POWER HAS CORRUPTED BOTH THOSE IN OPPOSITION AND GOVT

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

Power is like a truth-pill that exposes the real character of a person. Former US president, Abraham Lincoln, once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Once you achieve power, the fear of getting punished is reduced and hence people start showing their true character.

However, if you are a person of character, no amount of power can ever corrupt you. There have been few exceptions where even after attaining political power leaders were not corrupt. Few of such names are Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela. In Uganda opposition, we have had Kiiza Besigye, Hussein Kyanjo, Imam Kasozi, Ken Lukyamuzi and a few others. And the bad examples in history are Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, Milton Obote, Stalin, Mao, etc.

I personally think that “Power” is a double edge sword thing. Perhaps, Power itself may not corrupt a person, but could definitely become a catalyst of one’s road to self-destruction. An example of that near us would be President Museveni. He wasn’t really corrupt throughout the years he was opposing governments of Amin and Obote, but something changed as soon as he became president.

Basically, you have four options to cope with corruption: 1. Participate in it.2. fight it and be destroyed, 3. pretend you don’t see it. 4.Recognize it but choose not to participate in it. And I think if someone is very smart and very conscientious and very wise, he or she might be able to resist it and perhaps reduce it to some degree without being destroyed.

So, if you work at an organisation as corrupt as, for instance, the Uganda parliament, but you need your paycheck, you will usually find yourself with the same four options. In fact, that’s what the “whistleblower” protection is for – you can bring information to the appropriate authorities without being subject to reprisals (Supposedly).

MUSEVENI’S FAKE LETTER

I am afraid to say that Nupians have fallen again into Museveni’s trap. Did they actually think that Museveni wrote a letter questioning the amount of gratuity, not the legal aspect of it, to benefit NUP and Bobi? It is surprising that they thought that because of Museveni’s ‘fake’ letter, then Mpuuga was in trouble. There is this Igbo proverb that goes like this,”When a small bird is dancing in your path defiantly then know that there’s something or someone beating the drums for it ( encouraging the bird to have no fear)’’.

Mpuuga is undoubtedly a rival to Bobi Wine in NUP. Bobi saw an opportunity to mudsling his opponent and he took it. He even linked him to being a Museveni stooge. Now, with Museveni’s ‘fake’ letter questioning the gratuity the commissioners awarded themselves, it means Mpuuga is now insulated from being a regime apologist. And who knows the fake letter might have been helping Bobi,too, to kick Mpuuga down to the floor in the process. For the record, Statehouse has clarified that the letter in question was forged.The flip side of this situation is that someone managed to play Nupians using their own methods of operation – threw a fake letter out there and see their reaction, which is: Mpuuga, Mpuuga……ha ha ha.

The point is Ugandans must learn to critically analyse Museveni’s actions – nothing is in a black and white. People should learn from Museveni instead of just looking at him as president.

ANITA AMONG

It’s the same with the speaker Anita Among – she became speaker at the backer of majority NRM support, but we all know she was literally nothing in Uganda politics. All of a sudden, she started controlling the parliamentary budget of over shs.200 b a year. Then we read reports of her depositing huge amounts of money on her ‘friends’ accounts for withdraw later for suspicious activities. We all witnessed her unveiling the mother of a mansion in Bukedea that looked like a fiver star hotel. And dopeys think that she did all this without Museveni knowing anything(lol).

In March 2024, Museveni made an attempt to protect Speaker Anita Among from intense public scrutiny following grave allegations implicating her corruption scandals at Parliament.

10th May 2024, Museveni then wondered why the speaker would own houses in the UK, and he wanted to know if she declared them.

In Museveni’s letter to Hon. Jejje Odongo On 2nd May 2024, he indicated that he knew about UK’s intentions to sanction Kitutu and Nandutu for their role in Mabati issue, and UK’s intention to sanction Anita for owning houses in the UK. So, it looks like the issue with Anita is owning houses in the UK, not involvement in corruption, and if this is cleared, she’s as good as a new jet.

Museveni copes with his own corruption by adding more options to the four above: denial, find someone to sacrifice and implicate, brazen it out, counterattack, benefit privately, share and, do not get caught. These are the stages and/or the cardinal principles those with power follow to deal with their own corruption.

I think Anita may be sacrificed eventually if the UK insists on keeping the sanctions against her. Afterall, we can always use a ”Tayebwa” to keep the ship floating for a bit.

BOBI VS MPUUGA

Corrupt people are drawn to power. Some (I would argue most) people are corruptible to some extent or another, whether it’s something as mundane as making sure a relative gets a job at parliament ticket to embezzling millions of dollars or having someone who threatens your power murdered. Obviously, there’s a major difference between getting a job for a relative and murder, but they’re different ends on the spectrum of corruption.

For instance, the Uganda Citizens Forum for Justice and Equity have petitioned the USA, UK, European Union and South Africa to sanction Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine for suspiciously buying properties in those respective countries using NUP funds and money given to him by the Diaspora community for the struggle. They quote the Magnitsky Act of 2016. But this is the same Bobi claiming to be fighting Mpuuga over corruption.

As long as Ugandans don’t see the clean people as an alternative to Museveni, then corruption will continue even after NRM. Glen David Brin, a well-known American author said wisely, “It’s said that “power corrupts,” but actually it’s truer that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.” Basically, those with pure souls seldom end up in positions of power.

There is that famous saying “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” but it’s also important to remember that “just because something is a pithy saying doesn’t make it true.” Why do people start taking bribes or do shady business when they get into politics, for example? I can think of the following reasons:

It doesn’t hurt anyone directly. Corruption is indirectly hurting the country, but it is not directly a form of theft. And as a matter of fact, most citizens prefer to use tax loopholes if they are able to. So, we can’t state that not paying taxes is immoral, because most people would prefer not to pay taxes if they find some way to avoid it.

The second reason is Group pressure. If a person comes into a new group where everyone is doing deals under the table, it would be disloyal for him to refuse. It would put the group in danger and not bring him any benefits.

One upshot of all of this (if you believe it) is that therefore, the most important thing to get right in an organization’s design is how to choose which people are placed into positions of power. This means – in companies: methods of hiring, evaluation, and promotion – and in political systems: systems for elections and appointments. No matter the rules or existing conventions, they will be bent according to the will of those in power, so the overriding concern should be in ensuring that the systems which determine who attains positions of power chooses the right people.

However, anyone who thinks corruption can be eliminated altogether is foolish. Corruption’s weakness is that usually it prefers not to be seen in public. The corrupt prefer to engage in corruption where people aren’t fully aware of it. They don’t like the light of publicity.

NUP LEADERS SHOULD HELP MUSEVENI RELEASE THEIR SUPPORTERS IN PRISON

NRM’s Moses Ssali(Bebe Cool) and NUP’s Katerega Ali witnessing the swearing in of NRM’s Balaam as minister

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

When you want to bring back your supporters, especially those wrongfully arrested and where the rule of law and court system is not straightforward, it is better to negotiate a prisoner release. People like NUP’s Abed Bwanika do not wish the lives of ordinary human folk who have been caught up in a political fight to be adversely affected.

When it comes to negotiations, the people who scream and yell and make the biggest fuss about walking out on the deal, actually don’t mean it. They are just trying to appear relevant to the situation.

Negotiation is adversarial, the more you let the other guy know what you want, the more he’s going to use it to his advantage and exploit you. Most of the NUP leaders have been on TV telling people that they want all those arrested during and after the 2020-21 elections to be released. The public agrees, and now Museveni is using it to his advantage. He has recently demanded a list of all those in prison from Nupian leaders such that he looks into it. Now that it looks like he’s the one that’s going to get the credit, NUP leaders are saying that they aren’t going to give him the list – and this makes them look bad in front of the public more than Museveni himself. Of course, Museveni knows those that were arrested and where they are located, but it doesn’t matter to those who want their relatives out. Believe me, if the NUP leaders don’t release that list soon, the relatives of prisoners will do it for them. Either way, Museveni will benefit from this situation.

So, I would advise the NUP leaders to focus on the outcome, not on their ego or on how they appear in public. Most people don’t react well to distracting game playing and once you’ve been discovered, it’s hard to regain your footing.

NUP have their back to the wall. It’s so likely that Museveni will release some of the prisoners, and they will mainly thank him, not the NUP leaders. You can expect zero problems from most of the guys who meet the criteria for release. Others have suggested that some of the NUP leaders are afraid of losing funding that has been coming with some of their supporters in prison.

NUP leaders know they’ve lost faith amongst some of their supporters recently due to the Mpuunga Vs Bobi fights, and they have no strong card to play after this. The only card they can play is the one of blackmailing anybody who tries to negotiate with Museveni about prisoners release. Even Alhajji Latif Ssebagala can’t go against the playbook of the NUP. I saw him on one of the TV channels barking according to the text- He was saying that Councilor Katerega ‘ate’ because he stood with Balaam and publicly begged Museveni to release Nupians in prison. That is a big pile of lies that gets shovelled around to scare people that don’t support Bobi’s position in politics. Reality is much different and peaceful. People often extrapolate what they think about Bobi’s opponents, then present as fact that is happening.

I believe the prisoners themselves are just like most everyone else. They want to be free and take care of themselves and their families, not go out protesting for anybody again. Mike Mukula once said, after coming out of prison himself over GAVI funds, that anybody wishing the other person to remain in prison is evil.

Plus there is a long track record of such exchanges being done by the most powerful country  in the world,  USA.  The USA negotiated to release its citizens in Iran, and some funds were also returned to Iran on certain conditions.

Israel, too, has been involved in prisoner negotiations several times. In Judaism, “the sanctification of life” is one of the most important concepts. In 1986, Pilot Ron Arad had been kidnapped and literally disappeared after a few years of Israel rejecting exchange deals. This event traumatized the Israeli society and fuelled future exchanges.

Benjamin Netanyahu said in his book, “Place under the Sun”, he wrote: “Prisoner releases only embolden terrorists…..they encourage precisely the terrorist blackmail they are supposed to defuse.” But he has been himself involved in negotiating for prisoner releases because the relatives want their people free. They are even forcing him to do it now as I write this.

There are some people that argue that the Australian government should intervene to obtain the freedom of the Australian journalist Julian Assange. If the British justice is finished with him then his government should demand that he be repatriated to Australia rather than face any charges brought by the US.

The reasoning is that the pure effrontery of seeking to bring to trial a foreign national who broke no law in, or has not been brought to justice by the nation within which his actions took place entirely because the government seeking that did not uphold its duty to keep secrets secret where it classified them as such beggars belief. It cannot be accepted. Apparently, this is blame shifting and it is a vast over extension of any nation’s law. It is also a sign of miserable cruelty to any who were impacted by the loss of information.

Personally, I think it is a humanitarian gesture to release political prisoners. Credit should be given to all those that have been lobbying the governments to release them.

The NUP leaders should do the decent thing and call Museveni and agree to unconditional prisoners’ release instead of politicizing it.

WHY BOBI IS ARGUABLY THE BEST ‘’AGENT’’ M7 HAS GOT IN OPPOSITION

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

There are times when nothing less than the unvarnished truth will do. This is one of those times- the truth needs to be said for possibly the Uganda opposition to recover in future.

From the bird’s-eye perspective, the opposition looks weaker than it did before, and NUP’s Abed Bwanika was right when he said over the weekend that Museveni has been having the best time of his life since the end of the 2021 elections. It seems it has been designed that way ever since Bobi became the face of the opposition in Uganda.

The idea that Bobi was handled and massaged to the top by powerful people in the regime to slice Dr.Kiiza Besigye’s popularity is widespread. For a long time, Besigye was like a stone in Museveni’s shoes, and nobody envisaged how the stone could be removed till when Bobi came on to the political scene. His first assignment was to go on attack, and he wasn’t really attacking Museveni- he was attacking the former FDC president using mainly propaganda, blackmail and fake news (PBF). He was basically the pawn that was used to weaken Besigye and FDCs.

Large quantities of PBFs have been produced by NUP bloggers against other veteran opposition leaders such as: the Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago, and his Deputy, Asuman Basalirwa of JEEMA (after the passing of the anti-LGBT bill), Mpuunga Mathius, the Katikiro of Buganda, Kabaka of Buganda, Nabagereka, Mukaku Lubega, etc, to further Bobi’s latest smear campaigns and ideological goals. Bobi, like a vulture sitting in a tree, has been eyeballing every move made by other opposition leaders to stop them from taking the shine off him.

His behaviour seems rather predatory, harmful to the opposition, harmful to Buganda kingdom and spiteful towards other opposition leaders. For example, his attacks on Besigye put FDC and People Power/NUP in a pissing contest up to now, to the extent that a lot of people are, literally, fed up with the opposition. His attacks on Mpuuga and other Baganda leaders is now another pissing contest that we may have to bless ourselves with till 2026. I can see another bunch of more opposition leaders soon joining NRM because they see no future in the opposition.

According to FDC’s Harold Kaija, Joyce Ssebugwawo wasn’t really a mole in FDC as in, like, Museveni’s mole for a long time. Her head was, apparently, turned after losing the elections in Lubaga. Bobi planted a candidate against her, and the loss was too much for her to take in. Museveni being Museveni, he saw an opportunity and reached out to her after losing the elections. Kaija and Besigye reportedly tried to talk her out of joining Museveni then, but she was so angry about the loss. I imagine the same thing would have probably happened to Erias Lukwago, Ssemujju Nganda and others if they had lost to NUP candidates.

What’s confusing is that Ssebugwao was, reportedly, among the few FDC leaders that openly supported Bobi during the Kyadondo East by-election in 2017, instead of FDC’S Katinti. She also reportedly supported former NRM, Abubakar Kawalya, for KCCA speakership. I believe because of the toxic environment intentionally created in the opposition by Bobi; it has become easy for Museveni to recruit from opposition. As a result, the main political parties (FDC, UPC and DP) and other leaders have been weakened at the expense of an inexperienced politician – who is only chasing more fame and wind. No opposition leader since 1986 has travelled more times outside the country than Kyagulanyi.

