From Muhoozi to opposition: Understanding Uganda's political extremes

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OPINION

By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi

At the risk of overgeneralisation, I think that Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s X (Twitter) timeline presents a fascinating paradox in Uganda's political theatre. Muhoozi’s Twitter page is a mirror through which we should observe the deep-seated sins afflicting Uganda's political discourse.

Muhoozi is the most transparent form of the broader, ugly substance of Uganda’s political culture. His expressions on Twitter are unfiltered and entitled. We may all decry his provocative proclamations, but we share in the place where they come from – the self-righteous conviction in our disparate political causes that has come to define our politics.

Muhoozi is starkly distinguished by his individual, outright naked display of his righteous convictions. For no offense of his own, he is the president’s son. That is a privileged position that allows him the luxury to mask off the elaborate pretensions that opposition figures have to maintain to conceal their own entitled appetites for power. Where Bobi Wine has to craft a careful narrative of how he is morally appalled with the transgressions of the ruling government in order to map himself out as the right alternative for the presidency, Muhoozi doesn’t have that context.

For Muhoozi, the presidency is his presumptive right. He views himself as the heir apparent to Museveni’s presidency with a similar conviction that Bobi or Besigye has. Muhoozi feels morally and politically entitled to power because he has grown up in its possession. Bobi Wine and Kizza Besigye feel morally and politically entitled to power because they have sacrificed a lot in its pursuit.

Therefore, I view Muhoozi simply as an embodiment of Uganda’s broader and deeper political dilemma – one where neither the opposition nor the government is sincerely committed to political pluralism. There is a lack of a democratic spirit on both sides of the political divide to view each other as opponents to defeat rather than enemies to annihilate.

This article is about the danger fraught with the politics of self-righteousness. It is a politics that has taken over Ugandan politics in recent decades. In the end, I hope to invite us all to aspire for a politics where our competing ideologies are kept in balance. This will ensure that neither the opposition nor the incumbent government goes away with too much behind the politics of being right.

No political faction should ascend to such heights of moral and political certainty in its cause as is currently exhibited in Uganda’s opposition as well as in Muhoozi’s sense of entitlement. This is because the politics of believing and pursuing self-righteous ends normally justifies violent political means. We need to recognise that democratic governance in Uganda will be threatened for many years to come, not because of our differing political views but because of the dangerous conviction we carry of their absolute righteousness.

The psychological framework behind the opposition’s “removing a dictator” and Muhoozi’s tweets that threaten violence against key opposition figures and their supporters is the same. And it provides the fertility necessary for the germination of political violence. Unless the opposition maintains its bargain of pursuing power within the constraints of democratic processes, the government will also justify its monopoly of violence to subdue extra-constitutional attempts at taking power. This cycle is self-feeding extremism that can only be ended by both parties embracing the tolerance and patience required for democracy to take root in society.

Of course, whereas I am agnostic as to whether any politician on either divide in Uganda’s political landscape embodies a higher moral or political cause than the other, it is not to say that there is totally no selflessness in our politics. There is. I believe that there are certainly a lot of actions of heroism, self-sacrifice, philanthropy, and altruism in Bobi Wine and Kizza Besigye’s politics. But so has been in Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s. Or if none of us believes so, he does. From their contexts, I am sure they each believe that they have given much of themselves… their lives, for the good of the nation.

Muhoozi might think he has foregone a lot of his privilege to be a soldier to serve the country. Bobi Wine and Besigye too, believe they have sacrificed their blood and lost comrades in the struggle for a better Uganda. At each of their consciences, all three key Ugandan political figures currently stand tall in their self-belief of doing good.

But I understand that that is difficult to stomach for most. I understand that many people believe that Muhoozi cannot be genuinely mentioned in any sentence about sacrifice for the nation. And yet, I think that if we are to understand Ugandan politics objectively, if we want to genuinely interrogate our political divisions, we need to step back, drop the moralism, apply some moral psychology and cultivate tolerance and agnosticism in the game we are all playing.

snnanda98@gmail.com