Uganda Uprising videos

October 31, 2009 at 11:58 am (World history and politics, conflicts)
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Hello

Please click on the links below to watch a delightful documentary about Uganda in general.

Uganda Rising Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENnSAGhWgPI

Uganda Rising Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk6I2zkgGvo

Uganda Rising Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpwFb3gM-Sk

Uganda Rising Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn0hoqE4dBk

Uganda Rising Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EtwEXry0FU

Uganda Rising Part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I82rETzONWo

Uganda Rising Part 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NlJKrwlYl0

Uganda Rising Part 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eWp3qmDc6s

Uganda Rising Part 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxciN4YNSS4

Hope you enjoy it.
Kaye Martin

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Major sabiti Mutengesa’s position on the standoff between Entebbe and Mmengo

October 1, 2009 at 10:52 pm (2009 -2011 elections, CULTURE, Federalism, KINGDOMS, conflicts)
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I googled the Major sabiti Mutengesa’s name and I landed on a paper on the website for the Havard University link to the Social Sciences Research Council (SSRC) in which the affande makes remarks that are pertinent to what we are witnessing now as the standoff between Entebbe and Mmengo.  He wrote the paper in 2006 and its title is:
 
“From Pearl to Pariah: The Origin, Unfolding and Termination of State-Inspired Genocidal Persecution in Uganda, 1980-85″ (http://howgenocidesend.ssrc.org/Mutengesa/).
 
He makes the following remark that I have found interesting against the background of ongoing events:
 
What ought to be sounded as a caution, though, is however much the loci of collective violence shall shift within Uganda, the enduring problem in the national politics of Uganda shall remain the stalemate in the relationship between Uganda’s national authorities and Buganda’s traditional elite with respect to the status of the Kingdom of Buganda. It is this stalemate that set the stage, however remotely in history, for the events discussed in much of this paper. The selective restoration of traditional political institutions in the 1990s may have helped to ease the longstanding bitterness of sections of Buganda over the abolition of their monarchy but it may be too early to hope that pro-monarchist groups have outgrown their revanchist proclivities. If not, then any future divergence of visions between Buganda insular nationalism and pan-Ugandan designs of nationalist elites at the centre will undoubtedly generate animosities that may precipitate conditions that will lead to scenes the world witnessed in Luwero in the 1980s.

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Why M7 has arrested Kalundi Sserumaga?

September 12, 2009 at 4:30 pm (2009 -2011 elections, KINGDOMS, conflicts, torture in uganda)
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DearNetters,

Word trickling out of Kampala has it that a print journalist/radio broadcaster (One Serumaga) was last night arrested as soon as he stepped out of the studios of WBS TV station where they had conducted a live telecast debate on current saga in central uganda.

I watched the WBS programme and was impressed by Serumaga’s courage. He went a notch higher in livening debate on the impasse between Buganda and Central government. If he has been arrested, then this could be why:
1.he gave a genesis of the NRMO, and said the first rebel core committee was composed of about 8 members: 4 Baganda and 4 westerners, but by the time of coming out of the bush, all Baganda, apart from Lule were six feet under, giving example of one Seguya who was alledgedly poisoned! He posed the question why is it that one side came out alive and the other side were all finished? he argued that instead of Museveni saying he asisted Baganda, it was instead Buganda that assisted NRA war-effort, so the proverb of removing thorns from one’s leg could only mean sense if Buganda removed thorns from Museveni’s NRA feet, not the other way round.
2.then he said the fracas seen on the streets was a reflection of the leadership style, remarking that he could only explain it as Museveni was a badly-brought up person, for even the ordinary Mukopi were of two types: one who was polished in mannerisms and could be accepted in community of well-behaved, and the other of a badly behaved person who will be around to spoil things for people, which he thought Museveni belongs to.
3.Kalungi dropped the bombshell saying he saw it like Uganda was under colonial occupation, and UPDF and army of occupation, asking why the Bunyoro oil fields were guarded by Presidential Gurad soldiers and Saracen security Guards of Salim Saleh? He allerted Banyoro that while they were venting their anger over Bafuruki, the oil-sale agreement was being concluded with british frims with total disregard of the Banyoro who have not asked what would belong to them when mining proper begins.
4.He went full blast and listed occasions when the Uganda constitution was intentionally violated by the NRMo Government, and this one of preventing Kabaka to go wherever he deemed necessary was one such occasion of NRM violating the constitution.
5.When asked to summarise the good things of the week according to him, Serumaga said he was amused by the involvement of Kabakumba Matsiko, Matia Kasaija, Kale Kaihura, sarcastically portraying that it was leaders from Western Uganda tormenting Kabaka and Buganda…
Could it be some of these….that  has caused him some trouble. In current Uganda, one has to be real courgaeous to utter these issues in a live Television broadcast…and Serumaga did nit last evening.

