A tale of two elephants: Kadaga Vs Mbabazi

Speaker Kadaga and Prime Minister Mbabazi. FILE PHOTOS

What you need to know:

The Executive, Legislature and Judiciary as the three cooking stones which make every meal possible. Once they are allowed to function in the interest of the people, the common good of the nation is served and the country develops in stability and joy.

When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. This ancient proverb of the Kikuyu people, a tribal group in Kenya, is as true today as when the words were first spoken, perhaps thousands of years ago. Its essence is simplicity— when fights happen, the surrounding environment is greatly affected yet it had nothing to do with the fights.

Regardless of which political elephant wins, or loses, the grass beneath their feet will always be destroyed, so is service delivery. While the exact source of this proverb is lost in the distant past, this adage is not just a quaint figure of speech. It plainly describes the absurdity that has rocked the 9th Parliament. It aptly describes the fight between Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and our beleaguered Prime Minister, Mr Amama Mbabazi. The two “elephants” are not fighting per se; they are playing a precarious political football that has left the Executive sleeping and many Ugandans upset in the process.

In English literature the story of Rip Van Winkle is famous. An easy going fellow who slept for 20 years only to wake up when the world he knew had completely changed. Rip was a man of the people and most importantly, a family man. However, laziness, for which his nagging wife (Dame Van Winkle) rebuked him all the time, was the only reason why his family fell apart.

Dodging proceedings
Laid-back, just like Rip, a henpecked man who loathed gainful work and chose to slumber; it appears the front-bench is gradually losing the balance. Some ministers have either resigned or stepped aside over corruption scandals, others are refusing to go. Other front-benchers continue to dodge the proceedings of the House as their colleagues sleep on the job. Sadly, in all this, Parliament has not been spared either. But who is to blame? Well, blame our politics.

The Prime Minister, who is also the Leader of Government Business in Parliament, is among the ministers who are facing corruption accusations. He appears pre-occupied. But that’s not much of an issue. In any case, the matter is before courts of law. The political football between the Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament is ever more affecting the work of Parliament. Already Ms Kadaga is complaining that unlike the former Prime Minister, Prof. Apolo Nsimbambi, Mr Mbabazi does not seem to comprehend how Parliament works. She further accuses Mr Mbabazi of plotting her downfall.

I am not sure about the exact cause of the acrimony between Ms Kadaga and Mr Mbabazi but I know the fact that the Speaker’s election angered some people in some ways. First, former Speaker Edward K. Ssekandi (Vice President) was fronted by a clique of ministers to frustrate Ms Kadaga’s bid. However, realising that it was too late to block her, they craftily endorsed her landslide victory against the opposition leader, Mr Nandala Mafabi.

Having been voted Speaker against the wishes of the Executive, some ministers now accuse Ms Kadaga of being anti-government. Though the anti-Kadaga elements within Cabinet have not come out openly to challenge her in Parliament, I am told they have recruited cohorts among responsive members. Luckily, Ugandans and MPs across the political spectrum still think with Ms Kadaga and the 9th Parliament is already biting. If she does not backtrack, this Parliament will certainly make a difference particularly in the fight against corruption.

Kadaga take on Mbabazi

From a vantage point of this column, I read Ms Kadaga’s translated version of her Lusoga interview published in a local newspaper this week where she puts this fight into perspective. First, this is how Ms Kadaga assessed Mr Mbabazi’s performance: “The Prime Minister came with a lot of bbugumu [overzealousness], but he doesn’t understand what is going on in Parliament, although he has been there for a long time. He used not to attend Parliament; therefore, he doesn’t understand its rules and procedure. He admitted to that.

“When I try to guide him, he never cooperates; that is his problem. He doesn’t understand how Parliament works. After the State of the Nation address, I wrote to him, telling him that there are no bills [submitted by government] to be passed in this session; I need them. He simply kept quiet. He asked me to call Parliament’s business committee. I asked him, what are we going to discuss? The reason I sent MPs on recess was because there was no business; therefore, I could not call the business committee. He insisted that I do, but I said no, we cannot meet just to greet one another. That is not how we operate.”

Indeed, before the House went for Charismas break, there was no serious work going on in Parliament because the government had failed to bring business. Since the State of the Nation, the government has brought only one business: the controversial Public Order Management Bill. The rest was created by backbenchers to make Parliament busy. We are paying these MPs millions of Shillings for no work done yet Ugandans need better services.

By shouting that the King is naked, Ms Kadaga is not fighting the government; she is helping the “sleeping government”. The Executive should wake up and bring Bills to Parliament because there is a manifesto to execute before 2016. The promises made to Ugandans are too many and timely. It is the job of the Speaker and those who care to whip those who are sleeping.

I do not want to believe that there is a conspiracy to fail Ms Kadaga though many Ugandans of good will think, by refusing to bring business in the House, the Executive wants to depict Ms Kadaga as a non-performer. But the animosity between Mr Mbabazi and Ms Kadaga is a small misunderstanding which needs urgent fix before the situation gets out of hand.

Fundamentally, Parliament has two inherently contradictory roles – first, to sustain the Executive, which it would appear to do well and second, to hold the Executive to account between elections, which it does rather less well. The fights we see in Parliament today are not taking us anywhere, we just need to learn how to cultivate a new path in the New Year and look for ways of ensuring that the government in power serves the people without bias. Otherwise, we cannot afford to have the luxury of sleeping through the hardships our country is facing today.
Merry Christmas to you all.