Opinion: What will the Silent Mbabazi do?

There was once upon a time a lot of fuzz around this one politician, as he even at one point tried to become the Presidential Candidate in the National Resistance Movement, even when Museveni is still breathing; he tried to take over the NRM as a Secretary General and as a Prime Minister in the cabinet under Museveni. With that trying he was deflected and demoted from his positions and Dr. Ruhakana Ruganda, his childhood fried as the PM and Justine Kasule Lumumba as the Secretary General of the NRM.

So he seemed at that point to be lost with scarecrows and dustbins, as one of many men that the Museveni have left astray and left to dwindle. Even as he was demoted and had a ruckus internally in the NRM before the pre-election period of the General Election 2016, which led to his fall.

Now that his PM cars have been taken in, surely his pay has been cut off and other fees and Parliamentary bonuses are gone. While he surely have some money from the embezzlement projects of the past, as he has been on list of the most corrupt Ugandans year after year, it isn’t a secret, it is a fact. And the reason why he hasn’t been taken in or gotten trouble in court was because of his close ties to Museveni and the rest of the elite who also happen to eat of the plate where he was having a bargain.

The last big blow and act of his Presidential Candidacy was the Election Petition in Supreme Court as FDC was blocked with helicopter, besieged and even detained. While Mbabazi where house-arrested, but he had enough lawyers to hire so they; the government couldn’t monitor them all as they we’re busy putting in the hourly pay for the guards at Kasangati. So Mbabazi we’re able through his lawyers to deliver the petition 15 minutes after the deadline time. Even if the affidavit and witnesses disappeared like banana-flies and the nurture of yet another term for Museveni.

Mbabazi was able to collect the smaller parties and certain endorsements early in the campaign, like Otunnu and Mao, but they didn’t have their whole parties behind them, as the Opposition either we’re accommodating Museveni as UPC or parts DP did the same; while the Central leaders like Otunnu and Mao risked their own political capital in the former NRM Cadre. The Democratic Alliance had other smaller parties, but they did not have an impact as they wished to have. Especially when the FDC pulled out and Besigye felt he was the strongest Presidential Candidate besides Museveni, which was true.

With all of that in mind, as he has played his cards and is left on the table, he is not in parliament and will not be a Politician. He might be able to live on interest as he should have been able to fill his coffers in the years in the NRM elite. Still the Go-Forward Organization is either something he plans to build-on or if not, he has to forge new ways to reach the potential he seemed to have out of the gate.

Now he is in a pickle and in a blurred line where he has to decide, is his principals or is his own political life important; does he want to be outsider and opposition? Or does he want to be a loyal NRM cadre under Museveni? If you are in the NRM you have to be loyal to the vision of Museveni and nothing else, something he expect of the whole country, but trust me; he is not only man with a vision in Uganda. If there we’re so there wouldn’t be any businesses and ideas in Uganda, as entrepreneurial as the Ugandans can be; that is cannot true, Mzee.

Let be clear he can now either go the way of Mr. Mahogany, who after joining in the TDA went crawling back with broken heart and kissed the ring of Museveni; while doing so he would get a position on the NRM National Executive Committee as he is a “historical” in some points. If not he have to go the way of Besigye and create a strong opposition party with members and supporters allover. The last part is hard work and takes dedication. As if he does the latter… and if the Museveni would let him come, as I am sure he does, as he forgives, but never gives them the space and opportunity they had in past.

The last piece of political play he did was to offer Besigye lawyers for his sham trial in Moroto now in May, but he did not take the offer for special lawyers for his quick trial in (Nakawa Magistrate Court) Kampala before he was driven back to Luzira. Certainly he still tries to play a role in the Opposition, but does not have a platform or the reach that others who have danced in the wilderness for longer time.

That Mbabazi have hard days ahead as he is not naturally in the headlines, he is not in the NRM Elite, not a direct part of the FDC wrangles with the vote rigging, though surely his numbers we’re duped too. Still, he have been more silent and not made himself an opposition figure. Joseph Mabirizi has done more to take a stance against the whole shenanigans. Mbabazi went to court with his petition and after that been very silent. He tried in waiting period of collecting evidence to travel to Kasangati, but was sent back to his home and house-arrest. Little have been done since, just utter Silence…

The Silent Mbabazi, not the ones in the headlines, not the one with the answers and intelligence of the NRM, and why is he like this, is he worried? Is he unsecure of his future? Does the knowing that he either has to build on rocks and not on already fertile land scare him? He has been used to drive in sponge in the waters of others and drain the gold out of it. Now he can’t as he is alone leader of Go-Forward, and if it is more than a fluke and real organization, he has to invest and start to use loyal supporters and build his party. If not go back on his knees and kiss the ring of Museveni.