PAST LINKS TO THE STATE

Bobi and his elder brother, Nyanzi, were extremely chummy with President Museveni and his brother, Salim Saleh, his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, and former IGP, Kale Kayihura, before they expressed interest in opposing NRM. It, therefore, came as no surprise to some people when the big people in NRM decided to support him for MP instead of their own candidate, Ssebalu. In fact, Gen. Tumukunde is on record, while being hosted on the Capital Gang, insinuating that Bobi’s campaigns as MP were mainly financed by NRM people. Bobi, himself, confessed on national TV for having received money from some NRMs to help him become MP of Kyadondo East. He also endorsed NRM candidates on various occasions during the 2021 campaigns at the expense of opposition candidates.

One can argue that associating with powerful people shouldn’t raise eyebrows, but I also remember when Andrew Mwenda used to heavily criticise Museveni and his family(1990s-2006), and I thought there’s nothing to it till when he fully joined where money comes from. Oh God, I liked the guy such that I literally became a matching ”mole” fan at the time, and I’m sure a lot of oppositionists fell into his crawls by entrusting him with their secrets and plans, didn’t they?

What’s odd is that all this still resonates in my consciousness somewhere, that how come nobody saw this at the time? How come we all concentrated mainly on Mwenda’s attacks rather than the people he associated with, or he used to associate with? Is it possible he was already on the payroll then, but most of us didn’t want to think about it?

In 2020, former State House spokesperson, Tamale Mirundi, is on record telling people that the deal for Bobi to work for Museveni was brokered by his elder brother Nyanzi. He stated that the state first approached Bebe Cool, but they later changed their mind to Bobi.

Frank Gashumba is also on record openly telling people that Bobi went into a deal with Museveni after the 2021 elections – never to stage protests against Museveni. Gashumba put the deal at a cost of US $5m till 2026. Obviously, we have no way of knowing how true this is, but the fact is that there have been no serious protests in the country since we ended the elections.

Then, there is the serious issue of Museveni writing to the Uganda Revenue authority to release Bobi’s bullet proof car without paying extra taxes. Speaking of the Bullet proof car, nobody knows exactly how Bobi came into possession of the car and how it was bought, apart from what Bobi told us – that it was a ‘gift’ from friends in diaspora.

STATE PROTECTION OF KYAGULANYI

On 14 July 2020, Kyagulanyi assumed leadership of the NUP party, according to EC records. Officially, the name of the party was changed to NUP on 22 July 2020. Current Justice minister, Norbert Mao stated, before he joined the government, that there were state operatives that were behind that certificate of 2019 signed by the Secretary of the EC. Mao also said that NUP registered two constitutions, but we have recently come to learn that the party is still operating using the 2002 Kibalama constitution. Mao contends that NUP was illegally registered as due process and diligence weren’t followed.

Around 2020, some people went to court to settle this, but Judge Musa Sekana ruled in favour of the Kyagulanyi based on technicalities, not the evidence presented. The troubling admission by former NUP leaders that there was no quorum when Kyagulanyi was sworn in as the new party president at Kakkiri in 2020, should have taken precedence over technicalities, I think.

Lawyer Male Mabilizi tried severally to challenge illegalities associated with Bobi Wine, but every time he got close, the state prosecutor (Director of Public Prosecutions, and State Attorney) took over the cases, and the end was all but predictable, i,e. not guilty. All of Mabilizi’s cases against Kyagulanyi ended up being taken over by the DPP with the exception of the one accusing him of having acquired a driving permit unlawfully.

Basically, court cases against Kyagulanyi not only demonstrate that there is a rule of law versus the rule of man in Uganda, but there is manipulation of the law by the powerful to save whoever they want. It seems the law and man are mortal enemies in the struggle for survival of a politician, history, and the fate of the nation.

MUHOOZI PRESIDENCY

The Kyagulanyi era has also served as a way of easing Uganda into a Muhoozi Kainerugaba presidency as different forces in opposition keep fighting each other. The former DP block leaders, headed by Abed Bwanika, have literally accused Kyagulanyi of putting NUP in the hands of NRM ‘’agents’’ in the party. Bwanika’s statements raise eyebrows and invite a nuanced examination of Uganda’s political landscape.

While the notion of a direct confrontation between Bobi and former LOP, Mpuuga, remains highly improbable, dissecting Mpuuga’s claims on CBS recently necessitates exploring the multifaceted personalities that are running NUP and other opposition parties right now.  At the heart of any assessment lies whether their actions are helping Muhoozi become president easily or not.

USA DETERMINED TO FUND BOTH THE UKRAINE AND MIDDLE EAST CONFLICTS

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

America is not giving $95 billion dollars to Ukraine and Israel. They’re giving $95 billion dollars to the American arms manufacturers who will be supplying both nations with weapons. The obscene profits will go into the retirement accounts of the managements of those companies, and the investment accounts of their stockholders.

Admittedly most people don’t realize the U.S. military and the industrial entities that serve it are, for all practical purposes, a massive jobs program.

Its not like in Uganda where you ask parliament to approve millions of dollars to buy fighter jets from Russia- an act that ends up enriching Russians more than Ugandans. Few Ugandans benefit from such deals through ‘enjawulo’ and other benefits.

BTW, it’s indeed insane that Russia is somehow still managing to find resources when it fights Ukraine that is armed by the whole western world. Russia has also transitioned lost markets from sanctions into a war producing one.

War economies are surprisingly strong and shouldn’t be underestimated. Russia has shown that it’s willing to rely on a war economy to stabilise it. This probably surprised the West since by doing so you’re making a bet to win the war and to be capable of making a smooth transition back to a normal economy once the war is over. Currently, it doesn’t look like Russia is anywhere near to be capable of transitioning back to normal markets since they don’t exist anymore due to sanctions.

And if Trump wins the presidency this year, it’s going to be interesting how things turn out in Ukraine and the rest of Europe. I honestly thought that the Israel- Gaza conflict had warned off western interest in the Ukraine war, but, obviously something happened and they are back at it.

WHO RUNS THE WORLD OR POWER IN YOUR COUNTRY?

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

There are a lot of theories out there on the people that run the world. Some people believe that the government is the ultimate authority, and they call the shots. Others believe that large corporations have more power and influence than any one government. And then there are those who believe that it’s actually a select group of wealthy individuals who control everything behind the scenes.

President Woodrow Wilson said: “Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”

I believe the whole world is influenced directly and indirectly by the collective forces and actions of a top wealthy elite class. I believe that there are people who are controlling the greater processes of geopolitics and the global economy.

Every country is divided into four categories of people: the poor(P), the rich(R), Ultra rich people (URP) and Super Ultra Rich people (SURP). I believe that the SURP run the world and they play key roles in every integral global decision.

The P are in the bottom of the food chain and are struggling. Some call themselves middle class people when they build a nice house, buy a car and a few investments. The Ps have high risk of getting killed, being misinformed, and being controlled via threats. Hence, they can’t make major decisions.

The R and the URP are people in power, and they serve as arms of the SURP. They even have potential to become SURPs themselves. They have low risks of getting killed or being threatened. Hence, they work as executors of major decisions.

SURP are at the top of the food chain (Giant business magnets, Royal family members and Secret societies) where no scavenger or predator can bother them. They’re mostly people who have parlayed generational wealth into something that resembles a societal institution. Their command is the law, even in a democratic country. They are at their highest potential, they can crash the markets, they can choke a nation to poverty, and they can lift a nation from poverty. Hence, they control the world.

Most of the Rs and URPs answer to SURPs who financed their campaigns, who influenced (or own) the media, and put them there in positions of power to protect their wealth. The generally used term for these people is oligarchs, and the form of control is oligarchy, from the Greek for “rule by the few”.

There are people out there who have wasted their entire lives hunting down the Illuminati when all they really needed to do was to look out of their window and find the nearest corporation. The top 100 wealthiest individuals control more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world. So, a very small number of people have more wealth literally than billions of people.

MONEY IS A BIG FACTOR

Basically, the thing that runs this world is money and the people who run it are those who have money. Rich people essentially control everything, whether they are rich and in public office because they are rich, or merely have bought politicians off.

For instance, Museveni’s family can actually dictate how things are to be done in Uganda, and they can make it stick. They can even determine an opposition leader for the poor if they wish, and the Ps will follow that person because the SURP control information flow.

Even when it comes to committing heinous crimes, money may save you. It determines how much justice you receive in the world. It determines whether you can afford the best legal representation, or not. A man accused of a crime for which the state ended up taking his life, once quipped: “Capital punishment means that those without capital get the punishment”. His name was John Spenkelink and there was reasonable doubt surrounding his guilt. He was born in a poor family; his fate was determined the moment he was arrested. Had he been able to afford the finest lawyers, he’d likely be alive today. He was executed in 1979 when Amin was still president of Uganda.

MONEY AND POLITICAL POWER

Al Pacino’s character, Tony Montana, discusses women with his friend in the film, ‘Scarface’, but the topic can just as easily be applied to anything in the world. “In this country, you got to make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women,” Tony explains to his friend. Power makes the world go round. And power is acquired through wealth. Once you have wealth, you have everything. His words are as true in 2024 as they were back in 1983.

However, Museveni didn’t follow Tony’s advice as he invested in political power first before acquiring wealth. Museveni served in Obote 1, Lule and Binaisa’s governments, but he invested his money in acquiring political power first. He could have built a mansion for himself as most ministers or opposition leaders do nowadays, but he didn’t. He only had a plot of land at Rwakitura before becoming president, but he’s now arguably the largest landowner in Uganda.

Money gives you some power and buys you access to a lot more, but when the chips fall down, people with political power have the power, because they have the coercive might of the state behind them. For instance, the late Sulaiman Kiggundu(inalilahi wahina ilayihi rajiuna) was inarguably extremely rich and had a tremendous amount of power right about until the point he was arrested. Now, people born in the last 17 years don’t even know that Greenland Bank once existed on Kampala Road.

My point though is that there is an upper echelon of people who have far more power than you and me and they’re in varying degrees of shadow. The good news is that God controls all humans in this world.

People with money rule this world. It’s as true in capitalist America and Europe as it is in the “communist” China. Once you reach a certain level of wealth, you gain access to the highest echelons of power and life’s a cake walk from there on out. Money opens doors that nothing else will open for you, and this is true everywhere in the world. Go and make money,guys!

NUP ISN’T A NEW PARTY -IT IS NEARLY 20 YEARS OLD

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

Dear friends,

A lot of people wrongly refer to the National Unity Party (NUP) as a new party, but this is a party that was registered in December 2004, same time as the FDC. What confuses me is that the Electoral Commission website has it registered on August 28, 2019, yet the delegates conference to change its leadership from Moses Kibalama to Robert Kyagulanyi took place during the Covid lockdown of July 2020. Norbert Mao had promised to expose more of how Museveni was protecting the NUP on EC books,but I don’t know what happened to him the moment he agreed to work with NRM.

What I want to stress is that the party changed its name from National Unity, Reconciliation and Development Party (NURP) to NUP before Kyagulanyi became its president. NUP was never founded by Kyagulanyi as widely reported in the media.

The original founder, Kibalama, and his ‘friends’ from the original NURDP party organised a delegates’ conference in May 2021 in Rubaga Division in which they unanimously agreed to re-appoint Kibalama as their president. In 2022, Kibalama again tried to get his party back from Kyagulanyi- he opened offices in Rubaga Division, but he was once again frustrated by the Electoral Commission.

Ugandans should know that changing the name of a person or organisation doesn’t make it younger. General David Sejusa was born on 13th November 1954. It doesn’t make him younger because he changed his name from David Tinyefunza. You can only legally (not biologically) become younger when you swear an affidavit to reduce your age as NUP’s Kyagulanyi did in 2020. You can simply use whatever name you wish in most countries. Ugandan law allows you to use any name you want, provided this is not done in the furtherance of some other criminal activity.

Outside Uganda, here in the UK, for example, the law allows you to call yourself whatever you like, and no official process is required. However, your circumstances will make a difference. A case in point, it is still a fairly common tradition for a wife to take a husband’s surname on marriage. A copy of her marriage certificate (together with her other documents) will be sufficient to allow the Passport Office to issue her with a passport in her new name. However, if she simply decides to change her name from Amina Goodheart to Amina Badheart, while she has done nothing illegal, she may find that she faces problems with authorities who like a paper trail. In this case, a Deed Poll would be useful. This can be organised by any solicitor and there is or used to be a company called Deed Polls Online who will do the whole thing online for you. This is for the UK only, as the laws will vary from country to country, but I believe it’s the same process in Uganda.

Similarly, a registered political party in Uganda can change its name. The party leader along with the consent of the party’s highest decision-making body must write a letter to the Election Commission. They should mention the reason for change and the new name. If the EC finds that there is already a party with the same name, then EC won’t give the permission to go ahead with the same name. In this case usually parties prefer to do some adjustments by adding a name in brackets along with the party name.

Several UK political parties have changed their names, too, over the years. For example, The Whig Party was one of the two main political parties in England during the 18th and 19th centuries, along with the Tories. The Whigs originated in the late 17th century as a faction of the English Parliament that opposed the absolutist policies of King James II. They were originally known as the “Country Party,” but in 1678, they adopted the name “Whig” (a term originally used to describe Scottish rebels) to emphasize their opposition to the king.

The Liberal Party was founded in 1859 as a merger of the Whig Party and the Peelites, a group of Conservatives who supported free trade. The new party was initially known as the “Liberal Party” or the “Liberal-Labour Party” (to distinguish it from the Conservative Party), but it eventually dropped the “Labour” part of its name.

The Labour Party was founded in 1900 as a political party for the working class. It was initially known as the “Labour Representation Committee,” but it changed its name to the “Labour Party” in 1906.

