ICT: Ugandan Leaders Need to Step Up and Lead

I love my country, Uganda, to bits. I get worked up when people get cynical about it and use other countries to bash mine. One darling of the cynical Ugandans is Rwanda. However, with regard to embracing modern information technology to interact with their citizens and the world at large, Uganda's leaders trail Rwanda's by universes. Uganda's leadership is almost non-existent on the Internet on a personal level. When they are there, it is usually as part of a news strory.

Modern communication has taken on a very vital aspect of the process of communicating - feedback and therefore interactivity - thanks to the internet. During the campaigns for this year's general elections, a new medium was employed in Uganda - mobile phone auto text and voice messaging. While these have the personal touch, very useful for deeper effect, there is hardly any way for the recipient to give feedback. The ability for feedback makes parties in the communication process feel a valued part of whatever is being communicated. The internet, through email and social networking media, has the advantage of people being able to give feedback on communication if and when they feel like it. Some feedback will be abrasive, but at least the communicator got the opportunity to vent.

Which brings me back to my disappointment that we don't have a strong presence of our leaders on, especially, internet social networking media. The government's own spokesperson, Minister of Information and National Guidance and veteran communicator, Mary Karooro Okurut, is 'personally' absent on the internet. The Uganda Media Centre, which is under her and should be advising her, has a Twitter account but last 'tweeted' anything on 20th April ... 2010! The ministers of ICT, education, health and agriculture, who should be moving us towards modernity are themselves absent on social networking media. The disappointment continues in the autonomous departments that should be cutting through the red tape of the public service machinery including National Information Technology Authority and Uganda Communications Commission. Our own parliament, which is supposed to promote open governance has a Twitter account that is 'protected'. What have they got to hide - bills?

Our leaders will be very vital in the promotion of modern technology in the country only if they understand it well. They don't have to be proficient, which I think is what the older ones are afraid of. The more the populace know that they can interact with their leaders, the better their quality and the easier it is to mobilise them. The need to use the internet to communicate with their leaders will also greatly improve literacy and, therefore, the quality of our human resource. This will attract more investment.

[This this was post written, the Prime Minister of Uganda has opened a Twitter account - @am_mba]

Eat your hearts out, Bashers

Surprise, surprise. HH the Agha Khan's newspaper, the Daily Monitor, is can doubt that people can take part in a position sympathetic for the Movement government on their own free will but they sure that the 'walk-to-work' is an innocent selfless venture.

A group claiming to represent genuine concerns of Ugandans in the ongoing protests against high cost of living has started gathering views from the public.

Mwoyo gwa Gwanga (Spirit of Nationalism), as the group calls itself, claims to be interested in defusing the confusion that has ensued following the launch of the walk-to-work protests.

The group’s vice chairperson Usher Owere, said they are interested in gathering people’s concerns, compile them and hand it over to Parliament, opposition leaders and the President before the end of the August House, which will be dissolved Wednesday.

The group started its first public gathering on Friday at Bat Valley Primary school in Kampala with people ferried from all parts of Kampala, Entebbe and Mukono to attend.

Mr Owere denied theirs is a hired crowd to hoodwink the public, saying they have the cries of the people at heart.

This paper could not ascertain who paid taxi fares for their members who came from as far as Luweero since those interviewed declined to be quoted.

Will media pay attention to Besigye's lies?

Kiiza Besigye, the president of FDC, which is the flagship brand of IPC, has been quoted on the BBC as saying, from Nairobi, that the 'walk-to-work' protests are not led by political leaders but rather by ordinary Ugandans. The 'walk-to-work' campaign is spearheaded by Activists for Change (A4C). This contradicts Besigye's assertion mentioned above:

FORMER Mengo youth minister and Masaka Municipality MP elect Mathias Mpuuga is the chairperson of Activists For Change (A4C), a group of politicians spearheading the walk-to-work and walk-to-pray campaign aimed at calling for the Government’s intervention regarding the high cost of living.

