MPs ask Museveni to free political detainees at state of nation address

Opposition MPs waved at President Museveni placards demanding the ‘‘release of political prisoners’’ at the annual State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on June 4, 2021.

Seated Members of Parliament held aloft handwritten placards inscribed with phrases, ‘’Free our people. Free political prisoners,’’ during the televised event at Kololo Independence Grounds.  

Appearing unruffled, Mr Museveni carried on with his address, which comes at a time when several opposition supporters are on trial in the military court amid accusations of crimes allegedly committed during the 2021 general election.

Crowing in a victory through the contested January 14 polls, President Museveni said ‘‘it is a special day in the Bible (Leviticus 23:5). The Electoral Commission must have been guided by God in selecting that date (Election Day).’’

The army court at Makindye chaired by Lt Gen Andrew Gutti has repeatedly denied bail to several opposition supporters arrested in December last year on grounds that they would incite violence.

Prosecution states that the detainees were held for unlawful possession of ammunition contrary to the Firearms Act. The suspects, who incude Bobi Wine’s singing partner Ali Bukeni alias Nubian Li and his personal body guard, Edward Sebufu alias Eddy Mutwe denied the charges.

Uganda’s recently concluded electoral season claimed over 50 lives and saw an innumerable number of Ugandans arbitrarily detained.

Looming third Covid-19 wave

President Museveni while addressing the nation on Friday issued a warning over an imminent third wave of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

‘‘Despite all the challenges over the last one year, the economy managed a small expansion of 3%. Covid-19 is very dangerous because it targets epithelial cells. Nevertheless, the best is to avoid this disease until everyone is fully vaccinated,’’ Mr Museveni said- just a day after Uganda reached a grim milestone in the pandemic era, registering over 1,000 new cases in 24 hours.

Social-economic transformation

President Museveni whose election victory ran on a ‘‘Securing your future’’ sloganeering urged Ugandans to gear efforts towards achieving social-economic transformation.

‘‘The target is to ensure prosperity of our people by helping them to create wealth and jobs for themselves as well as ensuring security of our country,’’ he said.

‘‘We are struggling in a global environment. Let all leaders stop confusing people by spreading divergent messages. Let all people embrace profitability assessment (ekibaaro), and our products must be safe for global consumption,’’ he added.

Mr Museveni also said: ‘‘I urge our people to join commercial agriculture, industries, services and ICT,’’ noting that government will fund the Uganda Development Bank (UDB) in order to avail loans to citizens at less than 12%. 

Ending systemic corruption

The president voiced a fundamental warning to the corrupt- further revealing a major shift towards using ‘young people, preferably from the middle class to liberate several sectors’.

‘‘Corruption starts in the ministry of finance where projects are designed but they add in things which aren’t supposed to be there. I have the story now. You’ll see…You watch out. It is easy for NRM to defeat corruption,’’ Mr Museveni said. 

Critics have previously expressed disagreement with the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM’s) approach to stamping out systemic corruption.

‘‘These are children from rich families who don’t have the problem of poverty related-pressure from home. This is a structural change. You’ll see how they will help us to fight this corruption,’’ Mr Museveni echoed.

Security and disorganised police 

Mr Museveni castigated authorities in Police while attributing criminality to corruption and poor procedures of handling crime within the law enforcement agency.

‘‘The recent shooting of Gen Edward Katumba Wamala by shallow actors who I called "pigs" showed the poor organization of Police. The UAVs and cameras I put in place did their work but why didn't the camera control centre alert all patrol cars? These officers think they are just for forensic analysis,’’ he said.

Mr Museveni slammed Police officers for abandoning use of the traditional radio calls for communication.

‘‘The police is therefore directed to stop using mobile phones and go back to using radio-calls that are open to all stations so that they can act promptly in emergencies,’’ he said.

Mr Museveni hinted on the need to end the constitutionally provided for bail for suspects before they are convicted in courts of law.

‘’Those arrested over previous killings have been released on bail by courts of law. Why does someone who has been arrested for killing people be released on bail,’’ Mr Museveni roared before he said security has been expanded with more military brigades.

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