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:

Ugandan Govt went from being Anti-Gay to Anti- miniskirts and cleavage…

Ugandan women will soon be imprisoned for showing cleavage and wearing miniskirts if the wishes of the “Ethic and Integrity” Minister, Rev. Simon Lokodo come true. This is because he has crafted a bill tabled in the parliament this week and has given many interviews saying, “that women in miniskirts are distracting to society.” Well, forget telling men to look the other way when a beautiful woman or “hot chic” as my little brother would say, passes or nears them. Telling women what to wear is the right and just thing to do according to Rev. Lokodo.

Rev.Simon Lokodo

I cannot say that women in Uganda are controlled or held down in oppression in what to wear. Hello, this is 2013, RIGHT! However, I suppose that men can learn how to control themselves, where is the law that says if a man is caught looking at a women, they too should be convicted for a sexual crime, I want to see that law. Unless of course Rev. Lokodo wants to tell us that men are immune from seducing women into sexual acts.

Fr. Okolodo has lost his sense and is not in touch with the real issues of what a young woman faces in Uganda day to day. In a country where a woman is asked for sexual favors from a hiring boss for a simple job like housekeeping and young girls in Hillary Clinton look-a-like suites are asked for sexual favors at job interviews. Little girls are defiled left and right by religious groups, witchdoctors, family members, etc., regardless of how they are dressed, and this guy wants to tell us that oppressing a person from dressing how they want will cure men’s natural sexual instincts.

The NRM leadership in Uganda is beginning to prove right to our generation what many others believe, that it is an oppressive regime, it has to control everything. It goes to show that the NRM government is on high horse ridden by the so called old wise men like Minister Okolodo.  

This is not just about the miniskirts that are in danger here, soon it will be what music you can’t listen to, then it will be your Facebook, your Twitter, your Youtube, your internet in general. One would agree that if the bill passes it will pave way to limiting those other things because they too will be considered vessels of teaching Ugandans what they are not supposed to do.

 jjemba@facebook.com

 

IN +UGANDA NO HOMO BILL STALLS,,,,

+Kampala, @Uganda:

IN UGANDA NO HOMO BILL STALLS OVER SUDDEN DEATH OF OUTSPOKEN MP

The hate the gay people Uganda bill that was first introduced by MP (Member of Parliament) @David Bahati in 2003 has yet hit another huge huddle right before it was supposed to appear for debate on the floor of the Ugandan Parliament within the last few weeks. As you remember, last time we left off with Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Honorable Rebecca Kadaga promising to pass the Anti-Homosexual bill as a Christmas present to all Ugandans. Well being that Christmas is only a few days away it will be interesting to see what happens.

 It is early in the morning here in Namirembe, a suburb of Uganda’s capital city Kampala. Growing up here I always thought that Namirembe Hill had the best view of Kampala city.

From my apartment widow I see sky rise buildings and all the elements of a capital city. If I mute my iTunes and  +Jay-Z stops rapping. I would hear the sounds of cars, motorcycles and no doubt a lot of people working. I am getting older now and becoming more of a TV person, especially the NEWS of wherever I am.  It is early December/2012, a few weeks ago. I am seating in my apartment chatting things up with my old friend Penny. I was mainly complaining about how one of my cousins seems to never have his story right and how he tells you a million things but none of them are true! As Penny and I talk, breaking news appeared on +NTV Uganda, +Frank Walusimbi, one of Uganda’s best newsman proceeded to say that a few days ago one of Uganda’s most outspoken MPs had died and it was by poison, she was health one moment and dead the other. Her family was going through the deepest pain accompanied by death especially sudden death. President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni appeared in public denying all talks of foul play in the death of Nebanda. As you can imagine the media had a big party with this one. Death as mysterious as always appeared to prove once again powerful. The dead MP was a big critic of the Uganda Government and its agenda.

