President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is currently cleaning the mess in the city that he himself had helped to create in the first place. Yet, he is doing this purely out of political expediency. He wants to appease the vendors in turn for votes. This position, the leader having lost to Bobi Wine, the self acclaimed Ghetto president, majority of whose supporters, happen to stay in the ghettos, the Investigator reports.
The Story
Detecting the city markets to be the haven, and a cash cow for opposition politicians, the President moved to purge them of political rivals. The first city market to go to one of the President’s cadres, was St Balikuddembe market, formerly known as Owino. The President sent there his then untouchable and a blue-eyed boy, Hajj Hassan Basajjabalaba (HABA).
He was doing this on the basis of cooked-up intelligence. His moles had sold to him the ruse to the effect that Owino was being used by the opposition politicians at the City Hall to raise campaign funds to fail the ruling party candidates. To state that HABA wound up burying the President’s political fortunes absolutely, is to admit the inability to find a better adjective to properly express the mess the lad ended up occassioning for his boss the President.
From beating up the vendors, hiking rental fees as, and when he desired, and locking up vendors, to confiscating theirs wares, Haba did it all. As Haba went about wrecking such kind of havoc, the President would not only keep quite, but he would also go on providing him with more security as well as praise him as a good manager.
From Owino market, President Museveni, also known as Sevo in ghetto and music fraternity, doled out to the businesssman a number of other public properties. The bonanzas included Nakasero market, the city abattoir, the City Square, a chunk of land for Post Office in Bugoloobi, land in wetlands and so on. Oh, how faster the name Basajjabalaba was travelling at the time around the corners of Kampala and beyond the region!
His hangers-on, plus the fast-talking conmen in town looking to dig a hole in his pockets, would quickly and conningly nickname him Basajjabagula which loosely translates to real men buy each and every property. Pests!, they would years later upon losing a good amount of cash to them, avoid Basajjabagula like he had become another tribe of dangerous leper itself!
After making a mess of Owino and Nakasero markets plus City Abattoir, Sevo finally shipped out Haba before paying him hefty compensations and taking back all the public properties he had helped to secure for him.Before the vendors could settle down, he sent in yet another one of his friends, Godfrey Kayongo, to continue where Haba had stopped. The least said about the havoc Kayongo wrecked on Owino, the better.
Suffice it to state that Owino is at the verge of losing a chunk of land to DFCU bank currently, over a loan picked by the group of Kayongo and failed to pay back! Before the vendors could heal completely from the mess created by Kayongo and his group, the President caused yet another round of havoc by sending in a really chaotic woman known as Kushaba.
Kushaba knew no law or authority. She was the law and the law was her. So much so she was disobeying even the orders issued by the President himself. After being demeaned by this very woman, Museveni’s Premier Robinah Nabbanja Musafiri ran back to the President to shockingly narrate how abusive and extremely hard his favorite cadre is.
Yet Kushaba was being guarded by what had all along seemed to be soldiers provided by none other than the Commander-in-Chief who in our case is known as the President or Sevo. In this piece aspect. At the same time as the President was doing out public facilities to Basajjabalaba, he was doling out Kisseka Market and Shauriyako to another one of his cadres and fellow combatant, ballistic expert, Col Roland Mugyenyi.
As Mugyenyi went about making money after money at the expense of the vendors, Sevo was elsewhere minding other things to help to rein in his favorite cadre. The vendors would complain and protest about the harsh treatment that was going on , but the President was too busy to find time to mind about what was going on.
Finally and at the time of his choosing, and this, on account of the meagre votes he was posting in Kampala, the President finally chased his soldier friend from the two markets. Mugyenyi, just as Haba had been paid good compensation, also picked some really heavy pay checks from the State over the `loss` of the markets.
So, unless the President stops to use politics all the time while making decisions which are critical, this country is going to end up going to the dogs completely just as his friends have ended up messing up the markets in the city and which he has come to realize rather belatedly. Look at the judiciary which is a complete mess now and fighting among itself simply because it’s under the capture of the President’s cadres out to appease him,at the expense of justice and the rule of law.
Turn your eyes and look at Parliament. It is an excellent study in institutions which are bogus and this, since it’s a theatre of robots serving at the mercy, pleasure and whim of the President. Turn to the Police. It’s full of dummies unable to act professionally and ethically while doing their duties because they do as the President pleases. I can go on and on giving more living examples, but time is precious to be spent anyhowly. Thank for following this website and have yourself a wonderful weekend.
Author Profile
- Mr. Stephen Kasozi Muwambi is a seasoned crime investigative writer, majoring in judicial-based stories. His two decades’ experience as a senior investigative journalist has made him one of the best to reckon on in Uganda. He can also be reached via [email protected]
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Well it is good somebody else is also seeing the mess president Museveni has created in Uganda. I once wrote an article about militarization of public services and stated that the judiciary was the remaining institution to be militarized – now it has through state capture. Then I realised that, afterall, Uganda has been under military occupation since 1985 when NRA tookover cushioned by stage elections to create an impression of democracy. I have concluded that Mr. Museveni is not interested in the development of Uganda, but his prolonged stay as president and the protection of the wealth his family and friends have amassed over the years, if he was Uganda would not be among the weakest economies in East Africa today.