The highlight of the 2021 elections in Uganda was not President Yoweri Museveni contesting again- after the lifting of the age limit clause from the Constitution. The highlight was the magnitude of foreign interference. Every election since independence has had a level of foreign interference and meddling but 2021 took the cup.
At that time, the President and the security system openly told Ugandans of the involvement of foreigners in the elections with an intention of driving them in a certain direction favouring the opposition.
The benefiting side laughed off these assertions, derisively retorting that NRM was panicking and finding excuses to justify the “imminent” loss. They denied being backed by foreigners while at the same time stating that NRM was isolated. But behind the dismissive tone was a highly coordinated operation that intended to stir insurrection and set Uganda on fire. The campaigns were just a cover for what was going on in the background.
In a number of capitals abroad, special interest groups and lobbies actively promoted Uganda’s opposition groups, raising funds for them and pampering them in the media, both mainstream and social. They facilitated appearances in foreign parliaments. NUP’s Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine had a field day in the limelight building a name while maligning that of President Museveni.
It is the time when ideas like “Uganda is bleeding”, “we can’t breathe” were coined. It is the time when wearing of berets and garments akin to military wear started. It was a dress rehearsal for military confrontation although most people took it as “swag” and flamboyance.
Meanwhile on the ground, Ugandans were under capture by opposition groups that would attack anyone who was not on their side. Many innocent Ugandans were harmed.
Were it not for a robust security system, strong and levelheaded leadership of President Museveni and firmness of majority Ugandans, Uganda was finished! We would be like Libya or Somalia (and we pray for those countries to overcome their challenges and solidify once again as stable states).
Five years on, this fact of what could have been is becoming most vivid going by the mood of the campaigns so far, and the goings on in the opposition parties.
Campaigns are generally serene. This is not by coincidence but the result of the defeat of the malicious forces of destruction that have for long tried to divide, subdue and destroy our country. Ideologically pure and grounded Ugandans, working with Government, have managed to repel the bad groups and their influences.
President Donald Trump’s reelection in the US also dealt the “neocolonialist” groups a blow. Trump is ultranationalist. His interest is “America first”. This policy shift has seen him withdraw significant amounts of American support from foreign countries, chief among which is USAID while he rolled back after an audit by the Directorate Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which, reportedly, uncovered a lot of leakages where money was going to supporting causes that Trump found wasteful. By now, every Ugandan should know which causes those were, but some of such money found its way into the pockets of the opposition, which was used to sponsor, among other schemes, the riots we witnessed at the height of the age limit struggle, in campaigns, during elections and after.
Other support went into paying local and foreign influencers to craft and widely disseminate damaging propaganda online and make it look as though all Ugandans had decided to send President Museveni home.
On top of giving him offensive name tags! Pro-NRM bloggers were blocked and their accounts taken down to stifle balanced discussion online in favour of one side. A virtual coup! Despite all that, the ground proved them wrong since votes are among Ugandans, not foreigners and nonvoting online gangs.
Trump’s financial squeeze is responsible for the latest outcry by NUP leaders. NUP recently wrote requesting to join the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) after despising the forum for long. This came after funding attached to membership was withheld. NUP must have counted on external support for their campaigns, while pretending that they had their own money generated locally but reality soon hit. Caught between a rock and hard place, they recoiled and requested back into IPOD. This move vindicated President Museveni’s assertions that these groups were in the pay of interfering external groups to destabilise Uganda. In short, the cat is out of the bag. Yet another act of spot-on foresight on his part!
In effect, the heat and tension that Ugandans endured in 2021 was the work of foreigners working with their puppets here. The physical harm to people, destruction of property and public infrastructure was their doing. The sectarian and divisive rhetoric that marked public and online debates, pitting tribe against tribe, religion against religion, friends and against one another; firing up a cultural onslaught against out long held values, turning our politics away from issues to insults and intimidation, and so on, were all by their design.
The advocacy around supporters that were alleged to have been kidnapped, injured, held, tortured or killed, was in large part a coordinated campaign designed to fit the narrative of “international human rights defenders” in order to attract backlash and sanctions on Uganda. In all that, opposition leaders were doing business with our lives while building a powerbase that would hand Uganda to neocolonialists to socially engineer us and steal out natural resources.
Even now, I suspect that they are up to something but that can never be tolerated!
The author is the Special Presidential Assistant-Press & Mobilisation/Deputy Press Secretary
Email: faruk.kirunda@statehouse.go.ug
0776980486/0783990861
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