Geoffrey Obiny

UAH forumist

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A suggestion as Uganda hosts the 2010 review of the International Criminal Court

August 9, 2009 at 2:57 am (World history and politics, conflicts)
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Fellow Ugandans,

 The people of the great lakes region have suffered unimaginable atrocities under many self claimed leaders for a number of decades now.  Yet the perpetrators of such egregious crimes against humanity continue to walk freely with impunity enjoying all the fine things of life.

For countries like Uganda-where each new wave of leadership brought in a new tribe with cleverer and harsher measures of suppression and abuse, those who were victimized, relied heavily on the ICC to bring them relief. Only to be deeply disappointed by it’s limited scope of jurisdiction.  Today, Ugandans continues to suffer from tribal polarization and mistrust paving way to horizontal violence, vigilantism and mob justice as a way of expressing their political frustration and lack of redress of trauma.

 

The dreams and promise of democracy seem to have evaporated with the millions who have perished in the struggle of self-determination.

I hope the international community; will not stop at the advent of the ICC court alone to address the cheapening of life in these countries.  We owe it to the people who have endured such atrocities, to have other mechanisms of seriously keeping track of any new abuses. It is so easy to get information from those who are abused in many countries today, especially with the prevalence of cell phone technology.

The court now has to take a more pro-active role to collect evidence and give warning to those in power that they themselves face prosecution if such atrocities continue under their watch. 

 

In order to move on from the wounds of yester years these countries have to adopt non-violent conflict resolution processes, similar to the truth and reconciliation commission of South Africa. The wounds are too deep and long to be washed away without a cleansing process. America ought to stand with the ICC and the world community now, as it has always done where gross human right abuses have been evidenced. We continue to be hopeful when we see the netting of those Nazis who committed heinous crimes against humanity more than sixty-four years ago. It is with the same standard and spirit of justice that we hold and expect the new ICC to operate and wield it’s long arm of the law in the most remote places on earth, especially in zones that were labeled as the killing fields of the world.

 

Tendo Kaluma

Ugandan in Boston

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What does the law say on land evictions in Uganda

May 24, 2009 at 3:15 pm (CULTURE, Land matters, conflicts, legal issues)
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Dear UAH,

As you are aware there are four complicated forms of landownership in Uganda unlike in developed nations which reduced to only two, namely, freehold, leasehold. In Uganda we have the former plus two , that is,  mailo and customary. Given the change of circumstances the latter, that is, mailo and customary are likely to be absorbed into the former, that is, freehold(mailo likely to take this form) and  leashold. There are number of pieces of legislations regulating land ownership Uganda. However, the most essential pieces are (a) Land Act 1998 (Ch 227), (b) Land Acquistion Act 1965(Ch 226) and (c) Registration of Titles Act 1924(Ch 230).

As regards the issue of recent so called ‘ Mengo evictions’, it first and foremost depends on how the deprived parties obtained  that land; were they granted  (a)leasehold?  Or b) freehold(?). If any of those, did they bother to register their titles?  Or Is it so that the land in question  was obtained fraudulently? If you are granted either  a  freehold or leasehold, you can’t just be evicted abrutly without an advance notice. The notice can be served to you provided you breach the covenant(e.g failure to pay rent)   between you and your landlord (previous land lord if bought freehold). However though served a notice to vacate, the landlord must seek a court order to lawfully evict you.  Most land disputes are handled by land tibunals, but if  unsuccessful at the tribual level,then the high court, a court which also deals with emergency situations which may require the deprived party to seek an injunction.  So I don’t know well whether the Mengo victims were lawfull freeholders or leaseholders and what exactly transpired.  Did they, for instance, acquire the land fraudulently or just breached the covenant with their landlord(the Kabaka)?

