POLITICAL MURDERS AND COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY

General Otaffire was quoted in the media urging the police to find out whether Ms Draru acted with others in murdering Kazini.

In high profile murder cases, shit happens.  Let me take cover in  Kenyan example. I have heard some journalists on this forum say that political murders do not take place in Uganda. That Ugandan leader do not murder their opponents.  Well in Kenya, political murders happened. Not anymore under Mr Kibaki.

The best case is one about the late Dr Robert Ouko. Dr Ouko was murdered on the orders of Mr Nicholas Biwott apparently on the night he was on his way to Uganda to begin his exile. Mr Biwott was then Moi’s most trusted minister who ran the Kalenjin mafia. Hell broke literally.  However, in Kenya unlike Uganda such suspicious deaths are probed so Mr Moi set up a Judicial Commision of Inquiry -their current Chief Justice was a member-but on the eve of what Mr Moi felt could deliver a bombshell, he dissolved the Commission of Inquiry.

To cut to the issue relevant to Ms Draru, under pressure, Mr Moi arrested Minister Biwott and put him in police custody. That was a real shock. He also ordered the once fomer PS of internal Security Mr Hezekiah Oyugi from South Nyanza who is believed to have worked with Biwottt to kill Dr Ouko arrested. The then Nyanza PC Mr Kobia was dismiised.

Now things took a turn for the worse. Mr Biwott left prison. But all the suspects including Mr Oyugi, Mr Kilonzo who was the Police Commissioner at the time, Mr Kobia the former PC and other suspects or those who knew something about Dr Ouko’s death all died under mysterious circumstances. Was it a mere coincidence? You read between the lines.

Being Vice President in Africa is not easy. This story may shock some of you, but it is apparently true.

Again, Kenya-where else- in the early 80s. The kalenjin mafia had come up with a plot to blow up then VP Mr Mwai  Kibaki on a plane while on official visit.

Mr Kibaki’s allies in the intelligence system got wind of the plot which had  all but been finalized. So the then Director of intelligence Mr Kanyotu, a Kikuyu from Kirinyanga and Mr Shaw a muzungu police reservist who also taught at Starehe centre and others swung into action.

The next day Mr Kibaki was to travel abroad. But if he boarded that plane that would be it. He would be brown up.

So his allies wrestled with the big question: how to stop their man from boarding that plane without laerting the plotters that they had become aware of the plot?  Something drastic had to be done in the middle of the night.

Mr Kibaki’s father, Mzee Githinji had to die to save his son. So in the wee hours, he was murdered because that was the only way to stop Mr Kibakii from boarding that plane and be brown up by the Kalenjin mafia.

To fool the mafia, Mr Kibaki showed up at the airport ready to board that early morning flight for his overseas trip.   The mafia were salivating and almost celebrating that their plot was about to work.

Then all of a sudden, Mr Kibaki was pulled aside by among others Mr Shaw-this Shaw used to shoot to kill thieves in Nairobi-and told that his father had died. His convoy pulled away and that particular plane flight was aborted.

Hard to believe, the death and cancellation of trip happened. His father was murdered in the wee hours when he was about to make an official trip abroad.

The political murders in Kenya caused political instability big time. They divided the ruling elite.  The murders  of Mr Tom Mboya and JM Kariuki in particular shook the Kiambu mafia.  The only cabinet minister at the time to attend both funerals was Mr Mwai Kibaki.  No other minister could dare attend  a) for fear of Kenyatta’s reaction, b) the mourners would have pelted them.

Mr Moi made sure that the entire cabinet went to Kisumu to attend Dr Ouko’s funeral, but protected with a very heavy GSU presence.

It is actually nonsense for some of our fellow UAH members to claim that political murders never happen in Uganda.

About women who kill, the demenour of Ms Dralu is funny. The police is doing a good job letting her look presentable. She is not the monster woman who is the talk of ugandan everywhere.  I bet you some Ugandan men desire her more!

WBK

The only battle worth fighting in the proposed Kampala takeover is the democratic right of Kampalans

Ugandans At Heart,

While we await the official position of the FDC party on the Kampala Bill and the taking over Kampala by the central administration, let me volunteer the following personal perception:
1. FDC is unlikely to support the dilution of democracy as is proposed in this new Kampala bill. The people of Kampala deserve the right to be governed by their popular will just as other Ugandans in any other district. If other Districts are going to continue electing the LC5 chair persons by adult suffrage, why should city dwellers be denied this right
2.The question of territory is also not very clear, the expansion of the commercial attributes of Kampala into the areas surrounding it is inevitable. Urbanisation is on the up trend and that is good for our future, we can let the city expand into the neighboring Districts without first annexing them into Kampala. We could instead put in place the planning regulations in those areas that envisage such an eventuality.
 3.These Districts should be prepared to host the growth of the city into their territory, it will be good for their revenues and I don’t see how it harms anybody least of all central GVT
4.Let Mukono, Entebbe Wakiso and Mpigi, be part of the same planning framework that envisages the commercial territory of Kampala growing into them but let them maintain their administrative identity. We can have a modern well governed metropolis that sits across several districts. It should not be impossible.

Having noted the above, it is also important that we remind ourselves that the district boundaries are not unchangeable. Article 179 (a&b) of the constitution empowers parliament by simple majority to alter boundaries of districts and to create new ones

Parliament has been creating new districts by splitting existing ones and what is proposed in this new bill is not new, only that in this case, chunks of existing Districts are being added to another existing District. There is nothing illegal in it

What is contentious is that the Districts losing territory are all deemed to belong to Buganda but Kampala which is to gain the territory does not.

Ugandans need to remember, that the only territory that the constitution considers immutable is the territory of Uganda as defined in the second schedule. Everything else within the territory of Uganda can be adjusted for administrative, cultural and political convenience as long as it is done in accordance with   the constitution.

The regions, ie Acholi, Ankole, Busoga, Bunyoro, Buganda and Toro are not fixed territorial entities, they are instead groups of districts that consent or were deemed to have consented to co operate on cultural matters by article 178.  This co operation is not irreversible. A District can democratically opt in or out acording 178(4).

The facts as per our constitution are as below:-
1.Districts can be created and adjusted by power of parliament. Their boundaries are determined by parliament
2.Regional groups (including Buganda) can be created and adjusted by the democratic consent of the districts involved. Their boundaries are determined by the vote of the district councils.
3.Theoretically Mbarara can vote itself out of Ankole to Buganda or choose to remain an attached like Kabale, Masindi could decide by vote to join the Acholi group. It may be difficult to imagine but it would all be legal and constitutional. Regional groupings by their constitutional status are more cultural than geographical.
4.If any Ugandans or Baganda for that mater are unhappy with the above constitutional disposition then the focus should be on constitutional reform, not political pressure when the other side is on solid legal ground. Eventually this matter may need a national referendum

The only battle worth fighting in the proposed Kampala takeover is the democratic right of Kampalans, and the maintenance of the entire council under universal Adult suffrage.

The issue of territory to me is secondary, because like I have elaborated above, within Uganda, there are no other unchangeable territories, no permanently fixed boundaries. Government can legally adjust district boundaries even if that may affect Buganda’s current deemed geography. But what is legally tenable may not necessarily be morally right or politically tenable.

Let me again reiterate that these are my personal views.

Desmond Nzana

 FDC Activist and UAH forumist