I am aware, as you should, that
many people have built successful political careers by NOT talking about their strengths or abilities, but by constantly highlighting the faults or weaknesses in others.
They don’t even tell what they want to do for the people – like what they really stand for – but will be quick to point out that so and so leader is not good for you!
Of course they will involve the people in sectarian talk often saying “ffee- we” as if they really mean it. They don’t mean it that is why every five years a great many of them are snubbed at the ballot boxes.
But this is the nature of politics and once you decide to join it, you have to have a thick skin and ready to lose your morals. You will be abused and you respond, in these bare knuckle fights, which spares no family even your mother or father.
Unfortunately, others “bakisuusa- they overdo it” and they end up thinking that politics is all about abusing others. Of course you will never win a political contest solely on the strength of hauling insults on your opponents.
Why don’t you try something like:
“Yes we can!” As Barrack Obama told us or “We can make America great again!” As Donald Trump has been singing for years. He will occasionally throw in the “sleepy Joe- tired Biden” jibe but he won’t lose the massage of what he wants to do for America.
In the 1995 elections, candidate Museveni used to move around telling whoever wanted to listen that:
“You see this man Mr. Paul
Ssemwogerere, he has the
“omusalaba- rosary” and I
have “obuuma- metals”
(meaning bullets). Whom
do you think is better
positioned to fight and
defeat Joseph Kony?”
Just like that and 85% of the voters agreed with Gen. Yoweri Museveni on the strength of securing their country and properties.
Then came in Col (rtd). Dr. Kizza Besigye Kifefe. He came in with such power and energy that, at first, many people were fooled. He was fierce and uncompromising in the pursuit of the highest seat in the land.
And yet there was absolutely nothing to warrant such brutal attacks. Besigye and Museveni had been together in the trenches and even came up with the strategies and tactics to rule over us endlessly!
Whatever might have gone wrong between these two erstwhile comrades, it had nothing to do with Ugandans. Basically we needed peace and to be able to educate our children. That is all we needed and demanded for nothing more.
But Kizza Besigye was organizing the rest of us to hate President Museveni on his behalf (mbu tumumuwalanileko)!
His style of campaign politics was all about abuses, insults, lies and forceful use of his raspy voice. Together they had conquered Uganda and messed up many things. Now Dr. Besigye was abandoning ship and asking the rest of us to jump over board.
When Kizza Besigye came in 2001, he told us that Museveni was HIV+ “because I was his personal physician” and many people, not with ostrich brains, remembered something called ‘doctor-patient privilege’ and begun to detest Dr. Besigye.
He promised to tell the country Mr. Museveni’s secrets and voters were all ears. He never revealed anything substantial except of course concocting lies. At one time he told a stunned nation that candidate Yoweri Museveni had sold L. Kyoga to South African investors.
Then Winnie Byanyima, Dr. Kizza Besigye’s beautiful wife, joined the bandwagon promising to reveal potent secrets of Yoweri Museveni. Miss Byanyima’s parents were longtime friends of Mr. Museveni.
The only secret which came out unfortunately was the fact that, actually, Kizza Besigye had ‘disobeyed’ a direct order from his commander not to take Winnie into confidence!
Candidate Museveni and his team would come up with a very cheeky but effective advert which deflated completely Dr. Besigye’s elevated ego.
The radio advert went like this:
Kizza Besigye, in a hoarse voice, would be heard hauling a lot of insults to Museveni. Then this almost breathless small child came running and crying to it’s mother saying in a frightened but concerned voice that. “Maama! Maama!” What is wrong with this man?”
Then it soon got very ugly and some people get shot or disappear without trace. Besigye, the man who has stirred the beehive, run into exile in South Africa.
Again in Africa indeed Uganda, you will be surprised how the voters have been conditioned into believing that politics and political campaigning is nothing but abusing each other. In heated incidences they trade blows and many go to visit their ‘ancestors’ to seek for protection and guidance from those using dirty tricks including ‘juju- muti- voodoo, or whatever can disable their opponents.
It is never about the people they want to govern but often always about them – the leaders!
Imagine the people vote for Mr. X thinking that at least he will assist in solving their urgent problem of having a healthy centre in their community. X fails but every week he is in the constituency showing off with huge vehicles and beautiful Kampala prostitutes on hire.
When the next election comes, Mr. X is bluntly informed that he will not be supported again. Do you know what he does?
First he will sell whatever he has accumulated to bribe the voters and if this fails, he will visit the ‘underworld’ where the “juju men” will advise him to sacrifice his first child. Of course this ‘sacrifice’ never works and Mr. X is seen around city streets, unemployed, and talking to himself!
