{UAH} Reload: Allan/Frank/Pojim/WBK:: Besigye's hopes raised in Rukungiri, Mbarara

http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/42405-besigye-s-hopes-raised-in-rukungiri-mbarara

Besigye's hopes raised in Rukungiri, Mbarara

Written by Benon Herbert Oluka

Created: 03 February 2016

It was more of celebration than campaigning this week as FDC presidential candidate Kizza Besigye visited Rukungiri and Mbarara districts.

In Mbarara yesterday, a convoy escorting Besigye to his rally at the Boma grounds, started forming 15 kilometres from the Mbarara-Ibanda road. It delayed his arrival into Mbarara town, as the convoy moved at a snail's pace.

On Monday morning, at the second of Besigye's nine rallies in Rukungiri district, in Nyarushanje town, within about five minutes of his speech, locals seemed to have heard enough of his message. Wild ululations drowned out Besigye's speech, as one person after another showered their candidate with gifts.

Besigye's last rally at Nyakagyeme sub-county headquarters ended at 7:50pm – nearly two hours after official campaign time – and the music continued for nearly another one hour.

Even when Besigye retreated to his home in Rukungiri town, boda boda riders and other supporters followed him. Besigye left his gates open for whoever wanted to enter – and the singing and dancing continued.

Kizza Besigye campaigns in Mbarara

Phyllis Ariho, 25, who tailed Besigye throughout a campaign route designed to take him around most of rural Rukungiri, said the day's events embodied their way of showing their love for this son of the soil.

"People love Besigye so much and, the fact that he is at home, people are so excited to see him," she said.

Yesterday in Mbarara, where preparations for Besigye's visit began days earlier with cleaning of the streets, the festive atmosphere started in the morning even though the main rally in the municipality was scheduled for 5pm.
FIRST ROUND VICTORY

An invigorated Besigye told supporters at Nyakishenyi sub-county headquarters that his candidature now has sufficient support to win the presidential election in the first round.

"We are going to give them a knockout in the first round," he said, to wild ululations. "There will not be a second round. This time the whole country has come together to say, 'after 30 years [of Museveni], enough is enough'."

Despite the euphoria, however, FDC officials concede that they face an uphill battle to turn the tables on incumbent Museveni, who has enjoyed massive support from the region.

In the 2011 presidential elections, Museveni beat Besigye in all the districts in the region, polling an average of 80 per cent against Besigye's 20 per cent. Even Besigye's own home district of Rukungiri gave Museveni more votes (60 per cent) against Besigye's 40 per cent.

However, Besigye has been attracting large crowds at many of his rallies. According to FDC officials such as Francis Mwijukye, a parliamentary candidate for Buhweju constituency, the huge turnout is just one sign of the changing tide.

"I sense that there is a big shift in the west because they have realised that they have been the roadblock to the change that we want in this country," he said.

Mwijukye said besides the mobilisation work by FDC, the ruling NRM has been digging its own political grave by continuously making empty promises to the people in western Uganda.

"The people in the west were promised prosperity for all but nobody has prospered. They were told about free education but children are going to school and there is no education. They were told about poverty eradication but poverty is on the increase," he said.

The changing tide is mainly being led by the youth, according to Arnold Alinda, a 29-year-old teacher from Kebisoni sub-county in Rukungiri district.

"Everywhere you go, people are crying of no jobs," he said. "Schools are not functioning well. For the hospitals, the structures are there but there is no medicine."

A few metres from Besigye's rally in Buyanja sub-county headquarters, the police had sealed off the health centre II in case Besigye tried to visit it to capitalize on any failures.

"Most of the time you go there, you find there are no nurses. It does not have a doctor yet this is a sub-county that is near the municipality," Ariho said.
 
SERVICES WANTED

In his speech at Buyanja, Besigye complained about the "deplorable" state of the roads. The FDC candidate caused laughter when he said because Museveni knows the bad state of roads in rural Uganda, he uses a helicopter to travel to all his rallies.

His government would reallocate money from the misuse through corruption and wastage by the NRM government to improve basic social services.

"The money is there. It is the way they use it that has been bad," Besigye said, repeating the promise that his government would provide 'mama kits' to stem maternal deaths which he puts at 19 mothers per day.

Should Besigye win the February 18 election, even the locals in his home district of Rukungiri will not expect anything less of him that better services.

"It is not just because he is our son. We expect him to perform better than Mr Museveni," Ariho said.
SEJUSA CASE

In Mbarara yesterday, Besigye's campaign team had a series of altercations with police who closely tailed the FDC candidate's convoy. At one point, on the way to Kashaari, the youth got out of their vehicles, picked sticks and threatened to attack the police officers until they drove away.

Besigye, who consistently urges his supporters to stand up to the government and security officials who violate their rights, said the regime's strong-arm tactics are a result of fear that Museveni is going to lose the election.

At a rally in Rwampara, Besigye said the weekend arrest of the former coordinator of intelligence services, Gen David Sejusa, was reminiscent of his own problems with the NRM regime when he attempted to tell them through a dossier where the government was abandoning the ideals that led them to take up arms and capture power in the 1980s.

"You know Mr Museveni threatens whoever tells him the truth," he said. "Sejusa is being mistreated just as they did to me in 1999 when I told them issues which were genuine."

Today, Besigye takes his campaign to Isingiro district.
hobenon@observer.ug

Besigye's hopes raised in Rukungiri, Mbarara

http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/42405-besigye-s-hopes-raised-in-rukungiri-mbarara

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