[UAH] Aronda: MPs attack ‘tribal’ Museveni
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Although General Aronda Nyakairima's appointment as Internal Affairs Minister appeared to face one problem – his being a soldier – emerging details show a deeper standoff between President Museveni and Parliament.
Last Wednesday, Parliament's Appointments committee postponed a session to approve Aronda and Dr Elioda Tumwesigye (State minister for Health) because the MPs were sharply divided and some thought the appointing authority, President Museveni, leaned more towards tribe in his choice of nominees in his latest reshuffle, The Observer has learnt.
Insider sources have told us that in a closed-door session, chaired by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, the MPs demanded that Aronda first retires from the army and also relinquishes his parliamentary seat just like Gen Jeje Odongo did when he was appointed as junior minister of defence. Museveni seems to be reluctant to retire Aronda.
His advisors want it to appear that he is simply seconding the former army chief from the army to cabinet, which is a temporary arrangement that may not necessarily require the general to retire.
But debate quickly shifted to more pressing tribal concerns. The MPs quickly delved into the politics of the appointments. They accused Museveni of being sectarian in his choice of nominees.
The committee members subsequently asked Kadaga to write to him formally indicating that the Appointments committee members were not only bitter with his choice of appointees but were also worried about the way he has increasingly appointed people from his region without considering other places.
Indeed on June 28, Kadaga led the committee to a meeting with Museveni at State House, Entebbe. The meeting was brief because Museveni had other engagements, more so his trip to Tanzania.
Sources say that Museveni appreciated the concerns of the lawmakers, but said that he doesn't consider tribes when choosing appointees.
"Sometimes when I'm appointing, I don't look at those lines," Museveni reportedly said, during the State House meeting that started at 10am. He later postponed the meeting to Wednesday, July 3.
It is not clear whether it is Kadaga or Museveni who initiated the meeting, but before the lawmakers went to State House, the Clerk to Parliament, Jane Kibirige, said in a statement to MPs, that following consultations before the vetting process, the committee "resolved to defer the vetting process" pending further consultations with Museveni.
Helen Kawesa, the public relations manager of Parliament, told The Observer that, indeed, the Appointments committee went to State House, but she was not privy to what they discussed. Peter Aleper, a committee member, confirmed the meeting happened, but declined to divulge details.
Oulanyah, Mafabi and Mathias Mpuuga (Masaka municipality) didn't attend the State House meeting that lasted 20 minutes. The MPs were prepared to use the meeting to showcase the regional imbalances in Museveni's government.
Earlier in the committee, the standoff revolved around tribe, and why there is regional imbalance in Museveni's government.
"Why are people coming from the west?" a bitter Milton Muwuma reportedly asked during the committee session on June 26.
Contacted by The Observer at the weekend, Muwuma said: "Yes, there were those sentiments of regional imbalance and sectarianism expressed when Aronda and Elioda appeared before the committee." He, however, declined to say more.
Back in the committee, the complaints against tribalism gained more currency when UPC chief whip Betty Amongi (Oyam South) told Kadaga that Museveni was an "insensitive" leader who practised tribalism without giving a damn.
Asked by the speaker what she meant, Amongi said a northerner, Dr Christine Ondoa (now Presidential Advisor on Health), was dropped as minister of Health and replaced with Dr Ruhakana Rugunda from the west.
Last May, President Museveni announced a mini Cabinet reshuffle dropping Ondoa. Vowing not to be part of what she called a 'tribal disaster', Amongi unleashed statistics of what she called 'regional imbalance' in the current cabinet.
Amongi said that in the current cabinet, the western region accounted for 53 per cent, the Central region 20 per cent, the Eastern region 15 per cent while her region; the North has nine per cent.
"What did the North do to Museveni? How can you remove Ondoa and replace her with Rugunda? Really, we have to fight this tribalism," Amongi said.
