The President, who was addressing a campaign rally in Mukunyu, Bukonjo County in Kasese district, said “you don’t just tell the freedom fighter to go like you are chasing a chicken thief from the house.”
Earlier, while appearing on the Mbarara-based Radio West on Jan. 4, Museveni said he was ready to hand over power if he loses the Feb. 23 presidential polls. “I will give out the keys officially when elections are well conducted and I lose. I will even support the winner,” Museveni said.
Whether the President could leave power if defeated has become a campaign issue. Museveni caused concern in 2001 when he said he could not hand over power to people or groups of people who have no ability to manage a nation, saying it would be sentencing Ugandans to suicide by handing over power to the “people we fought and defeated.”
“It’s dangerous despite the fact that the constitution allows them to run against me...at times the constitution may not be the best tool to direct us politically for it allows wrong and doubtful people to contest for power,” the East African quoted Museveni having said in February 2001.
Yesterday’s statement by Museveni follows advice to him by the Libyan leader, Col. Muamar Gaddaffi, in 2001 that revolutionaries do not just hand over power.
Museveni is currently facing a challenge from Col. Kizza Besigye, his main 2001 presidential election challenger and former personal doctor in the bush war. Besigye is running on the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party.
Others are Democratic Party’s John Ssebaana Kizito, and Uganda Peoples Congress candidate Miria Obote and Abed Bwanika, an independent candidate.
Museveni told the rally there were people decampaigning the National Resistance Movement (NRM) in Kasese district were up to no good.
“When I hear that some people are working for the FDC in Kasese, then I understand that there is no truth in them,” he said. He said this was so, considering the many things that the government has done for the people of Kasese, which included hospitals, the Universal Primary Education and the modernisation of agriculture.
On the controversial issue of the Obusinga (kingship), Museveni said that the issue could be resolved by the constitution under Article 256. The Article provides that any group of people that wants a cultural leader can have him or her if there is consensus among that group.
He said in the case of the Obusinga, consensus was still lacking. “I am aware that there was a report by minister Henry Kajura. Unfortunately, I have not had time to read that report because I have been very busy. However, I will take time and read this report and government will eventually pronounce itself on it.