MUSEVENIKAGUTA

M7's One Man rule Renaissance in Uganda!

2012-01-11T15:24:00.000-05:00

In the twenty five years or so since president Museveni has been in power, India, a post colonial democracy just like Uganda that has no term limits, has had 8 changes in leadership. The United Kingdom, our colonial masters, has had five changes in leadership during the same period. Why do we tolorate over extended one man rule in Uganda?Diversity in leadership is critically essential for a dynamic democracy. The only way to achieve it in Uganda is by all opposition parties putting their parochial interests aside and coalescing with a common agenda to gain a majority in parliament and systematically ending this scourge on our democracy!

In M7's Parallel Universe, Obam would remove Term limits!

2012-01-08T23:17:00.000-05:00

The convoluted irony of Obama's current uncertain reelection chances is that if he was a Luo in M7's parallel universe, he would have asked congress in a special election to vote to remove term limits for US president! Then much to the chagrin of republicans he would swiftly win the November elctions with a wide margin under a cloud of suspected rigging and yellow envelopes!

Lessons in a free Democratic process!

2012-01-04T09:54:00.000-05:00

source: Politico.comThe American republican candidate Mitt Romney has won in a dead heat the first contest for his party's nomination for next years USA presidential candidate.In a statement that epitomizes the American democratic process the runner up, Rick Santorum said the following:“What wins in America are bold ideas, sharp contrasts and a plan that includes everyone,” I wish Uganda's political leaders could closely follow this contest through this November's presidential election. They would learn a great deal about free, fair, & transparent election process!

Uganda's politics & the cult of Personalities!

2012-01-03T12:11:00.000-05:00

source: Observer Media Ltd | If Dr. Besigye has already announced his retirement, why are we talking about peace talks between him and M7?If Uganda's destiny depends only on these two men then Ugandans have abdicated the hallmark of a vibrant & dynamic democratic process!

The obsequious legacy of one man rule!

2012-01-02T07:30:00.001-05:00

The unambiguous, legacies of despotism vs democracy is servitude vs liberty. Citizens under democracies are more creative, innovative & live up to their fullest potential simply because of the abundance and unrestricted nature of their liberties!Citizens under despotism ( including hybrid regimes, like M7's Uganda ) tend to be more servile, fawningly following one leader & never reaping the potential synergies of their diversity simply because of the stifling arbitrary limitations on their liberty.The fundamental question for Uganda's future is: Do we obsequiously keep following M7's anachronistic one man rule model? Or do we cut a new dynamic path of diversity in leadership that will unleash the fullest potential of our country?The opposition needs to collectively instill and use this narrative to their advantage!

The Pervasive Patronage Network in M7's Uganda

2011-12-19T01:03:00.000-05:00

A well known secret in Uganda is the free flow of money & largess, like the use of yellow envelops by the president, that underpins M7's patronage system. It distorts policies, influences election outcomes, and favors M7's stay in power!The web of Patronage network is a cancer eating away at the very core of Uganda's democracy!Its the currency of M7's stranglehold on Uganda's political landscape that has contaminated the country's democratic process.In her well written narrative of "Museveni's Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid Regime" - Professor Aili Mari Tripp says the way the NRM came to assert its dominance is through the central government's relationships with local governments and its control of district level appointments and funds. In the process the NRM has built a patronage network that serves it well during elections. To guarantee they keep their jobs NRM government appointed district commissioners end up as political mobilizers for the NRM during elections, sometimes preventing non-NRM supporters from campaigning and voting.In a country where the government is the main source of employment, careers and social mobility can only be achieved by getting involved in the web of patronage relationships, especially for the working poor peasant majority.It is difficult to maintain a patronage system without corruption and that's why corruption cases continue to dominate the news in Uganda. Without a patronage network the removal of presidential term limits amendment would never have been possible. Museveni would not have won reelection in February 2011 after 25 years in power! The recent reelection of former vice president Gilbert Bukenya ( who was found guilty of bribing voters! ) would not have been possible.

The Paradox of M7!

2011-12-16T22:19:00.000-05:00

For a man that claimed when he first came to power, that "The problem with African leaders is that the stay in power too long;"M7's greatest lingering contradiction is that he conviniently changed the constitution and created a patronage network to corrupt and cajole the conscience of gullible Ugandans to overextend his stay in power for more than 25 years now!

The Price of Acquiesence!

2011-11-16T22:43:00.001-05:00

“The strongest and most effective force in guaranteeing the long-term maintenance of power is not violence in all the forms deployed by the dominant to control the dominated, but consent in all the forms in which the dominated acquiesce in their own domination.”
Robert Frost quotes (American poet, 1874-1963)

A Maverick!

2011-11-10T21:53:00.001-05:00

"A maverick feels like he has no choice however difficult his choice of expression. In my case, it was going backwards into tonality. It seemed so wrong. The idea that progress is going into the past in a new way is very strange, even though there are precedents." - David Del Tredici

Freedom matters

2011-11-08T22:51:00.001-05:00

"Freedom matters.
Freedom has lifted hundreds of millions of people from poverty.
And inspired oppressed peoples' struggle for human rights.
Freedom means directing our own lives.
And realizing remarkable tomorrows.
Libertarianism is the philosophy of freedom.
Libertarians demand that we respect the rights of individuals. And they recognize that, by doing so, we respect their dignity.
Securing individual rights is the purpose of government.
But government can also threaten our rights.
Libertarians would limit government to protecting life, liberty, and property.
Limiting government to these tasks frees us to experiment, innovate, and prosper.
Libertarianism is the philosophy of freedom, one that places liberty at the center of the human experience.
Because freedom matters."
watch on YouTube

The Hypocrisy of Uganda's Treason Trials!

2011-10-26T07:31:00.001-04:00

The real hypocrisy of Uganda's treason trials is that M7 himself conspired with members of his current government to overthrow an elected government to come to power!

M7 could safeguard his legacy by charting a transition process!

2011-10-25T09:08:00.001-04:00

“ ... like any leader in power for a quarter of a century, Mr Museveni delivers diminishing returns.”

“The suggestion by cronies and some western officials that he is irreplaceable as a force for stability in the region was always self-serving. In light of the uprisings in the Arab world, it sounds absurd. “

“Before it is too late, Uganda’s western allies should be urging him to prepare the ground for his succession during the elected term he began ... – the fourth he has won on a less-than-level playing field. Mr Museveni could safeguard his own legacy by charting the transition himself.”

Original source: Financial Times

A candid look at Uganda's opposition!

2011-10-23T11:33:00.001-04:00

Tensions between the opposition and M7's government came humiliatingly to a head once again this past week with the preventive detention & house arrest of FDC leader Dr. Basigye.

Wikipedia defines preventive detention as an imprisonment imposed not as a punishment for a crime, but in order to prevent a person from commiting a crime, if that person is deemed likely to commit a crime.

After the opposition defied the governments order not to demonstrate during the week when students where sitting for their national Olevel exams, the government basically threw the book at the opposition leader. Knowing the number of tools and leverage available to the governmet under such circumstances, you begin to wonder why the opposition did not see this coming!

Since the oppositions lopsided lose to M7 in the last presidential election, this is just another episode in a string of setbacks the opposition has suffered with more sobering dimensions. Its had to see how the opposition can overcome this current setback without some sole searching for real concessions to at least some of the governments demands.

There is a great deal wrong with M7's government and his overetended stay in power, but comparisons to Gadhafi are a bit exaggerated.

Unlike Gadhafi's Libya, Uganda retains democratic trapings with periodic presidential elections albeit all won by M7 on a less-than level playing field. Uganda also has an elected parliament, with opposition members and a functioning judiciary that has just indicted a former vice president and several current cabinet ministers on corruption charges.

If the opposition has genuine grevicences, why cant it use the judicial process?

M7's Attrition war!

2011-10-21T14:09:00.001-04:00

M7 has so far, successfully played a war of attrition and the oppositions reluctancy to use the judicial process simply places the opposition in a position exactly where M7 wants them to be! Stuck, like deers under headlights in the dark, not exactly sure which way to go.

The only best choice for them is the " interest-based negotiation"; but so far they're stuck in their fixed win or lose bargaining position, which the govt is taking full advantage of with it's attrition approach.

With all the instruments of power and time, M7 has the leverage advantage.

It's very unlikely the Arab spring could happen in Uganda because most of the population is largely rural uniformed peasants whom M7 copouts with largesses! With the security forces still behind him, it's advantage M7 at this point and M7 is hopping his attrition war wears out his opponents!

Positional Bargaining wont solve Uganda’s current political crisis!

2011-10-19T10:56:00.000-04:00

The fixed positions win-lose pitched battles we are witnessing between the opposition and government is not going to solve anything.

The government with all the might and instruments of power at its disposal ( all at taxpayer expense! ) can feel in control by suppressing, locking up, indicting and vanquishing the opposition. But this is only a band-aid to the underlying interests of the opposition and the country at large.

By the same token the opposition can continue to tune out the governments position and interests and this too, is only a costly approach to getting what they want from the government.

The opportunity costs to both sides are going to be incalculable.

For the government, scarce resources at a time of economic stress are being diverted to this avoidable crisis, let alone it's reputation around the world. At home seeds of resentment are being planted now.

For the opposition their time and effort is being diverted to this avoidable stalemate, let alone their personal safety and lives are at stake!

This stalemate can only be mitigated if both sides are engaged in utilizing interest-based negotiation. An approach developed by the Harvard Negotiation Project.

Interest-based negotiation requires antagonists to list the interests behind their positions or demands.

Interests can be satisfied in many different ways. Which is why working with interests leads to many more options than positional bargaining.

In addition, satisfying interests is psychologically much different than caving into another person’s position or demand.

When you end up with satisfied antagonists involved in a dispute, you end up with a joint sense of well-being and pride at having jointly solved a problem. Its a Win-Win solution for all!

Without mediation Uganda is headed into a political crisis abyss!

2011-10-18T08:47:00.000-04:00

M7’s government and the opposition are once again caught in a classic battle of positional bargaining impasse rather than the utilization of interest-based negotiation.

A position is a demand that you are making on someone else. No one likes to be told what to do by someone else, so positional statements tend to get people angry.

Interests on the other hand are those things that underlie positions. They are the reasons justifying the positions.

The opposition’s current position is to assert its constitutional right to hold peaceful demonstrations. M7’s government’s current position insists that the opposition cannot hold those demonstrations at a time when O’level national exams are taking place.

Examples of the governments interests underlying its position might be to prevent the opposition from starting an Arab Spring type of revolution; another is its desire to have the opposition formerly inform & negotiate with the police about their demonstration plans.

The oppositions interests underlying their position might be a guarantee from the government not to interrupt their freedom of movement and have their constitutionally guarantied right to peaceful demonstrations with dignity. The list can go on!

Experts suggest that taking positions has many limitations. “Battles can leave you weakened.” The vanquished( in this case the opposition ) can become perpetual enemies.

With mediation and a cooling off period, the government & the opposition would separately write down their interests that underly their positions, i.e. the reasons justifying their positions. The mediator would then have each side separately review each sides statements of interest after which a preliminary meeting of a specific number of each party delegates would sit down and develop options to satisfy all opposing interests.

Its in the interest of both the government and the opposition to come to a peaceful and lasting resolution to this intractable dispute.

Positional bargaining is a common mode of negotiation in conflicts. People incorrectly believe that not revealing any information is strong, while disclosing information is weak. The basis for this belief is based on a preconscious risk assessment we make in every social situation. Generally speaking, we fear loss more than we desire gain. We will therefore adamantly state our own position, expecting others to listen. Of course, we don’t want to listen to the other person’s position, so we tune it out. Why is it that we expect people to listen and accept our personal positions when we are reluctant to listen and accept theirs? Is there any wonder why conflict can escalate so quickly?

The conflict arising from positional bargaining can be avoided by utilizing interested-based negotiation. This idea was first developed by scholars at the Harvard Negotiation Project and published in the 1981 book “Getting to Yes.” Interest-based negotiation asks people to ascertain the interests beneath their positions. Interests can be satisfied in many different ways. Consequently, working with interests leads to many more options than positional bargaining. In addition, satisfying interests is psychologically much different than caving in to another person’s position. When we have satisfied both our interests and those with whom we are negotiating, we have joint sense of well-being and pride at jointly solving a problem. When we are forced to concede to another’s position, we feel coerced, frustrated and angry over our loss of autonomy.

Unfortunately, interest-based negotiating is not our default method of dealing with differences. Because we have been taught by example that coercion is expedient and efficient, we tend to use coercive negotiating techniques without thinking. We argue, threaten, promise, and wheedle to get our own way.

However, people skilled in interest-based negotiation tend to be superior in conflict resolution, are able to achieve satisfaction of their interests without acrimony, and are able to leave important relationships intact.

Sources for this article: Positions vs. Interests changingminds.org

The Opposition should Focus on Interests, Not Positions

2011-10-17T20:56:00.000-04:00

Its sad that Uganda’s opposition is caught up in this vicious but avoidable conflict of positions impasse with a more powerful adversary when in fact there is ample empirical approaches on the web for an amicable solution to this impasse! Focus on Interests, Not Positions

Uganda's Paternalistic leadership Burden!

2011-10-12T13:52:00.001-04:00

The burden of paternalistic leadership( the implicit practice of entrusting the leadership of Uganda to only one fatherly figure rather than a periodic diverse pool of leadership talent turnovers ) will eventually work to the detriment of our democracy!

The Dichotomy of M7's rule in Uganda!

2011-09-20T15:25:00.000-04:00

A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts: jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, andmutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts.In Uganda's case this dichotomy is exemplified by M7's adoption of the trappings of democracy alongside the pitfalls of despotism for the sole purpose of overextending his stay in power. M7 has in fact adopted "two divergent impulses": one that seems to promote civil rights and political liberties; and another that virtually curtails those same rights and liberties with violence and repression on a whim!

