Pardon Minister Kitutu

Recently, a letter by the embattled Minister for Karamoja Affairs to President Museveni, reportedly begging him to step in and prevent legal action from being taken against her for the iron sheets scandal, attracted a lot of attention from the public.  

Although the reaction illustrated a disillusioned population, I believe it was misplaced.  

I beseech the President to heed the plight to the honourable minister because of a host of reasons that I delve into in this piece. 

First and foremost, Minister Kitutu is not the first and given the current trend, will not be the last of the NRM regime’s cadres implicated in corruption scandals. Quite many personalities have been implicated in more grave scandals only to be hoisted up to greater positions since it is an open secret that party loyalty triumphs honesty and accountability in today’s ‘liberated’ Uganda. 
 
The President should not forget that 2026 is coming along and thus should not risk to anger the Minister’s constituents, after all, Karamoja’s nine districts only gave him an average 90 percent of the vote in the previous presidential election. 

Secondly, the Minister is only part of faulty policy formulation and implementation, to think of it, it’s quite comical that taxpayers’ money would be directed towards purchasing overly priced iron sheets and yet a basic understanding of the current role of the gun in the Karimojong social and economic way of life in this context, points to outright under appreciation of the region’s problems.

But this is no surprise, a fellow cabinet member previously offered bags of maize to any ‘warrior’ who willingly surrendered an illegal firearm. Which would be enticing if only one recognized that firearms have taken a more economic nature in the present circumstances. 

Additionally, it’s quite pointless to continuously carry out disarmament campaigns in the region whilst the neighboring countries of Kenya and South Sudan fail to disarm their pastoralist populations leaving the Karamojong vulnerable to attacks/raids as well as giving brief illusions of peace and stability while weapons reach the hands of these individuals through the borders.

Thirdly, from a political chess board point of view, the President should pardon honorable Kitutu as this will keep her indebted to him just like one of Mario Puzo’s, The Godfather’s favors that have to be repaid when the time comes, if it ever does come.

This would also not be new at all, even better, in case a bill in Parliament or an amendment of the Constitution is required in the future, the Minister in her capacity as a legislator will not need a lot of ‘fuel’ to travel and ‘consult’ her electorate since she owes the President. 

And lastly, punishing the honorable Minister will mean that all other implicated leaders will have to face the law as it is. Government business would ideally come to a standstill. 

Therefore, we the citizens and the commander in chief need to accept that the ‘Fishermen’ ended up being baited by the iron sheets that were to be used to tempt the karachunas out of the waters of non-state perpetrated gun violence and that there is nothing we can do about it.

Arnold Trevor Longole, [email protected], Student, Makerere School of Law