Kayihura, Museveni and company enough is enough

Vincent Nuwagaba

Kayihura, Museveni and company enough is enough

The police and prisons personnel have turned it into a duty to torture, harass, dehumanize and brutalise me. I wonder whether they have nothing useful to do with themselves. Surely, there is no doubt that we are headed for disaster. Only last week on 28th July, I was humiliated at parliament by the police. Even when I informed one of their superiors Mr. Elly Womanya, they insisted that they had their own rules which I had to follow. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t succumb to the dictates of the policemen for I knew they didn’t know what they were doing. On that very day, when I went to Bauman House looking for Hon Fungaroo, I was also humiliated. The following day, I went to Murchison Bay Prison but I was denied access to the inmates simply because I had an exercise book and a pen. I have now realized that the NRM regime is in its evening and has reached the exit door.

They have tortured me several times, arrested me illegally several times and subjected me to drugs with a view to exterminating me. To their shock, nothing has deterred me from speaking the truth. I would like to warn the police and everyone who wants to take me for a ride that nobody can successfully subjugate me. I am a citizen in this country and not anyone’s subject.
In less than two weeks time, we shall submit afresh the petition of fees increment in the public universities and we shall demand that government refunds all the monies that have been paid by the students under the 2009/2010 fees structures because fees was increased irregularly. I was personally taken to jail and told that I will spend there twenty eight months. By the grace of God, I came out after serving eight and a half months. What I learnt from there is more than a course that one would cover for three years.
I call upon all patriotic Ugandans to use all the peaceful means to ensure that there is change. We must petition the courts of law, the parliament, the East African Court of Justice, the African Court of Human and People’s Rights but also we must expose the nakedness of the NRM regime.
It’s amazing that the people who claimed they went to the bush to fight for democracy, human rights, security of property and person are now doing the unthinkable. Indeed, like Lord Acton remarked, power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If we indeed accept that leaders come from God, we ought to know that God has anointed a leader to liberate Ugandans from spiritual doom which the First Lady has always lamented about. Sadly, she forgets to understand that the first family is part of the problem.
I pity Celestine Twesigye, the Officer in Charge of Murchison Bay prison under whose command I was chased out of the prison premises because they feared I was going to write about the situation therein. If they don’t torture inmates, why should they block human rights defenders from freely interfacing with the prisoners? I have been in jail and I know that there are many inmates who are innocent but because they got no lawyers or the magistrates were bribed they ended up being convicted.
Meanwhile, Magistrate Grade II, James Wambaya who illegally, without any sense of shame convicted me and sentenced me to twenty eight months of imprisonment, has lodged a complaint against me with the police saying that I threaten him. I wish him well but I would be glad if we met in the courts of law so that I can defend myself. Norbert Mao once said lies have short legs; they cannot go far. I have also come to learn that lies have a short lifespan. I am not at all scared about anybody and I am convinced that I will succeed at the end of the day.
I would like to inform Kayihura and other policemen and military men who think that what works is the barrel of the gun. I am even surprised that the current ruling oligarchy doesn’t know that the more people are brutalized the radical they become. I would also call upon Gen Kayihura to officially join the NRM secretariat since the President has in the recent past declared that Kayihura and Kafeero are NRM cadres.

A friend of mine once told me that madness is doing one thing, over and over again expecting different results. They have tortured me in the past; they have taken me to a mental hospital; they have taken me to court and convicted me; I don’t know why they behave like they have no iota of brains in their heads.
I am convinced that as sure as day follows night, all those that have committed crimes with impunity will be brought to book. You can imagine, Ofwono Opondo kills and gets away with it while Vincent Nuwagaba who is critical of the regime is rewarded with twenty-eight months’ imprisonment. I have said that I am neither Kayihura’s nor Museveni’s ball to be kicked by every Tom Dick and Harry. Meanwhile, I am going to drag UBC to the courts of law because their job is not to gag the critical voices.

In 1981, an irate group of 27 men, went to the bushes in Luwero triangle, they killed many civilians and walked on dead bodies to capture state power. Today, they have committed more heinous crimes than the ones they were fighting against. I would like to remind today’s Uganda rulers of the words of John F Kennedy, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable”. Enough is enough. We must assert ourselves and prove to everyone that Uganda belongs to all of us. For God and my country!

Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com