What will the silent Mbabazi do? Peace.  

Opinion: The acts against the will of people, as the Opposition are under-fire in the Burundi, Rwanda, DRC, Uganda and Kenya. Impressive how the Opposition is burning while the government tries to get away with it!

We live in a Post-Modern world they say, still our leaders acts like medieval times, they are forcing themselves on their nations, on their economies and use their knights to secure their kingdom, their republic and fiefdom. The Opposition who is not accepting the legitimacy of these medieval acts upon their nations are harassed and taken to court, by them who act like they are above the law, as they decree the laws and are the head of state. Therefore this pattern isn’t new; Machiavelli would be proud and wonder if these leaders had read his work “The Prince”.

Just as the wreckage of the local laws and ushering in the third term for CNDD-FDD President Pierre Nkurunziza, who has used the Army and Police to control the country by all means, as the Opposition are dwindling away… like the assassination and killingsof Zedi Feruzi (Union for Peace and Democracy – UPD), Jean Paul Ngendakumana (Front for Democracy in Burundi – Frodebu), Patrice Gahungu (Union for Peace and Democracy – UPD) and Pontien Barutwanayo (National Liberation Forces). Are some men who are gone in the wind by the power-hungry president in Burundi, while Opposition leader who wanted to live like UPD Agathon Rwasa accepted the role as Deputy Speaker in Parliament; so the leadership of CNDD-FDD controls while the real dissidents are either dead or fled as the safety to be opposition in Burundi is not a safe position as the leadership have proven vigilant in getting rid of the ones who stands in the way of Nkurunziza.

While in Rwanda, the neighbor who have had a government under the Rwandan Patriotic Front since 1994, where the current second term President Paul Kagame is consolidating his position while the opposition lingers or have no place in the landscape as the militarized politics there does accept anything else then the will of Paul Kagame. Therefore the leader of the FDU (Forces Democratiques Unifies) Victorie Ingabire Umuhoza is lingering in jail since 2013 and is sentenced to a 15 year jail time. While the fighting Democratic Green Party of Rwanda with their leader Frank Habineza have worked to stifle the abolishment for Presidential term limits, but before that it took the party four years to be verified through the lawful process of the country when it was allowed to exist in 2013. So it is not like the President Kagame is happy about having the DGPR and the FDU in the country. Today the Lawyer (20.05.2016) representing Victorie Ingaire Umuhoza has been expelled from the African Court of Human and People’s Rights, the African Union Courts in Gambia. So the case on human rights must have tanked or been dismissed by the court, but nothing is clarified on the situation on the matter and Victorie Ingabire Umuhoza (FDU) there!

In the Democratic Republic of Congo the leadership around the Second Kabila, or Second term President Joseph Kabila, where there are supposed to be an election later this year and the running up to it. As the MLC have lost their leader at the ICC with Jean-Pierre Bemba charged there recently, as he was part of the “unity” government together with Kabila until the ICC caught up with him. While the Opposition have been under fire as Felix Tshisekendi is even behind the main contender in the DRC. As the Opposition went behind Moïse Katumbi, the ones behind on the 4^th May 2016 was the G-7, the Collectif des Nationalistes and also Alliance pour la Republique. So the Football Tycoon and former Governor of Katanga have gotten heavy loads behind him and his candidature, while Kabila have been driving together with the military in Lubumbashi and other places. While that intimidation have not been enough as the supporters of the opposition have felt the tear-gas and Police Force dispersing them. Moïse Katumbi is now charged with hiring mercenaries and threatening National Security, with an arrest warrant on him. Certainly an effective to silence main candidate before the Presidential Election later in the year, since the Kabila government have not lead to progress or any clear-cut development. Just to put some intelligence on it: “The Police has” embarked on the track of an operation called OP Congo whose objectives, human resources , logistics, finance and modus operandi , appear to be known today as ” Cow Boy “, the code name that refers to Moïse Katumbi ” (LE SOFT INTERNATIONAL, 19.05.2016). With this in mind we can see how the Police have planned to take down the candidacy of Hon. Katumbi in favor of Kabila and continue the supremacy of the Kabila Family over the Congolese Republic!

