By Sharon Tibenda

16^th May 2011:

President Museveni: Is his government about to fall?

Forum for Democratic Change [FDC] Party President Dr. Kizza Besigye has, perhaps for the very first time, looked into Uganda’s political crystal and declared to Reuters that the ongoing ‘Walk-to-Work’ [W2W] protests may cause President Museveni’s government to fall.

Dr. Besigye, who has just returned to Uganda from Nairobi-Kenya where he had gone to get medical attention after he was brutally attacked by security operatives, is one of the top opposition leaders who have been participating in the ‘Walk-to-Work’ protests over rising fuel and food prices.

The FDC leader predicted that if President Yoweri Museveni refuses to offer meaningful concessions to the people of Uganda and their opposition leaders, the W2W protests could spread and ultimately attract even the soldiers and police officers who have been battling demonstrators.

Dr. Kizza Besigye, although being an ordinary sympathiser of ‘Activists for Change’, has in fact become the face of the non-violent ‘Walk-to-Work’ protests that have seen Ugandans leave their cars at home twice a week to ‘Walk-to-Work’ as a means of highlighting soaring fuel and food prices they say are suffocating Uganda’s poorest.

“…You saw the women on the streets.  The lawyers said they were putting down their tools.  I am sure we are going to see more.  Teachers will say they will not go to the classroom, the doctors and medical workers will say, ‘no this is not on’.  So the legitimacy will increasingly be withdrawn by the people and the regime has no control over that”, Dr. Besigye told Reuters.

Besigye also the final source of government power, the military, would fail to back it [the government] if President Museveni does not offer “genuine negotiations” on the rising prices and other reforms.  “…The soldiers will ask themselves a few questions – whether they should go ahead and do the bidding of the actual beneficiaries of the regime while they themselves are suffering, while they are being asked to brutalise their neighbours, their relatives”, Besigye said.

The W2W protests started out in small way but were boosted by the violent arrests of Dr. Kizza Besigye by security operatives.  His car was attacked by men who smashed his windows with a gun and a hammer, doused him with pepper spray and hauled him onto a pick-up truck.  Riots erupted in Kampala and other towns the following day as Besigye flew to Nairobi for treatment for eye injuries.

Besigye’s return on Thursday 12^th May eclipsed the presidential inauguration after tens of thousands of his supporters turned out to welcome him home. There were clashes with riot and military police who said the crowds had stoned convoys ferrying African presidents for Museveni’s swearing-in.

Museveni has accused the opposition of trying to spread chaos to avenge its election loss, and vowed to crush the protests, blaming the rising food and fuel costs on drought and global increases in oil prices.  END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.