Vincent Nuwagaba
On 12th April, the country witnessed a swearing-in ceremony of a president who has been around for the past 25 years. The president swore to preserve, protect and defend the constitution, but experience has shown that he will invoke the constitution only when it is in his best interest to do so. The constitution has been reduced to a mere piece of paper which can be thrown any time it stands in the way of those wielding power. In addition to preserving, protecting and defending the constitution, the president swore that he shall promote the welfare of the people of Uganda.
How can the president promote the welfare of Ugandans?
This is a true story for the attention of the president and his courtiers. Francis Ruhindi was a government sponsored student at Makerere University. He graduated with a second class upper degree with a cumulative grade point average of 4.27 in 2003. By all standards, Francis performed very well. Joan Kemirembe his sister was a privately sponsored student in Makerere University also. She graduated in 2005 with a second class upper division too. Their father Silas Nkundeki is a peasant from Bitereko Sub County in the new Mitooma district who sold his land and cattle in order to have his children attain university education expecting that after graduation the children would get employed and restore the sold land but also pay school fees for their siblings. Since they graduated both Joan and Francis have never gotten jobs and they depend on providence for survival. They have begged now for close to eight years and now they have turned into a laughing stock to very many people.
Ironically, as Francis and Joan – children of peasants languish on the streets without jobs, they have seen their contemporaries from wealthy families get jobs in National Social Security, Uganda Revenue Authority and some of them joined police and many of them are now District Police Commanders; Divisional Police Commanders, Officers in Charge of stations and Officers in Charge of Criminal Investigation Departments while some of them are Officers in Charge of Traffic. In fact, Francis applied to join the Police Force in 2007 but he was unsuccessful and the reason he gives for this is that he never had any government bigwig to recommend him. This is the time when it was proved that police recruitment was marred by awful sectarianism.
Francis, wonders why government wasted taxpayers’ money educating him and later deny him an opportunity to serve his country. Joan laments the fact that her father sold his land and cattle to have her educated. These are some of the people that government officials have been telling that Uganda is not a welfare state! The right to work is clearly fundamental to the enjoyment of many subsistence rights and livelihood rights such as food, clothing, housing and so forth.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stressed that, “The right to work is increasingly important as governments world over continue to withdraw from the provision of basic services, leaving these to market forces and non-governmental actors”.
It is ironical that the government wastes money on non-productive ventures at a time when our health centres are deathtraps and some people can starve to death. The core principles of human rights are human dignity, equality and welfare. The right to liberty vanishes when the right to equality is not ensured and in its turn the right to equality vanishes when freedom is not assured. This clearly is how interdependent and indivisible human rights are.
Finally, the president swore to defend the constitution at a time when the police and the military are brutalizing those who have expressed dissent with the government. This is a mockery of the constitution and the bible with which he swore to defend the constitution. The president can promote the welfare of the people of Ugandans by first and foremost ensuring that he pays heed to the concerns of the people. He must ensure social justice and desist from feeding the nation on his usual platitudes. Ugandans need jobs; drugs in hospitals; access to education and so forth. It is meaningless for the president to keep telling us of improvement in economic growth when it doesn’t translate into economic development.
Mr. Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Institutions in Uganda have been abused and overly desecrated
Vincent Nuwagaba
Written on 10th August 2009
I wish to heartily thank the African Executive and Pambazuka, the Pan African Voices for running all my thought provoking articles. Surely, such articles would have no place in the Ugandan Media not because the Uganda media practitioners have no sense of humanity but because there is the dearth of independence simply because the Ugandan papers in a way or another depend on the huge adverts from the government and would rather not risk running a story that will jeopardize their cake. That said, I wish to go straight to the gist of this article which is presenting the state of Ugandan institutions, notably the police force and hospitals.
The Police Force
The Police Force is provided for within Articles 211 and 212 of the 1995 Uganda constitution. Its roles include among others; to establish, advance and enhance peace and stability, rule of law and good governance. Article 211(3) gives the attributes of the police force and quoted verbatim says, “The Uganda Police Force shall be nationalistic, patriotic, professional, disciplined, competent and productive; and its members shall be citizens of Uganda of good character”. Ironically, most Police officers are rogues and heartless people although there are some few people with good character. You cannot imagine a person of good character perpetrating and orchestrating torture. Nonetheless, personally I am not surprised because the selection and recruitment of staff in any institution in Uganda is not based on meritocracy but on patronage-client relationships. What applies here is the spoils system which negates meritocracy and fills offices with people who are ready to protect and promote the selfish and often obtuse interests of the rulers. Constitutionally, the Police Force is mandated to protect life and property, preserve law and order, prevent and detect crime and cooperate with other institutions and the population generally.
I have stated before that I was assaulted by the Hospital Guards of Butabika Hospital on the Tuesday of 14th July 2009. To my utter surprise and dismay, the Police Officers under the Officer in Charge of the post Mr. Moses Muhindo refused to record my case even when they had been ordered by their boss Mr. Moses Muhindo to record my assault case. I was however later to be told that why they chose not to record the case and preferred that the case be reported at Jinja Road Police Station is that they felt they would be biased since the culprits work with them at the same hospital. Typical of all failed states I was forced to adopt a top-bottom approach and I thus reported to the Commissioner of Police in charge of Legal Affairs Mr. Sam Kyomukama who picked a phone in my presence and called the Divisional Police Commander (DPC) Jinja Road Police Station to handle the matter and submit the report to him (Mr. Kyomukama). Startlingly, on Monday the 27th July 2009 when I went to Jinja Road Police Station to follow up my assault case, which took place at Butabika Hospital in full view of the Hospital Administrators and medical staff, I was frankly told by the lady sergeant who was to investigate my case in the presence of all other officers in the Minor Controversial Cases (MCB) section that there was no facilitation to carry out investigation. I would have found no problem with facilitating her and indeed I later did facilitate her but I first questioned them whether it was not improper for me a civilian to aid them do police work. First, it undermines the credibility of their findings for they may be forced to lean in favour of the facilitator but secondly it vindicates our long held view that the state institutions in Uganda are utterly, starkly, spartanly, somberly, and ascetically dysfunctional. The state institutions have clearly gone to the dogs or the dogs have come to them like my friend Lyandro Komakech the President of Uganda Young Democrats has always asserted. I wonder whether I will make a claim so that my money is refunded but I also wonder why we should keep paying taxes that cannot be accounted for.
I called the Commissioner of Police in charge of Legal Affairs Mr. Sam Kyomukama twice, the first time in the MCB office and the second time in the office of the Officer in Charge of the Station Mr. Ashraf Seiko Chemonges. Mr. Kyomukama told me that it was not my role to facilitate police but I told him I wanted justice done because as the legal dictum says, “justice delayed is justice denied”. Given what I had discussed with Mr. Kyomukama on phone in the presence of the Officer in Charge of the Station, I pleaded with the OC Station Mr. Ashraf Seiko Chemonges to at least raise from his office some little money for a commuter taxi to Butabika, the scene of the crime, and he couldn’t. He told me, “Nuwagaba, you just want me to cut my wires. We are serving this country patriotically and we get no facilitation to do the job we are doing”. I wondered, does this happen in a regime whose leader upon capturing power promised in his inaugural speech not a mere change of guards but a fundamental change? If the Police institution is not adequately funded yet it is the police that interfaces with civilians on a day to day basis, what other institution is functional. Just a few days ago, Mr. John Ken Lukyamuzi took the President to court over failure to appoint judges (see Daily Monitor, July 24th 2009). What perplexes me is that the Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS) continues getting funding from the donors including my mentors, DANIDA Human Rights and Good Governance (HUGGO) - I am a product of DANIDA-HUGGO internship programme which aims at building a critical mass of human rights defenders that will demand accountability from state institutions without fear, favour, affection, ill will or malice. I wish to state without any fear of contradiction that I am living by the expectations of the internship opportunity that DANIDA extended to me. If the donors are genuinely interested in promoting human rights, democracy, rule of law, justice, constitutionalism and above all constitutionalism and accountability, then the Ugandan government during Museveni’s era should not be a destination for their aid for he has shown utter disdain for institutions that would promote the above values. Instead, the funding should be extended to civil society organisations and opposition parties to help them do credible research and documentation. This would help everyone know exactly what shape the state institutions are in.
I was shocked that after I was plainly told that there was no money to facilitate the lady sergeant who sadly spent the whole day without taking anything save for a small bottle of juice and a biscuit I bought for her, many senior police officers including Mr. Soroweni the Regional Police Commander whom I was told is the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mr. Aguma, Senior Superintendent of Police also Divisional Police Commander Jinja Road Police Station, Mr. Moses Kafeero, Mr. Alfonse Mutabazi and many other junior officers the camped at Butabika Hospital because I was there. I am sure should I make it a habit of going to Butabika, both Butabika Hospital Administration and Police will have sleepless nights and may even die of blood pressure! Later I was told by Inspector of Police (IP) Mutabazi that they have discussed with Dr Tom Onen and therefore I should not go back to Butabika again until my case in the high court is disposed off. I told Mr. Mutabazi that my current case in Butabika has nothing whatsoever to do with Dr Onen unless I am told that it is Dr Onen who ordered the guards to assault me. I know the guards were invoking orders from above and I wondered who above and what above was. I later learnt that above is Ms Grace Lubale, a Senior Hospital Administrator who I wrongly thought would not sink so low as to abuse public institutions because as a person who is believed to have studied Public Administration from the prestigious and mighty Makerere University, she should know that public offices and institutions are impersonal. But also I would expect her to know that as a public officer, she is sustained by the tax payers’ money and as such the tax payer is her boss and hence it is morally repugnant, politically imprudent and legally inexcusable to mistreat any tax payer, Vincent Nuwagaba inclusive. That aside, I wrongly thought that Grace was in a way my friend because I was introduced to her by Honourable Norbert Mao whom she told me she served as a Minister when the latter was Guild President at Makerere University. As the saying goes, a friend of your friend is your friend, I never expected Grace to subject me to such kind of humiliation. I accordingly told her “Grace, look, you are not only a disappointment to me but the antithesis of your name: you are a disgrace”
I have told everyone who cares to listen that I carry no weapon of destruction. I only know how to fire a gun because my dear uncle Lieutenant Theophillus Muhangi was a military officer who served the state diligently but I have had to suffer with his children for so long but otherwise I detest guns for they are actually not meant to protect but to kill. In a civilized society I think there must be the reduction of guns. The fact that many people are applying to own guns is a pointer that criminality is on the rise.
Butabika Hospital
Butabika Mental Hospital has been turned into an extension of torture chambers. Sadly, for it, it is a sophisticated torture chamber because journalists and human rights defenders scarcely follow what takes place there. But it is very clear that the medical practitioners in Butabika who ironically are supposed to be healers have shamelessly turned themselves into killers all in the name of defending none other than Museveni in power. If you got to know exactly what they do, you would definitely be nauseated and disgusted and wonder whether this country has leaders with human hearts. Clearly, all the people taken by the police are 100% sane but are taken there because the police often want to avoid the wrath that would befall them when those illegally detained were to be produced in court. Moreover, it is internationally recognised that it should not be the police to refer people to mental hospitals but the courts of law.
About Tushabomwe Gaudence
The innocent lady is still being fed on drugs which I am certain will ultimately kill her. They stopped her from talking to me arguing that I am a person of unsound mind. Of course this is laughable for I know even the readers have the capacity to discern whose mind is sound and whose mind is unsound. Personally I am convinced now that those heading state instituitions don’t have sound minds. I have written down their names down and they are free to file defamation suits against me. I am aware of two defences in defamation- fair comment and justification. I am more than ready to justify what I have written down. That to date Tushabomwe is still held in Butabika sophisticated torture chambers shows how heartless some Ugandans can be. I know Butabika is no longer a healing institution but a killing institution. All concerned Ugandans, Africans and lovers of humanity world over should wake up to this reality and vehemently, rigorously, strenuously and assiduously oppose this nasty practice. Otherwise we are receding and relapsing into a Hobbesian state of nature where life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. In a state of nature, every man was against every man and I am convinced that here in Uganda that is the direction we are heading to.
The situation of the Uganda Police
That the Uganda Police Force is in an appalling situation goes without saying. One unipot is shared by more than two families; even the senior officers sleep in dilapidated houses; they are underpaid, they are ill-facilitated and the misery is written allover their faces. It would be expecting too much to expect justice, efficiency and efficacy from officers who are 24/7 (twenty four hours, seven days) annoyed. Recently I was in the professional standards unit (PSU) offices in Bukoto and I heard the officers complain about the corrupt police officers. I just laughed at them and asked them if they expected Police Officers to be corrupt-free given their inhuman, despicable and horrid working conditions with very poor pay, dilapidated accommodation and yet they are human and they have human needs like any other member of our society. They need good schools for their children, they need adequate medical care, they contribute to weddings and funerals, and they also have relatives and friends depending on them. President Museveni has totally shown utter disdain of the state institutions but when it comes to the police he has gone into the extremes. No wonder, in the aftermath of 2001 elections in which the police officers massively voted against Museveni, he vowed to restructure the police so that they may learn how to vote “wisely”. This he did by putting the leadership of the Police Force in the ambit of military generals, first with Edward Katumba Wamala and later with Kale Kayihura. General Katumba Wamala tried his level best to enforce discipline in the Police Force and ensure high standards of professionalism. When the public seemed to have appreciated his role, the appointing authority must not have been happy and that explains why he was replaced by the hardliner, hardcore, radical and extremist Kale Kayihura when it comes to defending and implementing the interests of his boss. Museveni’s interest is consolidation and retention of power using any means typical of all Machiavellian Politicians who are guided by the demonic principle of the “end justifies the means”. In a democracy and civilized society it is the purity of means that justifies the end. General Kayihura is a lawyer and I would take him to be a bright lawyer for he has a master’s degree in law but he is one of the most unlawful officers I have seen.