People, get into the habit of counting our leader’s kids during and after an election. These folks are shameless and uncompromising when it comes to keeping their seats!
If you are in the opposition and you don’t call Mr. Museveni a ‘dictator’ then you’re in the wrong political contest. You have to talk about his ‘Rwandan’ origin and how he has stollen our money or given our land to ‘his’ people.
For nearly six elections later, Mr. Museveni wins with resounding majorities. Why? This nonsense or trash talk is very ineffective and cannot be relied upon by a clever politician.
It was only in 2021, after candidate Museveni had lost most of his clever people, that Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine nearly snatched the presidency from him.
Someone really nasty had gone out of his or her way and plastered all Kampala these images of Bobi Wine smoking “enjaga- weed’ which display only encouraged more people to vote for him.
First and foremost no one expected a respecting Museveni to go native. Besides those people forgot one important fact: many Ugandans use ‘enjaga’ including senior fellows in security agencies. It was an advert in bad taste and I think Museveni and his campaign team won’t go so low again.
President Museveni, by the way, is not bothered by being called a dictator, murderer or tribalist. He knows that the folks making those allegations are politicians and they don’t mean it. Better yet, a now wise Ugandan population doesn’t trust those who use such tactics.
Politicians are a people who don’t mean what they say; but mean what they don’t say. They have an alternative reality almost seeing the world upside down like bats.
They will cry before their fellow legislators begging for money to construct a school in their constituency. When money is eventually allocated, these legislators will connive with local leaders and embezzle the funds.
Invariably, intelligent people don’t talk about the weakness of others; they talk about their own strengths. This is what gave an advantage to Barrack Obama a Kenyan- fathered man to become the first black person to rule America.
He talked about his background; his being segregated as a black man growing up in a racially divided America and highlighted the urgent need to stop dividing America into ‘red’ states and ‘blue’ states.
Because Ugandan politicians know almost nothing about politics, many of them will never scale the heights of top leadership.
Of what logic apparent is Lord Mayor Elias Lukwago’s brand of politics? How about Harold Kaija, Semujju Ibrahim Nganda and Luttamaguzi Semakula of Nakaseke?
I will tell you something right now. Ugandan politicians don’t know anything about politics and we, their followers, are even in a worse state of ignorance.
Hon. Luttamaguzi Semakula is one fellow who now thinks that President Museveni’s other name is Dictator. He is constantly talking about ‘those’ people stealing our land and that we have to return them from whence they came.
Lo and behold!
Hon. Luttamaguzi has been met several times visiting, indeed hobnobbing, with Gen. Salim Saleh who is one of ‘those’ people he often talks about. How low are politicians a breed of humans who forever think that they are smarter than everyone else?
And this I am going to tell you, oh my God, you will never guess even in your wildest dreams.
I was reliably informed by one of the prolific Kampala Lord Mayor candidates that actually Mr. Museveni supports Elias Lukwago to lead our capital city. That the open enmity the two men often display is to hoodwink the voters.
The Lord Mayor ‘candidate’ last told me that: “As long as Elias Lukwago messes Kampala, Ugandans will always see Mr. Museveni as the only hope for Uganda!”
If you were to ask me whether Uganda needs politics and politicians, I would answer you with a big fat NO. Politicians and their Machiavellian politics have done more harm than good to our country.
As much as Idi Amin Dada’s regime was classified as a tyrannical one, we now know what he did for our country. He had no Parliament therefore no parasites around him. That is why he performed way above his education level indeed better than most of Ugandan presidents.
Therefore there is absolutely nothing you can tell me about politics and politicians. Our country would do better without them absolutely. Now that the entry point is a form six or it’s equivalent, the people joining politics at the highest level are not what you would normally associate with such prestigious positions.
Look at the people President Museveni appoints as ministers or as leaders of other government concerns like UBOS, URA, URSB, etc. Most of these fellows you would normally avoid them when constituting village committees.
True some of them have the requisite education but lack other necessary credentials like honestly.
Other legislators are in Parliament forever awed how they ended up there. They know they are undeservedly occupying seats once the preserve of people like Ben Kiwanuka, Yoweri Kyesimira, Dan Wadada Nabudere, Chango Mancho, Cecilia Ogwal, Ogenga latigo, Hussein Kyanjo, Tarsis Kabwejere, Luwuliza Kirunda, Adonia Tiberondwa, Norbert Mao, Charles Ayume, James Wapakhabulo, Aggrey Awori, name others but all great legislators.
