GEN. MUSEVENI SAYS AN ‘EYE FOR AN EYE’ AMID RISING INSECURITY
President Yoweri Museveni has vowed to liquidate whoever kills a Ugandan, saying NRM now follows the biblical Moses’ Law of; ‘An Eye for an Eye’
“It is foolhardy for anybody to attempt to destabilise Uganda, under the leadership of the NRM. We follow the Law of Moses: “An eye for an eye.” he said adding that ‘If you kill a Ugandan, you too will pay with your life’
The president made the remarks in a speech read for him by Vice President Maj. Jessica Alupo who represented him at the opening of a retreat for National Planning Authority staff at NALI-Kyankwanzi.
The president said that since 1986, when the NRM captured power, its main goal has been to transform Uganda from a poor peasant society into a modern, industrial, united and prosperous society. He noted that achieving this goal was so challenging to the government as there was a general breakdown in the security apparatus of the country making it impossible to secure the lives of Ugandans and their property.
“Some people forget that peace, security and stability are fundamental ingredients of development. Therefore, it was necessary that we first secure the country and wipe out all internal and external threats to peace and tranquility” he explained.
He added that the UPDF has expunged all the disturbers of peace such as the ADF, LRA among others from operating on the Ugandan territory.
Museveni however, said there are on-going military efforts to annihilate the remnants of some of the terrorist groups, citing Operation Shujja in Eastern DRC, which he said is geared towards putting an end to ADF group.
The General who a few days ago battled COVID-19, added that the NRM has also prioritized putting in place social and economic infrastructure in the areas of energy, and transport across the country as another essential ingredient of development.
“The idea is to lower the costs of doing business in Uganda. There are four major cost pushers in business: high cost of electricity,
transport, money and labour. If these four are high, then businesses cannot grow. Business is about profits. When you make profits, the business grows and in order to make profits, you must minimize the costs” he explained.
The president said the government’s deliberate move to prioritise infrastructure development was aimed at creating a strong economic base to attract investment in the four sectors of commercial agriculture, industries, services and ICT.
He said as a result, factories have increased across the country, Industrial parks have been established in all the regions of Uganda in addition to an increase in Agricultural production which has created surpluses for some commodities such as maize, sugar, milk, bananas, eggs among others.
He attributed this to the good roads, cheap labour and enough electricity to support production and manufacturing.
“The challenge of high cost of money is being addressed by extending cheap credit to those engaged in production through Uganda Development Bank and the Wealth Creation programs like Emyooga Fund, Women Fund, Youth Fund and now the Parish Development Model. The PDM will eliminate bystanders or spectators in the drive towards increasing the household incomes and creation of jobs” he said.
Museveni said as more Ugandans wake up, production of all industrial and agricultural commodities will go up and exceed the country’s small internal market of 45 million people.
He however, said this challenge will be addressed through Pan-Africanism as it integrates Uganda to the bigger market of East Africa and Africa whose market potential stands at 1.3bn people.
“This is the market that Uganda must take advantage of to gain greater prosperity. Uganda is ripe for investment; all the conditions for a favourable investment climate are in place: peace, security, stability and physical infrastructure are guaranteed” he assured and advised that all government efforts should be aligned towards ensuring that peace and stability is maintained and continued modernization of the infrastructure in order to attract more investments and eliminating the subsistence modes of production.
The president commended the (embattled) state minister for planning Amos Lugoloobi for inviting him to open the retreat and also commended him for organizing it.
He said Kyankwanzi is the place where leaders and other Ugandans go to receive what he called the correct ideological orientation.
“There must be no distortions or confusion, regarding the strategies on how to achieve the development and socio-economic transformation of Uganda. This retreat, at Kyankwanzi, should be an opportunity to immunize yourselves against any form of confusion. There is no point in immunizing people against small pox, against cholera, but then you don’t immunize them against confusion” he noted.
The president’s warning to neutralize those who kill Ugandans comes days after heartless people said to be ADF slaughtered over 40 students in Kasese district but UPDF said it’s pursuing the killers.
