Recently the hardworking and well informed Member of Parliament, Betty Kamya referred to Kintu's revolution of seven hundred years ago, and we felt the need to humbly add to that exceptionally beautiful piece. Kintu carries a double meaning of creation and also a name of an individual and in this case the first king of the Buganda dynasty. Creation points to the process of change, the possibility of growth and in secular life the inevitability of death. It invokes continuous improvement if survival is to be assured. The process starts with Kintu, creation in its entirety, because the transformation Kintu the individual undergoes, inevitably transforms all creation by establishing a new environment of values, that ultimately affect all creation. Within those values is hidden the mutual sustenance pact between Kintu and all creation. Because of those values Kintu becomes omuntu (human) endowed with Obuntu (human values or humanity) in a community of abantu (humans). Kintu believed that the core values were the basis for the kinship or human brotherhood. He called it Oluganda and so was the language that sustained it. He considered vision the action to live the values (obuntu bulamu). Those who shared that vision he called Abaganda. This is the basis of the resilience of Buganda as a simple but profound ideological and spiritual abstraction. Simple enough to be espoused by many and abstract to withstand the vicissitudes of abuse steeped in ignorance and backwardness.

In an exceptional play on etymology, the philosophy is summarized in the apt saying, ‘akajja obunaku kemanya.' The ‘ka' in akajja alludes to littleness and royalty, Obunaku refers to poverty, sadness and ephemerality and kemanya is etymologically related to ‘amaanyi' power. Every soul is royal inasmuch as it springs forth from the Intellect, enters this world assured of suffering and death, however in return may reap power by way of self-knowledge. Thus intelligence, self-sacrifice and power comprise the cusp of growth and universal values, which all humanity shared by approximation before they were put in the eternal context they deserve by the Incarnation.

Fantasy is never as insipid as the truth. In 1981 the noble Yusuf Kironde Lule came up with the idea of uniting the National Freedom Fighters and the National Patriotic Front to form the National Resistance movement. There was tremendous resistance and the sticking point was the character of the would be Vice-chairman of the Movement and Commander of the National Resistance Army, but eventually most people bought into the idea. Mr. Lule's greatest concern at that time and even later was of discipline of the NRA vis-a -viz the population in Luwero triangle.

As soon as the first funds for the struggle came in, the pestilence of pilferage started in the Nairobi branch of the National Resistance Movement and so were the human rights violations inside the Luwero triangle. The so-called ‘bomber squads' would kill the undesirable adults at night and in the morning recruit the orphans as young as nine, whom they would subsequently train, arm and then send to the battle field to kill or get killed. Underage girls would be ‘served' to the commanders for sexual gratification ( the Masuliita girls come to mind)

The war later moved to the north. For more than twenty years the commanders sustained a war effort for personal gain, that had as opponents underage children, abducted by a ruthless and criminal Lord's Resistance Army which used them as cannon fodder and the underage girls as sex slaves. This background is important in order for one to understand the recent massacre of sixty six children in Karamoja by the Uganda Peoples' Defense Force, and the now famous GAVI scandal.

Mr. Museveni has been making frequent visits to his doctors in Germany, traveling thousands of miles at taxpayer expense for brief outpatient check-ups for an illness he has not disclosed to the public. Though he is in reasonably good health, he is believed to be suffering from a heart condition with reduced pump function, in medical terminology, a left ventricular ejection fraction of about 30% (normal range of 55-65%) that tends to decrease further with decompensations resulting in swelling of his legs and episodes of shortness of breath. Under the best of circumstances, the disease has a life expectancy of about eight years from the time of diagnosis. That gives Mr. Museveni another four years of productive work barring any unexpected events and therefore at this point assurance of life presidency, or almost. The visits will however get more frequent in the short-term. The State House in anticipation of this, wishes to replace the Presidential Gulfstream with a new ‘reliable jet' complete with a defense decoy system capable of frustrating those who would think regime decapitation a la Habyarimana of Rwanda.

Though the Heart Institute at Mulago Hospital has excellent expertise to handle Mr. Museveni's condition, in terms of optimal exercise tolerance and good quality of life, (granted that the care in Germany is unlikely to offer any gains in life expectancy) but he claims to be afraid of Ugandan doctors, because he is a revolutionary. Besides the $75 million proposed for the new jet would easily bring the Heart Institute and Mulago Hospital to a level that would significantly improve care for everyone. Any serious budget and anti-corruption fight would put a stop to such senseless prodigality premised on Mr. Museveni's paranoia.

