Don going by the picture of the little lad- heir to the Wanyama legacy cutting cake on your scientific birthday. I have no doubt you had a fabulous commemoration of your birth date. I had to post pond this rebuttal to your widely published tribute to the Man who butters your bread in order not to spoil or divide your attention from a great day like the anniversary of your birth.

By this age am sure you have undergone the Knife in accordance with the tradition of the great people of Bamasaba. This practice of male circumcission locally referred to as ‘Imbalu’ used to perplex me a lot until I scaled up my interaction with the inhabitants of the great Mount Elgon. I used to wonder why a man should be made to run around dancing ‘Kadodi’ , then after he is exhausted, he is arraigned in an open air festival before the whole village and surrounding neighbouring villages and his fore skin slit without anesthesia and only to be rewarded with a bull.

By Christopher Okidi

Upon deep reflection i have come to the conclusion that there is something more rewarding beyond just the bull that cannot be quantified in this cultural practice. Just look around, you will discover courage, boldness and open mindedness in Gishu men which will convince you that there is no better initiation to manhood, courage and boldness than the Imbalu practice. Examples are legion across generations of the Bamasaba. The towering intellectual Professor Dan Wadada Nabudere was very bold, erudite and spoke truth to power, Timothy Wangusa, Justice Tsekoko, James Wapakabulo were all bold men. Even their latter day prototypes: Nathan Nandala Mafabi, Jack Wamanga Wamai, David Mafabi etc haven’t disappointed.

The legacy of the boldness and open mindedness that comes with circumcission rests squarely on you the young turks from Bamasaba. In transitioning from a celebrated journalist to a dictator’s sophist you insult the entire tradition that made you the man worth of celebration. I argue you leave the role of Winston Smith Minister for Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 for the uncircumcised Ofwono Opondo.

In your article, you compare President Museveni to FD Roosevelt- the hero of America during World War II and the Great Economic Depression. Even when me and you know that the closest Museveni can be in comparison to an American President is Donald J Trump, who even in his poverty of diplomacy still towers above the man who butters your bread.

I know COVID 19 brought for the NRM some lull by sending the opposition to a lock down, leaving the dancing stage for you guys alone, but you forget it has also brought you guys to some kind of a solo scrutiny by Ugandans.

As someone who loves stories, meanwhile I enjoyed your review of the Oedipus Complex, allow me use your own pedagogy so that we are on the same page on this. Uganda and President Museveni’s COVID 19 Response can be understood from the fable of The Prince and Dancing Monkeys told by the great Greek story teller Aesop.

In trying to show that not everything may seem as it appears to be, Aesop told of a story of a prince and his dancing monkeys. In the fable, the prince had some monkeys trained to dance, and the monkeys being naturally great mimics of men’s actions, they showed themselves most apt pupils, and when arrayed in their rich dancing robes and masks, they danced as well as any of the courtiers. The spectacle was often repeated with great applause, till on one occasion a courtier, bent on mischief, took from his pocket a handful of nuts and threw them up on the stage. The monkeys at the sight of the nuts forgot their dancing and became (as indeed they were) monkeys instead of actors. Pulling of their masks and tearing their robes, they fought with one another for the nuts. The dancing spectacle thus came to an end amidst the laughter and ridicule of the audience.

Don, the truth is Monkeys will always be monkeys. Whereas in the few days of the lock down, the regime and Ugandans altogether should be credited for managing the contagion of COVID 19. It should also be remembered that cooperation of Ugandans in epidemic management predates COVID 19. Ugandans owing to their sacrificial spirit performed ahead of their peers in HIV/AIDS and Ebola management.

While Ugandans are still and remain in the fight against COVID 19 what they Baganda called Kumulamwa, government has however now morphed COVID 19 into a grand scale corruption enterprise referred to by a friend Iduwat Ochom recently in a Face book post as ‘coronapreneurship’. Blame it on the nuts, when nuts came into the question the impressive opera came to an end. Some in jest have even said corona shocked at its economic viability in Uganda has decided to stay away.

You guys at NRM may be blindly celebrating the ‘gift’ of COVID 19 and forget that your man President Museveni’s legacy is further being complicated. He had a chance during this COVID 19 to complete his evolution from his childhood fantasy of an iron fisted military dictator which he became to a grand paternal enlightened dictator.

But the food aid corruption at OPM and the snail pace of food aid to Ugandans just speaks volumes of the nature and character Ugandans have as a fountain of honour, human rights violations by security forces across the country is reversal of the much touted gain of professionalising of security forces under Museveni. The unequal treatment of Ugandans stuck abroad and air lifting of the regime’s cronies doesn’t help the legacy of an aging despot.

While Ugandans are locked down the parasitic political elite is robbing national coffers dry. Businesses of the connected is moving on, procurement procedures are being bent to serve as a reward systems for clients by state patrons in their neo patrimonial arrangement called Uganda. What is happening in Uganda during this COVID 19: awarding masks contracts to cronies, trucks of connected people importing the virus only a circumcised intellectual like Prof Nabudere afford it a semantic precision before the president as primitive accumulation of wealth by the ruling elite associated to medieval capitalism because modern capitalism has evolved to have a human face.

So Don because nuts were not involved Museveni will remain Museveni, and Roosevelt Roosevelt, and Late Night Chats will remain Late Night Chats while your Keeping Up with Kaguta Will Remain just that until you remember you were not circumcised for nothing.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and they do not reflect the views of Whisper Eye.