, and forced into exile’, yet you still find voices that say that he’s working for Museveni. What a bunch of nonsense!

I’m not in any way discouraging the youths, or more people, from raising up to take the mantle from Besigye. Hell no, but I want people to show this man respect. Some people were slating him after both the Bugiri and Arua eelctions won by candidates supported by Bobi Wine.These young politicians, with due respect, may hold the key to Uganda’s future, and the future they create might not be what you expect, and need more exposure. Increasingly they have come to consider the machinations of the current politics in the country, as Besigye also came to learn in 2011. One of the things Besigye learned was that Museveni is still a darling of the donors, and no election will ever take him out of power. That’s why, after the 2011 elections, he walked into the Irish Ambassador’s residence in Kololo, demanding for an explanation as to why donors were folding hands yet things were bad in the country. According to Kalinaki, ‘they saw a sore loser, a could-have-been who had fired his last bullet’. It hurts, doesn’t it? Failing to become president because USA or UK haven’t endorsed you? Or someone, somewhere is busy making up elections results? On top of that, you’ve got the Andrew Mwenda’s jumping on you quoting %s of Museveni’s wins since 1996.

The truth is that this world is centered in Washingtom, though it has counterparts elsewhere.The day USA will say Museveni must go, he will go. Which begs the question as of why they temporarily gave all that limelight to Bobi Wine after the Arua debacle. What exactly were they trying to do? Besigye had been charged with rape, treason and illegal possession of firearms, and held under house arrest, but we never saw the international community give him that audience they gave Bobi. Up to now, i dont understand what that was all about.

Just as crucial, emerging politicians have built an enthusiastic, growing audience that, while mostly young, is expanding across age and demographic lines. If they mix that up with the network already supporting Besigye and other old guards, there is a lot the opposition could achieve in the long term. Having poured his stylistically wide-ranging thoughts into his music, Bobi is an asset to the opposition and he should be protected, regardless of our differences. There is no reason the two worlds(Besigye and Bobi) could remain porous to their enemies.

Ok, this is how it’s gonna play out!

Published on Abbey Semuwemba Facebook page on 2nd July 2018

Ok, this is how it’s gonna play out:
1. M7 is gonna make concessions on mobile money tax if people keep complaining , and eventually get it either reduced or Removed.
2. M7 wont do anything about the Social media tax for now till before the next elections. He hates social media, anyway. He will, however, make promises, as usual, and the gullible ones will clap hands for him. By then, he will have enough money for his campaigns via social media and mobile money taxes.
3. He is gonna wash his hands off both taxes, and shift the whole blame to MPs and some cabinet members.
4. The number of people on social media has definitely reduced on day one of social media tax, but it will eventually pick up as people get used to the changes and the tax, and use of VPN.
5. The number of people using mobile money will go down among the poor( majority), but the middle-class and super rich will continue using the service due to its convenience.
6.Wait and see how other countries copy from Uganda and roll out social media tax too. ……Sad!

Museveni’s headache is now VPN and it’s not going anywhere soon!

Yesterday was an heroic date in Uganda’s history, because a president was forced to deny publicly the arrangement of a new tax called mobile money, yet he had engineered and signed it into law himself. He argued that he had directed a 0.5% tax reduction on mobile money transactions rather than the 1% that was passed by MPs, not that it makes the situation any better.

Since the terms “left” and “right” emerged during the French Revolution. The definitions have undergone some changes, sometimes the boundaries have got more or less blurred, but most of those characteristics continue to be emblematic of the left. This is particularly true of taxation, and particularly so in the countries where many right wingers believe that taxation is theft and think that a society can be run without taxation.

Personally, I think people start viewing taxation as theft if they don’t directly benefit from the taxes, and I strongly believe this is the reason the social media tax introduced this month in Uganda, is being looked at negatively. Ugandans benefit less from the taxes as most of it goes towards keeping Museveni in power and making his cronies happy, on top of out of control corruption. The taxation system in Uganda is basically like robbing you at gunpoint, and then give you a bottle of wine to help dull the pain. The gun or force is always there. The basis of the state rests on force. That’s why the gov’t is already threatening those that use VPN to dodge paying the social media tax.

Journalist Andrew Mwenda obviously disagrees with this, and mocked Ugandans that they want services from the gov’t, but don’t want to pay taxes. He obviously made that statement basing on the taxation system in countries where citizens see how taxes directly benefit them. In some developed nations, they go as far as using part of the taxes to cater for the unemployed, such that when people are out of work, their gov’t provide temporary social safety nets. In Uganda, on the otherhand, even simple things like healthcare aren’t affordable to citizens. Same for housing. it’s good to have housing for all and a good govt should try–thru private sector and government–to offer affordable housing to almost everyone. But some idiot has gone ahead and proposed rental tax instead of envouraging people to build as many houses around the country as possible. The truth is that new taxes such as social media and rental tax are only ideal for a future Uganda and therefore a future president, not now or anytime soon.

it seems obvious that an efficient system of public transport is an essential element in any society and in many countries trains and buses are heavily subsidized in order both to save fuel and to ensure that people can get to work. But what has the Museveni gov’t done about this in the last 32 years? Even the trains that were functional under Amin and Obote are not different from skulls in Luwero.

Nobody is encouraging a nanny state here but my dream is to be in a democracy with a social conscience. It doesn’t make sense to introduce a tripple taxation on a service , such as mobile money, which is very popular with the majority poor and created employment for the youths, simply because you want to boost the businesses of the banks( minority rich).

Actually, for me I propose much higher taxes on the rich because it would be a boom to the economy. Why? Because it would have the effect of forcing the rich to reinvest in their businesses. Today, the big business owner screws the worker and takes more of the earnings out of his business as personal profits. And why not? His rate of taxation on his personal income is so low — that he’s more than happy to pay the low taxes due. He can then turn around as an individual and invest the money left after paying taxes into entities that earn capital gains, which are taxed at the super-low rate. Now, the profits he took out of his business are being put to work to earn him a personal fortune that sits outside of whatever he’s doing in his business. Eventually, he gets most his business salary paid in stock options and tax-deferred funds that allow him to avoid paying taxes at all, or at
the worst, at the lower rate. That is how most of the sugarcane factory owners in Busoga survive while the majority of the Basoga that work for them are perennially poor.

Goverment shouldn’t interfere with internet expansion and growth in the country, because its part of indirect investment in the population. Investments in people creates a consumer class that has the spending power to purchase goods and services that allows businesses to expand even more.

