How Alcohol defines social transformation in Kitgum

Alcohol Consumption

The scotching weather in Kitgum is one which can make life very difficult. However, for the people here, heat is not as much as discomforting as the chronic and persistent poverty that confront them on the daily basis. Fortunately, for Kitgum’s middle class, artisans and business fraternity, life appears to be vibrant. Kitgum is a small town, humbly laid in valleys and interlaced with River Pager which gives it the vein to wash away its filth and to others, the water to feed its living systems.

Walking on the streets, I hear that this year, Kitgum’s simsim harvest has been remarkable. The sight of heavily loaded Dyna trucks ferrying sacks of simsim away reaffirms this prospect. With simsim giving the people a good harvest, many would hope that the livelihood here would dramatically transform. The fact is, much of the proceeds from a good harvest go to drinking alcohol.

The truth be said, Kitgum was voted the dirtiest town in Uganda recently by the New Vision panel of experts. Walking through the dusty streets, it is obvious that Kitgum town’s main streets have never seen tarmac since independence. The traces ofTarmac built during colonial rule have faced enormous wear and tear, causing terrible unease for travelers. The dusty roads and the rather flat landscape give the city a naturally dirty appearance.

And yet, beneath its entire neglected infrastructure, Kitgum has probably the most resilient population in the entire Uganda. Here, boda-boda and wheelbarrow pushers are still trusted with your valuables; you hardly hear of petty thefts, like phone stealing, night time robbery or such under-class mannerism which afflicts most of the sprawling urban centres elsewhere.

The humble life in Kitgum town also reveals the tragedy of the NRM’s desire for social transformation to dependence. In the last two years, the District budget shows that the population only contributes about 1.5% to its total budget. The rest of the tab is picked by central government and donors. This also signifies persistent and chronic poverty.

But this city has also been gifted with hard working city bureaucrats who toil day and night to make ends meet with the meager resources at hand. Maybe someday, they will bring tarmac to this city’s main roads.

However, it is the low productivity and high alcohol consumption which challenges the economic recovery of this district. The harsh hot weather and the exhausted soils due to environmental degradation presents a fear for a rough future of this place transforming into semi-arid land.

Social transformation comes with re-alignment and a shift in collective consciousness of a people. If a place like Kitgum is to reinvent itself to a post conflict modern city, then the force to compel it forward must come from within. The over two decades of war has made the residents of Kitgum suspicious of foreign influences. Coupled with the many NGOs that had flooded this place, people had become dependent on hand-outs but the lull created by the subsequent withdrawal of NGOs has also driven the people to their gardens, to grow Simsim and other food crops.

The dilemma of this place now is alcoholism. Alcoholism has redefined the collective consciousness of this town, just as it has usurped the growth of other districts in this region.

I heard saddening stories in social places such as morning devotions that people are selling their harvests to buy alcohol. Unlike in the south and other parts of the country where youths sell off their lands to buy boda boda cycles, here, people have the proclivity to dispose-off valuable assets for alcohol. The situation has reached a pandemic level and yet the societal response is minimal if not timid. One would get the impression that the churches and local authorities have already been defeated. Even the prospect of near death cannot can not deter  alcohol consumption.

END

Anti-corruption fight is a bully for the weak

FIGHTING CORRUPTION

The article by Hon Rose Namayanja Nsereko, the Minister of Information and National Guidance titled “Government has registered victory in fighting corruption” must be applauded and at the same time examined critically (see: DM, Jan 10, 2014). So far, this article is the most comprehensive insight of the progress being made by the office of the Inspector General of Government, the statutory body assigned to fight the endemic vice of corruption in government.

To add a more moderate voice to this rather glamorous account as depicted by the Minister, Uganda is known for having some of best laws in the region. Whether laws against graft or those prohibitive laws against moral corruption, human liberties and so forth. When it comes to writing laws, Uganda has gone off its way to extract laws from Britain and from the United States without fear. Of recent, this country has been able to invoke a colonial law – that ensures preventive arrests on assumptions or prediction of potential breach. 

This law has been used specifically against dissenters like Besigye and others but not on potentially corrupt politicians.

