Besigye says a few gun-wielding warlords led by Pres. Museveni are holding Uganda hostage
Former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye sought to reassure his supporters Monday following a series of police brutality vented on him since he returned from two trips abroad, and reaffirmed FDC’s defiance against the ruling NRM government.
“A president is one who wins. One who makes himself president without winning is subversive. Museveni should be tried for treason. He came to power using guns and is holding onto office using the same guns,” Besigye told NBS TV at his Kasangati home. “Museveni should be in court, charged with treason. It is not what you call yourself but what people have determined. They [people] determined that I am their leader. We are on the verge of change.”
Mr. Besigye has insisted he won the February 18 election with 52 per cent votes, despite the official announcement that declared Museveni winner with 61 per cent votes. Besigye, who got 35 per cent, called the vote rigged.
The opposition leader described Mr. Museveni as a dictator, someone who was unqualified to sit in President’s office and “has no policies, systems and institutions.”
“Museveni, like all dictators, uses fear, public resources to rent support, propaganda to divert public attention to rule,” Besigye told NBS TV’s Simon Kaggwa Njala. “We have no institutions in this country. We have a country ran by a regime, a regime ran by one person. Mr Museveni he has no policies, systems and institutions. We have a great country.”
Minutes later, Besigye, President Museveni’s personal physician during their five-year bush war that led to capture of state power in 1986, tore into the current government’s healthcare and planning.
“Comical. It is ridiculous that after 30 years, President Museveni is going door-to-door to gauge progress in Luweero. We just have to remove the mismanagement and create the right institutions People are dying and many are going to die because of Hepatitis B yet somebody being called ‘president’ is carrying jerrycans. Museveni is carrying jerrycans and in the same breath, he is saying by 2020 we are going to be a middle income country.”
“I have never been as optimistic as I am today about the change that is coming. Whether I am here or not, change (which is always a constant) will come.
Museveni, 71, has presided over strong economic growth but faces mounting accusations at home and abroad of cracking down on dissent and failing to tackle rampant corruption in the nation of 37 million people.
“You can palpate and feel the popular demand for change, anywhere you go in this country people are defying. That is why they call me the people’s president. That is not lost on foreigners,” Besigye continued.
“The fate of our country is in our hands. We shouldn’t expect salvation from abroad. The solutions must be Ugandan.
On Monday, Dr Besigye engaged police officers in a brawl, which ended in his and other activists’ arrest. Police had blocked his visitors from accessing or leaving his home.
“The things that have gone wrong in the last 30 years have happened under the watch of the international community. We are keen to work with these foreign friends of Uganda, provided they don’t undermine our own interests. International community is very concerned with the state of our politics, more so because we are in a very volatile region,” Besigye alleged.
Museveni brought calm and stability to Uganda after decades of chaos at the hands of leaders Idi Amin and Milton Obote, but Besigye and many opposition voters accuse the former guerrilla fighter of becoming increasingly autocratic and wanting to rule for life.
