Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday embarked on a six-day march through the jungle, walking 195 km (121 miles).
He is retracing the 1986 route through which his guerrilla forces seized power after the fall of Idi Amin and Milton Obote.
Critics have dismissed the march as a stunt forward of Uganda’s elections subsequent year.
Museveni’s senior press secretary, Don Wanyama, told AFP Saturday that the journey that the president is leading a journey through the past to appreciate the present.
President Museveni has been tweeting highlights of his trek on his twitter handler; in one of them he shared an article explaining the importance of the Trek and what exactly happened along the route as they fought the Liberation War.
Find this article, where I explain the importance of the Galamba-Bireembo Trek and what exactly happened along this route as we fought the Liberation War. https://t.co/UxOLf9Gv13 pic.twitter.com/fMuI2hIFMf
— Yoweri K Museveni (@KagutaMuseveni) January 5, 2020
We camped below Kateera Hill, where we shall commence the third phase of the symbolic Afrika Kwetu trek upward the hill.
This hill is very symbolic in the struggle. Towards Easter, we were ambushed here by the UNLA forces while we had just camped, tired from trekking. pic.twitter.com/8t0OAGKX1P
— Yoweri K Museveni (@KagutaMuseveni) January 6, 2020
The jungle march dubbed the Galamba─Bireembo Trek is a portion of one of the Operations the forces led from February 6 to January, 26, 1986 to Kampala ─ the Kabaamba Operation.
The walk comes a month after the president led an anti-corruption walk through the capital in a move derided by critics who said that the corruption took place under his government.
President Museveni, 75, has been president since 1986. He is one of Africa’s longest-ruling leaders, having seized power in 1986 after taking part in rebellions to end the brutal rule of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, and is expected to seek a sixth term in office in the next elections.
Opposition MP Asuman Basalirwa called the march a “campaigning tool”.
Another oppostition leader, Bobi Wine, a singer—whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi told AFP the “trek is part of the wasteful ventures government is taking aimed at boosting his (Museveni) dwindling support among Ugandans,”
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