Uganda’s Opposition politicians, who have been variously roughed up, detained, tortured, or had their comrades shot dead, despise those who trivialise their pain by suggesting that they (the politicians) deliberately provoke the security forces to treat them shabbily so that the National Resistance Movement (NRM)-controlled State may appear undemocratic and barbaric.
It would be a reckless strategy, considering the weapons the State appears constantly ready to turn against the Opposition. Anyhow, both the lowest grade of fanatical regime supporters and some elitist opportunists have been parroting the propaganda that Robert Kyagulanyi and his National Unity Platform (NUP) must have rejoiced when they were recently beaten up by NRM goons in western Uganda.
But let us suppose that the propagandists are correct.
Would the Opposition seek political capital out of NRM barbarism if the regime had not already established a pattern of intolerance dating back to the physical attacks on the late Paul Ssemogerere in 1995/6 (again in western Uganda), through numerous experiences involving Dr Kizza Besigye, to the current victims on the block, Kyagulanyi and his NUP?
The way it looks, NUP perhaps could only avoid these attacks by not heading west on its campaign.
In our folly, we thought that the debate on the issues of chaotic governance, poor service delivery, horrendous corruption, mindless inequality and repeated constitutional mockery was the basis on which voters would form their electoral preferences. But now we understand that the debate is secondary. Instead, the capacity to physically injure or block the free movement of opponents is more important.
If the victims earn some sympathy votes, we assume that these votes are a dividend the NRM has calculated it can forego. In their different party and security formations, the political establishments in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda seem to be converging into a closer fraternity guided by a soft fascism. A tired authoritarianism masquerading as democracy. Now, the diminished freedom created by these establishments is the backdrop from which Zohran Mamdani emerged, maintaining a low political profile in Uganda where he was born and is a citizen, before hitting the American scene and blossoming into the mayor-elect for New York City.
By coincidence, former US President Barack Obama is also associated with East Africa because his father was a Kenyan who got married to an American woman in Hawaii. Kenyans rejoiced, just as Ugandans have rejoiced, when their ‘son’ became president. The intuitive feeling is that the two men have made East Africans feel proud. Well, a feeling is a feeling. And it can change. After some reflection, we may feel ashamed.
Why are we as countries so wretched that our sons and daughters can only act freely and decently when they are thousands of miles away? Repeat, freely. Repeat, decently. Obama was only 55 when he left the White House in 2017. If he had attempted to stay even one day longer than his eight years of service, the country – the system – would have fought him. He did not bring out guns or metamorphose into a giant tick to cling to America’s back.
The budget of New York City (not state) is bigger than the budgets of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda combined. There are more chances that Mamdani will not embezzle New York’s money than that he will. If he is re-elected, he will vacate office at 42, leaving all that behind, and turn to other things. The East Africa Obama and Mamdani are associated with is not shining because of them and their smiles. It looks even darker and uglier because of the contrast.