Matembe retires in two minds

Disgruntled, bitter, angry. This is how many have described former Ethics and Integrity Minister Miria Matembe’s feelings towards President Museveni’s government.

The former Mbarara Woman MP, who served in the same government for more than a decade, withdrew from elective politics in 2006 after a bitter fallout with Mr Museveni in 2003 over the removal of presidential term limits from the Constitution.

It is, however, possible for one to forget that the former minister retired from active politics almost 15 years ago, because of constant criticism of her former boss and the government he presides over.

She currently chairs the board of the Citizens Coalition of Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU), an outfit with a broad membership of civil society organisations and individuals whose aim is to observe elections. 

All the elections that have been organised under President Museveni since 1996 have been disputed. Many like to call out Mr Museveni over what they call unfair elections, especially since it is the reason Mr Museveni says he decided to wage a rebellion at the end of 1980.
 
Matembe is one of Mr Museveni’s most acerbic critics on this matter.  
Matembe recently published a book titled The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Betrayed, recounting her convictions for joining the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government and how her faith and trust were shattered.

Joining politics
Matembe had joined politics at the height of the excitement of the NRM government capturing power. She recounts the enthusiasm and hope with which many had joined President Museveni’s government because it showed a promise of changing the tide and promoting democracy and transformation to the benefit of all Ugandans. 

“By the time Mr Museveni came in, this country had gone to the dogs so we embraced the system which had given us hope,” Matembe says.
The 10-Point Programme that the NRM government had come with was, for Matembe, further proof of the new government’s good intentions.

It was a dream come true for the former minister, who had dreamt of studying Law and advocating for women’s empowerment and participation since she was nine. 

The NRM government had brought the opportunity and the platform she needed to champion the cause she had longed for.
 
 “When the NRM government arrived here preaching the politics of good governance, of women emancipation, of democracy, I had to embrace this system. When I read the 10-Point Programme, I thought it was exactly what I had desired and longed for, so I threw myself in wholesale with no reservations,” she says.

But that hope, Matembe says, was short-lived. After 10 years of Mr Museveni’s presidency, she started noticing a worrying trend.

 The success and the many objectives she thought they had striven for started crumbling after the promulgation of the 1995 Constitution. She says she realised Mr Museveni had a problem with implementing the Constitution that many had worked so hard to write.

“I think Museveni loved the Constitution but he didn’t know what constitutionalism means,” Matembe says, reasoning that it must have been had for Museveni to cede the unlimited powers he had for the first nine years before the Constitution was put in place.

“When it was time for the principle of separation of powers to be implemented, Museveni did not like that. Remember from 1986 to 1996, he was chairman of the Movement, chairman of Parliament (the then National Resistance Council), everything,” Matembe says.

Even with these signs that she saw as early as 1996, Matembe still had hope in Mr Museveni. 

When Dr Kizza Besigye courted many of them to support his first presidential bid in 2001 – arguing that Mr Museveni had deviated from the objectives they had fought for and had no intentions of leaving power –Matembe gave Mr Museveni a benefit of the doubt.

Dr Besigye had been part of a group of former rebel fighters and early joiners that felt Mr Museveni was not adhering to what they thought their movement had taken power to do. 

The discussions about the direction of the NRM had been intense and a number of former combatants felt the need for a change of direction, and some such as Dr Besigye reasoned that for the desired changes to happen, Mr Museveni had to leave power. 

But the master politician that is Mr Museveni lured a lot of the members of the group out of their thoughts and got them to support his bid in 2001, even when that meant him having to sign a manifesto for that  election period declaring that he was seeking his second and final term of office. 

Matembe was one of those who were persuaded by Mr Museveni’s promise to serve only five more years and they backed him. That is when Dr Besigye famously told some of them that if Mr Museveni respected his promise and handed over power in 2006 as he had said, then Dr Besigye would not be the son of Kifefe.      

Fallout with Museveni
Matembe says she had not expected Mr Museveni to compete again for the presidency in 2001, but she was prepared to back him one more time so that Uganda would experience its first ever peaceful transition from one president to another in 2006. 

In her view, she says, the person (Museveni) who had analysed the country’s problem (when he said the problem of Africa is leaders who don’t want to leave power) would not be the same one to commit the same blunder.

It didn’t take long after that for her to realise how far Mr Museveni was willing to go. Two years into what was supposed to be his last term, he wanted the clause that would deter him from seeking re-election again removed.

“In 2003, when he said he was removing the term limits from the Constitution, the constitution which I had personally broken my back for, the term limits that all Ugandans were committed to, I had to oppose him. I had already become fed up with what he was doing and how he was reversing our gains,” she says.

Matembe had been one of the 21 members of the Constitutional Commission which, under the chairmanship of former Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki, had traversed the country collecting the views of Ugandans on what they wanted included in the new Constitution.

 She hoped the political instability and lack of constitutionalism that had bedeviled Uganda since Independence were things of the past, and she was proud of her contribution. So she opposed Mr Museveni’s move to delete presidential term limits from the Constitution in 2003. 

In reaction, Mr Museveni sacked Matembe as minister for Ethics and Integrity. She was sacked together with famous names, including then first deputy prime minister Eriya Kategaya (RIP), who many referred to as Mr Museveni’s childhood friend and was deemed untouchable during his supposed friend’s reign. 

Many referred to Kategaya as Museveni’s Number Two. But not even he would be spared for opposing the move to remove presidential term limits from the Constitution.  

Also sacked for opposing the move was Mr Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, then Local Governments minister, who was deemed to be influential in his own right. 

