SOPHISTRY AND THE TRAGEDY OF THE MWENDA-LIKE ‘INTELLECTUAL’

By Edward Ssekalo

Sophistry, as defined by the Google Dictionary, is “the use of clever but false arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.” A person who reasons with clever but false arguments is called a sophist. If you were doing a test and were out of time, you could as well summarise the definition of sophist as Andrew Mwenda. Even if there are a few others like him scattered all over social media, Mwenda is the poster boy of the art of sophistry in Uganda at the moment.

I once admired Mwenda by the way. As a student I followed him with religious devotion, witnessing his transformation over the years from a young journo who moralised, to a more mature commentator who analysed and finally to a former journalist turned businessman that uses his platform(s) to demonise any person who dares to remind us that injustice is a thing to be frowned upon; something to be RESISTED. At other times (most times), his energies will be expended on anyone that presents as a substantial threat to Mr. Museveni’s blood-fuelled hold onto power. Once it was Kizza Besigye. Now it is Bobi Wine.

Yet, I am not here to discuss Mwenda. I will instead respond to some of the fallacious arguments in his “Between Museveni’s frying pan and Bobi Wine’s fire”. First though, I will get one thing out of the way: as expected Mwenda retrieves his anti-Opposition talking points early on, brandishing his much-loved ‘radical extremist’ label which is reserved for pro-change supporters as a tool to blackmail.

As a comms professional, I know the power in disarming the person you are challenging by assigning derogative tags. It is supposed to give you the early advantage. I, however, will embrace that label. If Mwenda believes that by me voicing my displeasure with the state and style of governance of my country I am a disgruntled, talentless, unemployable, radical extremist, I will wear that label he has assigned as a badge of honour.

SO, WHAT DOES BOBI WINE STAND FOR?

The flaws in Mwenda’s piece are first shown up where he argues that “Bobi Wine’s only qualification as an alternative to Museveni is that he is critical of the status quo.” That is a most absurd assumption, because there are hundreds of Museveni opponents on the political stage. Does Mwenda stop to think why some and not others get traction in their campaigns for change? For one that passes himself off as ‘intellectual’, Mwenda should do some thinking, and show evidence of it when he writes.

He continues that “Our ‘intellectuals’ don’t care what [Bobi] stands for, the values he represents, the policy alternatives he proposes, the leadership abilities he has exhibited, the alliances he is cultivating and the organizational ability he has demonstrated.”

If Mwenda isn’t exhibiting willful ignorance, then I would suggest he does a simple Google or Facebook search. It is laughable to impute that Bobi Wine has yet to demonstrate leadership abilities (a man that was so influential even Mwenda’s friend Kale Kayihura turned to him to engage ghetto youth- that was before Bobi was even MP). Mwenda then questions the alliances Bobi is cultivating (he obviously hasn’t heard that Bobi Wine has allied with three different political bases in the last one year and which bases emerged victorious in by-elections in Arua, Bugiri, Jinja and Rukungiri). And then the winner: he dares to question Bobi Wine’s organizational ability. Seriously? A man that swept a by-election competing against an FDC incumbent and a generously-funded NRM candidate in Kyadondo East? Do you start to see the definition of ‘sophist’ in these claims by Mwenda?

Nonetheless, let’s address the suggestion that it is not clear what Bobi Wine stands for. Long before he joined the political fray, Bobi Wine identified himself as one for freedom and justice (political, economic and social), and one whose desire is a Uganda that works for all. Here is one of his quotes from last year: “Our aspiration is to live in a country in which every Ugandan is equal, free and dignified. Where every life is valuable. Where no one is above the law. Where no one can kill a Ugandan and sleeps sound[ly] – knowing that they are protected by the state.”

Bobi Wine does not need a fancy 10-point program, framed, to make these points (besides, we know how well those who came with 10-point programs and blackboards have turned out 32 years later). The millions of Ugandans he inspires know it too. He doesn’t need to identify as Marxist or clothe himself in the elitist “liberal democrat” dress the Mwendas pretend to champion for us radical extremists to agree with him that we need change.

