Uganda’s veteran opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye has criticized President Yoweri Museveni for paying lip service to the war against corruption, accusing him of being a defender of corruption since their bush war days.
Dr Besigye was the personal physician to Yoweri Museveni, the 1981-1986 National Resistance Army (NRA) bush warlord. In Museveni war, which followed the contested 1980 election won by Apollo Milton Obote of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives.
On his ascent to power, Museveni promised a fundamental change in Uganda. But at the turn of the millennium, Dr Besigye fell out with Museveni for veering off the ideals of the NRA and the promise of a fundamental change. Museveni would beat Besigye in four elections, according to results released by the Electoral Commission (EC), whose top bosses he appoints.
But while Museveni may have celebrated his victories (controversial and violent as they came) over Dr Besigye and other opposition figures – like Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogere and now Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine – he cannot say the same of the fight against corruption.
With nearly four decades at the helm, Museveni’s legacy remains tainted by gross corruption in his government. And his recent threats to crush corrupt officials are not convincing many people. Dr Besigye is one of the unconvinced lot.
Besigye said that even before Museveni became president, the manner in which the bush war operated gave corrupt vibes. And that whenever the matter of corrupt commanders came up, Museveni would vehemently defend his ‘men’.
He would promise those complaining about corruption in the bush war days that he was almost certain that once they captured power, his government would devise means of addressing corruption. But with the bush war jungles behind them, the corrupt officials took their corrupt tendencies to government.
Besigye recalls commanders taking good trousers from their juniors who knew better not to question the powerful fighters who gave orders.
“I would like to remind our country, especially Mr Museveni, about his corruption. This corruption did not start in government. No, there was corruption in the bush,” said Besigye as he addressed reporters in Kampala on July 08.
“I have talked about some of it [corruption] right from the time I interfaced with Mr Museveni in the bush: people getting things in the operations or some people sending us some things to use, and a few people grab them.
In the bush there was something called ‘size ya commander [the commander’s size].’ If you come putting on a good trouser, you remove your trouser and give it to him. Whatever good you have, they grab it.”
While Museveni has threatened to crush corrupt officials, the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among and her fellow MP Juliet Kinyamatama recently said that Cissy Namujju, one of the five MPs remanded over corruption, should be applauded and should become MP forever because she shared the money she allegedly stole with her constituents. These statements prompted activists to start a campaign to ‘text thieves.’ (See Details Here, There, Over Here and Over There).
