Maybe Isma Olaxess killer(s) will be known after NRM is out

Ibrahim Tusubira Lubega, aka Isma Olaxes, who was gunned down on the evening of May 6 as he approached his home, was a maniac vlogger without peer. He exhibited manic energy and passion for laying into public figures, often using language packed with vitriol that knew no bounds. Nine times out of 10, he seemed like he was possessed.

Many people thought he had become a mercenary, hired to blast detractors and enemies of his bosses, some in the government. Isma nearly always took a scattergun approach to assailing people and would attack anybody from business moguls to celebrities, musicians, politicians.

'Jjaja Iculi':Who was Isma Olaxess in the public eye?

Perhaps to impress those for whom he was working, he would even suck in innocent children of his targets. (Isma was in his 50s and died childless.)

He defended the indefensible, alleged the husband of a radio presenter was not the biological father of most of the presenters’ children, celebrated deaths of prominent people and — outrageously — the killing by security forces of Opposition supporters in November 2020. 

One of his very last videos had him savaging Charles Engola, the junior Minister of Labour who was shot and killed by his bodyguard.

Reading what I have written here, many will jump to the conclusion that Isma, who was also known as Jajja Iculi, was unpopular. He was not. He had many fans, and I was shocked and saddened by his death — not because I loved his vlogging but because I believed he had the right to speak freely. That is the same right I use to express my (largely) unorthodox views.

ALSO READ: Iculi and the making of name, enemies with fiery tongue

To some people, Isma was the people’s vlogger; to others a villain. Sometimes he turned up the heat on the very powerful people Ugandans suspected were paying him to make incendiary Facebook lives, accusing them of leading opulent lifestyles when the masses could not even live from hand to mouth. That suggested he cared about the suffering of Ugandans.

Isma died like a hardcore criminal, but he did not have to. There are corrupt individuals who should be put to death by firing squad, but they remain as free as birds in the air. If he had committed a crime, he ought to have been prosecuted. 
His apparent crime was that he took free speech and freedom of expression, guaranteed by our constitution, beyond what the public considered limits. 

The police can follow up all possible leads, and there are several to begin with. For example, Isma had posted a recording of a man who phoned and warned him to be careful with his vlogging. In another video, he said he was going to bring to light the corruption in the KCCA and the National Council of Sports. 

ALSO READ: We shall punish the pigs that killed Iculi, says Museveni  

Who killed Isma — and why — is a question the authorities should busy themselves with, but then we are still being led by the NRM, which has miserably failed to bring the killers of other Ugandans to justice.

We are grappling with almost unprecedented lawlessness. In Uganda, you are safe if you have a gun and if you will always be the first to pull the trigger at the slightest hint of a threat. Being a general, being powerful, does not always help. 

WATCH: What you didn't know about blogger Isma Olaxess

The most powerful of Ugandans who have been targeted but mercifully escaped death, although his daughter got killed, is Gen Katumba Wamala. If a general can be shot, how about an unarmed vlogger? It is going to take a new and competent government to look into what caused this lawlessness. Then maybe we will know Isma’s killer(s).

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