Uganda as a State is an illusion right now!

The geopolitical dynamics in Eastern African is one that must be of interest to the members of the civil society. The many violent conflicts in the region have changed the political fortunes of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni by giving him a huge advantage over his competitors. The wars in Somalia and Sudan have given Museveni unprecedented relevance in the region at the time when Ugandans are fed up with him. Both the African Union and the United Nations will agree that Museveni has become very resourceful and useful person in their efforts to pacify Somalia and Sudan.
It is important to understand that President Museveni’s many years in power have come at a very high human cost. The sum total of all the lives lost in Luwero, Northern Uganda, Teso, Karamoja, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan in the last 26 years, and now in Somalia, all speaks to the success of a man that has been fueled by blood and iron. Museveni comes across as a great emperor of his time, but in essence, he is an imperial agent.
Museveni has benefitted militarily from his active participation in proxy wars in the region. He has been able to build one of the most proficient armies in the region and at high cost, he has equipped them well. The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Force is one of the most sophisticated armies according to international military intelligence. Its partisan leadership ensures loyalty to the person of the President. The majority of officers in that army are from the ethnic group of the President and that makes it easy for his control.
The other significance of the persisting violence is the political fortune that Museveni enjoys over his opponents. The very same UPDF and its affiliates in the Police have become brutal instruments of political repression at home. Because of the regional juxtaposition, Museveni finds himself in no position to empathize with the opposition. After all, it is clear that his UN, AU, US, EU colleagues for whom he has served relentlessly, cannot question his human rights credentials as yet.
Recently, a member of the British Parliament was quoted to have insinuated that the British embassy in Uganda is too afraid to point out the precarious conditions of the opposition to Museveni.  Museveni, with his pomp, has not been shy to intimidate and threaten these foreign dignitaries and the so-called donor community into subservience. The ill treatment, rampant arrests and outlawing of political groups in Uganda signifies the dearth of political freedom. Ugandans once again have found themselves under the claws of a vicious tyrant and warmonger. The dictates are that we have to invest in removing oppression imposed by a state over the people and not the social conditions that thwart human progress.
We must understand that wars in this neo-liberal era have become a commodity in the free market. Armies and leaders like Museveni become mercenaries and merchants in these wars. The dividends accruing from such a war translate into repression on the common man. The profits from such wars furnish luxurious lifestyles for the warmongers. The rest gets reinvested into the war. The ordinary person is staked and suppressed so that their taxes are expropriated violently.
The over reliance on war for political survival can inspire an additional explanation for the rampant corruption and decline in quality of human resources. The government has significantly reduced its spending on education but has quadrupled its expenditures on the Defence. The defence budget is not to protect the territorial integrity of Uganda, but the political interest therein.
Regional peace is an inevitable utopia; to attain it at the expense of social services for our citizens is as treacherous. A vibrant Eastern Africa economy without competitively skilled manpower only furthers the disempowerment of the people and speeds the process of neo-colonialism. In the liberal markets, Ugandans supply Agricultural products like tomatoes and okra in unprocessed forms. Foreign agents like MacDonald and Nandos will supply fried chicken with ketchup and mayonnaise at high value.
Without properly funded education sector we are doomed. At the moment, the essence of the State is obscure and the apathy accruing towards the State makes the charges of terrorism even for a journalist holding a pen, inevitable. Uganda as a State is an illusion to many of us!!
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Ban on A4C is Bad for our Political Stability

The NRM’s Attorney General, Mr. Peter Nyombi has moved swiftly to outlaw the A4C (Activities for Change) political pressure group and all their activities. By doing this, Mr. Nyombi has scaled the Ugandan regime to a full blown Military autocracy. For the A4C, they have been personified and elevated in profile to the popularity of ANC in Apartheid South Africa. What transpires from here onwards will define the political future of Uganda and perhaps, challenge the sustainability of so-called political stability in the country.

The NRMO regime has been masquerading as a government which promotes democracy and rule of law. No democratic government bans the political activities of its opposition and that of civil society. The regime has abrogated many provisions of the 1998 Constitution of Uganda; most notable are provisions in Chapter 4 (Protection and promotion of fundamental and other rights and freedoms)

By creating an environment that promotes discrimination based on ethnicity in national resource distribution, the imbalances in distribution of public officers has become alarming. The regime has specialized in arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of Ugandans; it has promoted corruption and exemplified it throughout the society. The regime’s monopoly on power and organizing of phony elections has deprived it of any democratic credentials. Museveni now relies on brutality and invocation of ancient colonial rules to subdue the opposition.

