While we can regard that statement as humorous, it also qualifies as one of the most abusive statements made by one of Ugandan top politicians. It also signifies the low opinion that the DP leader has for both Kyaddondo East MP Hon Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu and Mukono Municipality MP Hon Betty Nambooze.

To make matters even worse, Hon Kyagulanyi is not only a Member of Parliament but also, currently the leader of one of the upcoming strongest political parties, from the opposition, arguably with the biggest youths’ following for now.

While President Museveni’s NRM enjoys the largest majority of the members of Parliament, it’s largely explained by the fact that the ruling party enjoys the luxury of state resources, while Hon Robert Kyagulanyi’s National Unity Party has got MPs who joined the party by absolute conviction.

Norbert Mao can claim to be leading the Democratic Party but he only controls four members of parliament that didn’t defect to NUP. And even then the loyalty of the remaining four is not confirmed to be in his folder. Therefore, he was expected to exercise some restraint and respect for the NUP leadership.

The Komanyoko Politiks

Faced with a very uncertain political future, Mao has resorted to insults not necessarily for his enemies but for those members of his party with whom he disagrees on strategic political matters.

Last month he made another interesting idiom, when he stated that ‘‘People Power was like a school without a center number, when exam time arrives, they run to schools with center numbers’’.

Mao was, in effect, suggesting that as a pressure group, People Power had to find a registered political party through which to contest for the 2021 election.

And true to his word People Power found the already registered National Unity Party as the ‘center number’. The process of acquiring this party has since degenerated into a controversial undertaking with some officials within NUP contesting the process through which Hon Robert Kyagulanyi took over as the party president.

Nevertheless, NUP is growing from strength to strength while DP is hanging in balance. But this doesn’t justify the Mao’s vitriolic language. Mao makes statements which border from humor to absolute abuse. I don’t think that he acknowledges the derisive nature of his statements.

Humor is an important part of the oratory for big politicians. Politics without humor is like a football game without dribblers. The fans never fully enjoy the game. But humor that contextually undermines the personality of another is not good for politics. It’s a direct abuse of another, which then qualify as a foul or bad tackle on an opponent.

As we all know, bad tackles are punishable by the referee with use of a yellow or red card. In this regard, Mao should have been sent off (red carded) a longtime ago. Calling duly elected members of the Democratic Party to the country’s Parliament morons was a very stupid idea. Mao should have restrained himself and found a way of working with those members.

Mao’s problem is that he only applies the humor when he is insulting or deriding his opponents. Better orators use the humor to send a powerful message. It’s not fair to categorize Mao as humorous because his is not humor, its veiled abuse. While humor is categorized as being funny, comical or witty, the synonyms for abuse include violence, mistreatment and cruelty. Mao is therefore not humorous, he is abusive.

He is in the same league of abusive leaders like president Museveni who referred to past leaders as swine’s. Hon Kahinda Otafiire can be bluntly abusive and funny at the same time. He is vividly remembered for referring to his opponents as mavi yakuku ngine (chicken pupu)

Real Comedy

But when it comes to humor, former Ugandan president Idi Amin can easily be regarded as the most comical of all. Although President Amin was very funny in every aspect of the word by virtue of his larger than life appearance, the way he spoke the queen’s language made him a buffoon in his own league.

Amin was so comical that Ugandans started coining their own comedy and attributed it to him. One was when some creative fellows said that Amin once said that ‘’when I was coming from the stone (the town of Jinja) the football of the motorcar did pwaaa’’.

Although Amin is NOT known to have made that statement, it confirms how comical Ugandans regarded him to be. In regard to freedom of speech Amin once said that he ‘’can guarantee freedom of speech before speech, but cannot guarantee freedom of speech after speech’’

He was in effect saying that those who speak freely about his regime were free to do so, but were bound to face the consequences after making those statements. And that denoted the horrendous rate of human rights violations that characterized his regime.

The likes of Amin and Museveni can afford to be humorous and abusive because they did it while in power. But Mao being a man who is pursuing power should never have used abusive language because he makes it difficult for himself to acquire his goal.

