The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Hours after Andrew Mwenda, print, radio and television journalist, who is also founder and owner of The Independent, penned a comment that responded to human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo’s tweet on CDF General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, all hell broke lose on X. One of the first shots was fired by Jimmy Spire Ssentongo, professor, academic, columnist, portraitist, author, human rights defender and editorial cartoonist.
Here’s a record of how it started, and where we are….
JIM SPIRE SSENTONGO: I want to believe @AndrewMwenda but doing so also requires that I conclude that MK doesn’t write the things on his X account. But he has never denied writing them! How are we supposed to believe that the person who, almost consistently, tweets conspicuously unwise things is very intelligent? How do we accommodate the contradiction that a room is both empty and full at the same time!
Like @nickopiyo , I’ve never met or listened to the man debate anywhere. So, I only judge by what he selects to put out here on X and in his recent short read speeches (which I imagine he takes his time to think through before sharing). To his compliment, his tweets are often very well written- hardly any careless language mistakes, and well summarised. But that’s often all there is. Perhaps he could surprise us with a non-scripted interview on national television, just one, of about 1 hour, being asked random questions that require reasoning and EI. We could be very wrong. Perhaps the X character is a malignant impersonator. Perhaps it is us who are not intelligent enough to see the great wisdom in the man’s tweets.
ANDREW MWENDA: It’s not that you lack the intelligence to read and understand the message in his tweets. You are so prejudiced against him (your assumption that he is not intelligent) and this leads your brain to be blind to the message behind his tweets, the intellectual content in them.
SPIRE: But then you realise that, with such an argument, intelligence becomes an arbitrary attribute. I would similarly sophistically argue (by reverse) that you are too close to him and this leads your brain to be blind to the lack of substance in the tweets. But I know that it’s not the way to make an argument regarding a dispute on fact. Speak to the content of tweets and speeches in question.
MWENDA: Since the reverse can apply to my judgment of Muhoozi, I suggest you ask @YusufSerunkuma on his understanding of Muhoozi’s tweets. I saw him on tv giving a much more thoughtful insight on them, their content and meaning. And he has never met Muhoozi
SPIRE: Then again one of us didn’t understand @YusufSerunkuma ’s apparently sarcastic submission. But that doesn’t matter. Even if he affirmed the intelligence in the said tweets, would that endorsement become our yardstick because it’s from Yusuf? Does the presence or absence of sense in a thing necessarily depend on who says it is there? As I said above, that’s not how to argue on a matter of fact. Let the tweets and speeches be assessed on their own merits or lack thereof.
MWENDA: Actually you dismissed my opinion on his tweets arguing that I am suffering from the very confirmation bias I accused you of. So I chose a third party who doesn’t like or agree with Muhoozi. Again you interpret Yusuf’s insights differently from me. Lesson?
SPIRE: You might need to revisit my response then. I simply used the reverse of your accusation to demonstrate to you that it’s not the logical way to argue. I was not providing a standard. I ended by urging you to speak to the tweets and speeches in dispute, not my positionality.
MWENDA: You see Muhoozi’s tweets using lenses tinted with prejudice just as you see mine as tinted by love and loyalty to a friend. But my appreciation of Muhoozi’s intellectual gifts was the cause of our intellectual engagement lasting decades, not a a result of it.
😂😂😂
— Agather Atuhaire (@AAgather) October 14, 2024
You are polluting the discussion
— Jim Spire Ssentongo (@SpireJim) October 14, 2024
It’s below commonsense to understand that you are in a thick monkey – forest situation when it comes to Muhoozi and the whole YKM family. There’s this whole Parternal uncle stuff we keep reading rumours about, your own and your whole family grocery stuff etc. Tulekemu nawe Andy!
— Joseph Akol (@JosephAkol1) October 14, 2024
Earlier today, I had a short conversation with my client, good friend, brother, and, as he likes to say, grandfather, @AndrewMwenda. He forewarned me about his piece in response to my Twitter post.
To his credit, and I suspect respect for our mutual friendship, Andrew has been…
— Nicholas Opiyo (Pronouns He/Him) (@nickopiyo) October 13, 2024
My brother, you are certainly not a good friend. First, you offered your friend as the unnamed character in my musings and kicked up a storm about it. The bees are stinging from both sides. Some have lost their heads.
Secondly, you have to be honest with a friend. The person…
— Nicholas Opiyo (Pronouns He/Him) (@nickopiyo) October 14, 2024
To further a healthy debate, I was initially inclined to respond to @AndrewMwenda‘s article in the Independent magazine about my musings. I wanted to go toe-to-toe with the motor-mouthed scribe, friend, and brother.
But after reading all the comments on social media and…
— Nicholas Opiyo (Pronouns He/Him) (@nickopiyo) October 14, 2024
@AndrewMwenda Am a powerful witness to this testimony over the years,General @mkainerugaba is deeply philosophical,his analysis top notch and above all he is knows our grand vision/strategy.Haters will ignore him at their own peril,he is tried and tested.https://t.co/NvX5hRWMfN
— Michael Katungi. (@MKatungi) October 14, 2024
After reading @AndrewMwenda article in which he responded to @nickopiyo description of Gen MK, it’s high time we look at @mkainerugaba the person, his career and achievements and not judge him by his tweets.
The said upcoming interview his piqued my attention.
— Generational Youth (@Pan_Afr) October 13, 2024
@AndrewMwenda I was coaching the National Men’s Basketball team many years ago. When I first encountered @mkainerugaba . In the years before, on our way to play zone 5 qualifiers in Burundi, we had been stranded at the Burundi -Kigali boarder. Team didn’t have enough funds and… https://t.co/ldAXMZ96vp
— Coach Gad (@Coach_Gad) October 13, 2024
These two scriptures come to mind:
Ecclesiastes 9:11 KJV
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
and,
1 Corinthians 1:27 KJV
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;