Friends, I told you in an earlier article that: “when we’re busy making our plans, God is watching and laughing: He knows our plans will not go through!”
President Museveni like God, was resting at his home as we were busy gyrating in Masaka (Gen. Kale Kayihura being one of us), and praising and calling Gen. MK our new saviour. If you’re an expert at reading people, you would have noticed that MK was not very enthusiastic to be in Masaka.
It is more than likely that Mr. Museveni had his cabinet list finished many months back (and MK knew about it), perhaps the day after ministers Kitutu and Nandutu had led the ‘gang’ which stole the Karamoja iron sheets.
Though a calm person naturally, Mr. Museveni was visibly at pain seeing these ladies he trusted openly abusing their offices. I like to believe that their sacking might, in a big way, scare others from misusing government resources.
After the ‘Masaka Baraaza’ however, he had quickly dusted his notebook and added some names and erased others. It was about time to deliver the reshuffle in the process creating yet again another aura of mystery.
I know that some of you don’t like me mentioning God and Museveni in the same sentence but that is what we’ve got. Museveni is our human god; a clever person to boot!
He elevated his son Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba (MK) as Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) in a delivery which can only be described as a fait accompli.
Once again, he caught the entire nation napping except Gen. MK himself.
Bobi’s NUP was busy having it’s day in the limelight for showing the country how ‘corrupt-free’ it was and thinking that this will become it’s new mantra!
And Museveni used that lull to sneak his son to the top command of the Uganda army (UPDF). In this drama, I can single out only one Ugandan enjoying the sunshine: Nobert Mao.
Indeed, we were all gearing up to tear into shreds MK the ‘politician’ and instead his father turned to him the entire armed forces. In case you don’t know, even private security companies are now under MK including of course the police and prisons.
We can read two or three scenarios from the recent reshuffle and subsequent elevation of Gen. MK.
SCENARIO ONE: Museveni was Rewarding his Son:
Contrary to what we might all think, Gen. MK has delivered what his father deployed him to do: silence the opposition and kill Bobi Wine’s hitherto meteoric rise. In Kiswahili they say: “Kazi aliyotumwa ameyimaliza- mission accomplished!”
Thanks to MK’s efforts and perhaps Balaam Barugahale, now NUP is at the embalming state; FDC in the hearse headed to the funeral ground; DP being lowered into the grave and UPC’s copse somehow resisting the priest’s last words: To dust we came; to dust we return!”
Whatever little politics we were allowed to practice, it is now all gone. All systems will, from henceforward, be oiled to serve Mr. Museveni without any fear or favor.
I often refer to Mr. Museveni as a genius exactly for executing such unconventional bold moves. Now he will enjoy his quiet possession of Uganda without any worries perhaps like a bird in the air!
SCENARIO TWO: Deflating PLU:
Friends, I am sure many of you know about the PLU (Patriotic League of Uganda) which came with a lot of fanfare. And you also saw the same group recently shutting down business in Masaka town.
Now let me pause this question to you: when do you think President Museveni decided on his cabinet reshuffle which ended with PLU bosses (MK, Balaam and Aber) chosen as ministers?
Was it before or after the so-called ‘Masaka Baraaza’ where MK was nearly unveiled as the crown prince by unpatriotic Ugandans?
What do you think is going on in the minds of those ‘big’ people seen standing at the podium in Masaka singing praises for MK? I don’t think they were doing it because somehow had an idea that he was about to be appointed CDF!
Be that as it were, President Yoweri Museveni was having a difficult time to control the ‘jinn’ which had escaped from it’s bottle. The jinn of course was MK and his army of sycophantic supporters who were threatening to swallow the NRM and perhaps force President Museveni to ‘abdicate’ from the throne.
It is probable that President Museveni saw and heard what was happening in Masaka during the MK visit. Former IGP Kale Kayihura was in attendance so was defence minister Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja. The latter is now a former minister perhaps for showing much enthusiasm towards PLU and MK!
Mr. Vincent Ssempijja, I heard, was a classic example of why Baganda don’t know how to keep power. He will not control Kalungu politics again!