The existence of many robust anti-corruption laws in Uganda is not issue of contestation here. The major ingredient that Uganda lacks in the fight against corruption is the political will to reinforce those laws to their rational ends. In all aspects, the problems that afflict the fight against corruption are also the transformative as well as functional nature of corruption, it being used as a political tool.

Ugandans will not be dubbed by romanticized statistics which glorifies half a success story. While I am tempted to believe that all is rosy at the Ombudsman’s office as the Minister portrays, reality checks may reveal another narrative - far from what government is numbing our nerves with.

First, cases that have been easily disposed are those that affect the less important personalities who commit petty acts of corruption due to poor supervision. The government has deliberately failed to persecute those bigger political fishes whose fingers never leave public purse. And yet, the political class is the most corrupted class. This means the IGG’s office and the police have never had sufficient and real powers to reign in on the politicians.

Second, corruption is the mediating mechanism of the regime upon which patronage and allegiances are negotiated. 

As a consequence, the cost of politics on public purse has become overwhelming at the expense of public service. The cost of public administration and the corruption which sustains it ensures that no public institution can claim to work independently and free of corruption. The IGG’s office and its officers are no exception. This is why those political honchos, who can bribe their way out or those who are connected to the establishment, tend to also evade the wrath of anti-corruption laws as we saw with the Gavi/Global funds scandal.

Thirdly, government’s failures to prioritize funding for anti-corruption institutions and its inherent inability to accept good governance as a principled aspect of the fight against graft, do illustrate their contempt for genuine anti-graft fight. Here and there, favoritism, cronyism, tribalism and the desire for life presidency, comes in handy to compromise any genuine head strong efforts at fighting corruption. The police appear too incompetent to conduct thorough and timely forensic investigation targeting politicians, and even where they have the capacity; their efforts are often thwarted by political interference from above.

These are not far-fetched claims because the recent Office of the Prime Minister’s scandal involving Ministry of Finance where money for reconstruction of Northern Uganda was fleeced, can attest to utter political sabotage in the works of police criminal investigation.

It is therefore justifiable to assert that any successes in the fight against corruption cannot be celebrated when the small fish down there are the target, leaving the politicians and key decision makers to be protected by the status quo.

It is only logical that any victory in the fight against corruption should not be celebrated too soon; else we shall be throwing the baby out with the bath water. Corruption prevails precisely because of thriving inequities in resource distribution. The political class and the corrupted middle class have conspired to operate in the unofficial institutions which have deprived the public institution of resources and sanity. Public servants have resorted to abuse public service because it is not rewarding anymore, so they sit on their hands or abandon it all together for politics.

The injustice is even distressful because the political elite appropriate larger shares of national resources to themselves while they mockingly implore the public servants and peasant farmers to adhere onto patriotism rather than distributive justice and equitable society. Today we hear common slogans like “tusaba gavumenti etuyambe” (we beg our government to help us), which signifies the increasing gap between the government and the common people.

People are increasingly distrustful of their government because of its corrupted way. All they see as the face of this regime are wealthy politicians accumulating personal wealth, while the common man’s space is dwindling and his fate consigned to providence. Like Karl Marx would say, issues of economic production have become too stressful that religion and Premier League have provided the fantasies of solace for the majority of disengaged Ugandans. The anti-corruption fight is one which is perceived as bully for the weak and toothless on the most corrupt.

END

Identity Politics has become the landmark of NRM regime

IDENTITY POLITICS

In writing this article, I have made deep reflections on the evolution of NRM regime in its close to 30 years rule. Most interesting is the current manifestations of the regime, from a promising state builder into the very political organism for which its predecessors were condemned. We all recall in the late 80s and 90s when President Museveni, then liked by the masses as messiah incarnate, would berate the Obote’s UPC regime as a government which had perpetuated tribal factionalism, escalated religious divisionism and above all, a regime that was characterized by obscurantism.

To Museveni, the NRM had come with ten point programs, one key facet of it was the restoration of true democracy, establishing meritocracy in individual merit and so on. That the first ten point programs became the commandments of failures and were revised to fifteen points, then shelved, reveals the point of deviation to where we are today.

