This was a tough week to be Ugandan

I was ashamed to be Ugandan this week. The worst of us had the loudest voices. He has apologised but no Ugandan living now will ever forget that in grief, the Chief Justice of the country Alfonse Owinyi-Dollo stoked the embers of tribalism. 

Standing in the green grass in the compound of the home of the fallen Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah, mourning a friend of his youth, Owinyi-Dollo wondered why the cost of treating Oulanyah abroad was being questioned. “Is it because Oulanyah is an Acholi? Is it because Oulanyah does not speak your language?” Owinyi-Dollo, removing his glasses, asked. 

Norbert Mao’s one-man army suddenly had a new recruit. Since the beginning of this year, Democratic Party president Norbert Mao has waged a one-man war against the National Unity Platform (NUP). He accuses its leader Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi and his loyalists of being, “corrupt and hypocritical masqueraders turn(ed) politics into a bastion of blackmail, slander and hate-mongering.” In his eulogy, Owinyi-Dollo accused NUP supporters of being behind the demonstration that was held outside the Seattle, USA, hospital where Oulanyah was being treated with “taxpayers money.” 

Then Mao’s one-man army didn’t just have the hefty Owinyi-Dollo in its ranks. The dam seemed to have been broken. The loudest and most discordant voice in this volley of voices was the least expected: Kasambya County representative  Daudi Kabanda who went as far as accusing NUP supporters of killing the speaker. He was not the only one throwing more logs in the fireplace. 

One of the country’s underrated gems, a man who can rightly claim to have brought the internet to Uganda, Edward Kafufu Baliddawa was forced to pen a reprimand talking the nation to the edge. There was no more eloquent reminder than Baliddawa’s “Leaders need to help Uganda heal-inciting violence by diatribe talk is dangerous” to Kitgum Woman MP Lillian Aber and her flock. You will rarely chance upon a piece that should inspire urgent reflection in the minds of all young Ugandan leaders who aspire for a national profile one day. 

In the midst of this ugliness, the country was informed the speaker’s burial would cost, as Ugandans struggle to meet the price of a bar of soap in the groceries at shs 10,000 and more, a mouth gaping shillings 2.5 billion. The until quite recently silent Inspector-General of Government (IGG) Beti Kamya Turwomwe spoke for the nation when she tweeted, “The spirit of the departed Jacob Oulanyah would be horrified at the cash bonanza in his funeral expenses, he’d not allow it if he had a choice.” 

Sam Akaki took it one step further in his magnificent write up “Here is what public officials can do to prevent their funerals being turned into cash bonanzas.” Make a will. Let public officials make wills that are crystal clear on how they wish they be buried. Akaki seems to have reached a point many Ugandans already are at: resignation that the government cannot control itself or do good intentionally. The individual must step up in a personal crusade to do the right thing. But with Akaki, there’s always more than one message in his deeply thought out ruminations. He is not just writing for this week, he is writing to go on record. 

Just like I’m glad to note is Wilson Akiiki Kaija. Since his February tribute to Emorimor Augustine-Osuban “Let’s All Cry! We love him more when he’s dead,” his keyboard has not been allowed to lie idle and the literature and history of this country will be all the richer for it. No one weaves the dates of this region into a pattern more compellingly than this editor, journalist, lecturer Kaija when he decides to rummage in his elephantine memory bank. “Muhoozi Kainerugaba: A General retiring at 48: What Next,” is a testament. Now he is blessing us with “Two Funerals, 50-Years Apart” as Jacob Oulanyah’s body is returned to the country (April 1, 2022). A timely reminder that when the national life lets you down, look to the private. Ugandans, against all odds, are making things of note, of enduring value.