Impeaching President Museveni is good for the future Democracy of Uganda
18 Mar 2012 6 Comments
in Corruption, parliament
Folks,
Impeachment is not political suicide as some people make it sound. It actually helps the people involved to get some political capital out of it. We know that impeachment in a third world is wastage of time but it elevates the status of whoever is involved nationally and internationally. Already, some international media houses are reporting the attempts by some MPs to impeach president Museveni, and any form of publicity for a politician is better than nothing.
President Museveni, on the other hand, has been made to look like a ‘pharaoh’ in his own state as MPs start an impeachment process on him as president. He knows that he has got the numbers in parliament and he will wither the storm built around it, but he is surely uncomfortable with the whole thing.
If Uganda was a proper democracy, Museveni would have been impeached ages ago, but it is not. We are just learning our ropes, but I welcome the whole exercise and it should be encouraged. It is better than those who pick up arms to fight the president.
Apart from when in April 2009, Ken Lukyamuzi and CP suggested that the president get impeached following the re-appointment of Justice Faith Mwondha as the Inspector General of Government without the approval of Parliament, we have never seen parliament attempting to threaten president Museveni yet he has several times used his office wrongly. His removal through impeachment, even if it will not be successful, should be encouraged.
Seeking to impeach a politician is perfectly legal. It is a statement that the President has done wrong. That is why Impeachment is written into the Constitution .Impeachment itself is not a criminal procedure as in most cases the president is acquitted but being found not guilty doesn’t mean that you are innocent. He is just considered innocent in the eyes of the law and NRMs. Not that this doctrine has any bearing on impeachment which is a political process.
We agree that under clause 4 of article 98 of our constitution that the President cannot be prosecuted for a criminal offence or sued in a civil action in any court. The sole exception being only the case of the Presidential Election Petition but an aggrieved party in any other civil or criminal matter will have to wait until the end of his term of office. The same constitution says the president, vice-president and all civil officers are subject to impeachment, and we shopuld encourage this one. It will keep them on their toes. Museveni will surely survive but what about others?
Bribery and treason are among the least ambiguous reasons meriting impeachment, but the ocean of wrongdoing encompassed by the Constitution’s stipulation of “high crimes and misdemeanours” is vast. President Museveni has turned state house into ‘National Theatre and he surely deserves to go one way or the other.
At the end of this process, Ugandans at least will know that they can remove a president from office by using their parliament instead of thinking of fighting wars in bushes.
Impeachment is about removing from office an Executive who has abused his executive power, who has used his place, position and authority to subvert the functioning, practice and excise of constitutionally guaranteed rights. For instance, the constitution does not give the president the right to give a directive that the police should investigate a certain politician as we witnessed with Besigye in 2010 over some comments he made against the president. This is the work of the IGG not the president. As an advocate for future democracy in Uganda, i wholeheartdely support the impeachment, and i think you should too.
Like I said, impeachment is a political process and it somehow hurts any leader in power one way or the other both in the short and long term. It is a sign that a certain section of people are dissatisfied with what you are doing and want you out.
Trust me, president Museveni would not like a vote on him to take place in that parliament and his people are secretly working around the clock to make sure that this impeachment only stops with words from vocal MPs. His PR people are also working around the clock to make sure that the media houses in Uganda don’t make a meal out of it. It is not an issue they want to be given too much publicity. So, you won’t see a lot of articles about this published in the main newspapers in Uganda.
In USA, the first official impeached was Senator William Blount of Tennessee for a plot to help the British seize Louisiana and Florida from Spain in 1797. Judge John Pickering of New Hampshire was the first impeached official actually convicted. He was found guilty of drunkenness and unlawful rulings, on March 12, 1804, and was believed to have been insane. Three presidents were seriously threatened with impeachment. The first, Andrew Johnson, escaped conviction in the Senate, and hence removal from office, by a single vote. The second, Richard Nixon, aborted the process by resigning. Nevertheless, that resignation was forced by the looming spectre of impeachment. The third one was William J. Clinton, the forty Second who was impeached but also survived the senate vote.
NRM MPs don’t need to save the president in parliament if they feel that he has done wrong. For instance, Clinton was impeached on two counts, grand jury perjury and obstruction of justice, with the votes split along party lines. The perjury charge failed by a vote of 55–45, with 10 Republicans voting against impeachment along with all 45 Democrats. The obstruction of justice vote was 50–50, with 5 Republicans breaking ranks to vote against impeachment.
Similarly, I pray that some NRM MPs just do the right thing here even if president Museveni is the party chairman. I really hope they do. For once, I want to see the parliament shake the executive but I guess I’m just day dreaming. This is Uganda where parliament is actually owned by the executive. They control it by ‘remote control’, but impeachment is a good thing for future democracy.
Abbey Semuwemba
Current Justice Minister,Otafiire, Should release the contents of the CIVHR report
28 Jul 2011 3 Comments
in history, Legal issues, parliament, Politics, Presidency
Dear Ugandans,
A lot of atrocities have been committed against Ugandans since independence and this subject is dominating almost all debates among Ugandans on a daily basis. The real problem is that we have never had a real truth and reconciliation commission to help put certain questions to bed. More so, it would have helped if the current Uganda government had released the findings of the Commission of Inquiry into Violations of Human Rights perpetrated from 1961 until 1986. The Commission’s role was to inquire into “the causes and circumstances” surrounding mass murders, arbitrary arrests, the role of law enforcement agents and the state security agencies, and discrimination which occurred during that time.
Justice Arthur Haggai Okelo Oder.
The commission was chaired by Justice Oder and it was also supposed to suggest various ways in which we were to make sure that such human rights violations did not happen again in our country. Nevertheless, going by what has happened so far since 1986, it looks we shall need another commission for the period NRM have been in power. Apart from Oder, the other five commissioners were: John Nagenda(NRM),Dr. Edward Khiddu-Makubuya (now NRM),Dr. Jack Luyombya(NRM and he was in the bush with M7),John Kawanga( Neutral but I guess he is now NRM),Joan Kakwenzire( Women advocate and historian). I think the current Vice president, Edward Ssekandi, was also part of the commission.
Dr. Makubuya was not affiliated with any political party in 1986. He valued his Yale academic credentials so much then that he did not feel the need to join anything that might taint his good name. Remember, he had got a 1st class degree in Law at MUK before he went to Yale on a scholarship. He was just lecturing at MUK at that time, but he later joined the NRM after the findings of the commission. Mukubuya also later became the Minister of Education and Sport in Museveni government. I don’t know what he is up to now since the cabinet reshuffles this year.
Others like Naggenda John and Luyombya were later given heroes medals by the Museveni government. John Nagenda and Joan Kakwenzire later also became one of the many of Museveni’s special advisors (‘’NKUSIBIDE AWO KASITA NKUSASULA’’ meaning ‘’I have tied you there, after all, I pay you’’). Naggenda has also been keeping himself busy with his regular Newvision columns but I wonder what he exactly does in terms of being productive to the nation at the moment.Oder died of cancer in 2006 and he was among those judges that agreed with Besigye that the 2006 elections had been rigged.
So, I doubt whether any of these people can help us access the contents of that report. They have all been given positions that don’t allow them to say anything bad against the govt. But the guys in the media should help us please to dig the contents of this report.
The then Minister of Justice, Mulenga, who appointed the Commission in 1986, promised that the government would not bury the findings of the Commission. So, we can still push the current minister of justice, Kahinda Otafire, to release the report to the media. Ugandans deserve to know what is in that report. I believe that the Uganda Human Rights Commission have got a copy at their offices but I wonder how the rest of Uganda can access it. I’m sure it has got a lot of revealing information that could be interesting to read, and also help us find a way forward. The Danish embassy has also got a copy because they sponsored some of the commission’s work. But it’s up to us to demand that the government releases the official copy of this commission. However, I sometimes wonder why the current Opposition MPs do not pick on these issues and raise them in parliament. Ugandans deserve to read what was put in this report.