I know the Police Officers or any other Museveni’s crude allies may decide to kill me for I know they fear arguments and debate; they fear the power of the brain; they fear the pen more than the sword. But my little and humble ideas that I have put in black and white will outlive even those who may naively choose to exterminate my life. I look at the nonviolent revolutionaries as my role models and I surely have no apologies over choosing that nonviolent path. Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Rossa Parks, but above all Jesus Christ are my role models and it is always my prayer to follow into their footsteps. I am also inspired by the Uganda martyrs. Many of my role models are long gone but the standards they set will stay and stay forever. I have no doubt in my mind that Uganda will be liberated and will be liberated soon. The two necessary conditions at the moment are for the peasants to know that the National Resistance Movement has never been for them and hence prepare to show it the exit and the donors to come clear and clean and stop financing this predatory, overly corrupt and antidemocratic establishment for the people for whose donor funds are meant never have access to them. Just like Edmund Burke said, the necessary condition for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Finally, I know President Museveni and his crude allies detest and fear ideas and brains more than they fear guns. Accordingly, out of naivety they may choose to kill me but it would be foolhardy for anyone to attempt to kill me yet I am innocent. Even if I was a criminal, offences that attract the barbaric death penalty are few. That said, I am sure just like a bean seed germinates and produces more beans if buried in the ground, my products will be innumerable if the government kills me. I also would like those wielding power to know that I have studied with too many people, I have too many people and I have interacted with too many people either orally or through my writings. But also, the people of Bushenyi where I hail from still want me to live. So, if they inanely choose to end my life, many government vehicles will be burnt and many other government functionaries will inevitably die as a result for my principled stand against corruption, human rights abuse, deception, moral decadence and social injustices of all forms has surely endeared me to the right thinking members of the Ugandan society and even beyond. All of us have a significant contribution to make to ensure our country is on a democratic path. Together we can make a difference.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender and can be reached at vnuwagaba@gmail.com or +256772 843 552
Written on 10th August 2009
I wish to heartily thank the African Executive and Pambazuka, the Pan African Voices for running all my thought provoking articles. Surely, such articles would have no place in the Ugandan Media not because the Uganda media practitioners have no sense of humanity but because there is the dearth of independence simply because the Ugandan papers in a way or another depend on the huge adverts from the government and would rather not risk running a story that will jeopardize their cake. That said, I wish to go straight to the gist of this article which is presenting the state of Ugandan institutions, notably the police force and hospitals.
The Police Force
The Police Force is provided for within Articles 211 and 212 of the 1995 Uganda constitution. Its roles include among others; to establish, advance and enhance peace and stability, rule of law and good governance. Article 211(3) gives the attributes of the police force and quoted verbatim says, “The Uganda Police Force shall be nationalistic, patriotic, professional, disciplined, competent and productive; and its members shall be citizens of Uganda of good character”. Ironically, most Police officers are rogues and heartless people although there are some few people with good character. You cannot imagine a person of good character perpetrating and orchestrating torture. Nonetheless, personally I am not surprised because the selection and recruitment of staff in any institution in Uganda is not based on meritocracy but on patronage-client relationships. What applies here is the spoils system which negates meritocracy and fills offices with people who are ready to protect and promote the selfish and often obtuse interests of the rulers. Constitutionally, the Police Force is mandated to protect life and property, preserve law and order, prevent and detect crime and cooperate with other institutions and the population generally.
I have stated before that I was assaulted by the Hospital Guards of Butabika Hospital on the Tuesday of 14th July 2009. To my utter surprise and dismay, the Police Officers under the Officer in Charge of the post Mr. Moses Muhindo refused to record my case even when they had been ordered by their boss Mr. Moses Muhindo to record my assault case. I was however later to be told that why they chose not to record the case and preferred that the case be reported at Jinja Road Police Station is that they felt they would be biased since the culprits work with them at the same hospital. Typical of all failed states I was forced to adopt a top-bottom approach and I thus reported to the Commissioner of Police in charge of Legal Affairs Mr. Sam Kyomukama who picked a phone in my presence and called the Divisional Police Commander (DPC) Jinja Road Police Station to handle the matter and submit the report to him (Mr. Kyomukama). Startlingly, on Monday the 27th July 2009 when I went to Jinja Road Police Station to follow up my assault case, which took place at Butabika Hospital in full view of the Hospital Administrators and medical staff, I was frankly told by the lady sergeant who was to investigate my case in the presence of all other officers in the Minor Controversial Cases (MCB) section that there was no facilitation to carry out investigation. I would have found no problem with facilitating her and indeed I later did facilitate her but I first questioned them whether it was not improper for me a civilian to aid them do police work. First, it undermines the credibility of their findings for they may be forced to lean in favour of the facilitator but secondly it vindicates our long held view that the state institutions in Uganda are utterly, starkly, spartanly, somberly, and ascetically dysfunctional. The state institutions have clearly gone to the dogs or the dogs have come to them like my friend Lyandro Komakech the President of Uganda Young Democrats has always asserted. I wonder whether I will make a claim so that my money is refunded but I also wonder why we should keep paying taxes that cannot be accounted for.
I called the Commissioner of Police in charge of Legal Affairs Mr. Sam Kyomukama twice, the first time in the MCB office and the second time in the office of the Officer in Charge of the Station Mr. Ashraf Seiko Chemonges. Mr. Kyomukama told me that it was not my role to facilitate police but I told him I wanted justice done because as the legal dictum says, “justice delayed is justice denied”. Given what I had discussed with Mr. Kyomukama on phone in the presence of the Officer in Charge of the Station, I pleaded with the OC Station Mr. Ashraf Seiko Chemonges to at least raise from his office some little money for a commuter taxi to Butabika, the scene of the crime, and he couldn’t. He told me, “Nuwagaba, you just want me to cut my wires. We are serving this country patriotically and we get no facilitation to do the job we are doing”. I wondered, does this happen in a regime whose leader upon capturing power promised in his inaugural speech not a mere change of guards but a fundamental change? If the Police institution is not adequately funded yet it is the police that interfaces with civilians on a day to day basis, what other institution is functional. Just a few days ago, Mr. John Ken Lukyamuzi took the President to court over failure to appoint judges (see Daily Monitor, July 24th 2009). What perplexes me is that the Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS) continues getting funding from the donors including my mentors, DANIDA Human Rights and Good Governance (HUGGO) - I am a product of DANIDA-HUGGO internship programme which aims at building a critical mass of human rights defenders that will demand accountability from state institutions without fear, favour, affection, ill will or malice. I wish to state without any fear of contradiction that I am living by the expectations of the internship opportunity that DANIDA extended to me. If the donors are genuinely interested in promoting human rights, democracy, rule of law, justice, constitutionalism and above all constitutionalism and accountability, then the Ugandan government during Museveni’s era should not be a destination for their aid for he has shown utter disdain for institutions that would promote the above values. Instead, the funding should be extended to civil society organisations and opposition parties to help them do credible research and documentation. This would help everyone know exactly what shape the state institutions are in.
I was shocked that after I was plainly told that there was no money to facilitate the lady sergeant who sadly spent the whole day without taking anything save for a small bottle of juice and a biscuit I bought for her, many senior police officers including Mr. Soroweni the Regional Police Commander whom I was told is the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mr. Aguma, Senior Superintendent of Police also Divisional Police Commander Jinja Road Police Station, Mr. Moses Kafeero, Mr. Alfonse Mutabazi and many other junior officers the camped at Butabika Hospital because I was there. I am sure should I make it a habit of going to Butabika, both Butabika Hospital Administration and Police will have sleepless nights and may even die of blood pressure! Later I was told by Inspector of Police (IP) Mutabazi that they have discussed with Dr Tom Onen and therefore I should not go back to Butabika again until my case in the high court is disposed off. I told Mr. Mutabazi that my current case in Butabika has nothing whatsoever to do with Dr Onen unless I am told that it is Dr Onen who ordered the guards to assault me. I know the guards were invoking orders from above and I wondered who above and what above was. I later learnt that above is Ms Grace Lubale, a Senior Hospital Administrator who I wrongly thought would not sink so low as to abuse public institutions because as a person who is believed to have studied Public Administration from the prestigious and mighty Makerere University, she should know that public offices and institutions are impersonal. But also I would expect her to know that as a public officer, she is sustained by the tax payers’ money and as such the tax payer is her boss and hence it is morally repugnant, politically imprudent and legally inexcusable to mistreat any tax payer, Vincent Nuwagaba inclusive. That aside, I wrongly thought that Grace was in a way my friend because I was introduced to her by Honourable Norbert Mao whom she told me she served as a Minister when the latter was Guild President at Makerere University. As the saying goes, a friend of your friend is your friend, I never expected Grace to subject me to such kind of humiliation. I accordingly told her “Grace, look, you are not only a disappointment to me but the antithesis of your name: you are a disgrace”
I have told everyone who cares to listen that I carry no weapon of destruction. I only know how to fire a gun because my dear uncle Lieutenant Theophillus Muhangi was a military officer who served the state diligently but I have had to suffer with his children for so long but otherwise I detest guns for they are actually not meant to protect but to kill. In a civilized society I think there must be the reduction of guns. The fact that many people are applying to own guns is a pointer that criminality is on the rise.
Butabika Hospital
Butabika Mental Hospital has been turned into an extension of torture chambers. Sadly, for it, it is a sophisticated torture chamber because journalists and human rights defenders scarcely follow what takes place there. But it is very clear that the medical practitioners in Butabika who ironically are supposed to be healers have shamelessly turned themselves into killers all in the name of defending none other than Museveni in power. If you got to know exactly what they do, you would definitely be nauseated and disgusted and wonder whether this country has leaders with human hearts. Clearly, all the people taken by the police are 100% sane but are taken there because the police often want to avoid the wrath that would befall them when those illegally detained were to be produced in court. Moreover, it is internationally recognised that it should not be the police to refer people to mental hospitals but the courts of law.
About Tushabomwe Gaudence
The innocent lady is still being fed on drugs which I am certain will ultimately kill her. They stopped her from talking to me arguing that I am a person of unsound mind. Of course this is laughable for I know even the readers have the capacity to discern whose mind is sound and whose mind is unsound. Personally I am convinced now that those heading state instituitions don’t have sound minds. I have written down their names down and they are free to file defamation suits against me. I am aware of two defences in defamation- fair comment and justification. I am more than ready to justify what I have written down. That to date Tushabomwe is still held in Butabika sophisticated torture chambers shows how heartless some Ugandans can be. I know Butabika is no longer a healing institution but a killing institution. All concerned Ugandans, Africans and lovers of humanity world over should wake up to this reality and vehemently, rigorously, strenuously and assiduously oppose this nasty practice. Otherwise we are receding and relapsing into a Hobbesian state of nature where life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. In a state of nature, every man was against every man and I am convinced that here in Uganda that is the direction we are heading to.
The situation of the Uganda Police
That the Uganda Police Force is in an appalling situation goes without saying. One unipot is shared by more than two families; even the senior officers sleep in dilapidated houses; they are underpaid, they are ill-facilitated and the misery is written allover their faces. It would be expecting too much to expect justice, efficiency and efficacy from officers who are 24/7 (twenty four hours, seven days) annoyed. Recently I was in the professional standards unit (PSU) offices in Bukoto and I heard the officers complain about the corrupt police officers. I just laughed at them and asked them if they expected Police Officers to be corrupt-free given their inhuman, despicable and horrid working conditions with very poor pay, dilapidated accommodation and yet they are human and they have human needs like any other member of our society. They need good schools for their children, they need adequate medical care, they contribute to weddings and funerals, and they also have relatives and friends depending on them. President Museveni has totally shown utter disdain of the state institutions but when it comes to the police he has gone into the extremes. No wonder, in the aftermath of 2001 elections in which the police officers massively voted against Museveni, he vowed to restructure the police so that they may learn how to vote “wisely”. This he did by putting the leadership of the Police Force in the ambit of military generals, first with Edward Katumba Wamala and later with Kale Kayihura. General Katumba Wamala tried his level best to enforce discipline in the Police Force and ensure high standards of professionalism. When the public seemed to have appreciated his role, the appointing authority must not have been happy and that explains why he was replaced by the hardliner, hardcore, radical and extremist Kale Kayihura when it comes to defending and implementing the interests of his boss. Museveni’s interest is consolidation and retention of power using any means typical of all Machiavellian Politicians who are guided by the demonic principle of the “end justifies the means”. In a democracy and civilized society it is the purity of means that justifies the end. General Kayihura is a lawyer and I would take him to be a bright lawyer for he has a master’s degree in law but he is one of the most unlawful officers I have seen.
I know the Police Officers or any other Museveni’s crude allies may decide to kill me for I know they fear arguments and debate; they fear the power of the brain; they fear the pen more than the sword. But my little and humble ideas that I have put in black and white will outlive even those who may naively choose to exterminate my life. I look at the nonviolent revolutionaries as my role models and I surely have no apologies over choosing that nonviolent path. Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Rossa Parks, but above all Jesus Christ are my role models and it is always my prayer to follow into their footsteps. I am also inspired by the Uganda martyrs. Many of my role models are long gone but the standards they set will stay and stay forever. I have no doubt in my mind that Uganda will be liberated and will be liberated soon. The two necessary conditions at the moment are for the peasants to know that the National Resistance Movement has never been for them and hence prepare to show it the exit and the donors to come clear and clean and stop financing this predatory, overly corrupt and antidemocratic establishment for the people for whose donor funds are meant never have access to them. Just like Edmund Burke said, the necessary condition for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Finally, I know President Museveni and his crude allies detest and fear ideas and brains more than they fear guns. Accordingly, out of naivety they may choose to kill me but it would be foolhardy for anyone to attempt to kill me yet I am innocent. Even if I was a criminal, offences that attract the barbaric death penalty are few. That said, I am sure just like a bean seed germinates and produces more beans if buried in the ground, my products will be innumerable if the government kills me. I also would like those wielding power to know that I have studied with too many people, I have too many people and I have interacted with too many people either orally or through my writings. But also, the people of Bushenyi where I hail from still want me to live. So, if they inanely choose to end my life, many government vehicles will be burnt and many other government functionaries will inevitably die as a result for my principled stand against corruption, human rights abuse, deception, moral decadence and social injustices of all forms has surely endeared me to the right thinking members of the Ugandan society and even beyond. All of us have a significant contribution to make to ensure our country is on a democratic path. Together we can make a difference.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender and can be reached at vnuwagaba@gmail.com or +256772 843 552
Mr. President, please share power with Ugandans not the opposition
Vincent Nuwagaba
In the wake of the A4C campaign, Your Excellence addressed a press conference at your country home Rwakitura. In the press conference which I viewed on TV a Daily Monitor journalist Tabu Butagira asked you whether there would be any possibility of talking with the opposition for purposes of ensuring post-election harmony. Immediately, Your Excellence said if it is about power sharing, you cannot because you won with a land slide and that you have a clear majority in parliament. This brings me to the paranoia about the A4C - what your spin doctors peddled i.e. that the opposition wanted to oust the “elected government”. And what appeared initially to be dismissed as a rumour was corroborated by Mao’s interview in the Observer. Norbert Mao’s revelation showed that he is not a person eaten up by intrigue. So, he said it. If nonviolent civil defiance aimed at change of an insensitive regime that has proved impossible to remove using elections, let the regime charge him with treason and the whole world knows about it.
