#Museveni never deviated from the 'bush war agenda' - #Uganda

First published by Change of Guards Blog on November 20, 2015

Bush War in Uganda refers to the five years’ guerrilla war that culminated into a military take over in 1986 that brought Museveni to power.  Since then he has been and is still in power with his military regime characterised by rampant corruption, abuse of human rights, patronage, tribalism, outright theft of public resources, abuse of office, regional military aggression s etc.  His critics more especially his former comrades who have fallen out of his favour continue to repeatedly argue that Museveni deviated from the Bush War agenda, that he lost track; that he lost focus; that he departed from the original mission, that he abandoned the bush war agenda and much more of such.

During the bush war, Museveni had a ten-point program as the mission statement of his war against the UPC government at the time.  Among the ten points were: democracy, security, economy, fighting sectarianism, elimination of corruption etc. There is no doubt for the last 30 years Museveni had completely done the opposite.  He has instead continued to practice and thrive on the same vices that he had earlier on claimed to fight against.  In fact, vices like corruption, sectarianism, and nepotism have been institutionalised by his regime at a scale never witnessed before. His critics further claim that the so called Ten Point Program was a brainchild of their collective efforts with Museveni as their executive leader charged with implementing the same.

Recently Museveni publicly dismissed Dr. Kiiza Besigye's repeated assertion that Museveni had deviated from the bush war principles thus: "Besigye joined in August 1982 and three years later we came to government.  He did not know the internal working of NRM."  Am tempted to agree with Museveni because he had a hidden agenda for the Bush War which was kept secret from the likes of Dr. Besigye and many others who are now lamenting that Museveni deviated from 5he bush war agenda.  He so skillfully concealed that secret agenda from many of his comrades that they mistakenly believed him as a God sent rescuer of Uganda yet he had an agenda different from what he pretended to pursue. In order to fully appreciate this argument, you need to examine the categories of Ugandans who joined hands with him during the Bush War.

These are:

-- The ambitious and self seeking individuals who were looking for a way of getting into power.

-  The Rwandese Tutsi refugees who were looking for an opportunity to militarily invade and reclaim Rwanda.

-  Criminals who were escaping justice and sought refuge in the bush.

-  Unsuspecting civilian hostages and internally displaced who were turned into fighters.

-  Unsuspecting Ugandans who genuinely believed that the security situation was so grave that it deserved changing through personal sacrifice but unknown to them its Museveni who had orchestrated that situation so that he could turn around and pretentious to rectify it in pursuit of his hidden agenda.

Therefore, it is the last two categories that are lamenting about Museveni having deviated from the bush war mission.  They did not know then but they now know that Museveni had a hidden agenda but they are only shy to admit that they had been duped. This is because some of them derive their much-cherished heroism from their having participated in the Bush War. However, some few individuals like Dr. Besigye have at least come out to publicly express regret for having brought Museveni to power and even promised to take personal responsibility in removing him from power.

INFORMATION IS POWER