Although she was part of the ruling (National Resistance Movement Party) NRM, she seemed to believe less in her party’s agenda to develop our country. Recently she had exchanged disagreements with the president in public concerning the government’s failure to provide sufficient health care in her constituency and in the whole country for that matter. After that she would die suddenly days later and everyone is wondering if that had anything to do with it. But on record the president has said not. Like many youth here in Kampala and all over the country I began to follow MP Nebanda when she became one of the biggest critics for “presidential-term-limits” in Uganda. She and other MPs were labeled by their own party leaders as rebel MPs mainly because they were against most of the party’s agenda.
The gang of these MPs has been very vocal in Uganda’s 9^th parliament in speaking against government corruption and amending the constitution to bring back presidential term limits. David Bahati, the biggest homophobe in the world was the last person to know where the dead MP was going and who she was with when she died according to her mother. With all this going on, the hate the gay people bill seems to be a challenge to pass because now the Ugandan Parliament has turned their attention on personal security and wonder if they are free to express their opinion publicly. It turns out that you may HATE gay people like David Bahati does but you cannot be immune to the jaws of death even if you believe you should kill a person for being GAY.

Nebanda will be missed, the media loved her, and she was only in her twenties like most of these MP here. May her soul rest in peace and we will look at the life she’s lived as a testimony to service for God and our country.

Uganda wants no HOMO!

UGANDA WANTS NO HOMO:   

It is June 2012: I am in Uganda. I am in Mukono District at the private home of The Rt. Rev. James William Ssebaggala, Bishop of Mukono Diocese. It is early in the morning. It is probably 8:30AM GMT +2 East Africa standard time…time passes and  I find myself in a huge waiting room; people are beginning to walk in and out the Bishop’s office. Mainly priests (some are women priests, but mainly men priests) and other diocese workers. I was the second person the Bishop saw that morning right after his morning devotions with his staff.  To meet him, I walked straight back to his office with my friend a local reverend in the diocese.  So after greetings and introductions I told the Bishop about my projects at my home church in Ssinda Village. He seemed impressed but I sensed he had seen many impressive things.  Time passed and I proved myself a great conversationalist, so the BISH and I began talking about life and all the things in it. His eyes grew huge when I mentioned that I attended an Episcopal branch of the Anglican Communion in the US. At that minute he began to ask me all these questions about the Episcopal Church in general…. “Oh, how they are ordaining women into BISHOPS and how they are willing to even bless GAY marriages.”  

When he got to the GAY marriage part, he went on and on, forever! I wanted to laugh but I had to keep a serious face and I wanted to be respectful even though on any other occasion in other places I would have a lot say. The general sense in the media is that Uganda has this very conservative homophobic culture. I do not find that to be true: but once again: somewhere I have read that “ignorance is bliss” and I agree. The bill against GAY people was first introduced in The August House, Uganda’s Parliament in 2009 and it was proposing jail time to death to all Ugandans caught in GAY acts even in their own beds, it did not matter, if caught they said, “you were going to face the gallows.”

Anyway after three years the bill has not passed mainly because it doesn’t make sense…let us face it, this is 2012 and not some pre- modern times, in fact it is post-modern times, modern was so 1989. Yes I will say Ugandans are very homophobic by nurture not by nature. Kinda like the white men were to niggers in the days of slavery. Hilter, also thought Jews were inferior. Those were pre-modern times my friends, which is where exactly many of Uganda’s elders are on this issue, like my friend the Bishop.  
Witch doctors in Ugandan are doing hideous and horrendous things to little boys and girls all in the name of tradition and they are not questioned by many laws. I would like to ask Speaker Rebbeca Kadaga, who wants to pass this bill as against GAY people  a “gift to Ugandans,”  for Christmas. Honorable, what is more immoral? A witch doctor that abducts the future of Uganda and traffics them as the Dutch did the niggers in the old days. Or is it a gay Ugandan man or women holding on to his or her lover tight or even making slow and sweet love to them. 