Political parties in the United States have changed their names and ideologies several times over the country’s history. However, the changes were gradual, and there is no specific timeline for when the parties changed their names. The two major political parties in the United States today are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Democratic Party was founded in 1828 and was originally known as the Democratic-Republican Party. Over time, the party evolved and split into factions, with one faction becoming known as the Democratic Party in the 1830s. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 as an anti-slavery party and was initially known as the Whig Party. The party changed its name to the Republican Party in 1856.

People should also note that NUP didn’t emerge from the People Power Movement (PPM). NUP and PP are totally different things though a lot of people allied with PP joined NUP when Kyagulanyi became its new president. The PP was never a Kyagulanyi initiative as several people have tried to explain, but I have seen a lot of media outlets wrongly calling it his. Kyagulanyi was a newcomer to the PP but it’s amazing how he hijacked the movement and portrayed himself as its leader. PP is literally a product of the ‘TOJIKWATAKO’ movement that opposed the lifting of the presidential age limits.

Bobi’s Current Mistakes Remind me of The Fox & the Monkey – Aesop’s Fables

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

At a great meeting of the Animals, who had gathered to elect a new ruler, the Monkey was asked to dance. This he did so well, with a thousand funny capers and grimaces, that the animals were carried entirely off their feet with enthusiasm, and then and there, elected him their king.

The Fox did not vote for the Monkey and was much disgusted with the Animals for electing such an unworthy ruler.

One day he found a trap with a bit of meat in it. Hurrying to King Monkey, he told him he had found a rich treasure, which he had not touched because it belonged by right to his majesty the Monkey.

The greedy Monkey followed the Fox to the trap. As soon as he saw the meat he grasped eagerly for it, only to find himself held fast in the trap. The Fox stood off and laughed.

“You pretend to be our king,” he said, “and cannot even take care of yourself!”

Shortly after that, another election among the Animals was held, and I guess you already know who won.

In the case of NUP and its leader, Kyagulanyi aka Bobi, elections haven’t been held in his party yet – I even wonder whether we shall see a delegates’ conference anytime soon.

All I know is that desperate Ugandans got excited in 2020-21 and got a bad deal in Kyagulanyi as the face of opposition. Let us hope the “animals” in Uganda begin to elect better leaders in future rather than those that act like the Monkey in their character, qualities, and actions.

Fundamentally, Bobi is the monkey who caught the car. He got what he spent his whole life chasing, then realised the chase was much more fun than actually doing the job.

Bobi swept into politics on an incredible landslide of public support in Kyadondo East and later decided to stand for presidency, decimating his rivals in opposition.

In the end, there was only one opposition politician in the entire country who had sufficient power and influence to actually take down Bobi. Who was that politician? Bobi himself.

Never in my life have I seen such an incredible display of self-sabotage. Bobi has done himself more damage than his political opponents could ever have dreamed of, including but not limited to:

1. Posting a photo of his armoured car on social media the day after withdrawing the electoral petition against Museveni. Then later on, Museveni gave a waver tax on it in a letter written on 7th June 2021 to Uganda Revenue Authority.

2. Moving away from the People power movement that embraced different parties to joining Kibalama’s NUP.

3. Presiding over a culture of near constant partying, traveling,insults, and rule breaking,

4.Promoting his elder brother, Nyanzi, to a position of authority over other senior leaders because he is his blood, despite fully knowing that it portrays him as nepotistic in the party.

5. Accusing all his MPs of working for Museveni in a BBC interview when asked about the Anti- LGBT Bill. And then later on brazenly lied to them about how much he was forced to answer that way when he came back to Uganda, causing them public embarrassment.

6. The current saga has been the public embarrassment of his deputy president, Mathias Mpuuga, over the shs.500m recommended by the parliamentary Commission to be given to him after serving as LOP for about 2 years.

While speaking at the funeral of ‘’Omutaka we Kiika’’, he said, ” For us, we were winning awards and interacting with the Schwarzeneggers, and then I read on social media the corruption scandals involving my fellow leader….”

Lol, that reminds me of a scene in The Simpsons Movie, where President Schwarzenegger (yes, really) is presented with a set of three unthinkable options for a difficult situation. He chooses one at random, stating that “I was elected to LEAD, not to READ.” That’s Bobi – he decided to punish the former leader of the opposition before reading everything about parliamentary laws.

What do all of those incidents have in common? He did it to himself.

Gratuity toLeader Of Opposition

Gratuity is given by the employer to an employee for the services rendered by him. It is usually paid at the time of retirement, but it can be paid before provided certain conditions are met.

Gratuity is merely an older and more formal word than tip – originally meaning “gift” and coming from the Latin word “gratus” meaning thankful. A gratuity is, therefore, a gift given as thanks.

Tip sands for “To Insure Promptness” or prompt service. In the UK we may give a tip to a waiter if we think that waiter has provided exceptional service or if just feeling kind. Some sneaky establishments give you a bill with ‘gratuity included’ on it, but you do not have to pay it (by law). I believe that in the US things are slightly different and a tip is expected – to the degree that they come running after you if you don’t leave one.

LOP equals the leader of govt business in parliament (Prime Minister -PM). The PM is given benefits in perpetuity. The LOP office should have been provided with a retirement package under the previous amended remunerations Act, but it didn’t happen.

The shs.500m to Mpuunga was a one-off for the LOP. The parliamentary commission (PC) made its recommendations to the budget committee and the House. So, I don’t see any illegality on the side of Mpuuga. The PC isn’t an illegal body, and all its actions are protected under our constitution.

There’s a massive difference between a bribe and gratuity. A bribe is paying someone to accomplish an otherwise unavailable (and often improper/unethical) outcome. Bribery is a payment made to cause an outcome that would not necessarily have been the outcome otherwise. It was unfair for Kyagulanyi to blatantly call Mpuuga corrupt, moreover, in public. That amounted to character assassination, and it’s really sad. He needs to stop killing people’s political careers that way. Mpuuga is basically being ”punished” because he’s becoming popular in NUP.

What do you think of the Pope’s latest views on Ukraine war?

Pope Francis has said that Ukraine should have the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia that followed Moscow’s full-scale invasion two years ago.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the largest Eastern Catholic Church in the world. As of 2019, it had approximately 4.1 million members.

It just doesn’t make sense that the Vatican would risk alienating over 4 million Ukrainian Greek Catholics to somehow seek to protect 3 thousand Russian Greek Catholics.

No matter how holy one is, when it comes to physical affairs, I have found out that one is more influenced by his belief than his intimacy with God when making decisions. You just have to look at all the past Popes and how they handled physical issues.

the no nonsense authoritarian Cardinal Achille Ratti, Pope Pius XI (1922–1939) despite being an anti communist, he hated Adolf Hitler with all his breath. He had already commissioned an Encyclical in which he strongly condemned Antisemitism derided Nazism and spoke very firmly and prophetically about Nazi Germany.

Unfortunately three days to the convention in which he was supposed to denounce the Nazis he died at 81 years. His doctor was also responsible for Mussolini’s health, so it’s believed that the Nazis got rid of him!

His successor Pius XII turned out at best to be a coward and at worst a Nazi sympathizer. Don’t ask me what happened to the Encyclical after Pius XI died!

 The Vatican has been invaded in the past, it’s been sacked, it’s been looted, it’s gotten burned a little bit, and there was a little over half a century where the French kidnapped the pope and set up their own papacy in Avignon.Last time was 1870, by the army of united Italia.

On June 5, 1944, Vatican City was occupied by a battalion of the American 5th Army.

Ukraine’s biggest problem is, as far as NATO ships are concerned, is its lack of a secure sea port. Supplying Ukrainian forces would be much easier, if there was a secure sea lane and port access. But the Black Sea has always been under Russian control, it would be suicide for USNS or USN ships to transit to Odessa or any other port in the Black Sea. Everything NATO has sent to Ukraine has been mostly by land or air, which can get real expensive- as we learned in Afghanistan.

STOP ABUSING NKUBA KYEYO!

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

I’ve seen a lot of fellow Ugandans back at home insulting their diaspora,and I find it disgusting. Living in a different culture gives you a broader perspective on the human condition. This often gives you a perspective that your stay at home friends and family just can’t understand. Instead of learning from diaspora, you call them names.

There are many aspects to understanding the importance of Uganda diaspora:

1. Uganda festivals are celebrated, and foreigners get an insight into our thinking and culture. This makes our country an attractive destination for tourism and business.

2. Political lobbying, which is not very powerful,but I have seen several Ugandans participating in protests outside our embassies.

3.Personal support: In Uganda history there were many people who were educated abroad (or trained/gained experience) there and came back to support the country, although they could have found much better (profitable) job to do abroad. Some examples: Abu Mayanja, Mayanja Nkanji, Dr.Sulaiman Kiggundu, etc

4. Financial support:Many of them still support their families in Uganda or at least come to Uganda for holidays and spend their money there (support for the economy). There is also some organizational financial support for people in Uganda.

5. Diasporans bring in more money in the country than Ugandans at home (minus Asians).

6. If you read international law as a subject, you will understand that one of the most powerful tools a country has, which is to achieve its goals worldwide, is its Diaspora.

LEARN FROM DIASPORA INSTEAD OF ABUSING THEM!

A LETTER TO GRAVITY OMUTUJJU

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

Dear Gravity,

Thanks for your Busabala hospital fundraising. Thank you for your donation of love, time, and a big part of your life and identity to those who are suffering. Anybody who gives is donating a blessing, anybody would be blessed to receive. What you are doing is nothing short of amazing. You’re tactically exposing the healthy inadequacies in the country, and I really hope something good comes out of your efforts. Its unfortunate that some people are only looking at this as a Bobi Vs Gravity issue.

I really appreciate when people fight for specific causes, and I am sure many others in society feel the same way.

It’s sad that some Nupians have insulted your mother, too. Who knows why people say such crazy things? Please take the insults like a champ. Responding with insults or offensive language will only escalate the situation and diminish your credibility.

Not sure what those criticising you their issues are; they might be having really bad days (or life). In any case your spirit is just great. Keep ignoring those who try to put you down and appreciate those who lift you up. Many people live in bubbles and cannot perceive anything or anyone beyond their small lives.

There are a total of 533 Hospitals and 6,937 health facilities in Uganda as of January 09, 2024, but most of them aren’t really equipped enough to help our people. That’s why most of our rich end up going abroad for treatment. The 17 Regional Referral Hospitals (RRHs) and 62 are General Hospitals (GHs) were mostly built during Obote’s leadership, but they look terrible.

Mulago Hospital which was built in 1962 could have been competing with the likes of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, but its now a death trap for Ugandans. South Africa stands out as one of the top African countries in terms of doctor education and healthcare offerings mainly because the government allocates an impressive 8.58% of their GDP to healthcare, prioritizing education, and practical training.

One of the reasons why Ugandans in diaspora are afraid of permanently settling back home is because of bad healthcare. Here, in the UK, the government’s NHS is so far better than any system in Africa.

I was watching a documentary on TV in the UK called ‘Your Life in their Hands’. A 14-year-old boy had a very aggressive non-malignant tumour right in the centre of his brain. The specialists said that he would be dead in 3 months and that 5 years ago there would have been absolutely nothing they could have done. A massive team of top neurosurgeons, anaesthetists and theatre technicians/nurses performed a 48-hour operation, yes 48 hours, and it was quite simply one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen human’s do. The boy thankfully survived and is apparently doing really well. Imagine trying to get a Ugandan doctor to exactly that!

In the same series there was a man that had an aneurysm on his aorta. He was told in no uncertain terms that he could literally drop dead at any minute or had the choice of a possible life saving operation that was very, very risky. He chose the operation. Sadly, he died on the operating table, and you could see in every single one of the operating theatre staff that they were absolutely gutted, and some were in tears. I don’t think people quite ‘get it’ that to these incredible people it’s way, way more than just a job.

UK doctors are so much respected in the world, especially in the USA. UK doctors do not have to retrain in the USA, but they need to successfully pass a battery of licensing exams, then endure a long residency at a hospital. It is equally rigorous going to the UK, just different types of requirements.

In all seriousness, I have great respect for the Uganda doctors but most of them have let down a lot of people through wrong diagnosis and all sorts of things.

BTW, is there a way you can drop the stage name ” omutujju”? It sounds bad, like, someone intentionally hurting others. Otherwise, thanks for exposing the hypocrisy of Bobi Wine, too. I hope you finally get land where a good hospital will be built,inishallah!

USA DETERMINED TO FUND BOTH THE UKRAINE AND MIDDLE EAST CONFLICTS

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

America is not giving $95 billion dollars to Ukraine and Israel. They’re giving $95 billion dollars to the American arms manufacturers who will be supplying both nations with weapons. The obscene profits will go into the retirement accounts of the managements of those companies, and the investment accounts of their stockholders.

Admittedly most people don’t realize the U.S. military and the industrial entities that serve it are, for all practical purposes, a massive jobs program.

Its not like in Uganda where you ask parliament to approve millions of dollars to buy fighter jets from Russia- an act that ends up enriching Russians more than Ugandans. Few Ugandans benefit from such deals through ‘enjawulo’ and other benefits.

BTW, it’s indeed insane that Russia is somehow still managing to find resources when it fights Ukraine that is armed by the whole western world. Russia has also transitioned lost markets from sanctions into a war producing one.

War economies are surprisingly strong and shouldn’t be underestimated. Russia has shown that it’s willing to rely on a war economy to stabilise it. This probably surprised the West since by doing so you’re making a bet to win the war and to be capable of making a smooth transition back to a normal economy once the war is over. Currently, it doesn’t look like Russia is anywhere near to be capable of transitioning back to normal markets since they don’t exist anymore due to sanctions.

And if Trump wins the presidency this year, it’s going to be interesting how things turn out in Ukraine and the rest of Europe. I honestly thought that the Israel- Gaza conflict had warned off western interest in the Ukraine war, but, obviously something happened and they are back at it.

WHO RUNS THE WORLD OR POWER IN YOUR COUNTRY?

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba in black and white

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

There are a lot of theories out there on the people that run the world. Some people believe that the government is the ultimate authority, and they call the shots. Others believe that large corporations have more power and influence than any one government. And then there are those who believe that it’s actually a select group of wealthy individuals who control everything behind the scenes.