 It get's better; Mpuuga responds to a question in an interview:

Ssuubi remains an integral part of the IPC, whose arrangement has never been disbanded. We still believe the only way we can have change is by having a joint front for the opposition parties. There is no single party that has the capacity to defeat the NRM. There is need for the opposition forces to come together and we shall continue pursuing that path so that even the other parties which had boycotted join the IPC. We only need to build more confidence and respect for each other.

Now, the question is: will our Basher Media Legion call out Besigye's lie? Don't hold your breath. 

The hammer the Bashers are desperate to pin on Movement

The coup-plotters claim that the hammer used by Uganda security agents fell into Dr Kiiza Besigye's SUV while they broke its windows of before violently arresting him. The picture above shows Besigye holding the hammer that is the subject of spin and counter-spin in the media. Below are other pics of the same incident:

To me, the time Besigye holds the hammer, it is before the windows are smashed. How easy would it have been to roll them down if they had been smashed? Note that both windows in the picture furthest above are open. Would it have made sense with danger outside for Besigye and his gang to open their windows when the smashing started. Remember also that the spraying of pepper was done through rolled windows with holes smashed into them.

More spin: compare the picture below with the one further above. Someone photoshopped Besigye's face.

Hammer pics

What Uganda's biased mainstream media won't tell

By Pamela Ankunda 15-04-2011 In September 2007, representatives from Civil Society organizations, Religious Institutions, media, the Uganda Police Force Political parties, Parliamentarians, the Justice and Order Sector all gathered at a workshop in Entebbe to discuss among others, frameworks governing the freedom to assemble and to demonstrate and off course, on top of the agenda was the role of the Police in such. This meeting came as result of the statement issued by the Uganda Human Rights Commission on the previous demonstrations that had turned violent. At the time, the UHRC invited the British High Commission who in turn invited the London Metropolitan Police to organize the said training for Police officers and other actors. The meeting at the time agreed that Police had a role to play. Has this role been revoked now? In that same workshop, a task force was drawn-Civil Society inclusive to draft the guidelines on Public demonstrations that were later discussed to make up a final draft of the same. Today, these are guidelines on which demonstrators and the Police should act. Basing on International Human Rights standards and norms, the workshop resolutions provided the most acceptable norm of what a procession should be. Obviously, they agreed that there was a challenge but in spite of that, developed consensus especially, on the limitation of the right to assemble and demonstrate. The meeting agreed that while we can demonstrate, that right is not absolute, it should be in public interest, should be justifiable and acceptable, and even when Police permission is not required to hold demonstrations, it is required in gazetted and restricted venues. I don’t know then where we place a citizen who chooses to sit right in the middle of a Public road. In the same workshop, the role of the police was defined even further, that it must receive notices of impending public demonstrations, and hold a planning meeting with the chief Demonstrator at least 5 days or as soon as practicable before the demonstration, and assign an officer to work with the organizers by carrying out assessment risks and where there is a breach, police must stop that demonstration immediately. The organizers on the other hand are reminded to submit to the District Police Commander’s office a “completed statement of intent in triplicate 10 days prior to the intended demonstration, obtain permission from relevant offices”, ensure safety or person and property, ensure that everybody knows why they are part of that demonstration, take responsibility for all statements made to the media or the public during that demonstration, and among other roles of the participants is to avoid incitement of violence during the demonstration. Those guidelines were not issued to people living on mars; they were not discussed and agreed to by saints and angels. They were not discussed for a Ugandan city that is found in New York or Sweden. The Participants knew exactly well, that Uganda has her own set of challenges and problems, just like its citizens know too well, that a country must be governed on basics, on constitutionalism and on laws. Thankfully, members of Parliament were present in Entebbe! Unfortunately, we are engaged in semantics of “protest” and “demonstrations” and some of the media is playing right into falsities. If we want to go down to pettiness, we will argue that the opposition leaders who own petrol stations and supermarkets lower their prices; to show concern for the ordinary peasant, but we cant do that, because forces of the market economy prevail over them. Contrary to what many think though, the leaders of these protests had long before the Egypt, Tunisia and Libya events called people to action. The rising food and fuel prices that are not unique to Uganda come in handy, and off course the curse of the Arab world presents an equal opportunity. Yet Uganda is unique and no situation of “copy and paste” would apply here. But to interpret the condemnation of the Police, Mr. Kayihura ought to know better; rosaries and Bibles will do, not teargas and canisters.

