Writer: Gawaya Tegulle. PHOTO/FILE
It must have been October 2021 when the British – who have one of the finest intelligence networks in the world (quiet, invisible and efficient) warned of possible terror attacks by Islamic extremists, in East Africa.
Rwanda, where “Uncle Paul” has cultivated a reputation for efficiency and intentionality in governance, heeded the warning. Some eight or so terrorists, with bombs, and ready to blow up Kigali, were picked up.
When Uganda received the very same terror alert, it, as usual, slept on the job. I was actually in Kigali when, on November 16, 2021, Kampala was rocked by a terror attack – explosions ripping through the centre, leaving at least 11 people dead, many more injured.
There is a predictable pattern in Uganda: nothing happens without warning. But unless the warning points directly to a threat against the regime, nothing will be done. Your house can catch fire or robbers can attack your home and police will not turn up. But let anyone opposing government organise even a press conference: it takes five minutes max, for them to be rounded up.
That is why you have so many innocent people, belonging to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and National Unity Platform (NUP) gracing the dungeons and prisons. Most of this, some friends tell me is nothing but nicely cooked-up reports which generate good money to finance resultant operations. People are eating free money! Anyone who wants this government to attend to a situation must, of necessity, link the intervention to a threat against the ruling junta’s hold on power.
If the initial reports about the Kiteezi dump being a disaster-in-waiting, had been linked to regime overthrow, I can assure you, there would not be one piece of garbage left in Kiteezi today. And there would have been no such disaster as what happened last week, garbage, of all things, imitating a landslide and burying people. But the Kiteezi warnings were all non-starters, dead-on-arrival: crafted by experienced technocrats and warning of a disaster that would endanger the community.
In “community” we are talking about what the Waswahili call akina yahe or the Baganda call bagundigundi...the common man, the unknown and inconsequential entities – the expendables, who can die by the hundreds and nobody really cares.
To move this government, you needed the report to come from either the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) or the External Security Organisation (ESO). Or much preferably, the President’s blue-eyed boys - Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), nowadays called Joint Staff Defence Intelligence.
Such a report would have been marked “Highly Confidential” or the equivalent of “For Your Eyes Only”. The report would have to be generated by one of the most trusted chaps in Defence Intelligence. In Uganda, ranks and office don’t matter that much; what matters is who represents the deep state in a mainstream establishment. That is why you find tea girls and office messengers who have more clout – and money - than actual officers in high-sounding offices. The report would have certain key names in it: throw in a Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine) or Dr Kizza Besigye somewhere and allude to a possible involvement of Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu. Add a few boys (as foot soldiers) from Kawempe or Makindye; boys known to be close to Bobi. Then throw in something about foreign interests (Western Europe and America); and sprinkle a bit of LGBTQI somewhere. Finally, attach a heavy budget and you, my dear boy, are good to go!
Like every guilty party, this regime knows its wrongdoings and has its fears; but Islamic State terror isn’t one of them. What terrifies this regime is someone posing a threat to its 38-year stranglehold on power: even if it’s a newborn baby, like in the case of King Herod and the Baby Jesus, there will be an immediate and effective reaction.
The regime doesn’t underestimate its opponents. It fears organised political groupings and it is worried about the power of the LGBTQI lobby. But to have sleepless nights just because a garbage dump posed a danger to inconsequential and expendable people...naaaah!
Gawaya Tegulle is an advocate of High Court of Uganda.
