Treason: When boys visit the bush to look for balls

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Treason: When boys visit the bush to look for balls
Treason: When boys visit the bush to look for balls

Africa-PressUganda. Looking at crest-fallen members of Parliament Muhammad Ssegirinya and Allan Ssewanyana in the dock imbibing the reality that they are to defend themselves against allegations of murder and now treason brought home a sense of déjà vu.

Back in the day when the body was still able, we played football. The live televised World Cup marches of 1986 in Mexico and the antics of Diego Maradona, Michel Platini, Karl Heinz Rummenigge, etc. introduced many young boys to the beautiful game.

We did not have uniforms those days. One team had shirts the other was bare chested. Shirts versus skins.

One time a parent in the neighborhood, who had bought into the revolutionary and ultra-optimistic promise of the National Resistance Movement, was planning his retirement home in Luweero. He sponsored our little football team to go to his village in Luweero to play a game with the village boys.

It was an exciting trip about three years after the National Resistance Army captured power. Those who were alive to the happenings of the time know the mystery and aura Luweero delivered those days.

Onto a mini bus we hopped and most of the way we (including me of all people) sung the patriotic songs of the NRA. ‘Kibonge Kya nini…,’ then there was ‘Umba iyo iyo umba…,’. It was quite a sight to behold. The massive expanse of green that often gave way to abandoned, burnt out, ramshackled homes shook one to the core.

In Luweero we were treated to a sumptuous meal and then we got down to business against the villagers. Men, they were, quite intimidating but very short on the most basic of the skills of the game.

Soon the dexterity and tenacity of youth put us ahead of them. The home advantage was nothing as we run rings around them. Before long they were trailing. So they resorted to rough house tactics but that did not work either.

In the second half we came to take our stroll in the park and simply finish them off and return to Kampala.

But being young and short on experience in the ways of the world we had not factored in the reality of the referee plus the linesmen being appointed by them and that they were ‘theirs’. It was time to run for our money.

Then they had a penalty for some offence miles out of the penalty box. The offside trap that we had used effectively in the first half just stopped working abruptly. The goal gap decreased. Another send off for a protest. Again the gap narrowed.

Then the referee ordered the Kampala boys to remove their boots in the interest of fairness and justice. It was a setback for the town rats whose feet were soft from being covered all the time. Soon they were leading by a goal thanks to a penalty they got as a reward for forcing three consecutive corner kicks!

Suddenly in an incident reminiscent of Pilate putting the question of ‘Jesus or the Barabbas’ to the people, someone asked in Luganda, abalenzi ba kyalir’ensikko?, ‘should the boys visit the bush?’ There was a loud chorus, ‘yee’ for ‘yes’ from the people on and off the pitch.

Then drama followed. The home side would simply launch a ball high and far into the bush, then sit pretty while raising the question ‘ani abanja?’ for ‘who is at a disadvantage?’ Since we were a goal down we had to run into the bush and look for the ball and bring it back onto the pitch.

Meanwhile, the referee did not stop the clock. It got so bad that whenever they sent the ball into the bushes our entire team had to go and look for it and come back to the pitch. The visiting team with all of our supporters became ball boys just to pull the game out of the fire!

Unfortunately in the dying minutes one of the Luweeero players made a glaring mistake. He sent a back pass to his goal keeper, who for some unknown reason, probably over confidence was not in the goal and in, it went. We were now level!

We also started sending them to the bush because we had lost trust in those in charge of the game which ended in a tie! We were elated though we later discovered that as we went to the bush for the ball some of our football boots and belongings went missing!

Charging an active and popular politician with treason even if he is never convicted (because most times such cases collapse under the ‘own goal’ of lies) is like sending him to the bush to look for the ball.

Besides losing focus of his core critical concerns of popular politics, he ends up spending all his energy fighting to keep his name unblemished, against everything thrown at him in the civil court, the Court Martial and the court of public opinion.

Then there are lawyers’ fees to pay. Some return to broken homes and collapsed businesses. Above all the trauma of facing the reality that a policeman, a prosecutor and even a judge who are officers of the law can allow to be used and to use the same law and judicial system to defeat constitutionalism by stooping so low. Also that they feel at home in the company of lying witnesses, leaves many angry, unreasonable and cynical about justice, law and order.

A leader who is driven to lose faith in the judicial system, due process and constitutionalism by the very people supposed to enforce the same is like the footballer who finds satisfaction in not playing on the pitch to accommodate unfairness.

It is quite amusing that the analogy with all the unintended puns, is from Luweero and the bush which is the Mecca and the pride NRM’s history.

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues

Twitter: @nsengoba

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