{UAH} His prestige lost, Museveni is trapped in the presidency - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/His-prestige-lost-Museveni-is-trapped-in-the-presidency-/-/434750/1390792/-/item/1/-/ut3al5z/-/index.html

His prestige lost, Museveni is trapped in the presidency

If one has a sense of history, despite all the corruption, the national epidemic of potholes, and wanton police cruelty against the opposition, the changes that Uganda has gone through under Museveni are truly remarkable.

But that is not the headline, nor is it going to be. Very few people, even some of his supporters, forget that.

To many, Museveni is the father figure of the most corrupt and iniquitous government Uganda has ever had.

In some places, when he comes on TV, people walk off or switch channels.

Now, Museveni seems trapped. He's hanging on to power hoping, in vain, to salvage a legacy. As someone put it to me, "Museveni has nothing else to do or anywhere to go. So he has retired into the presidency."

Museveni deserves much better than that. He deserved something close to the prestige that Julius Nyerere took with him into his retirement.

He now looks unlikely to do so, because he is unable to do the simplest thing: To say goodbye.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group's executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com. Twitter: @cobbo3

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