Rights Organisation queries Public Order Mgt bill

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Implicated Ministers refuse to step aside

Uganda: The rotten state

SOURCE: THE DAILY MONITOR, 1 DECEMBER 2011

Many of the roads in Kampala City centre are next to impassable.

In Summary

How did we come to this? All over Uganda; homes, offices, restaurants, warehouses, and workshops are in darkness. The two main taxi parks in Kampala now look like farmland, with mud inches deep, everywhere.

Inflation is now past 30 per cent, profit margins have been eroded, the boarding schools realise that even their fee raise of last term was not enough to cover the effects of inflation but can’t bring themselves to announce yet higher fees.
Groups in Uganda that are known to be risk averse are now at the point of being desperate enough to strike and march in protest.

Garbage lies everywhere, from Kampala to Jinja, Mbarara, Entebbe, Masaka towns.
In two major by-elections since the February 18, 2011 general election, disillusionment runs so deep that the residents and voters of Entebbe - where State House is located and Luwero - where the NRA first set up its military base and where it supposedly has the undying support of the people, who sacrificed their resources and lives for Museveni - have rejected the NRM and voted Democratic Party candidates.

The fact that the choice of Entebbe and Luwero residents is the DP and not even the main opposition party, the FDC, suggests that Ugandans, Baganda at least, are starting to return to their tribal roots as the only protest against the 25-year rule of Museveni and his NRM.

Depression in Uganda
Today, except for the fact that the western media is focused on the Eurozone and US economic woes, they should be describing countries like Uganda as being in their own version of the Great Depression.

Something must explain this failure of state and society. It is fashionable in the media to lay the blame at the feet of President Yoweri Museveni and in most ways, rightly so. However, a closer, more detached view of Ugandan society reveals that Ugandans helped bring on this national collapse to themselves.

It is not entirely true that the National Resistance Army (NRA) guerrillas battled their way to state power in January 1986. Along the way, they formed “Resistance Councils”, held public rallies in towns and villages they captured, a crop of Makerere University students abandoned their studies and joined the NRA starting in 1981, and this broad view of the last 30 years shows a detailed process of alliances, negotiations and public support to the Museveni project.

Buganda since independence always has had its fixed, non-negotiable goal: the revival of Buganda power, prestige and wealth. It has been prepared to enter into any alliance with any political leader, military or political, dictator or democrat.

It is beyond question that Buganda played a major, perhaps the most critical role, in granting the NRA the legitimacy it so lacked in 1981 and so badly needed. The Crown Prince Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, who has since as Kabaka suffered innumerable indignities at the hands of the NRM government, toured the NRA’s “liberated areas” in late 1985, an explicit public endorsement of Museveni and his guerrillas.

Why? Because of the principle of “My enemy’s enemy…” Rather than demand the delivery of services, guarantee security across the board and create a system of merit-based recruitment to government jobs, various quarters of Ugandan public opinion since 1986 have chosen to strike private deals with President Museveni as a person.

So when the people of Kisoro to the southwest extreme corner of Uganda feel they have poor roads, schools and low incomes, they march to State House or wherever Museveni might happen to be and through manipulation of guilt and a reminder of how loyally they vote him, they extract a promise from him to appoint a “son of the soil” in his next Cabinet. Whether this Mufumbira “son of the soil” is relevant to the facts of their poverty or poor road, they don’t see and when a minister from Kisoro is announced, there is great jubilation. However, five years later, they start to notice that their main road to Kabale is still impassable and they are still without incomes and good schools.

Uganda’s tribalism
After the NRA came to power in 1986, so great was the relief and feeling among the southern Bantu tribes that this was now a start of sanity and return to innocence for Uganda that several Baganda “kadongo kamu” folk singers composed songs narrating how the NRA had defeated the UNLA.

The way the songs describe the UNLA, it is not that the NRA beat the then national army. It is that the NRA defeated “those northerners.” The message is clear and was clear all along, and remains clear to this day: the 1981-1985 NRA guerrilla war was a tribal war, pitting the Bantu-speaking tribes of central and western Uganda and the Rwandan Tutsi refugees against what was perceived as the “northerner army.”
The two main guerrilla leaders Andrew Kayiira and Museveni understood this southern tribal sentiment and played along with it.

Of course another glaring fact since 1986 is that the Uganda of today is as failed a state as it was in 1986. It was dedicated to consistent western diplomatic, military, intelligence, and financial aid to the Museveni government that had kept the regime in power this long. The West was tricked into believing the same “fundamental change” claims that millions of Ugandans believed in 1986. And like the Buganda kingdom, the West also had its long-term objectives. Over time, Museveni learnt to study what these western objectives were and adapt his entire foreign policy to meeting them.

So let’s endure the mud in the taxi parks and our neighbourhoods, the rotten state of once respectable schools, the erosion of any sense of shame by public officials. Let inflation get to 50 percent by mid next year. Let Museveni and his cronies abuse power at will. Let prison be filled with the innocently convicted. This is part of that divine punishment. When we are done with it, a new Uganda will emerge.

Umeme load shedding protests close Entebbe road

SOURCE: THE DAILY MONITOR, 1 DECEMBER 2011

Protesters burn used tires in the middle of Entebbe road.

Entebbe road was briefly closed this Thursday morning as the business community around Katwe protested the continued power outages that have affected their businesses.

Protesters, who included business people, placed huge stones in the middle of the road and lit fires using old tires, blocking traffic. Police quickly appeared on the scene to disperse the traders who were protesting the load shedding some claimed had gone for as long as five days in a row. There are now Police foot patrols around the area to ensure that protests do not resume.