How can we even consider this!

The opposition that wants to overthrow a legitimately elected government in Uganda time after time rejected opnion  polls in the run-up to elections earlier this year. They claimed that one of the pollsters, a reputable firm, was bought off. Their polls turned out to be accurate, leaving them disgusted. If these arrongant people failed to heed scientific evidence of their eminent political misfortunes, how can we trust them with more complex issues of running a country? How can we even trust that the course of action they have chosen (walk-to-work) is the result of sober planning? It is the Basher Media Legion, Basher Twitter Legion and Basher Facebook Legion who are urging them on with moral and overt support who have lost it, not Sevo.

ABOLISH ELECTIONS: The Election-loser’s Guide To Power Minus Voters

Ladies and gentlemen, a time is coming when election losers will defy the ballot box by street mob action, designed to see how many rioters the security forces will kill before the USA intervenes.

And it is assumed that mighty USA will always intervene on the side of the mob, never the ballot, in what sages have described as the famed New World Order, which is emerging as the latest shortcut to power-minus the voters!

NEW WORLD ORDER
But is it ORDER or ODOUR? Someone has defined democracy as “the recurrent suspicion that more than half the people are right more than half the time”, which suspicion is tested via regular, free and fair elections. Another has said that while elections may not be the surest way to democracy, it is still the best there is.

Although some do not appreciate it, there are not many disasters as devastating as the perennial loss of elections to a candidate to whose defeat you have committed the rest of your life. Conversely, no victory is sweeter than the repeated defeat of such an adversary.However, the value and meaning of democratic elections may be changing with the New World Order or Odour. On reflection, it began over a decade ago in Algeria after western pressure to democratise.

The election was won by an Islamic party not favoured by Western powers and they encouraged the military to take charge, triggering a guerilla rebellion by the disenfranchised winners. Democratic elections had produced an undesirable result, which was to be avoided at all costs in Egypt, until Hosni Mubarak outlived his usefulness to imperialism; the rest is history.

WRITING ON THE WALL
Buyondo Africka Ddamulira of ‘Top Radio’ and ‘Channel 44 TV’ fame once made a remarkable observation on Dr. Badru Kiggundu’s beleaguered Electoral Commission.

This was during repeated opposition demands that it be disbanded. Buyondo said, “Someone has told me that if Dr. Kizza Besigye himself was chairman of the Electoral Commission and conducted a free and fair election, he would declare Yoweri Museveni winner…” Perhaps the originator of this remark was cracking a joke, but it later transpired that several opinion polls carried out by the opposition placed NRM and Museveni far in the lead.

However, the IPC presidential candidate, Dr. Kizza Besigye had also warned that he would not accept any result that gave NRM and (especially) Museveni victory and more ominous, he would not go to court. He boasted that he had sealed off all loopholes by which NRM cheats him and that he had benefitted from ‘rigging experts’ who had defected from NRM to his camp. That was not all; he even formed his own tally centre and won the right to announce his victory without interference from Dr. Kiggundu! Ultimately, we were reminded that if all things did not work in his favour there would be a tsunami.

OPPOSITION SPLIT
Shortly after his loss, Besigye announced that he would not recognise the president or anyone else elected through what he considered a rigged exercise. This position immediately split the opposition into two camps; those who had won and those who had lost the allegedly rigged election.

FDC politicians who emerged winners in local government polls openly stated that they would ignore these ‘orders from above’, since the said orders insinuated that every winner had actually stolen votes. Other opposition winners simply ignored the call as they celebrated their victories.

