Musisi chose what’s left of her sanity and bowed out with grace

It is the favourite analogy of anybody who tries and fails to find the colourful words to describe this country: “the fish rots from the head down”. I only disagree with the passivity required for a dead fish to simply lay there and rot. Because what is going on is an active process of self-destruction; slow but sure muzzling of the best talent, hollowing out of institutions and sidelining anyone who dares to deliver.

When Ms Jennifer Musisi resigned from her post of KCCA executive director, there was celebration from certain quarters for this very reason. Despite her litany of accomplishments, and the obvious improvements to this city, the people crowing about her downfall are taking centre stage. Kampala Lord Mayor did a grotesque victory performance in his hallowed chambers, which just goes to show you how immature our leaders can be.

Ms Musisi, they say, amongst many other things, was averse to accountability – read was corrupt -and even worse, prone to preening and self-promotion. Both these accusations are laughable, the first especially, in a country where fraudulence and self-enrichment are considered admirable qualities. The moral arrogance it takes for the pot to call the kettle black is spectacular to behold.

As for the self-promotion, that is rich coming from a man who wakes up every day wondering how to stay relevant. Wherever there is a whiff of trouble and mayhem, guess which lawyer is puffed out like a belligerent turkey in front of the cameras? If city rats cried out for representation to avoid their mass extermination, he would volunteer his services.

This is a country that just rolled out the red carpet for shameless self-promoters Kanye and Kim West, who would literally do anything to hog the limelight, including hand out white shoes to poor people in the middle of the rainy season. Hint, mud and rain don’t work so well with expensive fashion statements. Unless you have a high tolerance for buffoonery, don’t pay those two any mind.

But back to Ms Musisi and the end of an era. Exceptional leadership is hard to find, and no doubt it galls her detractors to acknowledge that she was a maverick. She had the gumption to do the kind of unpopular things that lose you pseudo friends and buy you intractable enemies. Her high-handed methods were effective if seemingly abrasive. Nobody who wants to do a good job should bank on their popularity, which is why most leaders are so inept they can’t tie their own shoelaces without asking permission.

It is true Kampala City is built on the bones of the poor. This is a place where the vulnerable come to be marginalised, exploited and disenfranchised. City Hall is rigged to pitch the insatiable gluttony of the rich and powerful against the survival of the abject poor. It is in Kampala City and other urban environs that the excessive thirst of the few is whetted with the tears of the poor. But this is a problem of current party politics.

There are monsters amongst us in the guise of humans. People with the kind of greed that forces children out of schools, so they can build hotels and malls on the land. The kind of greed that is fed by the horrific suffering of squatters evicted from their miserable lodgings and forced into ghettoes so that ‘investors’ can be appeased. ‘People’ who spend public funds lavishly on their progeny while the children of the poor fill pauper’s graves.

In the end, Ms Musisi chose what’s left of her sanity and bowed out with grace. Lesser beings are content to stay decades in power even when it is obvious they have outlived their usefulness. But the mob is fickle and in due time will devour itself, rotting head and all.

Ms Barenzi is a communications professional and writer
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