Abuse and misuse of state institutions by public officials

29th July 2009


The Divisional Police Commander,
Jinja Road Police Station



Re: Nuwagaba Vincent MHC 1295/08

This is to bring to your notice that the above named was admitted to our Hospital as a patient in May 2008 and later discharged. Nuwagaba has not followed up treatment and has instead sued the state for alleged wrongful admission at the Hospital.

He unfortunately continues to visit the Hospital in an attempt to incite patients under our care. This is therefore to request you assist us keep the above named out of our Hospital gates to enable us offer our services efficiently to those that need them.

Yours sincerely,

Dr David Basangwa

FOR DIRECTOR

The DPC acknowledged receipt of the letter and noted thus, “correspondence received. OC Butabika please take note and liaise with the Hospital Management.

Salient questions in regard to the letter

The foregoing letter demands that I raise the following issues for public consumption:
Institutional Abuse
The letter portends a clear case of state failure and institutional abuse in a three- dimensional manner- personalisation of state institutions and/or offices, desecration of the otherwise sacrosanct police force and failure to appreciate that I have a right to seek legal redress by suing any individual (with exception of the president who is shielded by presidential immunity against prosecution) and institution including the state through the Attorney General.

1. The personalisation of public offices and institutions.
 
I have laboured to teach public officials that public offices and institutions are impersonal. No sane person can write such a letter and use the word our Hospital as if it is a private enterprise. If he says our hospital, whose hospital is it and whose is it not? Doesn’t our include me and any other Ugandans who part with a hefty thirty per cent (30%) of their salaries to keep the lousy and unscrupulous bureaucrats in offices and the dictatorship in power? I must warn Dr Basangwa and all administrators in Butabika and any other public institutions including president Museveni that any attempt to personalise any state institution will draw the ire and unprecedented rage of the politically conscious and civically awake citizens and the results will not be enjoyable to the office and institutional abusers. Please stand warned. No sane person could write such a letter but on the presumption that the author of the letter is a person of sound mind, I will take legal action using the letter as one of the documents to support my case.

2. Desecration of the otherwise revered Police Force
That the Uganda Police Force whose functions are clearly spelt out in our constitution can be used to perpetuate and orchestrate criminality and illegality is a sad commentary indeed. For anybody to restrain me from my moral and legal obligation to fight for social justice; to speak out for the voiceless; to enhance the release of the captives; to set free the enslaved is unacceptable and unfathomable. I have made it quite clear that I am following Gaudance Tushabomwe’s case at the moment. But there’s nothing whatsoever that deters me from pursuing more or less related cases and I have put it in black and white before that I am the most qualified to do that since I have undergone similar hell. I am sure, the Jinja Road Police station Divisional Police Commander, enlightened as he is will not succumb to the illegal, despicable, disgraceful and loathsome command of Dr Basangwa and Ms Grace Lubale. Their letter must be dismissed with costs.

3. My suit against the Attorney General - civil suit 52/2009
It is prudent that anyone who occupies a public office undergoes some basic training in public administration in which case he/she would be taught administrative law. The Hospital administration is acting ultravires by forcefully denying me access to a public institution simply because I sued the state. Assuming all other state institutions were to read from Butabika Hospital’s script, would that mean that I will be restricted from accessing and using any public office, institutions and public goods including schools, hospitals and roads? Are the Butabika administrators attempting to criminalise filing suits against the state or any public servant? It is naïve, immature and a result of sheer malice to attempt to block me from having access from institutions run by tax payers’ money. It is equally myopic for anyone to inanely think that I can succumb to such madness. I will move with my head unbowed, my faith unshaken in all state institutions as long as I have reasons that take me there. For the benefit of naïve people behind my harassment, I don’t count how many times I have gone to the president’s office, whether or not I see him is a different matter but I have never been denied access to the president’s office. So, who are Butabika Hospital Administrators to deny me access to the place that was meant to be a healing centre but has unfortunately been turned into a killing centre all in the interest of keeping the NRM dictatorship in power?

4. Is Dr Onen involved in my plight?
At first I was told that Dr Onen is the one who does not need me in the Hospital. Accordingly, when I was beaten on Tuesday 14th July 2009 I called him in the presence of Mr. JK Zirabamuzale, Chairman of Uganda Prisoners’ Aid Foundation. I put the phone in loud speaker and thus Mr. Zirabamuzale can attest to this. Dr Onen distanced himself from that act. He was pleading with me on phone not to involve him in that matter and he told me the Hospital Management is under Dr Kiggozi, Mr. Basangwa, Mr. Ronald Segawa and Ms Grace Lubaale and that Dr Onen has nothing to do with directing them on who they should restrain and who they should allow in. I believed in what Dr. Onen told me.

On Monday 27th July 2009, I went with the lady police sergeant to Butabika Hospital. Actually it is me who ironically facilitated her to do police work for I was told by none other than Mr. Ashraf Chemonges that the police force is not facilitated and they do their job patriotically and thus if I am to be “helped” I must facilitate the Investigating officer. Sadly, no sooner had I and the lady police officer reached the Hospital premises, than Grace Lubale called the Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander Mr. Soroweni telling him that I Vincent Nuwagaba was in the Hospital premises. Paradoxically, although I was told by the OC Station, Jinja Road Police Station that the police had no facilitation, Mr. Soroweni came with very many junior Police Officers and some key senior officers, DPC Jinja Road Mr Aguma, Regional Police Commander Moses Kafeero, OC Operations Jinja Road IP Alphonse Mutabazi among others.

