Many commentators had naively argued in the past that president Museveni is a clean man let down by the dirty people close to, and around him. But like DP president Nobert Mao has continuously wondered, why does a clean man like President Museveni hang out with dirty people? He also suggested ages ago that President Museveni was the corrupt culprit and not his aides by using the Chinese proverb that the fish begins to rot from the head.

When did the rot begin?

Have the oil scandal corruption revelations proved Mr Mao’s fears true and opened disturbing questions about the leadership of President Museveni or were those fears true all along but many Ugandans simply choose to turn a blind eye to the evidence?

In the early 2000′s, when President Museveni was lauded as a reformer by many in the west and considered to be a new breed of African leader, he was alleged to have told NRM MP’s that Uganda would be the first country to develop through corruption.

From thence on, corruption in all sectors of the country intensified with the military topping the list. Scandals such as the junk helicopters deal, expired rations and short Chinese uniforms, coupled with ghost soldiers etc became more pronounced. Corruption it was alleged, was used to fund the Northern War and to keep the army loyal.

President Museveni then started rewarding the corrupt. For instance two censured ministers in Hon Sam Kutesa and Hon. Jim Muhwezi were re-appointed by him. The two have been involved in even bigger scandals since then – Jim Muhwezi of mismanaging the Gavi funds and Sam Kutesa messing up the oil sector.

But to those of us who were inspired by a much leaner and idealistic Museveni over twenty years ago to hope and dream of a better Uganda, the lines are a tired litany of a boring song sung year after year like a hymn, without necessary ever seeing any walking the talk.

“Bribing, sectarianism and rigging are criminal. You break the law. Don’t think that by cheating within the party you can’t go to jail. You will be sent to prison…” Museveni warned.

He further said that people should not join politics because they are looking for jobs but to sacrifice for the population and not for personal gain and that people who dish out money for votes want to use their position for personal gain. “Bribing shows bad intention of the people involved. I am a candidate myself. I want to be your flag-bearer for 2011 and also to be chairman of the Movement. I have put in my nomination papers but did you hear that I have sent money to so and so so that they vote for me? To bribe you is to insult your intelligence.”

Despite his words, Museveni’s legs have never led him down the road his words would have wished he walks, right from the bush days to walking the long forgotten ten point programs road. The gospel according to H.E president Yoweri Museveni in short is a vain prayer to “do what he says but not what he does!” It is a vain prayer that we bury our heads in the sand and pray that somehow he is a Clean and honest man surrounded by dirty men! What has become of the famous adage of judging a man by the friends he keeps?

Four years after fighting for democracy, President Museveni postponed elections to 2006 through trickery and manipulation and then was reported to have rigged the 2006 elections like the man he fought and former mentor – President Milton Obote.

If the 2006 election rigging claims were feeble, the 2000 ones were not! Rigging was done in broad day light and then justified as a safeguard from a revert to the past! By 2006, all shame had all but disappeared and rigging and bribery intensified so much that the vices became an entrenched Ugandan culture (especially among the ruling party).

The Courts of Law believed the 2000 and 2006 elections were not free and fair and that there was massive rigging even though the rigging was not substantial enough to reflect the final outcome – a perfect contradiction if you ask me! Going by the court ruling and Museveni’s own warning to us about people who bribe and their motives, is H.E the president trying to tell and warn us that he bribes voters and politicians because he wants to gain personally from the country and his position?

President Museveni’s culture of bribery includes the creation of un-viable districts so that he can create a few jobs for CAO’s, RDC’s and District Chairmen who in most cases end up plundering their districts but are never charged as long as they support him! How then can he preach that people should not join politics because they are looking for jobs but rather that they join politics because they want to sacrifice when he is the one creating jobs for politicians who support him?

A few days after warning NRM party members against, and preaching about bribery, President Museveni bribed discredited Kampala Mayor (whose only achievement since stepping into office has been dating local celebrities young enough to be his daughters and granddaughters) with a house in exchange for the latter’s support in 2011 elections!

Mr Sebaggala reported told Daily Monitor that the President had allowed him to buy a prime property from Kampala City Council on Plot 1 Sezibwa Road near Sheraton Kampala Hotel (a property he had tried to buy for a long time but had failed because of opposition from City councilors) a few days after declaring that he would support President Museveni and his NRM in the 2011 elections!