In Uganda after a hectic and shady election, with the Police involved directly in Opposition parties movement and also government control of the Electoral Commission that had to select the men that was decided by the Executive, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the President since 1986 who have total control of National Resistance Movement and tries to crash the opposition. The way he does that is to get rid of strong leaders from Parliament like Dr. Olara Otunnu while paying loyalty to new Party Leader Hon. Jimmy Akena of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) and also not allowing Norbert Mao from Democratic Party of Uganda, therefore weakening that party to. Finally to by decree of loyal judge Stephen Kavuma who banned the Defiance Campaign for the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), that has made it “legal” for the authority for the Police to house-arrest, detain and siege the Headquarters, in general making all activities of the Opposition Party illegal. By that extent making the Presidential Candidate of FDC Dr. Kizza Besigye that had the support of the people while the Ruling Party rigged the election with amp-speed had a mock swearing-in the day before the “official” one towards the Seventh Term of Museveni. Since then has been taken airlifted from Kampala to Moroto, and after local unrest in Moroto, taken back to Kampala, and he is now charged with “Treason” as he has questioned the powers to be and the President, as the sham election that we’re held is righteous to ask the legitimacy of it. So now the People’s President Besigye is now behind bars, while Museveni does what he can to again consolidate all power and continue everything as usual, while the FDC is harassed, detained and silenced by the Court Order. Even JEEMA Fourm has had visits of Police Force and even artist of Bobi Wine have been detained because they speak up against the regime. So the Police Force and the Army is the strength behind Museveni, not loyalty or love from the People, that he has lost and dwindled away, therefore he pays MPs to get the votes he need, not because of his vision or wisdom of building the nation. Therefore he prosecutes and takes down the FDC as they are everything he is not…

In Kenya, where there are some kind of calm, though there is not criminalized the Opposition, as the Opposition parties are in a Coalition, the same as the ruling regime under the Jubilee, who will become one-party instead of Coalition into the General Election in 2017. Jubilee Alliance Party will soon be truly founded though existed without legal paperwork. While the Opposition in the Coalition of Democratic and Reform (CORD-Kenya) are demonstrating against a biased Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC); something IEBC are under fire by the Opposition coalition CORD-Kenya on three Mondays. The Nairobi Metropolitan Police have gone too far in dispersing the Opposition demonstrators, as the Police Brutality is not only water-cannons and the tear-gas against leaders or the people, together with the violence of fighting and kicking civilians, even shooting at Hon. Raila Odinga car at the last demonstrations. So the violent Police are now showing hatred against the Opposition. The Kenyan Government is not detaining or directly harassing the Opposition, but the tear-gas of demonstrations and not listening to claims, instead counter-claiming they are trying to use the laws and Electoral laws to shun them from power, while even making laws to fix and allow the Jubilee Coalition to become a legitimate party in the state. So the leadership of Jubilee allows them to fix as they need, but not see the questions of opposition and use tear-gas to silence them before the General Election 2017. There are worrying signs of oppressive behavior… and also Jubilee MPs who attacks the legitimate demonstrations and questionable acts from the IEBC in the past and in the coming future election. That shouldn’t be masked to the side as the dialogue and discussion between Jubilee and CORD-Kenya, should settle this early, so they could work initially for peaceful election in unison political climate, instead of creating a valley between the Coalitions. That is not something Kenya needs…

