Columnists
Ugandans will never be interested even if a policeman’s hand was deeper into Ingrid
In the previous column, I lamented the manner in which FDC’s comical ‘street woman’ Ingrid Turinawe was manhandled by some members of the Transformed Uganda Police Force. A picture said it all: a randy policeman had pushed his long fingers deeper into Ingrid’s trousers to bring her to submission.
This was during one of those notoriousshowdowns between Kayihura’s boys and 4GC rioters. Ingrid had apparently eluded the cops and sought to escape through the backyard of her home only to be stopped by faster pacing policemen. The rest is what you know. And Ugandans enjoyed the comical proceedings on TV, and that was it.
Mid this week another bomb dropped, and Ugandans took notice of it and soon it was an issue of no consequence. On the morning of Wednesday July 31, 2013, our Dear Benevolent.
Revolutionary traveled to Nairobi for the Inter-Governmental Conference on the Great Lakes Region (IGCLR) in his capacity as Chairman. He was received at the tarmac of Jomo Kenyatta
International Airportby not President Uhuru Kenyatta, nor Deputy President William Ruto, nor any other high-ranking government official in Kenya, but, to the shock and disdain of
Ugandans, by a mere MP (read Senator). This gesture was the stuff of loose talk and angry reactions on social media networks of facebook and twitter. Folks punched their statements with venom. “How could these Kenyan Young Boys (Uhuru and Ruto) subject our President to this manner of humiliation?” went the famous angry reaction on facebook.
In keeping along withdiplomatic etiquette, it is standard procedure that a visiting head-of-state or president is ushered in by a fellow president (host) or his/her deputy or any other official high up in official hierarchy. I haven’t known an MP to be above a president, deputy president or minister, for the case of Kenya.
Following this diplomatic imbroglio occasioned on our President, speculators would have it that “The Boys” (as Uhuru and Ruto are fondly called), were “avenging” the similar fashion by which their President Uhuru was received when he touched base at Entebbe International Airport on his first official visit to Uganda as reigning head-of-state. The speculators have it that
Museveni was nowhere on the tarmac when Uhuru visited only for the Mzee to wait for his guest at Statehouse Entebbe. But even then, Kenyatta Jnr received a 21-gun salute befitting of a head-of-state visiting for the first time. He was thereafter accorded a full presidential treat.
Our Mzee is no ordinary president. In fact Museveni is not Uhuru! (Uganda is not Kenya?).
Those Kenyans who by default sought to humiliate our Mzee wa kazishould understand that the man is the Chief President (a Muganda would call it Sabapulezidentijust like Sabalwanyi) of the Great Lakes region. With the exit of Gaddafi, our man is the new ‘king of kings’ setting the agenda in Africa! These new Boys in statehouse in Kenya should know that our Dear
Revolutionary is a born freedom fighter as he has spent more than 50 years fighting wars! Uhuru is only 51 years, and Ruto 42!Actually by the time Uhuru was born in 1961 our Dear Mzee was already a voter and fighting for freedom and democracy in Uganda.
Mzee has not only fought in Uganda but his fighting hasextended way to the jungles of Southern Africa beating the hell out of Portuguese colonialists in Mozambigue, fighting alongside FRELIMO.
He has also been instrumental in fighting rebels and restoring stability in DR Congo, fighting wars of liberation in South Sudan, beating the bloody hell out of Al-shabaab in Somalia, chasing after LRA rebels way through the Garamba thickets to Central African Republic and Chad.
Mzee has also been in Liberia, East Timor and other volatile regions fighting to restore peace and stability. He has also supported Bush Jnr in the Iraq war against Saddam Hussein. Where and what hasn’t Mzee fought only for these Kenyan Boys to reduce him to this level of being welcomed by a mere MP?! Those Boys have only been in power for three months while our Mzee is making a stretch of 30 years! The Kenyan Boys have not seen any Idi Amin or Tito Okello or Bazilio Okello but our Dear Mzee has seen it all and fought all those bloody dictators.
But by and large, some people would argue that it is power play here in Gideon Moi receiving Museveni. Gideon Moi is the son of Kenya’s longest ruling MtukufuRaisiDaniel Toroitich Arap Moi. Could it mean that Mzee Arap Moi is sinking a deal with the regional power broker to have his (Moi) son in ‘things’ come the next cycle of elections in Kenya? For this, again, some Ugandans haven’t been interested. How their President is received and treated is none of their business.
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