As children, my brothers and I loved martial arts movies. There was Billy Chong’s Sun Dragon, Bruce Lee’s Big Boss, Jackie Chan’s Master with Cracked Fingers and anything that featured the blonde ammunition of Cynthia Rothrock. It was puppy love at first sight when I saw her in the movie No Retreat, No Surrender 2.
When my late father, Benjamin Matogo, received his posting in Dar es Salaam in 1988 after serving as High Commissioner to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 1986, we stayed in Kampala for about a month or more before heading to Dar. In Kampala, we stayed at The Fairway Hotel.
Kampala was a different place back then. The buildings had not worn any bulletproof vests during the five-year Bush War and so were bullet-holed so badly that they whistled in the breeze. The streets were relatively deserted, a legacy of Kampalans hiding under their beds as bullets whizzed overhead.
Fairway Hotel had fairly stringent rules on pets, so we couldn’t keep our dog, Lucy, there. She was a small and blanched Ethiopian terrier that had more bark than bite. So, the late Sam Bigombe, my uncle, and his wife Betty, who was a Member of Parliament representing Kilak County, Gulu District, at the time, kept the feisty little dog at their home.
Fairway Hotel was under construction at the time, so a posse of Philippine labourers were on the job, building the place up from the ruins of a war that ravaged the country.
My brothers Derek and Michael befriended these Chinese-looking fellows because they believed that every Asian person must have some kind of knowledge of martial arts.
Seeing two children take an interest in them while everyone else treated them as mere hired hands excited the barrel-chested men. Hence, they fed into my brothers’ delusions. Accordingly, my brothers asked them about all the Kung Fu movies we had all seen up until that point and many others we wished to see like Billy Chong’s Crystal Fist.
In answering, the Philippine constructors said, ‘I have seen’ to every single movie my brother mentioned! My brothers were gobsmacked, these guys were cinematic encyclopaedias. They had literally watched thousands of movies.
My brothers were overly impressed until my late father said: ‘But these are labourers who do crushing work from dawn to dusk, how on earth can they watch all those films at the same time as they work? They don’t even know English.’
They say disillusion follows illusion and this is what occurred as my brothers were disillusioned by the shocking reality that these labourers were too committed to their work to commit to Billy Chong and they probably heard utter gibberish every time my brothers spoke in English to them. Their three little words, ‘I have seen’, suddenly evaporated into the airy thinness of time.
However, they did not go away. Words spoken often have a strange power that makes them linger and transform into what they originally were not. Thus, these words were abridged and repurposed into the singular word: ‘seen.’
Defining word
The word ‘seen’ implies a familiarity that breeds indifference and apathy towards its subject. For once we have seen something, we don’t need to see it again. This leads us to treat what has been seen as commonplace and not worth our continued attention.
This year, we heard former opponents of Uganda such as Norbert Mao praise President Museveni, particularly for ending the wars in the country and promoting peace/stability, his pan-African vision, and his experience, despite historical political differences. Ugandans, in response, replied: ‘Seen.’
To be sure, we had seen this all before. On June 28, we saw President Museveni pick up his nomination forms to be the ruling National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) presidential flag-bearer. He was subsequently confirmed as the NRM party’s candidate for the January 2026 presidential poll, in which he is seeking a seventh consecutive term. And we said, ‘seen.’ It was predicted by everyone that he would run again, so we treated it as something we had already seen coming.
On December 6, National Unity Platform presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi’s (Bobi Wine) campaign rally in Gulu City experienced violent altercations where security personnel beat civilians and supporters were injured. A 16-year-old reportedly died after being hit on the head during the Gulu rally. Were we surprised? Seen.
Taxes
Earlier in the year, there were protests over the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (Efris). Traders were protesting the mandatory use and enforcement of the Efris system, which automatically transmits transaction data to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to combat tax evasion.
The traders argued that the system is costly to acquire and complex to implement, especially for smaller businesses. We had seen such protests before. The 1940s had the Luwalo tax, which fuelled Nubian identity struggles, then there was post-independence unrest over the coercive Graduated Personal Tax (GPT), culminating in its abolition due to political pressure and widespread dissent. The contempt that these familiar tax measures bred were labelled ‘seen’ by Ugandans dead and alive. There was nothing new: ‘Seen.’
