Big week for the press as major arms of government battle each other
Tuesday and Wednesday were two days that leave editors scratching their heads on how to place their stories. Radio news producers yesterday struggled as their traditional hierarchy of reading the news was lost.
At DTG 201009 2017, the Commander in Chief, President Yoweri Museveni made 10 senior appointments, reshuffles in UPDF. These have been expected since 2016 in the aftermath of the general election. The President has a big ego and the recent public contradiction between him and his Defence Chief Katumba Wamala would not be left unrewarded. Gen Katumba Wamala, a moderate conformist who has been in the army since 1979, lost his job to become a minister of state for works after washing his hands off the Kasese massacres that pitted State security against the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu.
It is interesting that the same Katumba Wamala had strong words to say in the elections on how the UPDF would first allow; and then now allow other people to take over the presidency. Six years ago when the President decided to terminate the services of Gen Aronda Nyakairima as Defence chief, he was allowed to cool off as a full Cabinet minister at Internal Affairs. These slights rarely go unnoticed. The promotion of Brig Peter Elwelu the 2nd Division Commander in charge of the Kasese military operations, is also curious.
Most of the promotions were shared between two sub-regions leading a few people to ask out loudly how they couldn’t see Busoga, West Nile, Lango and other places on the list.
In Parliament, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga complied with the court order silencing any person, or authority, including Parliament, from talking about payments made to senior civil servants who worked on the Tullow oil arbitration matter.
The oil bonuses have stirred quite the wind in the media since they were first disclosed in the first week of the year. But they like most stories in Uganda, run the risk of being a smokescreen for something worse. First the same Tullow Oil PLC is farming down a further 25 per cent of its share in its oil production licence to Total and entering a “non-operational” phase (i.e. becoming a dormant minority shareholder).
The short code reads it could not undertake the financial cost of drilling for oil and opted to sell on favourable terms. One wonders how much due diligence was conducted by licensing authorities before issuing them a licence just months ago. Second, this week, Heritage Oil will be battling out with Uganda Revenue Authority in the commercial court against the orders of the Tax Appeals Tribunal.
The Court of Appeal ends as an after note. Officially, the Court of Appeal is in backlog but a lot of the precious time of this court is spent entertaining “expeditious matters”.
Under the rules of this court, constitutional matters are given priority over all other business. Deputy Chief Justice Steven Besweri Kavuma last year correctly noted that this tended to bog down all other matters.
But why again is the Deputy Chief Justice diminishing the reputation of the court hearing these matters in a manner that is bringing the entire Judiciary into disrepute? If there was anything to injunct, it may have been the bonus payments but that is now moot. Parliament’s oversight powers and how they are used are a constitutional preserve of Parliament.
These debates while interesting are obscuring the more critical debate on the economy. Bank of Uganda reported a rise in foreign remittances from $1.0 billion to $1.2 billion a mysterious figure that isn’t reflected in the exchange rate. In the first full trading week of the year, the shilling is already wearing off the holiday narcotics that cooled it briefly in the third week of December to Shs3510/3570. The pair is now sitting at Shs3580/3670 to the greenback and it is only the 10th day of the year.
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]
