Respect Museveni Or Be Doomed
When I was very young, I wandered upon snakes, especially the Puff Adder, in my granddad's plantations. The Puff Adder lays low somewhere waiting patiently to bite someone, and it carries a very lethal venom. Grandad had a gun, and he would occasionally use it to kill the big snakes on trees. He would also pay people on our village that killed snakes.
He taught me then what a snake was and why I should fear it enough to give it its space rather than think myself in any way superior to it. The word he used was "respect". He also reasoned that a snake can move from another person's land to your land and bite you from your own land.
He used to hide his gun in a locked wardrobe in his bedroom. One time, he said that we shouldn't be afraid of the gun, but we should respect it. We needed to understand its power and the damage it could do to anybody if fired intentionally or accidentally. That's why I find it so absurd when I see some Ugandans seriously fighting security guys with guns.
Granddad wasn't asking us to show the snake or the gun "admiration", or "reverence", but something more akin to acknowledgment of the power they held.
Respect is often a word that, in reality, does not mean revere or admire. Sometimes, it can mean fear. It is only by the context it is used in that we know what its meaning truly is. My intention in this is to elicit the fear in others that I give to the snake. I've had a snake around my neck while taking photos with my daughter on a holiday trip in Gatorland in Orlando, Florida, but i had to be helped to hold its neck properly. A snake is small, and you are big, but it could still hurt or kill you.
Similarly, I feel that our understanding of Yoweri Museveni is the same sort of ignorance you find in a kid watching a snake. We have made him into something simple (evil, crazy and dictator) as well as his NRM party. By doing this, we have disassociated ourselves with the real danger that they represent.
Most would agree that Museveni himself isn't crazy or totally evil either. He isn't some simple addicted, misled fool. He played those in his early circle to fight for him in Luwero war, his later leaders, and finally played the world like a chess master of the first order. He was so clever that he could trick Ugandans to support the opposition he arguably created himself.
I strongly believe that Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, is a Museveni project, but there are people who still believe that he(Kyagulanyi) is genuine - thanks to the ingenious of Museveni. How Kyagulanyi even managed to get 24% in an election where he largely had no polling agents or local council candidates, i probably will never know.
Bobi didn’t speak much about his policies during campaigns. He just flapped his jaw and said whatever came to mind that fit his political needs of the moment.
I remember telling people around 2019 that after destroying Kiiza Besigye, the Bobi project would ultimately remove any potential Muganda leader before Muhoozi Kainerugaba is crowned the next president. Obviously, a lot of Nupians insulted me then, but I'm glad God has kept me alive up to now to see it all unfolding. Apart from Mukono's Beti Nambooze, all the "troublemakers" have been sent packing.
Museveni has made all this happen patiently without even some of the brightest minds in Uganda, even suspecting it.Everything makes sense if you just suspend your humanity long enough to see it.
The only good news is that I think Museveni is slowly putting the Bobi/ NUP project back on the shelves where it was before 2020. Kyagulanyi will eventually stop hiding from the public and take his mantle again as NUP President at their offices at Kavule, but he won't have much impact on our politics. It seems his role in all this is predictably coming to an end, except,obviously, the IPOD money.
Mankind has also shown a unique ability to forget the fundamental difference between right and wrong when presented with the temporary euphoria brought about by someone popular. Sincerely, Ugandans have no reason to replace Museveni with someone like Bobi Wine, with due respect. For all his weaknesses, Museveni is a far better "snake" than Bobi. That's why I believe that he genuinely won the 2026 elections rigging or not. I was just surprised by the % he got, though - he's usually in 50s or 60s.
My true fear is that because people have simplified Museveni so much, they have ignored the very real danger that exists - that another Museveni could happen again in the future. Anywhere where there are people who are ignorant and desperate, there can be a leader who rises out of the bushes to inspire them.
The true problem is that evil is fundamentally more powerful than good if the good do not stand together to fight it. Museveni’s regime has been able to use intimidation, patronage, bribery, and managed opposition (particularly Bobi and NUP) to suppress its political rivals.These are powers the good do not have.
Anyway, i want people to respect Museveni in the way we should respect a snake - with fear and knowledge. We understand its danger and therefore learn all we can about it. We know where to expect danger, but we do not give it the ability to strike at us. To do this we must be able to know how to recognize it and treat it the way it deserves.If we don't respect anything, we underestimate it, thus bringing our own doom.