
EU Letter to H.E. Yoweri Museveni on Inter-Burundian Dialogue (14.12.2015)



Kamwengye:
Thanks a lot for showing the peoples president, Col. Dr Kizza Besigye Warren Kifefe a big support (yesterday 15/12/2015) amidst heavy deployment by NRM and #Frank Tumwebaze to intimidate you from attending the peoples liberation rally. Remind others to join the struggle and don’t forget going with a friend on the 18/02/2016 to vote for Col.KB and other FDC candidates on ballot papers. Please, please think of p10 for real change. Raaaaaaa…. Col.KB will never walk alone.
Preview for tomorrow:
Fort Portal is warming up for the visit of Dr Besigye tomorrow. There is however a team of crime “preventers” moving in Toyota Corona vehicle Reg number . UAL 655V who are moving pinning M7 posters(which is okay). Team Blue has also tonight begun pinning Dr Besigye’s posters and our P10 vigilantes have been put on alert incase incase these crime preventers attempt to deface or frustrate our activities in Fort Portal tomorrow. We can promise our supporters that we have organized to defend our candidate and our supporters. Meanwhile, Dr Besigye has safely returned from a successful tour of Bundinugyo and Ntoroko and he is in his best moods for our rally tomorrow. We are winning, Written by Moses Byamugisha.


There must some hardships in the leadership structure in Kampala. On the 3rd of December 2015, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the president of Uganda had the brilliant idea and hired Mr. Singh Katongole as his advisor on Kampala affairs.

On the #AskMuseveni press conference 12th December he said this about Kampala:
“You ‘Kampalanians’ might not know all this because you are here in Kampala with your NGOs”.

This city got the status of that in 1962. Kampala City has 57 Slum settlements and divided into 5 Divisions which are Central, Kawempe, Nakawa, Lubaga and Makindye. The main structures of the City are KCCA or the Kampala Capital City Authority. This lead by the Lord Mayor and the Executive Director; the Lord Mayor is elected by the people on a secret ballot while the Executive Director is appointed by the President; and that means that two of the leaders of the KCCA is one part a representative directly of the public and the other given the powers from the President to oversee the representative from the public; which if you wonder is the Lord Mayor. A third head chief of the City is the Ministry of Kampala Affairs and also the same person who is Ministry of the Presidency.
This isn’t a play that has always been in action. There was long run by the KCC, before the KCCA Act of 2010 came into effect. That was because the NRM-Regime feared their losing powers on the electorate powers and control of the Capital. Therefore they had to rejuvenate the system from Parliament and control the city of Kampala more directly from the Parliament. This has been done since the election from 2011. This was with the steady case of impeachment and dismissal of Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago in November of 2013. The issue was that the Lord Mayor wanted to hire certain people to do check and balance. This starting in 2012 with this: “Kampala City council Authority Councilors have asked the Authority’s executive Director to willingly resign before she is forcefully pushed out following a public report by Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago exposing irregular recruitment of unqualified staff, who were in turn, paid hefty overtime allowances exceeding their salaries”.

This led to a following powers struggle between Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago versus Executive Director Jennifer Musisi. And this also showed that the Minster of Kampala Affairs Frank Tumwebaze can take decisions and impeach the Lord Mayor, and also Executive Director under the direction of the President. Also get the through the Parliament the reshuffle of the KCCA instead of the men that the Lord Mayor wish to have to oversee the administration of the City as the Lord Mayor did under the KCC. But this working method doesn’t work smooth enough for the President of Uganda.

The Lord Mayor and the Executive Director the test accountability from the Public Accountability Council (PAC) and the Attorney General who runs the committee and reads the reports who is sent from the Minister of Kampala Affairs for review; this review is taken into consideration and in the 2013 case lead to the fall of the elected Lord Mayor of 2011.

