At 86, one could say that Sylvia Namutebi a villager from Nakaseke District is nearing the end of the road. A long battle with cancer and the sudden death of her husband, three years ago sum up what has been a miserable last decade for Namutebi. She stays shacked up in her hut all day patiently waiting for God’s call that she would gladly pick. There is nothing more than she wants from the world.
At her doorstep arrives a humble looking stranger who seems hell-bent on saving the village. Encouraged by his wordplay, she listens to him as he promises to restore her health and the hope of the many people of Nakaseke. She then starts to dream of a better life for her grandchildren with good education and medical services.
In her eyes, she has found just the right person she always prayed for; her guardian angel, her messiah. He promises that all this will come to pass only if she votes in his favour at the MP polls the next day. The following day she treks by herself through the rain for two kilometres to cast her vote. With that ballot cast, she is certain that Nakaseke will be reborn.
Six months down the road, the man who knelt before them in their mud-wattle huts begging for their vote goes ghost never to be seen again. He becomes unapproachable with almost his personal assistant having a personal assistant. When Namutebi finally loses the fight to cancer, he sends out his aide for her funeral while he embarrasses himself with a mistress in some plush hotel in Kampala. What happened to the man who said he would always be there for his people? That is the typical politician.
From any politician’s handbook, it is about saying one thing but doing the other. The little skits they play out in the media with the police, the Nelson Mandela-esque “I will die for my people” speeches are just a scheme; an agenda to further their personal interests. Like any other Ugandan, they are looking for survival but unfortunately use the plight of their people to do so.
It’s only in Uganda that MPs will slander the government for being extravagant but when a certain Shs103m magically appears on their accounts to purchase luxury cars, not one of them will go up in arms. Hypocrites!
Until recently, the Opposition held that Badru Kiggundu’s Electoral Commission had lost the credibility to organise any elections. But after winning the Luweero by -elections, the opposition felt that for the first time the elections were free and fair.
Really? How hypocritical! A certain vice president sat at the high table for a long time and got his mouth full but when he was kicked out of the dining room, he all of a sudden realised how food at the high table had a sour taste.
That the cook was inept. Hypocrites! How come he never complained when he sat at the table? So for many of our politicians, it is just a job not a calling. The little humanitarian acts are just a cover up for their illicit personal interests.
