General Museveni can no longer be trusted to lead Uganda except to a catastrophic disintegration. Time is now overdue for the people of Uganda to organize and mobilize through Parliament to invoke the provisions of article 107 of the Constitution to remove General Museveni from the high office of President
[Global: Africa Commentary]
The ongoing saga surrounding the unconstitutional re-appointment of Justice Faith Mwonda as the Inspector General of Government (IGG) here in Uganda is only the latest of General Yoweri Museveni’s many actions of abuse of office, willful violation of his oath of allegiance and presidential oath.
He has violated the Constitution, amounting to gross misconduct by a leader who is supposed to be the fountain of honor in Uganda.
However, Museveni’s abuse of the Constitution and his wanton disregard of the Constitutional order is not surprising. It is the very embodiment of his political life. In 1980, Museveni consented to the multiparty general elections as the leader of the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM).
He miserably lost the elections including in his own Nyabushozi Constituency—to Sam Kutesa, a member of the Democratic Party then, and now Uganda’s foreign affairs minister. Instead of challenging the election results in the Courts of law as provided for in the Constitution, Museveni , just as he had planned since 1965, took up arms and today the Luwero triangle that he created is still littered with unburied skulls in testimony to his military but unconstitutional exploits.
Northern and Eastern Uganda have seen similar exploits.
When Museveni, through the barrel of the gun took over power on January 25, 1986, he suspended parts of the 1967 Constitution through the infamous Legal Notice No. 1 of 1986. Worse still, even the parts of the Constitution that he agreed to preserve, including the bill of rights that guaranteed the freedom of association, were routinely abused.
Having illegally banned political parties from operating and contesting the 1993 Constituent Assembly elections, Museveni through the largely Movement Constituent Assembly wrote the 1995 Constitution which included such detestable articles like the infamous article 169 that constitutionalized the ban on free political party activity. The 1995 Constitution is accordingly, Museveni’s baby.
When it suited him, he amended it in 2005.
To all rational and well meaning people, should have been the last person to violate his own Constitution but true to his legacy, he has only obeyed the commands of the Constitution by accident.
If one attempted to list all the violations of the Constitutional order perpetuated by General Museveni, one would write entire series of books. The list would include for sample purposes the following:
(a) The routine violation of people’s rights and freedoms including illegal detention in safe houses, torture and extra judicial killings as recently.
(b) The deployment of the UPDF in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (twice), and Sudan without the authority of Parliament.
c) The attacks on the Courts of law including the infamous black mamba’s desecration of the High Court.
d) The grant of loans, guarantees and outright bailouts to so called investors like Basajjabalaba, Tristar and several others without the authority of Parliament.
e) The directives to the otherwise independent Uganda Land Commission to give away public land to investors like in the cases of UTV land, Shimoni school land, Kitante School land and the attempted Mabira forest give away.
f) The routine and corrupt mismanagement of the economy and running down of public infrastructure and social services.
g) The illegal expropriation of private property including ranches and the protection of trespassers on private land.
h) The recent appointment of Major General J. J. Odongo a serving UPDF officer to cabinet.
i) The illegal re-appointment of Justice Faith Mwonda as IGG.
General Museveni can no longer be trusted to lead Uganda except to a catastrophic disintegration. Time is now overdue for the people of Uganda to organize and mobilize through Parliament to invoke the provisions of article 107 of the Constitution to remove General Museveni from the high office of President on grounds of abuse of office, willful violation of his oath of office and above all the Constitution.
Mrs. Obote is President of the Uganda People’s Party.
Please post your comments online or submit them to [email protected]
“Speaking Truth To Empower.”