The report was tabled in October 1994 but I’m sure it’s one of those time and resource wasting projects governments in Africa don’t take seriously. As a result, we are all in darkness about some things that happened in our country’s history. I understand that Museveni’s heart is/was not in this commission. He introduced the Amnesty Commission before the 1986 ‘’Truth and Reconciliation’’ commission had finished their job. The commission lacked both political support and adequate funding.
Some people have been asking me why Muslim leaders are not bothered with finding out the atrocities that happened to fellow Muslims in the past but this is not true. Muslims are also searching for answers just like any other Ugandan. Muslims have been kind of disorganized and divided since independence such that it has been difficult to bring them together to discuss matters of importance to their community, but they have started sorting this out slowly.
Muslims have been killed under different regimes but it is very difficult to gather all this information together to bring it into the public domain. All Uganda’s leaders, apart from Iddil Amin, have been dividing and using Muslims to achieve their own political aims, but with more organization and unity, Muslims will eventually put a stop to this nonsense.
For instance, there were some Muslims killed in Bushenyi district and president Museveni mentions this in his book (Sowing the Mustard Seed) on page 113. Museveni said that there were killed by fellow villagers who had been incited by someone whose identity was known. Museveni does not mention the name of the villager in his book though he gives this as one of the examples why Godfrey Binaisa had to be dislodged from power.
Imaam Iddi Kasozi also presented a paper at the Uganda Muslim Youth Assembly (UMYA) in 2008 and he talked about human rights and the murder of Muslims in Ankole and Arua. We saved the contents of this paper on the link below if anybody wishes to read it:
I wish more Muslims present this data to us such that we keep it on records instead of dying with all this knowledge. The Torch Newspaper has also been conducting weekly interviews among the Muslim elders in Uganda to help us gather information here and there. I don’t know if they have stopped doing this as I have not seen any more interviews posted to us for a while, but I reckon they were doing a good job, and they should be supported.
Byebyo ebyange
Abbey.K.Semuwemba
Presidential Age Limit Should Be Scrapped From The Constitution
24 Jun 2011 6 Comments
in 2010-2011 elections, Africa, parliament, Politics, Presidency
Dear Friends,
I may sound a bit weird on this but I think age limit should not be applicable to leaders born before the computer age. This is something i have been thinking about for a while. In all honesty, I find it awkward to ask an African man their age because most of them don’t know when they were born exactly. Just look at our African footballers in the premiership, some of them look older but you find the media here in the UK reporting their age as in 20s. Every time I used to watch Kanu( Nigeria footballer) on the pitch- when he was playing for Portsmouth, I used to see an old man in his late 30s but the media reported something less than that.
I just wish people lay off age limits as far as presidency and the current generation of African men are concerned. Most Africans don’t know when exactly they were born. So there is a possibility that president Museveni may even be younger or older than 63. The reason for ending Museveni’s perpetual presidency should not be based on his age but on his ability to lead the country. As far as I know, Museveni should not have stood for presidency in 2011 because I think he has lost the credibility to lead the country but I would not pin this on his age or something like that- because it’s kind of a useless argument.
No wonder, age is literally becoming even useless in the western countries as I have seen kids here who are supposed to be 16 years old but they look like they are in their mid 20s. Age should not be a determinant for the presidency, and I think it should be scrapped from the constitution for now. Let’s just restore presidential term limits but leave age out of it. We are Africans and most of us don’t know when exactly we were born.
The reason why I’m saying that it should be removed temporarily is because we have got people with leadership ambitions but they don’t know when they were exactly born. So, the more we keep it in place, the more we force people in this category to either keep unnecessarily deceiving us about their age or finding ways of changing the constitution to protect their rights. This article or whatever about age limits for presidency makes our constitution to look a bit unconstitutional, i.e. it is discriminating people who don’t know their DOB yet it was not their fault. I’m surprised there is no lawyer who has gone to the courts yet to challenge it.
It is not like here in the developed nations where every child born or dead has got to be registered with the registrar’s office. Even ladies who have still birth have to register such babies. One cannot burry them before they are registered. So the issue of DOB is easy for them here in developed nations- unlike us.
In Uganda, people manufacture birth certificates on Nasser road when some people request for them because they don’t have any and don’t know when they were exactly born. It is only kids who have been born in this computer age that will be ok with age limits in the constitution but not people in our generation. For instance, that baby whose mother was pregnant and she was shot during the ‘Walk to work’ protests, he will know his age because it is in every computer in the world. I think some Ugandans on the Ugandans At Heart(UAH) forum nicknamed him ‘RISASI’’ if my memory serves me right. But what about guys who were born when the only thing governments in place were interested in was how to murder Baganda, Westnilers and keeping themselves in power?
Yes, I know there is a risk of some people misusing this well intentioned gesture but that is a risk we gonna have to take to protect the spirit of constitutionalism in the country. We should not look at this issue in the Museveni angle alone because with him, he can change or bring any articles he wants in the constitution regardless of what Ugandans want. This plan is merely meant to save the very constitution we are trying to protect from some form of unconstitutionalism.
Some people have accused me of suggesting this for the benefit of ‘my boss”(whatever this means). First of all, President Museveni is not my boss because he never brings any cent on my account. Actually, he has never brought any cent on my account.
Secondly, there is nothing novel or radical about this idea of scrapping presidential age limit. People who came with the 1995 constitution reportedly consulted people during CA before they came up with all this stuff we are reviewing now, but I can tell you right now that nobody consulted me or any of my friends. So I don’t know what they based on to come up with some stuff in the constitution. If you ask me, I would tell you that Uganda has got a good constitution but some things need to be reviewed, and I think this is one of them.
It was selfish for the parliament to remove presidential term limits and I think they should be restored, but age limit should be temporarily put to bed and rest.
Abbey
BESIGYE POLITICAL SHOW IN THE USA WAS INTERESTING
10 Jun 2011 3 Comments
in 2010-2011 elections, FDC, luwero war after 1980 'theft', Museveni and NRM, parliament, Politics
Dear friends,
It was interesting to watch Dr.Besigye on straight talk, a political show moderated by Shaka Ssali, a Ugandan working from Washington. The show showed that Besigye has eventually come to learn that Uganda presidents are decided from Washington not Kampala as he used to think. I’m happy that Besigye followed my advice (if he read it on UAH) and decided to keep that ‘’white thing’’ on his arm because it makes a big political statement to anybody who meets him or sees him on TV. On the show, the Uganda government was represented by Mr.Nyago Kintu, the Deputy private secretary to president Museveni , whose picture I initially mistook for that of a lady when I had just switched on TV to watch the program. For those of you who missed the show, I’m going to pick up a few pointers which I generally found more interesting:
Partisan Electoral Commission
As expected Shaka Ssali started his questions to the panelists by asking both of them about the just concluded presidential elections. If I was giving marks, I would give Besigye 80% and Nyago 30% in the way they handled their questions. Without wasting time a lot of time on a piece of meat because it will make the soup cold( as Baganda say), Shaka Ssali asked Dr.Besigye why he keeps calling the Museveni government ‘illegitimate’ yet the president overwhelmingly won the elections with almost 70%.
Besigye responded by saying that elections were not free and fair and that FDC have got empirical evidence to show this but they intentionally decided not to go court anymore. He said the current Electoral Commission (EC) was appointed by Museveni and can sack it any time he wants. He continued to say that all the three elections he has participated in since 2001 have not been free and fair, and the court records are there for everybody to say. He said:’’ all judges of the Supreme court unanimously agreed in 2006 that the elections were not conducted according to the law…………. what divided them was what to do with the election, and they based on this to uphold the election which was totally a contradictory decision’’.
