“I feel a lot of pain that I can’t explain to you or to someone else inside me. But all the pain comes as a result of enemies who are fighting against me left and right that makes me just find myself in the center squeezed from there. My tears and pains are of a combination of many things that include my property that I have lost include that which I worked for as a musician because fans supported me overwhelmingly and I made some money but now all is gone. I am being fought by many individuals and I know the president’s word is a direct order. I support President Museveni as an individual but I request what he directs, let it be done because some of us who love him we face lots of challenges and difficult times. We are fought side by side and you find that those who don’t support him don’t fight us as much but those in the party play all sorts of dirty games against us” – Catherine Kusasira (07.10.2022).
The running up to the 2021 elections was like nothing else. That’s because of the People Power Movement and the rise of the National Unity Platform (NUP). The National Resistance Movement finally met an organic rise of opposition and within the means of youths who opposed the reign of Museveni. Not the like the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) haven’t been the Leader of the Opposition and rightfully so. However, NUP and People Power came in like a wind and caused a stir.
That stir was met with changes, President Museveni suddenly showed up in the ghettos and acted like he cared for a hot minute. He tried to sway former People Power associates and some he got into his fold. One of them was Kusasira. She went from being on the side of Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine into an appointment of being Presidential Advisor of Kampala Affairs. That happened in 2019 ahead of the 2021 elections.
She was one of the people Museveni purged and got into the NRM. Just to prove that the mass-mobilized party could be relevant for the people that Bobi Wine talked to and was relevant for. That’s why he went for Balaam, Ashburg Katto and others. He appointed them, gave them a role and made them “special”. They became part of the state and was suddenly honourable people.
Kusasira was suddenly one of them. She had a V8 Vehicle, an Office and could afford to buy a mansion. Her place within the NRM was established and she was part of the ruling elite. She could travel with racks-on-racks and even act arrogant towards the Ministry of Kampala and the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). That’s because she could just call President and get vouched for.
Now she is falling short. The money is draining up and she’s not relevant. Kusasira is feeling lost and isn’t in the wind. Her place and role is sort of outplayed. It is nothing she has to offer or relevance for the President. Museveni only needed her for the elections and appointed her to hurt the campaign of Bobi Wine. There was no real love, just like all the other ones who was “captured” or swayed over from People Power. They only did so to damage and possible break the popular rise of the NUP. However, that wasn’t the case and these folks lost their way.
It is tragic that she lost her house and feels betrayed by her own. She chose to be a pawn and pawns never lives long. The king stays the king, but she haven’t done anything to fight or change her role. The only thing she offered was arrogance and betrayal. That’s not valuable for anyone in the long-run. Neither is she a master mobilizer or a people’s champ. No, she’s just another of them. A washed-up musician who got caught in the web of Museveni.
Kusasira made her bed and she now has to sleep in it. Peace.