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Fallen heroes are squirming in their graves
Beti Kamya Turwomwe
In his last Sunday Vision article titled “Honour our heroes”, Moses Byaruhanga raised the following issues that I found quite interesting:
(i) Uganda is now enjoying relative peace and development because the likes of Sam Magara and his brother Martin Mwesiga, fallen NRA combatants who were exhumed and reburied with honours last week, sacrificed their lives.
(ii) Therefore, for the likes of Major General Mugisha Muntu, Major Kazoora, Eriya Kategaya etc, to “hobnob with UPC, which killed people in Luweero” is a betrayal of the cause for which Magara and Mwesiga died.
(iii) “Fortunately” President Yoweri Museveni, Amama Mbabazi, Kahinda Otafiire and others are still around and “ready to launch yet another struggle” —
it was not clear against what or whom the struggle might be launched.
As I pondered Byaruhanga’s article, I asked myself the following questions, which I now pose to him:
Did Magara and Mwesiga sacrifice their lives so that only those people who are either lucky, privileged, docile, quiet or support government positions can have peace and development?
Can the spirits of Magara and Mwesiga rest in peace, sandwiched between the spirit of Patrick Manenero, who died while under detention and that of Baronda, who was gunned down in the streets of Rukungiri merely because he had gone to attend a political rally of his presidential candidate?
Are Magara and Mwesiga’s spirits jubilating that Col. (rtd) Kizza Besigye, a fellow combatant is in exile for attempting to unseat Museveni in a manner prescribed by our constitution?
Byaruhanga, will, of course, argue that it is
self-inflicted exile and therefore not the government’s responsibility.
Are Magara and Mwesiga’s spirits proud that the Supreme Court of Uganda ruled that the 2001 presidential elections were marred by “significant” levels of election malpractices and that we are about to change the Constitution of Uganda so that President Museveni can rule Uganda for more than 20 years?
Are Magara and Mwesiga’s spirits jumping with joy for making way for Kakooza Mutale and his weird exploits? Does Byaruhanga think they would have applauded President Museveni for sending his daughter to have a baby in Germany aboard a presidential jet, when a Ugandan who has paid taxes for the past 80 years cannot get a free panadol in any hospital in Uganda?
Would they have applauded the kisanja money dished out to some MPs? I put it to Moses that if he really wishes to honour these fallen
heroes he should not defile their names by associating them with the political obscenity currently going on in Uganda, but leave them to rest in peace, as God so kindly spared them the broken hearts that the Besigyes, Muntus, Kategayas and Kazooras have to deal with now.
As for people “hobnobbing with UPC”, I suggest that Byaruhanga and his likes should go slowly on the so-called “atrocities committed by UPC in Luweero”. Evidence is coming out, particularly from former Kadogos, now frustrated and disillusioned UPDF soldiers, who, if their security was guaranteed, would testify that they were recruited into the NRA after their parents had been brutally murdered by people they were told were Uganda government soldiers, but whom they now know were NRA rebels.
Incidentally, does Byaruhanga remember that the NRM has for long been hobnobbing with
former UPC stalwarts Nsaba Buturo, Charles Alai, Francis Butagira, Jovino Akaki, Kefa Sempangi and now Ephraim Kamuntu, or is hobnobbing with UPC a private domain of the NRM? And what is the NRM doing with Ali Bamuze, Taban Amin and many others with tainted track records?
Byaruhanga’s veiled threat that President Museveni, Amama Mbabazi, Otafiire and others are still around and willing to launch another struggle, cannot go unnoticed. Who are they going to struggle against? Will they go back to the bush when they lose the 2006 elections?
Surely, can Magara and Mwesiga rest in peace if they knew that after 19 years of NRM rule, there might still be need for President Museveni and his clique to launch “yet another struggle” as seen through the eyes of none other than the President’s own Private Secretary for Political Affairs?
Ends
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