Its not fair to say that Kagame is better than Museveni

November 22, 2009 at 11:08 pm (Africa, KINGDOMS, World history and politics)
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Dear Ugandans at heart,

Some of you  might be getting it all wrong to say that Kagame is better than Museveni. It is a strategic mistake to conclude that Kagame is better than M7. Of course, we need to remind ourselves that comparing two different people in different places, facing different challenges, too, is a complex issue. In any case, my submission is pegged on the following:

a) My knowledge of the two systems and people i.e. M7’s system in Uganda and M7 as a person – I never had a chance to get close to M7 but I used to work with people who were CLOSE associates of M7, My knowledge of M7 and his system pre-Luweero war. on the other hand, my knowledge of Kagame and his system is actually first hand, by and wide, at least up to well about 5 years ago

    b) Ever since I left Kagame Junta, I have been involved in International Politics at a relatively very high level. In particular, my involvement in the our Great Lakes Sub-region ‘regional Politics and Military strategies is, to say the least extensive. My access to major development partners too wouldn’t be under looked, anyway.

     

  1. I have similar interests to protect in both countries.But, why do some people wrongly say Kagame is better than M7?
  1. Kagame has absolute control over every institution – civil or military – and he has absolute control over everybody. In addition, Rwanda being a small country with almost everybody known to each other, then the absolute control Kagame has has been translated into systematic control of both private and public livelihood of each person. In this situation, certainly, Kagame controls communication and, generally, Kagame determines which information the world should access about Rwanda. The only information he allows the world to access is that which will bring credit to him. Remember also, Rwandans that have completed University education make less that 5% of the population. I was discussing this issue with one President in that region who agreed with me. He said that actually Kagame has become a liability for the region. The donors seem to view him as a model. Little do they know that no country in the region can handle its people in such a humiliating manner like Kagame does to his people. Know country can deny its people of their rights like Kagame  does and it goes unnoticed!!!!

Uganda, which M7 is dealing with is absolutely different. People are educated, people have their own social systems which can even seal off M7’s influence. More people in Uganda have access to economic resources in comparison with Rwanda. Leading Uganda one must be ‘a man’. You are leading equals. Some people do not care what you are!!!Not in Rwanda, anyway!!!! There are more free men in Uganda in comparison to Rwanda. That is why you can hear many cases of corruption being made public. Not in Rwanda!!

In Rwanda, Kagame selects which cases OF CORRUPTION TO TELL TO THE Public. And, he gives an impression that there are no other hidden corruption cases.I will give you a good example of corruption cases in Rwanda that are worse than Uganda’s but they are never mentioned:

# No tender to wire  -electricity wiring – any government building has ever been given to anybody except Mr. Nkusi – a former minister – whose family was the god father of Kagame’s family in Nakivale. It is believed also that some of this money goes into Kagame’s private pocket

# Nobody is allowed to look into ‘military procurement’ process and/or to question anything that the military buys. It is Ndahiro, Kagame’s relative – who works for the Kagames – that is the final man over this.

# No individual member of Parliament is voted in by the people, directly. All people do is to vote the entire list that is presented to them by Kagame. That list comes out around two days before people go to vote. Nobody discusses the names on the list.

# People voted the 2003 Constitution before they even saw the Constitution!!! The document came out just three days before the vote. Even the most educated class in Rwanda did not read the Constitution before voting

# No member of Parliament is allowed to question the Government’ s proposals to borrow money. Rwanda’s external debt has increased by 130%!!!

# Paramilitary training – Mukyakamukyaka, Ingando is compulsory. But all expenditure  are ‘classified’. Not even the Auditor General is allowed to view these.

b) Rwanda’s kings had absolute control over each individual in the Kingdom. All Rwandans had only one King! It is on record that the Rwandan Kings and chiefs were the most brutal against their people in the entire Africa of that time. Read the first Explorers’ records!!! When Rwanda went Republic, the style of administration did not change so much. People remained under extreme fear especially in relation to their ‘leaders’. Actually, Rwanda has had a great experience of State Inspired Terrorism against its people. The climax is, I believe Kagame Junta. Such terror institutionalized, Kagame can do anything at anytime, to anybody, and nobody can say anything to oppose the guy. Those of us who tried it know what it means!!!

Look, I would write volumes over this issue. I just want you not to Compare Kagame with M7. I believe, if it were possible for the two countries to switch Presidents, and Kagame came to Uganda as a President, he would not survive the heat for another day!!!

Andrew Mwenda

Forget the Propaganda by Andrew Mwenda, the Ugandan journalist, for Kagame. This Mwenda is on Kagame’s pay roll to ‘market’ Kagame. I am sure of this. Did u know that for this reason, when Mwenda was in The Monitor, it was compulsory for all Government institutions in Rwanda to buy the monitor everyday? But do u know what happened when he was forced out of the Monitor? There was an official communique prohibiting Government and Private institutions from buying the Monitor in Rwanda!!!!

Period in power

It is true Kagame has been in power for a relatively shorter period in comparision to M7. Kagame started in 1994! Ok, let us give him 1995. Of course, you might say, he was not the President that time!! But, for our information, Bizimungu was ‘a shadow’ President. The real President was Kagame. You might remember that M7 and Nyerere advised Kagame not to take over as President; they wanted a Hutu just to ‘convince’ the World that it was not a Tutsi takeover of power. It was a good strategy though!!!

Finally, it was Kagame who, after looking at the Hutus that were being presented, he insisted that Bizimungu would be a lesser evil. M7 wanted to bring in Majambere while Nyere wanted Gasana. Gasana was already known to Kabira the Father – Kabira the father was being sponsored by Nyerere; he  used to sell the minerals through TZ!!!! So Nyerere wanted Gasana who had actually done a great deal to undermine Habyalimana regime. In effect, that is why Gasana, who was supposed to travel with Habyalimana that fateful day, was held up in Arusha by ‘a meeting with M7′!!!

Of course, Nyerere, M7 and Kagame knew what was going to befall Habyalimana… that aside, we are justified to say Kagame has been in control for over about 16 years now!!!!

Infrastructure

Yes, some people say apparently the roads are so nice, in Rwanda. The health sector is much better, etc. BUT little do you notice that compared to the levels or volumes of aid, grants and loans Rwanda has been getting in return for the ‘guilty conscience’ of Western nations, these few repaired roads and a few Clinics are like a droop of water in the Sea. There are only two new roads Kagame had constructed: Kigali Bugesera and the Branch to Nyanza – from Kigali Butare. These two roads, put together are shorter than Kampala Masaka road!!! Let anybody challenge this!

Where is the rest of the money that is being pumped into RWANDA?

My friends, come to USA, go to Maryland and you will see the palaces owned by our uncorrupt Kagame and his senior officers!!! I passed by New York and I noticed that almost all Kagame’s Generals’ families live in New York!!! Again, challenge me over this!!!At the same time, I want you to remember that most of us went to the 1990 war without even an extral pair of shoes left in our respective homes!!! Most of us were very poor junior officers in NRA!!!

Yes, Kigali is clean! People praise it for that. But did you know that there are roadblocks around Kigali beyond which poor people who do not have “shoes” cannot go? Yes, even as I write now!!! What would be making this city dirty, anyway? Who limits anybody to come to Kampala? Why then shouldnt Kampala be dirty when everybody can come to Kampala?

Schools in Rwanda

Schools!!!!! God, leave alone Green Hills ( For Madam Kagame) and Rivena (Jane’s school, the owner of Jaguar Buses …Jane is also believed to have had intimate relationship with the PC when she was still in RPA!!!) how many new schools do we have in the whole country?  How many pupil study under trees in Rwanda, even as we talk now? Just recently the donors put Pressure on Kagame, they asked him where the money for schools went. Do u know what he has now decided to do? Each civil servant is going to pay 10% of his/her salary ‘for construction of classrooms!!! I have an official e-mail from the corridors of power in Kigali to this effect. On top of that, each civil servant is going to pay 6% of the salary, the whole of next year, for the Presidential elections!!!!! This is imposed on the people. Can M7 do it in Uganda???????

Remember, every civil servant pays what they call ‘umusanzu’ contribution for the Ruling Party. It is deducted under ’solidality’ – check these people’s pay cheques!!!!

The NSSF saga!!!!!! God, in Rwanda, you contribute to this NSSF every month but you can only access this money after retirement and, even then, you only redeem the figure you have there!!!!No interest. But, go into Kigali, almost all real estate and big buildings belong to NSSF!!! The only signatory to the cheque is Musoni, the minister of Finance. My brother Gaperi, the director, just looks on ‘angazi’!!!! Where do profits for these workers go? In whose names are these buildings??? Check, it is the kagame family!!!!!!

Congo Money

What about the Congo money? Have you ever heard of the Congo desk? It also operates in Dubai!!!That is Kagame’s money!!!!!! Kagame is the second most paid President in the region. He earns about $25,000 amonth on top of all other ‘facilitation’ and security he enjoys as a President!!!! I have documentary evidence to this effect!!!

To cut it short, if we went to balance books, looking at the huge volumes of foreign Aid, Grants AND Loans Rwanda has had, and looking at the entries from Congo business on the one hand, and balance it against what is claimed as achievements by Kagame, then you would see how much Kagame is getting away with!!! He is only benefiting from ‘the genocide’ cover. That is why he have never made any mistake not to mention it in any speech!!!!!!

Remember, over 90% of all the registered business Co. in Rwanda, which are doing business in the country are for Kagame under the name ‘RPF income generating projects”. These ones do not compete for tenders. They only acquire them. When you question such inside dealing, they call u ikipinga!!!That is why some of us are in foreign land after having been refugees in Uganda for so long!!!

Nze ndi musajja wa Kabaka Omunarwanda

LUSOKE WILLIAM

UAH FORUMIST

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witchcraft is but a euphemism for rubbish

June 28, 2009 at 4:19 pm (Africa, CULTURE, RELIGION, Social issues)
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Dr Muwanga-Zaake,

 1/6 You seem not to be sure whether to condemn or to condone so-called witchcraft.  And by the way, witchcraft is but a euphemism for rubbish. Why? Even when you peer into the kit bag of a “witch doctor”, all you see there is absolute rubbish: scales of a pangolin, snail shells, teeth of a hyena, porcupine spines, claws of a crab, cow dung of a leopard, skull of a victim of kwarshiorkor and all such manner of zoological collectibles. Gasiya peke yake!

 2/6  The basic fact is that, where man’s capacity to comprehend and/or tame the forces of nature suddenly ends, the belief in the supernatural immediately begins.  As man increases his mastery of nature, his belief in the supernatural diminishes.

