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EASTER MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE OF UGANDA

Fellow Ugandans, I send you warmly Easter Holiday greetings from the leadership and members of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). May the good Lord keep everybody safe and reward each one of us abundantly and we do everything possible to give glory to his name.

Easter Holiday is an important holiday in our country honored and celebrated by all faith and therefore an opportunity to reflect on our shared destiny as one people.

During this week of Lent, three important things happened through which we should reflect on our future as a country.

Here at home, we lost one of our own Ms. Joan Kagezi to yet another senseless murder on our streets. As Ugandans now know from all accounts, Ms. Kagezi has served our country with utmost dedication and distinction. Our hearts and minds go to her young children who have been brutally deprived of their most important and valuable asset that a child can have.

As we celebrate this Easter holiday, lets use this as an opportunity to reflect on the apparently increasing lawlessness. In a lawless society, each one of us is a potential victim. It is therefore important to recommit ourselves to fully resource our law enforcement agencies and for us as political leaders to confront the issue of safety on the streets of our capital, urban centers and all rural areas across the country with the highest level of bipartisanship should the current regime have the sense and the care for the population to lead in doing that.

Close by in Kenya, we saw yet again the ugly face of terrorism as harmless and unarmed children are murdered in their school campus where they had gone to look for a future that never was. Targeting civilians, later on our young people seeking an education, who unarmed and defenseless is perhaps the most cowardly act that anybody can claim to justify such acts of terror.

Our hearts and minds go to our Kenyan brothers and sisters and the families of the deceased.

The Garissa University College tragedy, happening on a Holy Thursday, yet again reminds us of the perilous nature of our region and the need to redouble our efforts in countering terrorism and other related threats. Easter holiday celebrations should be an opportunity for all us to rededicate ourselves to condemning all forms of terrorism including those that may be driven by religious motivations.

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Further away in Nigeria, we witnessed yet again that triumph of democracy as Nigerians voted to elect a new Government. We applaud outgoing President Goodluck Johnson and Present Elect Buhari for running a peaceful and well-fought campaign and showing leadership in accepting the results of the elections.

More importantly, we congratulate our Nigerian brothers and sisters for defying the shadow that Boko Haram had cast on the elections. Terrorism is a tool of cowardly terrorists who use it to instill fear in the population so that we can change our ways of life. Some governments also use terrorism as a justification to legislate against personal liberties and to curtail individual democratic freedoms. The Nigerian electoral results and the leadership of the contenders demonstrate yet again that courage is not just the absence of fear, but triumph over it. The brave men and women are not those who do not feel afraid but those who conquer that fear.

Finally, we are celebrating Easter when the electoral commission has just published a road map to the 2016 elections. Government has for its five-year term of office failed to address fundamental reform issues that go at the root of the credibility of our electoral system. We reiterate the message of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections that the Executive and Parliament have the primary responsibility to ensure that the appropriate reforms are delivered expeditiously to restore citizens confidence in the electoral process.

This Easter Weekend that brings together all of us is an opportunity to reflect why Government continues to delay the reform process and to pray that those who bear the responsibility to lead the country see the futility of the continued delays to table, debate and deliver on these reforms.

God bless you all.

For God and My Country

Maj Gen. (Rtd) Mugisha Muntu

PARTY PRESIDENT, FDC

FDC Villas, Najjanankumbi

Kampala, April 3, 2015