The case for term limits in Uganda: Part IV of series:

The case for term limits in Uganda: Part IV…why term limits matter to Ugandans!

Should Ugandans leave issues of the Army Generals to the Army Generals…or should we embrace ourselves for dark days ahead…

Ugandan Army Generals seem to finally have some points of disagreement on the future of the Uganda, especially on who should be the next commander in chief and now their dirty laundry that has been long whispered by many Ugandans, our grandparents, our parents, our jobless Waragi drinking uncles and poor paid public servants is finally playing out right in front of us like a well written and directed drama.

Within the last few months Uganda has seen a different side of the Ugandan Army: the infighting that usually only happens in the General’s fraternity is finally on display for all Ugandans to see. And for the first time in so many years, top ranking officials are breaking ties with the UPDF code of conduct and giving us a rare look on the drafting of the next commander in chief of UPDF.

Current Ugandan Army Events:  January/2013…..chief of Defence Forces: General Aronda leaks talk of military coup echoing the words of Ugandan President: Yoweri Museveni: March/4^th/2013 ….three men attempted to raid an Army Base.

Last week, the coordinator of Uganda’s intelligence agencies, Gen. David Sejusa wrote a letter calling for investigations in the Barracks raid stating that the raid was indented to frame him and other UPDF Generals.  He also added that they were attempts to assassinate him and a few others according to his intelligence source.  

This is not the first time Gen. David has raised the roof, a few years back, he made public comments saying that war Lord Joseph Konyi was not a threat to Uganda rather the Army, which is part of was using the war to collect donor aid from western countries.   

The Ugandan Army is the only stable organization in the country, if it falls apart: God Save the Queen cause He won’t be saving Uganda from a show down by the people that have ruled Uganda for 27 years by the GUN!

The case for term limits in #Uganda! Part three of series:

The case for presidential term limits in #Uganda part three:

An average (National Resistance Movement) NRM die hard is above 39 years old, somewhat successful or seeking opportunity in a Govt office to earn a living:  most of its member’s do not agree with the party’s current positions! 

The opposition leadership is dull and lacks the capacity to organize the kind of muscle that can catch the NRM blinking. 

Not only do they lack money to fund against the NRM’s unlimited campaign fund, they lack organizational skills to form a common grassroots campaign that can motive the majority of Ugandans (Youth) to believe in their Manifesto: While the NRM gains as many supporters as it looses: the opposition is still finding its position and actually loosing members to the NRM.

Politics in Uganda is more about personality than any other one thing: the fact is also that the members elected reflect the electorate: mainly peasants, poor and uneducated people make up the majority of Uganda’s electorate and therefore makeup Uganda’s politicians: people are rarely voted because they can lead and bring about difference in their community rather it is based on fame and name or tribal ties: it is a luxury only afforded to people in places where everyone knows their name: politics is tribal in all regions of Uganda therefore good candidates are overlooked over favored tribal kin.

Yoweri knows this and the only way Uganda can have a peaceful transition of presidents is through restoration of term limits….the question is can the current NRM leadership deliver and put country first instead of person first: send Yoweri peacefully in retirement and have a new NRM president before Ugandan becomes God’s frozen people!

The case for presidential term limits in Uganda: Part II of series

The case for presidential term limits in Uganda: Part II

By 1996....After the NRA (National Resistance Army) turned into NRM (National Resistance Movement) things began to fall apart. It is one thing to rule people as a rebel group...it is another thing to become a democratic country 

Under NRM Uganda has accomplished a lot and in fact if the current leadership of the NRM can hear the cry of our nation: no doubt history will for the most part judge them in favor.

However, since history has two sides. The NRM leadership cannot stop providing historians with materials that will cast the whole party in a dark shadow of history. Under the NRM, the constitution was amended uplifting presidential term limits: political participation is limited to only those who favor the party position: In April 2013! 

The NRM party tried to kick its own members out of The August House because they disagreed with the party’s politics: the attempt failed after Rebecca Kadaga, Speaker of Parliament broke ties with party line and ruled in favor of the constitution.

The NRM government is so big that it never ceases to conspire: the NRM will also be remembered for high unemployment among youth, across the board corruption, high numbers of poverty resulting in poor services: cross the country and failure to fulfill the theses of Ugandan investors. 

The quality of political leaders in the NRM party or be it the Ugandan political system is so poor that the dynamics of change cannot be spotted in a near distance; but only far as a twinkling star. This is not to be hopeless but as everything that has life has to grow and die: the political elites in Uganda are still taking baby steps:  The NRM has created a culture where they cannot be opposed or they will throw you under the bus even if you belong to the NRM. Therefore if you are not running on the NRM ticket, you will not win: politicians know this: as much as the NRM enjoys a majority in political Uganda: they do not have a majority in the non-political Uganda:

The case for term limits in #Uganda! Part one of series:

Will Uganda have a peaceful presidential transition in my lifetime: the case for term limits in Uganda: part I:

As a child, my friends and I admired army people; especially Yoweri Museveni. After all, he was the only good soldier that we studied in primary school. I should perhaps mention that I took my primary leaving examinations in a village government school in Kambiriri village of Mukono District in Uganda, this was 1997 eleven years after Yoweri Museveni came in power. 

In January of 1986 when Yoweri Musevin took office in Uganda as president on the steps of the Ugandan Parliament, I was only a newborn of maybe three months old and my mother was seventeen.

Photo credit: Uganda History Archive!

There were many rebel groups in Uganda among the famous two were the LRA led by Joseph Kony currently and the NRA, the National Resistance Army, legend has it that the NRA began with twenty- seven men with just seven guns.Paul Kagame, current Rwanda’s president and Yoweri were two of the twenty-seven rebels that would form a militia backed by a political group put together by Ugandans in exile.

The NRM would fight the Ugandan Govt of that time until it was disfranchised. Of course the UPC Govt that was overthrown had many foes of its own, enough that the majority of Ugandans did not support it. In fact the UPC Govt sparked the rebellions that lead Yoweri to power over vote rigging.  

   

The NRA ruled Uganda for nine years and in 1995 they formed a constitution bringing back multi-party politics turning a rebel group National Resistance Army into a political party NRM, National Resistance Movement.  The NRM organized the 1996 election and won it across the country. The NRM as a party has won every election ever since.

As a Ugandan, from central Uganda, I dare not take away any credit from what the NRA did for Uganda. If I was from a different part of Uganda: I might just have another tale.

As a person that grew up on Hoima Rd in central Uganda. I experienced tremendous peace all on guard of the NRA. It was possible to tell that our nation was at war, my home town of Kasubi was a home of such NRA activities like road blocks, and it wasn’t strange to be surprised by an ambush of army men on the occasion all throughout my formative years in Kasubi.