Uganda 2016 Campaign Memoire: Changing times and Acholi's Conscience

During this campaign period, I must say that the most frightening thing for me, was to chat with Acholi youths about post war recovery and the future of our Acholiland. I found a lot of gaps, voids that was not filled with facts. One such, is the loss of vocabulary:

I pained excessively to inform them that if a man raped your mothers, aunties, sisters, etc, such a criminal cannot not be referred to as a benevolent rapist or the able husbands of those he raped. That if a man humiliated your father, massacred your father and their brothers, he cannot be treated as a war hero.

Nicolo Machiavelli in the Prince, wrote: a man will sooner forget the death of his father than the loss of his inheritance" But he also observed that people are so gullible and so caught up with immediate concerns that a conman will always find someone ready to be conned". Interestingly, Machiavelli agrees that "men will always be out to trick you unless you force them to be honest". In these regards, I found the Acholi Youths to be victims of the Museveni con-artistry and yet they have no means to force any of his agents to speak with honesty!

Second such is changing times:

Time have changed and the period of time that Acholi lived in camps, indeed, changed the Acholi people tremendously. Maybe that is what Museveni meant when he said he wanted to tame the backward chauvinist northerners since 1990s. But that aside, one youth informed me gladly that they were born in camps and that they are grateful for Mu7 who brought peace and development because what they are seeing now is different from the camps. I said, good. Did your father also tell you that Mu7 created those camps, deported you there, and allowed degrading conditions to fetter there such that you are alive by a matter of providence?

Third such is uncertainty:

Then the other youths tell me that they are confused because Mu7 is violent and that if Mu7 is defeated, Acholi region would return to war. I am like, dude, all wars in Uganda have been to remove Mu7 from decomposing upon us! People will celebrate once he is removed peacefully by the ballot, duh! Then another told me that Museveni brought a lot of development in Gulu. Then I asked, what kind of development did Mu7 bring to Pader, Lamwo, and Agago? I reflected on the teachings of Machievelli, when he wrote that since men are a sad lot, gratitude is forgotten the moment it's inconvenient. Where would Gulu be without Hon. Reagan, Hon. Olum, Hon. Okello Okello, Hon. Mao, Acholi Religious groups? Weren't these youths just biological substances only 5years ago?

Only one youth shocked me the most: that while in the camp, Mu7 gave acholi people Lutumbere (meaning African Aphrodisiac believed to drive erotic fanaticism), and trapped them onto the wall for another round (rap).

It is indeed painful to hear mature adults offering unsolicited support to Museveni, in a rather blank check sort of thing instead of allowing Mu7 to run for his money. Look, the Jews came together after the Holocaust into one formidable group to ensure that they will never be subject to annihilation. Acholi now runs to the wide embrace of their Hitler and lavish him with unsolicited love.

Change Narratives:

In my views, times have changed tremendously. There is some absence of gunshots and systematic state-inspired killings or kidnaps in Acholi. But insecurity is widespread. Poverty, destitution, mental health, disease, illiteracy... I strongly believe that honesty is devoid in the Northern Uganda political narratives. The real deal is that whatever development, or no development that our people vaguely speak about, their strange support for Mu7 only attest to the apathy and deep sense of loss leading to prolonged grief. I know inside them, they want doom to visit Mu7 eternally.

Acholi people need to understand that Acholiland was much more developed and resourced before 1986 than it is today. Second, whatever is there, has been because Acholi leaders and elders put Museveni to account for his atrocities in the North. The North has opposed Mu7 for so long on principles and a lot of those issues still remain unresolved to this date. For instance, the theft of livestock, and the land grab issues have not been resolved. Malcolm X reminds us that the number one cause of revolutions in around the world, have been sparked by land grabs. Whatever solution that have been presented to these problems, are inadequate and honestly, some are objectionable. Look at the breed of cows that is distributed for compensation. I insist, this cow looks miserable, truly appalling. It is like the poorest breed between a Fox and a Donkey.

That said, there is no evidence anywhere which shows a direct correlation between Voting for Mu7 and Development. Places where Mu7 traditionally scores +80% of votes have not developed more than those places that have opposed him - Bunyoro, Busoga, Tooro, Kisoro etc are there to show for my assertions. In any case, places where opposition is fierce, tends to attract mundane ideas - the testing and purification of fine ideas that lead to development.

Conclusion or Confusion:

However, admitting, it has been very painful to speak to the youths of Acholiland about. Their hero is the mastermind of their suffering. the rule of opposites prevails; their truth is the untruth!

