Mbabazi lawyers' offices break-in: Is it Mbabazigate?

By Dr John W Bahana

The recent alleged break-in at the premises of the lawyers for Amama Mbabazi evokes memories of the Watergate scandal for those old enough or those interested in American politics. While there is an unlikely similarity between the two events, the break-in of premises of prominent lawyers that were handling sensitive national issues cannot go unnoticed.

But what the break-in, that I would now like to call Mbabazigate, has generated is evidence of the conspiracy theory that has been circulating in Uganda and is unlikely to die out any sooner.

In US, the Times Magazine recently published 10 most important conspiracy theories. The most important ones that the Times listed included the John F Kennedy Assassination, the 9/11 cover -up, the Moon landings of 1969 were fake, Jesus and Mary Magdalene and the Holocaust Revisionism.

Uganda has its own conspiracy theories and it is a subject that I would like to share with readers.

A conspiracy theory, according to Wikipedia, is an explanatory or a speculative hypothesis suggesting that two or more persons or an organisation have conspired to cause or to cover up, through secret planning and deliberate action, an event or situation typically regarded as illegal or harmful.

Since the mid-1960s, the phrase has denoted explanations that invoke conspiracies without warrant, often producing hypotheses that contradict the prevailing understanding of historical events or simple facts

So, consistent with this definition, "Mbabazigate" break-in is within our conspiracy theory. First the Uganda Police vehemently denied a role in the burglary. More importantly, the affected lawyers refused the Police to investigate the incidence, laying credence to the theorists. Who is covering for who is the question? With modern technology of smart phones, i-phones, i pads, lap tops, it is unlikely that a law firm would leave sensitive information on only one platform. So why the reluctance of the parties concerned to allow an open investigation?

Watergate was a major political scandal that occurred in the US in the 1970s, following a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. and President Richard Nixon's administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement.

Separating fact from fiction

Conspiracy theory

One common feature of conspiracy theories is that they evolve to incorporate evidence against them, so that they become unfalsifiable and, as Michael Barkun argues, "a matter of faith rather than proof."

The term conspiracy theory has thus acquired a derogatory meaning and is often used to dismiss or ridicule unpopular beliefs.

 The Watergate scandal, the fall of Richard Nixon

Was Kennedy killed by CIA agents acting either out of anger over the Bay of Pigs or at the behest of Vice President Lyndon Johnson? By KGB operatives? Mobsters mad at Kennedy's brother for initiating the prosecution of organised crime rings?

Speculation over one of history's most famous political assassinations is such a popular parlour game that most people have taken the rumours to heart: just 32% of those polled by ABC believe Oswald carried out the killing on his own.

Not since the JFK assassination has there been a national tragedy so heavily imprinted in American minds — or that has given rise to quite as many alternative explanations.

 
The 9/11 World Trade Centre bombing

While videos and photographs of the two planes striking the World Trade Centre towers are famous around the world, the sheer profusion of documentary evidence has only provided even more fodder for conspiracy theories.

A May 2006 Zogby poll found that 42% of Americans believed that the government and the 9/11 commission "concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11 attacks." Why had the military failed to intercept the hijacked planes? Had the government issued a "stand down" order, to minimise interference with a secret plan to destroy the buildings and blame it on Islamic terrorists?

In 2005, Popular Mechanics published a massive investigation of similar claims and responses to them. The reporting team found that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) did not have a history of having fighter jets prepped and ready to intercept aircraft that had gone off route. And while the team found no evidence that the government had planned the attacks, lack of proof has rarely stopped conspiracy theorists.

The Moon Landings of 1969

It is now nearly four decades since Neil Armstrong took his "giant leap for mankind" — if, that is, he ever set foot off this planet.

Doubters say the US government, desperate to beat the Russians in the space race, faked the lunar landings, with Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin acting out their mission on a secret film set, located (depending on the theory) either high in the Hollywood Hills or deep within Area 51. With the photos and videos of the Apollo missions only available through NASA, there's no independent verification that the lunar landings were anything but a hoax.

The smoking gun? Film of Aldrin planting a waving American flag on the moon, which critics say proves that he was not in space. The flag's movement, they say, clearly shows the presence of wind, which is impossible in a vacuum. NASA says Aldrin was twisting the flagpole to get the moon soil, which caused the flag to move. (And never mind that astronauts have brought back hundreds of independently verified moon rocks.) Theorists have even suggested that filmmaker Stanley Kubrick may have helped NASA fake the first lunar landing, given that his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odessey proves that the technology existed back then to artificially create a space-like set. And as for Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee — three astronauts who died in a fire while testing equipment for the first moon mission? They were executed by the US government, which feared they were about to disclose the truth.

Far-fetched as the hoax theory may seem, a 1999 Gallup poll showed that it is comparatively durable: 6% of Americans said they thought the lunar landings were fake and 5% said they were undecided.

Jesus and Mary Magdalene

Spencer Arnold / Getty

Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have been married, or so says the Gospel of Philip.

Sure, it is the basic plot of The Da Vinci Code (the thriller also wraps in conspiracy shibboleths like Opus Dei and the Knights Templar for good measure) — but the theory finds its basis in writings from the Gnostic Gospels, which were discovered in 1945 and whose authenticity religious experts still dispute.

In the Gospel of Philip, Mary Magdalene, who is referred to as Jesus' koinonos, a Greek term for "companion" or "partner," is depicted as being closer to Jesus than any other apostle.

In an exchange between Peter and Mary, he admits to her that "the Saviour loved you above all other women" — a tense moment in the scripture that seems to portray the jealousy that the other apostles might have felt for Mary's relationship with Jesus.

The only other evidence used to support the theory is a mention of Jesus kissing Mary often, but some say kissing was the custom and it was typical of Jesus to practice it with those close to him. (Remember Judas?)


(The writer is an agricultural economist and a consultant)