Kayihura: The film star who left the script and died in the movie

When you become the top most law enforcer in a regime that has vowed (implicitly and explicitly) to stay in power in perpetuity, the script is fairly simple and straight forward. In the plot, you are trusted and given the licence to do all you want under the sun. You are unreservedly equipped with authority, money, manpower and machines. But ultimately, the regime and the one who puts you there, must stay safely in power -forever.

Hard methods (tear gas, bullets and dead bodies) or soft ones (buying off the Opposition) are justifiable if the one who put you there is the ultimate beneficiary.
Kale Kayihura started with promise. He beat, shot, jailed and teargassed the Opposition out of serious action. He infiltrated the Opposition using his huge cache of endless cash and other goodies. He gathered manpower from the army, fresh recruits and from the streets and alleys of Kampala (including the unwashed if I may borrow from John Nagenda), who made effective extras and reliable enforcers.

The Abdullah Kitattas of Boda Boda 2010 Association, the Kiboko Squad, Black Mambas, and a plethora of other criminally-minded law enforcers, including ‘crime preventers’, properly fitted in. He sidelined those whom he thought would not fit within the script. Thus you had a parallel police force mainly made up of Johnny-come latelys, who were rapidly promoted, empowered and placed in the plot as actors to bring the purpose of the script to life.

We should also make honourable mention of the fair weather friends Kayihura had within the media, who sung his praises. (They are now painting him black in the spirit of success having a hundred fathers and failure being an orphan.) Because of this relationship, many didn’t know the price of fuel or the humiliation of children being sent away from school for lack of school fess. They, like several other people in this town, threw their weight around and had door opened for them legally and extra legally because they easily dropped the name of the IGP. On his last confirmation hearing in Parliament, two MPs from Buganda region came to blows because one opposed the re-appointment of Kayihura. That is how far his image was protected as he played his part.

The torture in the infamous chambers of Nalufenya, the blatant breaking of the law with arrests of Opposition figures, the confessions by criminals of dealing with the police and the cliché accusation and blame placed on Muslims and ADF for nearly every crime in the land, always passed with little scrutiny from the one who appointed him. Instead, he was praised as a good cadre and awarded numerous medals by President Museveni. He had Museveni’s ear all the way through thick and thin. This is because most of the things that he did were fitted right into the script. Just in case you have forgotten, that script was about keeping the political status quo in place and guarding it from the rear with passion and diligence to ensure that it lasted until the end of time.

But things mainly and variously based on illegalities can only be sustained by illegalities. They may end up in unintended dire consequences, (the way thieves kill each other through friendly fire.) So a time came when many of those acting in this movie broke the law for their own material benefit with the thinking that somehow it would go unnoticed and fit into the main script. It is like a man whose whole life is about stealing, one more theft is considered insignificant; a drop in the ocean. Eventually it develops into another and another. Then he ends up stealing from his father to appease his father’s enemy because his heart and mind becomes so rotten that he loses all scruples.

In the case of Kayihura’s police, the ones appointed to help him in his task created their own sub-plots complete with their own actors. Soon they veered off the script and reportedly ended up providing services to persons and authorities within and outside Uganda’s borders.

Most of them were not part of the beneficiaries of the script to which Kayihura was supposed to act. That is what caused trouble -not the other law breaking issues being bandied around. This is when the role of Kale Kayihura became untenable. Here is how to reach the logic. Was there a motivation that made it possible that under Kayihura’s watch, it became common practice for small persons wanted in countries outside the borders of Uganda could be picked up and sent back home to face risks? What and how big was the motivation? What if the motivation became bigger?

What influence did the one(s) motivating those taking part in such schemes have on the police that Kayihura led, to the extent that activities not in the script were being done casually? What if in exchange for an unbelievable motivation, they demanded for the biggest head in the land? These leading questions meant that Gen Edward Kalekezi Kayihura Muhwezi, died in the movie, for he had seemingly left the original script and acted by another.

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. [email protected] Twitter: @nsengoba