In the current political trends of our local by-elections the NRM again blunted the boisterous opposition groups in Gogonyo (Pallisa) where Derrick Orone and Eddie Kwizera Wa-Gahungu in Bukimbiri (Kisoro) regained their parliamentary seats, and close shave polls in Kenya, it’s understandable if people got carried away by the euphoria for which, congratulations are in order for the winners as we console the unsuccessful.

The US media is having major fun at US President Joe Biden for stumbling in speech and movement at many public events on account of his age of 79 years. Many aren’t sure if the Speaker of House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is that stable either, but regardless, they’re the leaders of the most powerful country militarily, scientifically, technologically, economically and socially in the world.  So, some pundits think that when they’re stumbling in Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Ukraine, Hong Kong and now Taiwan, it’s almost a natural phenomenon.  

The Omoro parliamentary by-election in June, occasioned by the sudden death of former Speaker Jacob Oulanyah L’Okori in mid March where Justine Odonga Obiya, candidate for the diminished Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) scored 525 votes out of 20,000 is still so fresh. Then last week the ever jocular Norbert Mao, president General of what remains of the Democratic Party (DP) entered a written ‘cooperation’ agreement with NRM, got appointed and sworn-in into cabinet as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs leaving echoes behind him.

The ever jocular Norbert Mao a.k.a. Won kom, and venerable President General of Democratic Party (DP), Uganda’s oldest political party, finally capitulated to President Yoweri Museveni and NRM, isn’t   surprising to keen watchers of Uganda’s recent history.

The spectacular fall of Boris Johnson, the soon-to-be former British prime minister reminds us of what Brutus, the conspirator in Julius Caesar said that “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,” yet when missed is “bound in shallows and in miseries”. Johnson, the boisterous snob in recent British politics, is probably known for delivering Brexit, although the UK remains in quandary.

President Yoweri Museveni means, and has all along meant well with every development initiative that targets the general population seeking to uplift them from social and economic doldrums into shared prosperity. The president is clearly unimpressed by the rate of socio-economic transformation where seven million households still live outside the money economy, working only for the stomach yet reeling in hunger, poverty and want.

Teachers climbed the summit and now hanging in own breeze over pay

On the eve of the Commonwealth meeting of the Heads of former British colonies, and recent entrants Rwanda and Mozambique, the Belgian government finally returned a tooth of Patrice Lumumba assassinated on 17 January 1961, having been ousted as the first elected prime minister of independent Republic of Congo. Lumumba’s body was later dissolved in acid to eliminate traceability and prevent any evoking any association with him. A Belgian police officer Gerard Soete, who supervised the murder, then took and kept the tooth as his private trophy.

On Tuesday this week many waited in vain for opposition MPs to again boycott or walk out of the Budget reading, and President Yoweri Museveni’s address thereafter to see how much the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) Mathias Mpuuga and allies screw themselves up. Their staying put, made me think about the seeming lack of their wisdom as it showed that they actually don’t have a coherent and effect strategy on how to engage the NRM on parliamentary business, and their limits are being ruthlessly exposed by each passing day.

June 3rd and 9th are commemorated in Uganda as Martyrs and Heroes Days respectively under what some scholars still consider controversial circumstances that perhaps don’t deserve as there are many unsettled questions. However, even if many disagree with this narrative, conventional wisdom dictates that we don’t ruffle feathers, but instead maintain and enjoy the prevailing social harmony. And little know or celebrated in Uganda, 2nd June is also celebrated worldwide as the International Whores Day (Sex Workers Day) which some may find improper.