I will return to my cows if I don’t win

AN anxious soldier trots across the lawn of President Yoweri Museveni’s rural retreat, his arms overflowing with yellow T-shirts of the ruling Movement party.
Inside the modest ranch house in Rwakitura, Museveni can be heard lecturing officials from a western district, who have defected from the opposition just days before the presidential election.
“In Africa, we have many challenges,” he says, his booming voice carrying into the cool shade of the garden.
Later, he poses for a photograph with the group, all wearing the T-shirts.
As Thursday’s vote approaches, the 62-year-old former rebel is trying to woo voters and fight off the first credible threat to his two-decade rule in the east African country.
Opinion polls show him winning handily, with the latest giving him an 11% lead over opposition leader Kizza Besigye, his main rival and former ally.
But the campaign has also shown Museveni at his worst, critics say, revealing a hunger for power that has grown steadily during his years in office.
“I need the power of the state to solve the problems of our people,” Museveni told reporters at the ranch. “I don’t need power to live, by the way.”
Museveni predicted a landslide win but said he would retire if he was voted out.
“My cows are waiting for me,” he said.

Donor darling
Born into a cattle-keeping peasant family in western Uganda’s rolling hills, Museveni moved from herd boy to student activist to victorious rebel commander, ousting the armies of two of Africa’s most notorious dictators.
During his early career, he was the business-friendly, charismatic favourite of Western donors keen to back an African success but now, opponents say, the President is becoming one of the power-hungry “Big Men” he once derided.
International concerns rose a notch last year when Parliament voted to abolish term limits, clearing the way for Museveni to stand again.
In the last elections in 2001, the President had vowed to serve for only five more years.
Several nations cut aid after Besigye was arrested and charged with treason, rape and terrorism three months ago, just weeks after returning home from exile.
Besigye, who denies the charges, was later released and is contesting Thursday’s vote.
Museveni, it seems, is calling the bluff of governments who once feted him but who are now not so sure.
Sitting under a broad tree at his ranch in a grey suit and trademark wide-brimmed bush hat, he said the West had been “habitually wrong” on African issues, and that he took their lack of confidence as a compliment.
Critics say the imprisonment of Besigye – and the deployment days later of black-clad commandos at the High Court – add to growing signs of autocratic rule.
In 1998, Museveni cited self-defence before his troops invaded the jungles of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and pillaged gold, diamonds and timber.
Opponents also point to apparent apathy about high-level corruption and Museveni’s failure to end 20 years of war in the north where the brutal, cult-like Lord’s Resistance Army has killed and maimed tens of thousands.
“The man must go and leave us in peace,” said Joseph Seguya, a car importer. “All his best work was done in the first few years after he took power. It has just been downhill since then.”

Court Challenges
On the other hand, Movement supporters credit their leader with introducing free primary education, driving economic growth and leading Africa’s most successful campaign against HIV/AIDS.
For many rural voters with memories of carnage under former leaders Milton Obote and Idi Amin, Museveni is still the saviour who brought them security. They fear any change could mean a return to violence.
“When you give birth to a baby, you raise it and you know it. That is how we feel about our man,” said Museveni supporter and government worker Lillian Kazoora. “Now if you find you are pregnant, what do you know? It could be a boy, it could be a girl, it might not be healthy. You don’t know. That is the problem with change.”
Many of Besigye’s supporters fear Museveni will not go quietly, despite his promises, if he loses to his former doctor. At a campaign rally in western Kasese last month, the President told the crowd he would not be chased from office like a “chicken thief”.
Besigye – who could face Museveni in a run-off if neither man gets more than 50% on the day – is defiant.
“If he is voted out, he will go, just like that,” the retired colonel said. “What ceremonies will he be waiting for?”
Besigye lost elections to Museveni in 2001, and then lost a Supreme Court bid to have the result overturned.
Since his return he has drawn large support, particularly in urban areas, and most observers expect fraud charges and legal challenges this time too, whatever the outcome.
Nonetheless, Museveni seems confident he will win easily. At his Rwakitura ranch last weekend, he dismissed Besigye as “no threat at all”, saying they had not spoken in seven years.
“I don’t know what there is to talk about,” he said.
As soldiers refuelled a large green military helicopter to take him to his next rally, a jovial Museveni stopped an aide from handing yellow Movement T-shirts to journalists. “No, don’t do that,” he chuckled as he left. “I don’t want to be accused of bribing anyone.”

Reuters