Why international military intervention in the Central African Republic is likely to fail.

Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou suggests why international military intervention in the Central African Republic is likely to fail. - Project Syndicate

A year of unfulfilled dreams and revitalized ambitions

The past few months have been quite challenging for me, particularly the last half of 2013. My resolutions for this year were largely to be achieved in the second half. I was met with frustration and disappointment right from the first month of the third quarter. The Job I had been counting on could not be given because apparently the status of the potential employer at the company had changed. That meant I had to postpone my entry into a career I had loved so much and dedicated almost half a decade of my life preparing for.

Nevertheless, I got an offer at a government ministry. I gladly took it up though it had little to do with my preferred career path, largely because I desperately needed something to do. Don’t get me wrong but I’m not the type that enjoys long spells of redundancy. I was happy to be making a small contribution to building my country especially in a sector that is seriously lagging behind compared to any standard worth its name.

In the meantime, I was busy browsing the internet and scrounging newspapers looking for any available opportunities. Having applied for one such opportunity in a large group of companies, I went through a month of interviews until the last one where I discovered someone had been groomed to take that position right from the first interview. I took that failure gracefully and moved on. A couple more applications later and absence of responses, I resigned myself to reapplying after graduation.

The experience at the Ministry has not been a rosy one. If you have worked in a place without a contract and living at the mercy of the boss hoping he will have some consideration for your plight, you may partly know what I mean. You won’t know all of it because my kind of boss actually doesn’t care. In fact, as I speak now, I’m leaving for Christmas without being paid because someone somewhere pocketed some money he wasn’t supposed to, so our package was used to refund it after accountability was demanded. So now you have an idea of what kind of year I have had. There is little I would have achieved on the part of my personal resolutions under the circumstances.

That is not to say that I am perfect. I have made a few mistakes along the way. Some people have tried to pull me down, maybe with good reason. There have been times I thought I was almost beyond saving. But I bounced back revitalized and reenergized. In the same vein, I have had triumphs and successes. I have grown and metamorphosed into a better writer, better reader, a commentator, a quantity surveyor, a friend and a Christian. Like the good people of God, i have found strength in adversity and picked wisdom from my failures. I have tried to learn forgiveness from my friends and to settle feuds without bitterness. I have learnt not to succumb to evil but to challenge it. I have learnt to trust and always appeal to a higher power in all situations. I have learnt to give thanks in all circumstances and live each day at a time. I have cofounded a savings and investment group with boundless opportunities. I have learnt to love with all my heart and laugh really heartily. I have dedicated my life to service for my country. I have written widely about the principles of good governance, constitutionalism and human rights. I have condemned poor governance and anti-democratic practices in the same forum.

Though i look at life, career and business as clear uphill battles in the coming years, these are battles I am ready to fight. I feel much revitalized and I have redirected my energies. Next year is a year of achievement coupled with even greater ambition. I will reach into my inner being and find whatever strength and motivation I need to succeed. I will also continue to appeal to a higher power and hold onto the Hope that His son brings as we receive him birthed unto us to clear our way of obstacles. And for those people who plan to pull me down, I have three little words: I am success. The one who made me has given me permission to spread my wings and fly, and not even you can stop me.

Pathias. A

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.




William Ernest Henley

Elitism and Lessons from Nelson Mandela

Many of us woke up in the morning of 6^th December, to the heartbreaking news of the departure of perhaps the greatest statesman to have ever lived in Africa and maybe the entire world. We all knew that Nelson Mandela’s time to part with us was coming sooner or later, but nevertheless, nothing seems to have prepared us for this profound loss. Mr. Mandela’s renowned and illustrious political struggle for equality, justice and human rights endeared him to the hearts of almost everyone who lived in his time and beyond. He championed reconciliation and forgiveness after enduring great suffering for a large part of his life at the hands of the apartheid regime. And to me, that will forever remain his beacon of excellence as someone who was larger than life itself. He is the hero for all freedom loving people and he will forever be remembered for giving the world human dignity.

I belong to the school of thought that believes people like Mandela should not be mourned but celebrated. My culture taught me that when a person has grown old and attained a certain age group, when they finally rest, we shouldn’t mourn their death but celebrate their achievements for the time we shared our lives with them. And indeed Mandela said he wanted to be remembered as a man who had lived his life and served his purpose on earth. He taught the continent to forgive and the world to be moral.

As tributes poured in from all corners of the globe to the great leadership icon, one could observe everyone trying to associate themselves with the man. Even those who caught a glimpse of him at an airport or a major rally at a state visit are struggling to compile a few paragraphs to describe the experience in his tribute. This kind of endearment to almost everyone is unprecedented. Unfortunately, we do not seem to have benefitted from his legacy. And like a local commentator said, either Mandela had very bad students or he was a bad teacher. Personally, I’m compelled to believe the former to be true. Albeit, I think it’s not too late.

The lessons he taught, emphasized and lived by seem to have remained stories for researchers and authors. Justice, reconciliation, political accommodation, sacrifice for what is good, rule of law, equality, et al. are ideals that we still struggle to find in today’s leaders in Africa and beyond. One may argue that Mandela found himself compelled to live up to the image that had been built around him while he was languishing in jail for almost three decades. My opinion however is that the choices he made and the ideals he upheld are what delivered him to that revered place in every one’s mind.

The elites in Uganda and indeed the world have run to Twitter and Facebook,  in this social media driven age, to write their favourite quotes of Mandela and to produce a semblance of inspiration they might have drawn from the leader. The truth however is that these same elites are not living these lessons but rather directly or indirectly perpetrating the new “apartheid” of poverty, inequality and injustice.  We the elites have failed to walk the talk. We rather have acquired talent but failed on ethics. We have skills that lack values and knowledge devoid of conscience. We applaud the disregard of the law as long as it serves our inherent strategic interests of advancing our position in society and getting us closer to the pot of gold. We knowingly abet government’s aggression of political dissent to appear favourable to the powers that be. In such times of political crisis when constitutionalism is on trial and laws are being skewed to reflect the wishes of the regimes or else risk being ignored, opportunism is on offer and the elites have on more than several occasions fallen short of the ‘Mandela principles’.

We cannot build a modern, democratic and transformed society if we the elite remain selfish, uncompromising and continuously fail to form a constructive debate and activism to deliver us there. We must rise up to the occasion where the powers at the centre have failed to hold. It seems like the best of us lack the conviction while the worst are full of passion and intensity.

We must stop protecting and excusing the corrupt because they ‘are part of us’ in terms of ethnicity, religion or political affiliation and yet we call on the rest to be sacrificed. These double standards will not help us build a world we can be proud of. We must not seek self-gratification but work as instruments of good and social transformation that we have been empowered to be. A life of service is the true mark of achievement. Mandela’s life doesn’t require a further example. The great scriptures are very clear in reference to elites that, “to those whom much is given, much will be required.”

Let us not just be proud of Mandela’s immense achievement but rather get inspired to dig out that small Mandela in each of us and bring him onto the stage to honour his legacy.

Fare thee well Madiba.

