Many incidents from Museveni’s six-day walk have been making news in the past few days and latest to this list is a social media video in which frail elderly people are seen kneeling in turns in front of the President right before crawling to a closer presence where he hands them brown envelopes of what seems to be financial aid.
This has not gone down well with most Ugandans and most took it to where they do the most; social media. Most noticeable among these was former Presidential candidate and self-proclaimed ‘People’s government’ President Kizza-Besigye who said that it was a form of humiliation and the incumbent government must immediately go.
“After 34 years of NRM/M7 junta, this is what our people have been reduced to: Kneeling before Ssabagabe (“King of kings”) in a line to get a small brown envelope! We must end this humiliation now,” He tweeted.
Museveni’s walk has morphed into a beggar’s jamboree as this is not the first incidence of the masses asking for handouts. Elderly people have gone on to continuously chase the Presidential motorcade for handouts at every stop of the now popular trek.
In some cases, most end up getting disappointed as the President uses alternative routes. The cash tokens reportedly range from Shs500,000 to Shs1 million and these are being dished out to old people who the President considers to have supported the guerrilla war that ushered the NRM into power in 1986.