Kyadondo East MP Bobi Wine responded on Monday to a widely criticised Sunday speech in which Yoweri Museveni chided Ugandan opposition members by comparing them to those responsible for devastating recent attacks in New Zealand and Sri Lanka, as well as the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Kenya’s Daily Nation reports:
“Did you see the massacre in New Zealand? How about the ones in Sri Lanka recently, in France, in Belgium, in Norway etc.? How about the mega problem that occurred in Rwanda? These tragedies in those areas started with pseudo – and bogus preachers,” said Museveni.
Bobi Wine released the following response:
The first point was restoration of democracy! Is democracy rigging elections? Just to remind you of what you did during the 2016 election- you deployed the military on the streets, delivered polling materials many hours later in Kampala and Wakiso, switched off social media and mobile money, arrested agents for opposition candidates, impoverished opposition candidates while blocking their sources of funding, blocked their campaign rallies, beat up our people, manipulated the voting system, and literally declared yourself duly elected! Is this democracy to you?
Cracking down on any form of dissent? Suspending journalists from media houses for publishing the truth? Using the police and the military to disperse peaceful citizens whenever they assemble to express their discontent? What democracy is there in framing your opponents with bogus charges, torturing them, and denying them the opportunity to reach the people? What happened to the guns, which your government said were found in my hotel room in Arua?
What democracy is there in plucking Dr Kizza Besigye off radio stations, and banning my songs from playing on the media airways because they criticise your wrongs? What democracy is there in imprisoning Dr Stella Nyanzi for speaking out against corruption and nepotism?