King of Uganda, Duke of Ankole ==================== by Drew Ddembe on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 9:59pm In anthropology, the reign of ancient ruling kings is estimated as 25 years per generation. This may extend upto 30 years for modern Kings. As an example one can roughly estimate the age of the kingdom of Buganda by multiplying the number of Kabaka’s (36) by 25 =900 years! King Ghadafi of Libya has been in power for 42 years. Demonstrators want to foul his attempt at beating the 42 year record of King Omar Bongo of Gabon! King Mubarak ruled Egypt for 29 and King Ben Ali for 23. King Eyadema ruled for 33 and was succeeded by his son King Eyadema the second. King Mobutu ruled for 32 years before being deposed. His sons are now back in Congo -in politics! They hope to take power back from King Kabila the second son of King Kabila the first, the dynasty that overthrew the Mobutu’s! In Kenya, KANU was in power for almost 40 years producing 2 kings, King Kenyatta who reigned for 15 years till his death and King Moi who ruled for 24 years. Chief Minister Odinga himself a pretender to the throne from Kenyatta’s days remained a top dog in Kenya’s politics for most of KANU’s reign. All three spawned princes who continue to jostle for power. This spilled over into The riots that resulted in thousands of deaths! King Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea deposed his uncle Marcias Nguema in 1979 becoming King Nguema the second -31 years! His uncle ruled for 11 years. King Mugabe at 85 continues to rule Zimbabwe for now 30 years! King Paul Biya of Cameroun was prime minister from 1975 and president from 1982. In 2008 he removed term limits sparking violent riots. King Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso came to power in a military coup in 1987 -23 years ago. He was justice minister before that. Hassan Bashir of Sudan came to power in a coup in 1989 -21 years ago! 45 year old King Yahya Jameh of Gambia came to power in a military coup 15 years ago and has already stolen at least one election! King Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti succeeded his uncle Hassan Gouled Aptidon who ruled as president from 1977 to 1999 after declaring a one party state. he was first appointed Vice President of the governing council in 1958! King Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia has been in power since 1991 following a civil war! King Isaias Afwerki of Ethiopia has been in power since 1991 after a 30 year civil war during which he was also the leader of his movement!! King Dennis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Brazaville first came to power in a coup in 1979, then lost the first elections in 1992 and came back in 1997. king JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS of Angola came to power in 1979 -31 years following 4 years of civil war! There is also King Kagame in Rwanda with prince Cyomoro training for leadership in the army just like Uganda’s own prince Muhoozi! Kagame has been in power since 1994 following a civil war and just recently ‘won’ another 7 year term in office! Almost all of these life presidents came to power through war or military coups. those who did not succeeded relatives! Almost all of them have ‘won’ disputed elections with margins ranging from 80% to 100%. Many of these men killed their predecessors. Most of these men have amended constitutions of their countries to remove term limits! Most if not all of these men lead impoverished nations characterised by dictatorship, poverty, unemployment and corruption! In the same period of time, the US has had five presidents, the UK 5 or 6 prime minsters, Australia 4 or 5 prime minsters and even South Africa our newest nation 4 presidents including 3 post apartheid! - At the 2010 G8 summit the ages of the G8 leaders were; - Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada 51 - President Nicolas Sarkozy, France 55 - Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany 55 - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italy 73 - Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Japan 63 - President Dmitry Medvedev, Russia 45 - Prime Minister David Cameron, U.K. 43 - President Barack Obama, U.S. 43 Average age: 53.5 If one removes Berlusconi and Naoto Kan of Japan, the average age is 48.7 years! Excluding the president of gambia all of Africa’s long serving rulers above are in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s! the average age of these african leaders is in the high 60′s to 70′s. And may I add that while the leaders of the G8 lead nations with average life expectancies in the high 70′s to 80′s, the longest serving African leaders lead nations with life expectancies in the 30′s to 40′s!!! Museveni of Uganda at 66 came into power in 1986 after a five year guerilla war. He has been in power for 25 years and has just ‘won’ another five year term in yet again another disputed election! He has become increasingly autocratic and his regime is characterised by widespread nepotism, cronism and corruption. His children, brothers, in-laws, and wife as well as his tribesmates are deeply embedded into his government and army. It is widely thought that he is training his son to succeed him just like many of the other long serving African leaders listed above! It appears that president Museveni is in good company! In this term and one can predict his next move by studying the other leaders. Ugandans can expect more chaos and civil disturbance as well as more state repression. Mr Museveni however is determined to hold onto power even if it means killing civilians opposed to his regime. In the next few years Ugandans should expect another amendment of the constitution to lengthen the presidential terms to 7 or 10 years, an amendment to allow him to win with a simple majority and more repression of free speech as well as removing the upper age limit on presidential candidates! Going by anthropologists definition of a reignal era or generation, all of these leaders have ruled for at least one generation. Given that many of them have also displayed dynastic tendencies, they are kings in all but name! Why dont we dispense with the hypocrisy then and just address him as his Highness Yoweri Kaguta Museveni the First, King of Uganda and Duke of Ankole! P.S: I deliberately excluded King Mswati of Swaziland because he is not a king masquerading as a democrat which is what the rest of these kings are!!! ddembe.wordpress/2011/06/21/king-of-uganda-duke-of-ankole/
Posted on: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 12:07:25 +0000