In another of his trade mark briberies often masked in his presidential duties, President Museveni gave a car to the new bishop of Mukono diocese, James Ssebaggala during the latter’s enthronement and consecration. It is no wonder therefore that all Uganda’s religious institutions (from the traditional religions to the Pentecostals) continuously justify Museveni’s reign and only mutter a few tired lines about corruption when most of their church elders and funders are corrupt NRM ‘religious’ people – they preach about corruption but have never declined tainted money nor the presidents many offers! The church has been the biggest conspirator of the rot in Uganda!

Thus, the NRM elections were nothing but a celebration of the new truth and culture of Uganda’s new entrenched class of ‘riggers’ and looters. The NRM faithful were simply doing to themselves what they did to the opposition in the past elections of 2000 and 2006 and also what their leader does as a way of life – bribing his way and continued stay in power. This is because he has become an election thief and the biggest corrupter of politicians through outright bribery and allowing them to steal as a reward for their political support.

Many centuries later, Ugandans are being told their government has nothing to do because the “price of oil is rising” and Uganda is a “liberal economy” where the forces of demand and supply are kings!

Like Louis XVI’s Ancien Regime, the excuse of droughts is being used as a scapegoat. No one is mentioning that Uganda has no fuel reserves despite the opposition pointing out the importance of reserves only last year! The government then, as it still does, chose to protect the corrupt persons that had siphoned off the reserves. No one is mentioning the bloated cabinet, the unviable Bantustan districts, the many corruption scandals, the governments choice of focusing on unproductive expenditures, and the high expenditure during the last presidential elections! No one is talking about the fact that the government destroyed cooperative societies and tried to destroy the last remaining one last year when they “sacked” MP Nandala Mafabi for effectively managing Bugisu Cooperative Union!

The resulting inflation in other words has its long-term roots in the mismanagement and plunder of the Ugandan economy by President Museveni and his government. The high fuel prices wouldn’t have affected us if we had fuel reserves nor would we have felt the effects of drought had cooperatives been in operation all over the country or if the president had been focusing on agricultural production (and setting up agricultural infrastructure) as opposed to expenditure during his last 25 years!

President Museveni like Louis XV1 is to blame for the countries problems and not anyone else, the fact that he has chosen to ignore that truth has led him down the path trodden by his friend in Libya Ghadaffi.

History has shown that dictators fall at the height of their powers – Louis XVI had just aided the American Revolution and led to the defeat of their arch-enemies England, Mubarak had just won a managed election (in November 2010) where he won by a landslide and president Museveni through an electoral commission he hand picked got 70% of the vote.

Change, like the law of gravity is inevitable. Every great dancer has to depart from the stage like Chinua Achebe said. The mistakes dictators make determines how they are deposed from power! Some like Hosni Mubarak and Ben Ali are patriots at heart and opt to do the right thing in the last minute – surrendering the reins of power without destroying their countries. Others choose not to be magnanimous at all!

Louis XVI choose not to heed to the people of France and instead attempted to flee the country with the aim of enlisting foreign troops and fighting his way back to power. Colonel Ghaddafi has chosen to unleash mercenaries on his people while pretending the west has an agenda against him – its the path Museveni has chosen stating defiantly that he “rioters” will be shot!

Louis XVI, Ghadafi and Museveni all have this warped thinking that they own their countries. People with that kind of thinking believe that the law doesn’t apply to them, they believe that they can accuse others (presidents before them) of corruption, political thuggery and being undemocratic while they remain undemocratic, corrupt and are political thugs (after all the country belongs to them)!

It explains why Museveni has broken every promise he has made ever since he promised “fundamental change” and not a “mere change of guards” in 1986. It explains the violence that he has unleashed on armed demonstrators and his opponents, and become increasingly arrogant after all Uganda is not Libya nor Ivory Coast!

The law of cause and effect is very simple – to every action, there is a reaction. The people of France asked for bread and were asked to eat cake. Their hunger turned into anger and the fury of the resultant French Revolution they unleashed ended up “eating” the Ancien Regime and almost every aristocrat. The Tunisian revolution started as a protest against unemployment, inflation, corruption, poor living conditions and the unjust treatment of Mohamed Bouazizi but turned into demands for democratic freedoms and rights eventually resulting in the ousting of President Ben Ali. The 2011 Egyptian revolution started as protests against police brutality, state of emergency laws, lack of free elections and freedom of speech, uncontrollable corruption and ended in the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak because of the way he handled the demands of the protesters! We are seeing similar trends in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. The people make simple and reasonable demands but the rulers believing they are invincible choose to arrogantly turn a deaf ear to the demands or to crash the peaceful protests and this hardens and emboldens the people – the rest is history!

