Opinion: Does Dr. Abed Bwanika, Maj. Gen. Benon Biraaro or Elton John Mabirizi have a voice after the election?

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I have just wondered and continue to wonder if these three brothers really have standing and place of political platform to gain momentum at all after the General Election of 2016. These both are veterans and people who have tried more times to be elected as the President of Uganda, without succeeding for that matter. Not because of their words or anything, because like for the rest of the candidates the Electoral Commission has been rigged for President Museveni, to be re-elected for another yet again!

Dr. Abed Bwanika, is a character and a man of words, a man who doesn’t fear to speak his mind and opinion. That is what it seems. The man of the People Development Party (PDP), an opposition politician who has been claimed by Tamale Mirundi of being a NRM diehard; so the man who has lost land in Lwengo are still in cahoots with the ruling regime if the AK-Mouth Mirundi is true to his words. Bwanika usually only appears like every blue moon, but after the recent election has been more visible, tried to talk of dialogue between FDC and NRM. Still, the evident wish of concluding that seems far-fetched. A person can wonder why he cares and what are his motives?

Than you have Maj. Gen. Benon Biraaro, the Farmers Party Presidential Candidate who was a man of reason within the general election and campaign. That even after the house arrest of Dr. Kizza Besigye tried to visit and talk about possible dialogue with the Movement or the NRM. Still, he has not been that visible after the election. So he is like a ghost inside some buildings and venues in Uganda.

Than you have the youthful and funny character Elton Joseph Mabirizi who ran as independent candidate in the recent election in the The Independent Coalition (TIC), who I remember even meet up with Dr. Kizza Besigye while he was house-arrested as well, they had a decent talks there. Seems like a decent fellow, has even had a few TV spots after the election. His businesses keep him occupied and busy, his private schools for instance. So it is not like he needs politics. Even as he addressed the public like this on the 15th February: “Museveni lied again about providing sanitary pads to school going children during the last elections which he rigged!” This he said after the Monitor article that the schools wouldn’t give away sanitary pads to female students as promised during the general election of 2016.

Uganda EC Wall

These three are just a few of them, which have gone away in the wind, that isn’t main stay or having a meaningful place on the political map of Uganda. These we’re three persons or individuals we followed and swallowed their words during the general campaign. They showed character and flair. But went away when their time for seeking office went away, certainly themselves wish they more say after the elections. Still, their place and their microphone dwindle away as if they we’re able to build an organization or supporters, which they could use on the next go-around. Maj. Gen. Benon Biraaro has been there before and still doesn’t have a big organization behind; the same can be said with Dr. Abed Bwanika. It’s a different matter for Elton Joseph Mabirizi who went in without anything, but still worked together with another independent candidate Maureen Kyala Waluube who was the The Independent Coalition (TIC). I haven’t mentioned her, because she has stirred lot’s of madness on social media after the general election and continues to stir the pot. Not that she has a dozens of supporters, but she has the Mwenda effect online.

So do you wonder what these people are trying to achieve after the election? Do you wonder if they really want to build political parties or are they needed figures so President Museveni can say the election are democratic since he has enough candidates that there is initial election, even if the result is already fixed. So he can show that he opens the doors for many to show up, but has an electoral commission that closes the door when the ballot is cast.

These individual’s that was in the spotlight is dimming and is less there, their suction and their quotes isn’t there. Their focus is back to life or whatever they did before the election. So you are now a year since the ballot was cast the people who run for the ballots is not really there and you wonder if these will pop-up again when the Movement needs again. Because the Movement, they needs a road-show and candidates to spring up from the elephant grass. Certainly, it can seem so and wouldn’t be wrong to understand it so.

If you understand it differently than please say so, still the voices of these three has lingered and lost their value as they are not steady in the spotlight. They do not have a civil servant position, they are not MPs, and they are not RDCs or any other important level of public elected officials. Therefore, the three doesn’t have a giant say, neither do these ones take part of Capital Gang or NBS Frontline, therefore the voice is not in the midst of the national debate. They do not engage in the newspapers or in public in general. So there are many more reasons than just being out of office, because Norbert Mao isn’t an MP, but a leader of a party and steady on NBS Frontline, that is why his voice still matters because of the steady exposure.