The Best Narrative of M7's Autocracy in Uganda

2011-09-14T12:16:00.000-04:00

Click here to read this book's author's introduction If every Ugandan read this book, M7's perversion of our democracy would be ended. Its similar to but more detailed than Dr. Kobusingye's book, "The correct Line? Uganda Under Museveni", both of which came out at about the same time, but successfully dismissed and ignored by M7's government just a few months before last year's elections.Ugandans have plenty of time now to read and digest the critical information in these books and see in clear perspective the avoidable cliff M7's overextended rule is taking our democracy!In 2009, a documentary about Mubarak's Egypt was broadcast by the BBC world service about the effects of Mubarak's overextended stay in power was having on the country's democracy and Mubarak and his government dismissed and ignored it. Two years later Mubarak's government imploded. Its doubtful M7's overextended stay in power is immune to the realities of a modern informed democracy!

"Watered Down Democracy!"

2011-09-06T20:23:00.000-04:00

There is an interesting article about the recent protests in Africa, in the July - September 2011 issue of Focus on Africa magazine, in which BBC Focus on Africa gathered "three thinkers in Cyberspace" to debate the ramifications of those protests. This included Uganda's managing director of the New Vision newspaper Mr. Robert Kabushenga whose opinions I found not suprising, but peculiar!

Focus on Africa is a subscription only magazine, so I cannot reproduce the entire article here. I will only highlight particular sections:

On the question of whether the days of benign long-serving autocrats are numbered: Uganda's Kabushenga has an emphatic: No. he goes on to say the following: "in Uganda you have an opposition leader - Kizza Besigye - who lost an election and was about to loose the leadership of his party and faced the prospect of an end to his career. So he incited a group of people to turn to violent protests." Professor Stephen Chun, another pannelist in this forum had the following response: " ... Noth Africa will appear more progressive than Eat Africa, where Uganda President Museveni simply doesn't have the imagination to rule with a modicum of flexibility, .. " On the question of whether governments have turned these social protests into political ones as in Uganda. Pfrofessor Chun had the following to say: "The reaction of the Ugandan government turned what was largely a social and economic demonstration into a political one. The luck of dynamic change and new ideas enabled some political undercurrents in the protests. Mr. Kabushenga still insisted that: "What was going on in Kampala was a well organised violent protest by a political section of the opposition. The issue of food prices was just an excuse! Mr. Kabushenga called Besigye a sore perpetual looser; to which professor Chun had the following response: "Robert's point about the sore loser, in Uganda's case the perpetual loser, needs to be balanced with the determination of the perpetual winner to keep perpetually winning. There is a problem about rotation of elites in Uganda. In Egypt, Mubarak kept winning elactions as well. What strikes me about Uganda is the mantle Museveni sometimes dons of having been a "liberation" leader. ... to the effect that liberation leaders are somehow irreplaceable ... "
In a colomn by Ghana's vice president Mr John Dramani Mahama: there is the following quote: The hopes and aspirations of an entire nation are no longer invested in one individual"

M7's Democratic Masquerade !

2011-09-05T04:07:00.001-04:00

Over extended stay in power is an untenable premise in a democracy. It can only be maintained through coercion & manipulation of the democratic process. Unchecked, it's bound to implode soon or later like we've witnessed in the middle east!

In Uganda, M7 continues to masquerade as a democratically elected leader when in fact he is a nuanced version of the middle east despots that have just fallen.

M7 has overseen the changing of the constitution that favored his stay in power.
He has basically perverted our democracy through patronage, largess, and violence against any group that demonstrates against his regime.
M7 recently compared Ugandan's fundamental right to demonstrate peacefully to rioters.
He has imprisoned opponents on trumped up charges.

The Unresolved imperative of Big-man Rule in Uganda!

2011-03-02T16:28:00.000-05:00

The issue of Big-man Rule remains the unresolved democratic imperative in Uganda two years after Obama raised the issue on his first trip to Africa.
Even in Democratic countries with no term limits, M7's uninterrupted 25 year rule raises serious doubts about the means he has used to stay that long in power.

Mr. Young's advice for Uganda's opposition!

2011-02-22T22:13:00.001-05:00

I like your suggestions Mr. Young, but you cannot dismiss the EU observer team conclusion that:

" the electoral process was marred by avoidable administrative and logistical failures which led to an unacceptable number of Ugandan citizens being disenfranchised. Furthermore, the power of incumbency was exercised to such an extent as to compromise severely the level playing field between the competing candidates and political parties.

First, we need some real fundamental changes in the electoral process & restore term limits.

Second, even if the opposition applied all of your ideas, M7's entrenched culture of clientelistic networks that is well documented in Professor Aili Mari Tripp's book leaves the opposition at such a disadvantage in Uganda much as it did in a nuanced way in Egypt for Mubarak or any other despot.

Third the electoral commission & it's chairman should be under the control of all stake holders and not the whims of the president.

Uganda’s elections marred by avoidable failures

2011-02-21T17:05:00.001-05:00

By Baroness Catherine Ashton EU Vice President
and High Representative | Daily Monitor February 22 2011

Click this link to check out the interim report by the EAC-COMESA & IGAD observer team!

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) has been present in Uganda since January 15 following an invitation from the government of Uganda and the Electoral Commission. The EU EOM is led by Edward Scicluna, Member of the European Parliament. The EU EOM deployed 120 observers from 27 EU member states and Norway.

The observers were deployed throughout Uganda to observe and assess the electoral process in accordance with international and regional standards for elections. The EU EOM was joined by a four-member delegation from the European Parliament, led by Joachim Zeller, Member of the European Parliament, which endorses this preliminary statement.

On Election Day, observers visited 643 polling stations and district tallying centres in all the Districts of Uganda to observe voting, counting and the tabulation of results. The EU EOM will remain in country to observe postelection developments. This statement is preliminary; a final report including recommendations for future elections will be published in May 2011. The EU EOM is independent in its findings and conclusions.

Preliminary conclusions

The 2011 Ugandan general elections showed some improvements over the previous elections held in 2006. However, the electoral process was marred by avoidable administrative and logistical failures which led to an unacceptable number of Ugandan citizens being disenfranchised. Furthermore, the power of incumbency was exercised to such an extent as to compromise severely the level playing field between the competing candidates and political parties.

Notwithstanding a number of incidents of violence and intimidation, especially on Election Day, the electoral campaign and polling day were conducted in a peaceful manner. Restraint in campaign rhetoric as well as a generally improved performance by the Ugandan police force contributed to this.

The lack of trust by stakeholders in the fundamental building blocks of the electoral process, namely in the Electoral Commission itself and the National Voter Register, dominated debate at the expense of policy issues, which would normally be at the centre of an election campaign and led to a breakdown of effective communication between the Electoral Commission and many of the stakeholders.

The Electoral Commission is to be commended for meeting best international practice by publishing election results polling station by polling station, which ensures full transparency as well as greater confidence and trust in the results for Uganda’s citizens.
The introduction of electronic transmission of results from district tally centres to the National Tally Centre marked a further improvement. In a further effort to improve transparency and confidence, the Electoral Commission arranged for political party representatives to join Electoral Commissioners in overseeing the printing of presidential and parliamentary ballot papers.

Uganda’s legal framework establishes comprehensive and detailed electoral provisions which provide a workable foundation for the conduct of elections, generally in line with Uganda’s international commitments and obligations. Recent amendments to the Election Acts provide for additional safeguards against electoral offences, but they have addressed neither the main concerns of most national stakeholders, nor the core recommendations of the 2006 EU EOM, such as reform of the Electoral Commissioners’ appointment process.

The campaign was conducted in a fairly open and free environment, in which the freedoms of expression, assembly and association were generally respected. Candidates and parties campaigned intensively, and were mostly able to move freely throughout the country. The distribution of money and gifts by candidates, especially from the ruling party, a practice inconsistent with democratic principles, was widely observed by EU EOM observers.

Citizens, candidates and parties have frequently sought recourse to the courts to resolve critical issues concerning the applicable legal and constitutional framework with regard to elections. Despite being under-resourced, the courts have demonstrated a considerable degree of independence in upholding the rule of law and respect for human rights. The higher courts’ decisions frequently cite international law and precedent, including jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights.

Although the police issued repeated warnings against election-related protests, it is regrettable that no significant effort was undertaken by any state body to educate the public about electoral malpractices and the criminal sanctions they attract. Such failure is prone to instil a sense of impunity.

The state-owned broadcaster, Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), failed to comply with its legal obligations to treat each presidential and parliamentary candidate equally, with its television channel giving the incumbent president and the ruling NRM party substantially more coverage than their nearest rivals.

The government’s dominance of state-owned radio, the only broadcasting network covering almost all areas of the country, was not balanced by private radio stations established outside the capital, which generally provided opposition candidates with very limited access.

Baroness Ashton is EU Vice President
and High Representative

"Museveni goes from big bully to artful dodger" - Daniel Kalinaki .

2011-02-16T17:54:00.001-05:00

"What we have witnessed in this election is the transformation of Museveni from the soldier who bullies and batters his opponents to the politician who buys and bribes out his rivals" - Daniel Kalinak

MY VIEW: Museveni goes from big bully to artful dodger

By Daniel Kalinaki | Daily Monitor Thursday, February 17 2011

If President Museveni wins tomorrow’s election he will not just etch his name in the longevity books but will also have completed the second most tactical shift in strategy since he dropped his Communist-Marxist ideology for Capitalism/Free Market theory.

What we have witnessed in this election is the transformation of Museveni from the soldier who bullies and batters his opponents to the politician who buys and bribes out his rivals.

So in many ways we have made progress from the 2001 and 2006 elections where violence and intimidation were the key tools used to mobilise fear and support but then also gone back to the days of the Obote II government where political opportunism thrived.

President Museveni came into this election at his weakest, with runaway corruption endemic in his inner circle, a culture of impunity that has allowed services to fall apart, and a general incompetence in government that has led many citizens to try and survive inspite of government, rather than thrive because of it.

President Museveni has spent most of his campaign time hiding from the failures of his government in a mastery of the political game of “pass-the-buck”.

Is it bad roads? Blame the weather or the donors who impose conditions on the money they give or lend us to build them.

Is it poor education under the UPE and USE systems? Blame the absentee teachers (many of whom are too busy running side businesses because they are poorly paid).

Is it lack of medicines in government hospitals? Blame it on the doctors who steal the drugs and sell them in their private clinics to make a living.

At a meeting with Commonwealth Observers this week Andrew Mwenda described how Mr Museveni had, during a rally in Masaka, reduced the failures of the NAADS farmer extension programme into the responsibility of the programme coordinator in the district.

There was no mention of the agriculture minister perhaps because that could then raise the question of who appoints them and what it says about their own leadership and management skills.

The Old Man has pulled another rabbit from the hat by turning himself into a victim. Many voters, especially in the villages, believe ‘Mzee’ means well and wants the best for them but is constantly let down by technocrats and bureaucrats. That strategy has been supplemented by a massive spending spree, which we do not have to revisit here.

However, that is a one-shot strategy. If Museveni is re-elected tomorrow and intends to run again in 2016, he cannot expect to return to voters in 2015 and hope that he will sell them the same cock-and-bull story of being let down by his people.

It means that Museveni, if he is re-elected, will have to run an efficient and effective government in which politicians, including the President, take individual responsibility for government actions rather than hide behind the cover of collective responsibility or pass the buck to technocrats.

Unfortunately, that is something the President has failed to do in his 25 years in power and one that he is unlikely to do in the fading days of his political career.

Corrupt governments are incapable of being efficient in their allocation of resources, or being transparent and accountable in their actions because they thrive in dysfunction.

Since it will be harder to beat up opponents or pass the buck in future elections, it just might be that the next President will be one who pays the highest bribe per vote. In which case we have not seen the last of NRM.

dkalinaki@ug.nationmedia.com

Change is a "strategic necessity" - Hillary Clinton

2011-02-05T15:19:00.001-05:00

The following are excerpts( some paraphrased! ) from the US secretary of state remarks at the International Security Conference in Munich. She might as well have directed these remarks to president Museveni!

Change is a "strategic necessity" - it makes nations stronger and more prosperous and less susceptible to extremist ideologies.

"The status quo: "the culture of one man knows best, better than anybody" is simply not sustainable."

"Some leaders may believe that their country is an exception - that their people will not demand greater political or economic opportunities, or that they can be placated with half-measures," Clinton said. "In the short term, that may be true; but in the long-term that is untenable."

"Without genuine progress toward open and accountable political systems, the gap between people and their governments will only grow, and instability will only deepen."

"incremental steps that do not give people full freedom and opportunity only breed further discontent."

"If the events of these past few weeks prove anything, it is that the governments who consistently deny their people freedom and opportunity are the ones who will, in the end, open the door to instability."

Wampologoma emyaaka emeka?

2011-01-28T08:39:00.000-05:00

Nzenina Vision yeka!

If it smells like campaigning it must be campaigning!

2011-01-23T08:34:00.004-05:00

M7 denies campaign help from Kenya!! Yeah Right!

You can fool some people some of the time; But you can't fool people all the time!

I STILL HAVE A DREAM FOR UGANDA!

2011-01-17T14:08:00.007-05:00

Monday January, 16th 2011 is a Federal holiday in the USA in honor of the late Civil Rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Day is observed on the third Monday of January - around the time of Dr. Kings birthday of January 15th.
Born in 1929 and assassinated on April 4th, 1968, at the tender age of 39; Dr. King would have been 83 years old today.

Every year on this day, Americans and the world are reminded particularly of Dr. Kings most famous speech: “I Have A Dream”, in which he challenged Americans especially those in power to live up to the true meaning of the country’s creed: “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.”

“I Have A Dream “ speech continues to resonate throughout the world today for all freedom loving people and especially more so for Ugandans yearning to shake the shackles of one man rule.

