Mukula redefines qualifications as Amuriat buys a roadside chapatti

What is a constitution? Did someone once call it a “mere piece of paper”? After weeks of presidential candidates and Ugandans accusing police of selective application of Covid-19 guidelines during electioneering, it turns out that Ugandans haven’t heard the shocker of it.

And as if to slap them from that democracy reverie, the ruling NRM vice-chairman for eastern region, Capt Mike Mukula, appeared to show that the constitutional clause that says a presidential candidate can have a minimum of A-Level certificate is just a mere piece of paper.
Mukula, who was speaking to the youth in Bugisu sub-region, said “someone with a diploma in Music Dance and Drama [MDD] wants to lead this country called Uganda. This is not a theatre.”
Candidate Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, who’s aspiring to unseat President Museveni, proudly holds a diploma in MDD.

But there is a difference between the flight captain that is Mukula and the MDD guy that is Bobi Wine. When one declared his presidential ambitions in 2015 and was promptly dressed up in the infamous yellow garb [inmates uniform] and dumped into the lakeside UU [Luzira prison] for some breeze, he immediately went on his knees and renounced his ambition.
The other has been arrested many times and is pushing on. 
Talking of differences, Bobi Wine took it lyrically while explaining what stands out between himself and incumbent Museveni. One, he said, is followed by a mobile toilet on his campaign trail, the other by a mobile prison.

That mobile prison was handy in western Uganda where security laid siege on Bobi Wine in a hotel hours after they had blocked him from entering Kibaale District, stating that the main road was still under construction. 
Of course, the same road was being used by other motorists. When you go around offering to return an exiled monarch and telling the Rwenzururu that Museveni arrested their king (Wesley Mumbere) because he spoke the truth, that mobile prison happens.

Amuriat feeds his stomach, starves his feet
From Day One when Patrick Oboi Amuriat (POA) defied security excesses and stubbornly took on the identity of a barefoot revolutionary, the FDC party leader has been defying so much on his campaign trail. 
Bad roads, teargas, arrests and whatnot have done little to dampen his spirit but on Wednesday, POA just about revealed what he cannot defy when, amid teargas in the distance, he left his car to buy a roadside chapatti. 

The Kiryadongo chapatti maker might as well pray for POA’s victory as this could be a sure way to becoming a presidential chapatti chef. And, just like that, we could see a moving chapatti stall on a presidential convoy. 
Meanwhile, two people who have been MIA (missing in action) for sometime have decided to enter the arena of political teargas and live bullets in contrasting styles. Four-time presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye has said he will join POA in Bunyoro just about the same time Bobi Wine claimed the veteran Opposition figure is backing him.
Will Besigye go barefoot alongside POA? Not easy to predict this but you can put your money on teargas and live bullets at their rallies.

Gen Tumwine shows no mercy
The other person who has been MIA is Gen Elly Tumwine. After months of Ugandans asking where he was, they might be wishing they never heard from their Security minister for a while still.
With the chilling amateur footage of security forces firing at civilians still so raw after the killing of at least 50 persons and arresting nearly a thousand, Tumwine said the police and other security personnel have a right to kill protesters if they are attacked.

Speaking to reporters at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala, Gen Tumwine said that he had no apologies for anybody who was killed by security forces who were deployed to quell protests in the wake of last week’s arrest of Bobi Wine. But then what should the voters do since Democratic Party presidential candidate Norbert Mao slammed Greater Luweero leaders for merely praising President Museveni instead of demanding service delivery.

Mao accused leaders of Nakaseke, Nakasongola and Luweero districts of dining with the government rather than put pressure to have the area achieve infrastructure development as well as improved welfare for the people.
Luweero, the heart of the NRA revolution that brought Museveni and NRM to power, is languishing in abject poverty, Mao said.