{UAH} Amama or Museveni: who is crippling the chama?

Written by John Musinguzi

 Last Updated: 03 August 2015

 

To the general public, the pulling and pushing between President Yoweri Museveni and his 'young brother' (Museveni recently repeatedly used these words) Amama Mbabazi is about leading the NRM party and Uganda.

However, the duo is involved in an even more serious struggle to rediscover, preserve or reform the ethos and traditions of the chama. There is a thick aura of betrayal around and between the two principals; though judging from their public emotions and methods, the more guilt-laden party (principal and its apparatus) is more annoyed and militaristic than the other.

Chama is a Kiswahili word that may translate as organization or party. This chama idea started in the 1950s and sunk a deep root in the 1970s. It was a transnational broad-based brotherhood that sought to outdo the great East African Christian revival that started in the 1930s and sunk a deep root in the 1940s.

It sought to rid society of several ills, rather than being contented with overthrowing governments with force of arms and the arrogance that armed people are the best to influence society towards the good and the long-lasting. 

The chama idea was the driver of the Zanzibari revolution in 1964 that was led by the Ugandan (Langi) John Okello who managed to organize about 700 revolutionaries. Due to chama ethics, Ugandans like Dani Nabudere were involved in the forging of the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar and Nyerere offered to delay Tanganyika's independence for the sake of her neighbours who were not yet ready.

The chama was not meant to be a national liberation movement limited to one country but had even higher moral and spiritual goals to achieve. Evolving through many transitional names, pseudonyms, and formations, the chama operated under names like 'The Movement', 'The Congress', etc. Among the products of the chama are even saints-in-the-making like Julius Nyerere.

Practically, chama meant the spirit of brotherhood in a common and universal struggle. In the chama, members or leaders referred to one another as brethren (brother or sister) at a time when revolutionaries elsewhere preferred the title 'comrade' that was fashionable with socialists/communists.

This form of mutual address echoed the East African Christian revival usage of ndugu, ow'eishemwe, etc. It did not matter whether one came from a royal family or a commoner parentage, or whether one was rich or poor, educated or not; chama was supposed to be a mass and multifaceted organism, generating mutual respect, mutual help and harmony.

Chama had no disciplinary expulsion, except by the self. The chama also taught greater respect for human dignity and natural conservation above the power of money or weapons.

WEIGHED, WANTING

A proverb in Runyankore-Rukiga says that when you talk of a bent object, the panga gets angry (for a fight). Following President Museveni's quotation from the biblical book of Daniel that the days of some people, in apparent reference to Mbabazi, were numbered, I wrote 'Amama or Museveni: who was weighed and found wanting?' (The Observer, September 24, 2014) in which I argued that Bible verses should be placed in their context.

I said if we are to read and follow the story, it would be Museveni's kingdom to lose and its days being numbered as Mbabazi has no kingdom (state power) to lose (or bequeath to his son). I said both men had been found wanting because they believe in family rule.

To me, both have bequeathed to Uganda the most nepotistic legacy, a big diversion from the non-sectarian ethos of chama. However, the one that talks of 'revival' and 'transition' must be the more enlightened one.

Immediately, a Muganda reverend living in Europe that previously used to feature on the opinion pages of many local newspapers wrote to me: "You people are terrible" ("Muri eihano"). When I asked him what he meant, he said that we (some Banyankore-Bakiga) are fearless people that can continue speaking truth to dangerous power.

A bit earlier, I had written 'Was Museveni longevity prophesied before 1800?' (The Observer, July 14, 2014) in which I said some seers had predicted a man that would fight many wars at the time of the non-existence of the Nkore (Ankole) kingdom, rule for many years but be succeeded by a new dispensation.

Interestingly, the Daniel story ends with the powerful empire of Babylon being dismembered and shared between nonentity tribes and lowly individuals. In December 2014, Museveni said Mbabazi was being misled by 'pushy' family members, especially two 'girls' (meaning Jacqueline Mbabazi and Hope Mwesigye), leading to his downfall.

However, with young-blood Evelyn Anite on the national scene, there is no way Museveni can escape detractors' assertions that he too is under influence of women not deeply grounded in the chama ('ideology'). Interestingly, when this woman got the idea to join politics, she sought my guidance. One time, we sat at Antonio's restaurant for an hour mapping how to start and progress even when she wasn't fully decided.

I told her I have always been a kingmaker and I had endorsed her. In 2012, I attended a media event at the Office of Prime Minister presided over by Premier Amama Mbabazi. After the presser, a female journalist I had earlier worked with at the Red Pepper beseeched me to escort her to the big man's office to ask for a favour of some money to take us through weekend.

When we introduced ourselves, Mbabazi seemed to know this woman from the north as a journalist. When she mentioned she was widow to a UPDF soldier from the west, Mbabazi indicated he knew the fallen soldier very well. He, however, got intrigued when I told him I was an activist from the early 1970s and a medalist.

"No, it can't be! How come I donÆt know you yet I am the one with all records of the 1970s?" Apologizing for not having cash with him, he called in his permanent secretary, Pius Bigirimana, to sort us with some liquidity. Mbabazi asked me to stay a bit as the woman moved out with Bigirimana.

