IT'S GAME OVER FOR AFRICAN DESPOTS

African despots and life presidents like President Museveni  are going to increasingly find it difficult to hold on to power in this new age of information. Information nowadays travels so fast that if you blink, you miss it. With the internet and its available social networks, Its possible for a person in Kampala to alert a relative in Texas USA that something has gone wrong in their neighborhood even before those relatives know anything about it.

Youths around the globe are not any longer  drawing inspiration from mediocrities within their local setup but rather from a global pool of top brains.

On May 6th, the world witnessed the first ever 3D printed handgun fire its first shots. The gun is called the Liberator. Behind this innovation stands the genius brain of a 25 year old University of Texas Law student Cody Wilson who took  just 8 months to deliver the weapon to the world.

According to Fox News, the gun  is made from a tough, heat-resistant plastic used in products such as musical instruments, kitchen appliances and vehicle bumper bars. In effect, it can be printed at the back of your home given the fact that 3D printer machines are available in most places and are cheap and legal to possess (check with Nice Plastics).

By Thursday 9th, Defense Distributed, a non profit organisation founded by Cody Wilson and behind the production of the Liberator was taking down files it had uploaded on its website Defcad that would enable anyone in the World to download and print the gun. This was due to interference from Pentagon. But as it happened, another website, the Pirate Bay was uploading similar files.

In response to the request by Pentagon to take down the files from their website, Defense Distributed wrote, "Files are being removed from public access at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.”
 
 Information access is and should continue to be a universal right. In Uganda and of course in most of the African continent people have lagged behind largely due to lack of information but this trend is fast disappearing and this claim is supported by events not so long ago in Cairo.

In Uganda, President Museveni has been in power for nearly three decades. The last time he indicated retiring he asked the country to allow him just one more term in office but he would later change the constitution that allowed for term limits. Today, there is no end of his rule in sight as the country waits to witness its first democratic and peaceful transfer of power from one regime to another since its 1962 Independence from Britain 51 years ago.

Besides running a corrupt government, President Museveni and his NRM government have produced the highest number of unemployables than any regime before them. The government has no strategic interventions in place to cater for the ever growing population and its education system is in shambles. Recent revelations by government itself that a battalion deserts the army every year have a lot to tell about the regime. The plan for modernisation of agriculture in the country has failed, not because it is a bad plan, but due to sheer incompetence of the regime to implement good plans.

In short, if Uganda was a Real Estate Company, President Museveni who started off as a relatively right candidate for the job (even though as a rebel and just like Idi Amin did), has proved to be the worst contractor Ugandans could ever hire.

We gave him a plot of land and he came up with a house plan. Although the plan is of a storied building, he has been able to give us the ground floor which has cracks in the walls, poorly painted, burglars are there but the windows and doors are not, the wiring has been done in just two of the rooms. Although there is a community water tank that connects up to the house, a few rooms have water in them and those that have, the pipes are leaking. Some of the iron bars and cement have been stolen by the workers he supervises and are being used  on the neighbors plot.

Give me another contractor and I will accept him!!

THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU REGISTER YOUR SIMCARD

Perhaps one of the most annoying thing about being a Ugandan at this time in history is the fact that technology and other advancements in the country are moving so fast than political reform­­­. As a result of this, most active Ugandan citizens and the elites find themselves in a serious dilemma of whether to gloriously embrace the advances or to proceed with caution.

Out of the 16 million mobile phone subscribers, reports indicate only 11 million heeded to the call of SIM Card registration and the remaining 5 million have so far shunned it prompting the regulatory body Uganda Communications Commission(UCC) to extend the registration deadline. Even then, the 11 million figure is deceptive. Most  Ugandans wary of their privacy because they don't trust government with what they can do with the information they collect about them have found loopholes in the registration exercise and have provided fake information to telecom companies to back these registrations.

All said and done, the exercise has not gone on unchallenged. The Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda raised concerns about the exercise saying the law contravenes Article 27(2) of the 1995 Uganda Constitution and unsuccessfully moved to acquire a court injunction to stop UCC from disconnecting unregistered subscribers.

