Early this month, Museveni was at a local Anglican Church in Ntungamo where
he excitedly claimed to have discovered his baptism records of 3rd August 1947.
He remarked thus; "I thank God for
the 70 years I have spent baptised because those are many years, and yet I am
still strong." He went ahead to
reveal that his date of birth is September 1944 before further revealing that;
"I was born at Mbarara Hospital when it was still at the current Municipal
Council offices; it had not been shifted to where it is now. When I went back
to look for my Birth Certificate, I couldn't find it there. When I started
asking old people they told me I was born in September 1944."
The above revelation comes at a time when the debate over the lifting of
the 75 years, constitutional age limit has gained momentum. As usual, gullible
Ugandans jumped into conclusion that he is trying to circumvent that obstacle
but forgot that being born in 1944 means that by the time of the next elections
in 2021, he would be above 75 years. The big question is; what did he intend to
achieve from this discovery?
Ever since he embarked on his Presidential ambitions more than four decades
ago, his citizenship has always been under scrutiny. He claims to be a Ugandan of Banyankole tribe
and a Muhima by ethnicity. During the
1980 elections, the Bahima in his adopted home of Nyabushozi branded him a
Munyarwanda immigrant before totally rejecting him in favour of Sam Kuteesa of
the D.P. When Museveni took to the bush
for his guerrilla war he accorded preferential treatment to the Banyarwanda refugee
fighters - a factor that was later on to breed a lot of friction within the NRA
ranks.
Immediately after taking over power in 1986, he enacted an Anti-Sectarian
law with the sole aim of deterring whoever would attempt to question the
presence and dominance of Banyarwanda in the rank and file of his NRA. Shortly
after, he repealed the citizenship law that required proof of ancestry as a
qualification for Ugandan citizenship.
Previously, one was required to prove that at least one of his/her
grandparents had been born in what became Uganda prior to the 20th
Century. He instead decreed that all one
needed was to prove that he/she had been residing in Uganda for five years. The
decree attracted a lot of public outcry that forced him to reverse the law. In
1994 while addressing a public rally in Gulu, students of St. Catherine Girls'
Secondary School publicly called Museveni a Munyarwanda; they shouted "....
look at him, he is a Munyarwanda proper."
Museveni retorted thus; "...these girls are saying I am a proper
Munyarwanda. Maybe they bore me and they are in a better position to explain to
us."
In 1995 he succeeded in including the Banyarwanda to the list of indigenous
tribes of Uganda making every Munyarwanda on planet earth a Ugandan. He did so
in preparation of grounds for the central role the Banyarwanda were to take in
his life presidency scheme. In May 1997, the then M.P Makindye, Hon. Nsubuga
Nsambu at a public gathering warned Museveni against land grabbing by referring
to him as a 'Mujja na nyina' (a kid who is already born at the time the mother gets
married to another man). He was arrested
and detained for two days and later charged with sedition but in September 1997
the charges were withdrawn. This
incident marked the phasing out of the common reference to his young brother,
Gen. Saleh as "Museveni's half brother".
All along, Ugandans have never interrogated as to why for many years
Gen. Saleh had been referred to as Museveni's half brother. The rumour had been
rife that the young Museveni had come with his mother before she came to be
married to Amos Kaguta who fathered Gen. Saleh. It was until he came to power
that Museveni adopted the third name, Kaguta.
In 2009 Museveni amended the Citizenship and Immigration Control Act S.12
to provide for citizenship by birth for anyone born in Uganda whose parents or
grandparents is or was a member of the indigenous tribes existing in and
residing within the boundaries of Uganda as at the 1st February 1926,
Banyarwanda inclusive. The amendment
went ahead to grant citizenship to anyone born outside Uganda one of whose parents
or grandparents was a citizen of Uganda by birth. S.4 (b) grants citizenship to
anyone who has continuously lived in Uganda since 9th December 1962. S.14 (2)
(b) grants citizenship to any person who has legally and voluntarily migrated
to Uganda and has been residing in Uganda for at least twenty years on top of
other requirements like a good command of the English language or 'a prescribed
local language'.
A further amendment under S.14 (1) (a) (ii) sought to eliminate Rwandese Hutu refugees from accessing citizenship thus; ".... every person born in Uganda who at the time of birth neither his/her parents and none of his/her grandparents was a refugee in Uganda." At the time, Uganda was no longer a host to Banyarwanda Tutsi refugees but only Hutu and the few Tutsi who still come in as refugees are simply forcefully returned to Rwanda to face severe persecution. In the 2013 National Land Policy Museveni strongly condemned those who classify "cross border population movement as refugees or internally displaced people because of shared common heritage and culture." Since then Rwandese Tutsi have been flocking different parts of Uganda under the guise of being nomadic pastoralist Balalo in a well orchestrated land grabbing scheme under the guise of the search for pasture.
There is growing debate over the immense powers wielded by Banyarwanda under
the Museveni regime. The most current debate
has been triggered by a revelation over how Museveni failed to attend
university at Makerere University. It has been revealed that in the late 1960s
Museveni failed to rise the required ten Graduated Tax tickets from his father.
The then Central Scholarship Committee had that as a mandatory requirement to
prove the applicant's citizenship, belonging and locality since its only
Ugandans who would pay that tax. The then President Obote is said to have
attempted to influence the committee in favour of Museveni thus; ".... I
want him to join Makerere University because he is one of my UPC Youth Wingers
who qualifies but he can not meet the requirement of ten Graduated Tax tickets." The committee is said to have stood its
ground prompting Museveni to send Museveni and fur other youths to Tanzania's
Nyerere for help in having them study at Dar Es Salaam University.
On 8th November 2002 while addressing a three days’ regional integration
symposium in Kampala, Museveni dismissed concerns of a conspiracy by some
communities to create or revive a Hima/Tutsi Empire in the region. However, he
disclosed that he "had learnt of the alleged conspiracy sometime back when
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere when he sent me a message about it. Nyerere said that the conspirators were some
communities in Uganda and Rwanda."
Museveni further remarked that; "It is true that there are
communities in the region that go by those names or their variations. The Hima in Uganda, the Hema in Congo and the
Tutsi in Rwanda." On 29th January
2012, Museveni and Kagame convened a meeting at State House in Kampala with
Banyarwanda in Uganda to iron out their leadership wrangles between Dr. Eric
Kamuhangire (Museveni's Senior Advisor on Culture) and tycoon Donant Kananura.
It is not by coincidence that Museveni has stuck to his guns in continuing
to have Gen. Kalekyezi as his defacto Vice President despite his gross
failures. In the mid 1950s, Gen.
Kalekyezi's father, John Kale stole 30 guns and hundreds of ammunitions that he
intended to use against the government. He was arrested by the colonial
authorities and deported to Rwanda. Who is fooling who!
INFORMATION IS POWER AND DEFIANCE IS THE WAY TO GO
change of guards blog
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