IPOD still has a future, says Rusa as he exits for KCCA Job

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Frank Rusa Nyakaana, who has been the face of the famed Interparty Organization for Dialogue-IPOD having served as its Executive Secretary says the organisation still has a future even without him at the steering wheel.

Rusa made the remarks during an interview with Uganda Radio Network after the news of his new appointment and taking oath at City Hall as the legal director at Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA went viral both on traditional news outlets and social media.

Founded in 2010, IPOD was created as a platform to unite political parties with representation in parliament to promote party dialogue and cooperation, fundamental principles of good governance, democracy, human rights and non-discrimination; foster peaceful negotiation and resolution of conflicts; and promote and uphold tolerance of divergent political opinions.

At inception, there were five political parties including; the National Resistance Movement-NRM, Forum for Democratic Change-FDC, Democratic Party-DP, Uganda People’s Congress-UPC, the Conservative Party-CP, and later Justice Forum-JEEMA.

In July 2018, Rusa, joined IPOD as its Executive Secretary, being the Country Director of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy-NIMD, the facilitators of the IPOD. As he throws in the towel, Rusa says the biggest achievement realized during his tenure was bringing heads of political parties on table to dialogue in the IPOD Summit.

The first summit was held in 2018, followed by another in 2019 and 2021. Rusa says that to have heads of different political parties engage in a dialogue laid a foundation for future engagements among political parties.

On the scale of 10, Rusa says IPOD has achieved five which means that the organisation has only been able to achieve average of all what it set out to do. To him, this is no mean achievement given the political terrain in which his team has been operating.

Whether Uganda still has a chance to resolve its differences through dialogue, Rusa remains optimistic saying that with the participation of other stakeholder beyond political players, a lot could be achieved. He urges religious leaders, cultural leaders and the civil society to actively participate in national dialogue.

Not a bed of roses

In his five years at the helm of the dialogue body, Rusa attests that the organisation that was designed to midwife mature politics, and perhaps transition in Uganda as NIMD did in Ghana was rather characterized with thorns, creepers, vales, and mountains.

For instance, during the three summits, major opposition parties declined to participate as they questioned the relevance of dialogue without a neutral arbiter. The FDC, for instance was an absentee IPOD member, yet the leading opposition party when the first and second summit were held.

For the first summit, they demanded that a neutral party officiate the dialogue and that the contestations surrounding outcomes of the 2016 presidential elections be discussed, something that wasn’t done. As for the second summit, the FDC said that resolutions passed by the previous summit had not been implemented by the government. The same reason was given for not attending the third summit.

Rusa acknowledges that the failure by government to implement resolutions of IPOD affected the dialogue agenda, deepening the distrusts by the opposition parties towards the dialogue and the commitment of the government to the process. He says they have often engaged the NRM to give greater attention to resolutions passed, although they are yet to do so on many fronts.

Previous summits resolved among others to increase government funding to Political Parties from 10 billion to 35 billion Shillings and also share 15 percent of the money equally, another 15 percent be used to facilitate the IPOD secretariat while the remaining 70 percent would be shared based on numerical strength.

The resolution was partially implemented in 2020 when parties were given 30 billion Shillings but the formula of distribution of funds remained typically over numerical strength, giving the NRM which dominates parliament, a lion’s share.

The summit also previously proposed regulations for Implementation of the Public Order Management Act- POMA. They sought a clear definition of the term authorized officer as referred to in section 3 of POMA which talked about notifying the Inspector General of Police IGP or an authorised officer before holding a public meeting and proposed that the government decentralizes the function of the Inspector General of Police under the Act so that organisers of an even don’t have to travel to Kampala to notify the IGP.

The regulations were neither tabled nor passed by parliament, which left members of the opposition without protection from police and other security agencies who were using the law to frustrate their political gatherings while those of the NRM were largely undisturbed.

The IPOD Rusa leaves behind

In 2020, the IPOD MoU signed in 2017 expired and in 2021, member parties, the NRM, FDC, DP, UPC and JEEMA were invited to make an input in a new memorandum. At the time, two other parties, the National Unity Platform-NUP and the People’s Progressive Party-PPP had secured seats in parliament following the January 2021 general elections. They were hence invited to join IPOD.

The new MoU was concluded in 2022 and signed by five political parties, the NRM, DP, UPC, JEEMA and PPP. The NUP and FDC, with the largest and second largest number of opposition members of parliament declined to sign. The FDC advanced the usual reasons that resolutions passed in IPOD are not respected and that it would be a waste of time to continue their participation. The NUP gave similar reasons and referred to the organisation as a club where friendly political parties meet for a cup of tea and for NRM to fish for supporters from the opposition parties.

This stance of the FDC and NUP, coupled with the protests by NUP supporters at the NIMD headquarters in the Hague gave birth to the major financial challenge of the IPOD. NIMD, which was IPOD’S main facilitator suspended its support saying that without the two main opposition political parties. the principle of inclusivity in the dialogue process they advocate for is lost.

Moreover, IPOD’s other funder, the Democratic Governance Facility-DGF also closed operations in Uganda.

Rusa expressed dismay that the NUP has from the onset declined to join IPOD, refusing to take the chance and perhaps provide a framework on how they want affairs to be handled. He however acknowledges the pain that NUP harbors, especially in regard to her supporters who are still incarcerated and others still missing and government yet to account for their whereabouts. He says government should pay attention to the grievances of the opposition parties and that together with other IPOD members continue engaging NUP and FDC to join because their participation is key for a meaningful discussion.

As he signs out, Rusa says all parties need to commit to dialogue, the NRM led government to implement IPOD resolutions and he also hopes that the IPOD shall be institutionalized through an act of parliament to make its resolutions more binding.

Rusa also says IPOD needs to get a neutral facilitator who shall spearhead their dialogue sessions like NIMD has been and also generate internal funding to stop dependency on donors. On funding, he says government could increase facilitation to political parties and also implement the earlier IPOD resolution to fund the IPOD secretariat using part of the funds given to political parties under the Political Parties and Organizations’ Act.

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URN