President Woodrow Wilson said: “Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”

I believe the whole world is influenced directly and indirectly by the collective forces and actions of a top wealthy elite class. I believe that there are people who are controlling the greater processes of geopolitics and the global economy.

Every country is divided into four categories of people: the poor(P), the rich(R), Ultra rich people (URP) and Super Ultra Rich people (SURP). I believe that the SURP run the world and they play key roles in every integral global decision.

The P are in the bottom of the food chain and are struggling. Some call themselves middle class people when they build a nice house, buy a car and a few investments. The Ps have high risk of getting killed, being misinformed, and being controlled via threats. Hence, they can’t make major decisions.

The R and the URP are people in power, and they serve as arms of the SURP. They even have potential to become SURPs themselves. They have low risks of getting killed or being threatened. Hence, they work as executors of major decisions.

SURP are at the top of the food chain (Giant business magnets, Royal family members and Secret societies) where no scavenger or predator can bother them. They’re mostly people who have parlayed generational wealth into something that resembles a societal institution. Their command is the law, even in a democratic country. They are at their highest potential, they can crash the markets, they can choke a nation to poverty, and they can lift a nation from poverty. Hence, they control the world.

Most of the Rs and URPs answer to SURPs who financed their campaigns, who influenced (or own) the media, and put them there in positions of power to protect their wealth. The generally used term for these people is oligarchs, and the form of control is oligarchy, from the Greek for “rule by the few”.

There are people out there who have wasted their entire lives hunting down the Illuminati when all they really needed to do was to look out of their window and find the nearest corporation. The top 100 wealthiest individuals control more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world. So, a very small number of people have more wealth literally than billions of people.

MONEY IS A BIG FACTOR

Basically, the thing that runs this world is money and the people who run it are those who have money. Rich people essentially control everything, whether they are rich and in public office because they are rich, or merely have bought politicians off.

For instance, Museveni’s family can actually dictate how things are to be done in Uganda, and they can make it stick. They can even determine an opposition leader for the poor if they wish, and the Ps will follow that person because the SURP control information flow.

Even when it comes to committing heinous crimes, money may save you. It determines how much justice you receive in the world. It determines whether you can afford the best legal representation, or not. A man accused of a crime for which the state ended up taking his life, once quipped: “Capital punishment means that those without capital get the punishment”. His name was John Spenkelink and there was reasonable doubt surrounding his guilt. He was born in a poor family; his fate was determined the moment he was arrested. Had he been able to afford the finest lawyers, he’d likely be alive today. He was executed in 1979 when Amin was still president of Uganda.

MONEY AND POLITICAL POWER

Al Pacino’s character, Tony Montana, discusses women with his friend in the film, ‘Scarface’, but the topic can just as easily be applied to anything in the world. “In this country, you got to make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women,” Tony explains to his friend. Power makes the world go round. And power is acquired through wealth. Once you have wealth, you have everything. His words are as true in 2024 as they were back in 1983.

However, president Yoweri Museveni didn’t follow Tony’s advice as he invested in political power first before acquiring wealth. Museveni served in Obote 1, Lule and Binaisa’s governments, but he invested his money in acquiring political power first. He could have built a mansion for himself as most ministers or opposition leaders do nowadays, but he didn’t. He only had a plot of land at Rwakitura before becoming president, but he’s now arguably the largest landowner in Uganda.

Money gives you some power and buys you access to a lot more, but when the chips fall down, people with political power have the power, because they have the coercive might of the state behind them. For instance, the late Sulaiman Kiggundu(inalilahi wahina ilayihi rajiuna) was inarguably extremely rich and had a tremendous amount of power right about until the point he was arrested. Now, people born in the last 17 years don’t even know that Greenland Bank once existed on Kampala Road.

My point though is that there is an upper echelon of people who have far more power than you and me and they’re in varying degrees of shadow. The good news is that God controls all humans in this world.

People with money rule this world. It’s as true in capitalist America and Europe as it is in the “communist” China. Once you reach a certain level of wealth, you gain access to the highest echelons of power and life’s a cake walk from there on out. Money opens doors that nothing else will open for you, and this is true everywhere in the world. Go and make money,guys!

—

How Do You Know You are Rich?

1.You went shopping, you liked two very expensive shirts, but you couldn’t decide which one to buy. So, you bought both. Congrats, you are rich.

2. You need a new laptop, you go to amazon website, search, and then sort by price: high to low. Congrats, you are rich.

3. Your son is playing with your iPhone 7 Plus. Suddenly he drops it and breaks it. You run and ask him if he is okay. Congrats, you are rich.

4. You again went shopping. This time you bought groceries. The bill was shs.569,000, you gave him 600,000, but he said he didn’t have the change. You said,’ no problem’ and you left smiling. Congrats, you are rich.

5. You don’t just say a watch but Rolex, a car but Audi, a phone but an iPhone, a laptop but Mac, a perfume but Calvin Klein. Congrats, you are rich.

6.You celebrate your wife’s 40th birthday. You throw the party at the most expensive place in Kampala. Your own private jets are on duty to fly celebrity guests back and forth. Congrats, you are rich.

7.A lawyer takes you to court over reducing your age and for having been wrongly admitted at university, but you manipulate the entire judicial system, and you are free at the end. Congrats, you are freaking rich.

8. If you possess land somewhere and a person asks you to donate some for a cause, such as building a hospital, church, or mosque, and you just do it without thinking hard. Congrats, you are freaking rich. You know you’re rich when you’re able to give substantial amounts to charity.

9. You’re basically rich if you can survive without working anymore.

10. Personally, I think we are all wealthy when we have our own health and our own little world where we live with our own earnings.

THE OPPOSITION IS NOW A LAUGHINGSTOCK B’SE OF THE NUP INSULTS

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

Dear friends,

Negative and ignorant attacks have seeped into every aspect of our lives and are destroying our culture, politics and society. It is deemed a badge of honour now in Uganda to ridicule, insult and destroy a person based on lies and character assassination.

There have certainly been heated moments and jabs between the FDC and NRM supporters in the past, but things have never really gotten so personal, like at this level.

One thing I disliked, however, is the way some NRM supporters couched criticism of Museveni’s actions in terms of “personal” attacks. No Besigye supporter was attacking Museveni, they were attacking his judgment, which is perfectly within the bounds of good, common-sense, political discourse. I treated a lot of NRM bloggers with respect, and I believe they (most of them) treated me with respect, too.

It was Museveni who tried to spoil our politics at some point when he accused Besigye of being HIV positive during the 2001 elections, but I guess he checked himself. He also at some point called the past leaders ‘swine’, but he has toned down recently because he didn’t get cheerleaders for his insults.

FDC

I am very, very happy to see that the FDC party generally behaves in a more grown-up way than does its rivals. Not that there aren’t some bad apples or that bad behaviour doesn’t exist in the party, but I just see it as being a great deal more civil. When attacking others, it does not seem that the “no low is too low” rule applies to them like it does to Nupians.

Even Nandala and Besigye came to realise that they are opponents, not enemies. They are both allies of the same political party despite the major differences, and I’m hoping that the same spirit gets reflected in their respective supporters. It is to their credit that they realized that cheap shots and personal attacks may have brought personal benefit but weakened the party overall.

Besigye has always said, and I believe him, that it is not that he wants to be President, but that he wants whoever is President to advance his policies – which he would have done if he had been elected. So, his presidential campaigning was mainly about to get as much influence as possible to push Museveni to endorse policies close to his. He also used to use campaigns as a way of freely enlightening Ugandans on various issues.

BOBI AND NUP

Politics is nasty enough without the clown-car disaster on the NUP side. Many of us predicted it would happen at the very beginning of the bye-elections between 2017- 2019. Bobi’s group resorted to schoolyard taunts against the FDC in Arua byelections and other places; then later did the same to DP and UPC.

He only cares about himself, period, and if it involves discrediting or destroying other opposition leaders by incinerating them, so be it. For instance, Kyagulanyi aka Bobi used some pretty low tactics (reminiscent of his squabbles with both Jose Chameleon and Bebe Cool musical days) to destroy Besigye before the 2020-21 elections. He has continued with the same tactics against musicians who disagree with him. His recent pampered lifestyle has led him to believe that he’s bigger than everybody else in the opposition or music industry.

He has a short attention span. He does not read so much unless someone is taking a photo of him reading. He keeps his involvement in all aspects of his life limited to the right of refusal and amendment and little else.

What he is doing is a disgrace to our country and is bringing everyone down. All the while he is proud of his nonsense, rhetoric, insults and getting in the last word like a spoiled child. The only reason he and others are resorting to this is because we are accepting it and now expecting it.

Here’s the bottom line: Bobi is good at getting media attention but not good at focusing on his message. He’s not attacking Museveni or his son, Muhoozi, on policy, nor is he making a coherent argument for himself, in his press conferences. He attacks Muhoozi for being a drunkard, and that’s it.

People who love his combative public persona probably love reading stuff like this from him, but those people are already going to vote for him again in 2026. Public fights with his MPs over the homosexuality law, Hon. Mpuuga, Hon. Abed Bwanika, Bigirwa Moses, e.t.c, will not help him win over people who are not currently supporting him.

I have always deplored mudslinging and name-calling, and this is one of the primary reasons why a lot of people don’t want to be associated with NUP. I prefer to keep it on issues, abilities and records.

Saying someone is bought and paid for by Museveni to attack Bobi sounds like a personal attack, but maybe that’s just me. Of course, if you think it’s true and you have either circumstantial or direct evidence, you have every right in my view to assert it.

Saying that somebody’s mother, wife, daughter, e.t.c, is a whore or a crazy old fart, is a personal attack — The idea of it at all, for any reason is asinine. Unsurprisingly, now I see people also attacking Nupians by insulting Kyagulanyi’s dead mother, and it’s sad.

This whole ‘Kyagulanyi-tasobya’ thing is getting out of hand. Basically, Museveni is not a perfect leader, but he is a lot less imperfect than the main competition at the moment.

I personally distrust politicians much more than I otherwise would be due to this negativity. If just occasionally, political opponents would say something like, “I agree with my opponent on this, he/she makes a good point,” and leave it at that. Instead, they always must spin anything the other side says as negative, even when they agree with it.

NUPIAN’S BLIND LOYALTY IS BAD FOR THE OPPOSITION

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba,UK

Blind loyalty is when one is loyal to a person or cause despite the damage the person or cause does to himself or herself or others.” – Urban Dictionary. Another definition (my own) is when someone follows someone else without giving proper judgement to his or her actions. A lot of Bobi Wine’s supporters follow him blindly without scrutinising his mistakes.

For instance, while on BBC last year, Bobi wrongly said that Museveni brought the homosexuality bill to target him and the opposition, but later he claimed that the same Museveni was using Andrew Mwenda, Nicholas Opiyo, et al, to get rid of the same bill. So, Museveni is trying hard to get rid of something that would have made Bobi’s life hard? Huh! You see how his claims are so disconnected, but those blindly following him find it convenient to turn his rubbish statements into ‘juice’, and it’s very unfortunate.

In the same interview, he said that opposition MPs working for Museveni brought and supported the bill. I kindly reached out to Asuman Basalirwa who brought the bill, and he had this to say, ‘The office of the speaker received two bills. One was drafted by me and the other by father Onen. Mine was the first to be received by the office of the speaker and the other came days later. So, the meeting with the Speaker that Serwanyi was referring to was to decide that since my bill came earlier, it must be the one to go on the order paper and that instead father Onen becomes a seconder to my bill since it was even more comprehensive and had more punitive measures.’’

But you find a lot of Nupians still blindly insulting Basalirwa just because of Bobi’s careless statements on BBC. I think some people are just far more gullible, easily influenced, manipulated & fully committed to particular people they view as grandiose, special, godlike, or perfect. It’s difficult to be objective or see someone as flawed, when you truly believe they are otherworldly special enough to create blind loyalties. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like some FDCs aren’t guilty of this too, but not even close to the level of the Nupians.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about NUP’s future and political direction. The irony is that their supporters calling others names purport to be fighting for free speech in Uganda where everyone is entitled to the freedom of expression regardless of their views. Recently, I concluded that the freedom they talk about is pandering to their crappy narratives with no rational judgement.

The opposition has basically built a dictator who claims to be fighting a dictatorship. When you say anything against him, his supporters label you a Museveni mole, yet Bobi reportedly owes most of his wealth to having been close to government officials.

Being in the position of leadership does not mean that one automatically ‘derives’ respect and loyalty as a by-product of the ‘position’ in the organizational hierarchy. There are many people who are sitting in the top positions thinking that people respect them. The truth is that this is not something one receives by the virtue of the ‘title’ that he/ she holds. Just because you’re called ‘Principal’, it doesn’t make you anything more than just a president of a small party.

BLIND LOYALTY DURING HITLER

The bling loyalty among Nupians could possibly be compared to that of General Friedrich Paulus, the leader of the 6th army of Stalingrad – he was a “yes” man and Hitler wanted “yes” men above all.

Paulus’ case was very special – he hadn’t had that much experience fighting before his appointment as Sixth Army commander – by many accounts – he felt more comfortable behind an office desk than he did on the battlefield. Were it not for Walter Reichenau’s sudden death from a heart attack, and Hitler’s doubts about the loyalty of the higher-ups as the initial momentum faltered, it’s highly unlikely he would have commanded any army during the war.

The one-time Paulus gained enough courage to resist Hitler was, surprise, just before surrender when he was, ultimately, encircled in Stalingrad. The whole reasoning behind him being named Field Marshall was that in the illustrious fighting history of the Wehrmacht, no field Marshall had ever been captured in battle – Hitler’s expectation was that Paulus would commit suicide just before capture, but Paulus, with his life being on the line this time, refused to budge.

