UGANDA: Museveni curtails Abiriga's "cheap popularity"

MUSEVENI CURTAILS ABIRIGA'S "CHEAP POPULARITY"

"I didn't know that he was such a good mobiliser. My visit to the area of Kirinyabigo and Kawanda - Kaayi yesterday showed me how much the people loved him on account of interacting well with them and especially the children."

Museveni eulogising the Late Arua M.P, Ibrahim Abiriga.

CHANGE OF GUARDS - Two weeks later, the same residents whose love for Abiriga had personally been witnessed by Museveni were blocked by his police from conducting a peaceful procession. The locals arranged a memorial service to pray for Abiriga and had planned to have a peaceful procession that was supposed to remember the love and help that the late M.P extended to the locals. They planned to urge government to name the village road as Abiriga Memorial Road. They had notified the police and invited the RDC, the DISO, the RPC, DPC and the local Mayor.

At the last minute, the police stopped their procession on grounds that; "We could not allow them to move. Their request was not approved but still as police we do not stop them from praying on such a day" said the KMP Spokesperson. Abiriga had died at a time when the majority of the regime M.Ps were complaining that they were being isolated and threatened over their support for the Age Limit Amendment. Indeed those M.Ps are so unpopular that Museveni recently ordered for the army bodyguards to replace their police guards.

The late Abiriga was one of the top proponents of lifting of the age limit. Shortly before his death, he had complained that Museveni was avoiding him. What baffled Museveni most was the love for Abiriga that was exhibited by Ugandans across the political spectrum. The opposition, the regime, and the general public equally mourned Abiriga. In his home area the angry youth overpowered the army and police before grabbing his body from the funeral van and carrying it on their shoulders in a mammoth procession. In Arua town and at Abiriga's residence, the same angry youth violently destroyed anything bearing the yellow colour of the regime. They targeted police, government officials and journalists. One police motorcycle was set ablaze before the army came in in full force to calm the situation.

The following day during the burial that was presided over by Museveni, the regime Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba, said;

“........It was a shock to all of us, seeing on TV members of the community, carrying signs of FDC, not NRM…they went and grabbed the body from government.......... what hurts me most is; where was the intelligence to pick these people, so that politicians don’t take advantage of this sad situation."

Lumumba asked President Yoweri Museveni to take action against the alleged perpetrators.

“Information is all over the streets of Arua; let these people be disciplined surely. How did the family look at the government in power surrendering the body to them, and they went and destroyed the home, and property.” 

Obviously, Museveni couldn't do anything because West Nile is not Buganda where Museveni is fond of violently silencing them.

Therefore, the popular Abiriga memorial procession in Kawanda was blocked because Museveni believes the late Abiriga was not popular but was a cheap popularity seeker. Museveni is known to have a serious dislike for any public figure who gains public popularity. There was more than caught the public eye in Abiriga's relationship with the regime and Museveni in particular. Serious investigations into Abiriga's killing ought to have started with why he was being guarded by his own blood brother.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM