Statement by H.E. Yoweri K. Museveni President of the Republic of Uganda on
the recent attacks by some schemers in Kasese and Bundibugyo
Posted on
<
http://www.independent.co.ug/ugandatalks/2014/07/statement-by-h-e-yoweri-k-
museveni-president-of-the-republic-of-uganda-on-the-recent-attacks-by-some-s
chemers-in-kasese-and-bundibugyo/> July 8, 2014
Nantabulirwa yasabala na bwabbumba: Whatever a man sows that is what he will
reap.
Uganda started off her Independence, in 1962, on a very weak foundation.
This was, mainly, because of bad politics pushed by opportunistic sectarian
groups and manipulated by external interests. The sectarianism, as we have
pointed out many times, was based on religion, tribes and gender chauvinism
(marginalizing the women). There were only three women that I remember in
the Independence Parliament of 1962 to take one example. Within four years
of Independence, the then Prime Minister had to abolish the 1962
Constitution because of the contradictions that were getting ever sharper.
Earlier on, there had been the conflict on the "lost counties" of Bunyoro.
A lot of blood was shed in the 1966 crisis, resulting in the abolition of
the Kingdoms. Eventually, Amin made a coup detat in 1971 and more
sectarianism was generated and much more blood was shed between 1971 and
1979.
The late Mwalimu Nyerere, writing about Uganda, said of that period as
follows: "If the Ugandans thought they were on the frying pan under Obote,
they found themselves in the fire proper under Amin". That was the perfect
description of that time.
Some of us have the advantage of having been old enough to know and
understand everything that was going on and yet we were young enough to live
for long after 1962 as we have done. Initially, we, as youth, belonged to
those sectarian parties - I being in Democratic Party (DP) and some of my
colleagues being in Uganda Peoples' Congress (UPC) and Kabaka Yeka (KY).
However, by 1965, we had started developing grave doubts about the direction
of that blind, irresponsible, opportunistic sectarian politics. As students,
that is how we founded the nucleus of the third force - a non-sectarian
student body. That student Movement, during Amin's time, metamorphosed into
FRONASA that was part of the coalition that fought Idi Amin and, eventually,
evolved into NRM. Right from the beginning, we opposed and despised
sectarianism because it was illogical and, obviously, run counter to the
interests of the people. As we have said, repeatedly, the core interests of
the people are prosperity and security for each individual family and for
the entire society. When we talk of prosperity and security, we mean
prosperity through production, not through parasitism. When we talk of
security, we mean security in pursuing one's legitimate interests.
Legitimate interests mean working, utilizing our legitimately earned assets
and enjoying the fruits of your labour.
There are, of course, other interests such as cultural, spiritual, etc.
However, the core ones and on which all the other interests depend, are
prosperity (especially economic) and security of person and property.
Prosperity through production means producing and selling what you produce.
Your allies in that battle are the people who buy what you produce. The
recent insecurity in South Sudan showed the importance to producers of
markets. Many businesses suffered. The prices even went down. The insecurity
in Eastern Congo or Kenya usually has similar effects on the producers'
prosperity. Recently, I was in Kanungu and found there prospering farmers
because there is now, again, some security in Eastern Congo. Even before
colonization, there was interdependence among the tribes - as far as the
forest of Congo, South Sudan and the East African Coast. It was only some of
the tribal chiefs that were inconveniencing this trade as was observed and
recorded by the early European travelers - John Speke and Henry Stanley.
Therefore, those who have been in the habit of pushing for sectarianism are
the real enemies of not only security but also the prosperity of the African
Peoples, the Ugandans inclusive. It is this firm belief of ours that
propelled us to sow the mustard seed of non-sectarianism that, eventually,
became the mighty tree of NRM/NRA and the present peace in the whole
country. It was on account of our non-sectarianism and always working for
the unity of the people that, starting with a small force, we were able to
build a very powerful force. That force enabled us to win all the wars we
fought, bring democracy to Uganda as well as peace and development. In
bringing democracy, we also restored the rights of the different cultural
groups in Uganda, if they so wished, to restore the traditional cultural
institutions or even create new ones on condition that they did not meddle
in partisan politics, administration and legislation. Why did we insist on
this? It was for two reasons. First, in a democracy, the population govern
themselves - through elections. They are not governed by anybody else except
themselves. Yet, when you hear some of the spokesmen of the cultural
institutions that we restored speaking, they speak as if it is not the
people that govern themselves. Worse still, some of the cultural
institutions have, for some time now, been acting counter to our message of
non-sectarianism. They have been actively fomenting sectarianism and tribal
chauvinism - acting and talking as if the only thing that matters are
certain tribes to which the respective traditional leaders belong. Yet, the
NRM, the Bible and the Koran as well as common sense hold that all people
are born equal and must be treated as such. We have repeatedly and politely
pointed out this point. Yet, some elements among the cultural institutions
have also been repeatedly uttering sectarian and chauvinist words and also
acting in that manner.
