Has Museveni’s vision been replaced by the people’s short-sightedness?

One of President Museveni’s most vocal propagandists nowadays uses a common word, “Mwe”, to identify the force(s) that control Uganda.
Roaming from one radio station to another to do his talk shows, he has been disparaging, mocking or ridiculing “Mwe” for mismanaging Uganda.
The Luganda word, Mwe, means “you” (in plural), or “you, a particular group”, or “you, the people”, and so on.
The President’s man seems to have struggled to find who to blame for Uganda’s gross shortcomings, and how to distance this wretched entity from His Excellency the President, until he zeroed on Mwe.
Mwe, who are ignorant; Mwe, who are slavish; Mwe, who are thieves; Mwe, who cannot see beyond your immediate gratification; Mwe; who have no vision. Mwe, Mwe, Mwe, you have ruined Uganda.

One of the latest attacks on Mwe has been that this faceless entity killed Uganda’s institutions, or did not build institutions. And – listen carefully to the logic of this self-proclaimed world-class intellectual – Uganda needs Mr Museveni for another 20 years to build Uganda’s institutions.
To illustrate the point, he notes that Mwe picks fellows from the heap of failed politicians and appoints them ambassadors. And most outrageously, you had the case of Dr Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, whose attempt to take the chair of the African Union had just flopped.
Mwe, how can you be so daft as to front a woman you disgraced long ago? Mwe, you said she was a thief when she was the minister for Agriculture, and these stories of way back were circulating in Kigali (venue of the AU summit last weekend, where Dr Kazibwe and two other candidates were vying for the chair).

The President’s man argued that Dr Kazibwe – or any other candidate for that matter – should have first been groomed and placed in a high profile institutional frame (Cabinet minister or something), instead of plucking her from the kitchen and casually forwarding her name.
The President’s man reasoned that the farce was simply a scheme by Uganda’s thieves-cum-politicians (both ruling NRM and Opposition politicians) to eat the Shs3 billion-plus ($1 million) that was pumped into marketing Dr Kazibwe.
Fine; but where was President Museveni hiding when the thieves were planning and executing their operations?

The way Uganda works, even a bird-brained idiot knows that Dr Kazibwe and her backers, who included Foreign minister Sam Kutesa, could not have gone into this venture without President Museveni’s approval, whether or not he was the initiator of her candidature.
The only conclusion the President’s propagandist is tempting us to make is that the President is not watchful enough, and that the propagandist is smarter than the President.
Turning to police brutality, the President’s propagandist had an intriguing take. Police chief Gen Kale Kayihura, whom the President’s propagandist always claims to be a great friend, has recently acknowledged and defended the practice of beating up Opposition supporters who gather in crowds and follow their leaders (especially Dr Besigye) with the kind of enthusiasm that irritates the ruling establishment.

According to Gen Kayihura, beating these people is better than tear-gassing them: it is better for their health and it is cheaper.
According to the President’s propagandist and great friend of Gen Kayihura, this kind of thing is “not there”, and Kayihura should have disowned his words. The propagandist has invented a fall guy, a police officer called Yiga.
According to the President’s propagandist and world-class intellectual, it is wrong to whip people on the street when you are not riding a horse. To adopt beating as a method of enforcing law and order, the police should establish a horse division.

So, Mwe, you have failed to build the police into a credible and humane institution.
As the failures, omissions and deliberate contradictions attributed to Mwe roll off the propagandist’s tongue, you realise that it is a matter of mere courtesy to ask whether the President’s vision has been replaced.
Clearly, the country is now guided by the short-sightedness of the entity “Mwe”, which includes ruling party masses, State-run negative forces, Mafiosi-like figures and all the other wrong elements.

Mr Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator. [email protected].