Two DP Amuru District Councilors and NRM district vice chair Gulu, defect to FDC.

Dear Ugandans at heart,

I have been out of the loop, accompanying my Party President in the north, West Nile, Acholi and Lango sub-regions, where we embarked on sensitization /training program for FDC district, constituency and sub-county leaders. Although I carried along my laptop and internet modem, I could not use it because the north  has very little  power time. Power is off most of the time. But we have returned to Kampala very happy people. Everywhere we got more than 100% attendance. That is still a secure FDC territory and there is great support for IPC idea. We even got a bonus when two DP Amuru District Councilors and NRM district vice chair Gulu, defected to FDC.

Hon. Betty Nambooze is not an IPC MP-She is a DP MP. But it is a fact that IPC withdrew their candidates in her favor, made financial contributions to her campaign, physically campaigned for her, protected her votes and secured her victory, much more than DP did. Without IPC support she would most likely not have won. The votes would have been divided and NRM would have easily stolen more of her votes.

I also would like to say that I never said that DP did not have even a single branch outside Buganda. Of course they are some few branches in Gulu where Norbert Mao was chairing an FDC  dominated District Council (There are only two DP members in that Council including the Chairman),.There are some in Nwoya recently split from Amuru, in Jinja and where else?

Besides, for a position of Councilor, one could win without a single Party Structure supporting him or her. Anyway, my point was that President General Mao had a lot of work to do to strengthen and establish DP structures outside Buganda, If he wanted to revive it into a national Party again.

The two Councilors who crossed to FDC   and addressed our conference in Guru last Thursday were from the new Nwoya District. Nwoya, represented by Zack Olum in Parliament for a long time, had been a DP enclave for decades before FDC took over in 2006. One of the reasons the good defectors gave for leaving DP was the rejection of IPC.

Watch Buganda as well. We might sadly be seeing soon repeats of types of DP Okenyi , DP Bwengye, DP Kaggwa and wishing to join IPC for a united front against the Dictator. Two other DPs might end up in the belly of the Dictator from all we know.   IPC wants one strong DP that cannot be swallowed by any dictator.

Wafula Ogutu

FDC spokesperson

Ssebagala wins Leberal Democratic Transparency Party-LDP Presidency

Ssebagala wins Leberal Democratic Transparency Party Presidency

By Vernon

At a historical moment Kampala Mayor and DP’s chief finacier has yet been elected un opposed to lead his splinter party LDP, a party that has been formed out of an MoU between Seya’s Progressive Democratic Party and Hood Ssempebwa’s LDT, “Seya registered his PDA party recently and by law he would not have contested as national presidentail candidate, so he had to merge with LDT which has been in existance before” said Mukasa Zaidi LDT’s former Secretary general after signing the MoU.

This thus gives more clout to Seya ahead of 2011 presidentail elections as he battles it out with the only threat to his party Gen.Museveni, “our only threat is my freind Museveni, but with this and other subsequent support you have showed me before, am sure we shall win” hopeful Seya told amamoth gathering, who convened at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala today.

It was the 2nd national delegates conference of the party, which first met shortly after Seya had opposed Norbert Mao’s win in Mbale, last Febraury, “I contested Mao’s victory and we went to courty seeking registration of my party which my laywerrs did eventually” added Ssebagala.

A one day long delegates conference had participants as far as all Budaka, Karilo, Kamuli, Ntungamo, Kisoro, Kapchorwa, and other parts of the country which symbolises Seya’s mobilisation strategy.
During the conference a documentary profiling Seya’s political lifestyle showed Ssebagala in the struggle against colonialism while he lead a demostration while at the age of 13.

Ssbagala was initially nominated alongside other two delagates who later declined their candidature for him, “according to the documentary, am standing down for Seya” saidAbdu Nul Kigundu Mugabe,who represents Rukungiri district.

Ssebagala’s endorsement leaves Democratic Party in a limbo as if Seya was the mainstream funder of DP, “am assuring you we shall not starve financially like DP” retariated Seya upon rounds of apluase.

Tugumizemu Vernon

IPC was an Important factor in Nambooze’s Victory

People,

1/7. Summary: The assistance/help Ms Nambooze was given by the party under imprisonment, during the perennial Court sessions over the years, during her induced illness, during imprisonment, etc and that she reportedly has got recently from the IPC are not MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE. Only UNIY made this possible. Examples are many:

2/7. The IPC: Ken Lukyamuzi the “man”, Hon. Eperu, MP – who, {together with Ms Salaamu Musumba}, chased Nyombi Tembo’s bribery money-bags from Mukono town, to Kigombya, Kasenge (Mbalala), and away from Namawojolo market;  Dr. KB threatening anybody who dared touch the ‘teacher’s’ notes with “consequences-with fire” [they stole them at Kalagala and the fire was not seen. Instead, it is the learned Hon. Lukwago MP (DP)’s “kanyamas” who almost shed blood at the falsified result’s announcement-(only mitigated by the victory and by the fact that the stealing seems not to have been widely replicated at many other stations).

{‘kanyamas = are muscled ‘body-building’ body- guards in fashion with most (opposition) politicians today – since armed guards are the preserve of the NRMs alone}. {The ‘kanyama’ phenomenon as a political instrument was initiated by Eng. Ms Winnie Byanyima in the late ‘90’s. Ssebagala took it on and it’s now a fashion, even with musicians. Why? It is hard to harass a Ugandan, going his business, un-armed, simply because he has muscles/the body of a ‘potatoe-sack’ on him – but, they have been imprisoned too, sometimes}. To become a “kanyama” is a fad, if not a fashion, among the youth today.

