The UPDF’s class of 85

Daily Monitor on Monday reported that journalists had been ejected from the Makindye-based General Court Martial where they had gone to cover the hearing of bail applications by 28 detained supporters of the Opposition party National Unity Platform (NUP).

The court, chaired by Brig Freeman Mugabe, did not give any reasons for evicting the journalists.
The responses to this story were somewhat subdued. This is probably because it is finally dawning on many Ugandans that our country is under the jackboot of a militocracy.

To be sincere, we are just spectators on the sidelines of our history as the pantomime of due process; democracy and pluralism make us feel otherwise, every so often.

Of course, it’s all one big charade, so let us peek under that carapace of fictions to determine a way out.

The army is in control and despite the lies you have fed into, it also has foreign backing in the East and the West.

This is why we must look for our next president from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces’ (UDPF) officer corps.

There are two military tendencies with respect to succession in the sweepstakes of who will harvest the presidential throne when President Museveni finally walks into the sunset.

In one corner, we have the MK Movement ostensibly led by Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the First Son.
To all intents and purposes, he is the heir apparent. And he has been since July 3, 1997, when The Crusader newspaper reported that a 23-year-old Muhoozi had recruited a coterie of fresh graduates from Makerere University to do more than Karate drills.

The public believes his supporters are a bunch of money-grubbing opportunists ready to throw on resource-shaped napkins in order to dine on the carcass of the Ugandan economy.

However, this group views itself as revolutionaries who are set to unite the region and to foster “a patriotic citizenry that are mobilised, organised and empowered to fulfil their role in building sustainable foundations for the independence, sovereignty, and socio-economic development of their fatherland”.

In the other corner, we have the UPDF’s class of 1985.
The public may not be apprised of whom or what this group is, so let me oblige you with an explanation.

This is the group that joined the Bush War in 1985.
They did not suffer the gross deprivations of the early days of the Bush War, even though they did make sacrifices.

This is partly why this group is sophisticated and classy: they hardly lived like feral beings in the bushes of the Luweero Triangle.

More, they are bookish, intellectual, and well-spoken while suffused with a genuine belief in a Uganda that is better than the one we must endure today.

The late Noble Mayombo belonged to this group, so does Gen David Muhoozi and Gen James Mugira, to name but three.

They are efficient and cerebral; they may also have their person already in the vice-presidential seat ready to lead a transition to a more inclusive society.

It is not my job here to take sides by asking you to choose between what you probably consider to be two evils.

I am just asking you to take your attention away from the hoopla surrounding the NUP court case to appreciate what is really going on.

Philip Matogo is a professional copywriter  
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