So, will these men change or will they stay in the outskirts and suddenly embrace it when the elections return and the spotlight are on those that engage in that? Because that is when President Museveni needs gullible people and people he knows doesn’t have enough support to really challenge him. Peace.

My letter to Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu hope you enjoy your “fake peace”!

FDC SG 10th Parliament

Dear Sir!

Retired Major. General. Mugisha Muntu, the current Party President of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), I write you because of the recent revealed letter between you and the Parliament speaker. This is not easy; you seem like a reasonable fellow and a man of honour.

Let me be honest with you, you seem tired of fighting and tired of hitting the wall. You are tired of the struggle and the work of dismantling the Movement. The Movement you once were on the rise in, before you started to build together with others the FDC. The FDC that is today a working machine with a NEC and other bodies that have through preliminary elections and other can bring justice to the ones who are running on FDC tickets.

We know through the grapevine that you we’re the one who was in-charge of reason why the FDC became the shadow government with Leader of Opposition Winnie Kiiza. That is when the party officially went away from the party of defiance and compliance with the ruling regime of the Movement. Mugisha Muntu was in-charge of that as Dr. Kizza Besigye was detained and was not the care-giver or getting to give reason to fight for his cause. This was the FDC abandoning Besigye in jail at Luzira after he had been airlifted and taken violently from Kampala.

Therefore the party sold their legitimacy and the ethical codes for a few silver and “a fake peace”, something Muntu himself could have said. This was an actual peace or token of respect of the party or their struggle during and after the ballot. That the party was under siege and the members were attacked was well-known, that dozens was detained without any warrants or court orders, was publically known. Therefore Moses Byamugyisha used days upon days to get FDC Youth free from illegal detention.

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So that you gave up the struggle and gave a token of honour to the man that stole yet another election. Shows how much you can carry and what that is important. A Fake Peace is your price and your just behaviour. That you can stab the back of many supporters and give in, while many and still people are fighting forged alleged crimes, while you can eat supper and use party organization as you please.

This you did when you after a peaceful recent election all of a sudden sent a letter to the Parliament, which Ingrid Turinawe’s candidature for the EALA slot, was pulled back. Even when the recent election gave her a second place and also given her an opportunity to get nominated further in the Parliament. We don’t know the reasons before he actually tells the world for the sudden act of misbehaviour.

We don’t know why Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu suddenly decided on his own, to disown the FDC Primary EALA elections and pull another party members nomination to Parliament. We don’t know if he has traded with Jimmy Akena of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Norbert Mao of Democratic Party (DP) or even spoken nicely to Hon. Beti Kamya of Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA), to make sure the parties all get a slot in the EALA Ugandan Delegation in the next term there. If so he should be up-front and told the party organization not deviously send a letter to Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and hope the second nomination get cut in silence.

None of the nominations has happen in silence, neither has the nomination of Ingrid Turinawe, still the way of the wish of taking her chance away is a demonstration of not caring about inner-party elections. Than the Party President should have said from the get-go that the party only have one candidate for the elections! Period, bravo, congrats Florence and the rest good luck hunting after other positions!

That is what you should have done Honourable Muntu, instead you went the back-way and didn’t use proper methods, you have traded or done some backdoor agreements that is not known to anyone, but you and your closest allies. What they we’re and how they came about is for you to know. Even if not so, the act of aggression against Turinawe, is not a good look on him or his ways.

Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu, sometimes you sound like reasonable and well-thought true politician with a genuine heart, other times you are dying of ambition and wanting to rule with an iron fist. If you want the people to believe in the first character then they don’t need the giving in to the Movement, like you did with the Shadow Government nonsense, neither do they need the speedy change of heart and trying to disqualify Turinawe. It just seem benign and weak of man of your stature to this. Like a vendetta or a proof of distrust to the Besigye diehards. Who knows your motives if they are brown-envelopes or brownie points with the movement?

