Why You Need to Lodge a Caveat on Your Land

Margaret Mitchell, an American novelist, once said that, “The land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it’s the only thing that lasts”.

The above quotation reflects the current socio-economic tensions revolving around land, not just in Uganda but across the globe. It is no surprise that the state has set up committees to investigate land grabbing and other injustices concerning land in the country today. The on-going land commission of inquiry headed by Lady Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, for one, has exposed many stories of people losing their land to land grabbers who hold influential positions in the government. The rage is high, and the people are now alert.

Amid all these tensions, seeking legal redress may not look like the best alternative considering the time and resources spent during trials. For many who cannot afford legal services at the established cost, seeking justice is a dream in Uganda. According to the Case Backlog Reduction Committee (CBRC) report, 2017, there are many odds that your case will be heard in time. But, how much money will you need to spend? However, you can safeguard your interests in land for as little as Shs.30,000/= (Ugandan Shillings Thirty Thousand) by simply lodging a caveat.

What is a caveat and how does it operate?

‘Caveat’ is a Latin phrase which means ‘let him know or beware’. A caveat works as an encumbrance on the Certificate of Title. An encumbrance literally means an obstacle. Therefore, once a caveat has been registered against the title, third parties cannot transact against your title/land. Any search on the title as kept in the Land Registry will show the applicant that someone else claims an interest in the land.

NB: A caveat operates in rem which means it is against the whole world therefore everyone is put on notice of that encumbrance.

Registering a caveat is as effective as notifying any person intending to transact on your title/land of their inability to do so without your expressly written consent. In addition, a caveat can also protect your equitable interest in land.

An equitable interest arises when you deposit part of the agreed sum with the intention of purchasing land. Imagine you have agreed to buy a house in Muyenga from a one Kato but due to financial constraints you cannot complete the purchase for another year. What if Kato decides to sell the land to Babirye who is offering to pay the full amount at once? How will you prevent this sale from happening? Or have the parties settle your finances (should you agree to let the subsequent sale proceed) before any transfer of interest occurs? You can lodge a caveat such that third parties like Babirye will be put on notice in case they want to buy that land.

What detail does a caveat require?

-It must have the names and address(es) of the person lodging it;
-The description of the land to be caveated (it is necessary that a search is conducted to ascertain the exact details of the land, more so the location, title, measurement and ownership);
-Particulars of the legal or equitable estate of interest (in a registered statutory declaration);
-Signature of the caveator and his/her lawyer;
-Attach two passport photographs of the caveator.

How much does it cost?

Like earlier noted, lodging a caveat is very affordable. According to the Ministry of Land, Housing & Urban Development Transactions Procedures Series 8, one is required to pay stamp duty of Ushs.20,000/= and Registration fees of Ushs.10,000/= bringing the total to only Ushs.30,000/=.

Key considerations

A caveat will protect an interest in land. However, before lodging a caveat, you need to find out whether you have an interest that can be protected by a caveat. Otherwise, you may be liable to paying compensation in form of damages to the people who have been affected by the caveat.

Ensure that you entrust a qualified lawyer to handle your transaction.

DID YOU FORGET THE RANT ABOUT OIL?

Joseph Kabuleta

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY……
(Joseph Kabuleta’s Weekly Rant)

‘Find Me Guilty’ is a 2006 comedy thriller based on the true story of what was the longest mafia trial in American history. The main protagonist was a felon called Giacomo DiNorscio, a member of the Philadelphia crime family (acted by Vin Diesel), who defended himself, and turned the trial into a protracted comedy.

In one of his lines he tells a story of a stingy man who never left money home for his housewife. Every time she asked for cash, he would pull out a new 100-dollar bill, stretch it out in front of the mirror and say: “Do you see that money (pointing to the reflection), that’s yours. But this one —- as he folded the note and put it back in his pocket —– is mine. And off to the bar.
And so he always did; offered her the reflection and took the real note.
One day he came home drunk as usual and found dinner of steak, plenty of it.
“Where did you get the money to buy this meat,” he asked.
His wife walked to the same mirror, threw off her clothes and spread her legs.
“You see that **** (pointing to the reflection), that’s yours.
But this one belongs to the butcherman.

I can’t think of a better metaphor to describe Uganda and its rich natural resources.

As someone who comes from Hoima, but perhaps more as an observant Uganda, I have keenly followed the story of Uganda’s oil and all its incongruences. About ten years ago, the oil speculation reached a volatile peak, as a bevy of wealthy Kampala speculators swarmed around the Butiaba regions of (what was then) Hoima district causing inflation. Acres of land that had only been good enough for cassava gardens were fronted as sh80m take-it-or-leave it propositions.
In the run-up to the 2006 elections, the president had promised people of the “Oil City” that the refinery would indeed be built in Hoima. Using flowery brewing imagery, he told them that the hole where bananas are squashed to make ensande (eshande, or omubisi) cannot be dug far away from the plantation.

In the years that followed, oil stories dominated the papers, with New Vision famously having a Front Page picture of Museveni sniffing at it from a tin, with the exuberant look of a gambler smelling new banknotes after a good round at the table.
But around 2012, something changed. There was a sudden hush. Oil stories died out, and the president went about dampening expectations; all of which climaxed with his recent speech in Masindi where, with a sneer, he told Banyoro to stick to whatever it was they’ve been doing and not put their hope in oil.

But in reality, that’s when the action started. That’s when trucks of nondescript people, trained combatants it would seem, arrived in Hoima town and kick-started a katayimbwa reign of terror. The benefits of the oil might come later — if at all – but the proverbial curse began about six years ago.

Several people were clobbered to death with metal bars on their way home, several of them at dusk, as early at 7pm, one of them a renown nurse ambling home from a shift at the hospital. The curious thing is that these assailants never stole anything; wallets, phones and tabs were found beside the corpse the following morning.
The town was struck with terror. Police was as bewildered as residents.
What could possibly be the motive for these mindless murders?
Nobody dared to step out of their house after nightfall. But the few who did swore that they saw queues of huge trucks, heavy with some kind of product, passing through the town from the direction of the oil wells. How ironic that at the time when everyone stopped fussing over oil is when it started flowing in earnest.

