Two Years After The 2016 Elections And Badru Kiggundu Still Has His Woes

After years of serving the country as a politician, CEO or merely winning accolades as a sporting icon, academician, artiste or whatever, many go off into retirement, lounge back and start writing their memoirs. If not, they hit the lucrative lecture circuit.

Rather Than Write His Memoirs, Obote Spent His Retirement Writing Angry Letters On State House Entebbe Stationary That He Had Fled With Into Exile  

Here in Uganda, when former president Milton Obote ‘retired’ in 1985, his life pretty much went into limbo. He didn’t write his memoirs nor did he hit the lecture circuit. Rather, and if I recall an article written back in the day by Andrew Mwenda – I think it was, he said something along the lines of: “He (Obote) seems to spend the best part of his day writing angry letters on State House Entebbe stationary…” Can we have a moment for a sidebar? Of all things Obote could have fled with into retirement, were a stash of State House Entebbe stationary and not his dairy where he documented his reign? Hmm.

Casting back, there are a number of people who sadly, are no longer with us and whose memoirs would have made for good reading. Thomas Katto who was famed for Sanyu FM and International Credit Bank is one of them as is Suleman Kiggundu, (Governor, Bank of Uganda and Greenland Bank), Paulo Mwanga (Military Commission), Idi Amin (President), John Aki-Bua (Athlete), Philly Lutaaya (Musician) and Yusuf Lule (President) to name but a few.          

The Memoirs Of Former Bank of Uganda Governor,Suleman Kiggundu Would Have Been A Good Read 

In the US, many who have held high office or won honours have scribbled their memoirs. Take Barack Obama for example - fifteen months after leaving the Oval Office, he has shed the constraints of the White House and made a start on a lucrative career. Upon his retirement, he set a record for US presidential memoirs by signing book deals reportedly worth over US$60 million with Penguin Random House.

Obama is paid up to US$400,000 for a speech. Since May 2017, he has made paid appearances at events in Italy, Germany, Scotland, Canada, Indonesia and South Korea. He also gave three speeches on Wall Street, spoke at a conference for the private equity firm Carlyle Group in September; and at investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald’s health care conference in October.

Barack Obama Bagged US$ 60m For His Memoirs 

Enter Badru Kiggundu, former head of The Electoral Commission. Ever since he stepped down from the post, little has been heard from him. If we were to engage in some speculation, perhaps he has been ensconced in his home study and working on his memoirs that might be titled: ‘Kiggundu – My Journey To The 2016 Election Victory’. If such a manuscript is in the making, then no doubt, it would be a much sought-after read or would it?

But wait up. Is an in-retirement Badru Kiggundu, as popular as an in-retirement Barack Obama? If Obama went to Sidwell Friends School where his daughter Sasha is studying and during the PTA, he was called upon to take charge of the elections of the schools’ new office bearers, would they be hullabaloo from parents? We highly doubt.

Two Years After the 2016 Elections And Society Has Not Forgiven Badru Kiggundu

Kiggundu was never popular with the electorate during his tenure at the EC. And recently when he went to Gayaza High School, there was an outcry from parents who rejected the motion that he oversee the election process of the schools’ new office bearers. Ouch!

Pictures: Blackpat.org, The Observer, Daily Monitor