Of course, we then get down to what the priorities are of our nation. The little taxes we collect now would be enough to give ugandans services if our government wasnt extravagant, corrupt, relying on partisanship, or spending money on stuff we could do without. As long as Museveni continues to run Uganda like his personal property, people will resist certain taxes. In USA, those that resist unfair taxes call themselves “Moonshiners”. In Uganda, we’re yet to come up with an agreed name but they shall probably be called the “VPNs”.

M7 SHOULDN’T ‘CRY’ ABOUT HIS SALARY ANYMORE!

Freinds,
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could care less about Museveni’s presidential salary of Ug shs. 3.9 m a month. I’m more worrried about the Uganda teachers who are among the worst paid public workers in East Africa. Primary school teachers earn an average 250,000 shillings ($97.16) a month and their secondary school counterparts take home sh472,079 (Grade V) and sh601,341 per month (graduate) respectively. However, come July or so Grade V and graduate science teachers will get sh1,728,007 and sh2,000,000 per month respectively , if we go by government promises.Teaching isn’t easy to do, especially with the amount of preparation work that goes into each class every day and proven by its high burn-out rate.

Teachers are Uganda’s hope, and we’re failing them.Teachers are serving as bodyguards, therapists, soup kitchens and parents especially in boading schools.They are responsible for producing quality citizens as they spend more time with our kids than the parents themselves.I know a teacher here in the UK that counts the number of successfully saved kids by her to be counted on her fingers.On the other hand she can tell you about a lot of kids that will most likely be incarcerated for one crime or another.She couldn’t change them given the few hours a day she had with them.Then there is my former headmaster of Kibuli S.S i know who went out of his way to secure scholarships for underpriviledged students in the school. Even now as a retired man, he tries hard to get funding to help orphans in our family and those he isn’t related to.

And now, we have a crying-baby-president who is tearing his little remaining hair out complaining about his little salary, yet we all know its not technically true, considering that he spends tax payers’ money in any way he wants. At one point while speaking in Mbale, Museveni bragged that he is a rich man and that he left his wife to collect his salary. He gives out money in sacks to groups and calls the money his. He also said around 2006, while meeting Ugandans at Mayflower Hotel in Washington, that he doesn’t need the MO Ibrahim prize because he is a dam rich man, ” if you are used to poor leaders, i am not one of them. You better come and visit me. I do not need money to leave power”.

I would assume that the person who doesn’t need money to leave power, shouldn’t be complaining about the little salary he is getting. He should also be donating the money to the poor like Kabaka Mutesa 11 did for Karamoja while he was president in early 1960s, or be like President Donald J. Trump who isn’t taking any salary at all as US president . And there is also the question of how Museveni got so rich on a little salary.

There are certain people in government that are unfairly earning mega salaries, and are mainly from western Uganda, at the expense of the rest of Ugandans.Let me then introduce “Generalized Pork Barrel” politics, which I define to be government expenditures designed to benefit a well-defined (if not geographically circumscribed) minority for no good reason.An expenditure is referred to as a “pork barrel” when the minority of citizens that it directly benefits happen to be the constituents of a particular politician, particularly when there is a sense that these consituents are getting more than their share of the bread. For instance, Museveni has created unnecessary offices, such as presidential advisors, RDCs,e.t.c and all these people are costing the tax payers an arm and a leg in terms of salaries.

Let me repeat that if the general public is informed of such funding activities and see nothing wrong with it,neither do I.I do not stand for the notion that there are superior reasons for giving higher salaries, however, which would require such funding in spite of the general public’s disinclination. Consider this: the Governor Bank of Uganda earns 5 million Uganda shillings a month.Does that seem fair to you? I see govt spending on the governor, Commissioner General, URA, Executive Director NSSF, and others in that category, as unjustified on grounds of inefficiency, or on specific grounds of unfairness. All that money could be channeled elsewhere and benefit more Ugandans than just a few people.

REMEMBERING MUSEVENI’S ‘NIKO’ AS FORMER IGP!

Some things are unbelievable till when you see them happen. Up to now, I find it hard to believe that Gen Edward Kale Kayihura is nolonger the Inspector General of Police(IGP),though I’m not surprised that he has kept a low profile ever since he was removed from office. That’s what any other wise person would do under the present political climate in Uganda.

The “extraor­dinary relationship” that Kale purported to have had with president Museveni for twelve years as IGP, was of intense mutual obsession and benefit. I have never seen anybody as faithful to Museveni as Kale, and that’s why I’m surprised that he hasnt yet been deployed elsewhere. As IGP, Kale was the equivalent of Alexander Nikolayevich Poskrebyshev, Joseph Stalin’s closest aide, who as the head of the so-called Special Section of the Central Committee, was in plainer language the official keeper of secrets. Just like Kale, Niko(as he was sometimes called) was a lawyer by profession, smart,friendly, with a superb memory and a very talented organiser. He was later forced to retire when things got hot in the political arena.His enemies did everything possible to sabotage his relationship with Stalin. He died a somehow miserable man!

Similary, If there’s anybody in Uganda who knows the secrets of president Museveni, and high profile criminals, its Kale. That head of his has got more secretive information than all intelligence organisations combined, i believe. For the first time in my life, I watched a known criminal giving a live interview on TV, confessing to murdering people and working with the police, but he wasn’t in chains or anything like that, and walked freely around Kampala. I also saw a video of Kale publicly defending Abdul Kitatta who is now in prison over various charges. Kitatta was not only a holy fool but a holy terror, described by many as Kale’s man in the criminal world.

Kale wielded his authority in proportion to his level of interest. He was a most active intervener when it came to election violence, protests and court orders releasing opposition politicians, where he considered himself an expert.He also took active, often peremptory part in discussions on Ugandans At Heart(UAH) Forum.Topics outside security were evidently of little concern to him; his preserved notations relating to agriculture were sparse, apart from he said that he’s into goat rearing and that he had about 500 goats(If i recall).Kale engaged almost everyone regardless of your status, and he remains a member of UAH. At one time when he was busy, he enlisted a beautiful female police representative on UAH who became silent all over a sudden, for reasons known to her.Kale had a strong desire to participate in public life, which sometimes allowed him to make a principled stand, or to help out friends,and at other times drew him into shabby compromises, or indeed into appearing to be serving one party, NRM, and one person, Museveni.

There’s one thing I have never understood up to now, why Kale had to celebrate his promotion to a General in May, 2013, in such a style. There was a procession from Mbuya to Parliament Avenue. Normally, such things are done to rub it in the eyes of someone feeling ‘nuggu'(hatred) for you. So, I wonder what that was all about. I wish he writes a book to explain all this for us. Coincidentally, his nemesis, Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde was also always keen to remind panelists that he is a ‘Lt.Gen’. I have never understood this obcession with tittles, honestly. Libya’s Gadaffi who did more than both kept himself a ‘Colonel’ till the time of his death.

