Rape justifying minister must resign

RAPE JUSTIFIED

The reports that the State Minister for Youth, Hon Ronald Kibuule did say that no arrest should be made when an indecently dressed woman is raped, should be condemned. Hon Kibuule is definitely in a breed of diffident humans who lack respect for women and children, many of whom are brutally raped, daily, in the country. These men do not have the full capacity to understand the devastating impact of rape on our society. It is a pity that such populist utterances should come from a minister in charge of Youths. This guy must just resign from leadership!

Not long ago, the Ugandan chapter of the African Network for Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) released a report which indicated that over 600 children are raped daily in Uganda. A quick check of a small place like Wandegeya Police records showed that about 742 cases of rape have been reported so far in 2013. Wandegeya Police recorded 22,614 cases of rape between 2009 and 2011. We agree that there are many other neighborhoods with worse rape records than this. The Daily Monitor of February 28, 2013 indicated that countrywide, the Police recorded 7,690 cases of rape in 2011 with an estimate that about 21 girls are raped each day. Rape cases are on the surge, recent reports shows that Busoga is awash with rampant rape cases.

With a grim and stark statistics like this, it becomes inevitable to show outrage to some of these lousy leaders who justify rape. One wonders how an indifferent person of Hon. Kibuule’s stature becomes a minister and whether his views are popularly reflective of rape as a morale ideal.

It is very important to understand the dimensions of this statement from a practical perspective. This is not merely structuring the culture of impunity into our social fabrics, but condoning and encouraging the act of rape. It also attests to the perpetuation of sexual violence against women by state agency. Socially, the Hon. Minister is imposing a moral restraint on the women to curtail their inherent rights to self expression and the enjoyment of freedoms associated with their womahood. This must not go without attracting the necessary condemnation in this epoch of our civilization.

To blame the victim for their predicament has always been a projection of self righteousness for those who are, by any measure of morality, deficient. These are men whose pre-occupation with sexual thoughts even compromises their deliberation in Parliament. The Minister himself, a Christian by names of Ronald – is consorting with two wives. Doesn't that tell us enough about his condescending attitude towards women, girls and children who are targets of perversion? It wouldn't be a surprise to find that the minster is espoused by way of arranged marriage, itself a form of domestic violence. But if the minister has daughters, he should have thought deeply about his attitude before verbalizing it. To parents, such offensive statement can be taken for a national policy under his portfolio and that is scary.

The tone of this article is rather sad because we have just buried a young and innocent girl – Nambi “Nisha” Hanisha of Kanyanya who was deprived of life at tender age due to rape. To say that before arrests are made in such cases, the police must first ascertain the degree of decency of that little girl means that the rapists have a justification for their horrendous underclass crime.

Unmistakably, rape, in the Minister’s mind, is a tool for reinforcing decency – for establishing decent dress codes. I have never known a minimum expectation of “decent dressing” or a legislation that succinctly describes what descent dressing is. Perhaps we need one such legislation after the Public Order Management Bill, 2011. This would showcase a clearer national policy on decency, violation of which should be punishable by rape.

I am challenging Hon. Kibuule to take the moral high ground to apologise to the women and the many victims of rape and to resign. I implore his appointing authority to remove this thoughtless man from our youth docket because he is a bad influence. If the message that his ministry is passing to the youth is that rape is justified as long as you can determine the degree of decency of the potential victim, then we are raising a society of horny rapists. I am not sure which parent is not outraged at this numb-skull inclined at corrupting the minds of our youths.

By any means, the imprint that rape or attempted rape leaves on the mind of the victim is profound. But rape truly undermines the very temple of our being; it diminishes our humanity and to the woman, it steals from her, the very sacredness of her womanhood. Uganda is a country where intimate partner violence is rampant. Women remain very vulnerable due to historically and socially structured gender inequalities. Already, majority of married women endure marital rape and yet the government does not seem to care enough. The trauma associated with being a woman alone is debilitating but the trauma associated with inability to attain justice after rape, is worse and rampant. This is amplified when the very women for whom we prescribe sexual violence, are also held paradoxically as the gatekeeper of morality. There is no way any person, leave alone a person in high authority like a minister, can endorse rape.

There is urgent need to amplify the role of men in averting rape and other forms of sexual violence from an early onset. Our children and youth ought to be nurtured that women are as equal as men, deserving respect; women are endowed with innate abilities to develop themselves – physically and intellectually – like men, to full capacity without unnecessary prohibitions.

