As is always the norm, Gen Museveni on the last day of the just-ended Cabinet Kyankwanzi retreat took his guests (namely Ministers and Permanent Secretaries) for an outing on his Ngoma farm in Nakaseke district.
This is always done to inspire the leaders about the four-acre farm model and other great farming practices which the President insists must be adopted by all leaders in their respective areas to amplify the wealth creation campaign which remains the top priority of the ruling NRM party.
While at Ngoma, the President took fellow leaders to farms of some ordinary Ugandans who have made it big in farming having religiously adopted and embraced his advice over the years. One of these was a peasant old man who made it clear he would only be able to explain to Ministers and PSs and respond to their questions in Runyankore because he couldn’t muster enough English words to deliver an effective presentation.
This was in Nakaseke North which, even when it’s in Buganda, is full of cattle keepers whose primary language is Runyankore.The area MP is Nyongore Enock of Gen Museveni’s NRM and had to be present as the big man brought such very important visitors to his constituency.
Actually the other two constituency MPs from Nakaseke are opposition namely Lutamaguzi Semakula and Allan Mayanja of NUP. Nyongore and Sarah Najjuma the Woman MP are the only NRMs.
Back to the Ministers and PSs’ trip: the old man who was hosting the big honorables at his farm politely requested the President to help him translate his message from Runyankore to English which the entire group could understand. He trusted that the President would be capable of summarizing and translating his message correctly.
He made it clear he is the only one whose English prowess he knew and trusted since he didn’t adequately know the rest of the honorables present. Museveni jokingly said it was okay but sought to delegate in order to prove to their host that he wasn’t the only big person in Cabinet capable of speaking both English and Runyankore.
The area MP Enock Nyongore offered to translate only for the President to stop him a few minutes into the translation. The President casually bashed the MP for speaking “Runyankore English,” which would make it hard for the guests to correctly appreciate their host’s message.
The President fired Nyongore and signaled Minister Diana Mutasingwa to do the needful and as she moved to start on the task, the same Museveni put her off saying he doubted she would do any better than Nyongore.
He looked around for someone else and his eyes landed in Alice Kaboyo who he said was actually more appropriate than anyone else since she is the Minister for the Luwero triangle docket under which Nakaseke falls.
Kaboyo started but the guests kept murmuring and protesting with some casually indicating she actually was doing worse than Nyongore who the big man had fired earlier on.The President agreed with the guests’ observation and equally stopped Alice Kaboyo sarcastically asserting that she too was actually “speaking Runyankore English.”
There was plenty of laugher from the guests and this made Alice Kaboyo (who historically served as baby sitter to all Museveni’s children while aiding Janet in exile as Yoweri led the bush war in Luwero) to laugh at herself as the President took charge and personally cheerfully did the rest of the translation.
He insisted this particular model farmer’s message and success story was uniquely important as it had in the past inspired many of his guests from within Uganda and abroad. Unlike during the several retreat sessions at NALI, where he occasionally was tensed up, Gen Museveni was in a largely jovial mood throughout the Ngoma farm outing which actually was the very final activity after which the very consequential retreat came to the very end.