You could clarify and in-debt describe your trade or your reason for this act of volatile attempt to silence a fellow FDC member and her chance of a political platform on the outside of the Party Organization? Would you have done the same if it was Hon. Nathan-Nandala Mafabi?

What was your goal, was it create havoc and make sure your fraction get more power inside the party while Besigye is on a trip in Europe? I am wondering if your applying to secure a fake peace not only in the nation, but also inside the party you run.

I am wondering is your goal: to create a unstable peace and make sure there is a fake peace?

Peace!

Best regards.

Writer of MinBane

ULS Response on Invitation to meet the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Entreprises (COSASE) – (23.02.2017)

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RDC: Point de Presse de Pierre Lumbi Okongo, President du G7 (23.02.2017)

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Bunyoro: “Re: Clarification on the newly appointed Bunyoro Cabinet and the alleged dissmissal of the Principal Private Secretary to Omukama (22.02.2017)

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Uganda: “Re: Withdrawal of Kamateneti Ingrid Turinawe, Candidate for EALA” (23.02.2017)

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Uganda: “Re: Withdrawal of Kamateneti Ingrid Turinawe, Candate for EALA” (22.02.2017)

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Ingrid Turinawe’s responce online when the news of the letter broke: “I am in the race, the author of that letter has no authority to withdraw me. I have not seen my copy though, waiting for it so that I reply” (23.02.2017).

This will be interesting and Gen. Mugisha Muntu has either done a trade-off or is playing his card very high. Certainly, this is not said or done, as the FDC with their fractions will not all accept this. Especially after the peaceful elections done in the Primary, compared to the ruling party NRM’s chaos. EALA slots are few, but this here is foul play from the Party President! Peace.

Mogadishu Declaration on Regional Cooperation on the Current Drought (22.02.2017)

East-Africa

Mogadishu – Wednesday, 22 February 2016The following joint declaration was made in Mogadishu by H.E. Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, President of the Republic of Djibouti, H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya, and H.E. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, President of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

1. We have come together as the heads of government of four countries in a region facing significant stress as a result of the current drought. Multiple seasons of failed rains and global weather patterns have, yet again, negatively affected the resilience mechanisms of millions of our people. This is evident in the immediate humanitarian crisis facing us today and will show up in longer term socio-economic vulnerability in communities that today are selling all their assets and uprooting their families for survival.

2. This situation, which may worsen in Somalia and result in a renewed famine over the coming months, could also have security and political implications in our region and beyond, as coping mechanisms are eroded and tensions over dwindling resources risks sparking conflict. Scores of people are moving both within countries and across borders in the hope of increasing their chances of survival. This upheaval is taking a particularly heavy toll on children and women, and makes people vulnerable to exploitation, human rights abuses and to criminal and terrorist networks. Drought-related disease outbreaks and inter-communal conflict are already on the rise.

3. While each of our governments is mobilising to respond, the dire situation calls for international collaboration and regional partnership between governments, civil society, aid organisations, business and international donors.

4. We commit ourselves to regional cooperation to facilitate a more comprehensive response and strong partnership.

5. We commit to strengthening our cross-border collaboration and our efforts to establish security and stability in Somalia to ensure an effective response to the drought and to enable further progress in peace building and state building in Somalia. We further commit to the provision of appropriate protection and assistance to those compelled to leave their areas of origin as a consequence of the drought, including those who have fled to neighbouring countries.

6. We will be consulting on a regular basis to review progress on these issues, and to agree upon any necessary collective action that will help our countries and region respond to this emergency. Furthermore, we have instructed our respective foreign ministers and drought response teams to work together and keep us briefed.

7. In the longer term, we commit to working together bilaterally and through existing regional bodies such as IGAD, the African Union as well as the United Nations to address the underlying structural issues that commonly affect our economies, environments and communities, including cross-border rangeland and water resource management.

END

RDC: G7 Communique du G7 (22.02.2017)

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RDC: Mise au Point du Mouvement sur les Allegations gratuites d’une Presudo ONG (22.02.2017)

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