A bull that wants to die tastes the axe-  Museveni on perpetrators of  violence

President Museveni has once again warned against violence in the ongoing campaigns and during the forthcoming 2021 polls.

The NRM presidential candidate who was meeting party leaders from the districts of Kyotera, Rakai and Lyantonde at Lwamagwa playgrounds in Lwamagwa town council in Rakai district said it makes no sense using violence or intimidating supporters of another candidate instead of wooing them to join your side.

“We just sweet talk people and not use violence on them. You had Mutagamba(Maria)  here who left us with Ssemwogerere. Later, we sweet-talked her to return. No one threatened her. Politics is sweet-talking and convincing people,” Museveni said on Thursday evening.

“If you see anyone intimidating, it is their ideology and belief. What those people do of intimidating people is their ideology. The guns they say they have, we have the largest number of guns but we don’t intimidate people. A bull that wants to die tastes the axe."

Museveni urged the party leaders and supporters to get evidence in form of pictures, audio and video recordings capturing the forms of violence, noting that government will swiftly act on the perpetrators of the violence.

“In Kampala they did it when they attacked people and undressed women. When the army intervened, they can no longer do it.”

Museveni’s response stemmed from complaints by State Minister for Microfinance, Haruna Kyeyune Kasolo who is also the Rakai district NRM chairman who reported that NRM supporters are threatened by opposition supporters in the face of the police.

“Police has not helped contain the situation as our people are threatened by people wielding pangas and stones. They threaten to harm them for supporting NRM,”Kasolo told Museveni.

However, Museveni warned that Police officers are turning a blind eye to such acts risk being dismissed from the force.

“If someone threatens you, get evidence and report it to the police. If Police doesn’t act, report to Kasolo and he then reports me so that that individual police officer is sent to rear goats. There are so many people who want to join police and if we dismiss one, we get two others who want to join. It is very easy to deal with it.”

Campaigns in Rakai

Museveni told the meeting that only the NRM has a clear ideology that it has used to solve most of Uganda’s problems that had defeated earlier governments.

“You can ask the Democratic Party or any other parties what their ideology is. I was part of those parties but I didn’t see any ideology. I have just been commissioning the Kanoni—Sembabule—Villa Maria road and it now has tarmac for the first time in many years. It has been almost 100 years of modern governments but none of them had worked on the road because they never focused on people’s needs,” he said while emphasizing the systematic way of doing things.

“Before the NRM came, there had never been a secondary school in Kooki.  By 1961, there were only six secondary schools going up to A-level but now we have so many of them. This shows that the contribution of the NRM to this country’s development is big.  The NRM has helped change the ideology from sectarianism to deal with people’s problems.”

Museveni however urged the leaders to emphasize the idea of East African integration as one of the ways to ensure Uganda gets market for its own goods that are produced in plenty.

Earlier, the area leaders had reminded Museveni of a pledge he had made over 20 years ago  to tarmac the  100km Lumbugu-Lyandonde road that connects Rakai to Lyantonde, Kyapa-Kasensero, Masaka-Mutukula, Ntuusi-Lyantonde and Rakai-Insigiro roads .

The leaders also reported to the President of the unfulfilled pledge of clean water.

However, in response, Museveni told the leaders that he knows about the pledges but noted that because of doing one thing at a time, they had not yet been worked upon but said they are in the pipeline.

“The roads you talk about I know very well because I used to walk on them on foot. We shall work on them. We are soon beginning the Lusarira-Kabamba-Makore-Ntusi- Ssembabule road. All these are the projects that we shall fulfill,” he said.

According to Kyotera county MP flag bearer, Haruna Kasolo Kyeyune, the three districts of the greater Rakai have greatly benefitted from the Emyooga program and that the success story will be a motivation for people in the areas to vote for the NRM in the forthcoming election.