And while Museveni remains arrogant and blind believing in his own invincibility, more and more people are deserting him and the very youths who were dancing to “YOU WANT ANOTHER RAP” are the ones throwing stones at the policemen and soldiers protecting President Museveni.

What started as a protest against high fuel and commodity prices may well turn into a democratic Tsunami where the people of Uganda will rise as one and put an end to corruption and impunity!

I agree with Alan when he observes that the most productive group of Ugandans are the 757,000 Kyeyos basing on the annual remittances of the $773 million or Shs1.77. This should automatically translate into voting rights, and if we were to have our votes, I bet we would vote on the basis of issues and try to make our politicians more accountable than they are unlike our ‘middle class’ brothers back home who don’t mind seeing their earned money misused and being led by “self-seekers, ‘peasants in suits’, known criminals and their ilk” to borrow Alan’s words.

Whereas the NRM government has always campaigned on slogans such as ‘Modernizing Uganda’ and ‘Prosperity for All’ the facts on the ground prove that their aims lie elsewhere. This is because the government has never developed or come up with a program to prosper Uganda and Ugandans by deliberately exporting Ugandan professionals abroad just like she has never attracted the many hoards of foreign students in Ugandan schools and she is doing nothing to keep Uganda as a number one destination of students. The 750,000 or so Ugandans abroad emigrated for a variety of reasons but mostly because of the limited opportunities back home and the sheer determination to improve their economic wellbeing.

Secondly, the government encourages western governments to deport Ugandans (the less connected ones) claiming that the conditions back home in Uganda are conducive whereas our neighbours Rwanda does the opposite in that it encourages its citizens to go and work abroad and supports them in case they face deportation hearings. Is the NRM government interested in of keeping Ugandans poor after all despots and kleptocrats think it’s easier to control and fool an hungry and poor population than a well fed and prosperous one. Doesn’t this suggest that the government is only interested in creating a patronage system where she is the sole provider of bread to Ugandans (who agree with her) with the view of denying those it considers ‘opponents’ until they start supporting her? is the creation of senseless and economically unviable districts a pointer in this direction since the few ‘big shots’ who get employed at the expense of thousands of jobless youths are normally yes men and so-called NRM cadres? Is the mismanagement of the NAADS programme an indication of things to come? Are we heading for a Mobuto like state where we have to chorus ‘Yes Ssebo’ when asked ‘if we want another rap’ in order for us to be fed by a few crumbs from the feast laden tables of the connected few insiders?

If that is the road we are headed, then the ‘middle class’ in Uganda has to wake up and take charge of our country because there is no middle ground – we either take charge of the destiny of our nation or pretend we are comfortable and wake up when doctors are being paid $100 like in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Museveni grew up in a bipolar world torn and spilt ideologically between capitalism and communism and shared between two superpowers that represented the two ideologies, the USA and Russia respectively.

In an age where capital had entrenched herself over many centuries thanks to her steady development in Europe and later in the Americas first in the primitive forms of slavery and feudalism and then later in the advanced form we know of today, she had written her history in blood and over the bodies of many slain and inevitably bred her own resistance.

Communism was dreamt of in German and later in England by the Jewish thinker Karl Marx only for a bastardized version to be born in Russia in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. From then on, she was driven by Lenin, Stalin and the later Russian presidents; aggressive characters who made her assume a very aggressive character. A further bastardization of communism, which was in effect state capitalism, by Mao, helped in creating tension between the Russian and Chinese versions and in a way stemming the latter’s tide in Asia. It also opened the eyes of other anti western and capitalism crusaders and showed that workers or people revolutions didn’t necessarily have to be modeled in the Russian fashion (which was in effect creating satellite states micro-managed and economically exploited by Russia).

Thus there arose romantic revolutions and revolutionaries especially in Latin America immortalized by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara! The two fell out because the latter was ambitious and wanted to transport the revolution to the whole world beginning with Latin America while the former desired to concentrate on his Cuba!

It was in this state of affairs that Museveni was raised – torn between being a Lenin, a Mao, a Castro and a Che Guevara, and a firm believer in Marxist economic and political ideology!

Museveni’s early years were spent working for President Obote and later fighting in Mozambique and Tanzania where he was introduced to Chinese guerilla tactics. It’s interesting to note that Chinese methods were brutal with very little or no regard paid to the population.

Museveni’s guerilla war against President Obote was a mixture of Guevara’s romanticism and Mao’s propaganda tactics giving birth to the Resistance Council system, the indoctrination of the peasants of Luwero and empty promises to the Kabaka and the royalists! More importantly, it was written in blood like all Marxist revolutions and it was ‘self funded’! Museveni sustained his revolution by relying on the population for food and information, on the governments for ammunition but most importantly he robbed banks in typical Marxist fashion and with a Robbin Hood mentality to raise funds.