M7 SHOULDN’T ‘CRY’ ABOUT HIS SALARY ANYMORE!

Freinds,
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could care less about Museveni’s presidential salary of Ug shs. 3.9 m a month. I’m more worrried about the Uganda teachers who are among the worst paid public workers in East Africa. Primary school teachers earn an average 250,000 shillings ($97.16) a month and their secondary school counterparts take home sh472,079 (Grade V) and sh601,341 per month (graduate) respectively. However, come July or so Grade V and graduate science teachers will get sh1,728,007 and sh2,000,000 per month respectively , if we go by government promises.Teaching isn’t easy to do, especially with the amount of preparation work that goes into each class every day and proven by its high burn-out rate.

Teachers are Uganda’s hope, and we’re failing them.Teachers are serving as bodyguards, therapists, soup kitchens and parents especially in boading schools.They are responsible for producing quality citizens as they spend more time with our kids than the parents themselves.I know a teacher here in the UK that counts the number of successfully saved kids by her to be counted on her fingers.On the other hand she can tell you about a lot of kids that will most likely be incarcerated for one crime or another.She couldn’t change them given the few hours a day she had with them.Then there is my former headmaster of Kibuli S.S i know who went out of his way to secure scholarships for underpriviledged students in the school. Even now as a retired man, he tries hard to get funding to help orphans in our family and those he isn’t related to.

And now, we have a crying-baby-president who is tearing his little remaining hair out complaining about his little salary, yet we all know its not technically true, considering that he spends tax payers’ money in any way he wants. At one point while speaking in Mbale, Museveni bragged that he is a rich man and that he left his wife to collect his salary. He gives out money in sacks to groups and calls the money his. He also said around 2006, while meeting Ugandans at Mayflower Hotel in Washington, that he doesn’t need the MO Ibrahim prize because he is a dam rich man, ” if you are used to poor leaders, i am not one of them. You better come and visit me. I do not need money to leave power”.

I would assume that the person who doesn’t need money to leave power, shouldn’t be complaining about the little salary he is getting. He should also be donating the money to the poor like Kabaka Mutesa 11 did for Karamoja while he was president in early 1960s, or be like President Donald J. Trump who isn’t taking any salary at all as US president . And there is also the question of how Museveni got so rich on a little salary.

There are certain people in government that are unfairly earning mega salaries, and are mainly from western Uganda, at the expense of the rest of Ugandans.Let me then introduce “Generalized Pork Barrel” politics, which I define to be government expenditures designed to benefit a well-defined (if not geographically circumscribed) minority for no good reason.An expenditure is referred to as a “pork barrel” when the minority of citizens that it directly benefits happen to be the constituents of a particular politician, particularly when there is a sense that these consituents are getting more than their share of the bread. For instance, Museveni has created unnecessary offices, such as presidential advisors, RDCs,e.t.c and all these people are costing the tax payers an arm and a leg in terms of salaries.

Let me repeat that if the general public is informed of such funding activities and see nothing wrong with it,neither do I.I do not stand for the notion that there are superior reasons for giving higher salaries, however, which would require such funding in spite of the general public’s disinclination. Consider this: the Governor Bank of Uganda earns 53 million Uganda shillings a month.Does that seem fair to you? I see govt spending on the governor, Commissioner General, URA, Executive Director NSSF, and others in that category, as unjustified on grounds of inefficiency, or on specific grounds of unfairness. All that money could be channeled elsewhere and benefit more Ugandans than just a few people.
—

*Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba*

Stalk my blog at: https://semuwemba.wordpress.com

Betrayal is always a bad thing!

Friends,

I have finally finished reading John Kazoora’s book, “Betrayed by my Leader”. I thank again one of the Ugandans At Heart forum members in London, Mr. Ronald Kavuma, for lending me his copy of the book. Of course, the book tittle meant ” Museveni ” as the “leader ” in this betrayal . So, it could as well have been, ” Betrayed by Museveni Yoweri “. It’s one of those books that matches the old Nillson song, “You ripped out my heart, you tore it apart, so FUCK YOU.” You would enjoy that if u like music, like I do.

Not to get all religioso on Luwero Bush fighters , but whenever someone I loved or cared for betrayed me, I turned to God to ease the pain. For me, It’s a reminder that I was a part of something bigger, and that my suffering, however terrible, had meaning, and God knows what’s good for me.I try to say to myself everything has it’s purpose and in it’s own time.

The truth is people have always betrayed each other. The speeches politicians make are usually not different from the marriage vows among Christians. Politicians generally stay with you in good times but not in “sickness”. The term “In sickness and in health”,(and most of the other verbiage usually appearing in a Christian wedding – richer/poorer; better/worse etc.) actually do not appear in a Jewish wedding vow, although fidelity and welfrare are implicit in the terms ” (I wed thee)…according to the laws of Moses and Israel.” In fact, the vows expressed at a wedding are legally unenforcable in most Western nations. In the eyes of the state, it is the wedding licence issued by a government which counts, not anything said in the ceremony. Similarly, all that crap Museveni said against the past regimes has turned out to be just that–crap.

Anyway, Betrayal is betrayal. Ugandans expected a lot from Museveni and he bailed. Let’s not gloss over the immensity of his betrayal. He should be ashamed.

Kazoora espouses a lot of hunger in his final summations in the book. He sounds really like a broken man but with hope. He sounds so surprised that Gen.Salim Saleh, Museveni’s brother, campaigned for Museveni to lead for more 40 years during the campaign to remove presidential term limits. He sounds so surprised that Gen.Tinyefunza was threatening Olara Otunu for asking for a Commission of inquiry into the Luwero war killings.He was also naive to think that he could help someone to get a job from Museveni but expect that person to be more loyal to him than the job provider. Kazoora basically regrets his participation in the Luwero Bush war. The following statement sums up everything:

“I did not ever imagine that the success of our struggle would surpass the very vices we had set out to eliminate………………..Those who were responsible for rigging the 1980 elections must have realised by now that they did so amateurishly as the current government is the world’s leading guru on election rigging “

I know this is dredging up an old topic, but i always ask myself the following question, ” had the 1980 elections been free and fair, would Museveni still have found a way to become president, and run the country in the same way he has done for the last 32 years?”

My simple answer is ” yes”. The man had a plan, he executed it and it worked for him, not Ugandans!

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

UNITED KINGDOM

“In tribute to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Uganda, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife, discrimination and terrorism.”

This was in Museveni’s 2001 manifesto!

