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THIS IS IT: Andrew
Mwenda |
Mwenda: (break, adverts)...Coming up we shall be playing the
voice of Mr. Yoweri Museveni in his attack on me and I am going to launch
a counter attack on him and he may find that I am taking residence at
Nakasero, shifting from Kololo and he may be going to take residence in
Rwakitura, one of these days.
Museveni voice: These newspapers, I am
the elected leader of Uganda. I therefore have the ultimate mandate to run
their affairs. I will no longer tolerate a newspaper which is like a
vulture... I will simply close it. Finish. End. Gasiya tu. I have been
seeing this young boy, Mwenda, writing about Rwanda, writing about Sudan,
writing about UPDF, he must stop. Completely. He is an expert on SPLA, he
knows the minutes which took place where... he must stop. And this other
paper called Observer, what is being said in the army. This is not how a
country is run... Red Pepper also. I thought those were confused young
boys busy with naked girls... These newspapers must stop or we shall stop
them. If they want to continue doing business in Uganda, they must stop
interfering in security matters of the region...
Mwenda: Now
that is President Yoweri Museveni, I am going to answer him. First of all
no one is going to stop, at least not me. I am not going to stop. If he
closes the newspaper and I am out of a job, I am going to seek his job and
will get him out of Nakasero, take him to Rwakitura and I will take
residence away from Kololo where he was speaking, where I live...
Byaruhanga: But Andrew, Andrew... (Mwenda interrupts)
Mwenda: ... and take residence at Nakasero.
Byaruhanga: Andrew, you know you cant do that.
Mwenda: If the man wants me to vie for his job, let him come
and close the Monitor.
Byaruhanga: Well, fine. You continue
doing what you are doing and see.
Pulkol: Moses, Please advise
the president that we are running a consti-tutional democracy, not a
dictatorship.
Mwenda: ...a primitive banana republic
dictatorship.
Byaruhanga: yeah, but in a constitutional
democracy, you dont go... (Pulkol interrupts)
Pulkol: In the
Constitution, there are institutions like the Courts.
Mwenda:
Does your President know that he has no power to close even a newspaper
for one day?
Byaruhanga: Wait. Wait...
Mwenda: Aah
aah, does he know that he has no legal power?
Byaruhanga: The
President, you just cut him short. He said he has asked the Attorney
General to look into this matter. I was at Kololo. You were not there.
Mwenda: Musevenis problem is, when he is seated in State House
there, all of you in the Movement, he says jump you ask how high, shout,
how loud. Because you do not challenge him, he is realising...
Byaruhanga: Andrew Mwenda... he said, I was in Kololo, David
Pulkol wasnt there. What he heard maybe was edited. I was there and I
heard unedited version and he said he has asked the Attorney General to
look into this matter... The Attorney general is the chief legal advisor
of the President.
Mwenda: If he was elected, does that mean
that other actors do not have views?
Byaruhanga: When he is
elected, he has a mandate of the interests of the people who elected him.
Mwenda: Does he know that we can remove him now?
Mwenda: Does it mean that when people elect him, those who
disagree with him should keep quiet?
Byaruhanga: You also do it
legally. But he is saying that dont play around with matters of regional
security.
Mwenda: Why shouldnt we analyse them?
Byaruhanga: Do you know that the massacre in Rwanda was
mitigated by the media? Is that what we are going to?
Mwenda:
Is Museveni saying what we are writing in the Monitor is calling for a
genocide?
Byaruhanga: Well, you are more or less doing so.
Mwenda: Is Museveni saying that the relations between him and
Rwanda are managed at the Monitor, here in Namuwongo?
Byaruhanga: No, but Uganda exaggerates things which are not
there.
Mwenda: How?
Byaruhanga: You mislead the
country.
Mwenda: You go and tell him to listen to this show,
then he can get some wisdom, because all of you guys sit at State House
and say, yes sir, yes sir. Here we say no sir.
Byaruhanga: No
we are not saying yes sir.
Mwenda: I can tell you, his little
threats are completely ignored.
Byaruhanga: Andrew continue,
you will see.
Mwenda: We will see. This is our country.
Byaruhanga: Yes, it is also ours. It does not belong to Monitor
alone.
Mwenda: Museveni has a right to kill us. He can close
this newspaper, but that...
Byaruhanga: We have done it
before...
Mwenda: Exactly and he will be paving the way for his
down fall. Listen Mobutu ruled Congo for 32 years, Museveni has not yet
clocked 20. You know how he died and how he left Congo... If Museveni
wants to walk that path, I can tell you he is welcome to walk that path.
Byaruhanga: No. But the President has a legitimate right to
ensure...(interrupted).
Mwenda: Mwenda should not discuss
security in the region, how can you say something like that? I dont
want... we run a newspaper and pay taxes which buy his suits, does he know
that?
Okumu: Mwenda, Mwenda, Mwenda.
Mwenda: You see
these African presidents. This man went to University, why cant he behave
like an educated person? Why does he behave like a villager?
Byaruhanga: Andrew, you yourselves are behaving like uneducated
people by writing misinformation. And as a State, we must come in...
