Open letter to MP Robert Kyagulanyi

Dear Mr Robert Kyagulanyi,
I send you warm greetings from Gulu and congratulate you heartily upon effectively joining the crusade for change. I don’t want to claim that I fully understand the costs that accompany participating in the struggle for change, but I have a fair idea about the sacrifice that leaders who caused positive change in their societies had to make. Many times, they had to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. Others had to pay the ultimate price.

So, that you Mr Kyagulanyi, a celebrated and prosperous musician who enjoys all the comforts any young man would be yearning for, decides on his own, to heed the call of history and join others in crusading for change, is something that should be appreciated and commended.
I would, however, like to give you my two cents worth of advice about what you and all of us seeking change need to do. I do so because we belong to the same generation. The generation that has the most stakes in the future of this nation.

First and foremost, it is imperative that our generation defines clearly our mission to Uganda. We should do this because, unlike the generations of leaders before us, history has placed on our shoulders the inescapable responsibility of correcting the mistakes that past and current leaders have and continue to make. We have, through history, learnt the mistakes of past leaders and are witnesses to the mistakes of current leaders.

We are, thus, in a better position than the past and current generations of leaders to correct these mistakes and place Uganda on the path of irreversible socioeconomic and political transformation. This is no mean task. It calls for serious mobilisation and organisation. It requires that we demonstrate to the people of Uganda, in word and deed, that ours is a different generation of leaders.
If you asked me about the mission of our generation to Uganda, I would tell you without blinking an eye, that it is the institutionalisation of political leadership. This means that we should create and build functional political institutions and cultivate a culture among Ugandan leaders that allows political decisions and actions to be processed and implemented through institutions.

In the current political environment, however, this is not possible. We are currently faced with a leadership malaise that has caused multiple organ failure of the Ugandan State. We must rescue Uganda. In military parlance, this will tantamount to an operation that should be code-named ‘Operation Rescue Uganda’. This calls for sacrifice, compromise as well as mission oriented, selfless and consensus building leadership.
You know, Mr Kyagulanyi, human nature is very interesting. It gets attracted to toys; power, fame, money and material possessions. Save for power, you had all these before joining active politics. This makes you very attractive. Consequently, everybody around you will speak and act in a manner that flatters you and give the impression that all is well.

Nearly everybody will purport to be your confidant. You can’t know who to trust and whom not to. You won’t know who is genuinely with you and who isn’t. The truth of the matter is that the number of interests surrounding you is commensurate to the number of people around you. Some legitimate, many selfish and most irrelevant.
That is why, I am sure when you sit in planning meetings, nearly everybody will tell you that you are the next president of Uganda. They will not tell you how difficult the task will be, the preparation you need, the sacrifice to be made, the compromise to strike, etc. So, in order to make decisions that will eventually deliver change to our nation, you will require unity of purpose and a deep sense of patriotism.

Therefore, for you to contribute effectively and meaningfully to ‘Operation Rescue Uganda,’ you need to cooperate with other change seeking individuals and organisations, be flexible in your political decisions and actions, but most importantly, have the humility to support someone else, should you not be elected flag bearer. Time is on your side, comrade Kyagulanyi. Rush not.

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