Moi and Museveni’s love-hate relationship

When President Daniel arap Moi was negotiating a power deal between Tito Okelo and Kaguta Museveni, there was obviously no love lost between him and the future Ugandan leader.

In fact, one of the most enduring photographs of the Moi presidency was captured on the Kenya-Uganda border with the two presidents glaring coldly at each other, days after Kenyan and Ugandan forces had exchanged fire across the border.

One imagines that Moi was never comfortable with Museveni the revolutionary leader, not when all manner of dissidents were scheming nefarious plots against Kenya.

Yet Museveni was always a State guest at every serious national function.

Museveni, on the other hand, would have been right to eschew an independence leader with little time for ‘revolutionaries’ yet he always went out of his way to show respect for the senior East African leader. Despite their ‘enmity’, Museveni did invite Moi to say goodbye to Ugandans just before the 2002 election.

Uhuru park

When the Ugandan leader visited Nairobi for the chaotic handover of power to President Kibaki, he blasted the riotous crowd at Uhuru Park, telling them to their face that they had no business treating the outgoing chief with disrespect.

First forward to 2010 and Moi was Museveni’s guest in Kampala, where he not only presided over a key political event, but also said he’d known from way back that Museveni was the right man for Uganda.

Unbending steel

So what’s the point? Moi and Museveni probably don’t like each other but each recognises and respects the unbending steel in the other’s back. Deep down, Museveni knows he would never have attempted his tomfoolery over Migingo with Moi in charge.

Thus, if Raila Odinga sat down with Martha Karua for a mug of tea, he might be shocked to learn that the reason the two of them can’t stand each other is because they are cast from the same mold.