We have all seen the video clip showing the fracas that ensued after the confrontation between Bobi Wine and security forces when he was blocked in Kayunga on Tuesday 1st 2020.
However, amidst the tussle, something not seen before in the politics of ‘democracy’ in Uganda happened. Something not typical of a teargas canister explosion. BOOM and HUSH! Everyone dashed for dear life.
Who dropped the alleged explosive, you ask?
Let’s examine the conspiracy theories.
Bebe Cool on Wednesday morning was quick to post a now viral analytic footage, edited to slow motion, to zero down emphasis on the hidden detail exposing the alleged, a one Nobert Elba Ariho, Bobi Wine’s private bodyguard, as he appeared to throw the alleged explosive near the place where Bobi Wine was standing with the security officers.
Bebe Cool claims the attacker was hired by Bobi to blackmail the incumbent, backing his argument with past photos of Ariho with Bobi Wine and other NUP personnel including Eddie Mutwe. In his post, he asks, “Who is fooling who?”
Andrew Mwenda, a political commentator took to twitter highlighting the other side of the conspiracy theories.
“Nobert Ariho, a body guard to Bobi Wine is being accused of throwing an explosive at his boss. Is he an intelligence operative infiltrated into NUP? ISO, ESO, CMI and Police all deny him. What is going on? We wait for investigative journalists to tell us!” Mwenda tweeted.
The other, and probably the most interesting is that this video was doctored to serve someone else’s interests. Bobi Wine after meeting with the Electoral Commission boss Byabakama was spotted in a video consoling the accused Ariho, saying that the regime will stop at nothing to divide him and his closest allies.
He cited Andrew Mwenda’s name as one of the people the regime is using to achieve this and another version of the video has since revealed that the accused didn’t throw the explosive.
The public, as always is left to discern and chose what to believe. Who is telling the truth?
Trying to answer this question reminded me of a book titled “A Murky River” by the late Godfrey Mwene Kalimugogo. I saw its title cover in my high school and wondered what the word ‘murky’ meant and then looked it up. To my loss, I never actually got to read the book itself.
However, this is the meaning I got back then: “Dark and dirty or difficult to see through”. “A Murky River”
A country can be likened to a vast forest, the Amazon kind in South America, hosting all kinds of animal species – even the severely endangered ones.
In the middle of this stretch of thickness lies the one and only river that serves as a water source for all the animals in the forest. This river is therefore paramount to the survival of the creatures and its purity is of life-threatening importance. The success of the animals depends on the purity of the water flowing in this river.
This river is to the forest, what politics is to any country.
Politics is the blue print from which all nations are molded. The economic, cultural and social aspects of countries are all tailored to the political fabric of those nations. Politics is central to the structure of any country and you can hardly find an issue that veers off from its direct or indirect control.
What then happens when the river turns murky? Hell breaks loose, hence the BOOM and the HUSH!
Animals start to succumb to ailments from drinking from the unhygienic river, the endangered species boarder extinction and trees wither from the poisonous water their roots are absorbing.
The catch here is that these animals cannot simply hide or run away from the effects of the river’s murkiness since the forest is the only home they have known all their lives. They are left to stay and weather the storm, trapped in their own home.
Like in any complex environment, someone has to take the blame, or at least be blamed – rightfully or even wrongfully, it doesn’t matter. This is what’s happening to Uganda. The river has turned murky and Ugandans are dying sick from the infections that come with it. The river is already muddy, we are just looking for whom to blame.
This is what we get for the decades of ignoring the signs of the dirt in our river that is politics and honestly there isn’t anyone else to blame but us. What’s important is not who planted Nobert Ariho or who doctored the video. No, the nitty-gritties obscure the bigger picture. We instead need to acknowledge that the river has turned murky, and look within ourselves to see how we got here, and how we can get out of this catch-22. Whatever your decision, I’m definitely going back to read “A Murky River”.