These officers never talked to me but chose to talk to Dr Onen who has nothing to do with my assault case and Gaudance Tushabomwe’s case. Later the OC Operations, Jinja Road Mr. Mutabazi told me, “Nuwagaba, we have talked to Dr. Onen about your matter. Please don’t come back to the Hospital but wait for the court to handle your case” I told Mr Mutabazi, “Look, Mr. Mutabazi I have nothing to do with Dr Onen unless he comes out and says, it is me who ordered that the Hospital guards assault you” I went further to state, “My case with Dr Onen is in court and it will be handled there. Right now it is subjudice and I am not at liberty to discuss its merits and demerits”

On Friday 31st July 2009 I was once again beaten and this time by the police men Mr Kabanda and some other SPC. I wondered what sort of society Uganda is. Are we in a state of nature which according to Thomas Hobbes life is nasty, brutish and short and is characterized by violence of every man against every man? The DPC told me that each time I need to go and do research on mental health rights, I should always notify him so that he accompanies me. I appreciate that magnanimity but I find it impracticable. The DPC will not move by my time table and the reverse is true. Personally, if I am pursuing a matter, before it is concluded I cannot settle. Extremism in defence of justice is no vice and moderation in pursuit of right is no virtue. I cannot be patient when Tushabomwe is kept on health and life killing drugs. I think this is an extremely urgent matter and needs urgent attention short of which we shall see an innocent educated woman die at the hands of unscrupulous public officials.

Meanwhile on Saturday after I left the clinic where I had gone for treatment Dr Onen called me and talked to me for fourteen minutes. He told me he has nothing to do with my recent plight at the Hospital and he told me he never settles in Butabika for he goes to Soroti, Mbarara, Kabaale, Hoima and many other places. By the time I talked to him he was reportedly on his way to Hoima. He reiterated what he had told me before that the leadership of the Hospital is under the Executive Director, Deputy Executive Director, Principal Administrator, Senior Administrator and Administrator. He told me that Ugandans nowadays have resorted to committing crimes and hide under other people’s cover. He told me as a human rights defender, he couldn’t in any way bar me from doing my human rights research in the Hospital. He told me that he handled me for quite a short time when I was there and my case with him is basically over the report he wrote about me and I do concur with him. Dr Onen even challenged me to confirm whether the letter banning me was authored by him and indeed although inanely and without any sense of decorum the author never gave me a copy, I found out that it was written by Dr Basangwa David.

Dr Onen knows the implications of subjecting me to inhuman and degrading treatment like the hospital administration is doing. I have accordingly concluded with my lawyer that on the basis the letter written to the Jinja Road Divisional Police Commander and my eventual illegal arrest and detention we must file a suit against the attorney general, Mr. Basangwa, Ms Grace Lubale. Although the Hospital is a government Hospital, I shall not accept tax payers’ money to always be spent on unscrupulous public servants and that’s the reason as to why Ms Grace Lubale and Dr David Basangwa have to be sued jointly with the Attorney General. As a Christian I cherish individual responsibility for individual actions (Ezekiel 18:20 - The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself).
Accordingly, Grace Lubale who has turned into a disgrace and Dr Basangwa will pay dearly for subjecting me to inhumane treatment and all the other funny ordeal I have gone through.

5. My arrest and illegal detention at Jinja Road Police Station
As I have already mentioned in the foregoing, I learnt on Wednesday 5th August 2009 that Gaudence Tushabomwe was being subjected to inhumane treatment. Immediately, I ran to Butabika Hospital to arrest the situation. Because the Senior Hospital Administrator Grace Lubale had told me that I could only be given permission to talk to inmates by the Executive Director, I went straight to the Director’s office. Upon reaching the Director’s office, I was told he was for a meeting and that his deputy was also in the said meeting. I begged to see the third person in hierarchy who is the Principal Hospital Administrator Mr. Ronald Ssegawa. I was led to the Principal Administrator’s office by the secretary to the Executive Director. 
 While in the Principal Administrator’s office, Grace Lubega came with police operatives and arrested me. Within a matter of minutes, a police patrol vehicle came for me and took me to Jinja Road police station. At Jinja Road, I was injected with a certain drug which I don’t know to date and I must stress I should be told what that drug is. Otherwise, I suspect it may be a slow killing toxin which needs to be drained from my body very soon. I was also forcefully divested of my property and money and thrown into the filthy jail.
Shortly after dumping me in jail, they cut off water and I am sure the purpose was to ensure that I get the real feel of the jail. Because there was no water, the toilets had an offensive odour and I almost developed a running stomach. I together with a Rapid Response Unit operative Ali Magambo put the police officers on duty on pressure to give us water. Magambo faced the wrath of the OC CID and OC Station as they pulled him and embarrassed him so as to silence him. I maintained that if I was the problem, they should discharge all other inmates or remove me from the cells and put me in a secluded cell wherein I would be effectively given the appropriate punishment. Otherwise, I would not accept other inmates to stay without water just because, “stubborn” Nuwagaba was detained.
I was detained incommunicado for my phone was snatched from me by Police Constable Alule as I was talking to Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Julius Shalita. The hell I went through was horrible but was nowhere near the one I have already undergone. After two days on Friday 7th I was beseeched to call anybody that could stand surety for me so that I am given bond. I was told by the Officer in Charge of Criminal Investigation Department (OC CID) Jinja Road that I shouldn’t go back to Butabika because it is only administrators that complain about me. I told the OC CID that as long as they keep human beings in Butabika, as a human rights defender, I have both a moral and legal obligation to research and investigate about the human rights situation therein.

I said, it is laughable, despicable, illogical, ridiculous, ludicrous and sheer inanity to charge me of criminal trespass in a state institution. I maintained that I needed to be taken to court but nothing could be done.


Meanwhile, at a time of my arrest I had 423,500 (four hundred twenty three thousand five hundred) Uganda shillings and 1 US Dollar. Upon my release I found out that my money was stolen and many files in my computer were tampered with and I ended up losing my invaluable documents and information thereon.


