Many people are still asking who is this Vincent Nzaramba, the man in the news over his detention resulting from publication of a book, People’s power on how to peacefully overthrow the NRM government. Nzaramba who is the spokesperson NOREV-Uganda, the Non Violent Revolutionaries Movement seems to be staunch in his views as can be seen on his website at

http://nonviolentrevolutionug.com where we picked this profile of himself and his political views that are certainly cuasing concern in government circles.

Profile of Vincent Nzaramba

Nzaramba talks with police officers before his arrest

NZARAMBA SEBAKWIYE VICENT SSALONGO was born and raised in the slums of Mulago, Kampala, Uganda to Pastor Nanyonjo Josephine and Mr. Ezekiel Nzaramba.
His mission is to actively advance and participate in the world wide study and strategic use of nonviolent action in conflict.
He is committed to actively;-
– Defend democratic Freedoms and institutions;
– Oppose oppression, dictatorship, and genocide;
– And reduce reliance on violence as an instrument of policy for liberation, and National defense.
He was inspired by the mission and writings of Gene Sharp and other members of the Albert Einstein Institution like; Jamila Raqib, Robert L. Helvey, and Bruce Jenkins.
His vision is to see an end to the use of violence as a means of solving conflict in Uganda and the African continent as a whole.

NZARAMBA VINCENT CONTACTS:
Email: sebakwiye04@yahoo.com
Mobile Phone: +256772904781, +256703040878
Face book Account: Nzaramba Vincent

MAKING DISCIPLES IN THE MIDST OF THE NRM IDEOLOGICAL EROSION

Background
As you have read above, I was born to Pastor Nanyonjo Josephine and Mr. Ezekiel Nzaramba on 22nd June 1974, Mulago referral hospital.
For my Primary one and part of primary two, I went to St. Martin Primary School found in the slums of Mulago, Kampala, Uganda. Then from Primary two to Primary Six, I went to Bat valley which I left and went to complete my P.6 and P.7 at Kalasa day & boarding primary school found in Luweero district. I was in the day section in which i used to walk for 12km to and from school daily from my maternal Aunt’s village called Manze. In 1990, after completing my primary education I joined Kitante Hill School for my ‘O’ level secondary education but dropped out while in senior three in 1993 due to lack of school fees.
However, when our family situation improved I bounced back to studies in 2002 after almost ten years while out of the class room. I got back to senior three at the age of 28, studying with sixteen year old boys and girls. Though I was a Prefect in charge of library and Head master’s office- a position to which I was appointed while in primary six at Kalasa day and boarding primary school, it is on my return to school in 2002 at City View High School that I first engaged myself in competitive students’ leadership. In my earlier years in school, apart from my studies I was only interested in sports as a footballer in both primary and secondary school, and also a boxer in secondary school.

STUDENTS’ POLITICS/LEADERSHIP
When I re-entered the class room in June 2002, I found a seriously indiscipline class. City View is a private secondary School majorly attended by the children of the poor from the surrounding slums of Kawempe district in Kampala. These children had no respect for each other; they would fight each other, and spend most of their time shouting instead of reading their books. I advised them to keep quiet and concentrate but they could not listen, and actually some did not hesitate to remind me that they had an elected class monitor. This environment would not enable me read my books and pass well, if i sat and did nothing it would be a waste of time for me to be in school. So when an opportunity came I never wasted it. After two weeks while in school, even before I had acquire a school uniform a communication was placed on the school notice board calling for applications for nominations of all students wishing to contest for any leadership position apart from the position of the class monitor. I encouraged two boys in my class who seemed to be serious to contest for the second most powerful position in school but they declined. So, I requested them to support me for that position of Assistant Head Boy for which they gladly accepted. I applied for nominations and I was cleared to contest, started campaigning and subsequently won the elections. I had acquired power and authority and with it I never wasted time but to embark on my mission of helping instill discipline in the school starting with my class of which I greatly succeeded. I helped to provide an environment which helped the students and I as academic performance improved greatly. With my first grade I moved to my former school, Kitante Hill School, where I was admitted to senior four which I passed well with a first grade and continued there for my ‘A’ level which I also passed well. In 2006, I was granted admission to Makerere University to do Bachelors of Arts in Education majoring in geography and minoring economics. It is geography which gave me a better understanding of the earth’s physical environment and the eco-system.

