The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Why Uganda’s opposition should take voter turnout seriously if they ever want to win elections
THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | On March 15th, the Electoral Commission declared opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate, Paul Mwiru, elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Jinja East constituency in a by-election. Since then, opposition leaders have been congratulating themselves on this “big win.” Yet the results, when properly analysed, should cause the opposition in Uganda to pause and reflect.
It is commonly assumed that opposition’s strongest base of support is in urban areas. This assumption is proven in election and opinion polls. The opposition pick a higher percentage of votes in urban and peri urban areas.Indeed, in all opinion polls, the higher you climb on the income and education ladders, and the farther you get away from rural areas (or the closer youget into urban areas), the higher is the hostility to President Yoweri Museveni. Increasingly, the demographics are working against Museveni as young people, especially those who are exposed, don’t like him.
Now Jinja is the second largest urban area in Uganda, and it is teaming with youths hostile to Museveni’s rule. So winning a parliamentary seat in it should be an easy job.
Secondly, in this by-election, the opposition deployed nearly all their heavy weights: Kizza Besigye, the most popular opposition figure;Patrick Amuriat, the new FDC party president; Mugisha Muntu, a former party president, the opposition’s new kid on the block, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine and Nobert Mao,DP’s suave and moderate president.
Yet in spite of this heavy deployment of its most powerful figures in a constituency that was theirs for the taking, the opposition victory was not impressive. Let us look at the numbers: total number of registered voters was 29,000. Of these only about 11,958 (or 40%) showed up to vote. Mwiru got 6,654 votes (21% of all the registered voters). Meanwhile NRM’s Nathan Nabeta Igeme got 5,043. This means Mwiru beat him by paltry 1,600 votes. FDC should have won this constituency by landslide. Yet Mwiru was not voted by 80% of the registered voters!
For many years now, the opposition in Uganda have refused to address this problem of low voter turnout. Yet it is critical for them. It tells us two things: First, although the vast majority of educated and urbanised youthful Ugandans are increasingly hostile to Museveni and his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, they do not find existing opposition parties and their candidates attractive.
In elections, they prefer to stay home for lack of choice. But this also means that they see the opposition as not being better than NRM. The second lesson is that the opposition in Uganda lack basic organisational infrastructure to rally its supporters in its strongholds to bring them to vote on polling day.
The people of Jinja have spoken. Their choice is clear. Hearty congratulations to you @hon_mwiru upon a hard fought and well-earned win. As we celebrate this victory, let us work to ensure that all those arbitrarily arrested by police are freed ASAP.#CountryBeforeSelf pic.twitter.com/axkiQJhY6x
— Mugisha Muntu (@mugishamuntu) 15 March 2018
I have argued times without number that opposition leaders take voters for granted. They assume that because many people have lost confidence in the Museveni administration, then they automatically support the opposition. Yet this is not the case. This assumption has been fatal to the growth of votes for the opposition across the country. The fact that a woman recently divorced her abusive husband does not automatically mean she is willing to marry you. But Uganda’s opposition is hostile even to the most modest criticism like this. So they live in their won make-believe world that somehow they always win and are only rigged out of victory.
However, their inability by opposition to register high voter turnout in their strongholds is the reason they can NEVER win the presidency. It also explains their inability to grow their numbers in parliament. For instance, in the 2016 presidential elections, only 800,000 voters out of two million registered voters (40%) showed up to vote in Kampala City and its surrounding Wakiso District. And these are the hot beds of Besigye’s support.
MWENDA has made a good analysis of the election results, though there are a few things that he has not said.
First and foremost , he has not said anything that was not already known. Infact I said as much in a posting in the OBSERVER in an article written by Hon NGANDA an another by a KITATTA ( not of the Boda Boda fame)
I agree with most of what M 9 has observed though with quite a bit to add and in some cases some that I do not quite agree with.
I wonder where M 9 did his survey which suggests that turnout in polling stations where polling materials were delivered late was not “significantly” different from those where materials were delivered on time.
