Wow, a civilian coup overthrew NRM ‘military’ rule in Uganda

We always cried for power to move from the hands of soldiers to that of civilians in Uganda. Well, it has happened.

The government of Uganda owes former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Dr Ben Mbonye, an apology.

In 1997, what for many years was considered the “worst corruption scandal” in Uganda; broke when it emerged that the ministry of Defence had bought four fighter helicopters that turned out to be junk from Belarus.

Among the sensational revelations was that a UK-based company that initially wanted to supply the helicopters, Consolidated Sales Corporation (CSC) had offered President Yoweri Museveni’s brother, the worthy Gen. Salim Saleh, a bribe of $800,000 to help them clinch the deal. Saleh took the bribe, but before he could eat it, he decided to come clean with his brother.

Museveni told him to spend the money on the then-ongoing military operations in the north. Many things happened, including a commission of inquiry and a parliamentary probe. Many people, including businessman Emma Katto (who represented one of the hopeful suppliers), were dragged into this issue.

In the end, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Defence, Dr Ben Mbonye, took the fall. Mbonye himself didn’t pocket a dollar from the deal, but took political responsibility and as PS, was blamed for negligence. Mbonye was not a very popular man then, but later after the dust had died down, I did manage to lay my hands on a big file on the “junk” helicopters that suggested that on that matter he was not the bad guy. I read a letter from Mbonye’s minister and State House, ordering him to ensure that the helicopters were bought from Belarus. In that sense, Mbonye took the bullet for the ‘Big Men’ above him.

With the recent scandals over the billions of dollars; the theft of GAVI funds, the plunder of billions of pension funds, and the more dramatic case of the looting of donor funds in the Office of the Prime Minister, I bring this up to demonstrate the political transformation we are witnessing.

In the case of the junk helicopters, the helicopters were actually supplied. Just that they could not fly. And related to that, their price was inflated. Today, the thieves don’t bother to supply anything. They take all the money; give politicians some; then build palatial mansions and buy their wives $100,000 cars. One reason this is happening is that there has been a major shift in the balance of power in Uganda.

For many years the NRM was criticised as a military party. The role of the army, the UPDF, in politics, was decried. The junk helicopters, the undersize uniforms, and so on, happened because a lot of the money was still held and spent in the military.

However, corrupt rogue UPDF officers were, at the end of the day there was the bigger military structure that would bring them to account, if it wanted to. A lot of the money is outside the military these days, into funds like GAVI (Ministry of Health), and Peace, Recovery and Development Programme for northern Uganda. Here, the key men are chaps like interdicted Principal Accountant in the Office of the Prime Minister, Geoffrey Kazinda and PS Pius Bigirimana.

In the ministry of Public Service, men like David Oloka, former Assistant Senior Accountant in the ministry, and former Principal Accountant Christopher Obey, siphoned off possibly over Shs1 trillion over the years. But word has it that they also bought the elections for some ministers!
In the past, the army or government couldn’t prevent people like Saleh from appearing before Parliament. Today, it is putting a lot of effort in preventing Kazinda from doing so.

People like Saleh did not know where the bodies were buried. Folks like Kazinda do. And what they know could, potentially, damage the reputation of the ‘Big Men’ in government, they might even not be able to hold on to power. Therefore, power has shifted from the barracks, to the boardrooms and is concentrated in the hands of the Kazindas, Bigirimanas, Olokas, and Obeys.

These days we don’t read about UPDF, the Internal Security Organisation or Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence in the papers as we used to. In part, it’s because these organisations have become more professionally run, but also with money becoming definitive in holding power in Uganda, they have been sidelined because they don’t have the purse strings.

We always cried for power to move from the hands of soldiers to that of civilians in Uganda. Well, it has happened. Of course, the Kazindas are the wrong type of civilians, but the game has still changed nonetheless. What one man, Kazinda, says or does can cause more damage to the government, than the worst Bombo Barracks can do.

To all intents and purposes, there has been a silent civilian coup against the once-military-dominated ruling National Resistance Movement.

*cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com & twitter@cobbo3