The Kyagulanyi worship

Jul 27, 2017

Bobi Wine the musician attracted more voters than Kyagulanyi the politician.

OPINION

By Bryan Nuwagira

The Kyadondo by-election is behind us now and we have some breathing space.

We are, however still suffering from the aftershocks of its impact on the political landscape. Interestingly, one too many analysts have misrepresented the facts that led to the unprecedented massive support Kyagulanyi attracted. I would like to correct a few wrong impressions created by these commentators.

The public-Kyagulanyi romance (idolatry) was not about:

1. The revolution for change like the life presidential candidate wants us to believe. If the Kyadondo citizenry had bought Col. Besigye's gospel, the FDC candidate would have emerged winner. Kantiti is not so old by the way.

2. The youth taking over from the old guard. If point number two was to be true, the election of several youthful MPs in the last election would have triggered an instant magic connection with the masses. This obviously was not the case and their victories did not gain the celebrity we witnessed in Kyadondo. Unless if Kyagulanyi is the youngest legislator, which I highly doubt.

3. The abantu bakowu syndrome, the FDC doctored twakowa slogan failed to attract reasonable popularity among the citizens and that is why the walk-to-work and 4GC crusades where the slogan became a sound track can only be described as fiascos which ended in debacles. The Kyadondo spirit could not associate with the recycled slogan of failure which in the end would also alienate the NRM twakowa immune voters.

This life time movie was about one powerful magnet. The brand (BOBI WINE). This is a person who painted a picture of himself as the king of rogues, the voice of rejects (bayaaye), the one eyed prince of the blind city slum dwellers. Unsurprisingly, these are quite many in most African cities, towns and urban centres. They are, however, not as many as the opposition wants to portray them and their considerable numbers in towns are not representative of the masses in rural settings.

This class of people have asserted their position in society with an iron hand and the nothing to lose attitude and consequently, it is inevitable for the rest of society to sneeze when they catch a cold. Having their own reaching the corridors of power, so they say, had to come with tonnes of excitement.

Whether Honourable Kyagulanyi delivers or not is a topic for another day, but the sweet music to the ears of his voters, who are by the way of all colours is that their man is gnawing on the royal cake.

The rest of the hard working peasantry, the financially empowered middle class and society's elite were for once cornered into dancing to the tunes of this determined Robertarian fellowship. This does not negate the fact that those mentioned above too had minimal support for Robert Kyagulanyi although some did not care the outcome of the by election.

Be not surprised when the opposition runs to the pulpit to baptise this fellowship as the 'disadvantaged/omuntu wawaansi'. This is a strategy to endear the opposition to the masses which is only but wishful thinking.

We also have to bear in mind that as a celebrated local artiste, tens of thousands of voters elected Bobi Wine as the new Kyadondo MP on the basis of his iconic status rather than his manifesto or political agenda. Bobi Wine the musician attracted more voters than Kyagulanyi the politician and much as the former cut across party colours; the latter cannot boast the same.

These are the simple facts that the opposition and the seasonal loser at Kasangati do not want the public to know.

No single political party can claim sole ownership of the so called ghetto citizens and also music loving youth. On his campaign trail, Kyagulanyi had a swam of political opportunists who had to dive at the chance of identifying with the winning team and the unstoppable wave. Other vultures included the likes of Frank Gashumba who are just political chaos investors. Here, they speculated that in the unlikely event of change in the future, they should be seen as having worked with the people and get a soft landing.

I can assure you that the opposition have to devise all means to use the Kyagulanyi success story to their advantage and the only way they know how is to hide or ignore facts.

Needless to say, without holding a single rally, Bobi wine would still have won the Kyadondo seat with a landslide.

The writer is based in Doha, Qatar

 

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