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Uganda: Where is Museveni's
Heart?
The Monitor (Kampala)
OPINION
28 January 2008
Beti Kamya
When the White-man came to Kenya holding a Bible, he found us with
our land. He told us to close our eyes to pray. When we opened our
eyes after prayers, we were holding the Bible while he held our
land....." said Jomo Kenyatta as he justified the bloody Mau Mau (Mzungu
Aende Ulaya Muafrika Apate Uhuru) war that ousted colonialism out
of Kenya. Writing this article on January 25, I'm thinking how
befitting that we should remember Kenyatta's words on the eve of
January 26 as we wait to "celebrate" (my foot!) the 22nd
anniversary of the NRM victory!
Indeed, Museveni came holding "peace" and "sleep" while Ugandans
held factories, banks, buses, airplanes, railways, co-operative
unions, food silos, fuel reservoirs, hotels, schools, Kampala City
and land. He convinced us to catch up on the long eluded sleep
while he sorted things out.
We slept for 20 years. When we woke up, we were holding peace
while he held all our assets! And like the Kenyans, we are going
to have to fight to extricate ourselves from Museveni's paws, now
deeply entrenched in our everything. It is not going to be easy,
because no thief, robber, looter or colonialist ever let go of
their loot easily... and Museveni has been more cunning than most,
saving the gun for the final onslaught of Uganda.
Those who may not have noticed, Inspector General of Police, Kale
Kaihura's latest orders, not hold any congregation beyond 20
people without his authority, is worse than article 269 of the
1995 Constitution of Uganda, which banned political parties'
activities except those of the NRM party, and worse than the first
Political Parties and Organisations' Act (PPOA) which restricted
political parties' activities to their headquarters, for which it
was ruled unconstitutional by the High Court.
If fully enforced, which Kaihura's decree is intended to be, one
cannot baptise his/her child and hold a party of more than 20
people without his permission - but that is not the tragedy.
The tragedy is that most Ugandans, especially NRM MPs have not
realised that this country has been repackaged as a revised one
party, vicious, (repeat "vicious"), dictatorship, with their full
support. It has been whispered for long that President Museveni is
not a Ugandan by birth, which I used to dismiss on grounds that it
is enough that he is a Uganda now and that it is his performance
that matters.
Watching how he has systematically destroyed every sector of this
country - the civil service, education, health, industries, police,
parliament, judiciary, transport, the executive - I'm beginning to
wonder whether a born national would do this to her/his country.
Museveni seems to have a vengeance on Uganda, as if the country
was unkind to him and must pay for his suffering. No one can do
what Museveni has done to Uganda unless they have a score to
settle! I appreciate the Rwandese armed group that left Uganda in
1990, most of whom, born and bred in Uganda, could have assumed
Ugandan citizenship, but whose hearts never left Rwanda, even as
they were not yet conceived in their mothers' wombs. I understand
that like every Jew's heart (born and unborn) remained in Israel
during the 1,000 years of exile and yearned to go back, so the
Rwandese hearts, born and unborn, yearned for home.
But where is Museveni's heart? Where does he yearn to go, and if
nowhere, why destroy the only country that he knows? Can't he see
that this sectarian thing he is nurturing is not only dangerous
but unsustainable? Does one need to be soothsayer to see that he
is leading Uganda to a terrible genocide, with only one community
eligible for State House scholarships, lucrative jobs, land
allocation, control of security organisations and the country's
finances in 20 years?
Isn't it obvious that time will come, no matter how long it might
take, when all his misdeeds will be undone, at great cost to his
favoured community?
Museveni might accuse me of a sectarian article but I hope his
overpaid intelligencia tell him that these words are on every pair
of lips in Uganda, and if he doesn't know it yet he is the only
one! My appeal is to the influential Bahima - restrain Museveni,
don't let him do this to you, it is not sustainable, think of your
children, think of the majority Bahima who are not party to this
madness, but who will pay the ultimate price when you,
beneficiaries of the madness have fled.
When the Whiteman found Mau Mau and Mugabe's Zimbabwe too hot to
handle, they went home, when Amin showed Ugandan Indians the door,
they had India to call home, and when things become unbearable for
the White South Africans, they can evoke their British or Dutch
ancestors and return "home", but where will the poor, ordinary,
innocent Bahima go, their home being Uganda? Celebrate wisely,
restrain Museveni.
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