I have a study done on the same subject on 100 polling stations, evenly distributed across the country, 60 where they were delivered on time and 40 where they were late. Of the 40, they are divided into rural/semi rural and urban/ semi urban.And these are further divided into those where the delay was up to 2 hours, up to 4 hours, up to 6 hours and over 6 hours.
The results show that turnout, with all other factors put into perspective – for instance there was one polling station where there were 3 deaths of prominent persons in the area where up to 30% of the voters were related to or affected by the deaths and all the funerals were away from the area, and another where it rained for most of the day- was significantly affected, from 10 – 40 % in some areas , the later the delay the lower the turnout.
It was also discovered that these polling stations were more vulnerable to voting malpractices( rigging)
SO , for purposes of furthering my knowledge, I would be grateful if you could direct me to the study you carried out, if it is available as a publication
WHEN discussing any subject, there are what we call “keywords” , which words/terms if not used in the said discussion make the discussion incomplete.
I can not for instance discuss CLUELESS people without mentioning the name WINNIE.
Here M 9 discusses “voter turn out” without mentioning the words “apathy” and “scepticism”.
The average voter turnout in the last elections was in the region of 60% and this has been falling consistently from the high of about 73% in the 1996 elections. Worth noting also is the fact that in bye elections and mid term elections, the turn out is lower.And it is a well known fact that in opposition strongholds ,which as M 9 has noted, tend to be urban areas, there is usually a higher level of police/ military presence and intimidation of opponents, creating the said apathy.
CIVIC duty of voting tends to be more pronounced in the rural areas, where it has been almost impressed upon the people that voting is MANDATORY or that NOT voting has consequences – big brother is watching_ sort of attitude.
This and other factors influence voter turn out in opposition areas and also their ability to mobilise their supporters to turn out and vote.
The example M 9 gives of the supporter in Tororo who went around collecting supporters and ferrying them to polling stations is an isolated one, and in and around the urban areas such a person would probably be arrested on his second or third mission and driven to Kayunga or worse Nalufenya for any number of charges.
While you ejakait and Mwenda agree on voter apathy(non-appearance) in almost equal measure, you disagree on reasons. Both of you could be right but there are reasons causing the apathy you seem not to see yet they are apparent. They are not particular to Uganda but also Kenya and Tanzania. The reason I don’t mention Rwanda is because the incumbent was voted by a 98% with a 93% turn-out or something close to that.
The biggest cause of apathy that accounts for 75% of absentees is Corruption. I illustrate.
(ii) person who has been around for some decades and knows the good old days a how services were provided and how gradual decay has been slowly eroding the nation.
(ii)those who are coming of age in this environment where you see corruption increasing hourly, you see that your tax money,grants,aid and debts aren’t giving you benefits, the schools are bad, the health clinics are bad, the roads are bad, and the electricity is bad. … The enormity of the task of changing this environment,no matter what resources are spent looks impossible, this is what drives voter apathy.
(iii) Most of these candidates have been around before and have forgotten that they lied to the people (not once but severally) and they think people have forgotten. A mature person sees no reason to walk 5 to 10 kms to vote for lies unless there is an instant profit.
(iv) there is another group that you seem to neglect but since a few votes add up to something they are not negligible. KB is not as popular as he (makes people) believe(s). In the military, a man will only be popular if he ever gave a shout order of assault and led the column with his men running close behind…….not when you are in the sanctuary of the sick bay. veterans may not turn up for KB or his guys a la Mwiru. If you have never commanded a section,platoon or company in battle, soldiers give you little credit no matter your contribution in the other echelons. It is the ‘law’ though unreasonable but even civil law is an ass sometimes.
(v) Since elected officials are never held accountable and never take opinions of the electorate seriously (all parties) there are some voters who don’t care which party or person wins or whether there should be an MP at all to represent their constituency.
(vi) FDC as a party can never win presidential elections because it cannot garner sufficient votes and cannot rig neither does it have the money to buy votes cash. Unless it is headed by a stranger who will promise people things and they overwhelmingly vote for him in ‘any port in a storm’ choice…. having written off both KB and M7 as non-reliable to salvage what is left of the nation.
