By John Patrick Wambi

I have been towing with the idea of responding to the Daily Monitor story [Army Trains 200 Banyala Youth] of April 27^th 2010 for some time now.  But every time I sit on the computer to write, something tells me “wait, someone out there will surely see that this is not right for our country and respond”.  To date, I haven’t heard any comprehensive rejection of the militia training.  Not even Buganda Kingdom, under whose nose all this is happening, has deemed it fit to challenge the blatant attack on its integrity and sphere of influence by Museveni’s government. That it was Dr. James Makumbi [aka “Dr. Death” in some circles] who was chosen to preside over the ceremony carries with it a very powerful and worrying symbolism.  

The “Dr. Death” joke aside, the Army and Defence Spokesperson Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye, as you would expect, dutifully provided a typical but ultimately hollow public relations response to the effect that “…the army usually provides instructors to any community that requests for its services during political education courses”. 

Personally, I believe that no one, however skilled in the art of public relations, can ever succeed in totally glossing over something that has “Kabi-Danger-Hatari” written all over it in the eyes of right thinking members of society.  And the reason I believe that to be the case is because at the same function, the leader of Sudanese refugees in the area Mr John Kenyi made matters even worse when he declared to a thunderous applause that “…we are now under the Ssabanyala not [the] Kabaka [of Buganda] as it was before”.  Mr. James Rwebikire, the wannabe spokesperson for the Ssabanyala Chiefdom, a non-existent Kingdom, had earlier thrown the spanner in the works by saying “…the training was one of the kingdom’s preparations for the 2011 general elections”. 

So does that mean that the government, like most people, has also finally concluded that if the reforms proposed by the IPC are not implemented in time then there will be violence in Uganda before, during, or after the 2011 general elections?  If that is indeed the conclusion, then does Museveni’s government still have any moral authority left to stop other communities across the country from training their own militias in preparation for the violence anticipated in 2011?  I would dearly love to get a response to these questions from a senior official of this increasingly despotic regime. 

In the meantime, I would say that if I had the authority, which I obviously don’t, I would have strongly advised every Ugandan community, in the interest of fairness, balance and natural justice, to train its own militia in preparation for the 2011 elections.  Because why should the Banyala and other communities favoured by Museveni’s regime be allowed to train their own dangerous militia and others not?  Let me use this hypothetical example just to emphasis my point:  Should the oppressed people of Buganda, the “Bafuruki” in Bunyoro, the people being evicted by powerful UPDF Generals in the oil fields of Buliisa and Amuru, the ignored people of Katakwi, or the very poor and oppressed peasants in Nakasongola for that matter sit down with their hands wrapped across their chests and wait to be slaughtered in cold blood by militias from favoured neighbouring communities?  I think not.  Has Museveni’s government, in all sincerity, failed and or refused to learn from the very tragic lessons of the Rwandan genocide where militias annihilated entire communities? 

Ugandans have had enough urine poured over their heads in the last 24yrs and I think it’s about time they woke up.  Our children and grandchildren will never forgive us for sitting as idle, passive, and disinterested observers even when we knew beyond any doubt that Museveni had set in motion a most dastardly process of destroying our good, long standing and cherished inter-community relations for his own selfish political reasons.  On that one, I will stand up to be counted as the first Ugandan to have said “enough is enough”.  If we have to, we shall destroy this country first in order to save it for our children.  Yes, I said it.  Let them come to Jinja and hunt me down if they want. 

The final part of this sensational article will be published next week. So don’t miss it, log in.  Editor]