'I was the master of character assassination. I now regret my past actions'

 By Hasson Mutunzi Bwambale

One mistake you should never make in life, is to allow yourself to be recruited by someone, to hate another person who hasn't wronged you.

Character assassination is a pervasive and destructive phenomenon that is found everywhere. You find it in families, places of worship, organizations, work places, etc.

Character assassination is the deliberate, malicious, unjustified and sustained effort to damage the reputation or credibility of an individual.

Character assassination is the slandering of a person usually with the intention of destroying public confidence in that person.

False allegations are the most chronic form of mental abuse. When people can’t kill your dreams and purpose, they will try to assassinate your character. There are some people that your spirit will always irritate their demons!

Once they realize hating isn’t working they start telling and spreading lies about you. People are assassinated once but ‘Character Assassination’ kills daily! Character assassination is a form of emotional violence against others.

Don’t make conclusions about people because of what others say about them.  Never draw up conclusions based on what others tell you about someone.

It is a lack of social intelligence that makes people draw conclusions on others based on what other people say about them. I know you’ve heard about emotional and financial intelligence, but there is something called social intelligence.

This is the kind of intelligence that keeps you sane even when others are trying to pollute your mind against someone else until you have thoroughly confirmed the veracity of the claims before you.

Judges are trained to have this kind of intelligence in order to avoid biased judgments.

I have been in the past caught in the net of finding myself writing about personalities even when I didn't have enough information about what I would write .

I am grateful that I was helped and shown the way by a group of elders who showed me the demerits of the character assassinating articles that I would sometimes author.

After days of internal consolation, I thought what I was doing was wrong and decided to move on from the group I used to write for. Truth is, it was way too much for one to be written about on a daily.

My major targets and victims of character assassination were Hon. Minister Godfrey Kabyanga  and Hon. Christopher Kibanzanga Taban (then minister of state for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries).

The motive of these articles was for self interest of the person who had political ambitions. I shall go into detail about that in the future.

Amidst all this, I thank Kabyanga who, when we met instead of arresting or opening up a case against me brought me closer.

I then broke ties with the colleagues who had taken it up to target several politicians with their daily or weekly missives. I look forward to meeting Chris Kibanzanga Taban so that we also have a talk and mend ties that I think till now have never been bridged.

These leaders are accommodative and I applaud them for such a gesture. I am very lucky that I have been brought into the fold and being mentored by the State Minister for ICT and National Guidance Hon. Kabbyanga Godfrey Baluku Kiime.

Those who've met me have acknowledged social skills that I've gained with being closer to people with national responsibilities.

In this first piece of mine, I will send a word of advice to the youth who are out there that may be coerced or find themselves serving people whose selfish interests are politically motivated to avoid any path of character assassination.

Stop the destructive habit of talking about people behind their back. Talking badly about someone else while they aren’t there to defend themselves says more about you than the person you’re talking about.

When you have issues with people, try and discuss it with them.

Stop spreading false information and rumours about others. Stop creating walls of contention, rather help build bridges of understanding among people.

The author is political assistant to Godfrey Kabyanga, a minister