I have Quit MTN stickers for the first five walkers who make it to town in my group. See you there.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Walk to Work Update
My team - Bugolobi, Kitintale, Luzira walkers, be at Capital Shoppers, Nakawa by 7:45 am tomorrow. Mix into the crowd do not try to stand out, no T-shirts, just be another ordinary walker and do not assemble in groups, even at Capital Shoppers. We will recognize one another and just melt into the walking crowds. Do not try to be a hero, just walk!
I have Quit MTN stickers for the first five walkers who make it to town in my group. See you there.
I have Quit MTN stickers for the first five walkers who make it to town in my group. See you there.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
On Monday We Walk
On Monday we shall have a unique opportunity to join thousands of Ugandans who walk to work every single day. We normally drive past them in our cars, taxis or boda-bodas. They are so many we hardly see them. Life is such that the suffering of one person may break our heart but the suffering of many people overwhelms our sensibilities and we cope by becoming blind to the suffering. Our interaction with pedestrians is usually limited to impatience as they crowd the roads to cross when we are in a hurry. Sometime we slow down to apologize and sometimes we pretend not to see when the car tyre lands in a pothole splashing dirty brown water all over their clothes as they rush to work.
On Monday we shall shine a light on the plight of those Ugandans who now more than ever cannot afford a taxi or boda-boda fare. We shall show our solidarity with the parents who cannot put a meal on the table for their little ones due to the rise in food prices. We shall do this simply by walking together with ordinary Ugandans to our place of work and then we shall repeat the exercise every Thursday and Monday until the government pays heed to our demand to intervene and guarantee affordable food and fuel prices.
On Monday we shall face our fears by walking in spite of the siege that has been laid upon our city for the last two months. We shall walk peacefully with our brothers and sisters and with each step we shall become bolder and empowered. We shall break no laws by walking to our place of employment, we shall walk together because it is our constitutional right to associate with those we please as long as we do not jeopardize the rights and freedoms of others. We know that those who are afraid of our demonstration of compassion and empathy with our fellow human beings are those who have reason to fear. They are the ones with the power to provide solutions but they have neglected to use that power. Instead they will spend a quarter of our national budget on fighter jets to protect themselves from imagined enemies, even as our children go to sleep hungry.
On Monday we shall measure our worth as a people and as individuals by seeing how many cared to walk in empathy and compassion with those in need. We shall know our determination and courage to face those who would besiege our city to keep us silent in the face of suffering. Our courage will come not from our individual determination but from our collective resolve to face our fears and conquer them.
On Monday we shall be so glad that you will be walking by our side.
Anne Mugisha
On Monday we shall shine a light on the plight of those Ugandans who now more than ever cannot afford a taxi or boda-boda fare. We shall show our solidarity with the parents who cannot put a meal on the table for their little ones due to the rise in food prices. We shall do this simply by walking together with ordinary Ugandans to our place of work and then we shall repeat the exercise every Thursday and Monday until the government pays heed to our demand to intervene and guarantee affordable food and fuel prices.
On Monday we shall face our fears by walking in spite of the siege that has been laid upon our city for the last two months. We shall walk peacefully with our brothers and sisters and with each step we shall become bolder and empowered. We shall break no laws by walking to our place of employment, we shall walk together because it is our constitutional right to associate with those we please as long as we do not jeopardize the rights and freedoms of others. We know that those who are afraid of our demonstration of compassion and empathy with our fellow human beings are those who have reason to fear. They are the ones with the power to provide solutions but they have neglected to use that power. Instead they will spend a quarter of our national budget on fighter jets to protect themselves from imagined enemies, even as our children go to sleep hungry.
On Monday we shall measure our worth as a people and as individuals by seeing how many cared to walk in empathy and compassion with those in need. We shall know our determination and courage to face those who would besiege our city to keep us silent in the face of suffering. Our courage will come not from our individual determination but from our collective resolve to face our fears and conquer them.
On Monday we shall be so glad that you will be walking by our side.
Anne Mugisha
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Say NO to the Movement Thieving Network
Say NO to MTN the Movement Thieving Network |
Say NO to MTN the Movement Thieving Network |
Say NO to MTN the Movement Thieving Network |
Monday, April 4, 2011
Using nonviolence to erode the pillars of dictatorship in Uganda
Last month when my colleagues and I torched our MTN SIM cards in front of the media, we raised many eyebrows across the country as people wondered whether we were misdirecting our frustration for failing to unseat the NRM government. Not as many eyebrows were raised when opposition members of the 8th Parliament walked out in protest of the cleansing of four cabinet ministers for their wrongs during CHOGM. That action sealed the legacy of the 8th Parliament and that unfortunately is how we shall remember it. A disgraceful and disreputable lot save for the few who could only demonstrate their outrage by walking out of the House in protest.