I wish you all the best in your new found loving. I know that you Acholi people love passionately, until disaster derails you, then you hate passionately until some appeasement befalls you - and the cycle continues. It is my respect. But heed to my unsolicited caution: Museveni has never been a friend to anyone, not even to himself. His natural ideas are horribly dark and deeply rooted in societal violence, absolute domination, enslaving, conquering etc. I lived through those horrendous years when he found pleasure in bashing Northerners as Backward, Chauvinist, Killers, Insects, etc and his scorn at efforts to pacify northern Uganda. I must admit. Time has changed, and I have not!

End.

* REASONS WHY YOU ARE BROKE" WHILE THE RICH KEEP GETTING RICHER"

NRM Ideology is Incomplete without Duplicity, Militarism and Violence

FALSE IDEOLOGY

Last week, I was treated to one of the best feature stories in a long while. The Daily Monitor on January 30^th, 2016 ran an article titled “What political ideology does NRM stand for?” I found that article very insightful and thought provoking. It incisively unpacked the falsification of what has been promoted as NRM ideology, whereas it is not.

A series by senior Congressman, Amb. Harold Acemah in which he meticulously offered an insightful review of Yoga Adhola’s book had pre-occupied me with the DM. In reading this article about NRM ideology, I reflected very deeply on the various presentations, speeches, short writings and books written by Mr. Museveni and that of Yoga Adhola.

When one reads and interacts with Mzee Yoga Adhola, two parallels emerge; first, in the discourse of explaining ideology, only a true understanding of the deceptions in NRM's ideology emerge as a clutter of ideas. It reveals that Ugandans are not ideologically disorientation, in-fact, the reverse is true. Second, it is easily deducible from the many writings of Mzee Yoga Adhola, Kajabangu ka-Rusoke and Harold Acemah, et al., that the NRM’s central ideology is incomplete without a mention of duplicity, militarism and violence.

In December 2015, President Museveni made a long speech that was carried by many Dailies, titled, “Every political organization must have an ideology”. In that speech, the President defined ideology as the diagnosis of society’s problems and the prescriptions for the cure of those problems. Mr. Museveni claimed that the NRM ideology emerged from the questions: What are the factors that can lead our society, our tribes, our clams, our families, to prosperity in the context of the modern world characterized as it is by the money nexus? And; What are the factors that can lead these component parts of society to security? Accordingly, the answer to these two questions are Prosperity and Security - these became the cornerstones of the so-called NRM ideology.

The search for Prosperity is indeed complimentary to matters of security. Every wealthy member of community, clan, family or individual needs security for his wealth and himself. I found the explanation of NRM ideology as search for Prosperity and Security to be contradictory - either an intellectual fallacy or a dissonance. Look, the history of Uganda is littered with the domineering presence of Mr. Museveni as the active ingredient of violence and insecurity.

Nonetheless, Africa as a continent has many of its own problems. One of such, is intellectual dishonesty, and dishonesty generally. It is imbued in the cultures and conflicting identities of the elite and middle class people who are torn between their Eurocentric conceptualization of the world and their Afrocentric realities.

Any ideology that searches desperately for prosperity and maximization of profit, is obviously capitalistic. The afflictions of capitalism are all well known to society, but the grinding depravity it creates in society is the mainstay of societal conflicts, pitting the wealthy exploiters against the exploited majority. In Capitalist societies, the exploiters are vicious, building towards the so-called 1% who control all the means of production, while the impoverished 99% are left to vend their labour, alienated from the product of it and live perpetually in the shadows of Prosperity. 

The clamour for security by Mr. Museveni therefore signifies the ever increasing inequities in society, where his cronies and foreign investors, the coveted 1%, own nearly 99% of wealth in this country. This makes security becomes a necessity for that group's sustained status quo. 

The real challenge then, is that the, NRM constantly evades its own ideological problems. The NRM was built on reactionary philosophies and dominant pre-independent political thoughts of 1950s and 60s. Mostly liberation sentimentalism from Regis Debray, Franz Fanon et cetra, most of which were, in turn, grounded in Marxism. Unfortunately, the NRM never actually outgrew these mentalities in practice once they became state actors. As such, they are stuck with a contradicting persona, a Marxist spirit with a Capitalist intent.

The Army and the core NRM doctrines remains fiercely Marxist, camouflaged as Pan Africanism. And yet, its policies espouse mindless pursuit of prosperity. The NRM has become diametrically a vicious capitalist.

At the end of it all, Mr. Museveni must liberate himself from self-deceit so as to reconcile his conflicting ideological issues that is causing conflict in society. It is these contradictions that have seen the country split between a terribly impoverished population, and extremely wealthy few. The steady decline and decay of Public facilities and social services reflect the poor judgement and misdiagnosis of the real problems of Uganda. At least, Uganda is not an experiment.

