Museveni used Luwero war to spread hatred
By Suleman Mugula
20th Sept 2010
In my article “UPC is serving Museveni’s divide & rule policy” in Uganda Correspondent last week, I tried to the trace the source of Museveni’s insatiable appetite for power. I ended by saying: “In fact, Oyite Ojok and the other liberators had not quite appreciated the character of the person they were working with. By the time they realised, Museveni had already elevated himself into national political significance. He was now the Vice Chairman of the ruling Military Commission”. This week, I continue from where he left.
Post-Lule was a period of confusion. Much as Museveni would have loved the confusion to continue so that he plays even more tricks that would have fuelled more discord between the North and Central Uganda, some of the people he was working with like Paul Muwanga had other plans. They decided to swiftly organize the 1980 elections.
Museveni wanted to be President. But he had no political profile to enable him compete against the heavy weights chosen by the traditional parties like DP and UPC. He couldn’t even manage any elective post from within these traditional parties. UPC and DP for example had seasoned, well educated, and respected leaders of national caliber.
But Museveni’s huge political ambitions forced him into an unrealistic belief in his own abilities as a politician. As a result, he decided to form the Uganda Patriotic Movement [UPM] party that he hoped to use to become Presidential of Uganda.
The ill-fated attempt to become President of Uganda in 1980 once again brought Museveni into the limelight. Seasoned politicians begun to wonder! They searched far and wide to find out more about Museveni. Many of them could not find Museveni’s political base. So they dismissed him as non-starter.
UPC in particular poured a lot of scorn on Museveni. The UPC leadership went out of its way to even express doubt about Museveni’s citizenship. UPC was convinced, perhaps rightly, that Museveni could never win an election because his political significance in the Military Commission was not big enough to win him the presidency of Uganda.
Indeed, just as UPC had predicted, when the 1980 general elections were held, Museveni stood against Sam Kutesa of DP in Nyabushozi and he was, without rigging, beaten hands down. Today, we all know that Sam Kutesa is a top NRM figure, he is Museveni’s son’s father-in-law, and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Museveni’s government.
Anyway in the end, Museveni’s UPM only managed to win one famous seat that Dr. Crispus Kiyonga took. The 1980 elections not only returned the north to power, it brought back Dr. Apollo Milton Obote; the same man who was partly responsible for the original fracture between northern and central Uganda in 1966. This was a golden opportunity for Museveni!
He quickly dashed to the bush. Not because he had been cheated, not because he had any grandiose social, political or economic plans for Uganda, but because he was determined to become President. With the return of Obote and his history with central Uganda, Museveni saw an opportunity. He exploited the historical differences between central and northern Uganda and widened the rift between the two regions even more.
This partly explains why, with hardly 50 men, Museveni was confident enough to start a war against a whole government. The strategy was basically to make sure that the people of central Uganda hated those from northern Uganda enough to want to join Museveni’s Luwero war against the northern dominated government.
The atrocities committed in the Luwero triangle were gruesome; only comparable to the Rwandan genocide. To date, the people of Uganda have not come to terms with what happened in Luwero; largely because the truth about who carried out the atrocities is yet to be revealed. The blame game is between UPC’s northern led UNLA forces and Museveni’s western led NRA rebels.
Museveni used and continues to use the Luwero war atrocities as a means of perpetuating hatred between northern and central Uganda. Indeed, he was so successful that during the Luwero war, he exploited the opportunity and swelled the ranks of his NRA with many young men, women, and children from central Uganda.
The other episode that helped Museveni a great deal came in 1985. At this time, his NRA rebels were a defeated bunch and had almost lost hope. But a misunderstanding cropped up within UPC leadership which eventually led to the overthrow of President Milton Obote. The north as a region went into disarray. This was the turning point in Museveni’s quest for power. END. If is Monday, it’s Uganda Correspondent. Never miss out again!
Mr. Suleman Mugula returns next week with the concluding part of his article.