MAKERERE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ LEADERSHIP
I had never thought myself joining students’ politics at the University. I had intended to concentrate on studying my books alone. However, before I did my first examinations the University was indefinitely closed due to students’ riots resulting from a disagreement between the University management and academic staff. I was so annoyed and wondered why student leaders failed to harmonize the situation. I made a decision never to keep quiet in the face of conflict and on the day of the University closure or the next day I made a call on K-FM a local radio situation which had hosted the University Management and gave my view of how I think the situation must have been handled and how it should be handle. After almost three months the University was opened but without sufficiently solving the problems that had led to its closure and there were threats of demonstrations and riots. Since I had no other platform from which I could contribute my views on running of the affairs of the University, I decided to start a weekly news letter called NZARAMBA’S LETTER which I pinned on all notice boards around the University. The students read it and appreciated it and it also made me famous among the students’ community but unfortunately the students’ leaders did not listen, they only cared about their sitting allowances and other privileges.
With this frustration, though in first year, I contested and won a position gave me an opportunity to represent my Hall of attachment- Mitchell Hall, to the University Parliament. In this same year, I was appointed to the position of deputy Secretary General of a Makerere University based born-again Ministry called Family of Christ International. I had had experience in Christian leadership since my mother is a Pastor and I had also been the Spokesperson of the Scripture Union at Kitante Hill School.
Due to my good though challenging leadership, the over 3000 students of Mitchell Hall elected me their chairman a position which elevated my status. As chairman, I remained a representative of my Hall to the University Parliament but I also sat on the 11 member council of Hall chairpersons. This position gave me an opportunity to be among the two students who represented the over 35,000 students on the University council during the 2009 transitional period of the students’ guild leadership. It was during this session that the University council passed a resolution to establish the Petroleum Studies Constituent College of Makerere University to be situated at Kigumba.
It is at Makerere University that I completely understood and appreciated the supposed to be the ruling party- National Resistance Movement (NRM) Ideology.

BECOMING AND MAKING DISCIPLES FOR NRM
Because of the uncivilized manner in which the government soldiers of the Obote regime behaved, I came to love and admire the then guerrilla leader- Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Early in the morning before going for parade, while in primary two at Bat Valley Primary School we talked in admiration of Museveni by creating myths about how he had killed and escaped the government soldiers by turning into a pussy cat among other myths. Apart from the uncivilized behavior of the Obote forces, I had been influenced to love Museveni because my village was in the war zone I longed to visit once the war is over and because we had many friends and my maternal relatives caught up in the war zone. So other than myths, my mother and I and my other relatives would go for night prayers to pray to God rescue my relatives caught up in the war zone of Luweero Triangle and also give Museveni victory. So when Museveni won the 5 year guerrilla I automatically became a supporter of National Resistance Movement (NRM). He did not disappoint Ugandans as he managed to tame the army which increased my support for him and his NRM and also which made me become a fully registered member of NRM while in Senior six in 2005 at Kitante Hill School.
At Kitante I even started a sort of ideological debating session during lunch breaks. Even then, I had not conceptualized the NRM ideology not until in September 2007 as a member of the student leadership delegation from Makerere University among almost 400 others from other Universities that I listened to President Museveni’s lecture on modernizing Uganda through economic transformation.

