How Besigye’s walking legs fell down Museveni

When the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) President Dr. Kizza Besigye started the walk to work campaigns months after being defeated by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in the February 2011 Uganda Elections everyone thought it was a joke.

Even people within the FDC circles including the Crème de la crème like Gen. Mugisha Muntu was highly opposed to it because he though it was just a joke although he later joined when the winds of change finally directed him to follow the direction of the winning strategy.

Dr. Besigye (middle)

Outside Uganda, some people like Jerry Okungu – a respected East African Columnist could not even understand how a respected opposition party president like Dr. Kizza Besigye could shame himself to that level by participating in the highly demeaning protest.

The walk to work, walk to pray campaign started as a very simple thing with Dr. Besigye and a few of his aides walking from his home area in Kisangani to the FDC party offices in Najjanankumbi – a Kampala suburb.

The reasons for walking were simply to push the Uganda government under president Museveni reduce the prices of basic commodities like fuel and also protest the fraudulent elections which handed victory to the NRM government.

Soon Dr. Besigye was joined by thousands some within the NRM and security circles called crooks, thieves, terrorists, economic saboteurs and all kinds of bad names.

The small walk to work protest soon turned into a big international riot attracting international media networks like Al-Jazeera and BBC.

Significant foreign missions like the US and European Union embassies started criticizing the Uganda government for violently cracking down on the protestors.

Professional bodies like the Uganda law society, Uganda Womens Network, teachers and other signification organizations like Kampala City Traders Association joined the protests.

The walk to work exposed the weaknesses of the ‘immortal and visionary’ president Museveni and his government to an extent that even people within NRM have started directly attacking the president without any fear.

Everyone knows how a whole senior presidential advisor John Nagenda rebuked the president in broad day light in the media without even the government rebuffing the criticisms; it was only the insignificant presidential press secretary Tamale Mirundi (he meets the president only twice a year) who made his usual noise that Nagenda is out of favor.

Mike Mukula NRM Vice president for Eastern Uganda who is also a former minister seemed never concerned with the wikileaks releases which were highly critical of the president.

A top Kampala NRM cadre and MP for Kampala Central Muhammed Nsereko and a host of other NRM ‘rebel’ MPs have become more critical than the people within the opposition and no one seems to have capacity to silence them. It was only president Museveni who recently made threatening remarks against the ‘rebel’ MP’s which ended in a dustbin.

The walk to work protests have thoroughly exposed the Museveni regime, weakened it that people within NRM have started fighting themselves for power. The battle now is who is going to replace Museveni, former VP Gilbert Bukenya is in prison because he seemed to challenge Amama Mbabazi for the presidency.

Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kuteesa and Government Chief Whip John Nasasira are soon joining ‘Mahogany’ in Luziira so that Mbabazi remains the only single candidate in the queue for the presidency.

Power has already slipped away from President Museveni because he no longer controls the parliament, his son Muhoozi has failed to control the army, the economy is in shambles and his days are surely very, very numbered.

What began a simple walk to work campaign will soon fall a whole sitting long serving Ugandan president who was right to remark that guns can never dislodge him from power but simple things like Dr. Besigye’s walking legs might actually do the magic!