It is these basic and yet core understanding of the need for co-existence in equal modern society with women as an inevitable partner which has eluded self righteous leaders like Hon. Kibuule. Definitely, this breed of mankind has no place in our contemporary society.

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What makes our politicians unattractive

POLITICS

Politics in Uganda is a game where the disposition of nobility is utterly mythical. In fact, one would say that becoming a politician in Uganda makes one also to become unattractive. The word “ugly” may come across as strong, but depending on how you look at the situation, there is no better word other than this, to describe the trends in Ugandan politics.

It is contestable that Ugandan politicians are among some of the most dishonest, insensitive, in-congruent, sedentary, poorly read and inexperienced, which also make most of them unattractive. It is a fact that our legislators are among the youngest in the world and yet they lead in being dishonest, superficial and unprincipled. This also explains why the budget for Parliament which has only 375 MPs is equivalent to combined budget for 15 districts in Uganda.

The International Parliamentarian Union, a consortium of Parliamentarians in the World released its’ last Global Parliamentary Report in 2012. This report shows that sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest average age for all MPs in the word, at 49 years, against the global MP age average of 53. The average age of legislators in the UK is 50 years. In the US, the average age of representatives is a bit higher, at 57 for Congress and 63 for the Senate.

So, what has age got to do with ineffectiveness and unattractive nature of our Legislators? This question is very important because the legislative branch of government has been the most misunderstood institution. It seems that neither the people who occupy it, nor those who send their representatives to it, do fully comprehend the role of this House in democratic dispensation. A correct assessment of Parliament in its current standing, whether from public stand point or structural point of view, reveals that it is a House under usurpation by the Executive. The cabinet has made the Parliament look like a mere extension.

Now, some of the MPs came to Parliament without any history of formal employment - experience in private or public sector. This in itself is a great disservice to the Parliament and to Uganda as a whole because of content issues. Occasionally, we see the manifestation of raw university mannerism on the floor of Parliament. Here, people talk a lot but when in actual sense they have not said anything - Interglot!

Many factors contribute to the unattractive nature of our MPs. Key among these is the dress code. MPs are expected to wear suits with neck ties to look formal. What appear to be of utmost imperative in the formal sector are the cosmetics of being an MP, not the quality of contributions in the House.  In sub-Sahara Africa, reasonable people should not be confined in suits and ties especially during the peak hours of 10am and 5pm when the sun and temperatures are very high. The heat and discomfort experienced during these hours affects the comfort level, disorganizes the biological functions and compromises mental capabilities.

Another factor which makes our MPs unattractive is the culture of accountability to the public. Leave alone the bravado which comes with the title and status of being an MP. MPs are called “Honorable” because they are expected to dispense honor, to be accountable and to embody the virtue of nobility as operators of the state. Our leaders decompose when required to become accountable. This makes them even more unattractive!

To understand how accountability makes our MPs very unattractive, one just has to appear at a press conference in Parliament or attend committee hearings between the hours of 10am and 5pm. The way the MPs struggle to communicate, one would easily assume that something has gone fundamentally amiss with them. The vigor, creases, lack of affect or the twitching in the face; the lack of composure, the unintelligent way of answering serious policy question and lack of consciousness about the repercussions of their foot in the mouth gaffes, simply makes them look truly very unattractive.  

Never mind my friends asking me all the time why Ugandan politicians are so aggressive and quarrelsome in their communication despite their uncoordinated mannerism. I always respond that the in-congruence is the result of cultural mode of communication that is being transmitted in English. Another grueling experience is speaking the English language. If only Parliament could permit the use of local languages, we would salvage our MPs and reduce on their degree of being unattractive!!

It is interesting to note that our MPs appear the most unattractive during budget reading and end of year Presidential speech. Here, you bear witness to some of world recording breaking cacophony. Our leaders will be sleeping, snoring, snorting like pigs and salivating on each other like real imbeciles. For their sleep, they still fetch huge allowances and salaries.

However, the most unattractive thing about our politicians is when they act deviously and dubiously during voting on contentious national issues in Parliament. What these boil down to is really that the most intricate aspect of human life is all about perception. The formulation of the perception of a person’s net-worth in the mind of another, also dictates the context in which the other is viewed and esteemed.

