Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba (MK) is the son of President Yoweri Museveni and arguably the most-talked about son of a president and the most decorated in Africa. He must also be the first son of a seating president ever to become a four-star general perhaps in the world.
Surely, this is unprecedented in a family where the father is a four- star General and his young brother, Salim Saleh, is another four-star General. You don’t get such fire-power everyday in one family.
And yet many Ugandans outside the military and security circles know very little about this extraordinary man.
Using my usual style of story-telling (have you read my earlier articles here?), we are going on a journey of unprecedented proportions as we unearth the jewel in Uganda’s succession politics.
HOW MK WAS BORN:
A young Yoweri Museveni met his equally young wife, Janet Kataaha Kainembabazi and MK’s mother, in the early 1970s after a series of accidental meetings in the past. Museveni, a tall, slender and handsome lad then, had been hanging around Nairobi doing his ‘revolutionary’ work and one-day bumped into Janet Kataaha, an equally stunning girl, who was at a hotel with her uncle John Kazoora.
This chance meeting was at the height of Museveni’s nomadism- almost of a single-man’s crusade- to save a nation. But when love came calling, he got rid of his sordid attires; hid his pistols and grenades to go satisfy his heart’s desires.
Soon they started chit-charting with Museveni doing most of the talking, as she looked on nonchalantly perhaps sizing him up. She might have been silently amused by the brilliance of a young Museveni. She thought he was being overenthusiastic and overambitious if not an outright ‘rainbow’ chaser.
Yoweri Museveni like Barrack Obama would tell Michele, he told Janet that: “I may not have much now; but one day I will make you a First Lady!”
Then he narrated, using youth exuberance, how he was busy fighting Idi Amin Dada. Museveni was about 27 years old then and already informed and well versed with bad political situations in many African countries.
She might have believed him but wondered in her memoirs -The story of My Life- “…he talked as if fighting Idi Amin was his job!..how one man could be fighting a dictator without an army…!”
But she later gave in because of the charisma, charm and famous sense of humour the slender young man possessed. Museveni is also a known persistent man (alemera kunsonga).
In a way she also had the fortune of knowing what the future might hold. To tell you the truth, women love adventurous men those who can tell them that they can go to heaven and plead for them before God.
But that is the well-known story of Yoweri Museveni, the hallmark of a special man God sent here to realign our lives. And the young Janet would summarize the life then of Yoweri Museveni inter alia in the following words:
“He seemed to be doing extraordinary things with his life and always followed the road less traveled.”
Interestingly, she had ‘accidentally’ bumped into him again at a Kenyan airport when he was ‘returning’ from North Korea perhaps to craft his guerilla tactics. Pause and ask yourself: “Who was arguing a 27 years old Museveni to embark on this revolutionary journey?” Answer: it was God!
Nevertheless, it is without doubt that had Yoweri Museveni not met Janet Kataaha, he wouldn’t have become this great revolutionary or even a successful president. Besides fate, destiny and all that, Janet Kataaha had a more rich and stable family background than that of the man who became her husband.
Knowing what I know about Museveni now, it is likely he was always the one bumping into the tall-slender and beautiful Janet than the other way round. She accepted his sweet-words and formed a union the benefits of which is shared by millions of East Africans in general and Ugandans in particular.
The love-smitten couple soon run off to London and got married. A little later, in April, 1974, God graced them with a baby boy we now lovingly know as MK.
In his memoirs, “Sowing The Mustard Seed”, a young Museveni tells us how he was occupying a dilapidated house in Tanzania whose electricity was never on. When power was eventually restored, “Muhoozi was beaming with happiness seeing, for the first time, a lighting bulb.”
If you don’t take your time to know Yoweri Museveni well and now his son MK, you might be inclined to believe that theirs has always been a smooth ride through life. Are you even aware that Affande Salim Saleh has about 8 bullets embedded in his body the result of a fierce battle in Luweero? I know you don’t want to hear that Janet Kataaha lived a greater part of her early married life all alone and later as a refugee in Sweden!
Their union however gave us MK a quiet young boy who has grown into a great soldier but beneath this veneer of toughness, is a soft man, loving husband and a father.
