Anitah Among, What Were You Thinking?

Former Speaker of Parliament Anitah Annet Among is once again trending on social media—not for a new achievement, but because Ugandans are revisiting videos of her lavish lifestyle, her public confrontations, and the confidence with which she once wielded power. And one question keeps coming up: Anitah Among, what were you thinking? At the height of her power, Among appeared politically untouchable. She clashed with opposition legislators, made combative public statements, and presided over a Parliament frequently criticised for its handling of dissent. Her critics accused her of arrogance, intolerance, and deepening political divisions. But politics has a cruel sense of irony: the power you exercise today is not necessarily the power you will possess tomorrow. Among's political fortunes have become a subject of public scrutiny, with questions about her relationship with the very political establishment on which she appeared to rely. The broader lesson is that when a political leader places personal loyalty to powerful individuals above the independence of an institution, that institution's authority—and the leader's own security—can become vulnerable to shifting political interests. The videos now circulating offer a striking contrast between the image of a powerful Speaker and the uncertainty that can accompany political power. But the bigger question goes beyond Among as an individual: what happens when a leader mistakes proximity to power for permanent protection? When Among looks back at those moments—at the confrontations, the displays of authority, and the confidence with which she carried herself—what lessons might there be about power, loyalty, and political survival? Because in politics, the people who applaud you at the summit may not be the people who stand beside you when the ground begins to shift. And perhaps the most important question is not simply what happened to Anitah Among, but whether Uganda's political leaders will learn anything from her story.