What I’m really Thankful for; this Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving in the United States. I don’t live in the US but I generally recognize and celebrate this day because,…well, I have a lot to be thankful for and I believe gratitude is very important in the grand pursuit of happiness on earth. So, wherever you live, I hope you have something to be thankful for this Season. 
Here’s what I’m really thankful for;

Family

I have been blessed beyond measure to have been born in my family. There are things we don’t usually appreciate until we lose them. Fortunately for me, I have not lost any of the family members, to whom I have grown up to love and be attached so much. We are a pretty close and tight bunch. You know that Father whom you are free to share with everything about you, whom you walk with around the farm in the evenings, who gets genuinely frustrated about people who frustrate you? How about that Mother who reproves you in a very kind manner? Who disagrees with you and sometimes risks annoying you all because they have your best interest at heart? The freedom they have given me, to make my own choices, my own mistakes, learn my own lessons without forcing things down my throat, has shaped me into who I am today. The time I spend with my siblings, their guidance and counsel, their noise and love, their protection and wisdom, all is priceless. I’m extremely thankful for the gift of family. I couldn't ask for a better family to belong to that this.

Friends

Everyone gets a chance for making a new friend almost every day. Personally, I had not been very good at making friends.  Blame it on my inferiority complexes and insecurities in my early life. Thankfully, I outgrew those. Over the past few years, I have grown a steady and diverse group of friends. I tell some people that I have better friends than theirs, not because I’m a braggart but because I couldn’t imagine friends better than mine. We disagree, just like any other friends. We argue. We get pissed at each other for a while.  But we also share light moments. We do good deeds together. We help one another. We embrace Christ and Ministry. We party together. We share each other’s burdens. We rely on each other. Disappointments come and go, but above all, we have each other’s backs. And to me, that’s the greatest. And my circle of friends keeps expanding. My latest addition is fast becoming my best. I am eternally grateful for my friends.

Life

We sometimes take life for granted. We think we ought to be alive. Truth is, we don’t. It’s just the grace of God that we were not involved in that accident or that we didn’t eat that poisoned food the other day. There’s no justification for our life, apart from God’s sympathy and forgiveness. Lord, I’m extremely thankful being a perennial sinner; you have still kept me alive to this day.

Work

“Do everything like you are doing it unto God in Heaven.” In my country Uganda, there are millions of unemployed people who have every right to be employed because they studied, went through all the hardships of school and attained the qualifications that they got. But sadly, that does not guarantee you employment. We live in a world where “who you are” and “who you know” matters more than “what you can do.” I’m extremely thankful that even when I didn’t have any special attachments to people in high places, God has provided me something to do before I even graduate. It might not be big or what I had anticipated, but it’s something.  And I believe bigger things are yet to come.

Love

I have loved and lost. But my spirit and commitment to love has not been broken. I have not reached a level of giving up on love. I believe I still have something in me that I want to give out to someone special. I don’t have a specially unique background. Growing up, I have learnt both sides of Having and Lacking. I have committed myself to helping those who are in need as long as I’m in position to. Because I know exactly what it means to be in their position. And I’m not going to give up on my cause to give (love) to someone.  Yes; I’m thankful for the Love in my heart.

Salvation

The Love of God is the beginning of all wisdom. I’m very grateful to have known God in my early life, again; credit to my lovely parents. The foundation they gave me to trust and believe in a higher power has seen me through some of the most impossible situations in life. When I have allowed God to take the wheel, most often because there’s nothing I could do in my power, He has always held my hand and pulled me up. He has taught me that my ability can only reach so far. He has promised me forgiveness and showered me with gifts I didn’t deserve. I’m eternally grateful to have the ultimate gift of Salvation through His son Jesus Christ.

There’s much more I’m thankful for, but for the sake of the readers’ time, I chose to highlight the above most important ones.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING….

Ms. Musisi should watch out to avoid being used.

