By Zacharia Kanyonyozi
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
Over the weekend, Norbert Mao, (below ) the Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister and President General of Uganda’s oldest political party, the Democratic Party (DP), had his “homecoming” in Gulu city.
Decked out in a bowtie and penguin suit, he looked like the world’s first Black James Bond.
However, he was escorted by Gen. Salim Saleh, Gen. Museveni’s brother.
And so Mao cut the odd appearance of appearing like a 007 teaming up with the ultimate Bond Villain, Saleh.
It is common knowledge that Saleh’s sobriquet during the bloody five-year bush war that brought Gen. Museveni to power was “Kifo”, Kiswahili for death.
So it is possible that Mao was trembling in his boots as he hailed the DP’s partnership with the Museveni junta.
And so he should be, very afraid. For, as the saying goes, ‘If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas’?
In the early 90s, Uganda’s parliament was the Museveni rubberstamp called the National Resistance Council (NRC).
The then NRC Nyabushozi Member of Parliament Elly Karuhanga, during a plenary, said the Baganda were used as political condoms for having worked with the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) when the UPC formed an alliance with the Buganda royalist movement Kabaka Yekka (King Only) between 1962 and 1964.
Karuhanga, a principal member of Gen. Museveni’s court, inadvertently told us what will happen to Mao.
Usually a centrist, Mao will be forced to the extreme right of the center as he is used as a Trojan horse reviewing the 1995 constitution.
He has already announced that the long-anticipated constitutional review would happen in three months. He says this will “ensure a more inclusive and just governance for all.”
However, the real aim of this review is to change the political system from a presidential system to a parliamentary system.
The current 11th Parliament (2021-2026) as at 20 July 2023 comprises 557 members namely:
Constituency Representatives – 353
District Woman Representatives – 146
Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces’ Representatives – 10
Youth Representatives – 5
Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) Representatives – 5
Workers’ Representatives – 5
Older Persons’ Representatives – 5
Ex Officio Members – 28
59 belong to the Bobi Wine-led National Unity Platform, the biggest opposition party, while the currently splintering Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has 32 parliamentary seats; the UPC and DP have 9 seats apiece. The rest belong to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and NRM-leaning “independents.”
So the parliament is dominated by the ruling NRM.
By extension, with the NRM’s power growing after all but swallowing the UPC and the DP via fraudulent Memoranda of Understanding and as the FDC experiences a major split midwifed by the NRM, the handwriting is on the wall.
Thus, not only will the next elections be a shoe-in for the NRM thanks to its use of political conscription, gerrymandering, intimidation, murder, random violence and rigging, the leader of the biggest party (NRM) after Uganda becomes a parliamentary system will rule the country as an executive Prime Minister.
Since the NRM is Gen. Museveni and Gen Museveni is the NRM, his son, popularly known as Baby Doc, will be coronated as Uganda’s new (mis)leader.
Being a thoroughly boring speaker who talks into everybody’s sleep whenever he hits the podium, the Museveni junta cannot front Gen. Muhoozi as a candidate because that would expose him as a complete joke.
He is indeed a man who is more like Dikula (a famous Ugandan clown) on the hustings.
So, through the parliamentary system, he will ride on the coattails of the NRM by not being subjected to popular ridicule every time he opens his booze-addled mouth.
After this has been done, Mao will be discarded as a political condom as what remains of Uganda’s democratic tradition is nullified by dynastic rule.
This will also bring the Acoli into collision with the Baganda, as the latter is smashed by the Junta so that it accepts Gen. Muhoozi’s rule over Bobi Wine’s forthcoming win in 2026.
And, as a corollary, Mao and his tribe will be blamed for this fratricide since he is an Acoli who has made the coming of Gen. Muhoozi possible and the misery of Buganda actual.
It is axiomatic to posit that Gen. Museveni is an expert at creating tribal hatred; he is the true origin of the words: a dead Muganda is a good Muganda.
And he has posed as a Muhima so that this sub-ethnic group is blamed for his excesses by association. This is similar to how the Austrian Adolf Hitler posed as a German.
It is a sad state of affairs, but we must rise up as one to stop the Museveni Junta from ruining Uganda.
This means we must not demonize Baganda, Acoli or Bahima or any tribe for that matter but instead train our sights on family rule.
Yes, the real enemy is the Museveni family not any tribe in Uganda. And we must never lose sight of this fact!
By Zacharia Kanyonyozi