TOTAL was doing most of the drilling and Transtrac did the ferrying of crude across the border to Kenya, escorted by military cars. These chaps mustered the art of disguise. The cylindrical tanks that ferry crude are built into 40-feet containers in such a way as not to rouse suspicion. It’s a well-oiled heist (pun intended).
Other companies involved are Watertech (which does all the water works), MSL (which transports food items, personnel, especially engineers), and Civicon, which handles heavy machinery. The one thing they have in common is they are owned by the ruling class.

The actual drilling is done with the dexterity of a pickpocket. There is special equipment that is used to carefully lift the vegetation off the surface and neatly place it at the side. Then the soil beneath it is also removed with plenty of care before the pipes are sunk and drilling starts. When that ridge (or well) is finished, the soil and the grass are placed back in such a way that nobody could notice that they were ever removed. Then they move to the next ridge, and the next — thousands have already been dug up —- and the fuel tanks concealed in containers continue to drive across the Kenyan border.

At some stage, the locals around the Kabale area of the wells started showing signs of agitation when all the stealthy activity never showed signs of improving their lives. Within a short time piped water and electricity arrived in the locality and the people were placated for a while. If they threaten another revolt, they might get a couple of UPE schools, possibly a hospital, and a few more lectures on wealth creation (insert appropriate emoji). If that doesn’t calm them down, the regime might be tempted to withdraw the carrot and bring the stick of military red berets.

But the system ain’t leak-proof. In spite of the decent pay at the wells, the turnover of employees is very high. One of them whom I met in Hoima told me that he quickly resigned into unemployment after he noticed that a couple of his colleagues, chatty folks who were thought to be too garrulous to keep the secret, were sent for ‘medical check-up’ and returned as cabbages with saliva dripping from their mouth, permanently consigned to a psychotic life. One of them died soon after.
In my search, I met a number of these former employees in diverse places and they collaborated this information. The consensus is that the only way to survive in that place is by acting dumb and asking no questions. Even then, timing your exit is crucial.

But now the richest ridges are no longer in Buliisa; they are in Pakwach, mostly in the Murchison National Park area. Tourists who visit the park for wildlife are now given a strict route to follow away from the drilling, all enforced by the military. The Pakwach crude travels through Lira, Soroti and to the border. It has been doing so for several years.
Many people who worked at those wells know these things but dare not say them. One of my sources, a gentleman from Gulu who was employed as a driver, told me that a French engineer once said to him: “You don’t have a president, you have a thief.”

But that’s not the worst thing he said. Even if he was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the whole process, he often suffered morality attacks and expressed sorrow over the fact that Uganda is selling its crude at a giveaway price, far less than the market value; almost like a phone thief selling the latest I-phone at 100k.
But he also had some good news for Ugandans. My source asked him if the oil would soon run out and he laughed out loud. “It will take about 25 years for it to even start reducing,” he said.
And those are just the wells that have been dug so far. In parts of Amuru district, the swamps are soggy with black water, a sign of what lies beneath. Most of the land in that area has been bought by the ruling class, including Jezebel, Saleh and them all. The rest is being given to Indians for sugarcane growing; that being the guise often used by the avaricious regime apparatchiks to claim land rich in extractives.

Museveni is so comfortable telling lies that the truth escapes him like a loud fart in public. When he said it is “my oil”, and recently when he told people in Masindi to forget about the oil are one of the rare times his heart and his mouth were in concurrence.
The personalization of national resources has been smoldering beneath the surface for twenty years through the well-marketed chimera of foreign investors; who are in actuality nothing more than mostly-Asian custodians of the regime’s various business interests.
And Museveni’s ‘wealth creation’ national tour is all about showing desperate Ugandans the crisp 100-dollar bill in the mirror, as he folds the real note and puts it in his bottomless pocket.

But of course Ugandans will stick their heads in the sand and pretend that we have a proper nation. Members of Parliament will continue acting like their verdict matters, even if they rubber-stamped a decision to award $380m to an Italian hospital ‘investor’ long after the money had been handed out without their consent. And it just got worse. They passed the 2019/20 budget without the usual charade of a debate. We have always known that what the regime wants is what ultimately passes the floor, but at least in times past our legislators gave us the illusion of a debate, after all, even a beautiful belle smitten by her suitor first puts up some desultory resistance before she gives in. It’s part of the game. But our MPs jumped in bed at the first hello.

Yet we can hardly blame them. They aren’t the only thespians.
The judiciary continues acting like they are unaffected by the not-so-subtle pressure from the executive, as if anyone ever expected them to overturn a presidential election or even the Age Limit decision. Nobody thought those verdicts could go any other way, but we still held our breath because that’s our scripted role in this giant movie that is Uganda.
The media continues reporting like their stories matter and discussing agendas that have been handed down by the political elite. When they dare to step out of their kraal to discuss real issues, Mutabazi and his UCC show up to remind them of “minimum broadcasting standards”.

The civil service is awash with highly qualified people who joined with noble intentions and novel ideas but were trimmed to size by the system they found in place. Most of them picked up the movie script and settled into their roles without a fuss.
The businessmen, voters, clergymen all grew weary of fighting and also found their scripts, memorized them and joined the show.

Just like that we became a nation of actors; a few lucky people are stars, the rest of us are support cast. This enthralling drama series is written and directed by … you know who.

The Fallacy of People Power

BY ROLAND YONGYERA

The concept of people power remains elusive both conceptually and empirically, and is the ‘most hidden’ part of human relations, and the very concept may be ‘essentially contested’, meaning the subjective assumptions needed to analyse it are inherently value-dependent.

This suggests the term itself is ‘polysomic’ and can be defined to include or exclude a range of phenomena such as authority, influence, coercion, force, manipulation and domination. So the discussion should be on whether the voters have power beyond voting? If people’s votes are likely to be purchased doesn’t that demystify their concept of community participation?

Representative democracy

This concept is engrained in Uganda’s constitution in Article 38 which states that, (1) Every Uganda citizen has the right to participate in the affairs of government, individually or through his or her representatives in accordance with law. (2) Every Ugandan has a right to participate in peaceful activities to influence the policies of government through civic organisations.

