Tag: Sarah Opendi Ochieng
Opinion: The MPs better have Code
“A Man Gotta Have A Code” – Omar Little (Fictional Character from the Wire)
In a den of thieves, in a gang or a group of people, the ones who are assembling or gathering together needs codes. A man needs a Code to be a guideline and be a line not to cross. Everyone who lives needs that. It isn’t written in law or a regulated affair, but a moral and a selective reason not to do so.
The Members of Parliament are stopping a music festival on moral grounds and possible sexual immorality. This is from MPs who is living lavish among poverty. It is the elite blocking a yearly event (unless it was COVID-19 Lockdown). This would have been the 7th edition of Nyege Nyege this year.
Alas, a man got to have a code. Is there where the buck stops? The buck didn’t stop with abducting civilians in drones? The buck didn’t stop with extra judicial killings? The buck didn’t stop with grand corruption or “missing funds”?
No, the buck stops with dancing in bikinis and possible youth rebelling against their predecessors, which has been going on since the beginning of time. The MPs who has all sort of questionable behaviours themselves. They are pocketing unwarranted monies, envelopes for serving the State House and getting perks under the table. MPs who are able to get away with theft, land-grabs and other shady business-practices, but it’s morally wrong to have a huge music-festival.
That’s really telling isn’t it? They are like those pastors who speaks against having sex outside marriage. While they are having affairs and side-dishes, which are sitting in the congregation and some are on stage singing in the choir. That’s what the MPs are up too these days. The same sort of hypocrisy.
That’s why we are seeing the former VP Edward Ssekandi having a case with a former mistress over land. This the sort of people who are ruling the nation. We have seen how Bukenya have dabbled in the youth. His not alone doing the boogie. It is happening and they are finding the babes, if they need to be. That’s the game they do in secrets and they hoped it would stay that way.
However, the citizens are supposed to live holier than though. Even when their leaders, representatives are greedy and ghastly in use of power. These folks has no issues and cannot be questioned. That’s why they have titles and fat bank-accounts. They have nice vehicles and entitled to greatness. While the ones their serving are lucky if they can afford the next meal or have a gig to go to. Therefore, the MPs are really lecturing the people like preachers, but not practising it themselves.
Time will really tell how this one goes… but the MPs has some answers to deliver. They are now acting morally superior and extremely judgmental. That is a burden they now have to carry. They have to lift it and prove they are worthy of it. Since, they are putting themselves on a pedestal and that’s why they should shine purely for the city. These should be the examples of the Republic and be the ones you aspire to be….
However, we know the drill. At one point or another. They will take shortcuts to riches, they will accept bribes and they will accept oppression of the citizens with impunity. That’s how they collect their fortunes and get to live like royalty. This is why they are not interested in justice, liberty or freedom for all. They got it all it, but they are worried about the fate of others. No, that’s why they are only concerned with morals in the sense of entitlement and arrogance, but not when it’s concerned with their own actions or responsibilities. That’s when the law is used against you and you will suffer for pointing it out.
A man got to have code… but don’t expect it to be universal. Here is the moral of story, a MP will use rhetoric and ethical reasoning for own benefit, but never use it in context of themselves. No, that’s never happening. They are absolved of that and are to privileged to do that. These people don’t deserve that…. Peace.
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Opinion: Immorality and immortality will follow the 11th Parliament… [The Nyege Nyege ban]
“Parliament has stopped the ‘Nyege Nyege’ festival, an annual social event scheduled to take place next week in Jinja. Tororo Woman MP Hon Sarah Opendi says the event is a breeding ground for sexual immorality” (Parliament of Uganda, 05.09.2022).
“Speaker Anitah Among on Nyege Nyege:
We are talking about morality of this country; we are talking about our children. You are trying to promote tourism at the expense of our children? We are not going to allow this function to take part” (Parliament of Uganda, 05.09.2022).
“Hon. Akello Rose Lilly the Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity has informed the house that they had given the following conditions if the event is to happen.
