Most major news organizations have reported that United States Senator John Kerry is one of the people being considered by President-elect for the post of Secretary of State (equivalent to Minister of Foreign Affairs). If Senator Kerry is appointed Secretary of State it could spell trouble for the Uganda government. Senator John Kerry, who represents Massachusetts in the USA Senate, has kept a close eye on the Uganda human rights situation for several years. He is very well informed about President Museveni’s record of massive election rigging and wanton corruption. It must be noted that Mr. Obama himself is quite knowledgeable about Uganda, Mr. Museveni’s dictatorship and his award winning corruption.
Obama’s presidency in general, and Kerry’s appointment to the cabinet in particular, could be bad news for the Museveni dictatorship. One piece of evidence is the letter below, which Senator Kerry wrote to the outgoing American President Bush on the eve of an October 2007 Museveni visit to the White House.
October 29, 2007
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I understand you will be discussing a number of important subjects with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni during tomorrow’s meeting, including the escalating conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. I also urge you to take this opportunity to raise certain issues related to President Museveni’s 2006 reelection.
Specifically, the first multi-party election in over twenty-five years, held in February 2006, was reportedly marred by intimidation, various voting irregularities, and a show of force by the government. The main opposition candidate was harassed and put on trial. Regrettably, these events came on the heels of President Museveni pressuring the Ugandan parliament to lift the Constitution’s two-term limit on the presidency. Breaking his express promise to abide by the terms of the Constitution allowed President Museveni to seek reelection for a third time in 2006.
Given our strong interest in promoting democracy in Uganda and elsewhere around the world, I hope you take this opportunity both to ask President Museveni to reaffirm his commitment to the rule of law and to understand the steps he has taken since 2006 towards this end.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
John F. Kerry
United States Senator
November 10th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Well, we will be more than happy to have that extra critical minimum effort of the Obama-Biden-Kerry anti-dictatorship foreign policy that should help us Ugandans to crystallize our energy and resolve in bursting these tin-pot dicatatorships ala M7, Mugabe, Nguema, etecetra. Ugandans across the broad spectrum of our social, cultural, political and economic diversity are pretty much yearning for positive change in Uganda and this change will much sooner than later come also to Uganda, God willing! We are so fed up with these peasant, cattle-herding, arrogant, primitive and self-styled revolutionaries who violently come to power proclaiming on the mountain tops “fundamental changes” for Ugandans only to turn around and become worse megalomaniac dictators than those they kicked outta power by the barrel of the gun. Now, whether M7 and his goons like it or not, change will certainly come to Uganda!
November 10th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
See, the problem with dictators such as M7 and Mugabe is that they have a very short memory. Before M7 came to power, he told all and sundry that Africa’s biggest problem was its leaders (read RULERS) who do not want to leave power. After he assumed power, he told all those who cared to listen to him that his regime would be in power for no more than four years. Towards the expiry of the four years, he began to manipulate the extensions through his NRC one-party rule. What happened after the writing and promulgation of the 1995 “constitution” is history. Elections have been rigged right from 1996, 2001 through 2006. He had to bribe his own parliament with a paltry USD $ 2500, – to have the term limits constitutionally changed in his favor. Unashamed as he typically is, he is intending to “stand” (read: rig the elections again) again the 7th time, thereby making two- and- half decades in power. But guess what? More than two decades of his unprecedented longivity at the helm of power, Uganda is almost in its dark ages with potholed roads, absence of medicines in hospitals, lack of proper public schools (i.e. government-aided schools), poorly-mantained public utilities, dark streets in the night right from the so-called International Airport Entebbe, the phenomenon of seeing gun-wielding “policemen” and other goons in civilian clothes everywhere you go, poor public health in the towns and the 9th Century capital city – Kampala that occassionally suffers from long bouts of cholera, etectra. The herdsman is still glued onto the legendary sweet chair giving himself comical titles such “the one nearer to God”, “the Ssabagabe”, “the Nyarwino”,”the one whose ‘army’ is 2nd to that of the U.S in military might”, etecetra! This dictatorship is smelly and nauseating!! It is just a question of time for it to be outrightly bursted, whether with the support of the Kelly Anti-dictatorshipd foreign policy or not! It will go!!!
