Ugandan succession politics: Will kids patiently wait for their fathers to die?

Just thinking. Admittedly, when the Lord said, “And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household” (just thumb your Bible patiently, till you get to it), he had something completely different in mind. But just look at the Ugandan political space!

There is a video making the rounds on social media: an old man on his death bed, about to breathe his last. His loving family is all around him; their faces sad, their hearts at breaking point. The room is tense! Finally, the old man breathes his last and his eyelids close in death. 

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This is the point where the viewer is waiting to see people burst into tears, collapse in sheer agony of heart and even demand to be buried with their loving dad. But, wonder of wonders, that is precisely the moment when everyone bursts into ululation and chaotic celebration. They each dive into the places where the old man kept his money and begin to pass it around. The old man’s death couldn’t come soon enough!! Uganda comes to mind.

When minister of Agriculture, Dr Kibirigge Sebunya, died in 2008, his son Robert Kasule Sebunya was chosen to replace him as Member of Parliament for Kyaddondo North. His key political capital: son of his father. Then Usuk County Member of Parliament Michael Oromait died unexpectedly on July 21, 2012. His little girl Proscovia Alengot Oromait made history when at just 19, she replaced him, becoming the youngest MP in Africa. At 19, practically looking at it, the MP was still a child. But that didn’t matter to people. 

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In 2022, late Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah was replaced as Omoro County MP by his son Andrew Ojok Oulanyah. Same happened later 2022 in Serere County; Bishop Patrick Okabe, bless his soul, being replaced by his son Emmanuel Omoding. The die is cast, precedent has been established, pace has been set: any politician who dies in office gets their kid fronted as a replacement. That is why the tragedy that shook Kampala recently with the assassination of State Minister for Labour, Col Charles Okello Engola, took a predictable turn: even before he was carted off to his grave, his son was being fronted as a replacement for the Oyam North parliamentary seat.

This trend kind of goes down well, from a sentimental perspective. But we just might be unwittingly, foolishly in fact, opening Pandora’s Box in a society where politicians don’t want to retire, or at least die early. The cancer that kills people doesn’t start at the notorious “Stage Four”. Nope. It begins as a small, insignificant itch or bump that you ignore for a long while. 

The fact that a dead politician immediately becomes great political capital for his ambitious kids is worth reflecting upon. The magic seems to work better when the parent dies in office – not when they retire. The dying inevitably showers the succession question with sentiment favourable to the kids.

At this rate, every politician might do well to begin watching their kids carefully, because, you can be sure, the kids are watching their parents keenly. When a kid calls, it just might be that he is not checking if his old man is alive and well; no. 

He only wants to know if the old man is still alive and well. Privately he is hoping that even if the old man is alive, he has a good old-fashioned ailment or two – take hypertension, diabetes, weak heart or stroke – that will dispatch him into eternity without further ado.

At some point, some crazy kids may begin to feel the Lord isn’t taking their fathers quickly enough and maybe He needs a little help – wink, wink!

Some kids will by now have begun to view their parents not as parents anymore, but as the critical starting capital they need to further their own political and economic ambitions. Suffice it to say that no father is safe in their political seat just now; they will surely have a son that feels the old man has done enough, is really past their sell-by date and they should leave soon, because a new generation must take over.

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In the days of yore, properly brought-up kids kept their ambitions quiet, out of respect for the parents and crossed the bridge only when they reached it…but times are changing fast. Like I said, just thinking.

Gawaya Tegulle is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda  

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