When Dr Besigye had stood against Mr Museveni in 2001, Mr Ssali was a key pillar in the Museveni campaign, recording a radio advert urging whoever had children or property to vote Museveni, who Mr Bidandi said was the most qualified to protect Ugandans’ valuables. 

Sarah Kiyingi, then a junior minister, was also sacked over the same.
When Matembe’s parliamentary term as Mbarara District Woman MP ended in 2006, she decided not to seek re-election, aware of the battle she would face from the government she had fallen out with and the disillusionment of realising the country could be headed to the same dungeons she had been fighting to pull it out of, or worse.

“Yes, we managed to pull the country out of the dungeons but it has now gone to the sharks, to the crocodiles, to the hyenas, to the lions after Museveni’s long rule,” Ms Matembe says. 

When we spoke to her for this article a few months ago, Matembe vowed never to return to Uganda’s politics unless she returned as President. But in the lead up to nominations for Parliament for the forthcoming election, Parliament provided for older persons to be represented in Parliament, and Matembe said she would be minded to return to Parliament as an MP for Older Persons, who she said were badly sidelined and needed a voice like she can give them. 

By press time, she said she was in the race on an Independent ticket.
Earlier, she had said attempting to return to Parliament was a waste of time because the views of those parliamentarians who refuse to rubberstamp what Mr Museveni wants are ignored. 

For her, politics has become a source of misery and distress, not only because of the “thugs and crooks” she says she was dealing with in the government, but also because of the citizens who she says have become corrupt and money-minded.

She says politicians cannot freely interact with their voters anymore to seek their views without the latter expecting money.

“When I was a Member of Parliament,” she narrates, “I used to visit my constituency for trainings and women’s programmes. I would call them and tell them I was going, I would find many people waiting for me and excited to listen to me. After talking to them, they would cook for me and the women accompanying me, we never gave them transport, we never gave them food, all we gave them was the information and what they gave us in return was their views to take back to Parliament.” 

Matembe says now it is impossible to call a meeting as an MP because the people will demand transport and lunch and other allowances. This, she says, has dissuaded MPs from interacting with their constituents, which undermines their cardinal role as representatives of the people.

Before she showed interest to represent the elderly, Matembe said she was relieved she was no longer in Parliament wasting her time “because politics has changed from politics of serving people to transactional politics”.

“When we entered politics, we were driven by service. Ours was people-centred and service-oriented politics but the current politics is self-centred and power-driven politics of greed, aggrandisement and materialism,” she says.

She says the current politics has bred a Parliament which is a parasite on Ugandans, expecting Ugandans to buy the MPs cars, fuel and food.

“When I was in Parliament, I bought myself a vehicle. Parliament never bought us vehicles. They gave us loans to buy vehicles and would every month deduct the money to pay for these vehicles from our salaries,” she says.

“But now,” Matembe adds, “we have a Parliament which is a parasite on Ugandans. They buy them vehicles, they put fuel for them, they feed them at the canteen, and yet at the same time, they transact business with President Museveni.  They are crooks, sharks, robbers….”

Earlier, the former Ethics minister had said unless she becomes President, which would give her enough powers to influence the change of Ugandans’ mindset, she would not waste her time participating in politics again.

The former minister says Ugandans need a mind shift and to change their mentality from the enslaved, opportunistic, tribalistic, mentality to think broader and appreciate themselves.

But her talk of returning as president is only hypothetical since she says she is the most certain that Mr Museveni’s rule will not end anytime soon. 

She says elections, especially the forthcoming ones, cannot bring about any change.
“I even told the MPs that with the removal of presidential term limits, it is only God who can change the situation. There is no other way. Ugandans are cowards, they cannot go to the streets and habitually settle for less.”  

The restrictions (set by the Electoral Commission to apparently curb the spread of coronavirus), she says, don’t provide an opportunity for a free and fair election. 

 “As if that is not enough, you say you are not even allowed to see the voters. They are expected to talk to them on the radio.  How many TVs do we have? How many radios do we have? How many Ugandans can access the Internet? How many people can afford to run their campaigns on TVs, which cost millions of shillings?” she asks. 
For Matembe, the prudent thing would be to postpone the elections until the atmosphere is conducive.

Who is Matembe?
Matembe was born in Bwiz Bwera Kashari, in Mbarara, to Samuel and Eseza Rukooza, on August 28, 1953. Her parents were peasants. Matembe is the 4th born of nine siblings, five boys and four girls. 

Author
On polls
Many like to call out Mr Museveni over what they call unfair elections, especially since it is the reason Mr Museveni says he decided to wage a rebellion at the end of 1980. 

Matembe is one of Mr Museveni’s most acerbic critics on this matter.  
She recently published a book titled The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Betrayed, recounting her convictions for joining the NRM government and how her faith and trust were shattered.

Profile 
Education
Matembe went to Rutooma Primary School, from where she joined Bweranyangi Girls for her O-Level. She went to Namasagali College for her A-Level. 
She joined Makerere University where she studied Law and later acquired a Diploma in Legal Practice.

Career
She has worked as a state attorney in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and lectured at Makerere University Business School. She also worked at Bank of Uganda.
She was Mbarara District Woman MP from 2001 to 2006, and a member of the Pan-African Parliament from Uganda, where she served as chairperson of the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline.
She served as Minister for Ethics and Integrity from 1998 to 2003.
In 1995, she was a member of the Constitutional Commission that formulated the Ugandan Constitution. She is a former chairperson of Action for Development, Uganda’s leading women’s advocacy organisation, an organisation she co-founded.

Family
She is married to Nekemia Matembe and they have four children.