[UAH] CORRUPTION & TRIBALISM KILLING NRM. MATTHEW RUKIKAIRE SAYS IT AS HE SEES IT!
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MATTHEW RUKIKAIRE's house in Makindye was used as the launchpad for the February 6, 1981 attack on Kabamba Military Training School.
The attack signaled the official start of the National Resistance Army/Movement (NRA/M)'s five-year guerilla campaign against the Dr Apollo Milton Obote led UPC government in 1981.
A historical member of the NRM and a former member of Parliament for Kabula County and Minister of State for Privatization, Rukikaire is one of the few ministers in Museveni's government who resigned in the face of a political scandal.
In an exclusive interview with HENRY LUBEGA, the retired politician talked about his links with the liberation struggle that brought NRA to power in 1986, his displeasure with corruption, tribalism and the arrest of Col. Kizza Besigye in 2005. To him, the arrest of President Museveni's main political challenger in the run-up to the 2006 general election looked vindictive.
Opposed to the 'Historical' label
It's a vague usage of the word. Who defines the struggle, who qualifies to be a historical and who does not? There are so many people who died in Luwero and are not mentioned.
Many soldiers died and cannot be identified now but they were part of the struggle. There are many orphaned people in the Luwero triangle whose parents gave their lives to the struggle, aren't they part of the struggle. My children and my wife had to be evacuated from my house to create space for the fighters.
Shouldn't they be historical members as well? There are people who were in the struggle but never knew each other. There are people who contributed clandestinely.
So when people start giving out medals to some people because of what they did in the war it categorizes some as being more important than others. Though, I got one, Nalubaale, 15 years ago.
The word historical is becoming more and more irrelevant, it's 24 years since and the issues are very different. You cannot keep talking about the same struggle 24 years later after coming to power.
We have been through different elections and the situation has changed, the struggle talk should constitute less than 5% of what we should be focusing on now. We should not be concentrating on what we did 24 years ago. What we need now is new leadership.
The NRM restored a large element of security and Museveni should be credited for that, and the Movement has tried in other fields like economy, roads, business and others. By the time we came to power, the interest rates were 50% but now they are down to around 23%.
Much as it is still high there is a marked decline which is good for business. The roads are much better than they were in 1986. I come from Rukungiri. Those days it would take me more than eight hours to get home but now it takes me just four hours to get there.
Leaders sowing tribalism
There is talk of tribalism in the country, but this is created by the leaders. The ordinary people are confused by their leaders.
I am a Muhororo from Rukungiri but in 1996 I stood in Kabula County in Buganda where the majority are Baganda. I stood against John Kakooza (the Minister of State Primary Health) whose campaign slogan was "Mwaana Nzalwa"(one of our own). I managed to defeat him with 92%.
It's the leaders who are sowing tribal sentiments among people. And when we allow them (leaders) to confuse us along tribal and religious lines then we have a problem as a country.
I am not happy with people who say they worked hard and have received no compensation. Hundreds of thousands of people died during the struggle but they were not recognised.
So who am I as Matthew to say that this was my role in the struggle and I have got nothing in return. Nobody has that right; not even the president. We are better off carrying on with making the country better without referring to what we did.
The situation between now and then is very different and it calls for different actions. Many people did heroic things than I did and some of whom I may not know. For instance, people like Kategaya and Mbabazi never knew what was happening at my house when we were planning the attack.
On democracy
There are some dangerous signs. For me I was not happy when Besigye was arrested publicly. It looked vindictive. I would like to see him as a respected leader of one of the big parties. Internally, democracy within the NRM, I think it has a problem. It's not working, it's becoming too centralized.
On corruption
There is no concerted effort on the side of government to fight corruption. Unfortunately it (corruption) is damaging the Movement not only in Uganda but even internationally.
All the achievements that had been made are being washed away by this vice. And this is the biggest enemy this government has at the moment. History will be our judge for what we have done for this country. The loss of hundreds of lives during the struggle should not be in vain. Should it turn out that there is gross mismanagement by the government, the youth whose parents died in the struggle will never forgive us.
Political space
Opening up the political space was a struggle within the Movement, it was not easy. Some of us knew that we would revert to multi-party politics; though some of our friends were opposed to the idea.
During the struggle I knew that within the first 3-4 years we would open up the political space. In 1993 during a meeting at Kyankwanzi people like me, Mugisha Muntu, Amanya Mushega, Bidandi Sali and others openly talked in favour of opening up the political space. Much as our friends agreed with us, there was the issue of opening up presidential term limits. And I was among those who were opposed to the idea of opening up presidential term limits.
HOW I JOINED
I first linked up with Museveni when he was teaching at a Cooperative College in Moshi, Tanzania in the 1970s. By then I was working with Shell in Nairobi. I got involved in fighting for freedom in 1979 when I joined Museveni after seeing that his zeal to fight Obote was as good as mine.
In 1980 I became a supporter of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF), Museveni's faction which formed the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) as a political party that took part in the 1980 general election.
