Are Ugandan men emasculated?

Reversing Gender Roles

A popular 1988 American-Vietnamese movie, “No retreat No Surrender 2” inspired many movie goers that however small and under resourced, one can overcome adversities. In fact, there was more to the name of the movie, which resonated with our patriarchal societal mores, than the movie content itself. In the typical African tradition, men did not retreat in front of adversity, neither did they renege on parental duties.

The numerous reports of men who are abandoning their spouses upon learning that the women have delivered triplets are surprising. The Ugandan dailies have recorded numerous instances, and yet, no concrete actions have been taken to protect these women and their triplets from neglect. The glaring lack of public policy, resources, and/or emergency response plan for such abandoned families complicates the situation.

What kind of men have we become? Are Ugandan men really that emasculated in the last 10 years?

Ugandans must come to terms with rapid trends in the world to embrace family planning. World over, women fertility trends have also changed due to fertility drugs, changes in the environment, and biochemical exposures. Not so long ago, men prided in having many children. Large families were a trademark of success and power. In fact, men rose to instant prominence due to a large family. Others took it as an investment. They took a large family to be a source of labour and when the children succeeded, they in turn, supported their parents, contributing to family development. These families were well established in rural communities where land was in plenty, even when children strayed in cities.

Today, societal structures are changing very rapidly. Rural to urban migration has increased at a terrible rate estimated at 49.5%. On its own, the rural population growth rate has increased from 6.7% in 1980 to approximately 14.8% by 2010. Moreover, the agglomeration index suggests that Uganda’s level of urbanization increased from 22.4% in 2002 to 29.3% in 2010. The urban population was growing at 5.1% higher than the national average of 3.2%.

The importance of the trends cited above is that many more people are detached from their rural roots where they could fall back during financial hardships in towns. Most of the people who migrate to urban areas are youths who have no skills to secure well-paying jobs, so they resort to petty and dangerous employment such as hawking, robbery and boda boda business. Moreover, some of these youths have had to sell of their land to buy bicycles or boda bodas; or lie about their struggles to their parents. So, when they should be returning their families to the village during hardships they jump ship.

Naturally, increased population density mounts pressure on social services; housing, healthcare, schools, employment etc. It is these harsh realities that have emasculated these men, forcing them to retreat in the face of adversity. With little money and no fall back in the villages, the males capitulate when basic responsibilities presses its demands.

When men retreat and leave women to fend for themselves and their innocent newborns, the government must intervene. It is the lack of such interventions for abandoned triplet mothers that tied Hawa Namaganda of Masajja Zone B, Sharifa Nakirija of Seeta, Mukono, Grace Nadango of Bulenga Village, Budumba Sub-County, Monica Nangiya of Mwezi village, Mayuge, Jane Kabugho of Kikonzo Cell of railway ward, Kasese, and Marriam Nassanga of Kavule-Nakyesa, in Kayunga, with the same sad knot.

The government has provided mandatory antenatal services for families. It is the same men who have absconded these services. It is important to compel men to accompany their pregnant wives to antenatal clinics so that they start to plan early for eventualities of multiple pregnancies.

The demise of a society becomes apparent when men renege from their duties or retreat into oblivion at the sight of adversity. In Uganda, social roles are changing. As men are retreating from their roles, more women are picking up and filling the vacuum effectively.

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POMA erodes our democratic credentials

REPEAL POMA

The images on social and mainstream media of Police brutally arresting Dr Kiiza Besigye, Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago and jobless youths are more than what we should tolerate. In fact, draconian laws such as the Public Order Management Act, 2013 are stripping us of individual rights in pretext of protecting public interest. In fact, relinquishing individual rights erode our democratic credentials negatively and only reaffirms that Uganda is under a near totalitarian regime.

Various international human rights instruments – Charters and Declarations have recognized individual autonomy as foundational to basic inalienable rights such as to assemble, associate, worship. They allow global citizens the liberty to develop intellectual as well as ideological realms upon which to advance human civilization. These rights are inherent and not granted by the state; human liberties, are indeed, the very essence of humanity.

