{UAH} NRM SLIP-UPS: NRM has committed the Biggest Blunders

NRM SLIP-UPS

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Category: politics Opinion

Published on 20 November 2013

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An Extensive Look at the Year 2013; a period in which the Ruling party NRM has committed the Biggest Blunders of all President Museveni’s 27 Years in Power

By Fred Daka Kamwada

On Monday of this week we enumerated the fatality and misguided move by the NRM to impeach the democratically elected Kampala mayor Erias Lukwago from his seat as one of the biggest mistakes that the ruling party has committed.

And with hindsight, we realize that the ruling party has made more mistakes in 2013 than any other year of President Museveni’s 27 year reign.

We also realized that the NRM made fewer mistakes in its first ten years â€"(a period stretching from1986 to 1996) due in part to the concrete revolutionary and patriotic  agenda it had which was derived from the ten point program.

Our research also shows that the NRM government was more tolerant to dissenting views in the period before 2011 but has gradually become intransigent, arrogant and radically intolerant from 2011 to-date.

We have observed that the ruling party was a bit lenient and more accommodative in the formative years of its reign because there was justified fear that things would turn round and lead to regime change. There was no room for arrogance because armed reactionaries like Kony (who was still strong in the north) , the ADF and PRA were still posing a military threat.

These factors all worked as fear factors to make the regime more tolerant and respectful.

The other point is that President Museveni had not mastered the art of winning elections.

Having survived the 2001 election which almost swung in favor of his rival Dr Kiiza Besigye,  Museveni and the NRM machinery learnt the art of electoral engineering, mobilization  and the art of patronage which have since become the hall mark of the regime.    

In short, the NRM learnt the art of surviving the backlash of hostile political forces and this has led them to the comfort zone and the ensuing attitude they exude today.

Arrogance

With the war in northern Ugandan ending after the defeat of Joseph Kony, the defeat of PRA and ADF, the regime has gradually taken a very arrogant stance and started taking Ugandans for granted.

They have realized that they cannot fall because of an armed insurrection or lose power through the ballot box.

That reality has consequently set the ground for a number of mistakes which have miffed Ugandans to the marrow. But for the record, all the bigger blunders have taken place in 2013.

The Closure of Media Houses 

In May this year (2013), the NRM government closed media houses, The Monitor and The Redpeper newspaper respectively for publishing a letter authored by renegade Gen David Sejusa aka Tinyefuza. Some radio stations were also closed in the process.

The security operatives besieged the media houses for ten consecutive days without giving a convincing reason.

The government justified the closure of the media houses by reasoning that the Sejusa letter was a threat to security. The international community took note of the abuse of human rights and infringement on press freedom.

The media house closure was a case of punishing the messenger and left an indelible mark on the Ugandan government as an abuser of press freedom.

The Aronda Nyakairima Saga

And just as the Sejusa saga and media siege was dying out, another gaffe was committed by President Museveni when he appointed a serving UPDF general to serve as a minister contrary to the constitutional provision which bars serving officers from meddling into politics when he appointed Gen Aronda Nyakairima as Minister of Internal Affairs sparking a wave of protests from all corners of the country.

The appointment of Hon General Aronda Nyakairima, a serving UPDF officer, as Minister for Internal Affairs, was inconsistent with and contravened the provisions of Rule 151 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Uganda, section 99 of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces Act 2005.

It was also argued that by appointing a serving UPDF officer as a minister, Museveni ‘overstepped’ his presidential powers and duties stipulated under Article 99 (1), (2) and (3) of the constitution.

 That as a cabinet minister responsible for political supervision of the ministry and as an agent and representative of the president, who is also the chairman of NRMO, Hon General Aronda Nyakairima, a serving UPDF officer, was bound to implement the NRMO manifesto, an act which is by nature partisan and to engage in partisan politics contrary to the law which bars serving UPDF officers from partisan politics.

His ministerial assignment meant that he was supposed to attend NRM caucus meetings, and protect the partisan interests of the NRM and its manifesto.

The Aronda ministerial appointment polarized the country to such an extent that it projected President Museveni as a military dictator who made leadership decisions without recourse to the law. That was August 2013.

The Justice Odoki saga

As the country was grappling with the Aronda gaffe, President Museveni committed another political howler when he reappointed Justice Benjamin Odoki to his old position as Uganda’s Chief Justice contrary to the constitutional provision which bars anyone above 70 years from serving in that position.

Odoki had retired as Uganda’s Chief Justice after clocking the mandatory 70 years but the president failed to find a suitable replacement amidst the plenty of legal brains that would have filled the post and reappointed the old man against the constitutional provision that bars a CJ above 70.

The two illegalities of Aronda and Odoki have since been engraved on President Museveni’s political timeline as clear cases of disregard for constitutionalism and rule of law. 

 Teachers Strike

And during the same year of 2013, the Ugandan teachers around the country were clamoring for a 20% increment, while the lecturers at Makerere University also lobbied for increment.

Amidst the pressure, the president made a ‘political back pass’ that will cost him for many years to come when he arrogantly told the lecturers to go and rear goats and forget about any increment.

While the lecturers took heed (and probably went to rear goats) and abandoned their plans for the strike, the teachers stayed the cause and refused to get back to class.

Government in turn advised (or rather challenged) the teachers to look for the sources of money within the budget of that financial year, which the teachers did.

But the government refused to give in arguing that the priority was infrastructural development (roads and railways) and electricity.

Yet the truth on the ground showed that the money for the development budget was usually drawn from foreign sources.

For instance karuma dam was built using funds from a Chinese government and not from Ugandan coffers as alleged by President Museveni.

Today he clearly knows that the Ugandan teachers are not with him.

With this in the pipeline you can count almost count five blunders if you added the Lukwago comical impeachment.

Supporting M23

And while some blunders can be waived off, President Museveni’s government also made a mess of things when it exposed its support to the defeated M23    rebels who had fled the blazing guns in eastern Congo.

 By giving refuge to the M23 leadership the Ugandan government cannot deny having a hand in the mess that was committed by the M23 in eastern Congo. As you read this, Col Sultan Makenga, the M23 military commander, is enjoying Ugandan hospitality.    

One wonders if Uganda is ready to hear the consequences of the atrocities committed by the M23. Remember former Liberian President Charles Taylor was indicted by the ICC because of his support to the rebels in Sierra Leone.

And like Taylor, who has since been convicted and jailed, you wouldn’t be shocked if the Ugandan leader is sucked into the mess that the M23 orchestrated in the Congo where it’s accused of having raped, looted, maimed and killed innocent people.

The M23 blunder is now boiling together with the injustice and undemocratic actions taken on Kampala mayor Erias Lukwago who was unfairly impeached and subjected to all sorts of inhuman treatment.

At no time has President Museveni committed as many mistakes as he has done in 2013.  

Watch out for the all time mistakes committed by NRM since 1986.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower