Vincent Nuwagaba
I have looked at the front page of today’s Red pepper with utter disgust and I must say, very many understanding Ugandans are soon withdrawing the respect they hitherto had for the tabloid. I am terribly annoyed that a newspaper can publish such pictures on its front page even if it is true. When I expressed my concern with one of the journalists managing one of Uganda’s premier newspapers, he told me, “Red pepper is the best selling news paper”. When I asked, whether what they publish is what we need, he added, “It sells more than the New Vision”. Why he did that is to emphasise that that’s what the market (readers want). This is yellow journalism at its very best. Yellow journalism is the type of journalism that flouts all the ethical principles of journalism. This sensational reporting is as a result of what Kahinda Otafiire refers to as the gutter press. I don’t care whether or not what the Red Pepper published about Prof Gilbert Bukenya is true, why must Red Pepper think, it is for public consumption?
Who of us – Ugandans including the Red Pepper Managers and staff is a saint? Why wouldn’t the Red Pepper Directors be guided by the Golden Rule of Morality which goes, “Do to others, as you would want them do to you” (Luke 6:31). I deeply respect some of the Red Pepper directors especially my brother Arinaitwe Rugyendo who was in the line of becoming a Catholic Priest. Rugyendo still comports himself well, he is humble and notwithstanding what views other people have about him, I cherish his methods of work. I am, however, disappointed that a paper to which Rugyendo is a director can sink so deep as to publish such useless stuff.
To begin with, what the paper is writing about Bukenya is traumatic; it will traumatize Bukenya’s family – his wife, children and aging mother. If that’s the intention of the paper editors, then they are turning themselves into sadists. Secondly, the Red Pepper has at one point in time published a false story about me. I only chose to keep peace but I would have dragged them to the courts of law over defamation. Shamelessly, even when I wrote to clear my name they never published my story neither did they apologise for the wrong story published.
Why would Red Pepper editors think they have an innate right to pry into anybody’s private life including Professor Bukenya? I am in no way saying Bukenya is an angel; I am not his spin doctor or spokesman but I am enraged at the manner in which the red pepper journalists have chosen to make money at the expense of his human dignity. The Prime Minister, the President, the First Lady and all other ministers and MPs have their own gaffes, why doesn’t the Red Pepper write about them? Could the allegation by Radio Katwe that the Red Pepper is used to destroy politically non Bakiga-Banyankore hold some grain of truth?
Who of the Red Pepper directors, editors and reporters is an angel; a saint that they would be comfortable with anybody who pries into their private lives? While Bukenya is a former Vice President, former minister and currently a member of parliament, he remains a human being entitled to the right of his privacy? By following him up everywhere, the Red Pepper reporters show that they are uncouth and they expose their moral nakedness. It is not Bukenya who is portrayed in negative terms but you guys in the Red Pepper. In the Bible, we read of a woman caught in adultery and when it was suggested that Moses’ law be invoked so that she would be stoned, Jesus said he who has never sinned should be the first to throw a stone at her (John 8:1-11). The same Bible in Mathew 7:3 exhorts us not to see a speck in our neighbour’s eye before we save ourselves of a log in our own eye. I am sure that none of those rumour mongers that have specialised in writing about Bukenya are more morally upright than him. Please, give a man of God a break.
To Red Pepper editorial team, must you publish any rubbish because you need your paper to sell or because you have been given money by someone? How can the Red Pepper convince us that it’s not doing a mercenary job – that some people have hired it to trim Professor Bukenya’s political wings? How can we be convinced that Red Pepper is not part of the Dirty Tricks Unit (DTU) which the NRM uses to destroy political opponents and any other people that threaten its political survival? If the Red Pepper management doesn’t repent, doom is awaiting it. I am not going to play a false prophet job because I want you people to promote me. I must advise you as brothers and comrades that the path you are taking is perilous. Please be mindful that there’s a future after the NRM regime which has protected you and enabled you to abuse professionalism to mint money.The world doesn’t revolve around money! For God and my country.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Uganda under Museveni is devoid of Ubuntu
I have been impelled to write this article by Professor Augustus Nuwagaba’s article “Govt must rectify the salary imbalance in public sector” (See Daily Monitor, Friday, September 9, 2011). Lots of money approved by MPs for community barazas; money approved for patriotism clubs yet the claim is that there is no money for salary enhancement for all civil servants.
