Few things have set social media alight like Tuesday’s alleged shooting (or did he hurt himself?) of Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine following a standoff with police.
Kyagulanyi’s team says the National Unity Platform (NUP) leader was injured by a teargas canister that was lobbed at his feet as he greeted supporters in Bulindo, Kira.
Police, on the other hand, claim that Kyagulanyi was most likely injured by his vehicle when he tried to jump out to escape from the chaos.
This article is not about which of the two theories is the correct one (police say they are still investigating). It is about the dramatization of our politics which has been amplified by social media.
Many of you will recall that thirteen years ago, FDC’s Dr Kizza Besigye was broken out of his vehicle by police with the help of a hammer and pepper spray at Mulago roundabout. It was done in full view of the cameras. Do you remember Gilbert Arinaitwe, Besigye’s tormentor-in-chief?
At the time police claimed Besigye had pepper sprayed himself to garner sympathy. This theory was trumpeted by Robert Kabushenga, the then Vision Group CEO in an interview with BBC’s Akwasi Sarpong.
“…Dr. Besigye before raising his windscreen, he had spray which he sprayed on a police officer who was asking him to leave. So there was an act of assault,” Kabushenga said.
Flipping back to the fiasco surrounding Kyagulanyi’s injury in Bulindo, it has the echoes of Besigye’s 2011 standoff and more…
As it did with Besigye, the police had already written their script even if it clearly had gaps.
Either Kyagulanyi moves with sharp objects in his car or he is too careless he does not even know how to disembark from his vehicle, that’s what the police want us to believe.
Secondly, that object must have been smoldering because when you look closley at Kyagulany’s trouser, the part that has a hole, you will discover that it has burn marks.
Let us however not lose sight of the drama that ensued on the side of NUP as they tried to clarify their side of the story.
Here, we are not talking about how Eddie Mutwe, Kyagulanyi’s chief bodyguard, somehow vanished in thin air. At least Mutwe’s version of events can’t be believed.
We are not talking about Kyagulanyi, whom we had been told, was “on the verge” or at least losing his leg because the fibula (the smaller bone) had been ripped apart by shrapnel from the canister.
We are not talking about Joel Ssenyonyi, the leader of the opposition, who momentarily turned into a medical specialist and never tired to explain to all and sundry what had actually happened. Even Besigye quoted him on X.
We are not talking about Barbie holding Kyagulanyi’s hand with a look that said “cut that out” as if she was on a movie set.
We are talking about the politicians who turned Nsambya hospital into a political pilgrimage in anticipation that the news cameras would capture them.
Some came with their beddings and packed food and had it not been for the strict hospital policy, they would have set up next to Kyagulanyi’s bed.
What we are talking relates to the last paragraph.
It is the critical question that the NUP vetting committee will ask those aspiring to stand on the party ticket.
The question is: Where were you when our leader was getting injured?
Enough of the drama!