END

Unresolved apathy and chronic skepticism on integrity of Ugandan elections

ELECTION INTEGRITY

A couple of days ago, both the Daily Monitor and the Observer wrote moving editorials highlighting the paradoxes shrouding the integrity of the 2016 elections. In both editorials, the papers questioned the intended silence of the Electoral Commission at the time when all the three leading contenders for the Presidential race are pointing fingers at each other for planning to rig elections.

The history of elections in Uganda is fraught with allegations of vote rigging, and instances where election fraud and all sorts of malpractices have been profound. And yet, somehow, the EC, whose primacy is to provide a legitimate and credible elections seems unfazed by these staggering concerns.

This silence, either by omission or commission, has compounded on the unresolved apathy or escalated the chronic skepticism that electorates have developed towards elections in Uganda.

That aside, since 2001, the Opposition candidates have complained that rigging of elections have been done to the benefit of the incumbent. At various stages, both independent Presidential candidates, Hon. Amama Mbabazi and Prof Venasius Baryamureeba have attested that vote rigging takes place in computers in Kampala. In fact, Gen David Sejusa, who himself was part of the vote rigging system attested while in London that a coterie of intelligence operatives alter vote results in computers from a designated operation rooms at Basiima House, in Kampala.

While in Mbale, Hon. Amama Mbabazi assured his mammoth audience that they should not be worried much about election rigging in Kampala. He directed them to ensure that they cast their ballots and protect the votes to ensure that they were correctly counted and transmitted. Mr. Mbabazi is on record, assuring his audience that they should let him, Hon Mbabazi, take care of what transpires in the computers in Kampala. Anyone can review these utterances on YouTube for confirmation.

This, precisely, is the reason that the country and those who watched the first televised Presidential Campaigns, where utterly shocked at the contradiction of Mr. Mbabazi in denying any knowledge or practices of vote rigging. When the FDC flag bearer, and Presidential Candidate, Col (Rtd). Dr. Kiiza Besigye posed the question whether Mr. Mbabazi was aware of vote rigging and what he thought about it, to our consternation, Mr. Mbabazi flatly denied any knowledge of such practices!

This incidence is of utmost importance for those who are running around the country preaching that Hon. Mbabazi is a reliable person whereas he is not. For me, he failed my test by contradicting himself on such an obvious and yet also a very crucial determinant of the credibility of NRM organized elections.

Mr. Mbabazi has been aloof on many fronts and he finds no remorse in acting innocent. Take for instance when he was confronted by the lived reality of two ordinary Ugandan families in Bwiita-Nakabale Village in Namutamba District. All that Mr. Mbabazi could ask was “Is this how people live?” (Observer, Jan 20, 2016).

It is such traits of dishonesty which worries me that when entrusted with power, Mr. Mbabazi will continue with the same duplicitousness, characteristic of the NRM. They have lied to themselves and to the nation so much that they act shocked when confronted with reality. I only wish that President Museveni could get off his high horse to be confronted by the sorry state of the common man in villages and rural communities as it was with Mr. Mbabazi.

So, when a section of the elite population accuse Dr Besigye of not being able to effectively protect his votes so as to transform the mass support he enjoys in the country side into victory, the answer is obvious. Dealing with mindlessly dishonest operators of the State is a complex affairs. However, vote rigging and the integrity of elections in this country have become even a complex phenomenon that Dr. Besigye alone cannot solve. The defiance noncompliance campaign is asking all of you to come out in large numbers to do your part.

It is your part which is lacking!

END

Forgiving John Patrick Amama Mbabazi

GREED. FORGIVENESS, AMBITIONS

Hon Mao was quoted in the Daily Monitor of January 25, 2016, to have said that he found an imperative to forgive Independent Presidential Candidate, Amama Mbabazi for what might have gone wrong in Northern Uganda while JPAM was still in government. This was at Kaunda Grounds, in Gulu, while pitching for his preferred Candidates.

As a survivor of the Northern Uganda twenty years’ inferno, I have utmost respect for Hon Nobert Mao for his contributions to the prevailing peace in Northern Uganda. In fact, while President Museveni basks in glee over the prevailing peace, unsung heroes like Hon. Mao, should be the ones taking full credit. Mr. Museveni has always resisted peaceful means. Hon. Mao with his colleagues organized around a strong voice, and became household names in every Acholi home during the humiliating war of abrasion.  He ably led a troop of non-combatants who opposed the NRM’s planned annihilation of the people of Northern Uganda.

