Author: Dr.Nico

We have written about the problems with Pesacheck before. They refuse to factcheck Ugandan government lies.

The bad fact-checking is not limited to Uganda. Also in Kenya their factchecking is of poor quality. One problem that Pesacheck has is they dont understand humor.

We ask Deutsche Welle & Code 4 Africa, who financially sponsor Pesacheck, if it was their intention to fact-check jokes.

Joke 1: Kibuye roundabout

Frank Gashumba is making fun of the terrible state of the Ugandan infrastructure. Many projects are unfinished. There’s so much corruption that the costs are enormous. That’s why Gashumba posted this photo of a roundabout in China. Pesacheck says it’s false. It’s clearly a joke.

Joke 2: UDA flag on the moon (9 August 2022)

Chepkerio Mtetezi posted this photo of UDA, the political party of William Ruto, planting a flag on the moon.

Joke 3: Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport has not been renamed to HUEN (28 February 2022)

Of course it has not really been renamed like this. This joke puts attention to the growing economic power of the Chinese and their loan to Entebbe airport gives them so much power, they could even make this name change if they really wanted! Pesacheck didn’t understand that.

Joke 4: Photo of Cristiano Ronaldo wearing Uganda’s People Power Movement colours is doctored (27 October 2020)

Of course he didn’t. But Pesacheck had to fill their website.

Although the National Resistance Movement (NRM) claims to be a democratic organisation, in the 36 years that it has been in power in Uganda it has never transferred power to another party. NRM leader Museveni made clear during recent elections that it’s not the people of Uganda who decide: “NRM has the last word“

NRM came to power, still known as the NRA (National Resistance Army), by the sword, killing thousands of Ugandans. When the NRM was in power, it was determined to stay in power and only pressure from donor countries made it adapt multiparty democracy. However, according to factcheckers site Pesacheck none of the organised elections were free & fair. Organising zombie elections was the perfect compromise for the NRM to stay in power while keeping donor countries happy.

Also within the NRM itself no opposition to the leadership of Yoweri Museveni is accepted. Now that Museveni gets older he wants his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba to take over. His former NRA fighters were not happy about that and in 2013 General David Sejusa wrote an article in the Daily Monitor describing the project of launching Muhoozi to power and coining the term ‘Project Muhoozi’. The office of the Daily Monitor was blocked for days and General Sejusa had to flee the country.

The Ugandan constitution did not allow for anyone to serve more than two terms, so Museveni intimidated parliament and changed the constitution. Later, he ran into the ‘age limit’, and also that article was lifted from the constitution. Again, he used violence, intimidation and bribery. MP Betty Nambooze was tortured inside parliament and still has to use a wheelchair.

Important positions in the government are not given on the basis of qualifications and elections, but are given to friends & family. His wife Janet is the minister of Education, his son Muhoozi leads the army.

In-fighting is necessary to become part of the group. NRM primary elections are decided by intimidation, bribery and violence, such as in Isingiro that saw a violent struggle between Stephen Kangwagye and Dr. Mpeirwe.

Violence,Torture and Corruption

The non-democratic, corrupt and violent nature of the NRM is also shown by the many crimes that key members of NRM have been involved in.

1. NRM president Museveni and former NRM foreign minister Sam Kutesa have accepted 500.000 USD bribes from Chinese investor Ho according to American department of Justice.
2. NRM president Museveni commented on the torture of Bobi Wine that he was ‘appropriately beaten‘. The torture was likely ordered by Museveni.
3. NRM commander of the land forces Muhoozi, the son of Museveni, had Ugandan writer Kakwenza picked up from his house and tortured after Kakwenza posted tweets about Muhoozi and Museveni..
4. NRM deputy speaker of parliament Tayebwa has tortured an employee of the UMEME electricity company and was caught on video.
5. NRM speaker of parliament Anita Among mocked torture survivor Francis Zaake after he competed in a sport competition.
6. NRM prime minister gave out bribes in the by-election of Kayunga according to dozens of locals interviewed by BBS.

At every level the NRM is a violent and criminal organisation. The book ‘Rigged’ about the 2021 Ugandan elections documents this very well.

