“I was called here yesterday by the Archbishop, His Grace, Paul Ssemogerere, and he told me that he had received a call from President Museveni asking him to cancel the Mass.”

In those words, Winnie Byanyima informed those who had arrived for Mass inside St. Mary’s Cathedral in the Lubaga area of Kampala, Uganda that the Mass for which they had gathered will not hold.

Winnie requested Mass for the intentions of her husband Kiiza Besigye who had been in custody for a couple of years on account of the couple’s political opposition to President Yoweri Museveni. The Mass was also for the intentions of other prisoners and the sick.

It is part of a long story that is still unfolding, and that may continue until the end of life for the principal actors. Let us leave the Archbishop out of the story this time. His Grace has been unfairly criticized for yielding to the wishes of Museveni on a matter that is strictly liturgical. Is the Archbishop expected to risk the lives of worshipers just to demonstrate defiance to the orders of a dictator?

Kiiza Besigye, a physician who left his job to fight in Museveni’s army, was a close ally of the president. He fought in the war that chased Tito Okello out of power and installed Museveni as president. He was Museveni’s personal doctor while the war raged and later held positions in the new government.

Fighting together to remove a common foe is always easier than managing the spoils of victory. Doctor and patient together in government soon fell out due to Museveni’s approach to governance. Besigye became a critic and political opponent of his former patient. He contested elections against Museveni in 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016; losing each time amid allegations of widespread electoral fraud. He has since faced arrests, jail, or prosecution numerous times. He is currently in jail since his abduction in Kenya and repatriation to Uganda in 2024. He is said to be in poor health.

Winnie Byanyima is Uganda’s first female aeronautic engineer who also abandoned her career to join Museveni’s National Resistance Movement. She fought in the war and served in government before joining the United Nations. A bright star in Africa and the world at large. She, as her husband is, in opposition to Museveni. She also takes up the fight for her husband‘s release and for political reforms in Uganda.

Yoweri Museveni, ruler of Uganda for four decades, is a man given to dynamic loyalty. He was opposed to Milton Obote and initially supported Idi Amin’s overthrow of Obote. Then he fought alongside exiled Obote supporters to displace Amin from power. After Obote’s return to power in 1980, he took up arms against Obote again. When Obote fell from power a second time, Museveni soon returned to the bush in a war to displace Tito Okello’s government. He invaded Uganda’s seat of power and dislodged Okello’s six month old government. He was installed as president in January 1986. As a child, Museveni lived in the home of Winnie Byanmiya’s parents. The Byanyima parents were responsible for his early education. If he remembers that, he does not act so.

It was a man such as this that contacted the Archbishop to cancel a Mass, tagging it political. Not yielding to the pleas of the Archbishop, the Man of Power eventually mercifully consented to a postponement pending further investigation. He would get back to the holy man. The world is waiting. Getting back is getting long.

Dictators all over the world blur the line between God and Man. They must be thinking that whatever God can do, men (dictators) can do better. Our Lord Christ Jesus created the Eucharist. President Museveni got it postponed, if only this one time.

The man of power who authored What is Africa’s Problem? is advised to use the mirror in the presidential lodge.

In all things, God’s will trump all human designs.

 

Ayo Fasoro

No Sum Dignus