Besigye also verified that he was already a supporter of UPM and Museveni before the 1980 elections in which DP was rigged out by UPC. He said he knew Museveni and UPM had no chance of winning the 1980 elections because UPM was set up a few months to the elections, and the party did not even have a recognized national network. He said that he believed in Museveni as a genuine leader at that time but he never immediately followed him in the bush when he declared the war against the Obote government.
Just to emphasize this point, Besigye clarified that when Museveni rejected the results that were released by an EC that was chaired by a supporter of UPC, Besigye agreed with him though it was not the votes of UPM that were stolen.
He also emphasized that he does not regret the decision he took then to later join Museveni in the Luwero bushes to fight the then government. He, however, said that he has not considered such a decision for the last 10 years he has been opposing museveni. Everything he has done has been within the law. On the contrary, Besigye said: ‘’Museveni violates the constitution whenever it suits him’’. For example, he quoted a statement made by Museveni while he was addressing a press conference at Rwakitura where he said: ’’Besigye will not demonstrate in Kampala’.
Kintu Nyago, on the other hand, said that the EC is an independent body whose members are appointed by the president but they have to be vetted by the parliament for approval. He said that in USA where the show was being held, judges are appointed by the president but it does not mean that they are partisan. At this point, Besigye interjected and said: ‘’ the USA president has no powers to dismiss any judge as it is the case with the people at Uganda EC’’.
Kintu Nyago continued to say that the elections were free and fair and that Besigye is just a sour loser. He quoted the European Union and Africa Union (AU) reports that verified the 2011 election as free and fair. He actually said he respects the opinion of the AU more since ‘it matters most to me being an African’’. At this point, Shaka Ssali came in to say that he has also read both reports and they indicate that the political field was not leveled especially if one reads between the lines.
Retired Justice George Kanyeihamba
Kintu asked Shaka Ssali to verify his statement, and at this point the later said that he had hosted retired Justice, George Kanyeihamba, on the political show about a couple of times and he said the same thing as Besigye for both 2006 and 2011 elections. ‘’Kanyeihamba said that the 2006 elections would have been cancelled if one Joseph Mulenga had not settled for a promise of a job by president Museveni in the Africa court’’, said Ssali.
Kintu then roared with accusing Kanyeihamba of being another sour man because he wanted the Africa court job himself. Kintu also asked Besigye what the FDC MPs are doing in a parliament yet the Museveni government is supposedly illegitimate. Besigye responded to this by saying: ‘we are engaged in a struggle that is not going to end through one course of action. So our people are in parliament to use this platform to further the struggle. For example, walking out on the president when he was giving the state of the Nation Address, was one of our ways of demonstrating’’.
Besigye concluded his exchange with Kintu by giving him some simple advice:’’ Museveni has two images. I was able to see his contradictions much earlier than others possibly because I was his doctor in the bush. The new ones, who have just joined him, like Nyago, may be hanging on to an artificial Museveni’’.
At this point, Ssali Shaka asked Besigye what he was exactly doing in USA, and Besigye said that he had come to seek consultation on the injuries he suffered during the attacks he had experienced by brutal soldiers on several occasions. He also said that he intends to meet various members of the Obama administration to discuss the issues in Uganda. He revealed that he had already met Assistant Secretary, John Carson, and several other US State Department officials.
Besigye also indicated that he has been talking to members of the media in the USA. For example, he had a meeting with the editorial team of the both the Washington Post and NewYork times, and everything went well.
The show basically ended with some phone callers from Sudan, Ghana and Tanzania, all of which despised President Museveni for what he was doing to the opposition in Uganda.One caller requested him to stand down.
Just a point of correction to Mr.Nyago: it’s true that the Constitution of the United States of America specifically states that federal judges are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. However, in some states, judges are appointed by the governor or Senators. For example, in Michigan, every eight years, delegates and senators in the General Assembly must vote on whether to renew or reappoint judges.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
United Kingdom
Mwenda and his Team selectively applied the Kotter’s Model in their Analysis of Besigye’s Performance
13 Mar 2011 3 Comments
in 2010-2011 elections, Corruption, Economics, FDC, IPC, parliament, Politics
Dear Ugandans,
I like the owner of the Independent Newspaper, Mr.Mwenda Andrew, but as of recent, he has been either soiled in the banana or ‘bogoya’ republic or he has accidentally lost his touch. He nowadays tries so hard to impress those with power yet he used not be that kind of person. Anyway, let me try to use my little time and respond to some of the issues published by his editor, Weere, in his article entitled: ”How Museveni gained 10% and Besigye lost it” , views which Mwenda seems to have supported at Capitalfm political show immediately after the elections.
‘’Did Besigye make Ugandans want a change from Museveni desperately? There are three questions that answer this according to Kotter’s model’’ His paper, the independent, reported or asked.
Kotter’s model is mainly essential in transforming organizations rather than implementing changes or showing the urgency for change. Jick’s tactical ten step model is the one that deals with implementation while General Electric (GE)’s seven-step change acceleration process model deals with showing the urgency for change. I have attached a pictorial version of the Kotter’s model below to this message. Clearly, anybody can manipulate it and make an argument either in favour or against the opposition in Uganda as the Independent did, but im not gonna do what Mwenda and his team did. I’m just gonna show that some of these theories are not applicable in a situation such as Uganda.
Kotter's Model
One of The major lessons from the Kotter Model is that change process goes through a series of phases, each lasting a considerable amount of time. So how does Mwenda expect Besigye to ‘win over outside stakeholders like other opposition leaders, the army, foreign diplomats and governments’ in a specific period of time in a situation , like that in Uganda, which does not allow change to take place any level. The way Uganda is now it is impossible to get rid of Musevenism evenif Museveni died today or lost power in an election.
Mwenda’s team rightly quotes Kotter’s model which explains that Creating short-term wins motivates employees during a long change effort, but he wrongly looks at the short term wins Besigye failed to have as :’’failure to dislodge the Electoral Commission(EC), opposition coalition, et.c. These should not be the short term wins to judge any political leader because all those were not in Besigye’s control. He could not have done more than he did before the elections.In any case, Besigye’s short term wins should be those wins he had in both 2001 and 2006 elections before the 2011 elections. I also think Kotler was particulary looking at managers of organisations who seem to be in control of the situations around them, which was not the case with Besigye. Nevertheless, I think Besigye’s failure to win the youths in elections was his own making, as this was in his control and we pleaded with FDC executive to persuade Besigye to come up with a song that would conteract Museveni’s ‘Mpekoni’, but all in vain. There was some bit of excitement created among Ugandans including myself- by listening to Museveni’s rap.
It seems that “change” is just poorly understood by some people, based on misinformed assumptions or some management theories, poorly executed or all of these. Besigye was expected to meet resistance at all levels of Kottler’s model by trying to bring change to the institutions he does not control. Besigye does not control or appoint the EC, so what better could he have done to get the EC disbanded? What better could he have done which he has not done before to win the army support? What better could he have done than what he did to unite the opposition and bring the Baganda to his side?
There were some people in the population who saw/see the need for change but they don’t want it out of fear and survival. For instance, some Ugandans fear that president Museveni will plunge our country into violence if anybody, other than him, wins an election. As Lewin( 1958) explained change happens if Ch = f(D x V x P) > Co. Change (Ch) takes place if the Dissatisfaction (D) with the status quo, multiplied by a Vision (V) of the future, multiplied by agreed Processes (P) that remove obstacles blocking access to the desired state is greater than the Cost (Co) of change. The way things stand change cannot come to Uganda through so called elections because the ground for free and fair elections is not there at all. There are some countries in East Africa,particulalry Kenya, that have moved a step to better elections because the institution such as the EC are fairy independent.There is nothing like a Kenyan president appointing the head of the EC as is the case in Uganda.Rigging in Kenya might have ended with the Kibaki presidency going by the way the Kenyans have set up their system now.