During his national address on 23 May 2022, Yoweri Museveni also spoke about the diaspora.

Uganda generated a big diaspora.
Mainly because of our stagnant history
Many people ran away during the time of Amin, UPC.
They went abroad during the time of (..) & Obote
They stayed there, they have had children, they have a big group there.
But sometimes they get all sorts of…
Good political ideas but also bad political ideas
So the ESO officer should monitor them, should link up with them
and diffuse… the negative and encourage the positive.
That should be part of his mandate.

As can be seen in this clip posted by @USA_NUP(

During @KagutaMuseveni’s 36 years of authoritarian rule & corruption, more than 2 million Ugandan citizens left the country. Report Threats from Museveni’s spies in the diaspora to FBI https://t.co/p1wGyLEA5s Call 1-800-225-5324 @SFRCdems @HEBobiwine @HouseForeign @FBI @StateDept pic.twitter.com/SyJnmnZ0Mc

— NUPUSA Boston (@usa_nup) May 24, 2022

On this website we find data to which countries Ugandans have emigrated: https://migrants-refugees.va/country-profile/uganda/

If you look around the diaspora community in countries like US, UK, Germany & Netherlands you see that most are first generation immigrants in the age group 20-45. They left Uganda when Museveni was already president.

The remark by Museveni, saying that people in majority fled to the diaspora under his predecessors, is nonsense.

The full video of the session can be found here: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1q/k1qagj04on

Although there are some members that have good recommendations; they only have 90 seconds time. Many countries are dictatorship committing human rights violations themselves, don’t expect any positive contribution from them. But there also many tiny states like Fiji, that have no clue what is going on in Uganda.

No human rights organisations, that know what is going on, are given the floor.

However, the country under review (Uganda) gets a lot of time to present their story. The dis-information is well presented, while the contributions of the members states are all over the place.

The result is a total mess.

Here are the members of the UN Human Right Council

SPEAKERS:
H.E. Ms. Eunice Kigenyi, Ambassador Deputy Permanent Representative and Chargé D’affaires (Introduction)
H.E. Mr. Odongo Jeje Abubakhar, Minister of Foreign Affairs-Head of Delegation

1 Italy, Mr. Gian Lorenzo Cornado @italyun_geneva
2 Japan, Mr. Yoshiyuki Yamada
3 Kenya, Ms. Lucy Kiruthu
4 Latvia, Ms. Elina Bracina @elinabraslina
5 Libya, Mr. Akram Alshybani
6 Luxembourg, Ms. Anne-Sophie Rauchs
7 Malawi, Mr. Pacharo Kayira
8 Malaysia, Ms. Rina Hanis Rodzli
9 Maldives, Mr. Hassan Hussain Shihab
10 Mali, Mr. Mamadou Henri Konate
11 Malta, Mr. Christopher Grima
12 Mauritania, Ms. Diamilatou Dia
13 Mauritius, Ms. Usha Chandnee Dwarka-canabady
14 Mexico, Mr. Raúl Vargas Juárez
15 Montenegro, Ms. Slavica Milacic
16 Mozambique, Mr. Amadeu Da Conceição
17 Namibia, Mr. Jerry Mika
18 Nepal, Ms. Chandika Pokhrel
19 Netherlands, Ms. Simone Gerrits
20 Niger, Mr. Amadou Issaka
21 Nigeria, Ms. Odunola Y. Oduwaiye
22 Norway, Ms. Jannicke Graatrud
23 Oman, Mr. Abdullah Al Riyami
24 Pakistan, Mr. Afaq Ahmad
25 Paraguay, Ms. Carmen Parquet
26 Philippines, Mr. Evan P. Garcia
27 Poland, Mr. Zbigniew Czech
28 Portugal, Mr. Gonçalo Ferraz De Lima Sanchez Da Motta
29 Qatar, Mr. Talal Al-naama
30 Republic of Korea, Ms. Yena Yoo

