Opinion: Museveni and his axing of civil servants; it is not a quick fix to get the government institutions going!

M7 Tororo UNRA

We all know why all of a sudden all employees of Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) we’re fired, after scandal upon scandal where the prices per meter of road went into the imaginary and also the due diligence on the contracts of the roadworks wasn’t really done by the government institution. Still, resolving the matter with clearing the shop totally is more of a public stunt, than actually making it decent. The first culture of thieving, counterfeiting and all the matters lay in most of the government institutions already. That is being made from the top where the monies are spent on farm equipment for the president instead of pay-rise for the civil servants.

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has lost it. It is evident with the sacking of the medical personnel of the Nakawuku Health Centre III. This is proof of the wilderness of the Executive these days. As the hide and seek of professional manner from the top, down to the lowest civil servant. If the system we’re correct and the salaries made sense than the works would be done proper and the so-called laziness would not needing sanctions. The other reason for the laziness is the loose structure of the health-care and the systematic under-funded health care in Uganda. That is why there is not functioning Cobalt 60 Teletheraphy Machine for the needed Cancer treatment at Uganda Cancer Institute at Mulago Hospital Complex in Kampala. This is just the major proof of a degraded and worrying condition of health-care in general.

The elephant in the room is obvious, it is clearly not the laziness or the Health Care per say. It’s the structures, the funding and in the end the walking budget. The President, the Executive, the one man with a vision, the force of NRM. That man the elephant in the room is President Museveni. He has run the country for 30 years, by this time his vision and his play for making the country sustainable and steady progress should have made these problems obsolete. Instead he has gotten more land and bigger private planes, but not built proper institutions or procedures to check the government institutions. The laws and regulations of the government is loose. Because if it was transparent he could not get away buying giant and expensive helicopters while the hospitals are understaffed and the vaccine programs are only there because of donor-aid directly to the causes.

Magufuli Museveni Tan Oil Pipeline 2016

The reason for the fall of grace and the sackings is that he wants the respect of President John Pombe Magufuli. He has gone directly fired his minister for drinking while in parliament and also corrupt civil servants at the port of Dar Es Salaam not long after he was sworn-in. That perception is that President Museveni tries to get. What he forget his legacy is long sealed in the behaviour and knowledge of what the NRM really is. The Image of Museveni and NRM Regime is intertwining with corruption and embezzlement.

So the claims of fighting this and going against it are more a play of words than real actions. The times he does it is to save face and make sure the donors we’re happy in the end. That is why he has continued with what he doing and how he operate. The monies always end in ways where he manipulate and make sure the riches are around himself and his loyal cronies. So the service delivery is long gone as the NAADs and SACCO’s money all of a sudden disappear together with the steady pace of the all the other government funds that just vanish in thin air.

If you wait on and continue to wait for payment; if your boss waits for his salaries and the budgeted funds for procurement of needed technical equipment does arrive. And even if it comes, it is never on time and never allocated extra funds for the lost times and lost months as the back-pay are troubling enough. The system of this is in tatters as the government are more important for the close knitted staff around the ministers and the State House. While, the rest have to wait and live in oblivion for their service rendered.

With this in mind, the sackings are unfair as the Executive and his cronies have had 30 years to fix the system and build the government institutions. The Government institutions aren’t only the inherited ones from the colonial times and being a protectorate under the British. It has now been made in the image of Museveni. Therefore the vision and image of this laziness and the lack of supervision; is all in all his fault. It is his demeanour and his wish for weak institutions so he could beg for donor funds that is the reason for the lack of control of the health care facilities. It is the build off of poverty, so he can beg and ask for help from the international community. If the country we’re strong and had transparent institutions that worked on already government funds, than the NRM regime wouldn’t need the donor-funds and NGOs supporting the Ugandan Government. Something, President Museveni clearly knows well as he been skimming and eating of the plate for decades and hope for life at this point.