Mao doesn’t seem to understand that using humor to denigrate others undermines his ability to lead others. When you are a leader of men, you have to be very careful with the way you address those who disagree with you. Any statement which goes out of line with people’s expectations can cost you very dearly.

Only leaders in power can afford to abuse their opponents and get away with it. As for those who seek power, like Mao, they should exercise restraint and never yield to the temptation of getting native. Why? Because those you abuse will react by being more native. Mao, more than anybody else, now knows how far foul language has put him in political isolation. If he was looking for an award he has won the award of being the most abusive Ugandan politician of the year.

There have also been valid concerns of how Bobi is going to control many politicians who have been clamoring to stand on the People Power ticket after landing offices since the movement had not been duly registered.

The concerns become even more evident given the habit by politicians of using trending political parties of the moment during campaigns and crossing over to other political parties after winning elections. Insiders say more than ten thousand people eyeing different political offices have picked nomination forms already from People Power seeking to be its official candidates at the looming polls.

The problem of lack of a political party on part of Bobi is now settled. Bobi has today been unveiled as the presidential candidate of the little known National Unity Political Platform Party. This has followed talks between the leadership of the National Unity Reconciliation and Development Party that was registered in 2004 and People Power.

The party held a delegates conference on July 14 which accepted to merge forces with People Power, a political movement started by Bobi Wine birthing the National Unity Reconciliation and Development Party. The leadership of the old party headed by Moses Nkonge Kibalama have since declared Bobi the presidential candidate in the February 2021 general elections for the new party.

The talks have  been on since political rookie but now surging Bobi won the Kyadondo East by-election in 2017.

Though there is excitement about Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine’s People Power, it’s lost on me. Historically, apart from Obote in 1962, all leaders have taken reins by force of arms, or under other questionable circumstances. What assurance is there that Kyagulanyi is a stronger opponent than Dr. Warren Kizza Besigye was? Why the certainty that Kyagulanyi is the golden goose that Museveni was in 1986?

Charles Rwomushana, a political analyst, has a philosophy that interested me. The philosophy, based majorly on the traditional history of the political personas, is intricate. Nevertheless, one thing that I took note of is what he called the consciousness. By this he meant the awareness that one has of the value for anything; in this case, the traditional political history and modern-day political components of Uganda. When explaining Museveni’s Historical Trek, Mr. Rwomushana related it to the trek of the pilgrims to Namugongo. That relation isn’t without flaw, but I’d rather focus on the relevance of it. The two have this in common; both Museveni and the pilgrims understand the value of their trek.

It is this ability to understand the value innate of what one is doing that strengthens the foundation of its contagion. Kyagulanyi’s People Power has this weakness; his following doesn’t understand the strength of the people power concept. This philosophy, similar to the South African Amandia Awethu, is built on a mutual understanding, between the leader and the led, of the power that lies within them. This was clear in the ANC when Mandela led the struggle against the apartheid regime.

With People Power, there’s a notable difference! The ANC supporters were able to face live ammunition when in support of their cause. This is unlike the People Power supporters. Yesterday, chaos ensued after the police prevented Kyagulanyi’s open ground consultation in Gayaza. The People Power supporters in Kyagulanyi’s constituency could not brave the tear gas in support of their cause. It is understandable, we, Ugandans are too comfortable to risk much. In fact, we were once branded as cowards!

Personally, the mere sight of armed uniformed men doing nothing is all it would take for me to run off. Perhaps I am the biggest coward of all! But my point is this, we youths are energetic and hot-blooded – if the reason for my radicalism is a cause I fully understand and truly believe in, I would be willing to take a bullet right between my eyes! That’s a fact!

Mr. Rwomushana used this incident to conveniently make his case. People Power supporters are not conscious of the base element that is existent in the pressure group’s name. It isn’t about chanting ‘power to the people’, it is more grounded when the supporters are willing to lose even their lives for the philosophy.