President Museveni has excelled in symbolic misrepresentation of both his intentions and relations. Where he promises rule of law and democracy, he instituted and ruled by legal notices, which in themselves are dictatorial decrees; where he promised free democratic society, he imposes the draconian article 269 in the 1995 Constitution to limit fundamental human liberties and rights of people to associate or indulge in free speech and he presides over rigged elections.

These, and many more, explains why it was inevitable for the NRM to become in all purposes and intent, the very vice for which it had promised to resolve.

Today, every public institution is confronted by breakages. Since independence, Uganda’s public service has suffered enormous neglect and mismanagement. Indigenous Ugandans have to endure limited options for basic and fundamental services like healthcare. Our hospitals have become a place where death is vended. 

Schools are in worse possible shape in history and for the record, even the government agrees that the education standards are at its lowest, regionally. Ministry of transportation, roads and infrastructure authorities have presided over the decay of the public transport sector with poor infrastructure all around the country.

Today, Uganda is experiencing growth in the private sector where ordinary Ugandans have been left unprotected against the vagaries of rogue individuals and private institutions. 

Hard-working Ugandans are losing homes over unsustainable mortgages whose rates are unstable; Banks are in cahoots with loan sharks to rip off hard working citizens while the regime watches with glee. The counterfeit products are being imported into the country in full gaze of the regime's minders; food prices are soaring by the day with scarcity of almost every basic food items despite the fact that Uganda still relies on agro-based economy.

Amidst these all, something more stellar a revelation must be made out of courage – identity politics has become the landmark of the NRM regime. 

If the UPC regime got the country divided on ethnic identities, the NRM regime has excelled in perpetuating identity politics. This is something they deny, but available facts counterpoises their obscurantism which is pedaled by a well orchestrated machination.

Frantz Fanon has argued that the chief consequence of identity politics is the rift in the nation along religious and ethnic boundaries. Fanon identifies that it is the national bourgeoisie who flame these religious and ethnic divides for which they are major beneficiaries.

In the case of Uganda's malicious middle class, we must find a plausible explanation to the prevailing rampant decadence in social services and in public institutions. This is attributable to identity politics, if not identity crisis.

We all know that the bush war NRA was founded on the basis of ethnicity in the pretext of fighting the same vice. The original 27 people who started the 1980 bush-war were all people from same ethnic group. The NRM government has retained such a characteristic through its close to 30 years in power. Majority of cabinet and key public service positions are retained by persons from the Western part of Uganda.  

Incidentally, the bulk of the NRA guerillas were nourished by many sons and daughters of former Rwandese exiles living in Western Uganda since 1959. Today, many of them have taken up Ugandan citizenship, while equal number or more, continued to hold dual identities of Ugandan and Rwandese – like the recently slain Col Patrick Karegyera - thereby setting grounds for identity conflict and crisis in loyalty to Uganda as we saw in the Kisangani conflicts. 

And yet, In Uganda, this group wields enormous power and are influential in both private and public sectors. Those in government are strategically located in key military and government positions where their influence remains visibly profound.

Herein lies the dilemma, could the conflicting identities and crisis in loyalty also explains the disparity in degree of commitment to public service delivery between Uganda and Rwanda? Why is Rwanda governed meticulously with social services delivered to near efficiency while in Uganda things have fallen completely apart? Why do we endure this high disregard for public utility in Uganda, while in Rwanda every public officer is accountable, professional and efficient?

In his book, The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon explains that identity politics generate distinctive situations that wear the spirit of a nation out; the ruling class becomes sympathetic to the bourgeoisie who don’t usually care about the welfare of the masses and nation building. Avigail Eisenberg and Will Kymlicker in their 2011 book “Identity politics in public realms: Bringing institutions back in” provided a robust analysis of state response to identity politics and illuminated both the risks and opportunities embedded in state response to identity claims. They concluded that public institutions can either enhance or distort the benefits of identity politics based on the agency of citizenship.

The above citations show that the Ugandan regime has increasingly become supportive of predatory middle class, many of whom are direct beneficiaries or a prodigy of the regime itself. And yet these groups are faced with identity conflict leading to crisis in loyalty to Uganda and to public service. Because of the crucial positions that this conflicted group dominate, the regime’s utmost interests have grown to become exclusively mutual with that of the many impoverished and disenfranchised common citizens of Uganda.