I wrote in 2008 that what political scientists have called “Democracy Made in Africa” of power sharing is a threat to real democracy. I stated that I don’t expect either Besigye or Mao to enter a power-sharing agreement with you in case the 2011 election was flawed. Although I haven’t heard Besigye pronounce himself on power sharing, I am convinced that he may not be interested in sharing power with you. As for Mao, he made it clear on the CCEDU organised programme, Face the Citizens that sharing power with a dictator is like sharing a blanket with a hunch pack. Accordingly, Mr. President, rest assured that neither Besigye nor Mao not even Otunnu are ready for a power-sharing deal with you. On the contrary, it is the masses who “voted you” that need to share power with you. And here is how you share power with Ugandans: ensure social justice and promote Ugandans’ welfare like you swore to do on 12th May.
Mr. President, while you and some other admirers of yours including Uganda’s senior journalist Andrew Mwenda have often contended that you “won this election clean and square”, the facts prove otherwise. In the mid of the campaigns, Parliament passed a supplementary budget of more than 600 billion shillings. Soon after that, the then finance minister revealed that government was broke. You may not succeed in convincing many people that that money was not used by your party in the campaigns. There are also reports that several government and donor sources suggest you President Museveni and your ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party may have spent US$ 400 million. That’s close to 1trilion shillings!
Of course, there wasn’t an independent umpire too. I am not a mathematician but I understand that a wrong formula necessarily yields a wrong answer. Thus, a partisan; lopsided and handpicked Electoral Commission couldn’t deliver free and fair election results. What you sow is what you reap (Galatians 6:7).
That said, whether or not you won genuinely is irrelevant. Ugandans gave you a licence to become their trustee not to abuse the trusteeship by misplacing the country’s priorities. The 1.8 trillion ($740m) you misappropriated from the treasury to buy fighter jets at a time when “real enemy” is the opposition is enough to solve the problem of graduate unemployment. It is more than enough to equip health centres with drugs and equipment; it would sponsor over 10,000 students in universities for more than ten years. Accordingly, you need to deliver what Professor Rotberg calls political goods. We don’t feed on economic growth figures and per capita income figures because they don’t reflect the situation on the ground. Ugandans have now understood that they are citizens not subjects. For God and my country!
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
Mr. Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
In the wake of the A4C campaign, Your Excellence addressed a press conference at your country home Rwakitura. In the press conference which I viewed on TV a Daily Monitor journalist Tabu Butagira asked you whether there would be any possibility of talking with the opposition for purposes of ensuring post-election harmony. Immediately, Your Excellence said if it is about power sharing, you cannot because you won with a land slide and that you have a clear majority in parliament. This brings me to the paranoia about the A4C - what your spin doctors peddled i.e. that the opposition wanted to oust the “elected government”. And what appeared initially to be dismissed as a rumour was corroborated by Mao’s interview in the Observer. Norbert Mao’s revelation showed that he is not a person eaten up by intrigue. So, he said it. If nonviolent civil defiance aimed at change of an insensitive regime that has proved impossible to remove using elections, let the regime charge him with treason and the whole world knows about it.
I wrote in 2008 that what political scientists have called “Democracy Made in Africa” of power sharing is a threat to real democracy. I stated that I don’t expect either Besigye or Mao to enter a power-sharing agreement with you in case the 2011 election was flawed. Although I haven’t heard Besigye pronounce himself on power sharing, I am convinced that he may not be interested in sharing power with you. As for Mao, he made it clear on the CCEDU organised programme, Face the Citizens that sharing power with a dictator is like sharing a blanket with a hunch pack. Accordingly, Mr. President, rest assured that neither Besigye nor Mao not even Otunnu are ready for a power-sharing deal with you. On the contrary, it is the masses who “voted you” that need to share power with you. And here is how you share power with Ugandans: ensure social justice and promote Ugandans’ welfare like you swore to do on 12th May.
Mr. President, while you and some other admirers of yours including Uganda’s senior journalist Andrew Mwenda have often contended that you “won this election clean and square”, the facts prove otherwise. In the mid of the campaigns, Parliament passed a supplementary budget of more than 600 billion shillings. Soon after that, the then finance minister revealed that government was broke. You may not succeed in convincing many people that that money was not used by your party in the campaigns. There are also reports that several government and donor sources suggest you President Museveni and your ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party may have spent US$ 400 million. That’s close to 1trilion shillings!
Of course, there wasn’t an independent umpire too. I am not a mathematician but I understand that a wrong formula necessarily yields a wrong answer. Thus, a partisan; lopsided and handpicked Electoral Commission couldn’t deliver free and fair election results. What you sow is what you reap (Galatians 6:7).
That said, whether or not you won genuinely is irrelevant. Ugandans gave you a licence to become their trustee not to abuse the trusteeship by misplacing the country’s priorities. The 1.8 trillion ($740m) you misappropriated from the treasury to buy fighter jets at a time when “real enemy” is the opposition is enough to solve the problem of graduate unemployment. It is more than enough to equip health centres with drugs and equipment; it would sponsor over 10,000 students in universities for more than ten years. Accordingly, you need to deliver what Professor Rotberg calls political goods. We don’t feed on economic growth figures and per capita income figures because they don’t reflect the situation on the ground. Ugandans have now understood that they are citizens not subjects. For God and my country!
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
Mr. Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
The Leading Ugandan Human rights Defender is a Kid
Vincent Nuwagaba
On Saturday 28 May, I was watching a programme on NBS Television which I was told is NBS Kids. I was not following keenly but I got interested when the presenter of the programme interviewed a kid who happens to be around 5 years old. The presenter asked the kid what annoys him most and the answer was the Police. When the kid was asked why the Police irk him, the young boy said, “They are bad because they torment innocent people with bullets and tear gas”. When asked what the police should do, he said, in Luganda, “Bave ku masasi ne tiya gasi bakole emirimo gyabwe” meaning “They should do away with bullets and tear gas and concentrate on their job”.
I was thrilled that a young boy of around five years understands very well that the police are bad people and that he knows that the job of the police is not to mete out violence and torture onto innocent civilians. Under Article 212 of the Constitution the functions of the Uganda Police Force include - (a) to protect life and property (b) to preserve law and order; (c) to prevent and detect crime; and (d) to co operate with the civilian authority and other security organs established under the constitution and with the population generally. I am sure to the amazement of the kid; the police have arrogated themselves Powers to threaten life and property and to provoke lawlessness and disorder. This is why I strongly assert that they are the ones provoking riots hence earning themselves a bad name – Provocation Officers not Police Officers and the institution now, Uganda Provocation Force, not Uganda Police Force.
The boy clearly stated that the bullets are meant to kill. I was left with nothing but maximum admiration for the young man. I admired him because he speaks my language and at his tender age he has already cut himself into a human rights defender and peacemaker.
But I also learnt that his primary agent of socialization – his family must be a noble family that cherishes justice. I would call upon the family and teachers of this young man whose name unfortunately I didn’t get, to continue shaping this young man into an unwavering defender of social justice. I also learnt that the educated and grown up people are not the monopoly of knowledge and I further learnt that anything that is illegitimate is discernible even to those we deride for not having attained formal education. In the court of public opinion –including toddlers the police has lost the case. The IGP and his superiors who undoubtedly sanctioned what the police have been and continue to do are also losers in the court of public opinion. This brings me to another issue of concern: the looming constitutional viruses with which the Fountain of Honour intends to infect our Constitution will be loathed by many including those who don’t know that we have in place a constitution. I borrow constitutional viruses and infection from the two leading constitutional law professors, Justice George W.Kanyeihamba and Joe Oloka-Onyango.
The words of the young boy reminded me of two things – the first, the statement attributed to Pope John Paul II that, “Man is born to live; war is meant to kill” and the second is the song by students while we were at Makerere University. During that time, whenever students, especially from the Mighty Empire, Lumumba (no pun intended if you are/were not a Lumumbist) would see the Police, they would sing, “Police, our murderers, we shall never forget you”. This was because of the brutality the Police often meted out on students. I am told, these days, they have substituted forget with forgive and they thus, sing “Police, our murderers, we shall never forgive you”. This shows how terrible the situation is. For the years I spent in Makerere, I often witnessed the police flushing out students in their halls and hostels in case there was a demonstration and flog them and take some to the cells. To the Police, I am happy; it is the children who have now blacklisted you. Please, be good Police Officers and not provocation officers and to the IGP, be an Inspector General of Police and not Inspector General of Provocation. I call upon MPs not to become Museveni’s Parliamentarians but Members of Parliament. Accordingly, they must enact laws for the good of Uganda not for the regime interests. Short of that, they will also be blacklisted by children akin to what has happened to the Police. To me, the NBS kid is the leading Ugandan human rights defender and I welcome him to the human rights family.
Mr. Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
On Saturday 28 May, I was watching a programme on NBS Television which I was told is NBS Kids. I was not following keenly but I got interested when the presenter of the programme interviewed a kid who happens to be around 5 years old. The presenter asked the kid what annoys him most and the answer was the Police. When the kid was asked why the Police irk him, the young boy said, “They are bad because they torment innocent people with bullets and tear gas”. When asked what the police should do, he said, in Luganda, “Bave ku masasi ne tiya gasi bakole emirimo gyabwe” meaning “They should do away with bullets and tear gas and concentrate on their job”.
I was thrilled that a young boy of around five years understands very well that the police are bad people and that he knows that the job of the police is not to mete out violence and torture onto innocent civilians. Under Article 212 of the Constitution the functions of the Uganda Police Force include - (a) to protect life and property (b) to preserve law and order; (c) to prevent and detect crime; and (d) to co operate with the civilian authority and other security organs established under the constitution and with the population generally. I am sure to the amazement of the kid; the police have arrogated themselves Powers to threaten life and property and to provoke lawlessness and disorder. This is why I strongly assert that they are the ones provoking riots hence earning themselves a bad name – Provocation Officers not Police Officers and the institution now, Uganda Provocation Force, not Uganda Police Force.
The boy clearly stated that the bullets are meant to kill. I was left with nothing but maximum admiration for the young man. I admired him because he speaks my language and at his tender age he has already cut himself into a human rights defender and peacemaker.
But I also learnt that his primary agent of socialization – his family must be a noble family that cherishes justice. I would call upon the family and teachers of this young man whose name unfortunately I didn’t get, to continue shaping this young man into an unwavering defender of social justice. I also learnt that the educated and grown up people are not the monopoly of knowledge and I further learnt that anything that is illegitimate is discernible even to those we deride for not having attained formal education. In the court of public opinion –including toddlers the police has lost the case. The IGP and his superiors who undoubtedly sanctioned what the police have been and continue to do are also losers in the court of public opinion. This brings me to another issue of concern: the looming constitutional viruses with which the Fountain of Honour intends to infect our Constitution will be loathed by many including those who don’t know that we have in place a constitution. I borrow constitutional viruses and infection from the two leading constitutional law professors, Justice George W.Kanyeihamba and Joe Oloka-Onyango.
The words of the young boy reminded me of two things – the first, the statement attributed to Pope John Paul II that, “Man is born to live; war is meant to kill” and the second is the song by students while we were at Makerere University. During that time, whenever students, especially from the Mighty Empire, Lumumba (no pun intended if you are/were not a Lumumbist) would see the Police, they would sing, “Police, our murderers, we shall never forget you”. This was because of the brutality the Police often meted out on students. I am told, these days, they have substituted forget with forgive and they thus, sing “Police, our murderers, we shall never forgive you”. This shows how terrible the situation is. For the years I spent in Makerere, I often witnessed the police flushing out students in their halls and hostels in case there was a demonstration and flog them and take some to the cells. To the Police, I am happy; it is the children who have now blacklisted you. Please, be good Police Officers and not provocation officers and to the IGP, be an Inspector General of Police and not Inspector General of Provocation. I call upon MPs not to become Museveni’s Parliamentarians but Members of Parliament. Accordingly, they must enact laws for the good of Uganda not for the regime interests. Short of that, they will also be blacklisted by children akin to what has happened to the Police. To me, the NBS kid is the leading Ugandan human rights defender and I welcome him to the human rights family.
Mr. Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
Mr President, please expedite the student loan scheme
Vincent Nuwagaba
I read with concern the press reports attributed to Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana that government has postponed the student loan scheme. This is a scheme that is long overdue; I guess President Museveni never promised the loan scheme for purposes of winning votes and nothing more than that. The loan scheme if implemented would be the only tangible contribution the National Resistance Movement government has made to the education sector. I know very many would rush to ask, what about the Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE). These are just in name but practically we don’t have any scheme known as UPE or USE.
With UPE, the government remits less than 2000 shillings for each pupil under UPE. In fact, in many schools that I have visited, parents pay at least Sh 10,000 and the government pays between 650 – 2,000 per pupil.
This surely is mocking the parents and pupils that the government introduced UPE. If the government was not aware that that is the situation, then let me inform them of the situation on the ground. A friend of mine is a head master of a certain primary school in Mitooma District. He revealed to me that for this term, the government disbursed Sh 1,010,000 (one million ten thousand shillings). When we divided that amount by the number of pupils which stands at 615, we got 1570 per pupil. This is the money that is supposed to run the school through co-curricular activities, administration, buying chalk and other scholastic materials.
As for USE, the government remits only 41,000 per student under USE. This money is too little to even provide for a student’s meals. In fact, many schools have applied to withdraw from USE but the government has refused. Ultimately, because of USE some schools end up making losses. What is surprising is that topnotch schools that are not implementing USE get lots of funding from government. Thus, one may ask, were UPE and USE introduced to widen the already wide gaps between the third world and the first class schools?
I would challenge anybody in government to show me a student with a UPE and USE background in the university pursuing a medicine or law course on government sponsorship.
I hear the government intends to introduce Universal A level education. What for? How much is it going to pay for each student under the scheme? In what schools is the scheme going to be implemented? The only viable scheme the government can talk of is a student loan scheme at the university. Not these other schemes which sound like lullabies intended to make the poor sleep.
