So true! I am being bombarded by lethal attacks by FDC activists accusing me of siding with Museveni to destroy FDC and render Dr. Kizza Besigye irrelevant.
It is a simple principle that he who alleges proves. In fact one of them - the most vitriolic one Joseph Tumushabe belittled me by saying my value is shillings 700,000. Surely, 700,000 that cannot buy me a second-hand suit?
I don't like to brag because my grandmother Susanna Kirakwende socialised me to be humble, just, fair but most importantly to be very principled. My grandma taught me to invariably be as sturdy as a concrete wall when you take a stand against injustice.
My friend Timothy Kalyegira told me that Ugandans lack nuance patience and organisation. How can a party whose ideology is extortion and merciless dispossession that started 11 years ago targeting elections ever dream to be stronger than the oldest party that is sixty years old with values that it has instilled into every nook and corner of the country premised on the ideology of justice?
It's possible that some people didn't think through the words that they put down in the founding documents but it doesn't mean if they called me the name Judith for instance that is widely believed to be a female name it would make me a woman. That some people wrongly say and think that DP is a centre right party doesn't mean its is. Right wing and left wing politics denote politics based on capitalism and socialism respectively?
I followed intently the FDC primaries that pitted Dr. Besigye and Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu. While I admired both men for I have sat with both of them and admire the humility but also the expressed vision, I chose to support Dr. Besigye never mind that I was not a voter. Personally, I do my work intellectual or otherwise using social media as a tool.
While I am a social justice crusader, socialist and human rights defender, my source of livelihood is academic research. So, I may call myself a researcher but I have been warned never to dare call myself a researcher by some people since I have no PhD.
In a meeting at Makerere Primary School (along the road to Bwaise, forgive me if I got the name wrongly because there is another school up in tank hill called I think Makerere Primary school) preparing for the registration of FDC that Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu and Ingrid Turinawe facilitated, we had Mzee Mawanda (from Ishaka - I forget his first name but his son Giles former Guild President of Mbarara University of Science and Technology and also my former classmate at the Makerere Law School ) argued strongly that we need to form an alliance either an orange democratic movement or rainbow coalition to ensure DP has to pray a key role. Mawanda told us and I want Ingrid or Gen Muntu that he was a DP and as a DP he is stuck to principles of truth and justice but was ready to work with you for purposes of removing Museveni who had become an anathema.
I remember in that meeting I had comrade Sam Mugumya and other then Reform Agenda activists sadly from only Kigezi and Ankole. I asked myself, "is this a tribal meeting?". By all standards the Bakiga and Banyankore are the same people culturally and I even don't know why they would be called different ethnically. Actually when I talk about Banyankole and bakiga the bahororo from Rukungiri are included. I wonder whether there should be an ethnic group called Bahororo when there is no language called Ruhororo. What determines an ethnic group is the language and language is the far most important aspect of culture. Forgive me I lost my SOCIOLOGY notes. I hope my sociology teacher Steven Arojjo will give me a refresher lecture on culture.
Lest I digress, I was incensed that we were forming the first tribal that was engineered at catering not for national interests but interests of an ethnic group called Banyankole-Bakiga and I sensed that was going to be a recipe for disaster.
The other preparatory meeting for the formation of FDC that I attended was at Katonga Road at Chaapa Karuhanga's premises. All the attendants were from Bushenyi but still I didn't believe this where I belonged. Meanwhile, while I was in Reform Agenda I was also in UYD. I remember in the first Reform Agenda meeting where we had elections, we elected Sam Mugumya unanimously but the person who influenced the unanimous election of comrade Mugumya was none other than Asuman Basalirwa. If I am not mistaken Asuman by then was still a DP. I always joke with him that he is still DP in any case the ideology and objectives of JEEMA and those of DP are the same.
It's this very Asuman Basalirwa who had spoken severally that there is nothing wrong with forming parties dominated by particular societies and over time I have seen Dr. Simba Kayunga a political science expert, agree that the predominance of Catholics in DP was inevitable because they had historically been marginalised. Propagandists up to this time brand that wisdom sectarianism. Of course, given that majority Catholics socialised their children to be just, fair and principled as opposed to protestants who socialised theirs to be shrewd, cunning and crafty, if they were to succeed in all aspects of life - politics, business and any others it became imperative that the protestant-based UPC had to use treachery, propaganda and all forms of manipulations and deception to raise to the top.
That explains why DP (derogatorily called Dini Ya Papa lost the independence elections because the Anglican leaning Kabaka Yekka and the Anglican Party UPC which was teasingly called United Protestants of Canterbury made an unholy alliance with the of the father and the son but without the Holy Spirit.
Last year on a presentation of findings about the Uganda elections by a professor from Durham University, where Prof John-Jean Barya was a discussant and Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere gave a review, I was shocked to learn that DP had more votes but was just denied power. That's why the likes of John-Jean Barya and others then had wanted DP to have an armed wing which they wanted to be called DPA (Democratic Party Army).
Semo explained the situation and named people who were at the threat of danger to their lives and he resolved that DP would rather stay out of power. Semo explained how Francis Bwengye the then DP secretary general went to Nairobi and addressed the press saying DP was launching an armed war, a reason that made Ssemogerere fire him from SG position.
With exception of the few renegades from DP notably Ogenga Latigo, Kassiano Wadri (who was Chairman DP Parliamentary caucus), all the key pillars of FDC are products of UPC, UPM and NRM. According to John-Jean, UPC,gave birth to UPM and UPM begat NRM therefore NRM is a grandchild of UPC which has inherited the election-rigging DNA from the grandfather UPC only that the rigging of NRM has been much more perfected.
