Mr Daniel K. Kalinaki
Last Monday Stephen Kibwiika, one of our journalists, was out covering the Kawempe North by-election when he came across security operatives beating up supporters of the Opposition National Unity Platform party. Stephen recorded the violent scenes but was spotted by the security operatives who turned on him, roughed him up, and forced him to delete the footage he had recorded. That day Stephen got off relatively lightly.
On February 26, nomination day, Ibrahim Miracle, a journalist with Top TV was beaten so badly by security operatives, that he had to be admitted to hospital, his eye gouged out. The beating, caught on camera, was so severe that it moved Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, who was presiding over the plenary, to ask, “What would provoke you to beat a journalist?” On the same day another of our journalists, Stephen Mbidde, had also been roughed up, although his injuries were less severe. Others took their knocks and bruises home, unreported.
On Wednesday afternoon I was dragged off a call and informed that Stephen Kibwiika had been beaten again, this time badly. Apparently, he received a tip-off about unidentified people pre-ticking ballot papers in one of the area residences. When he went to investigate, he was set upon by armed people in police and military uniforms, and others who were in civilian attire, but also armed.
The Kawempe North by-election takes place today. By the time you read this one, two, maybe even more journalists would have been targeted by security operatives for the heinous crime of just being journalists.
Covering elections has always been a logistical challenge. There is the very expensive effort of marshalling enough journalists and crew members to follow different candidates, then the delicate effort of ensuring the reporting is issue-based, thoughtful and nuanced. These days, however, covering elections has also become a security nightmare. We plan our coverage like military operations: who gets bullet-proof vests and helmets; blood groups and location pins of the nearest medical facilities; evacuation routes and reserve units to send back into the field.
How can we speak of these as elections? By-elections are particularly intense given the hyperlocal focus on one electoral race, but the general elections are even worse. You send people’s kids, parents, friends and relatives out into the field, not sure if they will return home in one piece, or at all.
After the very violent elections in 2001 and 2006 followed by relatively peaceful ones in 2011 and 2016, we thought there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Events before, during and after the 2021 election now show that the light was an oncoming runaway train.
Last week the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Justice Simon Byabakama, gave a thoughtful and reflective keynote speech at the Uganda Editors’ Guild annual convention. He decried the violence, including against journalists, but pointed out, correctly, that the EC is not responsible for maintaining law and order during elections.
The police are responsible, on paper. But elections have become violence fests in which security agents and agencies mandated to keep the peace often become agents and agencies of insecurity. Representations to and remonstrations with senior security agency officials often lead to the same half-hearted apologies and promises of ‘never again’.
Every so often they throw in a football match or similar photo-op; the wounds heal, only to be burst open at the next rally. Why not boycott coverage of these events, a reasonable person might ask. The answer is that not sending journalists to witness abuses of power or electoral fraud is exactly what the violence is meant to achieve. Bringing those facts to light, whatever the cost, is our humble contribution to ensuring our fledgling democracy does not die in darkness.
However, it is now clear that journalism is too important to be left to journalists alone. Technology has lowered the entry barrier into the field of capturing the rough first draft of history and given ordinary citizens the tools and platforms to report what they see.
The people who target journalists do so to keep them from shining the spotlight on wrong deeds. Guilt and the cowardly fear of being exposed are what provoke them to beat journalists. Yet while they can confiscate a dozen cameras and pluck out the eyes of journalists, they cannot stop millions of citizens from seeing evil or take away their agency to share what they see. So, if you see something, say something. And don’t worry about the law; journalism is not a crime.
Mr Kalinaki is a journalist and poor man’s freedom fighter.
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Twitter/X: @Kalinaki