They declared only 3500 shillings, typical of what they have always done. I also own three phones but only two phones were declared and ultimately given to me. In the presence of my cousin January Sunday, shamelessly the officer who was handling my property could not give me back the paper on which my property was recorded. But, at least, it is clear that they cannot give any paper on which I signed.
What’s more laughable when I said I had dollars, the OC CID whom I am convinced is more understanding compared to his other colleagues told me that I will be asked where I got the dollars from. I wonder whether he could have asked that question because for him he has never held any dollars in his hands or because he took me to be too cheap to hold any dollars in my hands. As the Banyankole say, “efiire etyo ebagwa etyo”, I knew I would never be under any obligation to explain the source of the dollars but just to let him know even our Ugandans who do business in south Sudan, most of them use dollars as foreign exchange. But, also if the OC CID never learnt basic Economics, a US dollar is one of the hard and stable currencies that we have and I accordingly have never been without any dollars. That said however, I feel succumbing to the OC CID’s inanity and myopia is out of question.

Tampering with my computer in addition to stealing my computer and memory sticks which the police did last year (when I was illegally detained at CPS and later taken to Butabika) is the worst crime ever committed against me and if the police leadership is genuinely mandated to fight crime and deter crime, the officers who perpetrate criminal activities against citizens must be punished with an iron hand.



Conclusion
We need to understand why Butabika Hospital is out of bounds to journalists because I am sure they would help improve the image of this institution by exposing the ills therein. The Police Force is now fully desecrated. Besides, militarizing it by deploying military cadet officers in the force, the police officers have been given a green light to extort money from motorists. Accordingly, many officers act as traffic officers and the rate at which they are fleecing the motorists is unbelievable. Nonetheless, all these are signs of a decadent regime and demented leadership. Like Honourable Norbert Mao has always argued, fish starts rotting from the head. The presidency is a failed institution and thus all other institutions have read from the president’s script and since many institutional heads take Museveni to be their role model they think they are on track by doing what he has done and what he likes. This is a clear signal of Machiavellian politics with the unholy principle of “the end justifies the means”. We must prepare to give the current regime a decent political burial lest it turns its head in the political grave and return to haunt innocent Ugandans. May the NRM rest in eternal peace come 2011. Finally, personally I am very passionate about human dignity and as such I believe that extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. For God and my country!

Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender and can be reached at vnuwagaba@gmail.com or +256702 843 552

Sadly, CSOs will crumble not advance youngmen and women's resolve to extricate themselves of dictatorship

Youngmen and women are planning mass movements to liberate themselves. I congratulate them and support them 100 percent. Sadly, from experience, the so-called CSOs will shoot down these efforts in order to continue propelling systemic injustice, anarchy, poverty and hazy future for the so-called CSOs are leading beneficiaries of the status quo. In fact, they are parasitic blood suckers. They are vultures and all things bad. Many of them are poorly formatted and have mental and moral viruses. I will be shocked if CSOs surprise and shock me by doing the opposite of what I know them for. 

 

Accordingly,  I pity these idealistic, visionary and justice-thirsty young men and women who under the stewardship of CCEDU which is a project under FHRI headed by Livinstone Sewanyana and coordinated by Crispy Kaheru. I have huge doubts about initiatives to further justice championed by people who are more corrupt than corruption, people who are more unjust than injustice, more undignified than dignity; more demonic than the demon itself. For the past five years of CCEDU's existence, apart from electoral reform proposals which we did best in our UNECA/CBR study conducted by Prof John-Jean Barya as a project head together with yours truly, Dr Simon Rutabajuka, Dr Ronald Wesonga and Prof Samson Opolot, what has CCEDU done that is worth taking about?

How better is CCEDU from the other electoral reform groups that we have had in the past- CEJOCU, NOCEM and DEM-Group which I am sure even todate is far better than CCEDU in terms of efficiency but for lack of donor support. How sure are you guys that you are not consciously or unconsciously pushing the donor-driven agenda that only helps to legitimise Museveni's dictatorship?

Where do you think the problem is? And by the way, ask yourself; virtually all NGOs claim to be the voice of the voiceless but why not amplify their voices to speak for themselves? Why stiffle their freedom of speech, expression and free thought? And here is how it should be done. Other than preoccupying yourselves with talkshops [not workshops] while duping the entire world that you care for the voiceless, get video and audio recorders, go to slums in Kikubamutwe, Kimombasa, Kivvuru, Katanga, Kifumbira and others, ask them whether they feel elections are helpful to them. Ask them the relevancy of CCEDU but also ask them whether they know it. I have learnt from a study I am conducting that the name Crispy Kaheru sounds bigger than CCEDU.

I started CCEDU. I was tortured, dehumanised and arrested and later detained at Makerere when I had gone to deliver invitations for the CCEDU launch. I drew the critical names of the current executive leaders and board leaders of CCEDU.

For those who do not know how CCEDU started, it was christened CCEDU by my brother Arthur Larok. I can count for you those who were in the initial processes of forming CCEDU. I gave a lot of input and the idea of borrowing from other similar organisations like ZESN was my idea. I worked so hard for CCEDU only to discover it was Livingstone's cash cow. Crispy was recruited from Spain without following any democratic procedures. The first volunteer who conceptualised CCEDU and turned into a product that it is now is Gwadda. Both Crispy and Livingstone are despicable mediocres. Mediocrity begets mediocrity.

If we are to make any headway, those who claim they are giving us humanitarian support must channel it through political parties for they are the only viable entities. Is our society civil? If not, how then do we have civil society organisations if we do not have a civil society.

These people pursuing their selfish aggrandisement while capitalising on the plight of our citizens are akin to a person who dances on the grave of a dead man. But not only that, they are mass murderers. This is my brutaaly honest opinion. You either take it or leave it. No right to abuse me. If Crispy and Sewanyana feel I have defamed them, I am ready to defend myself in this civil suit invoking justification and fair comment as my defences. 

