Photo: YouTube
I hesitate to ponder that the Hon. Nobert Mao, who spent most of his youthful years fighting for justice with aplomb, turned around and joined the executive council of rogues whose incessant impunity he once fiercely spoke and wrote against. However much he wants us to believe that he accepted the cabinet position to change things from inside, how does it feel to fight against impunity yet the abettor and beneficiary of the same heads the executive branch of government in which you sit?
Mr. Mao understands, undoubtedly, the nuts and bolts of our despicable justice system and in the same measure knows that his appointment is not about disentangling or transforming anything but to enjoy the privileges of a Ugandan minister. The day Mao shall fully make use of his competence and brilliance without dying inside—because his skills are apparently kept in the scabbard—is the day he will be shown exit and we can all agree that he was not appointed in that docket to apply or make use of his knowledge but to join the yes men and women in the cabinet.
It is only a career ambidextrous coward who gets ashamed of saying out the truth whether it hurts or not.
We all have a stake in our justice system and have a legitimate entitlement to a view on the meaning and execution of the same. The reason why we are currently encapsulated in this misanthropic National Resistance Movement (NRM) cataclysm is because of people like Mao who think that they can join the government and ensconce themselves in positions of empty power yet they know that the fish is rotten on the head.
The problem is with the president who will do anything to keep power. Whether the institutions are asleep as long as his clout is secure, he does not care. That is why he will sign ludicrous laws as long as they do not infringe on his hold onto power.
When you look at the Chapter four of our 1995 Constitution and other statutes pari materia like Uganda Human Rights (Enforcement) Act of 2019, Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act 2012, among others, you will realize that we have the best laws against human rights abuses but the country is full of victims of torture and no dangerous criminal from the security circle has been prosecuted yet they are the ones who kidnap, torture and then drive victims to court armed with defective charge sheets for speculative prosecutions and ineffective trials. Innumerable torture cases over the years are evidence that criminals’ rights matter more than the victims.
It is folly not to know that the judiciary is composed of some wooly and solipsistic judicial officers who are out of touch chamchas hubristically pushing the agenda of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) led Yoweri Kaguta Museveni corollary of which has made the opposition and or critics almost like pariahs. It is only a chicken brained person who would justify the horrendous actions of the judicial officers who remand suspects whose rights have been trampled upon to wit; those who are kidnapped and driven in drones, panda gaali style, held in illegal places for more than the constitutionally inviolable 48-hours rule while being tortured and blindfolded, and later smuggled into courts of law without lawyers, limping and oozing pus!
Apart from aplomb statements of condemnation from the minister of Justice, Mao, what else is he capable of doing beyond rhetorical statements? He would be honest and recalibrate his expectations to keep his integrity undiluted.
My one and only view is that there is nothing good left of this government and if we want change, not more of the same, should stop expecting anything good out of it after all 37-years in power and still solving issues of torture is not only shameful but symbolic of how a regime can create hell for citizens in order to keep in power.
I wish Honorable Nobert Mao a splendid eating adventure. To wish him success would be sheer dishonesty of me.
KAKWENZA RUKIRABASHAIJA
Lawyer and Novelist
www.kakwenza.de
Email: [email protected].
Whatsapp/Signal: +447958104814
Facebook|Twitter|Instagram|Linkedin
