 Olara Otunnu's return to Uganda after a long stay abroad where he ended up almost becoming Africa's first UN Secretary General has generated for himself, Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) and Uganda 's opposition political parties, modest publicity in the local media.
However, in order for him to be able to profit from his return fully, the opposition needs to understand that Otunnu has dominated front pages, not because of immense popularity, but his international stature. This is the key connection that the Uganda political opposition has to harness. Dragging him to stand for the position of President of Uganda would be an anomaly. This may anger some UPC supporters, but one needs to look at reality.
Removing a government in Africa has traditionally required a foreign hand. To his credit, Yoweri Museveni has not forgotten that. He knows the role Britain played in bringing Idi Amin's era to an end.
However, while the actual invasion of Uganda in 1971 was at the hands of the Tanzanian military, it is an established fact that this was with a lot of support from Europe . Of course, the Ugandan leader can publicly pretend as having been part of the forces that ousted Amin. However, deep inside he knows there is no fighting that he or any of his colleagues carried out apart from escorting the invaders.
The same man who escorted and supported Tanzanians demolish Idi Amin and his Libyan backers, flew to Tripoli to look for arms and other logistics that were used to remove Obote. Imagine supporting the killing of Libyans in 1979 and a few years later you are knocking on their doors for supplies!
That is what distinguishes Museveni from other politicians. The hiring of people like former US Assistant Trade Representative for Africa, Rosa Whitaker, at slightly over a quarter of a million shillings a year to write and edit Museveni's speeches, is all intended to play to this international politics.
The President will appease people like Whitaker with billions as long as they can talk to their governments not to put him under pressure. Therefore, the opposition needs a diplomatic offensive to demobilise the works of people like Whitaker and other lobbyists.
One could be wrong though, but this is where you need people like Olara Otunnu. Having studied at Oxford and Harvard, many of his old students must be in key positions all over the globe. Moreover, having worked at the UN and in senior positions, Otunnu would be the best person to lead a diplomatic offensive against Uganda 's Life President'.
If a rebel group holed up in the jungles of Luwero had a fully functional external committee to look for funding and diplomatic sympathies, a 21st Century opposition group should do even better. Otunnu can occasionally fly in but he needs to dedicate a lot more time mobilising the world against the life presidency.
One key institution the opposition should concentrate on in the civic awareness battle under the Uganda Police chief, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura. There are signs to suggest a profound role of Police interference in Museveni's re-election. It is interesting to note that it was only after Kayihura became police chief that money to double the police officers' numbers became available. For it is public knowledge that successive Internal Affairs ministers strived to have police personnel increased, but in vain.
Members of the Uganda police now number about 40,000, almost rivalling the Army. Numbers per se are not a problem, but rather the conduct. People do not realise that the police have dealt the opposition's visibility in urban centres a deadly blow.
During the last Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala two years ago, the Uganda police "ring-fenced" assembly places like the Constitution Square . To this day, police chief Kale Kayihura continues to parade himself as the only person with the power to allow a public rally, procession or demonstration.
With increased police numbers at his disposal, Kayihura has deployed the police at almost every corner of the capital. Wherever there is a traffic police officer, there are two armed police officers. As 2011 draws near, it is going to be very difficult to move even in a group of 10 people.
In addition, it was through this influence that Kayihura weeks stopped vehicles from receiving and welcoming Olara Otunnu at Entebbe Airport . The obvious reason for this can be put as follows: Come 2011, Museveni does not want to use the military. He wants the police to do his dirty work.
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Looking for Mr Right (7)
I have watched a video clip of the coronation of Kabaka Mutesa II and in the background were the king’s loyalists who were barely dressed. Some wore bark cloth, while a few men wore kanzus. They danced before the king and the British colonial governor. That was only recently, in the 1950s. When I saw the pictures of the Kabaka’s subjects dancing, I could not but observe their similarities to the Karimojong.
This is to elaborate that the Baganda of the 1950s were not very different from other Ugandans, at least “civilisationally†speaking. Today, Kampala has been rapidly developed by all Ugandans, being the capital city. No single tribe can claim to have developed Kampala in isolation. Fed...