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