Our history shows that the Ugandan society is a dynamic one that will constantly evolve through innovative ways to oppose and remove dictatorship. If Uganda is to consolidate some of its so-called economic gains, the current leadership must embrace dialogue.

We cannot celebrate lopsided economy skewed to one region and to cronies. Uganda as a whole deserves a fair share of national resources at every level of participation and decision making. This is not happening. We witness senseless extra-judicial killings and humiliation of innocent Ugandans daily. The continued use of White Boers machineries to suppress Ugandans is very heartbreaking. It reveals that the regime has adopted colonial modes of repressions and dehumanization of Ugandans.

This reprehensible brutality should enrage the international community and neo-liberal ideologues who have continued to invest in sustaining these brutes. Good governance is a requisite condition for sustaining economic growth and social development. We have learnt from many situations that when the pillars of society collapse, that society literally decays and takes longer to rebuild. We could avert such dangers through dialogue, accepting civility and humility by treating opposition groups with due respect.

President Museveni has become staunch regional collaborator and agent of neo-liberalism. His government has reneged on all its obligation to provide services to the population in preference for enriching few of his cronies. Our institutions have collapsed because of incompetence, deliberate negligence and corruption perpetuated by the very establishment.

Ugandans have been deprived of their rights to enjoy a reasonable standard of living because their souls have been sold to the capitalists. The luxuries that President Museveni enjoys are derived from mortgaging Ugandans and their assets. The moneys that he lavishes to his cronies and those stashed away in foreign capitals are the price money for the heads and property of Ugandans.

In return, the space for expression has become narrower by the day as the militarized Police unleash terror on Ugandans.  The situation is pushing many Ugandans underground, to a place where they have to make tough decisions; whether to accept living under servitude or move towards liberation to once again free our besieged country and our commodified people.

Banning A4C pressure group and prohibiting their activities only points to the direction that this government has no intentions to end its impunity. Our history is overloaded with examples of regimes that lasted for many years by subduing its’ people but eventually collapsed. The Kampala regime is worse than Kamuzu Banda’s and Mobutu’s Sse seko’s regimes combined. But Ugandans are very resilient and resolute: as you close one door, they will struggle graciously to open the next door of optimism.

What I fail to understand is why we never really learn from our tragic history. This regime has decayed and degenerated such that conceptualizing an alternative shade is inevitable!

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Why has President Museveni ignored the Nodding Disease?

LETTERS

I have followed government’s response to the nodding diseases crisis in Northern Uganda for a while now and I must state that it is not impressive. Despite the efforts by Ministry of Health to locate funds for programs to support the families, the impact of this disease on children in Northern Uganda aged 15 years and below is overwhelming. Unfortunately, there is no much political will from the central government to address this health hazard leading to resource strains within MOH.

Here we have 3,000 children affected with this strange disease with many more gradually developing signs and symptoms and the President of the Republic of Uganda is not bothered or concerned at all. In the last couple of weeks, the President has summoned NRM Caucuses and Cabinet meetings more than ten times, but in each meeting, saving the neck of his Ministers infected with incurable disease of corruption has filled the agenda – not the nodding disease. Where is the patriotism and compassion?

In his recent public appearances, or addresses to the Nation, President Museveni has not mentioned the nodding disease and the plight of those affected children for once. This form of indifference to Northern Uganda from the centers of power is nothing new, but to ignore this nodding disease and those children is actually very strange and telling.

You may wonder why it is very important for Mr Museveni to mention nodding disease and pay attention to it. In Uganda, unless the President speaks about something, nothing actually gets done. His continued silence appears to be a conspiracy against these children who are in dire need of immediate assistance. The President must place orders for serious resource mobilization to make funding and services available for the children and their devastated families.

This is a direct appeal to the President to bring his much required attention to fighting nodding disease in Northern Uganda. Mr. President, 3,000 children are enduring horrible health conditions that have left their families in utter shock requiring lots of psychosocial and welfare support. The entire future of Acholi is at stake and if that really means anything to you and your government, then you are challenged to lend an ear! The region could do with some supplemental budget as well.

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Nodding Disease: What is the motive of Government of Uganda?

NODDING DISEASE

The increasing incidence of Nodding disease that is mowing children from their prime in the Acholi region is soon exceeding epidemic proportions. The lacklustre response by the Government of Uganda towards this rather mysterious disease is one that is alarming. Today, over 3000 children have been reported affected. Two hundred (200) deaths associated with this disease have been reported.  The delay by the Government to respond to this problem is an eye opener and speaks loud of the genocidal motives that the regime has against the Acholi people.