3/7. The DP was heavily represented among the MP’s and at the grass roots (although Mmengo-factor was predominant here) and among the youth who teased Maj. Mutale’s ‘kiboko’ squads [whip-wielding goons] in the yellow bus at every opportunity, etc, thus, to some extent, negating their intended intimidatory machinations.

5/7.The Rev. Bakaluba and Co. feel betrayed, not only because the party ‘Faithfull’ voted for the Opposition but mainly because the ‘Return-On-Investment [ROI] during/after the election was so bad!!! The ‘per-capita cost for each vote’ won goes into millions, if all the ‘gifts’ [from the RDC’s office, from State Hose, from Cabinet members, from ISOs, DISOs, from Bakaluba, from the business branch, etc] are added. Any one else  would cry for that too, even you!!

5/7. What hurts the so called Rev. Bakaluba is the 400M/= he gave out in ‘Chai’ [Kamunye tabloid]. But he is not crying alone. Moses Byaruhanga of State House poured more than that, so did Nyombi Tembo, the Vi.Pr; Hon. Werikhe, etc, etc.

So, the people support the thing for ’emere ya leero’ (for daily survival). It is obvious these dancing are there because of merry-making, nothing else. Otherwise, if they all voted right or used the millions of ‘facilitation funds’ right, why did they not win?? Watch the video: Only two of the hundresd are sad or look sad.

6/7. Heroes: One must salute the ‘boda-boda’ boys for ‘teachning’ the oligarch’s lesson: they received money at very many ‘facilitation points’ and yet still voted ‘right’ all the same. This is what hurts Bakaluba more than anything else. He should put the question more rightly thus: “why did you ‘eat’ y money for nothing?”, other than purring it indirectly, “..Why did you betray me?” because, pour money into Mukono, they really did, to the extent that the inflation caused there is spilling back into Kampala city [people are buying boda-cycle taxis, marrying brides, etc]. So compatriots, Ugandans are wiser now.
7/7. Conclusion: The IPC-DP efforts were/are complimentary rather than contradictory and surely, NOT MUTUALLY exclusive. There is no reason, therefore, as to why one should focus on and propagate the ‘artificial’ differences, other than on common factors, unless one serves the interests on the powers that be.

christopher Muwanga

Nakasero

===end===

How Nambooze hand tied NRM with its machinery

Dear UAH,

I worked with Nambooze’s campaign team from day 1. We all knew NRM intended to rig the vote but this is the major twist that turned victory to her side.

The election determinants.

25^th may 2010 will always remain a day of disbelief as finally NRM’s driven electoral commission announced Nambooze Betty bakireke winner of the hotly contested Mukono North parliamentary by elections.

Many behind the curtains events like; mudslinging, malice, abuses army deployments and counter strategizing determined this race. But one event in which Nambooze managed to hand tie the NRM with its own machinery (army, police and electoral commission) solved the whole drama.

Bakaluba vs Nambooze.

On the ground, it was obvious that Nambooze was a winning candidate; actually NRM itself treated her as the incumbent. From the very beginning NRM made damning mistakes. For very many reasons the government flag bearer Bakaluba mukasa was very un-popular among the electorate. He had been voted into this position in 2001 out of empathy from people who felt pity for him after he had stood and failed on very many occasions. All the time he failed, he had stood as an “independent” but Immediately he was elected he proved a sycophant 3.1.1 by crossing to the ruling party which is not so popular among urban populations.  Bakaluba as a parliamentarian didn’t say anything worth representing a big place like Mukono north on top of which he didn’t do anything visible for the people of Mukono besides his own personal business.  In 2006, government openly cheated the vote in his favor. To worsen this, they delayed the case for four years a period in which he moved to a down word trend. Throughout this period, he feared the electorate and did do anything to get voters support. By choosing to completely leave this constituency and go to Mukono south, he had made a wise decision but NRM gurus mislead him into political doom by sticking him in this area.

In 2006, in comes Nambooze, who is so articulate, vocal, principled and always fearless when it comes to  issues that touch the community. Nambooze is down to ground and having grown up as a meek girl in Mukono town she was popular and herself knew all people and corners of the areas.  Being a Mengo official and her coming to populace being pushed by the same made her an un-doubted candidate for the cherished Mengo government.

Election timing.

Then finally the final issue was the timing of these elections played a very big role. Government and court dragged her case for four years to keep her out of parliament but at the end justice had to prevail. It happened at a tricky period for NRM and Bakaluba. Being at time when next elections are barely a year away and when the IPC is pushing for the change of the electoral commission composition, government feared to expose itself in this election.

On the other hand, in March the fire that gutted the Masiro remained a big unsolved mystery. Government itself didn’t come out with a concrete answer to this mystery but rather the president just turned rude to the public and threatened to arrest whoever pointed at it as the cause of this fire. The issue was sleeve solved but it remained deep in people’s hearts more especially the elder population who made a big part of NRM followers. Nambooze had been arrested and detained by government but when released government failed to give a convincing reason for this detention, hence a common man on the ground got empathy for her. Failing to open any case against her proved had proved to everyone that government detained her out of malice and her community minded opinions.