Some of the key founding figures of the party were Museveni, Matthew Rukikaire, Eriya Kategaya, Ruhakana Rugunda, Bidandi Ssali, Amama Mbabazi, Sam Njuba and his wife, Bakulumpagi among others. In the same year our members stood for elections in a number of constituencies.
Those who came very close to winning included the late Patrick Kaboyo, the Omukama of Tooro, myself in Rukungiri, and Museveni in Nyabushozi. Museveni lost to Sam Kutesa. UPM was a political struggle which turned military with more than 90% of its leaders civilians.
Museveni approached me in the same year and asked to use my house in Makindye for recruitment. I accepted and as a result I had to evacuate my family to Nairobi at my residence at Lovington. I even contributed two of my guns towards the struggle.
Sam Magara was the leader of the combatants at my residence with Elly Tumwine as his assistant. One of the two garages at my house was used as an armoury. Over there (pointing to a spot in the compound) is where the Mercedes Benz lorry with a canvass driven by Andrew Lutaaya was parked.
Before Lule became chairman of the group, we had different names for the bush organization. One such name was MOSPOR, it was also part of Museveni's fighting group in the bush. The group had people like Bakulumpagi who was a lead player in linking people in Nairobi with those in the bush.
Then we had Sam Male who was a lead player in linking us with Libya which supplied arms.
I was not part of the military wing. I belonged to the external wing and my responsibility was to mobilise funds and support for the struggle. And I had the responsibility of looking for arms.
Late in 1981, Museveni, Rugunda, Sam Njuba and I went to Libya to get arms. Later on I had to carry the arms from Burundi to Uganda across Rwanda in a fuel tank. I used an empty fuel tank that was returning from Burundi.
The owner of the truck who happened to be a Ugandan was part of the underground group. Transporting the arms was only known to Museveni whom I left in Nairobi. When the guns got to Uganda, Saleh called Museveni in Nairobi to inform him of the arrival of the cargo.
Matthew Rukikaire's international exposure put him at the forefront of heading the external wing of the struggle. In 1966 he was endorsed as the East African envoy to the European Community.
He, however, says that much as it was easy for Jomo Kenyatta, and Julius Nyerere to endorse him for the post, Obote did so very reluctantly.
Now a retired politician, Rukikaire is the chairman of the Makerere University Council and a farmer as well.
He last served as the Minister of State for Privatization. He talks about his resignation with a rather low tone but with a smile on his face. I resigned from government because of the Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB) sale. "As minister in charge of privatization some Ugandans went chini-chini (behind my back) to sell the bank without my knowledge. Because of my political responsibility I decided to resign.
Transcript: http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7454%3Anrm-historicals-besigye-arrest-vindictive-says-ex-minister-rukikaire
opusml@yahoo.co.uk
--
H.OGWAPITI
-----------------------------------------------------
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt
The attack signaled the official start of the National Resistance Army/Movement (NRA/M)'s five-year guerilla campaign against the Dr Apollo Milton Obote led UPC government in 1981.
A historical member of the NRM and a former member of Parliament for Kabula County and Minister of State for Privatization, Rukikaire is one of the few ministers in Museveni's government who resigned in the face of a political scandal.
In an exclusive interview with HENRY LUBEGA, the retired politician talked about his links with the liberation struggle that brought NRA to power in 1986, his displeasure with corruption, tribalism and the arrest of Col. Kizza Besigye in 2005. To him, the arrest of President Museveni's main political challenger in the run-up to the 2006 general election looked vindictive.
Opposed to the 'Historical' label
It's a vague usage of the word. Who defines the struggle, who qualifies to be a historical and who does not? There are so many people who died in Luwero and are not mentioned.
Many soldiers died and cannot be identified now but they were part of the struggle. There are many orphaned people in the Luwero triangle whose parents gave their lives to the struggle, aren't they part of the struggle. My children and my wife had to be evacuated from my house to create space for the fighters.
Shouldn't they be historical members as well? There are people who were in the struggle but never knew each other. There are people who contributed clandestinely.
So when people start giving out medals to some people because of what they did in the war it categorizes some as being more important than others. Though, I got one, Nalubaale, 15 years ago.
The word historical is becoming more and more irrelevant, it's 24 years since and the issues are very different. You cannot keep talking about the same struggle 24 years later after coming to power.
We have been through different elections and the situation has changed, the struggle talk should constitute less than 5% of what we should be focusing on now. We should not be concentrating on what we did 24 years ago. What we need now is new leadership.
The NRM restored a large element of security and Museveni should be credited for that, and the Movement has tried in other fields like economy, roads, business and others. By the time we came to power, the interest rates were 50% but now they are down to around 23%.
Much as it is still high there is a marked decline which is good for business. The roads are much better than they were in 1986. I come from Rukungiri. Those days it would take me more than eight hours to get home but now it takes me just four hours to get there.
Leaders sowing tribalism
There is talk of tribalism in the country, but this is created by the leaders. The ordinary people are confused by their leaders.
I am a Muhororo from Rukungiri but in 1996 I stood in Kabula County in Buganda where the majority are Baganda. I stood against John Kakooza (the Minister of State Primary Health) whose campaign slogan was "Mwaana Nzalwa"(one of our own). I managed to defeat him with 92%.
