It is said that the first casualty of war is truth. The saying makes one think of military confrontations.

And sure enough, in such contests it is easy to see that each side seeks to exaggerate the losses suffered by their enemies while disguising losses on its side. The truth, however, is stubborn. Soon enough it rises from the dead and exposes the liars.

Political campaigns in Uganda usually assume the status of war. Ever since the country embarked on its tortured journey to multiparty politics, or democracy as some would have it, competition between the ruling party and its rivals has never been good-humoured, let alone peaceful.

First, there is always a war of words. Rival candidates direct carefully selected insults at each other, which their supporters are usually happy to amplify.

Then follows the violence between supporters of rival candidates. In the end some are left with broken limbs, swollen faces, ruptured lips, and clothes torn to shreds. Or it may involve “security” deciding to stop “opposition hooligans from causing confusion” or “intimidating Ugandans.” The intervention may leave some dead and others wounded.

Where state agents are involved, it matters little that some people would have witnessed what happened and are happy to tell it as it is. Soon enough their voices are eclipsed by official statements fronting a different narrative.

And so it was that during campaigns for a parliamentary by-election intended to fill the vacancy left by slain ruling party legislator Ibrahim Abiriga in his hometown of Arua in the northwest, Ugandans witnessed yet another episode of truth being murdered.

The broad story, believed by some and ridiculed by others, is that, in the dying hours of the campaigns, “opposition hooligans” confronted a crowd of ruling-party supporters, leading to running battles in some of Arua’s narrow streets.

Then apparently the same hooligans turned on President Yoweri Museveni’s motorcade, shattering the rear window of his bulletproof vehicle. Initial official noises suggested that this was the vehicle the president travels in. It even bore the presidential emblem. Photos were quickly circulated on social media to show to the public the damage the “hooligans” had caused.

But then eagle-eyed commentators started punching holes in the story. There were telling differences in the vehicles being paraded. Someone had been sloppy in constructing the narrative.

And then news emerged that the police had rounded up several lead campaigners for the front-running opposition candidate during “the scuffle” in which the presidential convey had been stoned, and that “one of the attackers was shot dead.”

Politics in Uganda is tribal. It is so tribal that opposing sides will witness the same incident but talk about it differently. One side will seek to use it to tarnish the other side or deny it whatever advantage it could derive from it.

When it comes to something as serious as an attack on the presidential motorcade, however, one senses a certain collective horror at the thought that someone is willing to take political rivalry or hostility that far.

But in this case, while news of the attack on the president or his motorcade was being digested, there was also the issue of the “attacker” who had been shot dead, who, photos circulating on social media were showing, had actually been shot while seated in a vehicle.

The young man, it turned out, was the driver of one of the leading campaigners for independent opposition candidate Kassiano Wadri.

The campaigner in question was popular musician and Member of Parliament Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, who, reports had it, had been alongside other campaigners, most of them opposition Members of Parliament.

So now the state was telling the public that the dead attacker had been attacking something or someone while seated in a car. More sloppiness in the narrative.

And now what could be a major cock-up. There is a counter-narrative to the official line. It claims that the scuffle during which the presidential motorcade was apparently stoned happened some kilometres from where the dead man met his fate, in the grounds of the Pacific Hotel.

It is at the same hotel that winning candidate Kassiano Wadri and senior members of his campaign team were arrested. The police is apparently accusing them of incitement to violence.

The said violence may not be the one involving the presidential motorcade. However, members of the public have already made up their minds that it is. And so they are asking how people who were kilometres away from the scene were the ones doing the inciting.

But incitement is the lesser of the crimes they allegedly committed. The really serious one regards guns and rounds of ammunition apparently found in their possession. For now, the public are taking it all with tubs of salt.

That of course does not prove that they are innocent. Only that the doubters believe the truth has again been murdered. It all smells of war.

Frederick Golooba-Mutebi is a Kampala- and Kigali-based researcher and writer on politics and public affairs. E-mail: [email protected]