President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni and his daughter Natasha Nyinancwende Karugire have started social media series.
In the conversations, Museveni answers questions posed by Natasha.
Natasha casually makes fun of the president’s pronunciation of words.
In one for example, Natasha tries to lecture her father on how to pronounce the ‘for us.’ With the president saying ‘forass,’ the stage is set for a conversation on the fact that lack of mastery of English language should be a limiting factor for progress.
“I am being harassed by Namagunga ladies about my Kyamate Boys School Native Anglican Church English, which includes ‘forass,’ that it is supposed to be something else,” said Museveni.
“The Namagunga lady is always laughing at me but I hope you Ugandans you can understand what I am saying.”
Behind, and in between the jokes, Museveni seeks to deliver a message of his plan for Uganda, and appeal to different groups of people – the youth, the informal sector, and others.
“Whichever way you speak, because some people don’t speak English at all. The Chinese speak it in their own wonderful way, the Indians speak it in their own wonderful way,” observed Museveni.
“But their society has changed from a society of depending on muscle power to a society depending on intellectual power, intellectual labour – which means the use of machines and skills – and that’s what we want Uganda to be.”
Natasha is into fashion and film. The 44-year-old directed ’27 Guns,’ a movie about her father’s five-year bush war.
Unlike her father who had his basic schooling at Kyamate Primary School, Natasha has gone to the best schools – and is more fluent in English than the president.
When Museveni speaks English, his mother language influence prominently comes out.
And as Uganda’s longest serving president seeks to extend his rule to four decades, her daughter has for weeks been on the campaign trail with her father.
When they retire from meetings with ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party leaders, the two engage in conversations.
Some of such recordings make it online, shared by the president’s social media team.
