Why Besigye Feels Like Becoming A Terrorist

Tonight, I feel like becoming a real "terrorist"! This is the effect of endless acts of impunity on the part of the Uganda Police. When the people assigned the responsibility of maintaining law and order become deliberate and arrogant law breakers, where does one turn to?

The day (Thursday 25th Feb 2016) started on a bright side, with a visit by my colleague Maj Gen (rtd) Benon Biraro, who shared a number of ideas on how our country could be put back on rails.

I was also expecting a visit from some Human Rights defenders, including Ms Maria Burnett of the Human Rights Watch. These visitors had come to see me the previous day but were blocked by the police at the barricade they erected on the driveway to our home. In spite of sending my aide to plead with the police (since I couldn't be allowed to get there myself), they were turned away after waiting for more than 2hrs. They were, instead, asked to come back today at 9am.

The Human Rights defenders, who arrived at the police blockade at 8.45am, eventually left about 10am without seeing me. After the usual lengthy "consultations", that involve talking to the top police commanders, my visitors were told that they won't be allowed to see me!

Shortly after 10am, some visitors, who hadn't informed me of their visit (a normal occurrence), arrived at the police blockade in a minibus from Kakiri, in our District of Wakiso.

As they inquired from the police whether they could be allowed in to see me, the goons that man the notorious police van UP 4860 sprung into action. They opened the minibus, pulled out two of the occupants and threw them into their van. The driver of the minibus quickly reversed and sped off with the other visitors.

At 11am, I made my attempt at leaving home for Najjanankumbi, our party headquarters. As before, I was told that I wasn't allowed to move out. When I insisted, I was arrested and pushed into the notorious van.

Here, I found two terrified men that were in immense pain. The van had a strong smell of pepper spray that immediately made my sore throat worse and affected my eyes. The two men informed me that they had been badly beaten and pepper-sprayed while in the van.

One of the men held in the van, named Jamilu Budde (whom I know) was crying with pain and holding his left arm in a manner that suggested he could have had a broken collar bone.

I pleaded with the "Commander" of the van, one Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Kidandi to let me help Budde with First Aid and get him taken to the clinic, but this was denied. Instead, the two men were roughly thrown off the van and I was carried away alone.

After driving through Matugga, Kawempe, Mpererwe, Kisaasi, Northern Bypass, and Naalya, I was deposited in Kira Division police Hqs. This is where I stayed until I was given a bond and "released" at about 9pm.

I made it clear, like before, that if the reason they arrested still existed, then they should keep me in detention. Otherwise, once freed, I should be truly free and not expect the police to detain me at my home. As before, I was told that I'd no choice but to be taken back home.

I am now back home and, as before, detained there! I tried as much as I could, unsuccessfully, to demand that they take me to a proper (gazatted) detention place or let me free. My sore throat was worsened by the pepper spray I found in the van. I informed my captors about this and that I would do well to consult my physician. All this fell on deaf ears.

I have since found out that Mr Budde and his colleague, who were tortured and left on our home's driveway earlier, were later briefly held at Kasangati Police Station and later transferred to Kireka Police. Mr Budde hasn't had any medical attention that I am sure he badly needs.

This is the dilemma of leaving in a country governed by a rogue regime. This is the very reason I wake up early everyday to do something about it. I am confident that, by the Grace of God, we shall overcome.

One Uganda, One People!!

Ugandan Youth - We Are Tired Of Museveni

The young people of Uganda comprise the majority, at over 78% of the total population and they overwhelmingly participated in this election. The voting exercise having been completed two days ago, as key stakeholders and bearers of the burden in all its manifests, we would like to share with all Ugandans and the international community our observations, conclusions and the way forward.

The youth in Uganda, is facing a very uncertain future ranging from; having the highest unemployment rate of 83%, deteriorating the quality of education, corrupt credit schemes, abject poverty; and the desperation that is driving us to become, gamblers, prostitutes, economic refugees. slaves in the middle east, far east and other Asian countries.

