I share here below an extract of a social media exchange we had in regard to media reports of the promises made by Candidate Dr. Besigye to return land grabbed to rightful owners.

You see, Candidate Dr. Besigye is the beneficiary of a single story; a story that insinuates that he is the only one who will be able to unseat President Museveni; and a story which he, Dr. Besigye, has fully internalised.

Dr. Besigye is quoted as having said that if he is elected president, his government will ensure that all the land grabbed or acquired illegally is returned to the rightful owners; and that when he comes to power, the law will work and whoever is getting the land wrongly, will lose it.

In reaction to those media reports of Dr. Besigye’s promise to return grabbed land, I provoked an exchange on social media as follows (ME = me and supporters of my viewpoint and KB = supporters of Dr. Besigye):

ME: How absurd. Land grabbing in Uganda is sanctioned by state law. This politics of lies – promising the impossible just so that one gets a sound bite, full knowing that he has no power or capacity to deliver, is what depresses me about politicians in Uganda #ThereIsNoNeedToLie.

Short of abolishing Uganda the nation-state for which he wants to be President, Dr. Besigye is incapable of returning grabbed land from the first nations – Teso, Buganda, Acholi, Lango, Karamoja – to it is rightful owners.

Let us take Karamoja, for example, is he going to de-gazette national parks, reverse mining contracts, etc. and return the lands to Karimonjong?

How is Candidate Besigye going to address historical injustices that go over 50 years back when the nation-state Uganda was formed?

KB: All those laws will be scrapped and swept away.

ME: That can only be achieved through a dictatorship and not a democracy – so there is no point of him engaging in campaigns and claiming to be a different ‘democratic’ leader.

KB: Life is about mind-set! What you see as impossible, to some people is a walk over! It is important to have a positive mind-set!

ME: It is not impossible to dismantle the nation-state Uganda, but it is unlikely that it is going to happen in 2016 -2021.

And the challenge I am throwing at you is to explain how I am wrong and show me how he is going to scrap existing laws and dismantle the nation-state Uganda and moreover within one presidential term.

KB: Nothing is impossible if you understand what is called a decree. One single decree can reverse all land grabbed as long as it is accompanied by a good bureaucracy.

Amin sent out Indians by decree and it’s legal.

KB: Norah Owaraga this is how it is done (tags me to a post on President Magufuli decrees and with #WhatWouldMagufuliDo).

ME: Decrees are used by dictators because they hate consensus. It’s not the kind of Uganda I need for Ugandans.

For more context read: “Media Helps to Make Africa’s Tyrants”

Post featured image credit: The East African