Abwooli Rujumba omurungi W’ Abasambu, when a young man called Yoweri Museveni understood to be son of a Mugurusi Amos Kaguta and Mukaikuru Esteeri Kokundeka grabbed the reigns of power from Bazilio Olara Okello on the 26th day of January 1986, along with his military junta, the then 42 year old warlord in his characteristic baritone promised to Ugandans a ‘fundamental change’. Rujumba, that it was ‘a fundamental change and not a mere change of guards!’
It is now twenty three years and five months to the exact since the 26th of January ‘revolutionary’ club otherwise christened the National Resistance Movement under the firm command of Museveni and the 26 overran Kampala.
Remember, sorry for trying to stretch your young memory beyond the 17th of January 2005 when you first saw the light of this world, but then unveiled was the ten point programme, a master- plan of 10 dazzling targets that the establishment set for itself to achieve in the subsequent five years.
Point number two, of interest to me this instant, enshrined the inviolability of the security of person. Indeed this was a sworn promise to restore this rich nutrient that was amiss on the democratic diet of the people of Uganda.
What seduces me in this subject? Why contemplate on the same now? And what is it that inspires me to evaluate the report card on the security of person that the regime presents to us? The blatant lies that Museveni told in his inauguration speech seduce me to the subject. The court sentence parceled out to Lt. Ramadhan Magara, a special police constable, invokes my contemplation on the subject now. And it is the course of an unpardonable façade over torture ordeals orchestrated by the government against unsuspecting Ugandans that the system has decided to tread that has shocked me into evaluating its report card on point number two of the 10 point programme.
Regrettably, the government is having a nothing- is -happening attitude to these agonizing ordeals of innocent Ugandans.
‘This is the work of some disgruntled enemies of the state. They are cooking up these bogus stories to demerit the government and poison the populace!’ A respectable senior government official candidly put it!
Such lamentable attitudes and comments by a regimes’ top brass serve not only to betray the regime’s questionable commitment to protecting its citizens but also beautifully brings out the depths into which Mr. Museveni’s repressive machine has degenerated into. It exposes the gutters in the N.R.M government that betray an intolerable rotten stench of a failed government. Thus Mr. Museveni is not only leaving Ugandans at the mercy of a growing racket of thug- assailants in his own backyard, but he is also guaranteeing an unfathomable security detail for all this line- up of banditry!
The megalomaniac and his courtiers have now taken it upon themselves to threaten, intimidate, gun-tootle and kill at will! Thus the mysterious disappearances and killings in the past decade have exposed a growing resolve by the unpopular government, sustained on a string of stolen elections, to force itself afloat at whatever cost.
That is why a string of torture cliques disguised as security organs have blossomed of late with thoughtless abandon!
That is why these cliques are a sonata of determined individuals who are ready to give up anything to defend the ill-gotten gains of a thieving regime.
****************
That is why a young man named Patrick Mamenero was hacked to death with a blunt object. The state alleged that the enemies of the good N.R.M actually broke into the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (C.M.I) and killed Mamenero!
****************
That is why the children and wife a 55 year old businessman from Ntungamo called Abdul Semugenyi R.I.P were orphaned and widowed. Semugenyi was grabbed from Ntoroko, ancestral home of my dear friend Nkonge Timothy, never to be seen again! The Human Rights watch reported the Joint Anti Terrorism Taskforce (J.A.T.T ) as saying that the deceased attempted escape and was summarily gunned down. For the army, Semugenyi simply run away!
****************
That is why a Ugandan, whose good name defeats my memory, was found burnt to death and his car never seen again. The number plates of this same car were found on a car belonging to the C.M.I!
****************
That is why after the 2006 presidential polls, as Ugandans were united demonstrating against a stolen election, a gang of hungry baton- wielding men calling themselves the Kibooko squad descended on the demonstrators and clobbered them rigorously. Imagine the sound of wood on flesh. His Excellency appeared next day on the national television beaming at the deed of the bunch of criminals!
****************
That is why a man called Ramadhan Magara gunned down Gideon Makabayi and Vincent Kavuma. For Haruna Byamukama, now confined in a wheel chair, he remains with the imprints of the regime’s grotesque capabilities.
****************
That is why a chained Joseph Musasizi, son of Kifeefe, accused of being ‘paymaster general’ of a sham P.R.A degenerated into a mysterious illness under unclear circumstances while still a condemned in the Ugandan ‘Bastille’ of Luzira.
****************
That is why the fate of Deus Mande, Amon Byarugaba, Asiimwe Steven, Okello Dagama, Aloro Moro, Mabe Akollo, Yasin Nuru, William Mamenero, Matte Simon, Muchimba Zephanias, Kyarisiima Matsiko, Kiliope Isaac, Abbey, Cosma Komaketch and Kiiza W. Besigye Kifeefe is still unknown. They engaged in subversive activities against a democratically elected government.
****************
And that is why a 28 year old Tom Julunga, an outspoken regime critic, was gunned into oblivion by unknown assailants. I will not listen to the talk of whistle blowers who tell of the State’s involvement. But what is certain is that the deceased first died of stab wounds and later on from bullet wounds. It is also certain that Tom, R.I.P, fell at the strike of an assassin man’s bullet in Ndeeba but managed to crawl his way into Rubaga Police Post. Rujumba, it is a solid two kilometers from Ndeeba to Rubaga!
Yet those are a few short lines from a long and seemingly concealed list of defenseless Ugandans who have gone down at the grapeshot of Mr. Museveni’s torture machine. There are those others whose deaths and disappearances have gone unrecorded simply because they are insignificant enough in society to attract the cameramen clicking.
Those foul-smelling acts perpetrated by the State betray a wanton and arrogant disrespect by the Museveni regime of point number two of the so- called ten point programme. The regime has glaringly degenerated into a gruesome dictatorship.
Rujumba, the helmsman has turned into a living symbol of autocracy, bigotry, theft, nepotism and hatefulness. In fact he is now a true embodiment of an African tyrant.
-KYOMUHENDO- ATEENYI-