To curtail human liberties by law and brute force, constitute the act of enslavement but reaffirms that we are in a Police State. In the Social Contract, J. J. Rousseau bemoans the fact that man is born free but in chains. In Uganda, we are not even born free, we are born with chains; ripples of colonialism, imperialism, poverty, natural calamity, repression, servitude…. Laws like POMA, 2013 goes a step further by placing additional layers of chains on our people.

I am wondering why the many lawyers who have accomplished the gay rights defense have not considered challenging the POMA with all its illegalities. To the layman’s guts, POMA violates the 1995 Constitutional provisions in Chapter 20 because Police has become the custodian of our liberties. In essence, Uganda is a Police state where Police now dispenses and supervises citizen’s activities.

Political scientists have been contrite on the issue of repression and have argued that one of the signs of existence of repression in society is the diminishing space for exertion of individual rights. Cardinal Emannuel Wamala is right to call for the repeal of POMA because the Police has demonstrated the propensity of abusing it.

Any laws that place the God given rights of man to be held in custody of men, and for such liberties to be dispensed selectively and maliciously as it is under the State Police, inherently violates codes of international human rights. Uganda is signatory to many of these human right charters and declarations, but world over, I am certain that it is only in Uganda where the Inspectorate of the Police administers the individual exercise of rights.

Ugandans already live in total fear of authority – another accomplishment of totalitarian regimes. Each time you urge Ugandans to speak up; they will tell you that those on the ground fear to speak up against the regime. The ordinary Ugandan has grown to fear to seek accountability from local authorities over broken basic social services such as boreholes, potholes, black-outs and poor quality services from health centres. This confirms that people have become detached and fearful of their government. This pervasive state of apathy towards authority emasculates the population and compromises the exercise of their powers as enshrined in chapter 1, Art. 1 of the Constitution. Power no longer belongs to the people.

How can power belong to the people when they have become afraid of that power, and are unable to use that power?

It is important for Ugandans to reclaim their power by first realizing that the protection of individual rights is the basis of exercise of power as enshrined in the Constitution. Further, although the protection of majority interests supersedes individual interest, the respect for human rights is not negotiable.

Further, it is important to pay individual police officers who violate human rights with an appropriate due in the court of law. Police has over stepped its boundaries and have become a public nuisance in the course of applying excessive force on perceived political opponents of the regime.

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Distortions on Amuru Game Reserves:Genesis of land grab

 AMURU LAND-GRAB

Many people have identified some distortions by Prof Morris Ogenga-Latigo on Amuru Game Reserves that may have profound implications on current Apaa land situationif not corrected. In his article that was published in the Observer newspaper of April 29, 2015, the Prof asserted that "…when Aswa-Lolim-Kilak controlled hunting areas in Acholi were de-gazetted in 1973, East Madi Game Reserve was not". (Re: Naked Acholi Mothers: Land or leadership gap?”). In fact, my research shows that this statement is inaccurate and insensitive to the tragic history of the People of Amuru.

This article intends to generate debate on whether the village of Apaa in the original position of things, belonged to Madi district; and whether Acholi settlers strayed and settled into Apaa by mistake after 1972 de-gazetting of these game reserves as claimed by Prof. Ogenga-Latigo.

Indeed, the history of the people of Amuru, their settlement patterns, and current land challenges are complex and intertwined with colonial injustices including forceful evictions, development of Game Parks, preserving Game Reserves, Disease (sleeping sickness), and now oil and land fertility.

To fully understand the timelines and the onset of turbulent history Amuru, one has to start from the turn of the century under colonial rule and Lamogi rebellion of 1911.

Precisely, the current land problems of Amuru can be traced back to 1911 when the British Colonial administration forcefully evicted residents of Amuru from their customary lands into squalid internment in Gulu at the end of the Lamogi rebellion. Researcher, Eria Serwajje revealed that the most affected clans in this displacement were people of Parabongo, Toro, Boro, Pagak, Pabbo and Lamogi.

The British claimed that the area was infested with Tse tse flies and small pox; administratively, the challenge of the Lamogi rebellion made it necessary to gather "insurgents" in close proximity for easy administration than when interspersed in large areas; and historians have viewed that displacement as part of divide and rule, given the challenges faced with Lamogi rebellion in 1911 (In Serwajje, 2012 and others).