In a humble Ugandan rendition version of Dr. Kings speech, I like to say to all Ugandans of good conscious to dare to have a dream also.

That Uganda can live up to the true meaning of its democracy and have the courage to embrace diversity in leadership the next presidential election. And bring an end to the culture overextended Big man Rule.
That small Ugandan children of every tribe and background can grow up to realize the true potential of our diversity in leadership talent rather than than the stifling and marginalizing scourge of one man rule.

And if Uganda is to be a great nation this must become true!

And when this happens, when we allow free & fair elections to prevail, when we let it prevail from every village and every county, from every district and every town, we will be able to speed up that day when all of Uganda’s God's children of every tribe, bush war heros and none bush war heros, Protestants, Muslims, Catholics, or non believers will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the late Dr. Kings old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Vote For Diversity in Leadership on February 18th!

2011-01-13T10:05:00.002-05:00

The future of the most prosperous nations belongs to those states that embrace diversity in leadership rather than the culture and bigotry of one man rule.
Vote for a new generation of leadership in Uganda that will inspire the fullest potential of our diversity and not the anachronistic & stifling oligarchy of one man rule!
Vote to End Big Man Rule once and for all in Uganda!

Universal Primary & Secondary Free Education, were Donor Funded Initiatives!

2010-12-05T00:02:00.001-05:00

In a bid to gain votes M7 introduced free universal education measures as campaign promises when in fact they were funded by donors in their effort to meet their development objectives regardless of the political advantage it gave the incumbent government.

The irony of universal free education is that it was disastrous in the begining because it was hastily introduced in M7's bid to gain votes, the education system was ill prepared for the immediate and massive influx of students. This resulted in well off families sending thier kids to private schools. page 188 - Museveni's Uganda Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid Regime

Why Uganda Deserves a New Leader in 2011

2010-12-03T05:19:00.002-05:00

One major and simple reason why the time for new leadership in Uganda is well overdue is because, no single leader, however brilliant or powerful he may be, has all the answers to solving the most intractible problems of a modern day nation.

Most successful democratic nations today achieve their success by harnessing the synergies and capacity of their diversity in leadership.

M7's continued effort to cling to power is simply anachronistic and Neopatrimonialism to the democratic needs of the future of Uganda.

M7 is Lying about the opposition for political expediency!

2010-11-22T22:36:00.000-05:00

Museveni on Radio Rupiny studios in Gulu district. Centre is talkshow host Rocky Menya and northern Uganda presidential adviser Richard Todwong

By Cyprian Musoke and Chris Ocowun | Newvision Sunday, 21 November, 2010

Its preposterous and disingenuous for M7 to assert that Dr.Otunnu did not help his tribesmen when they were suffering under Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army!

Dr. Otunnu courageously spearheaded the effort to bring the worlds attention to the plight of the people of Northen Uganda, especially the scourge of the wars effect on innocent children as the video below will show.

Liberating the country is often an over used excuse M7 uses against the opposition at election time to perpetuate his one man rule ideology on Uganda.

NOT THIS TIME!: Ugandans and opposition leaders that know the truth must speak out against M7's ridiculous allegetions!

M7 would not have liberated Uganda without many unsung Ugandan heros, dead and alive!

NRM presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni has castigated the opposition for saying he should “go home”. Museveni said he liberated the country while many of his critics were relaxing in European capitals.

Campaigning at Pajule Primary School in Pader district on Saturday, Museveni singled out Uganda presidential candidate Olara Otunnu who for a long time served as undersecretary for child affairs at the UN.

Museveni said Otunnu did not help his tribesmen when they were suffering under Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army

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Read the complete article at Newvision.com

A Reality Check on M7's Campaign Rhetoric!

2010-10-26T19:08:00.013-04:00

Museveni, addressing a crowd at Kololo airstrip | Newvision, Mon. 25th Oct. 2010

Corruption and the country's rapid population growth risk hindering economic growth

M7's Campaign Rhetoric:

Museveni said NRM’s achievements are not only recognised in Uganda, but across the world.

Reality Check:

"Uganda is not as oppressive as Rwanda and is not implicated to the same extent in the bloodletting in neighbouring Congo. But it cannot boast the same success. Peace is holding in troubled north of the country, but the economy there remains in a pitiful state."

"Indeed, judged by his original promises when he came to power in 1986, Mr Museveni has performed dismally. Democracy has increasingly been corroded by militarism and jawing about a liberation struggle most Ugandans are too young to remember. Achievements in macroeconomic policy have been offset by favouritism and corruption." - The
Economist

M7's Campaign Rhetoric:

“NRM has liberated Uganda from dictators and has brought peace to the country. Our economy is self-reliant as we can work on development programmes without depending on foreign loans and grants.

Reality Check:

Musevni's Government is a "Hybrid regime": "Hybrid regimes are fraught with contradictions. Their leaders adopt the trappings of democracy, yet they pervert democracy - sometimes through patronage and largess, other times through violence and repression - for the sole purpose of remaining in power." - Aili Mari Tripp

***Foreign aid still contributes 30 percent of Uganda's annual budget! It a false claim for M7 to say our economy is self-reliant!

Germany has extended a USD207 million grant to Uganda

How the UK government is supporting the country

United States aid to Uganda

M7's Campaign Rhetoric:

“It is us who have liberated Uganda from those problems, who deserve to be entrusted with the leadership of the country,” he said amidst ululations from supporters.

Reality Check:

Many other noble Ugandans including Dr. Besigye, Major Muntu and others that passed away fought in the liberation struggle with M7!

M7's Campaign Rhetoric:

Museveni dismissed his competitors in the 2011 presidential race asking him to relinquish power, saying they are underachievers with nothing to offer.

Reality Check:

Museveni overextended his stay in power by cajoling members of his ruling party into voting to scrap term limits for president, rigging elections, and intimidating opponents and voters. During the past 25 years, none of his opponents have had a chance to govern. How can he now call them underachievers?

The Epicenter of 2011 Eelections

2010-10-25T03:34:00.000-04:00

The epicenter of 2011 elections in Uganda is M7's overextended stay in power and its corrupting effect on our democracy !

Another book indicting M7's pervertion of democracy!

2010-10-24T03:08:00.000-04:00

Click here to read this book's author's introduction

Olara Otunnu interview with The Observer

2010-10-22T00:30:00.001-04:00

"Uganda doesn’t belong to Museveni and his military clique who have been plundering and terrorising the country for the last 25 years. It is high time Ugandans behaved as the owners of this country. We must resolve to take back, regain control of our country from the Museveni clique that has hijacked it". - Olara Otunnu

Written by Michael Mubangizi | THE OBSERVER
Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Federo to be decided by national conference

Otunnu will fight corruption ‘like it is a war’

New constitution to replace ‘Museveni’ constitution

Replace UPE with quality primary education

Since UPC pulled out of the opposition alliance, IPC, on August 30, Party President OLARA OTUNNU has kept Ugandans guessing almost about everything – from his candidacy to whether he would follow through on his threat to boycott the 2011 general elections organised under the watch of Eng. Badru Kiggundu.

However, in a Saturday interview with MICHAEL MUBANGIZI, Otunnu put an end to the speculation, announcing he would run for president. He also laid bare his political plans for Uganda which include quashing the current Constitution.

How have the 14 months been since you returned to Uganda?

The period has been intense, packed with events and activities at a personal and political level. I have moved around the country several times, activating UPC structures and mobilising our supporters.

People had a lot of expectations in you. They thought you would advance UPC and the opposition cause, do you think you have lived up to their expectations?

It is for others to say, not me. But I have tried to put on the national agenda, things that had been either missing or under represented. I have made the issue of free and fair elections, replacing the current Electoral Commission, acquire a new dimension.

Although it had been discussed before I came, it hadn’t acquired the sharp prominence it has today.

My coming home has opened the question of truth telling and accountability that had been quietly spoken about. When I came I said this is the most unresolved issue on the national agenda.

Today, lawyers, judges, academia and religious people are beginning to say that I have a point.

On the rule of law, I don’t know when Ugandans had said to government officials, ministers and Police officers that, “sorry, I will not comply with this order because it is illegal,” the way I did when I snubbed Police summons.

I am surprised that people were utterly shocked when I did what is perfectly normal and legal. It shows the extent of the culture of impunity that the President has cultivated in Ugandans that whatever he says becomes law.

Even our rulers, Police, the President must rule under the law not above the law. We must not assist them to break the law with our compliance. I am respectful of the laws of this country but above all, the rule of law.

Acting the way Museveni did was undermining the rule of law and misusing the CID. Instead of letting them investigate crime, people that burn schools, sacrifice little kids, he is telling them to arrest, interrogate Otunnu!

People are terrified of doing anything that would invite reprisals from government. I have been telling people not to be afraid. We must not accept abuse, terror and victimization. If there is one thing I represent, it is seeing Uganda as one, cohesive nation despite our diversity.

As an aspect of this is the issue of Buganda, Uganda question, or UPC and Buganda. I have said we want to build one country in which a Muganda can be very proud to be one and also equally feel proud being a Ugandan.

We address the issue of 1966 not withstanding that historians will continue to debate what [former president Milton] Obote, [Kabaka] Muteesa, Mengo and the central government did. I have extended to Buganda the hand of dialogue, good will and friendship.

How are you planning to address the demand for federalism? Dr. Kizza Besigye says he will automatically grant federalism, Norbert Mao says he will subject it to a vote?

Federalism is not a Buganda issue but a Uganda issue, even though Buganda has been at the forefront of championing it. Uganda remains the most highly centralised and personalised government.

I am personally in favour of a formula in which decisions are made at the closest proximity by those affected by them. Besides federalism, there are so many pending national issues like land, monarchies and kings, development, national unity which need to be resolved.

My idea is that we need a national compact (constitution) that brings these pieces together and the way to arrive there is by convening a national conference bringing together representatives of our country.

These would debate freely and arrive at the compact (constitution) which will translate into a new constitutional order. The current constitution was imposed [on people]. It was debated, but there was tremendous pressure from Museveni and NRM leaders, so this is a Museveni or regime constitution.

We want a constitution freely arrived at by free representative citizens. We need an open, democratic forum where free citizens openly and democratically dialogue and arrive at that.

What if people at the National Conference reject federalism, will you respect their view?

Of course it has to be democratic. We won’t impose anything on anybody. I have told you personally, I support federalism and I will champion it. Happily as it turns out, most Ugandans support federalism as seen by the Benjamin Odoki Commission findings. I am not afraid that Ugandans will reject it. I think it is a question of working out the details.

So your federalism promise is not automatic. It is subject to views of the people who will attend the National Conference?

No. You are mis-framing the issue. I said me and UPC as a party support federo. I believe most Ugandans support it. I think the National Conference will agree with a federal structure. We just need a national forum to discuss it and work out the precise details of what a federal structure will look like.

If it is supported, why not guarantee it automatically instead of subjecting it to a lengthy process where it could be rejected?

How do you make it automatic? You mean the President wakes up one day and says we now go federalism? That is unconstitutional.

What if that conference rejects federalism?

Don’t ask me hypothetical questions. You know my views and UPC’s stand on federalism and what we shall be championing, pushing for and in what framework.

Museveni has been subjecting those processes to Parliament, commissions of inquiry, LCs and it has been rejected?

That is the point I am making that we want to get away from government by dictate. For this (federalism) to be sustainable and entrenched in our political culture, it needs to have popular support. It needs to have a country as a whole saying, yes, this reflects our wishes. This is not just for federalism, but other issues which I have told you.

Shouldn’t you be telling Ugandans how your government will help them get money, food, peace, good roads and schools for their children instead of investigating who killed them in wars?

Those who hold that position can’t be moral. It is very different from what people tell me when I go to Luweero, northern Uganda and Ombachi. It is different from what families of people who were massacred during the September 2009 riots, survivors of the murder of Muslims (in Mbarara) and people who were deeply affected in 1966 tell me.

People want healing and we shall never heal without addressing these traumatic episodes honestly, with humility and in a forgiving way. Knowing facts is imperative.

Does that take precedence over good roads, schools?

No body has been pressing hard for quality schools, roads, hospitals and making the wellbeing of ordinary people the preoccupation of government than myself. You have heard me ask why the state has abandoned ordinary people.

You have been sitting on the fence on key issues. For instance, it is not clear whether UPC will participate in the coming elections or whether you, Olara Otunnu, will contest [for] the presidency?

You can’t say that I have been sitting on the fence when I am the one who has been calling for truth telling, saying that we must have genuine rule of law, not a police state when I have been outspoken about the corruption in this country.

Okay, will you contest the presidency in the coming election?

Now you are talking. And on that one UPC hasn’t been sitting on the fence. We have been categorical in saying that we shall not settle for anything less than a free and fair election. We have been equally clear that we need a new, independent electoral commission and a new clean, verifiable voters’ register.

We have always said even in the IPC meetings that we are not for boycott. We are participating and UPC will field a presidential candidate. In UPC, the party president is automatically the presidential candidate.

How far have you gone with the collection of signatures for submission to EC ahead of the October 25-26 presidential nominations?

I don’t know. Because I am not personally doing that. But you can be sure that whatever the date is for the [presidential] nomination, UPC will be fully represented. We are not bystanders; we are not watching the train as it goes by.

What does your candidature offer that people like Museveni, Dr. Besigye and Mao don’t?

We have a unique package that Ugandans are crying for. UPC is a nationalist party whose vocation is to unite our country across ethnic, religious lines.

Today, our country is tragically polarized and divided by Museveni’s divide and rule policy. We need UPC and Olara Otunnu. I have personally been devoted to the issue of national unity since my public engagement on Uganda’s political scene.

If there is one thing that UPC and Olara Otunnu stand for, it is to serve ordinary Ugandans and make their well-being the central business of government.

Over the last 25 years, government has abandoned the ordinary people. So the issue of delivering social services to the ordinary people is very important. Instead of UPE, we want to rebuild quality primary education, accessible medical services and support farmers in the countryside.

