On September 5, 2021 The Daily Monitor published a story titled “where are our leaders? In the article, the author, Phillip Matongo, says nothing for half of his 600 words before suddenly, and out of thin air, invoking Gen Fred Rwigema. Moreover, whatever he has to say about him is based on only his own admission he once saw him seated somewhere in Dar es Salaam. Matongo, who describes himself as a “professional copywriter” claims about Rwigema’s death: “one of his sub-commanders reportedly drew his pistol and fatally shot Rwigyema in the head.” In other words, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and can only speculate about speculations - “reportedly.” The Daily Monitor of old would never have published a story about something someone read somewhere. But of course the aim is to promote Michela Wrong’s book, itself a collection of RNC and Museveni regime propaganda, which the author calls “unputdownable.” Not surprising, of course, when one considers that its a ragbag of rumour, bar-room gossip, interspersed with invented material by Museveni intelligence services and their RNC allies, all with a few kernels of fact here and there. But CMI has never been sophisticated. In order to try to conceal their hand, as they also poorly did in Wrong’s book, they actually bring up real people that the leadership in Uganda killed during its bush war, as a means of neutralizing dissenting voices or killing competition by removing those with leadership potential: Ahmed Seguya, Sam Magara, Serwanga Lwanga - yes, “and others,” as the author writes inadvertently revealing the extent of the crimes of their boss. The author tries to create some kind of moral equivalence between Uganda and Rwanda, but can’t seem to come up with a single name - it’s “like putting a virgin in the maternity ward to ensure she immaculately conceives.”