Now the anti-corruption charade is on. An exercise in impolitic levity. It is nugatory, specious and ill-omened, because corruption and human rights violations are inhere to the Movement. Parochialism's new found ardor for well-doing is meant to play upon the psychology of the donors hankered down by frustration and the flustrated taxpayer, an attempt to assuage the abraded latter's gorge against graft and the mafia's uninhibited sodden materialism that enjoys impunity.

Mr. Museveni has always featherbedded party stalwarts provided they delivered on crimes that supported the life presidency project. When caught in the past, they were recalled and rewarded with preferments, because the appointing authority is a ‘Christian'. The major runners in the Global Fund and Gavi stakes are in State House. After helping themselves to these funds, the ‘first family' then engaged in pietistic calls for prayer, fasting and theurgy against thievery. You can laugh about it, but it is not funny. What else can that be compared to than the demivierge (half-virgin)? She engages in promiscuous sexual activity but remains a virgin. Absolutely asinine. In what John Klimakos called ‘ a visible devil along with an invisible one'. They have reigned but not by me. They have chosen princes but I did not call them to the thrones they occupy (Hos 8:4).

The blighted former ministers understood the game. After their slick and opprobrious arrest and arraignment, they quickly turned the torrent into unwieldy revelry with the dandy Muhwezi haughtily comparing himself to the noble Nelson Mandela. Yet another streak of futility, another false start with a predictable dead end. Mr. Museveni's revolution came woefully late, 700 years after Kintu made a pact with all creation. His banal stunts have more to do with the uncertainty that looms and the angel of death that is stalking the place. Should the future of decent, peaceful and hardworking people be premised on when a greedy and immoral dictator will collapse and die of his disease? Consider what the Commonwealth Heads of Government would be celebrating in Kampala. Is it not a pity that Mr.Mugabe will not be able to attend? The time is now.

Kampala has recently witnessed extraordinary drama as the end of the corrupt and murderous regime approaches fast. No sooner had the soft-core revelations regarding the Vice President's personal life died out, than the murder of demonstrators against the Mabira forest giveaway by the regime's police occurred, to be followed by the deaths of Dr. Okullo Epak, Mr. Apollo Kironde Kaddumukasa and then Brigadier Noble Mayombo. The first two represented dignity, service, integrity and decency.

Brigadier Mayombo's life and service were different and certainly not controversial because the choices he made in life left no room for that.

He was an ideologue who served the regime with loyalty and unwavering conviction, with total disregard for principle. He was a lawyer with specialty in human rights who practiced fist-law in the safe houses, establishing networks of terror whose brief was to procure confessions under extreme duress for Mr. Museveni and his lap-dogs, in a rare case of political pandering. In his hurried quest for power he carelessly swarmed the power tower of Babel over innocent dead bodies of Ugandan taxpayers, the very people who paid his salary and provided for his creature comforts. This was no case of tepid approach to morality but rather a complete lack of it. The disturbing part is that the Brigadier seemed to enjoy it all, publicly boasting of the NRM government's staying in power for long because it had a ‘systematic organization.' His was a conscience, ‘seared with a red-hot iron' as St.Paul would say (1Ti 4:2). His team at Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) mercilessly squelched so many young lives having divested them of their dignity before sending them to their violent deaths. Mayombo's men used to warn the victims that once they entered the safe houses not even Mr. Museveni's intervention could save them. They were the prosecutor, judge and executioner. It is alleged that such power over the lives of others propelled him to seventh heaven, daftly.

There is no greater love than for one to lay down his life for his friends, and likewise, there is no greater hatred or evil for one to sacrifice the lives of so many for personal gain in terms of power, money and glory. What a height of corruption? If Mayombo could display such enormity and remain a good man, then his was a unique brand of syncretism until now unknown to humanity. Would it be a surprise that some ‘criminal elements' according to Mr. Museveni would have him high on the list for elimination? Is it a surprise that the man became a swizzler? Could such fatuity also qualify for brilliance and intelligence?

On Mayombo's watch, the CMI admitted that a Corporal Obiga Mudasiru on July 22 , 2002 bludgeoned to death 25 years young Patrick Mamenero a democracy activist, for refusing to sign a confession implicating Dr. Kizza Besigye and Colonel Samson Mande in subversive activities related to procurement of arms to start an insurgency. The Human Rights Watch report of 2004 on torture in Uganda claims that Mayombo faxed a statement through James Mwesigye then Kabale Resident District Commissioner to be read at the burial, to the effect that enemies of the state had entered the CMI offices and killed the young Mamenero. The ‘sweet-hearted' and exceptionally ‘generous' Mayombo provided the family with $500 to meet funeral expenses and denied Mzee Denis Mamenero ( who had been arrested together with Patrick) permission to attend the funeral. If it had been a case of contretemps why the whopper. As was the case with Ramadan Magara in relation to the Bulange murders, Corporal Obiga Mudasiru walked. away from it all unscathed.


