Mr Nicholas Sengoba
News of the alleged attempted assassination of US Republican Party Presidential candidate Donald John Trump (78) has taken the world by storm. Trump who was the 45th President of the US (2017-2021.) is attempting, come November 2024, to become the 47th, after losing the election in 2020 to incumbent President, Joe Biden. He was within an earshot (no pun intended) of death after his right ear was glazed by a bullet discharged from a rifle. The now deceased, would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks (20) is the suspect in the incident that happened at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday 13th.
Since Trump left office in 2021 he has not had it easy. Writing in The Atlantic, David A. Graham notes that Trump is the first former US president to be convicted of a felony. He was found guilty of 34 counts in a Manhattan court on May 30. The charges brought against him include election subversion, fraud, and obstruction. Trump faces 57 more felony counts. He lost a civil suit as well as two defamation judgments that will set him back enormously.
For the controversial Trump and his supporters, all these legal challenges are viewed as attempts at scuttling his bid for the presidency. That his nemesis is a group of entrenched establishment politicians embedded in the deep state. He claims that is overwhelmed by the fear that his quest to clean up American politics or drain the swamp, to ostensibly make America great again, will sweep them aside. Trump and his supporters view this as the same reason why he lost in November 2020. If you have followed Ugandan politics since about 2001 you notice some parallels between the US and Uganda. Though the source of his woes may be different from those of Trump, Opposition contender Rtd. Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye Kifefe of the Reform Agenda and then FDC knows the weight of the State and government. His four attempts to unseat incumbent President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni have brought him to belief.
Almost everything packaged as the law including the kitchen sink have been thrown at him. He has taken physical beatings, tear gases, pepper sprayed and has been shot and injured. He has lost a brother, gone to jail countless times and been prevented from leaving his home as a preventive arrest measure. From 2017 when current opposition NUP leader Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a Bobi Wine came on the political scene and vied for the presidency against Museveni in 2021, he has suffered a lot of what Besigye endured. These and the anguish many more opposition politicians have faced in their bid to unseat Museveni and NRM and the response they elicit have become part of Uganda’s electoral story.
Imagine what would be if Trump; an opposition candidate to the establishment was shot while campaigning in the current Ugandan setting. First to get him to the hospital would take ages as his car would have to contend with pot holes and the traffic jam. He would also have to be flown to Nairobi just to be sure he really was okay since the local hospitals are not fit for VIPs who include opposition politicians.
Then news on global channels would go at length to describe the country with a very violent history. They would then detail how the democratic space is narrowing exponentially. They would blame the incumbent, near-octogenarian who is holding onto power with an iron fist to win disputed shambolic elections for the last 38 years. They would find time and space to criticise the Anti Homosexuality Act of 2023 as an example of things that have gone wide off the mark in the human rights sphere. Pressure would be brought to bear on the government to quickly investigate the incident with some voices advising that Scotland Yard and the FBI be drafted in to get to the bottom of this despicable act. There would be calls for other cases of harassment against the opposition to be investigated and culprits be brought to book. They would also demand for more protection and opening of civic space especially for the opposition. Then they would counsel that politics should not be a do or die. This is even if power were to slip out of the aging, trembling hands of the incumbent and land in the laps of disruptive Trump.
From other circles there would be cries for suspending aid and other economic sanctions to the corrupt regime. Furthermore, there would be loud clamours for asset freezing and travel bans to the USA and other developed countries. The government and security officials who are hell bent on abusing those who don’t agree with their political positions would be named and warned.
Developed countries like the USA would proceed to issue travel advisories to their citizens. They would urge them to avoid Uganda except in cases of essential travel. They would cite the lax and inept security agencies that are incapable of guaranteeing security of life and property because of problems like corruption, sectarianism and underfunding. Government supporters would take to social media to taunt Trump and the opposition. They would say that the shooting incident was a fake set up to procure sympathy and that the blood seen on the candidate was actually tomato sauce. They would call it a counterfeit exercise by both the opposition and NGOs to account to their homosexual funders for the monies they are given to subvert the country and ensure it has bad publicity. Meanwhile the government would swing in action blaming foreign elements intending to undermine the country by sponsoring terrorists like the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF.) The president, a retired General dressed in full military uniform, would appear on national TV talking very tough. He would promise to crush these ‘pigs’ like has happened with all those who have chosen to mess with the country in the last four decades.
A police spokesperson would soon talk about arrests of individuals from ‘sleeper cells’ found with bomb making equipment. Then complaints would follow with the observation that most of the suspects are mainly from a religious sect popularly associated with the ADF. Many will soon detail cases of torture by security agents pressurising them to confess to the shooting of Trump. The suspects would then commute between court and jail with one or two cases of suspects being released for lack of evidence and then re-arrested by armed men in plain clothes. This will happen until the story leaves the front pages. Then the smart crooks would swing into action to swim in the troubled waters. They would start an enterprise to ‘help’ especially young people migrate to developed countries like the USA, Canada and the UK, using the shooting of Trump as their alibi. People would then proceed to borrow money or sell their property to pay immigration agents to help them chase papers and get visas to go abroad, claiming that they are facing harassment for simply being Trump supporters. Sadly, for many it will end in tears as the crooks will not deliver them the magic bullet to paradise in the much sought after ‘outside countries.’ (sic)
That is why it is a blessing that Mzee Trump is not a Ugandan politician and he was not shot at a rally in this beautiful land that we call home.
Twitter: @nsengoba