It must be noted that the displacement and subsequent internment of the people of Amuru in Gulu town lasted for 25 years, from 1911 – 1936 (Serwajja, 2012). The evicted people were not allowed to return to Amuru in those 25 years and that partly explains why the Payira people are still spread everywhere in Gulu till this day and why the vast expanse of Amuru land remain uninhabited, or in the hands of few land owners (Read: Moses Odokonyero in "Rich and Poor in Acholi moving at different pace on land", DM, May 6, 2015).

During the 25 years of living in IDP camps, colonial administration converted the customary lands belonging to Lamogi, Boro, Parabongo, Pabbo and Pagak into game reserves with clear intentions not to allow those people back onto their lands.

According to a research by Eria Serwajje (2012), Murchision Falls National Park was established in 1936, the same year Gulu district was created. In the North of Lakang area, the British formed the East Madi Game Reserve, which covered the areas of Lakang, Kinene, the disputed Apaa, Anaka and Lamogi. All these were territories belonged to the Acholi people who were evicted in 1911. The reason that evictees were relocated to Gulu and camped at present day Bar Pece area was because they were Acholi, not Madi. Otherwise, the resident of Apaa would have been relocated to Adjumani. In fact, this same method of land usurpation was tried again by the NRM government when it proposed that IDPs be developed into urban centres so as to free Acholi customary lands where people were forcefully evicted from in 1996 by a decree from President Museveni.

The new game reserves were demarcated by the “galaya”(shinny metallic saurcers) that were hanged on trees to confirm the boundaries. Later, these boundaries became known as "Wang –galaya" in Acholi language, not in Madi.

The East Madi Game Reserve did not last because it later became known as Kilak Controlled Hunting Area in 1936, the same year of its founding, perhaps upon the visit by British PM, Winston Churchill (See: Eria Serwajja, 2012, p.14). So, it is clear that when people from Lakang and other areas were evicted, their lands were converted into conservation areas to promote sport hunting. Hunting permits where exclusive to foreigners. This means that the indigenous people were denied access and hunting rights on their lands. This policy later ignited the onset of poaching by residents of Amuru because game hunting was their reliable source of food.

History shows that first known legal consolidation of Amuru lands into game reserves was exacted through an ordinance called The Game (Preservation and Control) Ordinance No. 14 of 1959. This ordinance gazetted 15kms of migratory corridor for elephants, which later became known as Aswa/Lolim Game Reserve and separated from Kilak Controlled Hunting Area (Formerly East Madi). Therefore, it is accurate to state that East Madi Wildlife Conservation idea ceased to exist in 1936, at least on paper, and it had no legal basis before independence in 1962. (Refer also to Dr. Michael Amone Liri's "To the best of my knowledge, East Madi Game Reserve doesnt exist", DM 13/09/2011.)  

At the advent of independence, the Obote I government reinforced these colonial policies and in 1963, The Game (Preservation and Control) Act, which contained the Game (Kilak Hunting area) Order was enacted by The Uganda Game Department. The Order contained Legal Notice (L. N.) 364 of 1963, thereafter amended by Statutory Instrument (S.I.) 17 of 1964. These laws effectively gazetted Kilak Controlled Hunting Area.

These Ordinances further alienated and dispersed the Amuru people who were slowly returning to their lands from internment.

Idi Amin came with a rather radical land reforms in 1971, some of it appeared friendly, but above all, Amin was of the view that land belonged to government – to everyone else. However, on March 30^th, 1972 Amin’s Minister for Animal Resources, Hon. W.B Banage issued The Game (Preservation and Control) Abolition of Game Reserves Instrument, 1972 No. 54 which abolished the Katagati game Reserve and Aswa/ Lolim Game Reserves.

A separate Statutory Instrument 1972 No.55 was also issued in the same year, and it decreed that “The Game (Kilak Hunting Area) order is hereby revoked”. (I have copies of both)

It is therefore dishonest of Prof Ogenga- Latigo to state that “when Aswa-Lolim-Kilak controlled hunting areas in Acholi were de-gazetted in 1973, East Madi Game Reserve was not”. Note that there was no de-gazetting ordinace issued in 1973 as Dr. Ogenga-Latigo claimed. Given that the Professor was in Parliament for at least two complete terms, he should have acquainted himself with the existence of Amin’s decrees to avoid this embarrassing misspeaking, however deliberate!