The melodrama and open witch hunting of the Lord Mayor of Kampala and other opposition leaders is not anything less than disgusting in a country that pretends to be a democracy under the constitution. Over the past close to three years, ‘Kampalans’ have seen an improved city. The sanitation has improved; some formerly ramshackle markets have since been transformed into permanent and better structures. The newly lit streets have been cleared of illegal vendors and motorists who park anywhere to cause traffic jam have faced deserved punishments.  Taxis have got a new park with a paved floor, major roads have been improved and others are due to be improved. And most importantly, revenue collection has improved several-fold in the city.

All these developments have been attributed, to a large extent, to the technical team headed by Ms. Jennifer Musisi, that was ushered in under the new KCCA Act. The political wing of the Authority has taken little or no credit at all as it seems to have been doomed from the onset, struggling to convene meetings and having meeting minutes unsigned (which somehow tells us something about the contents of those minutes). The fact that the Lord Mayor, an opposition figure was pitted to work with (or under) the presidential appointee Executive Director was bound to cause friction. But some analysts have admitted that no one expected this kind of dirty politics that is being played out in the city. The regime seems to have gone to an all-time low in trying to clamp down on any voice of dissent.   

Unfortunately, the Executive director, a technocrat with probably no political intentions, has been caught up in this mess and is viewed as a pone in the president’s fight with opposition leaders. Having been visibly frustrated by the Lord Mayor’s actions or the lack thereof, as has been described in the KCCA Tribunal Report, she has had to step up to the occasion on certain fronts.  But as a respectable lady, God fearing and with a legal background, she should be careful not to overstep her powers or undermine the law in a rush to act on her ‘assignments’. For the E.D to be seen as undermining the Mayor by inviting the president to preside over the Authority’s ceremonies, a duty that clearly falls under the Mayor’s docket in Article 11.1(c) of the KCCA Act, and herself presiding over the swearing-in ceremony of controversially elected councilors representing professional bodies, yet another duty that falls under the Mayor’s functions in the Act doesn’t do much to preserve her credibility.   

The Act itself does not come without its own flaws, such as denying the Electorate any participation in the process of removing the Lord Mayor yet he/she is democratically elected, together with the seeming overlapping and ambiguity of some of the powers and functions of the Lord Mayor and the E.D. Right from the beginning of the squabbles and power struggles at City Hall, many analysts around town argued that Kampala, a region that seems to have eluded the NRM politically for many years, is too strategic for the President to let it go to the opposition. In fact some argued that the conception of establishing the authority was essentially to bring back the city into the hands of the ruling party, having failed to get their choice of mayor elected on several elections. After witnessing the Councilors’ petition, the KCCA Tribunal with its report, and the aftermath of their findings, I’m inclined to believe that indeed this has been a process to remove Mr. Lukwago as a person from the Lord Mayorship. Key in my observation was the rush to elect councilors representing professional bodies to fully constitute the council that has not been constituted for almost three years of the Authority’s existence, and swearing them In shortly, just in good time for the “impeachment meeting”.

We should not forget that one of these councilors elected has allegations of email exchanges with the Minister for Kampala, Lukwago’s nemesis, hanging over his head.

It has been argued before that Law is a child of politics in any country. Therefore, the bad politics in Uganda couldn’t have yielded a good law. Case in point is the recently passed Public Order Management Act which is now being used to clamp down the Lord Mayor and other opposition figures in this country.

A visiting South-African professor while appearing on a Local TV Morning Talk show said having witnessed the Apartheid regime in South Africa and the Mugabe Regime in Zimbabwe, he had never seen what he saw in Uganda as Opposition leaders were being hurled into police vans, beaten continuously, and re-arrested outside of a court-room that had just granted them bail.

Lukwago may have made some mistakes. Who hasn’t anyway? But for the Minister of Kampala and his clique of councilors to be seen to undermine a democratically elected leader who represents the largest diverse group in the country with a multiplicity of ethnicities, tribes and backgrounds, does not bode well with the electorate and any reasonable person who believes in rule of law and justice. To an ordinary man, the process to impeach Lukwago may seem like it has been done according to the law. But someone with a better political lens can see the manipulation of the system and the injustice right from the day the councilors conceived the idea of removing Lukwago, to constituting the Tribunal, and then to locking Lukwago’s lawyers outside City Hall as they delivered a Court Injunction to block the meeting that passed a resolution to impeach him. This regime and its functionaries must bear in mind that in any democracy, which Uganda pretends to be, Justice must not only be done but must be seen and believed to be done. Lukwago has been portrayed as helpless in this whole process and frustrated in his efforts to get fair hearing. It seemed like once a political decision to impeach Lukwago was made, the law has to align itself to that decision. Else it risked being ignored. I can only predict this to blow back in the faces of those perpetuating it.

