Mao’s move doesn't mean much for Ugandans - Besigye
Four-time presidential candidate Kizza Besigye campaigns for Mr Moses Attan Okia, the FDC candidate for Soroti City East MP seat in 2022. PHOTO/SIMON PETER EMWAMU
What you need to know:
- Besigye says the struggle for justice still continues.
Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) politician Kizza Besigye has downplayed the Democratic Party (DP) president general Norbert Mao’s decision to join President Museveni’s government.
Dr Besigye, who is in Soroti to drum up support for FDC candidate Moses Attan Okia for the Soroti City East Division MP seat, told Monitor that Mr Mao’s decision to serve as a minister in the NRM party, “doesn’t mean much for Ugandans”.
“It (his decision) simply means that the person who has been fighting with us has reached his capacity and can’t go any further and that doesn’t mean we will have to end the struggle,” he said.
Adding: “Others may fall off at 10 miles, but we must continue. That is how we defeated the British, that is how other countries that have freedom attained it.”
President Museveni on July 21 appointed Mr Mao as the Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister.
Mr Mao, the leader of Uganda’s oldest political party since 2010, has previously been criticised by Opposition elements for “hobnobbing with the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.”
There was a significant exodus of the party members ahead of the 2021 polls to Robert Kyagulanyi’s National Unity Platform (NUP).
Dr Besigye joined several dissidents in questioning Mao’s party at the time.
“When NRM finishes capturing state agencies, then other organisations follow. You think DP is strong but it will be seized,” Dr Besigye said then.
Dr Besigye yesterday said change will only be achieved by the population, and not through elite negotiations with the captors in power.
He said just like many other people who have crossed to work with President Museveni, he respects Mao’s contribution to the struggle.
He, however, said he does not understand what prompted Mr Mao to hand himself over to the captors. “I have heard that he is going with his party and at the same time I heard his party members protest that they are not part of him,” he said.
The FDC stalwart said overtime, Mr Mao has criticised President Museveni’s government and described what is going on in Uganda as ‘gun rule’, adding that he does not know how Mao hopes to cause dialogue after 37 years.
“How will Mao then pull out that feat of causing dialogue where people like Amama Mbabazi, former Prime Minister in Museveni’s government, and the late Eriya Kategaya, former first deputy prime minister, failed, and what some of us who knew Museveni many years ago failed,” he wondered.
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He said the Opposition working with Mr Museveni will not stop them from fighting for justice.
“In the 1960s, most members left DP and crossed to UPC, only four remained but that did not affect DP. Likewise, those who believe in UPC are still there under the leadership of senior counsel Peter Walubiri,” Besigye said.
UPC has two factions; one led by Walubiri and the other by Jimmy Akena.
Mr Besigye said after 60 years of independence, Uganda’s governments have never been changed through democracy but by use of guns.
“Everyone has been brought by guns, what we have is gun rule, not people rule, and in that way people are captives to the guns, therefore we don’t talk about Opposition,” she said.
Mr Besigye said since the 1960s, people are fighting to regain their citizenship.
“Those who hold power use terror, they can kill, they can torture, they control, use guns to control the wealth of Ugandans. ... they control media and information, that is how the British retained power, that is how the post British military have controlled power,” he said.