It's the leaders who are sowing tribal sentiments among people. And when we allow them (leaders) to confuse us along tribal and religious lines then we have a problem as a country.
I am not happy with people who say they worked hard and have received no compensation. Hundreds of thousands of people died during the struggle but they were not recognised.
So who am I as Matthew to say that this was my role in the struggle and I have got nothing in return. Nobody has that right; not even the president. We are better off carrying on with making the country better without referring to what we did.
The situation between now and then is very different and it calls for different actions. Many people did heroic things than I did and some of whom I may not know. For instance, people like Kategaya and Mbabazi never knew what was happening at my house when we were planning the attack.
On democracy
There are some dangerous signs. For me I was not happy when Besigye was arrested publicly. It looked vindictive. I would like to see him as a respected leader of one of the big parties. Internally, democracy within the NRM, I think it has a problem. It's not working, it's becoming too centralized.
On corruption
There is no concerted effort on the side of government to fight corruption. Unfortunately it (corruption) is damaging the Movement not only in Uganda but even internationally.
All the achievements that had been made are being washed away by this vice. And this is the biggest enemy this government has at the moment. History will be our judge for what we have done for this country. The loss of hundreds of lives during the struggle should not be in vain. Should it turn out that there is gross mismanagement by the government, the youth whose parents died in the struggle will never forgive us.
Political space
Opening up the political space was a struggle within the Movement, it was not easy. Some of us knew that we would revert to multi-party politics; though some of our friends were opposed to the idea.
During the struggle I knew that within the first 3-4 years we would open up the political space. In 1993 during a meeting at Kyankwanzi people like me, Mugisha Muntu, Amanya Mushega, Bidandi Sali and others openly talked in favour of opening up the political space. Much as our friends agreed with us, there was the issue of opening up presidential term limits. And I was among those who were opposed to the idea of opening up presidential term limits.
HOW I JOINED
I first linked up with Museveni when he was teaching at a Cooperative College in Moshi, Tanzania in the 1970s. By then I was working with Shell in Nairobi. I got involved in fighting for freedom in 1979 when I joined Museveni after seeing that his zeal to fight Obote was as good as mine.
In 1980 I became a supporter of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF), Museveni's faction which formed the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) as a political party that took part in the 1980 general election.
Some of the key founding figures of the party were Museveni, Matthew Rukikaire, Eriya Kategaya, Ruhakana Rugunda, Bidandi Ssali, Amama Mbabazi, Sam Njuba and his wife, Bakulumpagi among others. In the same year our members stood for elections in a number of constituencies.
Those who came very close to winning included the late Patrick Kaboyo, the Omukama of Tooro, myself in Rukungiri, and Museveni in Nyabushozi. Museveni lost to Sam Kutesa. UPM was a political struggle which turned military with more than 90% of its leaders civilians.
Museveni approached me in the same year and asked to use my house in Makindye for recruitment. I accepted and as a result I had to evacuate my family to Nairobi at my residence at Lovington. I even contributed two of my guns towards the struggle.
Sam Magara was the leader of the combatants at my residence with Elly Tumwine as his assistant. One of the two garages at my house was used as an armoury. Over there (pointing to a spot in the compound) is where the Mercedes Benz lorry with a canvass driven by Andrew Lutaaya was parked.
Before Lule became chairman of the group, we had different names for the bush organization. One such name was MOSPOR, it was also part of Museveni's fighting group in the bush. The group had people like Bakulumpagi who was a lead player in linking people in Nairobi with those in the bush.
Then we had Sam Male who was a lead player in linking us with Libya which supplied arms.
I was not part of the military wing. I belonged to the external wing and my responsibility was to mobilise funds and support for the struggle. And I had the responsibility of looking for arms.
Late in 1981, Museveni, Rugunda, Sam Njuba and I went to Libya to get arms. Later on I had to carry the arms from Burundi to Uganda across Rwanda in a fuel tank. I used an empty fuel tank that was returning from Burundi.
The owner of the truck who happened to be a Ugandan was part of the underground group. Transporting the arms was only known to Museveni whom I left in Nairobi. When the guns got to Uganda, Saleh called Museveni in Nairobi to inform him of the arrival of the cargo.
Matthew Rukikaire's international exposure put him at the forefront of heading the external wing of the struggle. In 1966 he was endorsed as the East African envoy to the European Community.
He, however, says that much as it was easy for Jomo Kenyatta, and Julius Nyerere to endorse him for the post, Obote did so very reluctantly.
Now a retired politician, Rukikaire is the chairman of the Makerere University Council and a farmer as well.
He last served as the Minister of State for Privatization. He talks about his resignation with a rather low tone but with a smile on his face. I resigned from government because of the Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB) sale. "As minister in charge of privatization some Ugandans went chini-chini (behind my back) to sell the bank without my knowledge. Because of my political responsibility I decided to resign.
Transcript: http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7454%3Anrm-historicals-besigye-arrest-vindictive-says-ex-minister-rukikaire
opusml@yahoo.co.uk
--
H.OGWAPITI
-----------------------------------------------------
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt
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