Don't let our last hope vanish Mr. President you were quoted this week as saying, "The age isnot the issue; what matters is the question of whether a leader has new ideas. " You were also reported to have said, "I better deal with old peoplewith ideas than dealing with young people without ideas." You reportedly said this while meeting the so-called Study Group setup to refine (or is it to redefine?) NRM's ideology. I amdeliberately using the term "so-called" to refer to MP Bahati's groupbecause this group is, first and foremost, unnecessary and willachieve nothing. This is because NRM's problems have nothing to do with ideology; theyhave more to do with its leadership. That is exactly what became wellmanifested in its first encounter with the party's chairman andpresident. This column has every so often questioned the leadership style of theNRM party and government. It has also questioned the composition ofthe NRM government today as compared with the "old" NRM government. I remember stating that today's NRM government comprises a patheticteam that no right-thinking individual can entrust its future with.And I have always blamed this to age and capacity of most of yourministers, and by extension their performance today compared withgovernment performance in the early1990s. I have as well correlatedall these with declining support for NRM by Ugandans. Mr. President, you know very well that the last decade has witnessedthe greatest decline in people's trust in your government. Since 1996general elections, the total votes cast in your favour and,therefore, NRM's favour have plummeted at alarming rates, from 79% in1996 to 59% in 2006. As I wrote here sometime back, there is a sense of disillusionment andpersonal dissatisfaction among Ugandans over the way NRM is runningthis country. Mr. President, the truth of the matter is that Ugandans areincreasingly becoming frustrated with your persistence to work withthieves and nonperforming elderly. Now almost every single minister in your cabinet has been involved ina corruption scandal of sorts. Almost half of these ministers areageing or already in their middle-age longing towards senility. Mr. President, you are on recording lamenting about your ministers --how they are letting you down; how they have failed to implement yourprogrammes, especially Bonna Bagaggawale; how they are sleeping. Now these are the very people you are defending!Why would ministers besleeping? Why would they be reporting at work at 11am, hang aroundfor a few hours and leave offices as early as 3pm? I hear some ofthem even sleep in cabinet meetings. The reason is age. These elders are simply tired and need rest. And most importantly,they should give a chance to their sons/daughters and grandsons/grand daughters to prepare for a Uganda they want to live in. Elderly men like Hajj Kivejinja and Mzee Kajura have been around foras long as independent Uganda has been in existence. What are theystill doing in cabinet? They have had their chance, why don't theywant to give their children and grandchildren a chance too? These and other veterans like mama Bitamazire, Ndugu Ruhakana Rugunda,Prof. Semakula Kiwanuka, Prof. Nsibambi and others in that agebracket should be handed their pension packages and go home. They simply hit their bliss points and can hardly offer anything morethat is developmental, save for attending parties as guests ofhonour. I usually hear them retorting that we need them to share with us theirexperience. Which experience does Kivejinja or Kajura or Bitamazirehas to offer in this digital era? How can a person who has been aminister since independence, when the verve was still being driven byanalogue technology, be productive or even relevant in this e-era?What ideas do they have to offer in a gap of 45 years of completelytwo different technological faces? Mr. President, we don't know whether it is guilt that is forcing youto retain these old men and women. We usually see you battling todefend them, may be because you have also grown pound by pound. But as I usually say, you should not feel guilty of age because atleast for your case you compensate for age-gap with extra hours ofwork. We hear you put in up to 16 hours of work. By the way, Mr. President, we are not necessary fighting you and yourageing fellows for the sake of your age. No. We are simply concernedwith your and their input in the wellbeing of the state. We all know human traits of ageing leaders. They tend to be slow inmaking decisions as they tend to play safe when they have to make adifficult decision. Uganda does not need such leaders. Uganda needsgo-getting leaders who have the ability to take on challengingsituations. Indeed Mr. President we remember that when you and other NRM leaderswere still in full charge of your bodies and frames of mind, in the'90s, you made wonders for this country. You were men and women inyour 50s and/or early 60s -- the best age to put in that extra effortto see off a task. Today, you and most of your colleagues are in the concluding days ofyour 70s. Sociologists tell us that when humans hit that mark theybecome cocky and even brash that most of the times they fancy doingthings that are commensurate with old age -- spending most of thetime attending unproductive rituals like burials, weddings, visitingfellow elders or the sick and things like that. In your meeting with Bahati's study group you reportedly said thatthe disparity between the young and old generation is because of theideological confusion which you need to address. Indeed there isideological confusion. The young leaders are aspiring for change of not only leadership butalso the science of doing things, while elders are in favour of thestatus quo. We had started becoming hopeful that may be in the impending reshufflethings might be sorted out and we say goodbye to our elders. We hopedthat our president had seen enough of them especially after theirrecent safe games in projects like the land bill debate where all ofthem put their heads in the sand. Alas those statements you said while meeting with the youthful NRM MPsleft us with twinges of hopelessness. But we know what to do. Atleast we now know that President Museveni's government is agovernment for grey-haired men and women. This gives us anopportunity to start thinking about the alternative before 2011. Demographic statistics show that 97.8% of Uganda's population is below64 years. So the ageing population is a mere 2.2%. Conventionalpolitical wisdom tells us that any sophisticated politicians shouldin such a situation endeavour to cater for he interests of themajority. In this case, Mr. President, your "natural leaders" representinterests of only 2.2% of Ugandans. Do still need to ask why NRM'ssupport is falling?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8FtP8X8lB6w, http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EVOwBMnHYDw&feature=related
CHECK THESE 2 EDITIONS OUT !!!