What I’m really Thankful for; this Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving in the United States. I don’t live in the US but I generally recognize and celebrate this day because,…well, I have a lot to be thankful for and I believe gratitude is very important in the grand pursuit of happiness on earth. So, wherever you live, I hope you have something to be thankful for this Season. 
Here’s what I’m really thankful for;

Family

I have been blessed beyond measure to have been born in my family. There are things we don’t usually appreciate until we lose them. Fortunately for me, I have not lost any of the family members, to whom I have grown up to love and be attached so much. We are a pretty close and tight bunch. You know that Father whom you are free to share with everything about you, whom you walk with around the farm in the evenings, who gets genuinely frustrated about people who frustrate you? How about that Mother who reproves you in a very kind manner? Who disagrees with you and sometimes risks annoying you all because they have your best interest at heart? The freedom they have given me, to make my own choices, my own mistakes, learn my own lessons without forcing things down my throat, has shaped me into who I am today. The time I spend with my siblings, their guidance and counsel, their noise and love, their protection and wisdom, all is priceless. I’m extremely thankful for the gift of family. I couldn't ask for a better family to belong to that this.

Friends

Everyone gets a chance for making a new friend almost every day. Personally, I had not been very good at making friends.  Blame it on my inferiority complexes and insecurities in my early life. Thankfully, I outgrew those. Over the past few years, I have grown a steady and diverse group of friends. I tell some people that I have better friends than theirs, not because I’m a braggart but because I couldn’t imagine friends better than mine. We disagree, just like any other friends. We argue. We get pissed at each other for a while.  But we also share light moments. We do good deeds together. We help one another. We embrace Christ and Ministry. We party together. We share each other’s burdens. We rely on each other. Disappointments come and go, but above all, we have each other’s backs. And to me, that’s the greatest. And my circle of friends keeps expanding. My latest addition is fast becoming my best. I am eternally grateful for my friends.

Life

We sometimes take life for granted. We think we ought to be alive. Truth is, we don’t. It’s just the grace of God that we were not involved in that accident or that we didn’t eat that poisoned food the other day. There’s no justification for our life, apart from God’s sympathy and forgiveness. Lord, I’m extremely thankful being a perennial sinner; you have still kept me alive to this day.

Work

“Do everything like you are doing it unto God in Heaven.” In my country Uganda, there are millions of unemployed people who have every right to be employed because they studied, went through all the hardships of school and attained the qualifications that they got. But sadly, that does not guarantee you employment. We live in a world where “who you are” and “who you know” matters more than “what you can do.” I’m extremely thankful that even when I didn’t have any special attachments to people in high places, God has provided me something to do before I even graduate. It might not be big or what I had anticipated, but it’s something.  And I believe bigger things are yet to come.

Love

I have loved and lost. But my spirit and commitment to love has not been broken. I have not reached a level of giving up on love. I believe I still have something in me that I want to give out to someone special. I don’t have a specially unique background. Growing up, I have learnt both sides of Having and Lacking. I have committed myself to helping those who are in need as long as I’m in position to. Because I know exactly what it means to be in their position. And I’m not going to give up on my cause to give (love) to someone.  Yes; I’m thankful for the Love in my heart.

Salvation

The Love of God is the beginning of all wisdom. I’m very grateful to have known God in my early life, again; credit to my lovely parents. The foundation they gave me to trust and believe in a higher power has seen me through some of the most impossible situations in life. When I have allowed God to take the wheel, most often because there’s nothing I could do in my power, He has always held my hand and pulled me up. He has taught me that my ability can only reach so far. He has promised me forgiveness and showered me with gifts I didn’t deserve. I’m eternally grateful to have the ultimate gift of Salvation through His son Jesus Christ.

There’s much more I’m thankful for, but for the sake of the readers’ time, I chose to highlight the above most important ones.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING….

Ms. Musisi should watch out to avoid being used.

The melodrama and open witch hunting of the Lord Mayor of Kampala and other opposition leaders is not anything less than disgusting in a country that pretends to be a democracy under the constitution. Over the past close to three years, ‘Kampalans’ have seen an improved city. The sanitation has improved; some formerly ramshackle markets have since been transformed into permanent and better structures. The newly lit streets have been cleared of illegal vendors and motorists who park anywhere to cause traffic jam have faced deserved punishments.  Taxis have got a new park with a paved floor, major roads have been improved and others are due to be improved. And most importantly, revenue collection has improved several-fold in the city.

All these developments have been attributed, to a large extent, to the technical team headed by Ms. Jennifer Musisi, that was ushered in under the new KCCA Act. The political wing of the Authority has taken little or no credit at all as it seems to have been doomed from the onset, struggling to convene meetings and having meeting minutes unsigned (which somehow tells us something about the contents of those minutes). The fact that the Lord Mayor, an opposition figure was pitted to work with (or under) the presidential appointee Executive Director was bound to cause friction. But some analysts have admitted that no one expected this kind of dirty politics that is being played out in the city. The regime seems to have gone to an all-time low in trying to clamp down on any voice of dissent.   

Unfortunately, the Executive director, a technocrat with probably no political intentions, has been caught up in this mess and is viewed as a pone in the president’s fight with opposition leaders. Having been visibly frustrated by the Lord Mayor’s actions or the lack thereof, as has been described in the KCCA Tribunal Report, she has had to step up to the occasion on certain fronts.  But as a respectable lady, God fearing and with a legal background, she should be careful not to overstep her powers or undermine the law in a rush to act on her ‘assignments’. For the E.D to be seen as undermining the Mayor by inviting the president to preside over the Authority’s ceremonies, a duty that clearly falls under the Mayor’s docket in Article 11.1(c) of the KCCA Act, and herself presiding over the swearing-in ceremony of controversially elected councilors representing professional bodies, yet another duty that falls under the Mayor’s functions in the Act doesn’t do much to preserve her credibility.   

The Act itself does not come without its own flaws, such as denying the Electorate any participation in the process of removing the Lord Mayor yet he/she is democratically elected, together with the seeming overlapping and ambiguity of some of the powers and functions of the Lord Mayor and the E.D. Right from the beginning of the squabbles and power struggles at City Hall, many analysts around town argued that Kampala, a region that seems to have eluded the NRM politically for many years, is too strategic for the President to let it go to the opposition. In fact some argued that the conception of establishing the authority was essentially to bring back the city into the hands of the ruling party, having failed to get their choice of mayor elected on several elections. After witnessing the Councilors’ petition, the KCCA Tribunal with its report, and the aftermath of their findings, I’m inclined to believe that indeed this has been a process to remove Mr. Lukwago as a person from the Lord Mayorship. Key in my observation was the rush to elect councilors representing professional bodies to fully constitute the council that has not been constituted for almost three years of the Authority’s existence, and swearing them In shortly, just in good time for the “impeachment meeting”.

We should not forget that one of these councilors elected has allegations of email exchanges with the Minister for Kampala, Lukwago’s nemesis, hanging over his head.

It has been argued before that Law is a child of politics in any country. Therefore, the bad politics in Uganda couldn’t have yielded a good law. Case in point is the recently passed Public Order Management Act which is now being used to clamp down the Lord Mayor and other opposition figures in this country.

A visiting South-African professor while appearing on a Local TV Morning Talk show said having witnessed the Apartheid regime in South Africa and the Mugabe Regime in Zimbabwe, he had never seen what he saw in Uganda as Opposition leaders were being hurled into police vans, beaten continuously, and re-arrested outside of a court-room that had just granted them bail.