This proven power of the Ministry of Kampala and the Executive Director, both handpicked men by the President. That is not the deal with the Lord Mayor. So that this is not enough to make sure that the NRM has true control of the still new KCCA, the five divisions and all the slums of the Kampala City. Under the five Divisions there is Urban Councils who also have leaders to keep under the leach of the divisions and the KCCA.
Even with the KCCA it’s still to be governed by the Central Government, the law says so, therefore the president does what he does best hire his people who are loyal to him in positions, both the Minster and Executive Director are loyal people of Mzee. The newly appointed advisor is seen as the same. The only issue is the Lord Mayor who has been an opposition candidate and not one of the handpicked men. That is why Kampala City hasn’t had an official Lord Mayor since 2013, after a year-long power struggle with the Executive director, that was rubberstamped by Minister of Kampala Affairs, before settled by the Chief of Justice and Attorney General. That ended in 29. November 2013 when a meeting complied of a certain level of councilors and 29 of them voted against the Lord Mayors position. He lost his seat and power by wishing to employ men he believed would serve the city well, instead got sacked by the Central Government, by the mouthpiece of Frank Tumwebaze and Jennifer Musisi who finally got rid of the people’s candidate to the authority running the city. So since then Frank and Jennifer has together run the city’s administration and put Lukwago in the cold. After this now Mzee has decided to put on more man into the fold.

The new position Presidential Advisor for Kampala affairs Mr. Singh Katongole, I am sure himself wonder what and where he is in between the other leaders of the City. There is clear that on top of the pyramid is Mzee, then it’s the minister, third it’s either the Lord Mayor or Executive director depending on who is in office at this point. Though firstly on third level the Lord Mayor by law is the one conveying the ordinary use of KCCA and with administrative help and then fourth placed leader is the Executive Director. The issue and question in mind. Is the advisor on his own island or is he on the same level and an informer to the president on the Kampala affairs? Or has the position powers that succeed the Lord Mayor or Executive Director? Does that position even contain keeping the Minister of Kampala Affairs in order and comply too the wishes of the President? Where does the person’s leadership ability and limit go?

If you haven’t got it yet; the Executive director and Minister of Kampala Affairs is a way of securing NRM men to control a city and area where the NRM doesn’t have power. In this way a third leader will strain the relationship with the opposition candidate and elected Lord Mayor by the citizen’s secret ballot instead of the appointed men from the presidency. This here is proof yet again how the regime fears the people’s choices for their own leaders. That is why they prefer sole-candidacies and single-handed flag-bearers. Because of this leadership style from the president, he can’t handle seeing that the people want other people then the ones he controls over and their actions. That is why he has made the system and administration swallow for Kampala, so that the powers of the elected official has less to say and can easily be “sacked” by the council with the charge of the courts together with the Minister of Kampala Affairs filing in the case-work. That is why I have to question the need for one more man? When you can already by biased paperwork file papers in order together with the Attorney General send it to court and also get the councils verdict; by that get rid of the Lord Mayor or suspend his powers as so.

Why does the President need a fourth leader in a way for Kampala? The city is so ungovernable that the Lord Mayor needs three over him to able to administer the city well? Executive Director is a vital piece of the newly founded KCCA and supposed it seems to be the in between central government and local government leader, but isn’t that what the Lord Mayor already is or supposed to be? So the Executive Director seems as an addition to cut down the control of the Lord Mayor, because the Minister of Kampala Affairs can’t exhausts the reasons for taking control, he can put it to the Executive Director as he did in 2013. But in that sense, what advice does the new Presidential Advisor do? Does he send the letter to the Attorney General instead of the Minister? I just wonder where the newly appointed person comes into the equation. For the moment the position is an added X with any substance and I can’t figure the place on an organizational map. At this point I wonder if Mzee even can find him there, since he didn’t knew that the Uganda Cranes where a national team and not playing in the Uganda Premier League. Things are not easy for him always and finding him an office and place him on chart to explain his value will not easy. The position is surely just given to person who got it, not that person had to write a letter and give the CV to president, Mzee already had the person in mind hopefully when he appointed him. What is big the question that nobody else have bothered to ask!
What in the hell does Kampala need four entitled leaders like Lord Mayor, Executive Director, Presidential Advisor on Kampala Affairs and Minister on Kampala Affairs? And what is the newest recruit supposed to do in his office other than vacate a chair and surf the web on a laptop? Since the person who is now recruited can lean on the KCCA, their underlings, the Minsitry of the City and courts to do his job it seems; should the person just chill and go to local eatery an take a chai and some matooke? Peace.
Side-note – Even back in the day they we’re missing funds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHuSiwRLUo8
“Tanga says the NRM losers are wasting time since they will meet the same voters who didn’t give them votes in the primaries” (NBS TV, 2015)

