{UAH} Ugandans are desperate for democracy, Yoweri Museveni only gives them tyranny

Ugandans are desperate for democracy, Yoweri Museveni only gives them tyranny

Tabu Butagira

The president used force and intimidation to ensure that he extended his 30-year rule

Women walk past campaign posters of Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni in Kampala. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

Monday 22 February 2016 14.21 GMT Last modified on Monday 22 February 2016 14.22 GMT  

Last Saturday, as Yoweri Museveni was declared president of Uganda for a fifth consecutive term, the military rolled armoured cars down the streets of the capital, Kampala, and police surveillance helicopters hovered overhead.

The election result, military presence and "preventive" house arrest of Museveni's rival, Kizza Besigye, have been disturbing but not unexpected. Museveni is, after all, the man who told the US secretary of state, John Kerry, when he'd called to demand an end to the arrest of opponents, not to "worry a lot about the internal affairs of Uganda because we know how to handle it".

And handle it, he did. To extend his 30-year rule, Museveni – who came to power as a guerrilla leader in 1986 – has been prepared to use force. As polls opened last Thursday, Ugandans found their mobile money services and social media networks blocked. Using a virtual private network, local TV station NTV Uganda tweeted that the blockage was "because there was information that people were using these to bribe voters".

Last Friday, as the military presence escalated, shots were fired in Kampala and shops and offices closed as the central business district came under a security lockdown, and several people were detained.

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With another term in office secure, the question is: where does Uganda go from here? Museveni has repeatedly assured Ugandans (and the international community) that there would be no post-election violence as happened in Kenya in 2008 or as is happening in Burundi. With elections over, the government has restored mobile money services and said the detention of opposition leaders is only temporary.

But the president will require more coercion to keep power in this new term. The opposition may yet stir up civil unrest sufficient to make Uganda ungovernable. At that point, international actors, who are increasingly exasperated with Museveni's techniques, may demand national dialogue and a transitional government. But it's a long shot.

Museveni has been quick to suppress protests, and any failed uprising by the opposition will only embolden him to rule beyond 2021, when the next elections are due. Plus, for many people, the 71-year-old leader remains a larger-than-life figure who defeated 28 rebel groups and has given Uganda a lead role in security and peacekeeping in the conflict-prone Great Lakes region.

Museveni went into these elections having already tipped the scales in his favour: he appointed the electoral commissioners, commands the police and military who oversaw security during the election, and mustered an unrivalled campaign budget of $7m within the first two months of the three-month campaign, outstripping the funds raised by his challengers by about 12-fold. Yet, despite what the European Union Election Observation Mission called an "atmosphere of intimidation and ruling party control of state resources", he garnered only 60% of the valid votes, an eight percentage point drop from his 2011 score.

Ugandans are desperate for democracy. They actively participated in the various campaigns and waited patiently for hours under the hot sun to cast their vote. But the man who was once hailed by president Bill Clinton as one of a "new breed" of African leaders is now the continent's fifth longest-serving leader.

The secret to his staying in power is simple: Museveni wins because he is not ashamed to be the tyrant his critics say he is.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

"But this I know, UPC believed and still believes in

very high education. We can call Obote all bad names we have, but the bottom line remains that he got more scholarships for Buganda than all previous Uganda leaders combined. That includes Sir Edward Mutesa, President Lule, President Binayisa, up to and into Ssabasajja Mutebi. Who all happen to be Baganda leaders." Mulindwa

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