Lukwago may have made some mistakes. Who hasn’t anyway? But for the Minister of Kampala and his clique of councilors to be seen to undermine a democratically elected leader who represents the largest diverse group in the country with a multiplicity of ethnicities, tribes and backgrounds, does not bode well with the electorate and any reasonable person who believes in rule of law and justice. To an ordinary man, the process to impeach Lukwago may seem like it has been done according to the law. But someone with a better political lens can see the manipulation of the system and the injustice right from the day the councilors conceived the idea of removing Lukwago, to constituting the Tribunal, and then to locking Lukwago’s lawyers outside City Hall as they delivered a Court Injunction to block the meeting that passed a resolution to impeach him. This regime and its functionaries must bear in mind that in any democracy, which Uganda pretends to be, Justice must not only be done but must be seen and believed to be done. Lukwago has been portrayed as helpless in this whole process and frustrated in his efforts to get fair hearing. It seemed like once a political decision to impeach Lukwago was made, the law has to align itself to that decision. Else it risked being ignored. I can only predict this to blow back in the faces of those perpetuating it.

Until recently, Ms. Musisi has been generally seen as a respectable lady with integrity and a fresh breath of much needed development in this city.  She should however desist from acting like an appendage of the regime seeking to perpetuate its survival and tighten its grip on Kampala. As a technocrat, she should avoid being involved in political struggles and stick to doing her work of delivering better services to the residents of the city. Lest, she risks having her integrity dragged through the mad and gotten rid of when the establishment no longer fancies her collaboration.

Do Africans buy into the booming Africa narrative? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Do Africans buy into the booming Africa narrative? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Forget the M23: Let’s deploy Bitature, Mukwano to Congo - Daniel Kalinaki - monitor.co.ug

This is worth reading and Sharing. Not only for people in the Great Lakes Region but World Wide.
Forget the M23: Let’s deploy Bitature, Mukwano to Congo - Daniel Kalinaki - monitor.co.ug

Fighting against peace: Why US doesn’t want an end to wars — RT Op-Edge

Fighting against peace: Why US doesn’t want an end to wars — RT Op-Edge

Two-Faced Allies - Pakistan and the U.S. - NYTimes.com

Two-Faced Allies - Pakistan and the U.S. - NYTimes.com

DR Congo’s Problems are far from over

The M23 rebels in DRC might be all but a spent force, if I may borrow the words of the UN envoy in DRC, but the war and the general problems of Congo are far from over. After four days of heavy shelling and fighting in the Kivu province, the Congolese army backed by the UN intervention brigade looked to have emerged victors as the M23 abandoned most of their positions, the latest being the Bunagana stronghold on the Ugandan border with Congo. Foreseeing a breakdown of the peace talks in Kampala, the UN Security Council authorised an intervention force composed of mainly South Africa and Tanzanian armed forces to launch an offensive on the M23 rebels, the fruits of which are what the UN envoy seems to refer to in the above mentioned statement. Congolese soldiers could be seen jubilating and some were quoted saying they will have a feast to celebrate their great triumph over the rebels that have been a thorn in their back for a couple of years now. 

Anyone who knows the history and the geopolitical situation surrounding the crisis in Congo would not be so fast to congratulate the Congolese forces and their UN underpinnings. From the days of Colonialism, Congolese have never seen stability in their country. In a country with a total area of 905,600 square miles and a population of over 70 million, it is hard to exert far reaching authority to every part with hardly any functioning institutions and infrastructure worth talking about. In my opinion, this is where DRC’s problems start from. 

All the governments Congo has had in the last 50 years have been in the least, dysfunctional. Right from Prime minister Patrice Lumumba in 1960, who inherited a country left deeply divided by the Belgians which was followed by civil war and temporary fragmentation of the country and led to his murder with alleged complicity of US and Belgium, to the dictatorial days of coup master Mobutu Sese Seko, and on to Kabila the father and the son, absentee governance and plunder have been the order of the day in the mineral rich nation.

With this situation prevailing in a country that boasts of the rarest of minerals and the recent discovery of Oil, the black Gold in the Albertine region, Congo remains in a perilous situation. World powers and Neighbours alike, want a piece of the mineral cake. With an army too weak and too corrupt to even safeguard a small percentage of the minerals and definitely not incentivized enough to even protect the citizens, the result is the anarchy we see every day in Congo. The government is often too weak or simply not willing to provide even the most basic of needs to the citizens. The lack of these basic necessities has led citizens to illegal procurement of guns to protect themselves. The guy with the biggest guns is the one to collect taxes from mining companies and traders to be able to send his child to school across the Ugandan border. The absence of health facilities, schools, roads, et al has driven Congolese to the brink especially in the Eastern region. With the Kinshasa government, nearly as far away as London is from Moscow, making mining deals with the Chinese and pocketing all the proceeds, the people had no choice but to resort to self-rule.

For a very long time, there was no significant authority felt in the Eastern part of DRC, specifically the mineral-rich Kivu province. The two wars in Congo in the 1990’s which sucked in up to seven African countries, both started in Kivu. M23 came in to stand in the gap. And it is not the only group that had their base in this province. The Mai Mai, an umbrella term for several armed groups led by war lords and tribal leaders, which were set up to defend their local areas of interest in the absence of the Kinshasa government also reside here. They own large chunks of land rich in Gold, Tin and Coltan, from which they derive their livelihood. And in typical Congo style, if they can provide security and a few services to the residents, then that’s all the legitimacy they need. The Mai Mai have been an active participant in all the wars in Kivu.

Then there’s the FDLR, the relatively strong Rwandan 1994 genocide perpetrators. These have been a source of friction between DRC and Rwanda because the Rwandese hate that Congo gave the FDLR a nice welcome after committing atrocities in Rwanda. Analysts have observed over the years, that Rwanda has never been fully convinced that FDLR is totally unable to launch another attack on its territory. And this is what keeps Rwanda keen on the happenings in DRC.

In the wake of an impending weakening of the M23 rebels, other armed groups are springing up to take a stand against the Congolese government. The most recent being the M18, which has displaced and caused thousands of Congolese to flee into the northern Uganda district of Koboko. 

The UN intervention force may have helped the Congolese army to win back Eastern DRC for now. But how long can they stay? How sustainable is this victory and what happens when they leave? Is the Congolese army strong enough to maintain peace in that region? If not, are we going to see an occupation by the South African and Tanzanian forces? With Tanzania being seen as having gone against the general position of the International Committee of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) of talking peace in Kampala instead of combat, what are the likely effects of this seeming betrayal on its relationship with its Neighbours and the outcome of the war in Congo? All these are questions whose answers are yet to be established. 

What can be done to resolve this war?

I wish to suggest two options. One being to let the war play out until a victor emerges. I know this sounds extremely evil. But war, though with its evils has a way of establishing order if given a chance to play out until either a decisive winner emerges or until both parties are exhausted are they decide to seat on a round table and discuss peaceful means of resolving their conflict. The hope of succeeding militarily must seem impossible for both parties to be attracted to the idea of talking peace and establishing a lasting resolution. What we have seen in Congo is continuous interference by other parties into the conflict. Cease-fires and armistices have frequently been imposed under the aegis of the Security Council in order to halt fighting. Peace talks that never materialize are the order of the day. The truth is, during these ceasefires, the factions are busy rearming and re-strategizing. This creates an impression that they can win and protracts the conflict even longer, especially when the ceasefire ends, as it usually does.

The other option to solve this conflict would be to split Congo into three or four autonomous states. This idea looks set to bring an end to the war in Sudan. Though with its challenges, I believe it could bring lasting peace in Congo. Kinshasa is so far from Kivu that its authority cannot be felt, let alone recognized. Ironically, Rwanda and Uganda probably have more players in authority in Eastern DRC than the Kinshasa government. The Mineral rich Kivu should be allowed to break off a government they do not recognize and appreciate, and be left to form their own state. Then we can work towards establishing democracy, building institutions and repatriating former combatants in that area without worrying about an absentee government that only shows up to extract truck-loads of minerals without caring as much to build a proper road. 