WHAT IS REALLY AT RISK?

Telecommunication companies keep subscriber data in amounts you cannot comprehend. Every time you make a phone call or send a text message it's possible that someone else without your knowledge not only  listened to what you said and read what message you sent but also was able to know the date, time, location and now, your  identity.

With the growth of social media accompanied by free expression of political opinions and the increasing use of mobile devices to access internet, government agents with or without a court order will walk to your Network Provider acquire your information and build a profile of your political affiliations, business interests, social habits, your movements and generally your personal life regardless of whether you have committed a crime or not.

Imagine if someone stole your phone and used it to commit a crime. You can easily find yourself in the coolers within no minute. First, our Uganda police has no seriousness and later on the capacity to quickly separate the victim from the criminal. Secondly, the Uganda Police stations by their very nature only offer ugly scenes to look at and the last thing anyone would want is to be haled in the middle of a corrupt police force.

with rogue elements in state departments and a government bent at retaining power at any cost, Ugandans are slowly but surely losing their right to privacy and by registering your SIM Card you enter into a legal contract to be monitored 24/7.

If you are the type that feels inconvenienced by old technology of walkie talkies, then you can go a little bit rudimentary like me; find a Nice Plastics cup, drill a small hole at the centre of its bottom, pass a string in the hole and tie a knot to hold it in position, do the same at the other end of the string, initiate a conversation with your partner at other end of string by talking and listening in turn.

Congratulations!! Welcome aboard Mzee Kaguta's Uganda.

 

HEAVEN TOUCHED

Yes, I believe so. I am heaven touched in many ways than just the biblical sense.

On February 15th, just a day after my wife and I exchanged banquets of flowers and reminded ourselves of how much we love each other, somebody was watching the skies for a potentially hazardous asteroid 2012 DA14 to make sure I stayed out of harm's way. The asteroid which was about 45 meters in diameter, at the time of close approach to the Earth's surface flew about 27,000 kilometers nearly double the distance between United States and home sweet home Uganda.

The object this large to have got to me, it would have had to first knock down an enormous number of "low Earth-orbiting satellites, including the International Space Station". Well, I can sleep now and the boys will continue monitoring it and predict its future orbit.

Away from the skies, I still continue to be heaven touched. Heaven touched that I was not born, raised and definitely will not die a slave. My claim would be very far from a black man like me, born and raised in the 19th and early 20th Century America. The Black History in the World's super power and most democratic nation is tainted by gross abuse and deprivation of basic freedoms. The Obama country is in the middle of Black History Month, if you care read more on "the slave narratives".

Well, I am not heaven touched as I thought I was. Another missive from President Museveni addressing what he calls "Dr. Besigye's lies and distortions" was out in the papers yesterday. The President recited a litany of his military achievements. He is never at fault but "groups that sabotage projects and then turn round and pretend to be concerned" are. Mr. President, you can solve all of the world's problems, you just need more time.

We give him another 100 years, I beg to move!!

MUSEVENI SHOULD NOT FAIL UGANDA

Perhaps one leader that can be considered to have immensely contributed to the building of Uganda is President Museveni. It is his ingenuity and charismatic military leadership that new hope for nation building was born. Optimism reigned high. But that is more of yesterday than it is today. The man whose past is decorated with visible success is threatening to undo all the good he contributed to achieve in allowing human nature take control of him. Uganda has come thus far to afford its past to rear its ugly head again.

The country is helplessly  witnessing billions of her money end up in hands of few individuals. The military is threatening to undo the constitutional order. Promises of modernising agriculture is only a reality to the chosen few as the rest of the country is trapped in poverty with no or less access to information on how to improve household incomes. People are still dying of curable diseases due to lack of medical access both as a result of lacking a health facility or lack of a good road to the nearest medical facility or both.

