On Wednesday 2, October 2013 I
witnessed with rage MP Ibrahim Ssemujju violently thrown out of Parliament and
I wondered where our country is headed to. I always don’t like using newspaper
columns to write about my ordeal but since we are inextricably woven, I have
been impelled to write this so that a lasting solution to the abuse of public
institutions can be found. For starters,
I personally have been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment on several
occasions at Parliament, Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), in Murchison
Bay Prison and strangely though not surprisingly in the Uganda Human Rights
Commission (UHRC) and court premises at the orders of the commission secretary
and Grade II Magistrate James Wambaya. I don’t have to mention the police
premises and Butabika Mental Hospital – never mind that the same people who
were subjecting me to pharmacological torture confided to the police that I have
overflowing brains. They drag me into the mental hospital when it suits them
and the courts of law and finally prison when it suits them also.
In fact, I have had my clothes
torn, deprived of my phones, money and computer and each time I have reported
nothing has been done. Each time I have been humiliated, degraded and
dehumanized from Parliament, there have been Members of Parliament clearly
watching and have done nothing.
I remember very well that on one
occasion, it is Hon Medard Segona who felt concerned and advised me to report
to any of the parliament commissioners but I was still blocked from accessing
the offices of the commissioners. Injustice is reprehensible, abhorrent and
morally repugnant regardless of who does it. I have on several occasions told
the police that I am not the IGP’s ball to be kicked by the police at will and
at whim – and I am yet to have a breathing space.
Parliament, UBC and UHRC are
public institutions hence nobody should be barred from accessing them. It is
becoming clear to me that the police are under instructions to make sure they
bar me from accessing both parliament and UBC. My crime, however, is that I
have consistently demanded accountability from people who have a contractual
obligation to work for Ugandans. As a political scientist, I was exposed to both
revolutionary violence and non-violent political struggles. I fully support
non-violence revolutions because I do not only abhor but I also fear violence.
I feel scared when I see someone bleeding; at my age, I do not look at dead
bodies and I feel pain in my heart when someone is violently treated. MPs who thought it was only me humiliated must
now come to a realization that they are not safe either as long as they are
critical of the misdeeds of the regime. A direct infraction of one person’s
rights constitutes an indirect infraction of all people’s rights.
I decry Hon Ssemujju’s
humiliation in the parliamentary chambers because to begin with I am fully
convinced that what he, Odonga-Otto and Ssekikubo did is what any pro-people,
pro-democracy and pro-human rights MP should have done. It is inconceivable
that any sound MP could have idly allowed an unjust legislation to be passed
without any resistance. I have openly preached rebellion, disobedience and
defiance of injustice. While opposition MPs welcomed Deputy Speaker Jacob
Oulanyah’s apology on Tuesday 8, as a good gesture of a good leader, my deduction
is that his apology was an acknowledgement of guilt; a confirmation that he is
not above-board; a concession that his emotions outweigh reason; a testament
that he cannot control his impulses and hardly can he appeal to his conscience.
Thus, he could do the country proud if he resigned in public interest for such
character is inimical to the office of Deputy Speaker which requires unbridled sobriety
24 hours, seven days. The Swedish
premier resigned for she unintentionally used government funds to buy pampers
for her baby.
I write about Hon Oulanyah with a
heart full of love. I write about a man whom together with Hon Norbert Mao were
my first political role models; from whom I learnt a lot and occasionally rode
with in the same vehicle. I write about a man whose late wife Dorothy (RIP) was
my respectable leader in Jami Ya Kupatanisha. I write about a man who was a
pillar of Acholi Makerere Students’ Association to which I was an associate
member during my days at Makerere as a student. That I love Ndugu Jacob doesn’t mean I look on as he
desecrates a sacrosanct state institution – parliament which is a bastion of
free expression and divergent viewpoints. Defiance to injustice is a patriotic
call for all Ugandans.
The writer is a PhD student in Political Studies and human rights
defender
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