HITLER’S CONCENTRATION CAMPS

In early October 1939, Heinrich Himmler reported to Hitler on the actions of the Einsatzgruppen in Poland, but Hitler told Himmler not to brief him anymore. The subject of concentration camps was not to be discussed in Hitler’s presence unless he mentioned them first. This was typical for Hitler: the man did not want to be confronted with the repercussions of his actions. He always fled into a dream world when bad news was announced.

He had special blinds installed on his train and curtains in his cars, so he did not have to look at the devastation outside when he travelled in Germany. He never visited a bombed area, a destroyed factory, a damaged school, let alone a concentration camp. The man simply did not want to know what was being done in his name. He gave very general instructions and left the rest to others.

In Germany, there was this principle called “Dem Führer entgegenarbeiten” meaning “Working towards the Führer”. Hitler’s instructions would be interpreted by those below him without fully briefing him about what was going on. The lower echelons had to anticipate what they believed Hitler meant. That’s why Bobi can find it easier to deny what Fred Lumbuye does online even if he’s doing it in his name.

If anything, it’s much easier to fool the general public today than it was before WW2. The very access to mass media makes it much easier to consume propaganda when lacking the tools for critical thought. And let’s face it, we’ve had a deficit of critical thinking in Uganda for many years. That should make anyone who’s paying attention worry about the potential for the situation to get out of control. It’s our duty to remain vigilant and call out unconstitutionality whenever we see it.

Blind loyalty for anyone is a very toxic thing. Ultimately, there’s only one real reason why a person is blindly loyal to another person – the inability to think for themselves. The reliance on others to tell them what to do, how to act, who they should ultimately believe in. For example, If Besigye alone had told Nupians to plant banana trees in the middle of bad roads, they wouldn’t have done it, and this is one of the exact reasons why he’s compelled to work with Bobi.

Blind loyalty can be attributed to several psychological factors. One such factor is the need for belongingness and acceptance. Individuals may feel a sense of security and identity by aligning themselves with a particular group or person, leading them to exhibit blind loyalty. Additionally, cognitive biases such as confirmation bias and bandwagon effect can play a role. People tend to seek information that confirms their existing beliefs and may follow the crowd to avoid feeling left out or different.

When a person leads with their heart and not their mind. They would ignore the red flags when they hold someone to a high regard. Bobi has shown Ugandans that he barely has the capacity and capability to take on Museveni, a man that he found already weakened and exposed by Besigye.

A healthy democracy must have a system of checks and balances where leaders are held accountable for their actions. Demanding unquestioning loyalty is an authoritarian tactic that undermines the principles of democracy by stifling critical thinking and discouraging independent judgment.

There’s nothing unpredictable about Bobi. He venerates NRM and Museveni and will hand the 2026 elections to him or his son on a platter. Fool me once – shame on you, fool me twice – shame on me.

When Bobi goes to sleep at night, if he can, I wonder what he’s thinking about? Bobi is literally opposing for money, not his legacy as the face of the opposition, which now can be found at the bottom of a dumpster, and he knows it. He will fight anybody, including fellow musicians, who has received money from the government without his ‘cut’ or prior knowledge. So far, he’s managed to bamboozle the young people but for how long?

As for the extent of NUP’s continuing ”resistance”, the fat lady hasn’t sung yet, she hasn’t even put on her makeup, but I believe they will be around as long as Museveni and NRM wants them to be.

SOME OF THE CAUSES OF DIVORCE IN UGANDA AND WHY MARRIAGE IS LOSING OUT!

Abbey Semuwemba enjoying Ugandan food in Boston

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

Marriage is a complex social institution that has evolved over time, and there are many factors that contribute to its success or failure. Unfortunately, marriage has fallen in stature and respect over the last half century. Part of it is due to the growth of affluence and increased personal choices.

In 2019, for example, Uganda’s pastor Bugingo left his wife of 29 years for one of his employees. He publicly reasoned that his wife had been suffering from haemorrhage and had been bleeding for the past 10 years. He went on to justify his infidelity by saying marriage vows are satanic since they’re nowhere in the bible. There’s part of me that wants to judge him because of what he said but, at the same time, I have been involved in more marriage disputes to know that there are a lot of things that happen between couples that the public will never know about.

Another factor is that divorce no longer has the social stigma attached to it as was the case in the past. Remarriages are the highest in the history of humanity. So, most modern couples choose to part ways rather than live in unhappy unions. An option that rarely existed in boomer marriages. In Uganda, 7% experience divorce and separation every 4 years. This translates to roughly 370,000 people every year.

Financial instability also causes divorce – more women are working but still a lot of them survive on a man’s money, and they manipulate men using Bible or qur’anic verses or sayings of the prophets.  Personally, I think If you earn decently, you need not be dependent on someone. In Uganda, if you’re a married man, you are effectively working for your wife – you’re expected to pay the lion’s share of the bills, even if she has a job. In the developed nations, even if you end up divorcing, you will still be working for your wife to support her through alimony. Maintaining her will take up a large portion of your salary. My main point is regarding risk and liability – which is almost exclusively assumed by the male at this point. Even where men are entitled to alimony, it’s seldom awarded to them. Where women are entitled to it, there is no question that it will be awarded.

Another point I would make too is that there have been studies that show women who are higher earners expect their men to earn more or the same and the highest divorce rates are when women out-earn men. The wealthiest women, those who literally don’t need to work at all any more to maintain a good lifestyle, have the highest preference for wealthier men, much more than poorer women. That makes no rational sense as their survival is already ensured, but it is the instinct to crave for male provision on some deep psychological level.

Men, on the other hand, are also waking up and realising they’d rather not be treated as pack-mules, working themselves to the bone to support a woman’s life, when they can simply have a non-marital relationship without committing themselves financially.

Infidelity: Extramarital affairs can erode trust and emotional connection between partners. Infidelity often causes significant damage to the relationship, making it difficult to rebuild trust. However, In Uganda it’s very rare to find a woman who divorces her husband because he cheated with another woman.

Incompatibility: Sometimes, couples discover fundamental differences in values, goals, or interests that make it challenging to maintain a fulfilling partnership. Over time, these differences can become irreconcilable. The Harvard Business Review study offers a simple solution: If married couples see themselves more as partners in both income and housework – not limiting themselves to society’s constructed gender roles – it eases marriage anxiety and makes for happier relationships.

Lack of intimacy and affection: Physical and emotional intimacy play crucial roles in maintaining a healthy marriage. When couples lose their connection, become emotionally distant, or experience a lack of affection, it can lead to dissatisfaction and the breakdown of the relationship.

Women’s rights are always correlated to the rates of divorce. As women get more emancipated, marriages become more egalitarian. Which means that when they don’t work for either, there’s a greater chance of divorce. Most divorces are initiated by women in every country in the world. You can check those statistics; they apply to divorces in most developed countries. My stats say 69%, with a rate of 40 – 50% in the US and 37% in Canada. Women used to be treated so badly back in the day. I still see women from poorer backgrounds being mistreated. Child marriage and wife beating are still common in Uganda. Nobody wants to be controlled by someone, everyone wants to live life with freedom, whether it is men or women.

It appears that women have a hard time, ironically, committing to a marriage and are subsequently quicker to leave or divorce when things aren’t going optimally. I thought this effect is due to a greater social support circle amongst women as opposed to men. Socially, a woman is better off in a divorce than a man, in addition she’s significantly better off financially in a divorce than a man. These taken together, along with social pressure, makes divorce more attractive alternative for a woman as opposed to a man.

Marriage for a man is the financial equivalent of giving somebody, who often only brings a small percentage of the value to the agreement, a fifty percent share in your company, with a clause that they can leave for any reason, and they will keep their 50% share of the company. It literally makes no sense for a man to get married in the modern world. That’s why most men are usually more reluctant to marry to begin with. Most available marriage-material-women are divorced with kids; many young ones just want a sugar daddy to sustain their lazy lifestyle.

Ms.Doreen Nyanjula, deputy Lord mayor, may disagree, but a lot of marriages have also broken down because women expect to have equal power in relationships. Feminism has made them feel that they should be treated equally. Some men would like to see things go back to when women were more dependent and deferential though that’s highly unlikely to happen. And it seems to me that the men will have to adapt.

The fact is modern women do not enjoy being married anymore. You won’t agree with this but, it really has to do with the embedded power differential in traditional marriages. Men generally don’t give up their careers to take care of offspring, downgrade their employment, stop contributing to pensions. Money is power and, in a lot of marriages, that fact is plainly exercised. Many millennials are cohabiting nowadays and negotiating roles and responsibilities.

Nuclear families have also contributed to marriage breakdown. We have become more isolated in the way that we live. In most urban areas, we now have small families, big homes, and are often disconnected from neighbours and community. The 1990s brought in this idea of a self-contained unit with Mom and Dad at the head (mostly Dad) especially in Buganda. Some cultures that still have an emphasis on living with extended family tend to have lower rates of family breakdown. This probably means more support with extended family units, and it helps with raising kids.

Religion isn’t so strong in our communities anymore. Our culture has been dominated by religious ideas of how to live righteously for nearly two millennia. Now the religious hold on our secular law system has weakened considerably and so divorce, as many other cultural icons, is looked at from a purely personal point of view rather than as a societal one. It offers us the option of living together “in sin” or just being lovers who have sex without the tension of constant company of our lovers.

Divorce is bad.

The fact is that divorce is a terrible, financially crippling, life-destroying process. However, it may be better than staying in an abusive marriage but in many cases, it will take a huge toll on your life.

Decades of studies examining endpoints like psychological health, behaviour, academic performance, professional success, etc have consistently shown that children who grow up in a household with both parents present and legally married outperform those who don’t, in all endpoints. The enhanced financial and emotional security and environmental stability contribute to that, but of course that all depends on the health of the marriage.

Well, as much as a failed institution marriage is, some go wonderfully smooth as wine matures with age. And most of those marriages have few things in common: mutual respect, trust, religion, and a commitment to building a strong and healthy relationship. Whether a marriage is based on love or arranged, it’s important for both partners to prioritize their emotional well-being and work together to build a fulfilling and satisfying life together.

It is also important to note that each marriage is unique, and the reasons for divorce can vary widely from couple to couple. Additionally, many divorces occur due to a combination of factors rather than a single cause.

Lastly, divorce isn’t the only proof of a “failed” marriage. Unhappy or abusive marriages outnumber divorces -They are failed marriages as well, but we have no way of getting the real numbers. So, while modern marriages might get a flak for seeing an increased rate of divorce, most millennials consider that to be a good thing and not bad. For example, I know of many women living in slums getting beaten up every day who cannot even think of a divorce because that is not an option. Their life after a divorce is perceived as worse by them. Divorce rate is not a benchmark to check healthy and good marriages. It is just a statistic of how many people took legal action. Marriages by themselves don’t work or work. Love or arranged marriage, you must work at it. Basically, people should pray to God daily for their marriages to work.

Gates and Jobs, and The Importance Of Cooperation

A young Bill Gates with Steve Jobs, 1985

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

There is a fundamental truth in politics and business, and that is, you can not achieve results alone. You need to work with useful people to achieve what you want. In business terms, “cooperation” refers to the act of working together towards a common goal or objective, typically in a mutually beneficial way. It involves individuals or organizations collaborating, sharing resources, knowledge, and expertise to achieve a specific outcome. 

Most people are generally in competition than in cooperation in the world of business, but this was not the case with one Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. When Jobs was still alive, a good part of the time, Apple and Microsoft were producing products that were in direct competition with one another. As such, the term “frenemies” probably applied to the two men when they were running their respective companies. Microsoft was providing business software for Apple as far back as the earliest days of Apple II. 

For many years, the two men had a serious problem, however, since Apple ordered Microsoft a graphical interface for its Lisa (first Mac) after buying the patent for a GUI operated by a mouse from Xerox Microsoft worked on a parallel project and released Windows 1, resulting in a lawsuit from Apple. Well, a legal battle ensued, and Apple lost in court many years later, but there has been a lot of friction between the two companies.

BAILING

In 1997, when Jobs came back to Apple at the company’s lowest ebb, Microsoft bailed Apple out and bought Jobs time to rebuild the company. Apple was considered the biggest rival of Microsoft in the market at the time, and with them going down, it would be quite obvious who would rule the market single-handedly and make it even greater. I mean, Microsoft’s business was good, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t get better.

It was more than just the money, though. Gates had also made a commitment that Microsoft would continue to develop Office for the Mac; he worked in coordination with Apple to create applications for the Mac which are today called Microsoft Word and Excel.

Microsoft’s public announcement that it would continue to fully support the platform was worth as much to Apple as its financial investment in the company. So, when Apple went on to introduce its new product lines (iMac, iBook, and the blue Power Mac G3), people not only bought them for their stylishness and quality, but also because they were fully supported by the important software vendors, starting with Microsoft; you cannot understate how significant that was in 1997.

Another reason Gates had to invest in Apple was that if Apple went down, it would be a monopoly business, and there was a chance he could be sued. Apple was leading in its patent infringement and intellectual property theft lawsuit against Microsoft, which the $150 million down payment on the settlement ended. When you are so big of a company that you can price gouge, dictate government policy, “pull” or “shutdown”, and cripple critical infrastructure, governments don’t like that at all. Not one bit.

In the past, Microsoft had already been sued for antitrust (monopolization). The Justice Department had a very strong case against Microsoft, and Gates’ lawyers were running out of stalling tactics. They barely escaped by claiming Apple was a competitor, which they barely were at the time. If Apple went down, Microsoft risked being broken up; Office would be a separate business, the operating system cross-licensed to at least 2–3 companies – it would’ve been a mess.

COMPARISON

Without a doubt, both men are extraordinary people who have made immeasurable contributions to advancing technology. When I first heard of Gates, his name was associated with being “the world’s wealthiest man”.

Microsoft’s mission was never to make technology with deep empathy for nontechnical users or to help advance humanity. The mission was, unapologetically, world domination, to ensure “a computer on every desk was running Microsoft software.” And Microsoft achieved just that by the mid-1990s— it has always been a textbook example of a “market-driven” company. From its founding, Microsoft has copied others wholesale products and made them only marginally good enough to beat competitors and dominate markets.