Friends,
Manifestos is one of the most useless aspect of politics in mostly third world countries, because politicians dont respect them at all. In Kenya,both Jubilee and NASA almost share the same consultants. In Uganda, Museveni has been producing manifestos for the sake of going through an election but the documents dont mean anything to him.

“Iam once again offering myself to serve the people of Uganda because of my conviction that, together with you, we still have a mission to accomplish. Iam taking on the challenge of contesting for a last presidential term”

—President Museveni in his 2001 manifesto

My personal manifesto is that government should just pick one or two main issues to sort out in the next five years, as soon as they get power. Most of the problems in third world countries are clearly known: Insecurity, roads, lack of water, poor roads, shortage of markets for farmers to sell their goods, poor schools, poor state of hospitals or lack of hospitals in some areas, e.t.c. All a government that has won an election needs is to pick on one or two issues to prioritise in the next five years without necessarily neglecting other areas.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
UK

NRM comedy continues!

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
United Kingdom

In case you thought NRM had not quite scraped the bottom of the barrel just yet, there are reports that their MPs that said ” no” to life presidency, would be summoned to the party disciplinary committee.We’re pretty sure they are just trolling us at this point — and possibly with Museveni’s consent, considering his penchant for quality comedy.

In case this is real, then ” what a chimera “, as John Kazoora says in his preface of the book, ” Betrayed by my leader”. Sincerely speaking, how does a representative of the people get to be questioned on how s/ he voted by the party hierarchy. This isn’t only illegal, it’s also wrong at so many levels.

The presidential age limits were removed, and now its time for Museveni to live with this decision without ” punishing ” those that see life presidency as a danger to our country. The opposition looks weakened at the moment, but things happen in politics when you least expect them.

As I start reading Mr.Kazoora’s book, first of all, I want to congratulate him for finally finishing his postgraduate studies. He should stop regretting his participation in the Luwero war. Most political leaders aren’t any different from a beautiful woman who promises never to cheat you with any man, only to find her at the back of the car with your driver on top of her, and the legs swinging in the air. Obote had to go, and Uganda will always be better without a dictator( past or present).

“In tribute to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Uganda, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife, discrimination and terrorism.”

“I’m not a supporter of Museveni but I’m (always)willing to dine and talk to him”—- Andrew Mwenda

“I’m not a supporter of Museveni but I’m (always)willing to dine and talk to him”—- Andrew Mwenda

Andrew reminds me of my childhood friend in Bugerere, who impregnated , let’s just say, a not so good looking girl, but when I asked him about it, his response baffled me,

” I’m not her boyfriend. We only used to meet for a Shag. That’s it…..she even has ring worm on her skin”

Human beings, hey????

STATEHOUSE TOO SHOULD BE RENAMED

State House, is it really a state house or ‘Museveni house’ right now? State House too,like NWSC, should actually be renamed in future to ” PEOPLE HOUSE”, to reflect that it’s working for people. The colonialists left us that name(before independence), and we are still hanging on to it. Now, there are even reports that they dont know where the land tittle for State House is.

Have you,guys, ever stopped to wonder why majority of people don’t bother to vote anymore? Have you ever stopped to wonder why, which ever party is in power, since 1962,nothing ever gets any better? Have you ever stopped to wonder why all the four major political parties in the Uganda have broadly the same policies? The answer is simple–the people feel detached from the state. They feel they cant change a govt through elections.They basically feel nothing for Museveni right now, and just waiting for a miracle from God.

SOMETHING UNATTRACTIVE ABOUT BAGANDA NRA SOLDIERS??

Every time I read something being reported about Maj. Kakooza Mutale and Brig Kasirye Gwanga, I give credit to chairman Museveni, because I imagine how he managed such characters in the bush. Its like managing a family member with a serious disease. We may question Museveni’s ‘cake’ appointments that were dominated by westerners especially after the bush war, but there’s something about the Baganda officers that were in the NRA that is a bit unattractive. They are very fun lads that were known to have been fearless during the war. Gwanga awarded himself a degree and PHD in agriculture in 2006, and clashed with NAADS officials. Coincidentally, he is my OB at Kibuli S.S. He joined the army in 1972, left in 1980, joined again when Muwanga was president, and after the murder of his brother by a Tanzania soldier.He has a story to tell on how he joined the NRA,and why he thinks he has some leverage over Museveni.

There is a way Museveni keeps Mutale busy with funny assignments and appointments, such as his current role as senior presidential assistant on political affairs. Interestingly, Mutale has recently come out to openly criticize the ongoing land grabbing in Luwero Triangle where a lot of families have been left landless. The bottom line is , every time the two talk, I’m thinking, ‘ Oh dear,what are they gonna say now ?’ But then again, its good to have them around because they say or do things ‘accidentally’ which a normal person would find hard to say!

LET BESIGYE WRITE A BOOK TO COUNTERACT MUSTARD SEED!

Friends,
I don’t see any problem with Museveni or his wife’s directive to public schools to encourage pupils to read Museveni’s book: SOWING THE MUSTARD SEED. I think Mrs.Museveni feels that her husband has done so much for the country and wants his name in the brains of our little ones. Oh, she’s so sweet and she’s being wifely,isn’t she? But that’s beside the point, I think let the book roll into schools, after all, its gonna be a donation to schools, right?

I personally read the book and took me just three days to finish it yet I was only reading it at night. Yes, it has got a lot of Oboteism, but what the hell, other people that worked with Museveni will write books that will counter almost every lie in Museveni’s book.Yes, there’s stuff there that dont make sense!

By the way, Museveni isn’t the only one who has tried to manipulate history through a book.Historian” David Irving manipulated historical evidence to fit his contentions, among others, that Hitler was “in the dark” about the extermination of Jews and others in Nazi Germany and that there was no systematic effort, indeed no gas chambers, to accomplish those purposes. UAH veteran, Henry Ford Mirima, has tried to rewrite the historical facts between Buganda and Bunyoro kingdom several times. Its up to the reader to cross check with other writers to get the truth. That’s why its important that Besigye too releases the mother of books, now that he is in his 60s, that will outsell Museveni’s.

ARE WE ALL CAPABLE OF BECOMING DICTATORS?

Friends,
The big part of me hates dictators but I also know that its easy to judge someone when you aren’t in their place……Just look at Brother Saddam Hussein: he believed in God, prayed five times a day, read the quran, but he also mercilessly executed his enemies. I have got a video of him performing Salah but, for some reason, Facebook has temporarily blocked me from posting videos…………….. That’s why part of me wishes to meet Mr.Museveni one day, and ask him why he does things the way he does them, and I’m no way comparing the late Saddam(24 yrs in power) to Mr.Museveni(31 yrs and still counting), because I believe the former did more for Iraq compared to the Uganda leader.

