Over the recent days, social media has been awash with circulating images of different types of match boxes. Online citizens have had mixed reactions about the move with some emphasizing everyone to buy a matchbox as a tool of protest in case the forthcoming elections are rigged. “Use this match box to demand for our victory” read a comment on Tik Tok.
However, other change seeking Ugandan’s have disagreed with the match box protest campaign citing other peaceful ways of demanding for post-election justice. Supporters of the ruling NRM party have also casted mixed reactions towards the matchbox campaign.
The intelligence services, Electoral Commission and other security services have not yet made any public appearance about the ongoing threat that could easily culminate into chaotic post-electoral scenes. Dwellers, business men, security observers and other city users raise concerns about the ongoing threat.
Is an eruption being ignited behind curtains?
Seemingly, there could be an imminent threat to set Kampala or other key public or private infrastructure a blaze in the aftermath of the January elections which cannot be disputed until the Electoral Commission, the Intelligence and its sister security agencies address the country about the possibility of these ugly scenes.
This article raises concerns on whether the threat is real? Who could be behind it? And, why?
Uganda having had a history of election violence right from the contested ‘Lukiiko’ elections, to the 1966 sham referendum that orchestrated into a purge against the people of the Baganda tribe by the then President Milton Obote, Uganda’s post-election violence reached a boiling point in 1980 as the elections ignited a five years civil war in which over half a million people lost their lives, with property destroyed, humanitarian concerns and the economy was left in doldrums.
Is Uganda on the verge of collapse? Concerns about the anticipated threats create a debate about the capability and readiness of the country’s security apparatus to hold the country together. This could eventually see the army being deployed in every corner of the city to protect city users.
As the election draws close, actors must be keen on identifying every threat and obstacle to a peaceful, and free and free election drawing experience from the country’s historical past and from neighboring countries like Tanzania, Malawi among others.
Richard Byamukama Bard is a lawyer and a security studies expert