H.E. Mr. Odongo Jeje Abubakhar, Minister of Foreign Affairs-Head of Delegation (Comments and Answers)
Mr. Kiryowa Kiwanuka, Delegation of Uganda
Mr. Peter Wambi, Delegation of Uganda
H.E. Mr. Odongo Jeje Abubakhar, Minister of Foreign Affairs-Head of Delegation

31 Russian Federation, Ms. Kristina Sukacheva
32 Senegal, Mr. Amadou Dame Sall
33 Serbia, Mr. Dejan Zlatanovic
34 Sierra Leone, Mr. Samuel Housman Buggie Saffa
35 Slovenia, Ms. Ursa Pponikvar
36 South Africa, Ms. Portia Lindiwe Mngomezulu
37 South Sudan, Mr. Garsiano Mogga Elia Waja
38 Spain, Ms. Aurora Diaz-Rato Revuelta
39 Sri Lanka, Mr. C.A. Chandraprema
40 Sweden, Mr. Fredrik Nivaeus
41 Switzerland, Mr. Félix Baumann
42 Timor-Leste, Ms. Ralyana Maria Horta Ribeiro
43 Togo, Mr. Tmanawoe Tazo
44 Tunisia, Mr. Anouar Missaoui
45 Ukraine, Ms. Nataliia Tsyhulova
46 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Ms. Laura

47 Frances Callaghan-Pace
48 United Republic of Tanzania, Ms. Maimuna Tarishi
49 United States of America, Ms. Delaney Felker
50 Uruguay, Ms. Carla Giovanoni
51 Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), Mr. Félix Peña Ramos
52 Zambia, Mr. Inyambo Liboma
53 Algeria, Mr. Lazhar Soualem
54 Angola, Ms. Margarida Rosa da Silva Izata
55 Argentina, Mr. Christian Machuca
56 Armenia, Ms. Armine Petrosyan
57 Australia, Ms. Ruxandra Voinov
58 Austria, Mr. Michael Pfeifer
59 Azerbaijan, Ms. Marziyya Vakilova-Mardaliyeva
60 Bahamas, Ms. Sasha Dixon
61 Bangladesh, Ms. Shanchita Haque
62 Barbados, Mr. Ricardo Kellman
63 Belgium, Ms. Lisa Van Geesbergen
64 Botswana, Mr. Dimpho Tsiane
65 Brazil, Mr. Benhur Peruch Viana
66 Burkina Faso, Mr. Pime Germain Zong-Naba

H.E. Mr. Odongo Jeje Abubakhar, Minister of Foreign Affairs-Head of Delegation (Comments and Answers)
Mr Joel Cox Juuko, Delegation of Uganda
Mr. Safia Nalule Juuko, Delegation of Uganda
H.E. Mr. Odongo Jeje Abubakhar, Minister of Foreign Affairs-Head of Delegation
Mr. Benard Mujuni, Delegation of Uganda
H.E. Mr. Odongo Jeje Abubakhar, Minister of Foreign Affairs-Head of Delegation

67 Burundi, Mr. Nitunga Pacifique
68 Cabo Verde, Ms. Clara Delgado Jesus
69 Canada, Ms. Nadine Khoury @khourynn
70 Chile, Ms. Montserrat Fuentes @Montserrat_aFC
71 China, Mr. Jiang Duan
72 Congo, Mr. Gerard Ondongo
73 Costa Rica, Ms. Catalina Devandas Aguilar
74 Côte D’Ivoire, Mr. Kouame François
75 Cuba, Ms. Lisandra Astiasaran
76 Cyprus, Ms. Olympia Neocleous
77 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Mr. Han Tae Song
78 Denmark, Mr. Søren Høgsbro Larsen @dkinUganda
79 Djibouti, Mr. Houmed Gaba Maki Houmed Gaba
80 Dominican Republic, Mr. Héctor Virgilio Alcántara
81 Ecuador, Ms. Patricia Borja
82 Egypt, Ms. Yasmeen Khattab
83 Estonia, Ms. Katrin Saarsalu-Layachi
84 Eswatini, Ms. Bawelile Simelane
85 Ethiopia, Ms. Yibza Aynekullu Tesfaye
86 Fiji, Ms. Robyn-Ann Mani
87 Finland, Ms. Kirsti Kauppi @KirstiKauppi
88 France, Ms. Emmanuelle Lachaussée
89 Gabon, Ms. Nadege Moucketou Mvou
90 Georgia, Mr. David Jalagania
91 Germany, Mr. Ralf Schröer @GermanyUNGeneva