When President Museveni ascended into power in 1986, he introduced many Marxist principles like one party dictatorship, barter trade and the exportation of wars. Although he was forced to abandon his Marxist economic side because of economic realities, the failure of communism and the World Bank, he never abandoned his Marxist political beliefs and practices (especially authoritarianism and the exportation of wars).

Thus he engaged in political dictatorship, destroyed all institutions so that he could become the institutions (and maybe like Kim Jong II of Korea hand over power to his son), purged his enemies from the movement, rigged elections (because the peasants are always stupid and can’t be relied on) and prolonged his stay in power through corruption and outright bribery!

But above all else, his romanticist in Guevara side always popped up ensuring that he tried with limited success to export wars to neighboring countries!

The first of his overseas forays had him venture into Rwanda, only for things to go wrong when his handpicked protege was killed a day after the RPF invasion. President Museveni initially basked in the glory of the liberator of Rwanda especially after the 1994 genocide of moderate Hutu and predominantly Tutsi, till he fell out with President Kagame over the Congo war and the latter revealed how it was them (the Rwandese) and not Ugandans who had liberated Rwanda and later deposed the primitive Leopoldian dictator of Zaire, Mobuto Tseseko.

The revelation brought down Museveni’s larger than life image!

The first Congo war was fought between November 1996 and May 1997 allegedly because President Mobuto backed Uganda’s ADF and Rwanda’s FDLR Genocidaires’. Despite Museveni’s Marxist political system, Uganda was then surrounded by aging tin pot dictators like Moi and Mobuto, and Habyrimana and overt dictatorships in Kenya, Rwanda, Zaire and Sudan and so he was seen as the only light in a dark tunnel. In fact his NRA army had skirmished with the Kenyan army because Moi distrusted him and alleged that he was trying to dethrone him using a Major Odongo. In other words, Museveni and Kagame were seen as liberators in Congo by the Congolese and the international community.

A few years down the road however, the two armies famously fought not once but thrice in Kisangani. By this time East Africa was rid of dictators save for Moi whom Museveni was looking like each and every day and so the international community started developing cold feet over their continued involvement in Congo which had turned into a curse by causing a fallout first between Kabila and his Ugandan and Rwandan backers and secondly as we have seen between Uganda and Rwanda, and thirdly leading to a pan African war that sucked in Angola, Congo and Zimbabwe on one side and Uganda and Rwanda on the other.

The revelation of Kagame and the victory of Rwanda over Uganda not only revealed Museveni’s and Uganda’s weakness but it also revealed that the Ugandan army had merely escorted the Rwandese to Congo. Was Museveni and Uganda’s involvement therefore motivated by economic gains as the 2010 Congo Report that accused Uganda of plundering claimed and did he raise money for the war by plundering the Congo the same way he robbed banks in Uganda? Was The Potter Commission therefore wrong in absolving those implicated, was it misinformed or was he an employee of the Ugandan government?

Because the NRA revolution had relied on propaganda most of which tribal in nature, the people of northern Uganda developed a strong dislike for Museveni, this coupled with other reasons, especially economic ones, turned this dislike into a deep seated hatred and mistrust.

After the fall of the northern dominated army, the NRA embarked on a revenge mission in northern Uganda and also in looting of the traditional wealth of the peoples of northern Uganda – cattle. This resulted in rebellions flaring up in the whole of northern Uganda from Teso to West Nile led mostly by ex service men. When the ex-service men however retired, the non professionals in Alice Lakwena took over and later Joseph Kony.

Museveni supported the SPLA/M to satisfy his revolutionary ego and the Sudan government in return aided Kony whom they turned into the worst form of terrorist known in Uganda’s and Africa’s history. Yet Museveni’s quest to fulfill his romanticists’ ego was so big that he continued to trade and sacrifice the people of northern Uganda to Kony by refusing to denounce support for the SPLA/M.

This changed with the triumph of the SPLM/A in the Sudan. In a way, Museveni managed to satisfy the revolutionary and romanticist in him although it can be argued that the face saving victory was not his doing but the result of the Nairobi peace accord and hence the brinkmanship of Kenya!