Shortly after the elections, Omugabi Mulindwa Muwonge of ‘Super FM’ warned FDC stalwarts against demanding the immediate resignation of their thrice-defeated standard-bearer. “Even before his term ends, FDC members are making the mistake of demanding Besigye’s resignation. He will do everything possible to remain relevant…” When Muwonge reminded his avid ‘Super FM’ audience of this warning last Sunday, hardly anyone could remember.

OPTIMUM CONDITIONS?
One can assume that the climate worked in Dr. Besigye’s favour when it inflicted a drought on Uganda.

Then came tremors in the Oil Industry, which sent prices spiraling throughout the world. In Uganda, petrol reached 3,500/- and triggered the now famous WALK-TO-WORK campaign that saw big wigs with full tanks opting to ape what ordinary Ugandans have been doing for years. Incidentally, none of these had walked or even protested in 2007, when at the height of the Kenya Elections Fiasco, petrol was going for no less than 10,000/- Whatever roles history and geography might have played, the fact is the situation worked in Dr. Besigye’s favour, attracting lawless mobs to his solo-walk like bees to nectar.

No doubt our former National Political Commissar knew that his magnetism would attract all categories; you cannot blame the lighted candle for attracting many ugly moths among the few beautiful insects. But leaders are not mere candles and Dr. Besigye knew (if not hoped) that in trying to control the mobs, the security forces would kill and maim hundreds.

There is growing evidence of ‘paid mobs’ and many brethren in the Diaspora are being invited to contribute to ‘the revolution’ in exchange for juicy and lucrative posts when they fly in here after victory.

Some crudely printed leaflets claiming origin from Massachusetts actually pray for a massacre by security forces, which, they say, would give President Barak Hussein Obama no option but to invade Uganda and save the ‘peaceful walkers’ from Museveni. And at the head of the victorious peaceful marchers would be the Chief Walking Worker, retired Colonel Dr. Kizza Besigye, who would become President of the Republic of Uganda. At least one senior priest is said to be itching to preside over that swearing-in ceremony!

ABOLISH ELECTIONS
It is this failure to trigger a massacre, that has so infuriated ‘CHAOS INVESTORS’ like ex-NASA operative Vincent Magombe that they narrate the massacres on BBC as having already taken place! Our security forces have maintained remarkable resilience in the face of tremendous provocation, an endurance for which we can only thank the Commander in Chief and God Almighty. My prayer is that it lasts forever, but some are praying that it snaps tomorrow!

This is the new short-cut to power after losing an election. (a) Take advantage of the vagaries of nature, such as drought and explain them away as blunders by the state (b) Ignore international price fluctuations for essentials like oil and offer impossibilities as solutions (c) Brief, ‘equip’ and deploy the media at potentially explosive flashpoints (d) Lure mobs of idlers into orgies of anarchy and looting, which invite robust action from security forces and (e) Await results after the massacre.

But why not simply abolish elections and settle for the candidate who OUTWALKS the rest?

MOBOCRACY: If defeated candidates can mobilise such street support, why not abolish elections and swear in leaders with the largest columns of marchers? This New World Order stinks!

Sevo goes toe-to-toe with one of the Media Basher Legion

Imagine the cheek of the Bashers. They are celebrating that they managed to make Sevo show his anger in the interview with Basher Media Legion member, NTV Kenya's Linus Kaikai. What arrongant children they are: Sevo is supposed to keep his reactions in check while a Basher has every right not to resist the urge to bash. Well, he's met Sevo and he now knows that he's doesn't take crap and can take as much as they give.

Now 25 years in power and counting but trying times are beckoning for President Museveni. The opposition’s walk-to-work campaign is not only bringing out the worst of Ugandan security agencies but also ironically putting on the spot the man credited for pulling Uganda out of years of oppression and misrule. So is the President losing the shine? We bring you an edited version of his interview with NTV Kenya’s Linus Kaikai.

Interview starts with a video clip of Dr Besigye attempting to walk to work and the subsequent brutal arrest and torture by state agents.