Apathy is a terrible situation. A certain soldier was caught between an artillery barrage on one side and enemy snipers on another. Nearly all his colleagues were dead and it was around midday. He tried to move to the left he was shot at, to the right, shot at. rear he was strafed by a machine gun. He realised they were playing with him the cat-and-mouth because they knew he was helpless, so he went back to his trench. On the next day, he was found by enemy patrol, deep asleep like a baby. He had given up on living and had thrown his gun away.
If a time reaches when people will give up, only churchmen and women; who are the last to break will be working and walking. M9 will still be telling people that the economy is growing by a steady 6% and the GDP is increasing steadily by blah blah blah. URA will be the first to know that things ain’t as they were.
RWASUBUTARE, yes , I did mention voter apathy though I did not quite into the reasons why it exists.
AS you say, it is not only in Uganda where we have voter apathy as we did witness in the last presidential elections in Kenya, but even in the western world , the UK and the US.Voter apathy was and is still quite high among the Blacks.
The main reason for voter apathy is the feeling of disconnect, call it disaffection if need be, where the voter feels that their vote will count for nothing in the final scheme of things and that it will either be ignored, or that the result is a foregone conclusion.But also as you say, most people feel that they are just being used in the grand scheme of things and that their needs will not be addressed by whoever is voted in.
M 9, with all due respect, I think you are wrong when you say that the opposition do not take stock of results in after an election.
Any organisation worth its name or a team must sit down and do a post mortem, whether they have won or lost.
M 9 must for instance analyse why one article received more postings than another, or why they read the article on the woman falling off an Emirates flight than say the article on Tumukunde sacking or Myths……….., because this will tell you your readership.
A victory is a victory, and a victory is not always a victory. One must sit down and analyse how/why the won and how the other party lost.
You must be the only one who does not know that politicians and strategists say one thing in public and another to themselves, because you must then believe as the NRM do that the opposition rigged the election.Celebrating is part of strategy to boost your own morale and to deflate that of the opponent and I am sure the opposition are doing a post mortem, only they did not invite us along and whatever findings they come up with will try to use in the next election
Mwenda is being tactful when he almost says everything about the Jinja by-election. Almost everything but the Bobi Wine phenomenon. Mwenda will endeavour to sell us his argument that the opposition is weak and it is weak because of the organisational gaps and that’s why it has failed to grow its numbers. He will sell us his figures but that statistic comes to nought (zero) if he doesn’t put into consideration how the whole electoral process is being managed. And, of course, he is entitled to his opinion that the opposition should win “irrespective” of those counter forces. This argument he has carried on for quite some time now and it is beginning to tire. Today, we had an election and as an opposition, I would say, it was a “nougat” (that chewy sweet with nuts and fruit.) Mwenda could sulk. But he’s not sulking quietly. He has chosen to cover up the sullen mood by attacking the “victorious” and not the “vanquished.”
Bobi Wine aka Robert Kyangulanyi could have “resurrected” what has been slowly dying with Dr. Kiiza Besigye. Bobi Wine could have put the opposition back onto its feet after it had capsized under the NRM strangulation. He is, therefore, a Messiah to the opposition and a potent force against Museveni and by large, to the NRM. What do I mean? When Bobi Wine announced his candidacy for member of Parliament Kyandodo East, another prominent musician by the name of Kazibwe aka Ragga Dee, had been trounced in a mayoral contest by not less than one hundred fifty thousand votes. However, Bobi Wine’s win didn’t come only at the defeat of FDC’s official party candidate but it also came at the defeat of the mighty “Mass Party”, the NRM.
