By Jenifer Namukwasi
My attention is drawn to an article written by Gawaya Tegulle which appeared in the DAILY MONITOR newspaper of last week.
Tegulle claimed that there are far better solutions to sorting terrorism but that they are irrelevant in Uganda where the only tool that the president has in his tool box is the military.
That every time Museveni is faced with a conundrum, he calls up the military in every place that is strategic in terms of either the exercise of state power or the deployment of huge national resources or both.
He mentions of police being led by the military men from 2005 to date which he says is what matters the most in this government, lay at number two level.
Gawaya also says when NAADS developed ulcers; the military was called in adding that it runs an amorphous, incomprehensible, ever failing, and never succeeding OWEC.
That in almost every strategic ministry, critical agencies are controlled by the military.
He wonders how the military which he allege cannot handle its own matters with any kind of efficiency and integrity is expected to be efficient and holy in civilian sectors
That the bomb blast went off in Kampala after inexcusable, court-martial-able failure of intelligence and that within a matter of weeks, the military is back in DRC to attack camps of the ADF.
That the still and moving pictures of the military attacks on ADF is a great public relations gimmick for the Museveni administration and that this show of force and might is a hint that we are a regional power.
Well, Tegulle a terrorist apologist need to first understand that terrorism poses a direct threat to the security of the citizens of Uganda, its neighbors and to international stability and prosperity. Terrorism continue to gain ground as one of the most complex and pressing problems of contemporary societies.
It is a persistent global threat that knows no border, nationality or religion, and is a challenge that the international community must tackle together.
If Gawaya had lost a relative to terror attacks (God forbid) in any of the Kampala bombings or elsewhere, he would not be talking of UPDF PR gimmick in the Congo forests.
There is no expert in fighting terrorism because the people who carry out these terror attacks are the people we know and sometimes cannot suspect; they are our brothers, sisters, sons, daughters etc. They are not from heaven that they will come with a certain mark and you are able to easily identify him or her that such and such is a terrorist.
Even the US which Gawaya fancies, with everything at its disposal including money, technology and all other resources, it has failed to end terrorism wherever it has gone under the guise of war on terror . It failed to stop or detect the terror threat of the September 11 2001.It was recently thoroughly shamed in a devastating defeat by the Taliban in Afghanistan and was chased out of the country.
Tegulle also need to be reminded that America was thoroughly defeated hands down at the battle of Mogadishu but UPDF went there and cleared everything. Business in Mogadishu is now booming and in fact Americans are back there to do business under the protection of UPDF which controls the capital city.
This is one of the successes of the UPDF missions abroad Mr. Gawaya can take as example among many others and indeed Eastern DRC is starting to see peace and security after decades of massacres by the ADF terrorists.
Never the less, UPDF will continue to fight this threat of terror with determination and in full solidarity of patriotic and rightful thinking Ugandans.
It is also not true that the UPDF is the only tool in the Museveni tool box as portrayed by Mr. Gawaya Tegulle.
It is true the enemy has managed to recruit civil servants, the judiciary, religious leaders, cultural leaders, civil society and are all working for their sinister interests in this country called Uganda.
To some extent, they have recruited a few elements in the police force, they have allies in political parties that they are in control of. The media houses like Daily Monitor is recruited too. In all these sectors, the adversaries managed to establish presence and control.
If it was not for the strong political and the ideological conviction of the military and intelligence services, the sovereignty of Uganda as a nation would have been totally compromised as Mr. Gawaya would so wish.
So, when Tegulle looks at the tool box of the government, he sees only security services especially the army and intelligence services.
Gawaya is so naïve to say that the President’s tool box only has the military because he sees it as a stumbling block since it is uncompromised. The box is full of all those in other services.
It’s only the military however that is dependable the others being compromised by foreign interests. That’s why Museveni always talks of Kawukumi in police and bringing young people to take over older people.
When Museveni sent people to manage NAADS program, they started stealing money, providing substandard agricultural inputs and supplying poor quality crops and animals to the farmers. Fisheries officers depleted our lakes, forestry officers depleted forests and tax officers diverted the tax revenues.
For example ever since the UPDF took charge of lakes under Fisheries Protection Unit it has yielded enormous benefits to the fishing communities in particular and the country at large that needed consolidation.
These benefits revamped fish factories that were closing down due to low fish stocks in the Ugandan water bodies which was caused by poor fishing practices.
As of December 2020, there was increased fish biomass of up to 68 percent and revenue collection thanks to UPDF.
In 2017, government collected 400 million shillings of revenue from fish through licensing alone. In 2018 it rose to 800 million shillings while in 2019 the country realized 2.7 Billion shillings.
Now when the president adds up, he resorts to the army which his orders control them and there is no corruption in the court martial to bail your way out.
The president has resorted to the military because relevant civilian sectors are compromised to serve foreign interests at the cost of our future hence the military is the only standing force. Its fiber is more of content than others.
It is therefore erroneous for Tegulle to talk of only the military being employed everywhere by the president, others are there but some are compromised.
Guwaya being a lawyer and journalist may have expected a job from state house maybe that is why he is so hostile. He has displayed his wisdom for much but unfortunately his stance shows another compromised educated waste whose stance better serves the colonial masters.