Mr President, many people have compared what we have just seen in the video clip with what used to happen during the years of former President Idi Amin Dada. How does it make you feel when comparisons are made between your style of rule and that of Amin?
Well, it just shows that you are not serious, you [Kaikai], who is reporting all this [pointing at the screen showing Besigye being tortured].
You did not show when people were stoning the police or when they were attacking vehicles. Cars were destroyed in Kampala, damaged, but you do not show it there. That is a partial story. But even if it is a partial story, why should a civilised leader resist the police. If they say come with us, why do you resist? Why don’t you go along with them and see what they want to do?

We have not seen any resistance Mr President in that clip. We have seen policemen breaking windows of the vehicle of the leader of opposition?
No no no! First of all Besigye was walking, the police blocked him, they said you come with us. He should have cooperated with them. That’s what civilised people do. But he didn’t.

Talking of civility Mr President, was it civilised for police to behave in the way they did?
Yes, there could be some mistakes but the original mistake is for a mature person, a leader, not to be exemplary in following the law. These young people can make their own mistakes but how about me? I should be an example.
I am a mature person if I have a point of view and these young policemen say come with us, and I cooperate with them. But not to struggle with these young people, because they could make mistakes.

You call them young people but they are the police and security agencies of Uganda. Are you concerned with what their actions will do to your personal image?
Ah, my image will not be touched by this [pointing at the screen] because my image is based on substance.
Mr President I want to quote you in 1987 a year after you came to power. You said Uganda had gone through a traumatic period because Idi Amin and Milton Obote didn’t respect the rule of law. What do you say to critics who today say the same of you?
[Toughing the tone] That gentleman, Besigye, who was being arrested, was being taken to court. Do you know what Amin used to do? Murder them and throw them in River Nile for the crocodiles. I have not heard of Besigye’s body floating for the crocodiles to eat.

What about the manner of his arrest?
[Visibly annoyed]: That may have its own problem but also how about his conduct? Why don’t you talk about that?

Mr President, Kizza Besigye is the ace of the Ugandan Political opposition. Would you say the government of Uganda has treated the Opposition in Uganda the way civilised and democracies should treat the opposition?
Yes. The opposition should be civilised. First of all he didn’t inform the police. Yes, you have the freedom to demonstrate but the police have got powers to regulate public assembly.
If you want to demonstrate but I am selling tomatoes where you want to pass and the third party comes in to mediate our interests, that is how civilised societies are organised.

Three or four times we have seen Dr Besigye trying to make this walk to work and in all of those incidents we have not detected any violations. You are talking about planning to step on tomatoes?
That’s what they were planning. Because the police has intelligence, they know that this walk is supposed to attract a group which will then start looting. But if I ask you a question, you the evangelist of civilisation; What is so hard with a civilised political leader coordinating with the police? After all, we were doing it during the just-concluded elections. All of us were under the Electoral Commission [EC]. I could not hold a rally without informing the EC.

Your government has not allowed public demonstrations since the elections?
Because they do not inform the people they are supposed to inform [repeats it].

In a few days, you will be sworn in for a new term. What is your agenda this coming term considering the events of the past few days? We look at the mandate you got during the elections and it was quite high but looking at the mood in the country now, there is a bit of a gap between the mandate you commanded in the February polls and the state you find yourself in politically today.
Well, I do not see the gap. The gap is that when we voted, about five million voters supported us. There are those who didn’t vote for us, about two million voters, so there is no gap. Our programme is to deal with the foundation. This hotel in which you are smartly dressed is because of the foundation. Without a foundation there is no way this house can be here.

It’s been 25 years Mr President and the foundation has not been completed yet?
Well, you did not hear what the foundation is. The foundation has a number of items. Electricity is one of them, roads, railway, education. There are many elements. In the past 25 years we have dealt with some elements.