Voting
Voter turnout in Uganda has generally experienced a steady and concerning decline over the past few decades. The Electoral Commission (EC) chairperson, Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama, has decried the low turnout in past elections, which results in wasted resources.
Official data from the EC shows a clear downward trend in voter participation over several election cycles-1996: 72.9 percent; 2001: 69.3 percent (approx); 2006: 59.3 percent (approx); 2011: 57 percent (an all-time low at the time); 2016: 67.6 percent (some sources cite lower, at 48.37 percent below 50 percent for the first time); and 2021: 59.3 percent (official turnout, though this figure has been questioned due to reported irregularities).
Several factors have been identified by experts and civil society groups as contributing to this trend, namely: firstly, voter fatigue and disillusionment, thanks to persistent election irregularities such as ballot stuffing and altering results, which have caused disillusionment among sections of society.
Secondly, loss of confidence in the electoral process, thanks to manipulation tactics by the ruling party, like creating new administrative units for political gain, have led to a loss of confidence in the integrity of the elections.
Thirdly, violence and intimidation headlined by campaigns marred by widespread violence, arrests of Opposition supporters, and security force crackdowns deter people from participating.
Fourthly, shrinking civic space that has resulted in a sharp decline in voter education due to shrinking resources that means voters are less informed about the process.
Fifthly, youth disengagement typified by many young people feeling ignored or exploited by political leaders and believing their votes do not matter, leading to disengagement. Lastly, the EC’s failures as seen in issues like failure to supply election materials in some areas, poor time management, and perceived partiality. These have damaged the EC’s image. In a word, ‘seen.’
Media unfreedom
In late October, Nation Media Group-Uganda (NMG-U) journalists were barred from entering Parliament by security personnel, who cited ‘instructions not to let them in’ without providing specific reason. Earlier in the year, in March, NMG-U journalists were excluded from directly covering presidential events and the President’s public rallies.
A deputy presidential press secretary stated that President Museveni personally stopped NMG from covering him due to alleged ‘biased and unfair coverage’ and ‘persistent instances of misreporting.’ To which Ugandans who keep their eyes open and mouths shut chorused: ‘seen.’
In the past, President Museveni has accused this newspaper of being full of foreign agents and working against the country’s recovery. In 2018, he described the newspaper as ‘evil.’
In March 2021, Museveni threatened to sue the Daily Monitor and make them bankrupt over a story that claimed he and his wife had secretly vaccinated themselves against Covid-19. The government has forcibly closed the Daily Monitor offices multiple times.
In May 2013, police raided and shut down the paper’s offices and two affiliated radio stations (KFM and Dembe Radio) for more than a week. The closure was triggered by the publication of a letter, purportedly from an army general, which alleged a plot by President Museveni to groom his son for succession and eliminate those who opposed it.
Futuristic power
The word ‘seen’ developed within English as the past participle of the strong verb ‘see,’ used with auxiliary verbs like ‘have,’ ‘has,’ or ‘had’ (e.g., ‘I have seen it’). Thus, one could argue that Ugandans have developed proprietary rights over the word since they have had it so long, it belongs to them.
This carries a distinct power. That’s because if you can see where you are going by extrapolating trends and happenstances based on past occurrences, Ugandans can ably divine the future. This makes Ugandans ‘far-sighted’, which is a metaphor for strategic, long-term thinking and planning, as opposed to the medical condition of hyperopia.
The primary benefit of this political ‘far-sightedness’ to Uganda is that Ugandans now have the ability to create enduring stability, prosperity, and security for future generations, especially by making difficult decisions that may be unpopular in the short term.
President Museveni acknowledged this in January 2021, when he said, ‘I am not the only one with the vision. There are other people (especially NRM cadres, army) with patriotic vision.’ To which Ugandans, noting the President’s promotion of his own party in this statement, will likely reply: ‘Seen.’