Until recently, Ms. Musisi has been generally seen as a respectable lady with integrity and a fresh breath of much needed development in this city.  She should however desist from acting like an appendage of the regime seeking to perpetuate its survival and tighten its grip on Kampala. As a technocrat, she should avoid being involved in political struggles and stick to doing her work of delivering better services to the residents of the city. Lest, she risks having her integrity dragged through the mad and gotten rid of when the establishment no longer fancies her collaboration.

Do Africans buy into the booming Africa narrative? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Do Africans buy into the booming Africa narrative? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Forget the M23: Let’s deploy Bitature, Mukwano to Congo - Daniel Kalinaki - monitor.co.ug

This is worth reading and Sharing. Not only for people in the Great Lakes Region but World Wide.
Forget the M23: Let’s deploy Bitature, Mukwano to Congo - Daniel Kalinaki - monitor.co.ug

Fighting against peace: Why US doesn’t want an end to wars — RT Op-Edge

Fighting against peace: Why US doesn’t want an end to wars — RT Op-Edge

Two-Faced Allies - Pakistan and the U.S. - NYTimes.com

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DR Congo’s Problems are far from over

The M23 rebels in DRC might be all but a spent force, if I may borrow the words of the UN envoy in DRC, but the war and the general problems of Congo are far from over. After four days of heavy shelling and fighting in the Kivu province, the Congolese army backed by the UN intervention brigade looked to have emerged victors as the M23 abandoned most of their positions, the latest being the Bunagana stronghold on the Ugandan border with Congo. Foreseeing a breakdown of the peace talks in Kampala, the UN Security Council authorised an intervention force composed of mainly South Africa and Tanzanian armed forces to launch an offensive on the M23 rebels, the fruits of which are what the UN envoy seems to refer to in the above mentioned statement. Congolese soldiers could be seen jubilating and some were quoted saying they will have a feast to celebrate their great triumph over the rebels that have been a thorn in their back for a couple of years now. 

Anyone who knows the history and the geopolitical situation surrounding the crisis in Congo would not be so fast to congratulate the Congolese forces and their UN underpinnings. From the days of Colonialism, Congolese have never seen stability in their country. In a country with a total area of 905,600 square miles and a population of over 70 million, it is hard to exert far reaching authority to every part with hardly any functioning institutions and infrastructure worth talking about. In my opinion, this is where DRC’s problems start from. 

All the governments Congo has had in the last 50 years have been in the least, dysfunctional. Right from Prime minister Patrice Lumumba in 1960, who inherited a country left deeply divided by the Belgians which was followed by civil war and temporary fragmentation of the country and led to his murder with alleged complicity of US and Belgium, to the dictatorial days of coup master Mobutu Sese Seko, and on to Kabila the father and the son, absentee governance and plunder have been the order of the day in the mineral rich nation.

With this situation prevailing in a country that boasts of the rarest of minerals and the recent discovery of Oil, the black Gold in the Albertine region, Congo remains in a perilous situation. World powers and Neighbours alike, want a piece of the mineral cake. With an army too weak and too corrupt to even safeguard a small percentage of the minerals and definitely not incentivized enough to even protect the citizens, the result is the anarchy we see every day in Congo. The government is often too weak or simply not willing to provide even the most basic of needs to the citizens. The lack of these basic necessities has led citizens to illegal procurement of guns to protect themselves. The guy with the biggest guns is the one to collect taxes from mining companies and traders to be able to send his child to school across the Ugandan border. The absence of health facilities, schools, roads, et al has driven Congolese to the brink especially in the Eastern region. With the Kinshasa government, nearly as far away as London is from Moscow, making mining deals with the Chinese and pocketing all the proceeds, the people had no choice but to resort to self-rule.

