Will do emersonreturn. Kenyans aren’t scared of a fight. They’re brave. I’m very keen to find out how the situation will develop.

Uganda’s elections are happening early 2026. And I’m also curious to see if Ugandans remain docile or if they’ll give Museveni a harder time.

Riots erupted in Nairobi and other places around Kenya last week, when Gen Z went back on the streets to commemorate last year’s demonstrations against a controversial finance bill.

Last year, deeply unpopular President Ruto, his government’s viewed as immensely corrupt, wanted to borrow more money from the IMF but was very vague about future repayment details. Gen Z was not having it and went flag-waving on the streets of Nairobi and around the country. Demos were largely peaceful, but hired goons and criminal gangs caused trouble. Police response was heavy-handed and brutal. Young people died by gunshots to their heads and some were kidnapped, never to be seen or heard from again.

On one occasion, I happened to be in Nairobi’s central business district where their weekly demos took place. Realizing that it was dead quiet because of the planned demos, I was on my way out of the district when some youth ran past me with Kenyan flags draped over their backs. Before I knew, a riot policeman pulled his trigger and a tear gas cannister flew into our direction, ricocheting a couple of times. Tear gas everywhere. I learned my lesson and I’d make sure I knew which day of the week it was before I head to town again. I also took note of a large group of goons (mostly older, angry-looking men) bearing clubs and purple vests, standing idle and awaiting instructions from their political master.

Weeks of demos passed before Ruto (no relation to Rutte) caved in and promised changes to his government. The demos stopped. Now, one year later Gen Z has noticed that little has changed, and that only some cabinet members were shuffled around. Hence, this turn of event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBCUDMpIeuk

It’s deja vu. Whilst Kenya is not on the frontline of this world war, the empire is eager to keep it impoverished and subservient. Whilst I haven’t seen it myself, my wife drove past it and said the US embassy in Nairobi was enormous. Why? Because it serves as the imperial headquarters of course. Here’s a blurb about the US investing millions in strengthening Kenya democracy and civil society:

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fact-sheet-kenya-state-visit-the-united-states#:~:text=Delivering%20Democracy:%20The%20United%20States%20has%20programed,political%20processes%2C%20increase%20women’s%20political%20participation%20and

We know what that really means of course…

We’re back in Kampala and I’m catching up on local news. Museveni’s running for re-election next year. Almost four decades in power and it’s still not enough for this go-getter. “Five more years please!”, “Of what though?”, “Well, poverty and undignified living of course!”.

What’s strange is that there is genuine support for this guy who has been in power before most Ugandans were even born. He brought peace after the last war, some say. Yeah, but he started the last war because he didn’t like the outcome of an election (spoiler: he lost).

There is also support he buys. Apparently it costs only 5,000 Ugandan shillings (about US$1.40) to buy a vote. Or a big sack of beans for the whole family. People deserve the leaders they get… I saw a group of young motorcyclists driving around, playing loud music and waving yellow flags (the color of Museveni’s political party).  I couldn’t help but notice that they were led by men wearing completely black outfits, with black ski masks and sun glasses covering their entire faces. This isn’t the kind of political campaigning I’m used to, growing up in the West. This is a campaign of intimidation.

Speaking of intimidation. Museveni’s son and heir (Muhoozi) scares the hell out of people with his behavior and now infamous tweets (Runyankore is the language/dialect of Museveni’s tribe): https://observer.ug/news/muhoozi-gloats-in-abducting-torturing-bobi-wines-bodyguard-eddie-mutwe/ 

It got so bad, his uncle had to apologize to western ambassadors who were getting concerned… about their investment in the Museveni family. “We’ve opened an enormous imperial headquarters, I mean, US embassy in Kampala. The only future chaos we allow, is the future chaos we instruct you to cause”.

As such, I find it odd that Uganda is a BRICS partner country. Museveni just likes to have a seat on every grown-up table, methinks. At least, Kenya isn’t pretending that it’s all for the multilateral world. It’s leaders are content being occupied.

When Museveni dies, people here believe that his son won’t be in power for long. That some fighting will happen and that someone else or a group will take over. Imagine, these people are expecting something like a brief civil war to happen… yet, aren’t doing anything about it to stop it!

They wish for an Ibrahim Traore, they clamor for Bobi Wine, but do they deserve a good king with this kind of attitude?

In their own words, “we Ugandans are cowards”.

Kenyan youth are different. But I worry they’re easily infiltrated by imperial agents.

This part of the world isn’t on the frontline, but should the empire wish to ignite a fuse here, then it’d be very easy to do so.

Remarkable indeed. Poor woman.

Yes, I saw this item come by too.

President Traore is no fool and understood that this offer was an ideological Trojan horse, so to speak.

Instead, he wisely and politely suggested the Saudis help in a different way that would benefit his people more.

~

On a different note, it is remarkable how President Traore at his relative young age has deeply understood the workings of the so-called Western powers and their comprador allies servants. He’s definitely very intelligent. And brave. He loves his people and country. Therefore, his actions are noble and wise.

I wonder too, where he picked up on all the tricks the Western elite execute to keep African states under their thumb. Was it mere observation plus using his own brain? Did he glean from Sankara and others? Perhaps, reading the Global South website every day? Probably a bit of everything, now that I’m writing this.

Either way, he embodies the return of the good king. Like Solomon or Cyrus, and many others from our collective human history. Perhaps, he really is the reincarnation of someone like Sankara, coming back with a vengeance. A leader like that only comes by once a century for a nation, maybe even less often. We treasure him.

President Traoré is doing excellent work in developing Burkina Faso into a sovereign, wealthy and strong nation. Witness the gigantic absence of any good news coming out of Burkina Faso.

Instead we’re treated with the standard ‘activists forcibly disappeared’, ‘jihadi insurgency’, ‘savior or dictator’ blurbs, as well as the novel ‘gun-wearing sparks concern’.

Such coping. Soon we’ll see ‘Burkina Faso growing at breakneck speed, but at what cost?’ headlines.

Edit:

On closer inspection, I cannot find any footage of these new hospitals. There is mention of mobile military hospitals elsewhere. Oh, YouTube.

Nevertheless, I did find footage of gold bars being produced by the Burkinabé themselves $$$.

“When you’re dumb, you’re dumb forever.”

Well said. Smoothie and some other analysts are quite scathing in their assessment of Arab militaries.

The Arab world does seem to be a bazaar. I’ve been to Egypt once, before the Spring, to visit the Pyramids and I’ll probably never go back again. A lot of the people I encountered were barbaric, uncaring, unfriendly, miserable, proud for no reason, aggressive. It seemed like a hopeless place. I felt sorry for the kind, friendly and decent people I met there. They were stuck as a minority in their own land.

Can you build something solid from a bazaar? From the fluid chaos, mayhem, and cheating?

I prefer the order, organization and the better prices you find in a mega-supermarket!

I’m so sorry about your loss Amarynth. Best wishes, HT

What is odd about all this is that Israel seemed ‘unprepared’ for the attacks by Hamas.

It smells indeed of a ‘Pearl Harbor’ moment, where Hamas was allowed to stage these attacks to prop up support for Netanyahu and detract attention from Ukraine.

At the same time, both Iran and Russia etc have the opportunity to further weaken American and Israeli power and influence in the region.

So it may well be a case of both sides manipulating and attempting to outplay the other.

I’m keeping Amarynth in my thoughts, hope we’ll hear from her soon.

AHH, thanks for your posts. I have to skimread as I just can’t keep up with those blessed with Power 😉