#Museveni has duped everyone except #LRA's Joseph #Kony

First published by Change of Guards Blog on December 22, 2014 and shared widely at that time.  It is a long read but all the signs were in front of us many years ago.  We were just too blind to see.

Uganda's Gen Yoweri Museveni has proven to be a master of deceit by all standards. In order to gain power and retain it for the last 28 years, he has had to lie, deceive, manipulate, blackmail, hoodwink, dupe etc. The list of his victims is vast as it comprises of friends, relatives, peasants, elite, intellectuals, academicians, diplomats, religious leaders, cultural leaders, and heads of state.

In 1970 he duped the first UPC government that he was a loyal party cadre so as to be recruited into its intelligence services from where he embarked on the long journey to pursue his childhood dream of becoming President of Uganda. In 1972 he deceived the government of Tanzania into supporting an aborted invasion through Mutukula after he convinced them that he had established a formidable internal resistance network within the Iddi Amin government such that in case of an external invasion, the government would simply crumble.

In exile, he would deceive the mainly UPC dissidents that he was part of their joint efforts yet he was undermining them for his selfish interests. He duped the government of Tanzania into supporting his parallel organisation (FRONASA) yet there was a formidable organisation under the deposed former president Milton Obote. In Tanzania, he orchestrated the abandonment of the majority FRONASA recruits just because they were from the eastern region. His hit squads inside Uganda committed heinous crimes that were attributed to the Iddi Amin regime. In 1978 he deceived the Tanzanian government into allowing him to recruit from western Uganda only to end up swelling his FRONASA with ethnic westerners and Rwandese refugees. In 1979, he manipulated the Moshi conference into assigning him the Defence portfolio - a position he used to divide the new post Iddi Amin army (UNLA) while he promoted his own FRONASA faction.

He manipulated the UNLF government AND the NCC into overthrowing the post Amin governments of Prof. Yusuf Lule and Godfrey Binaisa respectively. That way he was made the Vice Chairman of the ruling Military Commission hence became the 2nd most powerful man in the land. He duped the military leadership at the time when he retained a personal army composed of the Rwandese refugee soldiers who had been genuinely eliminated from the new post Amin army on grounds of non-citizenship. It is this group that he had to use a few months later to launch his guerrilla war.

In 1980 he deceived veteran politicians to unsuspectingly elect him as the UPM party presidential candidate yet he only wanted to use the new and inconsequential party just as a launch pad for his bush war. That is why UPM was unceremoniously disbanded. In 1981 he manipulated soldiers, peasants, and some intellectuals into joining his bush war by exploiting the situation of insecurity that he had created and would continue to create. During the same year, he moved very fast to neutralise the Prof. Lule group (UFF) by duping them into merging with his PRA to form NRM/A. To further dupe the group and win the total support of the Baganda, he made Prof. Lule the Chairman of the NRM while he chaired the strategic NRA high command.

He duped the Gen Moses Ali group into signing an alliance so as to win Libya's support for his group. He moved to destroy the UFM group of Andrew Kayira by spying on their operations and indirectly leaking it to government. The final blow came when he deceived the UFM that he would show up for a joint attack on the government forces in Lubiri, Kampala but did not show up at the eleventh hour only for his NRA to ambush the retreating UFMs and take all the arms that the UFM had acquired from the daring attack.

His urban terrorist squad (Black Bomber) under Matayo Kyaligonza orchestrated insecurity in Kampala and parts of the central region that was blamed on government so as to manipulate the population into supporting his bush war. The young post Amin government army was too weak to deal with the insurgents since he had undermined it during the time he was Minister of Defence and Vice Chairman of the military Commission. During the recruitment race (Museveni Vs Obote, Bantu Vs Nilotics, South Vs North etc.) UNLF officers had enlisted half baked, rogue and vagabond young men into the national army in order to swell their numbers and outsmart Museveni's FRONASA faction. He fought the bush war along the sectarian doctrine of dislodging the northern region's dominance of government and security services.

His ten-point program was a mere propaganda paper for he had his tightly kept secret agenda of life presidency. Through deception, he enlisted the support of some few peasants, intellectuals and even lumpen and criminals. In 1985 he replaced Prof Lule with then Prince Mutebi in order to neutralise the support of the DP in Buganda. The DP had been behind the Okello coup and junta. He deceived the Okello military junta into the Nairobi peace talks by accepting a ceasefire as he strengthened his position. By the time, he captured power, he had about 20,000 fighters mostly mobilised during the Nairobi peace talk that he treacherously used to kick them out of power.