A good reading about these developments can be found in the works of Eria Serwajje that I have cited extensively. This is a paper presented at an International Conference on Global Land Grabbing II, at Cornell University, NY, in 2012.

The resurgence of the East Madi Game Reserve was actually easy to trace. I have the Statutory Instrument dated 20^thSeptember, 2011 and signed by Prof Ephraim Kamuntu, the then Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities. When I did further studies, I confirmed that the pressure being mounted on the people of Amuru is indeed arising from an Investor.

My research shows that an Investor called Bruce Martin who owned Lake Albert Safaris/Lodge (Royal Uganda Outfitters; Lost Horizon Outfitters), was awarded the entire "East Madi Wildlife Reserve" since 2010. In the Hunting Report newsletter, The Reserve was described as “900 square-kilometers of unspoiled bush along the Nile River”, and that “there are no villagers on this land”. These revelations are contained in a paid Online Hunting Report Newsletter that can be accessed via google search or url: http://www.huntingreport.com/hunting_article_details.cfm?id=2378.(Note to the Editor: Is this 900 Square-Kilometer acquisition along the Nile possible, or should we open our ours even wider for what lays ahead?)

In conclusion, I have brought out some challenging perspectives and this are documented facts that are easy to verify since I have hard copies in my hands. It is incumbent upon you – Amuru, Adjumani and other stakeholders to now determine how to use this information to resolve the boundary issues amicably. It is clear that Prof Ogenga- Latigo and government are partial, and are interested parties in Amuru's land. It is only fair if Prof. Ogenga-Latigo were to exclude himself from future indulgences on the matter of Amuru and Acholi, as such. The truth be said, let us not subvert the peace that has returned to Northern Uganda by distortions. Let us also be mindful of the many Judas Iscariots who will go extra miles to sell the soul of the vulnerable post conflict Acholi without remorse. I am convinced that a proper appraisal of the matter of Apaa and future local government boundary disputes should be resolved amicably, and in a transparent manner by reverting to original colonial maps. The history of the people of Amuru has been that of distortions and displacement. The recent LRA/NRA war further alienated them from their land. We must therefore be just to locate the rightful boundaries of Amuru by going as far back in time as we can, else we shall be enforcing and perpetuating colonial injustices to these battered people.

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Students strike because they are surbodinated

SCHOOL STRIKES

A spectre looms above our heads in regards to equity in social discourse. It is important to understanding that in the new millennia, students are not subordinates, but key stakeholders in the education system. The persistent condescending attitude towards students in Ugandan is very problematic. In fact, it is thwarting growth, retarding our civilization, and to a greater extent, lowering the quality of our education.

School strikes, demonstrations, and all forms of civil resistance in our schools confirm that the education system itself is repressive. Strikes and demonstrations are merely a response to this objectionable colonial domination that typifies life in our public institutions.

The RedPepper Tabloid, on its April 1^st, 2015 edition reported that Prof. Mondo Kagonyera, the Chancellor of Makerere University advised employers not to hire students who participate in strikes because such students are undisciplined. This speech was delivered at the 12^th graduation ceremony of Makerere Business Institute (MBI) at Kikoni, in Kampala.

We all agree with Prof Kagonyera that strikes may lead to destruction of resources, bringing huge setback to private and public investments. However, the good Professor needs to be reminded that strikes are never intended course of action for students to resolve grievances. Students, like all other citizens, have found themselves facing difficult times, bad governance, repressive university policies, and alienation, such that strikes or demonstrations have become a broader social movement for mobilizing efforts at confronting these oppressive and repressive policies, and degrading human conditions.

 It is not that I support or promote the culture of strikes. Already, strikes in Uganda have found a life of their own among the disgruntled. More-so, it is ingrained in the perceptions of the managers of our affairs who refuses to recognize that those they manage are developmental partners, not subordinates.

