President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is without doubt the most influential leader in Eastern Africa, so much so that it has now got into his head that he rules more than his tiny but beautiful fiefdom, Uganda, and that his word is law in the entire region.
A long time ago, we adored Museveni, his accent, his humour, his bad guy image in a jumpsuit, old fashioned military boots with puttees and an AK 47 on his back. But he stayed for too long, he is 82, and now has to suffer the indignity of strutting around and jumping up and down to prove that he is healthy and strong enough to govern. He has mestatised from a revolutionary idealist to a full blown dictator, unable to let go of power.
I must confess that for the longest I was President Museveni’s admirer. But from him I have learnt that one of the most expensive items on a country’s or organisation’s balance sheet is the longevity of its leaders. The longer one has been in power, the more it takes to cling on. Cameroon must be squandering a significant part of its energy – and resources – to keep that extinct Paul Biya in office.
First, there is the solidification of the inner curia of power in the country so that only a few have monopoly of the troughs of largesse. The rest of the country is eating termites, which are nothing but snacks, while the fat, juicy Mongora, the queen mother, is reserved for the ruler and his acolytes. Longevity leads to the marginalisation of people from power, resources and decision making which are dominated by a stable group which benefits unfairly from their access to the relic calling the shots. It is an abomination for a leader to exercise unfettered power over a nation for 30 years or 40 years.
President Museveni does not exercise positive influence in the region any more. He does not inspire young people to love their countries and to do their best for their people. He is not a good example to young people coming into leadership. His is now largely a malign influence; those who copy him don’t copy the good bits, they copy the excesses of dictatorship: the torture of people who express alternative political beliefs or criticise this oracle of backward ideas and established enmity to democracy and freedom.
President Museveni has pissed me off on three counts and none of them have to do with his warmongering about access to the sea, and his quivering protestations that “that ocean belongs to me”. Of course the Indian Ocean belongs to you, just like everything else in this wide world, in your delusions. What has set off is, first, the video of a lady CEO of a media company breaking down during an interview because of the harassment of her journalists by the government of President Museveni who presents himself as a “democrat” but has never heard of media freedom, other that when he is paying lip service to principles he does not believe it.
Violation of human rights
The second one is the image a young woman in the uniform of National Unity Platform, Robert Kyagulanyi’s party, whose clothes had been torn off by President Museveni’s extremely violent army. According to President Museveni’s standards, it is alright to tear the clothes off the bodies of children if they are in the opposition. And this is a man who deceives himself that he is a “philosopher” and “revolutionary”, mindlessly mouthing words whose meaning his very existence negates. Is it a crime in Uganda to belong to a political party other than the National Resistance Movement? Do perfectly normal and patriotic Ugandans who profess allegiance to a political party other than NRM have any rights, including the right not to suffer the indignity of your clothes being ripped off your body by President Museveni’s army?
President Museveni’s government has normalised brutality, violation of human rights, perhaps even crimes against humanity. Imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, persecution against an identifiable group (NUP in this case) and enforced disappearance of persons, are crimes against humanity. President Museveni and his son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba talk of the “the fridge”, which is a facility where they torture people who have been abducted, as if it is a hotel where people are sent for dinner. And the President spoke publicly about why he released the Kenyans his goons had abducted as if it was the most normal thing in the world and as if he was such a grand guy for doing it. It is not normal for a government to abduct people, hold them incommunicado without trial and access to counsel and proceed to torture them. It is only normal to buffoons and dictators.
I have been seeing in the blogs claims that Ugandan soldiers have been deployed in Kenya and Tanzania for duties not quite involving the directing of traffic. Uganda should keep its troops within its borders and the whole world should be speaking with one voice telling President Museveni: You should not be seeking re-election for a seventh term. You should be heading to your ranch to await the judgment of history, and perhaps that of the courts. Six is enough.