Since FDC is a great-grandchild of UPC one should not get shocked and surprised if the FDC perfected rigging to the magnitude of Sadam's Iraq.
WHY DO I BELIEVE FDC WILL BE WORSE THAN NRM
While NRM practices capitalism, it has a few voices that still profess socialism, pan Africanism and Ubuntu. At least by speech. People like Elly Gen Elly Tumwine and Kirunda Kivejjinja have consistently decried exploitation, pomp, pageantry and ostentation. Indeed, Gen Elly Tumwine always expresses disdain for phantom wealth, wealth that is not based on eternal values. It is not surprising that Gen Elly Tumwine is the champion of Volunteers Anticorruption Crrusade Africa (VACOCA).
While NRM practices capitalism, it has a few voices that still profess socialism, pan Africanism and Ubuntu. At least by speech. People like Elly Gen Elly Tumwine and Kirunda Kivejjinja have consistently decried exploitation, pomp, pageantry and ostentation. Indeed, Gen Elly Tumwine always expresses disdain for phantom wealth, wealth that is not based on eternal values. It is not surprising that Gen Elly Tumwine is the champion of Volunteers Anticorruption Crrusade Africa (VACOCA).
Ugandans should get worried by the continued association by FDC with the Britain's Conservative Party and the IDU which a far-right wing political parties which are diametrically opposed to immigration, social security and the provision of social economic rights generally. In Uganda, the single most role of the state is provision for what Political Scientist Prof. Rotberg calles political goods. Sorry, FDC you don't stand for the provision of political goods at leats based onyour political alignment. An idealistic young man Ronald Muhinda hit my inbox and told me FDC is centre leftist and that is why it belongs to IDU. General Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu, Hon Wafula Oguttu, Hon Augustine Ruzindana, Nathan Nandala-Mafabi, Proscovia Salaamu-Musumba and my very good brother and friend Odonga Otto, please teach your followers your party's ideology. It is Mwambutsya Ndebesa who consistently asks "DP's ideology is justice, UPC Pan-Africanism (although when they were in power it should be debated whether marginalising Catholics was Pan Africanism), Ndebesa asks "What is the ideology of FDC?"
Finally, one point that touches my spiritual family: it is now said everywhere that before the Anglican colonialists left they left in place an arrangement that would ensure no catholic would ever be the president. While I don't want to believe that blindly, I am not judgmental, in otherwise I don't judge people on the basis of rumours spread about them, who they are or on the basis of other misperceptionsms, kindly as FDC, give the party's observation about this rumour which may actually be true.
Explain to us as well whether the ability or absence thereaof to govern (not rule) this country must be dependent on whether and how long you have been associated with Museveni. Like Norbert Mao rightly states " Museveni walked on dead bodies up to state house". Is it not true that Mugisha Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu and Kizza Besigye were Museveni's bodyguards as he walked on those bodies? If we are to apportion responsibility like we are now doing, would Muntu or Besigye or even Amama Mbabazi be accused for complicity. So, why should we trust accessories to the crime and denounce those whose hands are as pure as purity itself.
On a very serous note, the colours of the flags also matter. Things Ugandan are prophetic. I have shared with Norbert Mao the prophecies in Ezekiel and revelations. Green Colour for DP symbolises life while white symbolises purity. Norbert Mao's uncles and maternal brother's and sisters from Ngarama in Isingiro and indeed all of us from Ankole-Kigezi, Toro and Bunyoro know that the DP flag represents amagara noburiwera (life and holiness).
After the 2010 elections, I wrote the prophesy that i had been given by God and took the letter to the Inspector General's office and gave copies to some other people, I hope JK Zirabamuzaale has it. I wrote to the IGP not seeking his permission or even security but informing him that I was taking a non-motional, peaceful protest at the desecrated constitutional square and that it would end after the wicked, demonic, nefarious regime had collapsed and replaced by the holy, anointed theocracy led by the Democratic Party under the godly leadership of Norbert Mao. I was violently picked from there stuck in CPS dungeons for four days. From there they took me to the usual place - Butabika.
After the 2010 elections, I wrote the prophesy that i had been given by God and took the letter to the Inspector General's office and gave copies to some other people, I hope JK Zirabamuzaale has it. I wrote to the IGP not seeking his permission or even security but informing him that I was taking a non-motional, peaceful protest at the desecrated constitutional square and that it would end after the wicked, demonic, nefarious regime had collapsed and replaced by the holy, anointed theocracy led by the Democratic Party under the godly leadership of Norbert Mao. I was violently picked from there stuck in CPS dungeons for four days. From there they took me to the usual place - Butabika.
While they took me on a Thursday, on Friday JK Zirabamuzale brought me a computer and modem. I sent my column in the Razor Newspaper that was published on Monday or Tuesday. They must have been very shocked!
We must all embrace the crusade for equality, justice by joining the Democratic Party. We are ready. We are endowed with brain power - I am sure nobody disputes the mental faculties of people like Jean-Barya, Oloka-Onyango, Archangel Rukooko and Fredrick Jjuko who are our very own since they have never recanted the principles of truth and justice. I am sure nobody disputes Norbert Mao's mathematical brain. I don't care whether you doubt my scientific mind! After all we are not in a contest for brains but a struggle for justice that will end the rotten, filthy capitalist system.
FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE
END
VINCENT VESSY Vincent Vessy Nuwagaba
0702843552
0702843552
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