We need to define the concept patriotism. Who actually is a patriot? Is it an MP who earns 21m a month; IGP who reportedly uses 1.3b a day whenever there’s a protest, demonstration or strike; is it a political leader whose daughter will give birth from a first world country using huge sums of taxpayers’ money when women in labour at Mulago Hospital corridors hardly find gloves, kaveera, cotton wool, surgical blade and spirit to enable them deliver babies; is it a minister whose children study from international schools but blackmails teachers with sacking when they demand a modest pay raise of Shs250,000; is it a presidential advisor who pockets millions of money including AC Vehicles and security guards when but never meet the president only to see him on TV yet medical doctors are paid 700,000, is patriotism a preserve of young men and women of one particular political inclination?
Where can the money be found? Where is the waste? A lot of government revenue is wasted on the following.
There is a tendency where government institutions especially ministries are being duplicated by the creation of various semi-autonomous authorities like KCCA, URA, NDA, UNRA, NPA, UIA, CAA, NFA, UWA, among others. There are other semi-autonomous agencies such as NWSC, NSSF, National Housing, Administrator General, etc. in addition to authorities we also have semi-autonomous Commissions. Workers in these agencies and commissions earn far higher than the conventional civil servants. Ultimately, the mainstream civil servants spend virtually all their energies thinking of how and how much they can steal to bridge the gap that exists between them and their counterparts in the named authorities. For example a fresh university graduate who enters public service starts from salary scale u4 and his/her take home is around Sh470,000. A similar fresh graduate who enters URA or NPA earns between 1.5 to 3m. if one wants to move at the same pace with their contemporaries they therefore spend virtually all the time devising means of “cutting deals” and the service delivery is poor if not negative. Mainstream civil servants are government employees and so are workers in authorities, commissions and other agencies. Why then can’t we have a uniform salary structure for all government employees?
The other area of waste is the big size of cabinet and parliament who earn very fat emoluments and the flowery title of honourable. To ascend to these positions, the academic requirement is a mere equivalent of Advanced Level. Shockingly, these MPs and ministers delude themselves that they make a bigger contribution than teachers, police, medical workers and without any shame university professors. Interestingly, quality of these “Honorable” members is wanting as some MPs may take their entire term without contributing to debate.
The other area of waste is the elevation of counties into districts and proliferation of sub counties for political expediency while duping the masses that they would bring or take services closer to the people. Instead these have ended up increasing the burden on taxpayers due to the cost of Administration like new Councils, RDC’s, DSO’s, GISO’s, Departments, vehicles and structures such as buildings. While the argument that the proliferation of districts and sub counties was meant to enhance service delivery, government health centres are devoid of essential drugs and equipment; government aided schools are on the verge of collapse because of poor performance; UPE and USE are just in name but we neither have universal primary or secondary school education because the remittance UPE for each pupil is less than Sh 2000 while USE remittance for each student is Sh41,000. In a school such Kigarama Primary School, parents are compelled to pay 15,000 for each child under UPE while at Kigarama secondary School parents part with Sh78,000 for each student under USE. One wonders if a parent pays 15,000 for his/her child and government tops up 1300 or 1500 why should government say it caters for our children?
Government violates ILO Conventions – convention 100- equal pay for equal value of work.
Doesn’t government have the money? The argument that government has no money is a hoax. There are too many taxes paid by Ugandans and URA collects huge sums of money on a daily basis. However, the problem is largely abuse and misuse of these monies through priority misplacement and imbalances in the allocation. These imbalances are largely responsible for the misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds as we highlighted in the foregoing. Our society has enough to satisfy all our needs but doesn’t have enough to satisfy our greed.