Many Scholars have argued that the challenge with Representative democracy is the enormous cost. Article 63 of the Constitution provides the following guidelines for demarcation of constituencies; (i) Uganda shall be divided into as many constituencies for purposes of election of members of parliament as parliament may prescribe. (ii) Each county as approved by parliament must have at least one Member of Parliament. (iii) No constituency shall fall within more than one county. With this demarcation throughout the country, there have been new additions to the constituencies.

The power to recall leaders

big question though is whether registered voters can recall a Member of Parliament under the current legal political regime. There is an interesting procedure whereby the electorate has the right to recall their member of parliament if dissatisfied with what the elected member is doing; a number of grounds are laid out in Article 84(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda.

The challenge is that while debating the Constitutional Amendment Bill No 3 at the committee stage on, 191 MPs voted to amend Article 84 of the Constitution by adding that the right to recall an MP shall only exist while the Movement system is in operation. As it stands now, Uganda is under the multiparty dispensation and it means that the right to recall a member of parliament is simply non-existent.

This implies that political participation for the voter stops only at voting and the voter has no other means of checking a legislator or trimming their powers by recalling them from the house. Thus with the pitfalls of the voting process which is marred by rigging, the citizen is deprived of a second chance to participate in case they want their MP out before their term ends. But as it stands now, the article is without force of authority as we are in a multiparty democracy.

Is community participation relevant?

Community participation loses its meaning if the voter only has power to vote, and in most cases where the elections are bloated and disputed, and stops at that.

MPs are ex-officios of District Councils but they rarely attend such council meetings to follow up the government activities. This is against a challenge that the electorate is always blackmailed to vote for the right Party Members who will work with the head of the Executive. This is wrong on all fronts, first it defeats the process of elective democracy because the voters don’t want to defy the head of the executive and suffer lack of service delivery.

What is the purpose of recall? A recall keeps the members elected in check and keeps the citizenry active looking out at whether their representatives are delivering. Furthermore, it helps to empower the true meaning of community participation as participation remains continuous and not something to wait for, every five years.

A recall also has its downsides; those against it argue that it could be used by the losing candidate to get the two thirds signatures for any flimsy reason. However this concern is cured by article 84 which states the reasons for a recall. The Electoral commission is mandated with carrying out investigations and reporting its findings to the speaker and if satisfied with the petition, the Speaker shall declare the seat vacant. The framers of the constitution were mindful of the fact that there could be malice and intrigue and that’s why the process is elaborate and fair.

Conclusion

Clause 6 of the same article states that Parliament shall by law prescribe the procedure to be followed during a recall and I guess rules of natural justice would be included. Aspects like right to be heard and right of reply to a petition for a recall would feature for the process to pass the test of a fair hearing.

Of course this is one area that would bring the MPs together, and they would not pave way for their recall. And so, article 84 will remain redundant as it is. This clearly defeats the concept of people power and makes elective democracy an illusory practice.

I always cynically refer to elections as the process of getting campaign funds from the rich, then buying the poor while promising protection to both groups against each other.

KAMPALA IS FULL OF ‘LIMOUSINE’ LEADERS

Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto joins President Yoweri Museveni at a campaign rally at Kapchorwa town in eastern Uganda on December 9, 2015. PHOTO | DAILY MONITOR | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By Abbey Semuwemba

There is a massive difference between the leaders and the masses they lead. Most of the leaders in Uganda peddle their offices to wealthy donors who want favors in return. It is difficult for a commoner, like me and you, to give our views directly to the president of Uganda or Katikilo of Buganda, without a middle man, and that is causing us a lot of problems, hence the introduction of platforms such as Ugandans At Heart(UAH). Leaders must feel people’s anger which is easy to express if President Museveni is not in your face. Unfortunately, President Museveni doesn’t want this, and that is why we have the COMPUTER MISUSE ACT and the social media tax—both meant to reduce on the number of people accessing internet.

The spokesperson for state house or Mengo would read the official script put out there by the president or Katikiro respectively, and in most cases, it never answers the questions people want to ask their leaders. The script is not different from the menus one finds in fancy restaurant or MacDonald. The waiter or waitress will come to the customer with a smile and a standardized message: ‘we have got wine, burgers, mukene, fish pie, chips, chicken wings in a BBQ sauce, ………………, and you as a customer you have got no choice to ask the chef to prepare something differently( that is outside the menu). Why should we want to run our countries like standardized restaurants? That is why we have got forums like UAH, brother, and we want all leaders in Kampala to drop that ‘biggy’ Kampala syndrome and start participating in these forums.

Up ahead, the public sees enormous challenges and huge threats, and a national leadership that doesn’t care a fig about the communal big picture. Most of our leaders are what I call “Limousine Leaders”, that is, they drive into the ‘hood in their limo stand next to the local demagogue (such as Abdul Naduli in Bulemezi) and agree with what he says. Then get into their limo and go to their gated suburban enclave. They won’t live in the ‘hood, barrio or slum but want you to live there to promote political harmony. This is the very reason that has led to the raise of so called ghetto leaders such as Bobi Wine—people look at them as part of them, and their stories are inspiring to the youths who are suffering.

Limousine leaders derive power from the space between groups– they aren’t leaders who lead a unified people. Closing those gaps diminishes their power, and they aren’t going to let that happen. These are the kind of leaders that are afraid of participating in forums like UAH, because they believe that people will start spotting their weaknesses. They are afraid that people will start looking at them as ‘normal’. They would rather prefer to wait for a radio program somewhere in Uganda with a specific topic, where they are informed in advance, and then come up with their intellectual dishonesty. They prefer people to look at them as ‘superhuman’ and so highly respected.

For me, I find that so wrong. This is the reason why I was so appreciative of Hon.Beti Kamya, Gen.Salim Saleh and Kayihura despite my differences with them. They used to make time to participate in some debates on UAH. Kayihura went ahead and assigned a full lady policeman to act as his liaison on UAH.

