When did it become okay? That the Politicians of our time are richer than businessmen!

“There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.” – Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

Something is wrong in our day and age. When the Members of Parliament, the politicians and the appointed leadership are richer, than ever before. When the politicians and the ones representing us are richer than the ones building factories and owning businesses. That is just wrong, that is not right. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

The Members of Parliament, the politicians, the councilors and the local government officials wasn’t supposed to be the kingpins and have the biggest mansions. They are supposed to represent us and make sure that society are working for all of us. Maybe with different ideology and party affiliation, but their existence and their livelihood depend on the idea, that they are representing us. The politicians are supposed to be there for us and be there as guards. And if we don’t like they way they are guarding our society, we change them with someone else in the next election. That is how it is supposed to be, right?

However, that is not the case in our day. To many places they are honorable, they are noble, they have more businesses than businessmen, they have more investment too. They are using their connections for government tenders and also trading with State Owned Enterprises (SOE). All of this so they can sponge off the state and secure even more profits on the dime of the citizens. Instead of delivering and representing, they are become traders of faith and billing society too.

That wasn’t the intention. It wasn’t supposed to be rigged elections and fixed results. That makes sense for the leadership not representing the people or delivering. Since they don’t have to, it is just a charade securing the leadership “legitimacy” with an election, but the people didn’t elect them. That was ghosts, bots and algorithms. They have no interests in caring or delivering. Neither has the ones who used a coup to gain power. They fought there for their own will, not depending on the goodwill and trust of the public.

There are so many leaders and MPs, so many parliamentarians who seems more preoccupied with their SUVs, Mansions, Salaries and expense accounts. That they are not considering the troubles of the working people, about the pensioners and the ones unemployed. They are just happy go lucky, that the fortune hit them. The poverty, the lacking services and the misuse of power doesn’t mind them. These people could make it on their own, that is why they are unfortunate. Not that it’s the MPs, the Presidents or the representatives who didn’t see who they represent.

When we forget that they are representing us, they are representing the ideas of our society and the will of change that is needed. There is always need for change and need for productivity. There is always need for service delivery and making sure the government are accountable. However, when the representative is more keen on their own pockets and getting connections to enrich themselves. Then they loose their meaning and their purpose. They are then marionettes for the elites and the corporations. The politicians becomes stooges and relics instead of the representing the people of their constituency.

This has to change, we have to change this, we cannot accept that the MPs, the politicians are taking us for granted and using us for their own gain. They are there to serve, unless they don’t change. We have to serve them, we have to demonstrate and boycott their well-wishers. We cannot just look at these leaders of ours and be happy with it.

If they wont represent us, then we have to get fresh blood. Get people who actually care and give a damn. Because the ones in our time are greedy, selfish loot of people, who needs to recognized and be dealt with, before we are dealt with and we will be left behind. Peace.

My belief now is that the President Museveni we now see; Is a leader without a Vision!

The Parliament of Uganda is supposed to discuss and read the Constitutional Amendment Bill of 2016. This happens as both Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah will not want to be responsible for ushering in the bill. As the current parts of the bill is to amend the Constitution.

The 1995 Constitution that already have been amended and fixed to be perfect for the Executive and his party; the strangest thing is that President Museveni didn’t see his future and how he would act. Because the Constitutions have already abolished the Presidential Term limits, something that happen just in time for the third term; for some reason the President had only written the ability to have two terms. That is without counting the first period where he wasn’t elected, but selected by the gun!

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his National Resistance Movement (NRM) prove again their inability to be honest with themselves and with the public. That is because their leader and President don’t have a true vision. Except for the vision that is the man with the vision, without knowing what that vision is. Because if he knew what vision he had the stability of government functions and built institutions would be steady. Since it isn’t so, it’s a proof of the inability to have a steady vision.

Because of that lack of vision and ability to see his own future and how it will turn by his actions; it was by rare luck in the race between him and Dr. Paul Ssemogerere that he blasted out the pledge the citizens the promise of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and he actually worked for it for a while, especially when the donor funds to it came as well. The President Museveni doesn’t have a vision and has an ability now to fix his future. If he had than he been on the farm and not spoken the same lingo of fighting corruption while dropping brown envelopes and extra fees for signing bills and acts in Parliament. That is why the Parliamentarians are travelling to the United States.

That the man who spoke of leaders sitting to long and talking retiring after two terms is still there shows that he has no real vision. If he had a real vision he would have left behind a legacy, a fiscal responsible government and made ready for the next in line to continue his progress. But President Museveni doesn’t have it in him, his only vision was himself. So the Constitutional Amendment is in another Member of Parliament’s Hon. Kafeero Ssekitoleko and Hon. Paul Amoru who doing the bidding for their master.

Even if it was his idea as it is not really news, it has been at former leadership trainings on Kyankwanzi Resolution of 2014 of the Movement said this:

“Live in Kyankwanzi where the NRM orientation and retreat is on going! Resolution has been passed to extend the term limit from 5 years to 7 years!”.

This never happen, because the vision of the President is not existing. If so then he would have managed to pulled through the 2014 Resolution from the Leadership Conference of the Party. But the Museveni doesn’t have that. He we’re able to pull through as younger man and still without fatigue of age the Constitution and nearly 10 years later fixing the Constitution again to amend his lacking vision.

The lack of vision, the vision which isn’t a vision; if he had a vision he wouldn’t be a walking budget who drops 100m Shilling at Nakawa SACCO and also at certain public NAADS in Mukono recently. If he had a vision there would be accounts, accountability and structures for these monies and not just when he pop-by like limited edition Santa Clause. Well, that is because of lesser known vision and knowledge of the reality on the ground.

