“Is it outrageous to want to live in peace?”
On Sunday 22nd, Uganda watched in horror as a city enforcement officer , who later turned out to be a police officer, brandished his AK47 shooting indiscriminately at a group of unarmed civilians who had gathered at a demolition site carried out by Kampala city authorities. NTV Uganda brought the news in and people I was with said you could have mistken the scene to be Mogadishu. In this video, at 5:30 you see the animal that Uganda’s security forces have become. A man using a stick, a gun and a pistol to violate citizens.
In the end, Police Constable Santos Komakech Makmot killed one man and injured four more people. Yet to many the situation is not new, Ugandans have seen the privatization of security in the country lead to paramilitary groups that the police is pleased to use against opposition rallies. The goons that KCCA hires to be in charge have no businesses in enforcing laws.
Going by the comments this video generated one can understand the state in which Ugandans are in being led into by those who came to power by the barrel of the gun.
The area LCI chair at Port Bell where this tragedy happened, pleaded with one fraud-turned into a city planning director George Ninsiima Agaba. The oldman’s pleas fell on deaf ears and a life was lost. Uganda police says they will put murder charges against Santos and Agaba who are still in custody but for a man installed by president Museveni we can hope this time impunity will not win.
In the years we have seen increased militarism, groups of hooligans take over especially in protests and humiliate Ugandans who are seeking for respect of their right to assembly. Police head Lt. Gen. Kayihura went to the demolition scene only to deny responsibility. How can a city demolition go on without his knowledge? If it did happen, it is telling about his police. How can he distance himself when the killer was a policeman? I hope Kayihura soon realizes that one day he might not have the space to accept responsibility, that people will one day get really really tired and he will wish he had been more sensitive to an ordinary man.
How can you give just a month to a poor trader to get another place? And is it outrageous for them to ask for more time or more lenience? Of all the reactions, Richard Kavuma captured best the emotions of the people and what it means for us.
Are the wishes of Ugandans so outrageous?
Is it outrageous to want to live in peace?
Is it outrageous to crave confidence in the future?
Is it outrageous to cherish freedom from terror?
Is it so outrageous for a leader to speak up for the led?
Is it outrageous for that cobbler to mend shoes?
Is it so outrageous for him to succeed,
If to succeed means to survive?
Is it outrageous for Hadija to conclude,
that Uganda has not gone to the dogs,
But the dogs came to Uganda?
Two historic stories of Africa in 2011
As the year 2011 closed, December 7 marked a historic day in international justice. The first former head of state Luarent Gbagbo appeared before the International Criminal Criminal for crimes allegedly committed during the Dec 2010-April 2011 post election violence in his country Cote d’ivoire. Gbagbo had take over and retain power by force and trickery. Over 3000 people died in Cote d’Iviore.
He faces four charges of crimes against humanity, including murder and rape. Throughout the conflict I had kept in close touch with friends in the country and their distress was beyond what I could imagine. Everyday Africa was treated to the drama of two people claiming to have won an election. Many thought Ivory Coast could head in the direction of Kenya and Zimbabwe, where compromise had to be reached because Africa’s old men didn’t wish to leave.
Why Occupy Nigeria?
2011 was quite a year. It saw the fall of 4 dictators, three of them on the African continent. Many waited to see if the Arab spring that North Africa enjoyed would cross the Sahara and come down. There were a few protests in Uganda, Swaziland, Gabon, Cameroon and Senegal which didn’t yield a lot. Nonetheless, many African citizens had learnt a great lesson from the Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. They learnt that they could stand up to their leaders. Now that Nigeria, the largest (population) country on the continent has kicked off 2012 with #OccupyNigeria we wait to see how the government handles the situation after today’s strike and what lessons we can draw.
Photo by Esther Eshiet
The protest against President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to remove fuel subsidies has united many who say this will suddenly more than double the cost of living for most Nigerians. This year the Ugandan government has promised to start work on an oil refinery and the sector is already hit with corruption and bribery allegations. At the heart of the subsidies debate in Nigeria is why hasn’t government invested in refineries instead of selling crude oil and import fuel at a much higher price. I asked two Nigerian friends, both are taking part in today’s protests, about the issue because Uganda government has to learn from African countries like Nigeria that have been producing oil for five decades. Here is the two responses.
Read more…
Meeting one of the ‘most influential Arabs’.
On Friday 16, I was honored to attend a public lecture in a small library in Amsterdam where Abdel Bari Atwan, named by Middle East Magazine as one of the 50 most ’most influential Arabs’, was speaking on the eve of the one year commemoration of the Arab Spring.
Atwan in Amsterdam on Dec 16. Rosebell's photo
Atwan is editor-in chief of the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi. He discussed the Arab spring and the future of the Middle East and North Africa beyond the ‘revolution’.
Some of my favorite quotes from the meeting:
“We Arab people were suffered double humiliation. That brought about by imperialism and another by own very own corrupt government.”
