By George Kanyeihamba
Sunday Monitor, May 29 2011
In search of literary treasures, I visit many places of interest. In one of them I came across four sets of three words which every person should learn and memorise. The first trio predict that once three things in life have gone, they never come back and they are Time, Words and Opportunity.
The second trio recites that three things in life can destroy a man or a woman and these are Drugs, Pride and Anger. The third trio confirms that three things in life are never certain and they include Dreams, Success and Fortune.
Lastly, the fourth trio is that three things make a man or woman and these are Hardwork, Sincerity and Commitment. The fifth trio together constitute the icing on the cake of life and are Personality, Belief and Integrity.
Political leaders and their supporters whether of government or opposition parties who do not humbly believe in or respect the majority or all of the trios of the three words aforementioned will soon or later be defeated or ruined regardless of status, wealth, power or style.
Following the recent general elections in which one political party, by fair or other means, gained majority vote support of the Uganda population, no one could have thought that even before new members of Parliament had been sworn in, Opposition parties in general and Dr Kizza Besigye in particular would appear to have more support and certainly appear more attractive and popular both nationally and internationally than those who had jubilated at his and the opposition’s poor showing in the general elections.
The former British Prime Minister, the late Harold Wilson who was loved and disliked equally at the same time by the various sections of the British public once described a week in politics as a lifetime.
It may also be recalled that a sitting Canadian Prime Minister with a comfortable parliamentary majority had parliament prorogued and called a general election. Her main opponent was a liberal party leader who had a speaking impediment caused by an illness. During the election campaign the Prime Minister mocked that opposition leader and called upon Canadians not to vote for a cripple to become Prime Minister of great Canada.
In the ensuing elections, Canadian voters who had been so angered by her unkind remarks about someone who should have been receiving her sympathy, punished her party’s candidates so severely that its representation in the new legislature was reduced to almost zero. The outgoing Prime Minister herself lost her own constituency seat.
I had been invited to the Kololo for the swearing-in ceremony and had hoped to attend. Then news began to appear in the media that Dr Besigye had been prevented from returning from Nairobi where he had been rushed for treatment following an assault on his person by members of the police force. He had been expected to arrive on the previous Wednesday. On the Thursday, the police began to pour into the City and take up positions in strategic places as if expecting a massive force of an invading foreign army.
Although it is possible that they were guarding places for the safety of visiting African Presidents and other leaders, rumours circulated that they were targeting the arrival of Dr Besigye to assault and humiliate him and his supporters once again. No one in government denied these rumours. This led to thousands of Ugandans avoid Kololo, where the swearing-in of the President was taking place, and instead thronged Entebbe road, all the way from Entebbe Airport to Kampala City. On that same day, it was announced that Dr Besigye had been allowed to come home. Many Ugandans failed to understand why Dr Kizza Besigye had been prevented from coming home on the Wednesday but was permitted to return on the same Thursday that the President was to be sworn in, and in the presence of several African Presidents, Prime Ministers and other dignatories. Whatever reasons people may have had, Besigye’s arrival was bad timing as far as the swearing-in of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was concerned.
National and international media showed very little attendance at the swearing-in at Kololo airstrip but displayed thousands of Ugandans who thronged the road all the way from Entebbe to Kampala to welcome the leader of the FDC, Kizza Besigye returning home. Thousands of other Ugandans may have attended the swearing-in ceremony but it appeared that the greater number of citizens braved the anticipated confrontation between supporters or sympathisers of the injured FDC leader and the police and went to Entebbe Road instead.
These Ugandans preferred the discomfiture of standing and waiting by the roadside in order to boost the morale and support of the returning injured soldier, to the luxurious, pompous and colourful displays at the swearing-in ceremony. The lineups and queues on Entebbe Road looked orderly and peaceful until the Police intervened.
Incidentally, Ugandans have noticed over the years that demonstrating and assembling crowds are normally orderly and peaceful until the police and other members of security forces choose to interfere. The Thursday of swearing-in ceremony of the President on this occasion was no exception. People walked to and from many centres abutting onto Entebbe Road.
All seemed calm and peaceful, all the way from Entebbe airport through Kitooro, Windsor Hotel, Entebbe Hospital, the Botanical Gardens, Abaitababiri, Kisubi, Namulanda, Kajjansi, Lubowa until Najjanankumbi and Kibuye market. It is in the latter two places that the police were seen in great numbers. Many of the police men and women appeared agitated, confrontational and ready to charge into the crowd. It is then that hell broke loose.
Once again, the media showed images of the unacceptable and brutish methods of certain elements within the police force. These were ugly exhibitions of thuggery, reminiscent of the dictatorships and Aminism of the past.
The police indulge in these unacceptable behaviours and use brutal methods of crowd control under the pretext of maintaining law and order. Maybe one day, they should just be calm and refrain from forcefully charging into peaceful walking or marching crowds in pursuit of their constitutional rights, and see what happens when they do not charge or attack members of the public. They could easily be surprised by the peaceful manners in which demonstrations, which are uninterrupted by the police, are peaceful.
Justice Kanyeihamba is a retired
Supreme Court Judge
No comments:
Post a Comment