November 10th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
After it is said and done, Obama or any one else cannot take Museveni opponents seriously because you whine a lot. If Kerry was to become secretary of state, which I doubt, I am 95% confident that he is going to focus his attention on US interests. Those will never include “akeenda” until Baganda have done something more than whining.
Naye ate bwensoma bino mu Boston organization yamwe it is clear that you will not go far so long as M7 keeps opening his wallet. And some of you like Nakindu remain prisoners of emotion.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Mwami Musinguzi,
Doesn’t it surprise you at all that you keep on desperately dragging my name into every article you write since my last posting to you of November 05, 2008??
While I will not apologize to any non-Muganda for my being a proud Muganda and also for my unwavering support to His Majesty Kabaka Mutebi, I must admit that all cardinal issues concerning our nation and motherland Buganda are pretty much emotive. May be you need to be helped to understand the fact that being emotional or sensitive about something one cherishes , such as religion, creed, color, ethnicity, birthplace, family and the like is neither subjective nor shameful. It is indeed a positive psychological feeling that builds and sustains communities. If you do not have love for what you have, you will be like some of you who left Rwanda/Burundi/Bunyoro/Ankole/Kabale or wherever long time ago and you begin to feel ashamed of your original native lands.
Musinguzi, it is not my fault that you are a Munyarwandwa or Munyoro or Munyankole or whatever. I am a Muganda woman and will remain so even when I am finally recalled back home to be with Jesus. But for you to come on this honorable site which promotes the character, norms and values of the Baganda and the Kingdom of Buganda and begin to insult our Kabaka and the body politic that forms Obuganda by calling His Majesty “…your Mutebi” is absolutely unacceptable to many Baganda, your irrelevant citations of “prominent” newspapers and folks in the 60s having referred to HM King Freddie merely as “Muteesa” notwithstanding. You being a non-Muganda are definitely completely ignorant of the Ganda norms and values which are part and partial of the foundation of our Ganda sensibilities that define us not only as distinctly Baganda but also our mental window to the outside world.
I must repeat it to you Mw. Musinguzi that to us the Baganda, the Kabaka is our earthly God. His presence in or absence from our midst is divinely and we cannot stand any person who comes out to insult him. That is the bottom line. So please, take your characteristic familiarity (ala M7’s kamanyiiro) to your fellow Banyarwanda or wherever you come from. And I like I told you Musinguzi previously, you have no business being on a Bugandapost site, particularly when you resort to insulting our most revered personality in the Buganda Kingdom. I honestly don’t think you will meet Baganda on Bunyoropost/Ankolepost/Rwandapost/Burundipost carrying out discussions on those sites, more particularly when Baganda are insulting your Abagabes/Abakamas/Abaamis just like the way you guy are doing!!
And just in case you want to hear this again, lekera awo okumanyira abaganda nga ovuuma Kabaka waffe! We are Baganda and we cannot apologize to anybody for the divinely God’s gift of having created us as Baganda and being proud Baganda!We have a rich and long history spanning well over 800 years as Baganda. We were, we are and we will continue to be Baganda no matter what you Nyarus think about us Baganda!
Twakoowa, muddeyo ewamwe!!!
November 11th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Mukyala Tara Nakindu,
I am impressed by your explanation of your emotional approach to challenges whose solution requires logical and pragmatic approaches.
A few points I would like to make. 1) you have no logical basis to be sorry for me because I am a munyankore. my fellow Banyankore are the ones you are begging for mercy and who are bribing your katikiro. I happen not to support M7 or Besigye but that is the reality. 2) I have never abused Kabaka Mutebi because using his name without his title is not abusive in Buganda (which you seem not understand). When you refers to Sabasaja Kabaka of Buganda as HM (some people may even mistake it for headmaster) your are committing a much bigger mistake because these days conc Baganda never call their Kabaka HM or other foreign titles like His Majesty. 3) I disagree with about my rights to use Buganda Post. I have lived in Buganda since the 1960s and i am as concerned about her welfare even more than people like Nsibambi or Sekandi. By the way, don’t expect me to get off your back if you keep putting down my ethnic origins. Okuvuma is a sport for some of us so bring it on.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Mw. Musinguzi,
In your own words you further confirmed to all of us thus:
“Okuvuma[= insulting people] is a sport for some of us [Read BANYANKOLE]…”!!!
