By Fortunate Ahimbisibwe
Until a few years ago, Fortunate Ahimbisibwe (a self-confessed spy under Mayombo) operated in Kampala and was renowned for his fierce support for President Yoweri Museveni. He pried his trade at New Vision where he was a top investigative reporter with a bias on the education sector. He later on moved to the diaspora where is soon completing his PhD after a brief stint working under a WB/MoES project. As he reads for his PhD, Ahimbisibwe has lately distinguished himself as a rabid Museveni critic and has many times turned tables on diehard Musevenist Andrew Mwenda. And the following is what he says in his latest missive:
VERBATIM;
HOW BESIGYE CONTINUES TO SHAKE MUSEVENI’S ‘MONEY TREE’
As early as 1989, the people of Rukungiri district started demanding that the road connecting the district to Mbarara, Ntungamo and Kabale should be upgraded by tarmacking it.
On each occasion, Museveni said the country did not have enough resources. He said Government had more urgent priorities in its efforts to rebuild the country allegedly broken down by Obote and Amin. At one point, Museveni said there was no point in tarmacking the famous Ntungamo-Rukungiri Road because people had nothing to transport to Kampala. “You want us to tarmac the road so that you can transport poverty to Kampala,” he remarked.
The people insisted on account that they had ‘sent many of their sons to the war in Luweero triangle’ that brought Museveni to power. The road remained in bad shape until 2001 when Besigye declared he was challenging M7 for the top seat. Because Besigye knew what this road meant for the people of Rukungiri and Kanungu, he promised he would tarmac the road immediately he came to office. The Ntungamo-Rukungiri road was nicknamed ‘Besigye road’ because he promised to tarmac it during the 2001 election campaigns, forcing the government to take it up. But this did not guarantee that people would vote for Museveni because he lost to Besigye in 2001.
In panic, the road was fixed into the manifesto and almost immediately, the road was sorted. Everyone knows that had it not been Besigye, the road would perhaps remain untarmacked for many more years. So, this Sunday’s donation of goodies worth UGx5bn is not surprising, it’s a continuation of what will continue to be a bargaining chip for the people of Rukungiri as long as Besigye remains a threat to Museveni’s power. The role of opposition in any democracy is to ask right questions from the government and mandate government to reply to those questions honestly. I am not sure if the opposition is doing enough of this. But sometimes the purpose of the opposition in a political system is not to take over political power but to keep the Government in check. Besigye has done exceptionally well in shaking Museveni’s money tree. Sometimes, when the mangoes fall, even passerby benefit. That’s what happened in Rukungiri. And the money seems to be working because in the last presidential elections, Besigye still defeated M7 in Rukungiri with 52% of the vote. As long as Besigye continues to shake the tree, the people of Rukungiri will continue to benefit from the rivalry between the men. No wonder even when M7 gave the money, some people will thank KB because they know that if it was for Besigye, they would never have recieved the bribe.