Therefore, when one deeply analyses all these theories, one finds that Dr.Besigye actually tried to do exactly what the models are telling managers of organizations to do. He could not have done it in any better way. Those criticizing him now have got their own intentions but could not have done better. Most of these management theories are a fallacy when it comes to practice and I normally compare them to love making between a man and woman. Theoretically, everybody has got an idea on what they are supposed to do in the process of lovemaking but practically the results tend to differ among different couples. So, it would not be wise for any of us to go on a blame game just basing on theory without looking at the reality of the situation.
Money in the campaigns
Money is a big factor in any election anywhere in the world. A candidate with money has higher chances of winning the election. The returns from such an investment are undisputable. However, president Museveni clearly used national coffers to campaign and that itself is not only illegal but it is immoral. It was a clear sign that the incumbent was not ready to hand over power and was willing to operate outside the law to achieve his aims. That’s why some of us called this election a ‘remote control’ election where the incumbent was capable of ‘organizing the event, choosing the dancers and master of ceremony’ throughout the process, with the inner knowledge that the situation was favoring him more than his opponents.
Opinion polls
An opinion poll is something that should be taken seriously in any free and fair election. I’m saying ‘free and fair’ because I don’t think this was the case with the just concluded presidential elections in Uganda. For instance, in USA, during the first two years of the Reagan administration, information from opinion polls was discussed in more than half of the senior staff meetings of the White House. Richard Wirthlin, the pollster met with Reagan more than 25 times just to discuss polls.
Actually, almost all USA presidents had their own pollsters: Roosevelt had Cantril, Kennedy had Harris, Johnson had Quayle, Ford had Teeter, Carter had Caddell, Reagan had Wirthlin, while Nixon used most of them. This is because the opinions of the population are something that leaders of the developed nations take seriously before they make any decision.
But in Uganda’s case, with or without opinion polls, president Museveni is not bothered with the opinions of the people of Uganda. For instance, removing presidential term limits was unpopular policy among Ugandans, even within his own party, but he went ahead and removed them. He has been sending our troops to fight on foreign soil regardless of how people feel.
So what is the meaning of holding opinion polls in an environment where the incumbent has got no respect for people’s opinions? So the Afrobarometer polls might have been a reflection of a society that is still caught in fear and survival rather support for president Museveni. Secondly, opinion polls tend to be manipulated by some leaders depending on what they want out of the situation, and they tend to do it differently. For instance, In the 1970s, Harris and Gallup were the giants of the polling industry. Because of their prominence, they attracted Nixon’s interest and became prime candidates for attack and manipulation by the administration. Therefore, I would not be surprised if president Museveni or his team had a hand in the Afrobarometer polls one way or the other, and may be that is why the opposition did not take them seriously and ‘’ buried their head in divisions’ as reported by Andrew Mwenda and his team. Who can blame them, anyway?
The truth is that we shall never know who genuinely won the 2001, 2006 and 2011 elections because the ground for elections was not free and fair. Yes, Uganda is not like Belgium for us to have totally free and fair elections, and this alone is enough for us to discard all arguments made by some people showing that Museveni won the 2011 elections fairer compared to the 2006 elections- just because there was less violence in them. Text-book theories, such as those put forward by Mwenda and his team, are totally inapplicable in this case. We cannot work out the percentage of rigging based on assumptions of violence and nonviolence when the ground for free and fair elections was not there in the first place.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
NRM has beaten the opposition in the ‘’rigging’’ game again
12 Jan 2011 6 Comments
in 2010-2011 elections, Corruption, FDC, international, IPC, parliament, Politics
Dear friends,
So the NRMs are up to their old tricks once again. In the face of near-certain defeat in the parliamentary race in some regions especially in Mbale and western Uganda, they have reportedly managed to convince or rather bribe some FDC candidates, to drop out of the race which is so sad for democracy in Uganda. Most Ugandans I have spoken are resigned to the fact that these elections are a already a sham because they wont produce a proper outcome. An election with only one viable candidate is not the ideal situation in a democracy, and I think NRM prefers to only compete with itself than anybody else. In other words, these bribery allegations portray NRM as a party that fears free and fair elections. Certainly a competitive election is more desirable than a non-competitive one, all things being equal, but NRM has ensured that Ugandans don’t get this feeling as long as they are in power supported by the state apparatus.
I know FDC have gone into a debate with the Electoral Commission over the legality of withdraw of a candidate but my understanding is that the law as it stands favours the NRM tricks , and a candidate that has dropped out cannot be replaced since the deadline has passed. Nevertheless; since our parliament is very good at passing emergency bills during election time, such as the controversial traditional leaders’ bill that president wants passed before the end of these elections, they should in the same spirit find a way of legislating against this bad spirited move by the NRM that involves threatening and bribing opposition candidates to withdraw from the race. The electoral law should be amended such that withdraw is only acceptable in case of the death or incapacitation of the candidate, for example, or perhaps the candidate’s withdrawal due to the grave injury or death of a parent, spouse, or child, or some other traumatic personal event.
Either way, I can see the FDC ending up with a short end of the stick because the Electoral Commission seems to unanimously agree that these sleight-of-hand tactics by NRM officials pass legal muster, despite the ethics and morals involved in an election.
So once again, the NRMs have managed to flagrantly find a loophole in the electoral laws which they have used to their advantage. The only possible candidate who has so far reportedly managed to resist their bribery tactics is Mr.Francis Atugonza who was allegedly offered shs.1.5b to withdraw from the race by one of president Museveni’s son’s in laws, and he turned it down. What a rare bird because I cannot see so many people in Uganda turning down that kind of money in the name of democracy! I can bet that there are even some in the opposition who are wondering whether Atungonza is really insane or not!
By the way, these cunning methods have happened before elsewhere in the world and I’m blaming the legislators and the opposition not to have foresighted this in advance such that they bloke this loophole in time before the elections. For example, in 2005 USA west Virginia elections, Thomas Esposito withdrew from the race citing the ill-health of his mother-in law but the real reasons surfaced later showing that his candidature had been planted by the FBI to help find evidence of vote-buying in Southern West Virginia.
In 2004 Afghan presidential elections, the Los Angeles Times reported that some presidential candidates in the race against Karzai were requested by the then US ambassador to withdraw from the race, with attempts to bribe them with cabinet positions.
However, the real questions we should ask ourselves are: how did we reach this level? How did we let NRM become a party full of crafty people ready to pervert the democratic process, and not only get away with it but come up smelling like roses? How do they manage to use tax payers’ money to do anything they want as if they own everybody in Uganda? How do they get people to give them a pass for tactics which should have been despised by every sane voter in Uganda? The sad note here is that NRM has beaten the opposition in the ‘’rigging’’ game again as we wait for more withdraws from the opposition before the end of the elections.
Byebyo ebyange
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
UK
Dr.Gilbert Bukenya Was Simply Shown a Copy of the Animal Farm
18 Sep 2010 16 Comments
in 2010-2011 elections, Buganda, Corruption, IPC, Museveni and NRM, parliament, Politics, Presidency, Tribalism
Dear readers,
Following the end of the NRM primaries, I would like to congratulate president Museveni as one of the brilliant political brains Uganda has ever produced because he managed to get rid of one his future opponents in his vice president, Bukenya Gilbert, without firing any bullet or anything like imprisonment. President Museveni has ended Bukenya’s political ambitions in the most extra ordinary way possible which may not bruise him (the president) that much and I’m still shaking my head over it. What a genius!