Campaign team brander.

The other brander government made in these elections was choice of the campaigning team. All the members of this team were hated by the population for their open roles in draining the national economy. Kazibwe the chairman reminds every Ugandan about the valley dam money she mis-used. The name Mbabazi to many Ugandans connotes corruption itself. Bukenya, the campaign team booster, had just been implicated of misuse of CHOGM funds and the train of ministers who followed in these campaigns sincerely had no moral authority to appear in public and turn anyone to their side.

Being born out of a corrupt system, these people proved are completely out of new elective politics ideas. Their strategies were based on money and expired ideas that NRM is popular or people can be bought, deceived or intimidated. People saw those people as money machines sent into the area by god so they went to them with financial motives. When they got into Mukono, they contacted Mukono’s rich gurus for campaign team. This had two mistakes, the people on the team always represented money which they always falsely wanted to prove. Two, down the grassroots all movement mobilisers and supporters struggled for a link to this group to rip quick money from them, actually all meetings they organized had to be highly moniterised to an extent that movement members being selfish couldn’t bring other party members on board yet these were the new voters a person who had lost an election wanted. Movement members on a village bent much of their efforts struggling to attend and find out where the next meeting will be so as to get money, they actually saw this period as a rip back period.

Poor strategies.

The team made very poor strategies. The NRM knew Bakaluba was a very unpopular candidate so they wanted to erase Bakaluba the person and front the NRM and Museveni as campaign tools. Government tried very much to sway these elections on party lines so that the week candidate is forgotten but this only worked for a few NRM diehards but didn’t attract any new voter. The opponent wisely stuck on area needs and questioned Bakaluba’s personal achievements. Failing to sway campaigns your way means your to be swayed into your opponents courtyard. This strategy also failed because the government has few tangible projects to convince an understanding community about. The NAADS program is a failed project that didn’t reach to any person, UPE program is an academic jock, and the Bonnabaggaggawale program has failed to take off beyond the promise stage. Hence telling people about these programs was like reminding them not to vote a government that has done nothing.

The candidate himself was sidelined, on many occasions government officials had rallies and plenary sessions without him knowing what was taking place. This disorganized his own work plans, hence he didn’t address any serious rally and didn’t promise to deriver anything new to the people. NRM failed in attracting any new voter into its camp but stuck on her selfish diehards whose numbers are very low.

When president Museveni came, he proved local NRM leaders a pack of cheats. For example, while in Katoogo, he publicly questioned NAADS official where the 25millions he sent to the sub-county for NAADS activities was. Nambooze had told these people of the same amount and that she wanted to follow it up. With guilt, he asked people to forgive NRM and vote her candidate. Campaigns in Mukono would have been carried out with reconciliatory messages. But all local leaders and ministers never realized this but rather insisted on deceit and insisting on the presence of non-existing government programs plus intimidations.

The boardroom campaigns/ ignoring nonparty members

NRM strategist didn’t take note of the fact that their candidate was cheated into victory so had lost the previous elections, this means they needed to woo new voters. In the board room campaigns, they deployed ministers and district officials to meet different groups of people and scare or remind them to vote for NRM then at the end of the day give them some money. In this they met women, boda boda’s, and youth. In such meetings non NRM/opposition members were ignored and not called in any meetings because they felt they couldn’t “eat” their money. Whoever came out of such meetings and told others, it only created more hatred for the NRM candidate as they felt ignored and the fact that this being an urban area vote buying couldn’t work.

During campaign trails to meet the Vice president and president NRM supporters had to be ferried from place to place so as not to shame party leaders in the area. It should be noted that in all campaigns, it is only in Mukono that the president spent two days making various stop overs but they didn’t parade any person who had crossed from the opponents camp into the NRM camp.

Voter buying, deceit and empty promises.

The NRM decided to make empty promises like promising youth of quick loans. Youth were told to form quick groups and were given forms to fill for quick loans. This deceit strategy was meant to keep them in suspense until voting day. Realizing this, Nambooze made a “press release” which was distributed to all prone voters on the last day telling them that “don’t vote empty promises for example you were promised quick loans which didn’t come up to today which is the last day” this letter worked wonders for Nambooze as truly by the last day no money had been given. NRM strategists made a mistake that NRM can never come out of come 2010 because the trend in Mukono proved that NM is a government of deceit to its own members and actually by last day many crossed to DP. The NRM dished out a lot of money through village chairmen or mobilisers, but as already mentioned above given the nature of this constituency this itself was suicidal. Come 2010, don’t be surprised to hear NRM mobilisers asking for salary or direct allowances to mobilize for the party.

Kakooz Mutale and the gang

Kakooza Mutale is a political mess and a de-campaigning tool whenever he goes. NRM made a mistake of deploying him in Goma from where he moved to town council which are predominantly DP strong holds. These areas are host to the educated working class people who are not prone to intimidations. When he got there he caned arrested and tried everything stupid to force people into supporting NRM. Kakooza Mutales actions chased a few more Bakaluba supporters into Nambooze’s camp without attracting a single individual to Bakaluba. Nambooze acted smart on this by refusing not to counter NRM directly verbally or physically. She knew to achieve anything NRM could do anything and for fear of bringing violence she warned her supporters never to confront or always to keep quite whenever confronted by the paramilitary gangs. This worked very much in her favor and NRM always appeared the aggressor.

