Museveni Oct. 9th Speech: UPDF Army 'Represent What Is Best In Africa'.

It is with great pleasure and honour that I welcome Your Excellencies and all th
e distinguished guests to this occasion as we mark 52 years of Uganda's independ
ence. I greet you and congratulate you on the 52nd anniversary of Uganda's Indep
endence.
As we celebrate this day, the whole of Uganda is peaceful and has been so since
we ended the removal of the 40,000 rifles from the cattle-rustlers in Karamoja s
ome six (6) years ago. Earlier on, in 2005, we had defeated the terrorists of Ko
ny. This is therefore, the first time in 114 years that the whole of Uganda has
been peaceful. Even, during the time of the British, cattle-rustling in Karamoja
, using guns from Turkana and from Ethiopia, was going on.
On account of the strength of the UPDF and the growing strength of the Police Fo
rce, this peace will not be disturbed. Use this peace to create wealth for your
families as we have guided you before.
On the side of the economy, it will grow by 6.1% this financial year. Having sta
rted from a very low base of US$1.5 billion as the size of GDP in 1986, our GDP
will be US$25.3 billion by the end of this financial year. This economy has been
growing (in spite of the bottlenecks of electricity, high transport costs, inse
curity in the past), at the rate of 7.3% per annum for the last 28 years. Now th
at we have the capacity to address the issue of tarmacking the major roads with
our own money (such as the just completed Kampala-Masaka road and many others),
some of the electricity dams (big and small) and we continue to benefit from sol
idarity from friends (such as ADB, World Bank, EU, Japan, Badea, etc) on some of
the other roads, our economy will grow much faster.
The Chinese are helping us to solve the issue of electricity for some of the hyd
ro-power stations on the Nile and its tributaries and are feverishly working on
the building of the Standard Gauge Railway. The Uganda economy will, therefore,
for the first time, get a low-cost base from which to operate. The sky will be t
he limit.
As you know, Uganda discovered petroleum and gas in 2006. It is now 8 years sinc
e that time. We have, finally, agreed with the oil companies on these issues of
the refinery, the pipeline and power generation. With more investigations, it is
now established that the oil reserves in the 40% of the potential area are 6.5
billion barrels and 499 billion cubic feet of gas. This is good because this gas
can help us to remove oxygen from iron-ore (obutare) so that we develop our ste
el industry given our considerable iron-ore reserves of over 200 million tonnes
already identified so that we stop the importation of steel from very far. By 20
17 our oil will be flowing into the refinery and the pipeline.
Apart from the oil and gas, after the recent survey, we have identified alot of
minerals as follows: iron-ore, marble/limestone, gold, uranium, vermiculite, nic
kel, platinum, chromium, kimberlites (diamond), bentonite, aluminium clays, phos
phates, copper, cobalt, wolfram, tin, coltan, rock salt and brine. Uganda has, t
herefore, a large base of natural resources that will help us in our development
.
As the Government is solving the infrastructure problems, the rural families sho
uld take advantage of the deployment of UPDF officers to distribute the planting
and breeding materials to get themselves out of subsistence farming and join co
mmercial farming. I have repeatedly pointed out to you the unacceptability of ha
ving only one (1) homestead in a whole parish like Ndangaaro in Rubirizi distric
t of 2,500 homesteads as I found out when I visited that area many years ago or
seven (7) families in the parish of Rwengaaju out of 1,500 homesteads being the
only ones engaged in commercial farming. I am happy to report that in Ndangaaro
parish today, 112 homesteads are engaged in commercial farming out of 2,560 home
steads while in Rwengaaju, 130 homesteads are engaged in commercial farming out
of 1,946 homesteads.
This, however, is not enough. Why should the other thousands of homesteads be sp
ectators (abaloleezi) of commercial farming while only the minority are the only
ones engaged in that poverty eradicating activity? With the involvement of UPDF
, I am sure that many more families will get access to planting and breeding mat
erials. Their role in the former NRA/Fronasa operational areas in the last two s
easons has already seen them distribute 11 million seedlings of coffee, 2 millio
n seedlings of tea and 464,135 seedlings of fruits. This involvement of more fam
ilies into commercial farming, will boost the volumes of production in the count
ry to unprecedented new levels.
Already, the involvement of UPDF officers in the former war zones has pushed the
volume of maize from 1,163 million tonnes per annum to 4,100 million tonnes per
annum of maize. Those increased levels of production must be matched with incre
ased levels of processing and value addition. Therefore, the Uganda Investment A
uthority (UIA), the Ministry of Trade and Industries and the Ministry of Agricul
ture must work in overdrive speed to solve the problem of value addition and pro
cessing for the increased production as well as the problem of storing. We have
reactivated Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) to, where unavoidable, to step
in and do the processing if the private sector do not show up.
