JAMILA'S MEMO: Uganda - Between Murkomen, Njagi and Oyoo

Well, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen recently crossed the border and campaigned for President Yoweri Museveni in Sebei, Eastern Uganda. I am just wondering — and of course, this is wild imagination — what if President Museveni lost the election? How would the Kenyan government, which campaigned for him in Eastern Uganda, relate to the unlikely new president of Uganda? Would it start with an apologetic note verbal? Luckily, Ugandan presidential elections have produced few surprises in nearly 40 years, so the Kenyan government can safely campaign in Eastern Uganda.

But it was not safe in the Ugandan capital Kampala for two Kenyans — Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo — who crossed the same border to support opposition leader Bobi Wine. Unlike CS Murkomen, who campaigned for President Museveni, Njagi and Oyoo were not safe turning up to support opposition leader Bobi Wine. They were abducted and taken away, and their whereabouts remain unknown. As a regional trailblazer in multiparty politics, Kenyan campaigns in Uganda would have been laudable if it was about exporting the good, not our bad manners.

The Kenyan campaign team in Eastern Uganda shamelessly fronted ethnic ties to a local community there — the Sebei. It was a region-specific assignment inspired by ethnicity, not ideology. It was such a Kenyan outing. One speaker even told the Sebei crowd to support Museveni now and, in 2027, to return home and vote for President Ruto.

And yet, if there was anything to discuss in Uganda, it should not have been the politics of tribe. It should have been the politics of principle. The conversation could have risen higher — to trade, governance, or regional integration. In fact, colours should have been a uniting factor. The yellow of UDA and the yellow of NRM could have been a starting point for ideas.

But instead, we reduced a cross-border moment to a neighbourhood affair — an ethnic performance dressed up as politics. And why didn’t the Kenyan campaign experts explore, say, the Buganda region, where President Museveni’s opponent holds sway?

Meanwhile, as Murkomen’s team campaigned freely in Eastern Uganda, two other Kenyans disappeared in the west — their only mistake being on the opposition side of Uganda’s political divide.

The irony? The same Cabinet Secretary who crossed the border unbothered to campaign for one side now heads the ministry that should be asking what happened to the two men who crossed to campaign for the other.

Sometimes, our politics is not just careless — it’s cruel in its contradictions. Because if it was right for Murkomen to campaign for Museveni, then surely it cannot be wrong for Njagi and Oyoo to support Bobi Wine. Democracy doesn’t stop at the border — neither should accountability.

In biblical terms, this is an invitation to Interior CS Murkomen, who campaigned in Eastern Uganda, to be a brother’s keeper for Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, who campaigned in Western Uganda.