Dear people,
While we appreciate Andrew Mwenda’s observations about Buganda, Obote and president Museveni in one of his articles in the independent newspaper, i would like to inform Ugandans that Museveni is a proper student of Obote. It’s just that the student has proved to be a wiser and formidable opponent to Buganda/Uganda than Obote such that it will take a proper political tactical genious,not just A4C ralllies, to win this battle. If Buganda was a football club, i would recommend the current Intermilan Coach, Jose Mourinho, to take over as the Katikiiro, because he is a tactical genius.

ARMY,BUGANDA AND POLITICS

The tactics both the Museveni and late Obote sometimes used differ but the end product is always the same.It’s more like selling toothpaste by calling it different names when the ingredients are similar. At the moment, Museveni has kept good tabs on the army but nobody should deceive you that the army and other security agents are not directly involved in politics, as was the case during Obote. Actually, Honourable Erias Lukwago proposal to get rid of army MPs from parliament was intended to pull a plug on this before it was deafeated in parliament.

When eventually the Kabaka’s Palace, the Lubiri, was attacked at 5.30 am on 24 May 1966, the Obote army had established itself in an indispensable position in the politics of UPC government in Uganda. Many university students and their families suffered, if not loss of life, certainly extreme humiliation by having their faces trodden on and their wallets stolen by the often-times drunken soldiery. From May 1966 until the end of Obote’s Presidential rule on 25 January 1971, Buganda was judged to be in ‘a state of emergency’ and was held so by none other than the Ugandan army and the police.

MEDIA FREEDOM

Sedition charges did not start with president museveni as he learnt that from one of his predecessors, Dr. Milton Obote. Pro-baganda newspapers like the Economy had a breather after the fall of Amin but things started getting tougher afterwards. Obote 2 also got tougher on foreign journalists who had had freedom under Lule and Binaisa. Many newspapers like the weekly topic were closed down by government officials under obote 2. Anthony Sekweyama, the editor of the main Luganda newspaper then, Munansi, and two other employees of the paper were arrested in March 1980s and held for three weeks on sedition charges. I think the online – Los Angels radio ,Radio Munansi, picked its name in rememberance of Ssekweyama’s ”Munansi”.

Under Museveni, journalists such as Andrew Mwenda ,Kalundi Serumaga and Timothy Kalyegira and others had sedition charges hanging over them till when Andrew Mwenda challenged the sedition law in the constiutional court and won. We don’t know how far the government is willing to extend their arm on punishing those that write anti-government articles since i hear they have even started picking on the facebookers.

Museveni’s idea of the media centre originally headed by Robert Kabushenga did not come from the moon. Obote was the man who first introduced Newspaper and Publications Act to lay down conditions for the starting of a newspaper or magazine in Uganda. Museveni’s media centre is an equivalent of Obote’s Press Accreditation Committee (PAC) which had representatives from the Ministries of Information, Internal Affairs and Foreign Affairs. Ugandan journalists wishing to send material to foreign sources had to be approved by the same body. Under Museveni, there was a bill that was tabled and raised a lot of eyebrows internationally and nationally because it intended to take away media freedom from Uganda completely. The Swedish were the first to openly oppose it though we didn’t expect the Americans to oppose it as Carson had been in Uganda and rubberstamped Museveni’s leadership.

BLACK MAMBAS AND THE JUDICIARY

‘Black mambas’ were in existence during Obote 2 and now under Museveni’s government. Whatever Obote did during his reign, Museveni can do better. An example is when Barak Kirya was acquitted of treason charges in Dec 1984; he was rearrested in the same way FDC’s Besigye was rearrested under Museveni and taken back to Luzira Prison. Kirya just like Besigye was co-accused with others on treason charges( who included captain Mark Kodili, major Hussain Ada, Captain Sajjad Soori, Frank Kivumbi and James Balamu), who were also acquitted by the judge but the Obote’s ‘black mambas’ surrounded the court such that the Kiryas could not leave the court room. They were eventually forced out and taken back to Luzira. So when Besigye was re-arrested in 2006 and the army had the court besieged, it was more like watching the same movie with different actors.

RIGGING ELECTIONS

UPC is a party that started rigging elections in Uganda. They rigged the 1980 elections because they wanted Obote to become the president of Uganda by all means. For instance, Museveni who was in Uganda People’s Movement (UPM) in 1980, is quoted to have said that “Kategaya was a very bad UPC. He even stole our votes. He stole eight. He told us. He voted eight times”. Probably Museveni learned all the tactics of rigging elections while still a member of UPC because he has also been taken to court for the same problems after the 2001 and 2006 elections. Like they say: ‘an apple does not fall far from the tree”.

Let’s also remember that there was a chance to hold General elections in 1967 before Obote introduced mafia legislations that pushed the whole idea of elections aside because he knew he could lose.

RDCs UNDER MUSEVENI

After 1967, Obote increased his power tremendously. The 1967 Constitution was designed to get rid of feudal rule at the sub-national levels of government by increasing the powers of the District Commissioner, who now became the effective instrument of the central government policies in the district, and the removal of outmoded offices at the local level. Chiefs and ministerial figureheads at the district headquarters were removed. Obote also increased his powers so much as a president under the 1967 consitution.
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