Would basic freedoms be part of that foundation; would freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, democratic practice and expansion of political space be part of that foundation we are talking about?
It so happens that those are the things I fought for. That’s what I fought for. We fought for those freedoms. But they must be exercised with discipline. I am now dialoguing with you but if you step on me, then the dialogue will have to be stopped. But why do you have to step on me? Why don’t you regulate your behaviour as I regulate mine? Maybe there is a neutral regulator who regulates us such as the police, the electoral commission, the courts. Why don’t you respect those regulators?

All the three regulators that you have mentioned, the police, the EC and the courts, your critics feel are 100 per cent in your hands. They are not exactly free to pay umpires.
Oh! That must be new information now. Because the only body which we disbanded when we won the civil war was the army. We inherited all the other institutions; the civil service, even this police.

Talking of the foundation and these institution that you do mention; we do remember that you had beginnings by fighting a liberation war when your were young and leading the NRA; and it would have been expected that after many years, 25, we would see the de-politicisation of the army but we see and what we witnessed during the elections was the continued politicisation of the army. The army continues to play a very big role in Ugandan politics. When is this going to end?

What did they do in politics?
They are very visible. They are in polling stations, they are almost a very active player.
No, they are not in polling stations. Each polling station is manned by one [police] constable. The army is only in the zone not in the polling station, they back up the police in case somebody wants to cause trouble.
There are still parliamentary seats reserved for the army.
Yes. There is no harm in that because the army was responsible for the liberation of the people of Uganda. All development we have is because of the work of the army. There is no harm in having 10 seats out of 340, I think, such a huge number. But the army is there and they engage in discussions when there are national issues of great importance otherwise, they just keep quiet and watch what’s happening.

We would like to hear your own broad assessment of the state of democracy in Uganda considering that you came from a single party system, [Movement] now to a multi-party system. Where is Uganda?
Uganda may be, I suspect maybe the most democratic country in the world [opens his eyes wide open] because we have 238 directly-elected seats which are competed for on merit by parties. We have 112 special seats for women, five seats for people with disabilities, five seats for youth and five for workers. I have not heard many systems in the world which take into account those interest groups. So if I were to give a lecture on democracy I think I would have good credentials to do so.

Was it a positive move that the presidential term limits were removed?
Yes. We removed the Presidential term limits because the problem of Africa is not term limits. The problem of Africa is the fundamentals which I was talking about: electricity, roads, and education.
Another challenge is integration; making countries of Africa to come together so that we have viable economic units. If people are voting and they want to vote this candidate or vote out the other one; that is there choice and that is the benchmark. That’s the lowest common multiple to determine whether a system is democratic or not.
About these term limits, that is according to individual countries. Many countries do not have that term limits.

So the persistent question would be when would you leave office?
When my party decides to have another candidate because it is the party which puts forward another candidate or when I decide not to present myself.
The struggle which we have been engaged in for the last 45 years to bring up Uganda and if possible also bring up Africa, is the one which guides our choices whether I should participate or not.

But are you concerned with some of the turns that have attended to similar examples where we have limitless terms. In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak was there for very many years, same to Ben Ali of Tunisia. Are you concerned that this sort of resentment can eventually catch up with President Museveni of Uganda?
Well I do not know the system in Egypt or Tunisia. I don’t know how competitive they were. Were they competitive systems? I do not know.

They had no term limits
There are no term limits in the UK, France or Israel. I do not know whether its there in Germany. Have you done the census to know how many countries have term limits or not? Therefore, the crucial thing is the competitiveness in the political system. Was the system in Egypt competitive enough? I do not know. How about the one in Tunisia?
But as far as Uganda is concerned the system in very competitive. There is no limit on the number of parties, no limit on who can contest.

Uganda is the only country in the East African Community without term limits. Does that make you feel like you are the odd one out?
No. That is our system. And when we form the East African Federation, we shall see how to harmonise. If the rest want term limits then I will support them. But work on the Federation through your radio. In addition to talking all these little things you keep taking about, talk about the East African Federation. Okay?

We thank you very much Mr President.
Thank you.