92 Ghana, Ms. Akousa Okyere-badoo https://www.facebook.com/akosua.d.okyerebadoo
93 Holy See, Mr. John Putzer
94 Iceland, Ms. Ólöf Hrefna Kristjánsdóttir
95 India, Mr. Pawankumar Badhe
96 Indonesia, Mr. Agustinus Anindityo Adi Primasto
97 Iraq, Mr. Alaa Sami
98 Ireland, Mr. Michael Gaffey @IrelandUNGeneva @irishMissionUN

“Send us your Gucci, not your guns”

On 19th January Robert Kyagulanyi was invited by the Italian Parliament Commission on Human Rights to explain about the atrocities that are taking place in Uganda.

The session was opened by chairwoman Laura Boldrini and she gave a short introduction. Then this video was played showing the events of the last years and outlining the military & financial aid by western countries.

In this Italian parliament session everything in Italian was translated into English, and anything English into Italian, accept for the video that was presented. This is the reason why Nico Schoonderwoerd, who manages the NUP relations in Europe, provided a short summary.

After this summary our President Bobi Wine took the floor. We have a draft version of his speech which can be found at the bottom of the article. You can watch both the summary and the President’s speech here:

Then Masuudi took the floor. Masuudi tells the story of how on 18 November 2020 he was stopped by police for wearing a red People Power T-shirt. Before he was able to answer, he was shot in the mouth. He ran away and he was shot in the shoulder again. In hospital he was told “If we ever see you in the newspaper again, we will kill you”. That’s why he had to flee Uganda. He spoke in Luganda, but an Italian comrade provided the translation into Italian for the national viewers.

After this Ugandan introduction time was reserved for questions by Italian MPs. One of them asked whether NUP has contacted the
Human Rights Programme for Global Parliamentary Organization – IPU. They take action for colleague MPs that are tortured like Ssegirinya and Sewanyana.

Finally we share with you the draft version of Bobi Wine’s speech.

My party, the National Unity Platform, is a liberal progressive party. We believe in equality and Rule of Law. We believe in freedom and social justice. All of this is absent in Uganda.

One year and four days ago, presidential elections were held in Uganda. They were more like a military operation than an election.

As you saw in the movie shown earlier, independent surveys had predicted that I had 60% of the support of Ugandans. But EU observer delegation was denied visa to enter Uganda and my own observers were chased away so Museveni’s party could commit their fraud with minimal disturbance. The Electoral Commission, of which all members have been appointed by the dictator himself, announced Museveni as the winner. All opposition parties have stated these elections were rigged. US state department & EU parliament protested saying the elections where “Neither Free nor Fair”. But the EU commission was silent and the Italian ambassador Massimiliano Mazzanti was even the first to congratulate the dictator.

The EU parliament resolution condemning the fraud was passed with a 90% majority of the votes. Ugandans are very happy to have so much support from European citizens, but it’s unfortunate that even the European democratic process is far from perfect. We think that the Italian parliament is able to pass such a resolution with even a bigger majority. It will force the European commission to listen to the wishes of European people.

As you have seen in the movie, Human Rights are consistently violated by the dictator. Just this weekend, Human Rights Watch published its annual report on Uganda. 

Let me quote:

“Security forces arbitrarily arrested and beat opposition supporters and journalists, killed protesters, and disrupted opposition rallies.”

“military police beat at least 10 journalists covering opposition presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi, as he delivered a petition to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Kampala over the abuses against his supporters”

“Security forces conducted a spate of abductions and arrests of opposition supporters, government critics, and other people”

Again, this is from the Human Right Watch report.

PWhen Benito Mussolini founded fascism he was a journalist. He knew how to manipulate, to control and to attack information. The fascist MinCulPop sent ‘veline’ messages to the press, and likewise Museveni provides clear instructions for journalists. 