▶️ Children below 18 shouldn’t attend
▶️ Nobody should go to that event naked” (Parliament Watch, 05.09.2022).
You thought the games of late Reverend Simon Lokodo is over. In 2022 the late one has been revived and his sort of play gets a renaissance. The 11th Parliament just mere days ahead is banning and blocking a popular music-festival in Jinja. The first since the COVID lockdowns and the supposed 7th Edition of it.
Alas, the reasoning for the banning is striking. They are claiming it to be immoral. A morality is a hard standard to set and even to define. Because, what is morally right or wrong?
The Police Act has the rights to regulate assemblies, as gatherings or processions in concern to music festivals. They are regulating the festival in the accordance and only stopping it if its disturbing the peace. It is the Inspector General’s role to write the person who organize the event and a notice to prohibit the convening of the assembly aka music festival. That’s what is stated in the Police Act.
With this in mind… is the Parliament even morally objective or the right persons to ban this event? Because, it isn’t like there isn’t questionable characters, immoral people there or people who used illegal means to get into office. Like are we supposed to forget how MPs are rigging primary elections, paying-off opposition candidates and using the authorities to intimidate the voters to vote on them. That’s morally questionable actions, which have been supported or benefited the ones in question. Secondly, many MPs have been in martial troubles, side-dishes and corruption scandals themselves. So, some of these people shouldn’t lecture others on how to be righteous. When their whole private affairs are questionable and their working career is known for alleged criminal behaviour. That in addition to the regime and how the state operates in concern to the citizens, which can also be seen as immoral. Because, who has the rights and liberties to suspend other people opportunities and rights at any given moment. Yes, the MPs and the majority party does that on a regular too.
That’s why when I hear there is moral objections to the Nyege Nyege festival from the MPs and the Parliament. The Parliament and the MPs should ask themselves if they can fit into the same program. If they can be vindicated from questioning of their moral and righteous actions. Yes, there been questionable acts done at Nyege Nyege and sexual activity, which are a part of a music scene. That is clear, but these MPs have also their sins to atonement for too. This is why they shouldn’t be so high and mighty. They are not priests, pastors or reverends for that matter. The MPs are representatives of the people and they should represent them all. Not only like Mama Janet and try to be morally superior, when she’s clearly not…
Well, the MPs and the Parliament is playing a high stakes game here. Yes, what is the threshold for nudity and when is a person naked? Is it a fashion statement? Is that differentiated between the genders? Because naked is subjective at one point. Yes, some fashionable attires especially for musicians is very revealing. When is it nude and when is it cloth? I don’t have the answer, but when the MPs are setting a standard. They better be equipped to have reasons for it. Especially, since this is a moral concern and not a legal one. There is no law here about it.
The reasons for banning people under 18 years is fine. Parents should be parenting and kids shouldn’t be part of all sorts of music festivals. That is sensible and have nothing to add here.
However, the precedence here is striking. The idea of banning it so few days ahead. As the organizers have booked the artists, gotten the stages and the pre-planned the festival from all sorts of logistical standpoints. The Parliament is legit destroying it and their financial muscles to sustain. They are practically “killing” it and doing it without a warning.
Seriously, the MPs have to answer for their own moral judgments and they better be pure. They better be like saints and act holier than thou. Because, if they can do this all of a sudden. They should have a clean slate and not a single issue. Their hands should be clean and never ever breached what was morally right. Especially, if that’s the grounds for banning a music-festival like Nyege Nyege. Peace.
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Opinion: Who is really the “Empty Suit”? Who might it be the Empty Suit in the Ministry of Health Care or KCCA? As the recent unfolded operations of maladministration in the public view… henceforth somebody who is just nodding to the Executive for the brown envelope.
McNULTY: “West Baltimore is dying and you empty suits are running around to pin some politician’s pelt to the wall. Thought you was real police, brother” (The Wire Season 2, Episode 13).
