Using violence is dancing to Museveni’s tune

One of the most significant boxes of a Ugandan election has been ticked. An outbreak of senseless violence. This, the response to the arrest of National Unity Platform’s (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, for allegedly flouting Covid-19 regulations.

There is a belief that you need to show some force to make your point to a man like incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, who has never been shy to say he is not a pacifist. 

So many people are tempted to speak to him in this language. There are also many hot heads on social media who are urging (misleading) people to fight and not give in to the dictator.  

Well, we are now counting more than 45 bodies, including innocent children. Many of these are the result of gunshot wounds inflicted by overzealous security agents. Yet the so-called dictator is still holding fort like nothing happened and it is not the first time we have witnessed it in an election. 

Those who call for violence only play in the hands of Museveni. (Even if the Opposition remain peaceful, you are likely to have an agent provocateur stirring up the waters to make them troubled in order to catch fish.) After all, Cromwell said it is good to strike the metal while it is still hot, but it is better to make the metal hot by striking.

This time round, the government has gained ground in more ways than one. So many are scared that they may shy away from mundane civic duties such as attending meetings and even voting. 

When people stay away from voting, it helps the incumbent because there are few watching and he may do as he pleases. And even then, when a result is disputed, there are only a few who are aggrieved because many were not robbed.

Second, is the fact that for more than three days, businesses came to a standstill. This for traders who are coming from a long Covid-19 lockdown decreases the sympathy of many for politics and the Opposition who some perceive as the cause of the problem.

The army and security agencies, in general, have been given a blank cheque to police society by creating several grey areas in keeping law and order.

They have promised to stage roadblocks and prosecute those, who in their opinion, commit crime in both civil and military courts which is dangerous.

A lot may now be done outside of the law with the justification that it is to safeguard human life.

The modern State has violence is one of its cornerstones. That is why most co-armed forces that use live ammunition on unarmed citizens some of whom are running for safety, are murderers and should face the law security, they equip the instruments of coercion with tools of violence under the guise of protecting national security.

Even the most modern of and peaceful of states without national armies like Sweden run huge industries that produce arms and ammunition. This is all intended to facilitate violence despite the touting of the lofty ideals of freedom and liberty. 

The guns they sell to the dictators in Africa are not for the museum or for display during parades. They are intended to kill people under the guise of the common good. They achieve this by painting situations that make it only inevitable to use force.

The media comes in handy. It is intimidated and coerced to blackout the excesses of the security agencies while highlighting those of the opponents of the government.

Make no mistake, armed forces that use live ammunition on unarmed citizens some of whom are running for safety, are murderers and should face the law.

Similarly, people who snatch phones and handbags beat up people under, block roads and spoil them by burning tyres are not freedom fighters.

They are criminals who have to be behind the prison gate. They interfere with the freedom of others which is unconstitutional and unreasonable.

But that does not that we should shy away from speaking truth to power. It is only prudent to do it in a way that is worth the sacrifice. 

If you are to speak the language of violence, it is important to go the whole distance and not make half-hearted measures. You have to either match the firepower of the State or surpass it. What most people see on TV and are told about uprisings is only half the truth. 

Many of these have solid superpower brokers and funders behind the scenes financing and sustaining even things like protesters on the streets. They do the same to flip the allegiance and loyalty of the security agents on whose shoulders dictators flourish. 

The people saying that Museveni will soon meet his match are right because even the mighty ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson met James ‘Buster’ Douglas. The rest is history.

But we must add that Mike met Douglas in a boxing ring and the latter surmounted the former by ‘balancing the terror’ using blows.

Like former president Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa once said during the Twagala Lule oba tuffa tuffe protests of 1979  “I am too big to be shouted out of office,” you are not going to shout or stone Museveni out of office.

You will have to match the weight of the hammer that Museveni wields or even uses a heavier one with greater organisation and efficiency.

Anything less than this is turning innocent people into cannon fodder and discouraging the willing who are watching.

Twitter: @nsengoba