 3/6  Belief in the supernatural is packaged in all sorts of ways.  All of them belong to the domain of superstition.  They range from what we call religions, including your Chrisitianity , to your so-called witchcraft.  In terms of man’s ability to cope with the forces of nature, Christianity and witchcraft lie on the same continuum: only varying degrees of superstitious content.  So, apposing Christianity with witchcraft is neither here nor there.  They are first cousins.  The difference is that, one has been divested of as much superstition as possible.

 4/6  And by the way, what do you mean by an “African belief”?  Do you mean belief in the occult?  Witchcraft and other forms of crude superstition are a characteristic of society that is backward, like Uganda is now.  There is nothing African about superstition.  Between the 13th and 19th centuries as many as 1 million people were executed in Europe for the crime of witchcraft. I am sure you have heard about the Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661-1662.  You may also have heard about the trials of “witches” in the German hinterland of Rothenburg in the same period, going on even as recently as 1750.  In that town, as many as 400 “witches” were executed in one day during that time. In the USA , you may have heard about the witch hunts in Salem and Massachusetts . In England, the last person to suffer death for so-called wtichcraft was in 1684, although there is a case of a lady living in Hertfordshire village of Walkern, a few miles North of London, who narrowly survived death as recently as 1712 after being accused of being a witch….I think her name was Jane Wenham…she was saved by the intervention of Queen Anne….and so on….Note that the major victims were always women, particularly the poor and largely the widows, and trials were not only in religious courts, but also in secular ones.

 5/6 So, do not be racist or biased in other way you as you look at human superstition.  Whenever and whereever the level of science and technology is abysmal, witchcraft and religion come in to fill the gap.  There is nothing African about it, and we should not base on Africa ’s current backwardness to infer that manifestations of backwardness are a preserve of Africans only.  The irony with you Professor is that, you then go a head to base on Africa ’s current predicament to weave up some strange notion of your African Nationalism…or what ever one may call it.

 6/6 But, but, but, now how about you the Professor of Chemistry who then goes ahead to assert that, “The record of African spiritual leaders healing and successfully praying for rain are obliterated or never perpetuated.”? You as a scientist should be in the forefront of demystifying superstitions and dispelling such fallacies as “rain-making”, but here you are telling us about the so-called African spiritual leaders.  You Professor of all people, know the hydrologic cycle; you know the Bergeron Process of how rain forms and falls; you know that, the only way man can induce rain is by CCNs or cloud condensation nuclei.  You studied those facts in Chemistry and got a PhD, you teach them, and then you come here at UAH to tell us that, sijui, “African spiritual” this and that, should be perpetuated!  Does PhD mean “Pure head Damage”? How doesn’t someone rule you people for 50 years non-stop? How, how? That when some scary-looking self-important old chap in need of dentures in some village in Bulemezi throws cowries in the air, spits to the west, puffs to the North, walks to the road junction on his hands and slaughters a white hen facing south….then the rain will turn up! Professor Muwanga-Zaake want that to be perpetuated!  That is the myth that a 21st century Professor of chemistry wants to perpetuate, in the name of African nationalism.  Now, don’t you really see where Africa ’s problems lie?

 Lance Corporal (Rtd) Otto Patrick

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Do you believe in witchcraft?

June 28, 2009 at 4:15 pm (Africa, CULTURE, Social issues)
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messages on witchcraft are outright unbalanced? Some people focus on witchcraft – but is it more heinous than burying people alive, by, I presume, religious people? So, possibly, another important question is ‘ Has religion affected some of these people?’. Obviously, the murders believed in witchcraft although their religious backgrounds are not clearly stated.

what qualifies as witchcraft

Although I have been accused of being pedantic on this forum, I think we have a problem in defining a witch. It appears to me as though anybody with powers, which cannot be scientifically proven or which are not acceptable in the Christian doctrine, to cause havoc is a witch, especially in Africa where religions local belief systems to establish themselves. The record of African spiritual leaders healing and successfully praying for rain are obliterated or never perpetuated. Indeed, we have been assimilated into despising our beliefs as backward or witchcraft.

There are double standards applied in Africa. An African belief is subjected to scientific proof, otherwise it is backward or witchcraft. A biblical or foreign belief is never subjected to scientific proof. So we are told – Jesus walked on water, changed water into wine, fed millions with merely 5 loaves, etc. but we are not allowed to question these acts on the basis of science. I have no problem in believing the miracles Jesus demonstrated. However, for example, let us note that there is no scientific explanation for walking on water without sinking other than a belief in supernatural being.


Havoc is reported in enforcing religions, including Christianity for example. Would Samson who prayed until a whole building killed people where he was apprehended qualify as a witch? Or should we include biblical personalities (Moses is one) who prayed for the suffering of the Egyptians until the Jews were allowed to go back to their land.

The topic of witchcraft is indeed a can of worms, albeit an unfair one, which is selectively applied to any belief that is not Christian or non scientific. Ultimately, I think the question is unfair in perpetuating a complex that renders every happening, which neither Christianity nor science approves, as witchcraft. I.e., the question presumes a belief in Christianity and science as the only acceptable spiritual and knowledge systems.

Dr.Johnnie Muwanga-Zake

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Laws in Kenya may work in Uganda

June 12, 2009 at 4:34 pm (Africa, POLITICS)
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L_Cpl Otto:

Yes, the law can work in Uganda. remember that Kenyans also had or went through what Ugandans are going through: feelings of entitlement.  I had been ordered out by then but I learned that Kenyan actually fought kifuba over FORD KENYA. Raila Odinga, yes that one felt entitled to led it after the demise of his father Mzee Jaramogi Odinga.  The Luhyas said no and fought over it.  I understand the situation was so bad-Mr Moi could care less-that many suffered multiple injuries.

Defeated, democratically-not enough delegates to back him-Raila left to left to hijack another parry then called NDP.  From there he made a deal with Mr Moi, joined KANU and cabinet until Mr Moi pulled a fast one on all the pretenders when he three his weight behind Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and famously reminded the pretenders that KANU had its owners.

When YKM told off those pestering him to name his successor that none of the current pretenders have what it takes, he reminded me of Mr Moi, blunt and politically incorrect, a trait both share. They also do not drink chaanga and of course like mbessha too much.

It took the courage of the woman from Gichugu, Hon Martha Karua to reign in the political parties.  Forced by law, most parties had no choice but embrace internal democracy.  Those that thought that she was joking were caught off guard and are now in limbo. Needless to say political parties are not private entities.

But it is not just me obsessed with Kenya.  Kenyans now rule the top echelons of the corporate sector in Uganda and even Vice Chancellors.  Why is that the case?

However,I agree with your thesis. Taxes are what we pay for civilization.  In other words, if Ugandans want democracy they should pay taxes. Now do Ugandans pays taxes?  No.

NRMO was smart. It broke the bond you cite by abolishing pol taxes.  Ugandans used to take pride in paying taxes. They used to gather before DCs and chiefs to be assessed or relieved of the budren. Not anymore.

Bottom line : a country of perennial tax evaders like Uganda cannot enjoy the type of democracy the elite crave for.

It is is inverse of the cry: no taxation without representation that sparked tea the famous Boston tea parties.

No taxes, no democracy babe. Taxes are what buy-force-democracy.

Now do you think the majority see it the way you put it in your thesis?  Obviously not.  Scam the editorials pages and you will see them complaining about taxes today and then tomorrow about lack of democratic space. Hello.

I know you folks are fed up with me referring to Kenya but just bear with me.  Under Mr Moi, Kenyans were not paying taxes as much. Enter Mr Kibaki who declared that the era for tax evaders was over and all of a sudden KRA is minting billions. In Ugandan super crooks like Sudhir are day  in day out fighting URA about one form of taxe or another. And then the crooks have the audacity to complain of lack of security. If the Ugandan police has no web page, or functioning patrol cars, cars it can only buy if allocated more money, money which only be raised through taxation, how can it deliver?

Instead of the opposition telling donors to cut AID, they should be telling Ugandans to pay taxes. Yap. is that likely? Nope.

Many in UAH and blame the peasants that they have prioritized sleep over democracy. Hello.  As as long as they pay no taxes, no more strikes and for the young folks, it was strikes “Obwedimo” against taxes, a Ugandan version of no taxation without representation pioneered by the late Mr Eriabu Kamya which forced changes on Bazungu.

Abolishing poll taxes has had only negative effects. Men drinking from mourning is one of them. In the past, before one paid his or her poll tax, they would be on guard and working hard to pay before the chiefs pounced. Not anymore.

Think about it, we the elite are doing the wrong thing.  What we should be calling for is more not less taxation if we genuinely treasure democratizaition in Uganda.  some Ugandan singer sang that “essay come say go”.  Ugandans want it essay, no taxes yet somehow hope aginst all odds that lack of taxation will translate into democracy. Wrong.

Ugandans should reflect on Oliver Wendel Holmes’ dictum: taxes are what people for civilization. You can define civilization any way you want.

WBK

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Laws in Kenya may not work in Uganda

June 12, 2009 at 4:25 pm (Africa, POLITICS)
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Dear UAH
Let me take you back to that Kenyan bill on intra-party democracy…you know that one one forumist called Kjijomanyi in USA has threatened to whip Uganda’s legislators with.  It reminded me of his argument almost to the effect that, the organisational doctrine of the Kenya military is an OSFA…”One Size Fits All”…now, it is organisational doctrine of office seeking political groupings (is it “Parties”?).

