Yiga Kisakyamukama with President Museveni
In this fearless era of shareable technology where anything goes on the ‘internets’, a man fervent in his political beliefs recorded himself ranting about a perceived grave injustice.
In the video that would later go viral, the man went native, spewing choice insults, casting an entire ethnic group and opposition supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) as contemptible.
At the end of the rant, the man turned away from the camera and unleashed the ultimate insult to show his uttermost disgust with those who did not share his fanatical commitment to the ruling party the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and the president. With his back to the camera, still muttering curses, the man slid his trousers down, bent over, and mooned his audience. Sights that cannot be unseen.
In the annals of the internet now lives a deliberate pair of unashamed buttocks. In the days that followed, the man was unbowed, standing unapologetically by his hefty derriere, vowing that he would not apologize for his robust vulgarity.
The man whose chosen moniker means ‘the grace of the Lord’ is now a district representative of the President of Uganda, the Fountain of Honour. Yiga Kisakyamukama or Yiga Wamala is the man, newly appointed deputy resident district commissioner (RDC) of Gomba district.
Dear reader, in passive-aggressive Ugandan speak, let us be guided. What is the role of the RDCs; why does their caliber of leadership matter to Uganda?
Ofwono Opondo, the head of the Uganda Media Centre, in 2019, during a training of RDCs, noted, “Under the Constitution, RDCs and their deputies are senior civil servants directly appointed and deployed to respective districts by the president. They represent the president and central government respectively, and as such are expected to exhibit a high level of personal and official dignity, and knowledge on government policies and ongoing programs.”
Kisakyamukama, despite his saintly name, is as rancorous as they come – when he isn’t rabidly frothing at the mouth in support of the ruling party spewing bile at the opposition, he is rabidly frothing at the mouth against the ruling party, lately calling for First Son General Muhoozi Kainerugaba to overthrow his father, President Yoweri Museveni.
Rising to prominence as the NRM youth chair for Gomba district, he carved out a name for himself as an unhindered NRM mobilizer. In 2021, he was captured on video ordering his armed state security to shoot at civilians. Ironically, the armed soldier restrained the fuming Kisakyamukama from attacking the civilians.
During the acrimonious 2021 general elections, NUP members cited him for electoral violence and intimidation. If this reads like the resume of a lowlife degenerate usually associated with the state, do quietly contemplate the parliament speaker’s hot take on ‘bum shafters.’
Yet here we are – the man and his buttocks are in things. The optics are crummy. A tone-deaf regime secure in its corrosive hubris that it is immortal and indomitable. Its politics of patronage is increasingly remorseless; in these wilting days of the unwieldy yellow bus, the pretence about good governance is waning fast.
Nonetheless, in the words of acclaimed Ugandan author, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, let’s tell this story properly. During the online Uganda Parliament Exhibition, the shamelessness of our political leadership was in full bloom. Where we hoped for even a modicum of shame, we got unrepentant thanksgiving parties calling upon God to fight those who dared the impunity that blights our land.
One deputy RDC Herbert Anderson Burora, passionate about doing his bit for the country, was unrelenting in calling out the leadership of parliament over their lack of accountability. For his valiant efforts, this RDC would soon be disabused of his patriotic fervor. On March 5, the Office of the President suspended Burora for 28 days accusing him of undermining the speaker of parliament and violating Public Service Standing Orders. Aya basi.
On March 28, Burora wrote to the fountain of honour seeking to tug at the revolutionary heartstrings of the fountain of honour – waxing lyrical about how honourably he had served as RDC and refused to stay silent in the face of corruption. Burora invited the fountain of honour to contemplate how his suspension would discourage other RDCs from taking an open stand against corruption.
Speaking to the Daily Monitor about Burora’s appeal to the president, the secretary in the Office of the President was curt. His response to Burora: don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
Dear reader, the story is still far from over. On March 31, during Easter when Christians commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ, a key tenet of Christianity, the fountain of honour addressed the nation, which is fitting as over 80 per cent of Ugandans profess Christianity. Just don’t expect us to practice it.
In his address, the president condemned corruption because a national address is incomplete if corruption is not religiously condemned. The fountain of honour particularly singled out RDCs as an “anti-corruption weapon available in each locality”, noting that RDCs should be activists against corruption.
Yet here we are. Again. While it seems capricious to judge the incoming Gomba RDC’s leadership credentials by his naked glutes, it is similarly fraudulent to preach that RDCs represent the fountain of honour and should be bastions in the fight against corruption.
How this story ends is upon Ugandans who continue to be disregarded and treated like bums in their country.
smugmountain@gmail.com
The writer is a tayaad muzzukulu
Source: The Observer
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