Mayanja Nkangi, Maj. John Kazoora, Godber Tumushabe, Mwambutsya Ndebesa
speak of their frustration, fear, and hope
On Oct 9 1962 when Uganda attained her independence, Jehoash Mayanja
Sibakyalyawo Nkangi was 32-years old and the minister of Commerce and
Industry in the UPC/Kabaka Yekka government.
In an interview with The Independent, Nkangi now aged 82, recalled his
premonition that day. He says as he stood at Kololo Airstrip and watched as
the colonial British flag, the Union Jack, was lowered and the new Ugandan
flag hoisted up, he was happy but at the same filled with trepidation.
Nkangi is now the chairman of the Uganda Land Board and still wears his
signature mane of greying hair neatly brushed back, and his natural style
moustache, as neatly manicured as ever with no beard. But the distinguished
academic who would go on to serve in various capacities all
post-independence governments is unhappy.
He says on Independence D ay 1962, he was happy because the British were
gone and Ugandans would go on to manage their affairs whichever way they
wanted. "We achieved," Nkanji says, "and that for everyone should be a great
achievement."
However, he felt some psychological doubt. "I wondered what is going to
happen next because of the past I knew," he says. Sadly, he adds, it did not
take two years before his worst fear materialized.
Nkangi says the first sign of what lay ahead happened at Suzana Nightclub,
the hottest night spot for African then located in Nakulabye--a Kampala
suburb. It started with the usual nightclub fight between a young man and a
girl. But before anyone knew it, prison officers came in and someone was
killed. Nkanji says he and others in Prime Ministers Apollo Milton Obote's
young government were concerned at how a simple altercation had turned so
violent so quickly and culminated in a death. Could it have happened if the
British were still in charge, some wondered? If it did, how would the
British have handled it? These were questions whose answers would impact not
only on the Nakulabye incident but on other incidents and the reaction of
the independent African leaders now in power after 68 years of British
colonial rule.
Unknown to them, this was just the beginning of troubled times. Nkangi
recounts many incidents and summarizes the turbulent times that, he says,
ended in 1986 when President Yoweri Museveni came to power.
Pulling the trigger
Four years after independence, the first president, Sir Edward Frederick
Muteesa II, who was also the Kabaka of Buganda, was violently pushed out of
power, after then-Prime Minister Obote ordered Maj. Idi Amin flush him out
of his palace. The president/Kabaka fled into exile. But barely five years
later, in 1971, Obote was violently pushed out by Amin. And in 1979, Amin
was also thrown out. Yusuf Lule came in as president but he was kicked out
after 58 days and replaced by Godfrey Binaisa who was also indirectly pushed
out and replaced by Obote through alleged rigged elections.
Nkangi who contested the election on the Conservative Party ticket,
remembers how Obote retorted when then- Democratic Party's Kawanga
Ssemwogerere, who felt cheated of victory in the 1980 presidential election,
complained.
"Ssemwogerere, where were your commanders," Nkangi mimics Obote and adds:
"Ssemwogerere did not answer but I responded because I knew Ssemwogerere
represented all of us, I said publicly that you are now asking where were
the commanders, tomorrow the same commanders will ask you who pulled the
trigger."
Indeed, in 1985, Nkangi says, the military junta asked Obote that question
and threw him out of power. Tito Okello Lutwa took over before he was
removed by the National Resistance Army led by President Yoweri Museveni
whom, despite other problems, Nkangi thinks, has superintended over a
peaceful government.
Considering that there were no elections and the three Presidents; Muteesa,
Obote, and Amin died in exile, Nkanji's dream now is to see a change in the
leadership of this country without blood being shed.
"God should help us," Nkangi says. He says although Uganda has about 52
tribes, Tanzanians and Kenyans too have tribes but they have not had coup
d'états one after another.
"Is it because they are fools? No. The answer is in how they control their
ambitions to go State House," Nkangi says, " as a person who has gone
through independence, what do I want to see? Peace, peace is very
imperative."
But as Uganda makes 50 years, and unlike Nkangi, many people who are
frustrated blame President Museveni. Some say, despite liberating Uganda
from the turbulent past and offering hope, Museveni who was touted as one of
Africa's new breed of leaders by the western countries--has instead reversed
the achievements made. Now many say that Uganda has lost the 50 years
because it has been betrayed by its leaders. Of Uganda's seven leaders,
Museveni has been in power for 26 years; more than half the years Uganda has
had since it attained independence.
The rude man
One of these frustrated Ugandans is Museveni's erstwhile liberation was
comrade, Maj. John Kazoora who, just two months to the jubilee celebrations,
launched a 241-page book titled: Betrayed by My Leader, that details his
life story through the events that have shaped Uganda since independence.
Although the book is mainly centered on his contribution to the 1981-86
liberation war, it runs through Uganda's political history since
independence.