Two attributes that make Bobi Wine standout. He is a youth. He is an entertainer. Historically, the Movement has been seen as a party of/for the money and elderly. However, and as a result of mismanagement, the movement has been able to create its own youths. Who are, in most cases, I’ll educated, drug abusers and opportunistic in nature (the likes of Abdul Kittatta. (Mwenda would fall on the side of opportunists if he was still a youth.) By being an entertainer, Bobi Wine eats into Museveni’s support base of the women. And by claiming to be a ” ghetto kid” himself, he eats into the command of drug abusers who are a creation of the movement politics. These are “equalising attributes” into the “exploitative and thuggery” ways the movement chooses to conduct state business. Mwenda could have considered such factors as “petty” but let’s look into the NRM “mirror” and then judge what could be the cause of this “Pettiness?” Museveni’s fall could be at Bobi Wine’s feet.
KAKYAMA, M 9 is being very SELECTIVE and tactical by the way he presents his information. I used to think that M 9 was an IDIOT ( which he is not) but he is what in Cockney they call “being too clever by half” .
And “what is the lesson from the Jinja election?”.
The lesson, from what M 9( who for all intents and purposes is an NRM functionary) and the NRM , is that it hurt them real bad.This , one can tell by the way M 9 use 2 keywords here; “BIG win” and “paltry.
They said about TRUMP that people either took him “literally” or “seriously” none of which was meant to be.SO when the opposition say theirs was a “big win” they are rubbing it in.And yet M 9 says that the margin of 1600 votes is paltry, never mind that this was a margin of 15%, yet the same M 9 describes UGANDAS growth of 6% as MAMMOTH.And instead of saying that MWIRU got 55% of the votes cast, he chooses to call it 21% of the registered voters.So , according to M 9, the candidate who won the JINJA election is called NON VOTERS , who won 60% of the vote.
M9 has found a new way or is trying to find a new way by which election results are decided.HE is like someone who decides a football match by ” number of shots on/off target or corner kicks”.
Here he tries to use figures to spin a narrative to fit in with what he wants to say(or twisted mind) and concludes thus “yet MWIRU was not voted by 80% of the registered voters”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IS an election decided by the number of registered voters that did not vote for a candidate. So are all the registered voters that did not vote for MWIRU NABEETAS voters.How many registered voters did not vote for M 7 in the last election.
IN the BREXIT election, even though the BREXIT side won with 52 % , 62% of the voters did not vote for BREXIT. What percentage of the voters voted for UHURU in the recently concluded elections.? In the first Ugandan election, one candidate won his seat with 3 , yes 3 and that was less than 1% of the total registered voters.
IN a contest, when you win, the idea is to inflict maximum psychological pain on your opponent, and the way to do this is to talk up your victory and call it a “BIG WIN” even when it is “paltry”.No one has been a master of this in football more than MOURINHO .
Likewise, when the NRM won what was almost a coerced victory in the TOGIKWATAKO contest, they rubbed it in by using taxpayers money and going to MITYANA and celebrating.
SO, even if deep down the opposition know that this is not as significant a win as they are making it out to be, let them have their moment of glory and one can see how much it is hurting the NRM.
IN reality, when you put all factors into consideration, this is not such a big win.First and foremost, you have to consider that NABEETA was fighting a combined force, and one has to factor in the fact that what if DP and UPC had each fielded their own candidates.
ALSO , as it was claimed, we were dealing with the fallout from the 102 article, and here is a population taht is angry with M 7 and is ready and willing to punish anyone who voted in favour. This result, unless massive rigging took place in favour of NABEETA, does not reflect that fact.
THE reason M 7 worked hard to have the bill passed at this time was/is to allow him time to study the effects , but most important for the hapless UGANDANS time to forget. UGANDANS forget and probably forgive all too easily. Give it another 6 months or a year down the line , and all will be forgotten and forgiven.
Likewise , come the next meaningful election and you will see the likes of MAO in bed with say KAYIHURA if he were able to run , claiming that he was not a bad person, only being made to do bad things by his bosses.
TO me , those are the lessons that I would, as the opposition, take from the MWIRU big win with a paltry margin.
