Last week, members of the “people power” group led by their principal, MP Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu alias Bobi Wine stormed Jinja where he had gone for a radio talk show. Before the end of the day, one innocent young man, Charles Mutyabule, was reported dead. The circumstances of his death are scanty but he would be alive and safe had the group not chosen to breach public order while exercising their rights. In the enjoyment of their Constitutional rights, they cost him his life, at a young when he was beginning to find his footing in society.
In February this year, two other innocent youthful Ugandans paid with their lives after being caught in the bloody wave punctuated by political rhetoric: Nabukenya died in an accident at Nakawa while Daniel Kyeyune died in Nansana while the burial party was returning from Kiboga after laying Nabukenya to rest.
There was also the case of Ziggy Wine, the previous year, who was involved in a motorcycle accident. His death was, queerly, “welcomed”| by some political fanatics who counted it as a benefit to their programme of blackmailing government and winning sympathy and support from a sometimes gullible public.
The aim is to stock maximum anger against Government while winning public sympathy and compassion and benefaction from donors and foreign groups. The aim is for bloodletting after bloodletting as a method to dent Uganda’s human rights record and justify armed intervention. There are other examples I may not name here and the incidents could increase as electoral momentum picks up.
For every act of harassment, kidnap or loss of life they pin on the President Museveni-led government, there is donor money to be had and undeserved advantage gained towards the goal of change of government.
Sometime back, “people power” circulated a document listing a number of persons alleged to have been killed or abducted for their political views. The names included persons who died abroad and others who faked their disappearances to extort money from relatives as ransom payment. The document, in totality, revealed deep interest in flagging the plight of others to build a case for political expediency. Everything is a now a political card, including incidents that happen by the hand of nature.
In short, for every corpse falling, they are happy to count it as a statistic to use in the political capital hunt.
Look! Busoga is a serene place where the people live like brothers and sisters. How, all of a sudden, Jinja was on tension and by the end of the day there was mourning is a puzzle though not surprising. Such incidents are expected to increase until everybody realises what is drinking out people’s blood.
When security got on the ground to regulate the group whose constituents had clearly thrown all care for their safety, both from immediate physical harm and Coronavirus, they found some of them with a coffin-of a baby. Whether there had been a corpse and they threw it away nobody knows but the sight of a coffin is such a traumatising affair that nobody who is not under the influence of strong powers would carry it around as if it were a trophy. That coffin was meant to send a message of the motivation behind the activities of some of these people. Nothing is as innocent as it seems. Whose campaign symbol or logo is a coffin?
At a time when the world is locked down and bleeding due to Covid-19, how heartless would one be to pose around with a “death box”? Ugandans should wake up to the reality of death rituals that have been introduced in our political field. Religious leaders should pray strongly against dark powers attempting to finish our people while lying to them that they are angels of redemption.
Are they short of marketable ideas to sell to the electorate to convince them of their suitability and relevance in leadership and positive transformation, hence resorting to the mystic? Very possible!
Many of these young people are new in politics but they risk tainting their trail with the blood of innocent people. Some of us are equally young but none of us has caused anyone’s blood to be spilled, since we are in a new era where politics is the exchange of ideas and not bullets and blows.
Let me repeat here, representing all Ugandans of goodwill who believe in interacting civilly, interfacing amiably with those who conviction is divergent and peaceful co-existence in diversity: politics does not have to be a deadly affair, but a fair and respectful exercise that brings joy and fulfillment to everyone. Elections are the icing on the cake! Anything that brings misery, pain and loss to innocent Ugandans is not politics a blood ritual. The names of innocent Ugandans whose lives are being wasted are being noted. Soon, those responsible will have to pay.
The author is a Presidential Assistant in Charge of Media Management
Contact: kirundaf2@gmail.com
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