They see this emptiness and parasitism every day, and discuss it—mostly in whispers—all the time. As journalist and palace-insider Andrew Mwenda recently noted, Museveni’s government, “is old and exhausted. It has no zest for anything new or imaginative.”
Indeed, Ugandans—inside and outside of the palace—fully appreciate this emptiness, but are simply overwhelmed to try bringing it to an end.
Why? While folks such as Mwenda think the problem is with the ways in which opposition groups package their politics, or as some analysts suggest Ugandans are (genetically) dumb and passive, my contention is that over the years, we have undergone a mental-political reprogramming. This passivity has a peculiar history.
There are some outstanding exceptions: folks such as Joseph Kabuleta, Dr Stella Nyanzi, Nalongo Nana Mwafrica, or legal rebels such as Isaac Ssemakadde, Eron Kiiza, Nicholas Opiyo, and Male Mabirizi. There are also relentless individuals such as Agatha Atuhaire, Jimmy Spire Ssentongo, Baker Batte Lule, Chris Ogon, Godwin Toko and Anna Ashaba, among others.
But from where do they get the almost audacious courage to confront the excesses of Museveni’s government? I know some of these folks have limited their activism to the online space (argued to present a lesser threat); but why isn’t everybody radically and angrily confronting Museveni’s excesses online?
I do not want to include powerhouses such as Dr Kizza Besigye, Imam Kasozi, Hajji Hussein Kyanjo or Bobi Wine in these mentions. These are a special breed. In all fairness, there are hundreds of mostly young Ugandans in less-publicised spaces speaking out and facing off with the excesses/emptiness of Museveni’s regime.
Many of these young bloods joined Bobi Wine’s People Power movement and are currently, sadly, abandoned and rotting in Kitalya Prison. But where is the rest of Uganda? My response is that this has nothing to do with the nature of opposition politics in the country, but rather the success of Museveni’s machine of fear and brutality.
BROKEN BONES
Museveni’s hold onto power is about 80 per cent (my own made-up figure) a product of his almost subservient willingness to serve the new coloniser. As I have argued before, Bwana Museveni is the quintessential comprador of the new colonial machine, which kicked in during the late 1980s. (And he isn’t alone across the African continent).
But in his own 20 per cent, Museveni has worked so well in producing a passive, indifferent, and almost subservient apolitical public. There are two ways in which Museveni has cultivated this apolitical public: open violence on the one hand, and mental impoverishment.
What happened in November 2021 when Museveni’s armed forces shot and killed an acknowledged 54 people in the streets of Kampala (and didn’t get any blow back) stands as the prime example in making a fear-making machine. But before that, the bombing of the king’s palace in Kasese in 2016 left a permanent imprint. Then came the drone epidemic.
The murders of Muslim clerics over a ten-year period. Justice Joan Kagezi. The murders of women in Entebbe. The attempted murder of Bobi Wine in Arua in 2018, which ended in the murder of his driver, Yasin Kawuma. The torture of Kakwenza Rukirabashaija.
Imprisonment of Stella Nyanzi. Suspicious poisoning of senior public figures considered anti-government from Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, Sheikh Nuhu Muzaata Batte to Dr Anasi Kaliisa. The murders of Afande Muhammad Kirumira and Felix Kaweesi.
The abductions and disappearances of young folks associated with People Power. All these brutal acts—over the years—have nurtured an environment of fear and absolute passivity.
There is much more: The brutal beatings of journalists over the years (my friend, photographer James Akena is still in a wheelchair). The beating and breaking of bones of students protesting in Makerere University over the years.
The brutalising of vendors in downtown Kampala for simply protesting against landlords charging rent in dollars. The bloody safe houses in Nalufenya and around Kampala. The pepper-spraying of Col. Kizza Besigye in 2006, which almost blinded him. Kitalya prison as symbolism of judicial abuse.
Consider the civic impoverishment: The dismantling of Nkoba za Mbogo associations across universities in Buganda (the seat of government and political activity).
The banning of bimeeza conscientisation forums. The closure of radio stations and newspapers. The dismantling of Kisekka and Kisenyi markets. The constitutional amendment requiring aspiring political contenders to resign their jobs three months to nomination, putting young aspirants in a difficult dilemma having to choose between livelihood and politics.
Downgrading of humanities education, with civics and political education removed from school curriculums. This is a general dumbing of a public—and the fruits are mass indifference and passivity.
SECURITY’S ROLE
Museveni’s intelligence and security organisations are designed to work for the same purpose but have to be uncoordinated commands—and then actively spy on each other.
From Uganda Police, the UPDF, Special Forces Command (SFC), Crime Intelligence Division (CID), Internal Security Organisation (ISO), the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT), Local Defence Unit (LDU), District Intelligence (DISO) Parish Intelligence (PISO), Gombolola Intelligence (GISO) to then Residence District Commissioner (RDCs), et cetera.
Then Boda Boda 2010. In the industry of fear, these derive their power from actually appearing confused and uncoordinated. The idea is that uncoordinated and confused, they cannot one day decide to mutiny as a collective. Under different commands, neither group knows what the other is up to and are actually suspicious of each other.
This freaks both the security people themselves and the public more generally. Any analyses on why Kampala’s public is indifferent to openly challenging a clearly haggard Museveni has to begin from understanding this industry. It is 20 per cent of Museveni’s power, but this is actually significant.
yusufkajura@gmail.com
The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University.
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