Ejakait, it is not criminal to refer to Mwenda as an “idiot.” It is a description some might find befitting of a man who has little to prove compared to his self acclaimed fame. I am neither saying that he’s an “idiot.” Mwenda is simply trying to deny the opposition of a raucous celebration when he accuses them of a low turn up. Why would a “marginal win” be the matter if the process was considered to be transparent, free and fair? Would Mwenda find a problem with the win of Nana Akufo Addo in Ghana where he won Manama of the NDC by 53%? Would Mwenda find a problem with the election of Donald Trump who even lost in the popular vote but won in the vote? Every democracy has its own parameters, ours is that, who ever garners 50 + 1 vote (in case of two contestants) or one vote more than the next closest contender (in case of more than two contestants), is declared winner. But even where someone has decided to take the law onto themselves, just like Museveni did after the 1980 elections and take it to the bush, wage a war and take power, by our laws such a win is legitimate. My point being, a “Win is a Win.” Mwenda can whine as he wont.
A few corrections: the NDC candidate was “Mahama” and not Manama (it was an “auto error” by the phone), Trump lost the popular vote but won the college vote.
KAKYAMA (mamela), like I have said, M 9 says things in a way that suit his twisted mind. He chooses for instance to say that MWIRU was not voted by the 80% yet I have never seen him use the same figure on M 7 and in most parliamentary and even presidential elections where you have 3,4 or more candidates , and where the turn up, as is the case with most elections, is in the region of 60/70 %, the people who do not vote the winner and more than those that vote him.BUT just like M 9 himself said, common sense is not always common. So , as you say, much as it is not something that you would want to say, what choice does it leave you but to call such a person an IDIOT.
I know someone who would go as far as to use the word SWINE, and this case , it would not be misplaced
Now, you two should be a bit understanding on the method of work of M9. He is a field tactician who, like all of us, knows principles cannot pay for a cup of tea let alone a good lunch. M9 you will recall fought against the regime excesses more violently than any other scribe I know. You will recall his stinging article “The…………..tree”. Any other place would have ensured he does write any other article even if he were to pull it down( I can download it even now). So M9 saw his provocation will not yield any fruits like Luzira and fame. He changed strategy tactfully. I don’t know who approached the other first for collabo but I suspect it must have been the ‘Old Fox’ (Betty Kamya’s appelation). And I suspect,with benefit of hindsight that M9( like all Mountain-of-the-mooners)responded with a caali ndoho response. The next thing we knew, they were in bed with M9 attributing his acrobatic about-turn to enlightenment and his previous belligerent disposition as ‘before growing up’ and ‘hot youthful naivety’ coupled with misplaced misdirected misinformed anger and partial comprehension of statecraft. He went on to say that the hostility of M7’s handlers to disseminate information is what made many scribes(himself included) misunderstand and misrepresent facts about M7’s benevolence and in fact misreport it as greed or impunity. Now, what really matters this side of the divide is to follow ‘natural law’ or break yourself as you exert your insignificant pressure to oppose it; it being tougher than a million lujjegeres. M9 opted to ‘join them if you can’t defeat them’. I concur with him fully.
I have already smelt that he is more acrobatic than even M7 because of the anger he directs at the FDC’s bungling. One of these days, trust me, I will catch him for you with an indisputable exhibit that he joined the gravy train for the palatable enswa. These articles and statistics he displays are for just ‘marking time’……. the solver of all problems. As for ‘idiocy’, he may pretend to be but the guy isn’t because idiocy requires more effort than M9 is willing to expend. We had earlier agreed that statistics,especially when applied by M9, are very misleading and should not be wholly relied to make a conclusion. But be informed that M9 can jump ship at the slightest sign of a storm. In the military operations, that M9 so fondly refers to, it is folly(which M9 can never do) to enter a field without charting an exit route because it would be no different from a grave and in most cases it is.
Man of Nyangole, I can only refer to this in my limited vocabulary, for lack of a better word , as a MASTERPIECE.
You have tickled ribs that had not been tickled in a long time and leave no doubt as to who you were tutored by in the English language.
