Museveni: I am looking forward to next year's election

Countrymen, countrywomen and, especially, the bazzukulu.

Greetings. I have not communicated with you directly since the 6th of August, 2020, when I sent that long piece of 21 pages. I was busy with the NRM leadership meetings and conferences: CEC, NEC and the decentralized National Conference of 11,500 persons, conferencing digitally at 34 points on the 20th of August 2020.

I congratulate the NRM fraternity, the competitors in the processes and the ones who won. Before that, we had had the elections of the youth councils, the elderly and the disabled. The NRM won massively in all of them. With the elderly the NRM got 86.93%; the disabled, the NRM got 84.84%; and with the youth, the NRM got 79%.

The next highest scores were by the Independents, mainly, again, NRM who got 10.18% for the elderly, 13% for the disabled and 14.82% for the youth. The remainder, 2.85%, 2.16%, 5.23%, went the others. I congratulate the NRM on these victories as well as the Ugandans as a whole. We have been able to organize these big events safely in spite of the Covid-19.

We also successfully and safely organized for our athletes – Nakayi, Nanyondo, Kisa and Cheptegei to train within the country during the time of Covid-19, flew them out abroad the special flight of the Uganda Airlines to Nairobi, from where they continued to Monaco, where Cheptegei broke the World Record for 5000 metres.

Afterwards, we brought them back safely. It, therefore, proves that with discipline, great things can and will be done in spite of the Covid-19. This now brings me to two issues. Issue number one is about the national prayers I called for on the 29th of August, 2020. A certain Ugandan came to me and told me that God had told him in a vision that I should organize national prayers, scientifically organized, for God to deliver us from Covid-19.

Therefore, by the powers given to the president of Uganda by Section 2(2) of the Public Holidays Act, I declare the 29th of August 2020, a day of national prayers and a public holiday. Stay in your houses or compounds and pray. I have invited a few religious leaders to come to Entebbe State House and pray together with Janet and myself when you are all watching on TV or listening on radios.

I appeal to all Ugandans to join this massive act of supplication “Mushabe, muryaheebwa, musherure, muryazoora”, I remember from our priests at Kyamate in 1950s. This is in the Book of Matthew chapter 7 verse 7.

In English it says: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

The other issue is a piece (a post in the social media language) by the Hon. Zaake, from Mityana. My staff brought his piece to my attention. It is full of so many distortions responding to my comment when I was addressing the NRM delegates. The fundamental point, before we meander into masks, food, etc is: “Yes”. Hon. Zaake’s answer is “No”.The next question is: “Does this pandemic kill?” The NRM’s answer is “Yes”.

Honorable Zaake’s answer is “No”. According to him, it is a lie invented by the NRM to suppress the opposition. Whether Jane Aceng made a mistake here or whether Nabakooba did another mistake there, does not remove the fact of the onset of probably the greatest plague (ekyorezo) in the human history of 4 and a halmillion years.

Earlier epidemics did not cover the whole globe because communication (travel etc) was difficult. My great-grand mother, Nyinanchweende, never told me about the Spanish influenza of 1918 because, apparently, it was only in the towns – Mombasa, etc. Yet, she was very clear about the smallpox epidemics of 1893 (omuze gwa Muti – the old name of Mbarara).

In the world, a total number of people infected today is 24,359,548. Those that have died are 830,197 in just 10 months!! On account of the stringent measures, we took early, nobody died, for 4.5 months, until the 21st of July, 2020, when the first person from Namisindwa district, by the names of Chematara Eunice, died in Mbale, in a private clinic.

Since that time, a total of 28 persons have died. 20 of them are from Kampala where the miseducation of the likes of Zaake confuses our people. A total of 2,679 have been infected but 1,268 have recovered. The numbers of the infected and dead are small because of the measurers the Zaakes are condemning. How many died in the countries that did not take serious measures?

Let Zaake list them country by country if he is an honest leader – here on social media. The numbers have remained small in spite of the mistakes of the Acengs, Anites, etc. The majority, starting with me have followed the guidelines: the churches, the schools, many of the political actors (NEC of NRM, national conference have just been held following the guidelines), the special interest groups’ (elderly, disabled, youth) elections were held recently involving millions of people following the guidelines.

I, recently, graduated 4809 police personnel at Kabalye following the guidelines: everybody putting masks, no invitation to parents, no visits to the camps since March by outsiders, everybody tested for Covid-19 etc., etc. We had contained the disease because the majority followed the guidelines. You cannot, if you care about Ugandans, therefore, say: “Because Aceng and Nabakooba have made a mistake, therefore, let all of us behave recklessly and many of us die."

Regarding the politicians that have been gathering people contrary to the guidelines, my order to the IGP is now out. No. 1, no public meeting of any type have been allowed since March except the ones following the guidelines. In the past, the politicians (Aceng, Anite, etc.) were pleading that the People were gathering against their will.

