UGANDA 2011 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: JUSTIN ZINDA INTERVIEWS MR LUBEGA

UGANDA 2011 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS -- JUSTIN ZINDA INTERVIEWS MR LUBEGA
Mr Lubega, an independent presidential candidate, is one of eight candidates in the forthcoming Uganda 2011 Presidential elections. He came to London last Saturday 20/11/2010 to address a group Ugandans in Diaspora here in the United Kingdom. Mr Lubega is building his campaign around the theme of change and his logo reads, 'Defenders of peace and justice'. He pledges to deliver genuine change that Ugandans can trust. It is in light of this attractive campaign theme that I focused my questions to Mr Lubega during the interview.

Firstly, I asked Mr Lubega what type of change he intends to bring to Ugandans, in particular, and people of Great Lakes, in general. Mr Lubeka, who is an outspoken and intelligent individual, astutely started by highlighting to me what his harsh rival, President Museveni, is doing in Uganda. He characterised Museveni's regime as a 'monolithic, one-family republican monarch'. Mr Lubega claims that Museveni has been ruling the country almost single-handedly with a small group of people from his closest entourage and mainly his close family members. Museveni has used fear as a weapon to rule Uganda in a dictatorial manner.

Mr Lubega promised to end this abuse of power and he vowed to have a transparent government of the people for the people. However, it was not clear what specific steps Mr Lubega would take to avoid becoming another 'Museveni'. I put to him the following question: What is different this time? Mr Lubega referred to his desire to restore the rule of law in Uganda; he promised he will not stay in power for ever and he will work for a fair distribution of wealth to the people of Uganda. A person like me, who saw Museveni come to power more than two and a half decades ago with similar promises, had an odd sense of 'déjà vu' in hearing these promises again. In the absence of specific measures to establish a democratic system with a proper rule of law to make the government in Uganda accountable to its people, I see very little difference to what most, if not all, African leaders promise to their people during electoral campaigns.

For more detailed analysis of the interview, please visit www.justinzinda.org (see The ZiBC News).

Justin Oliver Zinda

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News & Politics

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