For a very long time, there was no significant authority felt in the Eastern part of DRC, specifically the mineral-rich Kivu province. The two wars in Congo in the 1990’s which sucked in up to seven African countries, both started in Kivu. M23 came in to stand in the gap. And it is not the only group that had their base in this province. The Mai Mai, an umbrella term for several armed groups led by war lords and tribal leaders, which were set up to defend their local areas of interest in the absence of the Kinshasa government also reside here. They own large chunks of land rich in Gold, Tin and Coltan, from which they derive their livelihood. And in typical Congo style, if they can provide security and a few services to the residents, then that’s all the legitimacy they need. The Mai Mai have been an active participant in all the wars in Kivu.

Then there’s the FDLR, the relatively strong Rwandan 1994 genocide perpetrators. These have been a source of friction between DRC and Rwanda because the Rwandese hate that Congo gave the FDLR a nice welcome after committing atrocities in Rwanda. Analysts have observed over the years, that Rwanda has never been fully convinced that FDLR is totally unable to launch another attack on its territory. And this is what keeps Rwanda keen on the happenings in DRC.

In the wake of an impending weakening of the M23 rebels, other armed groups are springing up to take a stand against the Congolese government. The most recent being the M18, which has displaced and caused thousands of Congolese to flee into the northern Uganda district of Koboko. 

The UN intervention force may have helped the Congolese army to win back Eastern DRC for now. But how long can they stay? How sustainable is this victory and what happens when they leave? Is the Congolese army strong enough to maintain peace in that region? If not, are we going to see an occupation by the South African and Tanzanian forces? With Tanzania being seen as having gone against the general position of the International Committee of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) of talking peace in Kampala instead of combat, what are the likely effects of this seeming betrayal on its relationship with its Neighbours and the outcome of the war in Congo? All these are questions whose answers are yet to be established. 

What can be done to resolve this war?

I wish to suggest two options. One being to let the war play out until a victor emerges. I know this sounds extremely evil. But war, though with its evils has a way of establishing order if given a chance to play out until either a decisive winner emerges or until both parties are exhausted are they decide to seat on a round table and discuss peaceful means of resolving their conflict. The hope of succeeding militarily must seem impossible for both parties to be attracted to the idea of talking peace and establishing a lasting resolution. What we have seen in Congo is continuous interference by other parties into the conflict. Cease-fires and armistices have frequently been imposed under the aegis of the Security Council in order to halt fighting. Peace talks that never materialize are the order of the day. The truth is, during these ceasefires, the factions are busy rearming and re-strategizing. This creates an impression that they can win and protracts the conflict even longer, especially when the ceasefire ends, as it usually does.

The other option to solve this conflict would be to split Congo into three or four autonomous states. This idea looks set to bring an end to the war in Sudan. Though with its challenges, I believe it could bring lasting peace in Congo. Kinshasa is so far from Kivu that its authority cannot be felt, let alone recognized. Ironically, Rwanda and Uganda probably have more players in authority in Eastern DRC than the Kinshasa government. The Mineral rich Kivu should be allowed to break off a government they do not recognize and appreciate, and be left to form their own state. Then we can work towards establishing democracy, building institutions and repatriating former combatants in that area without worrying about an absentee government that only shows up to extract truck-loads of minerals without caring as much to build a proper road. 

Either way, a lasting solution in DRC won’t come from outside interventionists. The UNSC passed a resolution authorizing the intervention brigade quoting an ambiguous or probably nonexistent clause of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. This happened while the ICGLR was conducting peace talks in Kampala to try and resolve the conflict. Parties cannot have significant peace talks when one is busy being clobbered. It is a general feeling that the Kinshasa government is no longer interested in the talks having seen that they could win on the battle field, of course only with the UN force backing. The contrasting events happening on the battlefield and in Kampala need to be harmonised. With the political leaders set to meet in Pretoria on Monday, 4th November, we hope they will make a decisive resolution. The Congolese army may seem likely to win the battle. But the war in Congo is very far from over.