By Sam Okello, a concerned Ugandan
Mr. Joseph Kabuleta, first and foremost I am sorry if I am addressing you by a fittingly deserved title considering I know little or nothing about you.
I am at crossroads on whether to address you as a journalist, an altar boy, the chief yes-man or chief bootlicker of ‘Prophet’ Elvis Mbonye.
Well, may be all those titles are as useless as the white colour on our Ugandan flag. What I am trying to say? I have come across your gibberish tirade titled the “MAFIA EMPIRE AND THE TRANSITION” and I must say that the only good thing about your rant was the English. Perhaps, if you had lived during the times of King Louis XVI, his arrogant wife, Marie Antoinette would have taken you as an adopted son.
For a long time, you have written very toxic, sentimental articles about the Fountain of honour- President Yoweri Museveni and the First Family. You have nastily tried to portray how Museveni is setting ground for his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba to take over as President.
In your rant, you have littered and belittled Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba as a man with no iota of charm to lead. From your rant, you certainly have no idea what a charming character you are missing in Gen Muhoozi’s personality.
The Muhoozi you don’t know is an independent, sober-minded, self-controlled, hospitable, gentle and non-violent human being you will ever interact with.
Ugandans will forever be indebted for his bravery where he led the UPDF soldiers in the ADF battle in Bundibugyo, the war against Joseph Kony in Northern Uganda, the war against the Al Shabab in Somalia, among others.
Aren’t those just more than enough attributes for one to be a leader?
Kabuleta is mistaking Gen Muhoozi’s niceness for weakness. He will soon start chewing elephant grass thinking it is sugarcane.
In the first place, Uganda is not a monarch. Uganda is the fulcrum of multiparty democracy and has a supreme Constitution which allows its citizens to choose their leaders frequently after 5 years. Like Dr Prem Jagyasi says, the likes of Kabuleta need to remove the blinders from their eyes to have a neutral, level-headed and logical viewpoint, lest he will liken Uganda to his briefcase Church Ministry whose leadership is hereditary.
If tomorrow Gen Muhoozi declares bid for presidency and Ugandans think he can do a good job then why not? Should he be denied his constitutional right simply because he is First Son?
The reigning President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta is a living testimony. He was only 3 years when his father Jomo Kenyatta became the first president of the republic of Kenya. Like any other citizen, Uhuru humbly rose through the political ranks and now he is serving his second term in office having garnered 54% of the popular vote.
The Bush family in U.S is another example of father to son presidency. George H.W Bush became the 41st U.S president from 1989 t0 1993 and 8 years later, his eldest son George W Bush was democratically elected President and diligently served for two terms in the White House.
Other countries that have democratically had father to son Presidents include Togo, South Korea, Gabon, Philippines and India. In fact, in Pakistan, a husband, Asif Ali Zardari took over from his wife, Benazir Bhutto as President.
So, Gen Muhoozi who recently clocked 45 years of age may take the same root if Ugandans find him a suitable candidate.
The majority of Uganda’s population is predominantly made up of young people. In fact 78% of our population is below 30years of age and 49.3% is under the age of 15 years. So what is wrong with young people adoring a fellow youthful Muhoozi as their mentor?
The humble advice to Kabuleta and a few others with the same class of thought, is that the power to remove a leader in a democratic Uganda is through the ballot, not even the curse of Ham can do the magic because leaders come from God. Uganda is not a football game that you want to prophesy who will win the match. I rest my case.