Just like the vision must be lost in all the giant programs and infrastructure projects that doesn’t seem to be genuine and honest to fix them all; seem more like business to get loans and aid than actual development. That’s like recycling old pledges and promising town and city status during the campaign. Yet, another proof that he has lost his touch and views of any kind of vision.

So that the man is now using MPs to secure his future and getting MPs to vote himself into longer stay in power, isn’t powerful, it isn’t revolutionary. If it was revolutionary than the former despots and tyrants of the world was the ones who drove engineering and invention; most likely that happen in places where people wasn’t told how to think. In the same mind when a leader doesn’t accept the will of the ones he leads; he isn’t visionary. What he really is? More scary; because the values of the citizenship… gets devalued because their leader doesn’t have any vision and doesn’t need to deliver anything to his citizens.

I know it is harsh, but I have compelled him to be racketeering gangster. A man without a vision and just running government on random is being on the up-and-up!

President Museveni doesn’t have a clear vision, when the main goal is getting fellow Members of Parliament to vote himself for life. That is the endgame of the Constitutional Amendment Bill of 2016. If they abolish and rewrite the words of a President cannot be older than 75 years old. The Old man with a Hat doesn’t have a vision under the hat. On his head now he has a hat and he has an expensive car, he buys the MPs to vote his will and uses the speakers to whip them into his line. If he doesn’t’ do that his family leader Gen. Salim Selah talks and fix. Just like he did with the lost-boy Go-Forward Christopher Aine of the Amama Mbabazi Campaign Team; who he got to show up like a rabbit out of a hat.

President Museveni isn’t visionary anymore; he isn’t clear and doesn’t have clear prospect of what he want. Other than getting loyalty by the ones he can pay for their silence and get credit for other people’s work. If not he will complain that others haven’t completed it.

The President is without a vision and only leads because he get checks and controls the people, not because he cares about Government or the Institutions of Government; he is there for his ego and his own wish to rule them all. Therefore he has pushed for the East African Federation, but he will not get the will of the Tanzanian, Rwandan or Kenyan to set him over them. They don’t respect him in that way, unless they can gain some pocket-change from the old man with the hat (Still not a vision). That is why they we’re both fighting for his attention now recently, because the Tanzanian and Kenyan wanted to be sure of the Crude Oil Pipeline.

By now, he doesn’t work for better government, but for a better position for himself and his family. That he even said in an interview to BBC in 2014. So the people shouldn’t forget that. Peace.

Democratic Republican Party SVG Condems and Urges removal of Clause 16 of the Cybercrime Bill 2016 (24.07.2016)

In rememberence of Patrice Lumumba with his letter to the U.N. Special Representative on 4.1.1961

The first president after independence from Belgium in Democratic Republic of Congo was assainated on this day in 1961. That is why I have this post on him today as  rememberence of him. Because we should not forget his contribution to equality and freedom in DRC.  That is why I will add on his last letter written on 4th January 1961 from Thysville prison, the letter was sent to Special Representive A.M. Dayal, here it is:

Mr. Special Representative,
On December 27 last, I had the pleasure of receiving a visit from the Red Cross, which occupied itself with my plight and with the plight of the other parliamentarians imprisoned together with me. I told them of the inhuman conditions we are living in.

Briefly, the situation is as follows. I am here with seven other parliamentarians. In addition there are with us Mr. Okito, President of the Senate, a Senate employee and a driver. Altogether there are ten of us. We have been locked up in damp cells since December 2, 1960 and at no time have we been permitted to leave them. The meals that we are brought twice a day are very bad. For three or four days 1 ate nothing but a banana. I told this to the Red Cross medical officer sent to me. I spoke to him in the presence of a colonel from Thysville. I demanded that fruit be bought on my own money because the food that I am given here is atrocious. Although the medical officer gave his permission, the military authorities guarding me turned down my request, stating that they were following orders from Kasavubu and Colonel Mobutu. The medical officer from Thysville prescribed a short walk every evening so that I could leave my cell for at least a little while. But the colonel and the district commissioner denied me this. The clothes that I wear have not been washed for thirty-five days. I am forbidden to wear shoes.

In a word, the conditions we are living in are absolutely intolerable and run counter to all rules. Moreover, I receive no news of my wife and I do not even know where she is. Normally I should have had regular visits from her as is provided for by the prison regulations in force in the Congo. On the other hand, the prison regulations clearly state that not later than a day after his arrest a prisoner must be brought before the investigator handling his case. Five days after this a prisoner must again be arraigned before a judge, who must decide whether to remand him in custody or not. In any case, a prisoner must have a lawyer.

The criminal code provides that a prisoner is released from prison if five days after he is taken into custody the judge takes no decision on remanding him. The same happens in cases when the first decision (which is taken five days after a person is arrested) is not reaffirmed within fifteen days. Since our arrest on December 1 and to this day we have not been arraigned before a judge or visited by a judge. No arrest warrant has been shown to us. We are kept simply in a military camp and have been here for thirty-four days. We are kept in military detention cells. The criminal code is ignored as are the prison rules. Ours is purely a case of arbitrary imprisonment. I must add that we possess parliamentary immunity.

Such is the situation and I ask you to inform the United Nations Secretary-General of it. I remain calm and hope the United Nations will help us out of this situation. I stand for reconciliation between all the children of this country.
I am writing this letter secretly on bad paper. I have the honour to be, etc.
Patrice LUMUMBA,
Prime Minister

Source: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, pp. 68-69.