A none political Museveni (1986-1996) did a lot of wonders for Uganda’s economy.
After defeating Paul Ssemwogerere and Kibirige Mayanja in the 1996 general election however, it was all systems go. He had summoned his top confidants and whispered to them that “Uganda is now ours to do as we please!”
Even his people, those hitherto poor fellows he came with from the bush, started behaving like small children in a toy store.
They started flaunting wealth and marrying the land’s best girls. When sent to purchase military hardware, they came back with dude bombs and artillery pieces without firing pins. There is a now prominent politician, then serving as a soldier, who purchased helicopters without rotor blades and military fatigues too small that they simply abandoned them!
You would hear them chuckling that “politicians are now in charge therefore we have to eat as quickly as possible!”
Uganda is a country forever cursed because of its human rulership. Almost to a person, our leaders don’t understand why they become leaders of men in the first place.
How could for instance a simple man, not even educated in the true sense of the word, called Apollo Milton Obote, discrete Buganda kingdom; later writing his own constitution subsequently burning all kingdoms which were here even before his own grandparents were born?
It was all though politics stupid!
Through machinations and manipulations, Obote did return in 1980 to cause more havock to Ugandans. He was eventually overthrown in May 1985 by his soldiers the Okellos (Tito Lutwa and Bazillio Olara). This was the second time his cherished “my men- soldiers” overthrew him.
The first time was January 25, 1971, when his self-created general, Idi Amin Dada, whom he once refered to as “my Kakwa attacking dog,” instead turned and attacked him.
Someone once quipped that Milton Obote was the greatest Ugandan politician. Of course it was a whitty remark meant as a flattery. Obote was just lucky to be born in a country of unserious people.
Had he been born in Zambia or Nigeria, he wouldn’t have risen to a level of a school principal.
On day I had a conversation with a Nigerian Igbo man called Chima Nwachuko, with whom we were teachers in Namibia. He would always hear me talk fondly of Yoweri Museveni and how clever he was for ruling over us for decades.
Then one day Chima surprised me with this under- the- belt punch:
“It’s not Museveni who is clever:
It’s you, Ugandans, who are
stupid!”
After that statement, I avoided Master Chima even if we shared the same staffroom and ate our lunches at the school cafeteria.
Not very many people can handle the truth.
LESSONS FROM THE 1980 GENERAL ELECTIONS:
In 1980, I was in P.3 having missed a full calendar year of 1979 because of the border war between Amin’s Uganda and Nyerere’s Tanzania.
When unserious people play with conditions which can result into a war, I hate them completely. My schooling was again disrupted when Museveni and his NRA cut off Southern Uganda from Kampala at Katonga Bridge. This time I joined the NRA and played a vital role in the final liberation of Uganda.
But three incidences happened during the 1980 elections which I must draw your attention to. This is meant to drive home the meaning of our heading: Why Ugandan politicians know know nothing about politics.
ONE: Milton Obote and his Men:
One day during the 1980 general election campaigns, I attended a UPC political rally at Kasambya grounds in Kyotera. The chief guest was ‘Papa’ Milton Obote whom many people were calling “Baaba wa taifa- founder of Uganda).
I saw and heard Apollo Milton Obote making this statement:
“You see all these men
standing in front of you?
(pointing at UNLF- senior
commanders Tito Okello Lutwa,
David Oyite Ojok, Zed Maruru,
Bazillio Olara Okello and
William Omaria). These are
my men. Where is Paul
Ssemwogerere’s men?”
Milton Obote, perhaps Uganda’s greatest politician, who was also it’s worst, was like a textbook example of a politician who knew too little about politics of survival.
The men Milton Obote was parading as “my men” never belonged to him. These were Ugandan soldiers trained way back in the 1960s therefore not his men. But of course that is what politics turns good men into.
Obote was overthrow twice in a period of 15 years by his beloved ‘soldiers’ a clear testament that he was not, after all, a clever person!
TWO: Paul Ssemwogerere and his Victory:
At the same Kasambya grounds, again in 1980 campaigns, and a few weeks earlier, I saw and even heard Paul Ssemwogerere of DP, who was Obote’s political nemesis, concluding his own speech with the following ominous words:
“My friends, “kiwedde- victory
is certain,” we meet in State
House Entebbe!”
Perhaps overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the crowd, Paul Ssemwogerere saw himself as winning the elections of December 1980 with ease. He had an overwhelming support in Buganda, alright, but discounted what was happening in the rest of the country.
