IT IS STILL PROVING TOUGH for some people to emerge unharmed or free of the mud, grime and glitter that formed the quagmire that was our election campaign process.

As usual, there are many factors that get in the way of ordinary people compartmentalising the political campaign season of their lives and treating it as just that.

A few candidates who didn’t make it chose the path of nobility and conceded defeat before leaving the stage. (Not enough of them have done so.)

Worse, too many of their supporters and campaigners have continued down a different path of emotional carnage, especially by way of social media. 

It is worrying to an extent but not to the levels that point at guerrilla warfare burning down our forests, towns and cities.

Still, it IS worrying because these ARE ‘guerrilla tactics’ being used to rip apart relationships, reputations, and other bits of the fabric we call a society, in such a manner that it will never be repaired.

That may seem harsh but it’s real.

There are too many conversations on social media platforms in which friends and family are going against against each other bitterly because of political differences.

In the past, I have told political ‘friends’ about why the manner in which they engage on these issues needs to be taken into the right perspective.

One pal who I will not name was taken aback when I asked him, in the middle of an insult-ridden argument, what he would do if our children decided to wed.

Think about how awkward it would be, I told him, if your daughter organised a kwanjula (betrothal – an introduction ceremony) and the person she brought into your compound turned out to be the son of the person you vilified throughout 2025 and 2026?

Actually, in most traditional African societies the family was such an important component that it formed the base of everything – the village, clan, tribe and more. In some, it still does, but only when people fully understand it.

In families, wedding ceremonies stand out because that is how they (families) are created and grow.

And during those ceremonies there are always checks to confirm that people have generally been well behaved and will continue to Be Serious even after the official parts are concluded.

The most important part of the wedding ceremonies is that one where the two families get to officially meet each other, because that is what a wedding is about – two families joining up, not just two young people.

And during those ceremonies – whether kwanjula or kweeranga or gusaba or ng’eyo dala (all types of betrothals in different cultures) – there is normally that segment where public questioning takes place.

One question goes: “There is a person in that boy’s delegation who stopped us from giving our cows water at the river one day many years ago. How do we know that this boy will not mistreat our daughter or even stop us from eating at their home when we visit?”

Another one, modernised, goes: “I see a man in that tent who one day drove past me in the rain and instead of offering me a lift he just increased speed and splashed water on me!”

There are others, all designed to reveal the character of the FAMILY of the boy who has come to the home to ask for the girl’s hand in marriage.

Even Europeans had sayings like, ‘Show me your friends’ and ‘Birds of a feather’ that linked to this.

And so, I told my political ‘friends’, consider the way you engage during this period that comes once-in-five-years. 

Do not let it define you for life. Do not become an ogre that spews dirty words and threatens death upon your fellow Ugandans simply because you wear different political colours.

In fact, if we approach this properly then the entire election process would not be such a quagmire, as I called it at the start of this kaboozi.

When approaching wedding ceremonies, everybody is happy, joyful, well turned out, polite and positive thinking – full of hope that something new and beautiful and long-lasting is going to result from the events.

Would that it would be the same with these political processes of ours.

Just as we think of the importance of family when going into the wedding ceremonies, we should think of UGANDA when we go into elections, and the generations to come in future.

That way, everybody would be emerging from the elections with just a slight hangover amid a buzz of the happy memories of the process and getting along to work together for the future of a growing, happier family…and country.