By Andrew M. Mwenda

There is a widespread assumption that presidents in Africa who rule for long do so out of personal greed for power. This accusation has been made against Robert Mugabe who ruled Zimbabwe for 37 before he was forced to resign recently. It is also the accusation against President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda as the ruling party seeks to amend the constitution and remove age limits so that he can run for the presidency in 2021. Yet when individual cases are examined closely, one finds the reality much more complex and nuanced. Let me illustrate.

Dear Doctors, our senior health experts,

I am Woira, a Ugandan Patriot but from a family background with many medical health workers. I have read your demands and agree that the salary you get is little compared to what doctors get in other states. It takes years of intensive study, hard physical and mental work, and unsocial hours of duty. It is quite legitimate to seek higher salary and allowances reflective of your years of training. I am with you in your demands as many more Ugandans are.

By Justine Nameere:

By Jean Gasho

Yesterday, I sat with my 13-year-old daughter Nakai after she came back from school telling me that the whole school, even the teachers were talking about Mugabe. We talked a lot about Zimbabwe, and what type of a president you were. I told her my thoughts, and she looked at me and said, ‘Write about it mum. Write about what you have told me about Mugabe on your blog.’

By Andrew M. Mwenda

“Follow an idea from its birth to its triumph,” Bertrand de Jouvenel observed in his 1948 volume, On Power, “and it becomes clear that it came to power at the price of an astounding degradation of itself. The result is not reason which has found a guide but passion which has found a flag.”

The defeat of the noble Mugisha Muntu in the race for the presidency of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has put the last nail in the coffin of decent politics in that party. It marks the final triumph of radical extremism as an organizing philosophy for FDC.