COVER STORY: The Untouchables

Officials fear the untouchables

Ruth Nankabirwa is the Government Chief Whip supposed to handle errant members of the cabinet. But when The Independent spoke to her about the untouchable, she excused herself.

“I cannot make new rules. You forget that we have a leader of government business. He is my boss,” she said, “You can’t lump everything on the Government Chief Whip.”

She said the cabinet had set up a sub-committee headed by Gen. Moses Ali, the First Deputy Prime Minister, to enforce proper conduct among ministers.

“The cabinet was concerned in making sure that we all behave appropriately,” she said, “We will call anybody.”

On the case of Tumwine, Nankabirwa told The Independent the rules of parliament are sufficient.

“A whole General appeared before the committee (of Rules),” she said.

Tumwine was in August in the spotlight for allegedly questioning the powers of parliament and directives made by the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga. In the ensuing debate, Dokolo Woman MP Cecilia Ogwal accused Tumwine of assaulting her in the corridors of parliament. She said Tumwine drew a gun on her. In his defence, Tumwine said the accusations against him by Ogwal and other MPs were in bad faith. But Parliament’s Rules, Privileges and Discipline Committee found him guilty of assault and recommended that he be reprimanded. No punishment has been imposed at the time of writing this story. The chairperson of the committee Clement Ongalo-Obote could not be reached for comment.

Tumwine is currently the Minister of Security. He fired the first shot in the guerilla war that brought Museveni to power in 1986. Tumwine’s critics say his behavior likely started from this incident which made its way into history books.

Tumwine has been under fire in recent months over safe houses where torture is allegedly inflicted on the detainees in the ungazetted cells scattered across the country. MPs raised the concerns on the floor of Parliament. Tumwine has denied claims that safe houses are used as detention and torture facilities by security agencies. He told the Human Rights Committee of Parliament on Sept. 4 that safe houses owned by government are used for intelligence purposes and for providing safety to insecure individuals. But when MPs insisted on entering to examine some of the safe houses, Tumwine and other security bosses blocked them.

Talk and no action

It is possible to take actions on people like Kyaligonza, according to Abbas Agaba, MP for Kitagwenda County but he says that there are always intervening factors.

“Whenever there’s an opportunity to take action, there are negotiations on how the action is stopped,” he told The Independent.

Agaba cited the 2012 case in which the Constitutional Court ruled that the office of the Inspectorate of Government does not have powers to prosecute suspects implicated for corruption and abuse of office until it is fully constituted.  Three ministers asked to step aside; Sam Kutesa, John Nasasira, and Mwesigwa Rukutana had challenged their trial by the IGG for corruption and causing financial loss to government.

He also  cited the case of Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija who was supposed to appear before the Rules Committee for allegations he made about MPs being corrupt but it never happened due to “influence peddling”.

“You see at the start people are breathing fire and when it comes to interrogation, people are cooling down and the steam condenses into water,” he said.

On the Kyaligonza case, Agaba says MPs acted out of agitation.

“MPs wanted him recalled (from his diplomatic post) but is that provided for in the law? We should have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to handle that matter.

“Parliament is not powerless but we should take action based on procedures not emotions,” he told The Independent.

Agaba says Museveni should take action as the appointing authority.

“Maybe he is keeping an eye on him and he has an explanation.”

But President Museveni has all but let the matter fade away.  He only spoke about the incident on March 7 at a meeting of Great Lakes region ministers in charge of refugees.

“Recently, we had a retired General slapping a police woman and everyone shouted. Now, that General is facing the law because you are not allowed to slap and bark at people. He continued “If you are angry and aggressive, you can ask for permission and we deploy you to Somalia where aggressive services are needed.”

In May, three months after the incident, Museveni was seen in Hoima happily schmoozing with Kyaligonza.

According to analysts, this was Museveni’s way of ‘dealing’ with the incident since he always sides with troubled comrades.

Luttamaguzi says the presidency of Museveni abets the behavior of the untouchables.

“They are motivated by historical behavior in the Bush War. They thought they captured all state institutions when they captured power including parliament.

“You saw how Gen. Otafiire reacted when the Speaker tasked him to explain how he grabbed that land in Njeru,” Luttamaguzi told The Independent.

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