All this is, as Yoweri Museveni put it in his book“WHAT IS AFRICA’s PROBLEM”, a consequence of, but not limited to; 30 years of poor leadership of the very author of the book who now believes Uganda is him, him is Uganda and that he doesn’t see anyone else capable of leading Uganda apart from him!“Africa doesn’t need strongmen; it needs strong institutions”: Obama

Like President Barak Obama said while on his first official trip as president to the heart of Africa;

“Development depends upon good governance”.

“No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery.

“That is not a democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end.

”Democracy and good governance are the ingredients which has been missing in Uganda, for far too long.

The 30 years’ revolutionary turned dictator who attained power by gun, rules by the gun and believes only the gun shall remove him from power legitimizes his rule and disguises dictatorship through sham elections.

A rigged election in favor of the incumbent implies our sufferings is not about to end, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government has resorted to the mass arrest of the youth as a means to silence us.

It is time for the young to claim their rights and lead this struggle. Uganda’s future, our future is in our hands.

The young have the potentials to make this country work for each and every one of us.Rejection of Feb 18th Election results.

Having widely observed this election and actively participated in voting in search for change from a tired brutal regime to democratic and good governance, we would like to distance ourselves from the final results that were declared by Kiggundu.

We reject these results in the strongest terms possible as they are not a true reflection of the will and wish Ugandan people said on 18th Feb 2016.

We saw the deliberate delay, ballot boxes stuffed with pre-ticked ballot papers in favor of the incumbent and kidnap of tallying material and FDC party leaders from the FDC Party headquarters we will not allude to what happened any further.

The entire electoral process became a sham; it was rigged using intimidation of voters, imprisonment of opponents, sabotage of rallies, late delivery of election materials, delayed opening of election centers, vote falsification at undisclosed tally centers, and bribery, among other malpractices.

The European Union and Commonwealth preliminary reports are already out, were aired on 20th February 2016 and are available on the YouTube channel for you to see and confirm our concerns as Ugandans.

The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Mr. Badru Kiggundu intentionally announced the false results in favor of the incumbent, Gen Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the ‘winner’ of the election, on the 20th February 2016. This has been challenged by the main opposition candidate Col DR Kizza Besigye (rtd), the FDC party and the majority of Ugandans!

They could have gone to demonstrate their protest but in Uganda, demonstrations are curtailed.Continued arrests of party leaders.We have observed the Uganda Police and Military police continue to insurmountable force in illegally arresting and detaining opposition party leaders, FDC party staffs, P10 volunteers, FDC party supporters and pressing no charges against them.

We are aware that these are deliberate steps to curtail their freedoms of assembly, expression aimed at physically and illegally blocking all their efforts to seek court redress within the 10 working days required by law to contest this election.

We are calling upon all Ugandans, pro-democratic forces, and human rights activists to reject these actions with all constitutional means possible. We will not continue to look on as you illegally arrest FDC party leaders and members.

It’s our constitutional right to stand against all illegalities and inhuman treatment. This should stop immediately and if you don’t stop we will take all measures to stop an illegal operation by the police.Kizza Besigye Premises.We would like in the strongest terms possible condemn the continued persecution, house detention, detention without trial of Presidential candidate Kizza Besigye.

There is heavy deployment around his house and he can hardly make a step outside his door. This is unacceptable and is very unprecedented in our country.

He is not only a Ugandan but a human rights activists as well as a presidential candidate. who deserves to enjoy his constitutional rights and a right to a dignifying treatment by the state. As key stakeholders in this country, we are asking the state not to taste our patience.

You have done many unconstitutional things but we will not let you curtail the rights of RTD. Col DR. Kizza Besigye and Illegal besieging of FDC party HeadquartersIn the same spirit, we would like to condemn the Uganda police for the continued besieging of a legally registered political party FDC headquarters.

The breaking of doors and vandalisation of FDC property by Uganda police. This was uncalled for.International Community.To the international community and observers.

Will you look on as Uganda’s constitutional order is abused and Ugandans are raped of their dignity to vote for the leaders they want?