We shall re-establish the cooperatives network, invest in infrastructure so that there is free movement of goods and services. The reason ordinary people are not served is because those in power are using (state) resources that should be used to benefit ordinary people to serve themselves.

So fighting corruption is like a war and enforcing accountability will be an important aspect that we will bring. I believe very strongly in an inclusive Uganda that doesn’t segregate between different regions, communities and social classes whether in education, award of scholarships and employment opportunities, decent health, education.

I want a society in which one’s fate is not determined by where they are born or their faith. We shall also address the issue of truth telling and accountability for the reasons I have told you.

Then I have told you the issue of a new national compact (constitution.)

In terms of the economy, I want an economy which works for Uganda as a whole, not just for the State House investors. I want an economy that encourages the ordinary person to sell [their produce] in India, China; a tax policy that supports and encourages local entrepreneurs to be the engine of the economy instead of punishing them as is the case today.

What gives you confidence that you will win when the UPC candidate came last in the 2006 elections and when the party has lost all the by-elections under your watch?

If you move around the country like I have done, you will see what is happening to UPC-it is an incredible resurgence and revival. Don’t waste your breath speculating about what percentage we will get, what we ask for is a genuine free and fair election. The rest will fall into place.

After quitting IPC, which party, say DP or NRM, would you be willing to work with?

The day I announced we were leaving IPC, I paid tribute to parties which aren’t members of the IPC for their contribution to democracy in Uganda. I said very clearly that we look forward to working with them and supporting each other.

I made it clear that the task ahead calls for collaboration and working together. We very much want to do that with all the parties in and out of IPC. So our leaving IPC wasn’t about closing doors for collaboration. We have kept the doors open and we have been discussing and talking to all the parties.

Even NRM?

There is no bad blood between us and NRM but there is a fundamental gap, a bridge that is impossible to overcome. I have several friends in NRM but we have not discussed the issue of collaboration between UPC and NRM. We just speak and discuss as personal friends.

As UPC we are eager to cooperate with all democracy seeking political parties. NRM is not a democracy seeking political party; it is a democracy blocking, democracy undermining and democracy killing political party. There are however people in NRM who are very patriotic, like any of us who actually want to see change in Uganda. So we would welcome them to join our broad movement for change.

What will you do with the signatures that you are currently collecting?

That is a non-partisan project. It is neither a UPC nor Olara Otunnu project. It is for all Ugandans who want to see free and fair elections in Uganda employing a strategy of positive, non-violent resistance. We are demanding a new electoral commission and a clean verifiable voters’ register.

This is part of a broader strategy. When we get a significant number, it will be a demonstration to Uganda and to the entire world that the vast majority of Ugandans want free and fair elections and are demanding a new electoral commission and a clean, verifiable voters’ register.

Is that enough to change the Electoral Commission?

I am completely convinced that if we act together on a non-partisan basis, beyond political parties, if we bring together civic, religious organizations, young women and men outside political parties, we can and we shall overturn the Museveni-Kiggundu Electoral Commission and have a new, independent Electoral Commission.

People thought you would unite the party, but former UPC leaning independent MPs have officially defected to FDC and NRM?

Before I was elected [UPC president], there were factions, a case in courts of law. Since my election and my policy of reconciliation in the party, we are not in court, we aren’t fighting each other. All those who were fighting each other are represented in my cabinet.

The MPs from Lango you are talking about have for many years not been active in UPC. They have a UPC background, but they stood as independents. In fact, all of them, during this Parliament, their memorandum of cooperation wasn’t with UPC but with FDC. They have now decided to formalize that relationship.

We disagree, but respect their decision. We wanted them to come back to UPC; I had dialogue with Cecilia Ogwal, inviting her to come back to UPC. Our door has been wide open, and many have actually comeback. It so happens that the MPs from Lango who have been independent and cooperating with FDC have decided to join FDC.

Being Langi, could they be leaving because the party is led by an Acholi?

When they left UPC [and stood as independents], a Muganda was heading UPC, not an Acholi. As far as I know there is no ethnic or personal dimension to this issue.

Last word

Uganda doesn’t belong to Museveni and his military clique who have been plundering and terrorising the country for the last 25 years. It is high time Ugandans behaved as the owners of this country. We must resolve to take back, regain control of our country from the Museveni clique that has hijacked it.

mcmubs@observer.ug

"The censor and the inquisitor have always lost!"

2010-10-18T06:23:00.000-04:00

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. ~Alfred Whitney Griswold, New York Times, 24 February 1959

Read an excerpt from the Censored Book!

The Correct Line? Uganda Under Museveni

2010-10-13T12:36:00.004-04:00

Also click here to read: Museveni's Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid Regime

Click here to listen to Dr. Kobusingye's interview

You can also read a chapter a day @: http://bit.ly/cQmcDy

Road conditions in M7's Uganda

2010-10-13T11:19:00.000-04:00

The Correct Line?: Uganda Under Museveni

2010-10-11T09:38:00.009-04:00

Also click here to read: Museveni's Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid Regime

Click here to Check out excerpts from the censored book

"Reviewers of The Correct Line? Uganda under Museveni by Dr Olive Kobusingye say the book tackles the many ironies and contradictions that have characterised President Museveni's nearly two and half decades in power." - BBC World Service

The Value of Dr. Otunnu's Message to Ugandans!

2010-10-09T06:24:00.012-04:00

Inspite of his detractors, Dr. Otunnu's Message to the people of Uganda is a timely and most eloquent voice in Uganda's relentless struggle against one man rule. It encapuslates the very core of the issues that every opposition leader in Uganda should be articulating in no uncertain terms, at every opportunity, in the run up to the 2011 elections.

This message is bound to singlehandedly change the course of Uganda's fledgeling democratic process in the oppositions favour!

In the realem of democratic and civil rights struggles, Dr Otunnu's message ranks right up there with history's other notable orators: like Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham jail, I have a Dream, and Obama's speech on Race.

Dr. Otunnu's message will go down as the most significant rethoric against one man rule in Uganda's history!

Otunnu's opponents, let alone, M7 himself, could detract little from so solid an argument!

A Movement To End Tyranny in Uganda

2010-10-08T00:14:00.000-04:00

"I do not offer the Ugandan youth yellow envelopes stuffed with money. What I do offer our youth is something much more valuable and enduring. I want to provide them with equitable access and opportunities, with engagement and hope. So that when they complete their studies, they are not asked what family or part of th...e country they come from, before being offered a job. I want their prospects for employment to depend on their hard work and qualifications" - Olara Otunnu

(A message to the people of Uganda)

We demand free and fair elections NOW! We must take back our country!

A most daunting challenge faces our country today. Will 2011 mark the turning point we are fighting for? Or will the forces of darkness prevail, and we sleepwalk our way into a preventable national catastrophe? The answer to this question cannot wait anymore.

We in UPC are actively preparing and mobilising to participate in the elections of 2011 .We have completed our grassroots elections in most of the country .We are now in the midst of our primaries; I might add that they are proceeding in a remarkably smooth, democratic and peaceful manner. Soon all our elected flag bearers, from the level of LC3 to the presidency, will be ready to pick and process their nomination papers.

For UPC, this moment marks the beginning of an intensive nation-wide campaign for free and fair elections. Our platform is free and fair elections NOW. Our clarion call is: We Must Take Back Our Country.

Today, we have begun the journey that must lead us to free and fair elections. Today we have embarked on positive non-violent resistance, which will continue until we achieve the objective of free and fair elections. Today we have started the march of freedom.

As we have said many times before, boycott is not in UPC’s vocabulary. We have made it clear from the very beginning, and I reiterate this today, that we are not advocating boycott or no-elections.

Let there be no confusion about this .The choice before the Ugandan electorate is not between fraudulent elections and boycott; that is a false choice. Boycott suggests that the people of Uganda will be passive onlookers, taking no initiatives, waiting for Museveni to impose his fait accompli on the country. No. The real choice is between participating in fraudulent elections, on one side, and participating in genuinely free and fair elections, on the other side. Museveni is working to impose the former option.

On the other side, we the people of Uganda must mobilize and organise as never before in order to bring about the latter option. We must deploy direct and concerted non-violent actions to create a new reality, a new political situation that will make free and fair elections the only option. We must be the agents of shaping our own destiny. We must draw a line in the sand on this issue. This project will turn on the choice and resolve of the Ugandan people, not on Museveni. We must settle the issue of free and fair elections in our country, once and for all, in 2011.

I have no doubt whatsoever that this is within our grasp, that we can accomplish this objective in the year 2011. But to do so, we must all commit to this; we must remain steadfast and absolutely firm in our resolve.

Our insistence, our non-negotiable demand, is that the elections of 2011, must be free and fair. This translates into two minimum prerequisites: an independent electoral commission; and a clean and verifiable register of voters.

Why are free and fair elections in 2011 such a political and moral imperative for our country? The reasons are very clear; because they have direct impact on the daily life and future of our people.

* The ordinary Ugandans have been completely abandoned by the Museveni regime; this government has simply migrated from providing social services. This situation will never change as long as the Museveni regime does not owe its stay in power to the support and votes of the Ugandan people. Only a government that is truly elected by the voters, will be answerable to them, and will be accountable to them for its actions. Only such a government will invest in quality education for our children, provide accessible healthcare for our families, support our farmers, pave our roads, and provide support to small-and-medium scale business entrepreneurs. There is therefore a very direct link between free and fair elections and the delivery of services to ordinary people.

* The people of Uganda are yearning for change. But the current electoral process is being organised on Museveni’s terms. As in the past, it will inevitably lead to massive fraud and rigging. Change will never happen under these conditions. After 25 years of electoral fraud and terror, this leopard is not about to change its spots, unless we compel it to do so.

* Across the country, there is great excitement and expectations about 2011. We have not seen this before. There is only one reason for this. The people believe that finally, in 2011, their vote will actually count. If this is blocked, they will lose all confidence in elections as the means for change, in political parties and their leaders as the channels for that change, and in the idea of peaceful transition altogether. Some will simply give up and retreat into despondency and bitterness. Others will feel left with no option but to seek other methods of liberating themselves from 25 years of unyielding oppression. Because liberate, we must.

* Stripped of everything else, ordinary Ugandans have this one asset left in their hands - - the power of their vote. If they are robbed of this as well, they will have lost absolutely everything. They will have no stake whatsoever in the state.

* Quite simply, free and fair elections is the right of the people of Uganda. Like citizens in other countries, they deserve no less. That is why we must fight to make the people of Uganda the true winners of the 2011 elections.

* Finally, the spectre of catastrophe hangs ominously over our land. Below a superficially normal situation, the country is teetering on the brink of a political explosion, borne of a quarter century of entrenched dictatorship, humiliating impoverishment, obscene corruption, nepotism, electoral fraud and impunity. It would be a major historical blunder to misread the current situation in the country. The last hopes of the Ugandan people are now pegged on the 2011 elections. Genuinely free and fair elections in 2011 provide the last window to avert a looming national catastrophe. This is the only preventive measure left. Let nobody say tomorrow that they did not know that the situation in the country was this explosive!

Free and fair elections in 2011 is not an end in itself. It is a means to return power to the people. It is an avenue that will lead us to higher ground. It is the passage that will unblock the barrier which separates us from the realisation of our deeper aspirations.

In our campaign for free and fair elections, we shall emphasise this link. We want to move these aspirations to the centre of our national debate and agenda.

First, free and fair elections will open the way for us to establish sustainable democratic governance.

Second, we must embark on a national project to reweave the fabric of national unity, which is gravely fractured, while celebrating our diversity.

Third, we have a broken country. We need to reinvent Uganda. We need to reconstitute the Ugandan state .We have important unfinished business on our national agenda. There is need for a new national compact which will set out a new architecture of governance and distribution of power in the country. We need a new democratic constitution to replace NRM’s regime constitution. This must be the outcome of a transparent and democratic national dialogue in a free and representative forum, a national convention. This will be the occasion to put on the table, for dialogue and resolution, major issues that have been pending on the national agenda. These issues include reconstituting the state; federalism; land; uneven development; our unity and diversity.

Fourth, we shall continue to press for truth-telling and accountability. We must have independent investigations of the major traumatic episodes in our recent history, particularly, the massacre of 10 September; Luwero; massacre of Muslims in Mbarara; Ombachi massacre; and genocide committed in northern Uganda.

These episodes remain deep and festering wounds on the body politic of our country. Even as I speak, horrendous human rights abuses are going on in Karamoja.

I want to see us, as a people, climb to the top of a certain hill - - the hill of reconciliation and healing. There to embrace in humility and prayerful forgiveness. There to wipe away the tears of the communities that have long been hurting in silent, unacknowledged agony.

But the path to the top of that hill necessarily passes through the valley of sorrow, of reckoning and of acknowledgement. We cannot leapfrog our way from the land of impunity, where we are embedded today, onto that hill of reconciliation and forgiveness. Our country cannot turn a new page; it cannot experience healing without walking through this valley.

That is why we must bring forth the truth, and the whole truth shall set us free.

And, finally, our struggle is of course about political, economic and social transformation. But it is about much more than that. It is also, at a deeper level, a struggle to recover the soul of our country.

As a people, I fear that, we have lost our sense of outrage; our sense of the unacceptable; our sense of taboo. Things that would make the heavens tremble with fury, we Ugandans take in our stride, with a mere shrug of the shoulders.

So many abominations have become commonplace and ‘normal’. How else do you explain the now routine killing of children as so-called human sacrifice? And nothing happens. The serial burning down of schools, and nothing happens; the massacre of 33 unarmed demonstrators, and the following day and the following week, it is business as usual in the country; the wholesale plunder of the country by our rulers, while our people are dying from jiggers, and nothing happens. And the corrosive money culture that rules our society today.

Our country is in the midst of a major moral crisis.

