Many in Uganda’s parliament condemned this recent deployment, since Mr. Museveni did not follow due process by seeking consent from the august house

For instance, in Africa, military solutions to conflict have always spiraled into unending cycles of human misery. President Yoweri Museveni knows this, but still prefers a more ahistorical approach to handling human affairs. This explains why he recently sent the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) into the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); ostensibly to dispel the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who are reportedly camped there amidst about 200 other (Congolese) rebel outfits. President Museveni hopes to zero in on the ADF in the “aftermathematics” of four deadly Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts in Kampala recently. It has been revealed that the DRC’s government has allowed Uganda to deploy even though Uganda’s previous deployments in that country led to United Nation's highest court, the International Court of Justice, imposing on Uganda a $10b fine for plunder of DR Congo resources and widespread violations of its citizens' rights.

Many in Uganda’s parliament condemned this recent deployment, since Mr. Museveni did not follow due process by seeking consent from the august house (and thereby the people of Uganda) in taking a decision that shall have far reaching consequences for Uganda and Ugandans.

“We needed the element of surprise,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Henry Okello-Oryem in explaining why Uganda couldn’t resort to democratic procedure. Still, if the 11th parliament is being made redundant in such important matters of national security, then why must the Ugandan taxpayer saddle the obscene cost of employing 527 redundant MPs in what is the sixth largest legislature in Africa? Ugandans pony up to 13 billion Shillings a month or 158 billion Shillings annually just to keep MPs in the fiction of representation.

Now, without consulting parliament when invading and occupying the DRC, Ugandans realize they are being given a bill of goods by having such a rubber stamp institution in place and, worse, the same invasion will come with additional costs to every Ugandan when the UPDF starts plundering the DRC again!

One wonders if this was not President Museveni’s ploy all along: to find justificatory action (such as the Kampala bombings) to invade DR Congo in the name of national security in order to pilfer that country’s resources.

It would not be the first time; Mr. Museveni went to the bush claiming Milton Obote’s rule was illegitimate only to replace it with his own increasingly illegitimate rule. And, as in the case with the DR Congo, Uganda has been plundered (by Mr. Museveni’s regime) thoroughly.

Moreover, when Minister Okello-Oryem said the UPDF required the “element of surprise” in order to carry out this blitzkrieg, he inadvertently revealed to us President Museveni’s feet of clay. Namely, Mr. Museveni has forgotten that such a “preemptive strike” forces the adversary to change its plans, to act in haste in unclear situations, and thereby resort to even more acts of terror against Ugandans.

As war begets war, more innocents will die as Mr. Museveni increases the military budget in order to “protect” us against more deaths which will inevitably arise out of his attempts to “protect” us!

This spiraling misery will make Mr. Museveni even more powerful as we suffer as a consequence of his power, which means the further diminution of institutions such as parliament.

To compound matters, the invasion of DR Congo feeds into Mr. Museveni’s proclivity towards conducting wars as a means towards ensuring peace.

In this vein, he is fast becoming like Shaka Zulu, another leader who used war as an instrument of rule to the extent that when he was asked what he will do when he runs out of wars, he replied: “I will create more wars.”