For crying out loud, when Salim Saleh joined Mr. Museveni in their Bush War I bet he couldn’t even spell the word ‘Marxist’, let alone explain the ideology. I would bet the likes of Elly Tumwine and Abdul Nadduli followed Museveni to the bush because they had had enough of the status quo, or, quite possibly, sensed an opportunity to enjoy a life of largesse if their gamble paid off.

If Mwenda were truly the impartial analyst he purports to be, he should at least acknowledge that Bobi Wine has shown an admirable ability to read the political mood and recognize that there is a growing shift from a belief in parties (at least for pro-change Ugandans) to a growing faith in non-partisan/cross-partisan initiatives. It was that vehicle that delivered Kyagulanyi the MP. A similar approach delivered Emmanuel Macron to the French presidency, just saying.

IT’S THE YEARNING FOR FREEDOM, STUPID!

So, like Saleh was in 1982, many 22-year-old Ugandan youth today relate with Bobi Wine’s struggle for their freedom if not to do anything else, at least to WhatsApp and share their nudes in peace, without the unnecessary impediment of OTT tax. That freedom has been taken away by a government that taxes them unjustly, and impoverishes them slowly but steadily by yanking out of their hands the power to make a living as ‘hustlers’ online, or as Mobile Money agents offline.

Mwenda, these Ugandans don’t need ideologies. They don’t need a mastery of macroeconomic policy. All they need is to hear words of inspiration and Bobi Wine provides those, like a good leader does, or should, and like your sugar daddy Museveni once did. If Bobi Wine needs top class economists to guide his policy, Uganda has enough of them, and at least he has shown that he is willing to seek and use expert opinion. That cannot be said of Museveni (anymore). The likes of Bobi Wine signify vanguards in Ugandans’ daily struggles for freedom and justice; social, economic or otherwise. It’s the freedom, stupid!

The one submission Mwenda made that I truly believed was honest (even if it reeked of ignorance) was the one that about Bobi Wine having to reward his supporters with jobs if he became president. If that is an idea coming from Mwenda, it shouldn’t be surprising at all. He has been around Museveni for quite a while now that the only standard he knows is the one Museveni has set, (which is also why it difficult for him to envision a Uganda where security agents don’t brutalise citizens).

But back to the point on jobs; as an analyst, the easiest way to attempt to predict what kind of president Bobi Wine would potentially be should have been for Mwenda to examine how Bobi Wine has run his constituency of Kyadondo East. But who needs the facts on the ground when there is an anti-Opposition demonisation template to feed ‘Bobi Wine’ or ‘Kizza Besigye’ into and hit the ‘Post’ button?

*The cry baby antics about being cyber-bullied were truly laughable though. If one calls you out for the intellectual fraud you are, don’t turn around and claim it is cyber-bullying. Or should we expect that you will advise your daddy to create a division of social media police to whip us (pun intended) into line?

This is very depressing to say the least!

By Rev. Joseph Kamugisha

This is very depressing to say the least. As a matter of fact, iam reminded of a similar scenario which i witnessed during my one night stay at Nakasero SRB, during the days of monster Idi Amin.

A Kololo secondary school teacher was brought in the middle of the night, he was clearly identifiable, because we had some students from the same school who knew him very well. He was responsible for teaching Math and French. The man was mercilessly beaten, tied aganist the metal jail bars, in form of a cross. The notorious SRB henchmen, pulle dout their bayonets and started slashing his body exactly as the gluesome pic here below shows. Later in the middle of the night after he had bled so much, one of the goons came in with a pistol and shot him on each arm, legs and finally in the chest.

It’s an image i saw over forty years ago, but still vivid in my memory. If the saying, “History repeats itself…” Museveni, is a surely a good student of Idi Amin and more.

M7 KILLED MUSLIMS IN MBARARA NOT RURANGARANGA!

President Milton Obote with Rurangaranga (immediate left).

BY SUNDAY GEOFFREY VIA UAH FACEBOOK

Why are the Baganda people so consumed by wolokoso, by hatred of Ugandan nationalists, by envy, etc.

When did you see Rurangaranga killing people from home to home; where did this take place, who are your witnesses, etc

How come Eriya Kategaya who was the DC of Bushenyi never captured the actions of his Deputy DC Edward Rurangaranga anywhere in his writings?