I found this quote very meaningful for not only the Arab world but also of Africa. All year long many people have been watching closely to see if there will be a sort of African spring. And every time some friends asked me when is the African Spring, I replied, we won’t have a spring, ours will be the African Harmattan! None the less there has been inspiration from the north of the continent spreading south. In many ways our realities are close to those of the MENA countries and we can only wait and see what changes and how long will they take on the African continent. Just like Atwan said “whoever knew or predicted that the Arab people would depose four dictators in just one year?”
I have very passionate Yemeni friends and Atwan said he respected the struggle of Yemen, knowing how many guns are in the hands of so many people that the country has not moved to a civil war. He applauded the choice of non-violence of the people of Yemen even when they had access to arms. And he told us a famous saying about the difficulty of ruling Yemen with its tribes system that i loved.
“Riding a lion is smoother than ruling Yemen”
Then came Atwan’s passionate talk on the events in Libya and how he disagreed with the NATO military intervention. Even though he was glad that the killing of Muammar Gaddafi has been called a crime against humanity, he decried the west for allowing impunity of rebels turned government of NTC.
I was interested in the fact the the ICC had backed off the Libya case and of recent the prosecutor had indicated that Libya’s new rulers were capable of prosecuting Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. Personally i found this ridiculous, how could the killers of his father offer him a fair trial in a country has no justice system. Having spent the earlier week hearing people decry the ICC being an African court, here i was with a situation which clearly an outside court could have done better.
When I asked Atwan about this he went beyond the case of Saif to talk about his recent trip to Tripoli and how many African countries and the were silent about crimes being committed about African people, both Libyans and immigrants.
There are at least 7000 black people in Libya being tortured and living in the most inhumane conditions all these atrocities being presided over by the new regime.Yet we see no human rights papers about them. Nothing from western governments who supposed intervened on human rights grounds. I will not be surprised if we soon hear that Saif has been executed. The West is keeping a blind eye to crimes committed by rebels because of they always put their interests above anything else.
And that was from a Palestinian man who lived in as a refugee in Jordan, managed to study in Egypt and later run one of the most respected Arab media outlets from London since 1989.
Atwan said for the future of the entire region, one must not put their eyes off Egypt. He said is Egypt becomes more islamist, chances are that most of the other countries will follow suit.
No near end to violence as DR Congo election is disputed.
Photo by Edward Echwalu.
I am in Brussels where two days ago Congolese community had clashes with Police when they went out to demonstrate agains the president Joseph Kabila’s ‘re-election’ which has so far been rejected by international election observers and leading opposition candidate Etienne Tshisekedi.
The Carter Center said “we find the irregularities are significant enough to undermine the credibility of the election results.”
Again the contention is on the tallying process. Earlier the opposition had warned that the Electoral body had chosen to announce first results from Kabila’s strongholds in Katanga, a move seen by many as way to psychologically prepare the population if Kabila is finally announced as a winner. But Once again we have a Cote d’Iviore situation, both men have announced themselves as winners of the election. There are reports of government moving troops into Kinshasa and rounding up youth linked to the opposition. The situation is unpredictable and no one seems to know how this stalemate will be solved. And as tensions flare I am reminded of women of DRC, eastern DRC in particular who have endured all sorts of inhumane acts by soldiers and militias. On this day they see the little hope of having a government that can bring peace wane.
And I bring a story of Ester Munyerenkana a health worker at Panzi. I have held onto this story for quite a while. Her and other health workers daily have to deal with the end result of the broken political system and violence in Congo Read more…
Child marriages in Uganda
This week I was in Kasese taking part in validation of a study soon to be released by Isis-WICCE on child marriages in Uganda. I met Sarah Biira, 19 year old who had her first child at 13 years. Kasese is a post conflict area but has largely been ignored in terms of development. It has been under conflict since 1940s and the education of a girl child is a challenge because of poverty, cultural beliefs and loss of livelihoods to war.
Here is Sarah’s story.
Obama’s troops in Central Africa to fight LRA; will they deliver?
Many Ugandans, through various social networks, have expressed skepticism over the 100 combat troops the US deployed to Uganda to help stamp out the rebels of Lord’s Resistance Army currently operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Central African Republic (CAR) and parts of western South Sudan.
They think what they are actually here to do is secure for their country Uganda’s newly found oil.
a photo i took on Wednesday morning at Entebbe International Airport.
The mistrust and suspicion of American military interventions is well understood considering its record world over. However, I found many who are opposed to this deployment lacking much knowledge on what havoc the LRA have inflicted on the peoples of the three countries whom governments have largely ignored. And also many don’t look at what alternatives are there to stop these brutal massacres Read more…
Talking Africa Nobel Peace Prize winners with Al Jazeera
Last week, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gobwee won the the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Tawakkul Karman from Yemen for their work of bringing peace in non-violent ways in their countries. I met Leymah last year at the Man Up Campaign conference alongside the World Cup in South Africa. I have interviewed President Sirleaf twice. I thought it was very significant for African women to be recognised in the area of peace and security. Most often the image of African women is that of a victim of war and not a participant in bringing about peace.
