When the General became a rapper

He showed up clad in full military fatigues with his wife Janet in tow. President Museveni then proceeded to a neat white tent that stood erected and cordoned off from the rest of the revellers who had turned up for a get-together organisers dubbed the NRM solidarity concert.

The concert, coming only days to the nomination of presidential candidates, could easily have passed for a campaign rally.
There were campaign posters of candidate Museveni standing out of the crowd and the ruling party’s official colour was on bold display as revelers in their hundreds donned yellow T-shirts.

They waved yellow hankies in the air as the First Family took their seats. This was a free entrance musical concert, where local artistes would take the same stage as President Museveni to sing and make merry.

“Mr President your children used to organise for you birthday parties, but ever since they got married, you rarely have parties. The youth of Uganda have today decided to take you out,” said Charles James Senkubuge, the event’s master of ceremonies before welcoming musician Eddy Kenzo of the “Stamina” fame to the stage.
Mr Kenzo wowed his audience before beseeching his fans to vote for President Museveni at next year’s presidential election.

“Mzee ayina stamina [the President has stamina],” the musician bellowed. Next on stage was rapper GNL Zamba, famed for his hip-hop songs in Luganda.

But hardly had Mr Zamba performed his Kikankane hit than a music interlude cut him short before the DJ switched to a not so familiar song.

You could clearly hear President Museveni’s distinct voice in the background. “Mpa enkoni, Mpa enkoni, Mpa enkoni, [Give me the stick-used for herding cows],” so went the song. The crowd cheered.
MC Ssenkubuge then invited Mr Museveni to the stage. As the NRM leader strolled to the platform, leaving his military hat behind, his song played in the background. Revelers waved yellow hankies in the air and chanted his name.

But what happened next is something many did not anticipate. Mr Museveni grabbed the mic, and performed his song live.
The rap song, with lyrics in Runyankore, had a sweet rhythm to it and came complete with groovy beats. At one point in the song, Mr Museveni was stuttering out: “You want another rap, You want another rap?” with the sound of a DJ scratching a CD. There was deafening cheers from the crowd.

Mr Museveni said he was inspired to do the song by a group of rappers from Entebbe who reportedly informed him that rap music is all about poetry. The President said he extracted the words in his song from a poem he used to recite in his heydays.

Politician turned musician
“We need to keep our traditions intact, put our poems in your songs so that they are not forgotten. We need those poems,” he said.

Politician turned musician, Mr Museveni then found opportunity to announce that his government was moving to deal with the biting problem of unemployment, which he admitted is the biggest challenge facing the youth in Uganda today, by setting up “outsourcing” jobs like call centres.

The NRM leader then implored the youth to support his administration and its agenda, before urging them to build on his government’s successes.

After his speech, Mr Museveni returned to his seat. Several musicians then took turns to perform on stage with each one of them making a personal plea to the audience to vote for Mr Museveni next year.