Yesterday two developments made for striking headlines. One emerged from a press briefing at the headquarters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) in Makerere-Kavule near Kampala.
There, the Leader of the Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi, told reporters that the government should explain the month-long heavy deployment of security forces around the home of NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine. The deployment started after the January 15 presidential election.
The second development came from the Iftar dinner that President Yoweri Museveni hosted at the State House. It was organised under the theme: “Peace, Unity and Reconciliation: Our Divine Mandate for National Building.”
Mr Museveni spoke about the raging conflict in the Middle East involving the US, Israel and Iran and urged leaders to prioritise dialogue, fairness and economic cooperation.
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Two words in his remarks—“dialogue” and “fairness”—stand out but for the wrong reasons. Charity, they say, begins at home. Mr Museveni should practise what he preaches by engaging in dialogue, especially with Bobi Wine. Has he?
A little background will help bring this matter into sharp focus. Bobi Wine was only four years old when Mr Museveni seized power in 1986. The president went on to lay the groundwork for writing a new constitution, setting the process in motion in 1988. The country’s earlier constitutions of 1966 and 1967, enacted after independence in 1962, were no longer fit for purpose.
Mr Museveni’s government set up a Constitutional Commission to gather views from Ugandans on what they wanted to be enshrined in the new constitution. That set the stage for an elected Constituent Assembly, which promulgated the constitution in October 1995.
The constitution allows any qualified Ugandan to run for president. But as any popular Ugandan politician who has tried to run for president will tell you, challenging Mr Museveni is risky and extremely dangerous. It is like going to war.
According to the Electoral Commission, which the president appoints, Bobi Wine lost the election, polling just 24.72% against Mr Museveni’s 71.65%. You would expect the election loser to be left alone. But Bobi Wine and his family are currently in hiding.
When he addressed the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on February 18 from an undisclosed location, Bobi Wine said his family had fled the country. That was after security forces raided his home, ransacked it, smashed doors and even undressed his wife.
While Mr Museveni preached dialogue and fairness at the Iftar dinner, he has not demonstrated any willingness to engage in dialogue with his political opponents. He has not been fair to them either.
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If dialogue and fairness can solve problems, many Ugandans are asking why Bobi Wine and his family continue to be in hiding? Why is there heavy military and police deployment around their home? How is it fair that a politician who lost a presidential election and only complained about how it was conducted is treated like a person who committed treason?
If Mr Museveni addressed the nation and called on Bobi Wine and his family to return home and end the siege at their home, his remarks about dialogue and fairness would make a great deal of sense.
Yet he remains vindictive. During his recent engagement with young Ugandans, he said Bobi Wine, who is 44, should stop calling himself young. He said a 40-something-year-old is not young. But in 2018, at the funeral of the late James Wapakhabulo’s son Yona Namawa, who died aged 46, Mr Museveni said he was still young—and added that Ugandans should stop describing the death of young people as a decision of God.
🔴 Musaazi Namiti is the Founder and Editorial Director of OJ-UGANDA. He previously led the Africa Desk at Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, worked for Globe Media Asia in Cambodia and writes a widely read column for Uganda’s Sunday Monitor. His work has been quoted by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Jeune Afrique, The Africa Report—not for playing it safe, but for saying what others will not.