Throughout the book, Kazoora reveals how the government, especially
President Museveni, its leader who he refers to as his leader, betrayed him
by doing the same things that they had joined the guerrilla war to fight
against.
The book ends with a poignant question: "We might have won the war but did
we win the cause?"
Kazoora had a passion when he joined Museveni to fight Obote. He writes that
although his first encounter with Museveni was not very good--Museveni then
leader for Front for National Salvation (FRONASA) shouted at him and his
friend Abel Karegyesa at Kamukuzi in Mbarara where they had gone looking for
his uncle, Serwano Kabogorwa, and ways of joining the struggle to oust Amin.
"Kabogorwa is not here--go away," Museveni shouted at them, something that
disappointed Kazoora and forced him to ask at the quarter guards who that
"rude man" was, only to be told it was Museveni.
However, later Kazoora grew to like Museveni--and admired his "bravado" so
much that as a University student he became the UPM chairman for Nkrumah
Hall, which he led before Joining him in the Bush together with his two
friends Karegyesa and Maj. Gen Benon Biraaro. Kazoora later served under
Museveni in different capacities before they fell out.
Kazoora says Museveni should not be compared to other brutal leaders like
Idi Amin. But, he says, the expectations that Ugandans had in him, have been
dashed.
He recalls how Museveni, while campaigning on the UPM ticket in the 1980
presidential election, said that people should no longer use guns but
microphones.
"But today I see journalists are arrested for using their pens," he says.
Kazoora notes that when President Museveni launched his UPM campaign in on
June 13, 1980, it was at the City Square in Kampala.
"But today no one can even step there," Kazoora says. City Square, now
called Constitution Square is barricaded and guarded 24/7 by police to block
opposition political leaders from holding gatherings there.
Kazoora decries the rate of unemployment which has soured to over 80%
amongst the youth under Museveni, he laments the health sector, the poor
state of hospitals across the country, and the rampant corruption.
For Kazoora, it is a shame that President Museveni who used to say that
Ugandans did not get independence but a flag in 1962, has sunk billions into
fixing and renovating Kololo for the independence celebrations at a time
when he is frustrating plans to increase the health budget.
"Are people happy about health or UPE whose products cannot write a sentence
in English?" Kazoora asks, "are people happy about the infrastructure, this
is our city of 50 years but there are potholes everywhere, so are we
celebrating potholes and floods?"
Kazoora says that although some people claim that they do not see the
betrayal he writes about, he believes he and many Ugandans were duped.
" Surely somebody promises you clean leadership, unity and peace," Kazoora
asks, "is Uganda more united than it was before, if you are going home and
your children have no food, is that peace?"
Although the main frustration against Museveni stems from the poor service
delivery and corruption, many have him for undermining institutions.
Opposition leaders have on several occasions been arrested on trumped-up
charges and detained without trial.
In 2007, he ordered the siege of the High court by a military outfit, the
so-called Black Mamba, to re-arrest opposition leader Kizza Besigye, an act
that Justice James Ogoola likened to the murder of Justice Kiwanuka by Amin,
in his famous poem The Rape of The Temple.
On two occasions, 2001 and 2006, the courts admitted that there were glaring
electoral multi-practices in the presidential race but were compromised by
the president and could not overturn the elections due to the president'.
Museveni went to the bush because UPC rigged elections in 1980.
Legislative failure
But it is Museveni's control of parliament that irks many who say that
although parliament should be independent and be able to check other arms of
government, as we celebrate 50 years, Uganda cannot talk of an independent
parliament.
Godber Tumushabe, the Executive Director, Advocates Coaltion for Development
and Environment says that the review of the constitution to remove term
limits was one of the simplest but most regrettable mistake by the 7th
parliament while the 8th parliament was written off as a rubberstamp--it set
free all the ministers that were involved in corruption scandals.
Tumushabe says that the 9th parliament can be compared to the sixth
parliament in terms of creating sanity and holding the executive
accountable. Like Kazoora who says the 9th parliament sounds like lightening
but hits like a dove, Tumushabe says it excites but at the end withers away.
"I have observed parliament," Tumushabe says, "they identify critical
issues, they make noise about them and it ends there. There is a lot of fear
that has engulfed parliament."
Tumushabe credits Museveni for inheriting a sinking ship and curving out a
governing body.
"The semblance of governance that we saw between 1987 - 96 was very
transformative," he says, "For once, some of us saw this country almost
moving to the first world."
However, he notes that in 1996, Museveni changed his agenda and decided that
he wanted to stay longer in power. "Museveni is not keen on rules, he finds
institutions an inconvenience," Tumushabe says.
Military state
But Makerere University Historian, Ndebesa Mwambutsya, says that the
parliament has very peripheral powers and that Uganda is still largely under
a militaristic system 50 years after.