Students are stakeholders in school administration and day-to-day management of schools. In most cases, they are treated as recipients of education services and denied decision making. When you investigate the reasons for most strikes in Ugandan schools, you will find some disturbing trends of radical exclusionism.

For example in October of 2014, pupils from Ngora School for the Blind went on strike in protest of their unfortunate living conditions and horrible foods. An elaborate article by Ivan Okuda ran in the Daily Monitor of July 2013, titled: What is fueling school strikes in Uganda. It provides insight into various school strikes, such as those at Ntare School, Mbarara High School, Kitagata SS and others. Prof Kagonyera should familiar himself with this article to gain insight as to why students go on strike.

The bottom-line is that our education institutions are the foundation of the culture of oppression, repression and impunity. The school system has failed to treat students as stakeholders, contrary to the recommendation in 1992 White Paper on Education, which recommended that students be given equal space and place at all levels of decision making.

To this date, strikes have become the corpus of public response to bad governance due to lack of accessible alternative medium of mediation to students. Every day I read the Ugandan media, reports of people demonstrating; youths running street battles with the Police, and Opposition figures being whipped to pulp by the police are commonplace. These running battles in the street reveal the high intolerance to divergence and yet we are ironically incapable of convergence on any matter.

The school system is still transmitting totalitarianism where it tries as much to galvanize and control all aspects of the students' public and private lives.  We forget that such systems were successful when access to information was a privilege for a few educated people. Public administration was then defined by control over information, something which is impossible with the advent of globalization, internet and social media!

Time is showing that the preserve of absolute control conflicts, naturally, with the values of the millennium youths who are more privy to instantaneity. They are bold and confident in their resolve to seek instant solution, were any delay is considered a strife.

Rampant strikes are a malfunction of the education system as a whole. Unless student are treated as equal stakeholders in the system, they will continue to feel alienated by the system. Their roles in school strikes should never determine their prospects in an empowering employment environment which promotes innovation, partnerships and transcendence.

 END.

Uganda is ready for a new dispensation.

A NEW DISPENSATION

Nigeria has completed its multiparty elections where an incumbent gracefully conceded defeat in an election. It is unprecedented “first” of its kind in that Nation. In Uganda, such a dream is far-fetched.

The road to 2016 is shaping up with its characteristic uncertainties of inflation, insecurity, hostility, and intolerance. The back-to-back assassinations of prominent figures taking place in Uganda projects a gloomy future pre and post elections.

That aside, there is a crisis of confidence in Uganda’s politics. For Ugandans to recover from the apathy towards their politics, some hangers-on must be exposed and eliminated.  These people aim to galvanize social and political spaces from replenishment of ideas.

There are cynics in this country who have amassed enormous amounts of wealth and will die protecting it. Many are now hanging on to this regime for selfish reasons to protect and secure their loot. However, we must assure them all that a change of regime does not translate into a change in their fortune, especially for those who have rightfully accumulated wealth.

Uganda is rife for a new dawn of politics; the politics of unity within our diversity.

The old Parties and current antics no longer have the capacity to propel us to a conjoined future. In fact, they are holding us hostage and continue to drag this nation downwards and backwards.

FDC President, Gen. Mugisha Muntu recently stated that the status quo measures progress from where we are coming from, not where we are going, or where we should have been.  This statement needs amplifying because Uganda is in the NRM bus that has no headlights. It is only those behind the driving wheel who are able to see their future, and the near future as such. In that bus, the common future for all Ugandans is obscured, bleak!

However, what options do we have with precariats?

The Ugandan opposition groups, without Dr Col Besigye, are like disciplined pupils in a classroom. They are constrained such that they have to obey draconian oppressive rules. In this regard, you know a serious Opposition figure by the frequency of charges against him/her tat are in court.

It is comprehensible that going back and forth in court and jail are frustrating; affording a lawyer is no ordinary feat for many; and feeding a family is hard task if the family’s breadwinner is in and out of jail. Living in the Opposition is precarious, making them “Precariats”, as coined by the American Linguist, Noam Chomski.

It is simply impossible to dislodge President Museveni if you are the type of urban elite who wants a luxurious life. Mr. Museveni has taken full control of the economy and the resources of this country as his own.  His costly investment in public administration enables him to secure control over Ugandans and their resources.