What I believe is, that laws are moulded by the politico-economic realities that inform their formulation.  It may not be prudent to hope that, a law propounded in Kenya can be workable here in Uganda:

1/11 In my layman’s view, laws are qualitative expressions of the concrete realities that dictate their formulation.  When you transpose Kenyan legislation onto Uganda, all you will be doing is to dress up a porcupine in a Kanzu.  You are better off crafting a special attire that is tailored to the spikes of the porcupine.  Those spikes simply will shred the Kanzu.
2/11 I am reminded here of the political transitions in all three East African countries in the first decade of the 2000s.  Even a cursory glance at those transitions will tell you a huge story of what is possible in terms of democracy in Uganda, and how the question of economics comes into play….you know the old addage that “Politics is concentrated economics”…that is, politics are the qualitative expression, or the distillate of socioeconomic realities.  You can distil War Gin (Waragi) from Foot and Mouth Drink (Banana Beer) but not from milk.
3/11 In the early 2000s, Kenya depended on donor aid only to the tune of 5%, Tanzania, 33% while Uganda did so to the tune of 53%.  Those figures are a reflection of the robustness of the “fiscal contract” in the three countries…just forget about Thomas Hobbes’ nebulous and intellectually indolent “social contract” which pseudoliberals love to bandy about.  The nuts and bolts of the contract between political elites and their constituents is the fiscal imperative: tax, the subscription fee for membership to civil society.
4/11 Now, back to Uganda and her sisters, and the robustness of the fiscal contract.  What we see happening in Kenya in 2002 was a long-reigning President attempting to have the constituion – the supreme law – ammended so as to secure for himself another term in office.  That failed miserably.  What followed then in Kenya was the incumbent president was never brought back to office, but neither was the ruling party.  Kenya: President loses out, his party loses out, fiscal bond: 95%.
5/11 In Tanzania you have the highly institutionalised CCM, Mr Mkapa served his two terms from 1995, you could not even hear of a dreamer’s hint of a third term.  He stood down, eventually relinquishing the leadership of the CCM to his successor.  But even then, the party was returned in power.  Tanzania: President stands down, party remains in power, fiscal bond: 67%
6/11 In Uganda, the constitution was ammended to allow the incumbent to stand for a third term, he remained the head of the ruling party, and he remained in power.  Uganda: Constitution is ammended, president stays put, party is returned in power, fiscal bond: 47%.
7/11 Here is my hypothesis:  The level of democratic responsiveness of a political elite of any one country is inversely proportional to the extent of aid dependency of the country in question. Put differently, The level of democratic responsiveness of a political elite of any one country is  directly proportional to the extent to which the country in question relies on locally-generated revenue. The point here is, democracy is not just good manners.  Let me define it as “Democracy is the tight corner in which revenue-thirsty political elites find themselves when they are forced to rely on their own populations to function”. Forget about the hot air of si jui, rule of the people for the people blah, blah….By the way, on ammending constitutions to get third terms, recall that General Obasanjo had to even fly to Kampala to consult on how he could force through his 3rd term.  That consultation did not help: his people vetoed him.  Nigeria depends on aid only to the tune of 0.01%

8/11 Worse still, Uganda is even lacking in the level of democratic pressure that it can bring to bear on the political elite.  As you know, Uganda has the lowest median age in the world: 14.9 years.  We have the youngest population in the world, likewise, we have the least number of voters.  According to democratic theory, electoral politics only begins to make sense when 75% of the population can cast their vote.  That 75% tells also another story: when those many people can vote, it means also you have more adults, you have more potential tax payers/workers and you can therefore have a strong fiscal bond between the elite and the population.

9/11 In Uganda, only 40% of the population are of voting age, you have no quorum: bottomline, electoral politics in Uganda is a mockery; it is a slap in the face of liberal democracy and every time Uganda holds any form of election, that reality is always there for all to see.  There is no social basis for liberal democracy in Uganda.  That 40% also means you have less employable people, and less tax payers.  As you know, Uganda also has the highest dependency ratio in the world:- 100:111.  Since you even have the lowest number of people above the age of 65% in the world, it means that all your dependants are babies, nappy wearers.

10/11 Kenya is urbanised to the tune of 26%, Uganda: 12%.  Kenya’s median age is 18.6%…many more workers, many more tax payers, many more bargainers for political concessions.  Recall what it took to quell mass demonstrations recently: armed polic in combat, with live ammunition.  In Uganda: Kiboko squad…just whip them off the streets like the rowdy toddlers that they are.

11/11 So, three things for you to consider before you orthopaedically impose Kenyan law on Uganda.  One, context; secondly, context and third but not least and always easy to forget, context.

Lance Corporal (Rtd) Otto Patrick

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The message from the Pope is a double-edged sward

March 22, 2009 at 2:17 pm (Africa, RELIGION)
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The problem here is, you are going to lose your relatives either way, if you escape losing yourself.

Why? Because AIDS is already here with us; no one knows for certain when the disease’s cure is going to be found. Chances are, given this is not a living virus, but most likely a chemical virus, based on rumours around its origin, no cure is ever going to be found anytime soon. If the cure is never going to be found anytime soon, then how are you not going to lose your relatives including yourself through againg while waiting for the cure to be found?

If you choose to use condom everytime you have sex, it is very likely that you will never have children, most definitely for the rest of your remaining life. That means you cannot bequeath your progeny; consequently the population of your grandfather dies off through you. Now multiply that with the number of people in your village; county; district, &c. Then you find that you have a people whose populations are being checked by the presence of the disease. So in a way, you are losing your relatives by not producing any of your own progenies. If you are age 40 today; in 20 years you will be 60 years old. Should by then AIDS’ cure not be found yet, you will continue using condom. But age would also be catching up with you, if you lucky to still be alive and kicking then.

If you choose to follow Pope’s advice on the other hand, and stopped using condoms, that means you and your partner/s must adhere to strict sexual practices - provided none of you has acquired the disease yet. That way you can bequeath your progenies. If your relatives too adhere to strict sexual practices, they too will bequeath their progenies. However, if none of you adhere to strict sexual practices, chances are:

a). Lives are going to be lost because of the disease. So yes, you will lose your relatives, or even yourself;

b). You will produce offsprings who are themselves AIDS’ riddled; therefore chances are, they won’t live; and not for long should some lived.

As you can see, both of these scenerios are not what one wants. The message  from the Pope however, is a double-edged sward that the very people who are gravely affected by the scourge of the disease must pick their ways about carefully to see that they avoid extinction one way or the other, because both options leads to extinction, provided the cure for the disease is never found, like there is no cure for cancer.

Under the condition that the cure is not available, a people can become extinct through use of condoms; or a people can become extinct through erratic sexual practices.

The option then is, one has to be loyal to his/her partner; and teach the coming generation to follow the same strict loyalty or perished. The problem however, for us African men who by and large marry more than one wife, some women just looking at their shapely body, is irresistible. The feeling would be, I have to have that babe, for real! Then the next thing you will realise is, you are in trouble or shes in trouble.

Many of you are not happy of course by what the Pope has said. But looking at the message from philosophical vantage point, one can either argue that the Pope is trying to entrenched moral conduct in society by making sure people adhere to some moral practices and standards. For instance, one can argue that the Pope doesn’t want people to be sexually promiscuous; AIDS is only a blessing in disguise therefore - helping to shape that moral conducts that otherwise, people would not have bothered about, whether the Pope preached about morality a thousand times a day. So in a way the Pope is taking advantage of the scourge of the disease, to drive home the message of morality. In which case the Pope is being saint, and caring.

But the other angle of looking at it is that the Pope is evil. This is because the Pope is telling you that you should not use condoms while engaging in sex with your partner. So the Pope in way is sending people to their death, knowing fully that the deadly disease has no cure. Why would he on earth tell people not to use condoms while having sex? Therefore the Pope must be advicing people wrongly so that millions can die off. For, without using condoms, many people are going to be infected by the disease, and almost all of them will die sooner than normally they would.

Those who hold this position may indeed be correct as well but to a point. They might be correct in that if the Pope bought into the notion of population control, then obviously he would advocate for no use of condoms so that as many people as possible contract the disease so they can die off. But such conclusion might be misleading because the Pope is not telling people to engage in sexual immorality. If the Pope was telling people not to use condoms while at the same time he advises people to have individual freedom to engage in all kinds of sex, then yes, one would hold the Pope squarely responsible. But I don’t think the Pope is telling people to engage in all kinds of sexual activities.

Further, from economic perspective, the Pope might in a way be helping the downtroddens of the earth fight off big businesses and conglomerates that are taking advantage of the scourge of the disease to maximize their profits through production and sale of condoms. By not using condoms, you will then be fighting off exploitations by big businesses and conglomerates that would otherwise be laughing all the way to the bank, as you spend your meagre earnings on condoms, while preventing you to multiply at the same time. The Pope’s message mitigates against such exploitations; and help you multiply, should you adhere to strict sexual conducts.

So this is not an issue that can be treated emotionally. You have to look at it from the philosophical, moral and economic point of view to make an informed decision.

OpaA

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Pope has no Right to tell Africans about Condoms

March 22, 2009 at 2:12 pm (Africa, RELIGION)
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The Pope and many of his predecessors have done more evil to the people of this world than just about any other force of evil, including wars. How many wars were part of the Papal Crusades? The Spanish Inquisition? The Reformation? The list of murders and crimes of the Popes would take hundreds of books to document. > Pope Bernadict himself and the former pope, John Paul 11, both come from the era where all these Priests were blatantly molesting children, and you have to wonder why they covered it up so much and hired Bernard Law. As the Proverbs say: “Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are.” The Pope made his bed with the Child Molesters, and he has no right to tell Africans about condoms and its use. I doubt that he will be going to Heaven.

The Catholics should re-examine these popes and cardinals and what they preach to us, Africans. This current pope was in Washington last year and he made a speech about human rights and how he wants all countries to respect human rights. But let’s examine which human rights the Pope and clergy are allowed to deny followers:

1. The right of women to control their own reproductive functions
2.The right of women to hold any ruling posts within the Church
3.The right of poor families to the knowledge or tools needed to keep their family’s size within sustainable limits. (This is especially troubling now that the earth has entered a period of food scarcity and recession.)
4. The right of priests to have loving life partners who are not made out of cold marble.
5. The right of nuns to marry. (In the 50s nuns wore wedding rings because they were “married to Christ.” How creepy is that?)
6.The right to use condoms, not just to prevent unwanted pregnancy, but to protect against AIDS, even on continents like Africa where AIDs has already nearly wiped out one entire generation and is working on the next.

One would think that at least one of those “journalists” in Africa gushing all over the Pope during his visit might just have asked him a few probing questions about all that. And asked him how he jives his stated support for human rights with his Church’s own rules against some of mankind’s most fundamental human rights, like controlling how many kids they have.

I have to wonder if a few thousand poor Catholic families in Africa who, thanks to the Church’s rules against artificial birth control, had unwanted children, children that suffered or even died of starvation, sued the Church and won. I wonder if that’s what it would take to spur the Pope to change the rules against birth control and, of course, spark a Papal apology tour of Africa.

William Bogere

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RUKWANZI ISLAND: IS IT IN UGANDA OR DRC

March 5, 2009 at 6:14 pm (Africa, Geography, POLITICS)

Forumists,

1/7 When one takes a closer look at the open source satellite imagery of the Uganda/DRC border, it seems that Rukwanzi Island is not part of Uganda.  The Island appears to be 0.89 km inside DRC territory.  This is according to Google Earth imagery (provided by among others, NASA).  Look at the attachment to this message showing two Google Earth extracts of the Lake Mwitanzige (Albert) basin taken at different altitudes, very close to the mouth of River Semliki.  The yellow line is the international boundary with DRC.

