Timothy Bukumunhe : Kayihura Should Embrace His IGP Sacking The Way I Embraced My WBS Sacking

Being sacked, is one thing we dread. Robert Maxwell used to own The Mirror, a UK tabloid and the fable goes, when he sacked senior employees, he would subpoena them to his 9^th floor office, fire them but with the utmost reverence then, graciously stride them to the lift to ‘see them off’.

Was Robert Maxwell was a bully and 'sadist'?

The lift however, was a relic with two sets of doors – the actual lift doors and an outer grill door to protect people from tumbling down the lift shaft once it departed.

With Fired Employee in the lift, Maxwell would unleash his coup de grace and bellow down the lift shaft – “you’re going down, you’re going down!” and his bellowing words would reverberate and echo in the lift till it hit the ground floor. He was a tyrant and sadist!

I used to work for Chairman - Gordon Wava that is, at WBS TV. For a while, all went well until we had a ‘falling out’ and I was sacked. Elvis Wava, the then Executive Director at the station called me to his desk and said: “Tim, I got bad news from Chairman – He’s told me to let you go.” I didn’t get what he was on about so I asked: “Let me go where?” Obviously, he looked at me like I was a looney of sorts.

Elvis Wava, Former Executive Director, WBS TV

When the sacking took hold, it was like somebody had walloped the back of my head with a steel sledgehammer, for I hadn’t seen it coming. What am I going to do? How does one get a new job? What do I tell the people in my department and more importantly, those at home? Would Bukedde’s gossip page have that one-word headline that screams: “Bamugobye!” once they get wind of the story? When I pack my stuff, should I head straight home, hang about in town or start looking for a new job? Hmm, instead I made beeline for a stool at La Bella on De Winton Road, and quaffed more than I should have. Luckily, Chairman and I patched up our differences that I was re-hired - but after six months of being on kateebe.

Over the past couple of weeks, three notable people have lost their jobs – Justine Bagyenda, BoU Executive Director of Bank Supervision, Henry Tumukunde, Security Minister and Kale Kayihura the IGP. Of the three, its Kayihura dismissal that sparked the most public interest.

Now That He's On Kateebe, The Stress Veins On His Forehead Are Set To Vanish

Unlike my WBS sacking, Kayihura must have seen his coming. Its not been a good three years for him – especially the last couple of months with a CMI and ISO fallout, dead expatriates in hotel rooms, a simmering beef with Tumukunde, and kidnappings. Another thing, days after I was sacked, Chairman didn't go into a rant and start hurling innuendos that said: "WBS had been infiltrated by a 'bean weevil' and now that it has removed, the station can grow."

Is Kale Kayihura The 'Bean Weevil' That The Man With The Hat Was Referring To?

The Sunday evening Kayihura got fired, I presume that as the news filtered out, he must have immediately turned off his cell-phone to avoid getting calls and WhatsApp messages that read: “Affande, I am hearing lugambo that The Man With The Hat has fired you? Please tell me it’s not true!”

Then the drive back to his Muyenga crib from wherever he was, must have been a long and painful one for it was going to be the last time he sits in the official IGP Land Cruiser - complete with the advance police pick up that clears the road of traffic for him. Worse, he got home to find the police detach that guarded him had already packed and gone.

That Sinking Feeling?

I embraced my freedom after my WBS sacking and Kayihura should embrace his too. I hear he has now started playing tennis at Lugogo, he can sleep in and he no longer has to wear a uniform. The stress veins on his forehead will vanish as will the days of sitting alone like he had no friends. But more importantly, no more 4:00am bunkenke kiboko phone calls from The Man With The Hat!