{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: Yes, it's true Mr Museveni won... against Museveni - Opinion/Editorial | The Citizen
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Yes, it's true Mr Museveni won... against Museveni - Opinion/Editorial
A discussion is raging now over who actually won the February 18 presidential poll in neighbour Uganda and I can't wait to participate, albeit in a concluding manner.
A lot of discussants have wondered whether Museveni actually won against his seven opponents. A few conclude that Dr Kizza Besigye's victory was stolen. More and more are posing the question: Who allowed Museveni to stand a fifth term?
My take is straight —President Museveni has won but only against himself. Given the circumstances, the Uganda election has had only one candidate standing against himself. There are hundreds of reasons for this submission but I will dwell aon four.
President Museveni, a 71 year-old son of World War II veteran has been declared winner. Born in Ntungamo, Mbarara, Uganda in September 1944, Museveni and war nearly inherent friends. Nicknamed M7, Museveni greatly hanours the seventh battalion of the Kings African Rifles (KAR) for which many Ugandans served on the side of Britain during the war. Ever since his naming, Museveni speaks democracy but is a big fan or war and confrontation. Proving this point, Museveni made recollections of his old days when he came, lived and studied in Dar es Salaam saying he has had too much of hope on the 'Tanzanian revolution' until he realised that there was very little of a revolution but only a bunch of ideas. And as he has continued to remark, power does not come by a pen and paper!
I have too often been to Uganda on election missions. I see that the zeal and vigour in the electorate drowns day in, day out. Late August 2015, Ugandans were very depressed at the President's announcement in the presence of President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya that Ugandans had embraced the removal of term limits. A lot of Ugandans have joined Bukoli Central MP and leader of the opposition in Uganda's Parliament, Philip Ogottu, in arguing that Ugandans have never rejected term limits. Actually, Ugandans want term limits to cover all levels of elective positions from village chairmanship to the presidency. So which poll did M7 conduct to lead him to speak on behalf of the more than 17 million Ugandan voters?
Just to reminnicent on the constitutional history of Uganda under Museveni, it was M7 himself who in 1988 appointed the Benjamin Odoki Commission which like the Warioba Commission in Tanzania went across the country soliciting views on what should change in the Constitution.
A clear message out of the Commission's work was that never again should Uganda be under dictators hence the idea of term limits culminating to a superb Article 105 in the Republic of Uganda constitution of 1995. Dissapointingly, Mr Museveni later realised he would have to leave State House by 2006 and started maneuvers to the Constitution. Against his belief in the early days from the "bush" M7 instituted in 2005 a constitutional amendment rapped up in a Sh5 million note for each MP who was ready to vote for the removal of term limits from the Odoki Constitution. Poor Uganda! That was the end of the possibility for competitive and universally held elections in the country. A friend of mine emailed me in early 2006 and said: "We are back to the no-party' and one party system of NRM again. Competitition has been stifled by harassment and attacks on alternative voices and candidates. As I submitted in my piece on this column last week, Kizza Besigye has suffered the most, facing arrests and beatings every before an election.
Elsewhere, Civil Society has faced intimidation to the tune of failing to do effective Civic and voter education across Uganda. See the Uganda NGO Forum coordinated black Mondays and how they have been militarily suppressed. Processes such as the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) have been rendered obscelete living many frustrated. Retired Bishop Zac Niringiye, who formerly chaired the APRM Governing Council in Uganda, has become the biggest enemy of the M7 administration in turn.
In such a situation, Uganda elections have been an affair of the 'barracks', making hardly any significance in as far as international standards on elections and good governance are concerned. One clear proposal is that Uganda must revert to constitutional term limits involving all the layers of the elective administration. The first stem could be to subject this issue to a referendum so that Ugandans decide on the plight!
Deus Kibamba is trained in Political Science, International Politics and Law. He has led and overseen election observer missions in several African countries. He also lectures in international relations and diplomacy and can be contacted through: Tel. +255 788 758 581(also on skype)
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