Oguti Bichachi and Sam Koluo. I hope God is still keeping them and in good health. Sadly, the world being what it is (unreliable) in all these 50 years, I have not had the opportunity to go thank them in person albeit with a small token. I still regret it. Such men are deployed by Providence once in a generation. I however met Mr Bichachi’s nephew who is an airline pilot and I ‘revenged’ (used to be attributed to President Amin)in the lingo of the ‘mischief makers’ of the press.
1.Ugandans are having the time of their lives thanks to NRM.
2.The low voter turn out in elections is a sign that Ugandans are getting exhausted with elections and have things to do.
3.The youth have the potential to overthrow govt but they are not sophisticated in their workings and secondly,parents of these days love and care for their children a lot basically, they are in a comfort zone besides; what do you expect of children of the pampers generation?.
4. The margin of a win during elections matters alot in 3rd world nations for example,if M7 obtains 51% and KB 49% of the cast votes it would be easy FOR PARLIAMENT to impeach M7.
5.Who told Ugandans that M7 should attend all summits he has been invited to?how come when USA and Britain send special envoys like John Kerry,Suzan Rice,Magdalene Alright,Rex Tillerson,Boris Johnson other nations appreciate?
6.When one travels to Kabale thats its when you will appreciate that Rwanda and Congo are complex nations.Kabale is close to ,Rwanda and Congo but business is not booming in Kabale instead, the Congolese and Rwandas travel all the way to shop in Kampala.
7.Justine Bageyenda has 3 months to retire she shouldn’t be putting up such a spirited fight with the Governor instead she should go for counseling on how to cope after retirement.
8.I can excuse Mutebille for behaving the way he does because he is used to dinning and discussing issues concerning the Financial market with IMF and WB officials not the S.6 graduates in Parliament.
9.BOU can be sued so why does Mutebille think he is above the Law?So if both IGG and BOU can be sued then it means that they can be investigated and prosecuted if found culpable..
1. You must be living off the earnings of someone else Winnie. How comfortable is “incurring consumer debt”? To be indebted to a restaurant or market food vendor, which debt stays staring at you long after you have come from the toilet? When will a man of 60 do philanthropy (one of the duties of man) when he is still scavenging for survival? It happened during NRM. Deny it, like you deny many other things. You deprive a person of land(don’t mind why) and you expect them to live?
2. The apathy of non-voting is because they don’t see any difference. Like Dr Ekwaro said (though he wasn’t born yet) Uganda was without elections for 8 years (1971-1979) yet despite the sabotage both internal and external, fish was plentiful, matooke was abundantly available, schools operated, medicare was free and better than is now, the train and buses were regular and prompt, Uganda Airlines flew the good Crane flag to all world destinations, Uganda house in Manhattan New York was built, Akibua won for us a GOLD in 400m hurdles (Get us a bronze in same event now). So elections may as well be done away with. The people are right. What is the use of lying to the world that you have a representative leadership in place and end going to do house-help work in Arabic peninsula?
3. Youth cannot overthrow a government because the powers-that-be will fight tooth-and-nail to stick or die because they know if removed violently, there is only one destination. So they will shoot them. Since youth are less than the bullets, it is fruitless effort to attempt a contest, I love them more than they love themselves and would do all in my power to dissuade them from the attempt. War is not suicide.
4. The margin of win and loss would be potent if the voters were indeed represented by moral MPs. But remember, there were constituencies where they voted for NRM MPs but voted for KB. It is a bit confusing to predict but remember, most people are loyal to individuals (not party). How would you otherwise explain the Nantabas voting YES when the electorate had openly instructed her to vote NO and even compelled her to wear the red ribbon? Otherwise Winnie, the electorate is as acrobatic as the MPs and the visionary. 99% are not consistent. How would you otherwise describe the wild promises they make,even to children, and then not fulfill? Remember some VIP who promised tampons to adolescents and later said(or was it his wife?) that there was no money? If you lie to a child, how will you hold the same child to account or exhort to be truthful? Shouldn’t all those oaths of office be done away with? Winnie, indeed you live in the UK.