Ugandans known for “okuzalawa- belittling” now see MK like any other person. He has grown almost in our hands and became a soldier when we are watching. But, we don’t know that he knows a lot more than we give him.
And the biggest misnomer is for his being President Museveni’s son. Like Kenyans used to think about Daniel Arap Moi during Jomo Kenyatta’s time: “Moi (Muhoozi if you like) has nothing of his own to say or plan!”
President Museveni may be this ‘larger-than-life’ leader, but don’t ever under estimate the capabilities of the people he likes to surround himself with and MK is one of them.
These days, it seems Mr. Museveni has decided to throw his son into the deep waters of Uganda’s uncompromising election politics, in a kind of ‘rat race’ that will change forever the way things are done here.
WHY MK IN POLITICS?
Scenario One:
After singer Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine had entered Uganda’s political space and flipped it on its tail with his “People Power” tsunami, the legendary guerilla fighter with a brim hat retreated to his farms to think about how to counter the singer’s onslaught.
It was obvious that Ugandans were falling heads over heels with “People Power” and really buying into Bobi’s massage of a “generational change” where Museveni and group (old revolutionaries) had to clear the floor for the young generation.
With the advent of social media, Museveni and his ageing group were often filmed ‘snoozing’ quite oblivious of what was happening around them. These ‘napping’ sessions were often taking place during national functions like reading the budget or even at funerals!
President Museveni moved quickly to rectify the situation. He had walked nearly 300km on a journey dubbed “Afrika Kwetu” retracing the NRA journey through the jungles of Luweero triangle. Well, it was mostly intended to show Museveni’s stamina. And it helped with the 2021 election victory.
Then the president was shown ‘beating’ press-ups therefore ‘looking’ like a young fella. He actually ditched Maama Janet for his young beautiful daughter wherever he went outside State House. They even redesigned his ‘buggy’ suits and trimmed his moustache.
Moving forward, he knew that was not good enough either to guarantee another victory in the future. So he once again retreated to his beloved cows and amid “kweseera- dipping the cows”, he came up with a smart idea.
It was going to be his son, MK, who would counter Bobi’s generational talk. Like Bobi Wine and his NUP (National Unity Platform) front runners, MK was bringing young blood largely rendering the talk of “old men” irrelevant.
True to form, MK’s appearance wiped out Bobi’s magic and stopped the meteoric rise the result of which is Mr. Museveni’s reemergence and rejuvenation. There is some kind of political hiatus and now the father can invite his son to go and herd their Ankole cows without fearing for a Bobi-led riot.
At least this scenario is what many of us might conjure up to explain why MK, a serving military officer, was allowed to ‘join’ politics.
Scenario Two:
President Museveni once revealed the meaning of his son’s name and why he decided to name him Muhoozi. He said his son’s name meant ‘vengeance’ and he named him that so he would ‘avenge’ his enemies on his behalf. According to him, in his culture, when one wrongs another person, his clan has a duty to avenge.
It is believed that names, especially in Africa, influence the outcome of a child and how they behave in the future. President Yoweri Museveni is therefore among the many Africans who still believe in the traditional naming practice and hold it dear to his heart.
Therefore those “kutataganya- scaring” President that they will take him to ICC (International Criminal Court) or take away his family’s wealthy, they will have MK to contend with. His son has reached the highest military rank in the country therefore only President Museveni and perhaps Affande Salim Saleh can tell MK what to do!
Today many Ugandans are quietly wondering what will happen to their country after Museveni’s long stay in power and eventual departure. They are right to worry but not to the extent of loosing sleep over this matter. The plan is there and it’s architect is Yoweri Museveni the very reason why he often brushes off whoever talks about a ‘transition’ in Uganda.
While Bobi Wine and MK are the two emerging political forces everyone talks about, we can’t rule out “Museveni’s Plan B.” He always has that ‘plan’ no one thinks about.
Besides the point, I have always told my friends and through my various writings here that “Que Sera- Sera- what will be, will be.”
Therefore if it is Bobi Wine, to take over after Museveni, we have no much control over that. And if it will be MK or any other person, we have no control over that either.