There is no need to block roads and throw bricks at the citizens who brave the chaos and head to work. The message is then lost with a bunch of wanton man-babies unable to comprehend the nature of what they fight for. I’d love to support Kyagulanyi’s stand for difference; but not if the majority who support the same are so incapable of comprehension to understand the philosophy of People Power.

Essentially, Kyagulanyi’s opposition is weakened by the fact that many of his supporters don’t understand the gravity of what he stands for, let alone the complexity of Uganda’s political philosophy! Perhaps, the latter is something that even Kyagulanyi himself does not understand!

This is the other side of Mr. Rwomushana’s philosophy. The people in power understand politics differently from how many of us do. Museveni created a dynasty akin to the Chwezi’s which fell centuries ago. In fact, he believes that this is a continuation of that fallen dynasty. Museveni is preparing Uganda for the ‘bazukulu’ to carry on their reign once he is gone. Thus, the reason for Museveni’s long stay in power is not greed but rather Uganda being a modern-day dynasty. Crazy, right? Not so much as it may seem.

When I read the political history of Uganda, I think of how this country would be better under a federal system. Don’t throw your hands up just yet! The challenge to this system is that the colonial government created a great imbalance within the kingdoms that existed in 1894. This government made Buganda the Centre of excellence at the expense of the other kingdoms at the time.

The Ganda-Anglo friendship was driven by mostly political interests on either side. I’ll avoid the details! Nonetheless, the result of this was a Uganda which was run in Buganda. This inequality and Buganda’s special status lingered over Uganda’s progress. This factor, inter alia, birthed the 1953 and 1966 crises. The colonial policies made sure of the fact that Uganda could never succeed as a federal state.

Yet, we are still a traditional and cultural society that is caught between the western philosophy of governance and the difference in tradition. In my minimally informed opinion, Uganda may never have proper democratic governance because of this fact. You see, not even England, a constitutional monarch, has to worry about traditional differences when initiating political policies. Therefore, our tendency to ignore the fact that Uganda is sub-divided into various kingdoms, albeit weak and some barely in force, is a major factor for the death of democracy in this country.

Museveni is king disguised as a president and all those who truly understand Uganda’s political philosophy know this. After him, we may in fact have another who will be of similar descent. Not a single informed Ugandan will deny the fact that the first Family has set its roots in the country with numerous economic interests and investments. This is coupled with a government in which the top officials are shockingly closely inter-related. In this, I see the makings of a monarchy of some sorts; but not a dynasty per se.

With all this in play, I frankly cannot claim to believe that Kyagulanyi has favorable chances of taking power. Even so, if he, by some miracle did take power, there would be so many forces fighting against him. We could claim that we have the constitution which places power in the people, courtesy of Article 1.

Let’s face it! This constitution has been amended four or so times; twice, it has been to favor the incumbent. The practice of democracy per this constitution has been made so difficult. You see, technically, power lies in the Parliament; courtesy of Article 1(4). The will of the people being exercised ‘through’ their representatives means that the representatives’ choices are the people’s and therefore, they are the sovereign choices.

The ruling party takes majority seats in Parliament. This translates (rather roughly than accurately) into at least 9 of 10 NRM policies being passed by Parliament. Even though there are NRM members who may not support the policies, you cannot rely on opposition to always come through against them. These being NRM, FDC or other Party’s policies rather than people’s, is it really the people who are sovereign?

Mr. Rwomushana, a member of the CA which drafted the constitution of ’95, contends that if Kyagulanyi wants to take power from Museveni, he should first acquaint himself with both the history of traditional politics and the workings of politics today. Truly, it would be naïve to think that it is elections that give us our leaders!

Therefore, much as there is a possibility for someone other than a Museveni or one of similar descent taking reins, it would be difficult. Many of us either are ignorant of the true nature of Uganda’s political philosophy or those who aren’t, choose to disregard it. We seem to think of Mbabazi, Muntu and the like as being capable opponents. What am I saying anyway, it seems that now Mbabazi is back to the ‘Kyoto’!