The following section is a good authority on eviction of tenants:

PART XII—ACTIONS AND OTHER REMEDIES   S.176  Registration of Titles Act 1924(Ch 230)

176. Registered proprietor protected against ejectment except in certain
cases.
No action of ejectment or other action for the recovery of any land shall lie or be sustained against the person registered as proprietor under this Act, except in any of the following cases—
the case of a mortgagee as against a mortgagor in default;
the case of a lessor as against a lessee in default;
the case of a person deprived of any land by fraud as against the person registered as proprietor of that land through fraud or as vb against a person deriving otherwise than as a transferee bona fide for value from or through a person so registered through fraud;
the case of a person deprived of or claiming any land included in any certificate of title of other land by misdescription of the other land or of its boundaries as against the registered proprietor of that other land not being a transferee of the land bona fide for value;
the case of a registered proprietor claiming under a certificate of title prior in date of registration under this Act in any case in which two or more certificates of title may be registered under this Act in respect of the same land,
and in any case other than as aforesaid the production of the registered certificate of title or lease shall be held in every court to be an absolute bar and estoppel to any such action against the person named in that document as the grantee, owner, proprietor or lessee of the land described in it, any rule of law or equity to the contrary notwithstanding

The best thing to do at the moment is perhaps to enact a new piece of legislation which require compulsory registration of titles(perhap computerised?), just to curb the increase of fraud involved in acquiring land titles in Uganda and regulation of relationships) between the landlord(s) and tenant(s).  England and Wales have very formidable pieces of  legislation, that is, Land Registration Act 2002 and Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, which address those problems decently.

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A matter of indispline within the PGB

May 3, 2009 at 12:08 pm (PRESIDENCY, conflicts, military, security)

Fellow Ugandans,
The moment we let our military police collapse or become secondary in protecting the public, we run the danger of loss on all sides, and the consequences become dire as witnessed here. The American police is made up of former MPS-who are called upon at an instant to lift up such fellows and throw them in the slammer to cool off, the minute such utterances or threats to the public are heard by colleagues of the soldier or any citizen for that matter.
We ought to invest in a special police unit, well armed and capable of dealing with such incidents, militarily.
Major  Felix Kulayigye, has missed the point here, by blaming the victims of this veteran, who had clearly run amok, I wish he had used a different choice of words, that took responsibility and showed some sensitivity towards the grieving families of those whose lives were violently taken, due to lack of proper safe guards and training that would have prevented such an incident from occurring.
This is not the first instance of  indiscipline with the Ugandan Presidential Guard Brigade, the person in charge has to take full responsibility and needs to remind those who have frayed, that they are citizens first and within the confines of the law of Uganda. Guarding the president and visiting dignitaries is a privilege and a professional job, extended to the elite within the security organs, just like being a minister or the president for that matter.
If the president they are supposed to guard: can’t go around prostituting, getting violently drunk or on shooting sprees,every time he is upset, what makes them think that they can do this with impunity?
Major Felix kulayigye, should leave no wavering doubt in the minds of those on this elite force, that they are not immune to prosecution or  public scrutiny and they cannot bring shame to a unit that prides itself in being the best in the world-for it’s job is to protect the president and visiting world leaders.
A test of sobriety should be the first qualifying measure of any would be Guard to the president, to avoid danger to the president or any visiting world leader.
If a man or woman cannot control his or her liquor or is seen prostituting, what makes you think that he won’t sell out the president or a visiting world leader he or she is supposed to protect?
I have not seen the elite men of the secret service in this country bar hoping, prostituting, threaten the public or causing such mayhem as we see in Uganda.
I’m sure the unit has such good men of integrity, but one bad apple can taint the whole Unit, so it is the job of the person in charge of the elite unit to take the matter very seriously, by admitting full responsibility and weeding out fellows of this calibre from the PGB, before it is too late-carry out random urine tests,if you have to but, keep them professional.
Members of this unit are supposed to have passed an high level psychological profile, random sobriety tests, picked from a very intelligent elite class of security, the cream of the crop and exemplary to all other security professionals.
Intolerance to non-professionalism,  individual acts that put it to shame, and avoidance through due diligence such monstrous acts by it’s members ought to be the order of the day. The key here is proactivity, teach them how to tread softly while carrying a big sticks.
That said, we also have to look at the issue of not properly caring for our returning soldiers or those who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I wonder whether the person who is charge of the PGB, is fully aware  that such Rambos exist within his special unit?  If they do exist, he needs to seek help for them, today we have all sorts of pills, therapies, that can help out soldiers in crisis. I truly believe that this fellow was somehow deranged, and had been suffering for a while, and we should start helping our soldiers deal with PTSD.
We cannot afford to expose the president or any visiting dignitary to such dangers, remember Indira Gandhi, Anwar Sadat were all killed by a person from their presidential guard. My condolences to all the families, lets make no excuses please raise the bar, keep them professional.