However beautiful or handsome a person is, a constantly negative narrative that they imbue in the collective public psyche leads to a formulation of a congruent and negative perception. If the negative narrative persists as constant disappointment, a sense of disengagement develops in existing relations between the public and such group of people. In sociology, we talk about the transformative narrative of evolving from resourced individual (donor of deeds) to recipient and eventually to a disposable object. This is the climax when the public will begin to intrinsically resist and repulse.  So far, the constant narrative of our legislators is that of disappointment and that is what makes our politicians very unattractive!

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Hedonism fuelling underclass behaviors

CRIME OF PASSION

The incidences of underclass behaviour are on the increase in Uganda. Increased incidences of teenage pregnancy, rape, defilement, domestic violence, petty theft, aggravated robbery, forced early marriages, prostitution, violent crimes, bribery, infidelity, sodomy, ineptitude, alcoholism, drug abuse and several other callous behaviours such as child sacrifices, are beginning to reshape the immoral landscape of Uganda. 

It appears that the increasing socio-economic inequities are enforcing the collapse of the foundational commitment to societal moral responsibilities. But for all that it is, the rape and murder of the 9 years old Anisha “Nisha” Nambi in Kanyanya Quarter Zone, Kawembe division on August 31, 2013, has epitomized the absurdity of underclass madness.

A major problematic discourse is underway in our society. It is the false imagination that at least, somehow, many Ugandans are born again religious fanatics and therefore, moral beings. The church is no longer viewed by many as the moral authority it once was. There is a bigger moral crisis in Uganda which usually hides behind the veil of seeming loyalty to Church. “Devout” Christians are two-faced, now. They have one foot in church and another in the devil’s shrine. 

It appears that many people have resorted to placing their feet in many different worship places simultaneously because of drying faith. The truth of the matter is that the authority of religious institutions can no longer hold the moral fabrics of our society neatly in place.

People no longer believe in public good as portrayed in old teachings of the Bible. Not even in the Qur'an. Ugandans now are self absorbed, listen more to their own survival instincts; devoting more time to the incarnations of the pending perils that accompany then in life – Gloom!

It is this development of institutional despondency that drives men and women to callousness.

The end act, so malevolent as if moral sense has been completely estranged from their daily lives. Their hearts grow cold and their mental faculties are transformed into a sophisticated workshop in which evil is plotted and piloted. These are people who, for a lack of concepts, may be consigned as social reprobates, outliers from the mainstream society. Their mannerisms are depraved, scornful, and insurgent; their perceptions, utterly distorted. Mortiferous!

The American sociologist, Lawrence M Mead in his 1986 book, Beyond Entitlement, described the urban underclass as a group of dysfunctional people who are not only poor but behaviorally deficient. Other sociologists like Erik Olik Wright attributed underclass to social agents who are economically oppressed but consistently exploited within a given class system. In all, the consensus is that underclass mannerisms are exhibited majorly by the lowly in society – those who occupy the lowest possible social rung in society.

The above analogies may become exclusive of the Ugandan social class formation. Here and there, we have sporadic and yet equal spread of underclass behaviour emanating from every section of society and across class. 

A professor impregnating a student; a pastor sodomizing; politicians robbing the public; legal experts squandering the laws; mothers dying of pregnancy; priests fecundating nuns; bailiffs auctioning ambulance….!

Herein, lay the explanation – hedonism. Hedonism is the sole urge – the undercurrent impulse that drives many Ugandans to commit crimes. Most of these crimes are by category, crimes of passion – to satisfy a pernicious, uncontrollable desire – an insatiable void of covetousness. The killer of Nisha endured it; the leaders of this country have it, the peasants in the village have it and so are the religious leaders.

The debased ways of our society speaks to its own end – that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. The ethics of service, which summons the evaluation of action decisions for greater public utility, have become an inconvenience unto thee. They rape and kill first and think of the consequences later. Likewise, they ransack; swindle and render public utilities dysfunctional and even plot to evict common sense from public discourses to commit pleasure.

The circumstance of the untimely death of 9 years old Nisha must be amplified by the media to reawaken this morally decrepitated society. It is vital to evict this addiction of pleasure out of our mainstream so we can readmit the moral rational being which distinguishes us from mammalian elements in the wilderness.