In the 1996 Museveni’s manifesto, he promised to start a community polytechnic for each sub county. To date, I am yet to see the promised community polytechnics or maybe the only place that never got is my district. I am shocked that the government even after realizing that Advanced Level is not a shortcut to success is encouraging every Tom, Dick and Harry to join Advanced level. Look at the number of universities we have and compare them with technical colleges.
Universities are meant to train thinkers, planners and leaders not manual labourers. People who could best provide manual labour are those trained by technical schools.
Now turning to the university student loan scheme, the president made this promise while campaigning. He knows pretty well that university education has become a preserve of the rich. In August 2009, public universities hiked fees up to 126% in Makerere University. That year alone many students who had been admitted pulled out of the course. It is clear that the news that the government was introducing the student loan scheme was welcome to many – students and parents alike. What pains is that there are students on statehouse scholarship scheme who are paid for by taxpayers’ money to pursue their studies. Accordingly, a student loan scheme would help the president fulfill his oath he undertook to promote the welfare of all Ugandans. It would promote social justice which many are yearning for. Dear Mr President, please expedite the student loan scheme.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
I read with concern the press reports attributed to Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana that government has postponed the student loan scheme. This is a scheme that is long overdue; I guess President Museveni never promised the loan scheme for purposes of winning votes and nothing more than that. The loan scheme if implemented would be the only tangible contribution the National Resistance Movement government has made to the education sector. I know very many would rush to ask, what about the Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE). These are just in name but practically we don’t have any scheme known as UPE or USE.
With UPE, the government remits less than 2000 shillings for each pupil under UPE. In fact, in many schools that I have visited, parents pay at least Sh 10,000 and the government pays between 650 – 2,000 per pupil.
This surely is mocking the parents and pupils that the government introduced UPE. If the government was not aware that that is the situation, then let me inform them of the situation on the ground. A friend of mine is a head master of a certain primary school in Mitooma District. He revealed to me that for this term, the government disbursed Sh 1,010,000 (one million ten thousand shillings). When we divided that amount by the number of pupils which stands at 615, we got 1570 per pupil. This is the money that is supposed to run the school through co-curricular activities, administration, buying chalk and other scholastic materials.
As for USE, the government remits only 41,000 per student under USE. This money is too little to even provide for a student’s meals. In fact, many schools have applied to withdraw from USE but the government has refused. Ultimately, because of USE some schools end up making losses. What is surprising is that topnotch schools that are not implementing USE get lots of funding from government. Thus, one may ask, were UPE and USE introduced to widen the already wide gaps between the third world and the first class schools?
I would challenge anybody in government to show me a student with a UPE and USE background in the university pursuing a medicine or law course on government sponsorship.
I hear the government intends to introduce Universal A level education. What for? How much is it going to pay for each student under the scheme? In what schools is the scheme going to be implemented? The only viable scheme the government can talk of is a student loan scheme at the university. Not these other schemes which sound like lullabies intended to make the poor sleep.
In the 1996 Museveni’s manifesto, he promised to start a community polytechnic for each sub county. To date, I am yet to see the promised community polytechnics or maybe the only place that never got is my district. I am shocked that the government even after realizing that Advanced Level is not a shortcut to success is encouraging every Tom, Dick and Harry to join Advanced level. Look at the number of universities we have and compare them with technical colleges.
Universities are meant to train thinkers, planners and leaders not manual labourers. People who could best provide manual labour are those trained by technical schools.
Now turning to the university student loan scheme, the president made this promise while campaigning. He knows pretty well that university education has become a preserve of the rich. In August 2009, public universities hiked fees up to 126% in Makerere University. That year alone many students who had been admitted pulled out of the course. It is clear that the news that the government was introducing the student loan scheme was welcome to many – students and parents alike. What pains is that there are students on statehouse scholarship scheme who are paid for by taxpayers’ money to pursue their studies. Accordingly, a student loan scheme would help the president fulfill his oath he undertook to promote the welfare of all Ugandans. It would promote social justice which many are yearning for. Dear Mr President, please expedite the student loan scheme.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
How universal is USE?
Vincent Nuwagaba
President Museveni promised to introduce Universal Secondary Education (USE) during the 2001 campaigns. His initial promise was that USE would begin in 2003. However, it was promised again during the 2006 campaigns as he faced his stiffest challenger Dr Kizza Besigye for the second time. In 2007, “USE” began albeit without proper preparation by the government.
If one hears the term, they think, it is secondary education for all. This however, is a fallacy. Recently, I took time to interview staff and parents of Kigarama Secondary School in Bitereko Sub County, Mitooma District about USE. The findings are appalling!
Kigarama SS is a government-aided school implementing USE. It has 28 staff members comprising 18 teachers and 10 non-teaching staff. None of the support staff is on the government payroll and only 9 of the 18 teaching staff members are on government payroll. I was told the school should ordinarily have a laboratory attendant, librarian, matron, nurse, messenger, security guards, cooks, store keeper and at least two secretaries. The school has one secretary, one storekeeper, one laboratory assistant and one librarian all of whom are paid by the parents.
What I found revealing is that the government disburses a paltry Shs 41,000 on each USE student. Yet feeding alone, if a meal is estimated at Shs 1000 costs Shs 65,000 for thirteen weeks in a term. Both the teachers and parents confirm that government reimbursement is less than 10% of the school’s basic needs per term. In fact, some schools have withdrawn from USE and many others had applied for withdrawal but the government refused because the number of the applicants was enormous. While the government occasionally gives boom for laboratory equipment (which it only did last year worth 4m) – the school spends so much on laboratory equipment – 10 million at a minimum annually this is only when the school does fewer practicals otherwise the school spends Shs 15m annually.
As for the salaries, the school pays 3.2m monthly to staff members that are not on the government payroll. Since USE started in 2007, it is only in 2010 that the school got a textbook and laboratory equipment boom of 7m and 4m respectively. This raises a question as to whether or not this government works in the interest of the masses. This is a party which says is a mass party.
The non-USE schools are often granted huge sums of money from the government budgetary allocations. The reason given is that the people dividing the national cake are products of such topnotch schools. The solution to that should be for the down-trodden schools to demand for affirmative action in the allocation of jobs to their alumni. Shockingly, the school has less than five alumni positioned in influential government departments and most of those there are underdogs.
As for textbook, I was told that government gave textbook boom worth Shs 7million to the school only in 2010 yet the school spends 12 million annually on textbooks. The school also spends on sports – taking students for interschool matches, uniform, coaches, etc. Term one has sports gala while term two has athletics. The annual school vote for sports alone is Sh 4million.
In all, the school I was told, spends 120,000/= on each student yet students pay Shs 70,000 and government remits only Shillings 41,000 per student. This means the school operates in losses. Thus, one wonders, how universal is USE if government cannot remit enough funds for the education of the students under the scheme? Before government embarks on Universal Advanced Level Education, let it first implement UPE and USE. As of now what the government pays for UPE and USE pupils and students is negligible and any parent who doesn’t have money at all cannot have their children in school – the availability of UPE and USE notwithstanding. What is long overdue, however, is the university students’ loan scheme.
Mr Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
President Museveni promised to introduce Universal Secondary Education (USE) during the 2001 campaigns. His initial promise was that USE would begin in 2003. However, it was promised again during the 2006 campaigns as he faced his stiffest challenger Dr Kizza Besigye for the second time. In 2007, “USE” began albeit without proper preparation by the government.
If one hears the term, they think, it is secondary education for all. This however, is a fallacy. Recently, I took time to interview staff and parents of Kigarama Secondary School in Bitereko Sub County, Mitooma District about USE. The findings are appalling!
Kigarama SS is a government-aided school implementing USE. It has 28 staff members comprising 18 teachers and 10 non-teaching staff. None of the support staff is on the government payroll and only 9 of the 18 teaching staff members are on government payroll. I was told the school should ordinarily have a laboratory attendant, librarian, matron, nurse, messenger, security guards, cooks, store keeper and at least two secretaries. The school has one secretary, one storekeeper, one laboratory assistant and one librarian all of whom are paid by the parents.
What I found revealing is that the government disburses a paltry Shs 41,000 on each USE student. Yet feeding alone, if a meal is estimated at Shs 1000 costs Shs 65,000 for thirteen weeks in a term. Both the teachers and parents confirm that government reimbursement is less than 10% of the school’s basic needs per term. In fact, some schools have withdrawn from USE and many others had applied for withdrawal but the government refused because the number of the applicants was enormous. While the government occasionally gives boom for laboratory equipment (which it only did last year worth 4m) – the school spends so much on laboratory equipment – 10 million at a minimum annually this is only when the school does fewer practicals otherwise the school spends Shs 15m annually.
As for the salaries, the school pays 3.2m monthly to staff members that are not on the government payroll. Since USE started in 2007, it is only in 2010 that the school got a textbook and laboratory equipment boom of 7m and 4m respectively. This raises a question as to whether or not this government works in the interest of the masses. This is a party which says is a mass party.
The non-USE schools are often granted huge sums of money from the government budgetary allocations. The reason given is that the people dividing the national cake are products of such topnotch schools. The solution to that should be for the down-trodden schools to demand for affirmative action in the allocation of jobs to their alumni. Shockingly, the school has less than five alumni positioned in influential government departments and most of those there are underdogs.
As for textbook, I was told that government gave textbook boom worth Shs 7million to the school only in 2010 yet the school spends 12 million annually on textbooks. The school also spends on sports – taking students for interschool matches, uniform, coaches, etc. Term one has sports gala while term two has athletics. The annual school vote for sports alone is Sh 4million.
In all, the school I was told, spends 120,000/= on each student yet students pay Shs 70,000 and government remits only Shillings 41,000 per student. This means the school operates in losses. Thus, one wonders, how universal is USE if government cannot remit enough funds for the education of the students under the scheme? Before government embarks on Universal Advanced Level Education, let it first implement UPE and USE. As of now what the government pays for UPE and USE pupils and students is negligible and any parent who doesn’t have money at all cannot have their children in school – the availability of UPE and USE notwithstanding. What is long overdue, however, is the university students’ loan scheme.
Mr Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com
We should try entrusting national leadership with children
Vincent Nuwagaba
First published by The Razor News paper on Wednesday July 20, 2011
In the recent past I wrote about a kid who said he was incensed by the police because they use teargas and live bullets against innocent Ugandans. The views of that kid prompted me to do more interviews with the kids and so far my findings are amazing. I have come to realise that kids are more patriotic, more compassionate and possibly not less intelligent than the old people that we have. Because of what I have found out, I am beginning to question the relevance of having only mature people vote but also occupy public offices.
Just recently, I came across another young girl and I asked her what her name was and she told me she was called Sheba Najjemba aged nine years and that she is a Primary Four West pupil at Sir Apollo Kaggwa Nakasero. I asked her any two things that make her happy and she told me her family and school. When asked why, she said, “In my family they teach me good manners; how to respect elders, helping in household chores, and being a good girl”. She added, “And of course, you cannot be a good girl if you are not God-fearing”. Then, I asked her why her school makes her happy, she said, “At school they teach us to build for the future and become responsible citizens”. She added, “For instance, they teach us that if one is to become a doctor, they must place emphasis on science and mathematics”.
I then went ahead and asked her what annoyed her and she told me, “Corruption and child sacrifice”. I was so thrilled about the answers that this child gave me. Then I had another conversation with another pupil at Agakhan Primary school called Che Guavara, commonly known as Che. Che told me he doesn’t like the current regime because ministers squander public funds and they are never penalized for what they do. As for Moureen Eree a sixteen year old student in Senior Four at Good Shepherd High School Bweyogerere, it is painful that there are Ugandans who die because there are no drugs in hospitals and she blames the president for that. She says that if she was to become a member of parliament she would not seek fat salaries or Four Wheel Drive vehicles but her people. That she would make sure they have electricity, good roads and quality standards of living.
I was amazed that when I asked the impact of corruption the children knew quite well that it was responsible for lack of drugs in hospitals, poor roads and poor education standards, inter alia.
I am convinced that children can make better MPs because so far majority of them – with exception of those that have been brought up by corrupt parents, are not yet spoilt. Since, the constitution cannot easily be amended to knock out age and education requirements for one to become a parliamentarian, I would like to urge the civil society activists and the donors to support the idea of having a shadow parliament mainly composed of children wherein the voices of the children can always be captured. I am even convinced that the children are innocent and don’t want too much so they cannot drain our facilities for selfish aggrandisement.
My findings debunk the notion that knowledge is a preserve of the old and the most highly educated. In fact, there are some people who lose relevance as they advance both in age and formal education. I am sure many of you might have heard people wondering why certain people ever went to school. Our children are disappointed that public institutions are dysfunctional yet Ugandans part with lots of money through taxes. As our President talks of a referendum over bail, we should all push for a referendum to have children participate actively in issues of national concern. Since old men and women have betrayed us, why don’t we entrust national leadership with children. For God and my country!
The writer is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
First published by The Razor News paper on Wednesday July 20, 2011
In the recent past I wrote about a kid who said he was incensed by the police because they use teargas and live bullets against innocent Ugandans. The views of that kid prompted me to do more interviews with the kids and so far my findings are amazing. I have come to realise that kids are more patriotic, more compassionate and possibly not less intelligent than the old people that we have. Because of what I have found out, I am beginning to question the relevance of having only mature people vote but also occupy public offices.
Just recently, I came across another young girl and I asked her what her name was and she told me she was called Sheba Najjemba aged nine years and that she is a Primary Four West pupil at Sir Apollo Kaggwa Nakasero. I asked her any two things that make her happy and she told me her family and school. When asked why, she said, “In my family they teach me good manners; how to respect elders, helping in household chores, and being a good girl”. She added, “And of course, you cannot be a good girl if you are not God-fearing”. Then, I asked her why her school makes her happy, she said, “At school they teach us to build for the future and become responsible citizens”. She added, “For instance, they teach us that if one is to become a doctor, they must place emphasis on science and mathematics”.
I then went ahead and asked her what annoyed her and she told me, “Corruption and child sacrifice”. I was so thrilled about the answers that this child gave me. Then I had another conversation with another pupil at Agakhan Primary school called Che Guavara, commonly known as Che. Che told me he doesn’t like the current regime because ministers squander public funds and they are never penalized for what they do. As for Moureen Eree a sixteen year old student in Senior Four at Good Shepherd High School Bweyogerere, it is painful that there are Ugandans who die because there are no drugs in hospitals and she blames the president for that. She says that if she was to become a member of parliament she would not seek fat salaries or Four Wheel Drive vehicles but her people. That she would make sure they have electricity, good roads and quality standards of living.