The Oppositions does not have it easy and the levels are proven, the worst are Rwanda and Burundi, even if the DGPR is allowed to exist as long as they don’t really challenge the presidency and their regime, because if they do they will be behind bars for National Security sake like FDU Victorie Ingabire Uhuhoza. While in Burundi the Opposition to the third term president Nkurunziza have been assassinated or killed, this while the government together with stakeholders have had peace-talks with stakeholders and also the remaining Opposition; the Opposition that has not already been killed or assassinated. In Uganda the FDC former Presidential Candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye is charged with “Treason” and still many of the FDC leaders and supporters detained, while the headquarters are sieged by the Police. In Democratic Republic of Congo the Opposition Presidential Candidate Moïse Katumbi is charged for hiring mercenaries and causing problems for National Security, while the incumbent President tries to stifle the best candidate in the up-coming election by doing so, as the Opposition Parties have gone behind candidature of Katumbi. Also in Kenya, the place where it is the best in these countries to be a Opposition, as they are more free, but to an extent, if they question the government or the Electoral Reforms of the IEBC; that is not accepted by the Nairobi Police who brutally disperse the demonstrators of the Opposition and the Opposition leader Hon. Raila Odinga have been tear-gassed and his car been shot at. So there is time to settle down for the government and time for dialogue, so the escalated violence doesn’t continue into the elections, as the citizens of Kenya doesn’t deserve that and neither does the demonstrators who are being violated around the Anniversary Tower.

That’s enough for now. Peace.

My honest letter to President Museveni – “It cannot be easy…” (06.05.2016)

Dear His Exellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni!

I know you are touchy now-a-days it can’t be that easy being you. You have your Army and Police Force enforced on the people you are supposed to represent. Mr. President you have hired French speaking soldiers to deploy safety before the swearing-in, while there is a court-order about suspending the planned Swearing-In. While the Forum for Democratic Change and other Opposition continues to hustle in your backyard. You can’t have that right, it is your playground.

What is worse is that the American and European Union is not kissing your hand and respecting you as they used too. They used to say you we’re the proud future of African Leaders, the fresh new blood. Back in the day in early 1990s the then American President Bill Clinton praised you as the “New Breed” of African Leadership. Since you we’re not the same as the lingering leaders like Mobutu Sese Seko of then Zaire (Now Democratic Republic of Congo).

It can’t be easy to be you, you had the potential and the opportunity to leave a legacy of hope and democratic progress, even if you really we’re not really for it. Because you wanted to control the processes through the Resistance Councils instead of the now District and Local Government Councils around the Ugandan Country; and all of them are not directly loyal too you and the party line you have created in the National Resistance Movement.

And now after the hectic elections and the tides are turning. The old-friends from the West isn’t supporting your cause and your actions. That hurts you as you are the old-man with the hand and the only one with a Vision to Lead the Ugandan Republic. As you have taken it from the British Enclave into the Less-Developed Country (LDC) it is today.

Then all the international pundits that comments on the internal activities of your government, the way you want to control all parts of the political map as you have paid of Jimmy Akena and the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) and disfranchised the Democratic Party. While not able to play the Forum for Democratic Change as they have been steadfast and countered your moves. They make your life so hectic and distress at every move, as they are supposed to respect you authority just as Hon. Akena do!

You’re supposed to be an honourable statesman by now. Instead you’re a Political Piranha for the international community who are tarnishing your name and rule. They are supposed to respect that you uses the army to intimidate the citizens, the citizens who are supposed to be sensitised under your understanding. As much they want to give you money to develop the Crude-Oil drilling and Pipeline to the Tanga Port in Tanzania. The International Community is supposed to salute you for the industrial feet of taking the dinosaur-remains or even fossil-fuel to drive the vehicles that our cars use.

The remains of Mobutu’s Palce

It can’t be easy for you, Mr. President your questioned and become tarnished by the international community; who back-in-the-day called you the future and the New Breed. Though the ones that praised are long gone or is busy trying to get their wife [Hillary Clinton] elected in the Democratic Party in United States.

It can’t be easy for you, Mr. President that they are slashing the limited monies for the peacekeeping operations in Somalia and Central African Republic while you send troops there and keeps Mogadishu and other parts C.A.R. under some kind of control. While the United States and the European Union, condemns your internal wrangles that is not territory or their jurisdiction.

So you are hurt and feel the need to patch your hurt. Therefore as a tiny token from an adversary of you. It is time to see that you are not the new Breed as much as Butros Butros Gali of the United Nations does not have the same space for you as before. You we’re the beacon of hope, the man people looked up as they saw you as the man who beat dictatorship and created a new political landscape. What happen to you Mr. President?

It cannot be easy to see the devalued you have become, the easy way these foreign missions and elections observes says your rule it is not credible or genuine as you have dealt with school elections since your younger days at Ntare School. They don’t understand democracy as you do. These foreigners don’t understand how your handpicked men can represent the people’s will of Uganda, which is initially yours.