The sackings is the deepest approach of trying to action and act upon the words he sometimes utter to the public. No matter how right or wrong. He knows deep in his heart and in his soul that he is the one behind the massive need for restructuring and rebuilding the Ministry of Health and the Health Care in general. As the counterfeit pills from India and Pakistan isn’t what they say they are and not as effective as the grade A pills. That is something he knows as he takes what he can get and accept it because this make him wealthy and powerful. The legality and novelty of firing own men and woman for laziness proves the little common sense for the destruction of the institutions that knows very well about. But it is better for a few health care personnel to jump on their swords than the Executive. That is the key to this arrangement. President Museveni knew so very well and lives like it doesn’t exist because he is never the issue. The issues are always and will be somebody else than him. He is the one with the vision, the guiding star for all gracious men to follow. Therefore we are supposed to cherish and celebrate his actions. Instead of saying that this actions are really just a spark and proof of his neglect or inactions for decades, that isn’t welcomed; still it is the ice-cold proof. Peace.

Agreeing with Besigye and it feels good; though sadden by the wisdom Hon. Kiiza…

Besigye Kampala 11.05.2016 P3

Eh! It feels good to have same opinion as the incarcerated Presidential Candidate of the Forum for Democratic Change Dr. Kizza Besigye, he have lately been able to drop a few words to the public from his jail cell in Luzira Maximum Prison, this happens as the FDC scrambles for etiquette and justify their place in the 10th Parliament.

First he will address the Shadow Cabinet, and say similar words to my own. Though he is the freedom fighter and proves that with his words, as he knows the caliber of oppression the regime have and the legitimacy the Shadow Cabinet does. Take a quick look!  

First Point – Shadow Cabinet!

On the Shadow Cabinet:

“I do not think MPs should be reduced to fighting for small positions in Parliament. What we need to be fighting for is different. We need to struggle to strengthen our position on the ground and form structures like the Power 10 we used in elections to develop capacity to take on the regime that we know has lost credibility. In Parliament, they are just there to make numbers they can’t change anything President Museveni wants whether in Opposition or not,” (…) “We can’t allow positions in Parliament that mean nothing to cause rifts yet we have much to do,” (…)“I have spent much of my youthful age in the struggle, now I am over 60 years, I am not growing younger. What is remaining is that we must fight to the end whoever dies, others will continue. We can’t hold on any more until we get peace, justice, freedom and equality before the law,” – Dr. Kizza Besigye (Rumanzi, Perez – ‘Nothing to fight for in Parliament, says Besigye’ 26.06.2016 – Daily Monitor).

Kiiza Article Daily Monitor

What Winnie Kiiza has said of late on the Shadow Cabinet:

“… Many people look at Opposition as enemies of the state … people don’t want to associate with us in the Opposition … In multiparty dispensation, opposition parties are supposed to guide and check government, Ugandans should know that at the time we are taking on leadership, as opposition we are facing tough times, so let’s join hands for a better Uganda” Hon Winnie Kiiza (Leader of Opposition).

When you the incarcerated Besigye, the leader who have been able to unify the opposition and also being the man who made progress on the frontline and talked about the real change in the country, to create accountability and democratic values, that Hon. Kiiza who are part of his party is first throwing him under the bus and dodging the entangled issue. While she is defending the righteous ways of being a opposition leader in Parliament, also giving up the principals and all the oppression for quick silver and made-believe possibilities, if not the sealing of the Ministry of Education and Sports after the swearing in Janet Museveni, if the NRM regime and ruling party where democratic then the Ministry would be allowed to use phones and not run under the strict control of the First Lady of Uganda. And this is the regime that LoP is serving and not giving way for liberation and freedom from the Police State under the NRM. That is something she cannot run away from, but easy to attack Besigye while he is behind bars and not visible, but he is the epitome of everything the regime is not. That is also what the issue and the reason why Hon. Kiiza have to defend her place in the Parliament…

kavuma

Second Point – Deputy Justice Steven Kavuma:

Points taken from the letter to Stephen Kavuma:

