Former minister Captain Francis Babu has said the peaceful political dynamics in Kenya can also happen in Uganda if the current government accepts to hold a national dialogue.
On Wednesday while reacting to the recently concluded general elections in Kenya on UBC TV, Captain Babu said Uganda is full of people who can foster a peaceful political transition like what happened in Kenya, however, there is a lot of fear among Uganda’s political actors especially the incumbents that things may not be good once they get out of power thus involving the military to keep their grip onto power.
He said such traits of intimidation, blackmail and many others have caused a lot of differences and fear among Ugandans and the only cure for this, is the national dialogue.
“I’m very sure we can have free and fair elections, even peaceful transition of power but the problem is, we have got the wrong people in the election leadership and this is like putting square pegs into round holes. This is because such people have got their selfish motives,” he said.
Capt. Babu further asserted that if Ugandans don’t get away from selfish motives and get the right mindset, through the Natinal Dialogue, the country will never have a kind of election that has been in Kenya.
“It does matter who the President elects in the leadership of the Electoral Commission, if the people in the system who release the money to the commission are not good, they will control it. We need to sit down as Ugandans and appoint people in these places and give them confidence and independence, so that they are not intimidated. If we can do away with all these traits of intimidations, blackmail and money, Uganda can get a nice election like that of Kenya. However, to reach there, we must and we need to first have a national dialogue,” he said.
Speaking with Watchdog Uganda, the Executive board member of the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) who also serves as the second Deputy Mufti of Uganda Muslim Supreme Council Sheikh Waiswa Muhammad Ali also supported Captain Babu’s call and said that the issue of National Dialogue has always been neglected. However the more leaders in power delay, the harder it becomes for them to hold a National Dialogue.
“As IRCU and the Elders Forum we met the president on this matter though he gave it a green light, it was not given any chance to move further. Of course, Uganda has good and better policies but there is a need for people to speak out their rage because we all know how far this nation has come , people have suffered and a seed of disunity, hatred, rage and many other things have been sowed. It has left us disunited that is why there is a lot of selfishness in every sector,” he said.
Sheikh Waiswaadded that National Dialogue will leave Uganda as one and leaders must be willing to hold it for the good of the country’s future. “Many people are praising Kenya’s politics why? Because in the past, many Kenyans were hurt but when all parties came together and held dialogues, Kenya was put first every thing was settled. And we can all testify how their democracy is advancing from time to time.”
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