Make Kyankwanzi compulsory for all leaders!

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OPINION

By Faruk Kirunda

A successfully completed retreat of elected Members of Parliament (MPs) of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) at the National Leadership Institute (NALI), Kyankwanzi; a much-needed ideological kickstart to a new edition of Parliament, the 12th. The “ritual” of Kyankwanzi is akin to the rite of baptism that Christians go through to be admitted to the see of believers. The “course” dusts off and anoints new leaders for their role, without which one is a leader only in name.

Congratulations to the NRM Secretariat for organising the retreat and to the incoming MPs for attending with vigour and full numbers. It is a good sign of things to come, including how regularly they will attend Parliament.

After securing a commanding win in the elections, the party has to ready its command to serve the people with distinction. What other way than to initiate its legislators and sharpen their grasp of Uganda’s history, the liberation struggles, challenges that abound, national sovereignty and a peek at the uncertain future!

A number of them were there for the first time, many under 40 years of age. Youthful, open-minded and charged! Others have been there before. These are the re-elected veterans. Kyankwanzi is a melting pot of generations of leaders, headlined by the revolutionary leader, President Yoweri Museveni, who, fresh from the bush war, oversaw the founding of NALI as an ideological powerhouse of the newly liberated nation.

Myths still exist as to the nature and purpose of Kyankwanzi. Some think of it as a five-star resort of a kind, where attendees go for holidaying and sightseeing. Others think of it as an NRM indoctrination camp. Yet others think of it as a military training ground, because of the army green fatigues worn by the “students”. None of the foregoing is true.

Kyankwanzi is a modest facility with ordinary standard facilities for functional purposes. MPs sleep in dormitories and use common sanitation facilities like primary and secondary school kids. They eat ordinary standard food. Those who have been there will tell you that if it were not for the invaluable knowledge that they feed on while there, there is nothing attractive about the place. However, improvements are being made to provide for an increasing number of attendees and standards that reflect progress ever since the school was established in the late 1980s.

The uniforms you see them wearing are shared government property. When another group goes there for training, they will use the same. The place is not designed for comfort but for functional purposes. It’s for serious “academics” where the learners’ mettle is tested by long hours of study, late sleep, and early rising. Then there are the morning runs and drills from around 4:00am, after which one takes a chilling shower. Military discipline to prepare for national duty!

It’s not fully fledged military training. That is reserved for those joining the armed forces through established and well-known procedures. It’s not about indoctrinating anyone in NRM politics if one doesn’t want to be part of it. How new members of NRM are mobilised and recruited is known. You don’t become a member simply by being at a retreat. Many civil servants and other categories of nationals have been there, but none were forced to join the ruling party.

However, being that NRM is the party running the government, anybody working with the government needs to understand the manifestos, policies and direction of the party. Even for those opposed to NRM, you can oppose best when you understand the mind and policy direction of the party you are opposing. Opposing based on gossip from the corridors and ideas from the streets is to subvert the standard of what true opposition should be.

Nobert Mao, President General of DP and Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, is today the most viable opposition leader after his sojourn at Kyankwanzi. He cannot compare with other opposition leaders who have no schools of mentorship and ideology to hone their skills. A way should be found to make attending Kyankwanzi mandatory for all government leaders and, at some point, space and resources permitting, the entire citizenry. Uganda’s destiny cannot be left to chance, at the hands of trial and error groups.

The discussions in Kyankwanzi are often more animated than in Parliament. These may be members of the same political family, but the deliberations are diverse and deep, leaving nothing behind. The problem is that after impassioned and focused deliberations, followed by feasible resolutions passed, the drive is hampered by bureaucracy and pulling strings in the mainstream government structures.

Then you have the opposition pulling in a different direction, an act absurdly called “keeping government in check”. It’s nothing but keeping development and transformation in check. If Kyankwanzi cannot be made mandatory for all categories of public officials and civil servants, at least it should be made mandatory for all political leaders in Parliament, districts and urban councils, and political party heads.

For NRM, the new leaders are willing to learn and perform, given their eagerness and full attendance at the retreat. They should be continuously guided so as not to lose direction.

The inspiration from President Museveni (who attended most of the sessions and gave wide-ranging insights) and his revolutionary experiences is the “vibe” any leader needs to excel. If the socioeconomic transformation and anti-corruption struggles can be approached with the alertness, fitness and conviction exhibited on those early morning drills, day-long and late evening lectures, the 12th Parliament may be the group that helps deliver Uganda to the “promised land” at a time that the global political economy requires more than just portfolio holders.

The author is the Special Presidential Assistant-Press & Mobilisation/Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Email: faruk.kirunda@statehouse.go.ug