By Dean Lubowa Saava
Deep State Political Desk
This investigative media house, TV10 Gano Mazima, has spoken exclusively with some foreign diplomats in Uganda and revealed that the United States of America and other Western countries are very concerned over the ongoing opposition fights. The diplomats were reacting to the ongoing arrests of National Unity Platform (NUP) grassroots political mobilizers (foot soldiers) by security on criminal charges related to politics.
“It is surprising that they (other opposition political parties) have failed to issue a statement condemning the ongoing arrests of their colleagues in the political struggle. You people who can talk directly to those people encourage them to welcome teamwork; otherwise, they will perish,” a senior diplomat told this reporter.
He wondered why there are no opposition top leaders coming together to fight against the government’s bad laws, as it was during the “walk to work,” the fight against the lifting of the presidential age limit from the constitution, and many others.
However, highly placed sources within diplomatic circles revealed to TV10 Gano Mazima that the opposition infighting has hugely cost diplomats deployed in Uganda, given that currently, much of the money that was planned to be poured into Uganda to influence the country’s foreign policies in Uganda, especially at this time of elections, has been diverted to Kenya.
Sources added that diplomats were getting commissions from the huge amount of money that was sent to Uganda to facilitate civil societies and opposition political parties, and it reached a point when they started working together after creating a fertile ground that led to hope that President Museveni’s forty years’ rule could be stopped through elections.
Political scholars like Edward Luwaga Ssansa, a Masaka-based lawyer, said that the problem in Uganda is that people join politics to seal deals to get easy money. And this can only be achieved when one is working with the government or pretending to be opposing the government, unlike in Kenya where people take politics as a serious path to develop their country.
“Opposition in Kenya didn’t give President William Ruto time to rest in his chair. He is under constant pressure, but here in Uganda, people are just sealing deals for their personal benefits and not doing what opposition is supposed to do. Instead, most of what we see as opposition is funded by the person they are opposing,” Luwaga said.
Lawyer Male Mabirizi warned that if the opposition doesn’t come together, they will all end up in prison. Mabirizi cited the colonial “unlawful drilling” offense which Museveni is using to imprison NUP leaders, including their deputy spokesperson Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro. Mabirizi pleaded with Kampala Lord Mayor Ssalongo Erias Lukwago and other senior lawyers to join NUP’s legal team to beef up their legal strength in the fight against the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), who is sanctioning these criminal files.
“Yes, NUP has good lawyers, but they need senior lawyers like those representing Dr. Kizza Besigye because for them you can see and think very fast and put up a spirited fight. That unlawful drilling was brought in the 1950s by the colonialists to suppress those who were fighting for Uganda’s independence. We need to challenge that law in the constitutional court, but NUP lawyers cannot do it alone,” Mabirizi said.
However, one of the lawyers representing Dr. Besigye and his political assistant Obed Lutale Kamulegeya told TV10 Gano Mazima that a decision to join NUP lawyers is very scary because the foot soldiers always get twisted thinking when it comes to working together with other parties. “They will think that this is a new tactic to frustrate their efforts to regain their freedom, so they will fight it,” he said.
Kira Municipality lawmaker Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, who is also the Secretary General of the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), said that the problem is that political parties in the opposition are using people arrested by Museveni to gain political capital by gaining more support, and anyone who tries to help is seen as an enemy who wants to stop the flow of their political electricity (“Amasanyalaze”).
He noted that they were shocked when NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) abandoned Dr. Besigye when he was imprisoned, even though before his arrest from Kenya, he was always encouraging them to work with Bobi Wine.
“True, when Dr. Besigye was just arrested, we held a joint opposition prayer at NUP headquarters at Makerere Kavule, and we all agreed to work together, but it all ended there, and we each went our own way. PFF leadership always stands in solidarity with our leaders,” Ssemujju said. He added that the opposition leadership currently is only fighting for positions so as to occupy political offices to receive huge monthly salaries, and the issue of overthrowing Museveni’s government is not part of their main agenda.
The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, who is also the NUP spokesperson
