Mr Nicholas Sengoba
Seeing what is happening in Kenya, thunder from Ugandan youth or Gen Z’s #March2Parliament against corruption, on July 23 was long awaited. It humbly petered into a scattered shower. It was like looking at the exploits of a legend then turning a page to see the antics of a caricature.
Again from Kenya, the copycat-like braggadocio of a ‘leaderless, tribeless, fearless and partyless,’ movement that was intended to shake the status quo, started on a rather controversial note.
In Kenya the youth announced that they would demonstrate and then went into action on the appointed date. They encountered, surprised and overwhelmed the police on the streets.
In Uganda, some youth ‘leaders’ formally met the enthusiastic Uganda Police to chart out a way for the intended demonstration. This exposed them to possible influencing and intimidation. Of course the Police said no and prepared themselves.
A well-orchestrated generic message from some of the participants made the rounds on social media. It was a copy and paste message stating thus; ‘I am young, unmarried, have no child and if I die tell my mother that I died fighting for the country.’ It was like they were outing themselves. That aside, this must have encouraged very many, that they had company in the venture.
There was scepticism about this whole demonstration being organic. It even had the hallmarks of a stage-managed affair.
That does not mean that all those young people who took part and are now in jail, were posturing. It is just that they seemed to be acting in good faith in a framework that was conceived and controlled by forces beyond them. Those powers would determine how the demonstration progressed and ended.
Even if you hate the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), it is important that you acknowledge their mastery of subterfuge and how it extricates them from tricky situations.
Typically, guerrillas don’t wait for surprises. They will pre-empt or even come up with their own plot if need be. They are not averse to instigating or infiltrating and owning the opposition in order to determine who opposes them and in which way they do so.
In this case, it would have been risky to wait for the contagion effect of the Kenyan demonstration on Uganda. That one has the capacity of growing out of control by leaps and bounds like it has happened in Kenya.
So it was interesting to see Maj Gen. Severino Kahinda Otafiire, the minister of Internal Affairs, taking issue with those gagging the youth for standing up against corruption, which is their right.
Gen Otafiire is a minister in the most corrupt government Uganda has had since independence, 62 years ago. He is still serving and does not show any sign of leaving the government.
The late Imat Cecilia Atim Ogwal is on record saying that at the funeral of the late Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) stalwart Adonia Tiberondwa, Mr Otafiire made controversial remarks about the NRM/A bush war. The clip is still on Youtube. To wit that NRA guerrillas would engage in activities that made the people of Luweero turn to them and against the UPC government.
The youth must have found inspiration and motivation in his words. They may have felt that they had an ally in a ‘divided and weakened government.’
In the art of war, deception is useful in misleading the enemy in acting recklessly.
Interestingly, Gen Otafiire, under whose docket the police falls, did not stop the latter from obstructing the young demonstrators who were ‘exercising their right to speak out against corruption.’
He did not bar them from being incarcerated in places where there are allegations that some were molested. He has not stopped the police from pressing charges against them either.
All that aside and still going to the Kenyan demonstration, the target of the demonstrators is the President, Mr William Samoei Ruto. They correctly say the buck stops with the Head of State and if resources are stolen by the corrupt, he is solely responsible and should resign.
In the Ugandan case the demonstrators listed demands targeting the 11th Parliament of Uganda. The headline is that Speaker Anita Annet Among is the face of corruption and she should resign.
There have been various allegations against Ms Among and she does not elicit much sympathy. But for crying out loud, she and her Parliament are not solely responsible for the Shs9.1 trillion Uganda loses every year to corruption.
The demonstrators turn a blind eye to the President and others. This is even if in the past he has spoken for the careful handling of the corrupt and shielded them from lifestyle audits because they invest their money in the country.
President Museveni even has a minister in Cabinet who is battling charges of stealing iron sheets meant for the vulnerable.
It is obvious that they are creating a narrative that keeps the Presidency far out of the corruption conversation. That is a major achievement of the #March2Parliament.
The second and most important one is that, like the Kenyan demonstrations, Uganda still has unfinished business from the last election of 2021.
The NRM received a huge shock of a block vote in Buganda Sub-region. The youthful National Unity Platform (NUP) president Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu, a.k.a Bobi Wine, beat his ‘grandfather’, Mr Museveni by many country miles in the populous sub-region where the incumbent hitherto had a bounty. That to this day has not sat well with the NRM.
As a consequence, many supporters of NUP have been abducted, imprisoned and some have disappeared with no trace.
This group of Opposition youth is not only vocal but also has a militant streak that sees them wearing the red beret, overalls and pips of their making. These sort of jobless, ghetto resident and ultra-fanatic-to-a-political-idea, youth are what form and support revolutionaries when properly led and guided.
The best way to identify them and deal or crash them ‘legitimately’ instead of using drones to abduct them, is by emulating fishermen who stir up the water to catch hidden fish. Ironically revolutionaries call it creating a problem to find peace.
A well-managed demonstration would be very instrumental in doing exactly that.
With the Ugandan economy not able to employ the young, you can only expect more of these demonstrations. They will lure young people into violence.
Since NRM has a proven niche in this area it will offer the powers that be an opportunity to fish out potential trouble causers before they get out of hand.
Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues.
X: @nsengoba