5. Noone said M7 should attend all conferences, it is he himself who said he would attend and even sent an advance party. Do you how much it costs to send a team by air and upkeep, then withdraw them without you doing what the expense was incurred for? If you told me to meet you and instructed that I reserve a table and make orders for meals a la carte and other ebigenderako and ended by not appearing, whose pocket would suffer? These taxes are extracted painfully by both parties;extractor and extracted….. should the money be so played with? by a mature person? who knows the humiliation of begging and not being given? Winnie don’t play with us. We are HIPC.
6. Whose short-coming are you referring to? The Rwanda and Congolese or the Kabale people? Kabale can stock and even make some or most of the goods that these people come for in Kampala but:
(i) There is no channel of communication that will inform the foreigners that the goods are available in Kabale
(ii) They at times like to do window-shopping in the big city in the sun. Kabale is chilly.
(iii) economies of scale make stocking same goods in Kabale more expensive to both parties.
But the main reason is lack of communication and trust. If our people were consistent, you would just mentions your needs on email, the vendor loads a truck and Kampala and it delivers to you in Goma or distant Cyangu on the southern tip of Lake Kivu. But the Congolese will pay you in fake dollars, the kampalans will load cassave floor instead of wheat flour and other con tricks. These days, if a Congolese hires a Fuso (maggulu kumi) from Kampala to Goma, fuels it and gives you advance, and you cross into DRC via Kisenyi (Rwanda), the probability of being given the remainder is like boiling water by sunshine. If you naive enough to cross with the consignment, You will be shown where to park, served a meal after very noisy thanks-giving prayer, then he will excuse himself and disappear.
On the second day, third day you will be confused and start asking around. Remember you cannot return the cargo to Rwanda, customs will want all papers, so you will pray and pray and pray until a fellow conman will come with a lot of pity and tell you “Ndeko na ngai, I have cousin who works in Kampala and is in fact married to a Muganda woman, let me help you, you will off-load the cargo here in my warehouse, I will pay you half of your transport and the rest I will send when the owner appears” you oblige. And that is the last you will see both. If the Fuso is yours, so much the better, if you are a mere driver, your boss will fire you and get you jailed.The standard practice is TO CLEAR ALL BALANCE WHEN YOU ARE STILL INSIDE RWANDA or refuse to budge. Business ventures in some countries is very risky and not worth the venture.
7. If Justine Bagyenda has just 3 months to retirement but is fighting tooth and nail to stay, is it unusual? Which constitution is harder to change? National or that of a bank? Maybe she knows how she will do it and hang around or even be promoted.
8. Mutebiile has truly served well and for long. He should go rest. 18 years is enough. He is doing 4th term.
9. As for being above the law, in theory he isn’t but in practice, here, even smaller men like Kitatta sometimes climb above the law. So Winnie, it is my inferred conclusion that ether you are not a lawyer or you don’t see much that happens around or both. take off some time and visit the Pearl of Africa; during the winter is good because we are roasting fresh indigenous maize here.
I hope I have enlightened on some of the things you skip in your tight schedules. And where do you practice Winnie? Or maybe you teach?
1.@Rwasubutare; If M7 is not interested in something he is normally not afraid to say it; i believe 100%that the advanced team of M7 was just being enthusiastic and probably went without the consent of M7.
2.You have made no point on benefits of a margin of win during elections.
3.Why would Rwandans and Congolese drive about 380KM to Kampala to just buy basic goods like sugar,tea leaves,maize,rice in Kampala yet Kabale is just a stone throw away from their nations?
4.May be the youth feel the govt is no worth being overthrown.
5.How much money did Uganda Airlines make for Uganda?Didnt NRM find you in a mess with you Uganda Airlines?With privatization,there is always a win win situation.
Your bias is obvious. The guy fights and gets back his seat which had been stolen and you are still pooping on his and his party’s efforts? Moreover you don’t report how hard NRM tried to retain the seat through intimidation and rigging the process. You come across as totally prejudiced. Yours is a lesson from the school of cynics. The correct lesson is that the opposition can win and defeat NRM. This could serve as a pivotal moment. Opposition needs to stop navel gazing in Kampala, thus ceding the up country to NRM.