By Muhimbise George.
In the bible, three days after Jesus’s death, Mary Magdalene and another Mary went to the tomb to look for Jesus who had since resurrected, a voice was heard asking them why they were looking for the living from the dead.
This story reminds me of the several events in our pearl of Africa turned banana republic! The most recent one being the scandal of the month where government appointed a school dropout to head a lucrative entity on behalf of government, the Uganda Airline!
And because the appointee knew she was not fit for the job, she enrolled incompetent fellas to feast on the carcass as they opted for what Museveni would call “okushahura” (plundering, thuggery, looting, name it). They know Uganda Airline is inevitably collapsing, so they behave like the rats eating from an abandoned home, after all it’s a last supper for them and that explains the hefty salaries this lot awarded themselves for virtually doing nothing!
As we lamented about this glaring impunity and abuse of state resources, it emerged as usual that the said appointment of the Uganda Airline “thief executive” was sanctioned by non other than the fountain of honor of Uganda!
What surprised me was that some people got surprised by such, as if it was their first time to see processes & procedures being ignored in the name of Presidential directives!
By the way when did Gen Museveni last follow the right procedures? When he lost elections in 1980 even on his own polling station, didn’t he go to the bush instead of going to court? When he wanted to amend the constitution so that he could be a life President, didn’t he beat up MPs using Special Forces Command instead of letting MPs deliberate freely? when he wants to extend his rule, doesn’t he stage manage elections where his opponents are arrested or denied a chance to campaign and then he declares himself as a winner?
Haven’t you seen Museveni awarding land to investors instead of the Uganda Investments Authority? Haven’t you seen him award contracts for making roads instead of UNRA or PPDA? Haven’t you seen him violate his own party constitution by ring fencing his position to himself alone without anyone competing for it? Haven’t we seen the NRM grabbing all the parliamentary seats in the by elections through brute force and exercising raw power in the name of “winning elections”? So isn’t expecting NRM government to follow formal procedures such a big insult?
So back to Bamuturaki appointment, I would have been surprised if such a scandle passed without a mention of the President’s name yet it is a routine for all major scandals to have their footsteps end in the state house! Simply tell me any scandal involving billions, I will tell you a name of a someone in first family or closer to it!
So how would we have expected such a lucrative venture to go without a “Bamuturaki” being appointed to man it? How will the powers that be shiforn public resources with out such a trusted cadre and conduit in charge?
In any case such a person of Bamuturaki’s caliber is easy to manipulate, because she would lack the moral courage to stand her ground since she got the job as a favor rather than merit!
With many examples where the NRM and Museveni specifically have bypassed the so-called procedures to have their way, isn’t expecting them to follow the procedures in appointing the airline boss more over under Museveni’s junta rule as hard as expecting a cow to lay eggs?
