Ugandans
As a Ugandan outside Uganda, I have the ability to look at Uganda from the out side, an ability that those are at home do not have. And tonight I need to introduce another section of Ugandans that we have failed to address all along. In reading the many postings here, one gets an impression that if Museveni gets out of power today Uganda will change for a better nation, yes I have seen postings of how Museveni directed the attack on Monitor publications. Do you seriously think that a president can have even a time to direct such an attack?
The problem you have comfortably agreed to ignore is the part Uganda society plays into this very terrible situation. And I am going to give you several examples of how this problem has been slowly growing to such a magnitude. When UPC was in power, one of the most important things they did was to create a self sustaining economy, but let us look closely on Eastern and Western Uganda. Both of these regions were involved into animal husbandry, Places especially Eastern Uganda, they had thousands of cows, cows that fed the Karimojongs and their children. That is why you did not see Karimojong kids on Kampala road for they had an economy to self sustain. Because of the cows industry, the then sitting government bought special train wagons to transport cows from Eastern to the rest of Uganda for the market. When these men and women came from the jungle, they not only killed the Karamoja cows industry but they changed the train wagons from carrying the cows from Eastern Uganda to ferrying the population. They named it Akayoola. Do you remember that term Akayoola?
Although its creation was a sign of a travesty in Eastern Uganda, Ugandans called it a development. What they did not know was that the cows in Eastern Uganda had been all looted and sent to Mbarara, guns ferried to Karamoja, they did not bother to complain about it. Where we are today, the Akayoola industry collapsed as well, the Karimojong kids are on Kampala road and Ugandans are stealing the rails from line to be used as a base to build a concretes of pit latrines.
When Iddi Amin came to power he decided to up grade the Uganda Railway, you see that railway was very important into the development of Uganda. There are those of us who expected it to be developed that it would take all containers going to Rwanda Burundi DRC Sudan and Central African Republic. You have just removed the trailers off Uganda roads. You see when you can dump all containers to Kaseese, the owners can pick all of them from Kasese and then drive them to various countries. Imagine a spin off of jobs in Kasese. Some of us had a dream of extending the Pakhwach line to Sudan, for when you connect that line to the Sudan line you can send a train straight to The Mediterranean sea. That can open up an entire market of goods to Europe, but you can as well run a passenger train from the Mediterranean to the Great Lakes. Iddi Amin pumped some real cash into the Railway industry and refurbished most of the coaches to obtain up scale kitchens and refrigerators. Those facilities arrived to the Uganda railway, and Ugandans not Museveni but Ugandans looted them that today there is no single coach in Uganda with a fridge and except those of us a few that keep our noses into everyone’s business, I wonder if any of you ever saw the up scale coaches Amin bought.
I went to Uganda to visit one day and a very good friend called me to visit him for a week end which I did. As the dinner got to the table I failed to eat for a very simple reason that the plates that were brought to us to use were clearly marked Uganda Hotels. The plates, the spoons, the folks and even the table napkins, all were marked Uganda hotels. You would think that we are in a dining room of Apollo Hotel. Was Iddi Amin a bad president? Yes if you say so. Was Obote a bad president yes if you say so, but did they order you as a Ugandan to go to Uganda hotels and steal all those plates and when did it become even legal to use them? But society accepted it and moved on, they only stand day in day out blaming Amin and Museveni but them selves. It got better when we went to the bed, for the first day we slept into bed sheets marked Namirembe hospital and the second day it was Rubaga hospital. The bed I slept on belonged to Mulago hospital. Did Museveni take this beds and bed sheets to this friend of mine?
Which reminds me of a Ugandan in Bbaale Galiraya who went to industrial area and looted a full container of boxes with engine parts labeled Made in Germany. He decided to keep quite about it until when the looting spree passes. This guy told us very openly that he has thousands of Mercedes Benz engines, “I am going to assemble one by one and die rich” so he stated. After the looting this man started to look for the mechanics to start the assembling of the engines, but no one knew what these parts were. He came to Kayunga to no solution, he went to Spear Motors and they did not know the parts. Lastly he asked a technician from Roko Construction to show up. It was revealed that they were actually spare parts of train engines. The fella did not have a plan to make a railway line in Bbaale Galiraya. Did Amin or Obote or Museveni instruct this Ugandan to take these equipments?
Let us go back at the removal of Amin, this man had decided to make massive changes in Uganda, among the things he had bought was the garbage trucks that used to lift the bins, do you know that one of the members of FDC today, actually stole all of them and sent them to Rwanda to be registered as private trucks? What happened to all Peugeot 504s that Uganda Police received towards the fall of Amin? But here is a good one, a new company of buses was being created to help on the UTC and Republic Express Services. The buses were being assembled in Kireka Ministry of works, and they were yellow. Remember those? All those buses were stolen by Ugandans to no avail, but in all the fleet that were stolen, there was this bus that made me understand Ugandans. This bus was towed into a valley of between Bweyogerere and Kireka, on the south side near Mandela stadium, and you could see it from a far. but every morning we would see this bus from the road but loosing body parts every day. Ugandans were cutting its body and taking it until when they finished it. The bus literary got obliterated by Ugandans them selves.
On visiting a relative in Hoima I walked into an old woman’s hut, and she had a magnetic head phone. Remember those that were brought in Uganda under the Amin’s services nearer to the people program. They had a handle you need to turn to call the operator. So I asked this old woman what she had on her table, and she ravishingly stated “Oyo malidadi wange abaana bamujja Kampala ne mugula” She did not even know that it was a phone for she had never seen a phone in her life.
Let me not tire you this is my conclusion. Ugandans are not only naked thieves but they are killers. Where do you think do the members of black Mambas come from? Canada? No sir they are Ugandans these are men and women you dine with in restaurants. One of the reasons we will pressure an inqurery into Uganda nightmare is to let Ugandans understand how brutal their children are. UPDF soldiers and mainly Baganda go to the North and rape men in front of their wives and children. Did you expect a Muganda to do that? I hear a story of Baganda are very well coming people, well can we allow a Northerner to put that thesis to test? And I refuse the nonsense of they are directed, and I have seen that lie walking in here naked. Tell me right now, can you be directed to rape a man in Uganda and you drop your pants? Barracks unit 35 of Andrew Kayiira was all killed in one night. It is a pile of crap for any one to claim, Eh Munange Museveni yeyabalagiranga okutta abantu. Gogera nga aganywedde amalwa. No these are all killers and they should all be put to trial. Give me a dam break. I challenge you to understand the population that the Movement is leaving you to use. For the population you have today, it is a very worrisome population that no body can use to even re build Uganda. Museveni no Museveni. So as you are looking for a new leader, one might want to start to look for a new population. A crossbreed of Kenyans and Burundians can be a good start.
Mulindwa Edward
Canada