We have businessmen who pay no taxes. These happen to be business associates with the powers that be. Because they don’t pay taxes, if a genuine businessman imports or exports they are taxed through the nose. That professors cannot sponsor their children in universities where they teach is a truism. On the whole, what need to be overhauled are not the salary structures but a whole system starting from the political establishment. Many Ugandans under Museveni are devoid of Ubuntu which manifests in humanity, empathy and experiences a moral downturn.
The author is a human rights defender
Email: mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
We need to define the concept patriotism. Who actually is a patriot? Is it an MP who earns 21m a month; IGP who reportedly uses 1.3b a day whenever there’s a protest, demonstration or strike; is it a political leader whose daughter will give birth from a first world country using huge sums of taxpayers’ money when women in labour at Mulago Hospital corridors hardly find gloves, kaveera, cotton wool, surgical blade and spirit to enable them deliver babies; is it a minister whose children study from international schools but blackmails teachers with sacking when they demand a modest pay raise of Shs250,000; is it a presidential advisor who pockets millions of money including AC Vehicles and security guards when but never meet the president only to see him on TV yet medical doctors are paid 700,000, is patriotism a preserve of young men and women of one particular political inclination?
Where can the money be found? Where is the waste? A lot of government revenue is wasted on the following.
There is a tendency where government institutions especially ministries are being duplicated by the creation of various semi-autonomous authorities like KCCA, URA, NDA, UNRA, NPA, UIA, CAA, NFA, UWA, among others. There are other semi-autonomous agencies such as NWSC, NSSF, National Housing, Administrator General, etc. in addition to authorities we also have semi-autonomous Commissions. Workers in these agencies and commissions earn far higher than the conventional civil servants. Ultimately, the mainstream civil servants spend virtually all their energies thinking of how and how much they can steal to bridge the gap that exists between them and their counterparts in the named authorities. For example a fresh university graduate who enters public service starts from salary scale u4 and his/her take home is around Sh470,000. A similar fresh graduate who enters URA or NPA earns between 1.5 to 3m. if one wants to move at the same pace with their contemporaries they therefore spend virtually all the time devising means of “cutting deals” and the service delivery is poor if not negative. Mainstream civil servants are government employees and so are workers in authorities, commissions and other agencies. Why then can’t we have a uniform salary structure for all government employees?
The other area of waste is the big size of cabinet and parliament who earn very fat emoluments and the flowery title of honourable. To ascend to these positions, the academic requirement is a mere equivalent of Advanced Level. Shockingly, these MPs and ministers delude themselves that they make a bigger contribution than teachers, police, medical workers and without any shame university professors. Interestingly, quality of these “Honorable” members is wanting as some MPs may take their entire term without contributing to debate.
The other area of waste is the elevation of counties into districts and proliferation of sub counties for political expediency while duping the masses that they would bring or take services closer to the people. Instead these have ended up increasing the burden on taxpayers due to the cost of Administration like new Councils, RDC’s, DSO’s, GISO’s, Departments, vehicles and structures such as buildings. While the argument that the proliferation of districts and sub counties was meant to enhance service delivery, government health centres are devoid of essential drugs and equipment; government aided schools are on the verge of collapse because of poor performance; UPE and USE are just in name but we neither have universal primary or secondary school education because the remittance UPE for each pupil is less than Sh 2000 while USE remittance for each student is Sh41,000. In a school such Kigarama Primary School, parents are compelled to pay 15,000 for each child under UPE while at Kigarama secondary School parents part with Sh78,000 for each student under USE. One wonders if a parent pays 15,000 for his/her child and government tops up 1300 or 1500 why should government say it caters for our children?
Government violates ILO Conventions – convention 100- equal pay for equal value of work.
Doesn’t government have the money? The argument that government has no money is a hoax. There are too many taxes paid by Ugandans and URA collects huge sums of money on a daily basis. However, the problem is largely abuse and misuse of these monies through priority misplacement and imbalances in the allocation. These imbalances are largely responsible for the misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds as we highlighted in the foregoing. Our society has enough to satisfy all our needs but doesn’t have enough to satisfy our greed.
