Ugandan Envoy Attacks US Envoy Over Her Criticism of Museveni

By Godfrey Olukya 1-4-2016

Uganda’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Kintu
Nyago has bitterly responded to US permanent representative to UN Dr
Samantha Power’s criticism of Uganda’s president Museveni in relation
to allegations of rigging in the recently held elections.

Nyago wrote in the lading Uganda newspaper,The new Vision that she was
not well versed with Uganda’s politics and that was the reason she was
blindly attacking Museveni.

He wrote,”Certainly Dr. Samantha Power, the United States Permanent
Representative to the United Nations observations on Uganda’s
political situation in the March 21 UN Security Council Open Debate
on “The Prevention and Resolution of Conflict in the Great Lakes“,
were premised on a partial understanding of our concrete reality.

For instance, she argued that Uganda’s legislation on non-governmental
organisations is stifling. Actually she was unaware that this law is
not an imposed decree. Rather it emerged through a participatory
process that involved the input of the concerned NGOs.

It was also openly debated and passed by a democratically elected
parliament. And the robustness of our NGO sector is illustrated by
the fact that during the recent General Elections, many of them, under
the Citizens Elections Observer Network-Uganda, freely observed this
process and issued a critical report. And none was closed down.

Power also erroneously argued that President Museveni’s Government
intimidated the media during the recent elections.

Uganda as a democracy with a liberalised electronic media has hundreds
of radio stations and scores of television networks. These literally
can broadcast anything under the sun! And overall all the contesting
Presidential candidates, in part based on their capacity to buy the
required airtime were freely covered by the mainstream media.

This was clearly illustrated by the two Presidential Debates conducted
on NTV-Uganda during prime time viewing.

Power’s presentation also gave an impression that our electoral
results were rigged in favour of President Museveni’s ruling NRM
party. This outlandish conclusion failed to appreciate the fact that
these were robustly competed for elections at all levels. To that
effect more than 80% of the members of the outgoing 9th Parliament
were not re-elected by the Ugandan voter!

Among these included two senior Generals and 20 ministers, including
the Ministers of Defence, Internal Affairs, Education etc. Had these
polls been rigged, then these powerful men and women would have been
the primary beneficiaries.

Furthermore the political opposition went on to freely win, through a
clean sweep, the Local Government elections of the influential Kampala
City! Had they been state orchestrated rigging, then such results
would never have transpired.

Power adopts a biased conclusion regarding the outcome of our
Presidential polls. Suffice in this instance to remind her that eight
Presidential candidates and parties participated in this exercise.
With five of them, the majority, notably the NRM, Farmers Party and
the parties led by Ms. Maureen Kyalya, Prof, Baryamureba and Eng.
Mabirizi agreeing with the elections results, as announced by our
National Electoral Commission. Unless of course the views of these
critical actors do not count in the calculation of the US premier
diplomat!

Power requires to also appreciate that of the seven opposition
Presidential candidates that contested in the Presidential polls, it
is only Col. Kizza Besigye who is restricted to his home and precisely
because he has issues with our law. And there is a consistent history
of Col. Besigye’s post elections destabilising activities. For
instance in 2001, some of his supporters, led by his aide the camp,
James Opoka, joined the nefarious Lord’s Resistance Army.

While in November 2005 Besigye attempted to march into Kampala from
Mityana road with a marauding mob that encouraged looting, that led to
one looter being shot dead and property being destroyed.

While in May 2011, after President Museveni’s Swearing In Ceremony,
Besigye orchestrated a mob to block Entebbe road which again involved
looting and so did the subsequent so called notorious “Walk to Work”
that followed. With Besigye’s cynical aim being to capture the
headlines with the main casualties of this manipulative ploy being our
struggling urban poor, many of whom are women.

Not even in the US, would such anarchy be allowed to prevail, where
its Founding Fathers, 240 years ago, cautioned against mobocracy, in
the famed Federalist Papers.”

END