The big question is: how does a leader stop himself from becoming a dictator? Is it something that others have to stop before one becomes a president or its something a leader has to work on himself? Would Uganda have been better off with a 1962 constitution that gave the president less powers before everything was changed in 1997 by Obote?

Abbey

WHO IS POLICING THE PRESIDENCY IN UGANDA?

Friends,

JPAM is being abused and abased by the NRM-Museveni, and its not fair. It’s only Besigye supporters allowed to do so to this gentleman.All those attacking him would hardly be considered the linchpins of NRM political thought. JPAM has advanced his presidential case by using—some say abusing—the coercive defacto ‘presidential’ power granted him while still in govt. And the Museveni administration has sought to use the state machinery against him.It has sought to win allies not by detailing the merits of its case but by appealing to partisan sympathies in form of church donations(Mbarara), media thuggery(Andrew M. Mwenda on NTV, Wanyama Don Innocent in Newvision, e.t.c), police thuggery, Facebook lumpiness, e.t.c. Its very unfortunate that the 30 years of NRM political ‘evolution’, culminating in the 1995 Constitution,haven’t rendered such primitive methods obsolete.

To complete the irony, M7 doesn’t care how he’s perceived by the below 35 years anymore–he could whip anyone who dares him in the name of the Constitution and the rule of law.He has hopelessly discredited the office of the presidency as it now exists, and it hurts that we cannot do much about it for now. I bet a lot of political activists dream of either being arrested, killed and ‘punished’ in some way for campaigning against the ‘boss’.

We basically need an equivalent of the USA’s independent counsel law—the legislation to prevent abuses of power by the presidency which was passed by Congress in 1978, in the aftermath of Watergate.An institutional check on the presidency is very necessary.Yes, that’s right—the presidency, not the president. The president is an individual; the presidency is an institution. Or, to be more precise, two institutions: the executive branch, which was created by the Constitution and comprises the Cabinet and independent agencies, and “the presidential branch,” the term political scientists use to describe the State House staff and the staff of the Executive Office.

Unlike the Cabinet ministers,State House and Executive Office aides are not confirmed by the parliament.This removes one of the major constitutional checks on presidential power. For instance, Major Edith Nakalema is probably more powerful than a cabinet minister, but we’ve got no powers over her at all. We cannot even sack her if we think she’s doing a bad job.Often,presidential aides goal is not good government, but good press and good poll ratings for their boss, but we are the one paying all these people’s salaries. They make illegitimate partisan interference in the day-to-day operations of government practically inevitable.

Furthermore, Tamare Mirundi was sacked as a presidential spokesperson but he’s now a presidential advisor, but the tax payer doesn’t know exactly why or if he deserves being an advisor to anybody. Our MPs should really take these issues seriously and get it on records that, at least, they tried asking.

The Attorney General(AG) is responsible for supervising the impartial administration of justice by law enforcement officials. At the same time, he or she is also a political appointee and is expected to be part of the president’s partisan team—even to serve as the president’s attorney. An attorney general cannot be counted on to remain unbiased while investigating possible criminal or unethical activity on the part of his or her boss and colleagues. For instance, AG allowed JPAM to do his consultations but the NRM executive of which the president is the Chairman didnt agree. The AG found himself losing his tongue and doing nothing about this insidious abuse of the law by the presidency.And the threat posed by a corrupt or excessively partisan attorney general is genuine.

Right now, participation in the presidential elections only gives the Besigyes the chance to do political activism and enlightening Ugandans more about their rights and powers, obviously with the hope that the tide may change, but we all know that at the end of this process, only M7 will remain the president. And this hurts a little bit! Nze bwendaba banange!

Abbey.K.Semuwemba
UK

Just Don’t Trust politicians that much!

I have not had the time to verify every one of the statements made by Museveni before and after he got into power. But it seems all statements from a politician’s mouth shouldn’t be taken seriously. I really don’t think they mean what they say. They only say what the masses want to hear at that particular moment. But once in power, the game changes, and the masses get the surprise of their lives. For instance, I know for sure that Besigye is the most suitable person to become the next president of Uganda, and sometimes I wish I had the power to make him one, but I no longer cling to every word he says as the Bible-heart truth. With Museveni, he would definitely find it easy to tell you that he’s fundamentally changing the guards at your ‘ekiitone’ when in actual sense, he means, he’s going to chop off the guards’ heads! And I think I better leave Mbabazi alone!

The ease and glib fluency with which politicians dismiss principle and fabricate consensus suggests they are more virulent than mere ideologues.They are chilling, livid proof that we should worry more about what a person will turn out to be once s/he gets into power.It is easy to miss the intent of a person’s message sometime. Actually, watch out for politicians who don’t respect moderators when hosted on TV shows. They just keep talking non-stop as if they are moderating themselves.

“I am not a dictator and I never will be. Democracy will be rigorously enforced by National Socialism…….We have the power.Now our gigantic work begins”–Hitler

Those were Hitler’s words on the night of January 30, 1933, as cheering crowds surged past him, for five long hours, beneath the windows of the Chancellery in Berlin.

The difference between Hitler and our African dictators is that he actually did change German for the better especially at the beginning. I’ve been watching some of Hitler’s tapes i bought from HMV(shop), and Oh God! Hitler spoke to the psyche of the German people. Hitler, as a speaker, was a prodigy, the greatest orator of his century. The Musevenis of this world are just ‘actors’ who played us for fools with the Luwero war! Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere soon!

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

UK

IT’S KIND OF DANGEROUS TO DRIVE WHEN YOU ARE 70+ YEARS OLD!

President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni attends the Clinton Global Initiative on September 26, 2013 in New York. AFP PHOTO/Mehdi Taamallah (Photo credit should read MEHDI TAAMALLAH/AFP/Getty Images)

Here in the UK,once you reach the age of 70, your licence expires –” and if you want to continue to drive, the entitlement will need to be renewed by Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA).Approximately two months before your 70th birthday – and every three years thereafter – DVA will send you a DL1R: ‘application for renewal of a driving licence’.

Your safety and the safety of other road users are the most important things to consider. If you’re concerned that your driving is not as good as it was, don’t wait for an accident to convince you to stop.

Interestingly, it’s the same with politics of developed nations. There is no way anybody who is 70 years plus would consider standing as leader of the party, or contesting in any sort of elections.Some parts of the body start switching off whether you like it or not: you start forgetting things; make empty promises; see Whatsapp as a threat; discuss wars instead of news on TV; imitating those that do pressure-ups(mbu you are fit); try to be funny most of the time; e.t.c

I’m just sayingggggggggggggggggg!