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Justice Odoki is conspiring to abrogate the 1995 constitution

 CONSTITUTIONALISM

The Red Pepper newspaper of 09/03/2013 cited Hon. Miria Matembe having fired a salvo at the outgoing EU Ambassador, Roberto Rudolfi. Amb Rudolfi had suggested that President Museveni is right to reappoint Justice Benjamin Odoki as Chief Justice  despite having attained the maximum age of 70 years as per Constitutional provision. Ms Matembe’s outrage is understandable and is, perhaps long overdue. Matembe’s point is that it is high time we started taking our autonomy and constitutional rights seriously. She cautioned that we do not have to wait for EU leaders and Americans to interpret for us our own Constitution as if we are a nation of imbeciles, a colony - on top of being country of thieves.

The gut instincts have guided me to a different interpretation of  Amb Rudolfi's statements. I think Amb. Rudolfi is being misunderstood. I believe that Amb. Rudolfi was trying to state that it is within the mandate of the President to (re)appoint whoever he deems fit for the dispensation of the duties of the office of Chief Justice. But the unspoken sense behind this suggestion is also that it is incumbent upon sound minded Ugandans to call on the President in regards to the provision of the Constitution on this reappointment. Amb Rudolfi and many of us have subtle consensus that Attorney General Peter Nyombi is severely incapacitated with correct interpretation of the Constitution. Lawyers like Nyombi pose unnecessary legal challenge to Uganda's statehood because of the zeal to be loyal to the establishment.

Given the variety of talents and legal skills in Uganda, the President still has limited options of credible and principled lawyers to appoint Chief Justice. It is perhaps the lack of credible, measured and loyal cadres like Justice Odoki that his reappointment has become inevitable. The current Deputy Chief Justice, for instance, is an NRM-O promoter and so are his immediate followers. So, the issue of impartiality looms large over their heads.

I mean, we all know that it takes many righteous characters to restrain the President from his own ego. With the legal flip-floppers that have engulfed the government, it is only understandable that Justice Odoki’s credibility and public image gives him an edge and yet it is also the very Odoki to blame for this blatant attempt at abrogating the constitution.

This article contends that any averagely educated person in Uganda can read, understand and interpret the Constitution of Uganda much better than the pitiful office of Attorney General – based on his recent interpretations. I mean, to understand the constitution, we must look at it as a supreme law of the land, not some ad hoc supplemental document that be easily manipulated to appease the President. The problem with AG Nyombi is that he is so Born-Again that he may be interpreting the Constitution in the same manner as he does to the Bible.

This legal mess makes us all stressed out that the President does not listen to advice. To some extent, the President is actually let down by lazy, egocentric and callous fellows who abuse their powers. They compel the president into submitting to fraudulent intentions and making decisions where some public good become available for squandering.

However, the imperatives that compels us to hold the person of Justice Odoki accountable are dictated by the fact that he served as the longest Chief Justice of Uganda since independence; that he was the author of this very Constitution which he is conspiring to abrogate. Justice Odoki knows very well that the Article 144(1)(a) of the 1995 Constitution places age limit of 70 years on any serving CJ. That Article 144(1)(a) was not inserted yesterday in the constitution, it was inserted at the same time that the Presidential term limit was proposed by Justice Odoki's team and later promulgated in 1995. Odoki should therefore be in the know and to particularly advise the President correctly not to reappoint him - and, he should decline the offer if the President insisted. That he has not done so, and that he appears to be the one fronting for the idea of his reappointment, truly dents his credibility and character as anti-constitutional.

Justice Odoki recently gave a media interview where he claimed that he is still young and strong to serve Uganda. His highest pinnacle of mockery came when he posited that he will continue to respect the constitution of Uganda even when he will be serving beyond the age of 70. This is by all means a travesty - a twisted logic because by his failure to restrain his own ego of respecting Constitutional age limit, the Justice is willingly participating in abrogating the Constitution treacherously. Disregarding age limit depicts a gloomy future because the President will use this opportunity to gauge whether to remove the Constitutional age limit for serving President as well. The other implications are that cases that Justice Odoki will be presiding over can be successfully challenged in courts because of the constitutional illegality involving his tenure on the bench.

Justice Odoki’s insistence in being appointed and his claim that he is strong enough is not only ridiculous, but symbolic of the very symptoms of power hunger that keeps African Presidents in power past expiry date to the detriment of their Countries.

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