 

CONTACTS: +256702843552

vnuwagaba@gmail.com

 

CSOs are too rotten to liberate Uganda

Vincent Nuwagaba

How come I am being unable to post critical comments on my wall, what could be the problem. The first in the morning was an insider's analysis of self-seeking activist groups self-christened human rights defenders. I had written my experience that spans for more than 10 years starting with JYAK, FHRI, NCG (which though is a consultant group but recruits HRDs for other organiations), LEMU, NOTU, PLA (via the Coalition on social security and other labour matters given my keen interest in socio-economic rights but also my academic specialty on workers' rights), ACCU (whose past leader Jasper Tumuhimbise was a living saint whereas the current one Cissy Kagaba is a cunning, crafty and shrewd propagandist who is more corrupt than corruption, HURINET whose de jure Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Ndifuuna but its de jure leader Patrick Tumwiine have millions of questions that he cannot answer. Patrick, let me not say anything. Come to ACTV. That ACTV that spearheads the Coalition against torture of which I was an initial member from the very first day could connive with the torturous police and the late Dr Tom Onen (I doubt he is in heaven for died without confessing his mortal sin he committed against me, but I leave judgement for the Lord. I forgive him posthumously but I do not know whether it is possible to forgive the soul that has already been detached from the body and the mind), later on ACTV together with FHRI killing my case to the extent that when from the UN Geneva office when I was referred to Tabitha of the Eastern East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, I was flatly FHRI is handling my case. Then come to Notu. Ongaba himself was a saint. But I have never seen a hypocrical social group like that of trade unions. LEMU, the torture I went through inflicated on me by Judy, Ruhanga akurinde. Come to Nordic Consulting Grroup with women Stella Mukasa, Allen Asiimwe who even gathered the guts to threaten me that she was a Mukiga as if she had known whether I am not. In fact, the alumni of HUGGO under the support of Danida need to form an alumni association so that we redirect the human rights movement using a professional and intellectual angle. Moses Khisa, Julie Nabwire, and all those from the masters class of human rights, law, gender and ethics and public management, you have a tale to tell. Ask Prof Oloka about my allegations, ask Sango Mwanahewa the then internship coordinator, ask Dr Rukooko. I am fully convinced that part of the reason why such a golden opportunity was stopped was because of NCG's corruption.

I was later to be told that NCG is the one that stood at the centre of denying me jobs at HURINET and possibly at FOWODE never mind that for FOWODE I received a regret letter that my application was the very best. When I asked Patricia Munabi as she found me in our office at FHRI why I would not be shortlisted for an interview, she had no answer. So, how do we rely on groups and individuals that have no beliefs to liberate us? These are shadows.

Working with FHRI now is self-destructive

Working with the self-christened Foundation For Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) is a murder to ones career now. I regret having worked there. FHRI which clearly is now Famed for Human Rights Infringement, Forum for Human Rights Impingement, but also whose last initial changes from A-Z whereby it becomes Famed for Human Rights Abuse (FHRA), Focus on Human Rights Bashing (FHRB), Forum for Human Rights Combustion (FHRC), Foundation for Human Rights Decadency (FHRD), Foundation for Human Rights Destruction (FHRD), Foundation for Human Rights Degradation (FHRD), Foundation for human rights devaluation (FHRD) under the leadership of Livingstone who now is a dead stone. And I mean dead in moral and mental aspects (he can file a defamation suit against me since for him he believes in legalistic means to kill the socially beneficial end - justice).

I have deep respect for these thoroughly intelligent and morally upright people who are now trapped in an intricate puzzle: 1. Sheila Muwanga, 2. Elizabeth Nantamu, 3. Josephine Kankunda, 4. Alice Nassaka, 5. Milly Nakakande. 5. Penny Mbabazi

I find these people to be intellectual giants capable of even running the state using their brains. I have never found any of them wanting. Engage Sheila, she is faultless because for her her primary consideration is human rights. Betty is very intelligent but sometimes doubtful - she appeals to logic and meticulous study to arrive at a conclusion. Sheila will arrive at a conclusion so swiftly but that conclusion especially if it has human rights connotations will be the very best. If Sheila was a judge in any court, it is possible nobody would be convicted while innocent.

Josephine shares similar character traits with Sheila. She is a superb intellectual but also I have never seen anybody with the love for humanity that surpasses that of Josephine. She is not only a full woman but accomplished, refined and exact.
Go to Alice, very passionate on human rights. Come to Milly. She is an embodiment of humility, love and mercy. She speaks not by words but by actions and treatment. She shares the little or the much she has with those in need.

Come to Penny Mbabazi Atuhaire. A very hardworking, consultative person constantly in search of knowledge. Both Sheila and Penny write opinion pieces in papers. You read their works and you leave uplifted. While Sheila on paper speaks purely through the heart, Penny's works reflect hard work and an insatiable search for knowledge. Ultimately, sooner than since what you consume if you are genuine informs your thought if you are not a pretender, Penny will soon be as thorough as Sheila. I have not written much about Alice because I have never shared a desk with her but I have subjected all those powerful women to psychological, analytical surgery.

My concern is, why does Sewanyana deliberately kills their career? Does he not know that I am going to share all this with the FHRI donors and the international community but also share everything on the human rights defenders' mailing list? Sadly, with a few exceptions, all Executive Directors of NGOs seem to have sucked the same breast with Livingstone. It is JK Zirabamuzale who has no thirst for money that does CSO work professionally but with handicaps because without mone, you can only do so much or so little.

I have stated before several times, if huge chunks of money to NGOs are not given to political parties whose structures and mandate start with and end with the subaltern on the grassroots, the country will continue riding for a fall.