Gilbert Bukenya
There is no way the current Secretary General of NRM, Amama Mbabazi, could have beaten Dr. Gilbert Bukenya in any fair and free election unless if there was some underplay somewhere. Obviously, I’m basing this on Mbabazi’s previous abysmal performance as the Secretary General of the party. However, I remember watching a YouTube video where Mbabazi laughed off Bukenya’s challenge in simple words, and some of us called him arrogant, but maybe he knew something we didn’t know. Actually, the Observer newspaper went with a big headline about Mbabazi Vs Bukenya for the Secretary General, and it was all arrogance throughout.
I therefore made a prediction sometime this year that Bukenya was going to win the post of Secretary General but I had underestimated the powers of the ‘remote control’ in this process. I apologize to the Vice president, Bukenya, if he got a snooze about it and also got excited about the whole thing. The way I see things now is totally different after the NRM primaries and I would never rule out Amama Mbabazi or anybody from becoming my president in the post Museveni era.
Now, let’s face reality: If Bukenya was told not to stand against Mbabazi before the delegates’ conference but he insisted and lost, what does that say about NRM? It means that there is a ‘remote control’ – controlling everything in NRM, and this time the button ‘BG’(Bukenya Gilbert) was not pressed. Somebody decided that this is the best way to dump him, and to be honest, I think he is gone after this.
Bukenya’s Life after NRM primaries
This is my simple prediction as far as post Namboole-Bukenya is concerned: He is going to accept the results and move on, just like Honorable Ssekikubo(Lwamiyaga) did. He will accept the advice from the Animal farm: ” All men are equal but some men are more equal than others’. Probably he may be consoled with some simple post somewhere if he does not wreck the boat or make too much noise but we should accept that Bukenya’s political ambitions are over. If he is maintained as the vice president, it will be because he is a catholic and there wasn’t a single catholic elected in the top five powerful NRM positions. Honorable Kaddunabi Lubega (Butambala) and honorable Sempijja (Masaka) were also among those ones that were humbled using the NRM ‘’Super’’ Electoral Commission and now I think they have leant their lessons. Sometimes I wonder what is going in these guys’ minds!
If anybody wants to enter that parliament, they better run to state house and get endorsed by president Museveni. I think his hands are everywhere and my hats off to him. You become stubborn, he will always find a way to humble you which my Rwanda friend I hosted for Iddil Fitri called ‘MUSEVENI’S DIPLOMACY’ which he wants president Kagame to borrow as far as his enemies, the Nyamwasas, are concerned. The same diplomatic skills have worked on the Kampala Mayor, Alhajji Nasser Ssebagala, and now he is singing ‘long live Museveni’.
Amama Mbabazi,NRM Sec Gen
Baganda in the NRM
It’s also wrong for some people to blame all this jiggery and thuggery we witnessed in the NRM primaries on Baganda delegates who did not support Bukenya. Baganda in the NRM are not as powerful as some people think. They control nothing and if you control nothing, you cannot control an election. NRM have got their way of doing things which has got nothing to do with any particular tribe. Somebody is controlling everything on a remote control and I think this is the time to think twice about the whole 2011 election thing because the opposition may be wasting their time.
Bukenya did not lose because of what he uttered about Buganda riots and CBS last year. There are those Baganda in NRM that didn’t approve the closure of CBS and condemned the riots but the ‘remote control’ again did not want them on the scene, and so they are gone. For instance, Brother Hajji Kadunabi was shown the one way ticket out of Butambala, and also got disqualified to stand against Alhajji Moses Kigongo for the post of vice president. In simple terms, he was also shown the copy of the ‘Animal Farm’?
If a man controls the system in Africa, then he controls the elections. If you control nothing, you cannot determine the outcome of an election in most developing countries. As things stand, Ugandans should be prepared for anybody to become their president starting with 2011 elections. As for me, I will be watching a film entitled ‘Remote Control’ while eating popcorns with a cup of tea in next year’s elections.
Byebyo ebyange
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
United Kingdom
Mengo makes their Big ”Political” Statement since their fall out with NRM
10 Jun 2010 9 Comments
in 2010-2011 elections, Buganda, FDC, IPC, kingdoms, parliament, Politics
People,
We should not get overexcited over the joining of politics by former Mengo ministers till when we see some changes in the Badru Kiggundu Electoral Commission (EC). NRM will still win big in Buganda and other parts of the country in 2011 as long as the EC remains as it is. Several people are going to be forced to stand on NRM ticket in Buganda basically because this is the only way they can go to parliament despite the fact that they don’t like NRM. For instance, two former Mengo ministers: Mr.Muyingo and Mr. Nsamba are standing in Bamunanika and Baale County respectively on NRM ticket yet their intention is to fight for Buganda interests in the next parliament if they get elected. There is also a lady, whose first name is Faridah, intending to stand as MP in Ntenjeru South as NRM yet she is believed not to like NRM, but she was told that she could only go through if she stands on NRM ticket.
NRM will still have the majority in the next parliament and President Museveni will remain president after the 2011 elections as long as the EC remains as it is. All those in the IPC,DP,PPP,………….. know it, and that is why they are putting their bodies on line almost daily to get some reforms in the EC. Unfortunately, the state has unleashed the police and the army on them to ensure that the status quo does not change. I really feel for those IPC women, like FDC’s Ingrid.T, who are harassed by the police every time they try to demonstrate against the EC on streets. Eventually, they will give up because of pressure from their husbands or partners. Ingrid, for example, is a mother and wife, and I don’t think her husband is happy to see his wife being humiliated by the police daily. Nobody wants that.
A friend of mine in Uganda once told me that Nambooze won because they (NRM) let her win, but it will not be the same in 2011. Actually, I watched Ofwono Opondo on NTV-YouTube after the Mukono South elections saying almost the same thing. The fact is that if there are no changes in the EC, it’s going to be difficult for the opposition to protect their votes in 2011. That is a given. DP- Mao is also likely to de-campaign the DP candidates willing to work with the IPC, and Nambooze falls in that category. They have already started a smear campaign against them.
All I know is that, when the Kabaka asked people a few weeks ago to go and register, it raised a lot of eyebrows among the NRM camp, and I think that was the beginning of Mengo’s involvement in the 2011 electoral process. The crossing of the former Katikilos to the IPC and the formation of the Ssuubi organisation was just an icing on the cake. I heard that there were a lot of people queuing up to register after this mobilisation by the Kabaka and this kind of scared the rigging machine and I suspected that Dr.Kiggundu would not give any more extensions after this, whatever the situation on the ground. The IPC leaders are also partly to blame for telling people that they will boycott the elections such that people became reluctant to register in time after that announcement.
The most important thing in all this is for the opposition to combine their forces together before 2011. Candidates from Mengo need to work with the IPC if they want to achieve something in 2011. IPC must think of various ways of counteracting the rigging machine because everything so far shows that NRM is again ready to rig this election. In other words, I cannot see the numbers changing in the next parliament that much if the opposition remains in this fragmented state where Mao’s DP faction is now campaigning against fellow DPs, IPC and Suubi instead of NRM and Museveni.
Lastly, there is nothing like a”no go” area for any political party in Uganda. FDC was created in 2004 but it’s so far the largest political party after NRM, with several candidates in different parts of the country. DP was formed in 1954 but it has only got candidates in Buganda region. NRM was formed in 1981 after Professor Yusuf Lule joined the then UPM headed by Museveni, and Lule became the chairman and Museveni his vice, but NRM has now got candidates in almost all parts of the country including the north. It also replaced DP and UPC in the west among the Bahiru and Bahima.
DP will remain strong in Buganda as long as there are few Baganda in FDC because people still look at FDC as a party for westerners, yet this is not true. You could say that NRM is also looked at in the same way but because they are in power, they can attract a lot of ‘NFUNILAMU WA?” (Selfish and greedy Ugandans) into their party. Once NRM are out of power, that will be the end of them. They have committed a lot of mistakes such that if anybody is to write a big book about them in areas of elections rigging, corruption, murders, tribalism and nepotism, it can sell like a hot cake, and trust me, people will do.