2/7 It is unfortunate that the documents that outline the alignment of the border are silent on any reference points over the lake. The only instance that would make one hope that the island is in our territory is Emin Pasha’s 1886 account of ‘…. discovery of a new [sic] river flowing from Usongora mountains.’ Pasha further noted that, ‘It is of considerable size and flows into the lake at the south…. Contains a large island near its junction with the lake.’ [Schweinfurth, G (1888), Emin Pasha in Central Africa, pp. 187, 179 and 570.

3/7 In the quote above, I underline ‘near’ to ensure that we do not interpret it as, ‘at’.  Had Emin Pasha stated that the island was at the junction of the river with the lake, there would have been grounds to claim that the boundary was subsequently ill-demarcated, in light of the fact that it coincides with the thalweg of the Semliki and the Semliki opens directly into the Lake, therefore making it possible for us to have half the Island.  This is the false impression that William Rwebembera of the New Vision made by distorting the map of the area in his 10th August 2007 article.

4/7 The last figure in the attachment is an extract of the map of Uganda sectioned out in 317 grids, each representing a map of scale 1:25,000..  Maps 46/4 and 47/3 available from Lands and Survey in Entebbe cover the area of our interest.  They should be looked at closely to confirm whether that Island is on the Ugandan or the DRC side of the border.

5/7 There were several press reports indicating that locals in the lake basin know the island to be on the Uganda side because they have always fished there.  This is only testimony to the inconveniences that Berlin borders have visited upon communities in frontier zones but not a confirmation of where Rukwanzi belongs.  All of us know the Kitgum frontier zone with Sudan: it is called Ngom Orom, i.e., the land that belongs to all, or put differently, to-whom-it-may-concern-territory.

6/7 The many decades of the ineptitude of the Zairean state may have turned Rukwanzi into an Ngom Orom.  The discovery of oil, and regime change in Kinsasha might be altering that state of affairs.  I have read that in the Bantu dialects, ‘Rukwanzi’ means a bead, which many parents of restless toddlers know to be a choke hazard.

7/7 It may be dangerous for us to assume that Rukwanzi is in Uganda, when it may not be.  We should not hope that DRC authorities will remain as sleepy as they have been for many years.  If we are right, it may be advisable that, Google Maps is alerted to the extent to which it is misrepresenting the country’s frontiers: if a DRC researcher looks at that map the way it is now, it may be a source of embarrasment.  A bid by Uganda to swallow that bead could easily cause severe choking.

Lance Corporal (Rtd) Otto Patrick

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Advise on education to Ugandans and the president

March 5, 2009 at 1:37 am (Africa, Education, POLITICS)
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Fellow Ugandans,

On the education scene our beef ought not be with the scholarly pursuits of any East African group but rather with our own government’s policies and seriousness regarding education. If Pres. Kagame of Rwanda is aggressive enough to obtain scholarships for his people let us applaud his efforts- because he is one of a few African leaders next to Botswana’s president who have recognized the power of education. He visits and empowers his students religiously every year, he gets an A+ in this regard.

 

 

I truly believe that if we managed our affairs well, we will have enough jobs to last us several decades. This favouring of one group over another, like the way Banyankole are favoured in Uganda, may have just a slight advantage, but it surely does not auger well for the development of the region.

 

Our contention ought to be with our own leadership on this matter, for a country on a development path we have not shown the necessary aggressiveness that is called upon to close the apparent gaps in education-this might well be what has long deterred our progress. In the last 20 years I have seen very few Ugandan Students both at Harvard and MIT-Yet these are the centres that have fuelled the Asian development machinery. I have seen more students from Rwanda as well as Zimbabwe. To date we have just one student pursuing her PHD in Electrical Engineering and perhaps a couple at Harvard doing their masters.

 

The scantiness of these numbers during the past 23 years speaks to the approach and perhaps policies not pursued that would have put us as a nation on a clear path of progress.  I can only urge our president to begin to recognize that the ills with AGOA and other initiatives that have not taken off-during his tenure are self inflicted. Indeed to stop selling raw materials you have to have an Industrial Engineering major at our Universities, to stop posturing as the garment sellers for India for purposes of Agoa, you need Textile Engineers and machinery to work your textile factories, and please do not let the life science boom pass us by. Many have profited from re-engineering herbs/medicines that are from our own land; and now that we have OIL there will be a need for both plastic Engineers and Chemical Engineers and this needs to be proactively catered for now.

 

 Tendo Kaluma

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How Museveni has duped Ugandans for so long

February 27, 2009 at 5:19 pm (Africa, POLITICS)
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I am not accusing any Ugandan of supporting Museveni, just on record Museveni has no supporters and he needs no supporters from the word get go. Museveni operates by intimidation and his writing is very clear that if you terrorize the masses they obey. What I stated is that most ugandans became a victim of one of his ways. Museveni uses mass media today, but in Luwero he used what he termed Siyasa. They come on a village and pour out a barrage of information when it is all a lie and Ugandans buy it. They had a tactic of pilling up banana trees and then lie to the population that they have got a massive gun that is going to be used from Nakaseke and bomb Bombo barracks to smithereens. And a Muganda would show up at your door and tell you how he has seen such a huge gun in Nakaseke that is going to take Bombo Barracks down. The matter of fact was that they covered the pile of bitooke with a Tundubaari. When you ask him if he saw the physical gun, a Muganda goes no but I saw it covered by Tundubari. Not only the population was targeted, so was UNLA.

NRA used to line up its fighters holding AK47’s then they would fire bullets as they were lined up, so one bullet from my gun to yours to the next one, and it kept on going on and on. The government soldiers listened to the firing and they failed to figure out what gun would fire that long without interval. They too thought that NRA had special weapon they never trained into. And this worked for NRA for it affected the soldiers physiologically. But much of it fruited for the population was ignorant.

And that ignorance did not start in Luwero, many Baganda actually believed that Sir Edward Mutesa had a gun installed in Lubiri but the Amin’s would not remove it for if they removed it the entire Kampala would collapse. That lie walked Kampala taverns till when Amin came to power. Bottom line there was no gun like that in Lubiri and it simply does not exist. The same Baganda belied that Tanzania forces had a gun called Sabasaba which would pick up a soldier among a group of people, they stated that if many people are sitting down the bullet will only pick up who ever had a uniform and a gun. No actually the reason not many civilians were not killed during that war was because unlike NRA, UNLF did not target civilians. And I will come back to that point after.

The same Baganda believed that President Binayisa brought equipment that can pin point a gun, and they said if you have a gun in your house they will simply walk into the house and pick it up. That equipment was not in Uganda and it simply does not exist. What I am accusing Ugandans is that they bought in those lies and half truths and they depended on them to make a decision of their political path, which was to follow Yoweri Museveni and NRA/M to ChakamuChaka.

Uganda never went to DRC for security reasons; your governors simply used the same ignorance of the population to build that war as they have built the war in the North for generations. When the French left Rwanda, they were replaced by the British and Americans and the main target was to replace the French and Belgium’s in DRC to mine as soon and as much as they could. DRC  had minerals but DRC also had timber. It was a search of personal income, but in the process they used that time to make sure that they kill as many Hutus as possible.

You see before they go for a loot they have to get a story well written, they create the victim, who will be killed and then they will loot as the rest of you are praising their successes. When they wanted to take the land of Acholi they pumped up a name of Konny, a man that tried to fight Uganda and gave up twenty years or so ago. They maintained that name as the rest of you bought the story, the cows were driven to Acholi land and are grazing as you read this writing. Many UPDF officers own large farms in Acholi land and you can verify this with Kateregga, so you need to have the ability to question how a major can hold a farm in the North and Konny does not kill him but when an Acholi moves from his camp to his house Konny kills him. Surely Ssemuwemba can’t you question that? Did any one ever move his cows into Luwero and start to graze during the war? Why do we have thousands of cows in Acholil and today grazing and Konny does not affect them at all? Surely Ssemuwemba can’t you question that either? Why  take the cows to Acholi land? Because many of those cows were looted from Karamoja and they would not survive in the land scape of Ankole which is wet grounds and rain, they needed a land as dry as Karamoja, and Acholi land was available for grabs. So pack the population in camps and graze the damn cows while singing Konny is killing the Acholis.

Uganda government went to DRC to create a safe heaven for the western companies that mine DRC dry and in return the Museveni’s Besigye’s were also allowed to loot as much as they would. It was a business investment, and that is why I was so offended by Ssabassajja who clearly knew what was going on in DRC when his own people were being sacrificed, yet made no stand about it. He actually at a certain point encouraged Baganda parents to register their children in UPDF. That is not the King I am interested in he should make the safety of his people number one.

There is no country that has lost people as DRC, in fact DRC makes Luwero deaths a joke. These murders were built on FRONASA which started it in Mbarara to Mawogola to Lake Katwe to West Nile to Kampala to Luwero to Kigali to Southern Sudan to DRC. The only common factor you have in all those places is Museveni and FRONASA. Dr Kiiza Besigye and Gen Mugisha Muntu will never write any thing for they cannot write about their actions. In fact that is why FDC is an urban party they cannot walk the villages for the people know what they did. Yes they can go to Wobulenzi, Timiina Naluvule Luwero and Nakasongola, but Kiiza Besigye cannot walk into Nakaseke for example, campaign and get a constituency, NO WAAAAAAAAYYY!!!!!!!! And he knows it. What I wonder is why men of great respect like Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba cannot understand that.

The reason civilians survive in Amin’s war was because UNLA and TPDF had specific instructions to make sure civilians are protected. UTC buses that were taking the soldiers to front line were comming back with civilians and putting them into community centers where they were fade. But many times those buses were traveling on roads that were under a watch of UNLA, they were always let go for the occupants were not soldiers.Yet the Dr Kiiza Besigye’s and Mugisha Muntu’s were targeting buses that were publicly known to be civilian buses, and I have already talked about Owinyi Kibul bus here. There was no single civilian bus that was bombed on Masaka road or any where that Amin’s war passed. So how can Besigye and Muntu speak today? That we blew up the population in Luwero in day light? That we were putting on UNLA uniforms in day light drive their LandRovers and we blow up people to make the Obote soldiers look bad? Ask your self why Tanzanians and UNLA never bombed the buses to blame Amin.  And yet most Ugandans would have agreed that it is Amin killing people without question.

