This archive report was first published on 25 October 2019.
On October 9, 2019, Uganda celebrated its 57th Independence anniversary, but the country's capital, Kampala, was preoccupied with a different kind of revolution – a social one.
According to social media data analytics, a young man visiting his girlfriend's home was the most discussed event in the city, eclipsing national independence celebrations and even the homecoming of national athletics heroes Halima Nakaayi and Joshua Cheptegei, who had just won gold medals at the World Championships in Doha.
The event in question was Doctor Hamza's visit to singer Rehema Namakula's parents, which sparked a frenzy of attention on social media. The visit overshadowed the country's national celebrations and even the return of the national athletics heroes, who had won gold medals at the World Championships in Doha.
Rehema Namakula, who had recently parted ways with singer Edirisa Musuuza, better known as Eddie Kenzo, was at the center of the attention. The couple's breakup had been a topic of discussion on social media, with many people expressing their opinions on the matter.
Fiery Muslim cleric Sheikh Nuhu Muzaata even weighed in on the issue, using colorful language to castigate Eddie Kenzo. However, Eddie Kenzo, who was monitoring the visit from the US, replied that his mother had been dead for 20 years and should not be insulted in his daughter's presence.
The public opinion that had been in Rehema's favor started swinging to Eddie's side, eliciting an apology from Sheikh Nuhu Muzaata. However, the city was still grappling with the slow-motion break-up of top city pastor Aloysius Bugingo from his wife of three decades, Teddy, who was reluctant to let go.
The confused public was still choosing sides in the Aloysius vs Teddy breakup and the Eddie vs Rehema show, with both cases filling the mainstream media and breaking the internet in the process.
As the city was preoccupied with these scandals, the senseless murders of people of all descriptions continued to plague the city. If two days passed without news of a murder, people might worry that the killers had devised new methods that took several days to die.
There was even a bigger breakup in one of the country's wealthiest families, with a son seeking a declaration of mental incompetence against his dad to manage his property. The father fought back, sounding extremely coherent, and the court halted some previous orders as it looked into the matter.
Conservative Kampala society was scandalized at what it saw as an attempt to succeed a living person. That is Uganda today; people resigned and fed up of the ever-deteriorating security, no longer bothered with government affairs, are looking into family issues. God help us.