There is in this day and age lots of appointed government officials, they work supposed to be diligent and with honour of the codes of their work, not work directly for the ones that appointed them. That cannot always be easy as the station and the position would not been opened or given to the person if the appointee didn’t give that extended hand or blessing for the job. When you have that situation you need a strong state and strict regulatory regime that counter the possible backhand and kickbacks to the ones that appointed them.
Why do I discuss this at this point? Because it is a vital part of our government regimes and is a question that can be asked in nearly all parts of the globe. As all jobs in the branches of government does not automatically goes to the most educated, relied on or the one person who has the most integrity in the position. Instead the man or woman who gets appointed is an “empty suit”.
What some of them might do?
“What typically saves the empty suit is the tenuous relation between what he or she does and any actual business results. This may be a function of the job he’s in: a staff post, with lots of power to nix others’ initiatives but no responsibility to make or sell anything. Or a pocket of avoirdupois in a still-too-fat corporate bureaucracy, the kind of position that causes underlings to scratch their heads and wonder, ”Gee, do we really need all these vice presidents?” Or the empty suit may have come up through a system that rotates fast- trackers through a new job every 18 months, even though the effects of his tenure don’t become evident for two to three years. He hardly had time to get any grounding in the work his people do, and he may have royally screwed up the few decisions he was compelled to make, but when the chickens come home to roost, he has flown. If somebody has the bad taste to try to assign responsibility, the suit can easily fuzz the matter over by suggesting that the blame rests with his successor or former subordinates” (Kiechel, 1989).
There certainly similar like the ones described in our time in every department, every corporation and every single institution we know of. This might be the Electoral Commission of Uganda and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya. As much as the regulatory chairs of the banking industry of Kenya must feel like empty suits these days as the confidence at that is low-key as well. The Chase Bank, The Imperial Bank and National Bank of Kenya have fallen from grace. The most likely selling of the Barclays Bank African Group might also make the fragile banking sector into more disarray as the leading regulators seems like the extra board-members instead of people who uses their position and chair with care and uses the mandate to make a difference and even square.
The situations are different when the appointed is not hired for their knowledge of their field, but the loyalty of the regime or government that is running in the country. The likes of Ministry of Health in Uganda for the moment where the hospitals are creaking and the machines are criss-crossing between life and death. Electricity and other cases of depleted. As the missing extra blood for surgery, the copy-medication and the loss of necessary equipment; that shows the lack of management and reasons for empty suits. The highest empty suit for the moment must be State Minister for Health Hon. Dr. Chris Baryomunsi who seems to be more concern with catching checks then doing his job at this point. This point comes with the correlation of Minster of Health Hon. Elioda Tumwesige and the State Minister for Primary Health Hon. Sarah Opendi Ochieng. One of the three must generate a valued pay-check and makes sure that the NMS delivers the Global Funded projects and the other government funded health care, but either Chris, Elioda or Sarah, one of them or more must be a hired “empty suit” as the three of them are put into ministerial position working for initially the same thing.
It is just like the same mess with the KCCA where you have KCCA Executive Director of Jennifer Musisi. You have Frank Tumbewaze who is both Minister of the Presidency and Kampala Affairs. Then you have the third person who got a mandate the Presidential Advisor for Kampala affairs Mr. Singh Katongole what he does is surely only him and the Executive of Uganda who knows, since his appointment in December 2015 his silence must mean a envelope and letting Hon. Tumbewaze and Hon. Musisi does what they like. To make it more hectic you have the actual people’s elected through the ballot who supposed to run the Kampala Capital City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago. So you have hon. Musisi, Hon. Tumbewazi, Hon. Katongole and Lord Mayor Lukwago. All of them are supposed to central people in the running of administration and regulate the divisions of Kampala politically and create policies that builds and secure the functions of KCCA. That must be hectic one of these men and woman must be a empty suit. Unless Hon. Katongole who I haven’t heard a word from since appointment is an ear-to-the ground and talking or addressing letters directly to the Executive or Head of State as his role has still not been served. As the accountability of the NRM-Regime is not strong they prefer keeping people in the dark. Hon. Tumbewaze seems more to be the ones who was appointed to turn opposition Lord Mayor on his knees and therefore also gotten a permanent Executive Director in Musisi to shut down the elected person. But the end-game is that one of them must be an “Empty Suit” as the basic needs cannot be that big, and one of them is catching the brown envelopes without doing anything.
