Like father, like son. Junior dictator Muhoozi Kaenerugaba takes center stage. Photo: YouTube
[View From Uganda]
The Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) Land Forces Commander, Lt. Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of dictator Gen. Yoweri Museveni recently tweeted: “As Commander Land Forces of UPDF and on the instructions of the Commander in Chief, I declare that we need 2,000 graduates in the next recruitment. We shall ensure they are the right people for the job. They will serve our great country just like we did. God bless Uganda!” The junior dictator is taking center stage as public mouthpiece of his father.
In 2013 Gen. David “Sejusa” Tinyefuza, once a top regime military official explained that there’s a “Muhoozi Project” to pave the way for the “baby dictator” to succeed his father as dictator. Army officers opposed to this project and the rapid promotion of the son by the father were at risk of being assassinated, Sejusa told the BBC. He added that Uganda was being turned into a “political monarchy”.
For reporting Sejusa’s comments, The Daily Monitor, a leading Ugandan newspaper, was closed for more than 10 days. Now Sejusa’s revelation is being put into play. With this in mind, it would not be a stretch to consider the 2,000 new recruits as part of the nefarious Muhoozi Project, as part of loyal praetorian guard. This is precisely why Uganda needs Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a Bobi Wine to take office as president. Museveni swore himself again as president after the Jan. 14, 2021 election that Museveni’s puppet master the U.S. said was “neither free, nor fair.” In essence the country’s top bankroller doesn’t consider the dictator to be Uganda’s legitimate ruler.
Most Ugandans believe the country would develop quickly with enduring functional institutions instead of the Museveni family monarchy.
Senior dictator Gen. Museveni. Photo: Facebook. His puppet master the U.S. said he stole election.
Institutions also exist in the abstract, so they shouldn’t be created as mere symbols but exercised as responses to very real politico-economic and social questions.
Institutions only materialize in the form of practice and are thereby activated into living organisms. This squares with the theory of Organicism which states that institutions of a country should be considered alive and naturally ordered, much like a living organism. However, they only become living when we breathe life into them through example instead of empty exposition.
So, to ensure they exist, we must practice the principles which underpin the pre-existence of these structures. These principles shape a superstructure which serves as a level of consciousness towards making sure these structures work as institutions. This means that an institution is only institutionalized by how we act and not by how we think we should act.
Let’s get back to Robert Kyagulanyi. If he becomes president, Uganda will be forced to act in the direction of institutionalism. That’s because the armed forces will have to salute to a non-soldier and thereby validate the merits of the state not belonging to any particular family or person.
All systems will have to give way to his constitutional ascendancy, and the byproduct would be the institutions that shall exist in the custom or tradition of a peaceful transfer of power. In this way, institutions are breathed into life when institutionalized by custom or tradition. To be sure, in America, at the dawn of its democracy, Americans never had any concrete institutions to draw upon.
What they had was political will, this turned to practice when this will expressed itself in their political life. And then, over time, this practice became a custom or tradition that nobody can tamper with. Great things are done in the name of expectations too great, after all.
By elevating Kyagulanyi to the presidency, we are testing our belief in a better Uganda. And it is this test that shall elevate our republic above Gen. Museveni’s monarchy.
Columnist Matogo can be reached via [email protected]
