It might be too early to call, but there’s something familiarly interesting happening with Balaam Barugahara.
I will not wait to discuss it, for I believe observations and deductions are more valuable when they are made before they become obvious. As I have written before, I do not think the objective of Balaam’s anti-corruption drive is necessarily to end corruption per se.
I think it is a political attempt to appeal to the population. However, I can’t deny that they have gained serious momentum. I also notice that they are unique and strategic for any politician.
They are open, inclusive, and proximate to the common person because they tackle an ardent issue. Increasingly, they are making Balaam popular, and popularity in politics is never just popularity. It is political capital.
Here is where I notice an emerging problem. During the popular Among exit efforts, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, was tweeting about it himself. Because he was visibly involved, many people attributed the Among exit efforts to him, even if it is possible that Museveni himself was behind some of it.
The Balaam rallies are different. Balaam is the face alongside Nameere, who is largely seen as a Museveni installation and less PLU. Museveni also presents the anti-corruption campaign as his own effort publicly.
So, people praise Balaam and some of that praise goes back to Museveni. Apart from a few PLU flags in some districts, there is little to show that this is a PLU campaign. Even if it is obvious that Balaam comes from the PLU faction within the NRM, politically he remains a Museveni minister.
Balaam impresses me as a loyal cadre. But the popularity in and of itself has consequences. First, his approach inconveniently owns Muhoozi’s political strategy. Muhoozi’s strategy, as I understand it, is to position himself as a high-handed but efficient leader.
He will arrest anyone who stands up to him to demonstrate that he can do whatever is necessary to instill fear. Then he can implement popular, radical reforms and present himself as the leader who actually works.
If Balaam is already arresting corrupt people, which is perhaps the biggest issue, then the “I am tough, but I work” strategy is no longer exclusive to Muhoozi.
If not personified by Balaam, it is seen as a Museveni change in approach. But there is another consequence of what Balaam is doing: whether he cares or not, it gives him access to the real voters in every part of the country.
In our political lingua, this is called being “on the ground.” Most political leaders traverse the country during campaigns. Museveni is a bit different because of his history. He moved into some of these communities after school and later lived amongst them during the bush war.
Now look at those at the helm of PLU: Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, Tayebwa. Who could you say has a real touch with the muntu wa wansi? Then there is Balaam’s personality. He does not carry himself like the typical political elite.
He is unsophisticated and ordinary, which makes him easier for ordinary people to identify with. The bigger threat, though, is what popularity does to the person who receives it. Popularity gives birth to political interest. People begin to love you.
You begin to realise that you have power. You have tested that power as a minister. Suddenly, things that once seemed impossible begin to look possible. I was talking to a former staff member of Parliament who told me that some MPs from Teso had started saying in their small groups: “Do you know Anita Among can become president?”
That is how political possibility begins. But it is also possible for power brokers, including external forces, to identify you, sell the ambition to you, and show you that it is possible. They can even mobilise resources for you.
This is why the Anita Among example is relevant. Her problem was not entirely that she was a corrupt Speaker. It was that she had become powerful. She had money, MPs, NRM structures.
She had demonstrated that she could build and exercise power independently. Balaam is nowhere near Among’s level. But if this trajectory continues for the next few years, he could be something else.
And unlike Among, Balaam could have something much harder to manufacture: the love of the common Ugandan within the NRM ecosystem. That may actually be more frightening, especially for Muhoozi, who can hardly mingle with that demographic in the same way.
So, perhaps Balaam’s political danger is not that he is doing too much. It is that he is going to become too popular. He has to make sure that the people do not begin to think that the work is his. He has to religiously and more visibly give the powers that be even the credit they do not deserve.
The writer is a researcher with Agora Center for Research
lawelfrayer253@gmail.com
You know M7’s government so well. Balaam has a harder task of managing the thin line between serving his master and outshining him. The former and his offspring do not take that lightly, and anyone perceived to cross that line, whether their actions are for the common good or not, is bound to be punished, HEAVILY!
Balam is well known being an events promoter, now such a person is made a minister, what qualities does such one come with!
Ofcourse he is used to being filmed as the actor, so thats what is expected. Look at the group he subscribes to, PLU the chairman of that group will strip a victim naked and go to social media and brag after posting pics of a naked man.
Now, the oerson who appointed Balaam, he is the father of corruption, who rules the country with his family members, is there any worse corruption than that, in fact members of his family with no qualification.