If he killed people in Bushenyi, how come when he was released he was given a rousing welcome back home after spending 5yrs in luzira on tramped up charges…and then he went on to contest in the politics, where he passed unopposed.

How come court threw out the NRA charges against him, because they were baseless, vindictive and out of malice. You mean to say he killed everyone in Bushenyi to the extent that there were no witnesses and the graves of the dead could not be traced?

Maj Edward Rurangaranga was one of the commanders in Kikosi Ma’alumu, who had Tito Okello and Oyite Ojok as the two senior Ugandan soldiers.

They went to Masaka and Kampala.

He was not on the group that went to Mbarara. This was under Museveni’s group. It’s the group that went and killed people in Mbarara. Immediately they got the information that Museveni had caused a massacre, they dispatched a bigger group of Tanzanians helped by Rurangaranga to go and stripe Museveni of his authority. The Tanzanians took over and with Rurangaranga as the local commander towards Bushenyi, and Mpambara as the local leader towards Former Kigezi. They were scared what Museveni will do if he went to Bushenyi or Kabale. Museveni reappeared in Fort Portal…

However, the damage had already been done. The group under Museveni destroyed mbarara even when the Amin solder had already withdraw and ran. This group killed the Muslim on the way towards Bushenyi…this forced the Tanzanians to take over overall command of the western axis

Funny enough, Museveni destroyed the palaces in mbarara and Fort Portal.

Amin solders tried putting up a stiff resistance in Ishaka. That is when they were overwhelmed by the Tanzanians.

In Bushenyi, Amin solders were locally referred to as “kikito or kijambia”. They had no where to hide. They cursed people…they were forcing people to give them civilian clothes as they threw their uniforms.

The danger was in Ishaka. We had some fanatical Muslim supporters of Amin in that town (predominantly Baganda and Nubians) and they wanted to join the Amin solder and they were slaughtered by a superior Tanzanian group.My grandfathers home is right next to the Banyankore Kweterana coffee factory between Bushenyi town and Rusinya St Kagwa…before you reach Ishaka town.

The only person who is known to have ordered the killing of Muslims in Ankole is Museveni and his western axis of the liberators in the 1978-79 war… Killed many in Mbarara and the neighbouring towns. Amin’s soldiers withdrew from the Baracks and ranafter they were defeated.

At that time of the mbarara falling, Edward Rurangaranga was heading to Masaka with the big Kikosi Ma’alumu. He was not anywhere near mbarara. He could not be implicated in those mbarara atrocities.

It was after the Kikosi Ma’alumu heard of the atrocities in mbarara that they asked both Tito and Oyite to select some Ugandans from their ranks to go with the Tanzanians to stop the indiscipline that has been reported in mbarara and surrounding area.

That is how Rurangaranga ended up in the drive to capture Ishaka because there was a military camp near there. Bushenyi was untouched.

In the last general elections, Museveni was reminded of the plight of the Muslims of mbarara who were murdered by his own Fronasa group in 1979..how many Muslims were never compensated and how many left and migrated to Ntungamo. Majority were Baganda and Nubians. Did you hear what he said? That he will personally handle the matter and ensure that they are compensated.

He said something similar when he was pinned on the atrocities in Teso and how the NRA stole people’s cattle. This was in the last elections campaigns.

He said something similar when the NRA was pinned on atrocities in Acholi-land in the last elections campaigns.

But this reminds me of what Milton Obote said about Museveni. Wherever he goes and in whatever military theatre, the same thing is constant: mass killing of the innocent, destruction and atrocities. Everywhere he goes. Not least in Luwero where the Baganda hid him when the UPC led government had declared him a bandit / rebel.

The NRA arrested him on tramped up charges. They knew very well that he was a clean man. His crime is sensitising his people to reject and denounce NRA and Museveni. And because of that, a campaign was directed at the local political and religious leaders from Bushenyi and Mbarara by NRA thugs like Museveni and his group, tarnishing the names of people but, they were found not guilty and eventually released. Many were kept behind bars, but eventually pardoned. Museveni did pardon them because he knew they were maliciously framed and thrown in jails.

In 1992 this man stood for a political office in his home area. Guess what?! He was unopposed. Only dimwits would want you to believe that the people of Bushenyi underwent a brain transplant in order to make a 360 degree Turn to love this man so much after being released from jail that everyone decided to stand down in favour of him.