How vindicated I am? And how typical it is that Banyankole are always arrogant to and abusive of others??
It is exactly for this very reason you have yourself again expressed in your own words that I urge you to quit the Bugandapost and go to your Ankolepost where it is typically a “sport” for your ethnic group [i.e. Banyankole]to insult others. This also confirms further that it doesn’t matter whether it is either M7 or Musinguzi, they are all the same!!
Well, I am glad that you have lived in Buganda since the 60s. However, it just amazes me that inspite of this privilege for you to have been able to literally rub your shoulders with the centre of civilization in this part of the African continent, you and a good number of folks from your ethnic group have still miserably failed to learn the civil ways of doing things! That is why the Chief-In-Kumanyira (M7) will be wherever he is, insults His Majesty the Kabaka, writes to him an intimidating letter, commands to meet with him, and then expects that the Kabaka will the next minute to State House to meet with M7. How wrong you guys are!!!
Mw. Kamanyiro Jr, you increasingly appear to be pedantic [i.e. splitting your hairs] when you write that the internationally recognized abbreviation of HM would be mistaken to mean “Headmaster”! How wrong I had previously thought of you as being somewhat polished!! Do you, for instance, want to suggest that the abbreviation HE [=His Excellence] can be mistaken for “His Emptiness”?? Don’t split hairs, my dear brother!
But I can fully appreciate your disguised confusion in these matters when you can also be so audacious on this bugandapost forum to the extent of insulting our Kabaka by referring to him as “…your Mutebi…” and you then wrongly expect that no sane Muganda will protest the typical Kamanyiro of the Ankole folks. Please expect such hollow praises from the likes of Edward Ssekandi, Apolo Robin Nsibambi, Katenda Luutu, Tamale Mirundi, M7, Kahinda Otafiire, Amama Mbabazi et.al.
By the way, as you give away more information about yourself, such as that you were already an adult in the 60s and that by that time you place of work and abode was already firmly rooted in Buganda, I do realize that you are supposed to be my grandfather. What should shock me is the fact that my own “Jaaja” from Ankole should be the one insulting other people?? What a sad story indeed!! Anyhow, like they say that “you can successfully pick a monkey out of the woods but you can never successfully pick the forest manners out of the monkey”, this appears to be one of the classical examples of some other Ugandans I know of who have been out of the Luwero bushes for the past two decades and have occupied State House but funnily still behave like they are still in the bushes of Luwero!
Mw. Musinguzi, kino kankiddemu: You have no business of being on Bugandapost if your “sport” is to insult H.M the Kabaka, the Baganda and all the well-wishers of the Buganda Nation. Akanyiroko katwale ku Ankolepost please where you can enjoy your miserable “sport” of insulting Baganda. And to me, it does not matter whether you are anti-M7 or not. Bottom line is that we cannot allow you to move on contributing on this forum when you are arrogant, abusive and remorseless.
Wangaala nnyo ai baffe Sabasajja Kabaka Mutebi!
November 12th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Mw. Musinguzi,
Just in case you still want to continue with your empty denials of having insulted our Kabaka, I lift here below for you and for the benefit of the forum members the article you posted per verbatim on October 31, 2008 wherein you disrespectully referred to our Kabaka as “… beside Mutebi obviously, …”, “Even Mutebi has become …”:
jmusinguzi says:
October 31st, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Busagwa, Obusagwa bwo bukoma ku linya lyookka. First, it is true that Baganda are more vocal now but when you condier that you claim to be 6 million it is a joke. The people who have put their their money where their mouths are, beside Mutebi obviously, can be counted on fingures. I don’t care about any grand plans you have to deal with M7 – it would even be stupid for you to tell me. But how about simple common sense things like having the few patriotic Baganda in Boston publicize whoever voited to change the Tibamiruka data to May? If you can’t do these simple things, why the rhetoric? How can you win a war when you cannot deal with small battles like the Boston chaps. Okubavuma tekiri kumala.
