In defence of NUP

COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | When the opposition party, National Unity Platform (NUP) led by musician Bobi Wine/Robert Kyagulanyi invited itself to the village brawl that is Uganda’s governance, the ruling regime received NUP with wide-open jaws — chomping on NUP supporters for the rather grave crime of daring to support the upstart ghetto president, Bobi Wine.

The message was clear – steer clear of Bobi Wine and you will live unhindered by long prison stays sprinkled with torture and abductions, or a brutal death, if that’s your preference. The drone phenomenon (of state security operatives using vans to harass and abduct opposition supporters) as we now know it has become synonymous with the political persecution of NUP.

Yet, NUP is still standing, continually advocating for its battered, bruised, and dead supporters and their families. Like nimble prey staying ahead of an apex predator, NUP also works quietly on other fronts – from unveiling a respectable headquarters, launching an online membership drive to instituting a leadership school, among others.

The 39-year-old ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) with President Yoweri Museveni at the helm since the sun- kissed year of 1986, chugs on like a hulking yellow bus outfitted with brute force and sheer impunity. Determined to continue its stranglehold of the presidency, the NRM has used its incumbency to blur the lines between the party and the state.

The regime does not take too kindly to dissent and civil activism, and is increasingly belligerent in its suppression of dissent. Our elections have fallen into a predictable pattern of disquiet: the sole winner backed by state-sponsored intimidation and violence, stray bullets finding luckless citizens and leaving them quite dead, NRM functionaries warning the public against protests ‘the government will kill your children’, and, of course, the smarmy sacks and envelopes of money oiling the wheels of the hubristic yellow bus.

Furthermore, events of recent weeks have the presidency and the army flexing that constitutionalism is ‘unacceptable.’ The lords of the gun don’t like the letters of the constitution.

Still, NUP, whose base is disenfranchised young people, aka ‘foot soldiers’, is unflinching in its tone and branding. Recently at the party celebration of Bobi Wine’s birthday, the foot soldiers in crisp red party uniforms staged a parade. NRM flunkies gleefully latched onto this display, urging the police and army to clamp down on NUP’s ‘hooligans’ (Oh yes, another thing the regime does well is the constant demonization of the opposition – archetypal victim blaming).

The parade was similar to NRM gatherings at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) in Kyankwanzi where regime supporters cosplay as gallant UPDF warriors because who does not want to be a beefy- moustached soldier? In oversized army uniforms, the NRM members even practice firing guns, much to the delight of the NRM Chairman/President Museveni who looks on like a proud grandfather.

Dear reader, when the NRM does it, it is patriotism in action. When unarmed NUP does it, state security wearing cadaverous masks (no different from thugs), besieges their offices, raiding and trashing them.

NUP’s red parade is also that hot itch in a sensitive spot – playing into the gleeful violence of the regime while furthering the narrative that only those with an army can ‘manage’ Uganda. The words of the former Democratic Party president and two-time presidential candidate Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere are a cautionary tale for our day.

Ssemogerere, in a 2014 Daily Monitor interview, observed: “The danger we face even now is that it is being taken for granted that one needs an army on their side to win an election and maintain a government. Obote did it, Museveni is doing it now. It is a tragedy that Ugandans must fight to get out of.”

Therefore, NUP is a juicy fruit of NRM’s coercive oppression. By deliberately clamping down on the opposition’s ability to organise, the regime nurtures fanatical resistance. These fanatics are not a preserve of NUP – the original fanatics are from the revolutionary loins of the Luweero Bush war.

When the First Son of Impunity, army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba (MK) tweets about beheading Bobi Wine, his rabid army of supporters bare their teeth, salivating at the prospect of hanging ‘Kabobi.’ Following the latest episode in outrageous and violent tweets by the First Son of Impunity, Kenyans have latched onto MK’s tweets, haughtily wondering why Ugandans do not pour out onto the streets in protest – such is their privilege.

Dear reader, it is quite simple. Dead simple. Stray bullets in the hands of the NRM state are consistently effective at unaliving unarmed Ugandans. In December 2024, Daily Monitor chronicled the harrowing experiences of jailed NUP members such as Abdul Matovu.

Matovu alleged that his torturer asked, “In case we give you power, do you think you will manage us with our guns? Do you think your ideologies of telling people to demonstrate will work? This government fought for you, we slept in the wild with animals, you even have wives, but we used goats and would kill the same goat for our meat; do you think you will manage?”

But amidst this chaos and violence, behind every act of defiance is a community of people united in their struggle for justice and freedom. The resilience of these individuals, those who risk their lives advocating for a Uganda where we can all thrive — reminds us that true power resides not in the gun but in people – their solidarity and courage.

The narrative must shift; it is time we amplify the voices of those who dare to stand against tyranny, for they embody hope and change in a world overshadowed by fear and oppression.

What about the NRM state? The state has the responsibility to be the adult in this room called Uganda – because the state is armed and dangerous.

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Olivia Nalubwama is a “tayaad Muzukulu, tired of mediocrity and impunity” smugmountain@gmail.com

THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE OBSERVER