This guy was a teacher by profession. He taught in Uganda and also taught in Kenya while in exile. He became speaker of the parliament of Ankole. He also became an Assistant District Commissioner to Eriya Kategaya in Bushenyi. He eventually became district Commissioner. Was made minister for local government. The he ran for parliament in 1980 and became an MP. Then appointed minister of state in the office of the Prime minister.

When did this man kill the Baganda and Muslims? Where and what dates?

The NRA made allegations against him and was thrown in jails from 1986-91. The Courts threw out the case against him due to lack of evidence, lack of witnesses and stated that the case was without any merit and was a witch-hunt.

But you still have these thugs on line saying that he killed people… Including Lumumba Amin (Son of Idi Amin) who says he will rot in hell because he (Rurangaranga) used to make statements implicating his father in atrocities in Uganda.

That is the class of mentally retards we are dealing with on this issue.

A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER IN CASE YOU ARE ARRESTED

1. In case you, or your loved one is questioned, arrested or detained by the Police, do not fight, argue or engage in heated verbal exchanges. Act as reasonably polite as possible, proceed to find out the reason for the arrest and then proceed to cooperate as asked. This might go a long way in resolving the issue.

2. During the arrest or confrontation, do not resist, this will simply heat up the situation and might lead to additional charges being given to you, which powers are given to the Police by law. It might also give the Police an excuse to use excessive force.

3. Before you are put in the cell, ask to communicate to a relative or loved one by phone or SMS, and in that communication, give them your location, and how you can be contacted.

4. When at the Police Post/ Station, then ask to speak to the Officer in Charge (O.C) of that Police station and request for Police Bond if the matter is for further investigation.

5. In case you then feel the arrest was unlawful, or your rights were abused during the arrest, there are a number of legal means you can take to seek compensation or redress e.g by suing those who arrested you.

**************************

Advice from barefootlaw.org.

Tinyenfunza did real damage to Kony but both Muntu and M7 despise him

General Tinyefuza may have sympathy from some elements of the opposition, but surely it is crocodile tears.

There are some in FDC who hate Tinyefuza’s guts so badly. You remember when Tinyefuza was moving from one political party to another ‘mobilising’ them to remove the NRM after his return from UK?

General Muntu for one despises him and may not meet him. I promised to tell you the reason and here it is partly.

Many of those former senior officers did not like him. Vivian Asedri and I were the only journalists allowed by General Tinyefuza to cover the anti-Kony ‘operation North’ when it started in March 1991 but he also soon sent Asedri away to Kampala.

One day Tinyefuza, as Minister of State for Defence, summoned Army Commander Mugisha Muntu to Lira and made him to sit for three days in Lira Hotel, refusing to meet him, while telling us “these idiots don’t know what they are doing otherwise this war would have been over yesterday”.

Mugisha Muntu was lucky that Tinyefuza finally met him after three days. Brigadier Joram Mugume, the Chief of Combat Operations was made to sit for five days while Tinyefuza made little feasts at his residence where he would invite some local leaders and some of us.

He ordered Lt. Col. Reuben Ikondere, the Division Commander of NRA 5th Division to leave his house and ‘go to Kampala and when Ikondere delayed to leave, he asked soldiers to ‘bomb that house’. Ikondere was hearing on the walkie-talkie radio and fled the house in a huff!

This kind of humiliation became too much for some of the senior commanders. At a High Command Meeting in Entebbe they complained to the Commander-in-Chief who sacked Tineyfuza and made hims a presidential advisor on Defence. He sulked for sometime before demanding to leave the army, without success, until making up again with the leadership.

Tinyefuza’s insolence did not start yesterday. Some of us watched but dared not report it in the press. One day president Museveni sent a message inviting Tinyefuza as Minister of State for Defence to report to Entebbe State House for an important meeting. Tinyefuza would not directly read his messages however confidential and preferred that the signaler reads it out to him allowed, in presence of even civilians.

Guess what he said. “Tell him (the president) that I do not have a helicopter at my disposal now and would arrive at 5pm instead of 2pm”. Yet, there were three helicopters parked and fueled ready for take off.

