Museveni protecting Uganda, not family

LAST week American Ambassador Johnnie Carson wrote an article in The Boston Globe criticising Uganda’s political transition. First Lady Janet Museveni answers back:

As a member of the President’s family, I feel obliged to say something about Carson’s recent article in the press about threat to Africa’s success story, since President Museveni happens to be out of town touring rurl Uganda. I believe this attempt to bring bad light to the President’s reputation is not only wrong, but also a real insult to our family.

Mr Carson, the former US Ambassador to Uganda was, of course, known to both of us. He was somebody we both respected while he served and lived here in Uganda.

What he said in this article showed he had some knowledge of the political history of Uganda.

However, his conclusion — what he foresaw as President Museveni’s intention and future “risks” — is what I wish to clear here so that those who care to know the truth may know it.
We live in a world where the media rises up in the morning to feed the world with lies but the truth always gets home long before the lies do, as the Banyanklole say Ekishuba kyiguruka kare amazima gakyitangayo.

I, therefore, choose to forgive you Mr Carson because precisely I believe you accepted the lies you probably learned from the media which has really been on a crusade to demonise our family after they failed to know how else to harm us, and you insulted us with such an unfair and unfounded malicious statement. Nonetheless, I choose to forgive you because many people in the world today believe one can only sacrifice their life and time for personal gain, as your statement clearly shows.

When they see President Museveni who has already sacrificed so much to lead this nation out of the deep pit it once lay in, they think he doing it for personal gain.

Hence, when Ugandans are legitimately discussing the review of their Constitution through real democratic procedures, people like you, Mr Carson, think there must be a hidden personal agenda. It is this morbid attitude that leads Mr Carson to the monstrous story that the President has “a desire to protect those around him from charges of corruption for alleged involvement in illegal activities”. To this I can only quote King David’s Psalms in the Bible 37:32. “The wicked watches the righteous and seeks to slay him.

The Lord will not leave him in his hand. Nor condemn him when he is judged.”

In addition, I wish to say that what comforts me when confronted with such harsh and yet distorted analysis of issues is that the majority of Ugandans read all these malicious lies and abuses that you Mr Carson and many others like you (who choose to show how knowledgeable they are about Uganda’s affairs) and they ignore them and choose to steadfastly show their love and respect to their President because they know the truth. You may now say: “What, then, is the truth?”

The truth is that humanity has triumphed over evil for centuries because, every once in a while, there comes about a man or woman who is willing to walk an extra mile to serve humanity. God uses such a man or woman to empower good to triumph over evil. Without such people in life, everything is doomed. As surely as God’s own words prove in Ezekiel 22:30.

“And I sought a man among them who should build up a wall and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore, I poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath.”

This also proves God is always looking out for such people that He may use them for the benefit of their countries.

I wonder what explanation Mr Carson would give for Museveni’s decision to resist Amin’s rule of terror in 1971 when he was just 27 years of age, stayed the course even when some of his colleagues died and others deserted him, surviving many close encounters with death, until Amin was defeated.

The unresolved political issues of Uganda forced him, yet again, to go back with other patriots to launch the second war of resistance against Obote’s evil regime.

Both times he was forced to abandon his young family behind. Would you say he was trying to protect his son from illegal activities? Unless you want to say he was protecting his family from a father’s presence.

Mr Carson, the present constitutional discussions are not different from the past challenges we faced. It is again his mission that forces him to take the route he takes that many tend to misunderstand.

President Museveni ignores the innuendos and insults of people like Mr Carson, now, the same way he ignored them from the unforesighted in his young resistance days when they called him a vagabond because he left home in the 1970s having refused to accept Idi Amin’s evil ways.

In any case, let me ask: How can the author of the success story not know what Uganda needs? Can Mr Carson now convince us that he knows better what Uganda needs?

Finally, I wish to say, serving Uganda is no bed of roses, and believe me, my family has paid a big price for our homeland that we all love so much. But what has helped us time and again is our knowledge and faith in God. It gives us the resolve and inner strength to continue on this journey.

Perhaps, I should add here for all who care to know the truth: Museveni does not really need a job. It is Uganda that needs liberation, and he, and other Ugandan patriots, are willing to give all the sacrifice it will take to eradicate fascism and bring about the economic liberation for today and tomorrow, with God as our guide.

And all we ask is, let Ugandans discuss their future and determine their destiny without those who chose to be silent when we lived in shame and now that we are marching forward as a nation, they want to decide that we should not be doing that. Are these our friends or enemies?