I was amazed that when I asked the impact of corruption the children knew quite well that it was responsible for lack of drugs in hospitals, poor roads and poor education standards, inter alia.
I am convinced that children can make better MPs because so far majority of them – with exception of those that have been brought up by corrupt parents, are not yet spoilt. Since, the constitution cannot easily be amended to knock out age and education requirements for one to become a parliamentarian, I would like to urge the civil society activists and the donors to support the idea of having a shadow parliament mainly composed of children wherein the voices of the children can always be captured. I am even convinced that the children are innocent and don’t want too much so they cannot drain our facilities for selfish aggrandisement.
My findings debunk the notion that knowledge is a preserve of the old and the most highly educated. In fact, there are some people who lose relevance as they advance both in age and formal education. I am sure many of you might have heard people wondering why certain people ever went to school. Our children are disappointed that public institutions are dysfunctional yet Ugandans part with lots of money through taxes. As our President talks of a referendum over bail, we should all push for a referendum to have children participate actively in issues of national concern. Since old men and women have betrayed us, why don’t we entrust national leadership with children. For God and my country!
The writer is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Open letter to Inspector General of Police Kale-Kayihura
Vincent Nuwagaba
Dear Edward Kalekyezi-Kayihura,
I would like to publicly inform you that since April 11, 2008 I have been brutalized, dehumanized, tortured, tormented, traumatized, humiliated and treated in a cruel manner by the policemen under your watch. Although I have written to you and the president several times, I have been treated with utter contempt apart from referring me to the so-called Police Professional Standards Unit (PSU). I speak with the experience; the PSU is Propaganda/Poison Scheming Unit. It is a propaganda scheming unit in a sense that it portrays the police force as an institution with a human face and a poison scheming unit in a sense that it makes reports full of falsehoods hence poisoning those that consume those reports. Frankly, the PSU was established for public relations purposes and because of the knowledge I have about it, I cannot report any complaint against the police thereto. To expect one to be a judge in their own case is to expect too much. The people manning the PSU are policemen/officers and strong allies and partners of the people we complain about. Would it be logical to have a case about a man judged by his wife or his brother?
I reported to the PSU in May 2008 about the physical, psychological and mental torture I was inflicted upon by the Policemen from April 11th to 15th 2008 at CPS under the supervision of Johnson Bahimbise who incidentally is my father’s friend for they were together at Makobole High School Kinyasano and is married to my former P.3 class teacher Nyesigire Anna.
The police didn’t extract any statement from me, they locked me in solitary cells; soaked me in sewage and they surely intended to have me dead. In fact, a police constable who happened to have been my Old Boy at Bubangizi SSS called Professor John-Jean Barya of the Faculty of Law, Makerere University. Shockingly, his status as a celebrated Professor of law notwithstanding, Prof Barya was blocked from seeing me. Oh Uganda!
On Monday April 14, 2008 a friend of mine David Tumusingize who had been illegally detained helped me by informing Dennis Daniel Muhumuza who later informed Thomas Tayebwa and Bruce Kabaasa Balaba. Tom and Bruce beseeched them to allow them see me. I am convinced that had Bruce and Tom not come at that time, I wouldn’t survive at all. In fact, I had already prayed to God to welcome me in the bosom of Abraham in case I died. The following day on Tuesday 15th April 2011, Bruce and Tom came for me. Sadly, instead of taking me to court, the Police connived with Butabika Hospital administration to subject me to pharmacological torture. Shockingly, soon after reporting to PSU, the shameless policemen again arrested me from Jinja Road Police Station on 15th May 2008 beat me and deprived me of some money only to release me after the intervention of FHRI and a friend who called from the President’s office ordering the Jinja Road Divisional Police Commander to release me. When I went back to the station after being attended to by the police surgeon, the DPC told me, “Nuwagaba, you are free to go your way, when we need you we shall call you”. To date, I have never been called in regard to that matter. On May 28th, when I went to make a formal complaint at CPS in regard to my property that had been stolen by the police, I was dumped in the dungeon and subjected to a fresh menu of torture. On 29th, Kampala RDC Alice Muwanguzi found me in the dungeon and I told her that I was not ready to accept being dehumanized in my own country. She told me, “Nuwagaba, let me go and order for your release”. Soon after her departure, I was called and I thought I was to be released only to be taken to Butabika. In Butabika, I went through real hell and when they were convinced I would die, they released me on June 24, 2008 so that I don’t die from the “Hospital”. Those who saw me during that time can testify that I stopped on the verge of the grave!
It took the PSU under Mr. John Ndunguse more than a year to do the investigations and write a report which ordinarily would take any serious person not more than five days. I have never read through that report but a police legal officer named Ronald Magezi read for me and when I disagreed with the contents therein he intimidated me. Shamelessly, I was told to part with Shs60, 000 (Sixty thousand shillings) if I was to be given a copy! I asked them the justification of paying for my own report and I have never got an answer.
The police have since tortured me several times and now beat me at will from state institutions. I have several times been beaten from UBC premises and parliament. Incidentally, you seem not to know that the more I am tortured, the more I am radicalised and for sure the police are fighting a losing battle. You cannot shoot down the truth. I would also expect you to resign and get a job at the NRM Secretariat since the president has told everyone that you and Moses Kafeero are NRM cadres.
The police under your leadership are now above the law and it is an irony that a lawyer with a master’s degree can head a police force that orchestrates lawlessness, torture and impunity. As sure as day follows night, the offenders will be punished. For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba, Human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Dear Edward Kalekyezi-Kayihura,
I would like to publicly inform you that since April 11, 2008 I have been brutalized, dehumanized, tortured, tormented, traumatized, humiliated and treated in a cruel manner by the policemen under your watch. Although I have written to you and the president several times, I have been treated with utter contempt apart from referring me to the so-called Police Professional Standards Unit (PSU). I speak with the experience; the PSU is Propaganda/Poison Scheming Unit. It is a propaganda scheming unit in a sense that it portrays the police force as an institution with a human face and a poison scheming unit in a sense that it makes reports full of falsehoods hence poisoning those that consume those reports. Frankly, the PSU was established for public relations purposes and because of the knowledge I have about it, I cannot report any complaint against the police thereto. To expect one to be a judge in their own case is to expect too much. The people manning the PSU are policemen/officers and strong allies and partners of the people we complain about. Would it be logical to have a case about a man judged by his wife or his brother?
I reported to the PSU in May 2008 about the physical, psychological and mental torture I was inflicted upon by the Policemen from April 11th to 15th 2008 at CPS under the supervision of Johnson Bahimbise who incidentally is my father’s friend for they were together at Makobole High School Kinyasano and is married to my former P.3 class teacher Nyesigire Anna.
The police didn’t extract any statement from me, they locked me in solitary cells; soaked me in sewage and they surely intended to have me dead. In fact, a police constable who happened to have been my Old Boy at Bubangizi SSS called Professor John-Jean Barya of the Faculty of Law, Makerere University. Shockingly, his status as a celebrated Professor of law notwithstanding, Prof Barya was blocked from seeing me. Oh Uganda!
On Monday April 14, 2008 a friend of mine David Tumusingize who had been illegally detained helped me by informing Dennis Daniel Muhumuza who later informed Thomas Tayebwa and Bruce Kabaasa Balaba. Tom and Bruce beseeched them to allow them see me. I am convinced that had Bruce and Tom not come at that time, I wouldn’t survive at all. In fact, I had already prayed to God to welcome me in the bosom of Abraham in case I died. The following day on Tuesday 15th April 2011, Bruce and Tom came for me. Sadly, instead of taking me to court, the Police connived with Butabika Hospital administration to subject me to pharmacological torture. Shockingly, soon after reporting to PSU, the shameless policemen again arrested me from Jinja Road Police Station on 15th May 2008 beat me and deprived me of some money only to release me after the intervention of FHRI and a friend who called from the President’s office ordering the Jinja Road Divisional Police Commander to release me. When I went back to the station after being attended to by the police surgeon, the DPC told me, “Nuwagaba, you are free to go your way, when we need you we shall call you”. To date, I have never been called in regard to that matter. On May 28th, when I went to make a formal complaint at CPS in regard to my property that had been stolen by the police, I was dumped in the dungeon and subjected to a fresh menu of torture. On 29th, Kampala RDC Alice Muwanguzi found me in the dungeon and I told her that I was not ready to accept being dehumanized in my own country. She told me, “Nuwagaba, let me go and order for your release”. Soon after her departure, I was called and I thought I was to be released only to be taken to Butabika. In Butabika, I went through real hell and when they were convinced I would die, they released me on June 24, 2008 so that I don’t die from the “Hospital”. Those who saw me during that time can testify that I stopped on the verge of the grave!
It took the PSU under Mr. John Ndunguse more than a year to do the investigations and write a report which ordinarily would take any serious person not more than five days. I have never read through that report but a police legal officer named Ronald Magezi read for me and when I disagreed with the contents therein he intimidated me. Shamelessly, I was told to part with Shs60, 000 (Sixty thousand shillings) if I was to be given a copy! I asked them the justification of paying for my own report and I have never got an answer.
The police have since tortured me several times and now beat me at will from state institutions. I have several times been beaten from UBC premises and parliament. Incidentally, you seem not to know that the more I am tortured, the more I am radicalised and for sure the police are fighting a losing battle. You cannot shoot down the truth. I would also expect you to resign and get a job at the NRM Secretariat since the president has told everyone that you and Moses Kafeero are NRM cadres.
The police under your leadership are now above the law and it is an irony that a lawyer with a master’s degree can head a police force that orchestrates lawlessness, torture and impunity. As sure as day follows night, the offenders will be punished. For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba, Human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Dear Edward Kalekyezi-Kayihura,
Vincent Nuwagaba
Dear Edward Kalekyezi-Kayihura,
I would like to publicly inform you that since April 11, 2008 I have been brutalized, dehumanized, tortured, tormented, traumatized, humiliated and treated in a cruel manner by the policemen under your watch. Although I have written to you and the president several times, I have been treated with utter contempt apart from referring me to the so-called Police Professional Standards Unit (PSU). I speak with the experience; the PSU is Propaganda/Poison Scheming Unit. It is a propaganda scheming unit in a sense that it portrays the police force as an institution with a human face and a poison scheming unit in a sense that it makes reports full of falsehoods hence poisoning those that consume those reports. Frankly, the PSU was established for public relations purposes and because of the knowledge I have about it, I cannot report any complaint against the police thereto. To expect one to be a judge in their own case is to expect too much. The people manning the PSU are policemen/officers and strong allies and partners of the people we complain about. Would it be logical to have a case about a man judged by his wife or his brother?
I reported to the PSU in May 2008 about the physical, psychological and mental torture I was inflicted upon by the Policemen from April 11th to 15th 2008 at CPS under the supervision of Johnson Bahimbise who incidentally is my father’s friend for they were together at Makobole High School Kinyasano and is married to my former P.3 class teacher Nyesigire Anna.
The police didn’t extract any statement from me, they locked me in solitary cells; soaked me in sewage and they surely intended to have me dead. In fact, a police constable who happened to have been my Old Boy at Bubangizi SSS called Professor John-Jean Barya of the Faculty of Law, Makerere University. Shockingly, his status as a celebrated Professor of law notwithstanding, Prof Barya was blocked from seeing me. Oh Uganda!
On Monday April 14, 2008 a friend of mine David Tumusingize who had been illegally detained helped me by informing Dennis Daniel Muhumuza who later informed Thomas Tayebwa and Bruce Kabaasa Balaba. Tom and Bruce beseeched them to allow them see me. I am convinced that had Bruce and Tom not come at that time, I wouldn’t survive at all. In fact, I had already prayed to God to welcome me in the bosom of Abraham in case I died. The following day on Tuesday 15th April 2011, Bruce and Tom came for me. Sadly, instead of taking me to court, the Police connived with Butabika Hospital administration to subject me to pharmacological torture. Shockingly, soon after reporting to PSU, the shameless policemen again arrested me from Jinja Road Police Station on 15th May 2008 beat me and deprived me of some money only to release me after the intervention of FHRI and a friend who called from the President’s office ordering the Jinja Road Divisional Police Commander to release me. When I went back to the station after being attended to by the police surgeon, the DPC told me, “Nuwagaba, you are free to go your way, when we need you we shall call you”. To date, I have never been called in regard to that matter. On May 28th, when I went to make a formal complaint at CPS in regard to my property that had been stolen by the police, I was dumped in the dungeon and subjected to a fresh menu of torture. On 29th, Kampala RDC Alice Muwanguzi found me in the dungeon and I told her that I was not ready to accept being dehumanized in my own country. She told me, “Nuwagaba, let me go and order for your release”. Soon after her departure, I was called and I thought I was to be released only to be taken to Butabika. In Butabika, I went through real hell and when they were convinced I would die, they released me on June 24, 2008 so that I don’t die from the “Hospital”. Those who saw me during that time can testify that I stopped on the verge of the grave!
It took the PSU under Mr. John Ndunguse more than a year to do the investigations and write a report which ordinarily would take any serious person not more than five days. I have never read through that report but a police legal officer named Ronald Magezi read for me and when I disagreed with the contents therein he intimidated me. Shamelessly, I was told to part with Shs60, 000 (Sixty thousand shillings) if I was to be given a copy! I asked them the justification of paying for my own report and I have never got an answer.
The police have since tortured me several times and now beat me at will from state institutions. I have several times been beaten from UBC premises and parliament. Incidentally, you seem not to know that the more I am tortured, the more I am radicalised and for sure the police are fighting a losing battle. You cannot shoot down the truth. I would also expect you to resign and get a job at the NRM Secretariat since the president has told everyone that you and Moses Kafeero are NRM cadres.
The police under your leadership are now above the law and it is an irony that a lawyer with a master’s degree can head a police force that orchestrates lawlessness, torture and impunity. As sure as day follows night, the offenders will be punished. For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba, Human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Dear Edward Kalekyezi-Kayihura,
I would like to publicly inform you that since April 11, 2008 I have been brutalized, dehumanized, tortured, tormented, traumatized, humiliated and treated in a cruel manner by the policemen under your watch. Although I have written to you and the president several times, I have been treated with utter contempt apart from referring me to the so-called Police Professional Standards Unit (PSU). I speak with the experience; the PSU is Propaganda/Poison Scheming Unit. It is a propaganda scheming unit in a sense that it portrays the police force as an institution with a human face and a poison scheming unit in a sense that it makes reports full of falsehoods hence poisoning those that consume those reports. Frankly, the PSU was established for public relations purposes and because of the knowledge I have about it, I cannot report any complaint against the police thereto. To expect one to be a judge in their own case is to expect too much. The people manning the PSU are policemen/officers and strong allies and partners of the people we complain about. Would it be logical to have a case about a man judged by his wife or his brother?