I one evening told him that many people were not happy about the strong hand treatment meted out during the cordon and search operations and especially that some of the arrested 18 northern leaders were seen as innocent and he simply told me “Billie stop thinking like a kid. I did not expect them to applaud me or the government”.

On the other hand, despite being heavy handed, Tinyefuza’s operations weakened Kony quite a lot and Kony never recovered until he went to Sudan in 1994 and found new allies there.

Let’s watch the next chapter in the controversial life of this General.

By the way, that ruse he pulled of changing his name from Tinyefuza to ‘Sejusa’ three years ago is nothing really. When I went into his house on Acacia Avenue Kololo in 1991, currently occupied by the Kenya High Commission as offices, Tinyefuza had a stuffed leopard in his living room and on the wall was his law degree certificate in the name of ‘David Sejusa Munungu Tinyefuza”.

So what change was this? It is like a Lango man saying he is changing his name from ‘Ogwang’ to ‘Fox’. They mean the same.

Billie Kadameri via the UAH forum

Aine’s case looks similar to Karanja’s case in Kenya in 1987

Photo of a dead Aine Christopher posted on social media by Charles Rwomushana

Folks;

Uganda police denies that the corpse in that photo is that of Aine’s!

Well, who do we believe now: Aine family that confirmed the body, or the police? There’s a relative story I may share here:

Sometime in 1987, a Kenyan peasant by the name Kamau Karanja, was arrested by the CID and held in a Nairobi police station for three days. His family only got wind of his arrest several weeks later, when one of his cell mates went to visit his home.

The family filed a habeas corpus suit, to compel the police to produce Karanja. Long story short, it turned out the police had killed Karanja and buried his body in a shallow grave in an Eldoret forest, over 300 miles away!

Aine when he was arrested by police

In Aine’s case, the police had pre-emptied the basis of a habeas corpus suit, by claiming that they wanted him so badly, they we willing to pay shs. 20M for information that would lead them to him!

The Karanja case caused Judge Schoefield his job, and journalist, Paul Aboge, his life.

In the photo where Aine is standing in handcuffs, there are surgical marks running up his neck, where the corpse has large, curvy post-surgery marks that appear to be old.

Could this be someone else’s body, considering that Aine has not been missing for more than three weeks?

Something did not add up when the IGP announced the shs. 20M reward, and that’s why I raised it here. There was no legal or urgent reason for Kayihura to try to locate Aine, when Aine’s date with the court was three days away.

Aine had not absconded his bond, had not failed to appear in court, and there was no other active warrant for his arrest. Therefore, the was no justification for this reward.

Now that Aine’s sister says she can confirm that this is his body, I feel vindicated in that I had feared Kayihura or his boys “knew” what had happened to Aine, but they wanted to hide their culpability by making this public appeal for his whereabouts.

Aine’s murder should now lead the conversations in the campaign trail: the press must pester Museveni to tell the nation who killed and why; the Opposition must loudly and courageously demand that Kayihura be sacked.

In fact, all peace-loving Ugandans, irrespective of their political affiliations, should down their tools, vacate their offices and pour into the streets and highways to demonstrate their anger at this political assassination.

It’s likely that Aine had served in our security organs, and that might explain the ruthlessness and fear with which the police/security agencies pounced on him: they knew what he was capable of, or what he had on them.

And why those agencies have been known to violate human rights, including ex-judicial killings, it’s still unacceptable that this Ugandan can be so coldly killed simply because he supports an opposition presidential candidate.

Should be look the other way, and dismiss Aine’s death as a casualty of intra-party feud, we’ll be hard pressed to justify our anger next time one of us is similarly killed.

Therefore, it’s not for Aine’s sake that we must find his murder revolting and bring to justice those behind it; it’s for the fate of the nation.

Moreover, there’s a provision in Uganda’s Constitution that empowers citizens to take up arms against the government if that government becomes unaccountable to the citizens and murderous. Could that time be now?

‘Edward Pojim’ via Ugandans at Heart (UAH) Community

Kanyeihamba becomes emotional over being blocked to deliver petition

It’s disturbing to see this old man of the law expressing his disappointment in the way he did!!But he expresses what the real patriotic Ugandans feel, – that this country has worsened beyond the period of Idi Amin. Kanyeihamba has correctly noted that comparison.

