By Stephen [Ex-ISO Officer]

3^rd January 2011

When I say Museveni is going nowhere willingly, I mean I have little faith that even elections will remove him. Not that he will be winning but I doubt any system in Uganda will declare him the loser. How can we expect honesty after all that we have seen over the years? Besides, we see the man systematically arming himself to the teeth. However what strengthens my scepticism is this brief narration.

During my time at Makerere, I used to express reservations about Museveni and used to criticize some of his ways openly among friends. Of course at the time, it all seemed like a taboo to many people.  The same thing happened when Dr. Besigye first challenged Museveni.  Most people thought he was mad.

A classmate of mine from Ntare School [who has since joined ISO] used to visit me at Makerere to convince me to join the movement. He was a fanatic of “Mzee”, as they fondly liked to refer to Museveni. Our friendship was so strong that these differences did not affect us.

When I visited Uganda after the first contest between Museveni and Dr Besigye, we got in touch again. During our interactions, I would hear him make anti-Museveni statements but I thought I was mistaken. One day while we were sitting over a cup of tea, out of the blue, like he had been itching to say it, he said “Stephen, I no longer support Mzee”.

His confession hit me like a katusha but I composed myself and listened. He said “omusheija titwakimwetegyereza, atushobire”, meaning “we no longer understand this man, he has bewildered us”. He said Mzee had changed a lot and that he had now decided to support Besigye and campaign for him using ISO cars.

But the biggest point of this narration is what happened at Mbarara polling station during the counting of ballot papers.  He told me he was at the polling station to see how the counting would go because he supported both Besigye and Winnie Byanuma.

Just before the counting commenced, ISO guys came and said they had brought a new polling officer to over-see the counting. They dragged the original polling officer forcibly out of the place because he was resisting. My friend stepped in to protect the polling officer and insisted that he remains.

Then one of the ISO boys, who was also our schoolmate at Ntare but was a few years behind us, pulled out a pistol, pointed it in my friend’s face and said “XXXX ninkuteera!” or “XXXX I will hit you!”. My friend said it was not the gun that concerned him but the fact that the look in this boy’s eyes suggested that he meant it.

He then drove home and went to bed. Later in the night, this ISO boy phoned and apologized to my friend for what he did and said “order yashohora ngu mzee nateekwa kurabamu by all means” meaning “an order has been released that Mzee must go through by all means”.

The west is the area where some of these things are done with impunity. We have heard of stories of soldiers being poured into some areas before the elections to ensure that people vote “correctly”, and indeed they do.

Such things give me little hope that elections will ever take Museveni away. It’s just an exercise for the international community. And if you ever think that Museveni cares about what Ugandans think, you have to think again. That’s why at one time I chose to write about Ugandan issues in the international media rather than home media because I know he doesn’t care what happens at home but is very concerned what is expressed outside. It was in fact my publications in the S African press that first made people in SA aware of his activities at a time he was considered a darling.

After that I would meet people that would say “Steve, I read your article about Museveeni. I didn’t know he was like that. What happened to him?” Later proper news coverage started coming out of the country and that’s when Museveni hit the skids as far as SA is concerned.

Just like Museveni used the international media – especially BBC & VOA to expose the activities of the Obote government and build opinion again them, we also have to use the media channels accessible to us in the purposes of saving Uganda. Fortunately now, the internet has improved things.

Museveni must not be allowed to continue fooling upright and educated people as if we have no brains or access to the right resources to apply our brains to. Let’s put our brains to use. Eventually, he will have nowhere to go.  Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.

The writer is an ex-ISO officer who now lives in South Africa and supports FDC