Dad is a good doctor and a practical politician....

I CAN NOW SPEAK OUT AFTERALL THE DUST HAS SETTLED .....

Uganda's Vice President, Prof Gilbert Bukenya, who happens to be my Dad is an unhappy man. In a revealing interview with The Monitor newspaper, he disclosed that some unkind people have been taking photographs of his pigs, paw paws and mangoes. Now everyone knows that pigs are not the most beautiful creatures around, especially when they have been rolling in the mud. In our younger days, before the advent of e-mail, we used to send post cards to friends almost every day. Do you recall ever seeing a post card of pigs? Elephants, yes; lions, yes. Even butterflies and lifeless hills and beaches. But pigs? Never. But SOME Ugandans are obsessed with other people's property. So they hire a photographer to go and shoot pictures of his pigs. Just to be sure they can describe his property properly! You only need to live in Kampala for a week to realise the depth of their interest in other people's property. They simply have no other way to define a person other than bywhat he owns. It must have something to do with the unofficial curfews that spanned the two decades from the 1970s to the 1980. Our days became shorter and we stopped engaging in activities like reading. Our evenings became stretches of nursing hard drinks in the dark to numb our brains to sleep. Now things that require mental effort tend to tire us quickly. SO WHEN they see a Cabinet minister, they do not want to know what new programmes are coming up in his ministry, how he has performed against the last budget or how much he has facilitated linkages between his department and those of his colleagues. What they want to know instead is which house he has bought on Kololo Hill and which hotel he co-owns with which Asian trader. They like describing people in terms of what they own. If it is a poor man, we count the only thing he has ý children. We even have a saying that when you go visiting, concentrate on eating the food you are served and stop counting your host's children. When they see a successful businessman, they don't ask so much about his trading networks and try to project the direction his empire is taking. No. They just say that he recently acquired a dark blue Mercedes and a "brown" girlfriend. It gets to minute details ý we even talk about his new phone. Hence if a top lawyer returns after several years abroad, they don't ask what certificates he got, the big cases he handled or how many seminar papers he presented; they want to know what car he brought back and what house on Muyenga Hill he has made a down payment on. "You know the other lawyer who drives a red Beemer, the one who bought Colonel X Muyenga's house?" It is through these lenses that they see a TOP MEDICAL researcher who made a name for himself in the southern hemisphere, was decorated by Case Western University for his contribution to medical science and recently became Vice President of the republic. They don't care about the groundbreaking research he has done, his restoration of the Makerere University Medical School and his pacesetting rural modernisation project that involves growing rice on hills instead of swamps, and introducing housing mortgages in villages before they even catch on in towns. THEY DON'T care about the $2,000 houses he is promoting while the government values a primary school teacher's house at $20,000. Oh no, that is boring stuff. We want to know how fat his pigs are and how yellow his mangos. That is the stuff they prefer. It doesn't tax their brains and they can all sound like experts while discussing it. Its high time we Ugandans ignored these THEORETICAL EXPERTS and backed practical politicians like Prof. GB This is Uganda, Dad, you'd better get used to it. Thank you so much for the good work well done for your family and the nation.
May the Lord richly reward you Dad

BRIAN BUKENYA

Born in Wakiso district in January, 1983, Mr. Bukenya Brian went against the odds stacked against him as a child in humble circumstances, to join St. Savio Junior School Kisubi for his primary Level, then moved on to St. Mary’s College Kisubi for his O’Levels and later joined Kings College Budo for his A’Levels. After accomplishing his O and A’Levels, he joined Coventry University in UK where he is currently pursuing an LLB-LAW degree.
LEADER:
Mr. Bukenya held the office of Head Prefect at St. Savio Junior School, Minister of Information, S4 Government Chairman at St. Mary’s College Kisubi and Prep Prefect at Kings College Budo.

He loves developmental politics and his biggest dream is to lead Ugandans to the promised land of prosperity.

Life goes on...................

