Following the arrest of political activist and novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, RX Radio Presenter Fatboy has said that the satirist may have purposely been intending to get arrested.
The renowned Kakwenza was arrested from his home in Kisaasi by plain dressed men, after he allegedly took to social media to abuse and insult the Commander of Land Forces Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, also the first son.
Olive Najjuma, a host on The Fatboy show, narrated that this was the second time Kakwenza has been detained, following his first arrest in April 2020 when he wrote a novel called ‘The Greedy Barbarian,’ a satirical and fictitious book that talks about a country with corruption and greed.
Fatboy reasoned that after being arrested for the second time, the critic might prove the assertions that his social media provocations were aimed for the same purpose.
“Some people say that activists deliberately make provocative statements knowing that the insults will enrage the targets and lead to these kinds of retaliatory actions so as to boost their profiles.”
He added, “In activist spaces, I think there's nothing more that adds to your credibility than being persecuted and arrested to be honest. Usually, it makes the activist get invitations to international conferences, win awards and yet there might have been nothing interesting in what they said but because they were arrested, overnight they became heroes.”
He also narrated about a one opposition woman MP who caused a scuffle after seeing that the press cameras were positioned at her, and after the successful altercation, the video went viral making the public believe that the regime is oppressive yet it was clear that the politician wanted to and had gained her ‘moment of glory.’
Olive added, “Other opposition politicians such as Dr. Kizza Besigye and Bobi Wine were accused of causing various alterations such that they would be filmed to please their funders. So, I wonder why the security agencies, knowing this, keep playing to their tune.”
Fatboy answered that the cases call for action by the security agencies because if they don't react, they would be seen as weak by some people whereas the arrest would as well serve the motives of the opposition by making them look oppressed.
More still, he argued that by arresting Kakwenza, Lt Gen Muhoozi amplified the situation whereby people who also didn't know about the critic and the statements he posted will be eager to find out what he said or even add onto his insults.
Nonetheless, Olive insisted that though the statements were insulting and would infuriate even an ordinary citizen like herself, they didn't call for an arrest because they were just words that could or couldn't be true.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, Sarah and Lesham every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.
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