Is militarism the greatest threat to the peace and stability of Uganda?

The signs are unpleasant – the growing militarism is constantly revealed as the masked bandit it has always been.

In May 2024, the Center for Human Rights and Peace of Human (Huipec) of Makerere University launched a jewel of a report, “pistols, bread and butter: militarization of economic sectors and public institutions in Uganda: a socio-legal analysis”.

Dr. Busingye Kabumba, the interim director of Huripec, notes that the report demonstrates the depth and width of the militarization/militarism in Uganda – examining “how we got here and how – if we cannot escape it.”

One of the different definitions of militarism, quoted in the study, describes militarism as the belief that it pivotes its military and methods of using force and threatening violence as the best means of solving the challenges of society.

The regime of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) of President YOWERI MUSEVEN, as the most long -lived regime, since Uganda obtained independence in 1962, has rooted the army as a supreme body of Uganda in its merger in regime and state.

The chief of the army, General Muhoozi Kainerugababa, also the son of Museveni, in his speech at that of the 44th anniversary of the army in the government’s government’s structure.

Singling the decision of the Supreme Court of January 31 on the military courts as unhappy and acceptable, Kainerugaba said: “UPDF and its predecessor ANR – which we honor today – offered the lasting solution for tyranny, killing and iniquity, which has long affected Uganda.

UPDF, without a doubt, remains the foundation on which democracy and socio-economic transformation will be carried out in our country. “The statement of the head of the army is in contradiction with articles 1 and 2 of the Constitution, which provides that the power belongs to the people, the Constitution as a supreme law of this black, yellow and red earth.

In recent weeks, we were treated with vulgar scenes of the gross force that stepped on the blood, sweating and tears of the revolutionary ideals of the National Army (ANR)/NRM and, thus, the Luweer Bush war. Dear reader, in the manner of experienced criminals who return to a crime scene to marvel at their works, to review some of these scenes.

Scene 1: In the last appearance of the opposition Doyen, Kizz Beigye and his co-accused, Obed Lutale, an armed security operator was prominent before the court. Dressed in black, wearing dark shades in a bright courtroom, the armed operator stood in front of the public public, with his back to the bench.

Dear reader, we must pay attention to the picture – the armed operator is between people and the bank. In his picture, the armed operator is all-in-one: judge, jury and horse.

The Supreme Court declared the unconstitutional and illegal military courts, the armed operator has now been armed to the teeth, in a civil court. A vulgar display of unabashed power.

Scene 2: In more frightening scenes from the campaign rallies in the National Unity Platform (NUP) in Kawpei North, armed and masked soldiers, such as the rabbit beasts descend on unarmed civilians, whispering violently and crying towards them.

View is as disorientating as a war zone so far unknown in Kawmpe North. The brave efforts of an unidentified female soldier who struggles to keep back the violence of her masked colleagues cannot go unnoticed.

Of course, the NRM candidate did not suffer such delays- her campaigns were a big yellow silence. The flagrant double standards tell us that the opposition should wear yellow to get peaceful rallies and to throw the blood of state violence.

Scene 3: A man looks straight forward- dressed in all black, except for Freakish orange and bronze. His bronze mask is macabre – suitable for Halloween revealing convincingly as armed robbers. His weapon, inclined on his torso, is long and significant.

The masked armed operator vs. people. The screen is both melodramatic and intimidating. I return to some of the favorite citizens of President Museveni, the children Bazzukulu. I show them Bazzukulu (A boy and girl, respectively 10, respectively nine years) the image of the masked operator.

I ask him to guess his day job (his night job seems with obvious torture). The two Bazzukulu Look at the picture, their faces confused with questions. Why do we wear a mask? Why do we wear a weapon? Why is he dressed in all-to-black?

Why does the Uganda flag have on his uniform? Why is it so unwavering, so yet? Currently, they chorus, “he shoots people!” “Where do you think he works?” I ask. Their confusion deepens.

The answer on their lips is at wars with the picture in front of them. Their eyes throw between the flag of Uganda on his uniform and the mask on his face. “Police?” They answer questioningly. “Why does it look so scary?”