I don’t know what took this clever man so long to realise what we have known all along, that basically Museveni did not fight against Obote to redeem this county from bad rule, but for self-interest.

The chaotic state he causes, is always to his advantage!!!!!

Ssekajja via UAH forum

GEN. SSEJUSA RETURN WAS A DEAL APPROVED BY MUSEVENI

There should be no doubt on the circumstances under which former exiled Gen Ssejusa returned to Uganda. Given the reasons for his overstay in the UK, the anti Museveni activities that he was involved in, his being a serving very senior army officer who had been declared a deserter and subversive, coupled by the VIP reception that he received upon return, its clear that the decision to return was his own decision subject to approval by only Museveni. Had Museveni not approved by threatening to arrest him, the Gen would either have not returned or would have returned but arrested immediately upon landing.

Negotiated return of exiles has always been ongoing though the one of Gen Ssejusa seems to be the biggest catch so far and that is why it has generated a lot of anxiety. All those soldiers from West Nile who served under Iddi Amin were allowed back through negotiated returns. The former DC of Luwero during UPC II Nathan Kalema negotiated for his return from London and lives quietly in Mbarara. Before Col. Muzoora met his mysterious death, government had initiated negotiations for his return from South Africa. What about Maj Okwir Rabwoni! Then Lt Bakarweha a lawyer who had been exiled with the Col Mande and Kyakabale in Sweden came back through a negotiated return and is now a serving senior army officer. Negotiations with LRA’s Vincent Otti went sour resulting in his death. Even those who cross from opposition parties to Museveni’s ruling clique undergo negotiations. Maj Rubaramira Ruranga is the classic example. Some other targets are simply compromised in return for being inactive and in extreme cases spying. The same applies to detainees or convicts like Tumukunde and Rwakasisi.

Such negotiations are usually mediated by family members, friends, elders etc and involves Chiefs of intelligence agencies. That is why Gen Ssejusa is not sincere when he says that there was no deal reached between him and the government. ISO Chief Brig Ronnie Balya was at the airport to meet him and there must have been other commanders with soldiers around ready to pounce on him in case he tried to breach the terms of the deal. The presence of his purported Lawyer, the landing late in the night and driving straight to his country home without causing commotion in Kampala was part of the deal. The lawyer was contacted by the Gen’s family members at the last hour prior to his landing and got approval of the the ISO chief. Otherwise without clearance, the lawyer could not proceed to Entebbe to receive the renegade Gen.

Such negotiated returns usually involve a resettlement package in monetary terms and in some cases a job depending on the profile of the target. The financial cost of Ssejusa’s air ticket, the fuel to his home, security guards, entertainment allowance etc were and continue to be met by the government. The security operatives around Gen Ssejusa may not be visible to every Tom and Dick but they are there for purposes of both his personal security and to spy on him. In the past we have seen situations where guards are withdrawn and government absconding to pay hotel bills for some returnees once government has lost interest in the target. Not all those who are targeted for luring into returning from exile do succumb; while others either out rightly refuse or simply go into hiding after eating the huge bait cash.

For Gen Ssejusa, the initiative to return must have been his own after realising that by continuing to stay in exile, he risked becoming irrelevant. As to why he did not come back on his own terms like was the case with Col. Besigye, the simple answer is that Besigye is more resolute than Ssejusa but more so they differ ideologically. While Besigye was persecuted into exile, Gen. Ssejusa was not persecuted into exile but while he was on a tour in the UK, government threatened to arrest him if he returned. Once again; “opposition to Museveni is in two categories i.e those who want to free Uganda from Museveni’s bondage and those seeking to get into power.” Given the situation, both categories are needed though the later category is prone to compromise.

Therefore, Gen Ssejusa’s return was a deal that was painfully approved by Museveni. “…he knows my address; we have been waiting for him for some months….”. Unfortunately the deal may soon be breached by both parties but with dire consequences for Gen Ssejusa because Museveni is does not honour agreements. Gen Ssejusa wants power from Museveni which power has just landed Amama Mbabazi three feet deep. He has a political organisation that he founded but as a serving army officer, the law does not allow him unless Museveni gives him an exception.