What we do have control over as humans and of course engineered by God, is to prepare, like a farmer prepares his land, and pray that rain comes. If the rain comes and your land is not tilled, expect no yields.
WHAT MAKES MK TICK:
It is more than likely that President Museveni has spent a greater part of his presidency preparing and grooming his son in the art of military maneuver, diplomacy, politics and family values. In case he doesn’t become president, MK is ready to carry the Ugandan flag in any capacity they may offer him.
MK posseses many attributes you don’t find in an ordinary person and one of them is patience.
He has participated in serious battles in Garamba, Somalia, DRCongo and in Kasese hunting for ADF rebels. He is the architect of the doctrine running SFC and is credited for having devised modern maneuvers that helped to chess and subsequently defeat Joseph Kony and his criminal LRA.
And the most amazing part in all this: MK does not seek attention from it.
He has, for a long time, been fighting for an improvement in our soldier’s welfare and the man behind most of the modern equipments used by the UPDF- national army. Instead of hanging around with boys driving expensive cars and flashy yacht, you see him donating blood or inspecting potholed- roads. Now ‘his army’ is helping patch up potholes in and around Kampala.
Friends, this is not politics but nationalism. When he joined the army, first as a local defence personal (LDU), he encouraged some of his friends to also join. He later joined the UPDF as an officer cadet and graduated in 2000 from the British Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. From then on he went to Makerere University and other colleges recruiting graduates in the UPDF. Most of today’s middle officer core in the UPDF (Captain to Colonel) have MK to thank for their recruitment and promotion.
Many of those who have been around him in the military, they know him as a soldier’s soldier. Irrespective of his being the president’s son, MK has always saluted his seniors. “Yeye azarawe ranka- he never disrespects the chain of command.”
Like his father and uncle Salim Saleh, MK also mastered the art of ‘distribution’ which they take to be more important than the ‘constitution’ itself. Many Ugandans are in various businesses and others get scholarships through MK’s efforts. Like his father, he never really advertises these acts of philanthropy. A scholar he is, he is well aware that “it is better to let your record to speak for you!”
He is a well-trained military man which is still a ‘plus’ in a militarized society Uganda long became.
That is why in the 2021 presidential and national elections, we had three generals (Yoweri Museveni, Mugisha Muntu and Henry Tumukunde) vying. Earlier in 2016 we had Gen. Museveni; Major Gen. Benon Biraro; Col. Kizza Besigye; Cpt. Mwambala and Sgt. Adam Kamulegeya (I stopped before the actual election lol!).
I told you in a previous article titled: “Shall we tell the President?” that Gen. MK has not behaved like previous sons of our presidents. He has all the “Uwezo- power; Sababu- reason” to misbehave but he doesn’t. People, Kakwenza Rukirabashaijja being the least, have abused MK in different crude ways but he remains grounded. This is an attribute of a great soldier and leader.
When he was tweeting, he did it laced with a sense of humour just to reduce on the ‘seriousness’ we seem to be entangled in. Those who have the talent to read between lines, understood the idea behind his tweets. He is normal like the rest of us.
Actually Kenyans were always looking forward to MK tweets because they provided them with something new. The daily monotony of eating ‘ugaali na sukuma wiki’ was often broken by the much-anticipated tweets from our own general.
Why wouldn’t he be humourous and humble if in his veins runs the blood of Yoweri Museveni?
MK THE PEACE AVENGER:
Uganda has a small neighbor down to the south-west but historically an important neighbor. Her name is Rwanda a country which has more influence on Uganda- culturally and otherwise – than any of our neighboring countries.
True that Kenya is our biggest trading partner and Tanzania was instrumental in defeating the dictatorship of Idi Amin Dada. South Sudanese have many connections to our northern tribes and DRCongo influences most of our societal set-up in the north west and west. But it is Rwanda which shaped most aspects of Uganda a country almost 8 times her size.
Rwanda is an influential country and now I believe that, may be, Rwandese are ‘black’ Jews!
This country, not much bigger than greater Masaka, can be termed as an ‘insect’ when compared to an ‘elephant’ called the DRCongo. But the ‘insect’ controls whatever happens in the home of the ‘elephant’.
