Mr Nicholas Sengoba
It is noticeable that most people holding public offices in Uganda today just don’t take the citizen very seriously. Or they don’t care what the latter thinks because they have gradually become powerless.
In explaining the brutal involvement of the state in the messy Kawempe North by-election, a minister calls a press conference. He then shoots off with wild claims like the Opposition deployed masked men in official government military uniforms, complete with whips and firearms to beat up the Opposition supporters. Their own supporters! Before long he claims the Opposition supporters in a well-orchestrated move, carried stones in their pockets that could fill six huge trucks.
The stones were meant to be hurled at security agents and NRM supporters in order to disrupt the election. He then claims that the reason why the Opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Elias Luyimbazi Nalukoola was abducted, and whisked away in a van in which he was beaten by masked armed officers, was to save him from terrorists who wanted to harm him and make the government ‘look bad.’Not to be left out, another official claims that the Opposition actually acts in cahoots with the police.
The latter are compromised, tasked with beating and kidnapping Opposition politicians plus followers. This, to, help them procure the sympathy vote, as the downtrodden. That the journalists too are brutalised, jailed and have their equipment destroyed by Opposition- leaning security agents so that they give the government bad press. Then comes the one about the Electoral Commission failing to gazette the Opposition candidate they announced as the winner because they are ‘still sorting out’ some undisclosed issues.
One of the issues is that they may not even have money to pay for the gazetting. So Nalukoola’s swearing in has to be delayed. The story goes on even in the Judiciary where cases against the government take years to be heard. When they are heard, judgements then similarly take ages to be delivered, especially if they are deemed to displease the status quo.
How Uganda came to this is a long story about the destruction on the state and its eventual personalisation. In any setting the centre of the focus of the state is really the people. The state exists for the well-being of the people who either bring a government that runs it to power through the vote, the gun or mass uprising.
In so doing the government is deemed to have signed a social contract to serve the people. Those who run the state like the NRM has been doing since 1986 then use all its arms; the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary to ensure that people get maximum benefits out of the state.
The last 40 years in power have slowly but steadily seen the erosion of the state with most arms save for the Executive headed by President Yoweri Museveni. In fact the Executive working very closely with the national army; the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) is now the most recognisable and decisive arm of the state. Its commander-in-chief is General Museveni. Its Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) is Museveni’s son General Muhoozi Kainerugaba. The UPDF and other instruments of coercion under it overshadow everyone and everything. This includes the Uganda Police Force (UPF).
The UPF which is constitutionally charged with ensuring law and order is padded with UPDF officers purportedly to support and strengthen it. UPDF is in the economy. It is into agriculture which employs over 70 percent of Ugandans, distributing coffee and other seedlings plus agricultural implements under the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC.) OWC is headed by Gen Caleb Akandwanaho, aka Salim Saleh. Through the Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) the UPDF controls another important source of livelihood by policing the lakes and managing fishing. The UPDF has been involved in raiding the courts of law to rearrest suspects granted bail. They have similarly forced their way in the Parliament to beat up Opposition lawmakers that eventually led to the lifting of the age limit. This benefited President Museveni after he attained the age of 75.
Parliament is seemingly powerless in scrutinising funding to projects blessed by Museveni. The Lubowa Specialised Hospital, Atiak Sugar Factory, the Inspire Africa Coffee factory in Ntungamo, the Dei Biohpama drug manufacturing facility receive funding even amidst grumbling Parliament regarding value for money.
The same army is into land evictions, enforcement in revenue collection, policing of health standard operating procedures. Through their engineering brigade the army is into multi-trillion road and other infrastructure construction projects. UPDF has in the past been involved even in NRM party primaries in places like Sembabule.
As the Kawempe North by-election, and previous general elections have demonstrated, it can be deeply and actively involved in the electoral process. In Uganda today, political office is one of the most lucrative sources of employment providing huge salaries and access to public finance plus opportunities for corruption. There are very hefty retirement benefits especially for judicial officers, most of whom continue enjoying almost the same benefits during retirement.
So there are very many people fighting to join the structures of government, be they elective or by appointment. The smartest way to get there is by recognising where the power lies and it is not in the formal structures laid down by the Constitution. It is increasingly in the hands of President Museveni, Gen Salim Saleh, of late his son Gen Muhoozi and their acolytes. If the President does not like bail, the Judiciary must find a way of complying by making up excuses to grant his wish even if they sound ridiculous.
If the President deploys the UPDF abroad without Parliament’s approval the latter will find a way of justifying it with an ‘approval’ after the fact. When the President takes exception to the election of Nalukoola, the Electoral Commission then gets excuses that delay his swearing in as they wait and see.
To stay safe, anyone who wants to join the gravy train or avoid risking their benefits from the government has to accept the humiliation of playing the useful idiot. They second guess the President and the military that walks with him. Then they follow in their footsteps justifying and praising their every move even when it sounds ridiculous and counterproductive.
