The statement that the recent swearing-in of President Museveni for the fifth consecutive term as leader of Uganda, garnered the biggest attendance of African Heads of State speaks to my thesis that Africa it is "Not Yet Uhuru" for Africa. How can African leaders condone a clearly unfree election, with documented evidence that the main opposition leader was repeatedly imprisoned during the election itself? Even during Museveni’s inauguration, the main opposition leader was detained!

Where else in the world in the recent past have opposition leaders been detained during the very election that is supposed to determine a democratic outcome? Can one exercise freedom of association, speech, expression and freely campaign while in prison? And the outcome of that election be regarded by anybody including the Heads of State who attended the inauguration as having been free and fair?

The European Union, the USA, Makerere University’s School of Law and many others deemed those elections as a travesty. The main opposition leader was prevented from seeking the only remedy in a democracy - that is - the remedy of judicial review. The court was seized with a weak petition from a lightweight opposition leader who was allowed to file a petition for judicial review and consequently the petition was dismissed by a clearly corrupt judiciary, according to some reports.

If the main opposition leader Kizza Besigye would have been allowed to file an election petition, the Court would likely have treated the Petition a little more seriously as there would be direct evidence of detentions and rigging. The result of the judicial review may not have been different but still, some transparency, rigging as well as judicial corruption would have been exposed in the process. By barring Besigye from tendering the evidence through litigation, the system hopes that the evidence will be buried forever. It rarely works that way. Evidence leaves fingerprints and echoes into the future. A retired Ugandan Supreme Court judge previously stated that a previous judicial challenge to a Museveni election victory was made in error and he was very sorry about it and that that election had not been free and fair. Some judges develop consciences once they retire.

Look at some of the leaders who attended the inauguration: Jacob Zuma, a disgrace to his nation; Robert Mugabe, a human rights violater and individual who clings to power to prevent an inevitable criminal indictment; and Al-Bashir, a wanted criminal by the International Criminal Court. Tanzanian leaders, former and current have a special relationship with Museveni because they ousted Dictator Idi Amin together. Museveni studied in Tanzania and was operating from Tanzania.

Zambian President Edgar Lungu is facing an election this year and his statement that Ugandans must accept the election result was completely denounced by the Ugandans and the evidence of that is in the newspapers, but Lungu's statement was also aimed at Zambians to accept the August 11th, 2016 election result no matter how they may be obtained especially if they are in favour of the government. Other attendees are similarly or analogously affected.

Museveni took time to denounce the International Criminal Court (ICC) when it was in pursuit of al-Bashir, as a preventative measure because Museveni is likely to be bundled to the ICC for abuse of power during his reign. Museveni himself used the ICC against an opponent when it suited him. He wants to use the international judicial system when it suits him just like he is abusing the Ugandan judicial system to his advantage. He has learnt this from the international criminal system which prosecutes others but never allows itself to be prosecuted for colonial crimes, abetting apartheid, environmental destruction through mining and oil production pollution, international corporate criminality, bribery and corruption of African leaders, tax evasion, assassination and overthrow of democratic African leaders and so on.

Museveni has not escaped the eye and ear of US Republican presumptive Presidential nominee Donald Trump, himself a narcissistic personality who stated in February that Museveni belongs in Jail and not in State House, along with Robert Mugabe. Could Donald Trump as President ironically end up being the Redeemer of Africa, Trump the harbinger of Uhuru?

It is not yet Uhuru in Africa. Trump would have a lot of work to "Uhuru" Africa. Dictator Kagame says his people forced him to go for the third term. This is a clear lie because he could have refused, as Sam Nujoma of Namibia did. The following dictators have been in power forever and they would have to face Trump the Redeemer: Yahya Jammeh of Gambia, Idriss Deby of Chad, Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea, Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo, Nguema Mbassongo of Equatorial Guinea, al-Bashir of the Sudan and Paul Biya of Cameroon. He already has his sights on Museveni and Mugabe.

Hillary Clinton will, however, become the President of the United States of America, and while Trump would send tremors into the hearts of African dictators, they will find succour in the Presidency of Hillary Clinton and Africa will continue to be largely "Not Yet Uhuru."

By Dr. Munyonzwe Hamalengwa

Dr. Munyonzwe Hamalengwa teaches law at Zambian Open University School of Law and is the Author of The International Law of Human Rights in Africa: Basic Documents and Annotated Bibliography, and as well, Getting Away With Impunity: International Criminal Law and the Prosecution of Apartheid Criminals.