Nambooze’s strategy

Nambooze’s major strategy was to act as the aggressed and making NRM the aggressors. This worked out so well that even whenever any evil act was pointed to her supporters, society quickly turned it against NRM before she even interjected. She wisely responded to topical issues that made her opponents camp regret them while her being believed by voters. For example, when a car and a hire salon was burnt and all news papers accused he supporters, (remember there was a press black out on her) she went into her rallies reminding and linking different fires in the country to different political events in the country and letting people decide for themselves. This fire thing back-fired so much to the NRM that they suspended talk about it. She hired KEKA political consultants whose services determined a lot of her counter strategy.

Hand tying NRM with its machinery.

Perverting vote rigging.

The NRM strategy exposed too much of information into Namboozes camp. The fact is, by the time of these elections many NRM supporters had crossed to DP or Nambooze’s camp. These same people were always called into NRM money meetings so they gave out a lot of information. NRM used its national spy network to get information from the DP camp hence inter-camp spying determined a lot of strategizing.

Given that setting the final day came, the issue that rode higher on everyone’s lips was vote rigging the very reason why these elections were being repeated. As Election Day approached it appeared that Nambooze’s success was to be determined by how well she guarded the ballots on voting day.

Two days to elections President Museveni came into the area, government informants told him Nambooze was planning to bring over 2000 youth from Kampala on electionday purposely to rig the elections.  Nambooze knew that last time her agents had been bought on the voting day and declaration forms had been changed. This time she planned to bring over Nkobazambogo youth to act as her poll agents as they are dedicated to change and can’t easily be compromised. This was so classified that government failed to get this information.

When Nambooze’s camp realized that these youths are a scare into the NRM camp they decided to inter-play this to their advantage.  They sprayed rumors that these boys are to be used in vote rigging. That the plan will be that some boys will be used to cause havoc at polling station as others stuff ballots into the boxes or some will be given money to bribe polling officials at the site to change results. They further threatened that some of these boxes will be hijacked and results on the tally sheets be changed on the way either to the sub-county or district tallying centers.  They made it known that they had already talked to all polling assistants on all polling stations and had consented to this move. On top of this, they “confessed” that DP without rigging can only win in Goma sub-county and that last time if they hadn’t done this they will not have got any vote.

This delude was so strongly believed that the RDC called a meeting in his office and decided to strongly deploy army and policemen in all polling centers to avert it. All NRM strategists dumped all vote canvassing plans and decided to go for night NRM house to house campaign telling members to go and vote the next day knowing that this will be enough.

Bakaluba himself was taken up by this ploy hence when addressing press a day before elections he said he was to win in all sub-counties apart from Goma and that DP camp was planning to rig the vote. Actually, given this information, NRM knew they will obviously win since they have police and army they can deploy in all polling centers to avoid any such fracas. On the night of 24^th, police and army were heavily deployed with strict instruction to guard polling stations against any confusion, rigging practices or anyone who gets near the polling site limits. The RDC on the same night went to Dunamis radio in Mukono and made the deployment known to anyone in this area plus threatening to arrest any “intruders” who intended to cause chaos at polling sites.

The district electoral office also fell into this trick, fearing foul play; he shifted/rotated polling officers early morning from the original assigned polling stations to new ones.

All NRM mobilisers in an all day meeting held at Bakalubas home in Nasuuti were briefed about this. They were assured that they will have victory if they mobilize all members to vote. They were told that DP rigs votes by playing innocent and shouting aloud that they are being cheated so they were told to be on the watch out for these “imported” youth planning to cheat. All NRM attention was shifted to fairly guarding the ballots.

On the polling day, all government officials, security officials and NRM cadres patrolled all polling stations looking for any chance of vote rigging by DP “imported” youths. Tension and suspicion rose higher in NRM camp when they saw these youth active at polling stations as Namboozes polling agents so too much attention was put to their activities as DP supporters mobilized people to vote for their candidate even on the very voting day.

When voting was done without incidents, all security bodies turned attention to last minute confusion and watched the signing of declaration forms such that no foul play is made. This happened without incident and the last incident that had to be watched was delivering those ballot boxes to the sub-county and the final tallying centre at the district. Fearing mid-road hijack, police vehicles that ferried those boxes were heavily armed, followed by other security officers on motor-cycles, Namboozes agents plus supporters who volunteered to follow the boxes. This successful delivery of results happened in three sub-counties.

By the time NRM thought of result changing it was too late as results were well guarded and communicated to Namboozes tallying canter. This is the reason why it was only Kalagala polling station results that was crushingly changed to 500 voters in favor of Bakaluba and only 50 for Nambooze which obviously was un-practical. This change was too late to change the total out comes, as most results had come in and DP was already celebrating.

Realizing that they have been hand tied and beaten at their own game, the RDC held a meeting with NRM gurus in his office to forge a last minute reason to suspend the declarations. The electoral commissioner intentionally delayed announcing Nambooze the winner as he waited for instructions or outcomes from this meeting. They let him announce after de-deploying all soldiers and policemen.