Unfortunately, this continues to be the bane of all Baganda politicians: they somehow mistakenly think that ‘Buganda’ is actually Uganda or that being an Itesot, automatically all people of Soroti will vote for you!
My father who openly supported UPC and at night DP when everyone was awake, made the following comment as we walked back to our village after that huge DP rally that:
“Paul Ssemwogerere amanyi
lodibuloka meka okuva wano
mpaka Ntebbe- is DP leader
even aware of the obstacles on
the road from here to Entebbe
State House?”
That was my old man showing you, in not-so-many words, how simple and little- knowledgeable were Ugandan politicians.
And my father’s words came to pass when Ssemwogerere’s DP won the election (highest number of votes polled) but Milton Obote’s UPC formed the government (because of the highest number of constituencies won many of them gerrymandered)!
Actually the army and Paulo Muwanga were instrumental in rigging the votes in favor of Milton Obote. This obvious fact, DP and Paul Ssemwogerere had decided to ignore until it was too late.
Those were the ‘roadblocks’ my father was talking about which are also being faced by our current opposition politicians as they attempt to discontinue Museveni’s four decades rule.
THREE: Jabeli Bidandi Ssaali and his Prison Guard:
Like with the other two big political rallies (UPC and DP), I woke up very early to go and attend the UPM (Uganda Patriotic Movement) rally anticipating to meet Yoweri Museveni in person. Rumor had been making rounds that the veteran rebel leader Yoweri Museveni, whose rebel boys were killed near our home way back in 1972, was going to be in town.
We were only 28 people, 10 of us small kids included, who waited on Mr. Museveni at a small venue in town. After waiting for an eternity, and with great disappointment, it was actually UPM’s vice president, Bidandi Ssaali, who showed up.
My father, always the funny one, would tell us that Museveni had perhaps stopped at Kalisizo town after hearing of the small crowd awaiting on him in Kyotera.
I had of course witnessed Milton Obote’s arrival with dozens of black Mercedes Benzes moving in a zig-zagging motion followed by heavily armed men on military vehicles.
Paul Ssemwogerere did not have soldiers, except two police escorts, but he moved in a motorcade of about 60 vehicles. His venues were often filled with people clad in green and white singing “DP Egumire” signature song.
But Jabeli Bidandi Ssaali was alone and escorted by a prison Warden who was armed with an AK-47.
I don’t remember much what Bidandi Ssaali said, but he looked very young then and not interested in the politics of the time. He had perhaps been forced by Yoweri Museveni to come and represent him.
It is also true that Museveni’s vice president was not privy to the impending guerrilla war his boss was preoccupied with.
That is the reason why Museveni was in Luweero fighting while Bidandi Ssaali was in Kampala employed as Kampala City Council (KCC) football manager.
In 1980, Yoweri Museveni aged 35 years old, he already knew that one day, he will become president of Uganda. He had done his homework and waited for the opportune time.
He is a politician who knows too much while the reverse is true of his opponents.
In all successful political endeavors or anything in life for that matter, preparation is paramount and appearance completely irrelevant. This is Mr. Museveni’s forte.
BY WAY OF CONCLUSION:
I have told you that politics is a game but what I haven’t told you is the fact that this game has many windows to make mistakes. It has very few rules and unlike the other traditional games, in this one, the referee or umpire can actually be one of the players.
A reccuring theme in my many articles here is the hidden message of teaching my people politics especially as practiced by the master tactician himself: Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
Are they learning anything? I doubt.
That is why they will, come 2026, escort candidate Museveni to his 7th election victory. Of course they will shout that Museveni has rigged the exercise a reaction anticipated every five years: Museveni winning the vote and the opposition crying fraud!
And President Yoweri Museveni has already set-up the opposition to fail.
The opposition is already trapped with the ‘MK Project’ therefore can’t think beyond that. What happens if Mr. Museveni changes the goal posts and decides to field NOT MK but his mother?
And many other reasons why our opposition is simply enjoying a temporary limelight but not at all interested in changing the fortunes of our politics.
Like Paul Ssemwogerere, they will excite us with the supposedly popular numbers but forgetting the fact that they don’t control what is announced or who announces it!
That is why I call all political contests in Uganda, “Fool’s Errands” because the outcome is always known even before the voting takes place.
LAST WORD: “If we knew the meaning to everything that is happening to us, then there would be no meaning!” – Gen. Idi Amin Dada 1976.
Adam Kamulegeya
adamkam2003@gmail.com
0779 104 336
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