Has Rt Hon Speaker Rebecca Kadaga Degenerated Into A Populist?
When the Kenyan judiciary, particularly its chief justice David
Maraga made a historic judgment that nullified the august 8th
elections, the African people jubilated because they had not witnessed such a
brave and decisive ruling in African politics.
Most Africans were even more amazed by the nature of institutional
independence that was exhibited by the Kenyan judiciary.
It had been a norm for all institutions to be swayed and
guided by the domineering manipulations of the executive.
So Hon Maraga became an instant hero of the African
political elites.
In Uganda our speaker Hon Rebecca kadaga had tried to assert
the independence of legislature by making some rulings that defied the wishes
and aspirations of the executive.
For instance the manner in which she handled the issue of
the NRM rebel MPs who had been sacked by their NRM party was regarded as a typical
case of independence of the legislature and a sign of complete separation of
powers within the three state institutions i.e the executive , legislature and
judiciary as we know them.
As a result of these land mark decisions, the speaker
enjoyed a very big national appeal. The ruling party and the members of the
opposition all believed in her as an independent minded speaker, who couldn’t
be compromised.
The Age Limit Weevil
But the issue of the age limit debates seems to have watered
down her profile. Her shining star has dimmed because of the manner in which
she handled the parliamentary sessions which resulted into a scuffle between
some members of the opposition and security agents who entered the house and
forcefully threw them out, on the orders of the speaker.
Get me right here; am not saying the speaker was wrong
to throw out the opposition MPs who were frustrating the session.
In fact, although I agree with the rebellious manner in
which the rebels conducted themselves-(given the fact that it was the only
option they had since they have no numbers to frustrate the impending amendment
of article 102(B)), I thought that one of the options she had was to adjourn
the house.
But to be fair to her, even the adjournment wouldn’t have
had the desired effect because the opposition MPs were determined to cause
chaos in the house at any opportune moment.
So what am I saying?
The only viable option was to suspend the chaotic MPs, which
couldn’t be achieved by peaceful means-thus resulting into the chaos that we
all witnessed.
Having said that, I think it’s fair to say that the opposition
Mps were right to be as chaotic as they did because of the tyranny of numbers of
the ruling party which they faced. And I think it’s also fair to say that the
speaker was equally right to make that decision to kick out the chaotic MPs.
This brings us to the question as to why the speaker had to
go out of her way to apologize to each individual MP who had been kicked out of
parliament. Do you apologize for having done the right thing?
By visiting each Mp, at their residence and hospital, the
speaker demonstrated lack of the necessary backbone to make tough decisions.
It showed that she was ashamed of her actions, yet she used
the law to do it!
The Damn Letter
What actually shocked some of us much more was her decision
to write to the president asking about the ‘strangers’ who stormed parliament
on that day.
Although the letter seemed to make sense in some respects,
it was weird that she wrote it almost a month after the incident!
Why did she take long to write the letter to the president?
Then when you dig in you find contradictions in the letter itself,
which make her look pathetic in this matter.
For instance she talks of strangers storming parliament, yet
the inspector of police addressed the issue by owning up to those strangers who
stormed parliament!
Yes, Gen Kale Kayihura openly said that he was responsible
for coordinating security agencies that stormed parliament.
Therefore the explanation of the IGP puts the issue of
strangers to rest.
But you wonder why the speaker still insists that she wants
to know who they were and where they came from! Oh dear me!
When she made the decision to kick out the MPs, did she
expect them to walkout peacefully?
In the event that the whole situation degenerated into a
chaotic fight between the security agents and the mps, it was obvious that
things had to turn bloody.
She had to therefore, stand by her decision because ,
logically , that was what she had to do. Even if she had adjourned as many of
us first argued , the Mps would have staged the same confrontational approach.
In fact, at first the speaker was resolute when she said
that the MPs wanted to stage a coup.
But you again wonder why she turns around to regret the
incident by writing letter to the president.
By taking a contradicting stance , speaker kadaga is simply
exposing herself as someone who cannot make difficult decisions –yet that is
one of the most important ingredients of leadership.
Great leaders stand by their decisions as long as they are
done in good faith, legally binding and taken for the good of the country.
She seems to be obsessed with being more populist than being
principled.
IS KADAGA A POPULIST?
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| The speaker Kadaga visits one of the Mps Hon Namboze who sustained injuries during a scuffle with the security agents |
Accusing Hon kadaga of being a populist is not completely
off the mark because she has done it before. For instance when the issue of homosexuality
arose in the country, she traveled overseas and bashed the whites for
propagating the vice. She was given a hero’s welcome on her return and she went
on to pass the anti-gay bill without quorum!
As we speak now, the anti-gay bill was scrapped from the law
books, because it was challenged in courts of law and nullified accordingly.
That is the price you pay when you do things with a populist
intentions.
Hon Kadaga should recollect her independent self desist from
playing games of cheap politics.
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The Author Fred Daka Kamwada Is A Ugandan Blogger
Get in thouch with him at kamwadafred@gmail.com
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