Attempted assassination of Katumba; moment of pause 

The moment of quiet unease but relative calm after the 2021 general election continues to subsist. At the same time, alarm bells are sounding in the economy, distress caused by flat or falling levels of economic activity in real estate and construction dominated by for-sale signs, concentration of economic means, and decline in cross-border trade between Uganda and Kenya; and Uganda and Rwanda whose bilateral relations are at a state of near paralysis. 

There is a lot of hope in the construction of the pipeline to transport crude oil to the coast even though the oil fortunes will be a fraction of earlier estimates. 

In the changed circumstance, Uganda had until Covid-19 doubled down on tourism as a major game changer and revival of the defunct national carrier Uganda Airlines took centre stage. 

Uganda for starters was able to substantially pay for a small but robust fleet which took to the skies with a lot of fanfare. For a moment, the glow in the sky, and the beautiful posture the flying crane occupies at Entebbe dulled many obvious mistakes.

In one of its final acts, the outgoing administration made a decision to shake up management of the airline which failed to meet all its financial and operational targets and had stuck a sharp knife into the Treasury. Uganda Airlines met just 10 per cent of its projected revenue $9 million out of $90 million even though it must be said all global airlines are limping outside the United States as Covid-19 has stressed travellers financially and transport restrictions have redefined the basics of air travel from business to must-travel business. 

Anyhow, the Auditor General and internal whistleblowers trained their guns on the board and management with the usual catalogue of instances of mismanagement including padding invoices expenses, hiring relatives. 

The board and several managers were sent on leave on orders from above, according to the immediate former Transport State minister Joy Kabatsi.  Her boss sent them on necessary leave. That was the last major development from the immediate former minister of Works. 

So the shiver that enveloped the country when the minister, a serving army general, was shot at in an incident that took the lives of his bodyguard and his daughter may for better or worse be linked to the high stakes decision making at Uganda Airlines. However it can also plausibly be linked to other causes.  Uganda’s politics is a complicated fist food fight but also the public safety system has major loopholes that organised crime penetrates at ransom.  A very expensive street audiovisual network exists now in most of Kampala which makes identification of suspects very easy. Police sniffer dogs should have come on the scene immediately (this operational step has been missed on several occasions ignoring and diluting key forensic evidence). 

In Uganda style where ambulances spend the days helping politicians and the well-connected out of traffic the minister in charge of transport was spirited off to hospital on a boda boda. 

So it will be essential to find out especially since the victim was a serving military officer and Member of Parliament and that top military officials including the CDF and Deputy IGP who were quick to arrive at the scene will quickly resolve this ruthless act of bloodletting.  It will be a relief for once as government generally does very poorly at resolving these crimes drawn from thrillers and action movies. A short list in recent memory (Felix Kaweesi, Suzan Magara, Ibrahim Abiriga). 

Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. 

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