On regional and global matters, you all saw that UPDF, working with the Somali a
rmy, liberated a number of Somali towns southwards from Mogadishu, including the
Port of Barawe. It is said, that this is the last Port that the terrorist group
, Al-Shabaab, controlled. Globally, there is alot of suffering in North Africa a
nd the Middle East caused, mainly, by mistakes by certain global players, initia
lly. These global players are always in cahoots with incapable puppets. It is th
at permutation that is, mainly, responsible for these tragedies of human haemorr
hage, destruction of social and economic capital and loss of development time in
those unfortunate lands. Serious dialogue is necessary in the world to see how
these tragedies can be rolled back and new ones avoided.
Within the under-developed countries themselves, who are the victims of these gl
obal mistake makers, the main authors of the tragedies are the ideologically dis
oriented groups that, instead of working for the legitimate interests of the peo
ple, promote sectarianism of religion or tribe; or promote male chauvinism. In s
o doing, they tear up society and cause tremendous damage. Our brothers in Somal
ia need to evolve the ideology of patriotism and Pan-Africanism so that they re-
orient their country into a sustainably positive and progressive direction. With
the building of the Somali army, supported by AMISOM, it is possible to pacify
Somalia.
The pushers of the hegmonistic agenda have been misusing the ICC, an institution
we initially supported. In the matter of President Uhuru Kenyatta, the African
Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State resolved that no African sitting President
should be summoned by that court. This resolution was taken to the Security Cou
ncil where there is no permanent member from Africa. There are only seasonal mem
bers.
That group did not see much merit in the collective wisdom of the African leader
s; and the court summoned President Kenyatta on the eve of our Summit here. Was
the aim of ICC to disrupt our Summit? Too bad for them! Our Summit went on yeste
rday. The problems that occurred in Kenya in 2007 and that happen in other Afric
an countries are, first and foremost, ideological. ICC to handle them as just le
gal matters, is the height level of shallowness. My view is that, at the next su
mmit, African countries should review their membership of the ICC treaty. The IC
C is turning out not be the value addition product that we had expected it to be
. It is instead, a biased instrument of post-colonial hegemony.
As far as Uganda is concerned, the greater mutual interest with the western coun
tries is trade and tourism. The total global trade is valued at US$ 101 trillion
per year. The USA accounts for US$16 trillion of this. The EU accounts for US$1
7.4 trillion of this. The two of them, therefore, account for about US$34 trilli
on of this. The other US$66 trillion is accounted for by the other countries wit
h China taking US$16 trillion and Africa taking US$2.5 trillion but growing very
fast. The USA, EU and Africa need, therefore, to harmonize our long term vision
based on mutual benefit and equality. Our recent meeting in the USA was a good
beginning. It is irresponsible for anybody to mishandle this potentially lucrati
ve relationship.
Finally, a point on public health involving another incident of Marburg here in
Uganda, recently, as well as the Ebola which is ravaging West Africa. These are
zoonotic diseases; this means that they are diseases that can go from the human
being to the animals and vice-versa. They are very aggressive and lethal. Yet, t
hey are easy to stop because, fortunately, they do not go through the air like f
lu. They infect by contact. Therefore, in order not take any chances, I request
you to suspend the habit of shaking hands in addition to the measures the Minist
ry of Health is taking in respect of handling those who are sick or who are susp
ected to have had contact with the sick or with those who died. I must also requ
est those communities, especially in the forest zones, who have the customs of e
ating monkeys and other primates to stop that custom.
Those creatures are relatives of humans. Moreover, they are the ones that harbor
those dangerous viruses Marburg, Ebola, etc. Avoid them please. Eat the livesto
ck we look after ourselves: cattle, goats, chicken, pigs, etc. as well as plant
proteins. The bats also seem to harbour these viruses. The Ministry of Veterinar
y should work out plans to eradicate these dangerous sources of this problem. Th
e fact that 60% of the infected people survive, means that we can develop a vacc
ine. When you get sick, please report to the medical authorities immediately. In
fected people have a high chance of surviving if they get medical support of esp
ecially rehydration early. Therefore, prompt reporting is crucial. As far as the
medical staff is concerned, they should always use gloves.
There is also another factor in connection with these repeated outbreaks of Ebol
a and Marburg. These viruses have not just emerged. They have always been there,
in the forests. It is the reckless invasion of the forests by those who break t
he law of conservation that are provoking these viruses. Therefore, conservation
is part of Public Health. Leave the forests alone for tourism and conservation,
Thank you so much and I wish you success in the next year of Independence