The late 90s and early 2000s is where I believe it became clear why Steve Jobs was such a hero for everyone who wants technology to serve them— and not the other way around. Jobs rebuilt Apple not by worrying about the corporate market, but by focusing on end consumers, leading to products like iTunes, iPod, iPhoto, GarageBand & iMovie becoming a hit.

Of the two companies, both reflected the core values of their founders, Apple set the bar so much higher than Microsoft. In short, Gates’s ultimate goal and measure of success was to make money and dominate industry, whilst Job’s was to advance technology for the consumer. Apple is continuously pushing the envelope for the Apple user experience & keeps forcing every other company to improve its products to keep up (e.g., Google, Microsoft, app makers, consumer electronic devices, etc.).

Everyone loves a comeback story. Once Gates reached the top, he never left. Jobs was booted from the company he created, and the triumphant return leading Apple to the heights he has is the simple reason why people love him more. 

Evidently, Jobs revolutionized personal technology by establishing the Apple computer, leaving the world better than he found it. By the end of 2011, he had 0.6% shares of Apple, roughly around $2 billion. At the early stages of Apple Computer, he had 26% of shares in the company (estimated value of those shares would be $167 billion if Steve Jobs retained those shares). Even after being ousted from the company in 1985 by one of his ‘friends’, John Sculley, he sold all his shares but retained one share so that he could receive an annual report.

Jobs sold Pixar to Walt Disney and held around $7.4 billion or 7% of the shares in Walt Disney (Roy Disney, the successor of Walt Disney, owns just 1% in the company). This makes him the largest shareholder of Walt Disney. Following his death on 8th October 2011, Walt Disney & Apple Computer transferred those shares to Steven. P. Jobs Trust, which is run by Lawrence Powell (the widow of Steve Jobs).

LESSONS

Gates proved that cooperation between competitors can be more effective than destructive competition. Even today, the two companies cooperate on some issues at the same time they fight like cats and dogs. In Uganda, business people and politicians mostly look at themselves as enemies. We don’t know how to utilise intelligent people in our families and communities – we just hate them!

Degrees don’t stop one from going for what they want. Bill Gates attended Harvard University but left after two years. Jobs didn’t have a business degree, but that didn’t stop him from becoming one of the most successful tech entrepreneurs ever. Jobs co-founded Apple Computers in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, and eventually built it into the global powerhouse it is today.

If the business isn’t doing well, cut down on costs. When Jobs came back to Apple in 1997, he knew he needed to cut a lot of jobs, or Apple would be bankrupt.

Personally, I think Jobs’ worst moment was denying that Lisa Brennan-Jobs was his daughter, and his disinterest in building a relationship with his biological Muslim father.

Finally, you can’t amass wealth without some sort of big luck. There are too many smart people in a very competitive world, but you need luck. Gates is now semi-retired, and Jobs is no longer with us, but their spirit still lives at the two companies.

BEING BORN INTO MONEY HELPS A LOT TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL

Walking around with my buddy in the Fan Pier park in Boston,MA

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Being born in a rich family helps a lot to become richer or successful in business or something else. Yes, having a safety net (wealthy family in the background) makes all the difference. Someone without wealth cannot afford to make financial mistakes, which is why it is so difficult to become super wealthy in one generation if one is poor at the outset with only average luck and breaks along the way.

People are sold a lie at school – the lie that everybody can make it and become a billionaire if only he/she really, really wants it. I also think that the youths should be encouraged to do business if their parents can support them, instead of telling them that they can only make it through education. There is an excellent book called, “Capital in the 21st Century” by the economist Thomas Piketty. Essentially, he contends that inheritance is what makes one rich. The central thesis of the book is that inequality is not an accident, but rather a feature of capitalism and can only be reversed through state interventionism. For most people, building wealth is a multi-generational process.

Most people don’t realize that most of the super wealthy successful startups are not rags to riches, but rather privileged people who used that privilege to great effect. They only sell the rags to riches story to win over the trust of the public and make themselves relatable.  Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder), Bill Gates (Microsoft founder), Warren Buffet (worth $120 b), Richard Branson, etc., were all born in wealth.

Just to give you an idea, Bill Gates’s mother was on the board of directors of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) with access to the whole of IBM, and not just an ordinary daughter of a wealthy businessman. She was the first woman on the First Interstate Bank of Washington’s Board of directors, and first female president of United Way. Her acquaintance with IBM CEO, John Opel, during her tenure as President of United Way, helped indirectly or directly Bill Gates to use his OS for IBM computers. Bill also had a 3 million inheritance from his grandparents. Bill, like most rich kids with a vision, he never showed off while in college. He used to live on pizzas while he worked on his product and business plan.

Jeff Bezos’s grandfather was one of the largest landowners in Texas. When Bezos finished his degree in Computer science and started Amazon, his parents invested some money into the startup. And that was in 1990s money, just to give you an idea of where his wealth originally came from. Now, Amazon is soon rolling out drones to do deliveries in our homes here in the UK and USA.

Warren Buffet’s father was called Howard Buffet, a powerful businessman and politician(senator). Having a rich dad helped him, but he is brilliant, and was worth far more than his father by age 21. Not to mention that he had saved over $10,000 by age 16 in 1940 – something that was unheard of. He has shown prudence in the way he has handled money throughout his life and has consumed knowledge like no other. He used to sell chewing gums, Coca-Cola, newspapers and weekly magazines as a teenager to earn money and had started investing his money too. He wanted to fully go into business after high school, but he was overruled by his father who wanted him to get degrees.

ELON MUSK

Elon and his brother Kymbal had access to rough gems and even managed to sell one to Tiffany’s in New York when they still were teens. His father himself said in an interview that he drove Elon to school in a Rolls Royce Corniche. He also had horses and a motorbike when he was 14. It is believed that Elon Musk’s father “arranged” his admission in UPenn as well.

Musk may have been born into privilege, but we need to acknowledge his enormous capacity for risk, hard work, and intellectual drive. Elon’s father was against him moving to Canada and refused to pay for his Canadian education. So, he ended up doing odd jobs to pay for his own college and upside down in student debt loans. Elon left South Africa at 17, went to Canada with about 2000 – 4000 bucks to his name. His mother soon followed and lived in a small, rent controlled apartment. He started his own company with a computer he built, and the rest is history.The richest man in the world has vision. That’s why his products are very unique. Till date there is no alternative to Tesla cars, no alternative to SpaceX, no alternative to Boring company, and PayPal was a completely new concept back then.

I am not sure about Jack Ma. He was a tour guide; he learnt and spoke English while doing that. He began small business and now he’s on top of the chain, but he did apply to Harvard 10 times. It costs 75USD to apply; so, applying 10x would be 750 dollars which may be very much for a poor guy. But there are some rags to riches stories. People like Howard Schulz, Lakshmi Mittal, Roman Abramovich etc. They were born into poor families but managed to become among those running the world economy.

The fact is, while there will always be exceptions like Bezos and Gates, most Americans and Europeans will spend their entire lives in the same social and financial class in which they were born. They are engineered, as like most of us, to look at educational courses as the main sure way out of poverty.

UGANDA’S RICH

Back in Uganda, most people we call “rich” today are not wealthy. They are not even rich – They are “middle class”. Unfortunately, most of them continue to masquerade in public as rich, and this is the case with most of our celebrities. When they die or get sick, their children get exposed to poverty.

The age of social media, E-news, and TV has really deluded people’s expectations of what being wealthy actually is. Wealth is comfortably being able to afford a good living, have money to save, and money to invest. In addition to that being able to pass that wealth to your children and grandchildren without affecting your lifestyle. That is Real wealth.

At some point people equated wealth with driving an expensive car, owning a mansion, heading a political party, owning a beach and having a private Jet, but most of those people who do live like that are actually also broke, living paycheque to paycheque, contract to contract, business deal to business deal. Wealth is defined as having an abundance of money or assets. Abundance is defined as having more than what is necessary.

What do we learn from Russia’s new population policy?

Eight days ago,Vladimir Putin called upon all Russian women to have a least seven to eight children in a speech he delivered Tuesday. This is presumably to compensate for the number of Russian men being killed in Ukraine.

“Many of our peoples maintain the tradition of the family, where four, five or more children are raised,” he said on Tuesday. “Recall that in Russian families our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had both seven and eight children. Let us preserve and revive these traditions. This will become the norm, our goal for the coming decades.”

“The rescue and multiplication of the Russian people is our task for the coming decade. I will say more – for generations to come. This is the future of the Russian world and a thousand-year-old, eternal Russia,”

It sounds like Romania when Ceaușescu wanted to increase the Romanian population to 30 million.Target was not met even close but plenty of neglected children were dumped in children’s homes instead. And a tragic AIDS epidemic followed with utter disregard for the innocent victims! That was one of the policies that got Nicolai Caucescu and his wife executed by their own Romanian soldiers in 1989.

However,the fact that he is saying this, he is most likely aware of Russia’s demographic decline.Birthrates normally decline during the uncertainty of wars and only increase after they have finished.

But what does this mean for the rest of the world? Are we going back to having so many children? China is already encouraging families to have atleast 2 kids which wasnt the case before. Here in the UK, the old population that will need pension is higher than the young population, and this is a headache for the govt. UAE pays men(citizens) to marry as many women as possible to boost their population.

BUSINESS PEOPLE AND POLITICIANS SHOULD FAMILIARIZE THEMSELVES WITH MASLOW’S THEORY

While in my hotel room at Hyatt Regency Hotel, Maryland

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Maslow’s theory of growth, also known as the hierarchy of needs, is a motivational system developed by renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”. I learnt the theory in my undergraduate studies at a university here in the UK (my eldest daughter learnt it in year 9 of high school). It’s the underlying psychological theory for what motivates everyone to do what they do. In other words, it is an attempt to explain human nature.The theory contends that individual humans are motivated by five levels of needs which are arranged into a hierarchical structure from most to least pressing.

Maslow’s hierarchy typically goes as follows:

The first is physiological (food, air, clothing, water), nourishment, and the basic protection of our bodies and such.

Second is safety (protection from harm). Shelter could likely be a sort of bridge between the first two steps in this positive psychology, which is what Maslow is putting forward. Safety includes any number of things. Caves rather than mud huts in certain areas, for example. Stable environments, especially for children, make them feel safe, but this is true for adults as well. Food storage and on and on.

Once you feel safe, you can develop love. You’re also better equipped to give it and accept it. You can handle what a social interaction means when your physical needs have been met and you’re in a safe and secure environment. It has been shown to improve your health as well, while the exact opposite is true if you have unhealthy relationships. Maybe this explains why a woman from a wealthy family is recommended for marriage – because she’s likely to give love unconditionally.

Ok, so you’re fed, you feel safe, and you’re loved. Then, you’re ready to improve your esteem. First is self-esteem – the idea that you’re worth something, not to anyone else, but to yourself. You’re loved, after all, and people are willing to accept you, you belong. Now, realize that other people recognize this and value you as well. That’s the second part – know that people value your contributions and acknowledge you. Positive feedback from others also provides an inner sense of value or achievement known as self-esteem.

Finally, there’s self-actualization. This is when you know you’re living up to your true potential and doing what you were meant to do. Maslow says this is very rare,and I agree, but only because I think we should always keep trying to do better, not because what we do isn’t sometimes good enough.

According to Maslow, at each level, individuals must satisfy their needs before they can begin to address the next level and ultimately achieve personal growth and self-actualization.

The main advantage of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is its simplicity. It tends to oversimplify people’s response to change. The hierarchy is simply useful in understanding the main levels of basic needs. Keeping in mind that it isn’t a rule that one starts from bottom to top or top to bottom, the presentation of needs is great and includes main specifications.

POLITICS AND BUSINESS

Maslow’s hierarchy gives a great framework to be used as a guide to develop political manifestos and business plans. For instance, If I’m to, miraculously, become president of Uganda, my first term will be solving just the following issues: food, water,roads, shelter, and safety, which are essential for our people’s survival. Developed nations have made sure that almost everyone has access to these necessities, and I have never understood why our leaders(both in opposition and govt) don’t invest much into these, but simply develop big manifestos to deceive people.

So, what does a baby born in Mulago hospital need to stay alive and healthy? Air to breathe, food to digest, time to sleep, time to excrete, and a bit of cleaning. These are the basic physiological needs we all share. These needs never go away, but as we grow, we learn habits and routines to keep them under control, and thus, we can pay less and less attention to them. However, a robust healthy policy for patients at Mulago could be developed by any government to ensure that all the basic needs are met, as was the case during Obote 1 and Idi Amin. The latter, Amin, was a good president mainly because he was very good at identifying people’s needs.

Similarly, nobody is born with business ideas. Everybody must learn it. Business ideas are born out of human needs. You can find business ideas almost everywhere there are people with needs. An ordinary person may look at Maslow’s theory and remain indifferent. However, a trained entrepreneur looking at the same diagram will see a ton of business ideas. Warren Buffett puts it like this: “Trying to explain business to an ordinary person is like trying to explain to a fish how to live on land”.

The best way to find a business idea is to ask people around you what problems they have. For instance, I was approached recently by one of the LC chairmen of a village near Kangulumira — he wanted me to help the villagers fundraise Ug shs.47m to bring electricity to the village. Honestly, I couldn’t see it happening without government help. So, what I did was to encourage one Muslim brother to go and sell his solar panels to the villagers in that region because I couldn’t see the government helping, either. I don’t have such generous friends in the government.

IS THE THEORY OUTDATED?

Basically, Maslow’s theory is still just a theory – it helps us understand our needs, what motivates us, and what aspects should be met first. There is evidence of individuals fulfilling needs higher on the hierarchy before fulfilling needs lower on the hierarchy.

Many reasons why the Maslow needs pyramid might not make sense is because of its failure to properly describe ‘self-actualization’. One can become ‘self-actualized’ without the need for safety and security. So, there are definitely a few things Maslow didn’t think about because he made a general assumption from the people whom he saw.