“LETTER FROM LUZIRA PRISON: ‪Dr. Kizza Besigye ‪of the ‎FDC has petitioned the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to investigate the suitability of Justice Steven Kavuma as a justice of the Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court. In a June 16 letter from Luzira prison, BESIGYE alleges that Justice Kavuma is close to the Executive and that instead of doing judicial work in line with the oath he took, he is allegedly doing the bidding of President Museveni, the appointing authority. In a five-page letter, BESIGYE alleges improper conduct, abuse of office, neglect of duty and maladministration by Justice Kavuma which he says should be investigated and appropriate action taken against him. The core mandate of the JSC is to recruit and discipline errant judicial officers. “The conduct of Mr ‪‎Steven Kavuma, over the years since he joined the ‪#‎UGANDAJUDICIARY was initially frequently suspicious, then later frequently outrageous and currently, predominantly improper to point of going against the oaths and the standards expected of such a judicial officer,” Dr Kizza Besigye” (Forum for Democratic Change, 27.06.2016).

The point is valid as Stephen Kavuma has done more to show loyalty to Museveni and NRM than keeping up with unlawful practice. The Justice been more entangled into the works of conducting the orders from above and prove that he justify the truths of the NRM Regime, and the Police State under control of the above high. Together with the Uganda Police going against the opposition and being a tool to control the dissidents instead of stopping criminal activity, also bribing people to be witness and create fake affidavits to secure the rulings in favor of the ruling regime, instead of justice; and it is in this regard that Besigye also write to the Justice Kavuma, it is not a personal vendetta, more of a justified question, as the judge went directly and at one point made FDC party illegal; something that the justice shouldn’t do as a respectable state, as the Defiance shouldn’t be an issue in the nation of Resistance.

So I say this, and for those that are surprised by the assessment, I agree with both pieces and opinions from Dr. Kizza Besigye. His words on LoP and Shadow Cabinet, is similar to the ones I have addressed, they must surely be hurtful for Hon. Kiiza and Gen. Mugisha Muntu, as the proof in the words are addressing the reality on the ground, the same I have written in the recent months.

Muntu Besigye Delegation Conferance 2015

The same feeling about the Judge and his activity that is more about personal attitude and serves the Mzee instead of being a man of justice, a judge who respect the law and does not serve the Executive, but the laws and regulatory of the state.

There is more to come, as the court-rooms and litigations will continue to be given to Dr. Kizza Besigye and Forum for Democratic Change, while the ruling regime does what it can to take down the opposition and doing that with the main competitor as Besigye are usually silenced by the prison cell and by the alleged crimes put on the politician.

And Mzee must be happy that he can create fuzz between the Muntu-FDC and the Besigye-FDC, as he also did with the UPC-Otunnu and UPC-Akena. Just think about that for a minute, and say I am wrong? Peace.

Analysts: UPC/NRM MoU Not a Surprise (Youtube-Clip)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZmS8wq6YwA

“Jimmy Akena, the contested president of the opposition UPC and son to its founder the late president, Milton Oboteis set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the ruling NRM. Political analysts say the new development should not surprise Ugandans as it’s the current trend of political transactions with more politicians expected to switch sides in the near future. While Akena argues that his decision to ally with Museveni was informed by the need for a peaceful transition in 2021, Godber Tumushabe says it’s clear why this alliance took place. It was merely in exchange for ministerial posts and shift of positions regarding opinion Upcoming negotiations are expected to streamline the type of relationship the two parties will enjoy. The two parties are looking at either forming a formal alliance or a cooperation for the good of Ugandans. But is this deal similar to the one between Uganda People’s Congress and Kabaka Yekka in the early 1960s? And on whether or not the UPC/NRM alliance impacts on the UPC party and opposition politics, Godber Tumushabe had this to say” (NBS TV Uganda, 2016)

Mrs. Beti Kamya – “Where is Museveni’s Heart” (Daily Monitor Article of 28.01.2008)

Beti Kamaya 2008 Article P1Beti Kamaya 2008 Article P2Beti Kamaya 2008 Article P3Beti Kamaya 2008 Article P4

#SOTNUG16 rehashed his own 1980s ideas; The Old Man in a Hat gone full circle!

