Kiira Municipality must truly be a blessed land. How else do we explain the sudden revelation that Hon. Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda seasoned critic, self-anointed prophet of political purity, and part-time lecturer on presidential term limits has discovered he, too, is simply too essential to retire after ten years?
For years, Ugandans have listened to Ssemujju eloquently lecture the country about the dangers of “clinging to power.” According to him, staying too long in leadership is the first sign of political moral decay. Leaders who overstay, he warned, ultimately drift into self-interest, stagnation, and the dangerous belief that they alone can save the nation.
Apparently, the honourable member has now looked in the mirror and found… an exception. The Gospel According to Ssemujju: Thou Shalt Not Overstay Unless It Is Me. The man who has built an entire career dissecting every presidential intention has now offered Kiira a brilliant opportunity: a third term of his unmatched lectures.
While he passionately campaigns against “third, fourth, sixth or even seventh terms at the top,” he quietly files paperwork for his own third term back home. Critics call it contradiction, supporters call it strategy, and Ssemujju himself might conveniently label it “participatory self-renewal.” But the real question remains: What new miracle does he hope to perform in Kiira that he failed to accomplish in ten full years?
- Will he suddenly build flyovers using press conferences?
- Will he pave roads with newspaper columns?
- Will he construct health centers by holding the moral high ground?
The suspense is cinematic. If Kiira Needs Saving, Why Didn’t the Ten Years Suffice? One would imagine that a decade is long enough to demonstrate at least 70 percent of one’s “uninterrupted vision.” Unless, of course, the real vision only appears when re-election papers are due. If leadership is truly about impact, then Kiira voters are right to ask:
- If the job was unfinished after ten years, was the plan too ambitious or the performance too modest?
- If the ideas he now brings are so transformative, why did they take a decade to download?
- If he is the symbol of political purity he markets himself to be, wouldn’t two terms have been the perfect exit a shining example to those he criticizes?
And the biggest question of all: Is it still hypocrisy when you criticize others for behaviour you quietly adopt? Or is it merely “advanced political enlightenment”?
Ssemujju has built a reputation as the nation’s loudspeaker of accountability. But even loudspeakers sometimes reveal feedback they didn’t intend.
- Maybe this third term is not about Kiira.
- Maybe it is not about unfinished work.
- Maybe it is simply the irresistible truth that power, once tasted, rarely leaves the tongue.
In the end, Kiira voters will decide. But one thing is clear: it is wonderfully convenient to condemn overstaying in power right before extending your own stay. If Uganda ever opens a Museum of Political Irony, this chapter deserves its own exhibition wing.