What if Gen Museveni abolished Parliament?

Our latest topic of street chatter talk has been the fight to lead Uganda’s next Parliament. Ideally, this is a critical and consequential matter. 

In a genuine democratic polity, the legislature is by far the most important of the three branches of government, in fact more important than the Executive, for its two core functions. 

First, Parliament makes laws and provides the basis for government policies and programmes. Second, it provides checks and balances on the exercise of authority by the other two branches of government, the Judiciary and Executive, and all other agencies of State and government. More generally, Parliament is supposed to be the real voice of the people, in the service of the common good and defence of the public interest. 

None of these makes much sense in today’s Uganda. We are not a rule of law country, so legislating is of little consequence. We have generally become a lawless society where impunity reigns and, especially those in charge of the levers of State power, can do anything however egregious and reprehensible without sanction. 

Similarly, the Executive, particularly the Presidency, can do whatever it wants and a supine parliament cannot raise any questions let alone successfully ensure there is accountability. 

It is baffling and perhaps a mark of the poverty of our political discourse that we are consumed by the debate over whether Ms Rebecca A. Kadaga or Mr Jacob Oulanyah should be elected Speaker. 

First, there is no longer a Parliament worth talking about in Uganda under the current rule of Mr Museveni. But even if there was a functional Parliament whose work can remotely hold value, there is no difference in the substance of Kadaga and Oulanyah, only a slight variation in form. One is a proven puppet of the ruler and the other a distinguished hatchet man. 

In the end, both are slavish servants of the real rulers. Little wonder that earlier this week, the ruler-in-chief summoned them, and reportedly rebuked them for bickering over what ideally is the nation’s number three job. 

On paper, a Speaker heads an independent branch of government and is not subject to the dictates and desires of the president. In our current contraption, however, the President summons the two heads of what is supposed to be a co-equal branch of government and orders them to stop campaigning to keep her job. It is just another mockery of the principles of democratic government and a travesty of the basics of rule-based governing. 

The former UPC man has been on mission and worked his way to the top. From the time he contributed to delivering removal of term limits in 2005, he has worked hard to prove himself. If he becomes the Speaker, no doubt he will serve his masters with fidelity and faith. He is a straightforward candidate and the better bet for the rulers. I too support him for his pragmatism. 

Kadaga by contrast is double-faced. She wants to serve her own narrow interests while trying to balance meeting the interests of the master. She wants to assert the independence of Parliament and the sanctity of her office as Speaker simultaneous with doing the bidding of the real rulers who subcontracted to her the job of heading Parliament. Sorry Madam Speaker, you cannot have it both ways. 

What is more, Ms Kadaga has shown she is very capable of blunt authoritarianism and parochialism, often portraying herself as more of a ‘Queen of Busoga’ than a Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament. The gender card she has played, bandied around by her supporters, is utterly ludicrous for one who has been riding the affirmative bus for more than 30 years!

Territorial in her approach, she uses Parliament as a source and avenue for patronage distribution to acolytes and her set of hangers-on among parliamentarians. Museveni is perfectly fine with this as long as Kadaga sticks to utmost loyalty and deference. 

If matters come to a head, Gen Museveni can actually do himself and the country a great favour by abolishing Parliament altogether, something he has threatened to do in the past. Ugandans would lose nothing. 
It is highly unlikely though that he can follow through on this. Even though he is an outright military ruler, Museveni is actually quite cowardly. He knows that keeping up the façade of democracy works very well for him and abolishing Parliament would only further expose the nakedness of his rule.

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