Here is what to expect over the next five years under NRM

A new Cabinet was unveiled on Wednesday, weeks after the President’s inauguration. MPs were sworn in a couple of weeks ago. The President delivered the State-of-the-Nation address and managed, as he has previously done, to blame anyone but himself for what is going wrong in the country.

We can now wait for a return of a depressingly familiar routine. NUP leader Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, and Dr Kizza Besigye will continue to be persecuted and harassed if they go out to talk to Ugandans. The police and other security agencies will swing into action almost immediately. 

There may be, sadly, another high-profile assassination or a couple of high-profile assassinations next year or the year after next. If this happens, the police will arrive at the scene of crime disgracefully late, as they have done before. Someone or some individuals will be blamed for not finding the killers. 

There will be a hastily and sloppily written official statement on social media in response to the latest assassination or assassination attempt. Ugandans will share it avidly and make memes about it. Someone will see a surge in the number of their Twitter followers for putting together a hilariously funny meme about the statement.

The list is longer than your arm, but I want to turn my attention to the new Cabinet. It sprung some surprises. You can see that in the rounds the photo of the Prime Minister-designate is making on social media. She “fell into things” with a thunderous thud, so to speak. The Cabinet list shows President Museveni will be very much around as a presidential candidate in 2026.

The Cabinet has become an effective tool in keeping Ugandans guessing and anticipating. It has served the President really well in his quest for power. Ugandans who are able to read, watch TV and listen to radio find it hard to ignore any mention of a new Cabinet. In bars and cafes, it can be the perfect subject for animated conversation.

There are two reasons for this. First, for many Ugandans, serving in the government represents a great opportunity to lift themselves and their relatives out of poverty and become famous. 

A ministerial position enables you to lead an opulent lifestyle, which would otherwise be difficult or impossible if you worked independently or as a lowly civil servant in Mayuge District. 

Second, having power or being close to people with power matters a lot. It even makes people forget about the excesses committed by those in power, and they just revel in the fact that they have become powerful themselves.

Consider this: Mr Museveni is criticised sharply on social media for presiding over a nepotistic, corrupt and incompetent government. But once he names certain individuals Cabinet ministers, Ugandans start celebrating the fact that their districts now have important people. I saw people on social media listing names of the new ministers their districts have.

For all their criticism of Mr Museveni, few Ugandans can turn down an offer of a juicy ministerial position. If the President were able to create 40 million-plus Cabinet positions, enough for Uganda’s population, he would probably have no critics.

Incidentally, Ugandans without connections to Cabinet ministers stand to gain nothing, but they get excited about the new Cabinet anyway. Your new minister of Energy knows nothing about the incompetence of Umeme and will never fix power outages. Jim Muhwezi returned to Cabinet a fourth time, but he is remembered more for scandals where he previously served as a minister.

Mr Namiti is a journalist and former
Al Jazeera digital editor in charge of the Africa desk
[email protected]    @kazbuk