END

Eliminating food losses and wastes could reduce food insecurity

FOOD SECURITY

One of the biggest dilemmas in Uganda is the sight of children who are malnourished and often emaciated due to adequate foods and sick from lack of safe drinking water. Putting the challenge of safe and adequate water aside, this article posits that the problem of food shortage in Uganda is a matter of negligence which should be addressed.

One worrying situation of all Ugandans is food. Families and friends are often alienated from each other because the thought of food required to feed guests does not encourage frequent re-unions. People in urban areas don’t like impromptu visitors from their rural roots because of food costs. Food – whether its availability or scarcity, remains the number one determinant of social relations; it defines and shapes human character and offers deeper implication in the socio-cultural evolution of society.

Principally, the foods that we eat define our culture and identity; it may also define one’s social class and caliber. The way we acquire food and the way we consume it also determines our degree of dignity as human beings. If we are forced to beg, steal or negotiate for a compromised food value, we suffer indignation and constant sense of insecurity. Food scarcity is a major source of insecurity worldwide and this concern is at the core of global health.

Our ability to afford the foods that we want and when we want it also validates our dignity and sense of purpose in life. Ability to afford adequate and nutritious food on timely basis also gives us a liberating mindset – the confidence attributable to successful life beyond mere existence. This liberating potential also defines our social status and relations. It follows that people, who can afford food, can also afford other amenities of life, including healthy children rearing.

It is almost impossible to believe that in Uganda food is scarce. Our annual budget reflects that subsistence agricultural is still employing 85% of Ugandans. This means that 15% of the population is not participating directly in farming. Uganda is a country of nearly 35 million people. That means less than 6 million people are not directly participating in subsistence farming. Unfortunately, the national budget allocation to agriculture which is critical to our economy is still very low, leading to low food production and food insecurity.

A key factor which perpetuates food insecurity is the wasteful nature of our interaction with the foods that we produce. The difference between food loss and food waste can be found along the chain of events that precede food production to consumption. Food loss occurs constantly starting from the way gardens are prepared, crops are planted or catered for; during the use of fertilizers, harvesting, storage, preservation, transportation, and at the market. 

For instance, research in Kenya and India are increasingly showing that between 25-30 percent of fruits produced by local farmers are lost during this process. For fruits such as mangoes, oranges, bananas etc the loss is even enormous because 98% are consumed in the domestic market, while only 2% actually find its way to export markets. Of the 98% in domestic market, it is estimated that 40-50% is lost; birds and animals will eat, children will destroy fruits that are not ready, pests, warms, weather conditions and so many other factors leads to loss of agricultural products. These losses could actually be minimized.

Likewise, food waste is when food arrives at the point of consumption and, because of some reasons; it is discarded or recycled before it is consumed! Definitely, you must have seen how farmers of perishable goods always dump consumable foods in trash at the end of the day. That is waste. Yet, someone in need could have used that food. The estimate of foods wasted in a day is stunning, but close to half of every food or crop that leaves the market to households goes to waste.

FAO reports shows that food loss and food waste actually occur at the early to middle stages of production in developing countries. This means, by the time food reaches the market; more than half of the total volume of produce per harvest, in a season will have been lost or wasted.

Food loss and wastage are a major concern for FAO and food security fraternity globally.  It is important to note that some of the general challenges which affect developing countries also affect food security. Bad governance, corruption and institutional failures, for instance, also ensure that food production distribution and consumption are interrupted. These, lead to persistent food insecurity that is made worse by persevering conflicts and natural disasters and yet food insecurity can itself perpetuate societal conflicts.

For Uganda to minimize food losses and wastage, it is important to invest in major regional food storage facilities, improving agricultural practices, skills and human resources; encouraging farm consolidation and cooperatives for small to medium size farmers; improving on rural roads and distribution system so that food can reach storage facilities and markets on time; provide a sustainable shock prevention mechanisms and tax incentives for farmers who may face adverse conditions, such as insecurity, bad weather roads and natural calamities, such as droughts.

Otherwise, the foods produced in Uganda, should be enough to feed the nation and the surplus could still feed the arteries of the international food markets. But first, we must recognize the imperative to mitigate the rampant food losses and wasting in our food chain.

END

Predicting post 2016 Uganda!