We all recall the miseries of the 90s, when an articulate and vicious Mao challenged the regime with solid and candid arguments over their plans to radically reduce the northern population by planting a permanent war theatre there. Then Salim Saleh, with his Divinity Union, came for our land, in the pretext that Acholi land could be transformed into “food basket of Africa” amidst the war. 

Apparently, they had marked the entire Amuru to be owned in a long term arrangement by Divinity Union. There were murkier plans than that. What we know now is that Amuru’s potential is not really just a food basket. It is a highly valued oil well, with a rich ecosystem boasting of immense wildlife – a potent for tourism in modern day Uganda. All that wealth, had it not been for the likes of Hon. Mao, Hon Zachary Olum, Hon. Reagan Okumu and others, Amuru would have become an exclusive private estate under the management of Divinity Union as early as the 1990s. Forget that they have now managed to sneak Madhvani in there!

Hon. Mao has fought many battles for peace. Not the kind of wars that Museveni fights – wars of decimation, deportation of citizens into concentration camps, and so forth. Mao fought the ideological wars that eschewed the master plan of annihilation.

In essence, the surviving Acholi population owes their very existence and prevailing peace to the efforts of the able generation of the Mao’s.  To many, they are rightfully Acholi legends, and unsung national heros. They were the leaders that Acholi needed the most, and they performed meticulously to their expectations.

Therefore, the clout that Hon. Mao carries himself with is extraordinary. This explains why I was startled when I read that for all that have passed under the feet of Mababzi while he was a decision maker in this regime, Hon. Mao found forgivenessfor Mbabazi. For me, that is courageous of Hon. Mao. The courage to confront the odious reality when one needed to press the button for accountability, is indeed, statesmanship.

To me, it appears that all those who destroyed this country, will never be made properly accountable. And, it is OK, if the forgiveness, however premature, will get this country to another stage of unity.

The forgiveness from the legend, after-all, is a trade-off, given that JPAM has taken a position as a transition one-term leader, post Museveni era. Even then, I am only guessing from the cue in Hon. Mao’s revelation that JPAM agreed to support his (Mao’s) candidature during the 2021 Presidential Elections.

In the that context, would Mao also forgive Gen. Museveni, Gen. Biraaro, Gen.Kony, Ongwen and others, on my behalf? I mean, Gen. Biraaro, like JPAM, have maintained their defence of the NRA atrocities in Northern Uganda.   Personally, I find it objectionable for such denials, given that the narratives of the over two-decades of mayhem in northern Uganda, are incomplete without an inquest.

Prevailing Peace in Uganda Exposes Museveni’s Anarchism

SOCIETAL VIOLENCE

One of the confusing issues for voters in this campaign is that President Museveni is solely responsible for the prevailing peace in the country. In fact, the prevailing peace has exposed Mr. Museveni’s anarchism and the tendencies to manufacture violence as means of solving problems where peaceful means could suffice. Through violence, Museveni has been able to manufacture consent of unsuspecting voters.

The credit for the prevailing peace in this country should be accorded to the people of Uganda who have scorned violence, the religious and traditional leaders who have mediated for ends to senseless conflicts.

President Museveni should not run a campaign premised on falsehood that he is a champion of peace, whereas he is not. After all, what Ugandans enjoy now, is relative peace, as opposed to a well-deserved absolute peace.

Since independence, Uganda has endured senseless conflicts. To an outsider, Uganda is known for producing cruel savages like Idd Amin, and now a new breed of dictators like Museveni who refuses to leave power, even when his continued tenure is evidently a liability to everything Ugandan.

We have not been lucky with leadership in this country. Amin caused us much pain and indignation; Dr. Obote went to the left, and apparently stole 1980 elections. President Museveni has done everything - even in excess - exceeded all, and remained the active ingredient of violence in Uganda.

Mr. Museveni’s violence can be traced back to his student’s days. Since 1965, the president was involved in forming militant organizations: FRONASA, Uganda Patriotic Movement et cetra. All these organizations were premised on ideology of violence as mode of obtaining social transformation. His predominant narratives are hewed with ingredients of violence and destruction.

Once you embark on studying the various posturing or manifestations of Mr. Museveni, you find no grain of peace and peacefulness in his etic views of society. From his justification of violence using theories and anecdotes from revolutionists while at Dar es-Salaam University, to the practical approach of conscripting children into his NRA ranks, this President has been the most active ingredient of violence in Uganda.

In fact, President Museveni spent nearly 25 years of his rule either fighting, or creating situations that could generate conflict so he could fight. Northern Uganda was a war theatre for two decades. There is no land in East and Central Africa where Museveni’s army has not set foot. Everywhere they went, the attendant violence and destruction of such places, like Bor in Southern Sudan, becomes characteristic.

