News Reaching UGANDANZ. COM indicate that Betty Namboze broke silence about the ongoing rift between Bobi Wine people power supporters and those of FDC veteran Col Kizza Besigye about the Twebereremu Saga.
She began by expressing how people have been contacting her in her inbox.
There has been numerous taunts in her inbox and even on political facebook groups accusing her of silence when Bobi Wine, is “under attack” by Besigye. In a clip circulating across social media, Rtd Col Dr Kiiza Besigye is captured relating the “twebeereremu” mantra to the distractive politics or tribalism that destroyed countries like Somalia.
“Twebereremu” is an innocent yet powerful word that is a signature indentifier of a call for people to act in their interest. It’s a Ghetto slang that align citizens for self empowerment….in other words it calls for the collective power or the people. Yet like People power and the red colour,Twebereremu slogan has been hijacked by political opportunistst and now risks to be monopolised by forces that seek to divide us.
I hear that Besigye has apologized for the remarks captured in the clip. Personally I feel that Besigye’s apology was uncalled for since he is only a victim of blame shifting by the very culprits of the vice and a new breed of bully politicians and their followers. The strategy of this group is to attack any demand for accountability on their side through demonisation, name calling and blackmail.
Tactfully this group hides behind Bobi Wine’s name to hoodwink the youth support he enjoys. Also this group is boosted by the Nrm propagadists whose work is to draw a wedge between various forces of change to eliminate any possibility of unity and cohesion among us.
She said that In the 18 years of activism Besigye has made many enemies who are out on a fault finding mission against him. No matter what he does, they will find an issue with it. As a strategy they selectively interprete his words and actions to suit the bad man they see in him. Of recent Besigye’s enemies have for the sake of convience cunningly presented themselves as Hon. Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) supporters and Crusaders of a Muganda President.
According to her this dangerous group also through propaganda has laboured to present Besigye as a person running in connivance with the current regime to fool Ugandans that there is opposition. They continuously say that Museveni and Besigye are one and the same. They have been setting up opposition politicians against each other and then sit aside to watch the fight! Unfortunately their trick fits into our egos and some of us get flattered by their empty praises.
So when Besigye got out over the weekend to unpack their bad motives, they tacticfully decided to selectively pick on his words and evaluate his statement independent of the full discourse and the context in which it was given. It doesn’t bother them at all that they are playing right into the snare of Museveni’s propagadists.
It is ironical that the same elements who have been publically running a campaign along tribal lines calling upon whoever cares to listen to route for a “Muganda” and claiming that it is our turn as Baganda to rule Uganda now turn around to claim that they are wrongful accused! I am learning now that calling this group to order constitutes an attack on Bobi Wine! I and Lord Mayor Lukwago especially have severally appealed to them to desist from such a campaign but they instead by extension, descended on us and categorised us as people driven by envy against a fresh activist in Bobi. I don’t know whether Hon. Bobi is happy with this approach……..I suspect he is not.
Through the DP reunion conferences, on radio and TV programs at funerals and public rallies a group led by Dr. Bwaniika craftly pretending to work for a Bobi Presidency have championed this position and it has been the dominant opposition politics of 2018. It would be wiser, to suggest, that the proponents themselves officially adopt the tribal bearing they successfully introduced in the politics instead of faking hurt over Besigye’s statement. After all it has been their position across all fora and it’s the ground by which they have sought legitimacy.
They should brand themselves clearly as Trump did in his campaign, lashing out with racist remarks. He stuck to this stance even when he was challenged. They can also borrow a leaf from Marie Le Pen in the recent French elections. Though she lost the election to Emmanuel Macron, she owned up to her support for racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. Why pretend now that you are so hurt by Besigye for stating what you have been exactly doing all along ?
Otherwise, If to a accuse this group of tribalism is that hurting and damaging ,let it abandon this line of politics and actually all serious activists and Baganda politicians should denounce this strategy if only to prove that we are not the direct beneficiaries of this foul campaign. First if all it does more harm to us as it isolates our region from the rest of Uganda. It is time we embraced politics that is accountable and honest.Twebereremu in the true sense of the word;lets balance the boat and work for a united front,we are not each others