It implies that Mr. Museveni has the power to dispense wealth, comfort, vanity, dignity, and a peaceful existence to his unquestioning loyalists. The Uganda under President Museveni is a theatre of revolutionists of different shades. There are those who have and must protect what they have; and those who have nothing, but they must protect those who have, to exist.

Depravity explains the treachery, suspicion, distrust, and infighting within the Opposition ranks. It is very simple analogy – when you administer depravity, it sets ground for infighting due to scarcity of privileges and resources.

Such a pitiful existence is despised by a society that valorizes corruption and insanity. For public visibility, most opposition members have to appear on the fence. It is revealing of lack of organizing ideology, and thus, a need for new dispensations.

By far, Dr. Besigye deserves very positive appraisal for his courageous efforts at unsettling the status quo. Reform Agenda forced Museveni to return Northern Uganda on national agenda. Left to the vagaries of the status quo, that place could have been obsolete by now.

Without a strong non-opportunistic coalition of patriots, Mueveni will treat 2016 general election as a mere rite of passage.  At this rate, only Museveni can defeat Museveni. Period!

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Gulu Market and the symbolism of glamour

GULU MARKET

The Oxford dictionary defines the noun “glamour” as an attractive or exciting quality that makes a person or a thing seems appealing. The magnanimity of Gulu Market when contrasted with any forms of tangible development in Northern Uganda for the last 30 years makes it glamorous. A new physical attraction supplanted amidst a destitute population in Gulu and Lira serves a great symbolic purpose of a renewal.

Gulu Municipality, like most towns in Northern Uganda has the allure of a shanty settlement. The times under which these places endured civil unrest deprived the generation of witnessing real development but decay. For them now, any development that sprouts in Gulu is a reward from the kind hands of the President. As such, people started seeing new public facilities like Bank of Uganda, Gulu Local Council Offices, the Judiciary Offices, and partly Gulu University emerge as a post conflict reward from President Museveni.

I have a fond memory of the old Gulu market. Back in the days, it served the people well. I recall vividly the buzz of life at the market during hot sunny days. As a pupil of Holy Rosary, we would sneak out during lunch breaks to buy some bananas (Menvu) and boiled corn (maize). At times, we would navigate the packed traffic at the market to run down by the valley to buy sugarcanes.

Gulu market had specific gender significance because it defined expectations by gender. In most families, when men or women left their homesteads, their return would exemplify whether they passed via Gulu market or not. Wives would divorce their husbands who went on a journey to Gulu town but did not return with dried or salted fish, salt, or cooking oil. Gulu market was more important to the daily endevour of the people than just the glamour.

Those were the good old days before the NRA came to town, and before the NRA Kadogos (child soldiers) started arresting, harassing, and murdering people on suspicion of having served in UNLA that they derogated as Obote’s Army. The advent of the NRA in Gulu changed the image of the marketplace. It became a different place altogether. By the end of 1986, it was a place of fear where one would bear witness to firing squad or broad day light arrest of suspected “Anyanyas”.

Subsequently, Gulu market and Pece Stadium (Bar-Pece) became the dual symbol of decay for this town and its society.

Acholi youths were known for sportsmanship and artistry. The boys played soccer and the girls, netball. They took Pece Stadium very seriously as a place where great talent converged – a symbol of talent. Playing at the stadium was a prestige and something every young man longed to experience.

In fact, the fascination of playing at Pece Stadium inspired exceptional artistry in the young Acholi people when it came to music dance and drama. Literally, every school child played an instrument, mastered Acholi songs, and executed quite a number of rich Acholi dance genres with precision of a pro. Every school vied for a spot to perform at Pece Stadium. Pece was the gateway to national Stardom that probably culminated with a performance at National Theatre or Nakivubo in Kampala.

In the same breadth, shopping at Gulu market was the delight of every young Acholi woman, wife, mother, and grandmother. It was the economic hub of the region.  

Gulu Market and Pece Stadium were dream theatres.