I reported to the PSU in May 2008 about the physical, psychological and mental torture I was inflicted upon by the Policemen from April 11th to 15th 2008 at CPS under the supervision of Johnson Bahimbise who incidentally is my father’s friend for they were together at Makobole High School Kinyasano and is married to my former P.3 class teacher Nyesigire Anna.
The police didn’t extract any statement from me, they locked me in solitary cells; soaked me in sewage and they surely intended to have me dead. In fact, a police constable who happened to have been my Old Boy at Bubangizi SSS called Professor John-Jean Barya of the Faculty of Law, Makerere University. Shockingly, his status as a celebrated Professor of law notwithstanding, Prof Barya was blocked from seeing me. Oh Uganda!
On Monday April 14, 2008 a friend of mine David Tumusingize who had been illegally detained helped me by informing Dennis Daniel Muhumuza who later informed Thomas Tayebwa and Bruce Kabaasa Balaba. Tom and Bruce beseeched them to allow them see me. I am convinced that had Bruce and Tom not come at that time, I wouldn’t survive at all. In fact, I had already prayed to God to welcome me in the bosom of Abraham in case I died. The following day on Tuesday 15th April 2011, Bruce and Tom came for me. Sadly, instead of taking me to court, the Police connived with Butabika Hospital administration to subject me to pharmacological torture. Shockingly, soon after reporting to PSU, the shameless policemen again arrested me from Jinja Road Police Station on 15th May 2008 beat me and deprived me of some money only to release me after the intervention of FHRI and a friend who called from the President’s office ordering the Jinja Road Divisional Police Commander to release me. When I went back to the station after being attended to by the police surgeon, the DPC told me, “Nuwagaba, you are free to go your way, when we need you we shall call you”. To date, I have never been called in regard to that matter. On May 28th, when I went to make a formal complaint at CPS in regard to my property that had been stolen by the police, I was dumped in the dungeon and subjected to a fresh menu of torture. On 29th, Kampala RDC Alice Muwanguzi found me in the dungeon and I told her that I was not ready to accept being dehumanized in my own country. She told me, “Nuwagaba, let me go and order for your release”. Soon after her departure, I was called and I thought I was to be released only to be taken to Butabika. In Butabika, I went through real hell and when they were convinced I would die, they released me on June 24, 2008 so that I don’t die from the “Hospital”. Those who saw me during that time can testify that I stopped on the verge of the grave!
It took the PSU under Mr. John Ndunguse more than a year to do the investigations and write a report which ordinarily would take any serious person not more than five days. I have never read through that report but a police legal officer named Ronald Magezi read for me and when I disagreed with the contents therein he intimidated me. Shamelessly, I was told to part with Shs60, 000 (Sixty thousand shillings) if I was to be given a copy! I asked them the justification of paying for my own report and I have never got an answer.
The police have since tortured me several times and now beat me at will from state institutions. I have several times been beaten from UBC premises and parliament. Incidentally, you seem not to know that the more I am tortured, the more I am radicalised and for sure the police are fighting a losing battle. You cannot shoot down the truth. I would also expect you to resign and get a job at the NRM Secretariat since the president has told everyone that you and Moses Kafeero are NRM cadres.
The police under your leadership are now above the law and it is an irony that a lawyer with a master’s degree can head a police force that orchestrates lawlessness, torture and impunity. As sure as day follows night, the offenders will be punished. For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba, Human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Monday, August 8, 2011
Open letter to IGP Kale-Kayihura
Vincent Nuwagaba
Dear Edward Kalekyezi-Kayihura,
I would like to publicly inform you that since April 11, 2008 I have been brutalized, dehumanized, tortured, tormented, traumatized, humiliated and treated in a cruel manner by the policemen under your watch. Although I have written to you and the president several times, I have been treated with utter contempt apart from referring me to the so-called Police Professional Standards Unit (PSU). I speak with the experience; the PSU is Propaganda/Poison Scheming Unit. It is a propaganda scheming unit in a sense that it portrays the police force as an institution with a human face and a poison scheming unit in a sense that it makes reports full of falsehoods hence poisoning those that consume those reports. Frankly, the PSU was established for public relations purposes and because of the knowledge I have about it, I cannot report any complaint against the police thereto. To expect one to be a judge in their own case is to expect too much. The people manning the PSU are policemen/officers and strong allies and partners of the people we complain about. Would it be logical to have a case about a man judged by his wife or his brother?
I reported to the PSU in May 2008 about the physical, psychological and mental torture I was inflicted upon by the Policemen from April 11th to 15th 2008 at CPS under the supervision of Johnson Bahimbise who incidentally is my father’s friend for they were together at Makobole High School Kinyasana and is married to my former P.3 class teacher Nyesigire Anna. On the 15th April instead of taking me to court, they connived with Butabika Hospital administration to subject me to pharmacological torture. Shockingly, soon after reporting to PSU, the shameless policemen again arrested me from Jinja Road Police Station on 15th May 2008 beat me and deprived me of some money only to release me after the intervention of FHRI and a friend who called from the President’s office ordering the Jinja Road Divisional Police Commander to release me. When I went back to the station after being attended to by the police surgeon, the DPC told me, “Nuwagaba, you are free to go your way, when we need you we shall call you”. To date, I have never been called in regard to that matter. On May 28th, when I when I went to make a formal complaint at CPS in regard to my property that had been stolen by the police, I was dumped in the dungeon and subjected to a fresh menu of torture. On 29th, Kampala RDC found me in the dungeon and I told her that I was not ready to accept being dehumanized in my own country. She told me, “Nuwagaba, let me go and order for your release”. Soon after her departure, I was called and I thought I was to be released only to be taken to Butabika. In Butabika, I went through real hell and when they were convinced I would die, they released me on June 24, 2008 so that I don’t die from the “Hospital”. Those who saw me during that time can testify that I stopped on the verge of the grave!
It took the PSU under Mr. John Ndunguse more than a year to do the investigations and write a report which ordinarily would take any serious person not more than five days. I have never read through that report but a police legal officer named Ronald Magezi read for me and when I disagreed with the contents therein he intimidated me. Shamelessly, I was told to part with Shs60, 000 (Sixty thousand shillings) if I was to be given a copy! I asked them the justification of paying for my own report and I have never got an answer.
The police have since tortured me several times and now beat me at will from state institutions. I have several times been beaten from UBC premises and parliament. Incidentally, you seem not to know that the more I am tortured, the more I am radicalised and for sure the police are fighting a losing battle. You cannot shoot down the truth. I would also expect you to resign and get a job at the NRM Secretariat since the president has told everyone that you and Moses Kafeero are NRM cadres.
The police under your leadership are now above the law and it is an irony that a lawyer with a master’s degree can head a police force that orchestrates lawlessness, torture and impunity. As sure as day follows night, the offenders will be punished. For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba, Human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Dear Edward Kalekyezi-Kayihura,
I would like to publicly inform you that since April 11, 2008 I have been brutalized, dehumanized, tortured, tormented, traumatized, humiliated and treated in a cruel manner by the policemen under your watch. Although I have written to you and the president several times, I have been treated with utter contempt apart from referring me to the so-called Police Professional Standards Unit (PSU). I speak with the experience; the PSU is Propaganda/Poison Scheming Unit. It is a propaganda scheming unit in a sense that it portrays the police force as an institution with a human face and a poison scheming unit in a sense that it makes reports full of falsehoods hence poisoning those that consume those reports. Frankly, the PSU was established for public relations purposes and because of the knowledge I have about it, I cannot report any complaint against the police thereto. To expect one to be a judge in their own case is to expect too much. The people manning the PSU are policemen/officers and strong allies and partners of the people we complain about. Would it be logical to have a case about a man judged by his wife or his brother?
I reported to the PSU in May 2008 about the physical, psychological and mental torture I was inflicted upon by the Policemen from April 11th to 15th 2008 at CPS under the supervision of Johnson Bahimbise who incidentally is my father’s friend for they were together at Makobole High School Kinyasana and is married to my former P.3 class teacher Nyesigire Anna. On the 15th April instead of taking me to court, they connived with Butabika Hospital administration to subject me to pharmacological torture. Shockingly, soon after reporting to PSU, the shameless policemen again arrested me from Jinja Road Police Station on 15th May 2008 beat me and deprived me of some money only to release me after the intervention of FHRI and a friend who called from the President’s office ordering the Jinja Road Divisional Police Commander to release me. When I went back to the station after being attended to by the police surgeon, the DPC told me, “Nuwagaba, you are free to go your way, when we need you we shall call you”. To date, I have never been called in regard to that matter. On May 28th, when I when I went to make a formal complaint at CPS in regard to my property that had been stolen by the police, I was dumped in the dungeon and subjected to a fresh menu of torture. On 29th, Kampala RDC found me in the dungeon and I told her that I was not ready to accept being dehumanized in my own country. She told me, “Nuwagaba, let me go and order for your release”. Soon after her departure, I was called and I thought I was to be released only to be taken to Butabika. In Butabika, I went through real hell and when they were convinced I would die, they released me on June 24, 2008 so that I don’t die from the “Hospital”. Those who saw me during that time can testify that I stopped on the verge of the grave!
It took the PSU under Mr. John Ndunguse more than a year to do the investigations and write a report which ordinarily would take any serious person not more than five days. I have never read through that report but a police legal officer named Ronald Magezi read for me and when I disagreed with the contents therein he intimidated me. Shamelessly, I was told to part with Shs60, 000 (Sixty thousand shillings) if I was to be given a copy! I asked them the justification of paying for my own report and I have never got an answer.
The police have since tortured me several times and now beat me at will from state institutions. I have several times been beaten from UBC premises and parliament. Incidentally, you seem not to know that the more I am tortured, the more I am radicalised and for sure the police are fighting a losing battle. You cannot shoot down the truth. I would also expect you to resign and get a job at the NRM Secretariat since the president has told everyone that you and Moses Kafeero are NRM cadres.
The police under your leadership are now above the law and it is an irony that a lawyer with a master’s degree can head a police force that orchestrates lawlessness, torture and impunity. As sure as day follows night, the offenders will be punished. For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba, Human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Uganda: Lutukumoi Has Jumped From Frying Pan to Fire
Vincent Nuwagaba
First published by Daily Monitor on Wednesday on 27 July 2011
On July 23, I received calls asking me about the news of the DP spokesman's defection to the ruling party. While I was appalled, I said it was Mwaka Lutukumoi's right to join any party of his choice. Nonetheless, his defection confirmed what some have always talked about him. In Ankole, we say there is no smoke without fire. I have known Lutukumoi as a friend since 2001 but frankly, I have never seen ideological clarity in him. I feel he has never been a DP supporter or sympathiser but a target worker.
There is a difference between card-holding party members and party supporters/sympathisers. While members can cross from one party to another, supporters rarely cross because they are glued to the party by ideological conviction. It is time parties put less emphasis on card-holding members and focused on supporters. In Uganda, not everyone who holds a party card supports the party - in fact some people hold multiple party cards. As a political scientist, I cherish DP because it espouses truth and justice - principles I find dear. As a Christian, I know that the truth will set us free.
In 1996, I was in S4. The Rev. Fr. Anatoli Neema, then a seminarian, gave me Christian text books. The agreement was that I read the first book and later go for a second one. What I did, after reading, I kept the book at home and children started playing with it. After two weeks, I went to him for a second book. He asked whether I had finished reading the first book to which I replied in the affirmative. He had seen his book for two weeks and was incensed that I lied to him and refused to give me the second book. I was the loser and I learnt a lesson that the truth should always prevail.
I pity my brother who has jumped out of a party that espouses truth and justice to join a Machiavellian party that cherishes deception, manipulation and propaganda. If Lutukumoi was genuinely a democrat, he will not easily mix with the NRM - it will be like mixing water and oil. As a Catholic, he will find himself spiritually incarcerated. He has jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
A section of people from Acholiland always told me that Lutukumoi was a mole in DP but I gave him the benefit of doubt. It is good that he did not become an MP. Otherwise, his defection would hit not only the DP, but the entire opposition hardest. Assuming he was not a mole, I sympathise with him for he has joined a sinking ship.
From Benedicto Kiwanuka, Paul Ssemogerere, Ssebaana Kizito to Norbert Mao, no party has had leaders that are as clean as DP. No party has a spotless track record like DP, it has no blood stains and God has anointed it to liberate Uganda from spiritual doom.Lutukumoi's defection should not demoralise DP and party president Mao.
The Bible is clear - the road to heaven is narrow. Mao will be the president of Uganda with or without the support of Lutukumoi and his ilk. Mao is an anointed leader who is going to deliver real, not imaginary liberation to this country. He is a leader who will inevitably bridge the north-south divide. About Lutukumoi's defection, if I were Mao, I would say, good riddance and urge his ilk to follow suit so that we can separate boys from men and wheat from chaff early enough.
Finally, this country is suffering from the dearth of truth and justice and it is only truth and justice that shall liberate us.
Mr Nuwagaba is an activist
First published by Daily Monitor on Wednesday on 27 July 2011
On July 23, I received calls asking me about the news of the DP spokesman's defection to the ruling party. While I was appalled, I said it was Mwaka Lutukumoi's right to join any party of his choice. Nonetheless, his defection confirmed what some have always talked about him. In Ankole, we say there is no smoke without fire. I have known Lutukumoi as a friend since 2001 but frankly, I have never seen ideological clarity in him. I feel he has never been a DP supporter or sympathiser but a target worker.
There is a difference between card-holding party members and party supporters/sympathisers. While members can cross from one party to another, supporters rarely cross because they are glued to the party by ideological conviction. It is time parties put less emphasis on card-holding members and focused on supporters. In Uganda, not everyone who holds a party card supports the party - in fact some people hold multiple party cards. As a political scientist, I cherish DP because it espouses truth and justice - principles I find dear. As a Christian, I know that the truth will set us free.
