A few months ago, many sceptics, critics and apologists of the regime associated the Front to the previous efforts to dislodge the regime.
Dr. Kizza Besigye, who had been a perennial victim of Museveni’s elections in 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016, soon realized that he was making a grave mistake to legitimize Museveni into power through elections.
Oyam -20, December 2021: Fellow countrymen and women as we end the year of elections, 2021, you could see what happened in the recently concluded by- elections in Kayunga (Buganda) which has explained in details the determination of dictator Museveni and his militarist-NRA gang group to hijack people’s power and authority to choose their leaders by money and military.
After this bloody and shameless by-election of Kayunga, I thought it’s timely to explain to fellow Ugandans, the reason some of us came together to form the People’s Front for Transition (Red Card Front) as the only remedy to stop the misrule and insults on citizens of Uganda through elections.
When the Red Card Front was launched in Kampala a few months ago, many sceptics, critics and apologists of the regime associated the Front to the previous efforts to dislodge the regime through elections.
In an interview with one of local FMs, someone asked me, “Why we were starting a new political front and yet we are just from conducting elections of 2021 and the by- elections were beginning to unfold.” I replied that, “The Front is not a periodic electoral platform, and neither is it build around the mindset that democratic transition/change of government can occur through elections.”
From the onset, we told the country that, since Museveni came to power in 1986, his pre- occupation to sustain himself to power is built around the military and public looted money to hoodwink the population.
Because of increasing domestic and foreign pressure, Gen. Museveni soon adopted the use of elections to manipulate his ways of power and to answer the international community.
By this, he persuaded the international community and confusing the weak citizenry to believe in the periodic elections to determine who governs them. This was an illusion.
Meanwhile, those in opposition to Yoweri were caught up in their own ego and illusions, and got blindfolded that they could defeat him in his own staged managed elections.
They forgot to realize that the disbandment of the military unconstitutional governance between 1986- 1994, which resulted in the 1995 Constitution, was not done through elections but through aggressive civic campaigns.
They also easily forget that the return to multi-party political dispensation in 2005 resulted from twenty (20) years of civic action struggles/campaigns.
While it’s well known that Museveni doesn’t believe in an electoral democracy, the ruler after realizing that, he had built a strong military around his family, and taken possession of nearly a-half of the national wealth, heeded to the pressure to set a one man’s manipulative structures of Electoral Commission to legitimize his rule.
He [Museveni] continued to organize a sham election involving the participation of the known opposition to justify his democracy.
Since 1996, ten years since he emerged into power in 1986 and ruled by decree, Museveni has continued to use the military and financial machinery to manipulate his ways to cling to power and to justify is legitimacy through the staged managed elections of 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and lately 2021.
In 2011, the UPC President and former UN diplomat, Amb. Olara Otunnu refused to vote for himself to delegitimize the Museveni’s trickery elections, but many didn’t see a sense in that protest. He backtracked from that position and later took part in the election of 2016 under the TDA. Olara was nearly right for the call to reject elections organized by Museveni, but he failed to take a decisive stand to pursue that mission.
Dr. Kizza Besigye, who had been a perennial victim of Museveni’s elections in 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016, soon realized that he was making a grave mistake to legitimize Museveni into power through elections.
He then backtracked and pulled out of the electoral politics in 2021, and argued openly that Museveni couldn’t be removed through elections.
Majority of Ugandans, particularly in his FDC party, didn’t see this mistake, instead they carried forward with elections [politics] until the last elections of 2021 that show Robert Kyagulanyi of NUP loosing miserably to Museveni, with FDC securing much lesser MPs than ever before.
For Museveni, after realizing that, his main NRA born opposition was realizing his trick; he quickly ran to buy off and mobilize Obote’s son, Jimmy Akena and his nephew Norbert Mao, to legitimize his elections as known opposition UPC and DP leaders. Several attempts by genuine opposition members of DP and UPC to stop Museveni’s hijack of their (our) parties were futile to date.
Just as this deal was done, young and new enthusiastic political musician Bobi Wine, in his excitement, joined the wagon with the aura and pomp to dislodge Museveni through elections. The youth in their big numbers and pissed off with the inhuman heart Museveni has treated with, jumped in and supported Kyagulanyi (NUP) with enough enthusiasm but as usual Museveni was just pleased, because he had found a new legitimization tool for his manipulative elections .
NUP and Kyagulanyi misfired but soon learnt nothing.
As the saying goes, “Time is the best answer to any given situation,” the opposition NUP went into the recently concluded by-elections of Kayunga with lots of enthusiasm to beat Museveni and NRA in his own game.
Museveni viewed that as an insult and unleashed all his terror machinery to deny the deciders (people) of Kayunga and their candidate any chance to elect their own leader. Nakawedde’s victory (the people’s choice) was mercilessly and shamelessly robbed in broad daylight.
To me, this a turning point and a clear message to all those who believed in elections and the rest of the country and the international community to appreciate our stand that, any election organized by Museveni’s electoral body cannot facilitate democracy in Uganda, instead the junta is determined to use elections to justify his dictatorship without a bother of what is said about it.
Therefore, as we all know, in 1980, Museveni and his gang group (NRA) took up arms against the UPC government of Obote with the claim that, elections were rigged besides his well-known miserability at the time.
Now therefore, 35 years down the road, it’s clearer that there cannot be any free and fair elections to stop the militarism now personalized by Museveni from control of state power.
The only option left, which some of us have consciously realized is to invoke Articles1,3 (4) and 5 of the very molested Constitution to rally every single Ugandan to take civic action immediately to stop the military and Mr. Museveni from hijacking the Constitutional power and authority of the citizens with impunity.
And since we want to stop militarization of state power from Museveni, there is no more taking up military means (arms struggle) unless forced to do so but civic action [resistance] and we shall deploy campaigns to push the junta out.
The magnitude of the crises in the country, from medical interns to collapsed social services, to terrible livelihood situation and economic jeopardy and state capture by the army and family merely calls for all citizens in their respective capacities and affiliation, now to join the spirit of resistance and action to demand an immediate end to the four decades of military occupation of state by Museveni.
Ugandans, Yes We Are! Time Up, Out
The author is a former MP, Oyam South and Vice Chair of PFT – Northern Uganda.
Discover more from tndNews, Uganda
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.