{"id":29259,"date":"2016-10-08T23:39:15","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T23:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/i-won-polls-because-of-god-says-museveni\/"},"modified":"2016-10-08T23:39:06","modified_gmt":"2016-10-08T23:39:06","slug":"i-won-polls-because-of-god-says-museveni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/i-won-polls-because-of-god-says-museveni\/","title":{"rendered":"I won polls because of God, says Museveni"},"content":{"rendered":"

{At the breakfast, Mr Museveni also briefly touched on the controversial matter of homosexuality, directing the Ethics minister Fr Simon Lokodo to use \u201cpersuasion and not coercion\u201d in dealing with offenders.}<\/p>\n

Kampala- President Museveni yesterday said his re-election early this year for a fifth term was because of the \u201cwill of God\u201d, saying that anyone who prayed otherwise would have usurped the power of God.<\/p>\n

He was responding to remarks by the chairman Uganda Parliamentary Fellowship, Mr David Bahati, who had earlier said Fellowship members were at first divided on the prayer request; some wanted to pray for change while others wanted the status quo maintained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe agreed to pray for peace and stability and let God\u2019s will be done,\u201d said Mr Bahati, also minister of State for Planning in the Ministry of Finance.<\/p>\n

Mr Museveni told the 18th National Prayer Breakfast at Hotel Africana in Kampala on Saturday that at last year\u2019s breakfast prayers that preceded the election campaigns, members were right not to take sides in the presidential election that pitted him against seven challengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you were right to simply pray for the will of God to be done. That was a good strategy. Otherwise, you would have usurped the power of God. I congratulate you on that,\u201d Mr Museveni said.<\/p>\n

Though Mr Museveni was declared winner of the elections with 60.7 per cent, his opponents rejected the results as flawed and his closest challenger, Dr Kizza Besigye, who garnered 35 per cent, according to the Electoral Commission, is still demanding an international audit of the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t pray that much but once in a while, I sit down and consult with God. Mama Janet prays day and night,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Museveni revealed that it was by divine power that he was able to pardon Chris Rwakasisi in 2009 after spending 20 years in Luzira Prison. Rwakasisi is a former minister of security during Milton Obote\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cHon Rwakasisi was supposed to die. I consulted God and the voice told me, leave him. That decision was not mine but someone gave it to me. I don\u2019t know how it connects with the mind but..,\u201d he said as he introduced the former convict amid ululations.<\/p>\n

Mr Museveni also preached frugality, telling the audience drawn from MPs, members of the diplomatic corps, religious leaders and ordinary citizens not to be swayed by what he called \u201cworldly things\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are not careful of worldly things, you will end up in trouble. And to you leaders who have had a chance to have power over society, you should be very careful because of the temptations that come with power,\u201d Mr Museveni said.<\/p>\n

At the breakfast, Mr Museveni also briefly touched on the controversial matter of homosexuality, directing the Ethics minister Fr Simon Lokodo to use \u201cpersuasion and not coercion\u201d in dealing with offenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are saying that the idea we had of a woman linking up with a man is out of fashion. I have encouraged Lokodo to use persuasion instead of coercion. You know Lokodo has been fighting some war with some children,\u201d Mr Museveni said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{At the breakfast, Mr Museveni also briefly touched on the controversial matter of homosexuality, directing the Ethics minister Fr Simon Lokodo to use \u201cpersuasion and not coercion\u201d in dealing with offenders.} Kampala- President Museveni yesterday said his re-election early this year for a fifth term was because of the \u201cwill of God\u201d, saying that anyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[99],"byline":[2481],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-29259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-monitor"],"bylines":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29259"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=29259"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=29259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}