Museveni the conscious Provocateur

Unbridled arrogance, needless contempt and unfulfilled expansionism is the bane of Museveni
Since my days at Makerere University, I have always suspected that Museveni is living in a grand bubble of delusion, and he harbors something akin to contempt, laced with envy, for Kenya and Kenyans. This was well on display when he recently made disparaging remarks about the Luo’s. But make no mistake, his remarks were not meant for people from the Lake Victoria, they were meant for all Kenyans. Museveni’s total disdain for civility is legendary. His respect for rule of law is suspect. And his expansionist streak is well documented. Here is a man who, during the disputed general election results in Kenya, was quick to congratulate President Mwai Kibaki, just to spite Raila Odinga Instead of displaying statesmanship like his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete.
Museveni’s confidence emanates from the fact that for a while he has been the “blue eyed boy” of the West, particularly the United States. The last two US administrations have been overly generous to President Museveni., in part because of marketing and because of the US geostrategic interests. During Southern Sudan’s SPLA/M civil war against Khartoum, Museveni championed himself as the guardian of US interests by supporting the late John Garang. Earlier in his Presidency Bill Clinton christened Museveni, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Meles Zinawi of Ethiopia and Isaiah Afewerki of Eritrea as the next generation of Africa leaders! How wrong can Clinton be, as all have turned into village despots? During Clinton’s presidency, and Blair’s premiership, these leaders enjoyed good diplomatic backing. Museveni thrived globally during that era. He, indeed, cemented his resume by discarding his Marxist ideals and adopting marketing friendly neo-liberal policies. Further, during this period he initiated what was then a positive and intensive HIV/AIDS program. As a result Uganda was identified as a poster child of a successful HIV/AIDS campaign. Let history be the judge of if this was indeed a success.
Exit Clinton; enter George W. Bush, who came into the office on the crest of a rightwing wave. As foxy as always, Museveni who is not known to be strictly religious, apart from his wife, who is an avowed evangelical, all of a sudden he started courting people like Pastor Ssempa of the Miracle Centre, to get the attention of the White House. Indeed! He got that attention, and he used it to his advantage. He used this leverage and turned the spotlight on the murderous rebel group in Northern Uganda, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). During This time the Ugandan military obtained substantial military aid to kill or capture the leader of the LRA, the evasive Joseph Kony, something the Ugandan Army has been attempting for over two decades without a success. For an army that was built in the bush during the 80’s and adept to counterinsurgency tactics, why has it been difficult to root out Kony’s LRA? Therein lays a million dollars question – and by extension, a conspiracy theory – something I will avoid for now.

Kony, a primary school dropout has lost support not only with the Khartoum regime, which supported LRA for years to counter Kampala’s support for SPLA/M, but even the support of the people in Northern Uganda, in whose name Kony launched the rebellion,. If Museveni can’t even contain him, why would he pick a fight with Kenya more so, over a rocky piece of land?
Come to think of it this has been in the works for a while. Museveni has always cast himself in the lofty terms of a being “visionary” leader, and this, in his warped vision, this involves displaying an expansionist streak, something that he has in huge supply as his well documented foray into DRC shows. Equally, he has been betting on is the East Africa Political Federation, which, if formed, will allow him to be the elder statesman, because both Presidents Kikwete and Kibaki are greenhorns. Unfortunately, the process has been painfully slow for him. Not even fast tracking of the federation that he has been pushing has been successful.
Museveni’s salami tactic needs to be stopped midstream. Salami tactic is a process whereby someone engages in somewhat small and seemingly innocuous activity, but this small thing (s) is nothing but a decoy for bigger things. Remember Hitler started small by acquiring small portion of French and before they realize, he had huge appetite for ruling entire Europe. Minister Moses Wetangula and Saitoti should utilize every available diplomatic opportunity to stop Museveni/