And that is not to say NGOs are unnecessary. They are actually inevitable. But the practice now is that the NGOs serve the interests of the dictatorship. People like Niringiye who hobnob with the likes of Kaheru while at the same time purporting to advance democracy, we need prayers. But also, we need to judge serious people on the basis of their character. If a person is patronising, condescending and has an inflated ego just because he/she has a PhD, then that PhD would like they say permanent head damage. I have tested Zac Niringiye and found him to be exactly that. Zac is a public figure and public figures have no public lives. I have talked with people who know this man of God, I have myself suffered when I analysed the Black Monday Movement, I have met him countless times. He is a mere demagogue who does not speak from his tongue. I am sure, I will be crucified but I do not fear that. I have my academic freedom which is summed up into freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of expression. Niringiye will not give Uganda democracy because he is not democratic. He is intolerant. In fact, when I raised queries, immediately the director of CBR raised me, paid me money the research organisation owed me and I was given a letter saying, my affiliation with CBR had expired and would not be renewed. Those who gave me the letter told me, the reason was because I talked about Niringiye. We even talk about God. Is Niringiye superhuman and superdivine? Gag me if you so wish but I have already said it.
God is saving Uganda. Nicholas Opiyo, Godber W. Tumushabe, Richard Ssewa, Uganda Journalists, Julie Nabwire, Moses Khisa, Asuman Basalirwa, Norbert Mao, Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu, Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye, Kizza Besigye, Kizza Besigye, Andrew M. Mwenda, Karamagi Andrew, Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire, David Zac Ruzaaza Niringiye, Bishop David Zac Niringiye, David Zac Niringiye, BLACK Monday Movement, Moses , Nuwagaba Moses, Moses Khisa, Mesharch W. Katusiimeh, Arinaitwe Otim Rugyendo, Charles Rwomushana, Charles Rwomushana, Fred Charles Afunaduula, Charles Odongtho, Edris Kiggundu, Uganda Police Force, Tom Voltaire Okwalinga Tvo, Tvo-Uganda, Chris Obore, Chris Barugahare, Byamugyisha Moses, Moses Odokonyero, Moses Karugaba, Jimmy Odoki Acellam, Citizens' Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda - CCEDU

In the name of the Living God, FHRI you will never prevail against me

I have been in Makindye Chief Magistrate's court over the stupid, malicious and what I would call hopeless and normless charges engineered against me by Foundation For Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) which has now morphed into Foundation for Human Rights Infringement (FHRI). Since November last year when the Human Rights Infringement organisation started abusing the justice system with a view to isolating me using legalistic (not lawful) means, the so-called principal witness has never appeared in court. All this time, it is the staff members of FHRI from the so-called, legal service division (LSD) which clearly is now Legal Service destruction - George Musiisi and Solome Nagadya have been appearing as complainants in turn. All the time they give lame execuses to explain the absence of the superficial complainant - Doreen Namyalo.

Today, I never saw her anywhere for close to 2 hours I was at the court premises with my brother George Musiisi. Asked as to where Doreen was, the response from George was "she will appear at the right time". By the time I entered the court room, the room was full to capacity and you needed to have been there to see how scared she got and ran away so fast from where she was to another place. She behaved as though she had seen a leopard.

I wondered, "Did she think I was going to beat her  or even "undress" her from the courtroom? The guilty are eternally afraid. You needed to have been there at Golf Course Hotel at a CCEDU function to see how mad Livingstone ran to the point of ordering police goons to detain me until my brother Nicholas Opiyo came for my release. You needed to have been there to witness the dehumanisation my brother J.V Sserwaniko was subjected to because he chose to cover the scuffle. I swear upon the living God, that Livingstone Sewanyana and his poorly formatted servants who suffer from mental virus will never ever prevail upon me.

I also want to state that I will never hire anyone to defend me in this matter. I will defend myself everywhere. I am also sure that His Worship George Wategere will not be induced like it was done with disgraceful James Wambaya to convict me. But also, I want to assure Livingstone that he is walking on a very slippery ground. With me, he has reached the 9th hour. I have already informed Prof Kanyeihamba about everything and although I cannot share publicly what he told me, FHRI has laid itself bare. In fact, Dr Livingstone Sewanyana, you can meet with me at Prof Kanyeihamba's chambers tomorrow. You have so many questions to answer. You think you can always get away with impunity but this time impunity will get you away.

Laws on public order, gays and ‘miniskirts’ are birds of a feather

Written by prof JOE OLOKA ONYANGO

At a public lecture at Makerere University recently, senior law lecturer Prof Joe Oloka-Onyango made a keynote address.

Below is his paper that explores the deadly relationship that exists between three of the most recent pieces of legislation in Uganda.

There is an old African story about the mouse who found a trap in the farmer’s house, and how she went to various animals on the farm (including the chicken, the goat and the cow) informing them of the news and asking them to assist her to deal with this new enemy.

Each of them told her it was not their business; the very next night, the farmer’s wife was bitten by a snake caught by the trap.

Each of the animals the mouse had consulted – except the mouse for whom the trap was originally intended – was eventually slaughtered by the farmer: first the chicken to provide soup to nourish the farmer’s wife; then the goat to cater for the relatives, friends and in-laws who came to visit the ailing wife, and finally, the cow, who was sacrificed to cater for the mourners who came for the lumbe.

Drawing from this parable, my talk today is entitled Of Mice and Farmer’s Wives: Unveiling the Broader Picture behind Recent Legislation in Uganda. On the face of it, each of the laws under discussion in this public lecture today applies to different categories of people.

The Public Order and Management Act (POMA) ostensibly applies to dissidents, protestors and ‘hooligans,’ while the Anti-Pornography Act (APA) to porn-dealers, newspapers like Red Pepper and people who like to publicly expose their ‘kundis’ and other ‘private bodily parts.’

On its part, the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) appears to focus on homosexuals who Ugandan society prefers to view as ‘deviants’ and ‘perverts.’