It has worried us a great deal that the Ugandan government’s dis-information is regarded as credible by the European delegation.  We come to this conclusion because it can be found in the response of the Italian government to the questions by Laura Boldrini.

The first piece of disinformation is that the 14 January elections were ‘largely peaceful’. This is false. Our agents were chased away from polling stations with machetes & guns, many ending up in hospital. Please read the Human Rights Watch report.

The second piece of disinformation concerns the demonstration that took place after I was arrested in Luuka. Over a 100 Ugandans, and even an unborn triplet, died. Most deaths were not even demonstrating, but randomly shot at as shown in a BBC documentary. To date No investigation has taking place into these documented random killings and no one has been been held accountable for the killings despite the amount of evidence, but the Italian government talks about ‘positive developments’.

We have noticed that the relationship between the Italian representatives and the dictatorship are extremely friendly. Why does the Italian ambassador have dinner in the officers club of the SFC, the most feared and violent security service in Uganda who are torturing the writer Kakwenza and two of my MPs, Segirinya and Sewanyana at this very moment? 

Dear Italian amici, you know from the past how it is to be ruled by a dictator. You have suffered under the authoritarian rule of Benito Mussolini for 21 years. Ugandans are suffering under the dictatorship of Yoweri Museveni for over 35 years now. Instead of recovering from almost a century of British colonialism, our country became one of the poorest countries of the world, although Uganda is rich of natural resources and very fertile. 

The idea that dictatorship brings more stability than democracy is false, you have seen how the nazi’s & fascists were happy to start the Second World War. Recently Museveni invaded Congo, without even asking the parliament for permission.

So why is it that for Africa the lie of the benevolent dictator is still alive? Why does European television never show African demonstrations for democracy, but only hungry children? Please realize that your journalists are creating a very biased view of Africa, trying to confirm European prejudices. It may sound harsh, but the western post-colonialistic approach to Africa is racist.

If there’s one dictator in the world that is ready to be taken down, it’s Museveni. He’s totally dependent on military & financial support from the West. But with our barebear hands it’s difficult to stop the Italian bullets. Sell us your Gucci, not your Guns. 

If you look up the definition of fascism, you find six conditions, like Absolute Power of the State, Rule by a dictator, and Militarism. These conditions are all met by the Museveni government; we request the EU and Italian government to impose Magnitsky sanctions against human rights violators and stop the financial and military support for an African fascist dictator. 

When a screenshot of a Muhoozi tweet was shared on Social Media it was pretty clear to many it was fake. However, even some reputable websites claim it was deleted. Therefore we did an analysis.

The tweet says Kakwenza’s freedom of speech is also limited. Muhoozi has made quit a controversial and dumb tweets in the past, but never did the post anything that incriminates him. If Kakwenza is tortured, as we fear is happening, this tweet would internationally be regarded as admission he’s behind the arrest. To the contrary, the Museveni family has been very good in removing from internet any evidence that he has a drinking problem, that he is a womanizer, and that Janet Museveni is not his mother.

Facts

First all the facts, taken at January 1st 2022:

We did an advanced Twitter search with search terms: (to:mkainerugaba) until:2021-12-30 since:2021-12-28
On 29 December approximately 825 reply tweets to tweets by Muhoozi were posted. That day, Muhoozi retweetet his alleged mother Janet and some others, but we focus on the tweets which he composed himself.

• He tweeted 10.29 AM a Samuel Jackson quote, which got 218 replies in total, 265 retweets and 1795 likes.
• He tweeted 12.04 PM CET about his time in Sudan, which got 480 replies in total and 463 retweets and 2761 likes.
• He tweeted 2.02 PM CET about being a captain in Egypt, which got 212 replies in total and 289 retweets and 1801 likes.

Not all of these replies were on 29 December, some were later, so it’s likely the total exceeds 825. Furthermore there are replies to tweets that Muhoozi retweeted.

For the 3 tweets composed by Muhoozi that can be found on twitter.com, the retweets/replies ratio is approximately 1, the likes/retweets ratio in the range 6-9. This means there are 6 to 9 more likes than retweets.

