Museveni and Kony: Friends or Foes?

By SYLVESTER OLUOCH
Published July 19, 2009

Museveni is on record to have settled for local solution to the greater north war, as opposed to trial of the northern guerillas at The Hague. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leaders following complaints of human rights abuse by the government of Uganda.

However, the atrocities in the north have been committed by both LRA and Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF), in almost equal measure.

Mid-2008, in a show of statesmanship, or was it a move to cover his own tracks! President Yoweri Museveni changed positions and spoke in favor of an internal resolution to the war that spans more than two decades. Museveni’s move could be a result of many under currents. But the welfare of northern Ugandans is not one of them. You bet.

For every human being there is a Dr. Jekyll and a Mr. Hyde, so the adage goes. Wisdom of old teaches that there is always a constant struggle between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The will to do well is represented by Dr. Jekyll, while Mr. Hyde revolves around moral decadence. In Museveni’s world, at least in my eyes, Mr. Hyde has always overrun Dr. Jekyll. And whether it was Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde making the case for homemade solution, only Museveni alone knows. I will play safe and put my money on Mr. Hyde.

Museveni is either not sensitive or he never gets it. How else do you explain what goes on in a man’s mind when he appoints his daughter as private secretary and his wife as a Minister of State? But I digress.

The situation in the north of Museveni’s country is a sorry one. So far, an open letter to Museveni and General Joseph Kony, leader of LRA, by women of northern Uganda exhibits the suffering.

In a letter dated March 10 addressed to Museveni and Kony, nothern Ugandan women illustrated their soreness in these words: “Over 1 million of us have been displaced from our homes; much violence and brutality has occurred; we have not been able to farm our land; grow our crops; we have not been able to educate our children; and we have not seen development and progress in the greater north because of this conflict.”

The ladies of the north dramatize lives in limbo. They lack needs of base humanity. No shelter for they are displaced, food is short for they cannot till their lands and they walk in indecent clothing – tatters. They also have no future because they are not educating their children. The government of Museveni is either uninterested or incapable of containing this situation.

The Kony equation is rather disconcerting. It is hard to believe that Museveni’s army that has played mercenary in several wars in Central Africa, with reasonable success, cannot terminate a guerrilla leader in its own backyard.

The more I look into the northern situation, the more I understand the pain of a friend from northern Uganda, with whom I had a drink at Simmers Restaurant in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2005. He decried Kony as a “Museveni stooge,” installed to create instability because it is good for his government. Since then, a lot of water has gone under the bridge as my friend’s prophesies pass in their numbers.

Kony is good for Museveni because Museveni draws very little support from the north and the northwest of Uganda. It is not coincidental that Kony always goes on the offensive around election time. That plays two critical roles in elections. It upsets the one million-strong voting bloc in the north and also earns Museveni the Baganda vote. And Museveni will continue to get full support of Buganda land as long as Kony is still at large. Why would anyone want such election winner captured?

Trying Kony at The Hague would be bad for Museveni. If he has had an under-hand in Kony’s brutality all along, then Kony could spill the beans. A local settlement will also play into Museveni’s wider scheme. He could cut a deal with Kony and then control the trial process. That would be a long shot because the trial will be required to meet international standards. The second advantage is political capital, with which Museveni can trade in the north. He can find grounds to go back north and convince the hapless displaced Acholi that he is so kind that he even forgave their own son after decades of disturbance.

Museveni’s political survival largely rests on Kony being at large, and Kony’s rebellion seemingly thrives under Museveni. Looks like what is good for Kony is good for Museveni. Museveni must have learnt that Kony’s political life, sustains his own.

Now I want to gripe.

The government of Kenya drives me nuts. It paid another KES 1 billion (USD 13 million) to unknown people, whose business wound up three decades ago. Now this is utter crap – yes, twaddle! Anglo Leasing in any shape costs as much. Just stop it people. And that spendthrift attitude! More than KES 500 million (USD 6.5) in repairing personal property of President Mwai Kibaki, Premier Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka is abominable!

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Tags: government, leadership, war