NRM Vice Chairperson for Eastern region, Captain Mike Mukula has come out and said that the next President of Uganda should not come from the Western region of the country so as to enable people from other regions to also get a chance to lead the country. Mukula’s call comes after a number of other political players who have shared a similar sentiment towards people coming from the west including General Henry Tumukunde who in an interview shortly after retiring from the army said that he would never stand for Presidency as it would deny other Ugandans to show their potential to lead.
This kind of talk is not only dangerous to a country with such a diverse ethnic footprint but also intentionally aimed at derailing the legitimate political discourse and debate in the country. Another goal of this kind of hate speech is to divide the country along ethnic lines so as to mobilize one section of the population against the other.
Uganda is a fully democratic state and as thus gives equal opportunity to whoever wishes to present themselves for leadership to do so without any form of prejudice and discrimination. This is what has happened historically and thus no single ethnic group can lay claim to having potential to lead while the others don’t. That kind of mentality was a reserve for colonial governments that did it to front their own selfish interests and we as an independent developed country should not give a chance to such barbaric reasoning.
It is with great disappointment therefore that a person of Mukula’s caliber be the one to get caught offside on such a debate given the position he holds at national level for the ruling party. We as Ugandans should not give this talk the undue audience it seeks and those that have been engaged in it should counseled to abandon it and if that fails then they ought to be reprimanded according to the law.
