The emperor’s naked aggression
If there was any doubt about the violent nature of Ugandas beleaguered dictator Gen. Yoweri Museveni he has now revealed it to the entire world as he seems to be losing it under the pressure of opposition politicians demanding electoral reforms to prevent him from rigging next year’s vote.
Opposition has made it clear they want electoral reforms.
“What happened in Kenya cannot happen here I can tell you,” the dictator proclaims in his violent rant unbefitting any head of state. “Anybody who tries to do that will be smashed completely.”
He was referring to the ethnic violence that marred Kenya’s disputed December 2007 vote in which Mwai KIbaki was declared winner over Raila Odinga. An estimated 800 to 1,500 people were killed. Ironically, Museveni himself was accused of playing a role in the Kenyan violence.
Referring to what he will do to political opponents during his rant, Museveni continued shouting: “Completely. He will not even remain with the press. You kill people? Where do you go? We smash you there there.“
Gen. Museveni, who has been in power for nearly 30 years, and numerously forced his way back to state house through elections that were rigged in his favor, has stubbornly refused to allow the passing of the necessary political and electoral reforms which Ugandans have been vociferously demanding to be put in place before elections can be held. The current election commission is hand-picked by Museveni.
If Musevenis intention in the tirade was to scare the masses into submission and unquestioning compliance, by the look of it, it has back-fired. He is being ridiculed on social media. His disposition seems to be triggering instead the very opposite reaction from Ugandans everywhere.
Ugandans have evidently lost all their fear and they are not afraid to show that they are no longer scared of Museveni the dictator.
What Ugandans are witnessing are the mad rants from a man who seems completely off the rails now. From the tone of his rants he seems to be extremely scared of the coming People Power Revolt should he stand in the way of reforms.
These are the last shouts of a dying presidency, a presidency which will, without doubt, be smashed by the people’s revolutionary onslaught in the months to come rather then the other way around; with his empty threats about smashing Ugandans.
These are the last kicks of the monstrous regime. Ugandans will be more than elated to see its back.
What Museveni should do, instead of exposing the secret by showing irrational behavior, is to get real and wake up to the approaching volcanic eruption that will represent people’s anger and frustrations.
Museveni needs to heed the advice of the American President Barack Obama made during his address before the African Union in Addis Ababa on July 28, 2015: voluntarily step down in a peaceful transition of power that will allow Ugandans to build a new democratic and politically stable nation that is devoid of the type of Big-Man and One-Man dictatorship that has run unhindered for three decades.
Museveni is best advised to carefully reflect on the recent tragic destinies of the likes of Libya’s Col. Muammar al-Quathafi and Saddam Hussein of Iraq; they both perished so tragically after they roared and raved with unspeakable threats, abuse and warnings in the name of drawing the final line in their defenses against all those who were opposing their continued rule. Col. Quathafi for one called opposition activists his rats and his son Saif al-Islam called them cockroaches.
Saddam Hussein kept a gun in his sitting room and kept firing it in the air from his palace balcony to show how easy it was going to be to deal with the opposing masses. Where is he now?
In the Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo confidently yelled out stark warnings promising to “completely” crush those who were determined to create a new democratic nation without Gbagbo after elections he claimed he had won.
The beleaguered Gbagbo went ahead and unleashed incredible violence on innocent Ivorian citizens. What followed is summarized in this passage that has been documented for all to read: In October 2011, the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into acts of violence committed during the conflict after the election, and ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo visited the country (Ivory Coast). The ICC formally issued an arrest warrant for Gbagbo, charging him with four counts of crimes against humanity murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and “other inhuman acts”.
The former Ivorian president is now lingering in a cell at the ICC at the Hague. Another African war lord, Charles Taylor the former president of Liberia was tried by a Special Court and convicted on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges. He is now serving a 50 year sentence in a U.K. prison and recently the Court rejected his application to be deported to Rwanda.
At one point Taylor too like Museveni thought he was invincible.
If Museveni seriously believes that in this day and age a despotic ruler can go on the rampage and massacre thousands or even hundreds of innocent pro-democracy activists and get away with it he should go ahead and try. He must know better and understand that Ugandans are no longer scared of him. His threats are wholly inconsequential; except to the repercussion on himself.
Even Museveni’s own ruling National Resistance Party (NRM) party members, his own government and NRM leaders, and even members of the NRM’s Central Executive Committee have lost all fear. They are reading the handwriting on the walls and openly seeking to remove him from State House.
Why would a confident and sane president utter such ugly threats in public?
The peoples struggle for a new democratic Uganda without Museveni is in full swing and soon it will go into the highest and most decisive gear whether Museveni likes it or not.
The choice of what to do and how to deal with the genuine and fully constitutional aspirations of a people who are no longer willing to live as slaves under his rule is purely his and his alone.
Gen. Museveni alone who will have to live with the consequences of his decisions and actions.