There is a difference between fighting for what is right and refusing to see what is wrong. Just because somebody has an accent, a nice suit, and a good table at a fancy restaurant, a nice office, nice car, bodyguards, does not make him better than others.

THE ROOTS OF THE 1966 CRISIS

By Patrick Otto via the UAH forum

Initial troubles centred on the financial position of Buganda, leading to protracted wrangles between Entebbe and Mmengo over the interpretation of Article 1 of schedule 9 of the 1962 constitution (See pp. 173-4 1962 Constitution at compatriotto, http://www.scribd.com/doc/20262240/Uganda-Constitution-1962). The Central government sought to deduct from its grants to Mmengo additional revenue accruing to Buganda from graduated tax on non-Africans, rents received from public land, leases to urban authorities etc.

Earlier on, the Relationship Commission (Munster Commission) had laid out the means through which the central government would maintain firm financial discipline over local authorities but curiously, Mmengo did not think that those stipulations applied to Buganda insisting that its relationship with the centre was special and different from that of other local authorities. This (mistaken) view was largely informed by the leverage Buganda had over the UPC government, having eased it into power through the UPC-KY alliance. In spite of that, though, AM Obote is remembered to have insisted that, “we refuse to sign a blank cheque to the Buganda Government”.
For all its feeling of being special, Buganda was however not assisted by the never-ending financial misdemeanours by the Michael Kintu ministry (Kintu was the Katiikiro until he was deposed in 1964 after Buganda lost in the referendum over the “lost counties”). While Buganda had £1 million in its coffers by the end of 1958, this had dwindled to a mere £465,000 in 1960. In 1963, it was in the red by £226,863.

In 1965, the Planning Commission of the Buganda Government warned that the Kabaka’s government was on the brink of bankruptcy and that the ministers whose nepotism had reached new limits were the worst offenders. The report also sent out danger signs on the state of morale of the Buganda civil service which it warned, had reached a very low ebb. Another report of a committee led by a Makerere academic, DP Ghai, warned that the feeble control by the central government on public expenditure in the kingdom had resulted in a perilous financial situation at Mmengo.
In 1965, Buganda finances were already in a considerable overdraft but even then, Mmengo went ahead to craft a budget that right from conception, suffered a deficit of £430,000, all this on top of a sum of £200,000 loaned internally to key officials at Mmengo for personal use.

Through all this, the services that had been transferred to the Buganda government as a federal authority were being heavily subsidised by the central government. Even in the face of that reality and evidence of financial indiscipline, Mmengo wanted the payer of the piper not to have anything to do with calling the tune: the Kabaka Government insisted that in spite of Central government subsidies, Mmengo was entitled to spend according to its own policies and legislation. Entebbe on the other had insisted that it was not obliged to subsidise schemes over which it had no control, particularly in light of reports of serious financial impropriety on the part of the Kabaka Government.

All this tussling was happening against the backdrop of the pending resolution of the thorny question of the “lost counties” (Buyaga and Bugangaizi) of Bunyoro; which the 1961 Constitutional Conference, attended by Buganda, was supposed to be resolved by a referendum to be held by the central government on a convenient date not earlier than two years after independence, i.e., after 8th October 1964. Thus, the stage was set for a serious political stalemate between Entebbe and Mmengo……
We hinted on the ugly encounter between the 1964 referendum and the virus of financial discipline of the government at Mmengo. It is important that we take the question of financial indiscipline to its conclusion, not just as an aspect of the administrative incompetence of the Michael Kintu ministry but also to highlight the sheer inability of Buganda to manage on its affairs on its own. At this stage, we mention the question of the referendum only secondarily: it will receive special attention later as a principle aspect in the subsequent rupture between Entebbe and Mmengo. Money first!

It should be recalled that, at this point, the Mmengo establishment had deluded itself into thinking that the referendum on the “lost counties” would never take place and if at all it took place, it would be in Mmengo’s favour. The common view at Mmnego was: the counties were “a god-given our inheritance”: the only way that Buganda would lose those counties would be if a flood or “mukoka” washed them away and carried them to Bunyoro.

Such was the mood of morbid delusion and grievous self-deception at Mmengo that the dawning of the truth was fraught with the possibilities of instability. That instability lay waiting. To shore up the delusion, money had to be spent or rather squandered on what was called the “Ndaiga Scheme”, approved by the Lukiiko and initiated in mid-1963 with the aim of promoting economic development in the “lost counties, improving the road system, but most importantly, resettling Baganda ex-service personnel and their families, along the patterns of Israeli Kibbutzim.
It did not take long for it to become evident that Ndaiga was becoming a bottomless pit. By January 1964, questions were being raised on whether the Dr EMK Muwazi, the Minister in charge of Ndaiga (also holding the portfolio of Health and Works) had received Lukiiko approval to spend public money on the scheme. Lukiiko committee that investigated the scheme discovered that,
1.£120,000 was spent without authorisation
2.£45,000 could not be accounted for, and supposedly cashed as a cheque made out in Dr Muwazi’s name, in a London bank)
3.£12,000 had been wasted on the purchase of junk machinery (not tanks or helicopters)
4.£4,000 had been spent on road surveys which had in fact been already undertaken by Uganda government
5. An undisclosed (but reportedly obscene) amount had been spent on entertainment.
More was to follow later in 1964 when the fear of losing the referendum led to the of an excess of £30,000, of which, £10,000 was spent on “gifts”. A lot was spent on campaigners deployed by individual Mmengo ministers. Many of those campaigners (like those of Masembe-Kabali) filed fictitious weekly reports on stories of success and squeezed large amounts of money from Mmengo. A few hours before the referendum, £2,500 was released by the Omuwanika (treasurer) “which in that time could only have been spent on converting the thirsty or congratulating the converted”, as one observer noted.

‘The Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Tourism, Mr. A. Ojera, receives the ignition keys to the film van which was donated by the Canadian High Commissioner, Mr. McGill, on behalf of his government to the Ministry of Information.’

