'Museveni has hijacked our country'

February 26, 2010 (Uganda) — The Independent’s Patrick Kagenda talked to Olara Otunnu the UPC presidential hopeful about his tour of eastern and western Uganda. Below are excerpts of the interview.

What reception are you getting wherever you are going and what issues are you are talking about?

 My message has been about national unity. Museveni has made it national policy and government practice for the last 24 years to divide Ugandans along ethnic, religious and regional lines. The second message has been about fear. I have now put in place a system to monitor all the episodes of grave abuses whether it is arrest, dismissal from the job for political reasons, intimidation and all the grave abuses being committed by NRM organs and functionaries.

Favorite Candidate for the next Uganda's president, Olara Otunnu

The name of the abuser, the date and the place and we are committed to exposing each of these episodes nationally.  I have been impressing upon the population that there are major actors and institutions internationally who are potential allies to the Ugandan people. Two very important examples, one is President Barack Obama`s speech in Accra. He couldn’t be clearer when he said, “these Africans who are on the right side of history who are in the trenches fighting for the right thing if they are doing this they can count on the US superbly.”   He didn’t say the US is going to end corruption, he didn’t say the US will impose democracy, he said if the African are in the fore front, if they have made the choice to fight for this thing, if they are in the trenches like a sacrifice for this thing,  they then count on us. Secondly, we have now seen there is concrete, decisive, and really milestone action by the US congress concerning free and fair elections in Uganda. Thirdly I have been speaking about the dramatic manner in which the NRM government has abandoned the ordinary people completely. Whether in terms of providing medical services, supporting farmer’s cooperatives, schools, UPE has become a dirty word. How do you explain the poverty in Buganda, in the east, in the west? The generality of western Uganda is in poverty. I have been telling them giving them my vision for a new Uganda.

What is your slogan and how are you going to stick to it?

I don’t have a slogan but the theme of the project within which I am working. We are calling that project, “Mission 2011” and the naming of the project is, “we must take back our country”.  The most defining feature of the current situation in Uganda is that Museveni and a tiny group of people have hijacked the country.  They have taken over the country, and made it their own. Whether it is the resources they are looting, whether it is the complete diverting of the institutions and making them personal institutions, the selling of national institutions, the land grabbing, the incredible terror with which the group is ruling. Ugandans feel they don’t own the country anymore. The most important message to patriotic Ugandans is to take back our country.

What is the strategy of entering the country through several borders? In December you entered the country through the east and recently you entered through the west?

In December I was going to spend all my time doing outreach in the east, going to villages, visiting towns and trading centers, it does make sense to go from Nairobi straight into the east. And also as a way of saying the east is important, that the people there are important. All parts of Uganda are important.

You are campaigning in small rural places, what is the explanation to this?

I am no campaigning. I am on a fact finding mission to find out the true state of the country. Secondly, I want to consult, I want to hear their own description of their situation, I want to hear their perception, I want to hear their recommendations, their ideas, their views, and for them to hear mine as well.  I think the strength of Uganda, what would make Uganda stand or fall, is the rural population. In the context of the Uganda People’s Congress specifically, it has been to re-mobilise UPC.

You recently got an accident, are you scared?

What happened in Minakulu, on the Dec 21st on my way from Gulu back to Kampala, was not an accident. It was speaking perfectly straight forward an attempted assassination. It could not have been accidental that you have got a convoy of military vehicles moving unusually slowly, barely moving so we trail and trail and finally they signal for us to pass, two cars pass in front of us with no incident then suddenly one of the military vehicles ducks in the middle of the road in front of us to block us and it is a miracle that we didn’t go head on into that vehicle. Then as we veer on the side and we try to come back, a second vehicle cut in to block us. Again it is a miracle that my driver was able to avert driving straight into the army vehicle. How do you explain that after our vehicle a car once in the bush and came to a halt under some mango trees in the bush.  We got some 40 soldiers coming with their guns cocked, aiming at us. If you get an accident with a little civilian car like mine do you need to send 40 military men to check in the bush to check what has happened? Afterwards, if it was a simple accident, why would the government immediately put out absolute, complete 100 percent lies, complete falsehood, and lies when they said we were over speeding? What were they trying to cover up on what really happened? That is why I and other Ugandan leaders have called for an independent impartial investigation. But so far the government is very nervous about the independent investigation.