"God forbid but if something happened to the president, it would not be the
parliament to sit and decide who to succeed him like was the case in Ghana
and Malawi," he says, "my biggest guess is that it would be the army High
Command."
He says the militarization trickles down to the street,
"Citizens independence is not there," he says, "internal freedoms are not
there."
To the don citizenship means not only territorial belonging but
participation and determination of issues, including the economy.
He says under Museveni, the state is hell bent on capture, control and
domination. "Ugandans are still subjects, they are no longer controlled by
the British but they are controlled and dominated by the leaders," he says.
He dismisses the argument about development being more important than
freedoms, saying that controlled development and guided democracy is not
sustainable giving an example of Ivory Coast that was once touted as
Africa's hope but has since become a theatre of conflict.
Mwambutsya adds that although independence itself is an achievement worth
celebrating, it is not meaningful to people's lives because it has not added
value to their lives.
"People budget for Christmas and Easter but they do not plan to celebrate
independence because it means nothing to them, they do not associate with
the symbols like the symbols because they mean nothing to them," he says.
Jiggers and worms
Kazoora, Tumushabe and Ndebesa all agree that Uganda lost the 50 years.
"While we have made many steps forward, we have made even more backward,"
Tumushabe says, "if you are looking for stories to celebrate, we are not
short of those but that is not how we should be spending our time."
"If we were a serious people," Tumushabe says, "we would be looking to have
Museveni, Besigye, Otunnu and all the leaders in one room, bargaining a
grand plan for Uganda."
To him, the future of Uganda will be defined clean leadership,
statesmanship, and meritocracy. He says, unfortunately, the kinds of
decisions that Museveni needs to take - like reducing the size of the
parliament and cabinet and staffing the public service not with cadres but
with cadres with people of merit, are inconsistent with regime survival
which is Museveni's biggest preoccupation. Tumushabe says the time is now
for citizens to get up and claim, and defend their space if they want things
to change.
As we concluded the interview, Kazoora, recalled how Museveni, while
campaigning in Mbale on June 29, 1980, said he was ashamed that people were
going to the moon while Africans were eating worms.
Nkangi too said that it is a shame that Ugandans could die of jiggers 50
years after independence unless we have imported kikwaso, a needle to prick
them out.
Looking back, Nkangi told The Independent, if I make it to Kololo again on
October 9, 2012, I will have the feeling that we have lost time, we could
have done better, but the good thing is that Uganda is still here.
"I should encourage Ugandans to say this is our country," he says, "You
know, I would like to see a Uganda pulling its own internationally, secure
and proper statehood, doing most of the things herself and economically
flourishing."
**********************************************
East Africa: Is Uganda at 50 a Failed State?
By Julius Odeke, 7 October 2012
Prof. Jjuuko of Makerere University thinks it is but others differ
Makerere University professor Frederick Jjuko recently stirred up debate
when in a keynote address he said Uganda is a "failed state". He said the
government's failure to provide social services, the militarisation of
everyday life, failure of democracy, suppression of individual rights and
freedom, and general economic failure are indicators of Uganda as a failed
state.
"Ugandans are at the mercy of regime security whose interests are to ensure
their long stay in power but not to serve the interests of her citizenry,"
he said.
Jjuko was on Sept.18 speaking at the National Dialogue on Freedom of
Expression and Information organised by Human Rights Network for Journalists
at the Kampala Serena International Conference Centre.
He said when state security operatives criminalise journalists, assaulting
them, and smashing their tools of work, it implies that Uganda has a regime
security other than state security that would be solely interested in
protection of people.
Prof Jjuko noted the political indicators of a failed state as being;
leaders and their associates subverting the prevailing democratic norms,
coercing the legislatures and bureaucracies into subservience, and
strangling judicial independence.
"You may remember what happened to our courts of law in 2006 when the
Supreme Court was besieged by a paramilitary group known as Black Mamba," he
said.
Not so bad
Former Education minister Simon Mayende, who is now a director of
information in the Office of the Prime Minister, immediately took on Prof.
Jjuko.
He said "Uganda has not gone that far."
He said, for example, the government closes some media houses and bans some
programmes because it wants the media to educate the masses rather than
cause chaos in the country by telling lies.
But later, in an interview in his office at Makerere University, Jjuko told
The Independent that when one looks critically at the way Uganda as a
country is being run today, it depicts a failed state.
"Yes, in reality, we may have not reached to that position where Somalia has
reached but we have slid and we are considerably going that way.
"Right now, there is no nation in Uganda, but what we only have is a regime
state but not a nation state," he said, "Ugandans have concretely tried to
have a nation state that caters for the interests of the public, but we have
failed drastically."
Militarisation
He said the advent of militarism and state violence that has kept on
increasing.