The fact was, Nambooze’s camp feared vote rigging most yet it only had private volunteers to counter it.  NRM feared this very much because they knew they have always used it to win elections. As it was on the Kalagala polling station results, suspicion was so high that NRM had this in plan all along. This dupe diverted all Bakaluba’s strategies of; changing results on the way, trying to woo voters outside the NRM party and also it prevented any foul play in which NRM is a master. Nambooze’s win was beating NRM hands down at her game and only ended up deploying army and police to guard Namboozes votes!

Congratulations Ms. Brain Power.

Kaweesa J kaweesa

CAMPAIGNER

IPC Leaders should go and meet with editorial boards over Media Blackout

Dear UAH,

The opposition candidates should go and meet with editorial boards to talk about their programs. I hope Newspapers editors will invite the party candidates to meet with the editorial board without any handlers.

I am actually surprised this has not happened yet. In the West candidates are the ones who initiate such editorial meetings because they get to talk at length about their agenda and also get an editorial comment in the Newspaper.

I have a feeling that some of the journalists covering the candidates may not be telling readers the truth because some cover up for them so that they get invited to the endless press conferences where nothing substantive is ever said. No journalist wants to offend the big party men.

I really hope the New Vision and Monitor Editorial boards will take up the opportunity to meet with the party candidates and grill them about their programs and promises. That should happen soon because it may help Ugandans understand what the candidates stand for. Nobody knows what the candidates stand for other than defeating YKM come 2011.

How credible are their manifestos-where are they?  Do their programs add up? Do they make sense etc?  Let the editorial boards help the country out. Here is a real chance to meet the candidates without their handlers-no media handlers or lawyers-but just the candidates.

You and others in the broadcasting media should also grill them. The 2011 election is an important election for the country and Ugandan voters deserve to know what those seeking to lead them stand for.  The media could start with President Museveni and follow up with the opposition candidates. Let me suggest that to avoid accusations of favoritism, there should be a blind draw/lottery pick to decide the order in which the opposition candidates will meet with the editorial boards.

They can meet with New Vision, Monitor, Sunrise, Bukedde, Rupiny, Orumuri, and Etop editorial boards since these reach key voting blocks.  Talk to your media contacts and persuade them to take up this important cause.

WBK

Why is Newvision doing better than other papers in Uganda?

Dear readers,

Newvision(NV) and other Uganda newspapers have mediocre editors and that is why few Ugandans  waste their hard earned mbesha to buy such crap?  The editors have allowed personal narratives to fill up page after page and somehwo expect Ugandans to buy such papers. I challenge you to pick up the Daily or Sunday Nation and see if you will find any personal narratives along the lines of “letter to my mother” or columns where columnists write about their families, side dishes etc.

I have a feeling that while some of the journalists work hard and care about their stories, some of their collegaues spend most of their time in Wandegeya and Ntinda chewing away before filing such nonsense.The problem lies squarely with the editors in Uganda who get bullied to let in such nonsense.  It goes without saying that the caliber of any publsihed item depends on the good judgement of the editors.

I give Mr.Katerega Ahmed, Mr Kato joshua, Mr Lugya, Mr . Tony Owana  and Mr Weraga some credit for at least writing something in UAH. The rest are free riders who log in, lift stories, publish without giving credity to UAH. That kind of laziness is not good for the media in Uganda.I keep praying that on day Ugandan papers will get the type of editors who ran the Nation group. I have not read any personal columns in that paper.  If you do not believe me go and read their Sunday Nation, and see the caliber r of columns in there. Actually lazy and mediocre editors are doing more ham to the press in Uganda than anything else.  The problem is internal. Yap, self inflicted wounds by a bunch of mediocre types overwhelmed by duty.

I recognize the potential of the media in Uganda. It’s true that the New Vision is getting bigger and bigger and for some unexplained reasons continues to out compete the Monitor.  How can a Government Newspaper out compete the Monitor? What happened? The Monitor is supposed to be miles ahead of the New Vision now that it belongs to the Nation Group which knows how to run papers in East Africa.

I have wrestled with this question for some time.  When did the New Vision begin to outpace the Monitor? How has the New Vision been successful where other government paper-hey your New Vision journalists do not out to blow your own trumpet okay- such as Kenya Times in Kenya failed? There is no way Kenya Times would outpace the Nation or even the Standard.  I have some ideas but I will leave it to the folks who are residual claimants to figure it out.


The press in Uganda is minting tons of money. Just imagine if it could pull up their socks and make the papers appealing to broader audience? They are successful inspite of certain major weakness. What does that tell you about the potential out there in Uganda?  It is huge and in my view has not been fully exploited.  Red Pepper is minting money too. The FM radio stations, The Observer, Independent are all minting big money.

As I noted sometimes back, the market for journalists in Uganda is apparently so hot that well, average journalists are commanding big bucks. Good for them. I still believe that there must be a market for a quality paper like the Daily Nation in Uganda. Yes, there is no such paper in Uganda today.

The press/media in Ugandan should be careful not to fall victim to the NFL, NBA and NHL mentality. In the NFL, NBA and NHL, where there is no relegation, teams have no incentive to recruit top talent because the teams can -actually do sell out-still sell out irrespective of the mediocre talent on the field. Why go out to recruit Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant or Sidney Crosby when you can get by with mediocre players and still make tons of money? The Press and the readership in Uganda and yes advertisers too should demand better quality.I hope the media folks out there do not take it personally because I want them to offer better quality papers to Ugandan readers too. Nothing personal folks.