After a lot of pussy for the identity of masked weapons, the government finally owned “masked weapons”; Infaming work group anti -terrorism (Jatt). Officially established in 2002, Jatt is interwoven together from the police, army and information organizations.

In 2009, a report by Human Rights Watch, “Secret open: illegal detention and torture by the common anti -terrorist working group”, put Jatt in the center of human rights atrocities. HRW reported: “Jatt staff usually works in unmarked cars, carry out arrests that wear civilian clothes without identification notes and do not inform suspects about the reasons for their arrest.

Those in arrest are not told that they are taken to Kololo and are frequently tied, handcuffed and sometimes beaten during the trip. “

Today, we can report an improvement, as Jatt operators now observe black uniforms, seriously -looking fire power and macabre masks. Mwabutsya Ndebesa, within the Civic Space YouTube program, contextualizes macabre masks, noting that masks are similar to those worn by Mexican drug cards- for their depraved brutality (decapity and dismantled bodies).

The Ndebesa also condemns the incendiary and dehumanizing language, the head of the defense forces (CDF) uses it freely on his social account on X about the opposition. He warns that it puts the country on a slippery slope in the dark times of the past, especially in a region with a history of genocide and violent conflict.

When the NUP members arrested by Jatt appeared in court, they threw, threw themselves, and threw themselves in pain; A few massive black-black bruises on their body. At a NUP campaign rally in Kawpei North, a fiery young man cried in the microphone that he was not afraid that nothing had revealed that he was arrested and tortured previously.

Now, from prison, he has roared that he was beyond the fear that successfully arouses many Ugandani – the fear of imprisonment and a life of torture with slight premature death. Here is the booby trap of militarism.

The restriction of militarism undermines our prospects for sustainable peace. It’s a self -destructive time bomb. The Huipec report warns that, while the brutality and violence of the state causes fear among some of the public- “it is also the slow militarization of citizenship, especially young people who adopt military approaches as copy mechanisms.”

Interrogating how militarism had an impact on the police force in Uganda (UPF), says Huripec: “The militarization of the police undermines more and more and subordinates the UPF to the military, contrary to the much-called civil supremacy and the civil control of the army.

It has transformed UPF into a brutal and violent institution involved in human rights abuses and violations, including torture, kidnapping and murder, among others. The brutality and violence of the police also carry out more and more to the fear of police and to the loss of public support for the institution. “

Huipec continues to see militarism in the barracks is deeply complicated, because the militarism in Uganda is rooted in our complex political history whose roots return to British colonization. In the 1970s -80s, when Uganda was in the neck of a tyranny regime that breathes killer militarism, a motley crew of young people and women decided that they cannot sit back and wait for someone else to save their Uganda.

These young people, full of premium patriotism, took the armed rebellion determined to put an end to the reign of tyranny. So determined were these heroes that they started with 27 wrong weapons.

Dear reader, do you know what it means to face a state armed and dangerous to the 27 weapons? A state that sees you and your colleagues like Vermin or in the words of today’s CDF, buffoons, criminals, baboons, zakayo, neanderthals, dogs? Scientists document that ANR was partially successful due to the discipline of their fighters and support among the civilian population – people!

Frank Schubert in his 2006 article, “Guerrilele does not die easily”: everyday life during the war and the myth of the guerrilla in the National Army of Resistance in Uganda, 1981-1986, wrote that the civilians were led in the arms of ANR through the brutality of the OBOT government.

Schubert quoted the Stalwart opposition and one of the historians of ANR, Mugisha Munu, “the main recruitment officer for ANR was obotte himself.” In what unconfecting state we find ourselves today!

NRM, victorious since 1986, has settled nonpologically, leaving the 40-year-old reign on people, while constantly revealing the winnings of 1986. In the words of Mugisha Muntu through his social media account, “the current reality is not in accordance with the historical mission of ANR.”

The current reality is in contradiction with Article 1 of the Constitution of Uganda: “All power belongs to people who will exercise their sovereignty in accordance with this Constitution.”

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The writer is a Tayaad Muzzukulu.

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