Why a peasant father once slapped his son who was a Ugandan Minister

By Steven Masiga

Sometime in the mid-1980s, a peasant father from Bugisu made the long journey to Kampala with one mission: to slap his son, then a serving minister in President Obote’s government.

The minister in question, the late Masette Kuya, was then holding the portfolio for Rehabilitation, though many insiders regarded him as the de facto Minister for Finance. Upon slapping him, the father reportedly asked, “Do you also have a son who is a minister? I have produced a minister as my son.” The incident, though rarely documented officially, has become part of Uganda’s rich oral political history.

Masette Kuya, who recently passed away, left behind no children holding cabinet positions, a striking contrast to his own rise from a peasant lineage to national leadership.

Uganda’s post-independence leadership history is dominated bythe sons of peasants. Presidents Milton Obote, Iddi Amin, and Yoweri Museveni all emerged from humble, rural beginnings—none from elite or aristocratic backgrounds.

Obote grew up in a grass-thatched homestead and once worked on sugarcane plantations in Kenya after dropping out of school. Iddi Amin’s mother was a traditional healer with limited income, unable to secure him placement in prestigious schools. Museveni himself, in his book Sowing the Mustard Seed, describes his parents as subsistence farmers in Western Uganda.

This trend has raised questions: Why haven’t children of elites taken the national leadership mantle in post-independence Uganda? The answer may lie in the political structure and sociological realities of the country. Leadership in Uganda—and across Africa—often relies on mass appeal and grassroots connections. Most of the country’s masses do not reside in affluent neighborhoods.

In fact, many children from wealthy or elite families, despite access to top-tier education, have succumbed to drug abuse, alcoholism, and general disinterest in national service. In Mbale City, I’ve witnessed children from affluent backgrounds abandon professional careers in favor of substance abuse, leaving their parents heartbroken.

Meanwhile, peasant parents who had never stepped into a classroom have raised ministers, generals, and even presidents. The intellectual elites of today are struggling to replicate that legacy.

Globally, revered figures such as Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela also rose from modest roots. Mandela once wrote of stealing his father’s cow to pay school fees—a stark contrast to today’s privileged youth who might steal the same cow to fund a night of drinking.

There is an urgent need for society to help refocus children of the elite, lest we lose generational ground in leadership and discipline. In Kenya recently, I was with the cultural leader of the Bamasaaba when the father of National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula proudly declared that he is the only East African with two children serving in Parliament—Speaker Wetang’ula and Westlands MP Timothy Wetang’ula.

The elites must now rise to the challenge. The ball is in their court.

The writer; Steven Masiga is a researcher based in Mbale | Tel: 0782 231577