On Saturday and Sunday last week, I joined Dr Kizza Besigye as he campaigned in Mityana and Mubende districts. On Monday, Besigye campaigned in the districts of Kyegegwa and Kyenjojo. He was in Kamwenge yesterday and will today traverse Bundibugyo and Ntoroko. Col Besigye will complete the Tooro sub-region tomorrow and return to Ankole through Rubirizi, up to Bushenyi.
The response in Mityana was overwhelming, but expected. It is Mubende that made a big statement. I travelled in the same vehicle with Kampala lord mayor Erias Lukwago and Lubaga North MP Moses Kasibante. Because of the crowds along the main road, we occasionally stopped to at least greet them.
A senior NRM leader from Mubende later told me that “the MPs may win, but for Mzee, I don’t know”. Mubende has in the past overwhelmingly voted for Museveni, the reason it was nicknamed the Karamoja of Buganda. But this Karamoja of Buganda has significantly changed.
At Busimbi grounds, where we had the main rally, the crowd was as big as has been the case elsewhere, almost bigger than Mukono’s. The enthusiasm, especially among young people, was even more humbling. And there is no better person that illustrated the need for change than Mr Odrek Rwabwogo, husband to one of President Museveni’s daughters. While campaigning for the post of NRM vice chairman in charge of western Uganda, Rwabwogo noted that his father-in-law seized power when Uganda had 10 million people. Last year’s national census put the country’s total population at over 34 million people. This means that at least 24 million people have been born when Museveni is president. And to Rwabwogo, the new generation needed some “fresh air”.
That is what I saw in Mubende. Blue T-shirts bearing the FDC logo and Dr Besigye’s portrait were not being distributed but sold along streets. And of course Besigye continued receiving gifts, especially goats, everywhere he went. There is a gentleman who gave him Shs 400,000 at the Mubende rally. This one did it more dramatically by handing him a Shs 50,000 note at a time as the crowd ululated. The same man again pulled out a bundle of Shs 20,000 notes and started showering lord mayor Lukwago with a note at a time. This was followed by the offering of goats, some draped in Besigye posters.

The NRM leader I mentioned earlier told me “it will be difficult to resist the wave of change this time”.
I am sure Mr Museveni watches and analyses these images daily. He knows his days are numbered. It is the reason he has started attacking media organizations. The crime of NTV and Daily Monitor is to continue broadcasting and printing these images. At FDC, we actually think the media has not reported the full extent of this wave of change, but we are not editors to determine that. The truth is that Besigye has bigger crowds than all the other candidates combined. And these crowds are not ferried, because the FDC and all Besigye supporters don’t have enough resources.

You remember the talk of switching off NTV? Thank God it was a rumour. I have been told other TV proprietors, including those of NBS and WBS, have been summoned by State House and warned. Of course for Daily Monitor, it is routine. When the paper had just started, Museveni always complained against it and its founders were dismissed as Acholis who wanted to remove the new government. All people with names starting with letter O – Obbo, Oguttu, Ogen and Ouma – have since left the Monitor but Museveni’s hatred continues. I will, in a future article, revisit this relationship.

