How ready is Uganda for 2016 General Elections?

In Omito, Erute north, located less than 4 km out of Lira town, Sarah, Elin and I met a group of about 20 women, of voting age and our discussion regarded their understanding of the current political space, future of Uganda and who is the ideal leader to them. Sarah and Elin are research students who have been traversing parts of Uganda to understand more about women, politics and democracy in Uganda.

The women aged between 21 and 55 with different challenges, out of the 20 only a small fraction had voted before but most of them this time had registered and were enthusiastic about casting their vote on February 18th.

Evidently, the women have an array of problems and when we asked them who they consider is an ideal leader they would vote for, their responses resonated around “a clean leader, one who listens to local citizens, keeps their promises and most importantly, one who will ensure PEACE”. We probed whether they had identified such a leader in the presidential race; the ladies, none of them have a radio, TV or had prior gone to a campaign rally. Out of 20 women at that moment, 18 endorsed the Incumbent. Two mentioned their favor for Amama Mbabazi, the two women who pledged to vote for Mbabazi evidently had attained some level of exposure than the rest of the pack. We therefore had to probe into reason for their support. In 2001, Mr. Museveni had promised to restock the region with cattle that had been allegedly rustled by Karamojong over 20 years ago. That has never happened. Asked about their experiences when they visit Lira hospital, they said if at all they got attended to, they were asked to go buy medicine from a private clinic. Asked about the state of the roads within their area, evidently the roads were terrible, not even with murram. Asked about education, they laughed because most of their children were not going to school due to an assortment of reasons. Asked whether they have means of seeking for accountability from those they voted for, such an option was “Not Applicable” to them. Asked about commodity prices, they wondered why they were buying sugar at the same price as ministers, commissioners and salaried workers. We asked whether they imagined Mr. Museveni would this time fulfill his pledges to them, they were clear he would not but they said they just wanted peace, to them change of president would tantamount to war. When explained to that peace is a right and not a privilege, they should be asking for more than peace. They condense and simply say ”God will give us the best leader”. And I am asking, “You really expect God to solely give you a good leader when you want to vote a leader who has not honored their pledges for 15–20 years?” They calmly say they want to ensure that their children sleep in the house instead of in the bush as it happens when there is war. This is a group of citizens who understand good governance solely as ensuring peace i.e. absence of war. This kind of fear in northern Uganda is not in isolation but representative of sentiments across the country.

Equally of concern, people in this area know only 3 candidates, 1. Dr. Kizza Besigye 2. Hon. Amama Mbabazi and 3. Mr. Yoweri Museveni, how did they end up not knowing other candidates? Whose role was it to ensure such citizens are aware? Are we ready to vote really?

Hopeless Hope:

Adeline, in her early 40s (on the chair), a wailing citizen whose hope is hanging on a small nylon string in a system which does not even know she exists. She believes Mr. Museveni deserves another term because he brought peace. Adeline has a dire health condition, her ball and socket hip bone got “eaten up” by a cancerous infection and her only option is an amputation. She sought help at Lira hospital, failed. Went to Lacor Hospital, she was referred to Mulago, where she needs about UGX. 3,000,000.

She cannot afford given she is not in any active production. The health system has rendered her realistically hopeless, yet she still affords hope. This lucidly manifests a citizen who is too abstract on roles of a functional government; every logical form of thought with them, in the most polite terms is ridicule to intelligence. The system has kept them that way. They are willing to continue making same mistakes, humdrum mistakes, too afraid of relatively new mistakes.

In Gulu, we were handed a different experience, a discussion with women in Pece and Lacor, aged 30 and 60 and were more educated with a lot of experience from the regime. Three were retired teachers in command of very good English language. Talking to them and the women in Lira was like night and day. They were very critical when they spoke, which was rather interesting to listen to. Their discussions about events during presidential campaigns such as Amama Mbabazi in Ntungamo, Gen. Tinyefunza, behavior of UPDF in support of Mr. Museveni were well informed arguments. They expressed interest in positive change but also acknowledged contributions by Mr. Museveni. They talked critically about public institutions, payment of teachers, quality of education, blatant theft of public funds and nepotism. They understand global politics and believe that no single party leader should be mistreated by men in uniform, for all are Uganda needless say human beings. To them, remedy to all these are in electing Dr. Besigye.

Discussions with the community raised questions on whether Electoral Commission did enough voter education and also checked the use of public institutions such as UPDF in partisan politics. How would one expect a voter who does not know all the candidates in the race be able to know anything about the Biometric Voter Verification System?

Amidst NRM’s wealth creation programs which have existed for decades, these are the common houses in the outskirts of Gulu. (Photo by Elin).

A map in the office of a Community Development Officer, an old map of a section of Uganda sketched anywhere around 1995. (Photo by Elin)

St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor, the biggest hospital in northern Uganda, built by Italians Drs Piero Corti and and Lucille Teasdale Corti. Lacor Hospital is fully integrated into the Uganda National Strategic Health plan but faces the same challenges any hospital on the land faces.