Poor Old Winnie!
Dec 06, 2002
IF the Hon Winnie Byanyima, MP, Mrs Kizza Besigye, did not exist, we would, as the saying goes, have to invent her.
IF the Hon Winnie Byanyima, MP, Mrs Kizza Besigye, did not exist, we would, as the saying goes, have to invent her. All that fun! To see her cranking up the public interest every time it seems she might lose it, is to witness a performer of big proportions. It happened again this last week. Sunday Vision reported that while in London (although, according to her lawyer, she was too sick to make it court in Uganda) she had attended a dissidents’ meeting, made up of Reform Agenda and Kony’s LRA sympathisers. How the fur flew! Madam even threatened a lawsuit against the paper if an apology was not forthcoming within the fortnight. Mr Pike and his troops must have nearly collapsed with terror. What particularly got her goat at a press conference she called was that she had been reported as saying that the LRA terrorist, James Opoka, was in Pader, where she communicates with him by satellite phone. Also that she had mentioned July of next year as the date for Museveni’s overthrow by military force. But hold on. Wasn’t this the very same lady who had taken part in a programme on Radio West, who was seen by those in the studios and heard by thousands? Afterwards did she not swear black and blue that the person in question was not herself? A case of the split personality syndrome? What about her statement while in Kenya, duly recorded by the world press, that Museveni (Museveni of all people!) was training the unspeakable Interahamwe to go and fight against Rwanda. These devils had already massacred close to a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu before being defeated and chased out of Rwanda by the present government. How, even to the most virulent Museveni, could Museveni have joined hands with these murderers? Needless to say, Byanyima Besigye denied making the statement. We were shocked but not surprised. Latterly there has been the Opoka case. When the media reported that Mr Opoka, an assistant to Byanyima’s renegade (and departed) husband Dr Kizza Besigye, had joined forces with the detestable Kony, Byanyima was quick to state that this was totally untrue. Opoka was still one of them (the Reform Agenda?) and to say that it was his picture with Kony’s LRA was yet another example of the Government’s dirty tricks department, brought to discredit her party. I can still hear her voice, that unique thing like a soft but persistent dentist’s drill, head moving in unison with the rise and fall of her statement. Well, Opoka is with Kony; he has even been given one of Kony’s discarded little ladies, kidnapped from some school or village in Acholiland. I didn’t hear Byanyima say that therefore Opoka was no longer with the Reform Agenda, or any longer her husband’s assistant. What does this mean? But of one thing you can be sure. Anytime soon she will announce, dulcet tones throbbing with fake passion, that she never ever said that Opoka was one of them. Poor old Winnie!
Meantime the Kony thing was simmering nicely. As far as Byanyima is concerned, and she confirms she said this in London, the government of Uganda under Museveni has failed to defeat Kony. But the fact of the matter is that Kony is steadily being defeated; what will the chagrin of Mrs Besigye and her ilk be when the LRA has gone the way of Lakwena (who?) and the ADF and more of the same? This is one woman who will need smelling salts. There was one light sideshow at her press conference, in the very nice shape of her son Anselm whom she dragged to the show. He was reported as saying to other small children who were calling out his name, presumably to go out and play, “Hush. Can’t you see I am at a meeting?†He may be a baby but in his veins runs the boiling blood of the two Besigyes. I wonder whether he knew he was nearly quoting the remark, two thousand years ago, reported in the Bible, of One who said, “Can’t you see I am about my Father’s business?â€
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Those who consider it their business to endlessly offer unasked-for advice were in fine voice. By coincidence (not to say irony) they were both Germans, a martial people as history shows. The EU head of delegation said he wished to “strongly†advocate the Uganda government to find a lasting solution to the northern situation, and for “both sides to end hostilities so that talks can start†Mein Gott! “Both sides� One is the legally elected government of this sovereign state; the other a bunch of heinous terrorists. This is simply insulting. The German ambassador joined his colleague, “Let us be tolerant, end hostilities and talk.†This kind of talk is cheap. Do these gentlemen think Museveni and his army fight Kony for fun, or to work up an appetite for breakfast? Talk to Kony about what? End what hostilities? The hostilities of this devil cutting up helpless people? Have they been in a coma as the Kony madness ravages our country? My mother always told me, If you have nothing to say, shut up. As far as it is possible to be from these worthies, the leader of the Imams, Sheikh Muzaata, said at State House, “It is our prayer that the President deals with the rebels in the north; that he collects them one by one and burns them.†Extreme, certainly; but they should be removed from the face of the earth on the battlefield. And they will.
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Ends
Meantime the Kony thing was simmering nicely. As far as Byanyima is concerned, and she confirms she said this in London, the government of Uganda under Museveni has failed to defeat Kony. But the fact of the matter is that Kony is steadily being defeated; what will the chagrin of Mrs Besigye and her ilk be when the LRA has gone the way of Lakwena (who?) and the ADF and more of the same? This is one woman who will need smelling salts. There was one light sideshow at her press conference, in the very nice shape of her son Anselm whom she dragged to the show. He was reported as saying to other small children who were calling out his name, presumably to go out and play, “Hush. Can’t you see I am at a meeting?†He may be a baby but in his veins runs the boiling blood of the two Besigyes. I wonder whether he knew he was nearly quoting the remark, two thousand years ago, reported in the Bible, of One who said, “Can’t you see I am about my Father’s business?â€
* * *
Those who consider it their business to endlessly offer unasked-for advice were in fine voice. By coincidence (not to say irony) they were both Germans, a martial people as history shows. The EU head of delegation said he wished to “strongly†advocate the Uganda government to find a lasting solution to the northern situation, and for “both sides to end hostilities so that talks can start†Mein Gott! “Both sides� One is the legally elected government of this sovereign state; the other a bunch of heinous terrorists. This is simply insulting. The German ambassador joined his colleague, “Let us be tolerant, end hostilities and talk.†This kind of talk is cheap. Do these gentlemen think Museveni and his army fight Kony for fun, or to work up an appetite for breakfast? Talk to Kony about what? End what hostilities? The hostilities of this devil cutting up helpless people? Have they been in a coma as the Kony madness ravages our country? My mother always told me, If you have nothing to say, shut up. As far as it is possible to be from these worthies, the leader of the Imams, Sheikh Muzaata, said at State House, “It is our prayer that the President deals with the rebels in the north; that he collects them one by one and burns them.†Extreme, certainly; but they should be removed from the face of the earth on the battlefield. And they will.
www.onemansweek.com
Ends