WILL MUSEVENI [WHO PUNISHED GEN HENRY TUMUKUNDE FOR PRAISING HIS OPPONENT BESIGYE IN 2018] SPARE MAO FOR DEMANDING FOR HIS RETIREMENT? 

By Mulengera Reporters  

In 2018 as ex-Minister and NRM historical Mathew Rukikaire’s son was being buried in Rukungiri, Gen Henry Tumukunde (then powerfully serving as Minister of Security) spoke at the funeral and famously praised Dr. Kizza Besigye describing him as one of the most powerful, well-intentioned and intelligent politicians Uganda has ever produced.

Naturally, this greatly offended Gen YK Museveni whose ruling NRM party had just scrapped age limits in the Constitution to enable him rule for life. This was at a time Dr. Besigye, who has since ceded ground for Bobi Wine, was still the leading opponent of the veteran leader from Rwakitura. Gen Museveni exhibited his anger by (within 24 hours) firing Henry Tumukunde from being security Minister replacing him with Gen Elly Tumwine. It was one a man reshuffle because only one Minister (Tumukunde) was fired and one new entrant (Tumwine) came to Cabinet.

Majority pundits rightly concluded that this dropping through a one man reshuffle was because the thin-skinned Gen Museveni couldn’t tolerate such sabotage by someone powerfully serving as Minister in his Cabinet.

Today, 6 years later, Justice & Constitutional Affairs Minister Norbert Mao (who stayed in opposition for so long and hasn’t easily adjusted to knowing how to play sycophant and say good things about the regime) has risked to gamble by being even more overt in antagonising the powerful big man from Rwakitura.

Speaking during a Transitional Justice Conference in Kampala on Tuesday, Mao (who some have bashed for speaking in a wrong forum) demanded that Gen Museveni proclaims a date when he intends to depart from the Presidency which he has occupied since January 1986 without break. Mao went as far as asserting that unless Gen Museveni leaves, government investments into big infrastructural projects like roads and energy programs won’t amount to anything because the Ugandan citizens, sick and tired of an endless Presidency, won’t be in position to see or appreciate anything anymore.

Naturally, Mao’s controversial utterances attracted thunderous applause from an audience which largely comprised of government officials who understandably are tired and fatigued towards the incumbent President like the rest of ordinary Ugandan citizens.

But Mao (whose coming to Cabinet was preceded by a deal that was brokered by Speaker Anita Among and some members of the First Family) will naturally pay a huge price at some point because the Gen Museveni this country has known and grumblingly accepted to be its President for the last 40 years isn’t someone anyone can step on and get away with it. In his world, no provocation or humiliation can ever go without some sanctioning.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the big man from Rwakitura has grown to an extent that he is currently the only man in Uganda who can make anyone regret their acts or omissions whenever and however he chooses. It remains to be seen how Mao, a sickly modeslty wealthy veteran politician, will be punished and made to pay for his transgressions and how soon. The most plausible way to sanction him in the short term will be removal from Cabinet or Rebecca Kadaga-like demotion to a much less significant Ministry like that of Ethics or Economic Monitoring. Many will be surprised if Mao, whose disloyalty and unwillingness to play sycophant has already been unsettling many members of the deep state, survives being relegated in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle.

Gen Museveni, his handlers and members of the infamous deep state have already been demonstrating their suspicion and mistrust towards Mao whose unpredictability is the reason why the idea to constitute a Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) was controversially shelved. This was after intelligence reports curiously indicated that the embattled DP President intended to use that process to position his loyalists in a manner that would, in the long term, be detrimental to Gen YK Museveni’s political interests. He is also the reason why members of the deep state became overtly hostile to the idea of Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny Dollo getting to serve as CJ beyond the age of 70 which he will be attaining in the first month of 2026. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at [email protected]).