Two out of three of these laws refer to issues of morality and social order, which, we are told by Ethics minister, the former Reverend Father Simon Lokodo, have reached a stage of complete disintegration. Ironically, Lokodo is much less vigourous in carrying out his proper mandate of fighting graft and corruption, as well as promoting transparency and accountability in government.

The POMA is more directly political, but in my view it is intricately linked to the other two. My argument today is that each of these laws affects all of us, regardless of our political opinion or status; sexual preference or position; they affect us whether we wear shorts or trousers, burkas or saris, busutis or mushanana; kanzus or coats.

They apply to us whether or not we have ever watched a pornographic movie, and they should concern us whether or not we believe in human rights. Let me begin my analysis with the POMA.

The Public Order and Management Act

The short title to this Act stipulates that it is a law designed to “… provide for the regulation of public meetings; to provide for the duties and responsibilities of police, organizers and participants in relation to public meetings; [and] to prescribe measures for safeguarding public order.”

It is important to recall that the POMA was designed in the heat of the walk-to-work (W2W) protests led by opposition leader Kizza Besigye. In a broad sense, the law can therefore be referred to as the anti-Besigye Act or the ‘ABA’, as it was clearly designed to tighten the grip of the police and security forces in the wake of the W2W and For God and My Country (4GC) protests, which rocked the country in the aftermath of the 2011 election.

In its earlier manifestation – with provisions that barred three people from holding a meeting without police permission – it reflected a government in an extreme state of panic as the winds from the Arab Spring blew further South. Despite its professed noble intentions with regard to the maintenance of law and order, the ABA/POMA is fatally flawed for several reasons.

In the first instance, the Act reverses the basic premise on which the right to freedom of peaceful assembly is based. In other words, the ABA/POMA forces those who oppose the government of the day and want to translate such opposition into protest to justify why they should not be stopped from protesting.

The Act should, instead, be compelling the police to give sound reasons for refusing a protest to take place.  Secondly, the ABA/POMA places an inordinate degree of discretionary power in the police, and specifically in the Inspector General of Police. This is obviously problematic because it makes the IGP prosecutor and judge in his own cause, violating basic principles of natural justice.

Thirdly, the law gives lower-ranking police officers the perfect excuse for not taking action which supports human rights rather than curtails them. The first words out of the mouths of officers like Sam Omalla and Andrew Kaweesi are: “I’m [simply] acting on orders from above.”

Kivumbi VS AG

Aside from the contents of the Act, there is another dimension that is often lost in the discussion.  The case of Muwanga Kivumbi v. AG challenged the excessive powers of the police, especially those in Section 32 of the Police Act which allowed the Inspector General of Police to prohibit the convening of an assembly allegedly “on reasonable grounds.” Agreeing that this provision was unconstitutional, Justice Mpagi Bahegeine stated:

“Where individuals assemble, if the police entertain a ‘reasonable belief’ that some disturbances might occur during the assembly, all that can be done is to provide security and supervision in anticipation of disturbances.

It is the paramount duty of the police to maintain law and order but not to curtail people’s enshrined freedoms and liberties on mere anticipatory grounds which might turn out to be false. Lawful assemblies should not be dispersed under any circumstances. Most importantly, in such cases the conveners of the assemblies can be required to give an undertaking for good behaviour and in default face the law.”

But Section 3 of the ABA/POMA gives the IGP (or an authorized officer) the power to regulate the conduct of all public meetings in accordance with the law, effectively reintroducing S.32. The reintroduction of this provision of the law is in direct violation of Article 92 of the Constitution, which provides that “Parliament shall not pass any law to alter the decision or judgment of any court….”

To make matters worse, the definitions of places of assembly and the types of prohibited meetings are so broad as to cover any kind of gathering and to subject them wholly to the subjective belief of the police and not to any objective standard of oversight.

This explains the so-called ‘preventative arrest’ that the police subject Besigye and Erias Lukwago to on a daily basis. It is also why the government can claim to be against corruption, but whenever Bishop Zac [Niringiye]’s Black Monday Movement simply distributes flyers about the vice, they arrest him.

In Burundi over the weekend, the police stopped a group of opposition politicians from jogging around Bujumbura, detaining several and sentencing a number of them to prison terms extending up to a life sentence. Now the police there have introduced new regulations as to where people can jog in the city!

On Sunday, police in Soroti blocked opposition leaders from gathering for lunch. Are we next going to receive guidelines of where opposition politicians can eat?  While this may seem like the epitome of ridiculousness, it demonstrates that the only direction in which a state can go once it begins to restrict freedoms is downwards. The ABA/POMA thus introduces a slippery slope of growing infractions, and is a perfect representation of that downward slide.

The Anti-Ponography Act

Of all the three laws under consideration, the APA has produced the most immediate and vocal reaction from the public, particularly from women human rights activists. The provisions in the Act most responsible for this development are the definition of the term ‘pornography’ and section 13 of the same which outlines the penalty for the offence.

The passing of the Act was met by vigilante acts of undressing women by street mobs, of police officers stopping women in the street and ordering them to return home and change their clothes, and even the case of a judicial officer in Bukomansimbi summarily sentencing the parties in her courtroom to three-hour imprisonment for wearing miniskirts.

It is this upsurge in sexual harassment and the imposition of a de facto dress code on women that is most problematic from a legal and human rights point of view. Although the government – represented on this issue by ministers Mary Karooro Okurut and Lokodo – have been at pains to claim that the law neither imposes a dress code nor is it addressed to women, the above actions point to the opposite.

Indeed, the language of the Act opens it up to ‘unrestrained interpretation,’ such that not only is such interpretation available to anybody regardless of whether or not they are a government official, but also to all kinds of actions that such a person deems fit in the circumstances.

