A couple of weeks ago, I was with my journalist friends discussing corruption and deceit in Museveni’s Uganda, wondering how men in suits, clearly in their forties and fifties or even more tell lies to themselves and country – that all is well – and then return home to dinner with their families.
How do they enjoy these meals knowing that most of the steak and stew on their dining tables was actually stolen? How do they then tell Bible stories to their children about honesty and straightforwardness?
Or do they have an Andrew-Mwenda at their dinner tables and bedsides to explain all this stuff to their wives and children that looting is the glue that keeps the Ugandan state together.
As the conversation hit a melancholier beat, with more sighs of disbelief and resignation, someone brought up the name of Boniface Byanyima, the deceased DP stalwart. What mettle was this man made of to turn down a younger, dandier, handsome president from marrying his daughter – just on the grounds of character? We all asked pointing to that specific incident in the legacy of Mzee Byanyima.
We all recall that interview that Mzee Byanyima gave to then The Observer journalist, Herbert Benon Oluka, in which he said more than could be said about a sitting president. In another country, Byanyima’s interview would have grievously dented Museveni’s political career.
Published on 22 May 2017, the story titled “The love-hate relationship between Museveni and the Byanyimas,” reproduces, almost verbatim, a 2005 interview that took a biographical tweak, a memoir of sorts, but wound around the political history of Uganda.
Speaking to Oluka, the old man, who partly raised Museveni as a child, but also taught him in school, took no prisoners discussing Museveni deceitfulness, cruelty and ruthlessness, which many years later, had not changed, even with the beautiful things that had happened to Museveni: “When he was a young man, he was not straight and even now he is not straight. When Museveni says 10 words, you can’t trust them all. Perhaps only two are correct,” Byanyima noted in words reminiscent of late Hajji Nasser Ntege Ssebagala quip that “if Museveni shook your hand, please be sure to count your fingers after the handshake to confirm you still have all of them five.”
But what stood out for us reminiscing this interview – and the legacy of the old man – was the story where he turned down Museveni’s request to marry his daughter Winnie Byanyima. Mzee Byanyima told the journalist, that about 1987, just a year after Museveni had become president, “Museveni came here proposing marriage. He wanted to marry her, which I opposed. I told my daughter Museveni was not a reliable character.”
Before Museveni going himself, he had sent his father, Amos Kaguta to talk to Mzee Byanyima about the marriage proposal. Byanyima narrates, “First, there came his father [Amos] Kaguta to propose. I said no. Then Museveni came here when he was president. I said I can’t agree. I said if you are marrying her, if she wants, it will be her responsibility. Me I don’t want that.” And as is well known in custom, the marriage never went ahead because it lacked fathers blessing.
But look, this is 1987, Uganda was mad in love with Museveni. All crimes in Luwero had been either forgiven or had been understood as necessary step for peace. Museveni was well spoken, dandy and handsomer. Age has really taken a toll on his speech and handsomeness. He is unrecognizable nowadays. But while the entire world was in a trance, here was an elderly man, in some ways his father, refusing to grant her daughter’s hand in marriage on the grounds of character.
Look, Byanyima was not turning down a proposal from just a famous man [who would be soon turning rich], but this was the president of the country. Who wouldn’t want to have his daughter become First Lady? But not even with Museveni’s father entreating the old man did he budge. What was this insistence on good character and reliability?
While we discussed this rich but simple legacy of Mzee Byanyima, we couldn’t miss the chance to talk about the men and women allegedly called the “elders” of our time. Imagine any of these folks [insert here a name of any so-called elder you know currently] being entreated by a younger, handsome and dandy newly victorious president and is asking for the hand in marriage of their daughters.
These men not only rush their daughters into state house (lest the man changed his mind) but would wish to hand over even their wives, and if needs be, themselves as well.