It always beats my understanding how people, and in this Particular instance, Gawaya, have failed to see and recognize what the ruling Government and the UPDF have done for this country. Selective Distortion!

Well, a story is told about a man in our village who was negative about everything and everybody, to the extent that he would get stressed when anything good happened to anyone. The man was over 50; he had worked for a long time but had nothing to show for his hard work. His greed and negativity were so extreme that he even refused to build a home for his family, and every time he visited the village with his family, he would sleep in his parents’ boys’ quarters.

Gawaya should take a keen interest in this tale and learn from it, as history is known to repeat itself.

Gawaya Tegulle, the unscrupulous lawyer and uninformed journalist who uses the scriptures to attack individuals and institutions, recently wrote an article despising the Tarehe Sita celebrations and the UPDF.

In his article ‘The Tarehe Sita Deception and Why a New Sheriff Must match in Town’ published in the Daily Monitor, portrays the protracted people’s war as a ruse and classic deception for a group that only wanted power to control resources and oppress those who do not agree with them.

Gawaya blinds himself and exhibits his ignorance of Uganda’s history and where the UPDF has come from to transform into a people’s professional army. At his age and having seen different governments, Gawaya hides from the truth and tries to downplay the achievements of the people’s army, despite all the glaring evidence.

The armies of past governments were characterized by mass killings, insecurity, and a lack of professionalism. However, the UPDF has consolidated peace in Uganda by fighting insurgencies across the country and making Uganda free of civil conflicts. It would then take ignorance for any one of Gawaya’s caliber to brand UPDF, a personal army.

Gawaya, in his ignorance, fails to recognize the contribution of the UPDF towards promoting regional peace and pushing for Pan-Africanism. The UPDF has been in Central African Republic, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Southern Sudan, and Equatorial Guinea on peacekeeping missions, and tremendous achievements have been achieved. The UPDF was the first army whose troops were deployed into Somalia in 2007 under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to restore peace and security in the region.

To quote Gawaya’s perpetrated favorite book, the holy bible, 1John 4:1 warns against people of his caliber saying, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Gawaya’s articles portray him as one of the false prophets, whose job it is to hide the good.

Gawaya furthered his ignorance in an article he authored campaigning against the NAM, IGAD, and G77+China summits. In his article published by Daily Monitor, he referred to the summits as a tale of hyenas fighting for a carcass. He goes ahead to tell how people were busy planting grass, flowers, and trees, as well as repairing roads.

He cheaply talks of how kiosks for small business people were knocked down so that visitors do not see them. He forgets that every development comes at a cost, and any patriotic and positive-minded Ugandan would be looking at the benefits of the summits rather than focusing on trivialities.

Gawaya did not remember the beautiful airport terminal that was constructed in a period of 10 months by the UPDF Engineering Brigade at a low cost; the beautiful conference hall at Munyonyo, the boost in the economy, and diplomatic relations. What an intellectual!

Gawaya forgets that the summits opened Uganda’s markets to the world, boosted local businesses through open trade that created value addition to locally made and produced products, tourists and attracted more foreign investors.

Whereas it is good to critique, it is also imperative to give credit where it is due.

The lawyer-cum-pastor limits himself to only negativity and sees nothing good in anything, which is why many sources have linked him to external funding from the enemies of Uganda.

As other lawyers and citizens of good will try to market Uganda and its beauty, democracy, and determination to protect human rights and promote Pan Africanism, a negative-minded person who cannot even see anything good in himself is everywhere exhibiting hatred for everything.

In every society, there will always be a person who does not wish anybody well, not even himself. Gawaya is one of them.

To think that after all Jesus Christ did, he was not appreciated. In-fact, he was crucified. A Good Shepherd rejected by his sheep. Ungrateful Sinners!