I do not know about the outgoing editor’s efforts in Newvision. It may just be luck. Apparently if you believe what Mr. Ahmed Kateregga says, most editors at the New Vision groups are opposition supporters! They are there because they are talented journalists. I am actually surprised at the New Vision’s success and of course Bukkedde inspite of pictures of naked women which has s diminished lately, but has been replaced by women giving out their numbers and inviting men to call them while lamenting the mistreatment from their former men.


I wish Bukedde could clean out but that is what sells papers among certain categories of men. The problem with The Monitor has partly to do with the revolving door policy of moving editors. They change editors too much and too soon. They should let the editors do their job and that should include the power to fire known ISO goons.

Actually that is what the Daily Nation did to one of their senior journalists Mr. Kwendo Opanga in the early 90s. He was found out to have sneaked into State House Nairobi or Mr. Moi’s home near Kibera on several occasions to eat ugali and sukumawaki with Moi. This was coined after Mr. Martin Shikuku who was a senior FORD ASILI members met Mr. Moi and claimed that he went to eat ugali and sukumawaki at State House Nairobi. The disclosure dented his reputation for good.

The senior management of the Daily Nation sent Mr. Kwendo Opanga him packing. He moved to the Standard where he rose through the ranks, but is now again back at the Nation writing a column for them.  He repented.




WBK

Janat Museveni is a shrewed, calculating, political manipulator who hides in bulokole

Dear readers,

The first Lady of Uganda,Mrs.Janat Museveni has never been a joke. She is a shrewd, calculating, political manipulator who hides in bulokole.I am not a mulokole but I have a cleaner heart. My old friend Cheeye fell victim to her vices. He once published a story in his Uganda Confidential weekly allaging that she had had her cousin one Kagondoki killed over land in Ntungamo. She dragged Cheeye to Court but he left her there licking her wounds after losing the case.

Then slowly Cheeye’s business went burst. He was declared bankrupt and he turned to the First Family for kalo. He got a juice job, head of Economic Department in ISO never mind that he had just been declared bankrupt by court. Later he asked for college fees from them. They directed him to Global Funds. The rest of his story should be familiar with you.He is a jailbird She must be happy now.

And does she want to stand again as a MP? Yes, she will certainly try since her husband has now created for her an easier constituency, the new Ntungamo Municipality of few thousands of voters who will easily receive some tens of thousands of shillings for each vote. Problem for her, we hear, is that this time round she will have to prove in court that she actually earned her teaching degree in Makerere without doing any teaching practice. She never did HSC the minimum requirement for MP.

A Karamojong woman amused me last time we were in Moroto.She said “Mama really looks down upon our area. She cannot even use our toilets and leave her soil here. She moves with her own special toilet, a big truck”.  I nearly broke my ribs before I sobered up that was not a laughing matter. Yes, that is our mama living lavishly in a region where almost everybody is virtually starving. I rest my case.

Wafula Ogutu

Uganda Women demand law to divorce men with big sex organs

I find this heading in the New Vision very disturbing and i could help but take a few minutes to submit my opinion. Are women suggesting that they want to determine the size of the male sex organ before the get involved in cohabitation or marriage? Why would government legislate a law legalizing cohabitation? Well its true that parliament legislate laws that govern a nation but no parliament the world over legislates morality. Morality stems from an assumption of a god/ God. Once an individual has assumed a god/God then character is developed based on that assumption. The god/God an individual believes in dictates the character of the individual and its from that character that behaviour is modeled. This however is not the end of the story because to every behaviour there is a consequence.

This explains why human beings behave the way they do. Consequences are a product of behaviour, behaviour is based on character and character is determined by a god/God one chooses to believe in. Therefore parliament can only legislate laws that govern behaviour (for harmonious existence) but they can not legislate morality( the sense of right or wrong) this is detemined by the god/God one believes in. that is why some religions believe that its ok to kill others as long they do not belong to your religoius sect because their is a reward for the killer (Murderer) the other side of this world.

The different gods or the God who created the heavens and earth have guidelines that govern livelihood on earth. From time immemorial humanity has lived in denial of the fact that there is a God who created the heavens and earth but every time His guidelines are violated we have witnessed the consequences he so prescribed.

In regard to the family institution His blue print is one man one wife, each living their parents and clinging together. He does not make a provision for cohabitation. This term is not in his vocabulary. This a creation of man. As a creation of man, man has the right to try and lay down laws that governs it. the sad thing about this creature (cohabitation) is that its creator is not all powerful niether is this creator LOVE like the God who created the heavens and earth. This creation puts man in the position of a god and sets the arena for competition with God the creator of heaven and earth. Humanity(Ugandans in this case) must decide which god/God to believe in and follow. Why make this choice? We have to make this choice because our perspectives and behaviour are pegged on character which is determined by our god/God.

Consequently what my dear mothers and sisters were discussing and urging parliament to legislate is an issue of morality not law. Secondly they seem to have assumed a god who prescribes cohabibitation as a means of procreation in which case they need to share with the entire population of this country the manual that spells out laws that govern the institution of “Cohabitation”.

Thirdly they will have to invest in establishing religious infrastructure that can accomodate and support their followers. Forthly they should not abuse the right to choose that every Ugandan has but preach their message and allow every Ugandan to make a choice. Once they have a following then they can develop a constitution that governs the behaviour in the institution of Cohabitation. Otherwise it was not so in the beginning but because of the hardiness of their hearts they allowed themselves to cohabit and the aothor of marriage is proving to them that they assumed a lesser god(man) and his ways other than God the creator of heaven and earth and now they must bear the consequences.