The nodding disease is a very frustrating, elusive and yet very progressive in its debilitation. Its impact on the victims is heartbreaking given the inadequacy of facilities, professional support and lack of political will to curtail it. Efforts are in place by various authorities, notably among them is the Center for Disease Control and World Health Organization. The CDC has been studying the natural history of nodding disease but they have not been able to identify the causes of this disease.

On the part of the Government of Uganda, nothing fundamental has been done to arrest the spread of the disease and to provide substantive support to the families that is losing their children to this dreadful disease. Clearly, the government cannot excuse itself for being broke. The kinds of money being doled out in frivolous compensations to the likes of Bassajjabalaba and the oil companies, surely could do a great job in extending some basic facilities and human services to the victims of nodding disease.

By now, a responsible government would have provided pediatric units in the three districts of Agago, Pader and Kitgum that are most affected specifically dedicated to monitoring this disease. These children need to have consistent care and clean environment to be nursed in. They need to be fed decently at least and treated humanely.

Most of Northern Uganda is experiencing lots of crises. There are many people living with disability as a consequence of the two decades of war. A lot are still infected and are getting infected with HIV. The overall picture is that most children live in grandma headed or child headed poor households. Given the terrifying demands of this nodding disease and the associated high cost of accessing healthcare, the impoverished elderly guardians are easily stressed and become sickly too.

Somehow, when you see the pictures of the children sprawled in hospital corridors in Youtube, you shudder inside and wonder whether these are Ugandan citizens. Is this a Uganda where its leaders fly in personalized jets; dole out millions for new cars for elected officials and pay out callous compensations to crooked businesses and yet it takes them years to rescue children in dire need?

The socio-economic inequity in Uganda is one that is glaring. But when it comes to the collapse of the infrastructure, people in Northern Uganda are still living marginally. In Western Uganda, when drought hits that part of the Country, the government declares a State of Emergency. This is because Western Uganda is home to the rulers and famed as cattle corridor. Cattle in western Uganda are more important than Ugandans in the North.

When Ebola came to ravage Acholiland, the government refused to declare state of emergency; when the war was intense and Northern Uganda was unliveable, the regime refused to declare state of emergency. In fact, when the Bududda landslide happened, it covered three villages and killed nearly 350 people. The government refused to declare state of emergency. But when drought hit Western Uganda, the government was quick to declare state of emergency.

The implication is dire; that cattle in Uganda are more important than human beings. Moreso, those in Northern Uganda are least valuable as we can see from this disinterest in responding to the plight of the children wilting away to the dreadful Nodding disease.

To let Children die in such humiliation is inhuman and should be treated as a form of genocide because children are the foliage of our societies. When these children die systematically or become permanently disabled due to state neglect, their entire generation will be at limbo and the generational gap in Acholi will increase. These children are the foundation of a new Acholi that has struggled to emerge from the debris of two decades of conflict.

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Amuru Land grabs maybe a recipe for Revolt

