Why Bobi is the real reason behind Muhoozi viral posts

One day, after a particularly long night, I awoke to find the rest of my family, save my father, in the living room. We had guests. I quickly learnt who our guests were.

It was the First Family of Uganda, travelling back to Uganda from Sweden after having been ensconced abroad for years. Well away from the civil war that tore the country apart.

Being the same age, separated by about 23 days, I got along well with the First Son.

Muhoozi Kainerugaba was a vivacious 12-year-old. We shared a passion for martial artists.

So he, my brothers and I talked Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Billie Chong et al for the duration of their stopover.

I liked the kid. Even though I thought he was called ‘Moses.’ I had never heard the name Muhoozi before.

He, like me, had a thick thatch of jet-black hair atop an inviting smile and bulbous frame.

The Musevenis had returned to Uganda in 1987 because something strange was happening in the State House. I won’t rehash what it was. Suffice it to say, State House had a female tenant who allegedly usurped the place of the President’s family.

Muhoozi alluded to her in a 2021 tweet, which began with the words, "Madame Winnie. Good to hear from you. It’s been a long time. I last saw you in the State House in 1987.”

Laughing at sycophants

Muhoozi later schooled with my brothers at St Mary’s College Kisubi. I later met him when I was administrative assistant to Maj Sarah Mpabwa in Nakasongola Barracks. That was in 2003.

Muhoozi had just been promoted to a Major. His promotion was announced in 2001 by one of the aides of then Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi at the end of the swearing-in ceremony of his father.

The closest parallel I find to that in world history is when Italian dictator Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, also known as ‘Duce’—which is derived from the Latin word dux, 'leader', and a cognate of duke—awarded German dictator Adolf Hitler an honorary military rank, but the lowly rank of honorary corporal of the Italian Fascist militia.

I was later told that President Museveni, as a young man, styled himself on the daring and fashion sense of a Rwandan mountebank called Andrea Museveni.

As shown above, Andrea was one of Mussolini’s names. However, that is another story for another day. Let's get back to my second meeting with Muhoozi.

Again, we got along. I gave him a tour of the armaments factory. He was unassuming, taciturn and pleasantly amenable to the absurd way in which people treated him. On several occasions, he almost burst out in unconfined laughter at how people made fools of themselves trying to impress him.

We spent several hours together, and even enjoyed lunch together. Our talk was the talk of 20-something-year-olds: Hip Hop and girls. At that time, we both loved rap music and, of course, girls.

Anyway, I would meet him in passing several times several years later. But as his power grew, so did his distance from plebeians such as me. Still, I saw him at his most human: a young man getting to grips with all this power thrust upon him. 

Indeed, William Shakespeare was right: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Muhoozi had greatness thrust upon him.

Decoding his posts

The Muhoozi I met was rather retiring, almost boring. That is why the fun filled tweets attributed to him are hard to swallow as his thoughts. But then again, he could be going by a script.

Owing to his background and possibly temperament, he reads revolutionary literature.

He thus knows about the Bourbon Restoration. This was the period of French history following the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814 until the July Revolution of 1830. 

The brothers of executed King Louis XVI of France reigned in highly conservative fashion, as one historian said: "they learnt nothing and forgot nothing."

So they did not last. But other observers said they suffered the social sin of being boring, especially after the exciting rule of Napoleon.

Accordingly, Muhoozi might have realised that the temper of the French, namely their love of pomp, pageantry, ceremony and excitement in politics, is similar to Ugandans’ yen for the same. In short, they are the very opposite of boring.

Enter Bobi Wine

In 2017, The Independent Magazine reported thus: “Popular singer Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, aka Bobi Wine, romps to victory in a by-election for the Kyadondo East seat. 

Running as an Independent, Kyagulayi trounced the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party and then leading Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party candidates. His victory caused excitement as it opened up possibilities for wild-card candidates.” 

Suddenly, Ugandan politics was Hollywoodised. Muhoozi took note. It is around this time that he decided to emerge from behind his otherwise boring exterior to show Bobi and Ugandans alike that he could ascend Uganda’s growing celebrity culture. 

Muhoozi confirms this. “I never posted anything for the first 20 years of my life in the military. I started posting regularly only 7 years ago after I was appointed SPA/SO. In that position, if I am not commenting on socio-political and economic issues, I’m not doing my job. So as SPA/SO it’s absolutely professional for me to post all the time,” he posted, in part, on October 4. Thus, he began posting to X, or Twitter as it was called then, in 2017. That was the year Bobi took Uganda’s political world by storm. 

So the Muhoozi you see today is a response to Bobi Wine’s celebrity. However, there is more. His more reckless tweets about invading other countries set him apart from Bobi in that he appears more powerful and in tune with Uganda’s macho culture. We do love Rambo and The Expendables, after all. 

If Muhoozi can personify them and outdistance Bobi’s celebrity, he is sure of the presidency.