Reverand, go and marry

Rev. Fr. Musaala:
Before his Thursday 21st March appearance on NTV's "On the spot" program, the man of God threatened to tell it all: "there are bishops who have children. I will say everything". I put aside my engagements to watch the program. He did not reveal anything. He mentioned no names.

In fact he said that naming and shaming is not productive. He had nothing to say apart from "I am sorry" and admitted that there was a bit of imprudence, and that he did not mean to publish the document that led to his suspension from official church activities. Well, reverand father, go and marry.

Yet when one reads the document in question, the first sentence shows it is clear it was meant for publication - an open letter. That means the man was telling lies by claiming he did not mean to publish. The way he ends the open letter in the final paragraph is a deliberate call to action - "join me in...".

In retrospect, Musaala comes across as lacking in theological and psychological grounding. He seems to have intentionally shouted about celibacy in order to get some quick media attention - the kind Museveni would call cheap popularity. Musaala being a musician, any kind of controversy is good for him. Indeed he said he has a show on Palm Sunday 25th March.

But if he is really concerned about celibacy, he is in the wrong place. I advise him to leave the Catholic church through laicisation. Let him find a book: The Pelican History of the Church, Vol.3 by Owen Chadwick. Let him get familiar with Vatican Council II.

Musaala, the scriptures can be construed to mean anything to the rationalist. However good a spin-doctor you may be, the one thing difficult to support with the scriptures is sodomy.

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Kenya elections

In Kenya, "tunawezi wait" - a phrase invented for Ballot 2013 - is cool speak for "we can wait" and it was the text sent to millions of mobile phone users during election week. Repeatedly, word went round that this was the most complex election Kenya has ever had.

Actually, it was a rigorous exercise: six election officials gave six ballot papers of different colours to each voter because there was six elections in one (president, senator, governor, parliamentarian, etc). Having ticked the candidate of their choice, the voter had to drop each of the six ballots in a box that matches its colour.

Day ends and the counting starts. It was tense. The function of tallying and announcing the results by the IEBC went like a scripted last funeral rites ceremony of the thousands of lives lost in the previous election's aftermath. It took days, longer than was expected to finalise the tallying of the presidential results. When the announcer invited a choir for another song, the audience was filled with disapproving voices.

One could see the uneasy peace, the calm that was not natural at all. We in Uganda, like many people in Kenya and elsewhere, kept hoping that all goes well and peacefully.

The winner was announced. He got 6,123,433 votes out of 12,330,028 valid votes cast - that is less than 50 percent. The case is in court.

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