Uganda: Rigged elections and mysterious killings … it's the Mugabe script with a different cast
Patience Akumu of the Kampala Observer asks why the west continues to back Uganda's leader for the last 27 years as his regime clamps down on dissent
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A protester at the Daily Monitor newspaper in Kampala after Ugandan police raided their offices. Photograph: Afp/AFP/Getty Images
Much of the world looked on with dismay as Zimbabwe held another disputed presidential election this month, handing 89-year-old Robert Mugabe a seventh term in office. Newspapers sent their correspondents to report allegations of ballot fraud and intimidation. Television reports around the world featured the angry face of Morgan Tsvangirai as he denounced the election as a farce.
In Uganda, liberals and politicians rolled their eyes and sighed wearily. For we have our own Mugabe figure, but no one seems to care. For the last decade, Ugandan activists of various stripes have been trying to draw attention to Yoweri Kaguta Museveni's brutal regime. The difficulty is getting anyone to listen.
Museveni, 69, has ruled the country for 27 years, six fewer than Mugabe in Zimbabwe. But while the world recognises Mugabe as a dictator, Museveni is still, to them, the same blue-eyed boy who was once feted as the ideal of democracy and transformation in Africa.
Like Mugabe, Museveni came to power after a western-backed coup, apparently committed to democracy and speaking the language of human rights. His regime is credited for reforming the East African country's economy, which, after the ravages of the years of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, was on the verge of collapse, with inflation at more than 200% when Museveni took power in 1986. Uganda has made some strides in the fight against HIV/Aids and the country has enjoyed relative peace and stability. But his legacy is souring.
Before Museveni's drastic transformation from democrat to autocrat, he said that Africa's biggest problem was that leaders stayed too long in power. Today, he sings another tune, arguing it is important for leaders to "consolidate" their achievements. The latest Uganda Human Rights Commission Report shows that, just as in previous regimes, people are tortured and dissidents mysteriously disappear. Museveni seems to have suddenly decided that human rights are an import from the west that cannot be tolerated; and that democracy is compatible with a politician holding a life presidency – provided the person in power is a visionary like him.
In 2005 Museveni amended the constitution to remove term limits, allowing him to be a candidate for the presidency as many times as he wished. He has won the last three elections amid allegations of unlimited bribery, disenfranchisement, intimidation and violence. Attempts by the opposition to challenge the elections in court were futile. The legal system upheld them even though it was recognised that there was evidence of malpractice.
Rising inflation, fuel and food prices led to opposition-led protests in 2011. Museveni reacted by ferociously clamping down on all dissent. Ugandans got used to the sound of gunshots and the sting of teargas. Fearing an Arab spring kind of uprising, Museveni ordered the police to shoot whoever participated in the protests.
Opposition leaders who dare question Museveni's regime are routinely arrested and harassed. A recent investigation by Kampala's Observer newspaper, which I work for, found that opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been arrested and charged 34 times in five years. That figure does not include the times when security officials have simply barricaded his home and in effect prevented him from leaving his house. Or the other less high-profile politicians whose arrests may or may not make the local news, depending on their luck.
In May, Museveni shut down independent media in Uganda, after they published a general's memo claiming Museveni was grooming his son for the succession. General David Sejusa was forced to flee to the UK, fearing for his life. He has since joined the numerous opposition voices against Museveni.
Three months down the road, a law has now been passed forbidding public gatherings and political debate. Under the law, more than two people can meet in a public place only after notifying the police seven days in advance. The police have discretionary powers to stop such a meeting. The truth is that public debate was stifled long before the act. Parliament is also considering a law that will give the government power to shut down critical media.
So where is the international outrage when it comes to Uganda? In 2009, the world successfully put pressure on Uganda to drop the anti-homosexuality bill that proposed the death penalty for certain homosexual acts. Why, as the voices of protest and democracy are silenced, do the leaders of the western world continue to wine and dine Museveni? Why do they continue to hand over generous donations to Museveni's government that the people never see, turning a blind eye to issues of human rights and democracy?
Britain's Department for International Development budget for Uganda is £60m. Most of this money is supposedly intended for projects concerning democracy, health and human rights. Even with all that is happening in Uganda, the country is still masquerading as an African democracy.
It is not all bad. While half the population still live on less than a dollar a day, Uganda has halved poverty that was at 56% in the early 1990s. The country's economy is said to be growing and literacy rates stand at 73%, with more people attaining secondary education.
But look at this tale of rigged elections, opponents in exile, mysterious disappearances and killings, torture, clampdown on the media – it is the Mugabe script but with a different cast.
Inexorably consolidating his power, Museveni has built himself a mansion and stocked up on military jets. There is no sign he will step aside and he has promised he will be the one to usher the country into becoming a "middle income" state. This is a feat he has been having a go at for the last 27 years.
The reality is that Ugandans have been beaten into docility by hunger, disease, poverty and sheer need. The unprecedented rise in the cost of living and the deplorable state of hospitals have put the people in the exact position that Museveni and his cronies want them to be – a place where many are too worried about their next meal to care about abstract political ideas and rights.
Sure, the 1960s happened a long time ago and Africa cannot forever blame its ills on colonialism. But Ugandans cannot help but question the integrity of countries that continue to accommodate one dictator, while condemning the other. Tyrants who have squeezed life out of the country now coo about the new African revolution. And the world nods and cheers and promises Africa that things will improve. They will not. Not until the root of all this evil is totally uprooted.
Diplomacy may be the game, but what if it comes at too high a cost – more deaths, more disease and an eventual economic collapse? The argument often goes that Zimbabwe is an extreme case and Uganda still manages to function from day to day. Critics say this is nothing more than "western hypocrisy," a necessary evasion of responsibility because Museveni is still the west's "yes boy," in various international bodies.
The message is loud and clear to all dictators: you can arrest the opposition every other day, pass draconian laws and let your country wallow in poverty, as long as your troops are available for us when we need to go on a peace keeping mission in, say, Somalia. As long as you vote on our side when we sit on the [UN] Human Rights Council and sign as many human rights treaties as is required. Democracy? No, you do not have to be democratic. It is enough for you to appear democratic.
Patience Akumu was a winner of the 2013 David Astor journalism awards, nominated for her work on human rights in Uganda
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