Flanked by his wife, he started his lecture with a question to the audience; “Why is the West the way it is and Africa the way it is?” Many answers came up. His answer was that the west is developed because they have managed to tame nature. Africa’s problems are mainly two as he states them in his book, “Sowing the Mustard Seed.”;-
Man in the developed countries of Europe, North America, and more recently South East Asia, has been able to free himself of these two age-old bottlenecks so as to realize his full human worthy. The first problem is the domination of man by nature where in Africa man has faced the wrath of drought, floods, diseases and pestilences, slow means of locomotion, impenetrable forests, vector insects among others- all of which has made it impossible for Africans to prosper. The second problem is the oppression of Man by man in the form of feudalism, slavery, colonialism, and dictatorship.
He said that the solution to these two problems is industrialization and democracy. Industrialization will help add value, create jobs, and provide market for agricultural products among other. Democracy will offer citizens the opportunity to choose their own leaders.
He also talked about leadership, an issue I don’t remember very well on how we arrived at it. He said that an organized people must have objectives to be achieved and then choose methods to use so as to achieve the objective, and then lastly chose the leaders to help in achieving the objectives.
After his lecture, he invited questions from the floor of which I had an opportunity to ask. First, I genuinely thanked him for the lecture and also frankly told him that given an opportunity I will help him achieve his dream of transforming Uganda to modernity but I also asked him how he intends to do so amidst all the corruption that is taking place in his government before his eyes. I continued to tell him that whatever development strategy he will put his hand on will be let down by the thieves in his government. He conceded that corruption actually slows developed but was also quick to tell us that he is more than committed to fight and eliminate corruption and he gave an example of the three ministers of health who had be taken to court on charges of corruption.
I left the lecture room determined to help him achieve the dream. And apart from carrying out the personal assignment he had given me to go to Kalasa, Manze, and other places to explain his view on the coming land bill; I also gave myself an assignment of preaching and help make disciples to the NRM ideology of the ten point programme. And within a few months, together with one colleague of mine from Nkrumah Hall who was then the Prime Minister of the Guild cabinet we started what we called “Ideological Study Groups” in the two Halls of Residences. We were to expand the network to the entire nine Halls of residence but because of inadequate man-power to monitor the activities of the many groups, we decided to invite other members of the group to Mitchell or Nkrumah every Sunday evening. Every after two weeks, all members from all other Halls of residence would converge in Mitchell and then after another two weeks we would all meet in Nkrumah. Mitchell was interesting as we always lit a bonfire and served porridge to the members in the open Mitchell lower quadrangle. All this was made possible due to the flexibility and generosity of Mr. Matovu the then acting Warden of Mitchell Hall, NRM chairperson Makerere University- Professor Peter Baguma, Akankwasa Balirega among others. To date this ideological group still survives both inside Makerere and outside.

NRM IDEOLOGICAL EROSION

The Ideology of NRM is the “Ten Point Programme” as outlined below;-
1- Restoration of democracy
2- Restoration of security of persons and property
3- Consolidation of National Unity and elimination of all forms of sectarianism
4- Defending and consolidating National Independence
5- Building an independent, integrated and self-sustaining national economy
6- Restoration and improvement of social services and rehabilitation of war-ravaged areas
7- Elimination of corruption and misuse of power
8- Redressing errors that have resulted in the dislocation of some sections of the population
9- Co-operation with other African countries
10- Following an economic strategy of a mixed economy
The ‘Ten point programme’ became Uganda’s ideology which would help her overcome the main problems facing the African continent.
In 1986 President Museveni had said that; “the problem of Africa in general and in Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.”
That said, like most African countries, Uganda’s natural progress was obstructed by slave trade and most importantly by colonialism. However, as President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni wrote in his book, ‘SOWING THE MUSTARD,’ the main problem facing African countries including Uganda is two. Man in the developed countries of Europe, North America, and more recently South East Asia, has been able to free himself of these two age-old bottlenecks so as to realize his full human worthy. Due to low levels of scientific progress resulting from poor quality education, the first problem is the domination of man by nature where in Africa man has faced the wrath of drought, floods, diseases and pestilences, slow means of locomotion, impenetrable forests, vector insects among others- all of which has made it impossible for Africans to prosper. The second problem is the oppression of Man by man in the form of feudalism, slavery, colonialism, and dictatorship.
The only way to overcome these problems is respecting the ten point programme and most especially respecting democracy. With this, others will follow like; provision of quality health, education, quality housing, development infrastructure, and subsequently solve the problem of lawlessness and unemployment, and the elimination of poverty.
This ideology was conceived as a result of looking back to our past where our post-independence political history has been characterized by the following phases below, this is according to Museveni;-
– Ideological confusion; a period from 1962 to 1966, where the guide to which political party one must belong to was the tribe and religion one belonged to and not the programme of that party.
– Dictatorship; periods, by Obote between 1966 and 1971, by Amin between 1971 and 1979, and again by Obote between 1980 and 1985, and by the Okellos, briefly, from July 1985 to January 1986
– Liberation phase; where elements of the intelligentsia and the peasants organized a massive armed liberation movement, first of all quietly under Idi Amin, but more openly and independently since 1981. This eventually resulted in the defeat of the dictatorship
However, there are strong indications that we are experiencing a combination of; ideological confusion, dictatorship, and a struggle for self-liberation and this time through other means, nonviolent resistance. It is a sad story but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.
The President has clung onto power by use of a combination of brutality, corruption, constitutional manipulation that phased out Term Limits from the 1995 constitution, vote buying and vote rigging, arrest and intimidation of political opponents among other. He has since ruled this country for 25 years and there is no indication for his retirement. He is determined to rule for life with or without any semblance of democracy. There is no democracy to talk about. Not even internal democracy from his own Party. This has led to corruption in all sectors of the economy, extreme poverty due to the high rates of unemployment with an ever increasing cost of living characterized by sky rocketing inflation.