Amongi said the health sector was in tatters and facilities rotten. She said President Museveni could have appointed Tumwesigye and Rugunda both westerners, to fix the health problems in that region and completely sideline other places, more so, the Northern region.
Kibanda County MP Sam Otanda supported Amongi. But he was cut short by deputy speaker Jacob Oulanyah, who said that qualifications and ability to perform was what matters and not tribe.
Rosemary Nyakikongoro (Sheema woman) and Patrick Nakabale (Youth Central) also supported Oulanyah's view.
Aronda retirement
Energised by this support, a senior NRM cadre briefly explained to his colleagues why Museveni did not want Aronda to retire. This NRM politician, who commands respect among his colleagues, said Aronda had wanted to retire long time ago when he expressed interest in running for the Rubabo parliamentary seat in Rukungiri district, currently held by Paula Turyahikayo.
The MP said that on realising that Aronda had started to build a political base of his own, President Museveni talked him into abandoning his political ambitions.
"The president is comfortable with Aronda as a soldier. Aronda belongs to the educated class of the bush war fighters (1981-86); the so-called intellectuals who are free thinkers and have always wanted to join politics, but the president doesn't want them to leave the army," the MP said.
Article 208(2) bars the army from participating in politics with a caveat that men-in-uniform shall be non-partisan, nationalistic in character, patriotic, professional and subordinate to civilian authority. But the same Constitution allows the UPDF to elect army representatives to Parliament, the main theatre of politics. Aronda is an army MP.
At his first press briefing in June, Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, an army MP and Chief of Defence Forces said: "The commander in chief knows Gen Aronda's fate; but someone can be seconded or retired. When someone is seconded, he or she may not retire."
Secondment in ordinary terms could mean a temporary arrangement. And for Aronda's case, it would mean the president is seconding him from the army to the ministry of Internal Affairs.
However, this argument didn't smoother the ruffled feathers when Aronda appeared before the committee briefly. Led by Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West), the Leader of Opposition, the MPs accused their NRM colleagues who are supporting the appointment of Aronda and Tumwesigye of "behaving as if they don't live in this country to notice the reality."
"Why is Museveni sectarian?" Mafabi wondered.
Simon Peter Aleper (Moroto municiplaity) argued that government has failed to deliver services to the least-developed regions like Karamoja where he comes from because they don't have a senior cabinet minister who can lobby for the sub-region or at least force things to move.
"Ministers have a bigger say in areas that they come from. And in terms of service delivery, they can influence policy. Programmes are influenced by ministers. They have a bigger say when it comes to the direction which services are going," Aleper reportedly said.
The MPs also argued that this could be a deliberate move to conquer all sectors in the country, given the fact that even in the judiciary; a westerner, Bart Katureebe is highly-touted to take over as Chief Justice yet Yorakamu Bamwine, a westerner (Principal Judge) is also from the West.
But they omitted to point out that the two justices are taking over from Easterners in outgoing Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki and James Ogoola, the former principal judge. One senior MP reportedly named all people from western Uganda that are in government jobs.
As soon as the MP finished, Kadaga called in the nominees. Aronda entered the parliamentary South Committee Room, but he was not allowed to present his credentials. The same applied to Tumwesigye.
On his way out, Aronda told journalists who besieged him after his brief interface with the committee: "the chair is up, you go and speak to her. The vetting has been postponed and we shall be called back at a later date."
This is not the first time that Museveni's appointees are running into trouble with the committee. In June 2011, the committee rejected the appointment of former Kampala Mayor Nasser Sebaggala, the nominee for minister Without Portfolio, Saleh Kamba (state for Bunyoro Affairs), Mbabaali Muyanja (state for Investment) and James Kakooza (state for Health).
In August 2012, the same committee rejected Prof Tarsis Kabwegyere for the docket of Gender and was only approved as minister when Museveni moved him to General Duties in the Office of the Prime Minister. Idah Nantaba, the minister of state for Lands, also faced a difficult ride in the committee, but eventually Museveni won.
dtlumu@observer.ug
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