This now brings me to my two statements above - the Luganda proverb that
says: "Nantabulirwa yasabaala na bwa bbumba" and the Biblical statement that
"whatever a man sows, that is what he will reap". The Luganda proverb refers
to somebody who defied all the advice and decided to use a clay canoe to
cross a body of water. The consequences were disastrous for him and for
those who travelled with him in the clay boat.
Last Sunday, a group of people in the Rwenzori region carried out
coordinated attacks against security forces and civilians. Altogether, they
carried out 13 attacks as follows:
(i) At 3.00 pm, they attacked policemen at the weigh bridge, killed 1
policeman, injured another one and took 2 SMGs;
(ii) At Bigando, a UPDF soldier that was on leave, was killed and all his
family burnt in a house;
(iii) In Bigando, they also killed 6 Basongora civilians;
(iv) At Karugutu Police post, they injured one (1) policeman and took one
(1) SMG
(v) At Kikyo Police post, they took one SMG;
(vi) At Kirumiya Police post, they took 1 gun;
(vii) At Ntandi they took 2 SMGs from Uganda Wild Life (UWA) personnel;
(viii) At Kibuku, they ambushed soldiers who were taking re-enforcements to
Bundibugyo, killed one of them, and took 1 SMG but 3 of the attackers were
killed including their so called commander;
(ix) In Bundibugyo town, they attacked Bundibugyo Police Station, killed the
OC station and one policeman and took one SMG;
(x) They attacked Stanbic Bank but three of the attackers were killed;
(xi) They, then, attacked, Lakwena style, the camp of 39BN at Kanyamirima,
injuring one Captain and killing one soldier but 45 of the attackers were
killed and the attack was repelled;
(xii) Attack on the Palace of the Bamba King saw one gun being taken and one
policeman being injured; and, finally,
(xiii) The attack on the shrine where 2 soldiers were killed and one gun was
taken.
This means that 8 members of the security forces were killed and 51
attackers were also killed. This is a total of 65 Ugandans killed last
Saturday by the schemes of some confused or selfish bunch of people.
Fortunately, today Uganda has got a capable State that is able to deal
decisively and expeditiously with such schemes although, of course, there
was a failure of intelligence. How did these people weave such a scheme
without being pre-empted? What were the GISOs doing? However, their main
effort, which was to enter the camp of 39BN was decisively defeated. In
their limited thinking, they thought it was a light matter to attack UPDF.
How did all this start? It started with Mr. Charles Mumbere, now HH Omusinga
of the Bakonjo, coming to see me some years ago. He is the son of the late
Isaiah Mukirane who, together with Kawamara, the father of the new cultural
leader of the Bamba and Mupalya who died recently, started the Rwenzururu
Movement in 1962 against the Batooro domination. Mukirane, eventually, died
in the mountains and left his young son Mumbere. When Mr. Mumbere came to
see me, he wanted to be the King of the Rwenzururu. I told him that the
Rwenzururu had been a Political Movement for equality. Why did he want to
turn a political resistance movement into a monarchy? His group, however,
kept on insisting on the issue of monarchy although there was a big group in
Kasese that also opposed the idea. Eventually, in order to create harmony,
we withdrew objections to Mr. Mumbere becoming Omusinga especially after
people like Dr. Kiyonga and a large group of people who were opposed to the
idea of monarchy, withdrew their objection. However, the Bamba leaders of
Bundibugyo were totally opposed to the idea of the monarchy.
In agreeing to Mr. Mumbere being Omusinga, we, therefore, agreed that that
cultural institution should operate in Kasese. Those of Bundibugyo and other
areas that were interested in the Obusinga could go to Kasese. Even within
Kasese, there are other indigenous groups that did not support these ideas.
These are the Basongora, Banyabindi and Bagabo. We encouraged HH Omusinga to
have dialogue with these groups. I do not know how far that dialogue has
gone. I have, however, been hearing of some chauvinistic positions from some
of those who claim to be supporting Obusinga. They seem to insist that the
Omusinga, apart from the Omukama of Tooro in his area, should be the only
cultural leader in the Rwenzori region. Yet, there are other ethnic groups
in the Rwenzori region: Bamba, Basongora, Banyabindi, etc. They have
different ideas about this issue and have, in several meetings with me, made
this categorically clear.
On account of those chauvinistic ideas being banded around for so long, it
seems some groups hatched this criminal scheme that has caused the death of
so many people. Apart from killing 51 of the attackers, we have captured 65
others. We shall get to the truth and will punish those involved. In the
meantime, the country should not get anxious about this scheme. It was
defeated right on the first day of its execution even before the full
potential of the UPDF has been mobilized. This scheme is doomed to total
failure. It is amazing how wrong ideas coalesce into wrong actions.
Nantabulirwa ya sabaala na bwa bbumba. Whatever a man sows, that is what he
will reap.
I thank you.
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Gen (rtd)
Received on Tue Jul 08 2014 - 17:45:36 EDT