Protect the prophet and his mantle.
This week i heard an interesting message from the Anglican camp in which the Archbishop warned the church and its leaders against misusing their office and their authority. There was a danger, he said of loosing the prophetic voice- which was going to be crucial in establishing the place and position of the church of God in this part of the political dispensation.
The folded arms of an Eastern Uganda Stalwart
Perhaps I was reading a little too much from all if this. But during some of the speeches post elections in the Forum for Democratic Change, there was a image of Nandala Mafabi hands folded, watching the dialogues and speeches from both Col. Kizza Besigye and Gen. Mugisha Muntu. It is too great a task to read his mind. But there are possibilities that in our culturally sensitive region much of his thoughts were wandering about the previous race for the top seat in the FDC. This as you remember took place between the Eastern stalwart and his colleague with proven military experience.
The attempt to shift the centre of political gravity
Camp Kazigo made some interesting attempts to move the battle to the hills of Bugisu. In his mind, he was trying to take the nation back to a point where he and his colleagues had began some major parts of their battle for the 'liberation' of the country...and I do use that term loosely. He was allowed to move unhindered perhaps with a view of testing the waters to see how much of a pull he would be able to effect. Critics later on would state that the bulk of the attendees were actually main stream opposition groups who would have showed up regardless of who was making the grand appearance.
Activism versus Structure
The elections took place after some very interesting political debates managed well by Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi and brought to the citizens courtesy of NTV and a host of Non Governmental Organizations.
On the whole we could argue that the delegates chose the confrontational style of the previous party president over the cool and collected General. Sandwiched between the two was the man from Bugisu waiting patiently for an opportunity to make his mark on the democratic space but probably feeling crowded out by the western conference.
Generational challenges and the resistance movement
So local experts began to talk about what they referred to as a battle between the old guard and the young Turks. Newbies who are itching for an opportunity to take the wheel. In the meantime the proverbial queue (references were made to this when the Blue eyed boy-Kazigo began to think and act as Big Hat's Successor) was brought back to our memory. And so the young ones were also accused of trying to skip the queue.
Leadership and covering-a crisis in camp Balokole?
So there was a battle that spilled over into some of our tabloids. In my view it is a struggle regarding growth, leadership and methods. Someone begins to grow and his growth affects all those around him. The son begins to rise and his development seems to counter the productivity of his peers. At the heart of this battle is a concern over the registration of the church and parachurch groups.
Does any organization have the right to register churches that are not in the mainstream (Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Orthodox) under any banner other than the Spiritual Banner and the direct lordship of Jesus Christ?
Is it fair to register churches under the same group that regulates the working and management of Non-governmental Organizations?
To be fair to the government, we have to realize that we live in a region that is rather susceptible to cults and cultish movements.
Because we have struggled to see the release of reports from strongholds such as Kanungu (where Kazigo has a leadership edge), it is natural that in some circle fears abound as to the effectiveness of government and its oversight over religion.
Liberation Movements and Revolutionary Moves
The leading opposition movement or liberation movement or rebel movement is the Lord's Resistance Army and has its roots in Northern Uganda. No other group has presented so much of a challenge to the broader narrative of the National Resistance Movement (especially with its credentials in the bush). If push comes to shove, and the ballot box loses its value and significance, there will be a resurgence of the LRA.
There will also and we have already seen this be a rise in militias. This is not on the whole a bad thing. Because we in Africa tend to see everything American as divine, we at some point will begin to think in terms of the Second Amendment (see my blog titled skirting the issue). Which broadly speaking was defined to help American
Citizens to think critically about their constitution and their right to protect it. There is a huge part of ones population that needs to be involved in some form of political empowerment. In Kenya the government has revived the National Youth Service. What is really good about this is that the youth are armed not with sticks but with spades (the beating of plowshares to swords comes much later after the young people have gained an appreciation of the core income generating activities as well as the value of Agribusiness in national development.
One of the reasons why there has been some difficulty in accepting K.B and M.M and other generals as valid opposition figures has been the inability of the People to perceive them as anything but NRM people. This is why there is always talk about Big hat and his plants or spies that are sent out to monitor opposition groups and why in some circles leadership at the top of some of the major parties has seemed to always have a western (Uganda) leaning.
That said M7 was always smart enough to learn and use and adapt to whatever situation he came into. So he learnt from the Democratic Party, UPC as well as from colleagues and friends in Tanzania, Mozambique and even Kenya.