POST 2016

The rapid decline of freedoms in Uganda casts a prospect of doom. Each day, Uganda slides into a state of anarchy and this is perpetuated by state agencies. This decline has resulted in restriction of social, economic and political rights and spaces for Ugandans. This sad state of affairs threatens to undo our strides toward a democratic society.

In less than five years, we have seen drastic changes in the attitude of the state which has become extremely contemptuous of the 1995 Constitution. This confirms that we are continuously reneging from our commitment towards constitutionalism and rule of law.

We continue to bear witness to the evolution of the police to a fully militarized and politicized force; the army and the other security agencies have become instruments of coercion and repression. The common man is left to the vagaries of nature, while the state protects the interest of the ruling elite.

In the last five years, the state has made advances into our private lives. Our conversations are intercepted by the state in total disregard of privacy and confidentiality rights as citizens. Our elected leaders are forcefully removed in total disregards of the mandate of the people who elected them in a manner consistent with Chapter 1(1) of the Constitution. In this way, the state wants to usurp our freedom of expression and the exercising of it.

The justice system has been infiltrated by political appointees who are also conspicuously regime minders. Now than ever before, everyone feels that the judicial system operates on probability of fairness, rather than principles.

The Fourth Estate has borne the brunt of state intolerance through draconian anti-free media laws. Journalists face job insecurity the moment they appear critical of the regime, considered to be empathetic to divergent views and probably, not promoting the regime enough

The enactment of the notorious Public Order Management Act (POMA) has, hitherto, complicated the natural exercise of human liberties and the enjoyment of basic and fundamental freedoms to assemble and associate.

A critical analysis of these repressions, which also manifests in the replenishing of its apparatuses, reveals a deeper sense of mutually exclusive interests between the ruled and their perpetual rulers.

The zeal to radically curtail social, political and economic rights as enumerated above points to one direction; that the regime has become indifferent to fundamental human liberties, notably, the freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of association. 

This also explains why they won’t build good roads; they will prevent public rallies and have instituted preventive arrests. In addition, their impulsive urge to tap into our private telephone conversations and read our emails attests to a situation which is governed my fear, rather than mutual hope.

Moreover, the enjoyment of these rights are enshrined in Chapter 4(29)(1)(a-e) of the Ugandan Constitution that must be revised and upheld by the Police. By extension, the freedom for intellectual development has been rudely thwarted to a stupefying extent.

It appears that the human imagination which enthuse this regime has in essence, conceptualized that the governable Ugandan is one chained in iron shackles. To this end, it has undermined the 1995 Uganda Constitution (as amended), repeatedly with impunity. And yet Chapter 4(20)(1) and (2) of that Constitution is explicit in its affirmation that fundamental freedoms are inherent, and not granted by the state; that the rights of individuals and groups shall be respected and guaranteed by all organs of the state.

If all these assaults on the constitution are happening right now in our full gaze, you don’t have to eschew prophesy to predict what post 2016 Uganda will look like!

I predict that there will be a President of Uganda, Mr. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni whose Executive Orders shall have become law. The post 2016 State will have gained remarkable intrusion into private spaces; all our phones and internet conversations will first be transmitted to a nexus situated in the Statehouse. The state shall determine media materials and dose; membership to NRM and not qualification shall determine one’s entrance to the civil service and state employment.

The police will be solving political crimes exclusively, while human rights will be issued by the state and the enjoyment of it will be in the form of a reward or a favor.

Uganda will have no opposition with the exception of State-created dummies to occupy spaces that should have otherwise been occupied by legitimate opposition; prison walls will expand and torture chambers will multiply.

There will be deterioration in infrastructure, mostly roads to slow us down; air, rail and water transportation will remain heavily guarded by the state. All travels, internal or external will be by pre-authorization permit from an agent of the Inspector General of Police. There will be fewer Ugandans participating in the economy as that will undermine their submission to the status quo…

In short, Ugandans will regret why they slept while the country depreciated to this despicable levels.