I am there fore appealing to you to slow down and look at these issues slowly, because much of what you were fade was to the advantage of the Museveni’s. We have had a great number of Rwandese in Uganda that have murdered very many of our people, and they have done it all under a cover of Obote is a bad man, many of those Rwandese left our country and headed back to Rwanda but many also remain in our country as Dr Kiiza Besigye and Gen Mugisha Muntu. And what we need from them today, is a right to stand in front of a commission so that they tell us what they know that happened, for 3/4 of the information we have on Uganda is about what Obote and his army did and much is a lie. If you do not know what FRONASA did in Uganda, you are in no position to blame Obote his government or UNLA. I also want to indicate that because the Museveni’s knew that they lied about Obote and UNLA to get to power, because they knew how Obote had a good intentions to lead Uganda to prosperity,  but they did all the dirt on his back to be able to come to power, I believe that it was very instrumental in allowing him to have a state funeral. The Besigye’s, the Museveni’s and Mugisha Muntu’s knew that the murders were not committed by Obote.

What I fail to understand is why you the Ugandans that were fade those lies did not ask why Museveni offers a state funeral to a man he told that will be shot if he ever lands in Entebbe. That is the intelligent question Ugandans miss to ask their Museveni as he continues to use them as condoms.

Byeebyo ebyange !!!

Edward Mulindwa
Ugandan residing in Toronto

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Intermarriages:Muslim are unfair to other beliefs

February 27, 2009 at 2:09 am (Africa, CULTURE, RELIGION)
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Muslims are practising double standards, especially Katerega as a person whose extended family has both the Christian and Muslim faith. So they want to sneak on non-Muslim daughters but they don’t want us to sneak on theirs? To me this proves that Muslims believe that it is only their religion that is superior and others are inferior. I don’t fancy religious debates because neither I nor you have been to Heaven to face our true living God and talk with him in order to know which religion is acceptable in the face of God. But the point remains muslims better revisit their belief or else they have a lot to lose at stake. So they think that our faiths, we who are not of the Muslim Brotherhood are indeed Kafir? How do you expect to have peace between Jews and Arabs if both sides have people who think like you?

 

 

It is very interesting that there was one NRM cadre (RIP) who had told me long ago in around 1991 – 93 that the Intermarriage card was one of the Aces up the NRM sleeve while still in the Bush as a solution for Ugandanising the population, the other being Land. Now, the cat has been let out of the bag on the Intermarriage card by the No. 1, unless of course he was misquoted, so then the Land card is for REAL!!!! Then what is the debate all about? But just a caution, engineered and forced intermarriages as Hitler did in the WW2 in Scandinavia and most countries of western Europe is no solution for a supreme race or defusing inter-tribal differences. This is proven up to today in Europe! I shall remain a person who does not drink milk mixed with blood and enjoy my enseenene while the other will value the dish of milk mixed with blood and stare at me in disgust when he /she sees me enjoying enseenene. God loves it that way, otherwise He wouldn’t have created us different in races, cultural norms etc. It is better for me to fall in love with a Nyaru while on our studies in USA or France than to bring one purposely and plant her next door in the plot next to mine because someone is so anxious to mix up our tribes, sorry, nations in the hope of solving an artificial problem. What happened in Rwanda ? Didn’t we have many cases of Hutu marrying Tutsi and vice versa? Did that stop the massacre/genocide? So what are we talking about here? Just curious.

 

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Intermarriages:Marry my daughter as long as you’re a Muslim

February 27, 2009 at 1:46 am (Africa, CULTURE, RELIGION)
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Dear Ugandans,

 

Credit should go to Kabaka Kintu, who outlawed inter clan marriages or in house breeding, to borrow from MP Alex Onzima. He outlawed even one from marrying in his mother’s clan. Thus we have national integration in Buganda. Had Obote’s marriage with Miria Kalule was not foiled with 1966 crisis, it was the beginning of inter tribal marriages and we should encourage it. For example, l don’t mind a person my child can marry so long as s/he is a Muslim. We have much in common as Africans, than what separates us. I don’t mind my daughter marrying a Congolese so long as he is a Muslim. Some Congolese Banyamulenge, Bahema, Balendu are nearer to us culturally than some of our tribes in Uganda. It is only the colonial boundary that is separating us. The Qur’an permits us to marry only people of the Book (The Bible) but not Animists as some people portray it. Muslim men are permitted to marry Jews and Christians but Muslim women are not allowed to marry non-Muslims. However a bi breed of religion may bring a half baked person. To be sincere with you l can not allow my daughter to bring a non Muslim suitor at my home. But she can bring any African so long as he is a Muslim. Some Ugandan Muslim parents belong to those that are after riches without considering which hands that brings them. Alhamdu Lillah l don’t belong to that category.

 

 I have attended many weddings in mosques and brides come in person and even write and sign on their registers and certificates. Visit any at Kibuli Mosque and you will see it. Some are held at Bukoto, Wandegeya and even Old Kampala. In Islam, as for burial, women attend burial, but not mixing up with men. I have attended many burials ceremonies especially of my own family and it is like that. I however know that some Muslims leave women folk at home for dodgy reasons but it is up to them to explain. The Qur’an dictates on how a woman should put on and it is no different from what St.Paul says in the Bible. Like Africa and Asia, Islam also accepts arranged marriages although l don’t support them. There is no baptism in Islam, only God orders us to give our children good names. l can call my self only Africa names like Kateregga Kimera Musaazi without Ahmed, Abbaas and Zuliarabi. Islam and Christianity came and we can not do away with them. Let’s accept them but without fanaticism. Youths can interact in schools, places of worship, social and cultural activities like sports and cinema, etc…..Some Ugandans/Africans attempt to portray themselves as Zionist Christians which they can’t become however much they try.

 

 

Intermarriages can be legislated if law makers practise what they say. I have told you how Kabaka Kintu outlawed inter clan marriages, and one marrying to his/her mother’s clan. It has worked well. Thus in Buganda there is no classism be economic, social or cultural. Baganda are either Kabaka, official, chief, clan leader or peasant. All offices other than that of Kabaka and bataka are not hereditary. One can rise from a peasant to a Katikkiro etc….If Obote had behaved well, even my self may have married in neighbouring Busoga or Bunyoro/Tooro or Ankole, or even the North especially among the Acholis, Alur or Adhola and if l were looking for a Muslim girl, then among Bombo Nubians or Madi or Aringa. But Obote messed it up and it is no longer a fashion. But this generation can take president Museveni’s advice on intermarriages and they advance it. We should remember that Nkrumah also married a Coptic Egyptian, but other Ghanaians did not follow him. Mandela has gone with a Mozambican l don’t know how many South Africans married our Ugandans, and even James Wapakhabulo is the only cerebrated Ugandan who married a Tanzanian.

 

 

If Obote had become a father of the nation as Nyerere was in Tanzania, we would have admired, imitated and copied him by marrying from other tribes especially in the north. But his love with Buganda was short lived, despite the marriage and we cursed him. l used to see Amin in papers pausing with his wives Madina and Sarah. Madiina from Mukono in Kyaggwe, who later became a personal friend, and Sarah from Masaka in Buddu. No wonder l saw many men of the day marrying Nubian girls. l don’t know whether it was for political connection like the way many Baganda men are marrying into Museveni’s tribe now. For me I decided to get my fellow Muganda Muslim but of Kooki origin since l am of Buddu origin. Her mother’s line is of Baganda immigrants to Kajara in Ankole, whose mother is a Munyankore. On my part, my mother is of Mamba clan, the mother to my father was of Ngabi clan, but the mother to my grandfather was of Nte clan, a Mugangaizi from Mubende, and the mother to my great great grand fasther is a Muhima, from Lwera valley on banks of River Katonga. Remember l am a Luo Mubiito with branches in Buganda, Bunyoro, Tooro, Busoga, Bugwere, Acholi, Lango, Alu, Adhola, Bahrel Ghazal etc….l am Ugandan enough.

 

 

Maama Miria Kalule belongs to Ngeye clan; it is the same clan where the mother to my mather belongs. She is on drip at Mulago Hospital (Not Maama Miria but my grandmother Mariam Nakakande). Please pray for her recovery despite old age of 75. forget getting any son or daughter of mine joining UPC. They hear from grand parents that Obote and UPC killed people and that is all. So other parties may try to encroach on them but not UPC.

 

l am already married and l don’t intend to add on another. However I will encourage my brothers, sisters, sons and daughters to embrace inter tribal marriages because they can save our country. Am bringing my up my children as African Muslims and there is no way they can disobey me. They know what we want as a family and what we don’t want. So they can not do that. Politically l have never indoctrinated them, but they are all NRM sympathisers and boys volunteered even to put up Museveni’s posters in our village and beyond. But among the daughters, one is a constructive critique of NRM.

 

Yes a nation of tolerance does not mean producing half baked people. One should practice a religion of his parents and to that, inter religious and denominational marriages should be discouraged. That is the position of Bishop Marthias Ssekamaanya of Ligazi Diocese. He even repeated it recently in the presence of Kabaka Mutebi, VP Bukenya and Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala. A Ugandan should be my brother and my friend where each should tolerate another’s religion but not sneaking on my daughters nor should l do the same to yours. The best is to take Bishop Mathias Ssekamaanya’s advice, don’t allow inter religious marriages, practice in house breeding as far as religions and denominations are concerned.

Ahmed Katerega Mussazi

NewVision Journalist

 

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Let Ugandans compile evidence against their leaders for ICC

February 26, 2009 at 2:38 am (Africa, POLITICS, PRESIDENCY)
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I guess Ugandans are saying that Museveni and his Tutsi Generals are the law and the Law is the same Museveni and his Tutsi Generals. For now it looks that. Anyway, on a wider aspect if anyone is not happy with ICC, let him/her be aware that there is a Review Conference of the International Criminal Court Statute due to take place sometime after July this year, 2009 to consider amendments to the treaty that founded the International Criminal Court. This can only mean the Court is going to be there and it will only get better to put those bent to impunity into the dock.. The Review Conference will only get ICC to a better form if members of the Assembly of States Parties put their contributions positively.

