PETTY POLITICS OF TRIBE

what is in tribe? what is in clan? Why are these such big issues to some people of late? Human beings will always look for divisions if you let them. I am reminded of the story of Jacob and Esau in the bible; these two shared the same mother and father and as one would imagine they would have no major issues or rivalries. Alas, Esau wanted and indeed vowed to kill Jacob for stealing his blessing. He forgot that he had sold it a while back to Jacob.

Rachael and Leah were sisters. Born to the same father and mother. Leah sneaked her way into Rachael’s fiancé and got to marry him first. Rachael later on joined her sister in a polygamous relationship to Jacob. The events that follow show a lot of strife between these blood siblings. Self interest usually rules.

So when we say we coalesce along tribal or ethnic lines, are we really addressing the right problem? Human beings by default will always find a difference somewhere to keep them away from each other. As leaders we ought to be looking for and focusing on things that will draw us closer together. These must be built upon matters of mutual interest and mutual survival. If we focus on trying to get people to stop this kind of separatism we shall not make much progress. We must look out for those key things that call for mutual survival and promote that.

In todays world economics plays an important role. Once people are economically active and gainfully so, they rarely get involved in destructive behavior. They will take care of the sources of their economic prosperity regardless of color, race or tribe. It is when they ail in such areas that they start nit picking on such issues as tribe etc. My father tells me a story of an event that happened in their village home in Wabusaana, Luwero. On a Sunday morning they went to attend church with their dad (my grand father). Now like any community in Buganda then, even Wabusaana was a mixed pot (we are talking of the early 1950s). There was people from Lango, West Nile, refugees from Rwanda, etc. and they all were well assimilated into the community. My Grand Father was Gombolola Chief at Wabusaana then.

So, on this Sunday morning, my dad and his slightly elder brother Andrew (MHSRIP) sat in the church listening to the liturgy as it flowed along. Then came the time to take the readings and the second reading went to a Lango man. He picked the bible and read a portion in Luganda, but obviously the diction and accent all revealed Luganda was not his first language. The church listened, but these two little boys giggled; my grandfather took notice. Immediately after the service when they had returned home he called the two to himself and sternly cautioned them never again to behave like that against any person that settled in the community from else where. He told them that this behavior was not acceptable at all.

Growing up I never heard of any tribalistic sentiments in my father’s house, and I believe this was due to that episode earlier in his life. My point being that in Buganda from time immemorial the people welcomed strangers and even settled them in freely. There is so many settlements in Buganda of different tribes, provided for by the Kabaka himself in places like Namutamba, Nsooba/Kifumbira, Bombo for the Nubians, Kayunga, etc. So what whips up tribal sentiments is not lack of acceptance of the community for persons different from themselves, it is things like economics and nasty politics, when those playing in those spaces choose to divide and rule.

The Politics must move away from the petty populism that it is today to being issues driven and the economics must be free and fair. It is only then that silly things like tribal sentiments will die a natural death as they have no place amongst us; they never have.

OF TECHNOLOGY AND THE CHALLENGE OF INTEGRITY

Am sure anyone that has tried online shopping in Uganda has a story to tell; it all starts lovey dovey but usually the last one is not a good one. I have tried a few of these options myself, Jumia, jiji and other Telco provider related options like paying for insurance. Please understand that in technology I am above average in terms of understanding as well as handling. I have also had my fair share of customer service training and have actually been at the provider side of things; so, I have run the whole 9 yards.

One of the online shopping portals was a hit with me when I started using it. I delayed for a while to start as I was apprehensive about getting unreturnable substandard goods and the other pains potentially hidden in this way of working. I was also worried about the ability of Ugandan service providers to take ownership of their mistakes. Anyhow, I somehow got bittne by the bug and soon as was a firm believer until I placed an order that was only partially delivered.

My biggest shock was the cycles I was taken through by the call center to simply fix a simple missing product issue. Their delivery person had mis-declared the delivery, lied to them that I had signed (obviously they forged my signature) and then they closed the sale in their system. I labored to explain to their call center (it is the only way you can reach them) the issue to no avail. They actually treated my suspect at one point. They have this one standard response when you corner them that goes something like this "we shall ask the dispatch department to handle this and call you back". They never ever call back. So, I called multiple times until I got tired of calling. I then reached out to their CEO on another social media platform and levelled my complaint. To his credit, he immediately got back, was apologetic and promised to get this resolved. His people called me immediately and took me again through exactly the same cycle of madness! I resigned and have never used the platform again, and they still owe me!

Recently, insurance has made a provision for using the Mobile Money platforms. I learned with pleasure that I could now pay my motor insurance using my phone directly and then have my sticker printed by an insurer. I was taken through this by one staff of an insurance firm and I successfully paid for my motor 3rd party using this method and within less than 5 minutes I was off with sticker in hand. A few weeks later I found that I needed to pay for insurance for another car. I had insufficient funds with the first mobile money provider I had used the last time, so I opted to use my other number with another provider.

First of all the process of debiting my mobile money account happened so fast, but I got no message alert with the insurance reference number. I waited for about 10 minutes and nothing came through. I walked away thinking the service provider had some issues and would send me the reference later; that was never to be. I contacted the telco call center, which by the way is as hard as a needle in a haystack to reach and there was not much help. I reached out to someone internal to the telco and to date, 3 weeks down the road I have received no Insurance reference number, so I can't print my sticker in spite of having settled my dues! Each time I reach out, I have been told that they are working on this; it’s the same response I get whenever I follow this matter up with the Telco.