Published in Uganda Argus, Thursday, October 6, 1966

For all that great, if clumsy financial effort, Mmengo lost the referendum massively. The rude awakening that resulted was to give further momentum towards the crisis that reached its climax in May 1966.
LOST COUNTIES
As can be seen, by the time of the 1964 referendum, trouble was already brewing amongst the Mmengo oligarchy over the financial discipline of the chiefly clique in charge at the time. In the normal Mmengoist pattern of always scrounging for a scapegoat, the hotheaded Mmengoists were baying the blood of the Katiikiro, Michael Kintu.

But let us focus mainly on the referendum on the “lost counties”. Recall that the Banyoro had for many decades, from as early as 1921, petitioned the colonial authorities over the issue of territory grabbed by Mmengo with the assistance of the British. By the 1961 Independence conference, it was clear that putting off that issue was bound to cause serious problems. The idea of a referendum was initially recommended in 1961 by Munster Commission; with the Molson Committee of 1962 going as far as recommending a direct transfer of the counties without a referendum to avoid possible communal conflict.

Mmengo flatly rejected all those recommendations. At the constitutional conference, however, it was agreed that two of the seven “lost counties” be transferred to the central government, with the requirement that the holding of the referendum had to be included in the constitution. Based on that requirement, the constitution stipulated that a referendum would be held by the central government on a convenient date not earlier than two years after independence, that is, 8th October 1964.
As early as 1963, Kabaka Mutesa II – also the President of Uganda – had thrown his lot into ensuring that either he sabotaged the constitutional requirement for the referendum or he influenced the outcome in Mmengo’s favour. Accompanied by 8,000 Baganda ex-servicemen, Mutesa moved to the territory that was the subject of the referendum and set up camp at Ndaiga hunting lodge in present-day Kibale district, to the southeast of Lake Albert.

Published several times in Uganda Argus, October 1966

Edward Mutesa immediately set out to settle his followers in a move that was to cause serious tensions with the local Banyoro. He carried out certain actions to assert his presence in Bunyoro as Buganda monarch, and in total disregard for his position as President of Uganda. Many of President Edward Mutesa’s actions focused on terrorizing the local populace. Mutesa notes in his “Desecration of my Kingdom” how, in June 1964 he burned down a village in the lost counties because according to him, “a meeting to whip feelings” against him was going to be held there. To further emphasize the fact that he was above the law and the constitution, he also went ahead to shoot 9 Banyoro peasants on a market day in Ndaiga. He suspected that one of their lot was planning to poison him. This was the President of Uganda, personally terrorizing sections of the population over whom he presided, all in an attempt to flout the constitution.

All those actions did not alter the fact that the referendum had to take place. In September 1964, the bill authorising the referendum was passed in parliament and according to the constitution, President Mutesa was required to append his signature to the bill. His loyalty to Buganda blinded him of the fact that he was head of state of Uganda and was duty-bound to uphold the constitution.

Obote was a cunning politician!

Never,in the history of Africa, has any politician proved himself as capable of turning national crisises to the advantage of the nation as the President of Uganda Dr.Apollo Milton Obote.When in 1956 he returned from Nairobi Kenya from exile ,he found the Uganda National Congress, the main political party in the country at that time, suffering from a deep division caused by ambitious men within the party who were incessantly resorting to the removal of the leader of the party, I.K. Musazi.These rivaling politicians found that they had created so much confusion in the party that they were not able to clear it and discovered to their dismay that the people were fed up with their machinations ane would not have any of them as the leader leader of the national political party.

The people elected a quiete,disciplined and dependable man to lead the party. They elected Obote. Mr.Joseph Kiwanuka would not have this,and so he formed what became known as Kiwanuka’s wing of the Uganda National Congress (UNC).This wing soon became known as a One Man Congress. The one man was,ofcourse, Mr.Kiwanuka himself who was said to be both the leader and follower. In this way it was laughed out of existence.

In December, 1959, the recommendations of the Wild Commission were published. The majority remmendations favoured immidiate self Government leading to independence. The minority report recommended a delay in the achievement of independence. The British Colonial Government in Uganda accepted the recommendation. There was a crisis. The then Mr.Apollo Milton Obote called the meeting of the only two parties which had members in the National Assembly and announced at the end of the meeting that the two parties represented in the National Assembly, ie the Uganda National Congress and the Uganda People’s Party had decided to merge into one political party to be known as the Uganda People’s Congress, (UPC).

SOURCE: THE GOLD ALLEGATION by S. M.mpambara.

RUHAKANA RUGUNDA’S SPEECH AS PM IN 2014

30th September 2014

Madam Speaker,

Honorable members,

I wish to take on this opportunity to thank you Madam Speaker and Honorable Members in approving my appointment as Prime Minister.

I wish to also thank His Excellency the President for the trust and confidence in appointing me as Prime Minister.

Let me take this opportunity to thank my predecessor, Ndugu Amama Mbabazi, who has served very well as Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda for the last 3 years.

As you well know, the duties of the Office of the Prime Minister are well defined.

I will be focusing on implementation of the NRM (Movement) Manifesto, the National Development Plan and the coordination of Government programs as approved by Parliament.

Our focus will be on implementation of the many infrastructural projects underway and we will continue to prioritize improved service delivery to the people. To that end, I wish to reiterate that it is our collective responsibility to ensure that our population access the essential services that they are duly entitled to such as health and education among others.

In order to address the problem of poverty and youth unemployment, promotion of private sector investments and job creation must remain a top priority. We must also focus on modernization of agriculture, industrialization and value addition as key pillars of our transformation program.

Let us intensify our collective effort to combat corruption, a vice that has plagued our society and still remains a challenge. Greater emphasis will be placed on accountability and transparency in managing public affairs. This is a responsibility of Government, the Opposition and of every Ugandan citizen.

Our country has had a difficult history; one scarred with wars, disease and natural calamities, to which so many lives have been lost. Through struggle and sacrifice, Uganda has since emerged out of this difficult period and is now playing a vanguard role in promoting regional security and socio-economic development.

As I take on this new responsibility, I take it on fully aware of the hard times, struggle and sacrifice that Ugandans have gone through, however, Our nation has also attained significant achievements, promising great opportunities and bright future.

I call upon all honorable members of this this August house and our fellow citizens, to collectively consolidate these achievements as we work together in advancing Uganda’s transformation agenda.