Yet we are a people of faith. Yet this is a land in which God is taken very seriously.

Where are the people of God when we need them most? When will they raise their prophetic voices, to denounce plunder and rigging, genocide and impunity, discrimination and nepotism, poverty and humiliation? How long shall we wait for them to speak truth to power? Where is the fellowship of intercessors? Beyond the palpable explosion of religion, our country is crying out for a root-and-branch spiritual revival, a radical renewal that can redeem our land from the grip of evil.

A word about the security services. I have no quarrel with our compatriots who are serving in the security services (that is the armed forces, the intelligence agencies, and the police). They are our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters. I honour their service to our country.

My quarrel is with those who exploit and cynically use them; those who give them lip service while practicing nepotism and neglecting their families. This struggle is for the future of all our children, for a life of dignity for all our families and parents. We are in this struggle together.

I have spoken recently about building a national social movement, so that together we can begin to chart a new path leading to a new Uganda. Our first order of business, our immediate priority, is the struggle for free and fair elections in 2011.

The specific strategy we have adopted for this struggle is positive non-violent resistance. This strategy for change has been used in popular struggles all over the world to bring an end to entrenched dictatorship, repressive colonial rule, systematic discrimination, and other forms of grave injustice. Our own struggle will focus on our central demand for genuinely free and fair elections--until this objective is achieved.

I want to especially invite our young people to join in this positive non-violent resistance. Because this struggle is, above all, about their future.

I do not offer the Ugandan youth yellow envelopes stuffed with money. What I do offer our youth is something much more valuable and enduring. I want to provide them with equitable access and opportunities, with engagement and hope. So that when they complete their studies, they are not asked what family or part of the country they come from, before being offered a job. I want their prospects for employment to depend on their hard work and qualifications.

I want to see again that a child born in Mucwini, a place which is difficult to find on anybody’s map, can receive quality education in that village. And from the village foundation, make his way to Gulu High, Budo and Makerere.

I want us to build an inclusive society, where a child born into an ordinary family anywhere in our country can dare to have such dreams. And I see no reason why not.

This campaign is larger than any single political party; indeed it is larger than political parties. It aims to bring together all democracy-seeking social forces: political parties; civil society; religious organisations; the business community; workers; pressure groups; the youth ; and women organisations. What unites us is a common hunger for freedom, and democratic governance in our land. This will be a citizens’ struggle.

In this, I include many of our brothers and sisters who are in the NRM. Because there are many patriotic and democracy-seeking Ugandans who are travelling in the NRM bus. I call on the NRM members who care deeply about the future of our country to join in this struggle.

There are several examples from recent history that instruct us about positive non-violent resistance: Mahatma Gandhi’s salt march campaign in India; the civil rights movement in the USA; “Solidarity” movement in Poland ; the “Velvet” revolution in Czhechoslavia; Ignatius Musazi’s boycott campaign of 1949; “Unbwogable” campaign for an independent electoral commission in Kenya; and the Save Mabira Forest campaign here.

I know we have been told that we cannot produce any change because the Museveni regime is so entrenched and ruthless, that we should accept the status quo as a fact of life; well they said the same thing about Milosevic in Serbia, about Mobutu in Zaire, about Marcos in the Philippines, about Taylor in Liberia, about Ceausescu in Romania, and about General Pinochet in Chile.

I know we have been told that change will come gradually, that we should be patient and wait. We have been waiting for a full quarter century. How long shall we wait? The time has come to borrow a leaf from President Obama who, quoting Martin Luther King, insisted on “the fierce urgency of now “.

I know they have promised to crush me; actually these small bones will be quite easy to crush, but our spirit will grow bigger and stronger. I know we have been told that Museveni’s is an empire on which the sun will never set; well the sun did set even on the British empire.

The moral force that propels our struggle is far more powerful than the fearsome Presidential Guard Brigade, the tanks, the kiboko squad, and all the awesome weapons of terror in the regime’s arsenal.

With these bare hands, waving the oboko lwedo (this is handed by elders to those embarking on a major struggle; it confers blessings, empowerment and solidarity) we shall prevail over this edifice of oppression, over the violence and terror of this regime, over the tanks and the kiboko squad. We shall prevail because our lapir (the cause for which we are fighting) is clean. And because our lapir is just, we are not alone - - we are surrounded by the blessings of our ancestors.

We shall move forward trusting in God; because He is the God of justice; because He is not indifferent to the agony and humiliation visited upon his children; because He has brought down mighty rulers from their thrones of arrogance and decadence; because He has said to the oppressor, “Let my people go!”. Because He is a just and faithful God, we are not alone.

I call on all Ugandans, within the country and in the diaspora, to join in this struggle; from Rukungiri to the Ssese islands; from Yumbe to Kyenjojo; from Rakai to Sironko; from London to Los Angeles.

We shall not be moved, just like a tree that’s standing by the waterside; we shall no be moved. Let us march in peace, in solidarity, in fellowship, fasting and praying until we hold free and fair elections. We have it within our grasp to save our country.

As the Chinese say, a journey of a thousand miles begin with one step. We shall begin the nation-wide petition marathon for an independent electoral commission today, right here. The petition marathon will continue until 5 million Ugandans have signed the petition.

We Must Take Back Our Country!

As I have gone around the country, over and over again, I have posed these questions to my compatriots: To whom does this country belong? Who are the owners of Uganda? Is it Museveni and his politico-military clique? Are we guests, squatters or refugees, here by the grace and courtesy of Museveni? Or are we the rightful owners of this country?

Invariably, the audience roared back: “We are the owners”.

We Ugandans have been reduced to subjects (not citizens) in our own country, subjugated and humiliated in our own land. The people of Uganda are being held hostage by this politico-military clique.

If this country belongs to us, then it is high time we behaved as its owners. How can we be supplicants and subjects in our own land?

That is why I say: We Must Take Back Our Country! We must regain control of our country from the politico-military clique which has hijacked it for the last 25 years. We Ugandans must take charge of our country again.

Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. This is our country.

Olara A. Otunnu is President of Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) political party

"Speaking Truth To Empower."

King by acclamation

2010-09-21T22:11:00.000-04:00

The Economist magazine | Sep 8th 2010, 13:27 by J.L. | NAIROBI

Uganda is not as oppressive as Rwanda and is not implicated to the same extent in the bloodletting in neighbouring Congo. But it cannot boast the same success. Peace is holding in troubled north of the country, but the economy there remains in a pitiful state. Joseph Kony, the messianic and sadistic leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, which displaced a million people in the north and butchered thousands more, remains at large. Mr Museveni takes no responsibility for that failure.

Indeed, judged by his original promises when he came to power in 1986, Mr Museveni has performed dismally. Democracy has increasingly been corroded by militarism and jawing about a liberation struggle most Ugandans are too young to remember. Achievements in macroeconomic policy have been offset by favouritism and corruption. The country is drifting at best. Mr Museveni disparages donors, but uses them to pad out his national budget. Recent oil finds in the Lake Albert basin have made him indispensable to many of those donors, but they need to think carefully about whether another five years of Mr Museveni's increasingly regal and shuffling rule could spell disaster for a country that desperately needs ideas and impetus.

Olara Otunnu Challenges the Status Quo!

2010-08-30T20:10:00.000-04:00

The Ramifications of Overextended Stay in Power!

2010-06-10T11:04:00.002-04:00

"Museveni speech: Here is what sent cabinet to sleep"

By Augustine Ruzindana | Daily Monitor Wednesday, June 9 2010

In the play, Joan of Arc by George Bernard Shaw, there is a soldier character called “a saint from Hell”. This is the soldier who gave Joan two sticks to use as a cross while she was being burnt at the stake. This was the only good thing the soldier ever did in his life. For this good act, the soldier gets one day out of Hell every year.

On Friday June 4, the Red Pepper had its one good act that may earn it a reprieve of one day out of Hell. This time, the tabloid had pictures to prove that it had a real scoop. The pictures said it all about the state of the government of Uganda and the quality of the State-of-the-Nation-Address by the boss of the 26 sleeping Cabinet ministers and NRM MPs. The sleeping cabinet could easily plead that they were following the example of their boss who is often seen in public in a similar restful repose.

However, in follow up comments by the VIPs the next day, Hon. Wopuwa gave an honest explanation: “I was bored.” That is what all the sleeping VIPs seemed to say, they have heard many times and they therefore had a peaceful sleep until their boss raised his voice to berate the opposition by menacingly emphasising that there would be elections but also carefully omitting that they would be “free and fair”.

The sleeping ministers can never have a better public accountability showing why the system is dysfunctional. If these people can afford to sleep while their benefactor is performing one of his most important public functions and while he is watching them, then what happens when they are on their own is obvious. The system is tired and those managing it are even more tired. For capturing the rulers in anaesthetic state, the Red Pepper deserves its one day out of Hell.

What is most noteworthy about this public slumber of the rulers is the sheer impunity exhibition. They knew that there was live TV coverage and photographers around but it did not matter. This is the same attitude to corruption. Corruption is so blatant that people steal public funds and take bribes and kickbacks without caring about the harm done to the public or whether it will be found out.

Thus the conservative estimate is that about 50 per cent of the public budget is stolen. Coming to the President’s address, it was more of a campaign address full of promises and aspirations of “transforming Uganda from a Third Word to a First World country”. Mulago to be rehabilitated, Kampala to get two more big hospitals, 11 referral hospitals to be rehabilitated, Karuma Dam construction to start next year, Entebbe Road to get four lanes, directing that wages close to international levels be paid to scientists etc.

Between July 2009 and March 2010, 313 projects were licensed by the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) but how many of them have actually been implemented is what should have been reported. The whole speech was just the usual promises. How many times has Gayaza-Zirobwe-Wobulenzi, Ntungamo-Mirama Hill/Kagamba-Ishaka, Fort Portal-Bundibudyo roads etc appeared in his speeches in the last 25 years?

The speech contains a table showing improvement of taxation since 1986 but the ratio has stagnated around 13 per cent of GDP for almost 10 years and is yet to reach the African average of 18 per cent. More important would be a table showing how much of the revenue collected goes to corruption and how much to services to the public. The repetition, for three hours, of what has been said so many times is what sent the cabinet to sleep.

The Axis of Paternalism in Uganda's Politics

2010-06-08T14:29:00.008-04:00

The culture of paternalism has saddled our fledgling democracy with the overextended rule of one man that renders our country to an innovation and synergy deficit from complementary leadership diversity.

This axis stifles individual leadership initiative talent and the collective guts to challenge the scourge of one size fits all type of leadership on our democracy.
Instead of inspiring individual initiative talents, it encourages acquiescence, sycophancy, corruption and nepotism.

In any other developed and dynamic democracy, M7, would have been history by the end of his second five year term. Its preposterous that, for more than 20 years now, in a country with over 30 million, not withstanding the large percentage of our gullible peasant population, only one man has the ability and talent to govern Uganda!

We are not putting our abundant diversity of able and talented leadership pool to optimal use. No wonder our hospital and schools are in such decrepit state. Not to mention the rampant corruption and nepotism.

Uganda's best days lie in optimizing our abundant leadership diversity potential rather than capitulating to the anachronism of the paternalistic axis of one man rule.

M7's 24 year hegymony is "Internal colonialism"

2010-06-04T22:29:00.000-04:00

... "Internal colonialism" .. "... an orchestrated democratic denial that operates in relay, and is sustained by a select hegemony resolved to remain in perpetual control of the nation. Offering nothing in return, this unproductive cabal has become increasingly arrogant and contemptuous in its dismissal of even a pragmatic semblance of a gesture toward fair dealing that sometimes salves the pride and dignity of a people." - Wole Soyinka

Mapigano ya 2011 Poll Line!

2010-06-03T12:45:00.003-04:00

Uganda wa 2011 uchaguzi vita line itakuwa kati ya wale wanaoamini katika synergi ya boundless binadamu uwezo kutoka tofauti zetu nyingi uongozi na wale walio desperately kujaribu kuvumilia na itikadi ya zamani na redundant 23 na umri wa miaka ya utawala wa Big mtu, sycophancy & acquiescence

The 2011 Poll Battle Line!

2010-06-03T12:29:00.001-04:00

Uganda's 2011 poll battle line is going to be between those that believe in the boundless human potential synergy from our abundant leadership diversity and those that are desperately trying to hang on to the outdated and redundant 23 year old ideology of Big man rule, sycophancy & acquiescence!

The Irony of M7's 23 year hegemony

2010-05-05T09:54:00.001-04:00

What you see as progress under M7's 23 year over extended stay in power is a mirage. The sycophancy to one man rather than meritocracy. The mediocrity of one mind set that masks the far superior synergy the country could accrue from a periodic diversity in leadership!

Museveni's 23 year old Incumbency advantage!

2010-03-29T13:45:00.002-04:00

President Museveni's 23 year old Incumbency advantage is an impediment to diversity in leadership in Uganda!
Be a leader Mr. President and remove this shackle from our fledgling democracy with your voluntary retirement in 2011.

The peril of M7's over extended rule!

2010-03-28T23:44:00.004-04:00

The danger of relying too heavily on one leader can be exemplified by the leadership of Houphouët-Boigny who was commonly known as the "Sage of Africa" or the "Grand Old Man of Africa".
"Under Houphouët-Boigny's politically moderate leadership, Ivory Coast was the most prosperous nation under African rule. This success, in the midst of corrupt and poverty woed Africa, became known as the "Ivorian miracle".
At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving leader in Africa's history and the third longest-serving leader in the world, after Fidel Castro of Cuba and Kim Il-sung of North Korea. After his death, conditions in Ivory Coast quickly deteriorated. From 1994 until 2002, there were a number of coup d'états, a currency devaluation, an economic recession, and, beginning in 2002, a civil war.