So basically, some Baganda still look at DP as a Baganda party because all their leaders ever since it was formed have been Baganda till recently. The election of Mao as the DP president is likely to force some DP supporters in Buganda to vote for the IPC candidates rather than those fronted by Mao. Some of these IPC candidates who may benefit from this situation are likely to be DP (minus Mao) or FDC. So we are likely to see some FDC candidates in Buganda in the next parliament. Secondly, I don’t think DP have got strong structures in all constituencies in Buganda such that any party is capable of benefiting from this. FDC have now got structures in almost all parts of the country, but most importantly they have got money to sponsor all their candidates if we are to take Besigye’s announcements seriously.
I think Ugandans do not elect people basing on their parties but they do so because of their personalities, tribes, qualifications, and religion. As such, Ssemujju nganda will stand in Kyandondo on FDC ticket but people will only vote for him as Ssemujju Nganda not because of his affiliation with FDC. This will be the same for every candidate who intends to stand as MP anywhere in the country. Multi party politics has not yet sank in among Ugandans but we shall eventually get there. If FDC can source out strong Baganda candidates to stand in Buganda, then they will do just fine in Buganda. There is nothing like a ”no go” area in politics. I had a dream the other time when Lango had become an NRM stronghold, and i think one day Lango will be switched to another party other than UPC.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
IPC Should not Boycourt Elections but Increase Parliamentary Numbers
22 May 2010 8 Comments
in 2010-2011 elections, FDC, federalism in Uganda, parliament, Politics, Presidency, Uncategorized, UPC current politics
Dear readers,
I will never support anybody who boycotts elections in Africa because our African dictators don’t care whether the opposition is involved or not. As the Baganda say: ‘OMUZIZI AZIMBYA TWE NGA TWELILA‘. President Museveni will be so happy if the opposition boy courts the 2011 elections and I’m one of those who hate the kind of opposition that keeps a smile on his face. It’s actually one of the painful reasons why I have got a problem with Bwana Mao Norbert at the moment because his entrance into the presidential race has kept president Museveni smiling all the time. I’m totally sure that president Museveni has been smiling ever since Mao was elected as president of one the DP factions.
Mao knows that he cannot singlehandedly win the 2011 elections but I assume he is looking at 2016 where he assumes that he will have more political capital compared to his opponents. But I want to remind Ugandans that whatever will be happening in 2011 presidential elections will be the same story in 2016 when Major General Muhoozi(1st son) gets endorsed to become the NRM flag bearer. The only difference in 2016 will be that gates will be opened to all ambitious young men and women who wish to drive Uganda forward as most of the oldies will retire. For instance, FDC’s Anne Mugisha has already declared herself available for the FDC Presidential post , but I expect Major Mugisha Muntu to be around the scene again after losing out twice to Dr.Besigye. I also expect Winnie Byanyima to enter the race to succeed her husband as FDC president. So 2016 will be a very interesting year for many of us inishallah.
Nevertheless, Mao is being naive to think that he will be the only youths, if being youth means being in late 50s, who will be shinning in 2016. I know for sure that within DP itself, Erias Lukwago, has got presidential ambitions, and I’m still wondering why he did not stand for DP president in the recently concluded delegates conference. I guess it was because he takes the Mbale conference to have been organized illegally since it was not called by NEC. Among NRM, like I have already said, Major General Muhoozi, will be on the scene whether Ugandans like it or not. In UPC, we expect James Akena(Obote’s son) to bounce back though I don’t see him ever becoming the boss of that party in my life time, because UPC is rebranding itself away from Oboteists. So I will throw my coin on more youthful faces, like Robert Kanusu and others abroad.
As for 2011, as long as Norbert Mao is still playing in the hands of Museveni, the IPC should concentrate instead on increasing their numbers in parliament rather than wasting time on an already rigged presidential election. I think everybody can see it now that Mao has already helped Museveni win the 2011 elections. Those who are dreaming of a rerun should forget it. What Ugandans need to do is to punish bwana Mao in future when he starts knocking on their doors asking for votes.
For the meantime, I request all the IPC leaders who are still interested in politics to find a constituency to stand for parliament, with the exception of whoever will be chosen as the IPC flag bearer for 2011. This will help them increase their numbers in parliament after the 2011 elections. Personally, I would like Dr.Besigye to be the IPC flag bearer such that we say good bye to him for the last time, and we also expect him to use his popularity to help the IPC candidates in all local elections to be held. Therefore, Let Olara Otunnu(UPC), Kibirige Mayanja(JEEMA), Ken Lukyamuzi(CP) and Michael Mabikke(SDP) all go and stand for parliament somewhere. Actually, they should be already on the road campaigning in their respective constituencies because there is no time.
Meanwhile, i wish the Mengo administration finds a way to work with the IPC to sort out the candidates needed to stand in Buganda. Mengo should not do a Mao on IPC to work alone- because that will turn out to be constly for them. These things need a lot of money and a strong network for any candidate to succeed and that’s why Mengo needs to combine forces with the IPC. Mengo should secretly contact the IPC leaders to sort this out as soon as possible.They should all work together like they have done in Mukono north elections where Nambooze was endorsed by both the IPC and Mengo. Obviously, there are going to be some stumbling blocks like Beti Kamya who has got some personal wars to settle with some leaders of the IPC, but this can be sorted out amicably. Somebody needs to whsiper in Kamya’s ear not to ‘rock the boat’ for selfish reasons. We have seen enough of selfish politicians in the kast couple of years.
Byebyo banange
Abbey
FDC under Besigye have tried their best ever since they were formed
17 Apr 2010 2 Comments
in 2010-2011 elections, FDC, parliament, Politics
David Cameron and Dr.Besigye
Dear Ugandans,
I wish to say that the responsibility for promoting and defending the democratic rights of the Ugandans rests more heavily on the political parties than any other sector of the society. However, before the emergency of Dr.Besigye and Reform Agenda which later allied with other pressure groups to form FDC, Uganda has been a country without serious opposition politics since 1986. FDC have worked very hard and under very difficult conditions to form some form an opposition to Museveni’s rule, and the election of Besigye again as their presidential candidate after a transparent process, elevates them to a new level of internal democracy. Whether this FDC internal democracy later transpires into wining the hearts and minds of Ugandans, we shall wait and see though it has happened before in other places of the world. For instance, the mobilizing power of the pro-democracy opposition was important for shaping democratization in Hong Kong from 1984 to 2000. This power, tempered by the level of internal unity and the ability to capitalize on external political opportunities, was important in garnering public support.
The role played by the political opposition is vital to the health of any democratic political system and particularly within local government. Minority groups not only have the task of challenging, criticising and holding the administration to account, but also articulating and pursuing community interests and opinions, as well as offering the electorate an alternative set of policies and personalities.
Constitutional opposition
There are basically two types of opposition: The constitutional opposition and political opposition. The constitutional opposition consists of all those institutions provided for by the constitution to serve as a check on the Executive in the exercise of the enormous powers at its disposal. These institutions would include the Judiciary, the Legislature, the political parties, electoral commissions, et cetera.
Uganda presently operates a presidential system of government and the Constitution is accordingly tailored along the broad principles of the separation of powers. The constitution clearly defines the powers of the three branches of the government. It is obvious from the provisions of the 1995 Constitution that the legislature is the most potent arm of government to guard against any act of executive recklessness. But the legislators we have got are now in the hands of president museveni since NRM has more MPs than any other party in parliament. Whatever museveni wants to be passed through that parliament, he gets. He even boosted of this on the front page of the monitor on 9th June 2008 in regard to the recent controversial land bill. Surely, he is acting like that because he knows his conduct can never be reviewed by any other person or authority in the country.
