To say ”We recognise that HIV is a serious disease but it is not the only disease affecting Ugandans,” as chair of the house standing committee Rose Akol Okullo has is an absolute cop-out and unacceptable.
In addition to the large defense fund that the article discusses, earlier this year, Uganda spent 88.2 billion shillings on a new Gulfstream for President Museveni. Yet, somehow, Uganda wants to cut funding on ARV’s to address other health concerns. I guess it would be completely unreasonable to cut the flippant spending on things like new jets.
I mean, Museveni’s old jet wasn’t good enough for him? It sure was sufficient enough in 2003 to fly his daughter to Germany for the birth of her child — At an estimated cost to Uganda of £70,000, at the high end, and £20,000, at the low.
Museveni is a darling of the United States and the West, literally getting away with murder. The legislation on Uganda and the U.S. involvement is concentrated on ridding the world of the LRA, completely forgetting that the UPDF also abducted children. The UPDF also raped, looted and killed. And the UPDF is still responsible for the displacement camps that people still live in, today.
Yeah, that’s right, the IDP camps weren’t a choice. Either you moved in or were considered amongst the ranks of the LRA, and, according to the government, thus… guilty.
Of course, then people were corralled up for the LRA to come through with warnings of anyone left in the camps the next day are considered government sympathizers and, according to the LRA, thus… guilty.
But all of this is ignored by the governments of the Western world. Mugabe is the hot word because he’s sat atop a country for a ridiculous 29 years, but Museveni is still a-OK ruling a country and marginalizing a region for 23.
It’s time that we realize that one of the biggest threats facing Uganda is Yoweri Museveni. He’s not a darling. He’s a tyrant. It’s time to hold the Ugandan government accountable for their actions. This latest proposal to cut ARV funding is just the most recent in a long line of irresponsible moves when dealing with the lives of people, and it is unacceptable.
This is all in relation to the tug-of-war over rights to Migingo Island, but the salient bits are that another East African country is calling Museveni’s regime its proper name (read: “hostile state”), and this:
The Kenyan MPs, calling President Museveni an “aggressor” and an “expansionist” asked their President, Mwai Kibaki “to stand up for Kenya” against the aggression.
Despite the accurate name-calling, I don’t like the implications of standing up against agression — especially when followed by:
Some MPs in the Kenyan parliament have proposed that Kenya deploys its army on the island.
I would say neither country needs this, but I think that’s pretty well understood.
Africans must travel to the moon: Uganda president
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Yoweri Museveni will never cease to blow me away. I’m not attempting to insinuate that Uganda or the rest of East Africa doesn’t have a right to travel to the moon, but is it really a priority?
Shouldn’t the priority lie in, uh, I don’t know, developing a country that he has helmed for an increasingly-Mugabe-esque twenty-three years? Or maybe directing more funds towards the PRDP to help northern Uganda recover from a war that he himself was explicit in creating. Or maybe he could be working on ways to actually attain a peace deal with Kony. Shouldn’t all of these thing be prioritized over finding out “what developed nations have been doing in outer space”?
And this is why Yoweri Museveni will never stop making my jaw drop.
For more Museveni fun, be sure to check out Texas in Africa’s weekly segment, Museveni Mondays. You need to read the first installment to see what the series is all about.
(via Chris Blattman’s Blog)
“‘Ida Odinga, wife of Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga, has joined a Lysistrata-like nationwide sex boycott aimed at forcing the countries leaders to overcome a political impasse.
Kenyan women’s groups started the boycott in an effort to end the feud between the factions led by Mr. Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki that has paralyzed Kenya’s government for weeks. Kenya’s Federation of Women Lawyers has urged the wives of both leaders to withold sex from their husbands until the feud is resolved.’
You can’t make this stuff up. Via FP.”
This is wonderful, and if it works it’s going to have a lot of world leaders sweating. Play nice or forget about the strange.
I’m also somewhat concerned with the idea of charging people to lobby their representatives.
I know he’s showing party solidarity and all, but it’s disappointing to see Mandela backing Jacob Zuma.
A comparison of the three major American political schools of thought to the Godfather.
