Mr President, act on minister Kibuule case

Junior Water minister Ronald Kibuule is reeling from accusations that he assaulted a female guard at Stanbic Bank, Mukono branch, an allegation he refutes.

Preliminary inquiries show the guard tried to subject the minister to a security screening. The minister says he objected to being frisked because he preferred that a man, and not a woman, search him.

We recognise that the facts are foggy and it is, therefore, premature to take sides unlike what Stanbic did by rushing out an apology to the minister on August 26, only to backtrack three days later.

Our position is that Mr Kibuule on the fateful day went to transact business at the bank as a client, not as a minister, and should not have clothed in an executive garb to justify or expect a probable security screening exemption.

Most private guards in Uganda, as former minister John Nasasira tweeted on August 26, perform a “noble” duty for much less, and deserve respect.

In 2012, Kenya’s deputy chief justice Nancy Baraza resigned after a tribunal indicted her for pinching the nose of and drawing a gun on a female guard at a shopping mall.

Just last month, Kenya deported famed Congolese music maestro Koffi Olomide after a video clip in which he was captured kicking his female singer went viral online. He was briefly imprisoned on return to Kinshasa, showing brazen acts of the powerful can be stopped, and government action elicited, through social media campaigns.

Uganda’s script has been different, dreary and disappointing. A video in which minister Abraham Byandala was captured punching a female journalist at, of all places, court premises, ended in a hush-hush settlement between the suspect and his victim. The temple of justice was defiled with liberty, unpunished.

That cavalier conduct by higher-ups in society has bred impunity under a government dignified for enacting progressive and gender-sensitive laws/policies.

Stanbic Bank’s chief executive Patrick Mweheire’s hurried apology to Mr Kibuule on a matter pending conclusive inquiries flags an increasing moral corruption: worshipping the wealthy and mighty.

The minister’s follow up claim that he champions women rights flies in the face of his September 2013 proclamation that women who wear mini-skirts have themselves to blame when raped!

Let President Museveni, as the appointing authority, take personal interest in this matter to ensure executive clout does not compromise investigations.
We stand for a society that treats particularly its down-trodden with empathy and dignity.

The issue: Minister Kibuule case
Our view: Let President Museveni, as the appointing authority, take personal interest in this matter to ensure executive clout does not compromise investigations.