Museveni Can Claim the Moral High Ground Above Other African Leaders Who Murder Their Opponents

Instead of condemning his abduction, we might have been condemning his targeted murder by “unidentified” men or women—through disappearance, strangulation, or shooting to kill.

By Dr Sam Akaki

“Give the devil his due,” William Shakespeare wrote in King Henry IV.

Was Shakespeare not asking the authors of the mass hysteria over Dr. Kizza Besigye’s latest arrest and detention to give credit to Museveni for diverging from the norm in Africa by keeping his No. 1 political opponent, Kizza Besigye, alive but in jail? (Nile Post – UN Human Rights Chief Condemns Besigye Abduction, NP, 21st November 2024).

The alternative could have been much worse for Kizza Besigye personally, as well as for the Musa and Marion Kifefe children, grandchildren, relatives, in-laws, and friends. African politics is such a cruel, zero-sum game that the victors rarely take prisoners.

Instead of condemning his abduction, we might have been condemning his targeted murder by “unidentified” men or women—through disappearance, strangulation, or shooting to kill.

Ask Mozambique’s opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane, the runner-up in last month’s disputed presidential election.

He narrowly escaped an alleged assassination attempt, but his aide and lawyer were killed while preparing to challenge the election results.

Why?

I know Kizza Besigye very well, although I was not one of the self-important Diaspora Ugandans who met him, by invitation only, when he fled to London in 2001.

Our close relationship began when Kizza Besigye unexpectedly telephoned me at my workplace after being given my contact by a senior British Foreign Office official at King Charles Street.

A year earlier, the Foreign Office had called me in and asked, “Who is this chap, Dr. Kizza Besigye?”

I told them the truth: that I “did not know his tribe or religion, the two critical factors that matter in Ugandan politics. What I knew was that he was a medical doctor by profession, a soldier by training, a politician by accident, and a democrat and human rights activist by conviction.”

My hosts looked at each other but betrayed no emotion.

As his international envoy to the UK and the European Union, I successfully promoted this former Bush War doctor-turned-democrat to Western and North American governments. Consequently, they lavished the FDC with political, diplomatic, and practical support, including access to the International Democratic Union (IDU) of center-right parties then in power in the UK, USA, Germany, and Australia.

Many ambassadors viewed Kizza Besigye as a president-in-waiting, often referring to him as “Your Excellency” during our working lunch meetings.

President Museveni’s external security operatives, who had infiltrated the FDC in the UK, must have kept him fully informed of the clear and present threat Kizza Besigye posed to his hold on power in Uganda.

So why did Museveni, who had ample political reason to eliminate the Besigye threat, decide to keep him alive in jail? Museveni, with his elaborate security network, undoubtedly has the capacity to remove Kizza Besigye permanently.

KB himself has reportedly told journalists recently that he “does not fear going back to Luzira because the whole country is a prison anyway.” He did not, however, say that he does not fear death.

In my view, the only conceivable explanation for why KB has been in and out of Luzira for the past 23 years is that Museveni appears to lack the ultimate moral degeneracy that leads other African leaders to murder their political opponents.

If you disagree with me, tell us why.

Why is Kizza Besigye alive, while Benedicto Kiwanuka has been missing since September 1972? Why was Uganda’s serving Foreign Minister Michael Ondoga found floating in the River Nile in 1974? Why was Kenya’s serving Finance Minister Tom Mboya shot in the street in 1969, or Kenya’s serving Foreign Minister Dr. John Robert Ouko dragged from his house and murdered on 13th February 1990?

Why is Kizza Besigye alive, yet Archbishop Luwum and Ministers Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi were murdered in February 1977?

And why is Kizza Besigye alive while my two cousins, Nathan Engena, a civil servant, and Margaret Abonyo, the hotel manager at Acholi Inn, were murdered in May 1985—just for being born into the Oyima clan?

Why?

Because Museveni lacks the moral depravity necessary to order the murder of his real and perceived political enemies.

Long live, dear friend Dr. Kizza Besigye. Continue to make your valid points, but with less and less emphasis on militancy.

Dr Sam Akaki