Prime
How Jerome, Airbus A330 jazzed up things and why dogs would be our MPs
There was little on social media to excite Ugandans in the run-up to Christmas, which is now behind us. Images of security forces mistreating presidential candidates only brought home to us the full brutality of ex-bandits wielding and hogging state power — and how prepared they are to put anyone with ambitions to lead Uganda in harm’s way.
Then a video of a young man named Jerome hit the internet — and jazzed up things. The video has been shared avidly on Facebook and WhatsApp, probably because it shows what many Ugandans do, although many do not get caught.
It provided levity in an otherwise dreary situation. And maybe Ugandans need that given the challenges they are grappling with. More importantly, Jerome’s romantic escapade — he was caught half-naked (from waist to toes) in another man’s bedroom — shows us that the behaviour of ordinary Ugandans is, nine times out of 10, a reflection of the people who lead them.
I was hesitant to write about Jerome, but as I watched the video, and as I saw the man whose wife Jerome had been having fun with brandishing a spear and threatening to kill, I remembered a 2008 Observer story in which a man named Emmanuel Nyabayongo accused former vice-president Gilbert Baalibaseka ‘Mahogany’ Bukenya of ‘stealing’ his wife and fathering a child with her.
Mr Bukenya is now a divorcee. His former wife Margaret accused him of being a serial womaniser and said his womanising started way back in the 1980s.
You can see that people like Jerome, after whom a new colloquial verb has been coined — it is ‘jeroam’ and it means “to move from house to house sleeping with people’s wives” — are small culprits, comparatively speaking.
Anyway, Ugandans moved on and turned their attention to the swanky Airbus A330neo, which Uganda Airlines has added to its modest fleet. Perhaps the most striking news about the aircraft is that it was fetched from France by two delegations comprising 30 people.
How did we get here? I think our dodgy politics is to blame. We cannot even choose candidates right, yet they are the ones making important decisions. In Uganda, becoming an MP now means that if you die or get recalled, your son or daughter must replace you.
It began in 2006 when the IGG prevented Ken Lukyamuzi from contesting a parliamentary election on the grounds that he had failed to declare his assets. Mr Lukyamuzi then asked his daughter to contest the seat, which she won.
In 2012, Proscovia Oromait, aged only 19, was sworn in as MP for Usuku, a seat her late father Michael Oromait had occupied. In the same year, MP Celinah Nebanda died, and her Butaleja seat was filled in 2013 by her sister Florence Nebanda.
In 2015, DP vice-president Mukasa Mbidde’s wife, Susan Namaganda, died in a car crash, and her Bukomansimbi parliamentary seat was won by her sister Veronica Nannyondo. Charles Ayume, the son of former Speaker of Parliament Francis Ayume, will likely win the Koboko Municipality seat.
And two daughters of MPs who have succumbed to Covid-19 — Rehema Watongola (Kamuli) and Robinah Ssentongo (Kyotera) — are gunning for the vacant seats.
If dogs were able to debate, and we had MPs dying when they are not married and are childless but have dogs, those dogs would be contesting by-elections and winning.
Mr Namiti is a journalist and former
Al Jazeera digital editor in charge of the Africa desk
[email protected] @kazbuk
