7/30/2019 Someone Recently Asked Me What Would Happen if Museveni of 1986 Met Museveni of 2010

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Someone recently asked me what would happen if Museveni of 1986 met Museveni of 2010. I

had no immediate answer.

I put the same query to the questioner. He reckoned Museveni of 1986 would probably spit at

Museveni of 2010. Why? I asked. Because these are completely two different persons, was his

answer.

It was so hard, I remember stammering. But Museveni of 2010 is much older, and like the adage

suggests, surely much wiser, I countered. Can you imagine a Museveni of 1986 being in themiddle of a mess perpetuated by his party cadres, he asked.

It was on the basis of this question that I revisited history to study this bizarre puzzle. I was not

surprised. The Museveni of the 1980s was something different. He abhorred anything to do with

cheating; no one even suspected of having taken anyones maize cob would survive his ire.

The common man then mattered more. Now its those in power who matter. But at what point

did things change? When did insolence from within his party make Museveni look this bad begin?

On that monumental swearing-in day of January 29, 1986, these words were to remain stuck in

my head: This is not a mere change of guard, it is a fundamental change, said Museveni.

The former rebel speaking to crowds at Parliament promised a return to full democracy. And

then this:The people of Africa, the people of Uganda, are entitled to a democratic government. It is not a

favour from any regime. The sovereign people must be the public, not the government.

How would todays Museveni then respond to this speech by Museveni 1986? Maybe he would

mumble something to the effect that change changed them and that a revolution like NRM is notstatic.

Museveni of 1986 would never say sorry; that was not part of his vocabulary. But then what

occasioned him to tolerate so much mess that he was left begging for forgiveness?

I am told that the older one becomes, the wiser they become, but then again, in a pride of lions

the older a lion becomes, when it can no longer hunt, it resorts to scavenging and is ultimatelychased away by the younger males.

Thus Museveni of 1986 would ask Museveni of 2010: what happened? What went wrong with

you? How possible is it that a party you lead becomes more like the ones that you went to thebush to fight? How different are you from those accused of rigging the 1980 elections?

I can vividly remember his words while he was campaigning for UPM in Kabale when he raised

his AK47 and declared that should the elections be stolen, he would fight to liberate this country.

I even remember the rejoinder from UPC strongman, Chris Rwakasisi, who reminded Museveni

that should he indeed go to the bush, he would be hunted down and left in the same bush.

7/30/2019 Someone Recently Asked Me What Would Happen if Museveni of 1986 Met Museveni of 2010

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I might be an alarmist, but do we see a repeat of yesteryears staring in our eyes?

But since we are not lions and age is just a number, there must be some other explanation as to

why the very people who look up to you are now daring you.

Where is that stern look that would scare the hell out of anyone who dared do anything that

brought the name of the President and the party into public disrepute?

When Museveni of 2010 says I am sorry for the mess occasioned by my cadres on the very

people who are dispensing their democratic rights, then we have indeed come full circle.

Are we slowly coming to the point at which one would a