Either way, a lasting solution in DRC won’t come from outside interventionists. The UNSC passed a resolution authorizing the intervention brigade quoting an ambiguous or probably nonexistent clause of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. This happened while the ICGLR was conducting peace talks in Kampala to try and resolve the conflict. Parties cannot have significant peace talks when one is busy being clobbered. It is a general feeling that the Kinshasa government is no longer interested in the talks having seen that they could win on the battle field, of course only with the UN force backing. The contrasting events happening on the battlefield and in Kampala need to be harmonised. With the political leaders set to meet in Pretoria on Monday, 4th November, we hope they will make a decisive resolution. The Congolese army may seem likely to win the battle. But the war in Congo is very far from over.

Our Fear of Al-Qaeda Hurts Us More Than Al-Qaeda Does - David Rohde - The Atlantic

Our Fear of Al-Qaeda Hurts Us More Than Al-Qaeda Does - David Rohde - The Atlantic

As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government must stop media | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | theguardian.com

As Europe erupts over US spying, NSA chief says government must stop media | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | theguardian.com

US DRONE STRIKES IN PAKISTAN

US DRONE STRIKES IN PAKISTAN

Pulling out of the ICC would be Myopic and self serving!

African leaders had an extra ordinary two-day summit on the weekend under their umbrella organisation, the African Union (AU) to discuss the continent’s relationship with the International Criminal Court among other issues. The passed a resolution demanding that proceedings against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta linked to the 2007-2008 post-election violence be dropped.

"The manner in which the Court has been operating, particularly its unfair treatment of Africa and Africans, leaves much to be desired," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told ministers and delegates at the opening of the meeting. 

A source in Addis Ababa said only a handful of countries mainly from East Africa were advocating a withdrawal from the court. The summit came as Kenyatta launched a fresh bid to have the ICC case against him stopped citing "serious, sustained and wide-ranging abuse on the process of the court carried out by" three witnesses in collaboration with the court’s investigators. Kenyatta's lawyers have said that if it is found that those involved abused the court process, "it would necessitate a permanent stay of the proceedings".

The consideration of a mass withdrawal from the ICC, unprecedented in the history of the international legal order, has understandably sent shockwaves across many capitals in Europe, among mainstream international human rights community and even in the elite African population.

“African leaders behind the move to extract the continent from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are effectively seeking a licence to kill, maim and oppress their people without consequences.” Those were the un-minced words of pan-Africanist Archbishop Desmond Tutu. That was about 48 hours before the said leaders passed a unanimous decision demanding that no African serving leader should appear before any international court. The Kenyan Vice President William Ruto whose trial was already underway has gone ahead to travel back to the ICC, regardless of the AU decision.

The argument African leaders are putting up that the ICC is racist may seem real at face value when you weigh the numbers indicted by the court. But with deeper factual analysis, you quickly realize that Africa has a real governance problem, coups, terror and impunity. Constitutionalism and rule of law are totally alien in some countries, much as we see periodic elections and failed attempts at democracy. I have made this argument before and I will make it again. Elections and a constitution do not guarantee democracy without independent institutions to apply checks and balances on the system. Africa has suffered the consequences of unaccountable leaders for so long. The live a life completely aloof of the common man and are incognizant of the fact that power belongs to the people in any democracy. Probably because, like is the case in my country, when a leader grabs power through a military coup, and they go on to manipulate election results for the next many decades to claim legitimacy, convincing them that power belongs to the people is a tall order. 

We have countries on this continent where institutions have been deliberately run down to undermine rule of law. In Uganda, it takes the president years to appoint judges to fully constitute the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. The country can even go for months and months without a substantive Chief Justice, deputy chief justice and Director of Public Prosecution. Judges, like any other government position, are appointed not based on merit but on how loyal one is to the ruling establishment.

When people are murdered and displaced, any voice of dissent harassed, locked up and denied rights as basic as free movement, thrown in jail on trumped-up charges, one would hope that in any country, their own systems of justice and fairness would hold the perpetrators accountable. But who represents the interests of the victims in their pursuit for justice when that country’s justice system is unwilling or unable to help them? Who finds justice for the victims of the war in Northern Uganda, Darfur in Sudan, the hundreds of women raped in DRC every week or the thousands killed in Kenya six years ago? Don’t we care at all, to end this impunity and create a better Africa for the next generation?

The ICC, ratified by 121 countries, 34 of which are African, was specifically set up to try cases of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression. The DRC militia leader Thomas Lubanga is the only person that has been convicted so far but the court is investigating cases in Uganda, Kenya, Mali, Libya, DRC, Sudan, Ivory Coast and Central African Republic. Looking at those countries is quite telling.

Leaving the ICC would mean violent militias could invade a sovereign country for any reason, kill and displace people, milk their resources and if the war mongers in the US are not interested, get away scot free. Terror and coups would be licenced. Imagine how the situation would change if perpetrators of impunity had no ramifications to worry about. Imagine Northern Nigeria, Sudan, CAR, Mali, and Egypt.

This fuss of Africa Rising ceases to make sense when we cannot commit ourselves to uphold basic principles of Justice and rule of law. Otherwise how can we even raise our voice to be heard on the world stage when we can’t even guarantee such to our people? Everyone has a duty to adhere to these principles; they are part of global collective responsibility and they should not be optional.

The greatest concern for many an African Leader is the impossibility of guaranteeing that tomorrow they will not be dragged through the ICC process considering the mischief they have done and continue to do to further entrench themselves in power. While personal interest of African leaders looms very large in here, this concern also speaks to the reality of global power politics that insulates leaders of major powers of the world, who undertake various military operations in various parts of the world, from ICC processes, a privilege African leaders don’t enjoy. 

The ICC denied a request by AU passed in May to refer the Kenya cases back home. This was probably a wise decision considering many Kenyans don’t seem to believe in the local justice system to be shielded from the long arm of manipulation by the powers at play.

Although it was prominent on the agenda of AU's extraordinary summit, mass withdrawal of African member states of ICC was always going to be an unlikely outcome. The failure to build consensus to take a decision requiring African states to withdraw from the ICC was probably for the good.

The ICC was established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. The Rome Statute that established the court provided victims with the opportunity to have their voices heard and to obtain justice for their suffering in a context where the local justice system may not guarantee this, as the case is in most African countries and elsewhere. Pulling out of the ICC would be a myopic decision that Africans would regret for generations to come. And I am not sure if African presidents should be taking such decisions on behalf of their countries considering that their representation of the true sentiments of their citizens cannot be substantiated!

Raids Show the Limits of U.S. Military Strikes - NYTimes.com

Raids Show the Limits of U.S. Military Strikes - NYTimes.com

Civilian rule and Elections do not necessarily mean democracy.

A recent interaction on BBC Radio got me to think really hard. The topic on the show known as #BBCAfrica Debate was whether democracy can deliver for Africa. The debate involved citizens from Zambia and Nigeria. These are two African countries that consider themselves to be under democratic governance. Nigeria has been a democracy for just 14 years after years of military rule. After that transition, it has been dogged by civil wars, religious chaos, terrorism and most recently, protests of hundreds in major cities demanding greater transparency from their leaders.

Zambia is currently battling civil strife from opposition groups that claim misrule and poor governance, unfulfilled promises by the government and lack of sensitivity to the plight of common citizens. They advance issues like a broken health system, poor education and infrastructure, suppression of any kind of dissent and lack of political space for the opposition and civil society. An opposition figure was dragged through court proceeding for three years for alleged defamation of the president.