In today's paradigm of knowledge and information based world, its more obvious that no single leader has all the answers at the right time, however, smart they may be.
The irony is that M7 is blatantly aware of this from his own rhetoric when he first came to power:

"The problem with African leaders is that they stay too long in power. No African leader should stay in power more than ten years!" - M7 reiterated!

23 years later M7's own rhetoric has lived up to it's bombast.

Félix Houphouët-Boigny (18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993)

DISSENT AGAINST BIG MAN RULE IN UGANDA!

2010-03-02T16:08:00.009-05:00

One man rule is robbing our nation of all the potential synergies that come with diversity in leadership!

YES! WE CAN MOBILIZE TO END THE SCOURGE OF BIG MAN RULE IN UGANDA!

LETS PUT THE UNTAPPED SYNERGY FROM OUR ABUNDANT DIVERSITY OF ABLE AND COMPETENT LEADERS TO WORK IN 2011, RATHER THAN PERPETUALLY ENCUMBER OUR DEMOCRACY WITH THE REDUNDANT AND OUTDATED HEGEMONY OF ONE MAN RULE!

THE REAL AFRICAN ELECTION GAME OF MONOPOLY!

2010-02-25T09:10:00.000-05:00

IN THE REAL AFRICAN ELECTION GAME OF MONOPOLY, INCUMBENTS HAVE AN ELECTION FRAUD GET OUT OF JAIL FREE, CARD!

The illusion of diversity in leadership!

2010-02-25T09:06:00.003-05:00

DIVERSITY IN LEADERSHIP HAS BEEN AN ILLUSIVE DEMOCRATIC COMMODITY UNDER M7's 23 year HEGEMONY IN UGANDA!

For the diehard M7 cohorts!

2010-01-27T22:36:00.011-05:00

Lets remind the NRM of thier leader's rhetoric:

"No African head of state should be in power for more than 10 years," declared President Yoweri Museveni in 1986. He is still president and wants to continue being president after a whopping 24 years in office!

Its time to hold M7 accountable to his own rhetoric!

Its time we make leadership open and equal to every able and capable Ugandan, instead of having a system that favors only Museveni!

Its time to remind the country of the rampant corruption and nepotism, the continuing high unemployment and disparity between the rich and poor that continue to prevail under M7's rule!

The lavish spending by state house!

The rigged elections!

The security intimidation of citizens!

The trumped up charges against Dr. Besigye!

The September 2009 deadly riots in Kampala!

Its time for Museveni to give other capable Ugandans a chance to lead our country and let Uganda live up to the true meaning of its fledgeling democracy!

The irony of one man rule!

2010-01-27T12:42:00.006-05:00

Synergy! One man rule ideologues always fail to understand this concept!
Synergy usually arises when two or more persons with different complementary skills cooperate to produce an outcome greater than if each worked individually.
One man rule marginalizes & sidelines otherwise able and capable leaders that could offer their complementary skills towards the benefit of our societies: i.e. Providing mutual national needs or offsetting mutual lacks! That's the real irony of over extended one man rule!

NRM registers eight million members!!

2010-01-13T22:58:00.013-05:00

YELLOW GIRLS: NRM delegates at the conference in Entebbe yesterday. They want amendments to the Constitution. PHOTO BY GEOFFREY SSERUYANGE | Daily Monitor

Almost five months since facing the most serious riots against his government, M7's government owned news paper, The new vision claims that the ruling NRM party has registered 8 million members, out of a possible 10, 500, 560 registered voters!
THE DICHOTOMY OF M7's REIGN IN UGANDA!

MUSEVENI's 24 year Hegemony since 1986!

2010-01-13T10:48:00.001-05:00

Subjugation can take many forms and for 24 years M7's hubris has robed our country of the benefits of diversity in leadership!

Tyranny!

2009-12-29T18:55:00.003-05:00

Tyranny is defined as a government in which power is vested in a single ruler.
It sounds like M7's 23 year rule and counting, if he is given another five years in 2011.
Come on Ugandans! M7 can't be the only Ugandan with a vision and intelligence to lead a country for more than 23 years!
Vote for change for once in 2011 and stop the tyranny of one man rule in its tracks! You want regret it!

UPC's Olara Otunnu returns

2009-12-13T14:03:00.001-05:00

"Focusing on the theme of fear, Otunnu said “there is one important thing that we need to get rid of if our social movement is to succeed, and that is intimidation, which breeds fear, and fear breeds incapacity--Fear will make us hide, and fear will make us shirk our responsibilities.”
“We must defeat fear” the former UN official said, “and in order to do so, we need to unite, and get organized and nothing can be impossible.”
He added, to the huge gathering, "do not be afraid, this is your country. This is your land, and you cannot walk with your head down. You must walk with your head up. Those who cast away fear have historically defeated Goliath. We will defeat the Goliath in our country.”

Shining a light on Africa's kleptocracies

2009-11-19T17:48:00.004-05:00

"Repression can take many forms, and too many nations, even those that have elections, are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves ... or if police can be bought off by drug traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top ... or the head of the port authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there. And now is the time for that style of governance to end." - president Obama

Colonialism Ended, so Should, One Man Rule!

2009-10-17T06:33:00.016-04:00

... "Internal colonialism" President Museveni's over extended stay in power exemplifies the kind of contemptuous arrogance this select hegemony, resolved to remain in perpetual power, while dismissing the value and contribution diversity in leadership can bring in to our nation.

Colonialism was the control by one power over a dependent area or people. One man rule ideology is a new form of colonialism and should End! The subjugation of a people by one man that changed the constitution to extend his stay in power is undemocratic!

There is no excuse for over extended one man rule in a democracy!

The struggle to end over extended one man rule is as noble as the struggle that ended colonialism!

Uganda's capacity for leadership talent & ability is far greater than M7 would have his cajoled majority peasants believe; and its foolhardy, not to capitalize on that potential!

Uganda's Political Risk!

2009-10-13T10:41:00.003-04:00

"The recent riots in Kampala show that Uganda's political risk outlook has worsened. Power remains concentrated in the presidency at the expense of strong, meritocratic institutions, and entrenched corruption combined with a lack of succession options generate more and more frustration in the population. Oil production will increase the stakes in the political contest that many feel is neither free nor fair." - Ratio Magazine October 9, 2009

M7 said the following at the UN general assembly:
"Uganda’s economy has grown at the rate of 6.5 per cent per annum for the last 23 years."
Where are the jobs this 6.5% growth rate is generating?

Ugandan Protesters on VOA's In Focus

2009-10-11T22:40:00.001-04:00

VOA's Ndimyake Mwakalyelye reports on the Ugandan protesters venting their anger outside of the White House on Thursday against their President Yoweri Museveni for his government atrocities.

The unappreciated Value of Ugandans in the Diaspora!

2009-09-26T21:47:00.006-04:00

Ugandans demonstrate against M7 at the UN headquarters in NY September 23, 2009!

President Museveni's press spokesman, Tamale Mirundi, recently characterized Ugandans that demonstrated against M7 at the UN headquarters in New York as agitators and "economic refugees enjoying other peoples freedom instead of fighting for their own at home."

Mr. Mirundi should read some recent history of despot regimes now relegated to the garbege heap of history. The harbinger to their demise often starts with demonstrations like this that rally their countrymen to action. Despots often try to suppress such demonstrations exactly as M7's security forces did in Uganda. The chairman of the East African Editors Forum & Director, The Media Institute expressed similar sentiments in an open letter to M7.

The demonstrators Mr. Mirundi characterizes as economic refugees in fact fund Uganda's economy through remittances to their families and relatives. Without these remittances some Ugandans would be going without basic necessities. In a recent article in The Boston Globe, about a thriving Ugandan community here: one Ugandan expressed the following: “There is a much bigger influx of Ugandans now than ever before leaving the country,’’ he said. “Unfortunately, Uganda has not really seen meaningful progress. There are no employment opportunities. People are forced to leave.’’

According to the World Bank reports, "International migration has enormous implications for growth and welfare in both origin and destination countries." The money migrants contribute to their countries is twice as much as world governments contribute every year in the form of foreign aid!

Museveni Quotes!

2009-09-23T16:34:00.003-04:00

Some of M7's Bumbling Quotes!

Ugandan President Museveni on the U.N.

2009-09-22T13:07:00.001-04:00

Watch M7's Bumbling speech style idiosyncrasy!

Saving Children from Scourge of War

2009-09-22T13:01:00.001-04:00

Compare Dr. Otunnu's Charismatic speech style to M7's Bumbling style

Ripple effects from Kampala's riots 9/11/09

2009-09-17T12:28:00.001-04:00

The seeds of over extended stay in power are bearing fruits for M7!

Museveni visits parts of Kampala hit by several days of rioting

2009-09-16T19:44:00.001-04:00

Security forces job is to serve and protect citizens, Not to administer vigilante justice!

The Value of Respecting Cultural Diversity

2009-09-15T21:38:00.008-04:00

Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II
36th King of Buganda

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognizes Cultural Diversity for its intrinsic value in development as well as social cohesion and peace.

In fact May 21st is the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development!

President Museveni must have unwittingly realized this UNESCO recognized intrinsic value in restoring the traditional institutions in Uganda. The recent crisis with the Buganda Kingdom should therefore be an opportunity for dialogue rather than retribution and recrimination.

Major General Kahinda Otafiire was therefore, wrong for warning the president against the restoration of traditional institutions.
What the president characterizes as chauvinism is in essence cultural pride. But what tribe in Uganda is not proud of its culture? If thats the standard, then chauvinism is an equal opportunity tribal trait.

The two institutions: the central government and the traditional institutions need each other for the sake of peace, development and economic prosperity in Uganda!

"Aboluganda bita, olumu bikonagana," is an old Luganda proverb meaning: "Relatives are like calabashes, sometimes they clash!"

Traditional institutions should be a source of pride not consternation!

We are all Ugandans, with a rich diversity of cultures which should be a source of strength rather than a threat.

Subserviency is not a Virtue!

2009-09-13T23:03:00.006-04:00

There is another way you can work against the best interests of your country!
Its called rational ignorance and the acquiescence to the ideology of one man rule!

Social Intelligence Vs Political eruptions in Uganda!

2009-09-12T22:08:00.016-04:00

"If social Intelligence is the ability to get along well with others and get them to cooperate with you, then power and influence have to be part of the equation."

Violance is not the answer!

On the rector scale of Buganda's political upheavals, the 9/11/09 eruptions have been minor! The last such upheaval saw the dissolution of the Buganda kingdom and eventual unfortunate death in exile of King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi's father.
This eruption is unlikely to end the same way. The times are different and there is some level of tolerance and room for reconciliations for such eruptions in Africa, as the examples of Kenya and Zimbabwe have recently shown.
The political amalgam in Buganda might lay dormant again and everyone will go about their business; but unless the underlying lingering problems like poverty, unemployment among the the large numbers of disaffected urban youths are addressed, such eruptions are more likely than not to reoccur.

In the preface to his book Social Intelligence ( SI ), the author Karl Albrecht describes SI as: " ... the ability to get along with others and to get them to cooperate with you."

In today's world, the ability to connect with people is a crucial success skill. According to Dr. Karl Albrecht,

"More people have lost jobs, friends, marriages and mates as a result of poor interpersonal skills than for all other reasons combined. The simple fact is that people who have a highly developed sense of social intelligence have more friends, better relationships, more successful careers and happier lives than those who lack those skills."

If you carefully analyze the core root of these recent riots, the ability for the antagonists to connect with each other was missing!

Dr. Albercht goes on to describe: two extremes of SI as "very low and very high - in metaphoric terms as either "toxic" or "nourishing"

Toxic behaviors by his definition "are those that cause others to feel devalued, inadequate, intimidated, angry, frustrated, or guilty."
Nourishing behaviors cause others to feel valued, capable, loved, respected, and appreciated."

The extremes of SI combined to set the stage for the the unfortunate riots in Kampala!

One amazing section from this book needs to be quoted here: pages 224-225

"How the Worst Bastards on the Planet Get and Keep Power"

"Totalitarian leaders like Genghis Khan, Attila, Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao Tze-Tung, Pol pot, Idi Amin, and Saddam Hussein certainly could not kill thousands or millions of human beings single-handedly. They had to find ways to leverage the violence of others by acquiring power and projecting that power through various levels of their dynastic structures.
Typically, power accumulators - even those who have little or no evil intent - operate in approximately the same way. They generally follow a stage-wise process of building their power and influence over time. Studying some of the worst despots in history, we can readily observe four key phases:"

1. Networking
2. Coalition Building
3. Taking Over
4, Unrelenting Consolidaion

"Many people forget - or never knew - that Adolph Hitler came to power as a result of free and open elections. But once he got to the center of the ruling coalition, the National Socialist party, he moved quickly and ruthlessly to consolidate his power. The take-over phase usually involves a significant risk and requires that the would-be ruler act aggressively in order to acquire position power in the minds of the other members of the coalition. Many aspiring despots fail at this phase, either because their rivals manage to dilute their influence, because the followers see an evil side of them that they don't like, or because the timing and circumstances don't offer the right set of imperatives to get behind an aggressive leader. The aspiring despot who succeeds in the take-over phase reaches a tipping point of influence. after which he has a more or less official entitlement in the eyes of others to decide, direct, control, reward, and punish."

Uganda's Ambivalence to Dr. Otunnu's Homecoming!

2009-09-09T13:04:00.008-04:00

Quite a few astute Ugandan commentators have expressed their opinions about Dr. Otunnu's recent homecoming! The most convincing were those of Mr. Austin Ejiet's: "Olara Otunnu's "second coming"; the illusions and realities", dated: August 23, 09; and Mr. Kalori Ssemogerere's: "Otunnu’s return good for the govt, better for the opposition", dated: September 3, 09.

Dr.Otunnu displaying his passport! | source: The Independent

Contrary to the aforementioned opinions, Mr. Daniel K. Kalinaki characterized Otunnu's return as "a flash in the pan".