Mayombo's tenure at CMI also oversaw the extrajudicial executions of alleged Herbert Itongwa's National Democratic Alliance supporters at Katikamu, namely, Ismail Mubiru, Walakira and Daudi Sewamuwa. Asked about their whereabouts since Brigadier Elly Kayanja had publicly confirmed their arrest, Mayombo reportedly retorted that ‘ It was doubtful that they ever existed.' They have never been seen again.

Women activists manacled, famished and thrashed from head to toe were left naked on wet cement floors for weeks, their bodies brutalized, gang-raped and sodomized, yet they would be forced to carry the dead inmates (women among them) in the safe houses to waiting trucks outside for disposal. You can bet almost all of those were buried in mass graves somewhere. One story has it that one parent looking for a loved one who had been arrested made the following request to one of the officers of the CMI. Nkuyita taata, naffee twalwaana ssebo, kati nga bwatakyalina kabenje gyemuli mutubuliire gyemwamusa naffee tuziikeko, Luganda for, with all due respect , we also contributed to the war effort sir, now that she/he is no longer a danger to you, please show us where you placed him/her so that we may have closure. Did she get her wish?

Mayombo wielded the specter inside the safe houses permitting horrendous and despicable acts to be committed against innocent, hardworking and law abiding Ugandan tax-payers whose only crime was to yearn for liberty and genuine democracy for their generation and posterity. By espousing such malevolent and inapt bellicosity, Mayombo crossed the Rubicon, joining the biblical smoke from the north, without stragglers in his ranks (Isa 14:31).

For those who made a fetish of his glibness, there is no garland or legal quibbling that can wile away the adduceable criminality that originated from National Resistance Organization's prickliness related to the life presidency project. Unless there is someone somewhere who believes that the present status quo constitutes democracy, in which case the world would have an opportunity for a spectacle of inveterate imbecility. Yes, we prayed fervently for Mayombo. May the good Lord, on the day that knows no evening, find him a restful place. The time is now.

The pillory and berating galore of the doddering barbaric regime for its recent vicious attack on the almost scrupulous judiciary and decency, we will therefore cut to the chase.

Here is fear that begets idleness, which in turn thrusts idiocy and cruelty against those who support the primacy of civilization , the rule of law, a slipshod attempt at power accretion. The difficult is mental, the inability to maintain the idea of integrity and decency in the mind. The outcome is flagrant caligulism of the type, ‘apres moi le deluge.'

Without restraint imposed by humility anyone capable of erecting a repugnant monument to despotism, will surely attack the High Court. May be a mausoleum, to Kamuzu Banda, to Emperor Bokassa, to Mobutu Ssese Seko, even to Yoweri Museveni tomorrow. The persistent notion that some form of legacy is possible reposes on wishful thinking. You have an individual who has never had seed for greatness and has managed to white-knuckle it through the years as the abyss of judgement awaits. A man who not only worships himself, but as one comedian once observed, also the quicksand he is standing on, hoping to rich righteousness by way of his colossal ego.

He has repeatedly oppugned and squashed court decisions, while passing off Hobson's choice for lenity. Africa is rankled by the continued smirching of its dignity by these seamy clowns, the Mugabes, the Lansana contes, the Musevenis of this world.

What is discernible at this point is the nostalgia for the emotional context which at some point in the past, more than twenty years ago, allowed part of the population to bond with the ‘fundamental change' vapid joke. This quickly seeped into fraud, trumped up charges, murders, gang rapes, safe houses, extrajudicial executions and the list goes on and on. Now you have a population trapped in extreme poverty, in an energy nightmare, slithering economy and devoid of rule of law. Your hackneyed liberation heroism and venturesome militarism exposed for what it is, evil. Lack-luster dupes or what?

If your ‘above board' players include the likes of Felix Kulayigye, Godfrey Nyakana, Moses Byaruhanga, Kale Kayihura, Ruhakana Rugunda, Johnson Byabashaija, Ofwono Opondo,

Felix Odoi and John Nnagenda, then the munificence of their patron invites the qui pro quo commitment situation of impassioned ‘profound disquisition' as in adherents to food fights. Scum of the earth.

Their benefactor and father is the author of the judgement of hatred, ‘ we have a law and according to the law, He ought to die,' John 19:17.