Then the war took away the youths – the very foliage of that society. Then both Pece stadium and Gulu Market embarked on rapid decay. This followed an intensely sustained propaganda that Acholi people are a violent backward chauvinists. The image of the Acholi was tainted as that of violent killers, heartless chauvinists, and so forth. It took many people by surprise and such reprisals helped largely to mobilize sentiments against the Acholi haters.

And, here we are, celebrating the renewal of Gulu market, a symbol of glamour which may have come without the old forms of life that pre-occupied it. Definitely, Gulu market without Pece Stadium is like a glamorous smiling woman with a very ill partner.

END

Being a Minister has no bearing on how Uganda is governed

PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENTS

The nostalgia that shrouds the Nation prior to a new cabinet or RDC announcements in Uganda remains an enigma. Such characteristic nostalgia lacks excessively after the reading of the budget. One would imagine that issues of taxes should naturally concern Ugandans more than political appointments.

Why do Ugandans still respond with this strange nostalgia following Presidential appointments?

In the close to 30 years of President Museveni’s rule in Uganda, he has carried out so many reshuffles, appointments and disappointments, both in cabinet, public service heads and among RDCs with their deputies or assistants. There are many lessons one can learn by critically observing the guerilla tactics and strategies of President Museveni. How he deploys these skillfully over unsuspecting civilians reveals his mastery of survival overall.

First, there are people that he has recycled at every level, as ministers, the likes of Honourable Sam Kutesa, Moses Ali, Kahinda Otafiire, Ruhakana Rugunda, Jim Muhwezi, John Nassasira, Amama Mbabazi, Crispus Kiyonga and others. In his list of recycled Ministers, the people from his part of the country have bounced back to cabinet even when they have presided over financial misappropriations in their line Ministries, or botched up special tasks under their dockets. In comparison, individuals from other regions, once fallen even on mere suspicion, are never recycled – in fact, they are alienated even further from government.

President Museveni has determined that some individuals are made of ministerial genetic materials, while others are befitting of occasional roles as ministers. As such, he chooses those who will remain foundational at each level of political appointment; Ministers, Ministers of state, RDC, deputy or Assistant RDC.

Likewise, if your genes are suited for the task of an RDC, then you will be sure enough to perform at that level and recycled at the same level until your absolute relevance is depleted then you are dumped.

A major feature is that the “Museveni way” is the fusion of patriotism with Musevenism, - a sub-ideology that promotes the life Presidency for a man heralded as a divine gift to Uganda.

Musevenism as an ideology is the false teaching that loving your country (Patriotism) is akin with loving the person of Museveni and his family. Patriots are those who tow the Museveni line, those indoctrinated with bush-era ideology under the custody of NRA/UPDF political commissars, and taught that Museveni is a God’s gift to Uganda. For him, it is about longevity that endears him to youthful leaders. They help him bridge the intergenerational gap to remain relevant, and when reduced by nature to install his Prince as a successor.

Therefore, enthusiasts like Honourables; David Bahati, Frank Tumwebaze, Richard Todwong, Evelyn Anite, Aida Nantaba etc do not nourish Museveni’s intellect one bit. They reaffirm it. They are concurrently a means and an outcome of his ideology of self-perpetuating. These individuals are no longer merely “Patriots”, they have attained the highest levels of accomplishments as Musevenists, who profess Musevenism.

Some analysts have argued that President Museveni has ideal Ministers in those he recycles. These people are never worried for a night of not featuring in Museveni’s cabinet. So, why is there so much nostalgia when each cabinet reshuffle or RDC appointments occur?

One possible explanation is that being a Minister of Museveni has lost value. To be a Minister, you have to become a Musevenist like Hon Evelyn Anite, be a celebrated thief (corrupt), or act as an object of appeasement to electorates. Competence, vision, authenticity, and independence of mind are considered subversive requirement for this job. 

Second, because Presidential appointee are associated with fleecing on the country’s resources – given the spate of public theft by ministers, many of whom end up being recycled – some people have worked so hard to attain the status of being a Musevenists to win a Presidential appointment. Each ministerial or RDC appointment time therefore, is looked at fervently as a window of opportunity to ascend to a public office for self-aggrandizement.

Otherwise, I contend that being a Minister, Presidential Advisor or an RDC now has no bearing on how President Museveni governs Uganda.

END