Rukutana vs Bamugemereire: Why should Rukutana blink?

Seize the moment. Rip through Ugandan hypocrisy. Dare God Himself. Be like Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana, the Deputy Attorney General. There is something refreshing about his guts.
Along with the usual cannibals, almost everybody wants to eat Mr Rukutana.
Why?
Not so much because serious taxpayers’ money was lost in a land saga involving one shadowy Dr Kasasa, but because Mr Rukutana treated the chairperson of the commission of inquiry into land matters, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, with disrespect, ridicule, and so on.
In short, Mr Rukutana has very bad manners. So he should resign. Or President Museveni must sack him.

Hm, I laugh. I laugh because nobody knows exactly what words like insult, humiliation and ridicule mean to President Museveni.
Across the entire planet, Mr Museveni may hold the distinction of having hired the greatest insulters as presidential media officials.

Champions of insulting as ‘art’ and ‘weaponry’ have been so central to Mr Museveni’s rule that it has been quite normal for some of his very senior officials to be treated like vermin by his own media functionaries. Why should we imagine that the Rukutana-Bamugemereire confrontation was an earthquake capable of shaking the conscience at State House?

Mr Rukutana has correctly estimated that, ultimately, in Mr Museveni’s scheme of political and presidential things, he (Rukutana) has a higher value than Justice Bamugemereire. He has probably fulfilled many missions for the President that Bamugemereire would flee from.
In a sense, this is a gangster society. Justice Bamugemereire has been put in a position to create an escapist fantasy that relieves the public thirst for justice. But one judge cannot sustainably address the systematic criminality and impunity that drive the injustice. However, President Museveni earns political dividends from that fantasy.

In Dr Kasasa’s narrative at the inquiry, State House aides allegedly made him open a bank account, into which the government (presumably) deposited Shs2.4 billion. Kasasa claimed they made him sign for a withdrawal, but he did not receive the money.
I suppose those following the inquiry more closely than me have heard the distinguished judge trace (or dodge, or gloss over) the way this strange State House thread was woven in this complex fabric.

On Tuesday, on a Pentecostal radio station, MP Asuman Basalirwa talked about Mr Rukutana’s conduct; the morality stuff and the Deputy Attorney General’s guardianship of the Constitution. Basalirwa shuddered to think what would happen if Justice Bamugemereire resigned her chair.
The Constitution? My laughter again. Spare us, please. No, Mr Basalirwa; if Justice Bamugemereire resigned, nothing would happen. Nothing much. And Mr Rukutana understands this better than his sentimental critics.

Also, if he (Rukutana) got fired, his successor would be obliged to act in more or less the same way by the needs of the NRM.
Because we are sheep-headed, we dangle this God ogre as if God is a touchy aging super-monarch out there, getting mad with anger whenever mortals challenge Him to use His teeth.

But lawyers and judges set great store by evidence, and circumstantial evidence suggests that God is happy with the contradictions of the NRM leadership. That is why God rewards Gen Museveni with more and more years in power.

To confirm this divine position, the President’s champions of the insult are most loudly and most proudly hosted by Pentecostal radio stations, whose owners of course hear directly from God.

With refreshing realism, Mr Rukutana understands this hypocritical world. His critics are imagining a country that does not exist, and a God different from the one in control.

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