Uganda: United Opposition that Defeated Muhoozi Project Will Demolish Museveni-for-Life Scheme

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Gen. Museveni. What ballots when I have bullets?

The Constitutional Court, sitting in the Eastern Ugandan city of Mbale, has ruled that Parliament was right to lift the 75-year Age Limit clause in the constitution of Uganda.

These constitutional changes were forced through by the dictator Gen. Yoweri Museveni, to create a legal framework for his life-presidency scheme in Uganda. Four judges turned a blind eye. Justice Kenneth Kakuru was the one courageous dissenting judge who sought to throw out the entire proceeding that resulted in the removal of the age-ceiling as “null and void.”

Why would the four judges act the way they did, ignoring the growing anger by Ugandans and resentment of Gen. Museveni and his continued misrule and repression? The answer is simple. In Uganda today, the state is captive and all institutions in the state, including the citizens who work in them, are operating with a barrel of a gun pointing at them. All wages are under the power of the dictator.

Also, the judges have memory. Before Museveni coerced and bribed Members of Parliament to remove term limits from the constitution in 2005, the Attorney General at the time, Francis Ayume, advised him not to do so. Ayume was soon dead in a suspicious car crash. So the four judges who ruled in favor of Museveni’s Life-Presidency project are not necessarily loyal to the dictator. They are afraid of what the malevolent Emperor could do them and to their families.

The evidence is there for all to see. Just take the parliamentarians who tried to resist the lifting of the 75-year age-limit from the constitution. Member of Parliament (MP) for Mukono Municipality, Betty Nambooze, was among the brave lawmakers who tried to filibuster the debate on the age-limit Bill. Scores were beaten in Parliament by Museveni’s security agents. Nambozee was singled out and her spine was deliberately damaged. She now has screws implanted and remains in excruciating pain and often bedridden.

Francis Zaake, the youthful MP for Mityana Municipality, is now a cripple. These are the type of deliberate terror and intimidation campaigns by Gen. Museveni that have cowed many Ugandan citizens. Uganda is a captive state under dictator Museveni. Our duty is to work together to liberate it; to free the institutions and to free ourselves from Museveni’s bondage.

Museveni is on the same path pursued by Zimbabwe’s now peacefully-ousted Robert Mugabe. Museveni thinks that he can rule Uganda till God calls him. Like Mugabe, dictator Museveni will fail in his selfish and malevolent pursuits.

A united campaign by Ugandans at home and in Diaspora will end Museveni’s Life-Presidency scheme. He is not invincible, even though he tries to give the false impression as part of his propaganda. He terrorizes the masses of Ugandans and tries to weaken them by making them poor and at his mercy. As a result, people are dependent upon the national purse; he corruptly controls the strings. He decides on which Ugandan gets to feed her or his family by making appointment decisions. He even decides on who gets academic scholarships.

He is a supreme dictator because in truth, he fears the masses of Ugandans. The man does not sleep and the physical wear and tear are visible. Truth be told, this legal hoax is nothing but a hollow “victory” that will land this power-hungry despite into more trouble than he has bargained for. If Museveni thinks that Uganda will now raise the white flag and abandon the freedom struggle, he must be day-dreaming.

The defective and unjust decisions by the captive institutions of parliament and the judiciary will only serve to galvanize Ugandans to courageously organize and equip themselves with the necessary means to dislodge him from power.

Museveni was defeated before so there are lessons on how to defeat this dictator of 32 years again. Recall that originally Museveni attempted to pave the way for his son, Gen. Muhoozi Kaneirugaba to assume power. Museveni was defeated by a mix of People-power campaigns, and an inner-circle revolt by senior government officials and military officers, such as General David Sejusa, now the Free Uganda (FU) Chairman.

After failing to impose his son on the Ugandans, Museveni changed tactics and opted, instead, for sinister extra-judicial maneuvering to get his loyalist cronies in parliament to brazenly molest the constitution by lifting the 75-year age limit. It was the only remaining safeguard against life-time tyranny. The dictator would we well over that age by the 2021 general election and could not be the candidate for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party dictatorship.

When the people of Uganda finally rise up to save Mother Uganda, Museveni will profoundly regret his selfish and backward constitutional monkey games. That decisive moment for the nation is not far. Just when Museveni thought that he had emasculated Ugandan opposition forces, a new liberation dynamic is beginning to unfold, bringing together all well intentioned Ugandan citizens – from all the different social, political and religious backgrounds.

The same united strategies that were successful in defeating the Muhoozi project will defeat the Museveni-for-life project.
So once again the same coalition–civil society, patriotic politicians and the military–must show their outrage against another scheme by Museveni to continue his family’s destructive misrule over Uganda.

The United Front that defeated Muhoozi will defeat Museveni.

Dr. Vincent Magombe, Secretary
Free Uganda (FU) Leadership Committee
Press Secretary FU

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