My dear friends, if you went the Toyota Ltd and bought a petrol engine car and on your way home you branch to Nandos and asked the waiter to fill your petrol engine with mango juice and the car fails to start would be justified to blame the manufacturer? What if the next day you find that the engine has developed a permanet damage would be justified to say Toyota sold you a fake car.

Finally because we are spiritual beings with an earth suit our spiritual needs can not be met by the physical material things of this world. To use cohabitation as a subsititute for marriage is like filling your petrol engine with MANGO Juice. Are our sisters and mothers, brothers and dads and uncles and Aunties ready for that? And would that make us a better nation? If not let us not advocate for legislation of morality  but of laws that make us a better nation.
For God and my country.

martin p’oburu
UAH FORUMIST

Countering a Reign of Terror in Mukono North Elections

Countering a Reign of Terror in Mukono/Uganda

The ballot verses the gun.

Advocacy is a means of challenging an oppressive system and countering its pervasive distribution of services. It is a situation in which a person pleads on behalf of another person for entitlements, rights or services which they both believe are needed by the person who is represented. Advocacy involves exploring various alternatives for opening up systems to influence and use information strategically to effect policy changes thus improving the lives of the disadvantaged people. Advocacy involves; self advocacy, citizen advocacy, peer advocacy, children’s advocacy, legal advocacy and collective advocacy.

Nambooze Betty Bakireke

In Mukono our source of advocacy against a reign of terror is the ballot. We struggle for collective advocacy through which we together fight, military intimidations, misuse of public funds to buy votes, poor infrastructure,  calamitous lack of drugs in hospitals, miss-use of press and actual denial of human rights.

What characterizes a reign of terror?

Creation of opportunistic/sycophants parliament

Unlike Amin who banned parliament NRM has chosen to lead with a plastic parliament that is paid to delegate the will of the president. An NRM MP is an opportunist who can never have claim to a word of his own in parliament but has to wait for government orders to say YES to anything of its interest however unpopular one of such opportunists is Bakaluba.

Not to loose one of her plastic opportunist government shamelessly goes ahead to use the state army, police and Taxpayers’ money to fund campaigns for an implicated thief who masquerades as a reverend so as to keep suppressing peoples will in Mukono. Through electoral commission, and courts, the  NRM Installed Bakaluba in parliament for 4years against Mukono peoples will. Shamelessly it is doing everything  however malicious to have its puppet back against peoples will!

• Constant intimidations; We all know that intimidation is cowardly. In fact it is evidence of panic for a system that has done a lot of evil to society. In our Uganda, the state is used as a threatening tool. Since government has almost no program to boast of, the campaigns are reduced into threatening people with suffering and losing favor with government if they don’t vote the sycophant. Intimidation takes the following forms:
• Physical threats; The Police, an institution supposed to keep law and order is now a tool for meting out violence. People are put at gunpoint and arbitrarily arrested without cause. Police and the army (uniformed and non-uniformed) presence in the area to intimidate people.
• Psychological threats: Ministers and the president are deployed to campaign for a thief using threatening statements like if you don’t vote Bakaluba the thief you will luck service, if you vote Nambooze we will arrest her etc.
• Use of malicious un-human ways for selfish ends.

NRM has resorted to use of  fire in  archiving its selfish ends. Following Masiro and many other un-explained fires, it has also come to Mukono along with other terrible acts like: On 9^th may in Kalagi 30 plain clothed security operatives sent a woman to provoke Nambozes supporters so that they get reason to shoot them, the woman attacked and boxed one of the youth. The boxed boy and other supporters around took all the pain never lifted a figure to the woman. Ashamed, the woman walked back to the soldiers crying! Later these same soldiers pulled out a pistol at a charting supporter; he took off to inside Nambooze’s campaign vehicle. On 10^th a youth carrying/dressed in Namboozes posters was arrested by police for four days! It took the intervention of the American embassy to be released. Five of Nambooze’s chief campaigners have been way-laid and detained and threatened with death/imprisonment if they don’t give up their rights. On 12^th a car driven by one Muwanga Lutaya, waylaid Namboozes convoy from Namubiru Village deep in a sugarcane plantation. This was a miscalculation, because they thought that Nambooze’s convoy will vandalize this car. Youth in the team just hand lifted it aside to create way for their darling. At 1am same night, the government/Bakaluba set the same vehicle on fire at Bugerere road plus a makeshift salon at wantoni. By 6am, shamelessly they were on all radios TV’s and all news papers spreading malicious propaganda that Nambooze supporters burnt these 2 properties! Common sense shows that it is only government that can use money stolen from tax payers money to destroy and pay back such property. This also shows the extent government can go to justify a stupid cause, after failing to get a justifiable reason to deploy uniformed soldiers in the area they created this kind of insecurity and now soldiers are everywhere in Mukono. Taking this example one remembers the continuous fires that guts Kampala and wonders whether this wasn’t the same intention in which the royal tombs were burnt.

