New Vision (Kampala)COLUMN
August 25, 2003
Posted to the web August 25, 2003 Bukumunhe
Kampala Captain Mike Mukula is a humble man - what do you want with him?Mukula a humble man? Not only has he been nicknamed 'Colgate teeth' because of his tendency to flash his teeth whenever there is a camera around, ever since he became the State Minister for Health, he has been in the papers virtually everyday!
Everybody smiles for the cameras and what is wrong with being in the papers everyday?Okay, you have a point there. Anyway, the reason why we are talking about the good Captain is that we believe he has watched one Rambo film too many.So obsessed he is with being seen as Uganda's Rambo that recently, he stormed the House of Parliament clad in combat fatigues complete with beret, boots and pistol!Surely not!
Do you really think it was a case of watching too many Rambo movies or that he pulled the stunt to scare his fellow MPs into supporting the bills that he had tabled?Er, I was not there when he pulled the stunt, but he claimed the reason he was dressed in battle fatigues was that he and his Arrow Group had been in Teso taking care of business.
Arrow Group - are they a security firm like Group 4 or Saracen? What exactly is his role in it? Is he the Captain of a division?Mike says the Arrow Group was set up to prevent Kony's rebels from attacking Teso.
What puzzles me, however, is how a man whose claim to fame is appearing in milk ads and selling ice cream can be brave enough to go to battle with Joseph Kony?Perhaps like Lt. General Moses Ali who fought for years to be elevated from Brigadier to Lt. General, Captain Mukula is not too happy with just a pilot's license and feels he deserves to be promoted to a Major.I cannot speculate on that.
I have yet to hear him making noise about his rank. I think there might be something else niggling him.Maybe he is a tad jealous that Major Kakooza Mutale's Kalangala Action Plan has been stealing the limelight.
Or he might be tired of being a squeaky clean boy in milk ads and wants to change his image to Muscle-Mike-Mukula.Even his fellow MPs showed no signs of fear when he rolled up to Parliament in his battle garb. If Mike wants to change his image, I suggest he takes image make-over lessons from Lt. Gen. David Tinyefunza, Major or Kakooza Mutale.
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