What is more immoral Honorable Speaker, a GAY Ugandan walking down the street or having more than one wife as some traditions in Uganda permit us to do. In many places in Uganda, polygamy is the law, but being GAY is a crime. Not even a sin but a crime, because see government cannot rebuke sin, as it does not rebuke the millions of witch doctor clinics that operate in the broad daylight.  YES they are times when we all believe that a man made law is superior to the eternal and divine law.  If being GAY is not divine or not an eternal incidence then one is saying that God did not create all things in HIS image, and that my friends, is crazy. But if God created all things even the California sheephead which is a kind of fish that changes from male to female and vise verse then he created GAY Ugandans and that my comrades cannot be questioned. And if being gay is a choice, are you saying that God did not create choices!

JUBILEE in Uganda: Uganda celebrates 50 years of Independence

On October/9^th/2012 Uganda will celebrate its golden (jubilee)  , Uganda, my country of green hills and valleys, of singing Crested -Cranes and I’m sure of yet to be discovered sunsets and shadows has been an independent nation for 50 years.

On October/9^th/1962 the Union –Jack was lowered in Kampala and the Ugandan flag, in Black, Yellow, Red, recently designed by countrymen was raised symbolizing freedom from colonial rule. History has it that not everyone supported the idea that the British Colonial masters had. On record, Sir Edward Muteesa, who later becomes Uganda’s first president took a long time to buy into the idea of combing his Buganda Kingdom to the rest of Uganda.

King Muteesa wrote many letters to the Queen and her delegation about his disagreement. He wanted Buganda to remain its own state but eventually he was sold the idea by Milton Obote, Uganda’s first Prime Minister and later president.  

The two men never got along, both wanted more power and eventually the one would attack the other causing a massive civil war that has slipped blood on Uganda’s history pages until now. With independence came more challenges. Ugandans were not used to self-governance and those that wanted to rule had self-ambitions, for the first 25 years UGANDA was ruled by several men who faced a tough job to making a former British Colony one country.

Uganda is a beautiful place I love it like a child loves her mother.  I was born in kasubi on Hoima Road in 1985. My 17 year old mother met my father at the end of a massive civil war between many deferent regimes from 1966 when Prime Minister Obote attacked Edward Muteesa’s Palace.

 From there Uganda was involved in civil war after civil war and until 1986 when a young rebel by the name of Yoweri Katuga Museveni led an armed rebellion backed by a few African leaders to take power under his fighting group NRA (National Resistance Army). The NRA would rule the country until 1996 after organizing themselves into a political party bringing back party politics to Uganda that had been washed away under Milton Obote.

I remember the year well; the drought had hit Uganda very hard that hot 1996. I was 11 years old living at Bomma’s house, my grandmother in Ssinda Village.

 Former rebel leader and now Army General Yoweri Museveni would win the election and has won all the proceeding elections making him one of the longest serving presidents in Africa. Museveni and his party the NRM have done a lot. Credit is to be given where performance is well done. The NRM is a party full of old politicians like Museveni himself trying to rule over a modern twenty-first century population.


 Uganda today is awesome.
For the most part a regular person can walk around to and fro workplace, to worship place back to home. But like the 1960’s Ugandan’s political class is widely divided even within the ruling NRM party. They are many who just want to hang to power including the president creating a stranger state. Buganda and Uganda still don’t get along. Buganda wants a fedro-type system where they can rule themselves directly.  The government is so big that half of the members of parliament are just holding their position in politics for a pay check.

 The school system is ancient and in its form it cannot educate the growing needs of Ugandan youth. The youth are mainly unemployed causing high rates of poverty and crime. The healthcare system is close to none AIDS is on the uprising again. Every level of government is corrupted. But for sure the doors of prosperity and freedom are wide open and it will all depend on those who lead us! Like in other nations in Africa, Uganda lacks nothing expect great and new-age leadership.