In today’s Uganda, there is little separation of powers between the three branches of government and therefore, we have lost the surest guarantee and the most effective instrument against abuse of power in a democracy. The MPs have got powers over all executive and administrative departments of the government but I can bet that some MPs are not even aware of what is in that constitution. They just come into that house, sit for hours, shout Museveni wants this and that and demand for the pay cheques at the end of the month.
So let us agree that the constitutional institutions are weak to check the excesses of the executive in Uganda and this means there is less constitutional opposition in Uganda. It is no surprise therefore that president Museveni has gone overboard in his wanton abuse of power. Just like most dictators, he is not satisfied with powers vested in him by the constitution. He goes about acquiring more. In the process he is destroying all the mechanisms the framers of our constitution put in place to safeguard the principles of checks and balances. That’s why we always hear him saying I’m gonna sort out the judiciary now that the police and parliament have been put in order. By the way, who can today argue in Uganda that the judiciary has not been sorted out by Museveni considering the fact that new judges are nominated by the office of the president? Consequently, president Museveni does not appear to need the approval of the Legislature to spend public funds. For instance, I was surprised to hear one of the commentators on internet based radio Ngoma saying that the UPDF budget is never made public and therefore the president can always tap into UPDF money for his own purposes. The president has also made other unilateral decisions such as the order to bail out businessmen like Basajjabalaba and others.
The judiciary has also been put on pressure to become a victim in the serial abuse of power by the executive through acts of bribery and intimidation. It is today completely subdued and now does the biding of the Executive. A majority of the Judges uncritically and invariably hand out major verdicts favourable to the government in any dispute. For example, the two cases filed by Dr. Kiiza besigye immediately after the 2001 and 2006 elections required strong minded judges to order for the repeat of those elections because there were not free and fair, but their judgment came out indicating that one side were thieves but did not steal enough to be prosecuted. Last year, Besigye and his fellow members under IPC then submitted electoral reform proposals to the government but parliament has not even debated them up to now. Now under the circumstances, it will be very difficult for anybody to beat Museveni in 2011 because he has got the current Electoral Commission as his insurance policy.
By far the greatest case of abuse of power by the Executive has been the misuse of the state apparatus – the Police and the Army. The president can order the police and army to do things which would have been handled differently. For instance, the police are under orders to watch whatever the opposition leaders say to the people during rallies. Besigye was recently attacked by a man while on a rally in Madu but the president(Executive) just brushed it off by saying that Besigye brought it on himself.
In the NRMO itself, president Museveni has made sure that those that oppose him are thrown out of the party immediately. He is being helped to implement this by the likes of Ofwono pondo and group. With his support, his cronies organized the successful removal of Bidandi ssali and Group from the NRMO executive when they opposed the 3rd term project and now every one in the NRMO is singing Museven Yekka . Basically, the constitutional opposition has been weakened massively by Museveni despite the unselfish efforts from FDC and Besigye to always keep Museveni on his toes.
Political opposition
On the other hand, the political opposition consists largely of civil society organizations such as organized labour, the press, employees’ organizations, religious organizations, student’s associations, and such other interest and lobby groups. Most of the groups that fall into this category have been inactive apart from the press. Religious leaders such as ArchBishop Lwanga and Sheikh Obedi Kamulegeya have just started making some noise on certain issues but most of them have been ordered to keep quite on political issues. The press has been on its sick bed since the closure of CBSfm and it will be totally dead if the proposed Press bill is passed. Student organisations in institution such as Makerere University have been weakened so much such that even the few demonstrations organised end up in disaster.
Overall, living conditions have become worse especially in rural areas but I’m yet to know why president museveni wins in rural areas. The economy is not that good as opposed to the figures presented by Investment authorities. Unemployment is growing by the day and infrastructure is fast collapsing. Even the CHOGM roads and newly constructed northern bypass are losing it, while the security of life and property is deteriorating on a daily basis. Most of the money is being siphoned overseas while the rest is being wasted on foreign junketing and satisfying the desires of thieving officials. For instance, why would anybody spend a lot of money to buy Russian jets when people in Kangulumira town have only got just two petro stations to give them jobs? One time a Ugandan diplomat was caught with a lot of money on the Airport on his way to London? President Museveni’s administration is a failure in most respects. Even the much displayed so-called war on corruption is half-hearted and selective.
I respect DP a lot as a party and there are probably the 2nd favourite opposition party after FDC in the country. DP has also achieved a lot as a party including some constitutional battles. However, president Museveni only respects constitutional battles when he wants to or by the intervention of development partners/donors as was the case with multipartism. Secondly, however much I respect Mr. Norbert Mao as a person, I don’t think he is capable of changing anything for Uganda under the present environment. That’s why I ask those under IPC to give Dr.Besigye a chance such that he takes us to another level that will allow any Ugandan to freely participate in politics of our country.
Byebyo ebyange.
Abbey.K.S
Why Can’t MPs Impeach President Museveni?
16 Apr 2010 9 Comments
in 2010-2011 elections, FDC, international, Legal issues, parliament, Politics, Presidency
Dear people,
The expulsion of two MPs from FDC was overdue and it may be interpreted differently by some people but I think it was the beginning of something new in Uganda politics: nobody is above the law in the country, and that is why today I would like to move this debate from those two MPs to the impeachment of the president of Uganda himself.
Apart from when in April 2009, Ken Lukyamuzi and CP suggested that the president get impeached following the re-appointment of Justice Faith Mwondha as the Inspector General of Government without the approval of Parliament, we have never seen parliament attempting to threaten president Museveni yet he has several times used his office wrongly. His removal through impeachment will be imperative to the survival of the nation.
We agree that under clause 4 of article 98 of our constitution that the President cannot be prosecuted for a criminal offence or sued in a civil action in any court. The sole exception being only the case of the Presidential Election Petition but an aggrieved party in any other civil or criminal matter will have to wait until the end of his term of office. The same constitution says the president, vice-president and all civil officers are subject to impeachment though there is significant disagreement on this issue.
Bribery and treason are among the least ambiguous reasons meriting impeachment, but the ocean of wrongdoing encompassed by the Constitution’s stipulation of “high crimes and misdemeanours” is vast. Abuse of power and serious misconduct in office fit this category, but one act that is definitely not grounds for impeachment is partisan discord. Several impeachment cases can confuse political animosity with genuine crimes.
Nevertheless, I happen to think that any president who commits a felony should be fired, ie, impeached. Seeking to impeach a politician is perfectly legal. It is a statement that the President has done wrong. That is why Impeachment is written into the Constitution .Impeachment itself is not a criminal procedure as in most cases the president is acquitted but being found not guilty doesn’t mean that you are innocent. He is just considered innocent in the eyes of the law. Not that this doctrine has any bearing on impeachment which is a political process.
Ugandans need to be educated that they can remove a president from office by using their parliament instead of thinking of fighting wars in bushes. Impeachment requires a majority vote of the House .This is one of the reasons why the opposition need to put a lot of effort in winning all grass root elections instead of just concentrating on the issue of the joint presidential candidate. If either Mao,Otunnu or Besigye fails to become the joint presidential candidate under the IPC, he should go and stand for parliament somewhere else to help boost the number of opposition MPs in the next parliament.
A vote by the parliament is a form of censure which should be encouraged every now and then to punish the offender, and give relief to the citizens of Uganda. A President should be impeached for high crimes or misdemeanours, regardless of his popularity. If having been elected qualified as a defence against impeachment, almost no president would ever be impeached.