I thank you Madam Speaker, and I say this for God and my country.

THERE’S NO PRESIDENTIAL WILL TO FIGHT CORRUPTION IN UGANDA

By Abbey Semuwemba,UK

The root cause of all corruption stems from those who led us after independence. When we got independence in 1962, Uganda drifted from a bureaucratic administration that emphasized good governance to one that put more emphasis on the sovereignty of politics. We had a breather of some good governance when King Edward Mutesa 11 was president, though there were problems of bad financial deals in the Buganda federal government between 1964 and 1966.

When Obote took over, we ended up with a bureaucratic autocracy lacking in accountability, transparency, and the rule of law. It was almost the same everywhere in Africa. For instance, the first country to get independence, Ghana, ended up with a corrupt Kwame Nkrumah at the end of his leadership. Nkrumah and his post independent leaders started out well, but they got lost at some point.As a result, corruption became one of the main reasons given by almost all coup plotters from the 1970s onwards. Amin listed it as one of the reasons in 1971 why he had to kick Obote out. In Sierra Leone, Captain Valentine Strasser also gave it as a reason for the coup. It was the same in Ghana and Mali in 1991.

Corruption itself comes from Latin word called ”RUMPERE” which means that something is broken. What has happened in Uganda since 1986 shows that ‘something is broken’ in the country and needs fixing. When you listen to the arguments online made by someone in their 20s with a degree, you may think that they have just finished primary seven. A lady, like ‘Bad Black’, who has confessed to being a prostitute, is more followed and listened to on Facebook than a religious leader or scholar. Foul language (‘Okuwemula’ in Luganda) is the order of the day. When you don’t steal public funds, people think you’re dense.The Besigyes(products of NRM) realized that they could not fix it from within and opted out. Yoweri Museveni,too, has formed various institutions to fight corruption but nothing much has been gained.

Africa has ended up with two classes of leaders since the coup era: BENEVOLENT AUTOCRATS AND KLEPOCRATS. Both are not really absolute dictators or autocrats because they try to work or try to portray themselves as working within the existing state institutions. There are so many characteristics of these two types of leaders, but I will pick a few to make a point.

Museveni is specifically a kleptocrat: he is fearful of being overthrown and therefore favors policies that benefit him in the short run with costs spread in the future. He can manipulate any state institution for personal gain. For instance, he can spend a lot of money bribing people in an election, like he did all previous presidential elections, because he believes that with the oil money coming in, this void can be fixed in future. He has spent a lot of money on the likes of: Full Figure, Catherine Kusasira, Balaamu, and others, and then,he will likely drop them after elections–they might not fit in his long term plans.

Combating corruption at presidential level is actually more difficult because the president has got immunity while there are still in power. By the way, up to now I don’t know how to interpret his shs.770m donation to a school in Kigali in 2011. Is a poor person supposed to donate food to a neighbor when he cannot feed his own family? I don’t know what religious scholars say about this, but I don’t think its right.

Kleptocrats will also seek a taxation system that efficiently generates revenue, but they are likely to introduce distortions. At the moment, Uganda collects more taxes than at any time since independence but there is very little to show for it because we are led by wrong people. So, we cannot change a system that has gone wrong with a ‘wrong people’ still at the helm of things. According to Ismail Musa Ladu of the Daily Monitor, ‘‘ despite the increase in revenue from Shs10.6 trillion in 2014/15 to Shs27.4 trillion in 2018/19 of which 65 per cent were tax revenues, government spending has not only continued to outstrip revenue.’’

Kleptocrats tend to support projects that generate large corrupt payoffs. Thus, the leader will endorse projects with little economic justification, propose public projects that could be efficiently carried out in the private sector. If revelations of corruption are likely to destabilize the regime, the Kleptocrat will do everything to make sure that they go away on his own terms. For instance, just look at the people that were implicated in the Global funds, Temangalo, CHOGM,e.t.c, and how their court cases were handled– It all doesn’t make sense, but as long as they are on the good side of the president, they are eventually free. Some are even continuing to serve as MPs; and others were even appointed in M7’s cabinet. Summarily, there is no serious political will to fight corruption in Uganda.

Aggrey Kiyingi Reveals Why His Wife Was Killed

By Henry D Gombya

This month has seen a new ‘kid on the block’ announce his intentions to vie for the Ugandan presidency. Dr Aggrey Kiyingi is a specialist cardiologist based in Australia who many came to know about as the philanthropist who was flooding Ugandan schools, churches and local administrations with computers.

But most of those of us living in the Diaspora came to know about him when he was arrested at Kitetikka in Wakiso District while attending the burial of his wife in July 2005. We were intrigued when two of his well-educated children, Dr Andrew Simbwa Kibuuka and his daughter Samalie Rachel Biyinzika Nakagulire, a London-based trial lawyer testified against him, with Dr Kibuuka asking the trial judge to find his father guilty of killing his mother and to therefore send him to the gallows (Uganda still practices capital punishment).

But the case collapsed almost immediately, taking with it some of the prosecution witnesses in the likes of Lt Caesar Enya of the Uganda Military Police who was due to give evidence against Dr Kiyingi but was later found shot three times at his home in Banda near Kampala and Private John Atwine, the man who allegedly pulled the trigger to end Mrs Kiyingi’s life who was found dead in Luzira maximum prison, after being allegedly poisoned.

With so many killings and deaths going on around this mysterious case, one would wonder why the then ‘prime suspect’ is now contemplating to return to Uganda after being acquitted of the murder of his wife and is preparing take part in what would be without doubt a deadly undertaking. He is financially quite well-off, having a dream job and being sought after by specialist hospitals around the world. So why is Dr Aggrey Kiyingi now seeking to enter what has now become a deadly business of trying to become President of Uganda?