The order now is: “Do not put yourself in a situation where people gather around you. If you do, we shall arrest you."

On the 13th of August, 2020, on my way to Jinja, at the Katosi road junction in Mukono Town, the people blocked the road and stopped my vehicle moving forward. They were all bunched in a big mass and no masks. I refused to get out of my vehicle or even open the roof to greet them. I remained in the car using signs to show them that they must put on masks and observe social distancing until they got the message that what they were doing was dangerous and opened the road.

Later, somewhere beyond Katosi, I stopped to use my caravan. Some people gathered. I gave them the same advice. The government has not distributed the masks. The ministry of Health will answer that issue. The food was promised but never delivered. Food was distributed in Kampala and other places. The Prime Minister’s office will answer that for details. Hon. Zaake has been tortured but his torturers were not punished. LDUs are punished.

First of all, Zaake and a few others are a misguided group being used by some foreigners to destabilize Uganda and for many months now. You remember their actions in parliament when they jumped on tables, tore away the microphones of parliament, beat others. Here is the video. In Arua, they stoned my vehicle and attacked NRM supporters who were coming from my rally.

They had even driven a road grader (tinga tinga) all the way from Kampala, I think, to use in ramming our vehicles (kutomera). The SFC soldiers in a disciplined way delivered me to the helicopter first and went looking for the ring-leaders – Bobi Wine, Zaake and others.

Eventually, they found them in a hotel. These wonderful gentlemen tried to assault our soldiers with punches. The soldiers punched them back until they subdued them. It is very impressive that the soldiers never used guns against Bobi Wine and Zaake in the hotel rooms where they were making a fool of themselves trying to box soldiers as if they were boxing village thieves.

One person died outside the hotel in mysterious circumstances. These groups have been in collusion with foreign enemies to infiltrate groups with guns to kill demonstrators and say that government is the one killing them. We are patiently following up those. You remember the piki piki riding killers that killed Abiriga, Kirumira, Kiggundu etc.? We have defeated them and we shall unearth them. The NRM government, which Zaake calls “the regime”, is the enemy of the people because it has closed people’s businesses.

According to Zaake, by the government suspending economic activities that were going to result in mass deaths as has happened in other countries, it became the enemy of the people. I am very happy to engage in that debate with anybody. The NRM was right to suspend flights into Uganda, bars, etc., because they would have resulted into mass deaths. Fortunately, there were economic activities that could safely be done in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Such activities as: farming, manufacturing, cargo transporting, constructing, etc., can be done with precautions. No, according to Zaake, money is more important than lives. Most unfortunate. Zaake, please, look at these aircraft parked at the airports because flights were suspended. This crisis will bring out real leaders and the one who say they are leaders but fail the test.

Moreover, some of the activities like the one where Zaake’s father is, apparently, involved, are not in the interests of Uganda in the long-run. They are actually parasitic to Uganda’s economic health. This is importing consumer goods from China, Dubai, etc. These activities suck money and jobs from Uganda and take them to China and elsewhere. This has never been acceptable to us. That is the NRM 10 points’ programme, in number 5, talks of building an economy that is independent, integrated and self-sustaining.

You have seen the correctness of our strategy recently with the outbreak of Covid-19. The importers,that have been bleeding our economy, especially to consumer goods (cosmetics, spirits, carpets, garments, curtains, human hair, etc.) could not travel to Kusaka as usual (kushaka means a home that does not produce food and must buy from the homes that grow the food).

Therefore, for 5 months now, Uganda has been depending on our products: food, industrial, (products etc) etc. The shilling has even gained against the dollar in spite of the loss of money from tourism and remittance from abroad. We are now moving to produce our own buses, our own pickups, cars, vaccines, etc. We have already produced our own sanitizers, our own masks, etc.

Therefore, some of the businesses that were shut by corona, importing consumer goods, have never been good for Uganda or for Africa. Whether Ugandans want Bobi Wine or “Bosco” (I am made to understand that means Museveni), that is a matter that will be settled early next year. However, recently we had semi-finals in the form of elections of the disabled, the elderly and the youth. Who won the matches in the 3 matches?

Bosco won without too much preparation. I am looking forward to the finals. Greetings to your foreign backers who fear a strong Uganda. Too bad for them. On the issue of Nabakooba, she told me that Zaake brought hooligans from Kampala to embarrass Nabakooba at the funeral.

They insulted her and she kept her cool until the hooligans left with Zaake. She, then, talked to the people. She can talk for herself. There is the issue of red-berets by Bobi-Wine’s group. The ones handling issues of political parties should address this, first, logically and, then legally. I do not want to put on the green beret of UPDF for politics.

Politics is peaceful dialogue or arguments but not for war attire. It is the brown shirts of Hitler who used to put on berets.

YKM

(I was advised by Publicity Nateete, to sign off like this).