First things first, it’s important to define democracy? It is a system of government based on the principle of majority decision making and equal representation of people where every citizen has a free and equal right to participate in decision making process.

Generally this definition tries to emphasize the fact that ultimate power belongs to the people, In this case, the citizens of a nation. 

The basic tenets of a democracy include a government of three arms; The Executive, Judiciary and Legislature (Parliament).  More so, the existence of rights and basic freedoms of speech, expression, worship, movement and choice of leaders through periodic elections also hinge democracy. The power belongs to the people and all other authority is subject to their will.

I felt it important to spell out these aspects clearly so that we get a clear hindsight before we discuss what works for Africa and what doesn’t. I won’t visit every country but, events in South Africa, Sudan, Egypt and other nations facing suppression of freedoms, lawlessness, impunity have quite a story to tell. Considering Uganda which I’m more familiar with, perhaps we can draw parallels about democracy. It is important to point out that Uganda has never had a peaceful regime change since Independence. Change of government has only come to us through military coups, assassinations and exiling leaders. However, when she made the choice to go democratic and promulgated what is celebrated as one of the best constitutions in Africa, we went to the polls in 1996. The two landmark achievements of a new constitution and elections were the baby steps of a young democracy. Over the years, we have had routine elections every five years and however much we have wanted change; we seem unable to cause it especially at the top.

Looking at Uganda’s situation logically, the idea that we are a democratic country is just that, an idea. In my country, the president (a semi-retired army General) appoints all Judges of the Supreme Court of the land including the Chief Justice, Court of Appeal/ Constitutional Court, the Attorney general, Solicitor general, Inspectorate of Government,  the Head of Electoral Commission, the Inspector General of police (who is a military General), the Chief of Defence Forces and his party elects Speaker of Parliament. In a situation where the citizens fall out with the regime, it would be wishful to think that with all these powers in appointments borne by the president and the institutional breakdown that he has presided over for the past close to three decades, the people can still wield the power given to them as would be in a true democracy. 

Elections are rigged in broad daylight with the full knowledge of the EC boss who works on instructions, the army is used to whip and intimidate people to vote against their will. Evidence adduced in Court finds cadre Judges waiting to quash it after a phone call from State House. Military men are appointed in civil ministerial positions and the Appointments committee of parliament is intimidated to uphold such in clear contravention of the very constitution they swore to protect. High Court justices are cadres of the ruling party and yet we still expect to go to these courts and get fair judgements when we are towing a different line from that of the ruling party. Parliament has become a voting machine for draconian laws that are proposed with the sole aim of suppressing dissent and further entrenching the president in power. Case in point is the recent Public Order Management Bill.

Orders from above have replaced constitutionalism and rule of law. Everything that can possibly go wrong has gone wrong. Institutions have been intentionally run down and the little breath left in their lives turned into appendages of the regime. Regime sympathisers are put in influential positions without a shred of merit and they end up running down the institutions and carrying away sacks of money, totally oblivious of the plight of the citizens. Theirs is no accountability to the citizens whatsoever. All we see is thieves being offered bigger positions in government as reward for sticking to the party positions.

Ghana who are supposed to be our heroes of democracy in Africa vote on tribal lines and the president can boldly say, ”northerners” should vote for him. Dirty politics and ethnocentrism lie under that shiny veil of Ghana's democracy.

True democracy can only hold with strong institutions, literacy and empowered people. True democracy comes from below, where leaders are accountable to the people below them and the people have the space to enjoy their rights and freedom to change leadership in periodic free and fair elections.

Unfortunately for most African Nations, what we have here is not democracy. It’s an illusion of democracy. It’s a periodic trek to the polling station while confronted with the thought that probably your choice will not matter but also hoping for serendipity. It’s the politics of pre-determined election results and imposition of leaders on people.  This painful helplessness and lack of power to cause change has pushed the numbers of those who choose to abscond from voting to grow exponentially

.

A friend of mine, out of frustration once suggested that we should outsource governance to Rwanda or China for decade so as to set things back on track. Unfortunately, none of those countries has an impeccable record of democratic governance. 

Back to the question; Can democracy deliver for Africa? My answer is, Yes it can. The issue is we do not have it yet. It would be a grave mistake to confuse Elections (a periodic ritual with no real substance) and civil rule with democracy. Those are not one and the same. Just like absence of war doesn’t necessarily mean peace.

@PathyKlinn

UNITED AND STRONGER IN GRIEF…KENYA #WeAreOne

The events of last weekend in Kenya at the West gate Mall have left all of us gripped with grief and anxiety at the heinous and senseless killing of innocent civilians and holding others hostage for close to 96 hours in what is arguably the worst and most prolonged act of terror in the world. Reports of sporadic gun shots, explosions, sirens and victim rescue operations have dominated both local and international media since that fateful Saturday that almost all of us East Africans wish we could forget. A spate of horrific tales from survivors began to trickle in early Sunday morning shortly before Al-Shabab, the notorious terrorist group based in Somalia and linked to Al-Quaeda, claimed responsibility of the attack on social media.

In the midst of shock and terror that gripped us all on the news of the attack, Kenyans took to social media to express their disbelief, and others, their anger. The dreaded promise that the terrorists had made to attack Kenya had come true. As stories of lost loved ones began to emerge, the shock became more real by the minute. Terror became a reality that Kenyans, amidst their anguish had to accept and deal with. Joined by Ugandans on Twitter (#UOT) and other people from all over the world, Kenyans expressed solidarity in the most outstanding way that any civil society has ever known. They were determined to defeat this monster that had invaded their land. 

In the most unified voice on social media, using the hashtag #WeAreOne, Kenyan put their differences aside and commenced on an effort that would see more than half a million US dollars collected on mobile money to condole the victims of the Westgate attack, in a space of 48 hours, matatu drivers cut their fares by half to facilitate the easy movement of people to blood donation centres, droves of potential blood donors that overwhelmed the Kenyan Red Cross that some had to be turned away. Earlier on in what is arguably the biggest gesture of unity for Kenyans, President Uhuru Kenyatta addressed the nation on the tragedy that had befallen them, alongside his election rivals Raila Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi who did not fall short of mentioning that this tragedy had befallen Kenya as a nation and must be confronted in unison. This gesture went a long way in refreshing the Ubuntu spirit in Kenyans, reminding them that we are all Kenyans before we are anything else. That our differences must be put aside if we are to successfully mount a challenge to these terrorists. I am because you are. You are because I am.

Amidst the continuous gun shots and rampage as terrorists exchanged fire with the Kenya defence forces and police, Kenyans were scared but they never got divided. Scenes of volunteers preparing breakfast for the men in uniform and journalists covering the story are hard to forget. Ordinary Kenyans bringing water and food items to the security service men as they worked hard to secure as many hostages as possible was a one of the many heroic acts displayed by Kenyans. The chain of information flow was well controlled as Interior Ministry, The Kenyan police, the Inspector general of police, the president and several journalists close to the scene were constantly tweeting about the situation and encouraging Kenyans to stand firm, donate blood, condolences and remain unified in Christ as the situation gets resolved.

“If the terrorists did this to break us, they only made us stronger. #WeAreOne”, stated one tweet. A host of other tweets from #KOT (Kenyans On Twitter) preaching the same message poured on our Timelines throughout the ordeal. 