Frank Tumwebaze: ‘Leave’ in Uganda may mean ‘losing’ your job!

Frank Tumwebaze

Friends:

Hon.Frank Tumwebaze’s case is only about pure Hubris,and I think I now understand why a lot of people want nothing to do with politics. Just check it out:

1. Hon Frank Tumwebaze takes leave from work supposedly for the first time but nobody is happy for him;

2. President Museveni never takes any leave from work ,and I suppose he has his own reasons, but still some people aren’t happy about this. In Africa, you take leave from your job, you may find your replacement in the parking the very day you start your leave;

3. My “sister”, Alice Ruhindi, unfairly throws another punch at UAH for allowing all “trash” to be posted there. This was in reaction to some people that used the platform to attack her and others for allegedly spreading malicious rumours against Frank Tumwebaze. By the way, Alice is a nice person however much she tries to pretend otherwise. She is actually my only hope of making Ms.Nina Mbabazi my mate again;

4. Cuba President Raul Castro demands US hands back Guantanamo Bay . Honestly, why would anybody want to be associated with such a bay where all kinds of people have been tortured since 9/11? The bay is arguably an equivalent of “dirty” money on an account somewhere in the Crane Bank.

But what jumps out at you when you read through the above list is that a lot of people in positions of power are naive. They think they are powerful when actually they aren’t. Mr.Frank Tumwebaze’s response to the shs.10b allegations, for example, is that the Mbabazis have got it for him, and I think this is pure diversion and hubris. As Wikipedia says: “Hubris is usually perceived as a characteristic of an individual rather than a group, although the group the offender belongs to may suffer consequences from the wrongful act. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one’s own competence, accomplishments or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power.”

I’m not a fan of Mbabazi but he shouldn’t be everybody’s ball to kick in NRM. The 68 year old is arguably finished politically but he is probably the only man I know who knows how to handle a crisis with silence. Tumwebaze’s essential problem is that he likes to impress the bigger forces behind him so much yet sometimes its good to take a step back and just do only the right thing. Yes, only the right thing. And the right thing at this moment is to either deny the existence of the shs.10b on his account, or explain how he got it, or just keep quiet with the hope the issue will just go away! Nze bwendaba banange! Oh, I almost forgot the other alternative: please transfer that money to my account here in the UK.

Abbey

WHAT IS A 4-STAR GENERAL?

A lot of controversy surrounds Gen.Sejusa at the moment but what does it mean to be a ‘four star general commander’? Phew, ‘Okwewana nga kususe’! Are all those who fought in Luwero supposed to be like small gods or something? There is a lot of titles flying around: ‘Ssabalwanyi’; ‘Ssaba-capital Gang’; Ssaba-poor-yet-i-fought’, e.t.c. It reminds me of the time US veterans went against John F. Kerry when he kept calling himself a war hero and the receiver of the ‘Purple Heart’, and it somehow turns out that he was kind of a ‘fake’. ”The Swift Boat Vets revealed Kerry didn’t deserve the first of three Purple Heart medals he got because his “injury” was from a tiny fragment of shrapnel that resulted from him firing an M-79 grenade launcher against the nearby shore from the deck of his boat”. Actually, there was a General in Viet Nam who labeled Metal of Honor recipients as a bunch of losers.

Basically, it looks like there is no procedural error in the awarding of medals or giving them titles to some people , but It would help if someone tells us if the recipients actually deserved them. I just don’t like the too much ‘kwewana’ in Sejusa’s speeches as it overshadows the points he’s trying to make. In my opinion, this would throw doubts on his fitness to be the nation’s next president.

Sejusa puzzle not solved yet!

The president mentioned the names of the two young people he sent to London to negotiate Sejusa’s return as Michael Katungi and Janet Anyine, but who are they? Why were they chosen? What’s their official or unofficial position in government?

The president’s account contradicts what senior journalist, Chris Obore, said on national Tv on 14th December 2014 that the return was engineered by Gen. Salim Saleh because he sympathized with the life Tinyefunza was going through in the UK. Chris mentioned that he knew of Sejusa’s return in advance but they couldn’t publish anything in the Daily Monitor incase both sides changed their minds, but they camped at the airport the night of his return.

Some people may look at this and conclude that Museveni is at his weakest point as far as handling deserters is concerned, but I’m looking at it differently. It’s obvious that Sejusa knows a lot about the inside working of the president. Having him back home gives the president a lot of control on how to handle the guy. He may even bang him in prison tomorrow on concocted charges if he wishes, and there’s nothing anybody could do about it. Overall, I think this is a triumph for both men but the president has that edge over Sejusa.

Museveni hasn’t completely subverted the army justice system but I think time will tell. Till the Tinyefunza resignation certificate is signed, and we don’t know when that will be, Tinyefunza is to zip his lips and that is not good for him. Speculation will continue mounting against him that he is fooling the opposition till when he is able to talk again.

Basically, Museveni’s stall tactics aren’t any different than any other person under pressure, and is in fact doing what he is expected of him under the circumstances. I keep telling people not to underestimate Museveni like Obote did in 1980s, but you don’t listen. His strongest weapon has been his smile on the face and the fact that a lot of his opponents have been underestimating him probably since his childhood. Women are victims of his smile and his looks while men fall for “underestimation”. Would you believe it? He even managed to smile while shaking Sejusa’s hands. He he he.

The losers in all this have been Ofwono Opondo and other spin masters. Have you figured out that Ofwono doesn’t have a clue yet of what we are talking about here?
We can’t have any meaningful discussion on anything because of political spins, and I’m starting to hate it. Andrew Mwenda told us that Sejusa initiated the talks with state house while Ofwono Opondo said that Sejusa’s ticket was bought by the govt. And there is the other spin master who only does his job with “funny stories” and abusing the president’s opponents.

But some Ugandans are also to blame in all this because some of these lies are provoked. Ask a dumb question, get a dumb answer. Honestly, how do you expect Tamare Mirundi to know what goes on between Sejusa and Museveni? But If the same question is asked Tamare in a pub, over a good beer,you’ll often get a different answer. Whose business is it anyway?

Well, Life is like a game with no mission, you have to follow the rules but you don’t know the reason you’re doing it.

Tinyefunza has given a x-mas gift to Museveni

Gen. David Sejusa lays a wreath on his late father’s grave who died 3 months ago, this morning in Ssembabule.

