War after elections not a solution - Museveni

 

President Museveni with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (L) and UN boss in Africa Zuede -Sahel (2ndR) after the Great Lakes leaders’ meeting in Nairobi yesterday. 

By FREDERIC MUSISI

In Summary

Preaching peace. Addressing member countries of the Great Lakes region, the President said such conflicts only constrained the country’s resources.

ADDIS ABABA

President Museveni has condemned war as a means of contesting election results.

Addressing the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) summit in Nairobi yesterday, the President said the move hindered any possibility of improving the election system as most of the funds were wasted on suppressing such wars. “Let’s not come here with dishonesty and self-defense because this would be unfair to our people,” he said.

Mr Museveni, also the chairperson of the ICGLR, noted that such was what had fuelled the instability in the DRC, despite solving the earlier internal disputes.

His views will present a significant shift in President Museveni’s thinking as the president, 33 years ago, when he headed the Uganda Patriotic Movement, which lost presidential elections to Milton Obote and took to the bush a year later, contesting the polls results.

He has since made it emphatic in his subsequent speeches that he went to the bush under the National Resistance Army guerilla flag to fight election fraud and return democratic rule to Uganda, and also blamed some African leaders for overstaying in power.

Ms Mary Robinson, the UN special envoy to the Great Lakes region and Central Africa, acknowledged efforts by the ICGLR in promoting international human rights and called on member states to uphold their commitment to peace and security