The London Evening Post has caught up with him and during a lengthy interview in which he talked about why he wants to be Uganda’s leader and many other aspects of life concerning not only Uganda but Africa in general and the world at large, we asked Dr Kiyingi to first clear up the air and tell Ugandans what he believes caused his wife’s murder and why his children vented out their anger by testifying in the

AK: I will give you a little preamble to that which will help explain. In the 1990s, I was doing a lot of things for Uganda. I was not political then but I loved my country. And I thought it was shameful, and I will repeat it again; it is shameful for Africa to go begging when many Africans are in the developed world and are able to help Africa. But I did that and got my hands and feet burnt. I started a lot of social welfare programmes, helped many groups, funded children that were not able to go to school, and engaged myself in village development programmes like building wells.

The LEP: And President Museveni was aware of what you were doing?

AK: Oh yes because the media picked on that very quickly. Because they could see there was something happening which the government couldn’t do. I started a company called the Dehezi International which has now been destroyed. But this is the one that really started Mr Museveni panicking. This was an IT company, internet communications and computers. And if you look back and you check with Ugandans, I literally singlehandedly introduced computer science to the schools of Uganda. I introduced singlehandedly internet services and education to Ugandans. I distributed computers to schools at much reduced rates.

I introduced a long time payment system to schools so that every school could afford a computer. 20 years later, the government is trying to copy what I did at that time and trying to tell people it is ‘their thing’. It is not ‘their thing’. They’re just panicking and copying everything in a very bad way. Now, this brought about a lot of publicity, a lot of publicity. The radios, the TVs were very excited. I gave computers to organizations, to kingdoms, to churches. What I wanted to see was Uganda being literate from the IT side.

The LEP: Sorry to interrupt you here but if we may ask, how were you able to finance these deals? How were you able to finance the buying of all these computers?

AK: I have been blessed and I share my blessings. I had determined that look, I have enough to eat and I have bread, I have water. I don’t need a million dollars to have lunch. I [decided that] I am going to use 60 per cent of my facilities and income to help the people in Uganda. Fortunately too, I have friends who jumped on the bandwagon. I will give you two examples. I at one time was trying to start a hospital in Uganda which was sabotaged because it was going to bring more publicity.

But before that, I had offered, now listen very carefully, I had offered the medical school, the Uganda Heart Institute, places here in Australia. I had made arrangements with two leading hospitals in the country which are actually the two leading hospitals in the Southern Hemisphere, to train doctors, specialists in cardiology, which is my field, free of charge, three specialists every two years and to train five specialist nurses every year to bring them for five years hoping that it would bring them to 30 or 40 and then they would be able to carry on and train in Uganda. In addition, I had also got my friends here in Australia, to volunteer. These are highly paid specialists my dear. But they had agreed that they would go to Uganda one month, six months at a time, do free work, teach, operate, carry out cardiac procedures free of charge. The only thing I had to do was provide them with accommodation.

Now, that programme, anybody with a sensible mind would have jumped on it. But it caused me enormous problems in Uganda and I was almost killed. Because I was disturbing their distorted eco-system of running things. They were afraid I could get things done that they couldn’t do themselves, that I would shame them. So instead of embracing and thanking me, it was actually – well, I almost got killed for that.

I could name a few other projects. I would not name a country for diplomatic reasons, but there was some country which had offered to build a children’s hospital in Uganda. Now, there was only one catch; it had to be [built] through the government, not an individual organization or company like mine. They said, `we know you, we like you. We will do this, but in order to go through, we need to go through a government. You talk to that government, take them through one, two, three, four, we already know you. We are introduced by you but we do it for the country officially. This how we do businesses.

I then contacted the person who was at that time the Minister of Health, again I will not name him because I think he is no longer in that post. He asked me, `what is in it for us?’ (laughs loudly) I will not say this was a joke. It was very serious. I told that country, “Look find another country to give that money to”. And that gentleman said, “Why? What is wrong Aggrey, what happened”? I told him: “No it is a long explanation. I don’t want to be offended that you have given money to Uganda and it is used for the wrong reason. So please find another country and I could go on and on.

Now let us go back to the Dehezi International. It became very popular and the government got worried and at that time there was an impending election in 2006. Probably they thought I was doing this, in fact they (Uganda Government) asked why I was doing this. What were my motives? Do I want to become President? This is way back in 2004/2005. Of course I didn’t have any political intention at that time. So that is one part and I wanted you to note that.

The second part which is going to answer your question about my late wife is that she was in Uganda at that time running a private business. But she was the Chairman of Transparency International (TI), Uganda Branch. She was commissioned by TI to write a forensic audit about the Global Fund Money which was supposed to be for TB, AIDs and Malaria. Everybody knows that the Global Fund Money didn’t do what it was supposed to do. But whatever our marital problems were, my wife was very efficient professionally and she did a good job. The good job meant that she was going to write a report implicating the government. They approached her so that they could edit the report the way they thought it was suitable. Knowing my late wife, she wasn’t only a good lawyer but a very capable debater. She told them to go to **** but in a very diplomatic way. And she said to them ‘No. I am going to do my job’. And she refused their monetary offer and told them that she did not need the money. You can imagine this didn’t go down well with Dictator Yoweri Museveni.

To cut the story short, my late wife was executed on 11 July 2005. I was in Australia at the time and I went to Uganda for the burial. I took my children who were with me in Australia. But while we had marital problems with my late wife, we were still talking but had some irreconcilable differences. While we were actually going through divorce proceedings, we were not enemies. The government, as usual, took stock of our differences. They executed my late wife and on arrival I was arrested the next day at the burial and charged with her murder.

I later learned that there was no intention of detaining me, no intention of trying me. The intention was to eliminate me as quickly as possible. [While being arrested] I was order to enter a police car. I refused to enter the car. There was a high government official, an army general, who I will not name and I told him that these people want to take me, but they don’t even have a normal car. If they are taking me for normal questioning I don’t mind but let me first bury my wife. Through all of this they had placed a pistol behind my back, and the whole church congregation looked on very embarrassingly. I told this guy that you can shoot me here if you want to but I am not going in that car. If you want you can take me to the CID for questioning’. A few calls were made and they finally agreed that I should go in my car. I also told him that I needed some of his bodyguards to accompany me in my car, to which he agreed. That probably saved my life.

