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Muhoozi (L) and Anita Among in Bukedea. Courtesy photoWe are living through history.It began with the Monitor newspaper headline about Rolls Royce. Then came the tweet about the Rolls Royce. After that followed the events at Kololo, the security searches of Annet Anita Among’s properties, and finally A3’s withdrawal from the speaker race. There is no better description for this sequence of events than the old saying: “There are decades where nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen.”If Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba eventually becomes President, this may well be remembered as the strategic inflexion point. I would argue that it was Among who handed Muhoozi the presidency. She provided the perfect opportunity, perhaps even became the perfect offering to the Ugandan gods, otherwise known as the people.The Soul the NRM Once HadThe NRA/NRM was founded on an ethos not entirely dissimilar from that of the Chinese Communist Party. It was fundamentally a peasant-backed movement. It waged a protracted people’s war and presented itself as a revolutionary force that had liberated the Ugandan soul. In doing so, it acquired what might be called the mandate of Heaven. Over time, however, the movement began to lose that soul. Part of this came from economic liberalization and the embrace of neo-liberal ideas. Another part came from Museveni’s realization that money politics was a cheaper and faster route to political survival.It is important to remember what the NRM originally was: a party of peasants. That idea carried enormous moral power. If one studies the zeitgeist of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the NRM was also one of the most intellectually vibrant political movements in Uganda’s history. Internal debates were prolific. Issues were discussed through the lens of what best served the people and the nation. Ideas rose or fell on that merit.The Shift to Money PoliticsIn 2001, President Museveni encountered his first truly serious political challenge when Dr Kizza Besigye ran against him on the Reform Agenda platform.Notably, the NRM was still considered such a powerful national idea that even its critics did not initially seek to dismantle it. They sought reform instead. The violence surrounding that election forced Museveni to rethink political management. One consequence was the deeper institutionalisation of money politics. Co-opting opponents and buying loyalty became cheaper and less risky than outright confrontation.But over time, the cost of political loyalty kept rising. Politicians themselves adopted the same methods, and eventually, there were no limits. To win elections in Uganda increasingly required wealth. In many ways, Uganda evolved into a version of American-style money politics, except practised within a poor country.As politics became more transactional, many people with a conscience withdrew from it altogether. Politics became synonymous with moral compromise. Into that vacuum emerged figures like A3.The Rise of A3For A3, there seemed to be no limits, neither to what she could do nor to what she could become. Ironically, the more she denied presidential ambitions, the more suspicion she likely generated within the system.Guerrilla movements are highly sensitive organisms. They survive by never underestimating threats. A3 appeared to trigger exactly those instincts. She allegedly raided the coffers of parliament and accumulated immense resources, what revolutionaries might call primitive accumulation of wealth. She consolidated power within parliament, neutralized opposition, and reportedly built influence within the judiciary. Loyalty could be bought, and she was willing to outbid anyone.Speaker Anita AmongThe public may never fully know the extent of the lines she crossed, but it is difficult to believe the RR itself was the real issue. More likely, it served as a symbol or proxy for deeper anxieties.Why the System Moved Against HerSecurity systems are trained to pre-empt threats, not merely react to them. In A3’s case, the central question may have become: If you are not interested in the presidency, why are you accumulating so much power and so many resources?People do not build capabilities they never intend to use. No one becomes powerful in the hope of remaining permanently neutral and harmless. Strength is accumulated for the moment it may eventually matter.The President himself must also be understood within context. He is ageing. He is in the evening of his political life. What would another five years of an increasingly powerful A3 have meant? In the event of presidential incapacitation, she would likely have emerged as the single most powerful civilian political figure in the country.The implications are self-explanatory.Muhoozi’s Political OpeningYet the deeper issue is this: the NRA/NRM had lost much of the soul with which it came to power. After four or five decades, revolutionary movements inevitably enter periods of introspection and reinvention. The only way such parties survive another fifty years is by rediscovering their original moral purpose. This, I believe, is the opportunity Among inadvertently handed to Muhoozi and Patriotic League of Uganda.In politics, timing is everything. But there are rare moments when all conditions align simultaneously. Muhoozi recognised such a moment and made what may prove to be a historically consequential political move.By aligning himself with popular anger, especially the frustrations of the peasants and ordinary citizens who originally formed the NRM’s social base, he found both a rallying platform and an ideological entry point into politics.Until now, Muhoozi had largely been perceived as a military figure. This was the week he began to transform into a politician, and not merely a politician, but one presenting himself as a revolutionary reformer seeking a renaissance within the NRM itself.The Test AheadWhether Uganda’s political soul can still be recovered remains uncertain. That will depend not on rhetoric, but on actions. One meaningful gesture would be the unconditional release of the young men and women detained by security forces without trial. Another would be extending an olive branch to Bobi Wine and inviting him back into national dialogue. The original NRA/NRM, at least in its self-image, always portrayed itself as a movement willing to engage in dialogue.Uganda’s Silent RebellionMuhoozi’s long march may now have begun: not merely a campaign for power, but an attempt to reclaim the soul of both the nation and the movement itself, a second phase of the revolution intended to secure another fifty years for this peasant party.It will not be easy. Yet I believe last week may indeed have been Muhoozi’s finest hour because he potentially averted something larger: a people’s uprising. There has been a simmering tension within the collective unconscious of Ugandans.Ugandan society is often misunderstood as docile. It is not. Museveni spent much of his presidency suppressing rebellions and managing discontent through concessions. Ugandans are often silent rebels. Even in Buganda, where the Kabaka commands deep loyalty, history still records the Bataka riots of the 1940s.Silence in Uganda can therefore be deeply deceptive.The Death of the Ugandan DreamThe moral decay arguably accelerated after 2005. That was the period when many Ugandans began deprioritising hard work in favour of faster routes to wealth.Everyone became a dealmaker or deal broker. The phrase “waliwo deal gyengooba” became a national refrain. People stopped believing in slow, sustained accumulation and instead chased windfalls.Degrees lost prestige. Merit mattered less than connections. If one positioned themselves correctly and knew the right people, one could escape the need for meaningful work altogether.But the true breaking point came when society normalised the public display of ill-gotten wealth. Previously, even those who stole maintained discretion. They concealed sudden upgrades in lifestyle and preserved the illusion that hard work could still produce success. Societies survive on such myths, the belief that effort will eventually be rewarded. Like Boxer in Animal Farm, people continued believing that working harder would make life better.That promise collapsed. Increasingly, it appeared that wealth could only come through political deals, corruption, or outright crime. Other pathways seemed closed. This also explains the appeal of programs like Parish Development Model (PDM): they functioned, in some ways, as an admission that the old promises no longer convinced people. The state could no longer persuade peasants through models of productivity alone; it increasingly resorted to direct cash transfers. Politics consequently became the most lucrative profession in the country. Doctors, engineers, lawyers, and economists all gravitated toward it.The Long Road AheadThis, ultimately, is the challenge facing Muhoozi if he truly intends to begin a national renewal. By giving Among her “last supper,” he may indeed have experienced his finest political hour. But reclaiming the soul of a nation is infinitely harder than winning a political battle.The road ahead is long.The author is a Ugandan political commentator
Related
, https://observer.ug/viewpoint/amongs-last-supper-and-muhoozis-finest-hour/