The thing to note is that our basic needs don’t just go away as we ‘move up the hierarchy’. All our needs overlap in time. But as we grow into each new life stage, our ‘lower’ needs are more under control — and that frees up more time and attention to focus on the next ‘higher’ need.

Maslow understood his theory would need to evolve over time. He foresaw the changes needed as human history marched on. Unfortunately, he could not finalize his theory – In the last months before his untimely death in 1970, he tried to expand on self-actualization and the next step – self-transcendence, but that vision is not very clear, especially for pyramid adepts. This unclear area beyond the “pyramid” is what makes Maslow’s thinking very relevant today. It is quite plausible that our next evolutionary step is yet unclear. It is possible that we transcend ourselves, break away from the material world and consumerism, and move to a more natural and genuinely happy life, closer to our biological roots. Indeed, there are lots of people who aren’t bothered by one’s wealth (cars and houses, e.t.c) because they look at this world as a temporary abode.

ANOTHER DISASTROUS BBC INTERVIEW BY KYAGULANYI

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

Deserved criticism is the strongest form of patriotism. Mindless loyalty is simple-minded nationalism. I always criticise Bobi, where he deserves it at the risk of being hated by his supporters. He gave an interview yesterday on BBC in London, and he managed to base most of his answers on a series of bizarre falsehoods that bear no resemblance to reality. I have no idea where he is getting his information, but none of it is real. So, let me get right into it.

HOMOSEXUALITY

He stated that he’s now a changed man when asked about his anti-gay lyrics that led to his 10-year ban to the UK. Do you know what that means? He now either supports homosexuality, or he’s more tolerant, but how does that play in local politics in Uganda? His statement did not obviously resonate with the people who elected him.

However, while speaking at a Muslim gathering in North London flanked by Dr. Rashid Kasato, he indicated that he’s the same person he was before the ban, and I quote, ‘I won’t go through the reasons why I was banned – you know them, but i’m still the same Bobi original’. Such a strange, double-faced person!

MUSEVENI BROUGHT THE BILL

What he said about Museveni was dubious, but no more so than what he said about Dr. Kiiza Besigye when he was trying to sell himself to Ugandans. At one point, he called Besigye ‘Museveni’s Charlie’, meaning ‘Museveni’s buddy’.

He said the anti-gay bill was brought by Museveni to target the opposition, mainly himself. The bill wasn’t brought by an NRM MP – it was tabled by JEEMA’s Asuman Basalirwa. So, how does Museveni come in to use it against the opposition? Is Bobi saying that most of the opposition is gay- friendly, yet all opposition MPs voted for the bill? Basalirwa is an MP because of Bobi. The latter is, literally, his boss. Is he saying that Asuman works for Museveni, too?

NUP MPs WORK FOR MUSEVENI

When he was asked why MPs of his party, NUP, voted for the ant-gay bill, he stated that some of his MPs work for Museveni. For the record, all the 57 NUP MPs voted for the Bill, which is now a law. Does that mean that all Kyagulanyi’s MPs work for Museveni? Where does that leave him as a leader of the party?

No matter what some Nupian bloggers and the media say, it was a stunningly insensitive thing to say. He was dismissive of the intergrity of his MPs, and he was apparently using it as part of a bid for sympathy for the gay community who face discrimination through the recently passed anti-gay law

If he doesn’t follow that remark with an apology to NUP MPs, he will become a pariah among the leadership of the party. Assuming his goal is to bring awareness and respect to the LGBT minority, he may be sabotaging himself in the process.

EXPEL HIM?

I’m not sure if there even exists any mechanism for expelling Bobi from party leadership or if it is even possible. He is obviously a divisive individual in opposition – he has proven to be dishonest and lacking credibility – his actions and words more than justify anything someone could say about him. 

However,the NUP MPs have not learned their lesson yet – I’m sure they will still welcome him in big numbers wherever he goes because he remains their ticket for reelection in 2026. He could eat babies, but they will still support and protect him – it’s a survival game. MPs get elected into parliament with his support. Every MP contributes something monthly to the Bobi/party coffers, and everyone is happy.

It’s the same with trips abroad. The NUP supporters with a business acumen organise music festivals where Bobi and Nubian Ali come to sing – he gets his cut, and they get their cut. It’s all about making money!

Marketing includes advertising, self-promotion as well as “word of mouth”. The organisers market their festivals as ‘struggles against Museveni’ and the chance to see the ‘blessed young man’ to get people to come in big numbers. They announce to the cameras about his next show that they are planning to sell. 

Bobi also announces a thank-you-message blast full of videos and photos on social media sites he uses (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.), to get people hooked on his next visits – It’s all to make sure everybody knows his name. I’m sure we are going to get such festivals in London soon now that Bobi is allowed to travel. Social media platforms won’t cost you anything to build an audience that recognizes you.

Another clever way of marketing himself is by getting his agents to appeal to people to welcome him at the airports in big numbers. It obviously inconveniences travellers rushing to catch their flights because of traffic created, but I don’t think Bobi cares about that. The world and air waves are filled with artists who have what I would call limited talent but are huge stars. They got there because of fantastic marketing. I saw videos of a few Ugandans waiting for Bobi at Heathrow airport, and I smilingly thought, ‘How come Besigye never used to market himself that way whenever he travelled abroad?’

He also markets himself by taking photos with white people to make it look like donors have endorsed him for something. There’s also a video showing him promoting his documentary film, and,of course, some white people were in attendance. It’s all one big marketing game!

For the record,there’s no UK or American “establishment ” that has welcomed Bobi with open arms, as far as I know. The closest the UK government has openly supported an opposition Ugandan leader was when David Cameron was PM here – He even risked taking official photos with Besigye, and his party financially bankrolled FDC though it didn’t change anything back in Uganda.

Museveni is like a CIA agent in the East African region. Nobody can risk replacing him with someone like that, but Bobi can surely be used to blackmail him over certain issues. During Obote 1, Kabaka Mutesa 11 thought he had UK support when he ended up in exile in 1966. He was told to either accept Obote as president or live as any other refugee. The donors only protect their interests.

What’s saddening about this whole thing is that it has taken some Ugandans an exorbitant amount of time to don common sense mentalities and realize that this man is quite unwholesome. Many of the Nupians have embraced identity politics and show no signs of slowing down – Bobi is a symptom of that. 

In the immediate future, you can surely expect to see more of his type of bigotry within the NUP Party and not less. It seems to me that all the sympathy he’s garnered from this — not to mention funds from dinners and music festivals! — will encourage him to make more of these controversial remarks in the future, which could be a very bad idea.

UGANDA’S VILLAGE LIFE SHAPED ME SO MUCH

I was in my hotel room at GrandHyatt Washington DC.

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

Dear readers,

I was totally in shock in my first year in England when I found out that there were people born here who were not taking the advantages the country has to offer. Instead, they were deep into drugs, stealing liquor bottles from supermarkets, kids shouting at their parents, and all kinds of stuff.

In the corner of Uganda in a village called Kisega in Kayunga District, where I was partly raised, the notion of ‘quality of life’ seemed almost mythological.

This wasn’t just subsistence living; it was an existence dictated by raw survival, painted with the broad brushstrokes of repetition—same sun, same muddy roads, same struggle, day after day.

The primary school journey felt like an odyssey each day, I had a couple of school uniforms made of polyester to use for a week, but I had no shoes for most of my primary education.

We walked for about a mile to Kamuli UMEA primary school every day, all in a quest for education. The school hasn’t changed much up to now. There was no electricity in school then as is the case in most villages in the area now. Its main hall is almost falling apart and needs anybody’s help now.

Discipline was high in the school, and no excuse was good enough, and so, when you came late to school, you would get caned by ” prefects.” I sometimes got away with being late because my eldest brother was among the prefects; so, he would let me go unpunished. His best friend then, Moses Kawulukusi, was the head prefect, and I was just starting primary school.

To avoid going late to school, some kids left early, which meant no breakfast, and neither did they take any to school. They would have to wait for the arduous journey back home late in the afternoon or evening to eat something. Some school neighbours used to sell pancakes and sugarcane, but one needed money from parents to buy them, but most kids couldn’t afford them.

My grandfather used to work as one of the “managing Directors ” at a coffee processing factory nearby. He had arranged for us to have lunch with the factory workers. So, every lunchtime, we travelled from school to Nakatundu where the factory was located, and then went back to school again for afternoon classes. The meals were mainly posho and beans.

We did all kinds of odd jobs both at home and school, all kinds of play, swam in all kinds of water, drank all kinds of water, ate a lot of fruits and vegetables, subjected our bodies to harsh weather, and didn’t even fall sick. We used to drink water from the same ponds my grandfather’s cows drank from, but I don’t remember falling sick over this. I feared lightning when it was raining, I still do, but that didn’t stop me from walking in the rain to school.

I didn’t need a gym to carve my six-pack; hard work at my grandfather’s farm moulded me into a sculpture of resilience.

Yet amid all these challenges, there’s a striking paradox: the villagers, my people, exuded an inexplicable happiness. Maybe it’s the beauty of not knowing any different, of finding joy in the simplest things. Ignorance, perhaps, serves as a cushion against the harsh realities— if you don’t know better, how could you worry about doing better?

We had large extended families at home. A lot of relatives lived with us, and that’s how I first built my social network. That’s why I know a lot of people from both my grandparents’ sides because they lived with us. Most people shared beds and bedrooms – I, however, didn’t share a bed till I got married. Everyone had their own plate, and it was where food was served –we used to eat together as a family at home, and that included all the farm workers. We could pray together, too.

We used to play football almost every weekend against boys in nearby villages of Kizawula and Kikwanya. The Bagishu annual cultural festival called ” EMBARU” was a form of entertainment for everyone. We made our own toys out of plastics or banana fibres.

I stopped smoking as soon as I started because an elderly neighbour threatened to beat me up and report me to my grandfather. I later learned in class that it causes cancer, and that was scary enough.

We lived and toiled the land we grew up on, and our taste for food was enhanced – today, we are generally healthier than an average Westerner. Most African men and women here in the UK look younger than their age. They grew up eating organic foods.

Today, you might mistake me for someone who’s always been cradled in comfort. But every facet of my being has been shaped by those early years of unrelenting struggle at Kisega. Most Africans hold almost a similar story.

Perseverance was instilled in us; we survived yesterday and look forward to tomorrow. Most Ugandans are polite and humble – a stiff cane made sure of that.

Life has taught me that no story is set in stone. Change, as daunting as it might seem, is only a decision away.

We learned to read and write because our parents said this is “the key to success.”

Coincidentally, my grandfather, Hajji Hassan Kibirige, died today in November 2015, and I always miss him. Amen to all of you and be blessed.

Dr. Kazibwe’s interview on Health Economics was a bit disturbing

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

Dear friends,

I recently watched a video of our former Vice president, Dr. Specioza Wandera Kazibwe, and she was talking about several issues, including the health economics (HE) she studied at Harvard University. She said that the HE program is tailored to promote the donors lifestyle rather than Africa. She may be right on this but her argument that followed wasn’t convincing at all.

 She specifically said that most of the vaccinations the developed nations are promoting in Africa aren’t done in their own countries. She also said that she grew up knowing about 4- 5 Vaccines, and she found the increase in the number of vaccines unnecessary, a bit suspicious or something like that.I beg to disagree with her, and I’m hoping that her followers don’t just take her words as some form of Bible truth. Vaccines have played a big role in making developed nations healthier than Africa.

 Now I can only speak from my experience with the system here in the UK. You’re looking at a grand total of 18 separate vaccinations between birth and the age of 25 (for a female). The HPV vaccine, for instance, currently guards against four types of HPV viruses that can cause problems in later life, including cervical cancer. It’s one of the only cancers that you can vaccinate yourself against. It, like all vaccines, is useless if the cervical cancer has already been contracted. Humans are capable of sexual activity at about 12 or less. Thus, for the vaccine to protect it needs to be administered before the target is sexually. It is administered to girls in high school here in England. HPV can also cause problems for men (and men can pass on the virus to women), so many countries have extended the immunisation program to boys as well. Dr. Kazibwe sounded like she wasn’t so much in favour of HPV vaccinations, and I’m really hoping that I got her wrong on this one.

 Most developed countries also do recommend flu shots. Here in the UK, people get the flu every year – You might not die of it, but you could pass it on to an immuno-compromised child or another at-risk person. For the record, I don’t take flu jabs anymore because they caused serious side effects on me. I just use turmeric and lemon to fight flu for now, but I wouldn’t stand in the way of someone taking them.

 With regards to HE specifically, I think it has a bright future both in developing and developed worlds because we, as humans, have the tendency to see the immediate benefits and make decisions based on that rather than considering the prolonged negative effects as well. For example, for decades we kept focusing on economic growth through industrialization (more factories) which eventually lead to global warming, water scarcity, new diseases etc.

So, even with innovations and discoveries in new technologies, humans by nature would find ways of inflicting pain to themselves. Health economics would allow us to study the cause and effect of such decision making in the context of their implications on human health. For example, does urbanization lead to better health status of those individuals migrating from rural areas? Dr.Kazibwe argued that rural life is better and that’s why she moved away from Kampala, and I kind of agree with her – I like peace and quiet.

But she talked about the uses of the mosquitoes in the Pollination process, and I wondered whether she would like us to preserve mosquitoes or not. A lot of African kids are dying of malaria more than any other disease. So, I wondered where she was going with that narrative. I hope she’s interviewed again to enlighten us on what she was trying to drive at.

Personally, I have always encouraged people to self-educate themselves without lecturers and certificates. The problem is that in Africa, people would still ask for your degree in something before you talk about it, and it’s sad. Health economics is the branch of economics which is concerned with healthcare costs and financing.

At the micro level, a health economics degree would enable you to analyse the costs at both individual and community level of treating (or not treating) certain medical conditions and to compare the cost-effectiveness of different treatment options. Now, this is something anybody can do without necessarily a degree.