I’m gonna say this once and hopefully I’m not pelted with stones again by my sister, Alice Ruhindi: President Museveni is a lucky guy. Luck is defined as when preparation meets opportunity.Take an example,FDC organised their conference on 5th Dec 2014 but they were upstaged by a Museveni on Capital Gang; the talk in town has been about Mbabazi Vs Museveni at the NRM Delegates conference tomorrow but guess what, Gen.Sejusa( aka Tinyefunza) is back, and he has changed that, and he is reportdely “putting his behind” on Museveni. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tinyefunza gives a speech at Namboole tomorrow showering praises on his mentor.

Perhaps the “circumstantially unlucky” people in opposition in Uganda ought to do a little more preparation next time to improve their own odds than entirely relying on those that fall out with Museveni. Time and time again Museveni has used some people as a decoy to score beautiful goals against the opposition but they never learn. You see, Museveni didn’t just fall off some turnip truck somewhere to become the president in 1986.He indeed planned for it for a long time.There is a reason some people succeed and some do not, and this reason is not affected by tribe, religion or sex. It is open to all, and it simply is that there are those who prepare for their opportunity and take it, and there are those who watch it go by, for whatever reason.

Oh? It seems that the vast majority of the press has more or less thrown Gen.Sejusa on the political “electric chair,” but I think there is more to his second come back than what meets the eye. Watch this space!

I believe a lot of people in the opposition are disappointed by this development but let us not lose hope because its only Tinyefunza who knows why he made the decision he made.I will refrain from criticism of his bumptious attempts to cool down people who feel betrayed by him. All I know is that nobody returns to Uganda after a self imposed exile and he is treated the way Tinyefunza has been treated in the last 24 hours, when they came back on their own terms. Tinyefunza must have been given at least some form of assurances before he got on the plane. Anyway, assurances or not, Museveni has been given a Christmas present because he can now control whatever Tinyefunza is doing in the country. Everywhere he goes, Tinyefunza will be followed.

This only confirms one possibility that Museveni’s govt won’t go down as fast as Obote’s in mid 1980s despite being the most corrupt and inept in Uganda’s history.A lot of people are pretending to be in opposition and mistrust among different camps in opposition has grown.It makes sense now: If you’re going to betray your people,you might try to lie and say you are actually doing the reverse, being a patriot, helping the country, and tell them always what they want to hear without any objectivity.

Certainly there is room for a discussion of policy or for debate on Uganda’s direction in a post Museveni situation. We can all agree on that. We can also all agree Museveni has made mistakes in his 28 years in power but his mistakes have not been exploited by anybody to bring him down. Every president has made his share of mistakes while in power.

Abbey.K.S

Prediction: Mbabazi’s Speech at 15th Dec 2014 NRM delegates conference at Nambole

The following speech will be largely ignored by the media but some of you may find it a compelling vision for Uganda’s future. It may become a historic speech, setting a new course for our country.Therefore, bypass the media by distributing the speech widely, and let an informed people decide. And consider supporting Mr. X as the NRM presidential candidate in 2016.
………………………………………………………………….
“Let me say first of all that, in a way that is peculiarly fitting that I’m happy that my leave has ended as I have been missing being involved in our party activities. As i assume, you all know, 32 years ago today, the NRA (then called PRA) declared war on Obote’s government in what came to be called the liberation War. In an indirect way that had an enormous impact on my life because it was when we took a decision to seek refuge in Sweden as a family. I ended up being separated from the rest of the family as i had to run risky errands for the NRM from Nairobi, which was the largest “battlefield” on the Eastern front of that war, as we spent several days hiding away from UNLA spies that had been sent to look for us there and monitor our activities. Ndugu Ruhakana Rugunda can testify to this if he wants.

The liberation War was both an example of what happens when leadership fails in a country and societies collide and it was an example, in its aftermath, of what happens when people lie to themselves about the objective realities of the human condition,because instead of leading to peace and development, as our chairman for over 30 years had so devoutly hoped, it in fact ultimately has led to mini-peace in some areas especially in the north and under development in large parts of the country. And instead of leading to greater freedom for all human beings, as our chairman again in his ten points program had hoped, it has led to Nazism, fascism(as lady Jackie Mbabazi pointed out) and a lot of sectarian tendencies.

And so, it is both good for us today to remember the cost paid by those who believed enough in freedom to have died for it, and useful to remind ourselves that that price has to be paid every year and every week, and that it is better by far to pay that price in peace time, by being vigilant and by trying to do that which is right, than it is to allow your society to decay or to have inadequate leadership and drift into a cataclysm comparable to the Idi Amin and obote regimes. And that is not just a NRM battle cry. I think it is important to recognize that what is ultimately at stake in our current environment is literally the future of Uganda if we let things continue as there are at the moment.

I am a lawyer by background, and I would assert and defend on any campus in this country that it is impossible to maintain civilisation and peace with high levels of youth unemployment, with high levels of poverty, with high levels of immorality involving nudism, now termed as “Luzindanism”, with maids killing or torturing babies, with an ageing leader, and with a decline in agricultural production. And that what is at issue is literally not NRM,or FDC or DP or UPC but the question of whether or not our country will survive beyond the current leaders.

Now, I’ve been sort of intrigued by the press coverage since rumours started that im interested in the presidency of this country. First of all, I think whoever started this rumour has most accurately captured the essence of the need for change in our country. I want to declare it today that I will stand for presidency in 2016 as long as our chairman does not stand.

Now, there has been an enormous effort in the Kampala elite to avoid the reality that this conference is actually about some fairly big ideas: which direction do you want the party to go in? There are those who argue that the chairman of the party should have absolute control including appointing the Secretary General. While we respect their ideas, we also think that they aren’t different from those who agitated for Amin to declare himself the life president in the 1970s. NRM could do better than an Amin. We don’t want an Amin at the helm of our party or a leader micromanaging virtually every part of the country.

Continues……….

Please forgive and give Sarah Kagingo her job back

Joseph Owino

Friends:

Who is updating us now on Statehouse ‘lugambo’ now that Ms. Sarah Kagingo is locked out? We are missing the updates as they too seem to have been suspended at the same time as Sarah. I reckon Sarah’s bosses behaved like a merchant updating his inventory by first burning down his store. The ‘store’ was Sarah because he introduced them to the social media, and I’m afraid a new face may not cut it for a lot of people.

This time I’m gonna fault my sister, Sarah Kagingo, for trusting people she doesn’t know very well. She should never have trusted Mr. Joseph Owino with the passwords to access the president’s accounts. By the way, Owino is now a member of UAH on facebook.

