THE EAST AFRICAN-NAIROBI-KENYA
Monday, January 13, 2003
Back in Kampala, the
Big Men Still Wear Uniform
Young boys have always been fascinated by things military. Big guns, uniforms and parades. During our childhood in the 1970s, Idi Amin brought the army out of the barracks and onto the streets. The old people frowned. But for us boys, it was a free show lasting from January to December.
We made pips for our school uniforms and got into trouble with the teachers for it. We gave ourselves military ranks, sang martial music and would recognise many an army officer as they drove past.
But as we grew older, we tired of the endless show. Moreover, our understanding of national matters was increasing and we were beginning to realise what a dangerous thing it was for the military to be so involved in public affairs.
A quarter of a century later, some things have changed, but others remain the same. As December came to a close, Ugandans were marvelling at the way the Kenyan armed forces remained aloof as the politicians and voters went about changing the government, shifting the power from Kanu to the opposition without bloodshed.
You cannot blame the Ugandans. They have never seen a peaceful change of government. Every regime here has been forced out of power at gunpoint. And where the changes involve a full-scale war, the whole Uganda Army is disbanded and yesterday�s rebels become today�s "national" army.
So when former president Daniel arap Moi told the armed forces to obey whoever replaced him, it fell strangely on Ugandan ears. For us, it seems only natural that when a head of state is about to lose power, he tells the soldiers to fight to the last man and so on and so forth�
Of course, the Uganda People�s Defence Forces (UPDF) of today are far more disciplined than previous armies. The UPDF has hundreds, if not thousands of university graduates in its ranks and rose out of the population to resist dictatorship 20 years ago. The main reason President Museveni sought re-election in March 2001 was to professionalise the army. He is left with three years to accomplish this so that, in 2006, Ugandans will watch, as Kenyans did on December 30, UPDF officers rehearsing how to transfer allegiance to their new commander-in-chief, whether he be Museveni�s friend or political opponent.
But UPDF is still too well known to the public. Just as we little boys knew the faces, ranks and designations of all the officers who mattered in the Amin army of the 1970s, today Ugandans, adults especially, seem to know all about who does what in the military.
In Kenya, all the public needs to know is who is the top commander of the joint chiefs. But it is different with Ugandans. The Chief of Military Intelligence, for example, is far more recognisable than any Cabinet minister. Only the president and vice president are better known than Colonel Noble Mayombo. In fact, if Mayombo were to run for public office, he would be really easy to sell, since everyone knows his face already. Yet he heads a secret organisation within the army.
Another colonel whom anybody can point out even under poor lighting is Elly Kayanja. He is the deputy director of another secret body, the Internal Security Organisation (ISO). Currently, there is an ongoing project to transform the state�s mass media � radio and TV � into autonomous companies. But the public knows less of this national publicity development than about Colonel Elly Kayanja�s campaign to eliminate armed gangs under a programme code-named Operation Wembley. So popular is the security operation that many private radio stations and the country�s highest selling paper, the Sunday Vision, named Kayanja their Man of the Year 2002.
Besides secret security chiefs who are public, the population here gets to know a great deal about who does what. So everybody knows who is the commander of the UPDF�s Third Division. Colonel Sula Ssemakula is well known for being in charge of disarming the Karimojong warriors. His wedding earlier this year was a media event and stories of his valour while operating in Congo have been told over and over again.
Maybe colonels are "big men" who deserve to be famous, however secret their assignments may be. But here people know such relatively small offices as who is the deputy director of recreation and sports in the army. It is strange to realise that, in three years time, this will no longer be the case as the army, which will then be fully professionalised, will be minding their business as the public will also no longer be minding the military�s affairs?
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Mr Buwembo is Editor, the Sunday Vision newspaper of Kampala.
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