We commend you for raising your concerns about the flawed electoral process but actions speak louder than words. We are calling upon you to diligently continue observing the process and remain key watchdogs in this process but also take swift and drastic action that will restore the freedom of assembly, association and movement of Col Dr Kizza Besigye, members of his campaign task force the P10 vote protection volunteers and all the FDC party activists, so that the petition can be finalized and launched in the required time frame for the high court to handle, or impose targeted sanctions on the regime if they don’t comply.

Constitutional Mandate.

We believe in part that the supreme law of the land has been abrogated in accordance with chapter one of the 1995 constitution that states that:

1. The sovereignty of the people.
(1) All power belongs to the people who shall exercise their sovereignty in accordance with this Constitution.

(2) Without limiting the effect of clause (1) of this article, all authority in the State emanates from the people of Uganda; and the people shall be governed through their will and consent.We believe that the current situation and the announcement of false results infringe on the will and consent of Ugandans. Yet the constitution further says that;

(3) The people shall express their will and consent on who shall govern them and how they should be governed, through regular, free and fair elections of their representatives or through a referendum.
We have all reasons and overwhelming evidence that is blatantly clear to all Ugandan and all election observers that the just concluded presidential elections were not free or fair and thus fell short of this constitutional mandate.As such we have a constitutional duty enshrined in our constitution and these will be but our next steps until such a moment as instructed by this constitution and we quote;3. Defense of the Constitution.

(4) All citizens of Uganda shall have the right and duty at all times—
(a) to defend this Constitution and, in particular, to resist any person or group of persons seeking to overthrow the established constitutional order; and
(b) to do all in their power to restore this Constitution after it has been suspended, overthrown, abrogated or amended contrary to its provisions.

(5) Any person or group of persons who, as required by clause (4) of
this article, resists the suspension, overthrow, abrogation or amendment of
this Constitution commits no offense.

1.We are giving the police 6 hours from now to stop trespassing and vacate the premises of Kizza Besigye or else we mobilize a demonstration at his home in our usual large numbers.

2. Respect Col Dr. Kizza Besigye’s freedom of movement, assembly, association and freedom of expression. He committed no crime to contest as president in this Election.

3. We are further asking you to leave FDC headquarters in peace with immediate effect.

4. We demand that the Electoral Commission must forthwith avail comprehensive lists of the over 3000 polling stations that were omitted from the final tally.

From now further business is not going to be as usual, we are going to assertively control our destinies in order to claim our future. There is no other person who will do it for us.“For God and My country”

Besigye's Full Statement of Rigged 2016 Elections

Citizens of Uganda

My Fellow Africans

International Citizens and Friends of Uganda

Members of the Press Corps and the Diplomatic Community,

We have just witnessed what must be the most fraudulent electoral process in Uganda. We participated in this process to highlight and show the world quite how fraudulent this military regime is.

The Electoral Commission is not independent and its technical incompetence and partisanship has been made clear for all to see. The voting material was not delivered in time. People were unlawfully removed from the Voters’ Register whilst ghosts were wantonly added.

Freedoms of assembly and expression were wantonly curbed. We were not free to carry out our campaigns without intimidation and interference from the partisan Uganda Police Force and the NRM’s militia dubbed the Crime Preventers.

On Election Day, all access to social media platforms was switched off. This can only have been designed to impede transparency of the election. The popular mobile money platforms were also disabled, cutting millions of ordinary people off from their meagre resources. This can only be described as illegal collective punishment, which is an offense under international law.

Then after the elections as the Electoral Commission started announcing falsified results when we called a press conference to show the world how the results that we had, results that were announced at polling stations in the presence of citizens and our own polling agents, the Uganda Police Force brutally stormed our offices and arrested the Party President, Maj. General Mugisha Muntu, our Chief Mobiliser, Ms. Ingrid Turinawe, and myself.

We were detained without charge at Nagalama Police Station and whilst General Muntu and I were released late in the night, Ms. Turinawe was detained overnight.

House arrest

Today I am under house arrest. My home is sealed off and I am not allowed to leave. Nobody is allowed to access my home. I am also under some kind of electronic blockade. I am unable to access any form of internet service in my house.