President Museveni continues to alienate key political actors in the political process of the country through his second best political weapon of name and shame(the first being the gun) as he struggles to entrench himself in power.  

Uganda needs everyone's input if it's to develop instead of  sections of people who say  it's "our thing" and try to own all processes. The continued sidelining of people in the political process discourages enthusiasm and participation. If people's ideas are treated with derision or disrespect their enthusiasm will most likely deflate which definitely is not a good thing.

 

Most of the good hearted NRM cadres lost interest in championing the fight against corruption because of its support from internal structures. One former Internal Security Organisation(ISO) agent confided in me that on various occasions when they would apprehend a suspect for theft or any other wrong doing, they often found their bosses behind these dealings and would release the suspects on orders or out of fear of falling out with their bosses. Soon the agents lost interest and started doing the very things their bosses were doing.

 

President Museveni's biggest dilemma now is how to adopt to change. He feels he has deeply invested himself into the country's political processes and the last thing he wants is to become a shadow of the person he was and that's a big mistake. It's the way nature is. Every man breaks at some point but it's better to give up when still strong instead of losing your final fight. The growing opposition against his leadership can only widen.

The nature of politics is that its fickle, its liable to sudden unpredictable change. In recent history, that change has not been favourable to incubents and certainly not to one with a three decade tag rule behind his name.

It's now to the sharp NRM cadres to start looking forward for a future without Museveni. His values about how government should be run have not changed but the country and the electorate has. NRM cannot afford to cling on Museveni any more, the man belongs to the past and should not be allowed to fail Uganda.

 

THERE IS SOMETHING CALLED "UGANDAN OF RWANDESE ORIGIN"

My wife happens to be a Munyarwanda and that is not a problem, the problem is she keeps calling herself a Muhiima from Ankole. Her father and mother both migrated from Rwanda during the turbulent times of 1959 and settled as refugees first in Tooro and later integrated among the  Ankole people in Ankole sub region.

According to the Ugandan constitution, a person who is born or has lived in Uganda for ten years qualifies to be a Ugandan citizen however, this does not require one to claim to belong to a certain tribe or the other to prove his or her Ugandaness. Besides, the 1995 constitution clearly lists Banyarwanda as one of the 56 indigenous communities that made the country Uganda dating way back to 1st February 1926. That is even before my own father was born.

Here is my worry, she is not alone that does this. A lot of the high ranking NRA soldiers who are Banyarwanda have completely become Bahiima, Bakiiga of western Uganda and not by assimilation but rather by pretence. Others have even taken on Kiganda names by design. One would assume that if Kagame and his like were still serving NRA soldiers would still be known as Banyankole from Western Uganda as it was. The question then is why would anyone do such a thing unless they think partly there would be an advantage gained from doing it?

NRM under the leadership of Mr. Y.K Museveni has been in power for nearly three decades. It should be a shame (unless there is something sinister about it) that they still lead a nation where people cannot freely express who they are or their origins.

The most absurd thing is what my wife goes through to labour to be, or at least be seen to be, what she is not. If her cousins or other relatives from Rwanda visit her, they speak Kinyarwanda in complete confidentiality of the bedroom. Recently she told me that the father who happens to be a UPDF soldier forbid them from speaking kinyarwanda in public.

Because of my association, I now know that when the country cries of favouritism of Banyankole/Bahiima in top government jobs and high military/police jobs, they are actually referring to Banyarwanda. It is very true that banyankole and other western tribes are carrying the cross  for the banyarwanda and any attack against other western tribes is misdirected. The real culprits should own up and clean their mess.

Uganda is a very beautiful country. It has been blessed with equally very beautiful people desirous of unity, equality and prosperity. My wife and I despite the fact that we are among the favoured or benefit from it, we would love unity, equality and prosperity to be extended to all Ugandans regardless of their ethnic background, affiliation or belief.

A country where one can be an Irish Ugandan or anything and be proud of what he or she is.

 In my subsequent blogs, I will try to dig further into this phenomena and what it means for Uganda if not addressed.

Good luck reading!