By Muhammed A Mukasa
The Great Betrayal: How Mao and Mbidde Sold Uganda’s Soul.
The Artful Dodgers of Uganda’s Political Circus.
If Charles Dickens were alive today, he would not need to invent the Artful Dodger—
Uganda already has two: Norbert Mao and Mukasa Mbidde. Like Dickens’s sly street
urchins, they have mastered the art of deception, cloaking greed in eloquence and
ambition in false idealism.
Uganda, ever tolerant of the cunning, has allowed such tricksters to climb the ladder of respectability—straight into the vaults of public trust.
This, in essence, is one of the most insidious tricks the Ugandan elite use to smoothen
their way to the public purse. It is mind-boggling and deeply unsettling.
How can individuals who cheat their way into key positions of a political party ever be trusted to
act honourably if such a party wins an election?
Do we honestly expect Mao and Mbidde—who bent and twisted party rules during internal contests—to suddenly turn into men of integrity once seated at the table of power? Of course not.
A leopard never changes its spots. A cheat remains a cheat; a Mobutu will never become a Lumumba, just as a Sani Abacha will never transform into a Thomas Sankara.
Uganda today is a strange theatre—a republic of rogues and hypocrites where almost all
the elite refuse to play by the rules.
The stench of their deceit lingers everywhere—a suffocating mix of hypocrisy and moral decay.
As the old seer, Kakara Kashagama Kamango Katongira ka Rukunyu, once warned, there would come a time when this land would reek of an excruciating fart—when people would be so shameless that even a wife, lying beside her husband, would ask him to move aside so she could fart freely.
That time, it seems, is now. Uganda stands on the edge of a dangerous precipice, its moral compass shattered by those who mistake cunning for intelligence.
Yet, in this darkness, Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi may still represent the faint, stubborn spark of hope—the poor, black, bearded, fearless and despised man the seer spoke of, chosen by God to pull the nation back from the abyss of no return.
The Curse of the Pretentious Elite.
Dr. Kizza Besigye once lamented that Uganda’s elite are “the most foolish people” he
has ever encountered — not for lack of education, but for their obsession with language and appearances.
Mukasa Mbidde embodies this tragedy perfectly. Fluent in English and Latin, he weaponizes both to confuse rather than enlighten, to exploit rather than elevate.His brilliance, if it can be called that, lies not in intellect but in trickery.
True intelligence is not about how many foreign phrases one can recite; it’s about creating solutions for a struggling people.
Uganda’s so-called intellectuals have traded
empathy for ego, service for self-promotion.
They are more concerned with displaying
their imported cars and colonial neckties than fixing the collapsing systems around them.
Meanwhile, the roadside vendor earning an honest living shows more integrity and
wisdom than a dozen of these political charlatans combined.
Opposition in Name, Collaboration in Deed.
Nobert Mao’s defense for joining the ruling government — that he aims to “oppose it
from within” — is an insult to national intelligence.
His appointment as a minister under
the NRM banner is not a revolutionary act but a survival tactic. It is stomach politics at its
most cynical.
Mbidde’s double life is no less offensive. By day, he postures as a critic of power; by
night, he feasts with it.
Together, they have transformed the once-proud Democratic Party into a hollow shell — a name without weight, a relic filed away in the ruling party’s cabinet of trophies. This is not political strategy; it is surrender for sale.
The Price of Betrayal.
The destruction of Uganda’s opposition is not just the story of two men. It is the story of
how corruption co-opts dissent. By buying out opposition leaders, the ruling elite have
perfected the art of silent control.
The consequences are everywhere — crumbling
hospitals, unpaid teachers, potholed roads, and a nation teetering between despair and
apathy.
Mao and Mbidde’s betrayal is not unique; it is symptomatic of a deeper disease — a
system that rewards opportunists and punishes idealists. Yet history warns them: every Mubarak has his Tahrir Square, every tyrant his final hour.
A Call to the Masses.
The time for blind loyalty is over. Uganda’s citizens must reclaim their voice, their vote,
and their vision.
The National Unity Platform’s campaign against corruption and bad governance deserves not just applause but action. A protest vote is no longer symbolic— it is revolutionary.
Uganda deserves leaders who build, not bargain; who serve, not sell out. Mao and
Mbidde may think they have outwitted the people, but history has a cruel memory. When the tide of justice rises — as it surely will — no trickster, however artful, will outrun it.
Email: mukasa123456@outlook.com
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