19^th-25^th July 2010

UC:  Colonel, you have spoken at length about many things that you associate with Museveni’s government.  What do you think is the remedy now?

Col. Ogole:  The short answer to your question should simply be that enough is enough!  I am happy to report now that many of the practical political challenges that Museveni is facing today, and will no doubt face in the very near future, were partly because many Ugandans like me adopted that silent approach as a way of keeping the possibility of the dictator’s reprisals at a safe distance.  It is now too late for Museveni; he is now politically naked.UC:  Are you sure about that?  How come Museveni is still winning elections?

Col. Ogole:  Oh yes, I am!  I think many sound minded Ugandan citizens have now seen how their country has been sliding steadily towards full totalitarianism under the rule of the eccentric dictator Museveni and his close family members.  So I think despondency, although seemingly attractive for Uganda’s unpatriotic elite, is not an option for the ordinary Ugandans who are still dying of starvation, jiggers, malnutrition, and malaria as Museveni and his cohorts loot the country dry and wallow in unprecedented luxury in Kampala.  Enough is enough; Ugandans are now craving for and in fact deserve real change.

We have all seen how innocent citizens have been mowed down by Museveni’s “Black Mambas” every time they try to take their anger on the streets democratically.  Elections that could have given our brothers and sisters a glimmer of hope to restore national dignity have been turned into a farce and a national source of despair.  All because the dictator has put his loyal cronies in the Electoral Commission to do his dirty political bidding from within.

UC:  How do you think Museveni’s government has performed in the realm of national security?

Col. Ogole:   We have all seen massive militia recruitments going on.  We have all seen billions upon billions of taxpayer’s money, your money, being spent on buying sophisticated weapons from abroad.  Who is this large elitist army being built to fight against?  The army and police are being equipped to crash you; yes, you Ugandans who will dare to stand up to exercise your democratic rights in the forthcoming 2011 elections.  Put differently, as a Ugandan taxpayer, you are paying for the bullets and teargas that will be used to stop you from demanding for your inalienable right to free speech, rights of assembly and association, as well as the most important right of all, which is your right to live under a democratic government freely chosen by you. 

UC:  We have come to the end of our interview, what is your final message to Ugandans?

Col. Ogole:  They are very many.  Allow me to go through a few of them if you have time.  For a start, corruption has become an endemic and acceptable cancer in Museveni’s Uganda.  Our politics is now premised upon and dictated by those who have stolen the most.  That cannot be right.  The country’s economy is paying a heavy price because even the foreign grants kindly provided by foreign taxpayers to resuscitate our dying social and health services have been mercilessly stolen by Museveni’s cronies.  And by the way, the most important thing to note here is that when Museveni’s cronies steal, you are directly deprived of something vital to your day to day life. 

For example, it translates directly into the lack of drugs that you see in your local hospitals and clinics which result in unnecessary deaths.  So I say join other Ugandans in saying enough is enough at the next election! 

It also translates directly into the bad roads that are killing your children every day; I say join other Ugandans in saying enough is enough.  It translates directly into the fact that you cannot afford good food, clothes and education for your children while Museveni and his cronies can; I say join other Ugandans in saying enough is enough.  It translates directly to the fact that innocent Banyankole, and Westerners in general, are all being seen as corrupt and benefiting from Museveni when the majority of them are actually suffering as much as other Ugandans; I say to my brothers and sisters there, join other Ugandans in saying enough is enough. 

The list is really endless and I am saying we must all stand up and say enough is enough.  All institutions of state are crumbling because the tyrant and his family continue to line their pockets handsomely with the proceeds of selling anything and everything sellable in our country; I say enough is enough.

Parents who struggle to educate their children to University level with the hope that they will get somewhere after their studies are grossly frustrated as their children return home to join them in the bondage of poverty; I say enough is enough.  Corruption has also meant that good government jobs are now an exclusive preserve of those who are well connected to the dictatorship; I say join other Ugandans in saying enough is enough to this too.

A handful of people, including some who did not even see the inside of a classroom, are now wealthy barons having grabbed land left right centre from the helpless peasants who have no voice and nowhere to go.  All these ghastly things have been happening under our very noses and Ugandans, in their trademark style, have kept quiet in a futile hope that the dictator will get power and wealth saturation and decide to return to them what rightly belongs to them.  Museveni is a man who possesses neither humility nor conscience.  For 24 years he has stepped on people’s heads unchallenged and I say join other Ugandans in saying enough is enough. 

I think this is now the greatest challenge to all citizens of that great country called Uganda. They now have to decide whether they want to stay mute, divided and aloof when their country is being torn apart; whether they want to remain subservient and subjugated slaves in their own God given land; whether they want to passively watch theirs and their children’s heritage and inheritance being destroyed; or whether they now want to stand up shoulder to shoulder as brothers and sisters and say enough is enough at the next election.

Five more years of eccentric rule by Musevini is like offering the whole country on the altar of madness as sacrificial lamb.  It is like accepting to consign our beloved country into political, social, and economic insignificance without a serious political fight.  If it comes to pass, then it will leave all of you the great citizens of our country guilty of indifference and squandering God’s gift to us.  As far as I am concerned, I think enough is enough.  We can’t take this any longer.  Not for another five or even one more year.  There comes a time when even the dead have to wake up to fight for the freedom of living.  And this is one such time.

UC:  And your very last word is what?

Col. Ogole:  Uganda needs political redemption now and that can only happen with a complete overhaul of the entire socio-political and legal system forced down our throats by Gen. Museveni.  And, we now know beyond doubt that that can never happen when Museveni is still in charge of things.  He is the biggest stumbling block to Uganda’s forward march into the future; a future where freedom reigns supreme; a future where opportunities and equal opportunities exist for every single Ugandan regardless of their tribe, religion, or political leaning.