By Andrew Baba Buluba
The recent plea of guilt by National Unity Platform (NUP) supporters on remand since 2020 has continued to form a significant component of today’s news discussions both online and in mainstream media. Focus has mainly been ignited by the debate on whether the imprisoned opposition faithful willingly entered into the plea or there was some kind of coercion from the side of the state as those from the opposition have laboriously tried to portray.
Reacting to the news of the change of plea by 19 of the remanded supporters, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine alleged that the prisoners were pressurised into submission by the military and Junior Labour and Gender Minister, Balaam Barugahara Ateenyi. Even when Muyahydin Kakooza and others maintain that their acceptance of guilt was out of their free will, Makerere Kavule will rather continue reasoning against the conscience of their abandoned men and women.
Balaam, the man accused of soliciting lies from Bobi Bobi Wine’s rejected men has on the other hand been throwing Calypso dance strokes for pulling a major coup over his opposition rivals. Balaam who announced his commitment to have the prisoners freed in his inauguration speech has had all the reasons to jubilate as those who wrote his efforts off right from the start will ultimately continue cursing until no Jesus comes back.
But let’s analyse the subject from its intrinsic value focusing away from the debate on whether the pleas were out of free will or coercion. We shall begin by seeking answers to these two pertinent questions. One, is it really abominable to dialogue with those with power especially when the lives of those you value are at risk? Two; were these prisoners very wrong to submit to the pressure, if at all it was there as our friends in NUP are labouring to make us believe?
To begin with, much as NUP has publicly stated their stance against dialogue with the government on the release of its supporters, there is undeniable evidence there have been such engagements on a wide range of issues. There have been reports of a negotiated solution for the eventual release of MPs, Allan Ssewanyana and Muhammad Ssegirinya ( Makindye West and Kawempe North respectively). As a benefiting member of the Inter-party Organisation for Dialogue ( IPOD).
Even though Kamwokya declined attendance at the previous summit, the part, they still remain the biggest beneficiary from the fund for parties with representation in Parliament, only behind NRM. If this is not a pretence of the highest order, then it should be an inconsistency with no known definition.
On whether the poor men and women, duped into wrongdoing by their unscrupulous benefactors are that culpable for committing an abomination to seek a solution to their predicament after four years of a shameless indifference from those they believed would ensure their liberties at any cost. We all agree that NUP had all it takes to secure the release of those incarcerated but rather opted to drag their feet with the sole intent to continue profiting from the situation in the form of sweet dollars from their imperialist white benefactors as they soil the image of the government. It’s my analysis.
World over, negotiations of this kind have shaped the political terrain in different countries. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela, on a death sentence, left prison to become the first president of the independent Republic of South Africa in a negotiated deal with the colonial government at the time. In situations of war in Europe, cases of prisoner exchange programs have not been rarely heard of. In Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Palestine, Isreal-Lebanon, and India-Pakistan crises, warring factions have traded prisoners for their loved ones in custody. If this can not work here, one wonders if this is not just some kind of drama.
Well, it may not be easy to substantially establish whether or not the prisoners willingly changed their pleas, for, even when they come out to speak with their own mouths, those who betrayed them for four years seem hell-bent on presenting that they were forced in submission. What is, however, crucial to admit is the fact that the solution to their predicament came from the side they least expected it to.
By their body language, the men and women showed signs of frustration and betrayal written all over their faces, and Bobi Wine and the group should be ashamed and sorry for neglecting their disciples when they most needed help. Balaam on the other side, should smile all the way with a major accomplishment in his tenure as minister.
The Witer is the Assistant Resident City Commissioner for Nyendo Mukungwe- Masaka City
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