How NRM should leave

It was reported on Monday in The Independent magazine that suspected Karimojong warriors killed a Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) soldier and made off with two guns in Moroto District. 

The soldier had been assigned to provide security for the China Railway 3 company, which is involved in the construction of the Lokitanyala-Kitale road, connecting to Moroto Town. 

In the aftermath of the attack, a UPDF helicopter gunship, registration number AF 822, was dispatched but wound up crashing at Nadiket village in Loputuk Sub-county due to a mechanical fault. 

Fortunately, the pilot and all three of the chopper’s crew escaped unharmed.
Last month, the UPDF rescued three of the six students who were kidnapped by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels who attacked Lhubiriha Secondary School in Kasese District and massacred 42 people, mostly young students. Then, much of last year, the Uganda Police Force warned us about a new rebel group: the Uganda National Coalition for Change.

The police’s Directorate of Crime Intelligence on September 19, 2022, charged suspects of this phantom-like rebel group at the Court Martial in Makindye, Kampala. 

Not to sound alarmist, but these recent ripples of rebellion may grow into a wave of uprisings as Ugandans get poorer in the face of a profligate National Resistance Movement (NRM) regime. 

To compound matters, the economy continues to falter despite optimistic reports indicating how economic growth is expected to accelerate above six percent as inflationary pressures lessen. 

To be sure, the legitimacy of the NRM, which elbowed its way to power, stands on a three-legged stool. 

The legs of this stool are parliamentary and popular democracy, an improved economy and the “ushering in of peace”. 

We have already addressed the economy, now what about democracy and peace? 
As Opposition parties go to seed, seeming minority interests will have no formal avenues to express themselves.

This will surely result in more civil disturbances as was the case in the NRM’s first 15 years at the helm. 

At that time, several rebel groups sprang up for a variety of reasons which pointed to a unity of purpose in overthrowing the NRM government. 

Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement, Uganda People’s Democratic Army, the Lord’s Resistance Army, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda and Force Obote Back, all made a splash in the still waters of peace. 

Also, the ADF and People’s Redemption Army (PRA, not to be mistaken with Popular Resistance Army led by Mr Museveni) germinated from the very seedbed of NRM contradictions. 

These insurgent groups sprouted in different parts of the country which variously clenched their fists in response to the hand dealt them by the emerging NRM dispensation. 

Similarly, if the current trend of political and economic disempowerment continues, the NRM’s legitimacy shall evaporate. 

This “peace” we currently “enjoy” will then become the lull before the storm as the language of war becomes the dialect of change. 

However, before we sink to that point, the NRM can stem this tide. In order to do so, the NRM must return to its innocence. 

By way of understanding this innocence, you will do well to recall that the NRM has majorly changed.

Between 1986 and 1989, it was transitional and inclusionary. Then, from 1989 to present-day, it became transactional and exclusionary.   

It must become transitional and inclusionary again, by forming a coalition government towards the guardianship of our liberties, demilitarisation and diminution of the neo-patrimonial apparatus of state. 

This way, we will no longer find ourselves manifestly free but everywhere in chains. Nor will we have to underwrite our unfreedom by condoning the chains we find ourselves in today.

Philip Matogo is a professional copywriter  
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