Power eventually shifts unless founded on freedom

I recently heard an interesting story, told by the Kenyan Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Moses W’etangula, about a rat in danger. The story goes, that a woman was tired of this rat in their house. So she bought a mouse trap and set it up. Seeing the trap from its position on the roof, and obviously afraid of the trap, the rat decided to mobilise other members of the household, to remove the trap from the house.
 
The rat first approached the chicken, who laughed and said there was no way a trap like that would affect it, leaving the rat on its own. Not relenting, the rat approached the goat of the house, and the goat retorted that he did not sleep in the house after all. 

Very afraid, the rat approached the cow, who like the others, did not see why they needed to be involved in the affairs of the madam of the house and the rat.
Like the goat and chicken, the cow was sure that the trap was not there to catch it, and not the very least affected by it. So the rat took refuge in the roof, perhaps ready to die of hunger and not a trap set up for it. Rather die of hunger perhaps, he thought. Isn’t that how most of us respond with fear in the face of danger?

Fortunately for the rat, it was rescued by the one help he did not seek. A snake, was trapped. In an attempt to rescue itself, it was making irritating noise. The madam walked in darkness, half asleep, to get rid of the rat. Picking the trap, the snake did what it knows best. 
The woman was taken to hospital by the husband. And the neighbours heard about it. On day one, they came to visit. The husband scratching his head, got the chicken to feed them. Day two, the woman was very ill. Many more people came to visit. This time, only a goat could feed these visitors. And they stayed with him, kind and sympathetic.

Sadly, the woman died. On the burial day, the cow was eaten too. In the end, all those that the rat had approached, ended up dead, while the rat was still up there watching.
The moral of the story, he said, was that sometimes we do not really know, when the trap we are setting up for other people, will be the same trap that will get us dead or in some place we least expect.

He told journalists, that sometimes, he does not like what they do, especially when he is the one under their spotlight, but even then, he would defend the right of journalists to do their job well and safely. Maybe he meant it or not, but it was a chilling moment.
The Media Council of Kenya had organised what was a fantastic journalism awards diner, and the Speaker was the chief guest. He advised journalists to not act in fear or fear to act. It was not lost on most of us, that some of these public outpouring of defence for journalists’ safety by politicians and public officials is often lip service. Still, he sounded sincere. And those who were there, were moved by what seemed like pure wisdom. Even if he did not mean it, it made sense.

Back here in Uganda, we have seen some people, in the wake of the unfortunate deaths of a minister and a vlogger, come out to declare how wrong it is to take another’s life, even when the same people have often presided over closing off space for others to even just speak, freely. They have presided over the making of laws they hope, will stop critical journalism, their critics or competitors, but cannot connect with the implications for other freedoms like assembly, expression, association and human rights like the right to life.

I recall, when the women Members of Parliament were arrested for protesting the brutal arrest of their colleagues, some leaders were asking the question, ‘what has happened to civil liberties in this country?’ They cannot remember, how we got to this point.
Civil liberties, in most cases, are not taken off in one day. It is very incremental. One day at a time, one law at a time, one institutional overreach at a time, and the net result is, a broken system.
If we are lucky, we will catch ourselves, before the glass is broken, into a million little pieces, with little to do except to suffer the pain of our neglect.

This story, told so well and obviously modified by me, because I am no copy typist to quote the Speaker verbatim, serves as a great reminder, for our custodians of law, order and social justice, that in the end, no one is really safe, except for the moment, when it seems, that we have power and are in charge. Yet, power, like loyalty, eventually shifts, unless freedom is its foundation.

Ms Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.                       [email protected]