The Sudan peace accord not only ended war in Sudan but it also meant that Kony and his vicious LRA no longer had foreign backers meaning that it became harder for Museveni to satisfactorily fulfill his revolutionary ego. One of the effects of the first Congo war and the report that followed was the Congo’s subsequent suing of Uganda in The Hague (a case which she won and was awarded $10 billion) and the end of impunity in the great lakes region. It became next to impossible for Uganda and Rwanda to repeat their earlier feats as Uganda found out when Thomas Lubanga whom they backed in the 2nd Congo war was shipped to The Hague and charged with committing war crimes and the uproar caused when Rwanda tried to back another insurrection in the Congo led by Nkunda.

Museveni was however given a lifeline to satisfactorily appease his ego thanks to the failed state that has become Somalia because no country was willing to send troops to Somalia. Uganda sent troops and the rest as they say, is history.

Thus, despite the threats by Uganda to pull Ugandan troops out of Congo should the UN take up the allegations made by the 2nd Congo report, Uganda cannot afford to pull out of Somalia because Museveni needs Somalia more than the UN. Because as a failed revolutionary Museveni needs to continuously poke his nose in other countries to remind himself rather vainly that he has not become the men he fought and hated as a young man and the ‘revolutionary’ habit of his of taking whatever he wants can only be sustained in war situations!

But to those of us who were inspired by a much leaner and idealistic Museveni over twenty years ago to hope and dream of a better Uganda, the lines are a tired litany of a boring song sung year after year like a hymn, without necessary ever seeing any walking the talk.

“Bribing, sectarianism and rigging are criminal. You break the law. Don’t think that by cheating within the party you can’t go to jail. You will be sent to prison…” Museveni warned.

He further said that people should not join politics because they are looking for jobs but to sacrifice for the population and not for personal gain and that people who dish out money for votes want to use their position for personal gain. “Bribing shows bad intention of the people involved. I am a candidate myself. I want to be your flag-bearer for 2011 and also to be chairman of the Movement. I have put in my nomination papers but did you hear that I have sent money to so and so so that they vote for me? To bribe you is to insult your intelligence.”

Despite his words, Museveni’s legs have never led him down the road his words would have wished he walks, right from the bush days to walking the long forgotten ten point programs road. The gospel according to H.E president Yoweri Museveni in short is a vain prayer to “do what he says but not what he does!” It is a vain prayer that we bury our heads in the sand and pray that somehow he is a Clean and honest man surrounded by dirty men! What has become of the famous adage of judging a man by the friends he keeps?

Four years after fighting for democracy, President Museveni postponed elections to 2006 through trickery and manipulation and then was reported to have rigged the 2006 elections like the man he fought and former mentor – President Milton Obote.

If the 2006 election rigging claims were feeble, the 2000 ones were not! Rigging was done in broad day light and then justified as a safeguard from a revert to the past! By 2006, all shame had all but disappeared and rigging and bribery intensified so much that the vices became an entrenched Ugandan culture (especially among the ruling party).

The Courts of Law believed the 2000 and 2006 elections were not free and fair and that there was massive rigging even though the rigging was not substantial enough to reflect the final outcome – a perfect contradiction if you ask me! Going by the court ruling and Museveni’s own warning to us about people who bribe and their motives, is H.E the president trying to tell and warn us that he bribes voters and politicians because he wants to gain personally from the country and his position?

President Museveni’s culture of bribery includes the creation of un-viable districts so that he can create a few jobs for CAO’s, RDC’s and District Chairmen who in most cases end up plundering their districts but are never charged as long as they support him! How then can he preach that people should not join politics because they are looking for jobs but rather that they join politics because they want to sacrifice when he is the one creating jobs for politicians who support him?

A few days after warning NRM party members against, and preaching about bribery, President Museveni bribed discredited Kampala Mayor (whose only achievement since stepping into office has been dating local celebrities young enough to be his daughters and granddaughters) with a house in exchange for the latter’s support in 2011 elections!

Mr Sebaggala reported told Daily Monitor that the President had allowed him to buy a prime property from Kampala City Council on Plot 1 Sezibwa Road near Sheraton Kampala Hotel (a property he had tried to buy for a long time but had failed because of opposition from City councilors) a few days after declaring that he would support President Museveni and his NRM in the 2011 elections!

In another of his trade mark briberies often masked in his presidential duties, President Museveni gave a car to the new bishop of Mukono diocese, James Ssebaggala during the latter’s enthronement and consecration. It is no wonder therefore that all Uganda’s religious institutions (from the traditional religions to the Pentecostals) continuously justify Museveni’s reign and only mutter a few tired lines about corruption when most of their church elders and funders are corrupt NRM ‘religious’ people – they preach about corruption but have never declined tainted money nor the presidents many offers! The church has been the biggest conspirator of the rot in Uganda!

