Author: Moses Khisa. PHOTO/FILE
Two weeks ago, former journalist now businessman and power broker, Mr Andrew Mwenda, had a catchy title for his column in The Independent newsmagazine, which he owns: ‘How Uganda has fallen apart’. The first sentences were nothing short of apocalyptic.
I reproduce them here. ‘Uganda is in deep trouble. The centre is no longer holding. The country is literally falling apart. And there is no rescue on the horizon. The NRM government lost its moral purpose’. You would think these are statements from the harshest critic of President Museveni’s government or the leader of a main Opposition party unwilling to temper their criticisms, instead offering a very one-sided view of things.
For years, Mr Mwenda has outdone himself in providing accurate and articulate descriptions of the magnitude of decay and dysfunction superintended by President Museveni. He has been one of the fiercest and sharp-edged critics of the NRM government.
Yet, in a sleight of hand that is simply unparalleled, in fact, one would go as far as to suggest quite unmatched intellectual dishonesty, Mr Mwenda is also the most outspoken defender of the same rulership and rulers he so boldly berates, often engaging in double-speak in ways that defy logic.
The government he slams so forcefully and whose policies he chastises, the rulers he faults for all that has gone wrong are the very people and ruling regime Mr Mwenda is deeply embedded with, defends vigorously, works for or at a minimum lends his intellectual resources. The sleight of hand in the above-mentioned column in is so glaring. Two people can save the country that is ‘literally falling apart’, according to Ndugu Mwenda. He writes, ‘Two people can make a difference: his [Museveni’s] brother Gen Salim Saleh, and his son, the CDF, Gen Muhoozi K[a]inerugaba’.
However, Mr Mwenda continues, ‘Saleh is too philosophical to make immediate and visible interventions to save the situation. Muhoozi is too focused on the military and security that he pays no attention to things like infrastructure, the environment, the capital city, etc’. This is patently ludicrous unless of course, one knows nothing about Uganda’s power structure, something Mr Mwenda knows very well. First, Gen Saleh has been at the centre of NRM power since 1986.
Early on, he was Army Commander, and years later a member of Cabinet. But these formal positions are not what matters. In practice, it is a public secret that the only person more powerful than Gen Saleh is his brother, the President and that in many ways he works as Uganda’s deputy president! For some years now, he has been in charge of the economy, keeping a close eye on the finances that oil the political system.
The Parish Development Model, a government anti-poverty programme that Mwenda rails against in his newsmagazine column is a brainchild of Saleh! Second, if Gen Saleh is Uganda’s number two in the actual power hierarchy, no guesses as to who comes next: no one today wields so much power, shows he is unaccountable and is above the law, than Gen Kainerugaba. He is not just the Chief of Defence Forces, he has also overtly declared he is standing by to succeed the father.
Andrew Mwenda
Throughout its stay at the helm, the NRM has always squarely relied on its military might to rule, and no other institution of state is more powerful and consequential than the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF). With the official launch of the UPDF 2021 Establishment last year, the Chief of Defence Forces has total command and control of the army, and that person is Museveni’s son who Mr Mwenda believes can make a difference but is too focused on the military and security!
For some years now, Gen Kainerugaba has openly commented on social, political and even sensitive diplomatic issues in ways that show he is not answerable to any higher authority or constrained by any rule, law or protocol that otherwise govern serving army officers. Why then can he not intervene, either directly or indirectly, to stop the country from falling apart? Just like Saleh, Kainerugaba as a top member of the ruling group is precisely part of the problem, not the solution. One of the things Mr Mwenda laments about is the deteriorating state of roads especially in and around Kampala, indeed all across the country.
The army has an engineering department. Not too long ago, the President announced that the army under Kainerugaba would take over Kampala’s deeply appalling roads. What are the results? If Museveni, Saleh and Kainerugaba wanted, they can effortlessly commandeer as much of the national budget to sort Uganda’s embarrassing physical infrastructure, especially roads.
