Shut up: Besigye warned you about ‘pakalast’
By Chantal Kembabazi
12th Sept 2011: Over the last few weeks and months, my relatives in Uganda have been ‘screaming quietly’ in my ears down the phone line, complaining about a million and one things that they say are going terribly wrong for them. My auntie, in her late sixties, asked me to explain to her what inflation means.
I couldn’t. As an illiterate old African woman, she would never have understood me even if I had tried. But I still felt that she needed to know why she can no longer drink tea whenever she wanted, as she used to, because sugar has become too expensive for her. So I settled for shock treatment.
“…Shut up auntie. Besigye warned you people that you will starve ‘pakalast’ if you vote for Museveni; that you will live in darkness ‘pakalast’ if you vote for Museveni; that you will die of preventable diseases ‘pakalast’ if you vote for Museveni; that corruption will continue ‘pakalast’ if you vote for Museveni. But none of you listened to him”, I said.
Suddenly, the old woman started asking questions of her own: “…My daughter is that why Makerere was closed”? Yes auntie, I said. “…Is that also why Doctors and Teachers are protesting”? Yes auntie, I said. “…Is that why food has become expensive in the market”? Yes auntie, I said.
“…So what are we going to do”, she asked. I repeated what I had told her earlier. Shut up: Besigye warned you about ‘pakalast’. That is the same simple message that I would want to send to every single Ugandan, young or old, who is complaining about the high fuel and food prices biting the country now.
Shut up: Shut up because I can bet a million dollars here and now that some of Doctors and Teachers protesting today were shouting ‘pakalast’ for Museveni only a few months ago. It is payback time now. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
