TICKLY POINTS: Museveni addresses the memorial service for his mother,
Esteeri Kokundeka, at Rwankanja, Mbarara on Thursday. First Lady Janet
(left) and LC5 boss Kamugira smile

By Jossy Muhangi
in Mbarara

Radio stations in Uganda face a ban for hosting exiled political dissidents,
including Dr. Col. Kizza Besigye, on their talk-shows, President Yoweri
Museveni told Radio West on Saturday.

He said radios would only be spared if the exiles denounced terrorist and
subversive activities.

Museveni was responding to a question why radio stations were recently
warned against hosting Besigye on talk-shows. Museveni, who was talking on
Radio West, said supporters of the Reform Agenda, which spear-headed
Besigye's presidential campaign in 2001, are of two types: those who
remained in Uganda and set up office like Sam Njuba and Betty Kamya, and
others like Besigye whom he said chose a self-imposed exile.

He said the likes of Besigye should have nothing to do with our FM radios.

He compared them with traditionalists or non-believers being allowed to
worship in Christian churches.

Further pressed by a Radio West journalist on why other FM stations like The
Monitor were hosting such people, Museveni said, "Even The Monitor and other
stations will be stopped."

Museveni said Reform Agenda officials who stayed in Uganda were not being
muzzled. Asked if that ban was a government policy, Museveni answered, "That
is the position."

Earlier, Museveni said there were over 67 FM stations in the country but
most of them were concentrating on decampaigning government programmes
instead of sensitising the masses on self-economic improvement (okwecenuura
in Runyankore).

He said some of them like ebimeeza (dubbed peoples' Parliament) were
poisoning people's minds, exaggerating small problems while neglecting vital
issues like health.

He said for instance, Ssebana Kizito's Kampala city was still irritatingly
filthy, attracting rare green flies known in Runyankole as gandangire. In
Luweero and Bunyoro, he added, people have no toilets and use the bush to
dispose of human waste.

He said immunisation had declined from 80% to 40%. He said these were vital
issues FM radios and papers ought to address.
       The Mulindwas communication group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"

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