UPDF General Headquarters was emptied into Parliament!

Once again, we arrogate myself the right to write about the UPDF; this, in spite of accusations that I always poke our blunt noses in the wrong place. And we come with the question: What criteria should the UPDF use to select or nominate and elect its 10 Members of Parliament? 

In 2016, I wrote in these very pages an article titled: ‘Why the UPDF should have Maj Gen Muhoozi as an MP.’ I proposed that Maj Gen Muhoozi Keinerugaba (now a Lieutenant General) should be a Member of Parliament. The following were my arguments: 

With the Special Forces Command, UPDF looks like a tri-command force: There was the Lands Forces (or the Army), the Air Force (and the Special Forces Command). With its known capabilities and latitude of deployment, the SFC should formally be mainstreamed as the third force (thank the gods, I hear there is a Bill before Parliament seeking to actualise my thoughts of 2016). 

So, I argued: If the commanders of the Lands Force and the Air Force are among the 10 UPDF MPs, the commander of the Special Force should join them (in Parliament).  There was a Parliament (the 2011-2016 Parliament?)  where UPDF MPs were selected (unconsciously?) symmetrically to represent Operational Command, Historical Command and Administration. 

 Operational Command had the late Gen Aronda Nyakairima (Chief of Defence Forces); Lt Gen Katumba Wamala (Commander of the Lands Forces) and Lt Gen Jim Owoyesigire (Commander of the Air Force). The Historical Command had Gen David Sejusa, Gen Elly Tumwine and Phenihas Katirima. The rest were from what one would call administration.  But I am now against members of the General Staff going to Parliament. Let UPDF MPs be sourced or selected from a very broad spectrum of the forces. 
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I always boast that I was the first journalist to give Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu a full-length Q&A interview after he left the UPDF. Yes, I  used to be a journalist… n the interview, Gen Mugisha Muntu told me that he had to choose the salary of an MP over that of his formal office of Army Commander (now styled as Chief of Defence Forces). Asked what he thinks was his greatest contribution to Parliament, Gen Muntu just laughed and said: I think these things need to be reviewed. And as if he had just remembered his contribution, he added: “Together with MP Onapito Ekomoloit, I sponsored a Private Members’ Bill.

That must be my only contribution, which carried an element of public interest.”  If it were left to me, I would call for a review of UPDF representation in Parliament (and oh yes, all special interest groups representation). For the UPDF, I would propose new criteria where UPDF MPs would be picked from across the spectrum of the force. At least eight MPs should be selected from across UPDF’s longitude and latitude, leaving the General Headquarters to appoint two (who would act as Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip of the UPDF Caucus). Lakini hii maneno of emptying General Headquarters into Parliament is hapana hapana for me. It lacks the element and genetics of representation. 

The UPDF should avoid a situation where their Chief of Staff was once commanding operations on the battlefield. It passed then; but it is not good military practice… It is my suggestion that General Headquarters (UPDF top leadership) should remain outside Parliament. General Headquarters’ traditional role of command and control affords them enough leverage to guide the 10 MPs on how to handle themselves in the house; yet retaining the much needed distance from politics. To all the 10 UPDF MPs in the 2021-26 parliament, all the best.

Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of the East African Flagpost. [email protected]