Even though Dr. Otunnu has not declared himself a candidate for office, Mr. Kalinaki sees Dr. Otunnu's celibacy at age 57 as a real stumbling block for political office in Africa's orthodox cultural framework.

In the rough and tumble of politics, Dr. Otunnu's celibate status has already resulted in headline news in Uganda. A smear campaign tactic intended to hurt this able and distinguished Ugandan where he is most vulnerable.
According to Mr. Kalinaki, Africans would rather settle for an incompetent polygamist for a leader than an adept celibate.

Human societies have borrowed and influenced each other all throughout history, and are going to continue to do so. Otherwise, someone like Mr. Kalinali's first name would not be, Daniel; nor would we be communicating in English here! So, Africa can and should, overcome this bias about celibate leaders just like other developed societies have!

This is the price Dr. Otunnu is paying for trying to add his eloquent voice to the struggle for a peaceful political change in Uganda.
Dr. Otunnu did not have to put up with this scrutiny. His distinguished qualifications, experience and charisma can get him a job anywhere in the world in a heartbeat! Why this seeming disconnect about Dr. Otunnu's potential benefit to Uganda, is mind boggling!
Brute force, intimidation and cajoling have demonstrated limits in solving Africa's woes. Its time we harness our boundless diversity in intellectual potential and charisma exemplified by Dr. Otunnu.

In a continually egalitarian world, where all of us share common goals and responsibilities to have a fair and just world; its sad to see able and charismatic individuals denied leadership roles simply because they are celibate.

Theodore Roosevelt once said the following:

It's not the critic that counts
Press On - No matter what they say to you

It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

IMPORTANT FACTORS OF LEADERSHIP

No follower wishes to be lead by a leader who lacks self confidence and courage
Self Control
A keen sense of Justice
Definiteness of Decision
Definiteness of Plans
The habit of doing more than paid for
A pleasing personality
Sympathy and Understanding
Mastery of detail
Willingness to assume full responsibility
Cooperation
Remember: A QUITTER NEVER WINS AND A WINNER NEVER QUITS!

The Curse of paternalistic leadership

2009-08-15T01:36:00.005-04:00

Africa's biggest stumbling blocks to young leadership talent in the mold of Obama is the paternalistic adherence to over extended stay in power by "big men!"

"A world where Truth & the norms of love and Justice coincide"

2009-07-27T05:15:00.012-04:00

"Alexis de Tocqueville, the nineteenth century French scholar famous for Democracy in America, wrote a less well-known book titled The Old Regime and the Revolution, arguing that the French Revolution happened long before it happened. The eruption that shattered French society at the end of the eighteenth century was the result of small seismic shifts that had been accumulating for decades deep underground. If people had paid attention to the tectonic instabilities caused by greed and injustice, and had responded wisely to the nervous needles on their inner seismographs, the "Reign of Terror" might have been avoided."

"The problem is not that we don't possess a capacity to know these things. If we didn't, we wouldn't have all the colloquialisms I just used! The problem is that the knowledge we need, like the seismic shifts that create eruptions, originates underground. It comes from a place within us deeper than our intellects, a place that poet William Stafford calls "a remote, important region in all who speak," a place sometimes called the inner teacher or the soul.
But rarely do we allow ourselves to go to that place. Instead, we fill our lives with noisy distractions, blocking our access to insights that might scare us but could also save us."

"A story about Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and writer, provides a case in point. In 1944, Merton entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, a walled monastery in the Kentucky woods, to live a life of silence and solitude. He had fled from the madness of a war-torn world just as American triumphalism was about to emerge - another form of national madness that may now, in the fall of 2008, have run its course for a while. For the next few years Merton pursued a "spirituality of flight," and in 1949 published a rather pious book called Seeds of Contemplation.
But as Merton went deeper within himself and touched the collective consciousness, he began to "read" the rumblings of injustice under the surface of a fat, happy and deluded white America. He listened, really listened, to African American music, especially jazz and the blues. He corresponded with discerning friends who served as "listening posts" in the larger world. He read poetry and literary classics as well as social criticism. He examined his own conscience as a privileged white American male. And, through contemplation and prayer, he went to a place where language and sound cannot take us, a place within ourselves and our world where truth has a chance to come clear and the norms of love and justice coincide.
Fifteen years later, in 1964, Merton published Seeds of Destruction in which he prophesied "the fire next time," a conflagration of the races rooted in white ignorance, indifference and injustice. The book lost him a lot of readers who had loved his earlier piousness. And he was taken to task, in print, by a well-known writer and urban activist who said, in effect, "How dare a cloistered monk, writing from behind gated walls in the Kentucky woods, pretend to know more about race in America than we who are out on the front lines extinguishing 'the fire next time'?"
Three years later, in 1967, Merton's critic wrote an open letter to Merton in The National Catholic Reporter, apologizing "for having put down Seeds of Destruction. With most of the summer of 1967 past, he said, we can now 'see that you were correct.' ...At the time[I published my criticism] you seemed to be trying to be a white James Baldwin. Now it seems to me that you were 'telling it as it is' and maybe 'as it will be.'" (The Hidden Ground of Love, p. 55.)

Neither Merton nor his critic would want us to withdraw from the action. But both would agree that activism ungrounded in contemplation can lead to ego-induced blindness, shutting down those soul-deep sources of knowing that open us to larger truth.

Merton thanked his critic in writing, then took his case one step further. White liberals, he wrote, would not be up to the task of healing a racially divided nation. We would need "a new politics in this country" in order to come anywhere near that goal. Maybe, just maybe, we are seeing the seeds of that new politics today — fifty years after Merton got it right, once again, from his "still point" out in the woods."

The excerpts above are from: Trusting our Deeper Knowing: On Cataclysms. Contemplation, and Circles of Trust by Parker J.Palmer

The moral of the above excerpt is that there is still time for Change to a new politics in Uganda!

"Good African Coffee"

2009-07-25T00:10:00.029-04:00

President M7 and Mr. Andrew Rugasira , the founder and chairman of Uganda's ambitious premier Good African Coffee company, are basking in the limelight of having just inaugurated the first African coffee processing company to export finished packaged coffee to Europe and South Africa.
The company was founded in 2003 under the trade name of Rwenzori coffee; which if you oblige, is a less presumptuous company name than the current "Good African Coffee". Earnestly, what are the other African coffee producing countries going to name their products, should they opt to join the competition?
The original Rwenzori coffee company started after striking a deal with South Africa's largest supermarket chain, Shoprite, in 2004.
If Good African coffee company can break even with this venture, all the power to it. The trouble is, this is a quasi government of Uganda undertaking in which the government has invested so far, $ 995,500 of tax payer money!
President Museveni called this new processing company, a liberation of Africa from economic slavery; which, with all due respect to the president, is a euphemism for Africa's post independence leadership failures, incompetence, corruption and economic policies that discouraged entrepreneurship and foreign investment.
Good African coffee company may also find that upstart costs, marketing and advertising expenses, notwithstanding the actual competition from veteran coffee companies, prohibitive for a start up.
The fact that government is heavily invested in this company should be troubling, since governments are not for profit entities and are notoriously fraught with waste, overspending, fraud and corruption.
The biggest challenge is that successful coffee production is highly labor, capital equipment and infrastructure intensive. High scientific labor skill sets are also necessary to sustain not only a quality end product but also to maintain a competitive edge.
The video link here of Costa Rica's CooperPalmares can exemplify this challenge. Costa Rica's commitment to good quality coffee production began in 1962; an effort that has taken a half a century, vs Good African Coffee company's meager five years in business!
Competition in Western commercial goods markets is also ferocious. Its like the olympics. If your product doesn't meet customer satisfaction, its not going to make it. Uganda's "Good African Coffee company", is going to need a lot of time and luck! And knowing Africa's competitive track record at the olympics, this is going to be a long shot!
Separate ventures that Uganda entered with Denmark, Egypt and China to sell its coffee more than five years ago are collapsed.

Rational ignorance

2009-07-21T11:30:00.028-04:00

The following excerpt is from wikipedia: but it is a quintessential illustration of the palpable political apathy of most Ugandans:

"Rational ignorance occurs when the cost of educating oneself on an issue exceeds the potential benefit that the knowledge would provide.
Ignorance about an issue is said to be "rational" when the cost of educating oneself about the issue sufficiently to make an informed decision can outweigh any potential benefit one could reasonably expect to gain from that decision, and so it would be irrational to waste time doing so. This has consequences for the quality of decisions made by large numbers of people, such as general elections, where the probability of any one vote changing the outcome is very small." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_ignorance

The continuing nagging question in Uganda should be: In a country that has an abundant diversity of individuals with talent, ingenuity and ability (many of whom it continues to lose through brain drain!); more than enough to revitalize our country if Big man rule were to give way to diversity in leadership! Is it rational to continue with only one leader for more than 23 years? A leader who orchestrated a change in the constitution to favor his overextended stay in power. A leader who had the audacity to appoint his own wife to a cabinet post! A wife who is also a member of parliament! A choice that can only be described as political inbreeding and therefore, likely to multiply the flaws of this kind of leadership! See the cost of brain drain in Africa!

Every eligible citizen in a democracy should be well informed and more than willing to vote with a clear conscious without any fear or bias.
Governments affect everyone and therefore everyone owes it to themselves to be informed. Not necessarily on political parties or candidates, but because everyone pays taxes. Its your hard earned money that pays for government, its officials and the services they provide.
If you paid someone for a service and you did not care what kind of service they provided, there is a problem!

A democracy is defined as "rule by the people and for the people." If some of the people fail to participate by not voting and having their voices heard, then they are failing democracy and having leaders get away with anything to stay in power!

President Museveni's victory over tyranny in the 80's is commendable; but after 23 lamentable years in power, Uganda deserves a change!

Some relevant Luganda proverbs:

"Akwatulira, akira akugeya: One who speaks to you openly, is better than one who talks behind your back.
Abasajja ssubi, erimu lisiba linnalyo: L: Men are like grass, some is used to tie the rest. M: Some men can be used to silence, intimidate or subdue their fellow men.
Source: The Wisdom of the Baganda: Amagezi g'Omuganda Amakusike, by The late Joseph Lule

Museveni's Expensive Bird - Gulf Stream GIV-SP

2009-07-20T14:01:00.007-04:00

Museveni has been a fan of these expensive birds used by the rich. He is always going for the lattest version progressing through the years from GII, GIII, GIV to GV.

Contrast M7's means of transportation, with the country's destitute future generation!

Partners in African Politics!

2009-07-19T19:10:00.000-04:00

Corruption, mediocrity & over extended stay in power have often accompanied each other in African politics!

Diversity and Leadership' 2011

2009-07-18T15:44:00.015-04:00

February 2011, is going to be a watershed presidential election period in Uganda!

One of the greatest challenges for the country is whether Uganda is going to continue with M7's ubiquitous big man rule or will the fractured opposition garner enough votes to usher in a new era of diversity in leadership for the first time in twenty three years since M7 came to power?
The opposition has some house cleaning of its own between now and election day, 2011. If they cannot put together a strong enough coalition, in effect not using diversity to their advantage, they are more likely to loose to the entrenched M7's NRM government.
From Obama's admonition in his speech to the Ghana parliament, to all the empirical evidence, its clear diversity in leadership is the way to go forward.
We could take a page from the American ever resilient self renewal and vote for change or settle for the comfort zone of M7's over extended and redundant big man rule, for another five years.
If the white majority in the USA had not realized the synergy of diversity in leadership, Obama's election would not have been possible. Synergy: is a familiar word and yet not so easy to define. It's more than two or more people getting along and benefiting one another. It's when the combination of energies, resources, talents and efforts equals more than the sum of the parts- when 1+1=2 (or even more).
Diversity in leadership as in organizations is about empowering people and promoting the best in their differences. Diversity enables a nation to capitalize on the strength of all its leadership talents and ability; and not just one ubiquitous big man.
The 2011 presidential elections are going to be a defining battle between those that adhere to the relative comfort zone of just one big man rule and those that reject its premise and the harm it is doing to our fledgling democracy

21st Century African Political Coup D'etats!

2009-07-17T15:23:00.007-04:00

The 21st century, African ubiquitous Big man rule ideologues, are almost universally using constitutional reforms to overextend their stay in power, which in effect shrewdly uses democratic tools to undermine democracy!

23 Years is Enough!

2009-07-17T09:58:00.004-04:00

The night before he was assassinated , the late American civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, made the following remarks: "... Whenever men and women straightened their backs, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent. .."

Until Ugandans straighten their backs, M7 will continue to ride on their backs!

Ugandans can't be so risk averse, that they are unwilling to change leadership for more than 23 three years!

"The Future of Africa Belongs to Strong Institutions rather than Strong Men!"

2009-07-12T11:53:00.008-04:00

In his historic first speech to parliament in Ghana, president Obama referred to the reality that our future belongs to strong institutions, to those with talent, ingenuity, and entrepreneurial ability rather than the pedantic, redundant and outdated strong men that "change constitutions to stay in power!" "Leadership from the bottom ( the people! ) up!"

"If a star gets really big -- say, several times the mass of the sun -- the gravity of its sheer size will eventually cause it to implode, leaving nothing but a gaping hole in space-time -- a black hole, a one-way street to oblivion."- K.C. Cole

Obama's Kenya snub?

2009-07-10T22:01:00.002-04:00

Great choice Mr. Obama! A resounding massage to the rest of Africa! You've reignited a fire for real democracy in Africa!

Obama Talks to AllAfrica at the White House - Part 2

2009-07-09T07:01:00.001-04:00

" You're not going to get investments without good governance!"

Truth!

2009-07-07T08:10:00.003-04:00

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote that: "Convictions are a greater enemy of truth than lies." "The truth has never yet clung to the arm of an inflexible man."