INFORMATION IS POWER

posted by Robukui

ANOTHER ‘DEAR ABBEY’ ABOUT KAMPALA MURDERS

ANOTHER ‘DEAR ABBEY’ ABOUT KAMPALA MURDERS:

‘Dear Abbey,Greetings my brother and former colleague (Monitor times). Thanks for smoothly steering Ugandans-At-Heart (UAH) platform.Do you recall the opinion article I wrote to you some few months ago, about how the GoU and KCCA are poorly managing the running of Kampala, whereby they have disenfraschized a lot of low-class Ugandans, to the extent that the favoured and those behind the disenfranchisement (the high-class) shall, in addition to other helpless Ugandans, fall victims of “on-the-wall-pushed-Ugandans.”

The rate of crime, armed gunmen and also those brandishing of all manner of weapons — particulalry katalimbwa — has sharply risen to such a level, in which in a week alone, wealthy/popular businessman the late Sebunya Eria Bugembe (SEB) a.k.a Kasiwukira was murdered in broad-daylight — actually in the morning just a few metres from his splash home in upscale Muyenga — Kayihura’s neighbourhood.

Same week or the one before, 3 Police-Flysquad operatives were gunned down by a trader in Ndeeba, a downtown Kampala suburb, while on a suspected robbery spree as some of them are well-known hardcore criminalsd.

Many Ugandans of wall walks of life have been murdered in a low-intensity insecurity that has resulted largely from disenfranchized people who were traders (batembeyi/hawkers) on Kampala streets, but got driven off the streets in a very cruel and unplanned manner by KCCA and State police.

Even in the suburbs where they ran to and settled, in smallscale roadside kiosks like in Makindye, Banda, Kalerwe, Wandegeya, along Entebbe Rd. like Bwebajja and Kajjansi, lots of people have been driven off their kiosks, carried away by bulldozers — after they were officially charged fees by KCCA all along!

Bands of thugs are roaming villages forcefully breaking into people’s homes in the wee-hours of the night and hacking them, after robbing clean their homes! Even as early as 7-9 p.m. such cases occur.

Even far away as Mpigi and Wakiso villages, there are cases where KCCA has bought off land where many of the former city hawkers had settled, to dump garbage following the filling up of the old Kiteezi dump. This is viewed as a deliberate “pushing of low-class people to the wall” further deeper and away from any developed areas where trade is possible.

In the villages of Rakai, Masaka, Mpigi and Wakiso, there are unexplained murders going on — digging into walls of residents while asleep, and spraying of chloroform in order to murder innocent people unchallenged.

There’s a wave of kidnapping (human-trafficking), raping and murder of mainly female university students for ransom. The people engaged in this wave of terror, are in my considered opinion and suspicion, largely former street hawkers chased away from “some-income-activity-life” to a “totally-no-income-life” and what is the oucome of such actions? A seemingly deliberate creation of high-level desparation and poverty in central Uganda, is what the public is feeling and lamenting.

Also former Ugandan servicemen on the US-side in Iraq and laid-off policemen are not planned for when their services were ended and/or terminated, hence returning home to joblessness. These are desparate
people who do anything for money.

There seems to be no corresponding plan and strategy — to proactively deal with these matters as this strategy would be developed/designed by well–to-do people who are not suffering in this crime-ladden city. Hence its no priority at all. Its a long story Abbey and no light at the end of the dark tunnel. Thanks.

Kind regards,

………………………….
Kampala, UGANDA.

LEGAL OPINION ON THE ‘GUILTY’ VERDICT OUT OF THE NSENGA TRIAL

Please read this legal opinion I gave you on 24th July. I was worried then you had had allowed emotion to get the better of your normally good judgement. I told you, in all likelihood, this woman Nsenga would have a very hard task, convincing the court of her innocence. I told you very few people would believe her talke that she run down her husband in front of a previously locked gate, after it had stopped, because of a mechanical failure in the car. The defence also weakened their case by calling the Deputy Director of the CID as a witness. This totally destroyed his credibility. He could only be taken seriously if he had resigned his post and told the the court he was giving evidence in protest. In fact the prosecution made a huge error in not applying to the court to treat his evidence as that of a “Hostile Witness”. Such evidence is normally treated with great caution because the courts assume the witness has an axe to grind or a motive to lie or embellish the truth. In any event, I think the judge ignored his evidence and treated it just as that of a hostile witness.

