“Ndlovu wawili wakisongana, ziumiazo ni nyika.” When two elephants fight, it is the grass that gets hurt. This great proverb, coined by an ancient Gikuyu person, is a truth that few, if any, would dispute. A fight between the powerful invariably hurts those around them. 

When their fragile egos and misdirected ambitions prevent them from choosing dialogue, politicians engage in mud fights that almost always take their supporters down with them. At best, tempers flare and insults are exchanged. More often, the politicians’ supporters engage in hand-to-hand combat, complete with spillage of blood of their imaginary enemies.

Ask them why they are fighting, and they will stutter like preschoolers in a life-and-death contest over a perishable toy. Advise them to cease fire, and they will suspect you of sympathising with their “enemies.”

My view is that the great Gikuyu proverb does not fully apply to human political conflict. “When elephants suffer” omits to say that, unlike human supporters of politicians, the grass is never an active participant in its own suffering. 

Rival politicians have enablers. Their followers fight each other with greater passion than their leaders. Intra-party, inter-party, inter-ethnic and other factional tensions and battles since the 1950s have always had willing foot soldiers. The latter have paid a high price while their leaders have played them like a game of cards.  

In these and other political battles, the human elephants have often settled their differences and even shared the spoils of battle, while their shell-shocked supporters have been left to join new alliances, ready for the next fight. 

Unlike Ugandan political elephants that tend to carry grudges, their Kenyan counterparts have mastered the art of abandoning their fights, shaking hands and breaking bread. Raila Omolo Odinga versus Mwai Kibaki; Raila Odinga versus Uhuru Kenyatta; and Raila Odinga versus William Samoei Ruto, are three fights that have polarized Kenyans, and threatened their country’s survival in recent years. In all three battles, Raila has demonstrated a fascinating capacity for making peace with his opponents, leaving many of his supporters nursing their wounds and mourning their dead comrades. The political handshake has become a well-established addition to the Kenyan political lexicon. 

As I write, Raila Odinga is an ally of President Ruto, the man he accused of stealing the presidency from him in 2022. Thankfully, few Kenyans seem to have allowed themselves to get into physical fights on account of the two elephants' political fight in 2022. It seems that Kenyans learned lessons from the rivers of blood that stained their country in 2007/2008. 

Ugandan politicians and their parties are revving up the engines in readiness for the campaigns for elections next year. Many of their supporters’ emotions are highly charged, ready to fight anyone that disagrees with their beloved leader or party. 

There are questions worth considering before throwing verbal or physical punches against fellow citizens because of political differences. Are there any significant political differences between us? If so, what are those differences? Are there any ideological differences between my political party and the other parties? What are those differences?

Is it not true that my fight with Mukasa is about the political leaders we prefer, not about ideology or policy? For whom do the politicians fight? Is it me or themselves and their families that they fight for? 

Do I know the actual behind-the-scenes relationships between so-called rival politicians? What deals are being made between my preferred candidate and their putative opponent? What, besides a psychological massage of my ego, have I benefited from so-and-so’s election to position X in the last election? 

Am I better off today than I was in 2021, 2016, 2011, 2006, 2001,1996? How much of my personal economic and social progress has been the work of so-and-so’s being in power? How much of my progress has been a product of my purposeful, focused hard work, unrelated to who is in state house or parliament?

I have watched people expend great energy and emotions on behalf of politicians, without any evident change in said people’s personal circumstances. I have witnessed interpersonal intolerance and hatred driven by a difference in political preference. All of it futile for the grass, and lucrative for the political elephants. Wise are they who take a deep breath, assess the substance of alleged differences between politicians, not the emotions that overcome us when we are manipulated by seasoned players.  

In my own constituency of Rukiga in Kigyezi, the campaign for representation in parliament has been in high gear for at least two years. For the most part, the people interested in being the NRM party flag bearers have excelled at giving material handouts directly to voters and indirectly through “donations” to churches, women’s groups, health centres, weddings, funerals, and such. 

My requests to them to share their visions and costed action plans have generally been ignored. I cannot tell the difference between the candidates’ ideological beliefs, their strategies for securing central government funding for Rukiga’s pitifully untarmacked roads, and why the new candidates believe that they will do a better job that the incumbent MPs. 

Interestingly, the prospective candidates who bribe voters most receive accolades from people with post-secondary education. That the MP’s role has nothing to do with provision of cash and material things to us is ignored. That the prospective candidate’s capacity to perform the roles of representation, oversight, legislation, and budget approval is not measured in terms of how much they have bribed the constituents is ignored. Is it surprising, then, that people often get poor representation in parliament? 

Here is a truth you can take to the bank. Politicians will do their thing. Many of them are in it to get the cushy benefits that a Ugandan parliamentarian enjoys. Probably most MPs hardly think about the voters, except as vehicles through whom to achieve personal ambition. They are willing to fight and destroy their opponents. To do so, they mobilize citizens to fight their battles. Elephants trampling on grass that willingly participates in its own suffering.

Wise are they who say no to the invitation to enable the elephants. Let the elephants fight without your assistance. Collateral damage is inevitable, especially from the vicious battle for control of the Ugandan state itself. Though most people will not escape unscathed, let the damage not be of your doing. Do not participate in battles that you neither understand, nor have the power to influence. 

© Muniini K. Mulera