Dear Batman,

This is your revolutionary comrade, SpiderMan. It’s been a long time. How is exile treating you? I am not specifically sure of which state you currently live in; I last heard in 2005 that you were in Birmingham. I miss the analysis and political talk shows that we used to have about the future of Uganda’s politics.

I write to you this letter as my last will to Uganda’s politics because I am not sure my old age will let me see 2026.

Comrade!You very well know that we have lived so much, and golden age is not golden living’. It’s high time we started giving direction to the future. I may not be there in 2026, so kindly save my will and present it to Ugandans.

Batman, what is your view of Uganda’s 2026 General Elections? I see very turbulent and violent youths, right from next year’s campaigns, throughout the electioneering period, and even after the elections.

Batman, you very well know that our faces have been here for so long that many of these young people will be yearning to see new faces. I believe the authorities and the security systems should start orientations and preparations for this period!

I see a very sleepy police force, but very brutal. Oh Batman! We no longer desire a brutal and repressive security apparatus where people are battered, shot dead in broad daylight, imprisoned beyond the prescribed 48 hours (lawyers usually call it arbitrary arrest), or tortured in any way!

Look at the humility that ACP Sam Omara used to control Besigye’s protests in 2010, without a lot of bloodshed. These days, I usually watch our police’s operations and ask myself whether all professional officers like Omara or the late Andrew Felix Kaweesi are nonexistent. The current operations are full of blood, brutality, and torture.

Batman, remember when we used to manage these operations with the late Brigadier Noble Mayombo? He usually emphasized that ‘a professional army and professional police should not go to the streets to batter the citizens, but to protect them’. Regardless of how violent those politicians were, we would contain them in a very harmonious way, which made our operations bloodless, yet we were not as well trained as the officers today and had meager resources. That’s why maybe we didn’t have any criminal and financial sanctions like today’s commanders, who spend most of the time making money and not serving the nation.

Batman, I heard that President Museveni will be on the ballot again. Wow! But I heard this week that the musician is also coming back; I also heard about Project Nandala in the Elgon and heard about Imam Kasozi being fronted by JEEMA; I don’t know about the sick UPC and DP because these days they get everything, including knickers from Museveni.

I’m only worried about the musician because the rest will just be participants without much impact. Even when he has no clear fiscal or political ideas, you very well know that some of his music deeply resonates with a section of the youthful population. In some of his music, he sang about some of our mistakes. You very well know that for the period we have been around, we couldn’t fail to make mistakes; we are not superhuman! And also, there are problems associated with the longevity of regimes that Museveni is still facing even today, for example, the emerging superpower syndrome, where the population suffers atrocities arising from the “order from above” vice.

We were not like this before. I think Museveni should try and break this new vice because it’s almost becoming a culture everywhere and people’s land has been grabbed, justice has been terminated, and public funds have been misused, among others.

I watched a video clip of a young RDC currently in Rubaga, calling it ‘Gamba Noogu’, referring to when people used to drive during the COVID-19 lockdown, and their stickers were phone calls to people in higher places than the traffic officers. Making phone calls at each and every road block. That’s how dangerous the order from above syndrome is.

There is no possibility of an opposition alliance in 2026; I believe that even if talks for an alliance emerge, they are bound to fail. There is a lot of opportunism in the current opposition.

I think you’ve heard that Museveni is currently not on good terms with America and the UK. These are things that he should work out. These countries are not trustworthy; they can give direct funding to the musician, or even when the worst goes to the worst, they can instigate a military coup. We shouldn’t think like ‘a cricket’ that things are very far.

The media these days is irregular and very hard to control, contrary to our times. These days’ information flows faster on WhatsApp, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube compared to even UBC, New Vision, or during the times of Nsaba Buturo and Kabakumba, when these people used to be vocal when passing information to citizens.

I expect to see vibrant and well-nurtured youths during the 2026 elections who will be up to the task. However, the current system is no longer recruiting and nurturing young and vibrant youths like we used to; the least it does is buy off the outspoken critics who have turned out to be dense and not up to the task. Well, I offer Museveni, my son, the lastborn, to help him. My lastborn has just graduated from law school.

On that note, I hope Museveni is running for only one more term, as he prepares for retirement.

I see no problem with his son, who is now a General, but the problem is with the ‘lumpens’, criminals, and ‘bafere’ surrounding him. He is in captivity with these thugs. If the state does dislodge this gang, I’m very worried that intellectuals within and outside the public service will convene to get rid of the ‘bafere-led’ administration and thus short-live the successive government.

Batman, I’m very worried! Look at the whole set-up. Frank Gashumba is an experienced conman, and even at one time he was identified by the Chieftinacy of Military Intelligence (CMI). I believe you remember that story, the numerous stamps he had at his home, and several other bad deals he was involved in.

Michael Mawanda was arrested alongside Isaac Musumba in India for fraud. Some of those bafere MPs you see can do everything for power but not loyalty, and some are illiterate. Find out their academic backgrounds, and you will prove me correct. Some of these things I can’t tell you for fear of leaking them to the public.

Museveni also said at one time that the people surrounding his son have selfish interests, but people didn’t understand him, and some thought he was joking. Mzee is a wiseman; he knows everything, and I pray that he disbands this gang to save our legacy and his personal legacy as well.

Lastly, comrade, it’s been a really long time. I wish you a happy and prosperous new year. I still reside at my usual hill, as you are going to Munyonyo, and I hardly travel these days due to health problems. When you are within, kindly pass by. I am eagerly waiting to hear from you.

Yours truly, Spiderman