Good news - #Uganda regime brutality is soon becoming an acceptable norm

First published by Change of Guards Blog on October 15, 2015

The whole world is focusing on Uganda over recent incidents when the regime security forces violently and brutally curtailed the opposition activities.  Ugandans as usual are preoccupied with the manhandling and undressing the opposition lady forgetting that that one is just a component of the whole incident where senior opposition leaders narrowly survived death.  Moreover, the manhandling and undressing of female members of opposition has always been and continues to take place now and in future.   The worst scenarios are yet to come in the near future. [added October 3, 2017: Entebbe Nansana rapes and killings of women]

In May 1999, the Monitor published a photo of a naked woman who was being forcefully held on the ground as one of the soldiers shaved her pubic hair.  The said photo had allegedly been given to The Monitor by someone who claimed that it had been taken in Gulu army barracks.  A 24 years old female resident of Gulu, Candida Lakony Ochola came out and claimed that she was the lady being shaved in the said photograph.  She went further to claim the soldier doing the actual shaving was her former boyfriend W.O II Nelson Kisaale who was at the time based in Gulu Barracks under the SIB.  The army vehemently denied the allegation and the three top tier journalists that included the current leader of the opposition, Wafula Ogutu were arrested and charged with libel after the security forces ransacked the Monitor offices.

The alleged victim, Candida Lakony was taken to Museveni in State House for security protection where she spent two days.  On the third day, Museveni handed her over to the Police for prosecution on charges of giving false information to the Police.  Before the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate's Court, Candida was represented by Jacob Oulanya (current deputy speaker of parliament) of Mao and Oulanya Advocates. The regime contracted Earnest Kenneth Career a forensic expert to analyse the photographs. The expert submitted his findings and testified during the trial to the effect that neither was Candida nor Nelson Kisaale in the said photograph.  Among the prosecution witnesses was the then Garrison Commander of Gulu army barracks, Capt. Charles Opioid who informed court that indeed at one time Candida Lakony's head and not the pubic hair was shaved by the army in Gulu barracks as a routine punishment for women who misbehaved in the barracks.

In November 1999, Candida Lakony was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for one year.  During the sentencing process, her Lawyer Jacob Oulanya pleaded with court to hand her a lenient sentence owing to the fact that she had spent over five months on remand and that the trial had revealed how women were being tortured in Gulu Barracks. A few days after serving her sentence, Candida Lakony died of a strange illness.  Her former boyfriend, Nelson Kisaale is now a Senior Army Officer under the notorious CMI.  While the trial of candida had lasted only five months, the trial of the three Journalists for libel was to last the next six years characterised by convictions, appeals and counter appeals until it was finally dismissed by the highest court in the land. At the time Ugandans viewed the incident as an isolated Candida Lakony affair but over a decade now, a repeat of history is knocking on their doors and they are yelling on top of their voices.

The Museveni regime has successfully militarised and privatised all the security forces (army, Police, intelligence services etc) and turned them into a regime enforcement/coercive arm of its structures charged with ensuring that the regime retains power by violent means.  Unlike in the past electoral processes where there was some semblance of competition though violent, this time round it is the outright use of the security forces that will ensure continuity of the regime beyond 2016. This is because Museveni knows very well that Ugandans and the world are tired of his 30 years hold on power.  Given the level of violence exhibited within the regime's party during its internal primary elections, it has to undoubtedly realise that the centre can no longer hold. Therefore, its survival relies entirely on the amount of violence, brutality, intimidation and bribery that it is able to met out on dissenters.

The much-acclaimed recent court ruling whereby individual security officers are to be held liable for their violent actions means nothing to the regime. The men and women in security circles act with full blessing of their field commanders and Museveni who is the Commander in Chief. The ongoing uncalled-for brutality by members of the security forces is designed to demonstrate the arrogance of Museveni owing to the fact that he has the monopoly to violence and anticipates no one to challenge him on that.

The good news is that the regime is working around the clock to subdue Ugandans physically and psychologically into submission to the final stage of dictatorship.  The post 2016 Museveni’s Uganda will register and preside over a Politically resigned population.  Ugandans will be subjected to such hopelessness that members of the security forces will be publicly viewed as the Alpha and Omega of everything.  They will have powers to act with impunity in subduing any form of economic, social and political dissent. 

Political activism, professional journalism, civil society, and general political consciousness will be subdued such that the regime brutality will become an acceptable way of governance.   Such incidents will no longer be making news and will not even be reported thus from the outside Uganda will be viewed as a stable country but internal discontent will build up only to explode decades later at a time when Museveni's grandson will be the president of Uganda.   It has worked very well in a number of African dictatorial governments which have been commended for being stable.

Ugandans for now need to tighten their belts for worst scenarios before they are totally subdued and the country stabilises in submission to 'revolutionary dictatorship'.  It’s a contest between 200,000-armed people against the rest of the over 35 million Ugandans.  The so-called leaders of the opposition to Museveni's dictatorship may in future be judged harshly by history if they fail to use numbers to rescue Uganda.

INFORMATION IS POWER.