Kagame-Museveni Struggles Recall The Biblical Jacob Who Fraudulently Inherited What Was Intended For His Elder Brother Esau

Paul Kagame is a younger brother to Yoweri Kaguta Museveni not by blood but by an extraordinary life-shaping association between the two men. Kagame, the younger brother followed Museveni’s footsteps to Ntare Secondary School where the two studied. Museveni the elder brother recruited Kagame into the bush war that saw Museveni capture power to become not only Uganda’s president but also the most influential and the longest-serving head of state in the Great Lakes Region. Museveni the elder brother appointed the younger brother Kagame a senior officer in Uganda’s military intelligence. Most important of all, Museveni the elder brother gave the younger Kagame the support and blessing to cross the border into Rwanda, where Kagame subsequently captured power himself. It is hard to imagine a Kagame without Museveni’s blessing and support.

Kagame the younger brother knows that he is a creation of his elder brother, Museveni.

There can be no doubt about the fact that Kagame the younger brother knows that he is a creation of his elder brother, Museveni. For example, on July 4, 2009, Kagame attributed his success to Museveni in the following unmistakable terms:

”Your Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni — you related with our struggle, and stood by us even during the most trying times. Indeed, some of us benefited significantly from participating in the struggle you successfully led in your own country. Mr President, we thank you, the NRM Government and the people of Uganda for your valuable contribution to our liberation effort.”

Museveni’s role in creating Kagame notwithstanding, the younger man turned against his elder brother.

The younger brother sought the crown himself — and for this to happen, the elder brother had to be put in his place. The neighborhood could sustain only one big chief. Kagame-Museveni relationship steadily declined and collapsed due to the fact that the younger man was determined to become the Great Lakes Region’s uncontested influencer. The younger brother Kagame would soon destroy his brother’s armies in DR Congo after the two had co-invaded and co-occupied the country. This happened as the two brothers battled for control of DR Congo’s third-largest urban center of Kisangani in June 2000, leaving the city in ruins and hundreds dead and wounded. The younger brother emerged the victor — Museveni was humiliated and vanquished.

The worst was yet to come, this time inside Uganda itself. By 2012–2018, Kagame had become even more audacious — he had literally seized the top-echelon of Uganda’s security services. In an extraordinary development, the senior leadership of Uganda’s police apparatus served as part of Kagame’s machinery for kidnapping and terrorizing Rwandans and Ugandans alike. In 2018, no less than Uganda’s Inspector General of Police, General Kale Kayihura, was charged for crimes of serving a foreign power, namely, Kagame’s Rwanda. The younger brother Kagame had achieved the unthinkable — he had acquired his brother’s security organs.

Where have we seen this Kagame-Museveni story before? In the Bible, Genesis 27.

Genesis 27 tells the story of the struggle between Esau and his younger brother Jacob. Their father, Isaac, who was getting old, was preparing to declare Esau his heir. To consummate the inheritance from father to the elder son, Esau had to go hunting for the meat which his father would eat and then bless him. But Rebekah, the mother to Esau and Jacob, concocted a scheme to help Jacob, the younger son, to steal the blessing intended for Esau. Because Isaac could no longer see, Jacob simply pretended to be Esau. Isaac proceeded to give his blessing to Jacob, while Esau was still hunting. To Jacob, end justified the means — the outcome excused the corruption committed to attain it. Isaac would not reverse his decision even on learning that Jacob had obtained the blessing fraudulently. That was the beginning of the long struggle between the two brothers that included even plots to murder. Need I say more regarding the present-day Esau and Jacob? What remains unclear is the ending of the contemporary version of the story. So far, Kagame aka Jacob has had the upper hand.