I want to concentrate more on the Sunday violence in Ntungamo. I saw images of young people wearing Museveni campaign T-shirts being battered by candidate Amama Mbabazi’s supporters. And this was also expected. There is no presidential candidate that has suffered at the hands of NRM hooligans like Amama. Television stations showed us NRM youths defacing Amama’s posters in Bushenyi in broad daylight. And Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde flew a Museveni campaign chopper to the venue of Mbabazi’s rally in Fort Portal, moments before his arrival! All these look like actions of a panicky dictator. I was happy when NRM Secretary General Kasule Lumumba condemned these actions and distanced the ruling party from them. But the fact that they have continued is a clear indicator that someone somewhere is encouraging and probably financing them. What the police should have done was to arrest Ronald Kibuule when he lined up NRM youths along Mukono town council streets to provoke Amama.

Again police should have arrested Ntungamo municipality MP Yona Musinguzi who was seen distributing Museveni T-shirts to youths that stormed the venue for a Mbabazi rally. The reason presidential candidates harmonized campaign programmes was to avoid such scenarios. What inspector general of police Kale Kayihura is forgetting is that when you unleash violence, you are actually teaching everybody to be violent. In fact, Amama’s supporters have tolerated this for too long. Instead of protecting a regime that has lost popularity, Gen Kale Kayihura should prepare and begin rehearsing how to lose and hand over power. This is inevitable.
“Lack of Finances to facilitate the mediation process in the Burundi conflict has crippled the Uganda-led Mediation Talks” (…)”A source who preferred anonymity told NTV that the African Union, which is meant to finance the operation of the mediation team is yet to disburse money to Uganda” (…)”The African Peace Facility which was set up to support peace and security on the African Continent in the Framework of the EU-Africa Partnership is meant to finance the process. And so it appears that with this hiccup, the violence between the Opposition and Government in Bujumbura could be far from over” (NTV Uganda, 2015)

There are a day off action and activity in Uganda today that is out of this world. I am sure the businessmen that Mzee tries to convince of the wealth-creation abilities in his country, surely should be baffled by the state of affairs when he is not there. Mzee surely ordered this because while he is gone… the other candidates, especially the big ones like Dr. Kizza Besigye and Amama Mbabazi has had a harder time campaigning and campaigning well.
This is a statement coming from Amama Mbabazi yesterday:
“Dear Friends. We will be taking a break today to finalize the National campaign task force”. Surely the UPF heard that and let me elaborate on that as well.

IGP Kale Kayihura said this today:
“Today, I am announcing it as IGP that militia moving with Mbabazi will be arrested, it must be dismantled. It was not for those people there would have been no incident I think”.
Today the chairman of the Electoral Commission Eng. Dr. Badru M. Kiggundu has ordered suspensions of the campaign rallies. This happens on a day where Amama Mbabazi and his secretariat at Nakasero in Kampala we’re under siege. There we’re police officers shut down the offices and traffic to it, the people who has set the offices under siege been called for wearing plain clothes and they are there in order to arrest the security personnel of Amama Mbabazi. The Plain ones actually came after the UPF called the uniformed men back. Certain other reports that I can’t verify is that this men was sent by the IGP Kale Kayihura the flying squad or the Special Forces to arrest the men who keeps Amama Mbabazi safe during his campaign and was until the arrest located at the Nakasero office of the The Democratic Alliance and the Go-Forward Secretariat. This can be democratic to do? Would the same forces go the offices of National Resistance Movement and take the men who keep Mzee safe? Wait, they can’t arrest themselves! My bad!

Also the Police picked also up people and equipment from the Amama Mbabazi office in Kololo, not on Nakasero and the TDA office who got under siege today for the former PM. Not easy to opposition in the country today!
If that wasn’t bad enough for Amama Mbabazi has issues with lawful payment for the logo and campaign material to an designer or company owner with the Civil Suit of 1519 who was signed by the Court of Mengo chief magistrate, where the Colin Assimwe sues him for 48M UGX, either stop using the logo’s within 10 days or pay the plaintiff and cost of courtship. That must sting a bit, still not as much as having your offices sieged.