Usurpation of Land

The news that Madhvani group of companies have secured Court victory over Amuru residents to acquire 40,000 acres of land is one that is lamentable. By this action, Madhvani is stating unequivocally that their investment interests supersede the fundamental rights of the Amuru residents. In supporting and advancing Madhvani’s interests the NRM regime is explicit in forceful usurpation of customary land, whose bona fide owners must now leave without any compensation. These massive and rampant land grabs will in the near future become a recipe for revolt against the regime.
For many years, the Acholi community has been aware that Amuru land is a prime target by elements within the government. It all started in the 90s with a ploy from Salim Saleh’s company, Danze. Their efforts were effectively thwarted by strong leadership of Hon Norbert Mao and Hon. Livingstone Okello Okello in cahoots with other Acholi MPs and local leaders then.
Luckily, Acholi region had always elected strong representatives to Parliament who fought for their rights and plights. Going into the 2011 elections, a false change of heart had impressed upon the people that the NRM regime was no longer interested in slighting them. There were many programs that enforced the resettlement of IDPs. These programs also incentivized the locals through handing out of improved seeds, farm implements and some seed money in the form of Saccos. For the people who had endured two decades of genocide, any such opportunities that would help them emerge out of their precarious condition were acceptable.
One thing that the Amuru people forgot is that NRM is an ideology set out on a long course of action targeting the restructuring of Acholi society into slave laborers. It is justifiable to treat NRM with contempt and suspicion of sinister motives. Indeed, the political implication of the resettlement, and the subsequent inundation with material goods, played well with the minds of the locals. For them the NRM had brought the war to an end and was willing to resettle them back to their homes. But they also hoped that through the ballot, they would extend an olive branch to the regime to cement a new relationship. Clearly, while the Acholi people are forgiving, the NRM under President Museveni is not.
I am pained to see thousands of people being horded away viciously from their land and their makeshift hurts being broken down. Uganda Wild life Authority has started a process of evicting 6,000 families from Amuru claiming that they are settled on National Game Reserve. Again, sugar canes and wild life have become more important than hapless human beings. The situation is truly disheartening.
I do take fault at the opportunistic elements within Amuru communities who sold their souls for few pieces of gold to the NRM. No matter how some people may view 2011 election as rigged, Amuru had traditionally voted against NRM with ease. The idea that vote rigging accounts for success of NRM MPs is stale because of precedent. Previous elections saw opposition groups emerge victorious. This last voting was indeed regrettable and pitiful.
Imagine since the Madhvani Court ruling and UWA evictions, nowhere in the media, or in the House (Parliament), the conspicuous absence of the representatives of Amuru people from action is shocking. Both Hon Jacob Oulanya and Hon Richard Todwong have derelected their duties of representation, leaving the masses on their own. This is outright irresponsible conduct and both these MPs must be held accountable for utter betrayal.
People from Acholi and especially from Amuru are not stupid. They may be forgiving, but certainly time will come when they will contract with zeal in search of new and more attached representatives. It is a big lesson to skeptics who think the NRM intends any good for the wretched masses in Acholiland.
Definitely, both MPs are in bed with the regime’s attitude that places Sugarcane Plantation before the people. Acholi people are not plantation growers, as such Madhvani was long told that he is not welcome to Amuru and he should rethink his forceful entrance into the heart and soul of our people in Amuru. We anticipate a rocky relationship between Amuru residents and these unscrupulous agents of land grabs.

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The militarized Uganda Police is Too Angry!

Civil Force

I have seen the evolution of the Uganda Police since the President started appointing military generals to transform it. A major shakeup of the Police took place under the Maj. General Katumba Wamala. The President had always judged the police by the way they voted and dismissed the civil force as remnants of the Obote era. Maj General Kale Kayihura has overly militarized the Police and made them too angry uncivil and uncouth!

I recall quite well that by the time NRM came to power, the Uganda Police was already a wreck. Their living conditions were no better than broken debris of colonial style makeshifts. In every Police barracks one goes, from Naguru, Nsambya and wherever Police Barracks existed, the diminutive existence of this group was stellar in its overall presentation. An ordinary Policeman lived alone in hot and inhuman Unipots if he were lucky. Most of them shared small houses with large families. One constant feature of any Police barracks was bustling sewerage system that snaked through the terrible road conditions. Overcrowding and congestion were commonplace.

Civil servants in Uganda are quite admirable groups when it comes to enduring the greed of the political class. While the Police and teachers have endured the most humiliation in our society, their commitment and zeal to execute their duties remained impeccable and incorruptible. They were on their duty stations on time even when their salaries always came in arrears, many months late. They forfeited civilian lifestyle that they could not afford and remained neatly tucked in their regimented lives of rations.

I recall the many children from Police barracks that we attended schools in Naguru with. Even when they could not afford the luxuries that other kids had, such as having pocket change to buy pancakes and so forth, they soldiered on through the day undisturbed. Often they were the nicest kids, quite humble, sociable and caring. They never spoke much about their own imaginations in public for fear of being ridiculed by society and yet, inside, they had their separate dreams.

The struggles of regular Policeman, to a greater extent, were reflected on the humble faces of their children. But the disparities that existed between the regular constables, the traffic offers (most corrupted) and the officers were such a sharp contrast. Even then, any son of a Police officer would never be seen in public to show off or brag about comfort of life or might of the father as we see nowadays.

Definitely, the disciplined and professional Police of the 80s and 90s are nonexistent now. What we have now are a bunch of angry dastardly machines dressed up in Police Uniforms. The real professional police which was a civil force has been inadvertently replaced by military men who are loaded with and aligned to the NRM’s ideology or corruption and repression.

Every time I see the pictures of the Police officers in action; either detaining or violating the rights of opposition leaders, my faith in them sinks. Our generation were taught that the primary duties of the Police are to keep law and order. The Kayihura Police is just too angry to do any of those civil duties. Instead, they cause civil unrest and participate shamelessly in violating fundamental human liberties for which the force should actually be safeguarding.