You have the audacity not only to house-arrest your opposition, but monitor and deny entrance to where they live. That means that your Police Force denies entry into where they live like today with Winnie Byanyima the wife Dr. Kizza Besigye was denied to go home. That is why it isn’t easy to be you.

It isn’t easy to be you as your age is even under question by your own:

“In his affidavit, Bigirwa wrote: “That I verily believe that the respondent [Museveni] is 79 years old as he participated in the general elections of 1961 and he was a voter and staunch supporter of the late Benedicto Kiwanuka and the respondent [Museveni] was 23 years old.” (Kiyongo, 2016). This must be damning since if this is true you are older and actually felt the independence as a grown man, as with this you would be born in 1939. Because you’re saying you officially were born in 1944. That is five years difference and also show’s if it is true, then you breached the laws you created. The Constitution says the law for an elected President cannot be over 75 years old. If the word of Moses Birgirwa is true, as his affidavit says it is correct and that means that you Mr. President we’re born in 1939 instead of 1944. That is big thing for you and your reputation yet again.

Not that it’s your first or last lie in the public. They come and go as it is not easy to rule and be honest, transparent and also responsible at the same time. As you have proven to the public and to the people from time to time; like you had no idea what happen in Rwanda and if the Rwanda Patriotic Army had any involvement around 1993-1994. Your armies had nothing to do in the end of first and second war in Democratic Republic of Congo. Even if you with pride after is said about yourself to be a kingmaker! You Mr. President is the Kingmaker who have made way for Paul Kagame, Laurent Kabila, Joseph Kabila and sometimes take your giant wings to support Pierre Nkurunziza, the same you did for Salva Kiir Mayardit as well.

So it is not easy to you nowadays as the Opposition have the support of International Community as you have lingered in power and taken the Ugandan People for granted. They expected something else of you. As you have yourself learned the lessons of Frantz Fanon who told that a leader couldn’t control the population, but only have true support if they are behind them; you couldn’t force them to support a leader, that wouldn’t work. But you know this you wrote about this in a thesis at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.

I am sure Mr. President that you never thought the world would come so quickly to door-step, that the words of your mouth would go further than Lira and Nairobi when talking to the press in Kampala or Mbarara. Instead now with this Social Media that you dislike with a passion, because you can’t control what people say and do. Something you prefer as you want to control and lead people, not make people lead you. As you Mr. President are the man-with-the-vision, not the man who has to listen. That is why you talk wild about the media and was so attacking on the Daily Nation and the NTV Uganda.

So it can’t be easy to be you. The ground is burning. You are one out of two elephants that are stomping the ground. You and Dr. Kizza Besigye are fighting elephants while the grass is the people. It is not easy to see how the state you will leave behind as he fights you with peaceful means and demonstrations. You have now done the same as Mobutu, the same as the former leaders you claimed to liberate the Ugandan people from. You have become the Machiavellian leader who speaks one thing and attack on the other. You’re ruthless Mr. President and the cards you playing is now open. They are expected you cannot pay and exchange governmental positions with the FDC and the men who want accountability and a transparent government that actually cares about the Ugandan citizens. Because your actions looks like the man who turns to guns and armies instead of the democratic values you spoke in the 1980s and 1990s even if you never believed in them. I say that Mr. President because of the actions of recent years proves that the opening of Multi-Party system was just to silence the International Community and keep them pumping up your national budget and to fill your coffers. We know that now and therefore condemn you.

Mr. President not easy to pull out of Somalia and the Central African Republic as the funds and the loyalty showed have been given your government useful foreign exchange, even if the funds from European Union and United States government have dwindled time as the Kenyan also taken parts of action as well and after President Moi been out of office, the continued relationship between U.S. and them have become better. Something you now and it makes your mind boggle on the farm.

So it can’t be easy to be Mr. President who has the world on your shoulder, everybody question all of your actions, while you embezzle state-funds, keeps oil-drilling license secret, other activity secret and at the same time have to use army and police to silence the people. Intimidate the people as they know and you know deep in your heart that you stole the 2016 election. Peace.

Best Regards

The Writer of Minbane

Reference:

Kyonga, Derick – ‘Court petitioned to stop Museveni swearing-in’ (06.05.2016) link: http://observer.ug/news-headlines/44079-court-petitioned-to-stop-museveni-swearing-in