At the macro level, it could be used to design healthcare financing systems tailored to the needs (and affordability) of a particular country or society. Employment opportunities include government, healthcare provider/insurer, university, or consulting company.

I think all the above relate to Africa as well-developed nations. This may sound rude, but I think It’s unfortunate that Dr. Kazibwe did her course when she was a bit old, such that her studies haven’t really benefited Uganda that much. The scholarship should have been given to a younger person, but those are some of the mistakes president Museveni keeps making in order to quietly move certain people from offices. I think her point on integrity of leaders should have fitted this properly — why would a leader with integrity waste resources on people that may not need them? It doesn’t set a good example for the younger generation at all, I guess. lol.

BIGAMY IS ILLEGAL IN THE UK

Congratulations Isebantu Kyabazinga

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Yesterday, I called my mum as usual and one major item dominated our conversations – she was mainly talking about the Kyabazinga wedding, and then we went to discuss the fate of the king’s first wife here in the UK. She is definitely not a happy bunny at the moment.

British law does not allow for a person to be married to more than one other person. On indictment, it is punishable with up to 7 years in prison, or on summary conviction up to 6 months’ imprisonment, or a fine of a prescribed sum, or both.

Men (and women) are prosecuted if they try to register two or more marriages. You can call another sexual partner a second or third “wife” if you wish, but as long as you don’t try and register it, then the law simply doesn’t care. It also becomes a problem when the first wife reports the husband to the police. The law can also take an interest if there are children involved of course, but that’s an entirely different matter.

If you and your multiple spouses come into the UK from a country that allows polygamy, such as Uganda, UK law will only recognise one spouse. Other spouses are allowed to call themselves spouses but don’t have the same rights as first spouses. This usually also applies under diplomatic law where the first spouse can be accredited and while other spouses are allowed to travel and accompany their spouse, they do not have the same diplomatic protection as the first spouse.

Also, it is possible to be married religiously, but your spouse won’t be recognised legally if you’re already married. We, Muslims, for instance do ” Nikah ” ceremonies, and that person becomes your spouse in the eyes of God, but not under UK law. Therefore, If the person hasn’t attempted multiple legal marriages and is just living with multiple partners they consider spouses, that is a polyamorous arrangement that currently has no legal support but isn’t punishable either.

Why is bigamy illegal in the UK?

Marrying more than one person for non-fraudulent reasons is illegal because there is an enormous legal infrastructure having to do with next-of-kin and inheritance, which assumes that a marriage consists of exactly two people. Consider the situation of a Kyabazinga in an irreversible vegetative state in a hospital in the UK, and he has two wives, but the hospital wants to remove life support. One wife agrees, while the other does not. Who wins? Definitely, it’s the registered wife here in the UK.

Apparently, allowing polygamy here would require the UK to rewrite a ton of laws and would also render a ton of case law (judicial decisions) irrelevant. The government doesn’t want to have to do that, and so that is considered a sufficiently legitimate reason to ban bigamy.

Personally, I think the UK and other countries with such a law, should try and review it to allow people to enjoy multiple marriages legally. If It’s perfectly legal for a man to have sexual relations with two people, marriage to two people should be no different.

Otherwise, congratulations to the King of Busoga kingdom and his newly wedded traditional wife. The Wedding looked so beautiful. By the way, Lusoga sounds more like Luganda – “Aye ntegeleyele byona byona omukaile omukyala (queen waife) byayakobye” in her wedding speech. I understood almost everything that was said in Lusoga at the wedding. I love Basoga so much!

WHY THE USA IS MORE INTERESTED IN GAZA NOW THAN UKRAINE?

Its now winter here in the UK, and our heads are all covered up.

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba 

The US and some countries in Europe have come to the conclusion that Ukraine has lost this war. On the other hand, there is a lot of gas in the sea off the coast of Gaza. If the Gazans can be forced to leave Gaza, then the US and Israel can get their hands on that gas.

Yes, the US has lots of oil and gas and they probably don’t need it, but the US does not act on need. They act on “control”. They want to control all the oil and gas of the world, if they can. That is why they have plundered the Syrian and Iraqi oil fields. That’s why they don’t want Russia to control Crimea and Donetsk where lots of oil and gas were found. 

The fact is, pretty much, the world today is in two Blocs. One side led by the USA, and the other side led by the joint leadership of China and Russia.It is thus obvious that the United States wants to keep regional wars, via proxies. 

Wars are also the favoured way to bump the US economy via military expenditures, it’s access to expanded budget & all, plus the business that comes post-war in terms of rebuilding contracts. 

Meanwhile, the Israel strategy isn’t only to control Gaza, but they are also interested in the West Bank. About 600,000 Israelis already live in the West Bank.Palestinians are excluded from the Israeli “settlements” inside the West Bank.

The West Bank is a made up name given to the territory captured by Jordan in the 1948 war and annexed by Jordan in 1950.

Then Jordan lost the territory in 1967.It’s not like the West bank is some historic area that has always been referred to that way.

Israel wants all the land.Gaza is an hour’s drive from central Israel. I can’t see Israel ever leaving that place after this war unless a miracle happens. 

WHY BOBI HAS FAILED AND WHY HE NEEDS BESIGYE NOW MORE THAN EVER

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK

NUP’s president, Kyagulanyi aka Bobi isn’t doing Besigye any favours by working with him or inviting him at the opening of the NUP offices. He is simply gradually abdicating the responsibilities handed to him by his supporters after the 2020-21 elections. He has unceremoniously dumped most of his responsibilities to various degrees and left most of his supporters in a state of shock and disarray. A lot of the stuff that’s happening right now, you can’t even make this up a year ago. Almost everything I predicted about Bobi has come to pass.

There are benefits to being the top guy in opposition leadership, but the overall burden outweighs the benefit. So, it needs to be shared right off the bat. You see, being the “top leader” means that you must be the “counterparty “in times of crisis, the “counter-cyclical lender” of political and financial capital to almost every emerging politician in the country. When opposition leaders or supporters are fighting, you try to bring peace. When the international community needs a powerful response on a major issue, like homosexuality, inflation, political murders, etc., you are supposed to come up with one, especially if the government has a worse position. When friends in the struggle go bankrupt, you invest in them to bring them out of the hole.

Bobi initially thought that being the top guy was only about posting on Facebook, posing in photos with some leaders, doing press conferences, turning student hostels into party offices, etc, but I’m sure he has discovered that it’s more than that. I also believe that the ” donor ” community has realised that he isn’t up to the role.  So, he has been advised to start working with Besigye and other progressive leaders in opposition.

As a result, Besigye has been active this year. According to FDC’s Ronald Muhinda, Besigye has ‘’ hosted Guillane Chartrain at Katonga months ago and later visited EU offices on Hannington road. He is quite active. I hope he means well for Uganda’’.

It isn’t a case of Bobi saying to Besigye,” how about we take turns to sit on the big chair?” No. This is about Bobi saying,” I’m kind of fed up with all this, and I believe I can have a bigger slice of cake if I let Besigye take over in certain areas. This is your old-fashioned robber-baron mentality.

So, some Nupians are not happy, not because Bobi seems to be walking away from his obligations, but the way he is walking away, in such a piss-poor manner. Doing everything unilaterally in the first place, without any prior consultation, and being part of those that weakened Besigye, was bold but a bad move for the opposition.

Bobi has never had success with street protests in the country, like Besigye did several times. Besigye led from the front and the police were always kept busy. The NUP leaders espousing “martyrdom” are never talking about their own martyrdom, but about the people whose lives they put at risk, from a safe distance. They remind me of the WW1 generals living in the luxurious chateaux twenty miles from the trenches, quaffing champagne, and breakfasting on Fois gras, whilst happily ordering thousands to their deaths for their strategy game.

So now what you have is some Nupians standing up and insulting Bobi – except they are in a bit of a mess themselves right now. They don’t have a better alternative apart from clinging to more of the same in Allien Skin, another musician of similar background to Bobi. Of the top four opposition parties, FDC is in disarray, UPC is a walking corpse, DP is walking with one leg in government and another one in opposition, NUP is arguably a government created party, and it’s absolutely being controlled. That leaves Besigye and a few individuals, right now, to develop a somewhat rational plan of what to do about it.

It is heard everywhere that there must be a credible opposition for a healthy opposition. Everybody seems to parrot these words and are lamenting about the poor performance of the opposition camp. I also think the definition of opposition needs to be well defined. It shouldn’t be just to oppose every damn thing that the ruling government says. The strange thing is the current main opposition party, NUP, doesn’t analyse any big schemes that the government implements.

Personally, I think Bobi hasn’t failed because other Ugandans haven’t done anything; he has mainly failed because he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

1. 57 NUP members of Parliament cannot do anything to change anything in government.

2. Participation in the 2020-21 elections didn’t change anything in our politics.

3. Heavens will not fall because Bobi is meeting Ugandans in Boston or elsewhere and fundraising for the ” struggle”.

4. Insults, online petitions and protests abroad have never changed any government in Uganda.

5. Propaganda (2017- 2021) against Besigye and FDC didn’t change the government. Propaganda affects mostly ignorant people.

6. Bribery for NUP tickets before the 2020-21 elections didn’t bring change.

7. Having official party headquarters isn’t a magic bullet for any change in Uganda.

Bobi was never ideal enough to be an opposition leader. He has degraded the opposition completely. We must not be fooled with his verbal dexterity recently in Luwero — he has acquiesced to political polarization and does not hesitate to peddle lies to make himself appear more credible. For instance, the blatant lie that when he’s abroad,  he’s working to bring political change in Uganda. He’s mainly just hanging out with friends and doing his business.

When he first trended because of his music, most youth were fawning over his conversance with ” Ghetto ” Luganda and English — not his points specifically.  Since then, he has become more of a comedian in his speeches. For instance, his European speech last year of ” I heard bullets go like pwa pwa… ” was a disaster. The opposition basically needs serious prayers at the moment.

Posing at the Harvard Square where Bobi got his 3-weeks leadership “degree”. Lol.

Posing at the Harvard Square where Bobi got his 3-weeks leadership “degree” at Harvard University. Lol.

Nobody likes Rejection but You have to move on!

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Good morning, fellow men,

I would like to take this opportunity to issue advice to fellow men who have been rejected by women. First, this is normal, and you should pat yourself at the back for facing her and telling her what you want because it’s not easy.

With rejection, please don’t take it personally. People don’t think much about us while rejecting us. You can’t force anyone to love you. You’re not living to prove your worth to everyone because even at your best, you’re still worthless to so many people.

Just like you’re free to propose, they are also free to reject you. Rejecting you doesn’t make them bad in any way.

So, the solution is giving up. Yes,it is the appropriate response to a rejection from a lady (or from a gentleman, for that matter). The alternative is called “harassment”, which is not only rude but illegal, not to mention highly unlikely to be effective or result in a satisfactory relationship.

2. If you have started talking to a girl for let’s say 2–4 weeks and you have a general impression that she is a girl you like, be straight up with her there and then, and tell her that you are interested in the potential of a deeper intimate relationship with her, or marriage (if you’re a Muslim). If she is into you, she will agree, if she is not into you, she will tell you right there, and you will naturally stop wasting your time hoping that maybe she didn’t give you the right answer.

If she tells you that she is into you yet acts distant with you (this is what I call actionable clues) then understand that she is really not into you and don’t force it or pursue it.

See, my wife says that women know when a man likes them. They can smell when we like them from afar because our attitude towards them is just plain obvious to them, and we don’t even realise it 90% of the time. So, when she knows you like her, and if she is equally interested, she will put herself in a place to ease you into asking her about the relationship thing. And if you miss that opportunity to express yourself right there and then, she will lose interest because you are not a man who can stand up for what he wants, and that’s not attractive. If she really wants you and sees that you are awkward and have a serious hard time, she will give you a window of time to pick up her signals and come to her.

Ug Govt isn’t utilising the Kingdoms very well!

King of Buganda, Kabaka Mutebi

UK earns about £130 billions annually from tourism.Overall, the economic contribution generated by royal related tourism is around £1.75–2 billion yearly. This includes revenue from ticket sales to royal residences, spending on souvenirs and merchandise, and the economic activity generated by hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that cater to tourists who are interested in the royal family.

They cost the taxpayer about £90 m a year. The cost of maintaining the monarchy is paid for by the Sovereign Grant, which is a yearly payment from the UK government. The Sovereign Grant is calculated as a percentage of the Crown Estate’s profits, which are the proceeds from the management of the royal family’s property portfolio. In 2021-22, the Sovereign Grant was £86.3 million.

The money earned by the Crown Estate goes to the government. They then give the working royals a ‘salary’ (called the Privy Purse), which is approx 20% of the money given to the government. This percentage goes up and down depending on things like official state visits, etc. The remaining 80% is spent by the government on a range of things, some royalty-related, others not.

So, the British make more money from the Royal family than what they spend on them. In fact, the monarchy is a net contributor to the UK Treasury.

Uganda has a lot of kingdoms, and all have a lot of historical stuff. Buganda kingdom alone has a lot of attractions that could potentially generate a lot of money for us if the government finds a way of maintaining them. The Uganda government should be working with the kingdoms seriously on tourism promotions.

I recently visited the Buganda Kingdom page, and there were disappointingly more photos of people than tourist attractions – people few people would like to know. Moving forward, we all need to work on this, please!

Eye Contact for so long isn’t African!

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

I was saying goodbye to a female friend in Maryland, USA. This is part of the lobby of Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Most African and Asian cultures believe it is not polite to make eye contact, especially when it comes to elders and those in positions of authority.

Personally, eye contact makes me uncomfortable especially if you’re a woman. You have to be in my inner circle before I will do that. Otherwise, it causes anxiety that is physically palpable. To me, it feels like they are trying to peer into my soul and very few people will ever be close enough for me to allow that.

I know the “Bazungu” culture says it is polite – when you engage in a conversation, it is good to look into a person’s eyes, if they are paying attention to the dialogue.

There are differences in cultures. It is not right or wrong; just different.

What about you? How is eye contact perceived in your culture?