The Ugandan government has been run for a ridiculous amount of years now by what I am coming to see as a very corrupt man. One of his first actions after taking office I am told was to abolish the law that restricted how long he could be president. He then proceeded to rig all formal elections from that point forward. Opposition members suddenly disappear SS style when they start to gain popularity with the people. Voters registered under different parties are told that they do not appear on the list when they turn up at the polls and are turned away from exercising their right to vote. Even ones who do get through, their votes are mysteriously "lost" and never make it to the official ballot count. The last election was very obviously rigged, and that's all I'll say on that count.
Maybe I've been an American too long, but this severely grates at my sense of right and wrong and my ingrained penchant for freedom and the values that entails.
The most frustrating thing to me recently is the idiotic way that the people were treated regarding a peaceful protest against rising fuel prices in which there was a "walk to work" campaign started. Granted the man behind the major support for this was a leader for the opposition party, which severely compromised the effectiveness of this peaceful protest. Or I should say would have been peaceful had not the government decided to treat it as a riot and began arresting anybody walking and shooting tear-gas into crowds!
Now to fully understand this plight you must realize that in downtown Kampala you can't go anywhere where there aren't people walking. They walk everywhere to and from work or pleasure. And even if you aren't planning on walking for the majority of your trip somewhere, you still have to walk to the bus stop to get on public transportation. The majority of inhabitants of Uganda live at or below the poverty line, and even the ones that are well off, cannot afford a car! Or if they can, it is simply not cost effective to spend that much on petrol to get them from point A to point B when its much cheaper to split it between the 15-24 people crammed in a public transportation van. That much being said it is literally impossible to differentiate which people are actually walking to work, and which ones have always walked to work, and which ones are walking from work to the taxi station... or what have you!
Its the most ridiculous reasoning of insanity ever! And now, with so many innocent lives also being affected by a silly political rivalry, almost the entire country of Uganda... (meaning all the little people, who's voices apparently don't count) are now against the president. This leaves me with a lot of worries about how this eventually will come to a head. The president will continue rigging elections and running sketchy missions to off his competition and will stay in office until he dies at this rate. The only thing that will probably change that is a revolt, and I really fear for bloodshed in my beloved country should that happen. There is no such thing as a peaceful take-over in a country so firmly established with a violent past both with tribes against one another and with the country against its leaders. How many innocent lives will be lost over this one man's greed for power in this country, and obvious lack of concern for the lives of the people he is entrusted with guarding as a leader?
Please pray for Uganda.
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