Humanist

“I cannot be badly robbed and then easily be appeased by a copper medal,” Hon. Miria Matembe (PhD) is quoted as having explained why she refused to receive the award given to all who had ever served as members of parliament (MPs) of Uganda since 1962.

The sanctions by the United Kingdom (UK) against Speaker Anita Among feel similar to how Hon. Matembe characterised the copper medal. Particularly so when contextualized within the big picture of the Ministry for Karamoja Affairs – Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Karamoja Livelihoods Programme corruption scandal 2021-2023.

You will recall, the Parliament of Uganda approved and allocated 30 billion shillings plus to an ill designed, ill planned and eventually ill executed livelihoods programme that was claimed would be effective in rooting out cattle rustling as a livelihood option among youth (karachuna), particularly young men, of Karamoja.

The greater portion of the Karamoja Livelihoods Programme funds, about 84 percent, was reportedly utilized to procure goats for distribution to targeted Karimojong young men who had disavowed cattle rustling and had vowed to engage in alternative livelihoods to earn a living for their respective households.

Reportedly, the plan was that the targeted Karimojong youth would each receive a donation of 16 goats. According to media reports, however, a forensic audit by the Auditor General found that some of the beneficiaries received as low as one goat each.

Worse more, thousands of the gifted goats worth millions of shillings were reported either rustled or died within a short time of arrival in Karamoja. The recipients, it is reported, told the Auditor General that the reason the goats died on arrival is because the breed of goats delivered is the kind that cannot survive within weather conditions of Karamoja.

Furthermore, hundreds of procured goats worth over 64 million shillings, it is reported, the Auditor General found, never made it to Karamoja and are unaccounted for. In addition, it is reported that the Auditor General found that 1.16 billion shillings allocated for procurement of goats for Karamoja youth was not utilized.

The rumblings of activists for and of Karamoja on the discontent of Karimojong beneficiaries on the inappropriate and low-quality goats gifted and whose delivery was poorly timed largely went unnoticed. The corruption scandal which logically should have been ignited to trend in the media by the goat-saga, continued on unrecognised.

Perhaps, it is among the reasons that the technocrats and politicians at the Ministry for Karamoja Affairs – OPM were emboldened to step up their game and to brazenly plunder 90 percent of the iron sheets that were to be gifted to Karimojong Uganda under the Karamoja livelihoods affirmative action allocation 2021-2023.

Media reports allege that 90 percent of the procured iron sheets, intended for the youth of Karamoja, were instead distributed to 30 politicians, including those in the top echelon of cabinet, such as: Vice President Jessica Alupo, Prime Minister Robinah Nnabbanja, Speaker Anita Annet Among and Deputy Prime Minister Rebbeca Kadaga.

A Karimojong youth (karachuna) proudly exits his house within the wider homestead.

Be that as it may, it is necessary to highlight the fact that even the 10 percent iron sheets that were delivered, 71 percent of the beneficiaries that the Auditor General interviewed had not at the time utilised the iron sheets that they had received. It was because they did not have houses on which to use them for roofing, it is reported in the media. Which begs, the question, were the iron sheets wanted by the intended beneficiaries in the first place?

Back to the corrupt politicians, some of the high-ranking beneficiaries of what President Museveni characterised “political corruption” claimed that they did not know that the iron sheets that they had received were intended for Karamoja. They apparently assumed OPM had regularly allocated the iron sheets for distribution to the needy within their respective constituencies.

Case in point, Speaker Among claims the first she heard of them was when she received a phone call informing her of the arrival of 500 iron sheets in her constituency, Bukedea. Which she instructed distributed to government aided schools in Bukedea to use to roof school buildings. Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister Kadaga, claimed she had ordered the 500 pieces of iron sheets she received from OPM be distributed to schools and health facilities in Kamuli.

Irrespective of whether they knowingly or unknowingly got involved in “political corruption”, President Museveni order all “those involved must both bring back the iron sheets or equivalent value in money, but also be handled by the police under the criminal laws of the country.”

 Indeed, it is reported concerned politicians either returned the actual iron sheets or, as was the case for both Speaker Among and Deputy Prime Minister Kadaga, they bought new ones and replaced them with what they got. This is because, according them, schools and health facilities had already used the OPM distributed ones.

A handful, a few, of the politicians involved in the Karamoja iron sheets saga, were arrested, charged and are being tried for their role in corruption. In addition, for some of them, President Museveni, took extra “political action” against them by dropping them from Cabinet.

How he chose whom to exonerate and whom to take “political action” against is not clear. Afterall, the State Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Amos Lugoolobi, who is among those charged and being prosecuted, was retained in cabinet; while the two former Ministers for Karamoja Affairs – Mary Goretti Kitutu and Agnes Nanduttu, similarly charged and being prosecuted, were dropped.

Retaining in Cabinet some who knowingly or unknowingly got involved in “political corruption” undermines and contradicts President Museveni’s assessment that he holds them responsible for profiteering at “the expense of the youth of Karamoja, but also at the expense of the security of the country.”

Circling back to Speaker Among, why sanction her and not Deputy Prime Minister Kadaga, for example? They similarly testified unknowingly receiving iron sheets intended for Karamoja; and they both similarly bought new ones to replace them. During her term of office as Speaker, Kadaga, presided over the enactment of an Anti-Homosexuality Act; albeit eventually it was nullified by court.

A school of thought holds that unlike Deputy Prime Minister Kadaga and other politicians, a majority of Ugandan politicians across the board, who are proponents of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, Speaker Among goes the extra mile to regularly abuse her position and parliament to make utterances that rise to the level of hate speech and hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people; lately frequently overtly mal-describing them derogatorily as “bum shafters”.

Thus, providing a valid basis for those questioning: Why didn’t UK instead similarly sanction Speaker Among as it once did Bobi Wine for “pushing an anti-gay agenda?” For about a decade the UK sanctions against Bobi Wine were in effect until this year when they were lifted.

Using the basis of the Karamoja iron sheets saga to sanction Speaker Among, simply doesn’t add up – it appears unfair in context of there were 27 other politicians involved, but are not sanctioned.

The time of the sanctions is not good. Ugandan politicians have begun politicking for the next parliamentary and presidential elections. Sanctioning Speaker Among in manner that it appears she was singled out, while not specifically calling her out for her hate speech, hate crimes and human rights violations, potentially provides her with a soap box on which to wail victim, while, in fact, she is the aggressor.