The plan was that on my way, they would get me out of that car and shoot me and claim that I was trying to escape. So when they took me to the Chief CID, he was not even aware that I was going there. It was like a joke. You could see that he wasn’t expecting me at all. Which means that units had not collaborated and they were not expecting me there. It was their plan to kill me on the way. Because you could see they were not expecting me to be there and that is how I survived. Because they hadn’t expected me to survive, they put me on trial. And of course from international pressure and pressure from my friends all over the world, I was able to [be acquitted]. At the time I was not able to speak, I was not able to say anything [about this case], so I was condemned, tried and executed by the media, and this is the first time I have been able to talk about this.

There is still a lot of questions about this case. For example, even in simple detective stories on TV or for children, they would have told us who was the last person my late wife had contacted or who was the last person she spoke with on the telephone, or who were the last people she contacted on her telephone. My late wife’s telephone has disappeared and when we asked questions they didn’t answer and up to this day we don’t know who spoke to her last and we don’t know who was the last person to ring her telephone. And we don’t know who was the last person she contacted in the last 24 hours before her death. That is very strange!

Secondly, they took her laptop which had the files of Transparency International. They took all the paperwork from our residence in Buziga and we never got it back. They took all the paperwork from her legal offices and we never got them back. And to this day, we don’t know what happened to all that paperwork. And from the history of the legal system in Uganda, it was the first test closure of a private practice because her practice was closed down within days after her death. It was actually wound down, completely closed down, which is very, very strange. Some things are not for this forum because there are people who might get hurt who know more about my late wife’s murder. But I hope one day all things will come out. But at the moment I cannot say more than that at the moment because some people might get hurt.

The LEP: Why did your children testify against you?

AK: Well that is a very difficult question. They were getting all these reports, all this information from one side. They were not talking to me. In fact I could name one person, he was a minister then and an MP, Tom Lwanga, who was one of the functionaries of Yoweri Museveni at that time. They stopped them (“the children”) from talking to me and the question is ‘why?’ So if you listen to the what government said and if you read all the papers what they wrote, even if it was you, you would condemn me straight away. So they never had a second sight. This issue about our marital problems; that we were going through a divorce. I have made so many mistakes in my life.

But the first mistake in life is to have a divorce. It is the worst thing to happen in a family. Of course the children are hurt and they were very close to their mother. So there is that side of it, emotional part, you know, that their mother is going through this. I have no bitterness (towards the children who testified against him). I think they were very brave in many ways. I know that when some of the things that I have been not able say now come out, it will not be very difficult for them to see that it was a distorted operation and trial, media propaganda and government programme.

I think one has got to be reasonable and take pity on the children. It was a tough situation. They lost a mother and they see this propaganda and nothing from the father. And at the time you are going through divorce proceedings which is bitter in any language in any family. So I don’t blame them at all. Of course I am sad they did that [testify against him], but in many ways if it was you and you are the children, probably you may have done the same. If I met them today I don’t know whether they would say the same. But I know that a lot of things will be unearthed when Museveni is out of power. Definitely they will see the truth.

Besigye is a brand that cannot be put down by mere besmirch and blackmail

By Kakwenza Rukirabashaija via UAH forum

Sometime in the year 2000, I met the son of Kifeffe for the first time. He was on his way to Kisiizi, a tiny town in southwestern district of Rukungiri, during those days of campaigning for 2001 presidential elections. We were from school going home, on foot, clattering on the dusty marram road that connects Kebisoni to Kisiizi via Mineera Bridge. Donned in a navy blue long-sleeved shirt, through the open roof of his car, he smiled and greeted us when the convoy came to a halt at the side of the road. He opened our eyes that day. We were all encapsulated in ignorance that Mr Museveni was the supreme life president of Uganda since his network of patronage was very strong in villages and everyone looked at the president as the owner of everything including the air we breathed. Dr Besigye’s message to us was short but very clear. He released us from the inflicted fear to oppose Museveni. This was the day he won my heart and since then I have genuinely supported and campaigned for him every election.

After like a week, a one NRM mobiliser in our village named Mabel brought membership cards for her party and registered our names under duress that there would be war if we refused to vote and give support to Museveni openly. Most of us were underage but based on my physical appearance, towering over everyone, I looked like a voter above eighteen years whereas not.

In the forthcoming elections of 2001 which was marred with a lot of violence and fear, they ferried and took us to the polling stations to vote for Museveni even though we had no voting cards but only NRM membership cards (Only my father and mother had voting cards in the family). The cars moved house to house ferrying everyone with the membership card of NRM to go and vote for Museveni by force.
There is something my late father told me which up to now ring in my ears. “Son, those are lying but keep quiet since I am a church leader and not allowed to take part in partisan politics. Let us go and I will show you whom to vote for”
“But you ate their money, if we do not vote for Museveni, he will come and kill us” I protested ignorantly.

When we reached the polling station, we were given special treatment because they knew we had kowtowed to their duress and lies. We voted for Dr Besigye. Most people voted for Besigye but the results were exchanged in the computers, at the national tally centre and eventually Museveni was announced a winner. Same methods of election rigging have been going on since then, courtesy of the electoral commission, army and the police who are subservient to the appointing authority.
Dr Kizza Besigye has since built his brand in Uganda and elsewhere in the world basing on his courageous strength of mind that enables him to endure blackmail, police and military brutality. His resolute to bear pain while confronting the ruthless regime of Mr Museveni has won Dr Besigye a genuine following to the extent that no amount of blackmail will veer such a following and political capital off from him. During the swearing-in ceremony at Kololo, Mr Museveni promised that he would chew Dr Kizza Besigye like a samosa and that there would be no opposition by 2021, Museveni will forever regret his unfruitful and despicable promise he spewed out of excitement which he made amidst the hired and ferried people who had convened at the airstrip to eat pilawo, take juice and pocket his bribe of attending the unpopular swearing-in ceremony!
Retired Colonel Dr Kizza Besigye is made out of a certain rare material which becomes tougher the more you hammer it. No amount of blackmail will ever stop him from fighting against this kleptocratic gerontocracy!
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija is a Journalist, Farmer and Executive Director at Kakwenza Education Fund. A philanthropic Organization based in Uganda, Rukungiri District. http://www.kakwenzaeducationfund.org