Thursday 21 April 2011

Museveni's next move is here

The violent protests that have punctuated the arrest of Opposition FDC party President can only show you one thing: Museveni is increasingly exposing his nasty side that, for the last two and half decades, was concealed from the larger public.
The shooting and indiscriminate torture of civilians by the combined forces of Police and military, is only the begining of gross violation of civil liberties in Uganda.
While the world never paid attention to early signs of Mr Museveni's plan to suffocate democracy and economic progress in Uganda, it was evident that the man was building himself as the Emperor.
This is how he did it: promote sectarianism and corruption.
The walk-to-work protests that have now brought to the fore, Museveni's violent nature, were an accumulation of the consequences of a corrupt leadership.
President Museveni deliberately promoted corruption [ he one time said as long as the thieves invest their loot in the country, he had no problem] to create a class of people who would be loyal to him.
Remember that worldwide, regimes use corrupt people to promote their interests. If you are clean,  Museveni's government would not find it fun working with.
So, the corruption that was deliberately nurtured in Uganda, was aimed at removing resources from the ordinary people so that they can be controlled.
Social services had to be destroyed so that the citizenry rely on the few rich criminal capitalists. Call it patronage.
While narrowing the citizens participation in the economy, Museveni clandestinely promoted sectarianism.
First, his regime divided the country into Northerners [ East and North regions] and Southerners mainly Western region. Buganda was then seen as friendly to the Westerners.
This approach worked well in the begining as majority Westerners saw the suffering of the people of the North and East as a deserved punishment.
A few Baganda were given access to the state resources but a few Westerners largely benefited.
Since the interest of Museveni was personal wealth and power, it slowly started to manifest that he could not sustain  the north and South divide.The emergence of Paul Ssemogerere to stand against him in 1996, began the isolation of Buganda as well. Museveni propagandists started saying the rest of the country hated Westerners because they were the ones in power. For sometime, this worked. The West returned higher vote perecentages for Museveni.
However, it was not just about  Museveni loving the West. He was actually using the West to sustain his personal interests.
This came to the fore after 2001 when Col. Kizza Besigye, a westerner, contested against Museveni. It rubbed him badly. Museveni was agitated so much that he percieved Besigye as a saboteur.
But Besigye's emergence helped the rest of the country understand that the West that they thought benefited from Museveni rule was actually not together with Museveni.
A section of westerners especially Bakiga [ Besigye's tribe] were also now treated with suspicion. And because Museveni's weapon against Ugandans who speak out againts him is mainly economic starvation, the Bakiga also felt the segregation. This was more manifest in security jobs.
Slowly but surely, the West began to feel they were not the insiders they had perceived themselves to be.
The Banyoro, Batooro, Bafumbira and Bakongo also began to see themselves like Easterners and northerners distanced from Museveni's dining table.
While this development was not openly discussed because Museveni would unleash security on anyone who dared,  the feeling grew in the west that  although all westerners were equal, some were more equal than others.
This left Museveni silently resented. He tried to build his scheme now around the Banyankole. Soon, the Banyankole actually realised that it was the Bahima who were in the inner circle. The reason is that wrongdoers are usually comfortable dealing with people they trust. They are always suspicious of those they see as outsiders.
But even among the Bahima, there are murmurs that only those from Museveni's clan were drinking the milk like the pigs in Animal Farm.
Note that the people got to realise Museveni's scheme after they saw social infrastructure decay and life getting harder for the ordinary people yet whoever was closer to Museveni, enjoyed luxury. They owned huge businesses. Some run them on behalf of the First Family.
The continous revealation of who Museveni truly is, has left the President irritable. He has noticed that the whole economy rotates around him and his kith and keen. Anger against him has accumulated.
He is trying as much to suffocate any voice that speaks contrary to his.
So, when you see Mambas and all sorts of sophisticated ammunition uleashed on unarmed civilians, its just the begining of trouble.
As Museveni fails to fix the economy [ largely because he benefits from a distorted one], he is going to become more vicious. The last stage of his dictatorship will be open killing of anyone who opposes him.
Dont be suprised one day to hear people are being shot by boda boda riders or are being picked in their houses and never to be traced.  He will reach a stage of not hiding anything. That is what dictators do.

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