Road signs, road rage and lawlessness in Uganda

After Nantaba, the general public is wise to be on notice that nothing useful remains in the definition and expectation of a cabinet minister. After all an ex-con Nasser Sebaggala also once made it on the list.

The last fortnight has seen Parliament locking horns with the Executive branch over decision making in the petroleum sector. The proceedings on the floor of Parliament show how far relations and trust between the two branches of government have deteriorated.

Members of Parliament elected on the ruling party ticket and the smattering of opposition MPs are reluctant to leave unfettered decision making power in the hands of the President through his appointee, the Minister for Energy.

It is unfortunate that this relatively principled position to delegate full competence over the sector to a specialised agency- the Petroleum Authority is being opposed by the President and his cabinet.

Administrative delegation over highly specialised and technical matters is the reason we have NEMA, Civil Aviation Authority, Uganda Revenue Authority and the Uganda National Roads Authority. Granted these agencies are treated as “parallel” ministries because they don’t enjoy independence, or rule making power and their ability to levy sanctions is also very limited.

The appointment and firing of agency officials has become so politicised that many times the most “suitable” candidate to hold the job may not always be the most capable or qualified. I am not a fan of parallel government. These authorities are justified by a breakdown of any schism of competence in core government departments.

If you have read the full dossier on the Office of the Prime Minister or the Ministry of Public Service, the President’s own conduct especially in recent times sometimes suggests that the nation’s own principal law enforcement official is now routinely weakening, breaking and impeding the orderly enforcement of the laws of this Republic.

In the matter of the controversial appointment of Aidah Nantaba as Minister responsible for Lands, he rode roughshod over Parliament to violate its own rules of Procedure forcing the Appointments Committee to sit a second time in a matter over which they had already rendered a decision rather than appealing to the whole House.

In the matter of compensation of Hassan Basajjabalaba he “barked” directives at Officers of State led by the Attorney General, Minister of Finance and the Governor of Bank of Uganda to pay Shs69 billion to a single entity shortly before the 2011 elections and another Shs12 billion to Col Mugenyi in dubious compensation claims over the sale of markets in the city.

Many of these judgment calls have created a standstill or paralysis in decision making.
This environment of paralysis has driven some institutions to a frozen state like the Judiciary where appointees have to allocate time between doing their job and making a living wage outside the Judiciary.

It would be impossible, for example, to expect to find Chief Justice Willy Mutunga of Kenya moonlighting overseas a privately paid arbitrator. The same would apply to Judges happily working second jobs as state appointed commissars. One just returned from a hiatus investigating corruption in UPE.

There was once a Judge of the High Court who routinely appeared to revalidate his pension and head off to the next moonlighting job and so on. Where decision making would benefit, from institutional guidance the President is unlikely to acquiesce. Infact, one would have empathised with his latest roadside declaration promising to fire RDCs, DISOs for acts of vandalism.

The recently completed Kabale-Kisoro-Bunagana road has fallen victim of perps uprooting signs and sending them to Uganda’s “fast-growing” steel rolling industry. In the old days we would clap our hands at this important directive.

Vandalism is very common on major highways in many countries. Thika highway, Kenya’s symbol of progress into the 2nd world is facing the same problem. Typically speaking, this is a problem that a junior bureaucrat overseeing the road fully empowered and with the right contract should be able to manage. It does not rise to the level of a presidential directive.

No one would expect President Kibaki, Prime Minister Cameron or another global leader to descend to such a level of micromanagement- road signs -something that can be resolved in a meeting of three people.

After Nantaba the general public is wise to be on notice that nothing useful remains in the definition and expectation of a cabinet minister. After all an ex-con Nasser Sebaggala also once made it on the list.