Thus, the NRM elections were nothing but a celebration of the new truth and culture of Uganda’s new entrenched class of ‘riggers’ and looters. The NRM faithful were simply doing to themselves what they did to the opposition in the past elections of 2000 and 2006 and also what their leader does as a way of life – bribing his way and continued stay in power. This is because he has become an election thief and the biggest corrupter of politicians through outright bribery and allowing them to steal as a reward for their political support.

I respected Mao a lot, until he chose to take the wide and easy road – a path leading to his party’s impending division and eventual downfall over the narrow and difficult one. There is no way his justification of boycotting the IPC is the right choice because we see through his selfish goal of advancing himself at the expense of Uganda’s freedom.

The elections in Kenya have shown and proved that any alliance for freedom is better than no alliance. A divided opposition tried defeating Moi but lost twice until they united and uprooted the prehistoric kleptocrat. This was the greatest thing to have happened to Kenya because the victors have learnt the hard way that there is no alternative to freedom and that reverting to tribalism and corruption doesn’t guarantee anyone’s future but rather undermines everything thus the recent constitution and a promising end to impunity.

It is a lesson that the Ugandan opposition can only borrow because it is Museveni’s weak leadership – or rather his reluctance to do what is right – that is responsible for the current mess in Uganda. Just compare him to Rwanda’s Kagame and you’ll see my point because Museveni tolerates and encourages corruption while destroying institutions. It is true that Kagame also undermines institutions but the difference is that he is delivering in governance and the economy. If Museveni was like him, maybe a good majority of the opposition would look the other way.

Thus, uprooting Museveni should be the greatest obsession of Uganda’s opposition, and then thereafter, can true democracy and rebuilding start – a beginning of an end to political and economic impunity.

Mao and Otunnu know this but they have chosen not to do the right thing because of selfish motives and now their actions are backfiring on them.

The problem with DP and UPC are self made and not of external making. DP’s problem over the years has been weak leadership. Whereas Ssemwogere was an admirable gentleman in the mould of Mandela and Nyerere, he was weak in leadership and this weakness was best manifested in the form of desertions to mostly the NRM and in internal opposition to his leadership. His choice of Ssebana for Party Presidency I believe was the worst mistake he made. And then Mao stepped in – causing many to celebrate that DP’s leadership woes would end but lo and behold – he seems to be encouraging division!

First he chooses to attack SUUBI instead of trying to incorporate it into DP (a self confessed DP pressure group), secondly he attacks Besigye, FDC and IPC more than he attacks Museveni and NRM, thirdly he starts fighting the few known progressives in DP notably Lukwago and Namboze while making noise about transferring the capital from Kampala! Seriously, Buganda is DP’s biggest constitution and if you ask me it’s only a hungry and starving fool who can throw away the loaf of bread he’s holding in anticipation of getting another loaf!

It may be true that opposition to his leadership is because he is a northern, but then he can’t run away from the past mistakes of the past rulers of Uganda who were mostly from Northern Uganda – and he can’t solve the problem by tribalising the opposition either – branding FDC as westerners and being no different from the NRM. The best option for Mao was to stand firm in choosing the right path (truth and justice) and avoiding all forms of divisions and in cooperating with IPC and FDC. This is the only way to win over prejudice and adversaries.

But he has chosen the wide road and now he has to suffer the consequences of his choice because it’s now easy for those opposed to him to walk away from his party and into the arms of IPC and FDC!

The savoiur of the day to me was none other than Besigye. In 2001, he was humiliated and framed on rape and treason charges and yet he was humble enough to go to the courts and not to drag the country into war like Museveni did in 1980 despite being the last in the elections.

The villain happened to be none other than the Electoral Commission and its Chairman Eng Badru Kigundu. The beating it received from the Supreme Court, declaring it ‘incompetent and incapable of organizing free and fair elections’ prompted Kampala advocate and then MP Elect for Kampala Central Division on the Democratic Party ticket, Erias Lukwago to hope that “at least the Electoral Commission officials will not go with their heads facing up that they did a good job. The court has exposed their incompetence.”

Five years down the road however, he is still glued to his sit, though with his head held down feebly insisting that he is a man of integrity. That integrity has lost value and its meaning in Uganda is perverted caused James Magode Ikuya a veteran politician and The Observer columnist to observe in ‘Uganda Needs a Political Renaissance’; “Today, stuffing of ballot boxes, bribery of voters, gerrymandering, falsification of registers, ghost voting, voter trafficking and hosts of such malpractices have become an integral part of the electoral process. Many candidates begin to sense an intractable choice: to rig their way or be rigged out.”