The violence that characterize election years are always reflective. Promises to crash opponents, return to the bush if not elected, commissioning Police and armed atrocities on opponents to instill fear and uncertainty among the populace. President Museveni always wears military attire and poses for pictures while firing his AK47. Such pictures help to reinvent his image and reputation of violence, and to cement that in the psyche of the population that Mr. Violence is still in charge of this country.

The disappearance of Mr. Christopher Aine, and the arrest of many Go-Forward supporters in Ntungamo and the infamous “poking the “something” “something” of the Leopard” are not isolated incidences. The speculation over the death of Mr. Aine is nothing strange, or far from a possibility. One of the sons of Kifefe was martyred in the same way. After all, every part of Uganda has mass graves and heaps of skulls to show for this regime.

Ugandans should be bold and honest to confront this violence by placing it behind us on February 18^th, 2016. The real active ingredient of insurgency and violence in this country is Mr. Museveni. This, precisely is the reason the country is so tensed up right now with illegal recruitment of militias.

Lastly, the numerous contradictions that he (Mr. Museveni) is not willing to hand over power when defeated at the polls, only signify a possibility for violence. Any prospects of stealing votes this time using any means, including the Biometric Voters’ Verification System, certainly will plunge Uganda into turmoil. Let’s defy.

END

Uganda: 2016 General Elections cannot be qualified as peaceful, free and fair.

#UGDecides2016

The International Election Monitors are in Uganda and they need to be oriented that there will never be a “peaceful”, “free and fair” elections. This will help them when reproducing, or recycling their rather menacing reports that usually concludes that “generally the elections were peaceful, free and fair”.  At least, the 2016 general elections cannot be qualified as peaceful, free and fair.

First, it is important to note that the 1995 Constitution makes it impossible to hold a truly “free and fair” elections anywhere in Uganda. It concentrates too much power in the hands of the President, and it is designed in such a way that an incumbent, when seeking for re-elections, contests as the state - not a Party candidate. 

As such, it is very difficult to separate the incumbent, his Party and the State – they are inseparably fused. The Constitution does not require that an incumbent relinquishes power to a neutral Party, so as to separate the individual or his Party from the State. This is critical. While contesting for the Presidency, this particular incumbent President continues to implement Party programs using State resources - funds his old pledges, orders road constructions, commands extra-judicial arrests of opponents, et cetra.

The second problem is inherent in this concentrated Presidential powers, which makes him the appointing authority of the Electoral Commission. This has entrenched a culture of clientelism and affective ties, enabling the incumbent to exploit patronage for political legitimation. For instance, the President has ensured that key positions in the Electoral Commission are handled by individuals closely related to him. Both the influential positions of Secretary and Spokesperson of EC are handled by his confidantes and Party loyalists.

The third, is the exploitation of affective ties. The President has appointed his son as the head of the elite Presidential Guard. He has appointed his trusted lieutenants, to head the Police, and transformed the Police from a civil force to a partisan NRM Police. Given his continued occupancy as head of state, the President remains commander-in-chief of all these armed forces during elections. He orders, and deploys them to stifle the operations of his opponents. The personalization and ability to deploy the armed forces as he wishes, makes the “fair” from democracy’s free and fair” lexicon, obsolete.

Are the elections free? This question can best be answered by understanding the inherent relational processes that results from the imbued culture of clientelism and exploits of the affective ties. First, all state organs are headed by cronies and cadres of the President. The EC chair attested that EC derives its livelihood from the executive, which compromises its independence.  

Every head of government agency owes their loyalty to the person of Mr. Museveni for their jobs, not the State. During elections, they must organize all their resources to pay back. This is the directive that the Secretary General of the NRM issues to civil servants, to actively support positions taken by the President, even when it is illegal. Second, when the President orders arrest of people who stop his Party members from breaking the law, and such actions leads to the disappearance of  individuals like Mr. Christopher Aine, the head of security for Mbabazi, it is coercion. 

It is a restraining force intended to strike fear and trepidation in the hearts of the voters. Then the Police blocks Opposition candidates with tear gas and shoots indiscriminately at Opposition rallies using live bullets. The impartiality of the Police in elections, makes the entire process devoid of the “free” component in democracy’s “free and fair” lexicon. The manner in which the Electoral Commission has responded to some candidates, in particular, Dr Besigye, demonstrates that they are no longer in charge of this elections. Clearly, EC has capitulated to a subordination under the NRM Police and their illegal “Crime Preventers” intended to bully villagers and supposedly, tinker with the voters’ registry.

END