UGANDA: WHERE DEMOCRACY AND DICTATOR MUSEVENI’S PERSONAL ENTERPRISES ARE THREATENED.

UseKaguta

Dictator Museveni, plotting to get more years as president, ponders the next move.

“If anybody was to provoke a war with Uganda, I would just mobilize any number I want and we sort out that stupid person. But, of course, Uganda cannot provoke any war against any African country because we are brothers. But if anybody is foolish enough to provoke us, with this 12 million crime preventers, we would sort out that person”

“We know what these crime preventers did during the last elections. They were the ones carrying Museveni’s placards and posters, doing his campaigns and other dirty things. This smells bad”

“It is extremely embarrassing. This investigation is an eye opener and must go on full throttle backwards to find out how far back this illicit practice has been going on, who has been covering up. Maybe it is not only BoU. There are other agencies that have classified procurement and transportation”

GULU-UGANDA:  Uganda’s Dictator, General Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for the last thirty-three years and still counting, is on record to have said that there would be no opposition in the country come 2021. Uganda goes for election in 2021. He also said that he was not a servant/employee of anyone; but is working for himself and his family.

In 1986, when being sworn in as Uganda’s new President, after a gruesome and bloody five-year civil war, General Yoweri Museveni correctly diagnosed Africa’s problem as being leaders who tend to overstay in office. Today, he is a victim of his own words.

Framers of the Uganda 1995 constitution had included two clauses, which limited presidential term to two terms only and age bracket from thirty-five years to maximum age of seventy-five years.

The following year in 1996, Uganda held its first general election since General Museveni took over power ten years earlier. Museveni was declared winner, beating his closest rival, Dr. Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere with a narrow margin.

This was the second election since the 1962 election, which saw Dr. Apollo Milton Obote assumed Executive powers with Sir Edward Mutesa as ceremonial president in what others called unholy marriage between the two. The two fell apart few years later and their marriage dissolved in 1966, thereby setting the stage for Idi Amin’s coup of 1971.

The first election after the 1962 one was in 1980 where Mr. Museveni lost a parliamentary race to Mr. Sam Kuteesa, now his Foreign Affairs minister and father-in-law to his son who is also a senior army officer.

Since then, General Museveni has been scheming on how best he can stay in power. In 2005, when his two-term was expiring, he engineered the Constitution (Amendment) Act, 2005, Act No.11 of 2005 which saw the removal of the term limits on the tenure of the office of the President. This enabled him run again in the 2006 general elections.

On December 20, 2017, parliament voted to remove the presidential age limit cap of 75 years from the 1995 Constitution by 317 votes for removal against 97 votes of those opposed. That year Dictator Museveni who was already 73, would have been disqualified to stand in 2021 election since he would be above 75.

Uganda’s leading independent newspaper, The Daily Monitor, reported in its March 29, 2018 edition that General Museveni transferred the command of the much discredited paramilitary force, ‘crime preventers’, from Police to the army. They, whose estimate is put at 12 million, were used by the regime to terrorize opposition voices during the 2016 general elections.

“If anybody was to provoke a war with Uganda, I would just mobilize any number I want and we sort out that stupid person. But, of course, Uganda cannot provoke any war against any African countries because we are brothers. But if anybody is foolish enough to provoke us, with this 12 million crime preventers, we would sort out that person”, Mr. Museveni is quoted to have said.

This change of command from the police to the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) did not go down well with those in opposition with some expressing outright condemnation of the president and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.

“We know what these crime preventers did during the last elections. They were the ones carrying Museveni’s placards and posters, doing his campaigns and other dirty things. This smells bad”, says former Director General of External Security Organization (ESO), Mr. David Pulkol, now in opposition.

On Saturday, April 27, 2019 the Central bank received a consignment of new bank notes printed but the consignment contained more pallets (boxes) than the number expected by the bank. Instead of the 30 pallets ordered by the bank, it had five extra pallets. Uganda prints its currency in Germany.

The Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, smelt fraud in the transaction and referred the matter to the Anti-Corruption Unit in Sate House headed by a senior UPDF lady officer for investigation.

“During verification process, Bank of Uganda (BoU) staffs reported an anomaly in the inventory of the expected consignment”, reads part of the Governor’s statement.

In its edition of Sunday June 16, 2019, the Daily Monitor newspaper quoted the Director of Uganda Media Center, Mr. Ofwono-Opondo who said investigation into the saga must go full length.

“It is extremely embarrassing. This investigation is an eye opener and must go on full throttle backwards to find out how far back this illicit practice has been going on, who has been covering up. Maybe it is not only BoU. There are other agencies that have classified procurement and transportation”, says Mr. Opondo.

According to two legislators, Hon. Polly Phillip Okin (chairman of Acholi Parliamentary Group) and Professor Morris Ogenga-Latigo (former chairman), what Mr. Museveni is practicing in Uganda is a ‘pseudo- democracy’ because there is creeping militarization of every sector of the country.

“The only thing is that people must be made aware on how Mr. Museveni is ruining the country. National Resistance Movement (NRM) Members of Parliament are toothless. Raising the issue in parliament may not yield results. We have to sensitize the people. They should not waste their votes. People should come to their senses that they have been fooled all along. Let us vote the government out”, says professor Latigo.

It is often said that those who make peaceful revolution impossible sets stage for violent revolution. Museveni is digging his own grave by his actions.

 

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