The ideology is good but the leaders have become corrupt and not willing to reform. It is after analyzing the system and carrying out much study on the workings of Nonviolent Action that influenced me together with my colleagues to form a Nonviolent Revolutionary Movement aimed at fighting and defeating the Ugandan dictatorship.
We have adopted Nonviolent Action because;
– Nonviolent Action mobilizes and empowers the population as a whole to fight and defeat including future dictatorships, and other forms of oppressions
– Though not risk free, it is a means of struggle that minimizes causalities, and other costs of war. Post-dictatorship society remains relatively united.
– We cannot wait for an election to get rid of the dictatorship because a popular election to bring about the major change required for more democratic and free political society is not available. The election is bought and rigged, or its results is falsified or ignored.
– Violent rebellion, including guerrilla warfare and terrorism, will produces crushing repression, massive casualties and defeat. By placing confidence in violent means, one would have chosen the very type of struggle with which the oppressor nearly always has superiority. The dictatorship is well equipped to apply violence overwhelmingly. The dictator almost has superiority in military hardware, ammunition, coercive machinery of the state, money, transportation, and the size of military forces. Despite our bravery, we are a no match. We do not even support guerrillas, because should they succeed, the resulting new regime is likely to be more dictatorial than its predecessor due to the centralizing impact of the expanded military forces and the weakening or destruction of the society’s independent groups and institutions during the struggle- bodies that are vital in establishing and maintaining a democratic society.
– We do not support a coup d’état because it may fail, or simply install new individuals or clique in the old positions.
– Gradual evolution may take decades, and may be halted or reversed, perhaps more than once.
Due to the desire for greater freedom, some Ugandans have lost confidence that they can liberate themselves. They seem to place their hopes in strong foreign military intervention. We would like to warn them that that option has grave disadvantages as well;
– In most cases foreign states tolerate, or have even positively assisted the dictatorship in order to advance their own economic or political interests.
– A foreign government may use the problem of a dictatorship in another country as an excuse for military intervention that is actually intended to achieve different, les noble objectives.
– Even if a foreign government initially has altruistic motives to intervene in such cases, as the conflict develops the intervening government is likely to discover that other more self serving objectives are becoming open to them. These may include; control of economic resources or establishment of military bases.
– Foreign states may become actively involved for positive purposes only if and when the internal resistance movement has already began shaking the dictatorship, having thereby focused International attention on the brutal nature of the regime.
– A foreign government with enough military capacity to remove a strong system of oppression in another country is usually powerful enough later to impose its own objectives. This can happen even when the objectives are unwanted by the “liberated” population.
However, this does not mean that we as a nonviolent revolutionary movement do not have to seek external assistance. International pressure exerted onto the dictatorship will be useful. But we are also aware that such external support comes only to a powerful internal resistance movement. International economic boycotts, embargo, the breaking of diplomatic relations, expulsion from International organization, condemnation by United Nations bodies, and the like will assist greatly.

THE BOOK: PEOPLE POWER

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