Today, in the aftermath of the #Westgate, we remind ourselves of the unity that saw us through this trying time. We seek the face of God who delivered us from this weekend-from-hell. We thank him for our lives and we pray that He gives a peaceful rest to those beloved ones that departed from us in this untimely and tragic attack. We declare that these cowardly acts of terror will not change our lives or deter us from our resolve to fight the war against terror. Lest, we let them win. We continue to pursue them with a renewed commitment. We accept to pay the small price of check points at public places and extra vigilance to identify and isolate the would-be perpetrators. 

We are shaken but we are not broken. Instead, we stand in solidarity. We brave the pain, the loss, the struggle to defeat these forces of darkness that threaten our sovereignty. To the Kenyan defence forces, we salute you. To the bereaved families here and abroad, we mourn with you. To the senseless terrorists, in the words of President Kenyatta, we shall make you to give “full accountability for all the mindless destruction, death, loss, pain and suffering we have undergone as a national family.” We shall defeat you. 

We have defeated hatred with pure love and overcome cruelty with kindness. There’s no way terrorists can have that above us. To Ugandans and the rest of East Africa, there are many lessons to learn from this unfortunate event. Let’s do so with keen interest and a renewed unity against all odds.

@PathyKlinn

Nairobi attack: Why Kenya and why now? | Daily Maverick

Nairobi attack: Why Kenya and why now? | Daily Maverick

U.S. Is Asked to Hold Sudan Leader if He Visits U.N. - NYTimes.com

U.S. Is Asked to Hold Sudan Leader if He Visits U.N. - NYTimes.com

Stand with the Teachers

They could have been Politicians….

They could have been Engineers….

They could have chosen a “better” path…

They had all it took…

But they chose the path of love, of compassion…

We hated some….

We loved some….

They didn’t mind, they loved us anyway…

They did their job religiously….

To make us who we are today…

They sacrificed better careers to empower us…

They dedicated their time to seek knowledge and give it out…

They were determined to brighten the future of others…

Even when those others didn’t value their sacrifice…

They were neglected and forgotten…

They were forced to live in deplorable circumstances…

They were fooled around with empty promises….

But still expected to deliver,…and they did.

They empowered other people’s kids, as their’s fought a gloomy future…

They looked on for years, as the light in the tunnel gradually turned dimmer…

Their pleas for better remuneration and consideration fell on deaf ears for years on end…

Then they decided enough was enough…

They laid down their tools for industrial action…

They were lambasted for abandoning their duties and national obligation…

They stood their ground, and they had all the support from citizens, apart from the usual insensitive lot…

They made a clear case, and today, they seek your support…from wherever you are…

To remember their service and sacrifice,…and stand with them, for better pay and an equal chance for their kids like those they taught…and continue to mentor.

I say they fully deserve it and more…

  ……………………………………………………..@PathyKlinn©……………………………………………….

Pathetic spectacle of Uganda’s priorities - Muniini K. Mulera - monitor.co.ug

Pathetic spectacle of Uganda’s priorities - Muniini K. Mulera - monitor.co.ug

Full Text: Draft resolution on Syria action - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Full Text: Draft resolution on Syria action - Americas - Al Jazeera English

The US Has NO audacity to Judge SYRIA

August 21^st, 2013 brought un-amusing pictures of what is now known to be the bodies of hundreds of men, women and children lined up after a chemical attack by the Syrian government on its own people. This is the “red line” that president Barrack Obama had set for Syria last year that would automatically warrant military action; the use of chemical weapons. The Syrian rebels blew the whistle on this attack in Damascus that they claim was carried out by government forces. 1430 people are claimed to have been killed in that particular attack alone, in a war that has claimed at least 100,000 lives and displaced millions of people.

As expected, the world’s policeman; the United States was quick to make a statement about how the Syrian government had crossed the line and military action requirements to solve the humanitarian nightmare. The accusations of the Syrian government seemed to come faster than the evidence of who actually carried out the attack as the blame game ensued between the Syrian government and the rebels. Meanwhile, The US’ strongest ally, UK was rushing to call out MPs from their break to the House of Commons to make a rushed decision whether the British forces should be involved in a military action against Syria. This motion was defeated in a dramatic vote. 

An August 26, Foreign Policy article revealed that, "CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran." One would hope that this revelation would change the propensity with which the US is moving to bomb Syrian targets. Probably it did, with President Obama now seeking the permission of Congress before attacking Syria. The revelation reinforces what has been a public secret; that the hands of the US war machine are not as clean as they portray them to be.

This reality leads to the question: Can a government that supported the use of chemical weapons in one conflict claim any moral, political or legal authority militarily to attack another country for using the same weapons, particularly when the attack is not authorised by the UN Security Council? The files further reveal that not only did the US aid the use of chemical weapons by the former Iraqi government on Iran; it also used chemical weapons on a large scale during its 1991 and 2003 invasions of Iraq, in the form of depleted-uranium (DU) ammunition.

One wonders why chemical weapons are singled out for international condemnation compared out to other weapons considering that conventional weapons are also capable of producing more death and destruction on an industrial scale. Paul Waldman, in his December 6,2012 article, argues that chemical weapons are not as uniquely dangerous as biological or nuclear weapons because they lack the ability to kill tens or hundreds of thousands or people at once.

Dominic Tierney seems to believe that if we "strip away the moralistic opposition to chemical weapons" we'll find "strategic self-interest as powerful countries like the United States cultivate a taboo against using WMD partly because they have a vast advantage in conventional arms. We want to draw stark lines around acceptable and unacceptable kinds of warfare because the terrain that we carve out is strategically favourable."

Al Jazeera’s Dahr Jamail reported the use of Depleted Uranium by the US and UK has been the cause of many cases of Gulf War Syndrome suffered by Iraq war veterans, thousands of birth defects, cancer and other diseases - causing a "large-scale public health disaster" and the "highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied" - suffered by Iraqis in areas subjected to frequent and intense attacks by US and allied occupation forces.

So, for a country that has both supported and committed large-scale and systematic war crimes in one country (Iraq) to be leading the International effort to stop Syria from continuing to use chemical weapons against its own people, one wonders where it gets it audacity and legitimacy.

The moral mission over Iraq, and the invasion impetus to "liberate" women in Afghanistan have only left tens of thousands of people killed. 1,000 Iraqis were killed in July alone. That should make interventionists think twice about moral justifications - but it seems this hook is just too seductive, too perfectly attuned to a western enlightened sense of self.

Besides, for a war that has been ongoing since March, 2011, and claimed more than 100,000 lives as the west watched on from a distance, why should military action be necessitated by outrage over chemical attacks? Where was the “red line” when the US used depleted-uranium ammunition in Fallujah, Iraq? Or when Israel deployed white phosphorous in Gaza in 2008? Or when Saddam Hussein, then a western ally, gassed the Iranians and then his own people during the 1980s? This arbitrary and self-serving declaration of what's acceptable is precisely what makes the US so lacking in credibility when it comes to preaching codes of warfare to the Middle East.

This is not to say however, that nothing should be done to stop the bloodshed in Syria. But western leaders should not always seek to justify military interventions by using democratic values and lovely human rights slogans when it clear that war suits their particular agendas of the time.

Twitter: @PathyKlinn 

Chemical weapon use by Syrian regime: UK government legal position (HTML version) - GOV.UK

Chemical weapon use by Syrian regime: UK government legal position (HTML version) - GOV.UK

Short Story: The pursuit of happiness - Magazine - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

Short Story: The pursuit of happiness - Magazine - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

Clashes between top government officials are telling a tale

By Pathias Klinn Akabanjuna

Last week, all newspaper tabloids were awash with headlines and stories of fighting between top politicians and civil servants. First it was the Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga’s outburst in response to earlier comments allegedly made by the Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, suggesting that the former is an opposition sympathizer. The feud between these two has been going on for quite a while now but they have never come out to attack each other publicly before like Ms. Kadaga did last week.

