{UAH} EC sackings: New details emerge

When the sacked officials walked off their desks on the evening of July 20, they were firmly in control of the Electoral Commission's key day-to-day affairs.

But a few hours into that night, EC chairman Justice Simon Byabakama moved to pry that firm control of the commission's affairs away from his powerful secretary Sam Rwakooojo and a few others. A few telephone calls sealed their fate. New details paint a picture of a not-so-flattering end.

According to insider sources, on the morning of July 20, Rwakoojo was his normal self, all smiles and fully in charge of business at the EC head office on Jinja road. As the accounting officer, Rwakoojo was awaiting the release of the first quarter of funds estimated at Shs 200bn from the ministry of Finance for the 2020/2021 budget allocation for the 2021 general election.

That very morning, however, President Museveni is said to have cut short a cabinet meeting to attend to an urgent matter with EC chairman, Justice Simon Byabakama. According to our sources at State House, Museveni had summoned the judge for a one-on-one closed-door meeting to plot a way forward for the commission after receiving several dossiers pinning EC staff on corruption and intrigue as well as security breaches.

The dossiers on the table included the planned procurement of the biometric machines for digital recognition of voters as well as the controversial purchase of a Shs 16.9bn warehouse that was originally budgeted for Shs 6bn. According to the source, the meeting went on till about 9pm. After going through every dossier, Justice Byabakama asked the president for a free hand to clean up the EC house.

He said the overbearing influence of Rwakoojo was the biggest impediment to work at EC. The source adds that Museveni saw the biometric machine deal as a serious security risk that would have handed the country's national identity database to a private company that was not tested in Uganda.

It was at this point that an angry Museveni directed Byabakama to summarily fire the implicated officials, who included Rwakoojo; Information Technology director Pontius Namugera; Godfrey Wanyoto, the head of Procurement; as well as EC spokesperson Jotham Taremwa. Others recommended for sacking included the director Finance and Administration Joseph Lwanga, Jordan Lubega (Administrator Networks), data specialists Charles Musuza and Edgar Kasigwa.

Armed with the directive, Byabakama is said to have told one of his aides to call each of the individuals and break the news of their firing that night.

"At first they thought it was a bad joke but when they were informed they are not allowed to step on the EC premises, they pleaded with Byabakama for a 'fair hearing,'" says the source.

Byabakama, who for all the time he has been at EC had always felt undermined, declined to meet them and turned down their appeals for a meeting of commissioners to look into the matter. He told them that their fate had been sealed by the president. He, however, offered a soft landing.

He asked them to resign and claim they had taken 'early retirement.' By next morning, news of the sackings had filtered through some of the EC WhatsApp groups after security operatives put new locks on the offices of the implicated officials. At about 9am, none of the said individuals had turned up for work and Byabakama, through an aide, is said to have given them an ultimatum to go to the EC office and sign already-prepared resignation letters or else he was calling a press conference to announce their sacking by 2pm that very day. To most EC staff, the unfolding events were surreal.

"One by one they arrived in the EC chairman's office to sign the resignation letters before leaving the premises immediately," says an insider source who witnessed the drama.

Later that evening, Byabakama told the press that the eight officials had asked for an 'early retirement' from the commission, sparking public shock.

FOUR PARDONED

A few days later, Byabakama is said to have met Lwanga, Lubega, Musuza and Kasigwa, who pleaded with him to spare them because they were following orders from some of the fired bosses.

After listening to their version of events, Byabakama is said to have given them a severe reprimand and allowed them back to work. But there was no such luck for Rwakoojo, Taremwa, Wanyoto and Namugera, who remain in the cold. However, our source at EC intimated that whereas the sacking brought a sense of sanity at the EC, there are many people who feel witch-hunted for being close associates of the sacked individuals.

https://observer.ug/news/headlines/66879-ec-sackings-new-details-emerge?fbclid=IwAR1ZB_kn9kaCklRp6_NZgAbhSDb2rFYuyDo5zl_a4FqlYNx_yjNYaqieaEs

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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