"The longer Museveni rules, the greater he loves it, the more he errors, the more justification to rest him; but ironically, the less the people of Uganda unite in this cause." - Fred Guweddeko

Mubarak's Egypt

2009-07-06T09:25:00.006-04:00

A Nuanced version of M7's Uganda!

BBC World Service

" The Egyptian government doesn't want to appear like a military regime, although, for all intents and purposes, it is"
" The president and his inner circle have made themselves as secure as possible, protected from any threat; stifling any hope for peaceful change in the name of stability"
"An almost pathological fear of political rivalry has landed Egypt in a deadlock. The only political changes possible are those choreographed by the president himself. After twenty eight years in power, the only person that has been allowed to play a significant role next to Mubaraka, is his son, Gamal. This has prompted fears of a dynastic succession, dressed up as a democratic election."

Mubarak's Egypt: BBC World Service

" The countryside is bursting at the seams with the desperate and the poor."
" A countryside scarred by ugly apartment blocks. Testimony that has blighted Egypt, in spite of its disciplined military leadership."
"The rate of desperation far exceeds that of Mubarak's economic growth.

The aftermaths of one man rule ideologies!Click here to listen to the BBC original Documentary: June 22nd 2009

Change is coming!

2009-07-01T14:11:00.002-04:00

Voices that long for change need to be heard!
Even if this change produces a weaker leader, it still ushers in a new mindset, away from the comfort zone of the misguided one man rule ideology!

The Perils of Over Extended Stay in Power

2009-06-29T12:29:00.012-04:00

Climbing Vine!

Museveni's over extended rule in uganda is like a vine in a forest trying to choke new leadership talent and ability that could otherwise do a job just as well or better than president Museveni.

Vines are climbing plants that use other plants, rocks or walls for support, in order for them to reach sunlight for energy. In the process they rob their support of sunlight.
Extrapolate this to what M7's rule has done to the opposition in Uganda and you will understand the vine analogy! Because he fought and won the bush war, M7 and his cohorts defiantly believe the fruits of leadership in Uganda are indefinitely theirs!

Together with the sycophants in his government that fail to speak out for fear of loosing their jobs, Museveni is able to maintain a workable harmony of mediocrity that stifles our country's ability to reach its fullest potential.
Over extended stay in power is symptomatic of a dysfunctional democracy!
No single human being is that good, to stay in power more than twenty years! Its an aberration!
One man rule ideology is redundant and outdated. The country needs to embrace the untapped potential benefits that come with diversity of new leadership and new ideas and ways of running a country.

2009-05-12T07:07:00.002-04:00

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
Thomas Jefferson (American 3rd US President (1801-09). Author of the Declaration of Independence. 1762-1826)

2009-05-11T08:23:00.001-04:00

M7 is the quintessential tail end of Africa's lingering one man rule ideologues!

2009-04-10T20:58:00.000-04:00

"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day."
Thomas Jefferson
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

M7's ardent political base

2009-03-18T07:54:00.019-04:00

The 23 year old lingering dominance over Uganda's politics!
“... your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on / into the dustbin of history!”
Leon Trotsky quotes

"Change does not change tradition. It strengthens it. Change is a challenge and an opportunity; not a threat!"
- Prince Phillip of England

The largest and most challenging political battle ground for the opposition in Uganda is the peasantry. A whopping 84.6% of the population that depend on subsistence farming. Its festering with blissful ignorance and gullibility that is fertile ground for populists like Museveni. The only antidote is education, which is not a feasible solution in the short term in todays Uganda. No country with a enough informed and educated citizenry would put up with the kind of nepotism and overextended stay in power by one man, as is the case in Uganda today.
Museveni's overextended one man nepotistic rule is like inbreeding, its going to multiply flaws in his government and soon or later will turn into a systemic disaster for the country. The acquiescent rubber stamp parliament that just confirmed Museveni's wife as a minister in his cabinet are like lemmings that follow one after another towards a cliff to their demise!

Museveni : Uganda's Ultimate Demagogue!

2007-01-25T22:56:00.028-05:00

"Soon after taking power in 1986. Museveni said: "The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power." More than two decades later, this is the one problem Museveni seems unwilling to solve."

Daniel K. Kalinak : The Africa Report | October - November 2008

Museveni's Road of No Return
Daniel K. Kalinaki : The Africa Report | October - November 2008

After 22 years in power, President Museveni says he will run again in 2011, setting off the possibility of another bloody contest!

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni announced in July that he would run for a fourth term of office in the 2011 election if, as expected, he is nominated by his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party. In reality, this will be Museveni's sixth term, including the ten years he ruled as a military leader before the 1996 elections.
By 2011, Museveni will have ruled for 25 years, longer than Uganda's six former presidents put together, and longer than any other East African leader, including former President Daniel arap Moi, who ruled Kenya for 24 years. More than half of Uganda's 32m people were born under his rule."
When he took power after a five-year guerrilla war, Museveni promised a fundamental change", with the restoration of peace and stability, the return of democracy and the building of a self-sustaining economy. A slew of economic reforms, including privatisations, a restructuring of the civil service and economic liberalisation have been relatively succesful. According to the World Bank, annual GDP growth has averaged 6% since 1987 and the percentage of population living below the poverty line has fallen from 56% in 1986 t0 31% today. Inflation has been below 7% for many years.
These impresive figures, however, do not tell the whole story. A population growth rate of 3.2% - one of the highest in the world - has meant that the number of people living below the poverty line has, in reality, increased, while more than 80% of the population remains dependent on subsistence agriculture.
Life expectancy has improved marginally: more children go to school under a free, albeit poor quality, primary and secondary education scheme; and the HIV/AIDS rate is about 6.7%, down from highs of 30% in the ealy 1990s, thanks to a policy of openness about the epidemic spearheaded by Museven himself.
However, questions of governance remain largely unanswered and, since independence from Britain in 1962, Uganda has never had a peaceful handover of power. The rules of political competition are unfair. After coming to power, Museveni banned multiparty politics and rolled out "the Movement" to which all Ugandans belonged, in theory.
Although political parties were officially allowed to resumes activities in 2005, political commentators argue that this was out of pragmatism on on Museven's part. At the same time, he was trying to amend the constitution to allow him to run again.
Professor Joe Oloka-Onyango, a legal scholar and Museveni critic, argues that the president's lack of acknowledgement of opposition with in the Movement and externally from the older political parties, plus his "utter contempt" for political opposition, makes it clear that he "has not made the conversion to genuine multiparty competition".
The return of multiparty politics has not fully opened up space for democratic debate, according to the Kampala-based Foundation for Human Rights Initiative. Opposition parties are cash strapped, have little or no presence outside Kampala and are fraught with in-fighting. Security agencies routinely break up opposition rallies, and opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who spent more time in jail or in court than on the campaign trail for the 2006 election, still faces treason charges after the collapse of his trial for rape.
Besigye, who took 27% of the vote in 2001 and 37% in the last election, has indicated that he will run against Museveni for the third time if nominated by his Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). Although some FDC officials want a fresh candidate, Besigye remains the most high-profile opposition figure. Opposition parties could decide to field a single candidate, as they suggested in a recent cooperation pact.

SEEKING A TUNE TO HUM

It is not clear what the theme of Museveni's 2011 campaign will be, but he and his advisors increasingly speak in terms of poverty eradication and "prosperity for all". He will certainly try to ride on the fortunes of the oil recently discovered in western Uganda.
The opposition will try to make governance a key campaign issue and it is here that Museveni is most vulnerable. His most glaring failure has been the inability to defeat the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels over the last two decades, despite spending a large chunk of the country's budget on the military. The north has enjoyed peace since July 2006, when talks started between Kampala and the LRA in Juba under the mediation of Reik Machar, vice-president of the government of southern Sudan. Although a peace deal was agreed upon, LRA leader Joseph Kony has refused to sign it until his indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity is lifted.
The war in the north could as yet flare up ahead of the referendum in southern Sudan and Uganda's election in 2011. Museveni needs peace and the post-war cash pledged by donors to improve his electoral figures in the north - the only region he has consistently lost in the last three elections. He also faces tests in regions that have previously voted for him; controversial land reforms have turned the vote-rich Buganda region hostile to Museveni; the east wants its turn in state house and many of Museveni's historical supporters from his own western region have since fallen out with him.
Museveni still has the support - and the trappings of incumbency - to win in 2011, but this will come at a high cost. FM radio stations up-country are often ordered not to host opposition candidates, while a new law requiring televiosion and radio stations to renew their licences each year is seen by many as designed to force critical stations to tone down their opinions or risk losing their licences.
the lack of political space within which to articulate national issues has pushed politicians to retreat to tribal and ethnic enclaves and to propose sectarian views. In July, two former spy chiefs, Brigadier Henry Tumukunde and Major General Jim Muhwezi, who are facing separate trials, cited their ethnic links and said they would defend one another in the face of what they term political persecution.

DIVIDING LINES

Museveni has contributed directly to the tribal and ethnic fracturing of the country by creating new districts in a policy of tribal appeasement and opportunistic gerrymandering. Over 30 new districts have been created in the last decade - many of them are so poor that they depend on central government handouts to pay their bills - and a similar number of applications are pending.
Despite carving out smaller districts with the country, Museveni has been a strong proponent of the East African Community, supporting the appointment of a Ugandan, Beatrice Kiraso, to head a team to fast-track a deeper political federation to start in 2013. However, a senior aide to Musevni told The Africa Report that the president may now lost interest in a regional presidency because "the Tanzanians were not too enthusiastic".
Snubbed in the region, Museveni has now turned his focus on extending his grip on power in Uganda. His presidential guard brigade has swollen to 12,00 men - including his son, Lieutenant Colonel Muhoozi Kainerugaba, whose new role is to build a team of special forces within the brigade, which has the best equipment of all the military units.
The NRM has no succession plan, and debate on the matter is frowned upon. Without internal competition and with the tools of persuasion and coercion to use against the opposition, the Museveni juggernaut will roll towards 2011 determined to smash its way to the finish line.
Soon after taking power in 1986. Museveni said: "The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power." More than two decades later, this is the one problem Museveni seems unwilling to solve.

From The Africa Report | October - November 2008

One trait that distinguishes free democratic countries in the world is that they’re without exception all dynamic.

A few among other dictionary meanings of the word dynamic is: "being at work or in effective operation". The opposite of this is: "being static, i.e. showing little change, or operating ineffectively".

Invariably, the underlying foundation of all dynamic democratic societies is that, they all embrace diversity in leadership.

Diversity is about valuing and making the most of individual differences found in each and every person. This creates a synergy effect: A dynamic state in which combined action is favored over the sum of individual component actions.

An individual leader, however, talented, can only accomplish so much; but a combined variety of leaders will accomplish much more. Relying on only one leader is like inbreeding - it multiplies flows in leadership. Diversity on the other hand, mitigates those flaws.

When the USA elects its next president in November 2008, it will be the fifth US president since Museveni has been in power! Uganda is, no question, under utilizing its precious diversity in leadership potential!

Andrew Mwenda's Resignation letter, and its revelations about freedom of press in Uganda!

Its an irony that the man who said "African leaders stay too long in power", is now among the remnants of Africa's perpetual heads of state that oversaw a change in the constitution that favoured his stay in power!

OVER EXTENDED STAY IN POWER BY LEADERS LIKE MUSEVENI, STIFLES THE POTENTIAL & BENEFITS FROM DIVERSITY IN LEADERSHIP TALENT FOR AFRICA!

Uganda's militant First Couple! - Janet & Kaguta Museveni!

Museveni stands next to a larger than life image of himself as if to symbolize the exaggerated ego and monomania that has prevented him from yielding Uganda's leadership for more than twenty years now! This image is the soft arrogance and bigotry of an archaic one man rule calture that continues to rob Africans of the tremendous potential benefits that come with diversity and periodic turnovers in leadership.

THE TIME HAS COME FOR UGANDANS TO REALIZE THE VALUE OF EMBRACING A MORE PRAGMATIC & PROGRESSIVE CULTURE OF DIVERSITY IN LEADERSHIP RATHER THAN THE HEGEMONY

OF M7'S ONE MAN RULE IDEOLOGY!

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary!

Author: Reinhold Niebuhr

M7's ATTIRE!

The Root of Africa's Political Chaos!

VIOLENNCE DUE TO THIRD TERM!

PRA Suspects Saga!

DEMOCRACY IS NOT A ONE MAN SHOW!

The future of democracy in Uganda depends on peaceful and periodic turnovers in leadership rather than any single regime hegemony! The opposition in Uganda may, as Museveni has noted, be weak! But one should never underestimate the innovative, talented and skilled leadership potential it holds and sadly goes untapped because of the unfair and undemocratic obstacles imposed in favour of Museveni's overextended stay in power!
An independent and vibrant opposition is part and parcel of a stable and prosperous democracy. When the opposition has the freedom to participate, a country's problems and potential conflicts are more easily solved.

" Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power "
-- Abraham Lincoln

Freedom of the press & expression under attack after 21 years of M7's reign !

In his speech marking the 21st anniversary of his National Resistance Movement rise to power, Museven warned the opposition against telling lies and cautioned the media against lies and sensational journalism.

USING THE STATE TO FIGHT OPPONENTS

Uganda's Leaders Should Listen to Voices of Reason

“The media should always be professional and balanced and avoid sensational information. M7 reiterated! They should report objectively, the good news and the bad news without bias, just factually. But some of the papers make it a point to tell lies, abusing the licence which the Government gave them to run newspapers or radio stations just to misinform the public. That is not the idea about freedom of speech...but we shall get time to sort it out. Some think they can continue like this but I can assure you they won’t.” M7's Caveat!

Opposition Finally Takes a Stand!

M7s 21 YEAR REIGN

TEAR GAS TACTICS

Josephine - Be a reason for hope in northern Uganda

2007-01-19T21:12:00.005-05:00

Uganda Rising

2007-01-19T21:12:00.003-05:00