It was therefore a travesity of commonsense itself when Uganda and Rwanda nearly went to war. The history of Uganda and Rwanda more especially the history of President Yoweri Museveni and that of Paul Kagame of Rwanda does not leave room for confrontation.
Why Rwandese and Ugandans forever connected like co-joined twins? Rwanda has naturally ‘beautiful’ women and Uganda has naturally ‘strong men’. This is a symbiotic relationship no man can put asunder!
It was indeed the sole effort of MK who jokingly tweeted calling Gen. Paul Kagame his ‘greatest uncle’ and slowly softened him. I have it on good authority that President Museveni had given up on Rwanda and other East African nations were going the Museveni way.
I didn’t think any Ugandan would have pulled this off if it wasn’t MK who had known Gen. Kagame since he, MK, walked out of his pampers.
LIKE FATHER LIKE SON:
President Yoweri Museveni, has gone on to work with all the people who abused and indeed fought against him throughout the years. Some called him a Munyarwanda, (of course it is not bad to be a Munyarwanda but they used it to mean that he was a ‘foreigner!) But he nevertheless worked with those people, (Sam Kutesa, Haj Badru Wegulo, etc).
He works with Milton Obote’s family (Akena and Amongi). He has embraced those of Joseph Kony, Jamil Mukulu and Tito Okello (Okello Oryem). Idi Amin’s children enter Museveni’s State House as if their father is still occupying it. MK has lived that and seen that therefore he is well-positioned to practice this politics of inclusiveness.
A defiant Kizza Besigye who once told us that Museveni was HIV+ and that he sold L. Victoria and Lake Kyoga, is here in Uganda enjoying a quiet life and still free to express himself. Rather than burning newspaper publishing ‘fake news’, President Museveni has instead sued them! Idi Amin Dada, on the other hand, killed a musician who wrote a disguised song criticizing his regime!
MK is a special advisor to his father on security therefore knows quite well how his father handles those with divergent political views. Those who are predicting that MK will accept no dissenting voices in Uganda, they have no idea who he is.
Did he send his SFC (Special Forces Command) to beat members of Parliament during the “togikwatako- don’t touch it (don’t change it)” debate that later passed allowing a president to rule without term limits? This was a Ugandan enterprise which will benefit our country. If I may ask, what did the term-limit clause help South Africa when they replaced a statesman called Thabo Mbeki and instead replaced him with a ‘thief’ called Jacob Zuma?
Besides you cannot let people kill each other in a national Parliament. I know some members who silently thanked SFC, MK id you like, for saving their lives. A society is governed by orders and respecting rules otherwise “man, if uncontrolled; is worse than a lion!”
White people, those we think support Ugandan opposition, know too well how tolerant is President Yoweri Museveni so much so that they even sometimes forget that he has ruled for that long. The charm of the father is incredible. How about the Son? Better get to know him then you will judge better.
So once he endorses the candidature of his son to replace him on the throne, with some few Banyankole sayings added, I know they- white people- will approve more loans the next day.
Folks, global politics is all about strategic national interests not the emotions we erroneous think white people genuinely attaches to our causes. They don’t unless you have something in return for them.
When we thought they will not be against us when we enacted the Anti- Homosexuality Law, they went nuts and even withdrew Panadol they were helping out with our poor people. It is never about us folks.
Therefore MK has to behave and be an all-inclusive leader because he has learnt from the very best. Like his father, he knows that we are an ‘orphaned’ people who don’t attract too much global sympathy.
This is where some people have fundamental differences with Bobi Wine. You cannot run to tell ‘whites’ that Uganda is a dictatorship when they saw you the other day boarding an aeroplane at Entebbe airport! Ask Museveni and other revolutionaries how they used to go outside the country during Idi Amin and Milton Obote’s regimes! They often went through “panya- unmarked border points” and without passports!
Having said all that, we should desist from spreading lies and making noise unnecessarily because, like the sun as it sojourns on daily from the east to the west without fail, so will be the future of Uganda. Surely nothing bad, as predicted by the naysayers, will happen to our country after the departure of Yoweri Museveni.
IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY:
(Part two loading…)
Last word: “If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress!” – Barrack Obama.
Adam Kamulegeya
adamkam2003@gmail.com
0779104336
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