{UAH} Mr President, God has a habit of defending the helpless

By Gawaya Tegulle

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It was not even an offence worthy of mention; just a small regulatory infraction that any right-thinking police officer really ought to have let pass under the circumstances. Either the driver or the vehicle had a small issue with an expired permit or insurance…whatever. 

The female traffic officer insisted, rather arrogantly, that the driver was under arrest.

 The driver politely asked, then besought, then begged to be let go on the grounds that in the car was a very sick child who had to see a doctor urgently. 

The woman in the car had for long been silent, as tears ran down her cheeks, aware that the child in her arms would not last much longer. 

Seeing life ebb out of her child, she passionately begged the traffic officer for mercy. The officer, like so many of our police officers usually are when they are cracking the whip, was adamant: the law was the law – the car was going nowhere.

Because of the delay, the kid died anyway and the police officer had no choice but to release her captives. Broken-hearted, the poor mother went and buried her child. 

In fact, the story would probably never have seen the light of day had it not been that after a while the traffic police officer went public, as she frantically looked for the unknown woman. 

Reason? She had, over a short span of time, lost one child after another, in most perplexing circumstances. God has a habit of settling scores on behalf of those who are helpless against powerful oppressors, for we reap what we sow! 

Many times it takes a long while; but sometimes it happens really quickly. It occurred to the officer that these deaths were no coincidence; and when she worked everything backwards, she had an "ah hah!" moment. 

Something in her said if only she could find the woman she had mistreated and offer her sincere apologies, maybe her remaining kids could be saved.

I listened in sheer horror as President Museveni talked so casually and arrogantly about people killed by security forces in the riots nearly a month ago.

 When people get older, they grow wiser and even the stoniest hearts mellow and melt. Not Museveni.
 
The older he grows the less discerning he proves and the more brutal he gets. He was happy with the security forces for the killings meted out to unarmed civilians who were asserting their right to self-determination. 

He said 20 or so of the dead would attract compensation; the rest deserved to die. For him it is a matter of spending a few millions, plus a bag of maize flour and one of beans on a family and the matter is settled.

A head of State who took oath to protect the Constitution and the people of Uganda was happy with the horrendous acts meted out to citizens! 

To rub salt into the gaping wound, Security minister Gen Elly Tumwine proclaimed without trace of empathy that the police had a right to shoot and kill. 

Everyone knows how ill-equipped and poorly facilitated police claim to be when we need them to save us against thieves and robbers; yet they show up fully armed, properly facilitated and really inspired when citizens express dissatisfaction with the regime.

It is unlikely the President would have harboured such arrogance had, God forbid, any of the dead been his children – say Muhoozi Kainerugaba, or Diana Kamuntu! 

It is unlikely he would have been so haughty, after having the pain of standing by an open grave and watch undertakers pour earth on the coffin of his child. 

And, when all is done, and all mourners have left, stand by the grave in disbelief, wondering how one so full of life could be taken away so senselessly from his weeping parents, whom no amount of money can console.

Mr President, God has a habit of settling scores on the behalf of those who are helpless against powerful oppressors, as that traffic officer found out; because ultimately, God is not mocked - we reap what we sow.

Mr Tegulle is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda     gtegulle@gmail.com

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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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