Dear RK

I was tempted to dismiss the reported speech by arrogant Local government Minister, Kahinda Otafiire, filed by James Eriku and Justine Muboka,(the Monitor of 01/10/08) at Pader, entitled, "Give investors land, Otafiire tells Acholi". This is a statement made deliberately, calculated to offend and provoke the people of Acholiland, the very victims of their deliberate misrule.

Such arrogant utterances coming from Gen. Otafiire and some of his peers in the higher echelon of the NRM junta has become familiar to most Ugandans. One time it was Gen. David Tinyefuza (Monitor of 13/03/08) who reportedly described Buganda's claim for their rightfully owned 9,000 sq miles of land as "rubbish nonsense". Another time he was reported to have arrogantly told the people in Buganda something to the effect that either we dominate you or "we will force you to commit suicide".

Not only are such statements insensitive but show lack of appreciation of the concept of corporate personality of Uganda as a sovereign entity. The NRM leadership is still mentally stuck in their tribal past, in pre-colonial Uganda, too primitive to understand how modern governments are legally constituted and how they are supposed to operate.

It also seems that they are unable or unwilling to appreciate that the 1962 constitutional agreement was a negotiated agreement between the different peoples of Uganda. The kind of Uganda envisaged was not the Uganda being run by the NRM junta today, ie where one tribe treats other tribes in the country as their captives or mere "biological substances".

It seems that the modern concept of nationhood is too high for the likes of Gen. Otafiire & Co. All they can talk about is "tribe".

After looting the country mercilessly for more than twenty years the NRM leadership has become so arrogant that they prefer to think of themselves as divine! Even when Uganda is "burning" from the excess of their greed they continue to play their "fiddles". Which reminds this writer of the vile Roman Emperor Nero (37AD-68AD) who at the height of his imperial power began to aspire to become divine. He was so drunk with power, so much so that even as he lay on his death bed, hallucinating, he was overheard by those attending to him, murmuring his last words, "I think I am becoming a God". However his ambition was rudely cut short, as he passed away, only to meet the one and only true God.

Can Gen. Otafiire tell us why only land in Buganda, Acholi or elsewhere in Uganda should be made available to the so called "investors"? If the idea is so great why does he not offer to them land in Ankole? Does Gen. Otafiire still think that we do not know who their so called investors are? We already know the "investors" who stole our Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB), our Uganda Railways Corporation (URC), our Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) and all its subsidiaries. Does he think that we do not know those "investors" buying land all over Kampala and the surrounding districts?

Thank God one patriotic Uganda has done some real good work recently on this subject - Read RK (19/08/08) an article entitled "Partial list of what we have lost".

We also know where the proceeds of the sale of our state assets and disinvestments went - not in our Central Bank of course! We also know who is looting the gold in Karamoja - See RK article by an independent analyst dated 02/10/08. Also see Captain Vincent's insider revelation in RK dated 06/10/08, about the "Egyptian buyer" of 2 million acres of land in Uganda. Could this be why the regime is reluctant to have the Kabaka (HH Ronald Mutebi) tour Nakasongola, because it has already been "sold off", and the money pocketed (please see Daily Monitor of 8th October 2008)? Clearly M7 and his international Mafia protectors are selling away Uganda, knowing that he will always escape back to Rwanda, or wherever. After looting $15 billion, and still counting, he will always have some where to hide, but tough luck for his followers!

The second matter which I want to refer to is Gen. Otafiire's other speech, also to the people of Pader district, reported in the Daily Monitor on 01/10/08, filed by one Cornes Lubangakene, titled "Otafiire warns Acholi against divisionism". ie, about alleged religious differences among the district leaders of Pader. There is nothing wrong condemning sectarianism, provided the condemnation comes from a well meaning source. My only complaint is the veiled assumption behind such a statement.

The General wants us to believe that the NRM regime is free from sectarianism, whereas we all know that the regime has lasted this long because of sectarianism, unfortunately also in spite of it! We all know that the entire NRM (National Robbers and Murderers) army is controlled by just one ethnic group. At the local level, looking at Ankole region, the fact is that the Hima and their alien Tutsi brothers dominate every aspect of life there, at the expense of the majority in the region.

The religious divide in Ankole is perhaps worse than it is in Acholi region. Certainly it is no better than elsewhere in the country. In this regard I would like to challenge Mr Otafiire to publish a list of prominent Banyankole in the army and other public offices, analyze them between the different religious and tribal groups. Similarly, at the national level, he should also publish for the consumption of the whole country the distribution of key posts in the country, starting with, Senior ranking NRM officials, ministerial posts, their deputies, presidential Advisors, Heads of Public Institutions into the different religions groups (Catholic, Protestant or Muslim) and tribal classifications as compare with actual population percentages of posts held. I bet Mr.Otafiire and those for whom he speaks will not have the courage to do so, as we very well know that this NRM regime is the most sectarian regime to have come out of post colonial Africa. The religious and tribal bias and corruption in this regime is far worse than any of the previous regimes since our independence.

We also know that many NRM stalwarts when they first assumed their offices over twenty years ago had holes in their pockets but many of them now rank among the richest in the whole world. Gen. Otafiire's pretence about transparency and good governance therefore is hollow and should be treated with the utter contempt it deserves. Transparency International puts NRM's Uganda high up in the list of corrupt nations.

A culture of greed, theft and corruption at all levels of our society is now successfully entrenched by the NRM regime.

It is sad to note that today Ugandans have seemingly lost their focus; they are quick to inflict instant public justice on the common "chicken thieves", who steal to live while saluting those mega rich thieves, who live to steal. One can not help thinking how the country is now a mere "shell state". When one sees how police motorcades ride ahead of thieves instead of chasing them from behind, one can not help but lament at the travesty of justice and the complete collapse of a nation state that Uganda once was.

Finally, Khainda Otafiire should count himself lucky to be ruling in Uganda. Elsewhere in Africa, the likes of him and their evil regime would not have lasted half this long. Nevertheless he would do well to read between the lines, Captain Vincent's prognosis, "Going through the intelligence reports and Newspapers...I can not help but think that the end of our time in power is around the corner", RK dated 06/10/08.

RK Reader

 11 Oct 2008