Being awaited in Westminster, Dr. Kizza Besigye former FDC party President and currently on visit in the UK, arrived to address a section of gathered Ugandans and friends of Uganda, in the UK.

Giving a broad overview of Ugandan politics currently, Dr. Besigye’s remarks heavily centred on the current political situation, the significant changes in the country’s security leadership and growing insecurity in the country and the economy’s performance.

Tackling the national budget reading activity of June 14th 2018 by Finance Minister Matia Kasaijja, Besigye described the national presentation as a facade, saying President Museveni has total control over the nation’s finances and claiming that whatever amount Museveni wants to spend, he “orders” and “gets”, without parliament approval

“Talk about the budget. He (Museveni) is the budget. You can write all the pieces of paper as part of presenting the budget but what will be spent has absolutely nothing to do with what is written and read in Parliament,” he remarked.

“What he (Museveni) orders is what happens. If he says to the Governor of the Bank of Uganda tha he wants shs500bn, the Governor won’t ask whether approval has been passed by Parliament. He will simply ask where the trucks to carry it away will arrive and are,” he stated.

To further illustrate his view of reckless government expenditure, Besigye said the Bank of Uganda was recently declared bankrupt.

Besigye said the country is currently faced with intractable challenges, the most visible one being the violent transition of power, a stagnant feature of Uganda’s history since independence. He said Ugandans are now dealing with a “very weak regime” and “collapsed economy”.

Addressing the insecurity that has recently gripped the nation causing the President to make significant changes in senior security leadership positions, Besigye said this was a symptom of “comprehensive failure of the security system. He said Uganda is now a “state under complete capture”. 

Video link below of his fuller address explaining the current state of affairs in Uganda.

A number of Ugandans and there friends in the UK turned up at the meeting. Besides Besigye, the other key speaker was Prof. Amii Omara Otunnu (brother to Olara Otunnu) and who gave an overview of the current situation in Uganda.

Besigye (extreme right) surrounded by Prof. Adam Branch (his right ), Mr. Paul Mutawe (3rd right Deputy Minister Foreign and Regional Affairs in the People’s Gov’t) and Prince Dickson Wasajja (FDC UK and Europe Chairman)

A section of the audience

Prof. Amii Otunnu gave an overview of the current situation in Uganda