When the imaginary conversations between the dead became tiring,
Ugandans started posting conversations between the dead and the living.
When the social media script writers got tired of those, they started
serving up lies by announcing deaths of people who are still alive and
well. ILLUSTRATION | JOHN NYAGAH | NMG
Thank God 2017 is done. It has certainly brought out the nastiest side of us Ugandans.
In
2018, we must behave better, otherwise if the 2017 trend continues, we
will be in real trouble. Any position of leadership in the country
wouldn’t even be worth contesting anymore. Maybe that would be a nice
thing, as the survivors would be spared the nastiness of political
contests.
One of the nastiest developments in 2017 was
how people shared and laughed at morbid jokes. It so happened that
several prominent people died in the country, and the social media went
into overdrive with lurid jokes about their deaths. It became customary
to expect imaginary conversations to be posted on social media between
the dead person and those who died earlier as they meet in hell.
When
the imaginary conversations between the dead became tiring, they
started posting conversations between the dead and the living. When the
social media script writers got tired of those, they started serving up
lies by announcing deaths of people who are still alive and well.
Living
people pronounced dead included a prominent retired clergyman and a
young woman married to a top musician. Then there was a prominent
educationist who died after he built several quality high schools and
several dozen children were presented as his biological products at the
funeral. The jokes about how he managed this and what he proceeded to do
in hell almost choked the Internet.
Why this bizarre behaviour became popular is unclear. Is it due to economic frustration or increasing alcoholism?
At the high leadership levels, the country trended in world media when
our national parliament in September became an arena of a brawl between
unidentified security men and dozens of MPs, whom the former were trying
to evict after the Speaker suspended them.
This was
over a Bill to remove the age limits on the presidency, which has since
been passed. The men conducting the arrests were not parliamentary
police, and it is still unclear how they gained access to the chamber.
The
Speaker has written to the President, who is also the
Commander-in-Chief, demanding an explanation. She is yet to get one as
far as the public knows. Several expelled MPs suffered serious injuries
and were hospitalised.
Then for several months, dozens
of young women were raped, tortured and brutally murdered in two
locations close to the capital. Then a few senior security officers were
arrested by the army for allegedly selling off refugees back to the
very foreign powers they had fled from. The case is till ongoing in the
court martial.
The year closed on another bizarre note,
when a gang of notorious killers and robbers appeared on national
television announcing that they had denounced crime and were instead now
co-operating with authorities to fight it.
Then they
confused the public by saying their problem was that senior security
officials are still trying to deploy them on robbery missions. One
fellow ,who had been trying to literally buy his way to fame, has
ushered in the new year in prison, charged with shooting his neighbour.
The
man suddenly appeared on the scene and started donating money to people
who were lining up with petitions to have their financial problems
solved. Then, without warning, he picked up a gun, shot and seriously
wounded his neighbour. Keeping up with the happenings in Uganda can be
dizzying.
Joachim Buwembo is a social and political commentator based in Kampala.
No comments :
Post a Comment