Saturday, May 21, 2011

The ugly return of Uganda's Amin image

The 'walk to work' protests are having a more profound effect than the architects hoped for.
Uganda has returned in the international media and regained its former pariah status.
The Ugandan president is being called names reserved for Robert Mugabe by internation media houses such as Al jazeera and 'The New York Times'.
The governments brutal handling of riots against the rising fuel prices has earned it internation notriety and turned back the clock to the very darkest days of Uganda's history in the 1970s.
The savage arrest of Dr Kizza Besigye the opposition leader by police forces has gone viral on Youtube.Uganda is once again the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The immediate casualities are a dip in foreign direct investment and tourism sales which had reportedly gone south. No one wants to take a vacation in a riotous and restless Kampala where foreign presidents are stoned on the way to the airport.
Uganda's international credit rating is set to suffer as fears of instability and turmoil gain currency.
There seems to be no end in sight as both the Museveni administration and the Dr Kizza Besigye camps dig in. The Ugandan government insists it will let the high fuel prices stay and the Dr Besigye camp insists it will continue the protests until government relents.