Museveni must award Luweero

On Monday, President Museveni and his younger brother, Gen Salim Saleh, were awarded with the “Order of Katonga”, the highest military decoration of the Ugandan honour system.
The President and Gen Saleh received their awards during the 42nd Tarehe Sita celebrations in Mbarara.
The Order of Katonga was named after the decisive battle of the National Resistance Army (NRA) during the 1981-86 Bush War.
The battle happened on October 13, 1985, when government troops and NRA rebels went eyeball to eyeball and the former blinked in a showdown at the strategic bridge on Katonga River.

The Bush War has since become legend as stories surrounding its prosecution oscillate from fact to fable, depending on who you are listening to.
However, one thing is for certain: the peasants of the Luweero Triangle contributed significantly to the success of the NRA. This contribution is epitomised by the killing of Edidian Luttamaguzi and his colleagues at Kikandwa in Bulemezi on June 9, 1981.
Indeed, thanks to the Luweero peasants, the NRA was able to carry out a “protracted people’s struggle” to the spirit and letter of Mao Zedong’s dictum: The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea.
By extension, one will note that the NRA was the fish and the people of Luweero Triangle, the water.
And, in order to demonstrate how important the people of Luweero Triangle were to the NRA’s success, one must remember that man can live without fish but cannot exist without water.
Thus, this essential role played by the peasantry of the Luweero Triangle must be fully recognised. One way of doing this is by President Museveni giving his award to the people of Luweero Triangle. 
To those who are unaware, the “The Luweero Triangle” was the main theatre of the Bush War. It comprised the districts of Luweero, Nakaseke, Nakasongola, Mpigi, Wakiso, Kiboga, Mubende and Mityana. 

By some estimates, 500,000 Ugandans perished in this triangle. So we can appreciate the level of sacrifice made by the peasants in the name of Uganda’s “liberation”.
This is why Museveni and Saleh should hand their awards over to those who actually won the war. And thereby follow in the footsteps of great men who have recognised that their own singular achievements were parts of the collective accomplishments of many. 
In 1964, for instance, the civil rights movement in America achieved the ratification of the 24th Amendment, which abolished the poll tax, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public facilities. 
In October of that year, Martin Luther King Jr, the presumptive leader of the civil rights movement, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 
At the age of 35, King was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. 
Instead of taking the prize as a proverbial notch in his belt, King paid tribute to those who made his success possible. 

He did this by turning over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement and dedicating his prize to the movement.
Such a gesture carried a lot of power, as it reflected something greater than King: the primacy of the civil rights movement. 
To be sure, political gesture simplifies and summarises political practices by connecting them with popular emotions.
These emotions then adapt themselves to political practice, bending it towards higher purposes. In Uganda’s case, such purposes promote the sovereignty of the people. 
Thence, by Museveni giving his award to people of the Luweero Triangle, he would be endorsing such sovereignty.

Mr Matogo is a professional copywriter  
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