"Look at the multiplicity of security forces that have taken the centre
place in our country. That alone speaks volumes of words for one to know
where our country is at the moment," he said.
He said the state has created many paramilitary groups in the guise of
protecting votes both from the ruling party and the opposition with the
infamous one being the Kiboko Squad, Kalangala Action Plan which came to
limelight in the 2001 presidential elections is headed by the presidential
advisor, Maj. Roland Kakooza Mutale.
"Even the concept of green parks like; Centenary Park have been raided while
City Square has been occupied by the military and this means there are no
environmental standards in our country that we can follow. And now there is
no freedom for Ugandans to enjoy the nice aroma that they used to have in
the City Square just because the place is now full of the military," he
said.
He says the prominence President Yoweri Museveni has given to the Ministry
of Defense is an indicator of a failed state.
"You hear that parliament has failed to pass the budget not until a
subsidiary budget of over Shs39billion is allocated to the ministry of
health. And the president seems not to be agreeing with them, which show to
you the level at which our president runs this country.
"Even simple situations, he wants to come and intervene," Jjuko said.
"When these groups have been formed in the guise of manning security during
elections, and yet the sole aim is to inflict the locals with fear,
intimidate and harass them so that they should not critique the operations
of this government and these paramilitary groups, then that means our
country is now a failed state, " said Prof Jjuko.
Jjuko says security is supposed to be for the interests of the people but
not only for the regime.
"The leadership of this country should practice what they always speak that
they are patriotic otherwise a bigger percentage of people are not happy
seeing their country being led into a wrong direction," he said.
He said it is a common occurrence to see buildings and offices being
guarding with security personnel armed with assault rifles.
"Why should a country that Europeans handed over to the natives peacefully
behave in such a manner? Our police have become highly militarised and this
has damaged their reputation," he says.
He says the militarization of everything in the country has made security to
be repressive and that is why, "even mere books have been seized".
Patronage
He said leaders and their associates have blocked civil society and gained
control over the security and defense forces.
"They usually patronise an ethnic group, clan, class, or kin. Other groups
feel excluded or discriminated against," he said, "Ugandans have complained
about the distribution of national cake, State House scholarships as was the
case in Somalia and Sierra Leone in the 1970s and 1980s; government that
once appeared to operate for the benefit of all the nation's citizens is
perceived to have become partisan."
He said the government has failed to provide public services such as good
road network, health care, education, and many others.
"Yes, we may be having a resemblance of those infrastructures in our country
but look at the roads it's only in the city here where the road network is
somehow better but with many potholes, and while in the upcountry roads are
persistently cut-off by floods," he said.
Prof Jjuko says under the government's privatization policy, all
parastatals, banks, education institutions, and almost everything else has
into private hands.
"When one looks at our agricultural industry, there are no extension
services, farmers no longer have storage facilities for their harvest and
this has resulted into abject poverty among our people because they just
sell their produce moments after harvest.
"There are no regulatory roles that are followed. Our government cannot
regulate the goods that they import, and that is why we are awash with
counterfeit and sub-standard goods flooding our market.
"We need to take fundamental steps to redeem our country as Ugandans," he
said.
The British Department for International Development broadly defines a
failed state as one whose governments "cannot or will not deliver core
functions to the majority of its people, including the poor."
It adds: "The most important functions of the state for poverty reduction
are territorial control, safety and security, capacity to manage public
resources, delivery of basic services, and the ability to protect and
support the ways in which the poorest people sustain themselves."
The US-based NGO, Fund for Peace, conducts an annual global Failed States
Index. The 2012 index switched Uganda lower from states in the "danger" to
the "critical" stage.
The country slid from the 21st position it occupied in the previous two
years to the 20th in 2011. Uganda, however, fared better than Kenya, which
is in position 16 and Burundi at 18.
He listed other failed states in Africa as Somalia that was sucked in by its
president Mohammed Siad Barre from 1969 to 1991 and has not had a central
government since then, and the DR Congo which as Zaire under then-president
Mobutu Sese Seko's three-plus decades of kleptocratic rule sucked dry until
he was deposed in 1997.
To date in DR Congo, specifically in the eastern parts of the country where
people are ever on a run over violence, the leadership has failed to provide
effective security and left local people at the mercy of gun-wielding men.
Globally, failed states include Afghanistan, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Iraq,
Sierra Leone, DR Congo, Somalia, Zimbabwe, and Somalia. In the words of
political scientist Stephen Walt, failed states are feared as "breeding
grounds of instability, mass migration, and murder" as well as reservoirs
and exporters of terror.
The existence of these kinds of countries, and the instability that they
harbor, not only threatens the lives and livelihoods of their own peoples
but endangers world peace.
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Received on Sun Oct 07 2012 - 16:25:38 EDT
