The ‘Muhoozi Project’ may be unveiled one day, but the public events this weekend were not that launch. In such a short amount of time, the public had forgotten the events that had led up to this birthday.
Ugandans were treated to a sight last weekend that most of them had not seen in decades and did not expect to witness in their lifetime.
Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the commander of the army’s Land Forces and President Museveni’s son, celebrated his 48th birthday with a series of ceremonies.
Public demonstrations, a road run launched from the Kololo Independence Grounds, a celebration at the Lugogo Cricket Oval in Kampala, and a supper at State House in Entebbe are all planned.
The Kabaka of Buganda, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, is the only individual whose birthday is commemorated in this manner.
Even President Museveni does not have a birthday as public as this one. The age of forty-eight seemed an unusual choice for such a public exhibition. The first, tenth, twenty-fifth, twenty-fifth, and 50th anniversaries are the most significant.
It would have been more appropriate if it had been Kainerugaba’s 50th birthday.
Most Ugandans decided that the birthday was more than simply a birthday; it was the formal start of the much-discussed ‘Muhoozi Project,’ in Ugandan parlance, President Museveni’s purported plot to have Kainerugaba replace him as head of State.
This expert, on the other hand, would want to declare that this was not the case. The ‘Muhoozi Project’ may be unveiled one day, but the public events this weekend were not that launch.
In such a short amount of time, the public had forgotten the events that had led up to this birthday celebration.
Muhoozi had closed his Twitter account a few days before. When he resurfaced, he stated he had been busy with work and had disabled the account as a result.
Now that he was back online, he noticed at an unplanned moment that his 48th birthday was coming and that he wanted to celebrate it.
Then, in his characteristically broad tone, he stated that all East Africans were invited to this birthday feast.
The wheels of the NRM state started to spin as a result of that simple tweet. Social media hashtags were created, T-shirts were developed, demonstrations in favor of the birthday kid were planned, cards were manufactured, and venues were reserved.
The highways leading to the Kololo Independence Grounds and the Kampala Rugby Grounds in Lugogo were restricted to vehicular traffic on Saturday, April 23.
The proceedings were carried live by the state television broadcaster UBC and a commercial television channel NBS TV.
The start of a road race was signaled at the Kololo grounds.
Muhoozi, clad in military camouflage, addressed the throng in Lugogo, looking through points scrawled down in a little notebook he clutched while speaking.
When compared to the frenetic logistical build-up by the organizers, Lugogo’s address was a bit of an anti-climax.
Muhoozi could only say that when young are idle, they get restless and might create societal mischief; as a result, he believes the government should spend more in youth programs.
Not exactly a stirring, monumental address on national destiny.
All of this demonstrated, above all, that Uganda has become a playground for the First Family.
When people fantasize about or aspire to accomplish something, the state does it for them.
When Natasha Museveni was filming her film 27 Guns, on the NRA’s early 1980s Luweero guerrilla struggle, Parliament Avenue was closed off by military vehicles so that the filmmakers could film sequences from the steps of the national parliament, where Museveni had taken his first oath of office in January 1986.
If Muhoozi decided to host an army parade on a random day in June or September solely to honor Uganda’s peace or the army’s professional status, the parade would take place.
It should also be mentioned that the magnitude of the birthday celebration seems to have taken President Museveni and First Lady Janet Museveni by surprise
The Musevenis are not known for their extravagant celebrations. Christmas, Easter, New Year’s, and birthday celebrations are often low-key and private.
Unlike most of their visitors, President Museveni and First Lady were dressed simply for the meal, as they would on any other weekend spent at home.
However, as the public events gained traction, the First Couple needed to react in some manner and claim ownership of the story.
President Museveni referred to the event as a “dinner” in his speech to the attendees on Sunday evening. Not Muhoozi’s big day, not his birthday meal. It was just supper.
The President did not deliver a great, historical address chronicling Muhoozi’s rise from boyhood to the throne.
There was no mention of Muhoozi as the avenging son of his father, after whom he was called Muhoozi.
There is no mention of the birthday boy’s military accomplishments, which range from driving out LRA insurgents from eastern DR Congo to disarming Karamojong warriors.
Museveni purposefully made his remarks as unremarkable as possible.
He congratulated Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was the party’s main guest, for his relationship with Lt Gen Kainerugaba.
The obvious temptation for Sunday Vision, a government-owned daily, was to make the birthday celebration the cover story for April 24.
Rationally, it would have come out as corny, since who cares if Muhoozi was celebrating his 48th birthday? How did it make national headlines?
The publication opted to carry it as a front-page article, with a picture of Muhoozi waving off the runners at Kololo, but with the text piece as the second story, not the lead story.
In terms of President Kagame’s visit, it was stated that the two leaders of state met to discuss bilateral issues, which isn’t much of a surprise given that this is usual practice whenever heads of state meet, no matter how seldom the occasion.
They weren’t going to have a lengthy talk about their days at Ntare School or witnessing Muhoozi learn to pedal a bicycle.
There was no official communiqué issued as a result of the two presidents’ meetings, nor was there a joint news conference held before to Kagame’s departure for Kigali.
Muhoozi tweeted on Tuesday, April 26: “They were laughing with us until they realized how powerful we are! Uganda is now ours! Nobody will ever be able to frighten us! Uganda is Team MK’s territory!”
Take note of the last line.
In retrospect, this is how far NRM has progressed from a pan-African political and guerilla organization in the early 1980s to what it is today: a family company to which the Ugandan government and the general public are engaged as support workers and spectators.
But it also demonstrated that Muhoozi, like other NRM officials, is not his own man. Everyone who has risen to positions of power in the NRM party and administration has done so primarily as a result of Yoweri Museveni’s efforts.