Electricity power distributor Umeme announced two weeks ago increased load shedding from 12 hour schedule to 24 hour load shedding. Umeme cited the breakdown at the Mutundwe power station for the increased load shedding that has plagued much of the country.

The protests began at about 9:00am and lasted up to about 10:30am when Police was able to bring the situation under control. There were no reports of any arrests or injuries.

Why ID project stalled

SOURCE: THE OBSERVER, 1 DECEMBER 2011 A national identity card project status report prepared by the ministry of Internal Affairs for the ICT Committee of Parliament indicates that most of the project equipment has depreciated and some has been lost before the issuance of IDs starts. The project has so far cost Uganda 64 million Euros, besides another Shs 118bn needed for the operation of the National Security Information System. Mühlbauer Technology Group, a German company, was contracted in March 2010 to deliver equipment (software and hardware) that would be used to establish a biometric identity management system for an accurate national identity register. Mühlbauer is yet to receive its outstanding balance of 17 million Euros. While the equipment was delivered at the ministry of Internal Affairs, the report explains that it is no longer capable of handling the project. “The stocktaking indicated a significant high depreciation, loss and damage rate for the field equipment used in the voter updating process,” the report states. In preparation for the 2011 elections, the Electoral Commission borrowed the equipment from the ministry of Internal Affairs but the report states that it was spoilt due to negligence. So far, of the procured 4,065 kits, only 2,483 kits have complete working components while 1,582 kits have missing components. The report shows that 746 cameras have been lost, 30 laptops, 10 signature pads and a fingerprint scanner are missing. Yet, only 41 laptops, 20 cameras, five signature pads and a fingerprint scanner had warranties. So, despite the targeted projection of 5.2 million IDs by the end of this year, only 400 have been completed, while the data EC collected is obsolete and cannot be used for the national data bank. This means that taxpayers will need to fork out more money to purchase more equipment that will support the capture of information needed for the data bank. Edward Baliddawa (Kigulu North MP), a member of the ICT committee, says the ministry of internal Affairs should be reprimanded. “They hold the responsibility for the loss because EC gave them the equipment but they decided to abandon it,” Baliddawa told The Observer. Baliddawa’s views were echoed by other committee members. “What we don’t understand is if the ministry will replace the equipment or not,” Anthony Ssemuli (Buwekula) said. Appearing before the committee on behalf of the minister of Internal Affairs, Dr Stephen Kagoda, the Permanent Secretary, admitted that there has been a delay in the implementation of the project, but he promised this would change. “We are behind schedule, but we believe that we are now on track,” he said. He added that the equipment would be refurbished. But the committee resolved that the National Information Technology Authority takes up the project. “As a committee we now recommend that the project be handled by NITA-U, and we need a strategy for the regularisation of the arrangement,” committee vice chairperson, Paula Turyahikayo (Rubabo county) announced. Change in roles Under this arrangement, the project would be handled by the ministry of ICT, through NITA-U. According to the roadmap that has been drawn, the first mass ID issuance will start by 2013. So far, a few hundred IDs have been handed to government officials, including President Museveni and the Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi.

UHRC rejects Bill against public gatherings

SOURCE: THE DAILY MONITOR, 1 DECEMBER 2011

There is growing resistance from the public over the proposed Public Order Management Bill, 2011,with the latest being from the officials of the Uganda Human Rights Commission who noted that if it is passed in its present form will not comply with the human rights norms as enshrined in the Constitution and Uganda’s international human rights obligations.

“The Bill should aim at facilitating rather than prohibiting demonstrations in conformity with the law. The Bill should be precise, and balance the right to assembly with other rights and should only impose restrictions that are acceptable and justifiable in a free and democratic society,” noted the UHRC chairperson, Mr Medi Kaggwa.

Mr Kaggwa while appearing before the Legal committee currently scrutinizing the Bill to give UHRC’s views said Parliament should as a matter of urgency take note and act on the human rights concerns raised.

He said that whereas the objective of the Bill to regulate demonstrations is good, the right to peaceful assembly is provided for in the Constitution and in the regional and international treaties ratified by Uganda.

“The Constitution provides that no person shall prejudice the fundamental or other human rights and freedoms of others  or the fundamental or any other human rights and freedom of others or the public interest,” Mr kaggwa said.

He insisted the police must respect, facilitate and protect without discrimination the enjoyment of people’s fundamental rights.

The Bill has been widely criticized by the human rights defenders, the opposition and the Law Development Centre with arguments that it  breaches the fundamental rights to freedom of assembly, association, speech and expression enshrined in Article 29 of the Constitution.

The Constitution states that “these rights are inherent and not granted by the State” (Art 20) and that they cannot be limited, except to protect the rights of others and/or in the public interest.

The Bill also introduces a requirement for organisers to seek permission from the police before holding a ‘public meeting’. A public meeting is also defined very broadly to include a meeting of three or more people, in a public place, that discusses any “principles, policy, actions or failure of any government, political party or political organisation”.

Further, the Bill gives the police broad discretion to refuse permission for a public meeting if they have ‘reasonable cause’ and places onerous burdens on organisers of public meetings, such as requiring them to pay compensation for any loss caused by the meeting.

The Bill also gives police the power to use firearms in situations where such use of lethal force may not be justifiable – such as in arresting a person presenting ‘danger’ and resisting the authority of the police officer. The committee is currently meeting the Uganda Law Reform Commission.