Uganda opposition losing momentum

Despite strikes, demonstrations and marches, Ugandan president Museveni is stronger than ever.
The opposition is trying to regain momentum by creating the Free Uganda Now movement, uniting some of the opposition parties. But without the involvement of Dr Kizza Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the initiative is not taking off.
 
Fatigue
Museveni has won. Not only did he win the 24 February presidential elections, he also won the battle for the streets in the aftermath of the elections. The opposition is weak and it seems that people are slowly giving up.
 
“Now they told us that every day around 5 PM the motorists should hoot their claxon as a protest against the high fuel prices. It worked for three or four days, but I have not heard it anymore recently,” says Bob Kasango a lawyer and a political analyst with The Independent, a leading Ugandan news magazine. “People are fatigue [tired, ed.]. The protest went on for months and nothing changed, the prices of fuel even went higher!”
 
Courage
Oppostion leader Kizza Besigye is currently in the United States. Both Bob Kasango and Besigye’s sister Margareth Besigye confirmed that the FDC leader is seeking further treatment after the damage done to his eyes on 29 April. On that day, during Besigye’s daily commute, hundreds of supporters formed a march in protest against the rising cost of living, as they had done before. Besigye and his bodyguard were violently arrested, after a toxic liquid was sprayed in their eyes.
 
Besigye was evacuated to Nairobi the same day, to recover from the damage to his eyes. Bob Kasango: “The leader of the protests is Besigye. With him out of the country right now, I don’t think that anything will take place. None of the other opposition members have the sort of courage that Besigye has.”
 
Media crackdown
As the opposition licks its wounds, Museveni is consolidating his power by a crackdown on news media. In an op-ed published in the state-owned newspaper New Vision, Museveni was very critical of international media companies like Al Jazeera and NTV. At the same time, foreign correspondents have been threatened by the security forces, and one online editor writing for The Uganda Record is being charged with criminal libel against President Museveni.
 
Facing consequences
“There is a crackdown on the press going on,” says Tom Rhodes, East Africa consultant with the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Museveni is questioned by his own people and the international community, and journalists who report on these tendencies in Uganda are facing the consequences.” Rhodes also sees a connection between the Ugandan violence and the recent Arab revolutions. “Since the popular revolts in the Middle East, dictators are far more weary of the power of social media.”
 
[related-articles]Although Bob Kasango doesn’t really believe that the charged Uganda Record editor was speaking the truth, he also condemns the response from Museveni’s government. “It was not a very well read blog, and the facts were very clear. So why crack down on an editor like this, why arrest him?!”