Benjamin Rukwengye
The topic of “Gen Z at Work” is quite popular, especially among professionals involved in workforce management. I get asked about it quite often because of the job-readiness and mentorship work we do at Boundless Minds. A friend once narrated a telling tale. Apparently, during a previous election for one of the professional bodies, there was a bizarre incident, much to the embarrassment of many – at least those who still have the decency to feel any shame.
A senior and respected member of the association turned up to vote but for some reason, his name was missing on the voters’ register. The young people manning the specific polling station couldn’t explain why he would be missing because if anyone should have been eligible, it was him. So, if there was a mistake, it wasn’t on his part.
This exact point was made by one of the officials and it is what sparked the furor. Suddenly, loud expletives were flying around. It was made clear that they didn’t give a hoot who it was. If he wasn’t on the list he wasn’t voting. They weren’t directly talking to him but they were loud enough for him to get the message. Never mind that the object of their misdirected ire was an elderly man in his 70s – and therefore old enough to be their grandfather. He had politely identified himself, and looked nothing like a masquerader, based on his debonair dressing. Not to mention, he is a doyen of the trade so failure to recognise the name – or the man – would be an indictment on one’s very qualification to practice.
The story was disappointing but not surprising. To commiserate with her, I related one told by another friend. Her intern had not shown up at the office on Monday morning and as it got closer to the team meeting time, she checked in but got no response. “Must be a phone issue or some emergency. I’ll check in later,” she thought to herself.
But then the meeting ended with no word from the intern. She started to worry and called again but the call didn’t get picked up. It was midday. She sent another text inquiring if everything was okay. When the reply came, it wasn’t anything she could have prepared for.
“Hangover. Alcohol nearly killed me. I swear I am not doing brunch again.” And that was all. She read it a couple of times, going through a cocktail of emotions . “You need to help these young people. Or help us so that we know how to handle them,” she concluded.
Only those who are inattentive or dismissive would have been caught off-guard by human rights lawyer, Isaac Kimaze Ssemakadde’s ascent to the presidency of the Uganda Law Society. For a profession steeped in colonial idiosyncrasies, where dress codes, the mastery of medieval language, and emphasis on being pedantic are a rite of passage, Ssemakadde’s unorthodox approach is an anomaly. Yet he, surprisingly, seems to have had a better reading of the times than his peers. He understands the demographic composition of Uganda and knows the frustrations that ordinary citizens, activists, and lawyers have with an oppressive neocolonial system that superintends over Uganda on behalf of the global powers. In that regard, he might have ended up as president of the lawyers' society but his message was about a lot more than that. It transcended the restricted confines of legal practice and conduct. In many ways, you could argue that it was unlawyerly, which is exactly why he won.
The system is broken in too many places yet few come close to how terrible things are with the law and constitutionalism.
Ssemakadde’s voters and their friends suffer the brunt of this brokenness more than most. They are uncontracted, paid peanuts – if at all, and shushed.
To turn up for brunch or pay their life bills, they are sometimes forced to make some indecent decisions. That brokenness has also eroded the social systems that guarantee wholesome learning and growth. Now, lessons on decorum, compromise, and reconciliation have been hijacked by the oppressor, who uses them for manipulation and patronisation. How can they not bang the table?
Mr Rukwengye is the founder, Boundless Minds. [email protected]
