Author: Alan Tacca. PHOTO/FILE
There is this village bully who torments his weaker schoolmates at every opportunity, especially in the evening on their way home.He even carries a cane for punishing youngsters who call him ‘early man’ because of his savage behaviour.He does what he does with impunity because the other children can do nothing to hurt him.
They are even afraid of physically ganging up against him, because they know he would recognise them and deal with each of them in his own time and in a manner of his choosing. Chorus: Impunity supplies a flow of sweetness to the head that only the very strong can enjoy. Now, there is this small matter of Uganda’s Opposition politicians. They are pests, or parasites, or vermin.
You can call them whatever they deserve as long as they remain on the side of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and do not stop itching.As one army general suggested when he was still a resident on this side of the planet, those Opposition politicians who cause riotous trouble would (and indeed sometimes) get shot.
Chorus: Impunity supplies a flow of sweetness to the head that the strong cannot refuse to enjoy.
So, it is in the department of idle conversation, where all sorts of people drop whatever they have been doing and spend time asking why Opposition leader Kizza Besigye was ‘abducted’ in Kenya and crudely returned to Uganda, apparently by Ugandan operatives, without Uganda going through the elaborate process established by laws that civilised nations understand; and why Dr Besigye is being court-martialed instead of charged in a normal court.
The constitutional frame of impunity is brawn. Strength. The idlers are fantasising in a different constitutional realm that is now permanently lying supine because it is resigned to being raped.
Whether by coincidence or dedicated design, the raiders who remove taxpayers’ money from government institutions in multi-billion-shilling heists have been having a great time. Not that they really needed to hide, but with a cover like the Besigye saga, they can enjoy their merry-go-round with a minimum of distraction from noisy spectators.
Their game has grown to a level of sophistication requiring the mastery of IT systems and playing for very high stakes in digital dens manned by pivotal technocrats and controlled by powerful politicians. The era of fake valley dams, junk military helicopters and evaporating Gavi funds when NRM was young looks primitive by comparison.
The players from the Bush War have become grey, bald or dead. But the dynamism, confidence and swagger of the players they have groomed assure us that the vampire state will not lack inheritors.
Chorus: Money and strength are blood brothers. Impunity supplies a flow of sweetness to the head that only the very strong can enjoy. Yes, until someone stronger appears on the scene. Or, rather, flying above the scene; like an elusive spy plane that can see you, but which is flying so high you cannot exactly stone her.
In any case, even if you could stone her, you would probably not stone her, because you understand that her handler would eventually surface, and in their own time and chosen manner deliver your punishment. When America is the alleged airborne violator, and Uganda is the victim, you can tell from the whining of the victim that the impunity of others does not bring universal sweetness.
President Museveni could gauge the public resentment NRM impunity has generated by listening to the satisfaction – even joy – that a high-flying violator has brought to the hearts of many of his helpless subjects.
The writer, Alan Tacca, is a novelist and socio-political commentator.
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