According to the screenshot it is taken 12.29 PM, but it doesn’t specify a timezone. It has 83 retweets, 11 quote tweets and 415 likes.

The screenshot that we are analysing is tweeted at 1.19 PM by @CashNtulume. It replies to the Samuel Jackson tweet, which is suspicious. It doesn’t mention any deletion either.

Another screenshot is posted at 2.12 PM by @chief_amen. It replies to the Egypt tweet of 2.02 PM. The screenshot is of a post by Kampala lord mayor Erias Lukwago. This is the image shown above.

We also found a tweet at 1.27 PM by NRM fan Mbaho Joshua labeling the screenshot as fake. Joshua doesn’t mention were he found the screenshot.

We then looked at Facebook. At 1.05 PM CET Erias Lukwago posted the screenshot that later appeared on Twitter.
At 2.16 PM Abubakari reported the screenshot as fake, but many others also reported it. However, Erias kept the post online.

Analysis & conclusion:

We conclude that the screenshot is fake for the following reasons:

1. The screenshot shows 83 retweets. Since the normal retweets/replies ratio is 1 we should expect to have some 80 replies. Based on statistics, the change of having 0 replies is 0%. When a tweet is deleted, the replies are not deleted. However, we have not found ANY replies to a deleted tweet by Muhoozi. These tweets would have shown ‘This tweet was deleted by the tweet author’.
2. The Facebook post by Erias Lukwago was made at 1.05 PM. Many reactions were posted even before the first tweet mentioned the bad tweet by Muhoozi or a screenshot. If the tweet had really been online, it would have started to distribute through Twitter before it came to Facebook.
3. The message of the Tweet does not fit with the tweeting style of Muhoozi.
4. Fake tweets of Muhoozi have been published before. See below

When on January 14th there were over 400 polling stations with 100% voter turnout,

when there were dozens of videos showing ballot box stuffing and hundreds of statements and affidavits detailing the fraud,

when there were hundreds of fraudulent DoRs (declaration of results) and when you tweeted one of them, you were exposed by international exports,

and the Electoral Commission ignored complaints about this, you thought the Electoral Commission couldn’t show to be more corrupted and more evil,

YOU WERE WRONG

In the Kayunga by-election of 16 December 2021 the maire (LC5) was to be re-elected after the previous LC5 was found hanging under a tree under suspicious circumstances.

The Museveni government has shown enormous interest in winning back this seat that they lost on 14 January in a landslide victory for National Unity Platform candidate Ffefeka Sserubogo.

The run-up to the elections was marred with incidents.

* Opposition leader Bobi Wine was put under illegal house arrest to prevent him from campaigning in Kayunga. Dictator Museveni did go to Kayunga to campaign.

* NUP candidate Harriet Nakweede was seriously injured on her head while campaigning. Bobi Wine tweeted:

* 4 opposition MPs, and many other high profile opposition leaders have been detained.

* Opposition leader Zaake was seriously beaten up and taken to hospital.

* Polling agents, that are by constitution allowed to monitor the election process were arrested. https://www.ntv.co.ug/ug/news/national/kayunga-by-election-several-opposition-supporters-arrested-3656662

* Voters were given 4000 shillings (1 euro) to convince them to vote the government candidate. https://twitter.com/joycebagala1/status/1471227595081535496

* On multiple locations filled boxes with pre-ticked ballots were found even before the opening of polling stations. https://twitter.com/Mulungi_jasmine/status/1471513070404976640

https://twitter.com/LENONMULLAR_/status/1471360761427640320

There were some positive differences with the 14 January elections; the internet was not shutdown and the videos referenced above quickly distributed through Facebook, Whatsapp & Twitter.

The polling stations closed at 4 pm and quickly after the first results came, looking good for NUP candidate Harriet Nakweede. Just after midnight, National Unity Platform claimed a win, saying they had counted 35212 votes for Nakweede versus 20611 votes for Muwonge.

The next day, in the morning, Ugandans were unhappily surprised to hear the Electoral Commission make a totally different announcement.

