{UAH} M7 Killing the Country – State H’se Aide

M7 Killing the Country – State H'se Aide http://www.redpepper.co.ug/m7-killing-the-country-state-hse-aide/

M7 Killing the Country – State H'se Aide

By John V Sserwaniko

Aisha Kabanda, a senior State House aide on media management, has faulted her boss President Museveni saying he is inadvertently responsible for governance and management problems the country is currently facing.

Speaking on Radio Simba's Gasimbagane program that airs on Saturday morning, Kabanda referred to the ongoing security problems which saw AIGP Felix Kaweesi murdered a few days ago in Kulambiro.

Along with other panelists like Katerega Musaazi, Charles Rwomushana, Muwanga Kivumbi and Siraje Lubwama, Kabanda argued it was unfair to blame only security chiefs Gen Kayihura and Security Minister Tumukunde while leaving their boss intact.

She said this was wrong because the big man himself shares much of the blame. She said Kayihura and other police and security chiefs had become hostage to ordinary NRM supporters on whose opinion the President sometimes bases to determine who is dropped in his cabinet and security apparatus.

"Mzee has created his own network of civilians who talk to him regularly and their work is to report on these security chiefs. So whoever wants favorable comments before Mzee will immediately recruit a network of such NRM volunteers so that they always report well about him or her. That is how people like Abdul Kitata and other Boda Boda 2010 members have become so powerful that even RPCs and DPCs salute and call them Afande. I was Kampala RCC and I saw this myself and I was appalled," said Kabanda an influential State House aide who has been in office since the days of Amelia Kyambadde.

"I remember an incident in Nakawa during a public order management meeting when Kitata grabbed a microphone from Gen Kayihura saying 'I'm the one who can manage these people.' It was disrespectful and I felt embarrassed as RCC. Gen Kayihura just looked at him and I think that is how such ordinary people assume too much power over police DPCs and RPCs. Tell me which DPC or RPC will dare stand up to such a guy who can publicly humiliate the IGP?"

Kabanda said because of such informality the DPCs become powerless and can't freely apprehend criminals because whoever they apprehend claims to be Kitata's man operating under Boda Boda 2010.

She gave the example of a special hire driver in Nakulabye who murdered a woman after a dispute that her office had reported to Wandegeya police station.

"The woman was in the end killed two weeks after she had reported to us. She was killed in the very manner she feared she would be killed and the phone number of the man she complained about was at the scene of crime. We reported everything to police and the Wandegeya DPC was in trouble for following up the case. In fact my own deputy RCC became so much pressured and wanted to flee the country. Imagine a whole RCC becoming intimidated by these powerful citizens," said Kabanda insisting the president was right criminals had for long infillitrated police.

"The other problem is sycophancy because this is what everybody is now parroting because the President said so. If he hadn't people like myself would now be in trouble being called saboteurs within NRM."

She said time has come for leaders in NRM to tell the country the truth and not merely something that pleases the President. Saying its RCC who is supposed to be in charge of security in Kampala and even police is below him or her, Kabanda said such offices have become powerless for a number of reasons.

"First of all you don't have enough budget to secure loyalty of such groups and secondly they are more powerful than you [the RCC] on virtually everything in the city," she said adding the president's solution of installing CCTV cameras won't work as long as such loopholes remain.

She added the operations of such groups have frustrated all Kampala leaders that were determined to clean up things. She recalled KCCA ED Jennifer Musisi trying to remove Boda Bodas in the CBD and was defeated by Kitata's group.

She agreed with Rwomushana's observation that President Museveni has (since Sebaana's days) always shielded Boda riders against regulation yet he is the one now complaining about them.

"We are really finished because even at public functions those guys will be there intimidating everybody because the President has made them feel untouchable. They will sit in a corner to cheer and heckle whoever they feel like and that carries the day. It's what the President considers and it's how he measures efficiency of public servants. You will see every official investing money to transport such groups and ensuring they have a good tent at the president's function where they can have impact."

Kabanda, who is one of many Museveni private secretaries in State House, says this is the thing that has killed performance as many public officials now invest in showbiz just to deceptively shine before the president through such false praises.

"In tribute to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Uganda, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife, discrimination and terrorism."

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