Regardless, senior NRM cadres like Major Gen. Kahinda Otafiire and Haji Abdul Naduli were already warning of a fallout within the NRM if MK and PLU were allowed to exist. Tearing the NRM in the divine name of creating a path for MK presidency wasn’t worth the pain.
Even the army was torn to threads after one of its senior serving officers had turned it’s codes on their backside.
It is likely that President Museveni listened to these divergent views and decided to halt, for now, MK’s presidential ambitions.
Balaam Barugahale and Aber, now state ministers, were important cogs in the PLU machinery. When you remove MK and force Balaam to start wearing suits rather than his traditional orange T-shirts, then PLU is but killed in it’s infancy.
I don’t know if the head of state even remembers other PLU sponsors like Tamale Mirundi, Hon. David Kabanda, Hon. Mawanda and Frank Gashumba. These fellows like David Kabanda knew too ‘little’ about Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni. “I must say this,” as Idi Amin loved to drive his point at home
SCENARIO THREE: Preparing MK for President:
President Yoweri Museveni is now convinced that it will not be an easy task to cajole Ugandans to accept, without a fight, the ascendency of Gen. MK to the presidency. At least the political path he was trying to navigate will be very costly and difficult too.
A few weeks ago, Gen. Yoweri Museveni launched an Instrument of delegated Command, Control and Administration to Gen. Wilson Mbasu Mbandi then CDF. This huge volumed document is titled “UPDF Establishment 2021” which settles everything military in Uganda.
Gen. Mbandi, according to President Museveni, “was to exercise full command of all elements of the UPDF!”
Some commenters were quick to point out how it was dangerous to vest too much power in the hands of one soldier.
What they didn’t know was the fact that the ‘one’ powerful soldier was not Mbasu Mbandi but President Museveni’s own son, Gen. MK.
It is now clear as daylight that MK is, without doubt, President Yoweri Museveni’s heir apparent not to the Rwakitura and Kisozi ranches but as president of Uganda.
More importantly, MK is now in a better position to ‘avenge’ on his father’s tormentors!
Otherwise, with a flare and the usual chum, President Museveni sneaked his son to the top echelon of Africa’s most potent army and to make it more dramatic; he appointed his number one supporter, Balaam Barugahale, as a Minister.
To be honest with you, Balaam is known for organizing “bivulu- music shows” and collecting too much money in return. There is hardly any minister, even a top thieve, who was earning more than Balaam. It is all left to be seen whether Balaam will really love his new appointment.
Therefore “Mr. Genius” Museveni long became, caused a stir where we were left NOT debating about MK’s capability in commanding our armed forces BUT whether Balaam will be doing his ministerial duties wearing his traditional orange T-shirts?
Conjure up this image of President Yoweri Museveni seated alone with his cows at Kisozi laughing at the idea of appointing Balaam Barugahale a minister. He might have done this to snab Ugandans almost similar to when he appointed Robinah Nabanja PM and retaining a nearly senile Gen. Moses Ali as a minister!
With Yoweri Museveni, as Nelson Mandela once said: “The impossible is the untried!”
Now PLU is ‘dead’ so is the political life of all those who had gotten themselves a name ‘educating’ Ugandans why a serving military officer cannot join bipartisan politics. That is Museveni for you. He will send you on an errand quite aware that it’s a fool’s errand!
I was privileged to see Dr. Apollo Milton Obote as he walked alone in a dusty Zambian town called Mufulira. When I saw him, in 1992, I had tears in my eyes. Here was Uganda’s hero walking all alone and looking wasted like any ordinary Zambian drunk on Mosi (Zambian equivalent of Nile larger!)
Milton Obote’s Cardinal sin was to underestimate Yoweri Museveni. And like Milton Obote so is our current politicians. They always have this undying belief that “Museveni tumusobola- we can easily take on Museveni” but in reality only measuring up to his boot straps (obuguwa)!