Although Karooro and Lokodo have been at pains to claim that the Act is gender-neutral and has only been ‘misunderstood’ by the public, one needs to query why it is only women who have been targeted by the mobs, and not men. Secondly, why is it only the APA which has caused such confusion in terms of interpretation and enforcement?  Thirdly, how come the police and the Judiciary are also part of this confusion?

Finally, how did such a discriminatory law escape the attention of not only the attorney general, but also of the many women representatives in the House?

Quite clearly, if a law needs so much additional explanation and clarification, then there is something fundamentally wrong with it. There can be little doubt that the law is in fact inherently discriminatory and amounts to an attack on women’s personal autonomy and expression. But worse, according to Stella Mukasa,

“The Anti-Pornography Act clearly set the stage for a rollback of women’s personhood and autonomy as upheld by our constitutional guarantees on equality before and under the law, including laws that protect women from sexual and gender-based violence, intimate partner violence, and female genital mutilation, to mention a few.”

It is, nevertheless, naïve to view the passing of the APA in isolation. Rather, its enactment must be married to the broader attack on the rights of women and the failure of the state to effectively ensure that issues concerning women’s security, autonomy and well-being are better protected. It is part and parcel of the traditional attempts of the patriarchal state to regulate and control women’s sexuality and reproductive capacities.

Hence, the NRM government has still failed to enact a progressive law on Marriage and Divorce and has instead reverted to passing laws which undermine, marginalize and directly discriminate against women.

The Karooro/Lokodo condemnation of the reported unlawful acts by the public based on this law is too little, too late and only a smokescreen to protect a regime that has abandoned the cause of the protection of women’s rights. Ironically – and to underscore the interconnectedness between the laws under discussion – the police invoked the ABA/POMA in order to prevent women human rights activists from protesting the APA!

The Anti-Homosexuality Act

The AHA quite clearly contravenes several articles of the Constitution, specifically Articles 2(1) & (2) on the supremacy of the Constitution; 21 (1) & (2) on equality and freedom from discrimination, and 27 on the right to privacy. To make matters worse, the criminalizing of touching by a person of the same sex creates an offence that is overly broad and inconsistent with Articles 28 (1), (3) (b), 28 (12), 42 and 44 (c).

Questions are also raised about the criminalization of consensual same sex/gender sexual activity among adults in which one is a person living with HIV or in which one is a person with disability (Art.35) as is the compulsory HIV test.

Finally, by criminalising so-called aiding, abetting, counselling, procuring and promotion of homosexuality, the AHA creates offences that are overly wide. It also penalises legitimate debate and professional counsel in direct contravention of the principle of legality, the freedoms of expression, thought, assembly and association, academic freedom and the right to civic participation.

The Act goes over the top in classifying houses or rooms as brothels merely on the basis of occupation by homosexuals. It basically creates victimless crimes against people who are otherwise law-abiding citizens of society.

But the AHA is more problematic at a broader level in that it institutionalizes homophobia and thereby promotes a culture of hatred and clearly violates the right to human dignity. Like the ABA/POMA and the APA, the AHA is motivated by hatred, discriminatory impulses and by the over-arching desire to suppress and dominate political and civil society.

In this respect, we have to turn from only looking at the law to a critical examination of the politics that led to the passing of the Act. According to President Museveni, in deciding whether or not to sign the Act, he chose science over emotion in trying to resolve the matter even though such action was itself inherently discriminatory and inhumane.

But what exactly did the scientists commissioned by the president say?

a) There is no definitive gene responsible for homosexuality;
b) Homosexuality is not a disease;
c) Homosexuality is not an abnormality;
d) In every society, there is a small number of people with homosexual tendencies;
e) Homosexuality can be influenced by environmental factors (e.g. culture, religion, information, peer pressure);
f) The practice needs regulation like any other human behaviour, especially to protect the vulnerable, and
g) There is a need for studies to address sexualities in the African context.

And yet, the presidential statement in relaying his decision to sign the bill concluded: “Homosexuality is not a disease but merely an abnormal behaviour which may be learnt through experiences in life.”

What did this mean? First of all, the president deliberately distorted the message which the scientists had given him.

Secondly, the president clearly abandoned the key message being sent by the scientists both about the multiplicity of explanations for homosexuality and about the need for more sobriety on the issue than the legal/punitive approach, and substituted it with a political one, i.e. a populist message that would earn him political points against his two main rivals for the presidency.

The first of these was House Speaker Rebecca Kadaga who he had previously lambasted for passing the Bill without quorum, and who – going into the meeting of the NRM caucus at Kyankwanzi – was riding high in political ratings.

More importantly, it was necessary to trump the ambitions of Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi who had been supported with chants of “Our Man” in the early days of Kyankwanzi. The Mbabazi phenomenon troubled the president from that time onwards, and continues to haunt him today.

Thus, although the debate about the APA and the AHA has been mainly about sex, in my view that is not the real issue at stake. Rather, the focus on sex serves the single purpose of justifying discrimination against LGBTI people and against women. It also serves as a major point of distraction from more important issues of governance and democracy.

After all, how much time do we spend having sex, even for those who do it on a daily basis? But by focusing on sex – especially when it is represented as ‘deviant’ or ‘abnormal’ as the president has done – helps us to find a scapegoat for the larger problems of governance and democratic failing that we are faced with in contemporary Uganda.

As Sylvia Tamale points out:

“Intensive scrutiny, regulation and control of non-conforming sexualities and gender identities reflect both a deep historical connection to colonial structures of governance and marginalization, and to more contemporary attempts to control the body. In this way, sexuality is deployed as a tool for perpetuating patriarchy, inequality, and injustice and to consolidate the process of othering.”

Focusing on sex also provides an escape route for a president who after 28 years in power is finding himself increasingly backed into a corner by rivals within his own NRM party who are asking the question: Why not me? Why can’t I also be President of Uganda?

