Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

Uganda-Rwanda: Museveni taught Kagame bad manners

By Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda
The Observer
July 22, 2009

When you are a parent there are certain things you must not do because in the home you have another role of being a teacher.

I do not know how many times my daughter Halima Namwanje Nanziri has struggled to imitate her mother. My sons Ssemujju II and Ssemujju III also keep imitating me including how I walk and eat. There was a time they saw me limping and immediately they sought to do it.

Parenting doesn’t stop with your own children. It extends to people below you when you are in a position of leadership or authority. That is why leaders are supposed to be very careful with their actions or else people below them will copy them.

All of you have seen Prof. Gilbert Bukenya trying to imitate his boss Museveni. There was a time when he forgot names of all people around him and started calling them “nani” because he saw Museveni doing the same. Bukenya was, like Semujju II, being a good son.

The other day I saw Amama Mbabazi with a huge hut similar to one Museveni wears. Museveni may not be a reckless but the casual way in which he handles public resources, makes people below him think that is how things are done. When a head of state begins manipulating MPs to change the Constitution for him to stay in power, legislators will bribe voters to help them stay in Parliament.

The LC chairpersons will pick it up from there and I hear children in primary school also give “logistics” while campaigning these days. When the President of a poor country that is still vulnerable to food shortages, builds himself a Shs70 billion official residence and buys a Shs80 billion jet, ministers will certainly demand for the latest model of Land Cruisers.

When a President of a poor country flies his daughters for antenatal care in Spain, his ministers will seek medical attention from South Africa, India and UK. Such is the effect of a leader or a parent on people below him.

That is why people in Buganda and I guess in other areas, were in the past when they still had influence, very cautious of the families their children married from. While I am angry with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) leadership for cheating history, I think the right person to blame is their tutor.

Those of you reading about this for the first time, need to know the official version in Rwanda at least according to the country’s army boss Gen. James Kabarebe is that, “the battle to liberate Rwanda by RPF/A would have failed had President Paul Kagame not been in charge.

There was nobody else to re-organise soldiers after the October 2 1990 setback. The truth must be told. Nobody should lie to you that we had another person like President Kagame.” This is how Rwanda has responded to a speech delivered on July 4, by Museveni at the occasion to remember their struggle. Never mind that Museveni received a medal for his role. Some RPF leaders were angry with Museveni for reminding them that Kagame was a youth serving under him.

They were also angry to be reminded that Maj. Gen. Fred Rwigyema was their first commander and some of them killed him in a power struggle. For once I am on Museveni’s side. History must be told truthfully with all honesty even if it makes you inferior.

I think people who were inferior yesterday should celebrate most when the history of how they have arisen from obscurity to the top is recounted. Unfortunately some of our leaders have allowed their troubled past to haunt them.

That is the reason Museveni presents himself as having been the greatest fighter, commander and war planner that ever existed on the universe. Because Kagame served under him he has also copied this bad habit. Museveni has sought to rewrite the history of Uganda to make the country appear as if it started when he took power in 1986. And since he parented Kagame, the same tendency has been exported to Rwanda.

If there is anybody who should be given credit for the success of RPF, it is Museveni and not Kagame. What Kagame should legitimately claim is his contribution in bringing Museveni to power. If the agreement was for Museveni to reciprocate, the RPF should be happy and count themselves lucky because those of us in Buganda are still waiting for the agreed promise.

In that respect both leaders should exchange medals instead of belittling one another. I also think it is cheating history when someone attempts to downplay the role Rwigyema played in the RPF war.

In fact if the Bayinganas and Bunyenyezis had not murdered him, he would have been the leader of Rwanda. Kagame would still be in Uganda or in Rwanda, maybe commanding the Police force. All I am labouring to say is that I am extremely happy with Kabarebe and anybody in Rwanda who dismisses the obvious role Museveni played in their struggle. It is a practical and good lesson for our man.

The author is Political Editor of The Observer ssemujju@observer.ug

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posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 8:24 PM