The two protests though different in execution are part of the opposition’s strategy of nonviolent action to create awareness and gradually erode the pillars of authoritarianism in Uganda. The parliamentary walk out was easy for the public to relate to because most Ugandans have followed the CHOGM heist closely. Amanya Mushega a former minister of education put the UGX 500 billion theft into perspective for me. He says a good secondary school like Ntare School, in Mbarara could be constructed at a cost of about UGX 500 million. So the CHOGM looters got away with eating 1000 Ntare schools which translates into nearly one Ntare school for every sub county in Uganda!
The boycott of MTN products and services is still not clear to most people because our history of boycotting corporations is fairly new. Elsewhere in the world, successful boycotts have a rich history of reminding big corporations that their corporate social responsibility requires them to plan for three Ps: Profits, Planet and People. And here ‘people’ refers not only to customer interests but also the interests of a wider society in which they operate.
Now as a consumer I have certain rights. The right to service requires a service provider to be responsiveness to my needs and problems. I also have a right to refuse any services offered. My wider freedom of expression allows me to protest loudly when corporations disregard my consumer rights. Corporations know these obligations and the importance of a pristine corporate image and that is why they have marketing, public relations and customer service departments.
My personal beef with MTN (and I say personal because I relate to MTN as an individual customer and not a party member;) is that I witnessed a merger of their corporate identity with that of the ruling party during the election campaigns. Nowhere was it better demonstrated than at Kololo Airstrip where the billboards of candidate Museveni were beautifully laid out in complementary pattern with those of the company. Many of those same billboards have since converted back into purely MTN billboards. Now some say the outdoor advertising company coincidentally rented them to the candidate and the company in unison and consecutively. Yeah right! When they chose that morphed identity, MTN ceased being just another company and became an extension of the ruling party which rigged elections last February. My colleagues and the press have reported a host of other outrageous stories like the 60000 MTN SIM cards that went only to NRM agents the night before polling day while opposition MTN lines were disabled the next day and the free MTN bonanza for NRM leaders at Namboole.
As a population many of our rights and freedoms have been eroded and we cannot control the outcome of even a local election. The phone companies know that we are a people with an oral culture and will go to lengths to stay in touch through word of mouth. They are making a profit from our talking culture. Conversely, that culture gives us power as a big block of consumers of airtime. Individually we spend a few thousand shillings weekly on airtime, together we spend billions. As consumers we represent perhaps one of the few interest groups that government must engage through persuasion rather than force. The government may come to power via a stolen election, it may deny us jobs and shut our businesses to force us to accept its authority; but a government cannot influence our spending patterns by force in a free market environment.
We can take that power as consumers and turn it into a negotiating platform because the corporation’s bottom line impacts government’s tax collection. We are resolved to use boycotts and other nonviolent means of protests to destroy the pillars of authoritarianism in Uganda.
Anne Mugisha
Democracy Activist
abusingye@hotmail.com
The two protests though different in execution are part of the opposition’s strategy of nonviolent action to create awareness and gradually erode the pillars of authoritarianism in Uganda. The parliamentary walk out was easy for the public to relate to because most Ugandans have followed the CHOGM heist closely. Amanya Mushega a former minister of education put the UGX 500 billion theft into perspective for me. He says a good secondary school like Ntare School, in Mbarara could be constructed at a cost of about UGX 500 million. So the CHOGM looters got away with eating 1000 Ntare schools which translates into nearly one Ntare school for every sub county in Uganda!
The boycott of MTN products and services is still not clear to most people because our history of boycotting corporations is fairly new. Elsewhere in the world, successful boycotts have a rich history of reminding big corporations that their corporate social responsibility requires them to plan for three Ps: Profits, Planet and People. And here ‘people’ refers not only to customer interests but also the interests of a wider society in which they operate.
Now as a consumer I have certain rights. The right to service requires a service provider to be responsiveness to my needs and problems. I also have a right to refuse any services offered. My wider freedom of expression allows me to protest loudly when corporations disregard my consumer rights. Corporations know these obligations and the importance of a pristine corporate image and that is why they have marketing, public relations and customer service departments.