As the leader of government business in parliament and NRM secretary General, Mbabazi can be understood for trying to make parliament an appendage of the Executive. But it seems the speaker is not about to let her powers be trampled upon by a man who seems to wield so much power not only in NRM as a party but also in Government, considering she is also a deputy National Vice President in the party and she ranks number three in the state leadership hierarchy. The NRM “rebel” MPs saga seems to have put a knife in the already wounded relationship between the two power houses. Mbabazi wanted them expelled from parliament but Kadaga defeated that resulting in court cases. Further controversy came in when Kadaga ignored the ruling of the deputy speaker that the opposition MPs suspended for causing chaos during the passing of the Public Order Management Bill should first apologise to the house before they are accepted to resume attending plenary sessions.

So one wonders; is this unending exchange of hot air between these two power-wielding individuals a matter of strong egos or respect issues or both?    

Then there is the curious case of IGP Kayihura and State Minister for Lands Aidah Nantaba. Both claim to get instructions from the president directly and yet they seem to have disagreeing ideas or intentions. The funny thing is that the president ignores them to fight each other, looking on unbothered as they wrestle, both claiming to protect the interests of the squatters evicted from land by so called “Land grabbers”. The truth is that Kayihura has been given too much power with a close to limitless budget and authority that is visibly greater than that of any government minister. All this started with kayihura getting a “blank cheque” both of a job description and literally, to repress political dissent. Now he seems to have spread his tentacles to wider areas such as land issues, as much as he claims that his officers are “keeping law and order.” 

The most recent fight of the titans involves Gen. Tumwine, one of the “27” and a member of the high command, and one of the few 5 star general against Mr. Pius Bigirimana, the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Gender, Labour and social development. Their fight seems to be over rent for Nomo Gallery on National theatre or that is just what they want us to think. I have learnt over the years that there is always a story behind the story.

The recent comments by Gen. Tumwine saying Bigirimana is angry and trying “to splash dirt on others to resemble him and look[ing] for billions to mismanage where they are not.” He added that, ”he is angry that he has been removed from the high-table to a stool.” These statements did not go down well with many people at Gender ministry and beyond. Gen. Tumwine essentially branded as “a stool”, the ministry that handles issues of the largest population in Uganda (the youth), women, workers and the disabled. This is ridiculous. We acknowledge that the Office of the Prime minister has a much bigger budget than the Gender Ministry, but that should not warrant anyone to refer to the gender ministry as a stool, regardless of whether one is an army general or not. This complacency of “untouchables” in Uganda needs to stop. The differences between Gen. Tumwine and Bigirimana seem to be personal and therefore should not be brought into the public fold.  

Ever since the inception of the ninth parliament after the 2011 General elections, there has been in fighting both in NRM the government and in the party. Whether this is telling about the regime’s future or not is yet to be seen. But usually, the clashes seem to have one common denominator: the president (including his appointees and directives). Usually, he lets the fights play out for a certain calculated time before he comes to prevail. Again, whether he reaps from these clashes is not easy to substantiate. But what is for sure is that he has mastered the game of politics using divide and rule.

He disappoints just as fast as he appoints and he is the pace setter because he holds the all the cards in his hands. There’s no NRM without Museveni. There’s no government without Museveni. Most elites believe he has presided over the death of institutions in a deliberate move to give him all the power. The day he lets go of the rope on which everyone is hanging, the entire pack will crumble. The clashes between senior government officials might not tell us much for now, but it gives us a clue about where we should look.

The writer is a socio-political commentator and Blogger

Twitter: @PathyKlinn

Of sightless ‘visionaries’ and peril of the Pearl ‹ Daily Monitor Blogs

Of sightless ‘visionaries’ and peril of the Pearl ‹ Daily Monitor Blogs

HON. OULANYAH, THE “CONTINGENCY PLAN” AS KADAGA LEADS FROM BEHIND

Early last week, Ugandans watched on as the controversial Public Order Management Bill was passed by an NRM dominated parliament amidst flaring tempers from the Opposition Members. Plenary chaired by Jacob Oulanyah, the deputy speaker of the house was objected to by minority opposition voices which he ignored and hurriedly passed the bill without listening. Despite all Opposition protests, Deputy Attorney General Fred Ruhindi announced to the house that the bill had been passed, only waiting presidential assent to become law.

However, what was amusing was the fact that two Order Papers were circulating in the house, one having the Public Order Management Bill and the other without. The one with the bill was reportedly agreed upon following an impromptu meeting in the Speaker’s boardroom with the Prime Minister and a host of other top NRM ministers that appear to have put pressure on the speaker to reverse her earlier agreement with the opposition not to include the bill on the order paper citing risen tempers in parliament as the reason.

She had a lot of support when she contested for Speaker because many MPs across the political divide seemed to believe in her credibility having served as deputy speaker in the 7^th and 8^th parliament. However, it seems that it is this same credibility that made the NRM top shots uncomfortable especially with her enjoying support from both NRM and Opposition members. They didn’t trust her to be loyal to the party and safeguard their interests all the way. Being the fast thinkers, they imposed on the House, a “contingency plan” in the names of Jacob Oulanyah to be deputy speaker.

This is a man who entered politics in 2001, to a winning start taking the “Omoro county” parliamentary seat in Gulu district on a Uganda People's Congress (UPC) ticket. Before his first term in parliament ended, he chaired the parliamentary legal committee that recommended the constitutional amendments which lifted the presidential term limits in 2005. This probably came to haunt him the following year despite taking part in LRA peace talks. He lost the bid for re-election to the 8^th parliament in 2006 as a UPC candidate. In July 2006, he quit the UPC political party and joined the National Resistance Movement (NRM) political party which seemingly earned him his seat back in parliament in the 9^th parliament.

This is why I think this man feels like he owes the NRM a big favour, and they know it. They don’t hesitate to use it to their advantage. A section of MPs claim that Mr. Oulanyah is trying to obtain acceptance and approval from the president when he decides to vie for Speaker of the house. Well, personally, I would not have a problem with Mr. Oulanyah settling his scores if he didn’t do it using the country’s interests and future in making ridiculous laws.

My issue with Madame Speaker is letting Oulanyah do it in what seems like a well thought out plan to keep her reputation intact and having Mr. Oulanyah do her dirty work. She is highly respected having put her foot down in her first year in the speaker’s docket, impressing many, she ranked 3^rd in possible successors of president Museveni. She conveniently refused to comment on this debate as well as allegations of a power struggle between her and the Prime Minister.

All was well until her convenient absence from the House when controversial issues were being discussed and unconstitutional bills being bulldozed through parliament became evident. From the approval of a Minister of Lands that didn’t have sufficient qualifications, to passing Oil Bills that were clearly inconsiderate of the public interest, and the most recent Public Order Management Bill. It seems to me that whenever such controversial issues appear on the order paper, the speaker has a workshop, a meeting with her constituents or is just simply absent.