What the urbanite elite will hate to hear

The Movement electoral machine rolls on.

JUST three days to the voting day, the race for Okoro county parliamentary election in Zombo district is getting tougher.

Three candidates have stepped down in favour of Stanley Omwonya (NRM).Robert Ogen (Uganda Federal Alliance), Stephen Okwairwoth (PPP) and Collins Kumakech (UPC). In a phone interview on Monday, Kumakech said they had stepped down in favour of Omwonya.

“We urge our supporters to give our votes to him,” Kumakech said. He said NRM has support in the district basing on President Yoweri Museveni’s performance of 70% votes in the February presidential elections.

He said they agreed that it would be wise to send someone who could work closely with the President to develop the constituency.

Richard Nsube, the district returning officer, confirmed receiving a copy of the letter detailing the stepping down of the three candidates.

The Electoral Commission (EC) called off the elections one week to the February 18 general elections following the death of Thomas Acamfua, the then FDC flagbearer.

The EC set May 5 for the residual elections.

The decision by the three candidates to step down leaves Benson Oyulu (FDC), Tony Junior Rugete (Independent, Stanley Omwonya (NRM) and Alex Koi (Independent) in the race.

Oyulu described the decision of his colleagues to step down as cowardice and political stupidity.

“I am not surprised by the decision. These are boys who have not matured in politics,” Oyulu said.

Movement blunder

This should not be happening with a government that is facing a major onslaught in the PR war:

 PEOPLE who were injured in last week’s city riots have appealed to the Government for support.

The victims, who are admitted at Mulago Hospital, said they are required to spend a lot of money daily to buy the medicine yet they do not have the money.“We are spending a lot of money to buy the medicine on a daily basis, yet most of us are innocent and we were shot while in our houses,” said one of the victims.

Okay, so the above has happened but to be followed by that deputy premier, Eriya Kategaya's family recieved condolence money at the funeral of his late father shows that Sevo needs new blood around him.

The chief mourner, Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi, praised him for educating his children into dignified callings.

“He was disciplined, his love and care for cattle was a source of economic sustainability,” Nsibambi, who represented the Government, said.

He delivered President Yoweri Museveni’s contribution of sh5m and another sh8.6m from the Government towards the funeral expenses.

 

Today's self-absorbed tweet

Celebrating World Press Freedom Day. All Ugandans should rise up and praise their incredible media professionals! #worldpressfreedomday

That is what a self-absorbed journalist, @oletan, has posted on Twitter. It just shows the bad manners our media players have developed thanks to the Movement's  tolerant governance. Hey, media people, if you're happy with yourselves, that's fine. Your arms are long enough for each of you to pat yourself on the back. Go and make yourself happy. Meanwhile, when you get back from that, be sure to remind us of the Besigye lies you deliberately hid over the years so that you can prop up his and Mao's PR, which include:

• Sevo and the Movement colluded with the Karamojong to steal Acholi cows
• Sevo and the Movement started the LRA war (when he was junior internal affairs minister and national political commissar - they are strangely mute on his role)
• Sevo has sold Lakes Victoria and Kyoga
• That he had 47% of the vote in this year's election (the Basher Media Legion have not bothered to dig further into this because it might not favour Besigye's PR)
• Sevo and Movement intend to steal land from Baganda, Acholi and Langi
• Besigye's stealing a foreign party's manifesto to use as his own (seriously!! This is the man who has ideas for Uganda and Sevo is spent? You prefer the fake to the original? Yeah, we've not forgotten the manifesto plagiarism, sorry to disappoint the Basher Media Legion)
• Sevo has sold and pocketted money from Bunyoro oil
• And who can forget Besigye's statement that, as a professional medical doctor, he regrets having saved the life of President Museveni during the time he was his doctor. The Basher Media Legion have never asked him to explain that statement exposing their love affair with him.

So, our dear Ugandan journalists, when you stop over-estimating your importance and start actually being objective, only then will you get the praise of ALL Ugandans - not just your Basher friends.