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One of the most painful pictures to watch is how men dressed in casual wear with masked faces, working under the auspices of public servants in security uniforms, furiously unleash terror onto Robert Kyagulanyi’s supporters.
The crime of their victims is simply supporting their candidate. Wielding the traditional cow-herding sticks from western Uganda, the enkoni, one would imagine they are protecting their cows from wild animals.
The enkoni traditionally renowned for fending off wild animals and snakes from attacking cattle. In truth, though, these men seem to see Kyagulanyi’s supporters as the wild animals coming after their harvest.
With all of them wielding the same weapon – it is indeed a weapon – it is telling that someone had a tender to deliver this choice weapon to the security forces. You don’t just randomly pick them off the street. This also means, there was a mission ahead of time to batter opposition supporters.
It is not just these beatings, but the wanton arrests are also very painful. By last week, the number of wanton arrests off the campaign trail had exceeded 500 people. (This is assuming that there is actually a good count – but the number is surely higher).
All these are violently plucked off a campaign trail before being charged with frivolous cases or kept entirely incommunicado. But equally painful for me is that the NUP presidential candidate is ready to brave through these beatings, teargas and arrests of his comrades to simply continue campaigning.
It looks like outstanding display of bravery, (and his team has reasons for it), but it also looks like bravery for bravery’s sake. Look, with a record number of 2021 supporters – arrested under similar circumstance – still behind bars, or only recently released, one questions this bravery’s end-game.
I noted a couple of weeks ago that (a) the impression created is that these “foot-soldiers” are just a footnote; that is, they don’t really matter to the campaign since it will continue moving.
I also wondered (b) why the Bobi Wine campaign seems unable to build around these wanton arrests and criminal beatings, and turn them into a campaign itself. This is especially true since going around the entire country campaigning doesn’t really matter to the general outcome of this rather pre-determined exercise.
WHAT DOES STRATEGIC BOYCOTT MEAN?
In line of the foregoing brutalities and pre-determined nature of results, I have been calling for series of strategic boycotts that would make the brutal system regulate itself – or set the entire country on a different trajectory.
I need to clarify from the very beginning that (a) to boycott does not mean returning home to sleep or watch from the sidelines. It actually means engaging the system differently – at a level way higher than normal participation. It means more creativity, more radical politics. More seriousness.
(b) A boycott is a form of politics. It is perhaps even more serious than simply participating the normal way. Notice also that not every Dick and Harry are in position to boycott and cause impact.
Some boycotts are entirely insignificant, while others actually have impact. More importantly, to engage in a boycott is to (c) step away from the Yoweri Museveni electoral calendar and be more active throughout: It means doing what Dr Spire Ssentongo has done with #Exhibitions; Male Mabirizi with his ceaseless court petitions; Agartha Atuhaire’s focus on parliament. it is to Advocate Isaac Ssemakadde “banging the table” politics. It is to be more creative with the spaces available.
There has never been free space for revolutionary politics. Often, actors carve out these spaces for themselves either online or in the streets of major cities. Notice that these unconventional political approaches aren’t guarantees for victory. (Maybe just better than electoral politics).
But they need to be engaged constantly and repeatedly. Look, if we are endlessly returning to these pre-determined elections, why not escalate “banging the tables” the #Exhibitions, and crowdfund for Male Mabirizi even more to incentivise others? And be creative in much more and committed ways?
WHY BOBI WINE
As the leading opposition candidate – the target for all brutalities – Bobi Wine (with due respect to the other contenders) is the only real endorsement of a Museveni victory. You need to beat a champ to be seen as great.
Thus, a Bobi Wine boycott does not only mean embarrassment to the entire electoral process, but also means an even deeper scare for YKM and team: What is BW’s next move?” they would be wondering.
It will mean the system committing more crimes in the fear of the unknown. They might call to put him under house arrest. But consider this: with nominations completed, it follows that if all other candidates – especially Bobi Wine, Muntu and Nandala – chose not to continue their campaigns or abandon the election completely before all political prisoners were released and arrests and brutalities stopped, it means, the other three candidates will be under pressure not to join the movement.
If all of them joined, then Museveni would be running against himself. This is no victory. To escalate the moment, NUP, ANT and FDC would pull all their parliamentary and local council candidates from the campaigns.
They would be meeting at their headquarters to deliberate, address the press on the next steps. Of course, police would then make their gatherings impossible even at their offices. But this would be the beginning of a long and arduous journey for the entire system they have so meticulously curated over the years.
Anyways, my suggestions here barely pass the test. But there are more creative folks in these parties who would emerge with legally protected, smarter, non-conventional ideas.
The problem presently is that the leadership has conditioned all their creative potential to an electoral calendar – a pantomime, as comrade Busingye Kabumba called it.
yusufkajura@gmail.com
The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University.
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