END

Give President Kabila a credit for delaying the Kampala peace deal

DRC AUTONOMY

The reading of an article by Mr. Obed Katureebe in the Sunday Monitor of Nov 17, 2013 entitled: “Kabila should sign Congo peace deal to give Congolese best Christmas gift”, smacked of typical arrogant attitude towards DRC. Mr. Katureebe claimed that by not signing the poorly worded, and perhaps an accord written with sinister intentions, President Kabila had goofed! Never mind that President Museveni had described Kabila as interested in advancing Eurocentric agenda in this conflict. 

While Katureebe pointed out correctly that DRC has many internal political problems that transcends the defeat of the M23, he fails to recognize the invalidity associated with this peace deal. I think Kabila and his government deserve credit for not rushing to sign a suspicious document which gives unnecessary concession to banditry.

The circumstances are so contrite in that the mighty M23 have been scattered, disbanded, dissolved and for now, its remnants are taking refuge in Uganda. Uganda confirms that the M23 combatants, numbering to about 1500 men and women are under the UPDF custody. The Uganda government also refuses to hand them over to DRC authority. Uganda is also protecting elements within M23 that Kinshasa accuses of crimes against humanity.

This Congo debacle is an interesting one. But the question to ask is, if indeed Uganda has no vested interest in the M23, M18 or any of the numerous proliferating rogue insurgents in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), why doesn’t Uganda let Congo solve its own internal political problems?

Understandably, Uganda’s role in this conflict is not free of bias. First, it appears as if it is Uganda that is setting terms for the peace deals. In conducting itself this way, not only does Uganda play the guardian role for the M23, but also as a spokesperson. This is not unusual considering the militaristic traditions in Uganda. However, credit ought to be given where it is due. This article apportions credit to the Kabila administration for delaying to sign the so-called peace deal with a group that no longer threatens peace in DRC.

The world woke up on November 5^th, 2013 to the news that the M23 had been subdued by combined UN and Congolese forces. Subsequently, the M23 announced that they would disband immediately. By declaring an end to armed opposition to the Kinshasa government, the M23 surrendered. This means they are not party to any Treaty/ Accord, Armistice or Truce. They should sign a Declaration of permanent dissolution.

In fact, the M23 elements in its entirety should have become refugees in Uganda deserving amnesty from Kabila’s government. Therefore, the 1500 rebels under UPDF custody should have been assigned to UNCHR or confined and compelled to apply for asylum in Uganda. None of these happened. This, perhaps, is the genesis of the misgivings that DR Congo accorded the entire “peace” plan!

Unmistakably, the defeat of the M23 implies an end to armed opposition from one group and should signal a beginning of a protracted search for political solutions to the contestations in DRC. In this circumstance, neither Uganda, nor the international community should have placed expectations on DRC to sign a peace accord. Kabila’s government has to rethink its internal political issues in concert with its opposition groups. 

This sober recollection is entirely internal and could be mediated anywhere, if required. Investment in a peace deal would mean diverting the needed attention for a comprehensive political redress to problems that create instability. The interference by Uganda and its rather belligerent behaviour therefore fall short of impartiality and good neighborliness on all these fronts. 

Uganda has a genuine security interest in the Congo, especially with the Allied Democratic Front hiding in the Congo jungles. Precisely, the absence of government in the Ituri, Oriental and the vast expanse of the Congo border with Uganda, doesn't help us, either. However, a bipartite agreement between Uganda and DRC for joint military and security activities would be secured.

This article would be incomplete without mentioning the fact that Uganda’s interest in Congo appears to be stretching beyond the ADF. Many commentators have alluded to the grand plan of creating a Tutsi dominion in the Great Lakes region, spanning Uganda, Rwanda and Eastern Congo; that, the M23 is intended to fragment Congo into several small governable states with Eastern Congo curving out for a Tutsi dominated state.

However, what is also true is that Rwanda may have an authentic security interest in the area given its history of genocide. But the sheer disrespect for Dr Congo’s territorial integrity and attempts to forcefully usurp the will of its people are highly condemnable.

The likes of Mr. Katureebe should know that Congo is not an annex of Uganda and that the Congolese political dynamic is shaped uniquely, Congo having emerged from years of docility under Mobutu. The Congolese people may appear docile, illiterate, marginalized, impoverished, and disenfranchised by their own government. However, DRC, like any other independent nation, deserves to be respected as an autonomous entity capable of self governance.

END! 