The NRMO or Museveni supporters who are apprehensive of the ICC should reconsider fully embracing it after all Uganda is already a member of the Assembly of States of ICC and next year Uganda shall be hosting ICC in Kampala. This was decided at the seventh session of the Assembly of States Parties in November 2008. The Assembly decided that the Review Conference of the Rome Statute shall be held in Kampala, Uganda, during the first semester of 2010. Just to add onto that, this Court is governed by the Assembly of States Parties and Uganda is one of the parties. The Assembly of States Parties is the Court’s management oversight and legislative body and it consists of one representative from each state party. Each state party has one vote and every effort has to be made to reach decisions by consensus. If consensus cannot be reached, decisions are made by vote. This is how the Court manages its four organs: the Presidency, the Judicial Divisions, the Office of the Prosecutor, and the Registry.

One Ugandan called Abbey Kibirige  Semuwemba wanted to know the appeal procedures. This can be found in the Judicial Divisions of the Court. The Judicial Divisions consist of the 18 judges of the Court, organized into three divisions — the Pre-Trial Division, Trial Division and Appeals Division — which carry out the judicial functions of the Court. These Judges are elected to the Court by the Assembly of States Parties. They serve nine-year terms and are not generally eligible for re-election. All judges must be nationals of states parties to the Rome Statute, and no two judges may be nationals of the same state. They must be “persons of high moral character, impartiality and integrity who possess the qualifications required in their respective States for appointment to the highest judicial offices”

 

 The Prosecutor or any person being investigated or prosecuted may request the disqualification of a judge from “any case in which his or her impartiality might reasonably be doubted on any ground”. Any request for the disqualification of a judge from a particular case is decided by an absolute majority of the other judges. A judge may be removed from office if he or she “is found to have committed serious misconduct or a serious breach of his or her duties” or is unable to exercise his or her functions. The removal of a judge requires both a two-thirds majority of the other judges and a two-thirds majority of the states parties..

 Let us get another point clear too. ICC is an independent international organisation, and is not part of the United Nations system. It is legally and functionally independent from any body including the United Nations. However, the Rome Statute grants certain powers to the United Nations Security Council under Article 13 of ICC. This Article allows the Security Council to refer to the Court situations that would not otherwise fall under the Court’s jurisdiction (as it did in relation to the situation in Darfur, which the Court could not otherwise have prosecuted as Sudan is not a state party). Article 16 of ICC allows the Security Council to require the Court to defer from investigating a case for a period of 12 months. Such a deferral may be renewed indefinitely by the Security Council. During the negotiations that led to the Rome Statute, when deciding on its jurisdiction, a large number of states argued that the Court should be allowed to exercise Universal jurisdiction. However, this proposal was defeated due in large part to opposition from the United States. A compromise was reached, allowing the Court to exercise jurisdiction only under limited circumstances:

  • where the person accused of committing a crime is a national of a state party (or where the person’s state has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court);
  • where the alleged crime was committed on the territory of a state party (or where the state on whose territory the crime was committed has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court); or
  • where a situation is referred to the Court by the UN Security Council

The Court cooperates with the UN in many different areas, including the exchange of information and logistical support. The Court reports to the UN each year on its activities, and some meetings of the Assembly of States Parties are held at UN facilities. The relationship between the Court and the UN is governed by a “Relationship Agreement between the International Criminal Court and the United Nations”.

 The Court is intended as a court of last resort, investigating and prosecuting only where national courts have failed as it has been stated clearly by Abbey. It ought to be there to deter or prevent impunity where they occur. The issue of whether President Bush or Israel President are left of the hook is a matter of politics. The law is there and it is sending a clear message to these leaders with some tangible influence being realised though slowly. Even the recently invasion of Gaza by Israel is in the process. The only biggest downfalls at the moment are its power of arresting, prosecuting and enforcing its judgement. It has no police. It relies on the member states and that is why it may not be ast to drag Bush to the Hagues or for that matter Museveni or Kony!   

 As of February 2009, 108 countries have joined the Court, including nearly all of Europe and South America, and roughly half the countries in Africa. However, ICC in its current state has got some shortfall but it is a baby and it has all the good reasons behind its formation. It should be supported and developed to offer alternative justice to those who would otherwise not get any. We already have a world court, ICJ, but it only deals with cases between states. And this is what those who are committing impunity wants to hide behind. They want to dangles States immunity before your eyes will impunity continues unabated.

But ICC is meant to crack through the veils and that is what they done like. Also remember ICJ was established in 1945 by the UN Charter and the Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The Statute of the International Justice similar to that of its predecessor, is the main constitutional document constituting and regulating the Court. But ICJ has dealt with relatively few cases only in its history, and there has clearly been an increased willingness to use the Court since the 1980s, especially among developing countries. As usual the stumbling block has been the United States.

 

In 1986 United States withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction of ICJ and so it now accepts the court’s jurisdiction only on a case-to-case basis. But the irony about this is that in 1948, following the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals when the United States was then leading the show, the United Nations General Assembly recognised the need for a permanent international court to deal with atrocities of the kind committed during World War II and the USA supported it then. Since 1948 not a lot happen due to all sorts of thing including Cod War era.

 But in 1989. A N R Robinson, then Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, proposed the creation of a permanent international court to deal with the illegal drug trade and the idea was revived. Not a lot happened until 1995 when some small group of NGOs founded a Coalition that coordinated their work to ensure the establishment of an International Criminal Court.

 

 Since then, the Coalition’s membership has increased exponentially as its original goal of establishing the ICC grew to a Coalition for the International Criminal Court that includes over 2500 organizations around the world working in partnership to strengthen international cooperation with the ICC; to ensure that the Court is fair, effective and independent; to make justice both visible and universal; and advance stronger national laws that deliver justice to victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

 

 As of February 2009, 108 countries have joined the Court, including nearly all of Europe and South America, and roughly half the countries in Africa. However, these countries only account for a minority of the world’s population. A further 40 states have signed but not ratified the Rome Statute; the law of treaties obliges these states to refrain from “acts which would defeat the object and purpose” of the treaty..

 Charles Eliba

UPC Activist/Lawyer

 

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Why can’t UPDF be like Kenya’s forces

January 31, 2009 at 11:05 am (Africa, POLITICS)
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The info we are seeking should be public as is the case in Kenya.  No secrets are being spilled if UPDF were to come forward and state that the chain of command in the military is so and so.

In Kenya the structure is very clear for all. The overall Army boss is the Chief of General Staff (CGS), deputized by the vice CGS and then Army Commander, then Deputy Army Commander/Airforce/Navy chiefs. UPDF should do away with the chief of staff and go the Kenyan way with CGS.  Army chief of staff in Kenya-may be there but-is not listed among the senior ranks of the army. CGS is the overall CGS for all units, army, air force and navy. In Uganda we have individual chief of staff for army (Lt Gen. Koreta), air force and so on. Now can anyone tell me how an army chief of staff is senior to the Commander of the army? This contradicts the statements made by some people that Lt Gn Koreta is senior to Lt Gen Katumba the army commander!

The media should tell Major Kulayigye to learn from Kenya where he just returned from some course. He should know by now that the man who was head of the staff college he attended in Karen, Lt Gen Tuwei (a Kalenjin) was recently named Army Commander to replace General Njoroge.  He is now the 3rd ranking army officer. There is clarity in Kenya which is lacking in Uganda I guess for obvious reasons.

Do the media ever ask questions to govt spokespeople or they simply take their press releases and print it? Do the media or assigned reporters ever ask the police spokesperson questions on record? What about Major Kulayigye?  Do defence or amy ever hold press conferences? And if they do, have the papers and FM stations assigned reporters to cover the army, police etc? Well we have been told that UPDF is open so why not ask them to send the media houses press releases if they are too busy to talk to the media about the chain of command in descending order?

Sometime back, there was talk of reforming UPDF. What I am saying is that the current structure may not be the best.  I prefer the Kenya structure for its clarity and effectiveness. In Kenya at least, the Army Commander is 3rd in seniority.  That much is clear.  Kenya has tried to rotate the CGS among the three units Army (current), Navy (immediate former) and Airfoce (next if rotation stays).

Kenya also has a set ratio in terms of military promotions. The ratio that must be followed is 7:2: 1 in favour of Army, Airforce and Navy respectively. I suspect that is what makes the army commander a grade above the other service commander.  Is there such a ratio in Uganda?

We are interested in debating the national defence policy. Certainly UPDF could do better. Again, I use the Kenyan example. CGS serves for one 4 year term and goes home. The President may extend that if need be, but it has served the military well.  All senior commanders must also retire by the age of 58. That age limit means that the recently named army commander will have to retire in 2 years. The clarity makes it easier for others to emerge and lead.

Now compare that with Uganda where people come in and out. What is the status of Kazini for example? This business of Katebe should be ended.

I personally know a senior UPDF officer-will not say rank-who is well educated but he has stuck in the ranks for years. He wants to leave but they won’t let him go home.  And yes, the chap is from South Western Uganda.

If you checked the Kenyan DOD, there are no army chiefs of staff anywhere so they must be lower the chain.

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ALL OF UGANDA FACTIONS ARE STERILE BUBBLES: NOT JUST FDC

January 23, 2009 at 9:51 pm (Africa, POLITICS)
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1/9 UPC, DP, PPP, NRMO, CP, JEEMA, FDC, JF, UGP, NDF (plus Vicks Kingo!) and on and on…probably heading for the 623 of the evening of Mobutu’s Zaire , when that country was the most vibrant multiparty democracy in the world.  But the question is, where does factionalism end and where does pluralism begin? When one looks at the random harvest of Uganda’s political elite, all one sees are individuals that are exactly the same, but struggling to be different. They struggle to differ because of the narrowness of the ‘panya’ that leads to the coveted throne where some ruling clique of the day dishes out patronage, lubricated mostly unearned income that is tossed at us in form of aid.

2/9 Let us take a closer look at Uganda ’s demographics.  We are just over 30 million.  Of that, about 27 million, i.e., 90% are peasants.  Let us take another country like France in the past.  In 1789 on the eve of that country’s revolution, the French were 25 million and of that, 23 million i.e., 90% were peasants.  Yes, one could argue that, that was France , and the year was 1789.. In other words: different locales, different epochs. But in socio-historical terms, Uganda 2008 = France 1789: 90% peasants and that tells a huge story about our capabilities across the board.

3/9 But of course you know that when France had the same proportion of peasants like we do now, they did not have political parties. Is it because the French were blind to the virtues of pluralism, and we, Uganda are cleverer? Is it a historical accident that when the earlier modernisers had similar demographics like Uganda ’s now they were ruled by monarchs (Mono: single person; archs: rulers)? And I am not a monarchist please….but, with our 90% peasants, the rest being – let us be honest – a lumpen bourgeoisie, a functional liberal democracy seems to be a negative dream in Uganda, as the purposeless jostling between and within our factions clearly demonstrates.