Just because the mafia subculture professes ‘regret' over the High Court siege, it does not mean they are ashamed of the transgression.. They are incapable of that. The integrity factor would argue, behavior gurus would say;

Do you like them?
Do you trust them?
Do you respect them?

No, to all the above, then get rid of them. The time is now.

St. Chrysostom brought out salient points from Christ's parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man lived an ostentatious and depraved life on earth, while in the neighborhood, Lazarus lived in abject poverty and chronic disease. Both died and while Lazarus headed for the bosom of Abraham, hell was waiting for the rich man. Chrysostom observed that while Christ named Lazarus, the rich man had no name. On earth, the rich man used to pass by the impoverished and ‘sickening' Lazarus, whose unsightly wounds dogs used to lick to give him some comfort. It thus appeared that the dogs (good dogs) had a conscience(which they do not have), in comparison to the rich man. The latter did not have to teargas, deny bail, gang rape, or kill Lazarus, by ignoring his plight in spite of having the means to make a difference, he stooped below the level of a dog and was in fellowship with the demons.

Christ himself took Lazarus's place as prophetically narrated in Psalm22:16; ‘for dogs have surrounded me, the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots. But you O Lord, do not be far from me, O my strength hasten to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog(bad dogs). Isaiah foresaw this, Isaiah 56:10-11; ‘For all Israel's watchmen are blind, perceiving nothing. They are all dumb dogs, as they lie stretched on the ground, loving their sleep, greedy dogs that can never have enough. They are shepherds who understand nothing, all of them going their own way, one and all intent on their own gain.'

Job means persecuted, and Lazarus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Eleazar, one who God has helped. The common themes in both these stories are suffering, perseverance and God's help. Truth be told, the Commonwealth Club, the Aid industry, the lobbyists in western capitals and their politician clients, and the corrupt and murderous dictatorships they have supported over the years to lord it over the Lazar house of Uganda, comprise the power of the dog.

What can Lazarus, the impoverished ‘docile',Ugandan taxpayer do? The Lazarus of Martha and Maria rose from the dead, the Lazarus, neighbor to the rich man had a place in Abraham's bosom, the Lazarus in Job, was restored to life and prosperity, the Lazarus of the Cross as in Christ the King is the resurrection. The Lazarus on the Kampala street has life, precious life as in ‘so that they may have life and have it abundantly,' life as in ‘omuntu mulamu' guided by what Archbishop Desmond Tutu would appropriately describe as Ubuntu (Obuntu). For the Ugandan Lazarus, resurrection is to let ‘the dead bury their dead' (for they will, soon) and stand for what he is ‘Omuntu.' It is a stand for humanity, that simple. The power of humanity. This is what Kizza Besigye and Dan Muliika stood for infront of the Bulange when agents of darkness shot to death the innocent Lazaruses. For how long will they continue to be lone voices in the wilderness? The time is now.

William James the great Psychologist and Philosopher wrote about individuals ‘whose life is one long contradiction between knowledge and action and who with full command of theory, never get to holding their limp characters erect.' He described ‘ the consciousness of inward hollowness that accrues from habitually seeing the better and only to do the worse', as one of the saddest feelings one can bear provided that he has a conscience.

In the beginning it is the idea, the representation, the thought. Then the attention to that idea. Next is the effort to sustain the occupancy of the idea in the mind. The degree of effort required depends on the amount of resistance that needs to be overcome. The greatness of the effort ensures the strengthening of the occupancy and the weakening of competing ideas ( the contest ), the acquisition of the emotional component, that defines its relationship to self and paves the way for its transformation to a belief. The belief reinforces the emotion and it is the quality of this that guides the decision to take action( the consent ).Consent enables one to stand behind the belief, the commitment. The degree of commitment to a belief is the measure of one's worth, and action in the line of greatest resistance, William James claimed, was reflective of one's originality. The basis of persistence is will power and the impassioned persistence of your originality, even sometimes to the point of obsession is called genius. The quality of that commitment ( the content ) in a positive relationship to accepted societal core values ( the context ) defines conscience, a unity of what is personal and universal. The contest, the consent, the content, the context and finally the conscience. It is the substrate for further moral and spiritual growth. Events that interrupt the development of the vulnerable and young minds to that baseline, results in personality disorders, which can be defined as ingrained maladaptive behaviors. Of all those behaviors, by far the most devastating to society is the antisocial personality disorder which also goes by the terms sociopathy and psychopathy. For this comment the latter term will be used.

