President Museveni has said apart from being his birth month, September has two other events that make it special for him.
“There are two Septembers which are very important in our struggle. One was on 17, 1972 when I had turned 28 years of age and we attacked Mbarara from Tanzania. It was however a bad September because we planned the attack badly and we lost a lot of people,” Museveni said on Friday.
He was speaking during his 79th birthday fete organised by a group of youths led by the National Coordinator in the Office of the NRM National Chairman, Hadijah Uzeiye Namyalo at Kololo Independence grounds.
The function was also used to celebrate NRA fighters who took part in the battle at Katonga.
The president said the other special moment in September was in 1985 during the battle of Katonga with government forces in the evening days of the NRA bush war.
“I am glad you agreed to combine my 79 years of life with our struggle and in this case events of Katonga. I want to thank all those who participated in the Katonga battles and battles before.”
Turmoil avoidable
Museveni said the turmoil that Uganda went through before the NRA captured power in 1986 could have been avoided if the then leaders had listened to what the people were telling them.
“Ugandans should know those wars were totally unnecessary. We could have had total peace but some people decided to go for sectarianism .The suffering we went through could have been avoided .We could have negotiated and solved these issues without shedding blood but others didn’t want to listen to us and didn’t want democracy. That’s why we had to fight until we got victory,” Museveni said of the turmoil that Uganda went through since independence in 1962.
The turmoil saw Prime Minister, Apollo Milton Obote depose the first president of Uganda, Sir Edward Muteesa in 1966 and declared himself president, establishing a dictatorial regime with the UPC as the only official party.
Meanwhile, Obote was also overthrown by Idi Amin in 1971 as he attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Singapore
Eight years later in 1979, Amin was also overthrown by Tanzanian troops and forces of the Uganda National Liberation Front and Obote returned to lead the country but was overthrown a second time by another coup d'état in 1985 led by Tito Okello.
Okello’s government didn’t last long after it was overthrown in 1986 by the National Resistance Army rebels led by Yoweri Museveni.
Speaking on Friday, Museveni said that the country is stable, the war is on ensuring social economic transformation but also ensuring every child is educated.
“Everybody should join the money economy by engaging in commercial agriculture, services, industries and ICT. That is the war we on, to fight poverty from homesteads and the entire country.”
