{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Laughter is the best medicine, and Museveni’s medical VPs are a hoot - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Laughter-is-the-best-medicine-and-Museveni-medical-VPs-/-/434750/2917464/-/mvxcgh/-/index.html

Laughter is the best medicine, and Museveni's medical VPs are a hoot

Laughter is the best medicine, and the best doctors know the value of entertainment for health.

Now Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni too knows this. How else would you explain his tendency to appoint only medical doctors as his deputies?

Only after the last election did he appoint a lawyer (who has been suspiciously quiet) as VP, and I predict that next year he will give us another medic.

Already he has, last year, ditched his lawyer prime minister replacing him with a senior doctor and trainer of doctors. And without doubt, every politically conscious person in Uganda feels good about having Ndugu Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, one of the most decent politicians in post-Independence Uganda, as prime minister.

But one of Museveni's medic VPs who has refused to leave centrestage long after losing office is Prof Gilbert Bukenya, a malaria researcher of considerable stature. A VP from the early 2000s, Bukenya once stunned the nation when he told the press that there was a powerful mafia led by someone fitting the description of Amama Mbabazi who later became prime minister.

A few days later, he turned up at Amama's office for a photo shoot to prove that they were best of friends. Later, he accused some unnamed people of murdering his grown son, who apparently died in a motor accident.

Soon after losing the high office in 2011, Bukenya was arraigned on corruption allegations. He spent over a week in prison and TV cameras caught tears pouring from his eyes when the judge sent him to prison.

Since being acquitted, he has been on the warpath, levelling all manner of accusations against Museveni's administration. And when his political archenemy Amama Mbabazi fell out with Museveni, Bukenya was quick to embrace the man he once described as a dangerous mafia leader. The two, with two other opposition leaders, Kizza Besigya and Norbert Mao, constituted The Democratic Alliance (TDA) of four potential presidential candidates.

Two weeks ago, TDA failed to reach agreement over a united candidate. Last week, Bukenya declared that he was back in NRM and was solidly behind Museveni's 2016 candidature. Even by Ugandan standards, this was a stunner.

Mao Norbert, president general of the Democratic Party, went on TV to express his disbelief. He said that during the days-long confidential meeting of the four TDA candidates, Bukenya had revealed tonnes and tonnes of Museveni's secrets.

Of Museveni's other VPs, one was Dr Samson Kisekka who is long dead but kept the nation laughing with his brand of mass motivational talks. As he was about to die in Mulago Hospital, he called reporters to witness him being ferried in a ramshackle car back to his village. The guilt-ridden State flew him to die decently abroad.

The other VP, Specioza Kazibwe, was as colourful but also quite brilliant in the head. She is relatively young and has reminded a staunch NRM cadre.

Museveni starts his last constitutional term next year. If he wants Ugandans to remain happy, he has a wide list of humorous doctors to anoint a successor from.

Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International Fellow for development journalism. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com

Laughter is the best medicine, and Museveni's medical VPs are a hoot - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Laughter-is-the-best-medicine-and-Museveni-medical-VPs-/-/434750/2917464/-/mvxcgh/-/index.html

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