By Okello Lucima

4^th February 2013:

Death is a mysterious, fearsome and terrifying spectre. But sometimes, death bears fortunes for relatives and political second fiddlers who survive those who die. This of course is not new.

But recent political succession trends in Uganda seem to validate the harrowing thought that death in high places has not only become fashionable but a badge of privilege and special qualification for high office.

Throughout human societies and time, widows and widowers, except Hindus who have to annihilate themselves on the funeral pyre, moan and groan spectacularly over their dead spouses. But once soil has been cast back to soil and ashes to ashes, all settle down into fashionable and affected period of grief.

This may be imposed by tradition and culture, as among the Acholi, where a widow bears the black cola or langoya head or waist band for a certain length of time, to demonstrate her loss and sadness. After this solemn spell, s/he is game for the routine rhythms of life in the affairs of men and women. S/he can be inherited or remarry altogether.

Sooner rather than later, a widowed spouse who has recently buried his or her once beloved wife or husband, can be seen, without any social and moral exasperations, frolicking with a new, ravishing female, or on the arm of another dashing man; and memories of the event and pain of recent demise of a spouse is but recollections of a Shakespearian stage tragedy or the moment of a Hollywood horror movie, past.

In contrast, there are social categories indelibly scarred and eternally grief-stricken by death. Mothers and fathers or brothers and sisters are left, genuinely and deeply hurt and grieving; irreparably lessened by the demise of their child or sibling.

For them, death is forever painful, terrifying without any obverse silver linings of trade-offs for a new wife or new husband or accession to the throne or presidency socially and politically available to widows, widowers, princes, princesses and vice presidents to opportunistically reap and wipe their tears with.

Furthermore, widows and widowers inherit the estates of their departed partners and go on to remarry and lead full, and often, glamorous lives that betray precious little of their former sorrows. True, succession and inheritance traditionally bequeath wealth and properties to children at the death of their parents.

For this reason, some children and spouses have been known to hasten the hand of God in order to fast-track their access to fortunes – something they stood to inherit anyway, were nature left to take its normal course.

Princes and princesses benefit from the demises of their regal parents, elevating them to crown princes and princesses – half-way up or sometimes directly onto the throne. This has occurred with regularity since the dawn of time.

Today, Uganda’s small and big thrones alike are thronged by sad, grieving, but nonetheless elated and majestic beneficiaries of the undiscriminating scythe of death. These relics of ancient regimes were the only beings known to both welcome and dread death in equal measure.

However, they are no longer alone.  There is a “new breed” of princes and princesses, political orphans and widows, and god-forbid, even siblings!  They are entrenching themselves on the Ugandan political and public affairs scene with succession entitlements akin to those of ancient monarchical lineages.

When Proscovia Alengot was adopted as the official NRM candidate to succeed her father Michael Oromait who had died, the media ran a long list of these politicians, widows and orphans, who clung to the coattails and exploited public outpouring of grief for their dead husbands or parents, to get elected or appointed to parliament or high offices in the land, respectively.

Some benefited from the mixed fortunes of the manner of death and the populist or long record of service their predecessors imprinted on the psyche of their constituents and the nation.

Angling to be the latest beneficiary, Florence Andiru, elder sister to Cerinah Nebanda who tragically died last December has ironically won the NRM primaries to run in the by-election to succeed her sister.

Her candidacy takes to new heights this trending political succession from parents to offspring, and from sibling to sibling!  More shockingly, Nebanda’s sister chose to run on the NRM ticket – never mind that the ruling NRM has had a hard time trying to sound, appear and act innocent in the drama and controversy surrounding her sister’s death.

The thought that she will extend this trend by succeeding her sister is also scary. It is yet another step in turning the Ugandan Parliament into the Haunted House – a House of Proxies of Dead Relatives.  It’s a trend that will surely turn our fledgling democracy into one that is ruled by dead women and men.

It will also mean that one of the ways one can get to parliament or high office in public affairs is to have a partner, parent and brother or sister as a sitting parliamentarian or high up somewhere and wish them dead every day we say the Lord’s prayer.

More worryingly, if children, husbands and wives are known to have murdered parents or partners to get their inheritance or life insurance premiums sooner, what will stop wives, relatives and children from homicidal frenzy to engineer parliamentary vacancies and generate sympathy votes?

In light of this, I think Kalungi, Nebanda’s alleged boyfriend, is either an imbecile, insane or both. The guy could have easily succeeded his late “girlfriend” in parliament. Many Ugandans would kill to be in his position.

Had Kalungi had even a horse’s sense of what he had fallen into, Cerinah’s sister would not have a chance.  The only better candidate than him would have been his would-be “mother-in-law” Cerinah’s mother who, with her palpable grief, would have taken Butaleja by acclamation.

And on the face of it, it would seem Kalungi is not the only inept political operator. The opposition political parties were too blinded by their tears for Cerinah Nebanda that they failed to spot Nebanda’s mother as an unassailable candidate against the NRM.

But in so doing, the opposition also scored a bigger political victory.  As an alternative government, they demonstrated a much higher degree of decency and morality by not cynically exploiting the sorrows of death – especially one as tragic as Nebanda’s.  END: Login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories mid-week for our updates

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Mr Okello Lucima is a political analyst and commentator