Chris Ahimbisibwe
20 January 2008
Kampala — Kiiza Besigye, the president of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), has urged Ugandans to follow the Kenyan example and stand up for their rights.
"Do not be intimidated. Stand up and fight for your country. The Kenyans are not fighting for Raila Odinga. They are fighting for their rights," Besigye said.
Over 600 people have been killed in three weeks of violence in Kenya following the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki, while over 250,000 have been displaced.
The opposition, led by Odinga of the ODM party, accuse Kibaki of rigging his way back to State House in the December 27 poll, which was also described as flawed by international observers.
Addressing rallies at Butare trading centre in Kyamuhunga sub-county and Katerera in Bushenyi district on Friday, Besigye attacked Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi and ministers Tarsis Kabwegyere and Semakula Kiwanuka for failing to guide the country on important matters.
"The time I have spent with professors like Kabwegyere, I have never heard him advising people objectively on issues affecting them," Besigye charged.
"I am particularly disappointed with professors like Kiwanuka and Nsibambi because they do not say anything to build this country."
The Katerera residents handed over a list of issues which they said the Government had failed to address.
Accompanied by Lubaga North MP Betty Kamya and the head of women affairs in the FDC, Ingrid Turinawe, Besigye said people should not support a person as an individual.
Instead, they should unite and fight for their well-being by ensuring that the country's resources are put to proper use, he suggested.
The Government, he said, had failed to declare the money from the sale of former government parastatals.
"Where is the money that was raised from the sold properties? The reason why you are suffering is because the Government sold off all industries and factories."
He criticised President Yoweri Museveni for failing to prosecute army officers who embezzled salaries by creating ghost soldiers on the payroll.
He also attacked the Government over high taxes, saying it had affected the purchasing power of ordinary people.
"In Rwanda paraffin is very cheap. People in Kasese are now smuggling cement from the Democratic Republic of Congo because it is cheap and yet it is mined from their home district."
He called upon the youth to take over the struggle from the older generation.
"A leader who is a dictator cannot leave power like that. You have to push him. That is why you see in Kenya two groups fighting, because of politics of segregation," Besigye said.
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