{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: ‘NRM is why Rwanda is bypassing Uganda’

http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/42087-nrm-is-why-rwanda-is-bypassing-uganda

'NRM is why Rwanda is bypassing Uganda'

Written by Benon Herbert Oluka

E. Africa leaving Uganda behind, Besigye warns

Leaving Teso and heading into Bugweri area of eastern Uganda, Dr Kizza Besigye attempted to show Ugandans the cost of keeping NRM in power, reports BENON HERBERT OLUKA.

Uganda's neighbours Kenya and Rwanda are developing faster than Uganda because of grand corruption in the NRM government, FDC presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has said.

Speaking in Budaka district yesterday, Besigye said Uganda is a rich country with enough resources for effective education, health and infrastructure programmes. 

"[But] We are the ones being left behind," he said. "Rwanda is teaching computing to children in primary school. Is Rwanda richer than Uganda? Kenya is also teaching computers in primary school. We will provide computers to every child in primary school." 

STEADY POVERTY

Besigye also mocked the NRM slogan of 'steady progress,' saying it is an admission by Museveni's camp that they want to maintain the status quo where the majority are poor.

"I have not met someone as cynical as Museveni," he said. "What he means is that this massive poverty all over the country, he calls it steady progress. When you go to a hospital and there are no drugs, steady progress. All the roads are bad, steady progress."

Dr Besigye promised that he would have a leaner government with only 21 cabinet ministers to save money for providing better services to Ugandans.

Kizza Besigye in Budaka

"We even have too many MPs," he said. "We should remain with about 150 MPs. We should focus our money where our people are."

Uganda currently has 365 MPs, with the number set to rise to more than 400 in the 10th Parliament. Besigye repeated his promises about improving the agriculture sector through purchasing a tractor for each sub-county, starting an agriculture bank and putting up reserves for agricultural produce.

In Budaka town, where he addressed his biggest rally yesterday, Dr Besigye received a shield and arrow from Kibuku town council. He was also given Shs 300,000 "for fuel", as well as goats, turkeys and chicken.

ALASO PROMISES

On Wednesday, Besigye rounded up his campaign tour of Teso with seven rallies in Kumi and Bukedea districts. In Kumi, he visited a mass grave in Ogooma village, where residents say 300 people were buried in one place during the insurgency in Teso. 

Besigye promised to institute a commission of inquiry into the killings once he is voted into power.

In Atutur trading centre, there was a near-confrontation between FDC and NRM supporters, after a mobiliser for the ruling party, Julius Abwou, attempted to put up Museveni posters and banners at the venue for Besigye's rally.

"Much as physical clashes did not take place, there was a trading of insults bordering on a fight," said Odea Apedel, a regional coordinator for FDC in Teso. "We reached a compromise that the banners at the centre of the controversy be removed from the venue and sanity prevailed."

Addressing supporters at various venues in Bukedea town, FDC president Mugisha Muntu urged Ugandans to vote for the collective future of Uganda rather than the political future of one individual.

"The lives of 35 million people are more important than that of one man. The wellbeing of the majority is more important than one man, even when that one man is a president," he said.

In Serere district on Tuesday, the FDC vice chairperson for eastern region, Alice Alaso Asianut, finally joined Dr Besigye's campaign.

Alaso was widely seen as one of the MPs who had given up on Dr Besigye and were inclined to support Go Forward's Amama Mbabazi for the presidency. In fact, she had earlier said she would focus all her energy on retaining her seat, after she fractured her foot during nominations for Parliament in Serere and has been hospitalised.

Alaso, who said Teso has distinguished itself as the leader of the charge for change in Uganda, promised Dr Besigye that he would receive four times more support than before in the sub-region because some NRM supporters also believe in the FDC message this time round.

"The poverty we face here is the same as the poverty that people face in other parts of the country, so even NRM people have promised us their votes," she said.

IT'S YOUR MONEY

At his main rally in Bukedea town on Wednesday evening, Dr Besigye urged his supporters not to succumb to bribery temptations ahead of polling day on February 18.

"The people who have been stealing our money have a lot of money and they will bring it to blind your eyes," he said. "I don't mind myself if you 'eat' that money which they bring; it is your money which they stole from you. You can 'eat' it quickly, clean your lips and ask for more. But having 'eaten' it, you must work day and night to make sure that those who are bringing the money are defeated. Because if they are not, you will pay back what you 'ate' 1000 times more."

By press time, Besigye was expected at his last rally in Namutumba district.

hobenon@observer.ug

'NRM is why Rwanda is bypassing Uganda'

http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/42087-nrm-is-why-rwanda-is-bypassing-uganda

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