"Not by Guns or by Cheating, but by Prayer"

Uganda faces national elections in two weeks on February 23rd. An Ugandan joked that the European Union envied Africa since beating incumbent here isn’t a real option, saying he heard it on the BBC. The same could be said for the House, but I didn’t try to explain that to him. The political opponents here, however, are accused of treason, fraud and rape, spending most of their valuable campaigning time in jail or court facing the (perceived-to-be) trumped-up charges.

Around election time everything shuts down and people stop working because there’s no money in the system. The estimated US$ 20M being spent by Museveni, the current president, mostly goes to improved roads for the campaign and food for the voters. One unofficial slogan of the campaign is “eat widely, vote wisely.” All other sectors of the economy shut down as the nation prepares to weather another political storm with an inevitable outcome. Even Museveni himself said, “My opponent can’t win,” referring to Besigye, his former VP-turned-major-political-adversary (as I understand it).

We passed by a local store with a yellow poster on it, the color symbolizing the president and his reigning government. The other posters of pink and red were of his opponents. We’d been driving along a narrow dirt path used 360 days a year for walking, crushing the tall grass on either side, when we came across a small passenger car with a yellow sign on the side. A colleague informed me that it was the local MP, campaigning for the president. The driver wore a bright yellow hat with the black and red Ugandan flag on it, looking strangely familiar to ones I’ve seen at Goodwill.

Uganda is not an oppressive place. The telecommunications here are much better and cheaper than in Kenya, the roads seem to be well maintained and areas considered “dry” and without rain for months are still green, as opposed to some areas of Kenya that are “dry” after years without rain and are brown and dusty. The people can always hope for better, less self-interested leadership, but the likelihood is slim with the corruption and strong and loyal military. The few people I spoke to about politics were very careful with their words, as if someone might be listening to them that might report any criticism of the government they might say.

As one person said, the coming election won’t be won “by guns or by cheating, but by prayer.” Hope still lies in resolute faith, and I can only join their prayer for improved governance to see how God is moving this country.