I remain very disappointed by your people although I admire a handful like Patricia Nakato, Nambooze, Kyanjo and Muliika. Even Mutebi has become very impressive the last 2 years.
Over to you, Mw. Musinguzi!
November 12th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Mw. Musinguzi,
Just in case you missed this article by Mr. Ssemujju Nganda regarding the social sanction that awaits anybody who attempts and/or who practically insults our Kabaka the way you, M7, Kahinda Otafiire and your likes, read below a Muganda’s emotional and/or sentimental attachment to their Kabaka:
SSEMUJJU NGANDA: Let’s not marry from corrupt families
Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda
Written by Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda
Wednesday, 05 November 2008 21:41
Villagers have their own practical way of punishing wrong-doers. They collectively boycott their social gatherings, like weddings and funerals. This could be a punishment for something as trifle as dodging communal work. It may seem a simple punishment but I once saw a rich man wailing in Masaka town when the community helped him bury his wife but refused his food. Societal rejection brings quick results.
Recommending village solutions to well educated urban people is the reason I have been made to forcefully tour the Police’s dilapidated CID headquarters four times in 12 days (October 17th, 22nd, 28th and 29th). My lawyer, Ssalongo Erias Lukwago and I have successfully complained; so I will not make a fifth trip on November 6 as earlier decreed by Charles Kataratambi who heads CID’s Media Offences Department.
Inviting Baganda to begin administering collective punishments to those who are humiliating their Kabaka and belittling their culture, is what those in power have construed to mean inciting violence.
I have never told any Muganda to pick a gun. I have never asked any Muganda to pick a panga. I have never urged any Muganda to pick any kind of weapon.
All I have asked of them is, if a minister or the President for that matter, is belittling, insulting or undermining your culture and identity, stop inviting him or her to your funerals or weddings. They may even boycott his gatherings. The Police have a problem with this suggestion. On this one I am guilty as charged and will welcome any sentence because am not about to stop.
If you are Kahinda Otafiire and your mouth cannot shut even on obvious emotional and sentimental issues relating to our culture, you better not come to our social gatherings. If you humiliate my father, you don’t come to my residence for drinking water except if you have come for forgiveness!
I have qualified all my remarks on radio. If someone does this, this is how you should respond. But since the guilty ones run before they are chased, some people in leadership must be plotting unpleasant things against Buganda.
My call to Baganda has been consistent; anybody who insults the Kabaka must be declared persona non grata.
If you are my guest, you have no right to abuse my courtesy by entering my or my children’s bedroom except on a special invitation. If I have slaughtered a chicken for you during past visits, you don’t go running to my garden chasing my birds.
And that is what Ugandans should be doing.
We have given too much liberty to our leaders to abuse the public trust. If President Museveni goes around distributing money, vehicles and land, we must call him to order. Where is he getting the money from?
By allowing the President turn the national treasury into a personal wallet, it means health facilities will continue to decline, road potholes will multiply, and schools will lack basic facilities.
I am surprised that bishops accept President Museveni’s vehicle handouts, even waving the keys with a broad smile. If the national budget doesn’t provide for such gifts, where is the money coming from? Are the religious leaders supposed to condemn corruption only when they are not beneficiaries?
The most terrible thing is that we are allowing other leaders to learn and embrace this corrupt culture.
Doesn’t it annoy you to learn that the Mayor of Kampala is changing cars, and very expensive ones at that, like underwear these days? What business is he doing? Please, let us not sell our country this cheaply. When you become a head of state, it doesn’t mean that the country has become your garden.
Imagine a friend you requested to be a storekeeper at your wedding only to find that he decided to appropriate everything you entrusted him with! That is what our leaders are doing and we should blame ourselves for allowing this to happen.
My solution to corruption and all forms of violations is total rejection. Let us reject (tuboole) such people. Don’t invite them to our social gatherings. If they come by themselves, don’t allow them to speak. If they insist, let the audience withdraw. We must shame them, we must shun them.
Let us go even further and refuse to marry their children and close relatives. Families of corrupt fellows must become endangered species. We must make them feel insecure even when they drive vehicles bought from stolen public funds.
Bwana Kataratambi, you can now send my summons to the e-mail below:
ssemujju@observer.ug
Over to you Jaaja Musinguzi!