Impeachment is about removing from office an Executive who has abused his executive power, who has used his place, position and authority to subvert the functioning, practice and excise of constitutionally guaranteed rights. For instance, the constitution does not give the president the right to give a directive that the police should investigate a certain politician as we have recently witnessed with Besigye. This is the work of the IGG not the president. For God’s sake, under what Law did the president use to ask a radio station to apologise for hosting Dr.Otunnu.
In USA, the first official impeached was Senator William Blount of Tennessee for a plot to help the British seize Louisiana and Florida from Spain in 1797. Judge John Pickering of New Hampshire was the first impeached official actually convicted. He was found guilty of drunkenness and unlawful rulings, on March 12, 1804, and was believed to have been insane. Three presidents were seriously threatened with impeachment. The first, Andrew Johnson, escaped conviction in the Senate, and hence removal from office, by a single vote. The second, Richard Nixon, aborted the process by resigning. Nevertheless, that resignation was forced by the looming spectre of impeachment. The third one was William J. Clinton, the forty Second who was impeached but also survived the senate vote.
NRM MPs don’t need to save the president in parliament if they feel that he has done wrong. For instance, Clinton was impeached on two counts, grand jury perjury and obstruction of justice, with the votes split along party lines. The perjury charge failed by a vote of 55–45, with 10 Republicans voting against impeachment along with all 45 Democrats. The obstruction of justice vote was 50–50, with 5 Republicans breaking ranks to vote against impeachment.Similalry,NRM MPs just need to do the right thing here evenif president Museveni is the party chairman.
Therefore, the expulsion of Beti Kamya and Onzima from FDC displayed the first kind of ‘impeachment’ process among party politics which should be extended to the national level if we are to strengthen discipline in all organs of the government.
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
Will Bukenya’s political career end with PAC or not?
11 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
in 2010-2011 elections, Corruption, parliament
Dear readers,
Dr.Bukenya or Mahogany as he is normally called by some people is a political strategist like Museveni. He knows when to knock an egg shell to prepare himself an omelette. He has survived several political traps and he is likely to survive this one of PAC too.
Bukenya’s allies in NRM
By going to PAC and say that he will tell them that it was the president himself who authorised the doggy cars, he was basically trying to shake up the strongest ally(President Museveni) of his political opponent,Mbabazi. He was also basically telling Ugandans that no doggy deals go through in the cabinet without prior knowledge of the president. The president can therefore choose to use his faithful contacts within NRM such that PAC backs off from him or he does some political damage to the president.
In response, President Museveni sent his errand boy,Tamare Mirundi, to serve Dr.Bukenya some dishes of chilli and ”kantunkuma” at the same time. That was the time Mr.Tamare used to give press conferences that were meant to belittle Dr.Bukenya in public without anything of a substance. I think this war between them is still going on as we recently saw Tamare’s press conference where he said that something like -some cabinet members donate money to Mengo to make themselves look good instead of standing collectively with the cabinet position on CBSfm closure and Mengo. Obviously, he was referring to Bukenya’s shs.20 m donation to Mengo as his personal contribution to the restoration of the Kasubi tombs. What Mirundi did not know at the time was that even Professor Nsimbambi(PM) was also planning to donate some money(shs.10m) to Mengo after Dr.Bukenya.
Antorney General and Bukenya
Asking the AG’s opinion on the issue was meant to show Mbabazi that he is not the only one with allies within the government and NRM. It is now very clear that Attorney General (AG) and the speaker of parliament are some of the allies Dr.Bukenya has got in the government. The question is: are both worth as allies compared to Mbabazi’s ally- who is the president of Uganda and Chairman of NRM.
Playing a waiting game with PAC and telling them to contact his office was meant to show them that he is the vice president of Uganda and therefore he has got some powers. It was more of a show off than anything else and he later realised that it was a mistake. He later realised that parliament is the strongest legislator in the country and can therefore be used by his enemies to impeach or defame him. That’s why he has sought audience with PAC again to put the record straight on things.
Bukenya and Mengo
Bukenya’s tactical game is not yet finished. He has realised that he was sincerely used to attack Mengo after the closure of CBSfm in the name of the so called cabinet position, because he(Bukenya) lost some popularity in Buganda after that. He should never have opened up his mouth against CBSfm whether they was an agreed cabinet position or not. I think he opened his mouth out of panic or something. Now, he is trying to regain his lost political ground in Buganda and among the catholics by making some amends with Buganda in time of need. For instance, like ive already mentioned above,he has donated shs.20m towards the reconstruction of Kasubi tombs. He also gave a different cautious message during his Easter speech after Bishop Lwanga asked the government to give Buganda federo. His position was also not as rhetoric as that of Museveni . Museveni has already reiterated his earlier position that Buganda should accept regional tier, not anything else.
I don’t think that Bukenya can win his battles against president Museveni but he is capable of leaving a permanent damage on NRM if he is not handled carefully because he has clearly got supporters within NRM that believe in him , including our own Ahmed Katerega Mussazi. So i predict that he will become the NRM’s next secretary General if his enemies don’t succeed in defaming or weakening him politically using PAC or something else before these elections. Mbabazi has clearly lost popularity in NRM and he looks to have a lot of enemies within.He will be gone by now hadnt been the fact that president Museveni wants him to stay.
Byebyo ebyange
Abbey.K.S
MP Wilfred Kajeke resignation is historical
15 Jul 2009 Leave a Comment
in parliament
The resignation of Mbale Municipality MP Wilfred Kajeke is one thing that will not go down unnoticed in the history of Uganda. It’s not a light matter considering the country where we come from where every man is more like for himself. I’m still surprised that Kajeke made this kind of decision not because it isn’t easy, considering what was happening in the country, but it takes a real man to do what he did. Most people cannot leave that parliament willingly as we all remember the case of Brigadier Tumukunde after he run into trouble with the regime in power.Most Ugandans can do everything possible to be or remain members of the parliament.
In South Korea in the year 2006, a member of the opposition party, Mr. Choi Yeon-hee, refused to give up his parliament seat after he was found grabbing the breasts of a female reporter while drunk. He only accepted to resign from the party’s secretary-general post and quit the party but not from the parliament. In South Africa, Mandella’s ex-wife, Madikizela-Mandela was found guilty on 43 charges of fraud and 25 of theft in the Pretoria court but she never immediately resigned her seat in parliament.
Therefore, Kajeke’s resignation can be seen either as a protest to a bad government and parliament or it can become the first step in the accountability process in parliament. Mr.Kajeke reminds me of the resignation of England’s Robin Cook(RIP) before the Iraq war, the difference being that Kajeke is not a member of Museveni’s cabinet as Cook was a member of Tony Blair’s government. Three days later in his landmark resignation speech, Robin Cook made the first public declaration that US companies had sold anthrax to Iraq. It took a real man for Robin to say what he said then.
Without thinking about the reduction in the number of FDC MPs in parliament, Kajeke’s powerful reasons for resignation have won him great respect within the opposition and those within the NRM with a subconscious mind. He cited a lot of reasons for his resignation but I’m going to stick with the issue of corruption that has embedded the Museveni government for a long time.
President Museveni’s reign will probably be remembered as the most corrupt in Uganda’s history. Almost the whole system is now designed to bury corruption, not expose it. Complaining about the corrupt is now more like wastage of time because if the complaints are all swept under the rug and everyone knows that complaining is futile, they don’t exist, right? NRMO and corruption go together like bacon and eggs in restaurants in the UK where I live.
Kajeke is summarily telling us that we must never again give our votes to the corrupt. More than anything else he is telling us that we have a moral duty to protect our country against corruption and other evils happening now. It is down to us to stop our governments. It is our duty to stand up and to demand the resignation of all MPs who are responsible for the removal of presidential term limits because of the Ug shs.5m bribe and arguably now the arrogance of those in power who thinks that their words are now laws themselves in the country. We must remember that voting in a non-ethical politician makes us all into active shareholders in a criminal company.
Abbey
