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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