Pure Good Governance

The 2015/2016 general elections are probably going to be the most crucial elections that Uganda has seen in its post independence era.  Besides coming hot on the heels of an already tensed up electoral terrain, these are going to be the first elections in which most (if not all) of the eligible voters aged 18 years and above will be on the voters’ register and capable of voting.  Thanks to the Electoral Commission’s decision to extract eligible voters’ particulars from the National Identification Register!  If well managed, the 2016 voters' register will be the first, most inclusive register, carrying all eligible Ugandans on the voters’ roll.   Now, you may wonder how this will change the political contours of Uganda. Unlike in the past elections where we have had large numbers of voters missing out on the actual voting because they weren’t listed on the register, 2016 is going to be an election where all eligible voters will actually be on the voters' regist...

The 2008 Zimbabwe election has been one of the most hotly contested races on the African continent in recent times. In that election, the  twenty-eight year political rule of President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic  Front (ZANU–PF) was stiffly challenged by new comer, Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC-T). The tight nature of the race could not avail Zimbabwe an outright President in the first round, a reason why a run-off was called later in the year. As fate would have it then, Mugabe (aka ‘Uncle Bob’) beat Tsvangirai. Many have contended by all intents and purposes that this was Tsvangirai’s election.  These sentiments partly informed the latter occurrences where the Zimbabwe government of 2008 – 2013 had to be shared between ‘Uncle Bob’ and Tsvangirai through a government of national unity arrangement.   Having had an opportunity to interface with the subsequent 2013 Zimbabwe election first ha...

I was excited to hear that The Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 was yet again in the house for another reading.  This comes hot on the heels of a survey, ‘Who Pays the Piper’ released by civil society recently in which money was underscored as a key ‘influencer’ in elections.  Many of the MPs interviewed in the course of this survey confirmed that the cost of competing for a parliamentary seat had increased almost ten times since 2001, they also expressed fears that only the “super rich” will be able to run for elective office if the cost for competing for parliamentary seats continues to rise at the same rate it has, over the last ten years.  It is commendable that progress is being made towards understanding the role of money in elections especially here in Uganda.  Just the other day, during the Busia LCV by-election, everyone – the NRM, the opposition and the EC were universally concerned about the amount as well as role of money bein...

Two stories drew my interest in The Daily Monitor last week. One was titled, “Police to use more militant methods” and the other was, “Patriotism trainees shoot two”.  These were run on 30 th and 31 st January respectively. The former re-emphasized how police plans to employ more militaristic tactics in the management of public order while the latter narrated an incident in which people undertaking the “patriotism training” shot two residents in Iganga district. Today, I will mainly limit myself to the police’ re-confirmation of its intentions to continue engaging military means while undertaking public order response.  My biggest worry, which could be a worry of many other Ugandans, is that the Police Force seems to have designated the Ugandan community as a violent community. Whereas this may not be an accurate portrayal of the Ugandan population, such a narrative is bound to indeed make Ugandans aggressive and confrontational especially tow...

Four years ago we went to an election with a lot of ‘unfinished business’. In fact, for many of the players in that election, their participation could have been nothing but a mere formality. The major issues that dogged the 2001 and the 2006 elections had not been addressed. At the center, was the need to guarantee the credibility of the voters register; address the question of people’s confidence in the election management body as well as tackle issues around the perceived partisanship and highhandedness of the security apparatus especially during election periods. These challenges continued unabated in a political environment where the effects of incumbency were lurid. Even though there was consensus around resolving these issues right from the 2001 elections, they didn’t make their way to parliament for legislative interrogation until less than a year to the 2011 elections. Even when Parliament opened up to a discussion around electoral reforms in 2010, the s...

Sejusa’s return and the NRM delegates’ conference capped the politically tense 2014.  Shortly after, as many Ugandans took a shot at writing their 2015 resolutions came the political twists and turns that involved again the decorated war general Sejusa meeting his earlier on perceived military and political nemesis under vague circumstances at the state house.  As many Ugandans were trying to figure out the ‘who is fooling who’ of the Sejusa – Museveni isometrics, fell the judicial hammer when court dismissed an application prompted by NRM’s former Secretary General, Amama Mbabazi seeking to block the swearing in of the new appointed NRM executive members. As if that was just not enough, NRM’s National Executive Committee rejected Amama’s nomination to the party’s top organ, the Central Executive Committee – nothing less than double jeopardy for Amama, just in the first week of 2015. Something that strikes me in all this is the emphasis that many see...