Upon taking over power in 1986, he deceived Ugandans into cheering that he was ushering in a fundamental change yet he meant that he was to rule for life thus No Change of guards. He deceived Ugandans that he was forming a four-year interim broad-based government in order to entrap the DP and use it to isolate and destroy the UPC. He had fought the bush war on claims that the elections had been rigged against the DP. The DP had aligned with the UFM fighting group which he had undermined. At the end of the interim period, he dropped the broad-based idea and extended his reign for another five years by deceiving Ugandans that the five years were for a new constitution making process. Instead he was buying time for his life presidency project.

Around the late 80s, he opportunistically abandoned Marxist ideals for IMF/WB SAPs prompting the west to describe him as a beacon of hope. He kind of abandoned his Marxist allies in North Korea, Russia, Cuba etc. Since then he has duped the West into supporting him but currently he is back in bed with the communist/socialist block seeking alliances for his life presidency scheme. He abandoned the broad-based government after using the DP to consolidate his power. To further consolidate Buganda's support, he introduced cultural institutions with cosmetic powers though he hates them and has always been undermining their cohesion. To be able to ride on Buganda's back, he fueled hatred for former President Milton Obote whom he threatened with sending six feet deep if he dared return to Uganda but when Obote died he was the chief mourner while flags were flown at half mask.

In 1988, he deceived the UPDA rebel group into signing the peace deal at Pecce stadium but soon after one of the former UPDA officers Major Kilama was killed in cold blood at Jinja port giving rise to a surge in the northern region insurgency. As a way of containing the northern insurgency, he pressurised the SPLA into rushing for independence before resolving their internal contradictions hence giving rise to the current embarrassing security situation in Southern Sudan. In the same regard, SPLM leader John Garang had to die in a suspicious Uganda plane crash.

In 1988 he duped the Rwandese President Habyarimana to attend the army commissioning ceremony in Kampala where he had to decorate a Rwandese refugee Fred Rwigyema to the rank of Maj Gen. Shortly after in 1990 the same Rwigyema led an invasion against Rwanda. Museveni deceived the world when he stated that he was not aware of the invasion. The consequences were dire during the 1994 genocide. In 1998 he deceived Ugandans that he was sending his troops to DRC to fight the Uganda rebels in eastern DRC but his forces ended up penetrating over 6000 km into DRC and subsequently into CAR.  His troops were involved in plunder of resources, creation of warlords, rising and arming of militia groups. His self created warlords have been indicted by the ICC but he went scot free. In 2005 he managed to dupe the ICC into indicting top commanders of the LRA but currently he is mobilising African states to withdraw from ICC.

When he took over power, he banned political party activities on the grounds that they were divisive whereas the truth is that he feared their strong influence against his weak NRM. During the constituent assembly elections and the 1996 elections, he advocated for individual merit yet some individuals more aligned to his NRM were receiving state funding to facilitate their election. In 2000 he organised a sham referendum over return to multiparty democracy to extend his one-party rule but a few years later he organised another sham referendum because he wanted to turn his one party NRM into NRMO. Since then the "O" has been removed and the party reverted to NRM. He had influenced the Constituent Assembly into renaming his personal army NRA as UPDF but in actual fact it remains NRA and a branch of his NRM. In 2005 he bribed parliament to amend the constitution by removing the presidential term limits thus allowing him to contest in sham elections since then.

In 2006 he sought reelection on pretext that he wanted to proffessionalise the army but instead he was buying time to personalise the army under the command of his son for his life presidency project. He had earlier deceived Ugandans by informing them that his son was not a member of the army but a member of the militia Local Defence Unit. He rigged the 2006 elections through intimidation and ballot stuffing by members of security forces. In 2007 he blackmailed the West into silence by initiating deployment of his army to Somalia and has been bent on prolonging the peace mission as long as he rules. In 2011 he sought re-election on pretext that he wanted another term to fight corruption yet the vice is a tool of winning loyalty from his party cadres.

The list of Museveni’s deceit and trickery is endless. He has almost duped each and every Ugandan such that even the current top brass of opposition is composed of individuals who have at one time been his victims. However, among the few individual Ugandans that have not fallen prey to Museveni's deceit is LRA's JOSEPH KONY. Though he had led over two decades of a brutal campaign of armed rebellion against the Museveni government, he has persistently evaded all the treachery by Museveni. His brutality against civilians is condemned but as an individual Joseph Kony is applauded for not falling prey to Museveni's treachery.

INFORMATION IS POWER