My personal beef with MTN (and I say personal because I relate to MTN as an individual customer and not a party member;) is that I witnessed a merger of their corporate identity with that of the ruling party during the election campaigns. Nowhere was it better demonstrated than at Kololo Airstrip where the billboards of candidate Museveni were beautifully laid out in complementary pattern with those of the company. Many of those same billboards have since converted back into purely MTN billboards. Now some say the outdoor advertising company coincidentally rented them to the candidate and the company in unison and consecutively. Yeah right! When they chose that morphed identity, MTN ceased being just another company and became an extension of the ruling party which rigged elections last February. My colleagues and the press have reported a host of other outrageous stories like the 60000 MTN SIM cards that went only to NRM agents the night before polling day while opposition MTN lines were disabled the next day and the free MTN bonanza for NRM leaders at Namboole.
As a population many of our rights and freedoms have been eroded and we cannot control the outcome of even a local election. The phone companies know that we are a people with an oral culture and will go to lengths to stay in touch through word of mouth. They are making a profit from our talking culture. Conversely, that culture gives us power as a big block of consumers of airtime. Individually we spend a few thousand shillings weekly on airtime, together we spend billions. As consumers we represent perhaps one of the few interest groups that government must engage through persuasion rather than force. The government may come to power via a stolen election, it may deny us jobs and shut our businesses to force us to accept its authority; but a government cannot influence our spending patterns by force in a free market environment.
We can take that power as consumers and turn it into a negotiating platform because the corporation’s bottom line impacts government’s tax collection. We are resolved to use boycotts and other nonviolent means of protests to destroy the pillars of authoritarianism in Uganda.
Anne Mugisha
Democracy Activist
abusingye@hotmail.com
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Another Reason Why all FDC Supporters Should quit MTN
An employee of MTN, Ms. Rene' Victoria, visited my wall on Facebook today March 30th 2011 and gave me more reason why we should step up the campaign to ensure that every person who supports FDC leaves the Mobile Thieving Network (MTN). Note that in the conversation she even states that 'We could be a thieving network...'!
Here is a verbatim transcipt of our conversation. The topic of our exchange was: 'MTN is spending $250,000 more on marketing and PR to kill our boycott stories in the media? Teach them that money does not buy everything! Switch to any other mobile phone network today and get two other people to switch from MTN every day.'
Enjoy! And after reading call someone with an MTN number and ask them to switch to any other network.
Rene' Victoria Stop lying.Just admit your the campaign was not effective and move on to more strategic planning for FDC
Anne Mugisha...That's so childish! The campaign is just starting we shall evaluate it quarterly.
Rene' Victoria I work in MTN so stop that stupid crap lo!
Anne Mugisha OK, that's it now that's less than childish, its outright abusive! And besides Chris Obore is a senior journalist and an Investigative Editor with a leading newspaper. I believe his crap. I dont believe you because you are an employee of the company and are trying to defend its position. Ninetheless I would never call you stupid, just less than childish. Hahahaha http://obore.blogspot.com/2011/03/mtn-opens-media-war-over-fdc-boycott.html
Rene' Victoria We could be a thieving network, but the issue is the campaign has not worked.sorry......better try something
Rene' Victoria Thank God FDC is not in State House and some of its members are nto in parliament....gosh......
Anne Mugisha We are on day four of the campaign and you are already crying like a baby and degenerating into an abusive, frustrated discussant! Save yourself and your ranting for the tougher weeks ahead. As for not being in State House I guess you can... congratulate your company for that - they made sure. Now we have nothing to lose and you mt friend have a lot to lose as a company. Just avoid a personal melt down. Gosh what kind of people does this company employ. I cant imagine what a good company would think of an employee who states: 'I work for MTN and you are stupid!' Geez!
Rene' Victoria Hmmmmmm......some members of FDC are just a shame! The fact remains i thnk God each day that the likes of some members of FDC are not in State House and even in Parliament....FDC really needs to clean up its house goshhhhhhhhhhhh .....
Anne Mugisha @Victoria Hahahaha, you give me perfect ammo to show FDC supporters! This outburst should be enough to start an exodus of all FDC supporters who are still with the thieving network. Thanks.
Here is a verbatim transcipt of our conversation. The topic of our exchange was: 'MTN is spending $250,000 more on marketing and PR to kill our boycott stories in the media? Teach them that money does not buy everything! Switch to any other mobile phone network today and get two other people to switch from MTN every day.'
Enjoy! And after reading call someone with an MTN number and ask them to switch to any other network.