Museveni 31.05.2016

Here I will take something that hasn’t changed in the 30 years of National Resistance Movement in Uganda, as the same Executive said the same things, apparently within 30 years space. That is possible in the world we live in and how he really have talked and walked in circles. Will take parts of the speech yesterday and to speeches President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni did in the late 1980s, to prove how he has spin all around and have run back to start, actually.

Museveni Swear in 1986

With that in mind a little look into words said on his first speech in the General Assembly of United Nations on the 21st October 1987 in New York, when in his speech then, he said this:

“Those Countries with a tourist industry cannot, in most cases, service it on it own. For instance, the cornflakes, jam, cheese, and wines to feed the tourists all come from all outside the Third World. So-called factories are, therefore, no more than assembly plants”.

In a Speech at the Opening of the National Workshop for the Development of Small-Scale Industries on the 3rd April 1989, when he said this:

“I have managed with a lot of difficulty, to get some figures from the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development. I wanted some figures for tractor prices, but the ministry could not get them. If they do not have such figures, I do not know how they operate. Anyhow, they managed to get me prices for Bedford trucks. Since 1980, a Bedford truck has been rising in price with 6,5 percent per annum” (…)”If we look at coffee prices, however, while the price of the Bedford truck have been rising by 6,5 percent per annum, coffee prices fell by 32 percent between 1980 and 1987. It is not only Bedford’s that are going up in price, it is any manufactured product you care to import. You can see the situation is not in our favor”.

Bedford Africs

Then we jump in space and time, we end up in Kampala in the Ugandan Parliament, the opening of the 10th Parliament, as the still President Museveni in 2016; with another new State of the Nation Address, this time in the year of 2016, on the 31st May 2016, when he was actually saying this:

“One sector, for instance, is assembling cars rather than importing the already assembled cars.  When a car is imported in knockdown state and is assembled here, it is about 25% cheaper because it is cheaper to transport car parts on ships and trains than importing assembled cars.  When a car is already assembled, it occupies more space on the ship and on train flat-bed wagons.  Hence, it is more costly” (…)“All this is not just about stopping the haemorrhage of our money to the outside and paying more than we should pay.  It is also about jobs for our children.  By importing so much from outside, we are creating jobs for the children of the Chinese, the Indians, the Japanese, the Europeans, the Americans and the Middle Easterners and forgetting about our own children. This must stop.  If all the textiles that are used in Uganda are made here, we shall save US$888 million, annually and create about 45,000 direct manufacturing jobs.  By insisting on only allowing vehicles that are assembled in-country (lorries, buses, mini-buses, pick-ups and piki-pikis) to be sold in the Ethiopian market, they have created 160,000 jobs.  You can check that easily” (…)”I have talked to our importers. These policy changes or evolutions should not take one year.  We can phase them; but they must be triggered. Otherwise, we shall be slaves.  We shall continue to run a supermarket for foreign products but which we call country”.

What do you think, he has gone in circle and lost his way somewhere between Gulu-Masindi-Hoima-Mbarara-Masaka-Kampala, right? Maybe he crossed to Kabale at one point or into Kisoro to delegate some troops for the DRC or Rwanda, depending on which year of his rule. Not easy to know, what is easy to know by now how he has lost control of his mind, and is even recycling the same agenda as in 1980s and not even trying to sound fresh, clean and ready to run the country. He cannot be taken serious as he hasn’t delivered this in 30 years, why should he manage it in to his 35 years, I am just sneezing as his Opposition is detained in the Museveni-ocracy… or whatever a Police-state/totalitarian regime infused with re-hashed ideas of old. Welcome The Old Man in a Hat! Peace.

PS: If you want to read the old speeches of the dictator and the grand Don Museveni, the NRA/NRM head honcho, you should either check out the library an read the book named “What is Africa’s Problem?” Written by Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the book we’re published in 2000 from the University of Minnesota Press, United States of America.

Opinion: Human Rights versus National Security is B.S. when spoken about in Ugandan context right now!

