Four time presidential candidate and opposition stalwart Dr. Kizza Besigye has ruled out the use of violence as competent way of toppling President Yoweri Museveni’s regime he has fought for more than 16 years.
Addressing journalists at his offices along Katonga road in Kampala, Besigye explained that violent means can only lead to change of presidents but not regimes.
“The lively debate that has been going on amongst our people has been on the strategy to follow in the struggle to get power but I think change of power by force has only changed from dictator to another,” Besigye said.
“The majority have always remained powerless and marginalized. While it is a legitimate and legal form of struggle, it is unlikely to deliver the desirable outcome.”
Besigye explained that the state of affairs in the country is not a creation of anybody including President Museveni but something that Ugandans have inherited from the colonialists in the early days of the country.
Describing it as a gloomy situation, the opposition strongman added that in the previous year Uganda has seen a lot of unending problems including high corruption levels, unemployment, killings and other forms of abuse of human rights but said all these are a clear reflection of what Uganda is .
“Our country was created without our knowledge, consent and participation and has been largely run without our consent ever since,” he said.
“Part of our culture has lived to embrace this system where power belongs to a few, who protect it menacingly to subdue others. Our leaders have relied on force to become masters of our lives and it is the reason change in leadership has been mediated by use of force.”
The opposition strongman however recommended non violent means of changing leadership he identified as ‘political defiance’ as opposed to use of force in changing leadership.
According to Besigye, this involves changing people’s mind sets so as to drop the inferiority complex in relation to governance.
He however said he was happy the mindset of people has been changing in the past few years which he said is a good sign.
“There is need to undertake non-violent actions that will weaken and break the controls of the dictatorship,” he urged.
Besigye explained that ‘political defiance’ does not necessarily mean taking to the streets for demonstrations but rather other forms of non-violent actions including refusal of opening up of shops by traders among others .
Besigye said that if well coordinated and targeted, these forms of non-violent means are capable of overpowering even the most armed regimes in the world.
He revealed that the opposition political party has put in place a network throughout the country they will use to do ground work and cause regime change.