Yesterday around 6:45 p.m., when the first son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba arrived at the Lugogo Cricket Oval for his birthday party, the crowd rushed forward and climbed up plastic chairs to get a better view.
His arrival wasn't announced on the big PA system, so people spread the word by whispering, like a wildfire, starting with those closest to the entrance and moving out to the rest of the venue.
When enough people saw the man, they started to scream, the kind of scream they use for really famous people. You'd be right to guess that this was probably the first time a crowd of regular people yelled for the first son. His upbringing has kept him away from the general public for almost all of his life.
But there he was, walking around, waving at and talking to people who would never have been within a kilometer of the president's son if not for this strange public birthday party.
A man at the top of the power structure in this country is not easy for young people from cities to reach, like the ones who were fighting at the party for free soda and pilau. But there they were, waving at him and looking pretty scared of how powerful he was. It was possible that for the first time, the man who might be the next leader of this country was inviting regular people to meet him. The seed has at least been planted.
The same familiarization strategy has been used on Twitter, and it has worked like a charm. The tone of Muhoozi's tweets over the last few years and the rough, almost playful, provocative way he talks on Twitter could all be part of a plan to make the public more familiar with the first son's larger-than-life image in order to gain political capital in the future.
Muhoozi is bringing himself closer to the public. You might not like how he does it, but it is happening.
Even though it was free to get in, there weren't many people at the party, even though it had free food and entertainment from the best of Uganda. This was because of the wall mentioned above and also because of the political situation in the country. It's likely to be very different next year and when he turns 50 in two years.
As soon as the General was done waving at the people, the main event began with prayers from both Christian and Moslem leaders. Then the national anthem, the EAC anthem, and the Buganda anthem were sung. From how seriously the party planners took it, it was clear that this wasn't just any old birthday party.
Today's real birthday party is at Statehouse, but the one at Lugogo was a national event, even though it wasn't called that. It was aimed at people like you and me who would never get to go to the real party at Statehouse. You should have seen the toys around the venue to know how serious this was. It was likely a look into the future, as Museveni is about to leave public life for the last time.
If the Muhoozi project is real, the Muhoozi Project went mainstream at the birthday party on Saturday.The views and opinions in this article are those of the person who wrote it, not necessarily those of UgMuzik, which published it.