To build a new legacy must Museveni destroy that which he already gave?

What you need to know:

Mood in the country. ...because of the passage of time, we have gone from being able to blame our problems on the colonialists, Milton Obote or Idi Amin, to one where we are blaming ourselves for our own failures. Thus we cannot really claim credit for Uganda Airlines because it was in the skies when we came to power. We cannot justify the cost of the Standard Gauge Railway when reminded that we had a cargo and passenger train service at the time.

Last week, we openly wondered why, with a string of ‘development projects’ under his belt and in the pipeline, President Museveni still found it necessary to go around beating and arresting his political rivals and critics.
We hypothesised that not only is the regime addicted to violence as a language of political persuasion, many of the development projects are inherently problematic and vulnerable to robust and critical inquiry. So vulnerable, in fact, that the incumbent oversaw a world-first at the last election by essentially running against his own record of corruption and incompetence then promising, at swearing in, and with a straight face, a ‘no jokes’ term. No, seriously!

That the President had to campaign against himself is not surprising; those seeking to take power campaign, whether militarily or electorally, on the failures and shortcomings of incumbents. Thus while Museveni was able, in 1996, to campaign against past regimes and caricature Obote as a ghost lurking from the past, it is not a plausible story 20 years later.
In 2001, he ran against Yoweri. In 2006 he ran against Kaguta. In 2011 he ran against Museveni. In 2016, he ran against Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

Lost to many was the fact that three of the incumbent’s rivals, including the two most serious, were close associates who had helped bring him and the regime to power. In fact, Amama Mbabazi, who like Kizza Besigye before, had once been the regime’s right-hand man and the incumbent’s favourite, campaigned by asking voters if they wanted “change” or “more of the same”. Mbabazi’s lackluster performance in the polls (with less than 2 per cent of the vote) can be attributed to the simple fact that voters saw him, not as an agent of change, but as more of the same.

The need for infrastructure is one of the subjects on which this column agrees with the incumbent. But the rushed manner with which we have gone about these projects, including a dangerously cavalier approach to public debt, show that the incumbent plans to campaign on a development projects ticket.
This strategy has at least three flaws. One, as we saw last week, each major project carries high corruption and competence risk. Set up as we are to reward loyalty, not merit, a charge of meticulous execution of projects is one we would rather settle out of court rather than allow to proceed to trial.

Secondly, because of the passage of time, we have gone from being able to blame our problems on the colonialists, Milton Obote or Idi Amin, to one where we are blaming ourselves for our own failures. Thus we cannot really claim credit for Uganda Airlines because it was in the skies when we came to power. We cannot justify the cost of the Standard Gauge Railway when reminded that we had a cargo and passenger train service at the time. Ditto a new port at Luzira when we had marine vessels plying Port Bell–Bukoba.

Third but by no means least important is that regimes that point to development projects and do so having been in power either for a very long time or while ruling, rather than governing, the people, do so with blood-stained hands. People who point out that Idi Amin built the Conference Centre, invested in Uganda Airlines, introduced colour television broadcast, etc., often do so not so much to show he was a good leader, but to show that he was not all that bad.

So we find ourselves on a merry-go-round: To keep itself in power, the regime has to borrow and tax more in order to distribute consumptive goodies to restless voters. Doing so draws more protests from the much bigger crowds of excluded Barbarians at the gate. Since there isn’t enough to pay everyone, and it makes more political sense to give a lot to a few (bribery and patronage) than very little to very many (public services) it is cheaper to use violence.

The saddest thing is that the incumbent already gave us what we wanted. Ugandans did not vote for Museveni in 1980 yet many supported him from 1981 because while they liked fast trains, they liked freedom even more.
Today President Museveni promises faster trains while steamrolling through the constitutionalism and rule of law he once promised. Internal renewal would have solved this problem with successive leaders choosing which causes to pursue.

As it is, Museveni now finds himself with a bed too narrow and a blanket too short. To get the things he wants, he must destroy some of those he already gave or promised us. Did he not already do that which it was his mission to do?
People always remember the steel and concrete monuments, but they never forget the invisible things of the heart, and the promise of what could have been.

Mr Kalinaki is a journalist and a poor man’s
freedom fighter. [email protected]
Twitter: @Kalinaki.