FDC Apologizes for Sectarian Tweet on Armed Rukutana

Uganda’s biggest opposition party, FDC has apologized for a tweet made a few days ago which carried some sectarian connotations.

Last week, when a photo of Deputy Attorney General, Mwesigwa Rukutuna seen armed with a gun on what is assumed to be his cattle farm went viral on the internet, FDC was among those that commented on it.

The official FDC Twitter account posted the photo with a caption: “A man (Mwesigwa Rukutana, Deputy Attorney General of Uganda) grazing his cattle the Karamoja style in Ankole…”

In the same tweet, the political party asked: “Will UPDF that disarmed Karimajongs move to disarm Banyankore who graze cattle with guns?”.

Over a decade ago, government rolled out a massive program to disarm the Karimajong of Northern Uganda. The move was meant to withdraw a proliferation of an estimated 40,000 guns in private hands which has been acquired illegally during the two-decade war in Northern Uganda against rebel Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The guns had exacerbated the insecurity within the region through raids carried out in neighboring areas and across the border, to steal cattle.

FDC’s tweet seemed to insinuate that a vast number of Banyankore from Western Uganda graze their cattle while armed with guns, which is not correct. Some found it wrong that FDC had singled out a particular tribe as a target of such a blanket statement.

On Sunday, FDC apologized for the tweet. The party said that the tweet had fallen short of the values and principles held by FDC.

“As a political party, we work daily towards uniting Ugandans as one people. The tweet below did fall below the values and the principles we hold as a party and we apologise sincerely for the use of Banyankore people as a whole and to all Ugandans,” the tweet read.

While some Tweeps have welcomed the apology, others demanded that the tweet in question gets deleted, while others said there was no need for FDC to apologize.