Indeed, given the panic that the challenges presented by Kadaga and Mbabazi represented, it is of no surprise that even thinking about succeeding the President has now been equated to a criminal offence.

Finally, the AHA fits precisely into what has been described as the ‘Anwar Ibrahim Syndrome,’ i.e. the use of sexually-oriented legislation to penalize legitimate forms of political opposition. It is only a short step away for those who oppose president Museveni – male or female – from being charged with aggravated homosexual rape.

Conclusion

We live in a time of legal gymnastics, a time when the law is being openly used as a mechanism to consolidate and perpetuate dictatorship and autocracy and where there is a need for lawyers, activists and intellectuals of all shades of political opinion to come together and speak out against this legal autocracy.

We are witnessing the legalization of mob injustice; the granting of a licence to do anything to people who have done nothing but express their dissenting opinions and their different sexuality. The acts I have discussed today represent the very essence of the problem we are confronted with in Uganda today; namely, growing impunity, autocracy and neglect of the rule of law, accompanied by increasing nonchalance on the part of the public.

Although the preceding analysis has largely looked at the individual aspects of each of these laws, there is a larger picture.  In other words, by focusing on the individual Acts, we could fail to see the forest for the trees. Taken together, the enactment of these laws reveals a definite and clear pattern.

It is not surprising that such desperation has culminated in the proposals for a Patriotism Bill which will simply add to the arsenal against political opponents.

Nor is it surprising that the NRM is making nearly 50 proposals for constitutional amendment, while seriously resisting any serious discussion on reforming the Electoral Commission, or why it wants to change the rules on the election of a speaker and her/his deputy or why it fought so hard to get the ‘rebel’ MPs expelled from the House.

And don’t be surprised if the alleged ‘rumour’ about a bill to extend the term of Parliament and the president turn out to be bitter fact; for stranger things have transpired in this country.

The spate of legislative action being recently pursued by the NRM government is not accidental; it simply represents the final stage of total dictatorship. So the next time you hear of legislation being passed that does not appear to affect or concern you; do not act like the chicken, the goat and the cow.  Remember that when the least [known] of us is threatened, we are all at risk

An analysis of the Anti-homosexuality Act

On February 24, a few days after the NRM parliamentary caucus retreat at the National Leadership Institute (NALI), Kyankwanzi, President Yoweri Museveni signed into law the controversial anti-homosexuality bill as he had assured the MPs while in Kyankwanzi. Very many Ugandans gave the president accolades for the job well done; to almost all Ugandans, Museveni was viewed as a saviour and some of my elite friends who have for more than a decade been opposed to Museveni vowed to vote him come 2016 elections. I realised that sentimental excitement shrouds very many of us from making plausible analysis.

Before I learnt that there are some people who genetically have hormones that make them homosexual, I was very critical of homosexuals and some people would even label me homophobic never mind that I have often professed to be a human rights defender. I was later to learn that we have people who naturally are attracted to people of their sex. While I do not believe that homosexuality is a human right, the truth is that since time immemorial, we have always had homosexuals.

In my opinion, we need to analyse and not moralise if we are to fully comprehend the homosexuality question.  While we have people who are recruited into homosexuality – which I am utterly opposed to, we also have people who are innately homosexual. My belief is that those who are innately homosexual are abnormal or unconventional but we have them. Must we enact laws to criminalise people who are abnormal? I do not think it is prudent nor is it fair. I am also immensely aware that a law cannot solve the abnormality. Instead, it will be viewed by people in various quarters as obnoxious, draconian and an affront on human rights. Accordingly, since we have men who are naturally attracted to men, we must devise means of helping them not persecuting them.

While I do not at all believe that homosexuality is a human right, homosexuals just like any other deviants or even perverts have rights to privacy, freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, they are entitled to non-discrimination and so forth. If the law targeted the promoters of homosexuality (which we find reprehensible in our society), I would gladly welcome it.

I can state without any fear of contradiction that the anti-homosexuality law will be one of the leading redundant laws without any enforcement means. How for instance shall we get the homosexuals who do their thing in the privacy of the bedrooms? Is the state going to patrol and police people’s bedrooms in search of homosexuals? How shall we ensure that the real or perceived opponents of the powers that be are not charged with the offence of homosexuality and ultimately thrown in jail? On concealment of homosexuality, how shall the state prove that one is concealing homosexuality?

While I have stated that I do not believe that homosexuality just like fornication is not a human right worth promoting, we have no right to infringe the privacy of anybody on mere suspicion that they are homosexuals, in any case catching people in the act red-handed is next to impossible. Because of diverse reasons including but not limited to excruciating levels of poverty, we have so many same sex people sharing bedrooms and even beds, should the state suspect them to be homosexuals? My honest view is that people cannot and shouldn’t be subjected to torture, discrimination and persecution on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation.

While I feel it was wrong to enact the Anti-homosexuality Act, the Western countries have also proven to be lopsided in their “crusade for human rights”. Are homosexuals more human than the opposition politicians and activists who have always been brutally treated with some killed by the regime in their activities? I know now whoever wants a visa to become an economic migrant will claim to either be a homosexual or pro-gay activist.

While many people are still excited by the enactment of the law, it is diversionary, populist and the president assented to it for political expediency. It was a trade-off for the seventh term green light offered to him by the NRM MPs in Kyankwanzi. It was a case of scratch my back, I scratch yours. Meanwhile the exaggerated euphoria of the enactment of the law has diverted our attention from corruption, graduate unemployment, poor quality and unfunded “Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE), a collapsing healthcare system, sectarianism and the atrocities that the President recently conceded were committed by the National Resistance Army (NRA) among others. I am worried that President Museveni may choose to use 2014/2015 revenue collections to fund his and his party’s 2016 campaigns as we celebrate the Anti-homosexuality Act.

Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights scholar and defender.

vnuwagaba@gmail.com