MWAMBUTSYA NDEBESA: Bobi Wine is merely a representation of a political disagreement in Uganda that needs a political solution

I hope the security Minister General Elly Tumwine distinguishes between criminal violence and political violence.

True some aspects of the electoral violence that rocked the country were of a criminal nature but by and large this was not criminal violence but political violence. The underlying motivation of this demonstration was making a political statement. Therefore, the solution to these demonstrations is not to be sought in military and security measures but political measures i.e political negotiations.

The minister did not regret the death of so many people and scores more who are on hospital beds. When you add on those who were shot dead during the NRM primaries the number of the dead due to the 2021 electoral violence is so far more than 55 people. And whereas there was electoral violence in the 1961 and 1980 general elections, this electoral violence is unprecedented in the history of electoral violence in Uganda.

The security planners have decided to deploy men in civilian clothes but with automatic guns. This is certainly meant to evade criminal accountability and liability by the state. When civilians are shot dead by unidentified armed people the security will simply say we do not know those people never mind that they were holding guns in the glare of security forces and were not arrested.

We need a negotiated political settlement in this country. Merely hiding it’s head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich and pretend there is no political disagreement to negotiate is to be pretentious of the state to say the least. The Kyagulanyi idea, Kyagulanyi factor, Kyagulanyi wave is not necessarily about Kyagulanyi the personality. He is merely a representation of a political disagreement in the country that needs a political solution and not a military solution.