Yesterday as I pushed my bicycle to take a sack of potatoes to the market, I came across some men involved in an argument as to whether the current crackdown on corruption among politicians is serious or it’s simply a normal political gimmick whose lifespan is only for this month of June! Inside me, I kept laughing at these men who seemed equally exhausted after pushing their jackfruits to the market for sale! I didn’t contribute to the conversation but I noted their concerns. They seemed to suggest that H.E Gen. Yoweri Museveni would not pursue this issue further but again, one of them remarked that he needed to simply ban Parliament for a year. That I didn’t buy into it as he would be seen as a dictator. But now that I am back from that hustle of taking my lumonde (potatoes) to the market, I give my views on this matter.
Throughout the years whenever faced with a big challenge, President Yoweri Museveni declares war, and has always resorted to the armed forces to drive home his opinion and ultimately achieve it.
For beginners, Museveni the politician appears in different forms although the most known is that of being the President. But the other official titles are NRM chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the UPDF. It is these titles that he keeps using alternately depending on what he wants to achieve or to deliver.
For example, where anything related to fighting (never mind the nature of that war), Museveni always appears as Command-in-Chief as opposed to President and or the NRM chairman whom most people are used to. The NRM chairman wears a smiling face and likes mingling with wanainchi of every class while the President interacts with a certain class of wanainchi and usually makes tactical consultations with them before making a final decision. At this level of President, is where even the corrupt officials like MPs usually meet him to read his mind before going back to execute their heist! Both President Yoweri Museveni and NRM Chairman Yoweri Museveni are different from Gen. Yoweri Museveni, the Commander-in-Chief whose decision is usually determined at top security level after various intelligence briefs reaching him. The CiC therefore, operates with the security organs and usually hides himself from both the President and NRM chairman whom our dear legislators currently under investigation over various Corruption cases are looking for to seek his ‘pardon’!
The Members are aware that both the President and NRM Chairman are so forgiving especially after they recite the political verses of NRM bible to him. Yes, it has happened even to Dr. Kizza Besigye! This is why since he gave his state of the nation address a month ago and threatened to arrest the traitors in Parliament, many of them have been hunting for the President whom (when they get such a chance), they choose to address him also as NRM Chairman. The suspects will not forget to wear the yellowest attire to prove their cadreship if granted this chance to meet him! They know he likes to listen and often times gives amnesty.
Their efforts are yet to yield possibly because the CiC is now in charge giving instructions to his security men to handle all cases without fear or favor of anyone. Already, early this week, he penned a missive saying he had declared a war on corrupt officials.
That’s why the ongoing crackdown on parliamentarians is at a level of a security operation not a government normal investigation.
To the CiC, war is war and until you win it, that’s when you can tell it’s real intensity depending on the number of casualties and resources spent on it. Fighting corruption is therefore, a war in its own right because first of all, you don’t know where those who steal take the funds and for what purpose? Museveni says there are even some naive MPs who get foreign funding; what are these funds meant for? This is why, to him, this is not a normal situation that requires the usual mechanisms to deal with it. He’s aware that proving corruption especially the white collar corruption is very difficult especially if it is left to civilian investigators who are easily intimidated and sometimes morally weak themselves! And yet, the CiC must also use this as an opportunity to scoop political capital for the NRM Chairman Yoweri Museveni who also wants President Yoweri Museveni back into State House in 2026 and also keep the CiC around. It is actually this CiC who differentiates Gen. Yoweri Museveni from the likes of other self styled President/Chairmen of other political parties.
CiC Museveni has always used the army to fight high class corruption. For example, at the time revenue collections were meagre courtesy of Corruption, Museveni formed the Anti-Smuggling Unit headed by Lt. Col. Andrew Lutaaya alongside 19 other military officers to deal with smuggling. This unit would later be tranformed into SPRS headed by Kale Kayihura. He did the same to NAADs by deploying the army to deliver implements and other resources under Operation Wealth Creation headed by Gen. Salim Saleh. He has gone ahead and appointed Brig. Henry Isoke (a former member of SPRS) to deal with hardcore corruption under the flagship office-State House Anti-Corruption Unit. Such adhoc special units are not without purpose! They are simply in place to tactfully help him in his role as Commander-in-Chief whenever he wants to wear that hat to avoid interacting with those pleading for mercy from the President or NRM Chairman. He’s aware of the gravest penalty (without question) an army officer heading such units can get in case he or she disobeyed lawful orders from the CiC unlike the civilian investigators’ approach which usually questions and at times refuses or delays to implement Presidential directives. This is why the current wave of crackdown on parliamentarians and staff is being managed at security level coordinated by the Criminal Investigations Department under AIGP Maj. Tom Magambo, an army/intelligence officer also! There’s nothing they do without getting clearance from the Commander-in-Chief and because of this, the crafty MPs and staff are totally helpless and should better open their eyes, get good lawyers/barristers or be ready to rot in jail!
As a seasoned subsistence farmer, growing my potatoes and cassava to survive, I have studied President Yoweri Museveni, NRM Chairman Yoweri Museveni and CiC Yoweri Museveni and all these rarely appear together.
For example, when he wants to appear as both the NRM chairman and President, Museveni wears the hat of a cool gentleman donning classic casual wear or (sometimes a suit) and usually uses the word Bazzukulu! Here, he will even be smiling, cracking his usual jokes to spice up his speech in addition to accepting pictures. This is the Yoweri Museveni the MPs under threat of being arrested have been hunting for unknowing that he has since taken a back sit to allow the CiC Yoweri Museveni execute his ongoing Anti-Corruption security operation. To know that he has transited to CiC, Museveni (sometimes wears a military jacket) and writes a missive with some words punctuated in various dialects mainly Runyankore, Luganda and at times Luo for emphasis purposes! This is what he did on Tuesday this week in his strongly worded one-page missive on Corruption War! From this, as a seasoned farmer, I confirmed that the suspects must get worried.
The CiC Yoweri Museveni on the other hand, sees this war as the deciding factor to partly rebrand both the President and NRM Chairman so as to make them appeal to the masses but also cleaning their legacy.
Mindful of the fact that the 1966 crisis emerged from a bribed Parliament hence the introduction of the infamous Obote’s Pigeon hole constitution which threw Uganda into chaos ending up with various fighting groups until his NRA finally came to power, CiC Museveni knows very well what a reckless and untamed Parliament can do under the cover of separation of powers! This is why he has decided to go through the security apparatus as CiC to crackdown on those people he calls traitors. The judiciary on the other hand seems unwilling to get soiled and therefore, must be itching to teach the perpetrators of Corruption a bitter lesson. It is also in the judges’ interest that they don’t appear to be siding with the charged legislators as this would earn them individual sanctions by the West which seems to be very interested in what the CiC is doing to help the nation.
A frustrated Museveni has already signalled that he is considering reverting to NRA revolutionary ways of recruiting cadres to take up government jobs as opposed to the colonial method of recruiting through competitive process under the Public Service Commission. Well, it’s drizzling here, I am back to my garden. See you next Saturday!
The writer is a Subsistence Farmer from Wakiso! 0752622200