FDC defections are driven by self entitlement

POLITICAL DEFECTIONS

It’s almost three weeks since former FDC strongman, Maj Rubaramira Ruranga returned to the NRM folds. Many commentators remarked spitefully to his defection. Some of the comments and media reaction even emasculated the defection out of proportion.

Maj Rubaramira is a seventy years old man whose political clout has long diminished. His return to NRM was non-political, going by his explanation and should be treated as a mere "homecoming". For many of us, his return to NRM also signified his exit from active politics into focusing on HIV/AIDS struggle. I must hasten to state that the record of Maj Rubaramira as some wishy-washy old man who is swayed by a scintilla of opportunity was prominent.

FDC officials claimed that the departure of Rubaramira would not hurt their prospects or alter their political desires. I agree. However, the gutter media reactions to Maj Rubaramira’s “defection” were mostly uncalled for. Others have reiterated that the Major is a spent political force, and since he was not holding any elective position within FDC, his departure had zero sum effect.

Discussing the "defection" of Maj Rubaramira as an individual in this era of political opportunism will only conceal the overarching patterns of political defections generally. I think as members of the public, we have to discuss the totality of defections, whether that is injurious to our reputation as leaders or not.

This article examines defections patterns in Maj Rubaramira’s former Party - FDC. The confusions currently prevailing in FDC can be traced to the divisive politics during its recent past elections. Major Rubaramira’s politics emphasized a sense of absolute entitlement, rather than promoting social justice, equity and the will of the voters. We now know that such politics also undermines speedy reconciliation after electioneering stress.

To understand defections within FDC quarters, it is important to understand FDC’s history and the nature of its dominant membership. FDC is a merger between Reform Agenda and Parliamentary Advocacy Forum (PAFO).

Most of the drivers of this organization were former NRM ideologues and henchmen in various capacities. Their political ideals were interlaced with militarism and "liberation" attitudes as the mainstay of their ideologies. Ethnically, being from western Uganda and membership in the former NRA were intractable advantages for one to enjoy power and privileges in this Party. Irrespective of its growing national character, the FDC has evolved from the motherboard of original NRM ideology. As conservatives, they aspire to retain these original ideals.

The central argument that most current players in FDC fronted for leaving the mother Party was that it had swayed off its initial ideological stream. Whatever that translates for FDC members like Leader of Opposition, Nandala Mafabi with no roots in the original NRM Party has become increasingly clear. 

Nonetheless, the Party was able to attract to its senior ranks, those who would not have otherwise joined the original NRM with Museveni at the helm. Perhaps, talking to the likes of Hon Cecilia Ogwal, Hon Reagan Okumu, etc who valiantly opposed the original NRM could evince new insights. It may reveal that they had real problems with the unreliable person in President Museveni than the original NRM, or its current hybrid NRMO Party.

To conceptualize defections happening now in FDC and to those, yet at the brink, we have to look beyond the financial and power clouts that these defections may imply on the surface. In my analysis, it is more to do with the sense of absolute entitlement to power that drive these defections - not mere lack of Party structure - as Maj Rubaramira wants us to believe.

Obviously, those who defect from NRM to FDC endure a simple change of political positioning without a change in ideology. For them, FDC is like a ground to reinvent their political relevance once they realize major erosion in their political appeal. FDC provides them with that instant platform to reinvent; to become visible and relevant, politically.

We know that most FDC King-pins are authors of ensuing bad governance of the regime that they now criticize. In the 80s and 90s, they primed up the regime, legitimized it and participated actively in developing draconian laws to stifle dissent. The original NRM was very militaristic and intolerant of opposition. We still remember running battles in the 90s when the military police would indiscriminately fire live bullets at demonstrating students. Scores of students were murdered in cold blood during demonstrations. These tendencies are still visible today with the hybrid NRMO which has diversified its instruments of coercion to include poison, colored water sprinklers, tear gas and of course, live bullets.

Therefore, Maj Rubaramira, like others, will come and return to NRM folds since they are all driven by this sense of absolute entitlement to power rather than principles. For them, NRMO and FDC are like two houses built on the same compound by the same architect. The differences lie in their spatial locations and composition of their occupant at a given time. With that proximity, I foresee more defections and that should be treated as normal. After-all, we all turn in our sleeps!!

END