IS YOWERI MUSEVENI OPENING HIS PRESIDENCY TO PUBLIC SCRUTINY?

By Jerry Okungu
January 5, 2010

Many Ugandans may not appreciate Yoweri Museveni as a democrat and even a graft buster. But if the stories appearing in Uganda’s local press are anything to go by, then that perception is bound to change.

The CHOGM corruption saga has been on the table for some time in Uganda’s parliament. The committee probing its expenditure has been talking to many players that handled the Commonwealth conference. The central concern has been how public cash was spent and whether such expenditures were procedurally authorized in a most cost effective way.

During many of such sittings, officials accused of misappropriating funds in the name of CHOGM have readily sought refuge in the name of President Museveni; that it was he who authorized them to spend such huge amounts of cash without going through the due process. Under normal circumstances in many African countries, dragging the name of the Head of State in a graft inquiry would have either silenced the debate or landed the accusers in hot soup. Neither of the two has take place in Uganda.

And now, a show stopper is likely to be witnessed in Uganda if the Parliamentary Committee carries out its threat to interrogate the President and Museveni obliges.

The committee is reported to have sought a date with the President, not to brief him on progress made on investigations but rather to probe the President on matters of CHOGM. If Museveni accepts to be interrogated by this parliamentary committee and answers all their questions, it will be the first such rare occurrence in Africa when a Head of State has been subjected to scrutiny by another arm of government.

The reason why the Ugandan case makes interesting reading for us in East Africa is simply because we have had similar corruption probes in Kenya and Tanzania where the presidency has been put on the spot. When it happened in Tanzania in early 2008, all that President Jakaya Kikwete did was to sack almost the entire cabinet but fell short of prosecuting those that were adversely accused of corruption.

To date, those politicians that faced the wrath of Jakaya Kikwete are free men enjoying what wealth they fleeced from public coffers. And as time has passed by, Tanzanians have come to terms with the fact that when it comes to corruption in public offices, some really highly placed people in society are beyond the law.

In the Kenyan situation, we have gotten used to the fact that commissions of enquiry are merely set up to sanitize mega grafts and to give the angry public an opportunity to give up the rage and forget that it ever happened. We saw in with Golden Berg, Anglo Leasing, Maize Scandal, Triton Oil Scandal, Kenya Tourism Board and now Free Primary School donor funds embezzlement. This is not to mention the Ndung’u’ report on land grabbing in Kenya which is now pitting Moi’s former regime against the present administration.

For the people of Uganda, two scenarios are emerging which make their CHOGM case interesting. On the one hand, functionaries that swindled the public are clinging on to the coat tails of the President that indeed he is the one who authorized the payments.

And to make their case, they have even thrown in the name of the President’s son in law as one of the facilitators that made the scam possible. And much as they are dropping names of the President’s men, Museveni is hell bent on punishing those who skimmed off public funds under the guise of organizing the Commonwealth feat.

What will make interesting reading is if Museveni not only accords the Committee an opportunity to interrogate him, exonerate himself and proceed to accept the parliamentary report and order prosecution of all those ungrateful Ugandans who impoverished their own people in order to enrich themselves and their families.

The gamble Museveni is getting into has high stakes indeed. This is considering the fact that should the Committee indeed interrogate him and find him an accomplice, then what? Will the President resign on principle or will he rubbish the report? If he resigns, will he be ready to face prosecution and take responsibility?

However, if the Committee clears the President from any wrong doing, will such an outcome strengthen the President’s resolve to deal ruthlessly with all those that falsely accused him together with those that connived with foreigners to plunder CHOGM funds? Will the same people be forced by the law to refund all the cash they looted, with local and international collaborators blacklisted and barred from ever doing business with the Uganda government again?

If either of the two scenarios ever materializes in Uganda, it will change the way we deal with graft in our region for ever.
jerryokungu@gmail.com