That said, I just don’t know why everybody is making a big deal out of this hacking business.It was even another pointless point on Tamale Mirundi’s part to get involved because its gonna bring him some problems.He keeps this up and and he’ll be batting a1000 statehouse battles in no time.

Everybody’s account(banking online, Facebook, twitter, e.t.c) can be hacked into, and everybody is capable of impersonating anybody on Facebook. And the chances of the police catching them are almost nil. It is even a wastage of tax payers’ money to probe Mr.James Owino. It is scary that some people seem to actually believe the trash that Uganda police could tack anybody on Facebook.They could track someone behind an Email address,but not Facebook. And Facebook rarely helps authorities in trivial matters such as this one. Anybody can improperly and covertly hack into computers used by Statehouse and possibly get away with it.

This incident has two lessons for us:

1-The president and individuals in the executive branch should absolutely keep private communications absolutely private.If the communication is NOT critical to national security, or any of the govt business, we have no business knowing about it. For instance, pics of a 70 plus Museveni celebrating his birthday is none of our damn business.There is no form of government anywhere on earth where everyone is allowed to know everything that the government does. Which is perfectly understandable, up to a point.

2- “Free” space in the digital “cloud”or anywhere on internet is not to be trusted. To put it another way, if you don’t pay for it, you don’t control it, and even if you do pay for it, chances are that you have limited control.

Now, statehouse should let Sarah get back to job because we adore her. Mr.Tamale should cool it. I know he has got a big one(mouth) on him. And everybody is happy happy! Oh, And it doesn’t cost $1600 or $ 160,000 to run twitter/facebook Accounts.

Nze bwendaba banange!

Abbey

14 DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM(By Dr. Lawrence Britt)

This is a must read by all Ugandans on UAH or elsewhere to know where you fall.Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

WHY WE SHOULDN’T SUPPORT THE MUHOOZI PRESIDENCY!

Friends,

Here is part of Hitler’s speech at Rheinmetall-Borsig Works, Berlin, on December 10, 1940:

“In this Anglo-French world there exists, as it were, democracy, which means the rule of the people by the people. Now the people must possess some means of giving expression to their thoughts or their wishes. Examining this problem more closely, we see that the people themselves have originally no convictions of their own. Their convictions are formed,of course, just as everywhere else. The decisive question is who enlightens the people,who educates them? In those countries, it is actually capital that rules; that is, nothing more than a clique of a few hundred men who possess untold wealth and, as a consequence of the peculiar structure of their national life, are more or less independent and free…………….It is my ambition to make the German people rich and to make the German homeland beautiful. I want the standard of living of the individual raised. I want us to have the most beautiful and the finest civilization. I should like the theater – in fact, the whole of German civilization – to benefit all the people and not to exist only for the upper ten thousand, as is the case in England.”

The speech was too long and I have picked the bits that may be relevant to what i wish to say on this point. Yes, pay your attention to the word:’ambition’. At the recent NRM NEC meeting, president Museveni is reported to have said:“We revolutionaries don’t talk about ambition. You can have ambition but not at the expense of sacrifice; ambition – I want, I want, I want – is just reactionary thinking.”

I think the president is being dishonest about this. Everybody has got ambition.He had ambition when he launched a guerrilla war against Obote in 1980s. Hitler had ambition and he considered himself a ‘revolutionary’, didn’t he? What Museveni is promoting is called utopianism, which banishes good, creative freedom–entrepreneurship, energy, dynamism, ambition, competitiveness, innovation, openness, honesty, etc. And I reckon our president will fail at some stage because it is not sustainable. He is trying to keep so many balls in air, as Hitler did, but there is a thing called ‘making a blunder’, and I guess his(Museveni) first blunder was arguably the removal of the presidential term limits from the constitution.

I remember listening to late Dr. Sula Kiggundu(RIP) on some Fm radio station saying that term limits was our ‘insurance policy’ against any president we don’t like, against wars and stuff like that, but few of the NRM MPs took it seriously at the time. They only looked at today instead of tomorrow. What they forgot was that when someone starts a war purposely to remove president Museveni or attempts to assassinate him, basically because they want change, all of us undoubtedly get affected. The properties they(MPs) have accumulated get destroyed in the process; the kids they have had die instantly as part of collateral damage; the businesses they have started up all kiss each other good bye………….we all lose something here. But it takes someone who looks so far not to accept to be bought with a mere shs.5m just to change something as important as term limits were/are. People are so greedy nowadays and I wonder why!

The second blunder he is making, if it comes to pass and i believe it will, is trying to impose his son on Ugandans. That’s not cool at all. Yes, Mr.Muhoozi is entitled to stand for presidency like any other Uganda citizen and I’m not trivializing his major responsibilities in the army(UPDF), but I just don’t think that this is the time for a little developing country, like Uganda, to start a system(father to son) that will be difficult to evolve into something good for everybody in the long term.

The simplistic understanding of this should be a system that gives everybody a chance to stand and win the presidency fairly, which is not the case in Uganda at the moment, but we should aspire for something like that. A father- to- son presidency is way a bit over the top for us compared to the already developed nations with strong systems in place! Trust me, the US has more layers of control in this regard than a lot of other countries.

Let me broaden this a bit: Mrs.Jack-chan Mbabazi is quoted to have said that Museveni fears competition, right? Every human being on the planet is instinctively trying to promote themselves or their own.One way to win the competition is to either kill your competitors, keep them under lock, or surprise them. I believe Museveni, like any other human being, has been doing any of the three for nearly three decades. And it looks like we don’t even have a system in place yet that will prevent his son, if he takes over, from not doing the same when he gets the presidency, and that should worry everyone promoting or not promoting the Muhozi presidency.

Basically,the system we should promote is where the goal isn’t to be that the president and his family are the major beneficiaries. We call this simply political “civilization”. Look at a cat and a dog.They have basically the same organs in approximately the same places.There are differences in shape, but the differences in shape of domestic dogs is far greater, and this could be explained by different environments of the two. We need to find a system that gives a lot of people chances to become what they want to be in life, regardless of the environment or who is in charge!

By the way, when is Mbabazi Amama pulling the ‘I will show you’ card? I guess he will have to think about this in his three months leave, won’t he? My only concern is, whatever he is planning, we need to protect the few trees still standing. His misunderstandings with Museveni should not comprise the safety of other Ugandans! I still think Mbabazi is a loyal stiff who’ll, at least publicly, back Museveni up all the way to the end because he has little choice.I can’t see him opening his mouth attacking the president openly while still in Uganda.No,that would cut his own throat! Well, as they say: ‘What goes around, comes around’ (no pun intended).

Byebyo ebyange banange!

—

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

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

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‘“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth.” ― William Faulkner