We have businessmen who pay no taxes. These happen to be business associates with the powers that be. Because they don’t pay taxes, if a genuine businessman imports or exports they are taxed through the nose. That professors cannot sponsor their children in universities where they teach is a truism. On the whole, what need to be overhauled are not the salary structures but a whole system starting from the political establishment. Many Ugandans under Museveni are devoid of Ubuntu which manifests in humanity, empathy and experiences a moral downturn.
The author is a human rights defender
Email: mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Friday, September 2, 2011
Let’s all demand social justice in Uganda
By Vincent Nuwagaba
First published by Daily Monitor on Friday, September 2 2011
Two media stories have compelled me to make an input. The first is President Museveni’s war against anybody who is opposed to the give-away of part of Mabira Forest to Mehta for sugarcane growing and the second is the report launched by UWEZO on August 18, titled, “Are our children learning?”.
On Museveni’s ‘sugar war’, I find statements attributed to him worrying, annoying and unconstitutional. To begin with, the President has no right to donate public land. The government holds public property, including land, in public trust. Any attempt to give away public property without the consent of Ugandans is tantamount to abuse of the trusteeship. Sadly, the abuse of trusteeship has gone on in the past for so long that the President now thinks he has a customary right to do whatever he wants. In my considered view, the war that the President has declared against environmentalists and all save Mabira crusaders is a war against himself.
While the President has a history of winning many wars, I think he will surely lose this one. While the President reportedly said he is ready for war on sugar, he seems to have given up on other meaningful wars such as grand corruption, poor quality education, inaccessibility to higher education by the poor; lack of health facilities and graduate unemployment, among others. We would also need to know whether or not the President intends to use guns to fight his war. If he is talking of an ideological war, then well-meaning Ugandans should be ready for the battle of brains.
The President was quoted as having said, “I am not ready to listen to anybody who is saying that I save Mabira”. Does he then still maintain that he derives his legitimacy from the people of Uganda? Is that not abrogation of Article 1 of our Constitution which says power belongs to the people? At the Pan-African club meeting at Seascallop Restaurant in Kamwokya recently, some NRM activists were saying Mabira is already gone, can someone in the know throw light on this?
At the press conference addressed by Hon John Ken Lukyamuzi and Hon Beatrice Anywar, they alleged that Mehta has not paid taxes for the past 26 years, why then does he have to be given free land? Is he an investor worth the name if he doesn’t pay taxes? I know pretty well the working conditions of Scoul employees and the meagre salaries they earn.
I would be comfortable if Mr Museveni waged his war against theft that is now synonymous with the NRM (remember while in Rwanda recently the President said Ugandans are thieves), I would be happy if Mr Museveni funded education. It’s amazing that the government remits less than Shs2,000 for each pupil under UPE and a paltry Shs41,000 for each student under USE yet schools spend around Shs120,000 on each student. And this is why the UWEZO report shows that Ugandan primary school children suffer from literacy and numeracy capabilities.
Museveni should also fulfill his promise of introducing university student loans and prevail on universities to cut tuition fees. It is ironic that in Museveni’s Uganda, public educational institutions are financed by poor parents and students as though they have ceased being state institutions. Recently, teachers made a modest--considering what they are earning--100 per cent pay raise but their demand was rejected by the government. If I were one of them, I would have asked for 400 per cent salary increment. Don’t Ugandan teachers, policemen, prison warders, and indeed all civil servants want their children to attain university education?
As other well-meaning Ugandans join environmentalists to save Mabira, I also call upon the rest to join me in demanding the right to education which is enshrined in Article 30 of the 1995 Constitution and the international human rights instruments that Uganda has ratified, which stress that higher education shall be accessible on the basis of merit.
These include inter alia Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966), Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989), Article 10 of the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979), Articles 1, 2 and 5 of the International Covenant on Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination, 1969) and Unesco Convention Against Discrimination in Education.
Accordingly, education is a fundamental human right but also that it is a critical tool for social transformation is obvious. Let’s all demand social justice in Uganda for we are citizens, not subjects.
Mr Nuwagaba is a human rights defender.
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Mr President, you can only promote welfare by ensuring social justice
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
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
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
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