I told him I had planned and executed an operation at Ntare School in 1975 to distribute eats and drinks prepared for the minister of education, Brig Barnabas Kili, to the students, after which I dared acting head teacher Jed Bangizi to tell Kili to shoot me since he was a great soldier.

But as Mbabazi was rushing for another engagement, he expressed interest for future interaction. I asked him if as secretary general he could help me meet the party chairman. He then called in his private secretary to finalise with me, as he left. The private secretary then asked me to present a request letter and my CV.

Though I did this, and checked with him twice, nothing resulted; but I also smelt a rat between the chairman and the secretary general.  There was apparent friction in OPM since the president appointed his wife to an office there and also promoted her to full cabinet minister while the other five under OPM remained ministers of state. Acrimony between the prime minister and First Lady eventually spilled into the media, necessitating the president's intervention.

WOMEN, EMPIRES

Again in 2012, before any newspaper wrote about Mbabazi's presidential aspirations or Gen David Sejusa's grumblings and exile, a friend in security invited me to tell me a strange story. The man told me to expect any time daylight exchange of bullets on Kampala streets or other towns.

Why? Because some two powerful women have reached a point of no return and their respective husbands must go physical soon.

The man told me, among others, how Woman A had identified a bride to replace the estranged daughter of Woman B, funded the remarriage to the extent of purchasing a marital home for the new couple.

The man repeatedly laughed as he argued that great empires have often crumbled because of some silly or evil demands or acts of women in the palaces.  He talked of women at the centre of two families that had accumulated so much money and power that they would be happy only after a brutal showdown.

CAN OF BEES

Mbabazi's declaration of intention to contest for party chairman and national presidency and subsequent writings bear subtle words like 'crossroads', 'transition' 'breathing new life',  'time to evolve', 'yesterday's story', 'fortune hunter', 'equity and inclusiveness', etc. Similar issues rose around 1985-1987 though some people salivating to assume state power ignored them.

Mbabazi has come with methods that seem to prick some people in the wounds, releasing a can of bees that are just too eager to sting him into blindness and dumbness. The guy declared already with his new symbols, campaign materials and a campaign programme!

It's obvious that Mbabazi tried to pick a lesson from Eriya Kategaya's death. When Kategaya died in March 2013, the president said he had died prematurely because of a blood clot caused by a sedentary lifestyle of sitting long in office and in meetings without exercise.

Yet it was obvious Kategaya got so much heartbroken following his opposition to the lifting of term limits in 2003 that he had to resort to a lifestyle associated with sadness and depression. Otherwise, other senior cadres were involved in regular and long meetings.

Kategaya lived under heavy guilt of presiding over disunity, sectarianism, corruption, fiscal indiscipline and abandonment of some chama goals with no ability to make significant change.

Today, the smooth strategist who stayed around during Amin's regime and the charming implementer are no longer together. The former has realized he believed a dirty lie, while the latter has discovered his colleague still has a conscience to resist further corrupting. The songwriter is on strike; how much longer can the singer be on stage?

Yes, of course this is not the final conflict, but it's a major one. The principals are blaming each other for the failures of their joint long rule: this means both accept weaknesses and failures. It's no surprise, from the start, they dreamt of involving 'revolutionary' Pope Francis in their duel.

To me, it's no coincidence the pope is visiting in November, during the height of the campaigns; he is expected to make remarks about the chama, if not publicly, then in diplomatic circles. 

HEREDITARY PROJECT

The way things are moving, it's a contest not only between Mbabazi and Museveni, but between their respective extended families too. While the former family hasn't had enough opportunity to invest in a tangible hereditary project, some members of the latter are already pursuing that delusion.

The oracles that announced the end of the Bahinda royal clan rule in Ankole have already categorically said: "No, he is not the one [to succeed Museveni]". The chama has never sanctioned hereditary rule.

However, some people are living in denial regarding these words. And in all this, Gen Sejusa has been caught in between as the makeshift prophet no one wants to believe and Anite as the piteous sponsor of the greatest-ever political fraud in Uganda.

Mbabazi could be the best exit and most peaceful option for Museveni's family and Uganda. In the absence of Kategaya, maybe the other alternative would be Dr Ruhakana Rugunda; but not anyone from the Museveni family, and not from a lower age bracket immediately.

Whoever is being tempted with any sort of schemes in the Museveni family is unknowingly hurting Museveni as a person and entire family. Losing this chance of starting a transition from the Museveni family in 2016 will have to hurt many, I am afraid.

Mr Museveni has chances of winning in 2016 but he also has the discretion to let go of extraneous suggestions and not contest. Similarly, Mbabazi must be clear whether he is asking for five or ten years. Incidentally, memories of hereditary projects by Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein and Hosni Mubarak are still fresh. But it's always possible to return to the base.

jmusinguzi@observer.ug

The author is a journalist in Kampala.

--

*A positive mind is a courageous mind, without doubts and fears, using the experience and wisdom to give the best of him/herself.

 

 We must dare invent the future!
The only way of limiting the usurpation of power by
 individuals, the military or otherwise, is to put the people in charge  - Capt. Thomas. Sankara {RIP} '1949-1987

 *"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent

revolution inevitable"**…  *J.F Kennedy

 

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.