Kayihura’s troubles and the good people of Kisoro

Author, Charles Onyango Obbo. PHOTO/FILE

As the Daily Monitor  reported it, during a requiem Mass for his grandmother, former Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, said he had been deserted by his friends after he fell out with the powers that be, and was sacked and charged with various offences in the General Court Martial.

People he thought were friends, he said, no longer visit him. In a message read for him since he can’t travel outside Wakiso District without the military court’s permission, he urged the congregants to be at peace with God, for he doesn’t abandon you in dire times. And, he said, the good people of Kisoro, also didn’t forsake him.

It is quite a familiar story, and the higher up you go, especially in public offices, the more transactional your relationships get, and the thinner the foundations on which they are built become. However, the more you think about it, the more sense it makes that it should be that way. Why should someone have a deeply personal relationship with an IGP, Army Commander, minister, or CEO, unless you are bringing to the table something that helps them in their job or enriches them, or they are helping you gain something? 

Many times, more recently in the case of former Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, President Yoweri Museveni has been accused of “using and dumping” people.  The presidency is not personal property (although Museveni most times behaves like it is). Like a CEO job for most companies, you are really just passing through as a shift manager. It is not like the minister is your best man, daughter’s godmother, or going to sit by your bed and wipe away your drool when you are sick. An operational distance to allow you as leader stick the knife in the back of someone to enable you gain a wider strategic goal, to cast out a non-performer - or even a good chap whom you no longer have use for - is necessary.

 This phenomenon is everywhere. In journalism -  in both Uganda and Kenya for sure – we know that if you are a high flying journalist and you lose your job, within 24 hours of the news breaking, half the “highly placed” sources who used to wait for you for over one hour to show up so they can give you a scoop, will delete your number. And that’s if you are lucky. Many of them will block it too, and give instructions to his secretary who used to receive you with a big smile, that you shouldn’t be allowed beyond the front entrance.

If you are a veteran of the business, you understand. What use are you to a minister, if you are no longer going to write a story about his corrupt opponent? He’s not your uncle.

Therefore, the most telling part of Kayihura’s remarks, is that the people of Kisoro stuck by him. The Daily Monitor  reports of delegations from Kisoro that have come to Kampala to plead with Museveni to have mercy on their son.

Right there is one reason why tribe – and clan - in Africa, in general, still remains strong. In times when other institutions can’t protect you, often because they are cowardly, have been corrupted, or are  being used for persecution by the rulers of the day, tribe is often the only other thing out there that will protect you. Many who present themselves as nationalists, cosmpolitan, and “modern” either hate it, or are embarrassed by the fact that privately they know that to be true. 

It has often been remarked that when there are wars for power in African capitals, the cities empty. Famously in an African country, humanitarian agencies claimed that most of the city’s residents might have been killed. 

When the fighting ended, the people returned with their belongings on their heads and carts, and the city was as full and as chaotic as it used to be. Hardly any had been killed.

The people had, of course, fled back to their villages, to the protection of their families, clans, and “tribal” chiefs.

There are real life policy consequences of this. These crises, perceived persecutions, and other miseries people endure out there in the modern world, allows the tribe to both position itself, and actually be, a people’s last line protector. When a local boy or girl gets a position of power, some of them feel a need to either give back to the tribe, or channel resources to it so it can have more capacity to protect in future.

That’s why you can’t really lecture and politicise people out of tribalism. It is a formidable competitor. You beat tribalism by building a just and fair society for all. 

Mr Onyango-Obbo is a journalist, writer and curator of the “Wall of Great Africans”. 

Twitter: @cobbo3