By Zacharia Kanyonyozi
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
It is day two of the traders strike and Dictator Museveni continues to fiddle as Rome burns.
Dictator Museveni says he will meet traders on Friday because even though Uganda continues to lose millions of shillings a day due to this strike, it is not his concern. He only cares for power and dynastic rule.
But we have just told you something you already knew.
So let us get to lesser known news.
First, a brief background to this fine mess that the Museveni Junta has landed us in before we continue.
The traders strike mutated from protests that started last week. Ostensibly, the bone of contention is over the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solutions (EFRIS) system that the Uganda Revenue Authority has introduced.
Well, this is what the Junta will have you believe as it paints the traders will a broad brush tarring them as anarchists who care little for a better functioning tax system as they are against taxation per se.
To clarify two things, Abdul Hakim Katongole, a Kampala City Traders’ Association Uganda (KACITA Uganda) member, said this morning that this countrywide strike began in September last year!
It began as a go-slow strike.
However, it is primed to explode into massive civil disturbance now. This is why calling it a “traders’ strike” instead of a “traders strike” is misleading.
The apostrophe in the former implies that it belongs to the traders, while its absence in the latter presupposes that the traders are the bridgehead in a battle for a society which feels suffocated by the Junta’s oppression.
Secondly, the traders are not against taxation. They are against taxation without representation.
According to Afrobarometer, a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life, “Six in 10 Ugandans (61%) say their government has the right to make people pay taxes. But this support has declined by 23 percentage points since 2017.”
It adds, “About two-thirds (65%) of Ugandans say ordinary people have to pay too much in taxes. Only half as many (33%) say the same thing about the wealthy. A majority (56%) of Ugandans say that “most” or “all” tax officials are corrupt.”
And finally, there’s “Three-fourths (76%) of Ugandans say it is “difficult” or “very difficult” to find out what taxes and fees they are supposed to pay. An even larger majority (83%) report that it is hard to find out how the government uses the tax revenues it collects. And fewer than half (46%) of Ugandans believe that their government usually uses tax revenues for the well-being of its citizens.”
Yesterday, there were heavy military and police deployments (although let us not forget that the military has taken over the police). At least five persons were arrested and scores teargased downtown in the morning.
By the time I reached, downtown at 9:30 am, the place had settled somewhat.
Still, what I saw revealed a lot to me.
Adjacent to the Old Taxi Park and overlooked by Park View Shopping Center and Grand Plaza Corner nearby to the shopping centre Gaza Land and Nakasero Water Reservoir, there were Four anti riots Control Vehicles (RCVs) and Armored Personnel Carriers (APCS).
However, as they were menacingly stationed there, tens of hundreds of Ugandans just stood there watching them.
It was like high noon.
Both sides did not flinch, all the while a tent with the words “Safe Blood Saves Lives” emblazoned on it stood in what could be called ‘No Man’s Land”, between the two would-be combatants.
The armed personnel however did not look as threatening as usual, they almost seemed contrite.
Their attitude was reminiscent of the Russian soldiers’ behavior during the Russian revolution in 1917.
The Russian soldier refused to quell the Bolshevik revolution.
To compound matters, the Bolshevik revolution was aided and abetted by the soldiers of the St. Petersburg garrison.
This is sure to happen here as Deputy Dictator Muhoozi Kainerugaba trundles his way to the presidential throne.
In Uganda, yesterday morning, many civilians downtown had their phones raised as they watched the armed personnel.
To me, this is evidence that when the revolution comes, it will not only start with downtown urbanites but will also be televised by them, too.