For your own reference my reader, Uganda is now led by Gen. Museveni and his brother, defacto ‘number two’, Gen. Salim Saleh. The son Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba is commanding daddy’s army and the family matriarch, Maama Janet Kataaha Museveni is in charge of the education of our children.
And you shouldn’t be bothered about that picture because, if given a chance, you would do the same.
If in your small thinking you somehow feel uncomfortable surrounding yourself with people you can be comfortable with: your own family; just know that, perhaps, God did not create you a leader.
Working with family is what “doctors recommend” and ordained by God. It is indeed small-minded people who shun their own families!
In case you don’t know or remember, now contemplate on this: During Idi Amin’s era, West Nilers (Kakwa, Alinga, Madi, Nubbian, etc), run the country. During Milton Obote, it was the Acholi and their Langi cousins who called the shots. Godfrey Binaisa came and he turned state house, according to Museveni, “into his village home.”
Is it therefore a new phenomenon that Yoweri Museveni will surround himself with his family and Banyakitara? Friends, as one clever philosopher once said: “The wheel is already invented!” And yet another said: “The more things change; the more they stay the same!”
BY WAY OF CONCLUSION:
I really commend President Museveni for elevating his son to a Four -Star General and later appointing him overall commander of our armed forces. As CDF, Gen. MK will continue with his father’s comprehensive vision to position a really poor and small country like Uganda into one of Africa’s most thought out countries.
Most of West Africa is in turmoil including Somalia and The Sudan all because of unprofessional armies. You can’t get a better professional army than the UPDF because the man who created it- Yoweri Museveni- is still very much in it’s control.
Many investors especially foreign ones will somehow feel secure to put their cash in Uganda because of this sense of continuity. It is easy maths really. The father has done 40 years; the son comes in and do 10 years; well, Mr. Patel, will pack his briefcase full of dollars and head to the Pearl of Africa without any hesitation.
As expected, Ugandans are already screaming and throwing tantrums like small children. They are questioning the rationale behind this recent appointment of Gen. MK and perhaps that of appointing Balaam Barugahale a minister.
Do we still need to apply any logic at all in whatever Mr. Museveni does or doesn’t do?
Because we often complain about everything he does or even omits and he never listens to us. It is now obvious that there is absolutely ‘no sense’ Mr. Museveni sees in whatever we say or do.
Look, I am not one of the people who see the new MK appointment as ‘nepotism’ or turning Uganda into a monarchy. Absolutely not.
One of the most revered religions on earth is the Catholic Church. This great Church has never appointed a black person to be a Pope but we don’t lose our faith because of that.
If the Church is not at fault for not elevating a black person to the level of a Pope, it is therefore fair to say that, may be, Mr. Museveni is also not at fault for appointing his ‘family’ in serious and sensitive positions.
This is not sycophantic support or blind-following, but rather commonsense. God made the world that way where some people will lead and others will be led.
But President Museveni has a very slow clock in his mind. Now he has slowly tasted and observed our smallness in understanding matters politics and decided that his son, afterall, will be better served as a military man.
For all those folks who have been busy ‘compling’ cases for the ICC ( International Criminal Court) against Mr. Museveni, now they will have to first pass through Gen. MK.
Mr. Museveni is like this funny guy who gives you a ladder to ascend to the top and once you think you have reached; he removes it. You can neither continue upward nor descend downward. You will simply hang there like a fool!
Finally, Gen. MK’s meteoric rise through the army ranks (by the way MK is the right age for an army general even in the USA) and subsequent command of daddy’s army is a bitter ‘pill’ ignorant Ugandan politicians needed to swallow.
Of course the initiated knew that President Museveni was steering his son into a different direction but created a decoy. I am well aware how great commanders like Gen. Museveni employs tactics and strategies to win wars. They’re masters at creating diversion or call it decoy.
Now that his son is commanding a huge and well-facilitated army, I think my friend, go home and be with your family. That question of Uganda’s political future, like Nabbi Mohammed said of the Quran: has finally been settled.
LAST WORD: “A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past!”
– Fidel Castro of Cuba
Adam Kamulegeya
adamkam2003@gmail.com
0779 104 336
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