Rene' Victoria Stop lying.Just admit your the campaign was not effective and move on to more strategic planning for FDC
Anne Mugisha...That's so childish! The campaign is just starting we shall evaluate it quarterly.
Rene' Victoria I work in MTN so stop that stupid crap lo!
Anne Mugisha OK, that's it now that's less than childish, its outright abusive! And besides Chris Obore is a senior journalist and an Investigative Editor with a leading newspaper. I believe his crap. I dont believe you because you are an employee of the company and are trying to defend its position. Ninetheless I would never call you stupid, just less than childish. Hahahaha http://obore.blogspot.com/2011/03/mtn-opens-media-war-over-fdc-boycott.html
Rene' Victoria We could be a thieving network, but the issue is the campaign has not worked.sorry......better try something
Rene' Victoria Thank God FDC is not in State House and some of its members are nto in parliament....gosh......
Anne Mugisha We are on day four of the campaign and you are already crying like a baby and degenerating into an abusive, frustrated discussant! Save yourself and your ranting for the tougher weeks ahead. As for not being in State House I guess you can... congratulate your company for that - they made sure. Now we have nothing to lose and you mt friend have a lot to lose as a company. Just avoid a personal melt down. Gosh what kind of people does this company employ. I cant imagine what a good company would think of an employee who states: 'I work for MTN and you are stupid!' Geez!
Rene' Victoria Hmmmmmm......some members of FDC are just a shame! The fact remains i thnk God each day that the likes of some members of FDC are not in State House and even in Parliament....FDC really needs to clean up its house goshhhhhhhhhhhh .....
Anne Mugisha @Victoria Hahahaha, you give me perfect ammo to show FDC supporters! This outburst should be enough to start an exodus of all FDC supporters who are still with the thieving network. Thanks.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The truth is, there was no election last month
The truth is, there was no election last month
By Anne Mugisha
So the elections are over – for now! I am probably the only candidate or one of a few that participated in two constituencies! In Nakawa I had to deal with election malpractices within the FDC and opted to withdraw my candidacy so as to keep peace within my party. That fracas prepared me adequately for the bigger fracas at national level.
Now reflecting on the ethical decay, corruption and even criminal conduct of our partisan national Electoral Commission, I could never forget that this behaviour is not restricted to the national body, but the cancer has eaten into the moral fabric of ruling and opposition parties as well as the body politic of Ugandan society.
A newspaper picture of Dr Kizza Besigye presenting pre-ticked ballots to the press was a slight variation of my own presentation of completed return forms of the Nakawa FDC primaries to an NTV crew before that election was held. The NRM primaries had even more dramatic incidents like the printing of ballot papers by candidates on Nkrumah Road! To say that we all need to clean up our act is an understatement.
An honest assessment of the problem must tackle internal party election mechanisms, the national electoral commission and also introduce serious voter education to the electorate. Needless to say, expectations are higher for performance of EC because it sets the pace, has the resources and has developed knowledge and experience over the years which parties still lack.
The EC should be a shining example and a standard-setter but it rivals only the ruling party in managing botched elections that are tainted by gross irregularities like vote buying, ballot stuffing, pre-ticked ballots, lateness, poorly trained officials and outright corrupt officials. Remember also that the incompetence of the EC has been independently verified by courts of law.
In any case, my personal experience this last election period have helped me to become less judgemental or partisan about vote rigging. Any person engaged in rigging elections is an enemy of all Ugandans regardless of political affiliation.
All that Ugandans want is for the ballot box to reveal the truth at the end of the polling exercise; otherwise all those who emerge as winners are technically usurpers of the will of the Ugandan people. I am astounded by the number of journalists and analysts who keep regurgitating the numbers! It cannot be right to say that a certain candidate won with a certain percentage after overwhelming us with a befuddling level of incompetence, ballot stuffing, vote buying, pre-ticked ballots and other electoral crimes.
The truth, if we dare face it, is that there was no election last month. What happened was a pre-calculated, pre-meditated criminal event with the sole purpose of renewing a mandate and bestowing some semblance of legitimacy on the incumbent government. The incompetence in covering their tracks torpedoed both the new mandate and its legitimacy. As the opposition, let us face the painful truth. We can no longer plead naivety – that was an argument for 2001 and 2006.
Today, we must admit that we were vain to believe that we could win in an election over which we had no control or guarantees - moreover with the same EC that we proved had failed the free and fair test twice. We lost the election when we failed to dismantle the EC; we lost when our own compromised party electoral commissions handpicked candidates instead of conducting free and fair elections; we lost when we were lured into participating in a fraudulent exercise that our vanity fooled us into believing we could win.
