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Museveni's Northern Tour: Kisanja is Key Factor

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
September 1, 2004
Posted to the web September 1, 2004

By Prof. Morris Ogenga-Latigo
Kampala
Last week, President Yoweri Museveni was welcomed in Acholi by large crowds,
some carrying dry banana leaves and placards assuring him of their support of
the Third Term project- the kisanja.
Museveni functionaries are elated that they have finally broken opposition to
the Movement in the North, while the multipartyists are scared that if what
they saw was real, then their cause is lost.
I dismiss any political significance attached to the Museveni welcome in Gulu.
I believe the President does too. He's no political fool, and he knows the
Acholi more than many people think.
A THIRD TERM FOR THE MAIN MAN: Kisanja is written all over President Museveni's
northern tour
Museveni's welcome was the traditional Acholi respect for leaders. One must not
also forget the deep psychological pressure that the LRA insurgency has for so
long imposed on the Acholi. With emerging peace, the President's visit was
opportunity to let out their emotions.
It is also true that Museveni's welcome was carefully organised and
orchestrated by Acholi Movementists, especially ministers, one or two MPs, LC5
Chairpersons and the RDCs. With improving security in Acholi, opportunists are
scrambling to lay claim to peace.
The pending reshuffle has not helped things. Incumbent ministers are
threatened, and they are keen to demonstrate their political worth in the sub-
region. More importantly, the kisanja welcome for the President was an inept
and shortsighted attempt by the functionaries to seize the moment of emerging
peace in Acholi for the Movement. While they believed that they were promoting
the NRM and Museveni, their ineptitude actually endangered him politically.
Since the capture of the LRA's Brig. Banya, Acholi Movementists, headed by
Minister for Security, Betty Akech, have gone into high political gear. They
have solely presented Banya and other returnees to the Acholi people, to the
exclusion of multiparty leaders, and even used Banya to campaign for Museveni's
Third Term. President Museveni was alarmed by the activities of his people, and
was compelled to go "correct the mistakes".
Following reactions by some Acholi politicians (Crossfire, The Monitor, August
11, 2004), he recognized that a major backlash was brewing against using
returnees to campaign for kisanja.
Museveni's physical presence was therefore, more than anything else, to
redirect the kisanja campaign back to himself and away from the LRA lepers
being used by the inept Movement operatives in Acholi.
What is wrong with the Acholi supporting the Movement now that peace is
returning? What more do the Acholi want? Well, many who ask these questions
have either not truly understood the LRA rebellion or the Acholi and what they
stand for.
Firstly, the Acholi have always believed, given the military strength of the
LRA and records of the UPDF in other parts of Uganda, Rwanda, Congo and the
Sudan, that if Government wanted, it could have ended the war years ago. Their
deepest concern, therefore, is why the war took that long and why they suffered
needlessly.
Secondly, in spite of the improved security situation in their land, the real
desire of the Acholi is peace and normalcy in their land and an end to the
humiliating Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camp life to which they have
been banished as if they were criminals or traitors to some cause. Without
their freedom and dignity they ask, is there anything else for which they must
import and adorn kisanja?
Lastly, in Acholi, the key values that underpin life and the way people see and
do things, and for which all else- roads and other development programmes- are
secondary, are liberty, honesty and fair-play. The people traditionally believe
that, with these, they will always prosper.
For them, therefore, the belief is that even when the Kony war is ended, they
are likely to remain political victims in this country as long as these values
are not truly part of our governance systems, and are fully respected by rulers
and their agents. Their key political agenda is hinged on this. In the Acholi
culture, forgiving is total, but the truth must be sought and the hard
questions asked. And in this LRA conflict, they shall do just that.
During the President's trip to Acholi, while the Movement sycophants wore
kisanja and danced with glee, the people just watched and asked the hard
questions. They asked where prudence, shame and humanity had gone for these
folks to celebrate before they finished burying their dead?
The Acholi are not bitter over their suffering, but they will seek answers. And
yes, they have values for which they are prepared to sacrifice. If any one
doubts their resolve on this matter, let Museveni and his daylight dancers
prove their worth in Acholi in the 2006 elections. Prof. Latigo is MP for
Agago, Pader District.

   

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