Generally, the regime is baring its bloodied fangs and claws for all to see. This has not been an electoral process. This is a creeping military coup.

What must be done

I have come to ask for two things:

The results of the presidential elections must be rejected by the international community.

An international commission should be established to audit the results of the elections.

A Profound Faith in Democracy

While I address you as a presidential candidate, I greet you today as human rights and a pro-democracy activist. As you know, I have dedicated my adult life to the struggle for democracy in Uganda.

I come from the generation which beliefs that democracy is the gateway to human rights and human dignity and to the rule of law, and to tolerance and pluralism. Any government which claims to derive its mandate from the people must believe and practice democracy.

Anyone who believes in human dignity, and who believes that we are all created in the image of God and that we all stand equal before the law, must be believe and practice democracy.

Anyone who believes in Pan-Africanism and the dignity of the African person, and that an African has the equal claim to life as any person on this earth, must believe and practice democracy.

And to those friends around the world who wish Africa well and who believe in the dignity of the African continent, they too must believe in democracy and the inalienable right of the African to enjoy it and to live by the universal democratic creed.

I believe deeply in my heart that the African Renaissance will never happen without democracy. I believe profoundly that the East African Federation would be stillborn without democracy.

Sir Winston Churchill once said that the empires of the future will be the empires of the mind. That was true and profound. I hasten to reframe that statement. The empires of the future will be the empires of democracy.

No one can be a full citizen of the 21 st century without enjoying the full blessings of democracy. Any Image claim to the contrary is false.

There can be no citizenship without democracy.

Democracy on Trial in Uganda

Today democracy is on trial in Uganda. The evidence is all around us.

The most sacred right of a citizen is the right to vote peacefully and freely. There is no greater right in a free and open society.

It’s upon the right to vote that all other democratic rights are anchored. Today the right to vote—and the right to do so peacefully—has been wantonly violated in Uganda.

That violation should be a profound moral offense to all of us.

A profound offense to all the citizens of Uganda. And it is an offense to all Africans and to all global citizens.

When you violate the rights of an African to vote, you insult his and her humanity and you rob him of his human dignity. That was the fundamental offense of colonialism: the odious practice, and the insulting belief, that an African could be a subject but never a citizen.

Today in Uganda, the right to vote—the very essence of citizenship—has been violated with impunity.

International Community asked to sanction impunity and human rights violations

And the international community has been asked to sanction those gross human rights violations.

You have been asked to sanction elections that are neither free nor fair nor credible.

And there is only one logic to that request: that African lives do not matter. And that an African can live without democracy or human dignity.

Instead of democracy, the logic goes, an African would rather receive international charity.

Instead of democracy, an African would rather be trained in post-conflict resolution.

By ratifying these sham elections, the international community is being invited to become a partner in the violations of the African people.

I am therefore here to ask the international community to have the courage to defend the millions of Ugandans—the youth and the elderly—who had the courage to vote. Let them know that it’s not a crime to be an African.

Please reject the temptation to ratify these sham elections.

But should you ratify the results of these sham elections, at least, have the courage to admit that you do not care about democracy or human rights in Africa.

No one who can sanction these elections can credibly profess to be for democracy or for human rights in Africa. I am greatly heartened by the fact that the International Observer missions from the AU, the EU, and the Commonwealth have all, in their preliminary reports indicated that this exercise has not been free, fair, transparent or credible.

I urge you, on behalf of the brave citizens of Uganda, to reject the results of these sham elections.

To my brothers and sisters across Africa, I urge you to stand with the people of Uganda and to assert the rights of every African to live in a free and democratic society.

To my fellow Ugandans, I salute your courage and thank you for your support and for believing in democracy and peace. Democracy is the only path to peace and prosperity and to the rule of law. Remain vigilant and steadfast.

The struggle is long and hard but, in the end, we shall win if we continue in our patient and steadfast resolve. The regime cannot survive without our co-operation. Let us denounce this electoral theft by withdrawing our recognition of the regime and ceasing to co-operate with it.

Let us have the strength and the courage to finish this struggle. I know deep in my heart that Uganda shall be free!

One Uganda! One People!