By Oweyegha-Afunaduula
It seems to the Parliament of Uganda, abuses are worse than torture. But then of Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Internal Affairs, which should own up the tortures of Ugandans and even extrajudicial justice mooted by armed men in uniform ?
If they are both responsible – because Uganda Police is like an appendage of UPDF – then the MPs who genuinely are against torture and extrajudicial justice, should have put both the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Internal Affairs on the carpet to explain the failure in security for Ugandans.
To me abuses are bad but not as bad as torture and extrajudicial killings. If tortures and extrajudicial killings outlive the NRM regime, like they outlived the the other fallen regimes, tortures are waiting for the MPs as well.
No Ugandan can today, like before, say he or she is beyond torture and extrajudicial killings. It seems one of the things that took President Tibuhaburwa Museveni to the Bush to grab power through the barrel of the gun is getting out of hand: torture and extrajudicial justice.
If Parliament does not play a part in its own weakening and usurpation by the Exeutive, it should task the President to explain or own up these vices as Commander in Chief of the armed forces.
The two Ministries, where torture and extrajudicial justice are emanating from are, ultimately under the Office of Commander-in- Chief .
All security matters are ultimately under the President as he chairs the security committee at the national level, and signs all the strategies agreed for the execution of national security plans.
The armed forces have not yet convincingly extricated themselves from these crimes against humanity. Yet at least UPDF is very well represented in the Parliament of Uganda by 10 MPs They must be happy that attention is more on abuses than torture and extrajudicial justice.
Even Muhammad Nserereko who has been agitated by young people who have been abusing him on social media, is drawing focus further away from torture and extrajudicial justice by bringing a bill in Parliament to enact a law against people who throw abuses at other people via cyberspace.
Clearly Parliament, which is intended to handle issues that concern the public has been diverted to non-issues as far as the public is concerned.
Right now, apart from torture and extrajudicial justice, the public is concerned about quality of education, quality of health, falling food production and rising hunger, human, organ and tissue trafficking, poor roads, expensive electricity, high rate of teenage pregnancy, slavery, lack of minimum wage, rising unemployment, spiraling inflation, apartheid, land grabbing, ineffective administration at local and national level, top-level corruption, collapse and ineffectiveness of institutions, and national budget allocations, which are made as if these problems do not exist.
It is not too late to turn Parliament into a meaningful, effective, people-oriented national Institution. Later will be too late.
For God and My Country
The Writer is a Ugandan Scientist And Environmentalist
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