Besigye 04.05.2016 House Arrest

Let me clear this is my view and not a general view as there might be seen as fellow counterparts have the same. There is hard to have peace, a general peace and neutral peace when fellow citizens are made enemies. You can’t have in a territory both enemies and neutrals. That doesn’t work, as the enemies of the state will be hunted down at one point. Something that happens as the National Security values will counter to bring down the enemies.

When you have come to the Point as you have made the Opposition to the worst enemies in country and therefore want’s to crush them. In a nation where the Ruling Party set the standard and have the rights first, the Human rights will be the norm. As the newest law that strengthen the government power instead of giving more back to the citizens. Citizens get quicker behind bars for nothing with the new laws; also with keeping the old laws from Colonial times gives the Police possibility to Preventative arrests and even detain without court order within 24 hours. Something that the Opposition parties have felt time and time again.

Ngabo Arrest 03.05.2016 P2 Smile

The initial ones that are saying that the National Security goes before the Human Rights are the ruling elite who earn the money by running the system. The Ruling Elite does not want to the system to change as they earn massive profits on it. Why change something that is currently working right? Well, is it? When you have to prosecute and make fellow citizens criminals, opposition members, opposition leaders from Councilors to Members of Parliament, that happens without questions and that is not a healthy society.

This way of working is making the opposition criminal and their activity criminal. That the society nearly or bravely saying assembles them for prayers are illegal says something of what that rule of law in the country. And it is illegal since it is a part of Defiance Campaign of the FDC that is by Interim Order of 29th April 2016 by Deputy Justice Stephen Kavuma.

Gulu 03.05.2016

So that a National Political Party from the Opposition should not be enemy of the state; as they come with peaceful demonstration and disobedience. President Museveni has used guns and fear to keep himself in power. Together with buying alliances and paying to silence the ones who is hungry. Not everybody can be paid for silence as Bishops and Jimmy Akena of the UPC. Therefore he makes the ones enemies as he did with Dr. Milton Obote and Tito Okello. He has done the same with others and people have eaten it up, but now he shows that his colors are the same.

The National Security of the country is now meaning that the President is secure and his ruling elite. Not that the Security of the nation and all citizens of the country. If it was so then that would be different and would make a difference.

NRM Campaign 25.01.2016

Human rights as free movement, demonstrations and free speech shouldn’t be so hard for the National Resistance Movement, but if they we’re a legitimate ruling party they wouldn’t had an issue it with it. They wouldn’t have used the Police to detain peaceful demonstrators in the streets around an Opposition Party Headquarters in Kampala. The Police Force wouldn’t have put the regulatory of who could enter the premises or not. Even detaining fellow staff of the Headquarters… if that is not flabbergasting and boggles your mind then you don’t know to what extent the NRM Regime goes.

NRM UPF 07.01.16 Mbale Clock Tower

The National Security aspect isn’t for securing the safety for the citizens, it is for securing the riches for the elite and their businesses. As they earn monies over fist and have to keep it that way, even meaning that that they earn money on embezzling the government funds here and there. But that is not a value worth to consider. As the human rights and the justice for all men is not considered, only considered when it matters for the NRM elite. That should be a worry for the media, for the state and for the citizens.

Dr. Kizza Besigye and his new house-arrest is not biggest breach of human rights, it is just the epitome of how the government does not care about human rights, justice or rule of law. He is illegally detained by the Police Force as he is a criminal for defending his belief and the judgement of Electoral Commission that was fixed to fit the Ruling Party. So he couldn’t even counter the announcement made by the EC this time around because of the harassment of the opposition from the Police. The reason why Opondo and Museveni have sounded like wounded dogs while defending the announcement and victory. Even the double victory after the Supreme Court ruling on the Election Petition! They did not sound like proud winners, more like they knew what they did and wanted to clean their hands from the dirt.

M7 2016 Post Interview quote

As said the Human Rights at this point should come first, as the Government and Police Force is used to target fellow citizens, tax-payers who pays money to the Members of Parliament who doesn’t in the near future pay tax. That is not justice or free society. That is “man eats man Society” of late Julius Nyerere. We this with the men who represent the citizens, eats all the money of the citizens as they do this without taking actions to defend the citizens. The Government and the Police should shield the public, not make parts of the public its enemies. That is the idea that National Security goes in the front of the Human rights paradigm.