Interestingly the number of votes for Mussi (470) is almost the same at the NUP tally (468), suggesting the NUP tally is a serious tally.

Later that day Bobi Wine published on Facebook the DoRs that NUP agents received and were the basis of the NUP tally using the hashtag #kayungafraud https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=482155459936930&id=100044274407692

The UVote team also wanted to draw their own conclusions, took the Bobi Wine DoRs and tallied them into a Google Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ICb02Svls0LLkr2WSkhObzZk_Q4zkwA1Qp7V6vENmvg/edit#gid=0

The UVote team tally coincides very much with the NUP tally, and through the Google Spreadsheet above it is easily checked how their tally matches with the Declaration of Results forms.

The difference with the Electoral Commission is not small. In the NUP & UVote tally, Nakweede has over 60% of the votes. In the Electoral Commission count she loses. This is not a mistake, this is not fraud at couple of polling stations, this is clear fraud at the district level and it can only have been approved or likely even ordered by the State House of Museveni.

In the 14 January elections the Museveni government took DoR forms very seriously. They hunted for NUP staff bringing the DoRs to Kampala and confiscated them. As a result, NUP had a very incomplete set of DoRs. Frauds with DoRs (excluding ballot box stuffing) after the DoRs were signed was limited to some 100 occurences, less than 1% of polling stations. More info about the rigging of the January 14th election can be found in the report Rigged: https://uvote.nup-uganda.com/rigged/Rigged.pdf

To make their announcement tally, the Electoral Commission has to alter DoRs on a huge scale. They could choose not to publish the tally sheet and not publish the DoRs (as they did for the presidential elections), but that would be a silent admission of the fraud they committed.

On Friday 19 November @pesacheck published their rebuttal of the news general Bakasumba is the new deputy Inspector General of Police. At first it looks straightforward fake news, but if you dive into it, it starts to smell.

Our friends at @pesacheck state it was a Facebook post by FreshTV, but the source of this news was way more reputable, state related @ubctvuganda& renowned journalist @DanielLutaaya. It seems unlikely they would publish this without there being some truth in this announcement.(2)

Journalist @daniellutaaya has a history of making statements and withdrawing them days later. On 14 January he tweeted that M7 had received more votes than reg. voters. He was arrested,deleted the tweets,reappeared and claimed ‘Fake News’ (@pesacheck never bothered to check)

One day after his initial tweet, on 14 November @daniellutaaya tweeted that Bakasumba’s appointment was Fake News. His own announcement!! He didn’t provide any explanation, he just deleted the original tweet. We have the screenshot, and this reply shows Daniel did delete a tweet.

Did government reverse at the last moment on it’s decision to appoint Bakasumba deputy IGP? The pesacheck analysis is far from complete.

The term ‘Fake news’ should not be used by Governments who created the news themselves. We are not sure what precisely happened, but transparency of fact-checking requires that Pesacheck tells us the whole story.

For the military dictatorship it’s crucial they control the media to suppress real news about their crimes. Unfortunately we have to maintain this list of government hoaxes ourselves, because factchecker sites like pesacheck are not interested.

1. Announcement of 189 al-Shabaab fighters killed in Somalia

Around 22 January Lt.Col Akiki of the UPDF shared a press statement about successes in their fight against al-Shabaab. Many influential media houses ran the story, such as Al Jazeera. A week later the story had to be withdrawn

Full story is here: https://diaspora.nup-uganda.com/?p=292

Pesacheck was not interested in this story.

2. On 27 December Kasirye Ashraf was shot in the head by security forces.

Frank Senteza rushed to assist him. He was knocked dead by a military vehicle, but the UPDF spokesperson claims he jumped off a speeding car.

An overview of various lies spread by Ugandan government on this matter can be found here: https://diaspora.nup-uganda.com/?p=313

Pesacheck was not interested in these lies. Interestingly enough, they did run a factcheck whether Ashraf Kasirye is alive, but this is not debated at all!
https://pesacheck.org/false-ugandan-journalist-ashraf-kasirye-is-not-dead-e063f9c4085c

3. On 3 August 2021 Fred Lumbuye was arrested by Turkish authorities.

According to Ugandan authorities, he was transferred to Uganda, and then to Gulu, as shown by various screenshots taken by Hillary Taylor.

