Author: Asuman Bisiika. PHOTO/FILE.
The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (what a mouthful of a name) has sanctioned the Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda and some other Members of Parliament. They are accused of being corrupt and taking resources from vulnerable communities.
The other Members of Parliament were bunched together with Speaker Anita Among as those variously named in the theft of iron sheets intended for vulnerable people of the Karamoja Sub-region.
Mr Chris Obore, the director of communications at the Parliament of Uganda, made a quick response to the accusations (and reasoning) behind the UK government’s sanctions against the third most important person in Uganda. As a bona fide Ugandan, it is very annoying that a foreign government can make very short work of a beloved leader Ugandans hold in very high esteem and always address as Right Honourable. Which is why I would like to rally all Ugandans to protest what we all see as a “joogo lya Bungereza” (Britain’s condescending attitude towards Ugandans).
I would like to call on the Parliament of Uganda to sit and pass a resolution of Parliament calling on the Government of Uganda to ‘also’ sanction the Speaker of Parliament of the United Kingdom. Yet a very cynical friend of mine asked: what do you think Ugandans would do to your so-called Right Honourables if they had such powers as the UK government is exercising? They would probably dismiss the whole Parliament (and its Speaker).
The friend whose identity shall remain anonymous for the time being, even reasoned: since the sanctioned persons were announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, don’t you think it would have been more appropriate for the response to be signed off by the minister of Foreign Affairs (not the director of communications of the Parliament of Uganda)?
Honestly, if there are any negotiations to review the sanctions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be the lead agency. Not the Parliament of Uganda. So, the Parliament of Uganda should have liaised with Foreign Affairs to make a more robust diplomatic effort to respond to the UK’s unfriendly action of sanctioning the third most important person in the Republic of Uganda.
Yet I appreciate the payload of Chris Obore’s statement on the matter. Although his focus on the Speaker left out other sanctioned persons (who are Members of Parliament too), his message was meant for the Ugandan audience. Yes, he intended to communicate to the Ugandan public about the petty and pesky nature of “the Muzungu and his attitude towards Africans”.
But will the local audience help? How can the state re-engage the UK government on this very important matter? I think there is a need to appreciate and recognise the importance of Uganda’s diplomatic resources and assets (human or other) as the centrepiece of any effort aimed at causing a review of the sanctions regime.
Some people may dismiss the sanctions as very petty and that there is no need to engage. I am not one of those who would support such an attitude. I am familiar with the challenges sanctioned friends go through. These Bazungu will even follow your relatives.
I have a testimony: a former Member of Parliament wanted to buy an asset in the US. He had accumulated some money via ‘tenderpreneurship’ and exporting cattle to a neighbouring country. Kumbe the US was following him.
He was shocked when he was denied a visa. He was later to learn that his association with a particular political businessman was the cause of the US government’s denying him a visa. And that the US was interested in his investments in Uganda and elsewhere.
Mr Asuman Bisiika is the executive editor of the East African Flagpost. [email protected]