Outside Kampala, a place where Forum for Democratic Change and their Presidential Candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye we’re out keeping his campaign going; in the villages and towns of the country. Today after Dr. Kizza Besigye held a rally in Kawenge Town there was a police presence on the roadside. There been reported up to 40 police officers stopping the Presidential Candidate and ordering him to drive back home to Kampala, or if they know Wakiso district. They we’re planned to travel to Ntala. The Police just kept the blocked road and persistently told the FDC Campaign team to go back to Kampala. They finally let him go, after he talked to the Police men and they let him go so he could ask his supporters forgiveness for not having a campaign as scheduled.

Dr. Kizza Besigye statement after the rallies today:
“Kamwenge today defied intimidation and blackmail, they did not comply to the threats issued to them. They stood firm with us even when Police tried to block us after our last rally at Kamwenge Town Council as we proceeded to Ntara” (…)“Thank you Kamwenge for receiving and hosting us in your district. Hold on and hold tight liberation is at your door and the change we all deserve is coming. #UgandaDecides #WesigeBesigye”
This here proves the hardships that Dr. Kizza Besigye has had for so long and finally Amama Mbabazi is trying out.
This here proof that the Electoral Commission shows that their changes in the Election Roads Map for 2016 as they please, that puts into effect for all the candidates, together with another loyal cronies IGP Kale Kayihura claiming that the Amama Mbabazi is having militias who created the hazard recently in Ntungamo around his rally. That is why Electoral Commission had to write to him and get him to arrest the people behind the madness. Instead of arrest his fellow yellow brethren in the NRM. He has gone gong ho on the organization and vile on random supporters of Amama Mbabazi in Ntungamo. Together with making roadblock cutting the FDC Campaign team and halt their campaigns in the districts of the country. This is all happening while the Mzee is in Saudi Arabia eating kaspa (Chicken and rice) together with their kings and noble men. Which is a far from the reality in Kampala and districts.
This here can only be seen as vile attack on the FDC and Go-Forward campaign teams. There is certain ways to go about it. The Electoral Commission out of the blue suspended their own road map and harmonization of the Campaign between the Presidential Candidates, this in effect lead to partly how IGP Kale Kayihura reacted. He also reacted to the letter sent by the Electoral Commission plea to catch the perpetrators of the hazard caused in Ntungamo. Instead they are going after innocent people and Police Chief Kayihura explains it and justifies it calling certain parts of Amama Mbabazi team militias… Sorry brother your wrong on that your hired Crime Preventers are systemized thuggery for small peas and shillings to dissolve ordinary campaigning and party works. The police is instead showing doing this! Really! Take a look at the picture from Mbale recently!

That is enough violent actions and sudden stupidity in one day. UPF and the EC has been to foolish! Peace.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqvGwBCma3I
“Following the court’s ruling that disregarded Jimmy Akena as UPC Party leader, Otunnu has called a press conference where he announce himself as party president though his term in office has expired.
Otunnu has also pointed accusing fingers at President Museveni and Kale Kayihura. He claims these two are keeping Akena in office by offering protection” (NBS TV, 2015).

I haven’t written much about the FDC rallies and People’s President Journey through the election even if he has gone from crowd to crowds in any district. He has come in by-passing because of the main events. Even if I am genuine admire of his politics and his swagger in public eye. That’s because it been peaceful. Though the crowds and speeches deserves coverage, though my last piece was about his visit to Abim Hospital that also made the government look naked. A real power move by the Presidential Candidate; if not for that piece he has not been in main focus because Musveni and Mbabazi campaign trail has made more fuzz or more noise. Though it might not be as fruitful I still have felt the importance of it, even if it isn’t justified with the momentum that Dr. Kizza Besigye have for the moment.