The lesson of the election was the affirmation that political change will not come to Uganda via the ballot box until we dismantle not only the EC, but also the culture of impunity within our parties and a societal tradition that allows corrupt individuals to thrive while honest people wither.
Ms Mugisha is a democracy activist
abusingye@hotmail.com
By Anne Mugisha
So the elections are over – for now! I am probably the only candidate or one of a few that participated in two constituencies! In Nakawa I had to deal with election malpractices within the FDC and opted to withdraw my candidacy so as to keep peace within my party. That fracas prepared me adequately for the bigger fracas at national level.
Now reflecting on the ethical decay, corruption and even criminal conduct of our partisan national Electoral Commission, I could never forget that this behaviour is not restricted to the national body, but the cancer has eaten into the moral fabric of ruling and opposition parties as well as the body politic of Ugandan society.
A newspaper picture of Dr Kizza Besigye presenting pre-ticked ballots to the press was a slight variation of my own presentation of completed return forms of the Nakawa FDC primaries to an NTV crew before that election was held. The NRM primaries had even more dramatic incidents like the printing of ballot papers by candidates on Nkrumah Road! To say that we all need to clean up our act is an understatement.
An honest assessment of the problem must tackle internal party election mechanisms, the national electoral commission and also introduce serious voter education to the electorate. Needless to say, expectations are higher for performance of EC because it sets the pace, has the resources and has developed knowledge and experience over the years which parties still lack.
The EC should be a shining example and a standard-setter but it rivals only the ruling party in managing botched elections that are tainted by gross irregularities like vote buying, ballot stuffing, pre-ticked ballots, lateness, poorly trained officials and outright corrupt officials. Remember also that the incompetence of the EC has been independently verified by courts of law.
In any case, my personal experience this last election period have helped me to become less judgemental or partisan about vote rigging. Any person engaged in rigging elections is an enemy of all Ugandans regardless of political affiliation.
All that Ugandans want is for the ballot box to reveal the truth at the end of the polling exercise; otherwise all those who emerge as winners are technically usurpers of the will of the Ugandan people. I am astounded by the number of journalists and analysts who keep regurgitating the numbers! It cannot be right to say that a certain candidate won with a certain percentage after overwhelming us with a befuddling level of incompetence, ballot stuffing, vote buying, pre-ticked ballots and other electoral crimes.
The truth, if we dare face it, is that there was no election last month. What happened was a pre-calculated, pre-meditated criminal event with the sole purpose of renewing a mandate and bestowing some semblance of legitimacy on the incumbent government. The incompetence in covering their tracks torpedoed both the new mandate and its legitimacy. As the opposition, let us face the painful truth. We can no longer plead naivety – that was an argument for 2001 and 2006.
Today, we must admit that we were vain to believe that we could win in an election over which we had no control or guarantees - moreover with the same EC that we proved had failed the free and fair test twice. We lost the election when we failed to dismantle the EC; we lost when our own compromised party electoral commissions handpicked candidates instead of conducting free and fair elections; we lost when we were lured into participating in a fraudulent exercise that our vanity fooled us into believing we could win.
The lesson of the election was the affirmation that political change will not come to Uganda via the ballot box until we dismantle not only the EC, but also the culture of impunity within our parties and a societal tradition that allows corrupt individuals to thrive while honest people wither.
Ms Mugisha is a democracy activist
abusingye@hotmail.com
Monday, December 13, 2010
Press Release: December, 14th 2010
From the Office of the FDC Woman MP Candidate
Mbarara District
PRESS RELEASE
December 14th 2010
At, Kakoba, Mbarara:
Anne Mugisha would like to thank the people responsible for pinning up her posters at the Mahembe roundabout, Masaka Road and on Mackan Singh street last night. She wishes to inform the volunteers that they used the wrong posters which she had printed while still in the race for Nakawa Constituency, in Kampala. She has since been nominated for Woman MP, Mbarara District as FDC flag bearer. Ms Mugisha is aware of the love and support she enjoys in both constituencies and nationwide. She is grateful that some anonymous volunteers took the time and effort of download the poster, print it, purchase glue and engage labor to post it widely at their own expense.
She advises however that volunteers respect the population in her district (even if some cannot read) by using the correct poster designed for Mbarara District at all times. She added that her campaign is growing daily from strength to strength and will need many volunteers but they should use the correct materials.
Anne Mugisha
FDC Woman MP Candidate
Mbarara District
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