Mrs Nsenga can still appeal on legal technicalities, in regard to her mental state at the time she run down the husband. But in the absence of satidfactory techinical or scientific evidence that a car that has stopped can, through mechanical failure, gather such speed and strenght within such a small confined area as a garage as to knock down and crush a human being is a very hard sell for any innocent bystander to swallow. I think the judge drew an inference that the gates were actually open when Mrs Nsenga returned home and she drove at her husband at speed crushing him underneath the car. She compounded the initial injury by reversing over his prostrate body.

Mrs Njenga needs a much better lawyer to handle her appeal. I think the original defence lawyers were incompetent because they should have set their stall on a defence of manslaughter and led evidnce alluding to her mental state arising out of the breakdown in her marriage which might have amounted to diminished reponsibility in law. If I was her lawyer, that is the line I would have taken. please read the example I gave you, of you shooting down Fardson Karanga in public with an UZI sub-machine gun. It is going to be a very hard sell for you to convince a court that it was an accident, evn if in fact you have a licence to carry the gun.

Thank You

George Okello

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This is a very normal process in the interaction between the Police CID and the DPP’s office. Files move backwards and forwards, but it is the DPP who makes the final decision on whether to prsecute and what charges to prefer. This is because it is the DPP who ultimately has to prove the case in court.

Secondly, in a majority of borderline cases eg, murder and manslaughter, attempted murder and serious bodily harm, robbery and burglary, rape and indecent assault etc, the DPP will prefer to charge the accused with the graver offence because the actus reus of all these offences are always the same- the duty of the prosecuting attorney then is to prove mens rea or intent.

In a case like this one you are commenting on, I think you have got your understanding of the law totally mixed up. It would be a very negligent DPP who charged this woman with manslaughter and not murder. In a case like this one, it is highly imprable that a car that has stopped infront of a gate, then suddenly picks up speed and crushes a person inside the gate. This is not something that ordinarily happens. Iin fact nobody would believe such a tale. Which means, there is going to be a very heavy burden on the accused to dispel the near certain presumption that she intended to kill or cause grievious bodily harm to the deceased. I once prsocuted two muder cases in the High Court sitting in Lira, which were very sensational.

1st, an itinerant worker was employed by a petrol station to cutt off a brach of a tree that had overgrown and was encroaching on the roof. The man climbed up the tree and with his saw, started cutting off this huge tree branch. By coincidence, a motorist who was filling up passed under the tree and it is at that precise moment that the brach snapped and hit him on the head like a bullet. He died instantly. The man was arrested and charged with murder.

2nd: a 14 year old girl, in a school fight, picked up s huge stone and used great force to hit a similar aged boy on the head, killing him instantly. The boy had been beating up.

Now in both these cases, the DPP instructed me to prefer a charge of murder, which on trial was reduced to manslaughter on grounds of lack of intent/self-defence in the case of the girl (2 years youth custody- and eventually customary compensation according to Lango customs- I think the girl was released from prison after only 3 months). In the the case of the man, the murder charge was dismissed, instead he was convicted of reckless negligence or something like that ( I can’t remember the Uganda Penal Code.

The point I am making is that the best prosecuting tactic is to charge the accused with the graver of the offences that may have been committed and it would be up to the court to make a finding on the facts.

You seem to be reading some form of malfeasance or malpractice in what is in fact a very common procedure or process between the DPP and the Police. Unless you can provide any proof that untoward influence was being used, I do not see anything wrong so far in the trial of this woman.

If you shot someone with a gun in broad daylight and killed him, it would be a very stupid DPP who would charge you with manslaughter rather than murder. Even if the issue of self-defence, mistaken identity etc are raised, I think these are defences that it would be up to the court to deliberate in a trial for murder. This is why I can not understand you when you insist that this woman should be charged with manslaughter rather than muder. Running down people infront of locked gates is surely not a common occurrence in Uganda or anywhere else in the world. In fact I think this woman is going to be put to task to exonerate herslf because her tale is very difficult to swallow to an impartial observer.

George Okello

PS: I last practised criminal law 20 years ago