To rig or be rigged out!

In 2007-2008 Kenya erupted into violence when the Kenya Electoral Commission headed by Kiviathu declared President Mwai Kibaki winner. The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) led by Raila Odinga claimed the elections had been rigged, a claim supported by the international community. The result was close to 1300 people lost their lives, former UN head Kofi Annan stepped in and mediated, power was shared between Kibaki and Odinga culminating in the recently held referendum which will result in a new constitution that will trim the power of the presidency and revamp the judiciary among others.

That the elections have been dubbed the most peaceful in the history of Kenya prompting President Obama whose dad was Kenyan, but who famously shunned Kenya opting to visit stable democracies like Ghana to shower praises: “The United States congratulates the Kenyan people and government on the holding of a peaceful, transparent, and credible constitutional referendum. This was a significant step forward for Kenya’s democracy, and the peaceful nature of the election was a testament to the character of the Kenyan people” is a testimony to the importance of a transparent electoral process.

Perhaps the unsung hero of the referendum is Interim Independent Electoral Commission chairman Ahmed Isaack. Unlike his predecessor Kivaithu, he choose to take the right road and organize free and fair elections. It’s important to note that kigundu gave the Kenyan electoral process a clean bill of health.

And this brings the spotlight on the importance of holding free and fair elections in Africa in general and Uganda in particular. It points to the importance of transparency in the electoral process and of integrity of the electoral commission head. The opposition thus, headed by the IPC is right to insist that the current electoral commission and its head Kigundu are incapable of leading Uganda through free and fair elections.

Unlike in the past five years, the mood in Africa is shifting from graft, corruption and the philosophy of ‘to rig or be rigged out’ as has been evident in the elections in Ghana, Malawi and the changes being made by president Goodluck Jonathan among which include fighting corruption and revamping the electoral commission. The glory days of rigging or be rigged out which has sustained President Museveni in power since 2001 and which resulted in the corrupt sharing power in Kenya and Zimbabwe appear to be over in Africa.

What road will Uganda take? Will the powers that be in Uganda, that believe that great armies and a corrupt political process and not free and fair election are the core prescription for peace and development suddenly change colours and grant us change on a silver platter? Will Kigundu wake up and become a man of integrity and not of his own version of ‘integrity’ overnight? Is president Museveni interested in free and fair elections when history proves that he rewarded the much acclaimed and praised Akabwai with retirement from the EC and has kept the much criticized and ostracized Kigundu?

If the just concluded NRM internal elections are a pointer, we are in for the same stuff. Yet in the dark tunnel of Ugandan elections, is there is a glimmer of hope in the recent statements of Deputy Spokesperson of the NRM Ofwono Opondo promising to suspend party members involved in rigging? Will the leopard change its spots overnight?

Your guess is as good as because we Ugandans like our brothers in Kenya and Malawi need to create that light by demanding for a transparency electoral process and by demanding for an electoral commission chairman with integrity.

The youthful Museveni’s 10 point program was a critique of the past and it promised among others the restoration of democracy and an end to corruption just like a certain Snowball and Napoleon had promised after deposing of their dictatorial and exploitative master Mr Jones from Animal Farm.

His earlier methods, though at variance with his 10 point program were excused and considered justifiable because of his moral high ground, after all hadn’t he promised fundamental change, and hadn’t he reiterated that his change wasn’t merely a change of guard? Thus, Museveni’s all inclusive NRM party system, his post-phoning of a return to democratic rule to 1995 from 1989, and the whines of Ssemwogerere that the 1996 elections were rigged, fell into deaf ears.

It took close to 12 years for the cracks in his system to start showing following his fall out with his once close confident and personal doctor Kizza Besigye.

Hadn’t the rot started earlier?

Soon after Museveni’s ascent into power, he became a darling of the west (after embracing free market capitalism), and a favourite of many at home thanks to the antiquated despots that doted the continent and Uganda’s tragic past. The hullabaloo was understandable because Africa in general was lorded over by an old guard of leaders that had failed to deliver their promises and had become cancers that needed to be cut. Uganda of the 80′s and early 90′s was surrounded by antiquated rulers like President Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya, Omar El Bashir of Sudan, Mubotu Tseseko of Zaire and Juvenile Habyarimana of Rwanda making President Museveni seem like a breath of fresh air.