The speaker looking on last week as two different order papers were circulated in parliament, with one type for the opposition and another for the ruling party, in clear contravention of parliamentary rules of procedure that she is supposed to offer custody, was the last straw. This was all because she could not manage to hold off the NRM ministers that stormed her board room a few hours before the plenary session chaired by her deputy, that would turn out to be a disgrace to a House Ugandans hold in very high regard. The conduct we saw in the House can be attributed to many things. It could be frustration out of a feeling of helplessness by opposition MPs with inability to stop a clearly unconstitutional law or it could be politics to earn a shot from the media cameras. Whatever it was, it disgraced Parliament.

All this could be speculation. But one thing is for sure: Madame Speaker cannot continue to lead from behind. She must come back, announce her presence and put the house in order. And that is not a responsibility she can entrust with her allegedly biased and serial procedure-flouting “contingency plan”.

The writer is a socio-political commentator and Blogger

Twitter: @PathyKlinn

Snowden, Greenwald and Wikileaks are winning - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Snowden, Greenwald and Wikileaks are winning - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Uganda: Public Management Order Bill is a serious blow to open political debate | Amnesty International

Uganda: Public Management Order Bill is a serious blow to open political debate | Amnesty International

THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER CARE SERVICES IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

By Pathias Klinn Akabanjuna

If there's any place where customers are likely to be paying attention to the type of service they receive, it's within the hospitality industry. From restaurants to hotels, beaches to resorts and everything in between, your job as a hospitality service provider is to maintain customer happiness and satisfaction. This demands effort and concentration from the service providers which has been disappointing sometimes especially to the fast-rising middle class in the region whose expectations are rising as fast. There is the ever-growing need to benchmark experiences, the value added, memories and emotions that matter, other than the provision of the service itself. If I come to your Hotel or club, I need to feel enthusiasm, affection and kindness. It is very imperative to keep your customers at the forefront of your operational plans to hold your business afloat.

The usual "please" and "thank you" or getting service with a smile no longer cut it. Although those go into the recipe for proper etiquette, it's just not enough. We seek a memorable experience and dynamic service. From being served quickly to bending the standard practices, such as extending my check-out in a hotel or customizing a menu item in the restaurant, the small things that make me feel appreciated. To be able to do this, you must anticipate your customers’ needs and be able to have your staff deliver accordingly. Hoteliers in the region who have learnt the important lesson of engaging their customers and consistently making sure customers get the same awesome service or better have reaped big from the industry and their stars continue to rise. 

Happy customers are loyal customers. Not only is it important for you to provide stellar service, but awesome products as well. Make it a point to be on the fast track for keeping up with trends that your customers may follow such as building personal assistance services for traveling customers or making special concessions for avid repeat customers. Be available. If I have to continuously wait for you to do your part, I may grow tired, no matter how loyal I am, and venture off to your competition. Keep customers loyal by focusing on them at all times.

More so, as a customer, when I get disappointed at your service that day, I need to be comfortable enough to air my grievance. If I am not allowed to vent, I will probably vent out on someone else, a potential customer. In the corporate setting, news travels fast. You will probably end up losing business. Therefore it is important that you let me advise you on how better you could have handled serving lunch in the conference so that I can expect better service next time. 

Maximizing customer satisfaction makes an important contribution to maximizing profitability as well. Although other factors such as cost control, productivity and marketing strategy also impact the bottom line, it is your ability to increase the opportunity for repeat sales to customers that reduces costs of sales and marketing which translate into increased profit. It is not uncommon for a customer to bring their friends to a hotel where they had their car parked properly for them or where the waitress went out of her way to make sure he got his drink chilled to the right temperature, just the way he likes it. Satisfied customers have an indirect impact on profitability when they share their opinions and experiences with others. In this era of technology, social networking sites play an important part in shaping attitudes towards a service or product. By maximizing customer satisfaction and encouraging customers to post their views on a forum or service review site, you can attract new customers who use the reviews to make their business decisions. Therefore, it is almost a must for every player in this industry to have at least a twitter page. 

Having excellent food, beverages and world class accommodation is no longer enough. Processing customers through your service system is not sustainable. Everyone does that. Without a personal connection, hospitality businesses are just expensive vending machines. To deliver better and learn faster is the only truly sustainable competitive advantage.

The writer is a socio-political commentator and Blogger

Twitter: @PathyKlinn

THE NOOSE OF PATRONAGE AND CORRUPTION, ON WHICH UGANDA HANGS!

If you have lived long enough in Uganda, at least for the past 15 years or so, you must have noticed an unbelievable pattern of corruption scandals, bribery and patronage rings. From ministries to the August house, government departments and agencies to state house. From learning institutions to the smallest unit of administration, corruption has really taken to the root in Uganda and is now a source of livelihood for many. But this is no longer news.

As the president grabs the opportunity of every state of the nation address for the past disturbingly many years to rant about how his government will fight corruption, several political analysts here and abroad suggest that this government lacks the political will to get rid of the vice. In fact, they have absolutely no interest in fighting corruption at all.

Corruption and patronage offer the most vicious combination of evils that hold the lifeline of president Museveni’s regime. The president and his government have allowed the patronage ring to hold the regime with a tight noose that it cannot set it free. In a recent unfortunate event of fire that broke out while people were siphoning fuel from a tanker where more than forty people lost their lives, the president visited the scene and decided to compensate the bereaved families with 5 million shillings. While some people argued that people were driven by poverty and trying to find a means of survival, others including me, disagree with the act of compensating thieves.

These people were stealing fuel having overpowered the driver of the fuel tanker. The fact that they were unfortunate to have a fire blow-out in their faces and some lost their lives does not rule out the fact that someone’s fuel was being stolen illegally by petty criminals. Therefore, for the president to come out and compensate such criminals is clear patronage and a “gesture of sympathy” aimed at nothing else but winning popular support by any means necessary. That money should have served better being used by the government to sensitize people about the dangers of dealing with flammable fuel. That way, the fire and the loss of lives could have been avoided.

Last week, the secretary to the treasury and other witnesses, told the Parliament Accounts Committee that the 10 Bn shillings that was allocated to the SACCO fund in 2010 was diverted by politicians and used to bribe voters and buy elections the following year in what seems like a carefully orchestrated scheme to siphon money from government coffers to preserve the survival of the regime. Allegations of the leaders at the Micro-finance Support Centre carrying sacks of money in their vehicles during election campaigns had already made rounds before. And am sure a more thorough forensic audit of so-called government projects would reveal even more damning evidence of tax-payers money being channeled into activities that are aimed at pure preservation of the regime. One wonders just how much does this government care about the plight of the citizens. It seems to have degenerated to fighting for pure regime survival regardless of whether the citizens are dying of hunger or communicable diseases that should be cured with minimal effort.

In my recent article, I wrote about how parliamentarians are slowly but surely aiding and abetting the emergence of a dictatorial regime in this country. Last week, in what is arguably their most shameful act, a section of parliamentarians appealed to the president to bail them out of their debts. These are fellows among the highest paid class of Ugandans taking home about 20 million shillings per month. And they have failed to put enough pressure on the government to increase salaries of the teachers that taught them or the police men that escort them and provide them with security.

It is very shameful that these “usual suspects” are seeking a bail out from the president like they know he has a bumper of cash stashed away somewhere. Maybe he has, who knows in this country? But to realize that a section of these same parliamentarians want nomination fees increased to 2Million from 200,000 shillings and fresh allegations that they are employing unqualified relatives in their offices is just defeatist and reflects how long they are willing to go in their shameless behavior. And these are the kinds of actions that will make it even harder for Uganda to free itself from the tight noose of patronage and entrenched corruption, even long after this regime is gone.

By Pathias Klinn Akabanjuna

The writer is a socio-political commentator 

Twitter: @PathyKlinn