Life is a bed of roses..hahaha..you wish..Life is simply the ability to grow and produce new forms....ambigous..But for a person of my calibre who enjoyed the cool winds of SMACK and Kings College Budo,would define it as "the period between birth and death". To be more religious, life is suffering...... Whatever the definition, all the discretion is in your hands..So as i try to live a life i meet this German guy at my University. Congratulate him upon having a Pope from his country, thinking we were at the same level of excitement but to my disappointment he happened to be an atheist..these are fellows who dont believe in the existance of God. But for the sake of having a chart with a man from the best two colleges, he starts pontificating about Catholicism focusing on the newly elected Holy Father Benedict xvi....rings a bell for the political generals...will be moving that direction soon..He criticises Pope Benedict xvi for being a conservative..Bloody rubbish ( excuse my french). The Pope has to uphold the doctrines of the church so he will always appear a conservative...Text msg pops in from Uganda via the famous MTN network.. This Mr. i know it all discovers that am from the Pearl of Africa. "Former British Colony", he says. He goes on to tell about the Ugandan History sighting Former President Amin Dada as the strongest President my lovely country has had. Strong in what sense....!!God knows. He commends the beauty of the nation tantalizing me to walk back home. Next on his agenda as i had hoped was the DOCTRINE OF SEPARATION OF POWERS...but to my surprise he only wanted me to let him know the provisions contained in the Ugandan Constitution in line with the British Constitution on this doctrine.......The separation of powers is the principle of vesting in separate branches the executive, legislative and judicial powers of a government. Constitutionalism demands that these functions of government be carried out by separate bodies and with no duplicity of personnel.This doctrine enables the rule of law and constitutionalism to prevail in the State yielding freedom of speech.....there are so many departures from the strict doctrine of separation of powers under the uncodified Constitutional arrangements of Uk. The Lord Chancellor holds an anomalous position in respect of the doctrine of separation of powers in the conteporary State in that the holder of that position plays a key role in each of the three elements of the State. He is the most Senior Judge, a Cabinet Minister and Speaker of House of Lords in Parliament. In a layman's language, he is our Hon.Sekandi,Odoki LJ, and Hon. Makubuya.....Strange. This clearly shows that the Ugandan system is to a large extent doing well in respect of that doctrine in that the rule of law is the order of the day. News reporters have the discretion to report on any subject matter it be political, social or economical. to the extent of questioning the intellect of a , a professor(University teacher of the highest grade) in medicine from the prestigious University of London in order to broaden their horizon.(Freedom of speech)..Great achievement for the country...But we Ugandans ought to restrain from unsubstantiated derogatory talk and focus more on the economic issues that will build the nation so as to circumvent this problem. Everyone is trying to envisage the situation come '06 but as we move towards that YEAR,my view is that we Ugandans should take a rather pragmatic approach to this transition. And from my definition of life..will repeat for the sake of the dwarfs "the period between birth and death", '06 is in the future. Life will have to go on after and therefore life is the period between birth and the future ofcourse bearing in mind eternal life.......God Bless the Pearl of Africa.
BUKENYA BRIAN

BRAVO... PATRIOTIC STRUGGLERS

As we move into this transition, its right and fitting to thank the Patriotic strugglers for the great work well done bearing in mind the economic, social and political filth that they have swept out of the Pearl of Africa. All their scores are not accidental but are results of correct policies of their long and torturous journey. And as a result of their BIG scores is the phenomenon of the 'ekisanja' Movement, led by the peasants, a thing I find most gratifying. To me it means the 'NO CHANGE' in direction, a re-affirmation of the No Change Slogan and definitely that is what these Masters and I say Masters of the political arena are trying to put forward for they have the veto to determine the political direction through that crucial ballot...hehehe..gone is the gunfire for political power. And when you ask those opposed to the 'ekisanja' they will always give you this equivocal answer 'we need change' but trust me from my point of view this 'ekisanja' shows that the Movement of the patriotic strugglers has entrenched itself in the politics of Uganda. Thats why it will always defeat any adversary who comes up but at this critical juncture it is hard to predict the future. My Grandma (May her soul rest in peace) always told me' never to cross the bridge before I got there' I will apply her saying and wait to witness what happens come '06 but that will not stop me from letting out my feelings other wise I could grow fat on them if not die without preaching them to the generation next. I really like the way the Movement is handling the 3rd Term bid. It is doing it in a scrupulous manner and whilst it is ongoing,the press is paticularly effusive in its reporting and am sure the result in '06 elections will cause little surprise because parties are just an establishment and not one to rock the boat bearing in mind that we have TWO directions at this juncture, one leading to the peasant's wishes who form 80% of the population and another of the parasitic interests of the elite who fear so much the massive power of the peasants. However Leadership is a means not an end in itself, so we should not focus so much on the top job but instead think about the future of our dear Motherland. I will leave you all with this famous quote by Churchill; 'The empires of the future are the empires of the mind' God Bless you all.

BUKENYA BRIAN