There are certainly more empty suits in the system as I started with the appointed men who is not educated for the position, but are there for the loyalty not because of the office is needed or there for a general purpose. That is the same as extra board-members in a corporation who is hired to vote for the general consensus in the board, but not to generate profits in some sense. They are there because the Corporation and LLC need useful idiots to be paid to follow the remarks of the stakeholders and shareholders, not the common-sense of their position.
We can all question the value of these leaders and honourable men-or-woman in a representative or appointed position by the President for instance. The level of credible men and woman and the need for expertise in the government organisations, into the department and the civic care from the road-development to the health care facilities need men and woman who knows the trade. As long the men does what is needed for the President or for the Stakeholders. The ones that lose are the ordinary person, employee or civil servants as they will either work under them or have to pay them tax-money to keep them. As they have to be paid an envelope to be the empty-dress. The person who is an empty dress doesn’t become that for free. Somebody has to be charge to keep him there. Most likely it is me or you. We can just ask ourselves. Who of the appointed leaders in government is an empty suit? Who in the corporate world are the extras?
Lastly, why does the Minister Without Portfolio. Hon. Abraham Byandala gets away and is not questioned by the opposition or anybody else. Why is this man the free-man the invisible creature in the parliament that does not have scruples? This since this position is the epitome of a Empty Suit. He is a MINISTER, but does not have an OFFICE, Department or a MINISTRY to run. Hon. Byandala can do as he pleases and still get paid. You cannot check his ministry or running government portfolio as it is non-existence from the get-go. The Government Official without any oversight and anything to initial control or say in other words the official Minister of Nothing (MoN). Hon. Byandala is running the Ministry of Nothing. The Minister of Hot-Air and the checking the chapattis’ in parliament is fresh enough for Hon. Oulanyah’s taste.
Well, what do you think? Are the somebody you feels are an Empty suit? Somebody you question or wonder if really have anything more than pay-check from the Tax-Payers money, but does not use it’s office or even delivers anything. Then that person might be an empty suit who just nods the head to the Executive and the general leadership without exercising power or determine the future of the government institution, department or ministry. Even if the person is really doing anything in the boardroom or a needed voter for the stakeholders; if it is only the needed majority to follow procedure then the scheme need a check or reform.
There will certainly be more stories and the existence of similar men and woman who can be described as “Empty Suits” and be stooges needed by any administration and corporations as they viciously need structure to control the citizens and the policies without questions from the inner-circle. Even if that means not procurement of needed medicines, fuel, transformers or building bridges to easier access the missing Okor Bridge in Kumi District: “This project was intended to connect Nyero and Mukongoro sub-counties in Kumi district” (MoFED, March 2015). A bridge that does not exist or is built by now so the sub-counties is not yet connect because of the altered situation and have to run long roads around the area than crossing straight over the river. So a project like this says there some empty suits as in 2009 as company was hired to build the river, by December 2012 the works by the river had stopped. Even if the departments to UNRA gave reports of progress of the project was last monitored in 2014 and by 2016 there not been done more to build the bridge since the monopoly of the Chinese Contractor have stifled the progression and in the end wasted government funds into a building a bridge who does not exist. Just like the Ministry of Nothing Hon. Byandala.
Think that is enough for today! Peace.
Reference:
Kiechel, Walter – ‘HOW TO SPOT AN EMPTY SUIT This breed of modern manager looks good and gets along splendidly with the brass. But is he contributing anything?’ (20.11.1989) link: http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1989/11/20/72761/index.htm
Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development – ‘NATIONAL BUDGET FRAMEWORK PAPER FY 2015/16’ (March 2015).
MinBane 