Tendo Kaluma
Boston,USA

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All Ugandans have to do a self evaluation

April 21, 2009 at 5:13 pm (POLITICS, World history and politics, conflicts)
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Fellow Ugandans,

All Ugandans have to do a self evaluation, similar to what the American intelligence operatives are going through now-in light of the new administration policy against torture. One should decide on a degree of usability upon request from their boss, and say can I do that dirty bidding/work for you my president. We should learn how to stand firm against requests that compromise our self worth. Any requests that violates our senses of political correctness, borders on basic human rights abuse and requests that push one to take innocent lives directly or indirectly, if put in an uncomfortable awkward position, learn how to resign. I guess the question that never ran in the minds of many that we accuse today of gross abuses of human rights is What if they were on camera-how would they have wanted to appear on the evening news. Excoriating these individuals as icons of evil and simply throwing their names around, is not enough, we have to do better than that by ask the relevant question, What turned these good men into evil beings, capable of doing such evil things to sometimes their neighbours or family.

We have to dissect their Psyche, and gauge what sort of pressure is placed on a Ugandan government official, to cause them to carry out such evil bidding in the interest of the many. It pertains to not only Ugandan officials, but to those who carried out Hitler’s bidding in Nazi Germany. We need to do this analysis, because the next time around it could be anybody for that matter- faced with such a gut wrenching decision, how would we react?.

We need to know, that we the people of Uganda from hence forth, have established self constrainst and semaphores or a mechanism, that would stop dead future and present leaders from repeating the mistakes of yesterday. We are teaching our kids(future generations about problems of our past), ethics and constraints of this nature.

Tendo

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MIGINGO IS UGINGO AND IT IS IN KENYA

April 16, 2009 at 11:32 pm (Geography, conflicts)
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Forumists,
1/4 I have scribbled out some comments on Ugingo, also called Migingo.  What you will see is, that the Island is clearly inside Kenya territory and Uganda should have nothing to do with claiming it.
2/4 Ugandan authorities should move swiftly to deescalate the hysteria surrounding that island by withdrawing any claims thereto, and ensuring that elements of the Ugandan bureaucracy and armed forces and are withdrawn in an ordely and expeditious manner.  Measures should also be taken to ensure that any strains in Uganda’s relations with Kenya are mended; but most importantly, to ensure that ordinary Ugandan fisherfolk that have made that island their base are protected from likely reprisals from those that have been incovinienced by the recent confusion, particularly the Kenyans.
3/4 References to surveying etc are redundant procrastination because that border was surveyed many decades ago and documents showing its alignment are available, not least the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, Schedule 2 which categorically stipulates that, the Western-most point of Pyramid Island, itself located Southwest of Migingo or Ugingo is the border marker.  In light of the fact that Pyramid Island is East of the border, and Migingo is East of Pyramid, there is no way Migingo can be in Uganda.  We only make fools of ourselves to make such reckless claims when historical documents showing our territorial limits are available, and when facilities like Google Earth are freely available as a reference.
4/4 Please see my attached detailed views on the pseudocrisis, with satellite images that show the position of the border and Migingo.  I have also attached for you the US Department of State International Boundary Study No 139 (August 27th 1973) on the Kenya-Uganda boundary..
That Island you are wondering about is Sumba Island which is mentioned in the second schedule of the Uganda constitution as the last island to the north before the border proceeds to the mouth of River Sio on the mainland..  This is what our constitution says about Sumba:
“From this point, the boundary continues following a straight line southwesterly to the most northerly point of Sumba Island; thence by the western and southwestern shores of that island to its most southerly point..”
By ‘this point’ is meant the mouth of River Sio.
Some people say: ‘…now if the dispute were with that one I would lend out an ear!’.  I think they would be squandering their ears.  As one can see from above, the border follows along the western shores of that island, therefore making all of it belong to Kenya.
The little speck right with in the campus (rt hand corner) is called Namulamia Island.  Between Sumba and the Kenyan mainland, the stretch of the lake is called Sumba Channel.

Lance Corporal (Rtd) Otto Patrick

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