{UAH} Allan/Gook/Pojim: Kintu Musoke speaks of an NRM that never really was, never will be - Daily Monitor

http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/OpEdColumnists/DanielKalinaki/-/878782/1309834/-/ryshmiz/-/index.html

Kintu Musoke speaks of an NRM that never really was, never will be

Former Prime Minister Kintu Musoke threw a spanner in the works during the NRM retreat in Kyankwanzi when he urged President Museveni to disband his corrupt and inefficient Cabinet and only keep the few good men and women.

According to sources in the meeting, Mzee Kintu Musoke told Museveni that unless he burns the house down, he will be suspected of harbouring and protecting the bad guys and could be next when the latest round of impeachment ends.

Many people have advised Museveni to get rid of the corrupt and incompetent. However, while a few like Kabakumba Masiko, MP, princess, (one wag calls her a natural-born telecom engineer) have fallen on their swords when caught out, Museveni has kept his bad apples, offering protection in exchange for deeper loyalty.

It is telling that Kintu Musoke did not repeat the old tired demand to sack the corrupt but asked Museveni to disband the lot. Without saying it, Mzee Musoke publicly acknowledged what many have long suspected privately; that the bad guys far outnumber the good guys and it is easier to keep the good than to oust the bad.

Consider this: In less than 12 months we've had public allegations of corruption or abuse of office against the vice president, the prime minister, the foreign affairs minister, the former finance minister, the former attorney general, the internal affairs minister, and the government chief whip, among others. None of the allegations have been proven, thus far, and some are probably not true but that there is a damning indictment of the people around the President and his own judgement in selecting and managing people.

There are so many ministers serving under a cloud of public suspicion that Cabinet meetings could as well be held in dark, smoke-filled rooms. Used to cutting deals in the dark, maybe some ministers would become more effective this way. No wonder we have such a huge Cabinet; it is as if the President needs to constantly perform political dialysis by bringing in some fresh, clean hands to dilute the rot.

President Museveni is unlikely to heed Kintu Musoke's advice, not because he is strong enough to disregard it, but because he is too weak to implement it. As we have already seen above, if Museveni were to ask every minister with a scandal, past or present, to step aside or resign, he would be left in the room with only a handful of clean folks, or dragged outside by some of those departing in what, for purposes of your columnist's life-expectancy, we shall for now call 'collective responsibility'.

But even if Museveni were somehow to bluff his way and call out the crooks, whom would he replace them with? Parliament has many decent MPs but many are wolves in sheepskin, waiting for a chance to join the feeding frenzy and pay off their campaign trail debts.

Many of them would have perfected their wily ways in the civil service, which has become a training ground for all manner of thieving schemes. If there were a Nobel Prize for creating false accountability, a Ugandan civil servant would be nominated every year for creating an accounting formula allowing someone with a monthly take-home of Shs800,000 to build a Shs1 billion apartment block every two years.

Even civil society types have cashed in on their consciences and collected their cheques while many church types collect from God and from Caesar. Museveni can no longer control the corruption around him. While he probably believes that he controls and protects officials loyal to him, it is more likely that he has come to a point where they control him.

Museveni finds himself between a serpent and the sea. He can choose to protect his people and try to ride out the storm against an increasingly agitated public. Or he can disband his Cabinet fundamentally and in the process start the process of disbanding his own regime. Both options lead to the same outcome.

Whichever way it goes, Museveni at least had a choice; to build a clean and accountable government and risk unpopularity and a short reign, or a patrimonial system of patronage that entrenches his regime. He chose the latter.

Having accrued the benefits of the latter, he cannot in the evening of his years turn back to the former. Kintu Musoke, while well intentioned and genuine, belongs to an NRM that no longer exists and – some might say – never really existed.

dkalinaki@ug.nationmedia.com

Kintu Musoke speaks of an NRM that never really was, never will be - Daily Monitor

http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/OpEdColumnists/DanielKalinaki/-/878782/1309834/-/ryshmiz/-/index.html

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