4/9 Attempting to cheat social development will not take us anywhere, because the gravitational pull of our social reality seems to always pull us towards our historical station: mediaevalism: 20, 30, 40 yrs in power by the rulers, just like the Hapsburgs and Tudors; and Hohenzollerns and Shoguns of the earlier modernisers.

5/9 Historically, political parties have always emerged as structures for forming and conveying group interests in VERTICALLY DIFFERENTIATED SOCIETIES whose structure is the outcome of the transformation engendered by the industrial and agricultural revolutions.  In societies where political parties emerge, wage labourers at the base, bureaucratic elites in the middle and merchants, owners of capital, financiers, industrialists and land at the top (I am reminded here that, 70% of the land in Britain is owned by 0.7% of the population).  In that kind of set up, a labourer in a factory will not give a damn about the ethnicity of a factory manager.  What the wage labourer wants is a decent minimum wage, low income tax and acceptable working conditions.  The head of his trade union can be any religion or lineage, as long as he is vocal enough to squeeze maximum benefits from the factory owner.

6/9 In those societies, political parties are nothing but the committees that manage the interests of those classes..  For example in Britain which colonised us, the interests of the top third are taken care of by the Conservatives, those of the middle third by the Liberal Democrats (the fence sitters) and those of the bottom third are managed by the Labour Party.  Tell us: whose class interests do UPC or DP or PPP or NRM or CP or JEEMA or FDC or JF or UGP or NDF etc manage? Whose interests does Nzaana, Semuwemba, Ochieno, Wambuga, Nsubuga part I, Nsubuga Part II, Nsubuga, Adhola and…..er, L/Cpl Otto represent? Do we speak for wage labourers, landlords, financiers or what? Which class do we speak for?

7/9 Uganda now is a society that is HORIZONTALLY DIFFERENTIATED. The only groups known to the predominant ‘class’ (the 90% peasants) in Uganda are ethnicities, clans, sub clans, lineages, families, castes etc. The consciousness of the 10% (or even less) pseudo elite (one of whom you and I are) is false consciousness arising from what we see across the fence in the global north.

8/9 Now; people, when you impose the structures of interest aggregation and articulation of vertically differentiated polities onto horizontally differentiated countries like Uganda, IT IS AS IF YOU ARE FORCING A PAWPAW TREE TO GROW LIKE A PUMPKIN.  That tree will either die off outright, or become a disastrous weed as it struggles to conform to alien territory: the undulating contours of that horizontal social template of pre-industrialism.  This is what Mr Adhola tries to rationalise by stating that, I quote, ‘This is what UPC and DP for instance are about. DP seeks to improve the status of status of the identity of catholics, and UPC that of certain nationalities or tribes.’
That sums up the basic pathology of Uganda’s politics today.  Uganda with political parties is like a porcupine in a kanzu.

9/9 The fact is that, political parties are not merely creatures of, but are an upshot of industrialism.  We are not there.  What political dispensation propelled the industrial, vertically differentiated polities to liberalism? It was not multipartyism! Just like a pawpaw tree cannot grow like a pumpkin, or kalitusi can not grow like lumonde, liberal democracy cannot thrive in our mediaeval conditions.  We may need to go back to the drawing board!…..Look at what other preindustrial countries had to do to create the infrastructure for liberal democracy.

L/Cpl (rtd) Otto Patrick

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what happened to Rwanda’s King?

January 23, 2009 at 8:37 pm (Africa, CULTURE)
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Rwanda had a revolution led by George Kaibanda, with the help of the French and Catholic Church that deposed King Kigyeri to Uganda and Muteesa gave him land in Mawogola where he settled and his people. During UPC/KY alliance, Obote hired Kigyeri and some of his people to work in General Service Unit. They continued even in State Research Bureau under Amin. However a section led by Fred Rwigyema were in FRONASA with Museveni. While many led by Ndugute were in Uganda Army. Since independence in 1962, Rwanda is a republic not a monarchy. Last year Kagame told Kigyeri to go back to Rwanda as a private citizen. Kigyeri refused and said that he wanted to go back as a king. He lives in New York .

Kigeri lost power in 1959 and his grandfather had lost power first to Germans and later to the British. Kagame fought and captured state power in 1994 and he is therefore the legitimate leader. He also organized elections and he won it. So somebody with political and military power and with the legitimacy of the people, he can direct a former king. Rwanda is not yet with a law allowing traditional leaders. Kigeri may be back like our own kings here in Uganda. It is the same with the family of the Sultan of Zanzibar, an extension of the Sultan of Oman. Then the former ruling dynasty of Burundi which was deposed in 1966, then that of Ethiopia swept away in 1974. The Banyamulenge king of former Zaire is a businessman in Kampala but Kabila is the one with power even if Kabila is a commoner. That’s life mwattu!!!

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ENDING THE NORTHEN WAR

January 4, 2009 at 5:07 pm (Africa, POLITICS)

In his contribution to a discussion about the 20 year-long war in Northern Uganda, one Forum member has stated thus: “…There is only one cause for now: Mu7 (Yoweri Museveni) leaving power. The rest of the issues will have to be dealt with thereafter.”
The Forum member is 100% right.
We all know why the people of Northern Uganda voted overwhelmingly against Yoweri Museveni and his NRM party in the 2006 elections. It is because opposition leaders, like Dr. Besigye of FDC, had promised to end the war in weeks, if not months, after the elections. Suffice to say, therefore, that if President Museveni and the NRM party are voted out of power, THE WAR can be ended at a mere stroke of a pen. Noteworthy, Ugandans would additionally enjoy the long-term peace dividends and democracy that would ensue as a result of  the inevitable political and constitutional reforms in a post-Museveni and post-NRM Uganda.
Museveni and the NRM political infrastructure are Uganda’s main problem. They fanatically anti-democratic, and instinctively allergic to peace and democracy. They love war and hate peace.
Ending the War in Northern Uganda:
For anyone who has been awake to the political history of Uganda, and in particular the GREAT TRAGEDY OF NORTHERN UGANDA over the last 20 years, the facts are there to see… By all indications, Joseph Kony and his LRA fighters desperately want the war to end. [All they are asking for is for President Museveni to tell the International Criminal Court (ICC) not to poke its nose into Uganda's national affairs].
What the people of Northern Uganda want is for the war to end, and national reconciliation to take place. Most of the people of Northern Uganda want Kony and his fighters to be forgiven – JUST AS WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS WERE FORGIVEN BY AGGRIEVED BLACKS VIA THE TRUTH AND RECONCILLIATION PEACE-MAKING DYNAMICS.
Ask Archbishop Odama in Gulu - ask any of Uganda’s church leaders – all of them have said publicly that they want the war to end. Ask the Acholi MPs, and the Northern Ugandan MPs in Parliament – and they will say the same. Ask the Opposition politicians in Uganda – and the majority of Ugandan people - and they will tell you that THE WAR MUST STOP, and IF THAT MEANS FORGIVING AND RECONCILING WITH JOSEPH KONY, SO BE IT!
Yes, Kony and his LRA may have committed certain crimes in the course of battling the NRM regime in Northern Uganda (even Museveni and NRA/UPDF have committed certain crimes in Luwero, Northern Uganda, Congo, and elsewhere), but the Kony/LRA outfit have always begged and cried for President Museveni to negotiate with them to end the war. In all probability, Joseph Kony and his fighters (many of whom were forced to fight) do not love being and living in the bush indefinitely. After 20 years in the wilderness, they want the war to end. THEY WANT TO GO HOME!
There are some in Uganda, Africa, and the wider world, who think and believe that it was okay for South African Whites to be forgiven for their apartheid era sins and inhumanity, but that Ugandans cannot and must not forgive and reconcile with Joseph Kony and the LRA. Why must justice be selective? Also, why are we expected to forgive President Museveni and his NRA/UPDF armies for the grave crimes they have committed in Uganda since 1980, but not forgive Kony and his LRA? Why is the world silent about the crimes committed by Yoweri Museveni and the NRA / UPDF? Why doesn’t the world ask the ICC to indict and try these people, in order that justice is not seen to be selective?
The only way Uganda is going to be stable and peaceful is when Ugandans learn to forgive and to reconcile with each other.
Unfortunately, the militaristic establishment called National Resistance Movement (NRM), and its war-loving leaders and generals are sworn proponents and practitioners of WARRIOR AND GUN-BOAT POLITICS. They  will not end war in Uganda. They will, instead, cause more wars and violence, by their repressive and dictatorial tendencies.
Which leaves Ugandans with ONLY ONE CHOICE - TO THROW PRESIDENT MUSEVENI AND HIS NRMO PARTY OUT OF POWER, COME 2011 ELECTIONS. Let us do it the Kenyan way - Let’s do the ‘Raila Odinga’ way! In 2011, Ugandans must jealously and courageously guard their votes. They must refuse to compromise with the oppressors and dictators, who will be seeking to cheat heir way to power. In the event that Museveni and his NRM military establishment should attempt to steal votes, Ugandans should unleash a storm of PEACEFUL CIVIL DISOBIDIENCE.
Unity of All Opposition Forces:
The problem with the current political opposition in Uganda is the growing disunity among its ranks. In-fights within FDC, DP, and UPC and near-childish mutual suspicions and lack of trust between the parties is common-place. Adding to this, some opposition parties are poorly spread and badly organised, without effective campaign infrastructure in the countryside. Attempts are being made to overcome these weaknesses, but, thanks to President Museveni’s brutal repressiveness and political machinations, the opposition have an uphill task to overcome.
If they are to win the 2011 elections, the Ugandan opposition MUST FORGE A ROCK SOLID UNITY, across political party divides, and across ethnic and cultural divides. President Museveni and his militaristic NRM organisation will be kicked out of leadership if all Ugandans can unite around the issues and visions that are important to them. And these are many in Museveni’s Uganda today - ending the Northern war, sharing of resources, constitutional reform to ensure proper democratic and political dispensations, land issues, economic empowerment of the people…
The plan is simple – CONVERGE AND UNITE around common objectives, grievances, and ideas – AND YOU WILL KICK YOUR TOMENTORS!
In today’s Uganda, the people of the North are greatly aggrieved by Museveni’s/NRM’s inability to end the WAR. They are also aggrieved by the economic and political alienation. They are increasingly pained by the stealing of their LAND  by the NRM rulers. The Baganda – are greatly angered by the refusal of the NRM regime to deliver Federo, and to return EBYAFFE (property and land grabbed from them in the years past). Now they are angered by Museveni’s/NRM’s determination to steal their LAND. The Karamajong are very disturbed by the genocidal actions of the regime, committed in the name of dis-armament, and the political and economic alienation of their people. All other ethnicities and groupings have deep-seated grievances against the NRM dictatorship.
WHAT UGANDANS HAVE TO DO IS TO SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – COME 2011, WE WILL VOTE AGAINST THE MILITARISTIC AND ANTI-PEOPLE REGIME OF PRESIDENT MUSEVENI. 20 years of NRM rule has been enough for Ugandans to conclude that Museveni can’t deliver, and NRM can’t deliver.
Why Unite?
Thanks to their  20 year experience and track-record of anti-democratic and anti-people politics, the militaristic NRM dictatorship is powerfully entrenched with its repressive, iron-handed rule, ever ready to clamp down on opposition politicians and their supporters, and to steal their votes to ensure that NRM is the only governing outfit in the country. VILOENCE AND MILITARY FORCE IS WHAT THEY HAVE USED TO ENTRENCH THEMSELVES IN POWER.
So, All Ugandan opposition parties, and all freedom-seeking Ugandans have a patriotic duty to shed their divisive tendencies – and focus all their efforts and actions onto the supreme OBJECTIVE of eliminating General Museveni’s anti-democratic tendencies. Of course, President Museveni can easily count on his various military outfits to cling to power. But, Ugandans can learn a thing or two from neighbouring Kenya – the People’s Power is mightier than the Gun!  Armed with their VOTE, and hardened by their DETERMINATION and LOVE FOR DEMOCRACY, the People are and Un-beatable and Unwinnable!
If the People are united and determined, and if they are armed with their VOTE, DEFEATING MUSEVENI AND THE NRM IN 2011 WILL BE LIKE DRINKING WATER. MUSEVENI AND NRM CAN GO, AND THEY WILL GO IN 2011.
Dr. Vincent Magombe
Africa Inform International.

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THE MERITS OF UNITARISM

December 19, 2008 at 6:15 am (Africa, POLITICS)
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Big words?  In my recruit training, a certain affande turned us into slaves at his quarry.  We were crushing stones for him to sell in the neighbourhood and many of us contracted - be ready for an artillery word -PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICONOVOLCANOCONIOSIS, due to the silica dust in the stones we were bashing….I have since been on inhalers.  When I sound unintelligent, which is always the case as you have pointed out, it is because of limited oxygen supply to my brain..  So, bear with me. 
Back to federalism.  I talked about the demerits of federalism, you asked, no – pestered me – for the superiority of unitarism, I rejected your demand because I had not talked about the inferiority of federalism.  Now you ask for the ‘advantages’ of unitarism, once again I reject that demand because I did not talk about the ‘disadvantages’ of federalism.
 
Allow me to give you the merits of unitarism……..as I got them from S/Sgt Mwaipopo.
 
  • It is a very effective and efficient form of government.  The central government is all-powerful, and as such, it can take any step to meet the situation before it and is particularly effective in new countries that are still lacking in socio-political integration between groups and regions.  It proves very successful in dealing with the conditions of emergency. 
  • It is a flexible government..  The constitution can be amended easily by the central government according to the exigencies of the situation.  It may delegate some of its powers to local units, or take them back without any difficulty in the light of the obtaining circumstances. 
  • It brings uniformity of administration and legislation.  Since there is only one national legislature and since all powers are vested in the central government, there is uniformity in the spheres of law making and its implementation. 
  • It is less expensive as compared to a federal system because there is no duality in the field of legislation, administration and adjudication.  In other words, there is no duplication of work at the regional levels.
 
NB:  I am not talking about the merits of unitarism ‘in Uganda’.  Unitarism is a form of government.  In situations like in Uganda where there is limited government across the board, it is ludicrous to dwell on the choice between forms of government….decentralising what has never been centralised…..That is why, at times the debate here at UAH on federalism ends up sounding like shopping for a baby cot before we propose..

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Composition of UPDF

December 19, 2008 at 6:11 am (Africa, POLITICS)
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This is just a small issue, but scribbled on a large tissue.
 
What one finds rather exasperating with you (in spite of all your rather un-UPC goodheartedness) are your tiring references to ‘NRA’ when you talk about the Ugandan military which, by the way, any future government, even a UPC one, will inherit.  Unless you intend to opt for the Bremmerian wisdom of disbanding the UPDF, like Paul Bremmer did in post-Saddam Iraq….the rest being as much of history as it is hysteria.
 
It is like some in the current set of Uganda’s political elite that are in charge, who continue harping on the ‘Okellos’; or worse still, if many years after its dissolution and renaming as the UNLA, one went on referring to the same UNLA as ’Kikosi Maalum’…the UPC allied component of the Anti-Amin effort.  Of course the intention would be to denigrate the UNLA by linking it to Milton Obote and the UPC.  That kind of spin would be desperately hare-brained spin.  And yes, you are a UPC spin person but get your feet to the ground brother Ochieno.
 
I would suggest that you get yourself acquainted as quickly as you can,to the reality that, the rank and file of the Ugandan military is an amalgam of at least two dozen pliticomilitary groups that have graced the country in the last three or so decades, and not those Tutsis and Rwandese as many of you here like to refer to them.  The NRA is just one out those many groups that make up the UPDF, and the original NRA soldier is now a very, very, very rare commodity.  And by the way, that is not to imply that, yeah, good riddance.  Here you are with the nuts and bolts of the Uganda military which you still call the NRA:
 
  1. National Resistance Army (NRA)
  2. Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA)
  3. Uganda People’s Democratic Army (UPDM/A)
  4. Uganda People’s Army (UPA)
  5. Ruwenzururu Kingdom Freedom Movement
  6. Uganda Freedom Movement (UFM)
  7. Uganda Mujahdeen Movement (UMM)
  8. Ninth October Movement/Army (NOM/A)
  9. Allied Democratic Front/Force (ADF)
  10. Force Obote Back Army (FOBA),
  11. Federal Democratic Movement (Fedemo)
  12. West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) I &II
  13. Uganda National Democratic Alliance (UNDA)
  14. National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU)
  15. Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF) I &II
  16. Holy Spirit Movement/Holy Spirit Mobile Forces (HSM) I & II
  17. Citizen Army for Multiparty Politics (CAMP),
  18. Action Restore Justice (ARJ)
  19. Former Uganda National Army (FUNA),
  20. Anti-Referendum Army (ARA),
  21. Peoples’ Redemption Army (PRA)
  22. Uganda Salvation Force/Army (USF/A)
  23. Lord’s Army
  24. Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA),
 You sound a little bit clueless about the reality when you, Mr Ochieno, ad nauseum, refer to the NRA; and that causes many of us to really doubt your judgment and statesmanship if one may call it that. 
 
Your aim is to vilify those young men, many of whom have no idea about UPC, or even the NRA: many of the UPDF riflemen were born after 1986…may be 90% of the young boys in UPDF battalions.  The UPC many of them know is the group that in the 2006 elections polled 0.82% of the votes, behind a young independent man that polled 0.95%.  That is all they know!  They have no idea about your fixation with NRA.  They have never belonged to the NRA.
 
Many are from the groups I have listed for you above.  They joined the UPDF to earn a living, they work under severe hardships, when their bosses are busy stealing their pay and procuring for them substandard equipment.  Several were integrated into the UPDF from anti-NRM insurgency groupings which they were gangpressed into joining, through grissly initiations like murdering their own parents and siblings. 
 
The great majority of those boys are yearning for a change that can make their situation better than it is now.  100% of those boys who joined the UPDF through regular recruitment did not receive pay as recruits because Uganda is the only country in the world that does not pay its recruit during the first nine or more months of initial training.  This is the situation in the UPDF, and ironically, that was the situation in the UNLA…..
 
Just as an example, A Ugandan Colonel (whether Acholi, Langi or Munyankore) earns about the equivalent of $ 6,000 per year where as his British counterpart earns $150,000.  That UPDF Colonel needs to hear voices that promise to alleviate his plight, and not those like yours, that are bent on demonising him.  A future government that holds childish views about the hard-pressed UPDF soldier definitely alienates itself in advance.
 
For those of you who keep referring to the UPDF as ‘Tutsi/Rwandese’, you cannot imagine what anger you cause for young boys who are living under serious hardships.  Somehow, you end up politicising them, and poisoning them against your own interests.  Besides, an alphabetic listing of the UPDF would probably show that, about 40% of the surnames start with letter ’O', and not because they are Otafiire, Owoyesigire, Owakubariho or Owobusingye.  It is the Okellos, again!  Infact the name ‘Okello’ may be anything up to 10%.
 
You need to adopt a more mature attitude towards those boys, otherwise, you will not be ‘building for the future’.
 
Stop dancing the anti-NRA ndombolo of 1985.  Tune in to the new music brother.  Be seen to be moving on!
 
Very sincerely,
 
L/Cpl (rtd) Otto Patrick

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Nkunda war in DRC

November 27, 2008 at 12:53 pm (Africa)
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it’s true Nkunda was part of government, but unlike Baganda, Basoga, West Nilers, Banyankore and Acholi, who were in UPC when their people were being victimised by Obote, Nkunda (like John Garang) abandoned governmwent and joined his people in rebellion. His demands are not many. He wants Banyamulenge and other marginalised people to be recognised by Congo. But remember that DR Congo is supposed to be a federal state so it is better for Nkunda to be Governor of Kivu both south and north other than a minister or senuior military officer in Kinshasa. According to press reports here, both Kabila and Kagame are soon agreeing on a joint operation against Intarehamwe and Hutu militia’s safe heavens in Congo. We should not dismember colonial states, we should go for regional integration. Fortunately Khartoum and Juba have applied for membership of East Africa Community. In the first community, Zambia, Ethiopia and Somalia applied and we hesitated to admit them. May be the community would have been spared from personal clashes between Nyerere, Amin and Kenyatta.

l think DR Congo should not be broken up. You remember Ethiopia was broken up but that did not stop wars between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Even if Southern Sudan becomes independent, it will not stop war in Darful or Kassala. If we start breaking the colonial states, Africa will be no more because with the tribalism that has been rekindled, we may go back to pre-colonial nation states. Some of us are lucky we had some, but there are those that were still in bonds! If Kabila does not accept to integrade Nkunda and his rebels, and to chase away negative forces, let’s remove him.

Ahmed Katerega Musazi

(NewVision newspaper)

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