
RDC: Observatoire de la Depense Publique (ODEP) – Communique No. 01 (12.01.2021)









Another day, another story and another issue. The 14th January 2021 the polls are happening. The finalization of a long time coming. However, don’t expect free and fair elections. Don’t expect the public or the citizens to have their will heard. No, the state intends to control the result and get their pre-determined announced results. The state doesn’t hold elections to get the representatives the public wants, but to get legitimacy to rule.
The Electoral Commission, the Police Force, the Army, Local Defence Unit (LDUs), Crime Preventers and all other law enforcement will be out to spread fear and intimidate. These elections will be a nightmare. There is nothing happening before the polls that says otherwise.
The authorities and the state has been more rouge and rough. It hasn’t been a week without an arrest of a Presidential Candidate. There haven’t been week or a day without reports of abductions and arrests of opposition candidates. It have been reports of activists and people associated with the opposition abducted in the night and later found dead. Therefore, the state has retaliated before the polls even starts. Just to spark fear and show their strength by using law enforcement.
The police and army have followed the trails of the Presidential candidates. Blocked them from accessing districts and towns. They have been arrested there, tear-gassed and violated by the authorities. The state have blocked hotels, taken them away into nowhere. In this demeaning manner the state have gone after them. The opposition have detained their team-members and given phony charges as well. This has happened all through the campaigns. The Police have shot at the cars and been close to assassinating a Presidential Candidate twice.
Therefore, with the knowledge of this. The news of blocking Google App Store and Apps ahead of the election. Is just so the opposition cannot monitor and report in the UVote App. We should anticipate a media lockdown ahead of the polls. Where the only way to get information and sharing it through VPN.
The state have already issued new media accreditation ahead of the polls. So, plenty have lost it and the Media Council had to verify journalists. Foreign journalists have been blocked from entering and being allowed to monitor the elections. There been some observers, but they are the usual suspects and these will rubber-stamp the events.
The state have already gone after the opposition media and the ones who has Youtube Accounts. That hasn’t gone well. While Facebook have blocked the regimes own accounts on Facebook. So, the state has lost a battle and forced another one.
However, the Electoral Commission, the UPDF and UPF have all gone out and said that all gathering around the polling station after voting is illegal. The authorities have said its not allowed to use phones and take evidence of what is happening. People are just supposed to shun area and its all supposed to happen in secret. The state is trying to issue in the articles of the 2019 Amendments of Kahinda Otafiire. Which never happened and was unsuccessful in Parliament. Still, they are trying and persisting in saying so. Just to ensure its dark there too.
Expect for the worst here. Expect for soldiers in the streets. Be sure of para-military outfits sponsored by the state lingering around. There will be curfews, it will be a partial lockdown. There will be a social media and internet blockade. Mobile Money and other services will be impossible. No place to hide on the internet and nowhere to seek information. Only from government friendly radio and TV.
The state want this to be done in darkness and intimidation. They don’t want to shed light on the events. The Electoral Commission this time around cannot even act independent. They are looking like servants of the throne and that is all a given. Law Enforcement and the army is partisan players too. So, nothing on the horizon is a sign that these folks will give way easily. No matter what the youth, the next generation or what the public really wants.
The President and his men can act like they are elected. When really they are men who only has power, because they have the guns. These folks doesn’t lead because they are respected or people favour them. No, they are there… because if you challenge them. Then you die and so does your kin. The ones that dares to challenge at this point will suffer. So many people have been hurt this election. There been to many civilians, to many candidates and activists who has suffered, tortured and died because of the upcoming polls. All so one man can have his eight term in office.
That is insane, but that man isn’t playing fair. He don’t intend to either. The President and his party intends ambush, strike fear and be hostile to be in power. These Big-Men will use all means. They don’t care if they burn a village, evict a orphanage or pollute a school. The state will use all means to profit and get kickbacks. They will do whatever it takes and there is nothing that is to far.
This President and his men will kill people in broad daylight and blame the deceased. The state will blame the victims. Claim they are investigating and never arresting anyone. That is the sad reality here. People can die and it doesn’t even count. People can be arrested and detained for no apparent reason than their political affiliation. People can be beaten and shook(ed) on the streets with no justification.
That is why the state, authorities and every stakeholder out there wants it in the dark. They don’t want the light on the events. The current leadership prefers it to be happening in darkness, as the actions might get hidden and isn’t leaked out before later. The President and his men prefers that. Just like nobody is supposed to understand the weird calculations and the perfect match of voters in certain districts. Neither, the various of anomalies and the wrecked lives. As those will be talked about after the effect. That is just natural in the grand scheme of things.
The President is anticipated to “win” again. However, it is hallow. The game and the tricks has been played before. The President and his men is only amplifying it and making it more hardcore. The gloves are off, but the truth is still this. His time is up and the public is tired of his reign. However, he thinks he can keep them hostage yet another term. Peace.






Now that the polls are hastily happening, the President since 1986 suddenly wanted again to show his importance and care of the ghetto. The President have done this stunt before, as he been doing some stunts in 2019. As the President and his handlers was launching government schemes in Kibuye and Katwe, Kampala.
So, the video of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni speaking luyaye suddenly. It was not like he was in the ghetto with the ones playing Omweso in the streets of Kalerwe. Not like he was sipping some Nile Brew at a shack or run-down pub somewhere in a ghetto. No, the old man was sitting safe and soundly at the Entebbe State House. Acting like his street-smart and cares about the ghetto.
The ghetto’s of Kampala is an reflection of the failure of his administration. It is a reflection of where the wasteland of forgotten people and people seeking a new beginning in the capital. Instead of expanding on those and ensure the ones living lives there. The state is just visiting this areas, coming with minor programs and leaving them behind. The President and his cadres haven’t cared much. It is the CSOs, NGOS and UN Organizations that cover the discrepancies that the state leaves behind.
Therefore him speaking Luyaye now as a way of respecting the ghetto’s is beyond me. Speaking the supposed “anti-language” That an old man like Museveni trying to speak slang to act relevant only shows that his trying to hard. Instead of showing what he has delivered to the youth and the ghetto’s. His instead playing a character, which isn’t him.
That’s why Museveni isn’t only an outsider here, but his a “aguu” meaning either ‘thief’ or ‘prostitute’. His trying to act like a hustler on the street, but this is the richest man of the Republic. The ruler that has been living longer then the most of the people speaking Luyaye and the slang itself. Therefore, this is as disrespectful as when older lectures trying to act and speak up like the students. It sounds out of place and isn’t a bargain.
I doubt his story of working with the ghetto before the bush-war is true. As that is just a way of sounding legit now. Alas, a man who was working for the Uganda Research Bureau, was a spy and agent for the state. These people was using mental games and to interrogate people. That is not working there. Before he got a higher role in the Military Commission in 1979 and later became the Minister of Defence. Therefore, him working directly for the ghetto and the betterment before the Bush sounds like a lie too me.
Not only does he uses Luyaye to be relevant. His also using the language to speak the ones he left behind over the years. The publicity stunts and gig-economy positioning is the reason why the struggle is real. The state haven’t dropped consistent development or fixing the needs in the ghetto’s. If they had it wouldn’t be as dire as it is.
This is all done as a challenge and prove he can more Ghetto than Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine. However, Bobi Wine has resided and lived in the Ghetto. Bobi Wine has grown up there and made a career from there. Something, the President never did. That is why Museveni is putting on an act.
For me, Museveni is an “aguu” and an imposter. He shows his arrogance and ignorance with this. This isn’t brilliant, but only shows his disregard of the people he tries to galvanise ahead of the polls. Peace.