A Muganda security expert living in North America has rubbished the story that appeared in the pornographic Red Pepper news paper, reporting that “Kabaka Mutebi survived death by a whisker last night after security agents diffused a bomb placed near the gates of Bulange”. The expert who requested that his identity not be disclosed because of his current job, told Buganda Post by email that this story has the fingerprints of Mr. Museveni’s clumsy security apparatus, working for. The full email reads:

Fellow patriotic Baganda:

I want you and your children to know that the story which Mr. Museveni’s government planted in Red Pepper can only be a fake, but must be taken very seriously. It is a fake because the facts don’t add up. Who in Uganda not only hates Mutebi (motive) but also has the capacity (means) to secretly import or make, transport to Bulange and stage a sophisticated remote control bomb? Baganda hatters like Kasirivu Atwooki, Elly Karuhanga and Kahinda Otafire? Or is it Kenya, Tanzania or Congo? Even a novice security person in a serious country will tell you that Mr. Museveni’s government is unique in having both the motive and means to commit the crime.

And Baganda must remember that Museveni’s government has done this kind of thing with Kabaka before. About 2-3 years ago, when Kabaka Mutebi’s relationship with Museveni was strained, CMI boys threateningly trailed Kabaka’s car through Kampala and abandoned their aggression only after the royal guards fired shots above the CMI vehicle. We later learnt that their intention was to intimidate Kabaka Mutebi and Mengo.

I assure you that this was the work of Museveni’s Police Anti Terrorism Unit (PATU) or Joint Anti Terrorism Unit (JATT), the same people painted as the “saviors” by the Red Pepper. Because they are also the only ones with enough training to stage the whole thing. And the motive appears to be simple, to intimidate the Kabaka Mutebi, Abataka and Mengo radicals into negotiating with Museveni on his terms. The problem is that this stupid move is also extremely dangerous. The people doing this are so drunk with arrogance that they don’t realize that if anything went wrong and the bomb went off, many Baganda might die. And if that happens, hell could break loose in Kampala and thousands of people, especially Banyankore, Banyarwanda and Banyoro could become instant revenge targets. Obviously Museveni’s thinking and plan is that Baganda are the ones who would be massacred. He is like a child playing with matches and every Muganda must stay alert! By the way, you could not rule Rwanda out 100% but what would be their motive?

Wangaala Ssabasajja!!!!

Red Pepper, exclusively owned and ran by Banyankore and Bakiga, is East Africa’s only openly sold pornographic newspaper. Many political analysts in Buganda believe that the paper is decoy operation of Mr. Museveni’s security apparatus. Its initial capital came from Museveni’s brother Salim Saleh and the government frequently uses it to float stories of a controversial nature. Conservative Baganda view the Red Pepper as one of Mr. Museveni’s biggest onslaughts against Baganda culture. Despite numerous public demonstrations in Buganda against the papers highly pornographic content, Mr. Museveni staunchly supports the Red Pepper. And over the years, the alien culture of pornography has taken root in Bugand