{UAH} Uganda paid a terrible price the day Museveni took power, Col. Samson Mande

By Alex Muhumuza

Col. Samson Mande, who fled to exile to escape Museveni's vendettas for speaking out against dictatorship, corruption, and all sorts of misrule, is adamant: Museveni is terrible for Uganda.

Few people know Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni more than Col. Samson Mande who, in his own words, was forced into exile in 2002 following constant harassment and torture at the hands of his country's security services.

As Mande recounts, by 1994 he had begun telling Museveni some bitter truths, such as that under Museveni's rule corruption, looting of national funds, nepotism, poor discipline of the armed forces, and many other things like that were getting out of hand. "In other words Museveni was doing everything that we fought against!"

That was about the time President Museveni's military and intelligence services began subjecting the colonel to endless interrogations, followed by torture, followed by interrogations. Around 2002 he fled to save his life.

We recently had a long-distance phone conversation with Col. Mande, and he is beyond flabbergasted at the turn of events in Uganda as the country descends ever further from the ideals he fought for, from 1977 as a young man up to when Museveni captured power in 1986.

"When in 1977 I joined Museveni in Fronasa (Front for National Salvation), it was because of some very high ideals, and good causes," Mande recalls. "Museveni had all the talk of a liberator, and a convincing message of change; of the need to restore democracy, good governance, human rights and freedoms which Idi Amin had trampled. That is what I joined Fronasa to fight for.

"But later when Amin was overthrown and Obote came back to power, human rights abuses, violence, non-democratic practices were just as bad as before. The election of 1980 was really bad, so Museveni led us into the bush to wage war, making us believe it was to fight for the restoration of democracy; to fight against injustices; and to fight for restoration of the human rights of Ugandans."

But they had been deceived, and badly so! Mande says with bitter emphasis. "We had sacrificed our youths, we had abandoned school, and many comrades, too many to count, had sacrificed their lives, and it was all for a lie." Col. Mande is vehement that after analyzing Museveni for just a few years he saw this was someone that had never possessed real democratic ideals or convictions. "He has never been someone that cared for people. Quite the opposite in fact. Museveni is the most selfish individual I know!"

Mande advises: "Do not judge Museveni by his words. Judge him by his actions. This is a dictator worse than those we overthrew. He has betrayed the dream of a democratic society, and of good governance that we fought for." Mande pauses to catch his breath, then continues: "to see this man with whom we fought to bring about social justice and economic emancipation to Ugandans instead practice the very things for which we fought Idi Amin and Milton Obote, it is so painful."

What shocked Mande most about Museveni, he says, is the man's readiness to commit any atrocity the moment he feels his political power, his access to money, and to prestige, are threatened in the slightest way.

"I told friends and comrades right from the late Eighties, after analyzing Museveni's character, that this was a very dangerous person.

"But they said, 'give him the benefit of the doubt.' Now with what has happened in this month's election, with the worst rigging, even unlike Obote's rigging that caused us to go to the bush, finally none remains with the smallest doubt that I was right!"

Look at what has happened to (National Unity Platform leader) Kyagulanyi and his supporters! Mande exclaims. "Museveni will not care how man people die, how much property will be destroyed as long as it maintains him in power. He will not care how much money will be squandered into his security forces, however dilapidated the roads, schools and hospitals are. All that is of less concern to him. All he cares about is being in power until he dies. No sane person can doubt this after the election on fourteenth January."

Uganda paid a terrible price the day this man took power, Mande solemnly says.

From the earliest days, the outspoken Mande did not keep quiet about the wrong he was seeing.

Museveni, his family, and the NRM party, which had become their private shell company, taking such names as "Danze Enterprises" already were plundering the nation. They were bypassing laws, for instance, to export commodities like coffee, tea, or minerals completely tax-free while hard-working Ugandans complied with the law. That was just for starters.

There followed mega scandals, like the infamous junk chopper scam at the heart of which was Museveni's brother Salim Saleh: like the UCB bankruptcy scandal (again with the involvement of Saleh), like the "ghost soldier" salaries scandal, and countless others. All exposed the rot of corruption at the heart of the Museveni regime.

"But when I told President Museveni and other comrades in high positions that these things were wrong, and when I repeatedly told them this, that was when frivolous charges against me in military courts started. Then they began to detain me, first in Makindye Barracks torture dungeons. Then in Bbunga safe house. After that, it was in places whose locations I didn't know.

"Afterwards I realized I had to escape, or I would die."

Mande, throughout the interview, repeats a few things with emphasis. "Museveni is not Uganda! He can't keep saying 'he fought in the bush' and keep using that to maintain an iron grip on Uganda and Ugandans. He is not the only one that fought, and now he is worse than those he fought.

"Museveni has to go!"

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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