Here is what I shared with Al Jazeera Newshour the day the winners were announced on Friday 7 October.
This week at the press briefing in Kigali, I asked President Paul Kagame what this prize meant for Africa.
I am only happy for the women of Africa. We need to go beyond this being a symbol for women. Women need attention not just in Africa but in the rest of the world. When I travel and read i see marginalisation of women. We appreciate the quest to empower women and have them as an integral part of our society on equal terms. But as we get help here in Africa, i feel we may need to take this help to some of these countries. For instance you go to discuss business in these countries and all their boards have about 20 men and one or two women. They too need help. This Prize is a reminder that we should work beyond the prize that was given for us to meet expectations of women of Africa. We need more women presidents!
In the interview I mentioned the status of women in South Sudan and I intend to write a separate post soon from my recent trip to Juba and interactions with women leaders in that country.
A chat with Jannette Kagame ; Rwanda’s struggle with Human Rights groups and why she stays out of politics
This week I am in Kigali, Rwanda where I am taking part in a meeting with Echenberg human rights fellows, a program coordinated by McGill University to bring together youth from around the world to discuss various human rights issues.
On the list of people to meet was Rwanda’s First Lady Jeannette Kagame whom the group met yesterday October 10. Shortly before I left Kampala on Sunday President Museveni had given a medal to his wife Janet Museveni who is a minister and member of parliament, for her part in the fight to ‘liberate’ us. This was given out as Uganda celebrated 49 years of independence. It was yet another controversial medal taken care of by the controversial medals budget from State House.
Going into the meeting with Rwanda’s First Lady I wondered how I would put my question about family rule. Then I asked on twitter what people would ask Mrs Kagame. @Afric01 replied and I put his question first.
Below are the highlights of our meeting Read more…
Today, Kampala is very colourful. Lately it’s only this colourful on events like these. It’s two days before Uganda ‘celebrates’ it’s 49 years after independence but those years seem to mean nothing much this friday as Uganda plays Kenya tomorrow October 8. This game means so much for Ugandans. It has been 33 years we have have waited to make a come back to the African Nations Cup.
The world and many in Uganda may be used to seeing the name of late President Iddi Amin next to words like monster, killer or beast but for many Ugandans he was a great man. His reasonable actions in other fields might be overshadowed by his rogue side but Ugandans know it was a year before he was ousted that Uganda last competed in the continental tornament where it only lost to Ghana on the final. And his leadership and backing of sports had something to do with that historic appearance.
The past year has been tough for us, the economic crisis and our government that loves to spend have not helped. We bought ourselves fighter jets at millions of dollars, our currency can’t stop weakening against others and our inflation stands at 28.3 % this month. We have had strikes by different professions, teachers, taxi drivers e.t.c. Many are struggling to put a meal on the table and keep their children in school or even enjoy a beer (our president advised us to drink milk instead.)
The Uganda Cranes, our national team seems to be the only thing holding us together, the little light that we are seeking in our darkness. Uganda has has 10 points and Kenya is at 7. Uganda must get win to avoid any calculations based on the other group game between Angola (9 point) and Guinea Bissau.
My Cranes jersey!
Uganda last lost to Kenya at home in 1991 so the Kenyans have their own 10 year jinx they will be looking to break. But the 33 year jinx means much more. Football has remained the only place for Ugandans to show their patriotism and love for their country. According to tweets i have read many would wish not even see the face of their politicians at this game. The ordinary people feel the staduim is the only place they can unite and defeat someone. It’s the hopelessness that has engulfed us in the midst of failing systems whether education or health care, unwanted public expenditure and unending promotions of the corrupt and the wicked of the regime.
In one of the qualifying games, the now Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, whose name is painted all over different corruption scandals was the chief guest. He dared to flash his party sign and his aides had to shield him from flying water bottles from the Cranes fans. A few days ago he visited the Cranes camp and so did the first son Col. Muhoozi Kainerugaba. Both donates some thousands of dollars. First the money is largely seen as our own tax payers money and then if this government genuinely invested in sports (am dreaming ) they wouldn’t need to come out at last minute to pledge. Truth is national sport survives because of few good hearts and the very supportive fans.
Football and the Cranes games in particular are almost the only remaining things that Ugandans can put their hearts to and spend their money on. It’s the day you see Uganda flags in numbers you wont find at any event not even the 49th Independence anniversary. Ugandan leaders have largely been so meaningless to ordinary people that seeing corrupt leaders – much as they have a right to be there- come to claim they are behind the country’s pride makes many mad.
The Nelson Mandela National Stadium is simply the only place we come to forget -for just day- about you looters of our country! Ugandans come to forget what is happening to Uganda. And it’s the only place you see genuine nationalism therefore breaking the 33 year jinx is about history, pride and Namboole is the place to be ourselves!
