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So, it is now 33 years that Yoweri Museveni has been president of Uganda.
The majority of Ugandans being Christians, the significance of 33 years is not lost on them. That is the time Jesus spent on earth from his birth through his ministry finally crucifixion.
Now some Christians who worked closely with Museveni are impatient that he also conclude his ministry, so to speak, but they have departed from the script of the disciples who stuck with their boss to the end, except of course the one who betrayed him to assassins for thirty pieces of silver.
The impatience with Museveni’s endless journey started with once-ardent disciple called Joseph Wasswa Ziritwawula, the first mayor of Kampala when Museveni took power and the man who helped entrench the new system of leadership in the capital city.
Then this Joseph joined parliament and called passionately to have Museveni leave office after four years in power. Of all names, a Joseph, like Jesus’s earthly father! Joseph was ignored by other legislators and he quit politics, becoming a busy usher at Christ the King Church in central Kampala.
The second impatient disciple was Paul Ssemogerere, leader of the Democratic Party, who had so embraced Museveni that he fell out with other DP followers who disagreed with the decree that curtailed party activities as long as Museveni’s NRM was operating as a single party.
After serving as Museveni’s senior minister for 10 years, this Paul tried to unseat his erstwhile boss in the country’s first direct presidential elections of 1996. Imagine a Paul of all names! Museveni triumphed and Paul the good Catholic left quietly, like Joseph the other Catholic had done seven years earlier.
We mention their Catholicism because in Uganda political leadership is frankly about balancing tribal and religious equations, and Catholics don’t rule Uganda, a trait we share with the more advanced democracies of the UK and the USA (besides, the letter U that makes us alphabetical neighbours).
You know the other impatient but most determined disciple – Dr Kizza Besigye – who abandoned his nice job in Nairobi in the early 1980s to fight with Museveni in the bush war, becoming the latter’s personal doctor and right hand man after they took power in 1986.
But in 2000, Besigye who was a serving soldier at the rank of colonel, drew a line in the sand for his commander-in-chief. Thus began Uganda’s most intense political contest ever, now spanning two decades during which Besigye has tried to unseat Museveni four times!
And like Jesus cracked the whip on guys who were trading in His Father’s temple, Museveni has been quite rough on Besigye for “using the wrong forum” and methods in trying to take his job.
Now Besigye is passing the baton to one Robert Kyagulanyi, who was a toddler when they took power in 1986. But before you get excited about this Robert, be informed that he is a Catholic, and breaking the jinx is not easy.
Catholics thought they had broken the jinx in 1985 when General Tito Okello took power. It emerged long after, during the general’s funeral, that he was Anglican like eight of Uganda’s nine presidents.
Another Museveni disciple called General Mugisha Muntu tried to wrest the baton from Besigye. Muntu served for many years as Museveni’s army commander before joining politics. Muntu says all the right things about democracy and statesmanship but is criticised for being a gentleman! Says a lot about us Ugandans.
Joachim Buwembo is a political and social commentator based in Kampala. E-mail: [email protected]
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