Pure Good Governance

It is not surprising that the Civil Society Organisations (CSO) fair has become one of the biggest annual events in Uganda where NGOs and other civil society groups showcase their products to the local, regional and international community.  Last week, I described what a CSO fair looks like here in Uganda to an Ethiopian government officer based in Addis Ababa.  And his reaction neither surprised me nor shocked me; he asked what there is for civil society to show case.  “Is it the signed ‘transport refund’ lists or is it the academic non-practical publications that they spend their energies working on? How do they showcase ‘workshops’? May be you are talking about showcasing the huge 4X4 gas guzzling automobiles that their employees ride in”.  He grinned after interjecting in a conversation that I thought was too serious to attract such presumptuous interposes.     Anyhow, just like him, many other folks think there is really northing to exhibit...

As I approached the first polling station to witness the opening of the poll I noticed something conspicuous; over fifty armed military officers, searching and questioning each voter or any one who attempted to enter the school, which housed the polling station. Four armored personnel carriers stood strategically at the four corners of the double storied primary school and at the roof-top were well positioned discreet snipers each attentively attending to their ‘state of the art’ long range rifles.  I had to stop and ask locals whether there was actually a polling station located in this school or if the education facility had been turned into a military base of sorts; it surely looked like a planning site for the ‘operation lightning thunder’.   Amidst all this, it looked like it was only me that was approaching the polling station with fears and judders; everyone else walked self-assuredly to the swam of armed security folks, got searched and proceeded ...

I had an opportunity to spend a greater part of Martyrs day reading through the President’s letter on Election Rigging in Uganda; 1961-2014 authored on 25th May 2014.  Yes, I read and re-read the letter several times just to be very sure that I understood the President correctly (many times, Mr. Museveni has cried foul over being ‘misquoted’ or ‘misinterpreted’ or even sometimes being ‘misread’.  I did not want to be part of those ‘careless’ people that ‘misread’ (in this case) the president.  The President’s letter touched on a number of important issues in respect to Uganda’s electoral processes.  At the core was the need to correct current electoral misdemeanors such as vote rigging through introducing the much alluded to computerized voting technology. As a citizen who has been keenly following the debate around electoral reforms in Uganda, I however expected to hear the President’s holistic approach in reforming the electoral system....