Tales of Indignity engulf the House

It happens to be a very good time to be a politics columnist.

Over the past few weeks, a lot of mayhem has been going on in the political realm in Uganda, shared evenly between the Presidency and Parliament; confusion that had gotten me somewhat despondent.

But I have shrugged off my gloom to open a whole new chapter of insight into the intricate, weird and questionable operations of our political elite. In this homecoming edition of “The Parliamentary Insider", we are greeted by tales of indignity, whose origin, fortunately, can be trailed through some dubious Executive decisions.

“God’s Warrior” Faith Mwondha, the Inspector General of Government on rampage, is one such beneficiary of curious executive action.

Last week, President Museveni chose to turn tables on Parliament and formalised her reappointment as the IGG.

That decision will go along way in betraying his weakness for taking decisions for political expedience rather than what is just.

Apparently, the President’s PPS Ms Amelia Kyambadde, who happens to be a close friend and ally of the Lady Justice, delivered her instrument of reappointment on Tuesday last week. Problem is, the letter of her reappointment is the same contentious document of February 12, which the Head of Public Service Mr John Mitala advised cannot be sanctioned without Parliament formally vetting the IGG for reappointment.

President Museveni subsequently forwarded both Justice Mwondha’s names and her deputy Raphael Baku to Parliament for approval after legal counsel from his Attorney General Prof. Khiddu Makubuya. Mr Baku went, Mwondha didn’t. Museveni met NRM MPs who sit on the Appointments Committee, tried to cajole them into changing their opinion of the woman who has turned out to be such a P.R disaster but hit a hard rock.

But alas, the decision was his, and a wrong one, I reckon. While I have nothing but contempt for Mwondha’s work ethic, style and total disregard for institutions, I must say I got no personal beef against the woman. She has had her days in the sun and basked in some glory courtesy of her positive efforts in the fight against corruption. But she has stretched her influence and importance, creating a larger than life image of herself.

It is now no secret that Mwondha is bigger than the office of the IGG, and has shown just how expendable she is not. Beyond just setting yet another terrible example, what the President has done is simply show Parliament the middle finger-a phrase aptly coined by my good friend Jo- and literary pissed on them. By scorning Parliament, he has shown MPs that they are simply nothing.

The question still begs, why the heck did Parliament waste taxpayers money, go through the whole process of vetting the IGG, make its recommendations, only for that effort to be rendered useless?

But more importantly, what does Parliament have to do to survive this overbearing influence of the Executive? For standing firm on the IGG, however, we must commend our lawmakers although I still think the House is in dire need of patriots who will have the courage to stand up and throw back the middle finger at the government and say, enough is enough!