Some Ugandans have welcomed the USA government's sanctions against some Ugandan leaders, among them the speaker of Uganda's parliament, Anita Among, and former deputy chief of Defence Forces, Lt. General Peter Elwelu.
This might seem like a case of sadism on the part of those Ugandans who have thanked USA secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, for doing what the UK government had done a few months ago.
The US included General Elwelu on its list of sanctioned leaders, and with good cause. Elwelu commanded the 2016 raid of Omusinga Wesley Mumbere's palace that saw more than 100 people massacred in Kasese district, Western Uganda. Because we are a country of zero or near-zero accountability, Elwelu has not been prosecuted for his hand in what happened, and for good reason, since he was acting under the orders of his commander-in-chief, General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
Without any doubt, the sanctions against Elwelu are an indirect indictment of President Museveni, the commander-in-chief who ordered the raid of the kingdom. I hail from Kasese district, and I can confirm that that attack has changed many people's relationship with President Museveni and, to some extent, Uganda. We see ourselves as a people targeted by the all-powerful President Museveni.
Irrespective of what Museveni and his apologists say and do, his order that the Omusinga's palace be razed to the ground will always be seen as an act filled with genocidal intent, a targeting of a particular ethnic group that he found politically- difficult and recalcitrant.
It is unfortunate that Museveni did not see it fit to have the people he claimed were acting treasonously arrested and prosecuted in the courts of law. Instead, he fired bombs on them and slaughtered more than 100 people in just two days.
Instead of having Elwelu questioned about what happened (which would make us think that he had acted beyond the orders given to him by his commander-in-chief), General Museveni instead promoted him from Brigadier to Major General, appointed deputy chief of the Defence Forces and later promoted to Lt Gen.
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This was meant to humiliate the people of Kasese, a way of poking holes into a festering wound. Of course, this is how Museveni operates - he is a vindictive person as he himself confirmed when he explained that he gave his son the name 'Muhoozi' because he (the son) is his avenger.
The celebration of the sanctions against Elwelu, Anita and other corrupt people should be seen from the perspective of the current regime of impunity that reigns in Uganda. If you have close ties to President Museveni, you can get away with practically anything. So, why is it hard to understand why impotent Ugandans welcome sanctions against Museveni's people? In the sanctions, they see some justice being done.
A very small gesture, of course, since these sanctioned people can travel to Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and other places that do not care about human rights.
But the little inconvenience they suffer because of the sanctions are worth celebrating because they are a foretaste of the greater reckoning that these people will face in the long run when General Museveni's regime falls, since no empire lasts forever.
The author teaches Literature at Makerere University