The main characteristic of psychopathy is the inadequate development of conscience. It is now believed that psycho-social determinants play a greater role than biological ones. The former include parental deprivation at an early age ( which may mean death or separation), parental indulgence, poverty, poor limit setting both at home and school. Absence of conscience is central to the psychopathology of psychopathy and its principal defense mechanism is the projection of one's hostility onto others or society. Following are the core characteristics of psychopathy:

1. Predominantly male 3:1

2. Concentration in lower socioeconomic classes

3. Lack of core values

4. Egotistical, arrogant, confident and carefree but extremely afraid of exposure

5. Charming when things are going their way and hostile and resentful when the opposite is the case. Incapable of affection for others and unable to hold on to relationships. Appeal to the pity of others when in trouble.

6. Manipulative, tendency to over-interpret events, inability to assess adequately consequences of actions, use of whispering campaigns and indifferent to spirituality.

7. Ruthlessness towards others, liar, cheat, thief and violent

8. Lack of remorse and inability to learn from the past resulting in repeat offences

9. Derivation of pleasure from the pain caused to others, promiscuous, vulnerability to chemical dependency

10. Pre-occupation with power and domination. Low productivity usually covered up by busy-ness and showmanship, love to take credit for positive results and aversion to taking responsibility for failures.

Psychopathy with its lack of conscience helps to define its opposite, what the Greek ancient philosopher Aristotle called the ‘philosopher king.' In their pioneering work on the growth of businesses in United States of America, Jim Collins and others in their book ‘Good to Great,' discerned level 5 leadership hierarchy in relation to companies that made the transition from good to great. Level 5 referred to a five level hierarchy of executive capabilities with level 5 at the top. Following are the core characteristics of excellent leaders:

1. Personal humility and self-effacement

2. Decisive and meticulous planners and masters of detail

3. Lead by consensus not by force

4. Ambition first and foremost for the company

5. Emotional intelligence, pleasing personality endowed with sympathy, empathy and     understanding.

6. Sense of justice with ability to unite the personal with the universal, genuine spirituality.

7. Professional will with ability to produce sustainable results.

8. Hard workers.

9. Take responsibility for failures, yet direct success elsewhere.

10. Groom successors and set them up for greater success in the next generation.

The take home message from the work of Jim Collins and others is that of 1435 companies that appeared on the Fortune 500 on their initial list for inclusion in their research, only 11 met the tough criteria and all 11 had level 5 leadership in key positions including the Chief executive officer at the time of transition from good to great. Aristotle's ancient contention that any community, country and nation under leadership of the philosopher kings would exceptionally prosper is no longer a myth.

Africa's and hence Uganda's social economical backwardness is a breeding environment for psychopaths. When violence is the path to power, dictatorships that cling to power attract psychopaths as coercion, intimidation, imprisonments, torture and all forms of abuse of human rights become the tools of choice. Psychopathy thrives here, while many philosopher kings pack and move to destinations where they can thrive and continue the struggle. A circle of senseless violence, corruption, thievery and general decadence is established and progress becomes impossible. It requires exceptional leadership and sacrifice on the part of the remnant of the philosopher kings which in that setting comprise the opposition democracy activists to lead the charge and reverse the situation.

It all starts with the child's environment. When a respite comes society has a duty to intervene in a multi-pronged approach where parents, teachers and church form a cooperative alliance in order to bring stability and order to that environment until the conditions that breed psychopathy are crowded out. There is therefore no such a thing as God's ‘curse' on any group of people. With the right environment, any group anywhere with or without abundant resources would ultimately prosper if it paid attention to what drives progress. Justice, human rights and the rule of law, in other words genuine democracy guided by a rich and genuine spirituality.

In United States, 1 in 25 people is a psychopath and the number increases dramatically in prisons ranging from 20- 40%. In Uganda today you have an executive that is dominated by what the Vice President Gilbert Bukenya characterized as mafia. These are people who can be considered bad and not mad. The philosopher kings comprise about 10% of the population , the bad news is that mobilizing them to action requires a crisis of some sort, even persecution.

Bravo to the Democratic Party leadership and activists for their brave and commendable efforts to bring closure to the murder of Uganda's hero Andrew Kayira. Soon after Mr. Museveni was requested by the opposition parties that met with him, to release the Scotland Yard report on Dr. Kayira's murder, he made statements publicly that the victim was a sectarian because he wanted a ‘separate army'for Buganda. That is quite rich coming from a sectarian. There is sectarianism, there is murderous sectarianism and then Mr. Museveni's barbaric sectarianism. In recent violent Ugandan politics a Muganda ‘sectarian' is a ‘good Muganda' and that inevitably sealed Dr.Kayira's fate and those of NRA's Ahmed Sseguya, Hannington Mugabi and many others. That begs the question. Is a ‘bad' Muganda a good Movementist? The time is now.