• Moral decay; Reign of terror is characterized by use of money (state resources) to buy/bribe voters directly/ indirectly, it impoverishes citizens while enriching the few opportunists around it as Ugandans can’t afford medical treatment!! In fact such degeneration is prevalent even in parliament where NRM MPs can just sabotage a motion if it will uncover the rot.
• Shamelessness; our leaders are so shameless that a ruling party doesn’t feel ashamed to identify itself with a person like Bakaluba who is convicted of vote rigging but as a truly pack of thieves he is chosen as its flag bearer on whom a lot of state funds are spent to win. Surprisingly people who govern this country like Mbabazi, Museveni etc shamelessly stand and intimidate people to vote such a mess. Is it that such people don’t count common sense in voters or think they are stupid? One prides himself in being part of a government that leads world-wide in corruption and potholes in her city. A country where black mambas are deployed in courts! In which soldiers and heavy guns are brought out to fight an unarmed person like a Kabaka! Where un-armed people mourning their beloved burnt Masiro are shoot dead by army operatives! A country in which peoples desired radio station CBS is maliciously closed, harmless people like Nambooze are arrested and disappear without trial. A country in which the electoral commission is not an independent body but a government body in which one to get a job, he has to be a member of NRM, and shamelessly acts on Museveni’s orders.

Ugandans, and people of Mukono in particular, we need to free ourselves from this bondage. Gone are the days when selfish people who don’t mind peoples blood go to the bush to use guns to fight for power, and then turn the country into a den of thieves/opportunists.  We the peace loving future minded people use brain power and our ballots to change our country. Like Bukenya said. “This is a government of Mafia’s” but we remain the major stake holders in this country who will stay in it after they have plundered it and gone. Let’s use our ballot as our power to change our country. Don’t turn your ballot into five years of suffering in which you have an MP who can never work to solve any of those issues but used as a sycophant by the presidents. Use your ballot to help your country take the first step towards peacefully changing from this reign of terror to sanity. Use it to create hope for the young, the illiterates, the unemployed, the sick in hospitals without drugs, those innocently imprisoned for their opinions and more especially for development of rule of law in Mukono.

Let’s all take a first step towards a 1000mile journey to change Uganda by removing opportunists. Let our area not be ashamed by being represented by a plastic MP (rat). Always remember it’s better to be lead by a parliament of 2cats than being lead by 231 rats.

Tulwanyise ababbi.

Vote Nambooze

Kaweesa J kaweesa

UAH forumist

DP-Mao Have Betrayed Ugandans Big Time By Snubbing the IPC

Mao and Museveni share a moment in Gulu in 2006

Dear Ugandans,

With due respect , if we really have Uganda at heart rather being self-seekers we should have been looking at the situation in Uganda right from the bottom to the top and no otherwise. I and you do really agree that the situation in Uganda is critical at the moment; however, we sadly fail to agree on how to remedy it.  Why? It is simply because of two grounds namely a) cupidity and b) mistrust.

As regards those points noted above, most people are simply struggling to get the key not because they care so much about what is going on in Uganda, but rather to unfairly enrich themselves the very way others have done previously. Some people advance their point that before these parties can think of anything about cooperation that they individually have to first sell their policies to the electorates, the very way it has happened in UK.  They are true about it, however, recall that the political environs in the UK is no similar to that of Uganda.  Further recall that these very same parties had the opportunity to do the previous elections that is 1996, 2001and 2006, however, the results were worse than one would have ever imagined.  How much did either DP or UPC achieve other than splitting the votes which would have helped a joint opposition to achieve something viable?

Truth be told, this is not about interparty cooperation hurdles but rather grudges against some personalities especially in FDC and its leadership. I am pretty sure that many people have grudges not only about FDC but also its leaders like Besigye , Muntu and others for a mere reason that they worked with NRM/A which toppled down UPC govt. People like bwana Joseph Ochieno openly opposed cooperation between UPC and FDC/IPC, however, thanks to his failure to sail through as a party president that learned men like bwana Otunnu didn’t use bwana Ochieno’s lens to see things the same way.

Further, those who don’t fall in the UPC category above which hate FDC mainly because of its involvement with NRM/A to remove UPC gov’t from power, are self seekers who harbour unreasonable fears of being used by FDC if IPC were to get the key. Again, these are the people, especially the bwana Mao faction which believe that they can do the senator Obama miracle, a miracle which is unlikely to happen during general M7’s era given the difference between the political environs of the two countries.

If it was really in the interest of the country as they claim, bwana Ssebaana would have pulled out of the race in the previous elections and back the strongest co-opponent when he realised that his journey was full of many impenetrable hinders.  So would Mama Maria have done, but wapi.  But why?

 This whole sad tragedy brings me to the conclusion that perhaps we better allow General  Museveni to rule Uganda till he drops dead since we have failed to join hands because we are all simply suspicious of each other. Or how would Uganda have been today if people like bwana Besigye did continue to work with NRM to this day?  Did he make a right decision to defect or not?  Would some people be pleased to receive bwana Ochora in UPC tomorrow if he changed his mind or they will simply deny him entrance due to his association with NRM, in other words, guilty by association?

Conclusively, other than telling us about selling policies, which obviously has failed thrice, the anti-IPC should give us reasonable grounds why they think IPC is no necessary. Otherwise, I see no reason whatsoever why we should waste our time criticizing NRM administration yet we fail cooperate and tell him off with a single and strong voice.

Robert Ssenkindu

Sweden

UAH forumist