Let’s not use the US election as excuse

With a short time span between the occurrence of election in the United States last year and the one in Uganda scheduled for January 14, it seems a precedent was set to Ugandans.

A number of US officials, including Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of US Department of State, have made statements about the asymmetries regarding election process in Uganda. In reaction, some government officials in Uganda, have told-off Americans to save their energies for their backyards in America, where election-related controversies continues to date.

When the executive director of the Human Rights Watch (HRW),  Mr Kenneth Roth, criticised the  increasing abuse of human rights in Uganda, some Ugandans were not impressed with him.

The US Ambassador to Uganda has advised Uganda against wavering from the democratic path.  Instead of us heeding such calls, some people instead point to President Donald Trump’s rants as an issue Americans should better turn their attention to.

Such behaviour have become the easiest punching bag whenever advice comes from that country.
Some Ugandans are too short sighted to the extent that they cannot heed advice from some quarters, however good their advices are.

In this case, an African tale of how the antelope never heeded the monkey’s advice against  visiting the lion when it claimed to be sick, arguing that it is a snare aimed at having it devoure.

The antelope never considered the monkey’s message because the monkey had earlier lured it to eat its mother. The antelope ended up being on the lion’s dinning table not as a guest, but as a dish.

Do I look like promoting supremacy? God forbid! But it doesn’t require rocket science to understand that 54 people lost their lives due to extra judicial killings. Some journalists are still nursing injuries while others were left limping.

And these are among what these people point out. And where did the famous “do as I say, not as I do” go?
Since President Trump’s speeches have become an asylum in defiance to the good message, let me make clear that at least learn from the nature of the American election process. The incumbent lost an election and to add salt in the gaping wound, the incumbent has lost a number of lawsuits. This should amuse us.

With the discernible fusion between NRM and the State, we find political statements come out of security officers who  are supposed to be apolitical by law!

US election did score below our expectations (perhaps due to the dictatorial mentality). However, at least they set the democracy benchmark bar high and this should not be a watered down due to President Trump’s attempts to subvert the course of events.

Yusuf Wasswa,
[email protected]