Former Vision Group CEO's tribute to Gen. Moses Ali

Gen. Ali never wasted my time. He always got straight to the point and presented his issues simply, methodically. No meandering, no hectoring, no arrogance. He was courteous.

One of the times he came, it was to advise on ethnic-religious tensions in West Nile. Our radio station in the area was taking sides. He took the trouble to get me to understand and then advised how we could navigate the issue. Where other politicians routinely turned such situations into false accusations against us to the President, he instead offered to give guidance. I knew then that he eschewed politics of intrigue that many of his colleagues practised to get ahead. 

He knew what he wanted and went out of his way to get it. It explained why he felt very strongly that he deserved the highest military rank. He never tired of demanding it. When eventually he was made full General, he came by to say he was going to celebrate in a procession march through his hometown. He asked if I would I oblige him by having his photo on the front page? I did. Where others want to pull rank, he asked politely. 

The last time he came, he talked about a book he had written on the Nubi community of Uganda. It was during this conversation that I learnt about the internal political fallout from Idi Amin’s invasion of Tanzania. He was eventually fired and would have been killed if his mother’s people, the Nubi, had not hidden him in Bombo, where he lay low until Amin was removed.

My last encounter with him was when he chaired the meetings of the Covid Task Force. He was decisive where others seemed to be enamoured of the sound of their voices. He had a way of shutting up the loquacious and focused on the issues at hand. His last real contribution as a public servant was in the fight against COVID. I got to see how he overcame egotistical and subjective individuals to get decisions made. He never hesitated to reprimand ministers that postured as powerful & connected. He was that self-confident.

But he was also a flawed individual who straddled our troubled politics. He was not always humble and, in the end, failed to know when to leave. Both of these tainted his legacy. Two stories tell of the first part. One was told to me by Hajji Moses Kigongo (the perennial NRM vice chairman) about how Ali dismissed him with contempt when he went to his office to seek an allocation for a car. The other one is from my friend Daudi Mpanga. He has recounted it elsewhere.

But perhaps Gen. Ali will be remembered less fondly because of his recent image during the recent political campaigns. He gave critics of the government the perfect argument against the pitfalls of political longevity in public office. Now he is gone. A powerful reminder of our fallibility and mortality. I pray he finds lasting peace.