I have never seen any angry Police Commanders like the ones I see in the media in action in Kasangati and Gayaza. I have advised my friends not to ever frequent this side of Kampala because of these angry Policemen who appear as if they were perennially constipated. This is largely due to the experiences of Col Besigye when the police littered his farm with faeces after feeding on beans and posho.

It is a pity indeed that the Uganda Police has crafted an image as a toolkit for repression of the masses. This is very bad for our infantile democracy and more so for economic development because the Police is supposed to be impartial force if they are to protect all Ugandans and their properties irrespective of their political or ideological differences.

It is even strange how the Police of nowadays are prophetic, in that they foresee intent before the act. The militarized Uganda Police is just too angry a force and it must be revitalized, counselled and rehabilitated henceforth to civility!!

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NRM has no legitimacy in the fight against corruption

In this article I contend that any fight against corruption in Uganda cannot be successful unless we redefined the social contract between state actors and the masses by changing the NRM regime which lacks the legitimacy in fighting corruption. Corruption has increasingly redefined human relations thereby undermining the very tenets upon which a credible authority is established in society like Uganda.

Social contracts exists when society when morality exists in politics. When politics is deprived of the ingredient of morality, what we see is havoc because by nature man is an insatiable beast. Political theorists will concur that Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau have given this concept sufficient exposition and defense by emphasizing that a person’s moral and political obligations must be dependent on the social contract between them and the society they live in.

The postmodern phislosopher John Rawl took a liking for Emmanuel Kant’s theory known as “Kantianism” and gave it a modern revamp in his 1972 “The theory of Justice” by arguing that each one of us (man) has the capacity to reason from a universal point of view, which in turn means that we have the particular moral capacity of judging principles from an impartial standpoint. In other words, Rawl argues that our moral and political points of views are mostly attained via impartiality.

The above texts help to illuminate a number of disparities in our fights against corruption. First, that either the social contract that exists between public figures that plunder our resources lacks moral component. Second, that society largely condones and is tolerant to corruptions. Third, that we exist in a largely remote society where we are unconscious of the numerous shapes and forms associated with corruption and how it impacts on our very being as society. Finally, that justice could never be exacted on the corrupt on behalf of society because we lack impartial authority to do that!

Our infantile democracy is always tainted with fraud and malpractices such as voter bribery. When we cheat in election, we basically manufacture consent from the masses through fraudulent means, including coercion. This greatly undermines the power of the people in constituting credible government. Our election processes are therefore illegitimate and immoral in that sense and only helps propel individual greed above common good. This makes the fight against corruption a difficult task because the product of an immoral or illegal transaction breeds equally illegal product - corruption.

The implication is that because most of those elected are guilty of partaking in an immoral process to attaining political power, they cannot be impartial to acts of corruption. Thus, they lack the political will and the fundamentals – the morals to decisively fight against corruption, thus the gerrymandering in Parliament and within the executives including IGG institution.

Whether our society tolerates corruption and corrupt tendencies, we can only see this in the way corruption and influence peddling has been handled in Uganda. The recent case of CHOGM involving the former Vice President, Gilbert Bukenya only speaks for itself. The many scandals associated with current Prime Minister, Rt. Hon J.P. Amama Mbabazi is another. The revelations by three ministers and two statehouse employees that the President authorized illegal payments to businessman Bassajjabalaba are another. But the most glaring is the subsequent denial of oversight involving the Bassajjabalaba scandalous payment by the President himself. Who is committing perjury?

There is a trail and track of corruption that link each and every NRM leaders inextricably. In the crime involving huge illegal money, sex and drugs, just follow the money trail and you will catch a Whiteman at the end. In Uganda, it is true; everyone in politics is corrupt, either by association, omission or commission.

One only needed to recognize this when Prime Minister succinctly stated that any fight against corruption that targets him, is intended to overthrow Museveni. Such statements help buttress the corrupt in power, legitimize and normalize the vice and make Museveni loyalists, prime agents of corruption.

Our society has long accepted that corruption was a quicker way of accumulating wealth since Ugandan assets were disposed off fraudulently in the 90s.

Finally, the failure in the fight against corruption is visible when people accused of corruption are carried shoulder high by the taxpayers who have been fleeced. It is even branded as state function when corrupt people are mandated through the ballot to continue in their plunder of the economy unabated!

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