Gen. Nalweyiso is of the view that leadership terms should be extended from five to 10 years to give the country a relatively long period of rest before recurrence of other bouts of such disorder.
This is the second of a series of articles published under our newly created column titled “Okikola Otya?”, depicting the life of Senior Presidential Advisor on Security Matters Lt. Gen (rtd) Proscovia Nalweyiso.
Lt. Gen. Nalweyiso has no kind words for land grabbers, and her view is that police should be outrightly kept out of land matters because she thinks they have failed to fulfil the duty of pacifying warring parties and instead become part of the problem themselves.
She is also irked by court orders made by judicial officers who never take trouble to visit areas of contention, and make all deductions based in their comfortable court chambers and court rooms. “All courts handling land matters should sit at sites of conflict and make informed rulings, rather than sitting in courts and deciding from there,” she lamented.
Nalweyiso is of the opinion that a special court for handling land matters should be set up because she argues, a number of land cases have taken more than 20 years in courts of law without getting judgements, one of the reasons that has escalated land-related conflicts.
She is also pained to see uniformed policemen armed with guns meant to protect Ugandans and their property, joining forces with crude ‘kanyamas’ (bouncers), inhumanly and in a beastly manner, unceremoniously throwing aged widows out of their matrimonial homes and devilishly demolishing their homes, as if they have no aged relatives themselves.
On alleged State House operatives incriminated in land grabbing matters, Nalweyiso finds it hard to believe, and says this could be the work of masqueraders looking for a soft system of executing their evil plans.
She however adds that if a bona fide State House worker is involved, they should be reported and arrested immediately for punitive action to be taken against them.
Dwelling on the unacceptability of landlords who rise from nowhere and start terrorizing wanainchi, Nalweyiso says she is a possible candidate of such inhuman acts because she added, she is sitting on land that was formerly property of her late aunt, with whom she lived before her death.
She noted that there are conflicts between two big landlords, the family of the late Hamu Mukasa and Uganda Christian University (Church of Uganda), but that they as bibanja holders have no stake in the ownership battle.
“At my age of 72 years, how do you wake up one morning and begin kicking me away from land where I have been sitting since my childhood claiming to be a landlord? We as bibanja holders decided to let the big wigs sort out their wrangles and we shall pay our due allegiance to whichever of them will emerge the true landlord; just let them sport themselves out,” she comfortably said.
Gen. Nalweyiso says she wonders how she can respect a person claiming to be her landlord when she has never seen him or her for the 72 years she has been in existence.
On armed insurgency in the country, Gen. Nalweyiso said that is no longer a matter for serious contention, describing the Allied Defense Forces (ADF) as a spent force only bent on making disorganized attacks on unarmed civilians.
She says their danger is that they now and then sneak in from their hiding places in DRC Congo forests and, using sniper fire, shoot at soft targets.
Snipers are dangerous because they attack innocent people. She noted that wanainchi have a role to play in fighting these rebels by scrutinizing newcomers to their areas, and not readily accepting whoever comes to settle in their areas without scrutinizing them and establishing facts surrounding these people.
On this note, she hailed the UPDF for a job well done in striving to end useless battles, and the Commander-in-Chief, President Yoweri Museveni for sweet talking combatants in such warfare to abandon the idea and join fellow Ugandans to develop the nation.
The retired combatant wants Uganda’s political fibre to be given a new face by outdating a system that stifles business including education by taking even children into motorcades escorting vote seeking politicians. She wondered what value a politician who collects kids and workers to follow them for campaign trails can be.
Gen. Nalweyiso is of the view that leadership terms should be extended from five to ten years to give the country a relatively long period of rest before recurrence of other bouts of such disorder. “Nomination days are almost public holidays!”, Nalweyiso lamented.
She blamed endless campaign rounds for keeping poverty entrenched in many homesteads, with beneficiaries of poverty reduction interventions like planting material being advised to pick, say coffee seedlings and letting them dry up on their verandahs.
She at one point said, “We have heard statements from enemies of prosperity saying ‘ssente muzirye naye temukola bye babagambye (eat the poverty alleviation money but do not implement what is told to you), but does this help anyone overcome poverty? If a supporter of the opposition plants coffee seedlings, will they fail to sprout? And if the coffee comes of harvesting age, will such a person fail to get benefits just because it is Museveni that gave them the seedlings? This is stupidity”, she said.