On 8 September the Observer ran the following article: https://observer.ug/news/headlines/71130-govt-official-lumbuye-will-return-humbled

On 11 September we submitted this article as fake news to Pesacheck. Their response “Your request is outside our verification scope”. Again, Pesacheck doesn’t want to verify Uganda government lies.

The truth is that Fred Lumbuye never left Turkey. On 19 October he was released from detention and he remained in Turkey.

4. Fake Declaration of Results form posted by Electoral Commission

On March 1st the Electoral Commission posted on Facebook & Twitter that a DoR posted by NUP was fake, and they posted the ‘Genuine’ one.

However, professor of democracy Nick Cheeseman soon discovered inconsistencies in the DoR posted by the EC. The votes don’t add up. This even led to a publication in the Continent on 6 March.

The EC never released the results of any investigation. Pesacheck never wrote about the fake DoR shared by the EC.

5. New Vision falsely announced that Eddie Mutwe is going to marry.

Ever since M7's chief propagandist ⁦@DonWanyama⁩ took over vision grp, this gvt paper was reduced to a propaganda tool,Thy write any nonsense however false it is. Thy’re driving a narrative trying to portray us as Party Pple.Shame on u⁦@DonWanyama⁩.Wen did I say this? pic.twitter.com/0UZXmPOfoF

— Eddie Mutwe (@eddie_mutwe) October 14, 2021

After we pointed out this hoax to Pesacheck, they decided to publish: https://pesacheck.org/false-these-remarks-attributed-to-bobi-wines-bodyguard-eddie-mutwe-are-untrue-eba2b9c76e1c

This list is not even complete, but for sake of time we limit the list to 5.

What is proven is that Uganda government institutions are a large producer of fake news. In case 1 & 2 it were the security forces that spread the fake news. Also the Lumbuye lies (case #3) were spread by the army. In case #4 it was the Electoral Commission that spread a fake Declaration of Results.

Fact check organisation Pesacheck, for unknown reasons, does not want to factcheck most of these lies. (only #5)

After the elections of 14 January members of European parliament were disgusted by the rigging of the elections and the violence of the dictatorship. With over 90% mayority they past a resolution calling for an investigation and to take measures against individuals involved in Human Rights violations.

The European commission and the European governments did nothing.

Instead the Italian ambassador had dinner with the biggest human right violator (known at the International Court of Justice in The Hague).

This should be of no surprise to us. It’s the policy of the European Union to maintain warn relations with the violent junta in Kampala.

On 20 November 2020 the Ugandan security forces killed more than a 100 innocent unarmed Ugandans (official death toll: 54) after Bobi Wine had been incarcerated in Luuka. The EU had to come with a statement

The EU called for an independent investigation. “to ensure justice for victims and avoid impunity for the perpetrators”

Nothing happened.

On 8 January, when it became more clear that the government were going to use massive violence during the elections the EU issued another statement.

Moreover, the Ugandan government should ensure law enforcement and security agencies exercise restraint when safeguarding the security of all citizens, including electoral candidates and their supporters, in line with national laws, Uganda’s international human rights commitments and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, while at the same time ensuring the protection of democracy, the robustness of its institutions and rule of law.

What EU was afraid off happened; the security agencies exercised enormous violence. On top of that, EU observers were not given visa.

The EU said nothing. Instead, the head of European delegration told Daily Monitor how well organised the elections were. The EU had to correct that statement.

On 31 May the BBC published a disturbing documentary called “Three killing in Kampala”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7d2AvLEPyA outlining how innocent and unarmed Ugandans were killed in a killing spray.

The EU had to come up with another statement.

On 20 August the Ugandan government announced the closure of some 50 NGOs. Yes, indeed the EU came with a statement!

What do all these calls & statements and petitions by the European Union have in common?

Nothing happened.

The EU barked softly and didn’t bite. The dictatorship knows he has nothing to fear from Europe. If he crosses the line, they will just issue another statement.