In 1996, I was in S4. The Rev. Fr. Anatoli Neema, then a seminarian, gave me Christian text books. The agreement was that I read the first book and later go for a second one. What I did, after reading, I kept the book at home and children started playing with it. After two weeks, I went to him for a second book. He asked whether I had finished reading the first book to which I replied in the affirmative. He had seen his book for two weeks and was incensed that I lied to him and refused to give me the second book. I was the loser and I learnt a lesson that the truth should always prevail.
I pity my brother who has jumped out of a party that espouses truth and justice to join a Machiavellian party that cherishes deception, manipulation and propaganda. If Lutukumoi was genuinely a democrat, he will not easily mix with the NRM - it will be like mixing water and oil. As a Catholic, he will find himself spiritually incarcerated. He has jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
A section of people from Acholiland always told me that Lutukumoi was a mole in DP but I gave him the benefit of doubt. It is good that he did not become an MP. Otherwise, his defection would hit not only the DP, but the entire opposition hardest. Assuming he was not a mole, I sympathise with him for he has joined a sinking ship.
From Benedicto Kiwanuka, Paul Ssemogerere, Ssebaana Kizito to Norbert Mao, no party has had leaders that are as clean as DP. No party has a spotless track record like DP, it has no blood stains and God has anointed it to liberate Uganda from spiritual doom.Lutukumoi's defection should not demoralise DP and party president Mao.
The Bible is clear - the road to heaven is narrow. Mao will be the president of Uganda with or without the support of Lutukumoi and his ilk. Mao is an anointed leader who is going to deliver real, not imaginary liberation to this country. He is a leader who will inevitably bridge the north-south divide. About Lutukumoi's defection, if I were Mao, I would say, good riddance and urge his ilk to follow suit so that we can separate boys from men and wheat from chaff early enough.
Finally, this country is suffering from the dearth of truth and justice and it is only truth and justice that shall liberate us.
Mr Nuwagaba is an activist
Human rights cannot be subjected to vote
Vincent Nuwagaba
First published by Observer Newspaper on 28 July 2011
President Museveni’s insistence on denial of bail to treason, terrorism, riot, murder, defilement, rape and economic sabotage suspects has attracted sharp criticism from human rights defenders, academics and lawyers, inter alia. Surprisingly, the President remains hell-bent on ensuring that his unholy proposal is enacted into law. Accordingly, this has prompted a civil society coalition on the right to bail under the stewardship of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI). While the president’s decision is a travesty of democracy and an affront on human rights, it is also populist. Accordingly, because the president cannot take MPs’ support for granted on this proposal, he now says it should be subject to a referendum!
It’s wrong to subject human rights issues to referenda. There have been two referenda in 2000 and 2005 on the political systems which were criticised by activists, academia and the opposition but the president didn’t budge. Nonetheless, because in the past, wrongs have been committed doesn’t mean we should habitually do wrong. The referendum will surely be abused and tilted in the president’s favour even when it’s clearly an affront on human rights. I reaffirm my position that the right to bail cannot be subjected to a referendum. And I am worried that if the President’s executive powers are not checked, he will encroach on many people’s rights. For instance, freedom of worship from certain churches and mosques may be subjected to a referendum in future, if the opposition leaders attract massive following and the President becomes uncomfortable with them stepping in the city centre lest they use the constitutional square to launch their activities. Thus, Norbert Mao may be proscribed from praying from Christ the King Church and Kizza Besigye may be proscribed from praying from All Saints Cathedral because these churches are adjacent the constitutional square.
The right to bail is rooted in the principle of fair trial and presumption of innocence. Sadly, the president wants the innocent to spend 180 days in jail - a period that is long enough for a sentence on some offences. We’ve permanently entrenched provisions in our constitution. Accordingly, any attempt to tinker with chapter four of our constitution - Uganda’s Bill of Rights cannot go unchallenged but will also render our nation a pariah state.
The proposal inevitably targets opposition politicians and critical civil society voices. It isn’t uncommon for opposition politicians to be charged with any or all of the above charges. Remember some Ugandan politician was charged with rape and treason in the run-up to the 2006 general elections. Nothing can stop a ruling party from fomenting any of the above charges against their opponents. I vividly remember that MPs Michael Ocula and Reagan Okumu spent in Luzira on murder charges yet they were innocent.
This proposed law, also targets the media. Some media practitioners are labelled economic saboteurs because they write and/or broadcast the truth. In Uganda, there’s a thin line between demonstrations and riots. Actually, riots invariably result from peaceful demonstrations mishandled. We need to ask: when, why and how do peaceful demonstrations morph into riots? Since 2009, we have seen the September 10 – 12, 2009 and the walk-to-walk protests morph into riots. The September 2009 riots were a reaction to the denial of Kabaka Mutebi’s visit to Kayunga while the 2011 riots were a reaction to the brutish nature in which Dr Besigye was handled. The police often provoke the peaceful protesters into rioting. That’s why personally, I call the police force a provocation force and police officers provocation officers. Honestly, the provocateurs and the corrupt government officials are the worst economic saboteurs. I also have a hunch that priority misplacement such as buying fighter jets at Shs 1.8trillion – money that would be enough to fight graduate unemployment is economic sabotage. Uganda’s cardinal enemy is corruption –not external threats. The Bank of Uganda Governor has recently in The Financial Times broached financial and fiscal indiscipline by the President. Isn’t that economic sabotage? We have a senior NRM official who has in the past murdered in broad day light. Why can’t he be brought to book? Accordingly, the President should focus on addressing the cause and not the symptoms. Is it a crime to protest against a regime that is insensitive to ordinary people’s plights? Sadly, if passed, this law will be applied selectively! All MPs whether opposition or NRM must be wary of this looming bad law; they will be its victims sooner or later.
Mr. Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
First published by Observer Newspaper on 28 July 2011
President Museveni’s insistence on denial of bail to treason, terrorism, riot, murder, defilement, rape and economic sabotage suspects has attracted sharp criticism from human rights defenders, academics and lawyers, inter alia. Surprisingly, the President remains hell-bent on ensuring that his unholy proposal is enacted into law. Accordingly, this has prompted a civil society coalition on the right to bail under the stewardship of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI). While the president’s decision is a travesty of democracy and an affront on human rights, it is also populist. Accordingly, because the president cannot take MPs’ support for granted on this proposal, he now says it should be subject to a referendum!
It’s wrong to subject human rights issues to referenda. There have been two referenda in 2000 and 2005 on the political systems which were criticised by activists, academia and the opposition but the president didn’t budge. Nonetheless, because in the past, wrongs have been committed doesn’t mean we should habitually do wrong. The referendum will surely be abused and tilted in the president’s favour even when it’s clearly an affront on human rights. I reaffirm my position that the right to bail cannot be subjected to a referendum. And I am worried that if the President’s executive powers are not checked, he will encroach on many people’s rights. For instance, freedom of worship from certain churches and mosques may be subjected to a referendum in future, if the opposition leaders attract massive following and the President becomes uncomfortable with them stepping in the city centre lest they use the constitutional square to launch their activities. Thus, Norbert Mao may be proscribed from praying from Christ the King Church and Kizza Besigye may be proscribed from praying from All Saints Cathedral because these churches are adjacent the constitutional square.
The right to bail is rooted in the principle of fair trial and presumption of innocence. Sadly, the president wants the innocent to spend 180 days in jail - a period that is long enough for a sentence on some offences. We’ve permanently entrenched provisions in our constitution. Accordingly, any attempt to tinker with chapter four of our constitution - Uganda’s Bill of Rights cannot go unchallenged but will also render our nation a pariah state.
The proposal inevitably targets opposition politicians and critical civil society voices. It isn’t uncommon for opposition politicians to be charged with any or all of the above charges. Remember some Ugandan politician was charged with rape and treason in the run-up to the 2006 general elections. Nothing can stop a ruling party from fomenting any of the above charges against their opponents. I vividly remember that MPs Michael Ocula and Reagan Okumu spent in Luzira on murder charges yet they were innocent.
This proposed law, also targets the media. Some media practitioners are labelled economic saboteurs because they write and/or broadcast the truth. In Uganda, there’s a thin line between demonstrations and riots. Actually, riots invariably result from peaceful demonstrations mishandled. We need to ask: when, why and how do peaceful demonstrations morph into riots? Since 2009, we have seen the September 10 – 12, 2009 and the walk-to-walk protests morph into riots. The September 2009 riots were a reaction to the denial of Kabaka Mutebi’s visit to Kayunga while the 2011 riots were a reaction to the brutish nature in which Dr Besigye was handled. The police often provoke the peaceful protesters into rioting. That’s why personally, I call the police force a provocation force and police officers provocation officers. Honestly, the provocateurs and the corrupt government officials are the worst economic saboteurs. I also have a hunch that priority misplacement such as buying fighter jets at Shs 1.8trillion – money that would be enough to fight graduate unemployment is economic sabotage. Uganda’s cardinal enemy is corruption –not external threats. The Bank of Uganda Governor has recently in The Financial Times broached financial and fiscal indiscipline by the President. Isn’t that economic sabotage? We have a senior NRM official who has in the past murdered in broad day light. Why can’t he be brought to book? Accordingly, the President should focus on addressing the cause and not the symptoms. Is it a crime to protest against a regime that is insensitive to ordinary people’s plights? Sadly, if passed, this law will be applied selectively! All MPs whether opposition or NRM must be wary of this looming bad law; they will be its victims sooner or later.
Mr. Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
COMPLAINT AGAINST GROUND ZERO MODERATOR MR. TONY OWANA
Vincent Nuwagaba
c/o Political Science Department
Makerere University
P.O BOX 7062, Kampala
July 27, 2011
The Managing Director
Uganda Broadcasting Corporation
RE: COMPLAINT AGAINST GROUND ZERO MODERATOR MR. TONY OWANA
This serves to raise complaints against the above mentioned UBC Staff. I am a law-abiding citizen of Uganda who treasures lively debate as a means of solving problems that we are confronted with as a nation. For more than a month now, I have been blocked from airing my views on UBC Ground Zero programme. The reason Mr. Owana gave me is that I am critical of the ruling party and that my views will poison the listeners.
You will forgive me for questioning Mr. Owana’s education level but I know any intellectual would cherish free debate. Any intellectual would believe in the flourishing of ideas. The essence of humanity is the acceptance of diversity. We cannot have similar ideas just like we don’t have similar looks. One of the leading enlightenment philosophers, Voltaire said, “I disagree with what you say but I will to death defend your right to say it”. Accordingly, I am shocked that Owana feels his duty is to stifle critical voices.
I may not be the most knowledgeable Ugandan but I can state without any fear of contradiction that I am not a fool in any way. I am highly educated, a critical thinker and one of the leading Ugandan human rights defenders. I understand that UBC is a public broadcaster which doesn’t belong to anybody but Ugandans. If Owana wants to host only regime praise singers, he should ask his party – the NRM to open a TV station where only regime sycophants will be hosted. And incidentally, if Owana was working for a private media house, I wouldn’t complain. I think I am even entitled to know how an unprofessional man like Owana got a job with a prestigious public broadcaster.
I am convinced that Owana doesn’t have the requisite credentials to host any programme with UBC and I will not in any way accept that he treats me as a subject in this country.
If this matter is not handled, I will take a petition to parliament but also petition the constitutional court. I strongly affirm that UBC belongs to the state not the regime. Accordingly, it should give equal airtime to opposing views. By the way, Owana should even withdraw the defamatory statements he made about me. Some of us have taken long to build a name and we cannot in any way accept to be abused on air by people whose intellectual ability is not clear.
As a media house UBC must know that freedom of expression is fundamental to building an informed citizenry but also UBC must not portray itself as a mouthpiece for the regime.
For God and my country!
VINCENT NUWAGABA
+256772843552
c/o Political Science Department
Makerere University
P.O BOX 7062, Kampala
July 27, 2011
The Managing Director
Uganda Broadcasting Corporation
RE: COMPLAINT AGAINST GROUND ZERO MODERATOR MR. TONY OWANA
This serves to raise complaints against the above mentioned UBC Staff. I am a law-abiding citizen of Uganda who treasures lively debate as a means of solving problems that we are confronted with as a nation. For more than a month now, I have been blocked from airing my views on UBC Ground Zero programme. The reason Mr. Owana gave me is that I am critical of the ruling party and that my views will poison the listeners.
You will forgive me for questioning Mr. Owana’s education level but I know any intellectual would cherish free debate. Any intellectual would believe in the flourishing of ideas. The essence of humanity is the acceptance of diversity. We cannot have similar ideas just like we don’t have similar looks. One of the leading enlightenment philosophers, Voltaire said, “I disagree with what you say but I will to death defend your right to say it”. Accordingly, I am shocked that Owana feels his duty is to stifle critical voices.
I may not be the most knowledgeable Ugandan but I can state without any fear of contradiction that I am not a fool in any way. I am highly educated, a critical thinker and one of the leading Ugandan human rights defenders. I understand that UBC is a public broadcaster which doesn’t belong to anybody but Ugandans. If Owana wants to host only regime praise singers, he should ask his party – the NRM to open a TV station where only regime sycophants will be hosted. And incidentally, if Owana was working for a private media house, I wouldn’t complain. I think I am even entitled to know how an unprofessional man like Owana got a job with a prestigious public broadcaster.
I am convinced that Owana doesn’t have the requisite credentials to host any programme with UBC and I will not in any way accept that he treats me as a subject in this country.
If this matter is not handled, I will take a petition to parliament but also petition the constitutional court. I strongly affirm that UBC belongs to the state not the regime. Accordingly, it should give equal airtime to opposing views. By the way, Owana should even withdraw the defamatory statements he made about me. Some of us have taken long to build a name and we cannot in any way accept to be abused on air by people whose intellectual ability is not clear.
As a media house UBC must know that freedom of expression is fundamental to building an informed citizenry but also UBC must not portray itself as a mouthpiece for the regime.
For God and my country!
VINCENT NUWAGABA
+256772843552
Corruption will shoot Gen Tumwine and not the other way round
Vincent Nuwagaba
This article was first published by the Razor Newspaper on August 2, 2011
On Saturday July 30, on UBC Ground Zero talk show they were debating as to whether General Elly Tumwine will shoot corruption. General Tumwine started a civil society organization known as Volunteers Anti Corruption Campaign Africa (VACOCA), to fight corruption. I am one of the initial members that signed so that VACOCA could start. However, apart from hearing about it in the newspapers, I don’t know how effective VACOCA is in the fight against corruption. Before the debate began at Ground Zero, I told the Inspector General of Government Mr. Raphael Baku that while he had been invited to debate corruption on a programme moderated by Mr. Tony Owana, the moderator was the most corrupt person and I told him that we need to first sort out Owana’s corruption before we could make a step in the fight against endemic corruption that has eaten all our social fabric. The reason I said Owana is the most corrupt person is because he detests and stifles views that are critical of the current establishment hence ensuring that the regime orchestrated corruption flourishes.
