A dying regime and the futility of whitewashing a collapsing wall

Norbert Mao

What you need to know:

  • Insecurity. The regime and its apologists can choose to believe their own lies or face the reality that things are falling apart. The current wave of insecurity is but the bitter fruits of a tree whose roots are political.

What is happening in our blessed republic is like a script out of a Hollywood movie set. Like most things we can only understand these events backwards. On Thursday, June 7, an announcement is made that the security chiefs would be making a joint media appearance to speak on the state of national security.
On Friday, June 8, Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga, a man who had positioned himself as the mascot for the ruling NRM, was brutally gunned down. On the day the security chiefs made their joint media appearance, they claimed to be in charge but didn’t appear to be in charge.

Then came the terse press release from the Defence spokesman, Brig Richard Karemire. The statement is significant for its careful choice of words and the meaning concealed between the lines. Brig Karemire must be congratulated for being so economical with the truth. From the letter it can be deduced that from the time he handed over office, Gen Kale Kayihura has not been a free man. It is also plausible that Kayihura defied orders to report to UPDF general headquarters and instead evaded his guards through a number of deceptive manoeuvres and decoys.
The social media was awash with rumours of Kayihura’s arrest which security officials kept denying. Even the Defence press statement refers to the arrest in coded language. As of now Kayihura and his top operatives have been netted. What we see can be said to be but the tip of the iceberg.

Amidst the drama unfolding in the shadow of the Abiriga murder the security apparatus launched a sideshow of smoke and mirrors to divert the public attention from the unfolding crisis. Museveni starts by accusing the Opposition of Abiriga’s murder. Then MP Hassan Fungaroo is threatened with arrest the day before Abiriga’s burial. Two days after Abiriga’s burial MP Betty Nambooze is arrested on a charge of ‘offensive communication” on account of a Facebook posting. With so many red herrings, the State apparatus has congested the media space in order to buy time to deal with an extremely messy and embarrassing situation.
Those who think these developments are signs of renewal in the security apparatus should first hold their horses. Kayihura is but a symptom of a dysfunctional State. Arresting Kayihura and the criminal gangs embedded in the security system is just like whitewashing a collapsing wall. The paint can cosmetically conceal the cracks but eventually the wall will come tumbling down.

As the scriptures say in Ezekiel 13:10-12, “Because they lead my people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, ‘Where is the whitewash you covered it with?”

The regime and its apologists can choose to believe their own lies or face the reality that things are falling apart. The current wave of insecurity is but the bitter fruits of a tree whose roots are political. The insecurity is a symptom of a decayed regime with no inbuilt system to renew itself. This has resulted into unprecedented corruption, nepotism, greed, incompetence and political intolerance.
Our nation is hurting. It needs healing. We need a new national consensus. Building a new consensus is the most urgent task at hand for those who care about constructing the post-Museveni Uganda. This will require us to talk to one another in-spite of our disputes and differences.