And it wasn’t long before President Museveni was at odds (in variance with one of his ten point programs of cooperating with other African countries) with them starting with Habyarimana, then Bashir, Mobuto and Finally Moi. Habyarimana and Mobuto were deposed of by revolutions President Museveni played a part in some way or the other, President Moi by a democratic uprising that culminated in a democratic coalition and Bashir is still standing.

Museveni, one of the ‘new breed of leaders’ soon fell out with his allies the first being President Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo and later his fellow Luwero Bush war fighter Paul Kagame of Rwanda (both of whom he helped into power). Kagame has gone on to steal the limelight from Museveni who interestingly seems friendly with Bashir. Museveni meanwhile mended fences with Moi and changed his policy from supporting revolutionaries to fighting them as was the case in Kenya’s last elections when Museveni was said to oppose Raila Odinga!

Was the help he accorded to fellow ‘revolutionaries’ an attempt to create Communist like satellite states other than an attempt at helping them? How comes President Museveni is now defending his once sworn enemy Bashir and cool towards his once close friend Kagame? Why has President Museveni fallen out with many close friends who trusted him so much that they gave up their comfortable lives to follow him in the bush?

Has Museveni descended to a low where he realizes that he is becoming an odd man in a sea of democratic leaders? Has he got so many skeletons in his closest that he has turned around and thought it wiser to support Bashir other than cooperate with an organization that could easily turn on him in the distant past? Has he woken up and discovered that he is more like Mobuto and Moi and less like Mandela?

Whereas its argued that Museveni was the leader dreamed of between 1986 and 1996, the signs of his despotism were there for all of us to see. Museveni, did not hand over power to the person whom elections were stolen from in 1986, nor to a civilian government like Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings in Ghana, but was instead accused of having rigged the 1996 elections. His true colours manifested when he framed Besigye on rape and treason charges, and then later accused Rwanda of supporting the LRA! The courts meanwhile ruled twice, that he rigged the 2000 and 2006 elections!

Museveni has fallen out with more friends than he can count ranging from his once guardian Mzee Byanyima to close friend of many decades Eriya Kategaya and to another ally of many decades Ssabasaja Kabaka Mwenda II. Either he is the most misunderstood man or the most treacherous one at that!

When Museveni was in the bush fighting for the ‘liberation’ of Uganda, his rebels were known to rob banks to raise money to finance the war! Soon after ascending into power, the army started fighting the problem of ghost soldiers. It was later alleged that the ‘ghosts’ were knowingly created as slush funds for various illegal government programs. However the ‘ghosts’ got out of hand when individuals started ‘stealing’ from the government!

In the early 2000′s it was alleged that Museveni told a group of NRM insiders that Uganda would be the first country in the world to develop through corruption. Corruption seemed to be the unofficial policy of government because a veneer of fighting it was made through the creation of many institutions which were then rendered powerless.

The longer Museveni has ruled, the more obvious it has become that he tolerates corruption and the more daring he’s becoming in defending his corrupt friends as was witnessed in the Temangalo scandal and more recent Chogm. Indeed, he recently asked a cross section of religious leaders what their vision for the country was apart from criticizing corruption and giving credence to famous quotation by more many years ago – the fish rots from the head!

The fact that there is no political will to fight corruption is best told by the track record of government convictions – only those considered weak and dispensable are punished by the system while the big sharks continue depleting the coffers of Uganda.

Museveni’s disregard for democracy has meant that institutions are very weak in Uganda and his word is the law, thus he orders the police to investigate his rivals and hapless journalists who dare point out the rot in his government and the police duly comply. If he were to order them to arrest the corrupt, would they not out jump themselves to please him?

It seems that the justifiable bush war acts of banditry didn’t stop because Uganda today is one of the most corrupt nations on earth where the corrupt walk scot free and are our so called Bill Gates! Uganda is at the point where she needs another breath of fresh air to save herself from choking to death under the stench of corruption and disregard for the rule of law.

Managing Director
Solservice-Property Maintance ETC.
Kantarellen Terrasse 41,
1286 Oslo Norway
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Pursuant to the above, on the 22nd of August 2008, the committee set out to investigate the purchase of land in Temangalo by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) from Mr. Amos Nzeyi and Arma Limited, a company owned by the family of Hon. Amama Mbabazi, the Minister for Security.

The committee had earlier been scheduled to consider the Auditor General’s Report on the NSSF but fast tracked the Temangalo land purchase ahead of this exercise. This was as a result of public outcry and the numerous media reports about the nature of the transaction and the concern this issue was causing to the public in relation to the workers’ earnings which are kept in trust by the Fund. The scope of this report is restricted to the Temangalo land purchase by NSSF.