I attended and spoke on the programme on 25th June but when I said our oil will be a curse if its proceeds are handled and controlled by the sharks Owana removed the microphone from me and made derogatory remarks about me. I have asked him to withdraw those remarks on air and apologise but he has adamantly refused. What he tells me is that since the party he supports is in power, none can successfully file a defamation suit against him. Accordingly, the level of impunity is too high.
Before one can effectively solve corruption, they must first put it into context. I have often times written about corruption and my understanding of corruption is that it is any aberration or deviation from the norm. I don’t know whether nepotism which largely favours people from one ethnic group regardless of whether or not they are the best is viewed by Gen Tumwine as corruption? When I graduated from Makerere University in April 2005, Mr. Semivule the convocation chairman then said in his speech that the number of Makerere University Alumni had hit 56,000. This includes Ugandans and non-Ugandans alike; dead and alive. Makerere University is the oldest and biggest university. It’s the biggest in a sense that its enrolment at anyone time outnumbers all other universities combined.
I have had an opportunity of teaching in two universities and I can authoritatively say that the number of graduates from the other universities is miniscule. Uganda Christian University which is one of the biggest private universities is yet to celebrate 15 years of existence; Islamic University in Uganda started in 1988 with only 80 students while Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi started in 1993 with only 84 students. When you count those that have graduated with degrees, you will be shocked at how small the number is. The question is, why don’t these people get jobs? The answer is corruption. We have many politically connected Ugandans who forge academic documents from Nasser Road and use them to get jobs. Otherwise, if the government was serious about fighting corruption, it would prevail on all employers be it in the private sector or public sector to verify their employees’ and job applicants’ documents with the universities they claim they went through. This is the nth time I am writing about this and nothing has been done. Why? Because people who use forged documents are politically connected.
This renders many university graduates unemployed and what the graduates do in order to make end meet is to open coursework bureaus thereby awarding papers to those who ordinarily wouldn’t qualify for them. They also open printing bureaus and start printing certificates, diplomas and degree transcripts for those that don’t have them. And those who get jobs irregularly steal as much as possible before they are discovered and kicked out. Ultimately corruption begets corruption and the NRM to me is synonymous with corruption.
I am sure Gen Tumwine’s VACOCA can only bark against corruption but will not bite. If Gen Tumwine wants to shoot corruption, he should first shoot the NRM. Otherwise, in an attempt to shoot corruption, Gen Tumwine will himself be shot by corruption. He will never raise a finger when the first family or any member of the historical high command is involved in graft scandal.
The author is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
This article was first published by the Razor Newspaper on August 2, 2011
On Saturday July 30, on UBC Ground Zero talk show they were debating as to whether General Elly Tumwine will shoot corruption. General Tumwine started a civil society organization known as Volunteers Anti Corruption Campaign Africa (VACOCA), to fight corruption. I am one of the initial members that signed so that VACOCA could start. However, apart from hearing about it in the newspapers, I don’t know how effective VACOCA is in the fight against corruption. Before the debate began at Ground Zero, I told the Inspector General of Government Mr. Raphael Baku that while he had been invited to debate corruption on a programme moderated by Mr. Tony Owana, the moderator was the most corrupt person and I told him that we need to first sort out Owana’s corruption before we could make a step in the fight against endemic corruption that has eaten all our social fabric. The reason I said Owana is the most corrupt person is because he detests and stifles views that are critical of the current establishment hence ensuring that the regime orchestrated corruption flourishes.
I attended and spoke on the programme on 25th June but when I said our oil will be a curse if its proceeds are handled and controlled by the sharks Owana removed the microphone from me and made derogatory remarks about me. I have asked him to withdraw those remarks on air and apologise but he has adamantly refused. What he tells me is that since the party he supports is in power, none can successfully file a defamation suit against him. Accordingly, the level of impunity is too high.
Before one can effectively solve corruption, they must first put it into context. I have often times written about corruption and my understanding of corruption is that it is any aberration or deviation from the norm. I don’t know whether nepotism which largely favours people from one ethnic group regardless of whether or not they are the best is viewed by Gen Tumwine as corruption? When I graduated from Makerere University in April 2005, Mr. Semivule the convocation chairman then said in his speech that the number of Makerere University Alumni had hit 56,000. This includes Ugandans and non-Ugandans alike; dead and alive. Makerere University is the oldest and biggest university. It’s the biggest in a sense that its enrolment at anyone time outnumbers all other universities combined.
I have had an opportunity of teaching in two universities and I can authoritatively say that the number of graduates from the other universities is miniscule. Uganda Christian University which is one of the biggest private universities is yet to celebrate 15 years of existence; Islamic University in Uganda started in 1988 with only 80 students while Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi started in 1993 with only 84 students. When you count those that have graduated with degrees, you will be shocked at how small the number is. The question is, why don’t these people get jobs? The answer is corruption. We have many politically connected Ugandans who forge academic documents from Nasser Road and use them to get jobs. Otherwise, if the government was serious about fighting corruption, it would prevail on all employers be it in the private sector or public sector to verify their employees’ and job applicants’ documents with the universities they claim they went through. This is the nth time I am writing about this and nothing has been done. Why? Because people who use forged documents are politically connected.
This renders many university graduates unemployed and what the graduates do in order to make end meet is to open coursework bureaus thereby awarding papers to those who ordinarily wouldn’t qualify for them. They also open printing bureaus and start printing certificates, diplomas and degree transcripts for those that don’t have them. And those who get jobs irregularly steal as much as possible before they are discovered and kicked out. Ultimately corruption begets corruption and the NRM to me is synonymous with corruption.
I am sure Gen Tumwine’s VACOCA can only bark against corruption but will not bite. If Gen Tumwine wants to shoot corruption, he should first shoot the NRM. Otherwise, in an attempt to shoot corruption, Gen Tumwine will himself be shot by corruption. He will never raise a finger when the first family or any member of the historical high command is involved in graft scandal.
The author is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Kayihura, Museveni and company enough is enough
Vincent Nuwagaba
Kayihura, Museveni and company enough is enough
The police and prisons personnel have turned it into a duty to torture, harass, dehumanize and brutalise me. I wonder whether they have nothing useful to do with themselves. Surely, there is no doubt that we are headed for disaster. Only last week on 28th July, I was humiliated at parliament by the police. Even when I informed one of their superiors Mr. Elly Womanya, they insisted that they had their own rules which I had to follow. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t succumb to the dictates of the policemen for I knew they didn’t know what they were doing. On that very day, when I went to Bauman House looking for Hon Fungaroo, I was also humiliated. The following day, I went to Murchison Bay Prison but I was denied access to the inmates simply because I had an exercise book and a pen. I have now realized that the NRM regime is in its evening and has reached the exit door.
They have tortured me several times, arrested me illegally several times and subjected me to drugs with a view to exterminating me. To their shock, nothing has deterred me from speaking the truth. I would like to warn the police and everyone who wants to take me for a ride that nobody can successfully subjugate me. I am a citizen in this country and not anyone’s subject.
In less than two weeks time, we shall submit afresh the petition of fees increment in the public universities and we shall demand that government refunds all the monies that have been paid by the students under the 2009/2010 fees structures because fees was increased irregularly. I was personally taken to jail and told that I will spend there twenty eight months. By the grace of God, I came out after serving eight and a half months. What I learnt from there is more than a course that one would cover for three years.
I call upon all patriotic Ugandans to use all the peaceful means to ensure that there is change. We must petition the courts of law, the parliament, the East African Court of Justice, the African Court of Human and People’s Rights but also we must expose the nakedness of the NRM regime.
It’s amazing that the people who claimed they went to the bush to fight for democracy, human rights, security of property and person are now doing the unthinkable. Indeed, like Lord Acton remarked, power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If we indeed accept that leaders come from God, we ought to know that God has anointed a leader to liberate Ugandans from spiritual doom which the First Lady has always lamented about. Sadly, she forgets to understand that the first family is part of the problem.
I pity Celestine Twesigye, the Officer in Charge of Murchison Bay prison under whose command I was chased out of the prison premises because they feared I was going to write about the situation therein. If they don’t torture inmates, why should they block human rights defenders from freely interfacing with the prisoners? I have been in jail and I know that there are many inmates who are innocent but because they got no lawyers or the magistrates were bribed they ended up being convicted.
Meanwhile, Magistrate Grade II, James Wambaya who illegally, without any sense of shame convicted me and sentenced me to twenty eight months of imprisonment, has lodged a complaint against me with the police saying that I threaten him. I wish him well but I would be glad if we met in the courts of law so that I can defend myself. Norbert Mao once said lies have short legs; they cannot go far. I have also come to learn that lies have a short lifespan. I am not at all scared about anybody and I am convinced that I will succeed at the end of the day.
I would like to inform Kayihura and other policemen and military men who think that what works is the barrel of the gun. I am even surprised that the current ruling oligarchy doesn’t know that the more people are brutalized the radical they become. I would also call upon Gen Kayihura to officially join the NRM secretariat since the President has in the recent past declared that Kayihura and Kafeero are NRM cadres.
A friend of mine once told me that madness is doing one thing, over and over again expecting different results. They have tortured me in the past; they have taken me to a mental hospital; they have taken me to court and convicted me; I don’t know why they behave like they have no iota of brains in their heads.
I am convinced that as sure as day follows night, all those that have committed crimes with impunity will be brought to book. You can imagine, Ofwono Opondo kills and gets away with it while Vincent Nuwagaba who is critical of the regime is rewarded with twenty-eight months’ imprisonment. I have said that I am neither Kayihura’s nor Museveni’s ball to be kicked by every Tom Dick and Harry. Meanwhile, I am going to drag UBC to the courts of law because their job is not to gag the critical voices.
In 1981, an irate group of 27 men, went to the bushes in Luwero triangle, they killed many civilians and walked on dead bodies to capture state power. Today, they have committed more heinous crimes than the ones they were fighting against. I would like to remind today’s Uganda rulers of the words of John F Kennedy, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable”. Enough is enough. We must assert ourselves and prove to everyone that Uganda belongs to all of us. For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Kayihura, Museveni and company enough is enough
The police and prisons personnel have turned it into a duty to torture, harass, dehumanize and brutalise me. I wonder whether they have nothing useful to do with themselves. Surely, there is no doubt that we are headed for disaster. Only last week on 28th July, I was humiliated at parliament by the police. Even when I informed one of their superiors Mr. Elly Womanya, they insisted that they had their own rules which I had to follow. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t succumb to the dictates of the policemen for I knew they didn’t know what they were doing. On that very day, when I went to Bauman House looking for Hon Fungaroo, I was also humiliated. The following day, I went to Murchison Bay Prison but I was denied access to the inmates simply because I had an exercise book and a pen. I have now realized that the NRM regime is in its evening and has reached the exit door.
They have tortured me several times, arrested me illegally several times and subjected me to drugs with a view to exterminating me. To their shock, nothing has deterred me from speaking the truth. I would like to warn the police and everyone who wants to take me for a ride that nobody can successfully subjugate me. I am a citizen in this country and not anyone’s subject.
In less than two weeks time, we shall submit afresh the petition of fees increment in the public universities and we shall demand that government refunds all the monies that have been paid by the students under the 2009/2010 fees structures because fees was increased irregularly. I was personally taken to jail and told that I will spend there twenty eight months. By the grace of God, I came out after serving eight and a half months. What I learnt from there is more than a course that one would cover for three years.
I call upon all patriotic Ugandans to use all the peaceful means to ensure that there is change. We must petition the courts of law, the parliament, the East African Court of Justice, the African Court of Human and People’s Rights but also we must expose the nakedness of the NRM regime.
It’s amazing that the people who claimed they went to the bush to fight for democracy, human rights, security of property and person are now doing the unthinkable. Indeed, like Lord Acton remarked, power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If we indeed accept that leaders come from God, we ought to know that God has anointed a leader to liberate Ugandans from spiritual doom which the First Lady has always lamented about. Sadly, she forgets to understand that the first family is part of the problem.
I pity Celestine Twesigye, the Officer in Charge of Murchison Bay prison under whose command I was chased out of the prison premises because they feared I was going to write about the situation therein. If they don’t torture inmates, why should they block human rights defenders from freely interfacing with the prisoners? I have been in jail and I know that there are many inmates who are innocent but because they got no lawyers or the magistrates were bribed they ended up being convicted.
Meanwhile, Magistrate Grade II, James Wambaya who illegally, without any sense of shame convicted me and sentenced me to twenty eight months of imprisonment, has lodged a complaint against me with the police saying that I threaten him. I wish him well but I would be glad if we met in the courts of law so that I can defend myself. Norbert Mao once said lies have short legs; they cannot go far. I have also come to learn that lies have a short lifespan. I am not at all scared about anybody and I am convinced that I will succeed at the end of the day.
I would like to inform Kayihura and other policemen and military men who think that what works is the barrel of the gun. I am even surprised that the current ruling oligarchy doesn’t know that the more people are brutalized the radical they become. I would also call upon Gen Kayihura to officially join the NRM secretariat since the President has in the recent past declared that Kayihura and Kafeero are NRM cadres.
A friend of mine once told me that madness is doing one thing, over and over again expecting different results. They have tortured me in the past; they have taken me to a mental hospital; they have taken me to court and convicted me; I don’t know why they behave like they have no iota of brains in their heads.
I am convinced that as sure as day follows night, all those that have committed crimes with impunity will be brought to book. You can imagine, Ofwono Opondo kills and gets away with it while Vincent Nuwagaba who is critical of the regime is rewarded with twenty-eight months’ imprisonment. I have said that I am neither Kayihura’s nor Museveni’s ball to be kicked by every Tom Dick and Harry. Meanwhile, I am going to drag UBC to the courts of law because their job is not to gag the critical voices.
In 1981, an irate group of 27 men, went to the bushes in Luwero triangle, they killed many civilians and walked on dead bodies to capture state power. Today, they have committed more heinous crimes than the ones they were fighting against. I would like to remind today’s Uganda rulers of the words of John F Kennedy, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable”. Enough is enough. We must assert ourselves and prove to everyone that Uganda belongs to all of us. For God and my country!
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)