Mwenda: How about other intelligence organisations that are
willing to deploy millions of dollars? If I, by the way President Museveni
knows, if you do not know, that I have access to a lot of intelligence
information that I do not use. Now I am going to use it.
Byaruhanga: Andrew, Andrew...
Mwenda: But, how can
he insult me like that? Museveni has no monopoly of irrationality, do you
know that?
Byaruhanga: For a newspaper like the monitor to come
and create instability, we cannot tolerate it.
Mwenda: How can
you How is the Monitor creating instability? I can also slap you in this
office.
Byaruhanga: Laughs... He is the president of this
country. Elected by the people.
Mwenda: Jesus Christ!
Okumu: Yeah, But if he is the president of this country does
that make him a special human being? You are supposed to lead by certain
guidelines.
Byaruhanga: He must protect the interests of all
Ugandans.
Mwenda: If he wants to behave like Saddam Hussein,
let him go to Iraq.
Byaruhanga: He said dont interfere in
security matters.
Mwenda: You mean Museveni wants to dictate.
You tell him that his threats are completely ignored.
Byaruhanga: he did not say...
Mwenda: Peace and
security is a public good... I think I understand security better than
Museveni.
Byaruhanga: How can you understand security better
than Museveni?
Mwenda: That is what I think. I am a security
expert.
Byaruhanga: It is a wrong opinion.
Mwenda:
Really, does Museveni think that he understands issues of security better
than I?
Byaruhanga: Of course. Dont bring yourself to his
level.
Mwenda: I understand security as a profession better
than he does 100 times. What has he read about security?
Byaruhanga: Andrew, Andrew, please dont bring yourself to the
level of the President on matters of security...
Mwenda: What
does Museveni know about security?
Byaruhanga: He has brought
about security in this country.
Mwenda: Oh, Jesus Christ! You
really think laying the whole northern region, a third of the country, in
waste, 20 years of war, is how you bring security into a country?
Byaruhanga: Twenty years of war to bring security in that
region.
Mwenda: Ooh. The man has completely failed to end the
war in northern Uganda and you tell me he understands security? He is a
complete total failure when it comes to protecting the people of northern
Uganda...
Byaruhanga: You are an expert. In 2006, go and offer
yourself...
Mwenda: Let him resign today, let me become
President and you will see what I will do. This country will be better
managed and there will be security all over the country. Security will no
longer be a tribal good enjoyed by the Bantu in the south. Everybody in
Uganda will be entitled to security. We are going to ignore Byaruhanga.
Byaruhanga: I will just walk out.
Mwenda: Museveni
can never intimidate me. He can only intimidate himself... We are willing
to pay Museveni a handsome pension if he decided to go home and rest and
stop mismanaging this country. Why does he call me a boy?... Listen to me
and you will get the correct security analysis. Listen to the President
you will get the wrong one... The President is becoming more of a coward
and everyday importing cars that armour plated and bullet proof and you
know moving in tanks and mambas, you know, hiding with a mountain of
soldiers surrounding him, he thinks that that is security. That is not
security. That is cowardice.
Byaruhanga: Well Andrew. There is
no President in the world who has no security.
Mwenda: But this
ones security is Jurassic security. Why does this one move with mounted
anti-aircraft guns, AK 47 assault riffles, tanks and mambas, buffels and
katyushkas, Jesus Christ?
Actually Musevenis days as a President are
numbered if he goes on a collision course with me... I wish I was 35, I
would have contested the next election...
Byaruhanga: So you
are a young boy?
Mwenda: ... you mismanaged Garangs security.
Are you saying it is Monitor that caused the death of Garang or it is your
own mismanagement?
Byaruhanga: Andrew let me answer...
Mwenda: Aah what caused Garangs death? Garangs security was
put in danger by your own government putting him first of all on a junk
helicopter, second at night, third passing through Imatong Hills where
Kony is... Are you aware that Garang died in Imatong Hills where you have
always complained that Kony is?... Are you aware that your Government
killed Garang?
Byaruhanga: Eeh Andrew that is a serious
statement you are making... I would rather you withdraw that.
Mwenda: I can never withdraw it. Police call them, I would say
the Government of Uganda, out of incompetence, led to or caused the death
of John Garang. They put him on the plane when it was already late. That
plane the President said it has the capacity to detect bad weather 100km
away. Why couldnt they detect the bad weather 100km away?
Byaruhanga: Andrew, no no no...
Mwenda: Okay who
flew him late at night?
Byaruhanga: You are not going to drag
me... Mwenda: Who flew him into bad weather?
Byaruhanga:
We have set up an investigation not only Ugandan, but it is an
international...
Mwenda: Let me challenge you. When a plane is
taking off from place A going to place B, it is supposed to establish
weather at place B. If the weather at place B was bad, why didnt your
people here decide not to go?
Maybe you dont recognise that the
Government of Uganda is responsible for the death of Garang. Whether it is
by commission or omission, the government of Uganda cannot run away from
that responsibility.
Published on: Sunday, 14th August,
2005 |