Today I will talk about one report and what happen in Hapuyo Trading Center in Kyegegwa district where the District Police Commander Joel Tubonane claimed to the public and organizers that the venue and rally was disturbing the Trading Center and wanted the rally out of the road. He commanded them to stop the rally. The people answered him with chasing him away. So that Dr. Kizza Besigye holds his rally in Hapuyo. The ironic part of the statement of the DPC was that there were no visible cars in the road or traffic to interfere with the rally in the town.
The great issue about this is that FDC has given the Electoral Commission and Uganda Police Force its Campaign rallies plan and harmonized it after the laws that they have at their disposal, this has given way for the FDC to have rallies in the areas as they have accepted by the EC and UPF. Which should in effect give way for the FDC to do as they have already complied to the law to have these events, this is also into the famous Elections Roads Map that is the guideline that IGP Kale Kayihura spends time dreaming about when he crashes a event claiming it is not entitle in it It seems that the DPC Tubonane has the same ability, though not the same power or man-power in his district to do something about it. If he did he would violate the words of his boss and make him a hypocrite; that wouldn’t be surprising looking at the outcome of Amama Mbabazi rally in Ntungamo yesterday. That is in the same Election Road Map. I wrote about it yesterday, will not spend more on it, until the numbers and actual violence get more painted on the canvas I can’t describe it no more. Though I will say yesterday was unjustified actions from the NRM, period.

What happen today was a reaction to the reactionary DPC who thought by his mere presence would dissolve and abolish the planned rally of the FDC. Like on man and his words would do so. He would by that violate the higher powers that have for some reasons allowed them to do it. That’s the like Dr. Badru M. Kiggundu and IGP Kale Kayihura, the last one his boss. Instead of trying to force them away from the trading district he should have facilitated the planned rally. Not that he would do so, they doesn’t feed him like the loyal crony who hired him for the DPC position IGP Kayihura. Therefore his loyalty is to the NRM, even if the Police is supposed to be as the ARMY a units who are not participating in political activities, even if the latter has Parliamentary Members. That is just me commenting on the foolish reasoning of non-partisan army, which the UPDF is not, so why should the UPF not be loyal to their leader IGP Kayihura who gladly takes parts of great NRM events like recent ones on Kololo in November, and then we know that he will not judge against his own. That is why IGP Kayihura uses the Public Order Management Act to justify actions against opposition parties and activities in every turn that the Police throw tear-gas and tear up venues where the FDC and Go-Forward shows up.
This did not happen today, it is just to prove their viciousness. The actions of the normal police activity; it’s a reason why I am so blunt about it. That the DPC Tubonane in Hapuyo Trading Center was acting as the mouthpiece of his peers. And for those who have followed the UPF and their actions it’s like a déjà vu. We have heard it all before and it was expected.

What was unexpected was the reaction to the Police Commanders wishes of skirmishing the venue and street on his own; because the people reacted to his ways and got him away. That gave way for the FDC to have a rally in the town as planned. Though I wished he walked away freely instead of being chased away. They still proved some humility by not doing anything more. And the DPC Tubonane could have gotten his fellow comrades and retaliated and instead didn’t put up his equipment. That is something we also could have for-seen but that didn’t occur today and we can be happy about that since there been enough innocent people who has been hurt in rallies and consultant meeting in 2015 alone by the powers of UPF.
We could have seen more violence today if the DPC Tubonane had acted against the people who sent him away after threating to close the rally in the trading center. He could have gone and made hazard. Instead nothing happen and silent ordinary rally happen in town where Dr. Kizza Besigye held his speech and travelled on to the next district of the day. We can be happy about that, though sad that the DPC had to go to these ways to prove his power, though he lost it when the people of the town weren’t buying it. We can be grateful for their resilience and really living by the force of defiance against the governmental forces that are holding them in invisible chains, by the long-serving NRM-Regime. Surely not the reports Mzee want to hear in his ear in Saudi Arabia, well, he can’t always be pleased. Peace.