{UAH} Allan/Edmund/Gook/Pojim: Who trusts the govt near food? Not the opposition or the king - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Government-mistrust-in-Uganda/434750-3500346-myeih7/index.html

Who trusts the govt near food? Not the opposition or the king

A video clip recently went viral in Uganda. The clip shows senior opposition politicians in a fracas with police officers.

It may or may not be new. However, the clash was at a gathering involving the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda's largest opposition party and also the one that excites passions within the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), and among its allies in and outside the government.

Opposition politicians flexing muscles or engaging in shouting matches with police officers or security operatives, is no longer such a big deal in Uganda. It happens so often that some people react to it as if it is part of "normal life." Except when clashes lead to disruptions, and when bullets and teargas get into the mix.

The star of this particular clip is one Ingrid Turinawe, FDC's secretary for mobilisation, she whose breast was once squeezed so hard by a police officer in another altercation that she let off quite a scream.

The dirty incident was caught on camera and splashed across television screens during prime news time. Such was the public outrage that it spurred women's rights activists, hardly famous for wading into politically delicate waters in this era of extreme partisanship, to appear blouse-free in public, in support of the victim.

The clip was filmed in Tororo in eastern Uganda, at a venue whose business is hosting lawful private and public events.

That day, FDC bigwigs were holed up there, at a conference. As has become normal practice ever since that party and its leaders turned themselves into a thorn in the collective backsides of the government and ruling party, police officers turned up to "monitor" what was going on. They spread out around the venue and made their presence obvious.

Apparently some set up camp and kept a night vigil. This, as one would expect, would have frayed some nerves inside the venue. But then it seems the police were not content with keeping their distance. Some decided to walk onto the premises.

In the video, a furious Turinawe is heard shouting, asking some uniformed officers what they were doing in the kitchen where she apparently found them. Soon enough the uniformed officers are joined by plain-clothed counterparts whose coming seems to further enflame rather than calm down the situation.

And then something quite remarkable happens.

Police officers in Uganda are not ones to allow themselves to be pushed around by civilians. Nor is it common to see a man being shoved around by a woman and him behaving like a frightened mouse. But that is precisely what happens as Turinawe battles to get the kitchen intruders, one of them armed with an automatic rifle, off the hotel's premises.

Those who tried to stand their ground or resist are pushed along as their commander looks on helplessly, his attempt to defuse the situation having failed. But what, one may ask, has got Turinawe and two male colleagues who join her to provide backup, so animated as to square off with the cops?

Funny enough, the explanation lies in an old story about the government and its relationship with, as well as how it is perceived by, some members of the public.

‎A good deal of discussion about the quality of governments in Africa tends to focus on how democratic they are, which is often a question about whether those who preside over them are elected, and whether the electoral processes through which they accede to power fit some "international standard" of "free and fair." In many cases the question about elections usually merely precedes another, about how long the leaders have been in power.

Rarely do such discussions focus on whether members of the public trust their leaders or governments regardless of what judgements outsiders may make about them in connection with this or that issue.

Well, Turinawe and company were angry about police officers straying into the kitchen of the hotel they were in because, as became clear from the questions they were shouting at those they claimed to have found there, they feared the possibility of being poisoned.

Yes, being poisoned, presumably for the simple reason of being opposition politicians. In a sense it is as funny as it is odd that people seen by some Ugandans as an alternative to today's power holders should feel so distrustful of the government and vital organs of the state, the same organs they ought to be looking forward to inheriting were they to one day take power and become the government.

But then it is not only opposition politicians who show their mistrust of the state. Even cultural leaders, as the recent incarceration of the Rwenzururu king showed. He flatly refused to eat any food that was not prepared by his own cook apparently because he too feared he might be poisoned.

Even people who previously served in the government but who have ended up in jail for one reason or another have alluded to similar fears. Mass paranoia, perhaps. Even then, it reveals a trust deficit that can only thrive in a toxic political environment.

Frederick Golooba-Mutebi is a Kampala and Kigali-based researcher and writer on politics and public affairs. E-mail: fgmutebi@yahoo.com

Who trusts the govt near food? Not the opposition or the king - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Government-mistrust-in-Uganda/434750-3500346-myeih7/index.html

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