If you let the Human rights be stepped on, will you step on all liberties; all kinds of justices will be brought away from court to keep the streets clean in the name of the National Security. If the Human Rights are respected then the citizens; would have rights to not have issues in court unless they violate the criminal codes, but otherwise the civil liberties and the freedoms of the people is not worth anything.

IGP Kale 03.05.2016

The Human Rights of the citizens and the people supposed to have this. So their place in the society is safe and their principal right to live as private persons and not criminals. That the State is making fellow citizens criminals for doing peaceful actions as praying is saying to what kind of a Police State the Ugandan Citizens are under.

But at this day and time the National Security is not for the citizens, but for the ruling elite. Then the obstruction of Human Rights is nonsense and the values of attacking this in the sake of National Security are obsolete. The thought of destroying the freedoms of the citizens and the liberty of the citizens are than gone. Not in the name of National Security, but for the NRM Regime. That is not worthy and not righteous. Peace.   

Monetary gains over the citizens needs is the reasonable way for the Ugandan MPs

Uganda Parliament Museveni

The level of arrogance that they have learned from the Executive, Chief Whip and Secretary General of the NRM comes to hunt the Parliament of Uganda. The Members of Parliament is set in their ways and used, sorry accustomed to monetary gains on the bills of the tax-payers already. The Income-Tax Amendment is just the new niche. They have already subsidized cars, housing, supported health-care and other add-ons that make their jobs easier and profitable.

As Reported in the Daily Monitor Today:

“Addressing a news conference in Parliament yesterday, Mr Peter Ogwang (Youth Eastern) and Mr Henry Musasizi (Rubanda East) warned civil servants like Mr Muhakanizi, who this week condemned their tax exemption deal, that they are also waiting for them in Parliament during the consideration of the Auditor General’s reports. “We cannot pass the budget until we are sure that our amendment to Income Tax Bill has been concluded,” Mr Musasizi said. “In case the President does not sign the Bill, it will still come back to the same people in Parliament. These are hard facts. We will still pass it without fear or favour.” The MPs also took shots at civil society groups which are raising public awareness over the controversy. “The public should be with us in the struggle to facilitate MPs. We need facilitation to go to our constituencies because a Member of Parliament without money cannot have confidence. But there is an option, if they want us to drop the amendment, the government should give us Shs30 billion in additional funding to cater for increased salaries and benefits for Members of Parliament,” Mr Musasizi said. Mr Musasizi, who moved the amendment to the Income Tax law, also revealed that what he did had the backing of the President.  “We agreed with the President in the [ruling party’s parliamentary retreat in] Kyankwanzi that we should not increase our salaries and benefits but tax on our allowances should be lifted to maintain the status-quo,” he said” (Mugerwa, 2016).

Ugandan shillings

So certain ones are putting the budget on a stalemate in favour of getting more money and not paying tax as ordinary citizens as they are MPs and for some reason deserves more facilitation then the people of Kalerwe or Kaabong. The ignorance and arrogance is just learned by the Inner-Circle of the NRM. This is just the works of decades of decadence from the ruling elite and now the chicken comes to roost. The egg is ready to put in the basket and the MPs are ready to be paid their salaries without having income-tax.

The interesting is that the Kyankwanzi 2.0. that was recently and made implications to the doing of the Parliament, how it was practically empty as the NRM CEC and the Executive set the agenda for the next Parliament, the 10th One. The tone of now more benefits for the MPs in general, no salary increase for the MPs; the Income-Tax Amendment is an increase of salaries as they will get all the monetary gain and not pay for their facilitation for being an Member of Parliament instead of secretary at the district office in Mbarara.

That the MPs want to stifle the voting for the 2016/2017 budget for the steady “progress” of the country proves what values the representatives of population have. They are in parliament to eat, get fat and get bonuses that would be out of reach in other jobs. They want to make their life splendid on the tax-payers salaries and not become a “tax-payer” as long as they are representing the tax-payers. Which in turn is ironic; just recently they passed legislation that was made to fix the budget shortfalls of 2015/2016 as certain ministries was broke after the economic maladministration during the NRM campaign. That was done in hurry to secure salaries of the State House and other positions of the state. So they can offer something as long as the Executive also get his cut. But now they are forcing the Parliament and becoming hostile to create a functioning economic climate in the sense of their pockets. That is what they are initially saying. The proud men and woman who is supposed to be representing the tax-payers are saying that does not deserve to be taxed by the state. So who deserve it then?

The ones representing the tax-payer should pay tax. The ones that levy new taxes and regulations should themselves get taxed on what they earn. It is over the edge to see the moment of monetary greed from the Members of Parliament in Uganda. Their act of disgrace and attitude towards fellow citizens is overbearing. But they have just learned from their Executive who has teach them how he runs the Racket and racketeering, so that the NRM elite and the inner-circle also want their goods and glory as long as the cost is not theirs. The same way the Executive get funded for cars, jet-planes, housing and cattle-farms. Now the MPs want’s the same as their master. Peace.   

Uganda Civil Society Organization File Amicus Curiae Motion to Join Presidential Election Petition No. 1 of 2016 (10.03.2016)

CSO Join Petition 10.03.2016

On March 10th 2016, civil society organisations filed an amicus curie motion to join the presidential election petition. The organisations have interest in the petition because it raises important questions of public interest; whether the general elections were conducted in a manner representative of the will of the people.

The admission as amicus curiae will serve the interest of justice and enhance participation of people of Uganda not otherwise represented. The civic duty to engage in matters of public interest is enshrined in the 1995 Constitution; civic organizations are especially charged with the responsibility to engage to protect constitutionalism, human rights and democracy.

The organizations that join this application are mandated by their missions to do civic engagement on matters of interest to citizens. As organizations working on human rights, their responsibility extends to matters of the rule of law and accountability to citizens of Uganda who are the voters in every election.

The applicants are members of the civil society coalition that was accredited as election observers in the 2016 general election under the framework of the Citizens Election Observers Network (CEON-U) and the Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU).

Civil society organisations observed electoral processes prior during and after the Presidential elections along side convening voter mobilization campaigns. The organisations therefore possess valuable, credible and verifiable information on the elections, which will enrich the Court’s consideration of the presidential election petition.

The organisations include: Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA Uganda), Chapter Four Uganda, Human Rights Network Uganda (HURINET), Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG), Kituo cha Katiba (KcK), Legal Aid Services Providers Network Uganda (LASPNET), and Transparency International (TI).

Contact for more information:

Dr. Livingstone Ssewanyana, FHRI: 0752791963

Hon. Irene Ovonji-Odida, FIDA Uganda: 0772701488

Mr. Crispy Kaheru, CCEDU: 079444401 or 0772332747

Picture of the Week: “The Ballot that stomps on the Leopards anus”

Picture of day 24.02.2016

Difiance in action, indeed!

Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago talks to media after casting his vote (Youtube-Clip)

My take on it:

He talks after voting today, about his posistion and about his validity of the posistion as the Lord Mayor of Kampala. Being ceremonial and not head of the city. Also about the rule of law and that he doesn’t have an direct issue with President Museveni. This here is interesting and shows the character of Erias Lukwago. That must be the reason why he has such an impact in as a Mayoral Candidate and won the election in 2011. He has had effective campaign in the city, even with the issues and detaining him during the pre-election period. This here shows the value of keeping his head cold and going through the obsticals to become the Lord Mayor again. He desverves respect for his posistion and the platform he describes the importance of “Rule of Law”.  Respect the rule of law, policy of the programs and policies in Kampala that lays on the head of the City and the Lord Mayor of Kampala. Something President Museveni does not respect.

As the Personal problems between him and President Museveni, but the issue is that with Lord Mayor Lukwago; President Museveni does not have direct control of Kampala, he cannot live with that! He sucks with trusting people and giving away power… As we saw in the Presidential Election and Parliamentary election on the 18th February.