Now I am wondering how many such cases exist? who is following these issues up? are the regulators aware of these scums or do we even have these transactions regulated at all? I have no issues with innovation, but innovation must be held to account, especially where it involves holding onto hard earned monies of people that work so hard for them. One wonders who is responsible for looking out for this kind of poor, possibly fraudulent transactions that are ripping Ugandans off of their hard-earned income.

So, as it stands, I have struck two innovators of great products off my list and I am wondering if we shall have more to follow. Something must be done to protect our very fragile transactional systems as electronic payment methods ease life in so many different ways, therefore they must be encouraged. But if people keep getting bad experiences like these, and the places where they should be running to for help are deliberately kept very hard to reach for them, what will happen next? how does that help the confidence of people with the next great innovations to come out of dear country? Is this not the reason why our innovations are for sale to the next biggest bidders out there who buy them from our great minds for peanuts and then re-brand them as their own, and then proceed to make a killing out of them?

Something must be done to save the genuine innovators but also protect the people that so badly want to transact electronically who right now may be standing at cross roads about Ugandan innovations in the electronic transactional space.

Someone regulate these frauds out of here. Make it very expensive for any one to sell air in Uganda!

A WHOLE NEW WORLD!

 Sometimes events totally define a particular period in human history. It will be difficult to remember the year 2020 in any other way except as the year of “Lockdown” as it has been characterized by Lockdown. Sometimes one wonders what this lockdown was really all about. Of course, it was not about Covid-19 much as that was the trigger event. I would rather think about it as God's way of giving the world a commercial break and resetting the timers; a time to re-steer and change course.

Many people are leaving the lockdown only to go back to their previous way of life and to their old agendas'. I personally wonder why I would cut out some of the things and habits established during the lockdown. Currently my life is healthier and more balanced. Each one must examine their lives and see the positive things that the lockdown brought into their lives and keep it that way. It would be a mistake to default to the old life after such a divine intervention in our lives.

The way we do church has significantly changed. The way we work has as well totally changed. The way we shop to a great extent too has changed. Family habits too have changed. Of course, human beings cannot survive without physical contact. However, there is new methods of reaching out that we have grown accustomed to over these couple of months which we must incorporate well in our lives; we only need to become better at it. Church schedules have changed somewhat to accommodate more online prayer meetings; in fact, church configurations in many cases have changed as well. Generally, many social meetings as well have become easier with online provisions meaning that we can actually do more with the same time. Literally the day has grown to almost feel like we have more than 24 Hours! So we can achieve more with some of the new methods of interaction that we have learned. Physical meetings and engagements must be left strictly for those things that demands that kind of interaction.

 Most people I know have been churning out more work and more hours of productivity during lockdown due to the online engagements, yet without the stress that sometimes comes with physical engagements. Of course, some will disagree with me, but I guess it is asking too much for me to expect otherwise.

Old habits die hard. For some people, once the countries started opening up, they have tried to do things the same old way they were doing them before. I muse sometimes as I watch these episodes; people trying to find round pegs in a world that now has square holes. This really shows you the true meaning of adaptation and how evolution eventually throws the non-adaptors out and very soon makes them extinct. I have seen churches trying to do things the same old way. I see many employers struggling to "normalize" the workplace. Many businesses are trying to get their old mojo back. One thing many of these non-adaptors don't realize, there is nothing normal about the events of lockdown 2020. The kind of switch that was flipped is the kind that has no reverse gears.

My personal resolution is not to revert to stuff I was forced to leave by the lockdown. There is a lot of good habits I have built up during this period that I now wonder why previously I found it hard to adopt. The world is now a totally different place than it used to be before the lockdown. Bringing old tools into a new type of battle today only leads to eventual defeat. Covid-19 has reconfigured the world and changed the battle field; this is not going back to the way it used to be. So, you had better re-configure, re-align and accept that the Covid-19 normal in many ways is really now the new normal.

A whole new world it is. The challenge is to relearn how to live. Will you?

DO WE DESERVE THESE LEADERS REALLY?

 It is said that people will often get the leaders they deserve. Election time in Uganda is around the corner. In fact literally we have 2 months to go to the ballot! Looking at the candidates that are presenting themselves, the pot is mostly disturbing.

Watching the second U.S presidential debate between Trump and Biden one can't help thinking of when we shall get there as a nation. Something Trump said resonates with my perspective to Politics; in criticism of Biden he made reference of him as "these Politician's" considering himself an outsider. When Trump campaigned the first time I remember telling some friends that he would lead the U.S like some corporate institution and not like any common politician. Those that expected political correctness rather than work soon found themselves outside the arena where the action was; as spectators! Trump has totally challenged the political landscape in the U.S and his opponents are always blind sided to his moves as they have tried to view him in the mould of a politician. They still don’t get it; He is not! he is a leader and change agent. Trying to see Trump as a politician creates serious fog and you will soon have him flanking you and before you know it overrunning your outposts.

This brings me to dear Country. I watch with angst the caliber of politician that the Ugandan populace has allowed into this arena. Many of these men and women have nothing to show in terms of personal achievement and competency. And yet, we thoughtlessly elect them to office expecting them to bring about change. I don't believe one's achievement ought to be in the field of politics for them to make a great political leader. In fact I think it is important the one proves themselves in other spheres before they present themselves for elective office. That is the only way we shall break the leadership Jinx of Uganda.

You find men and women whose only objective is to get into the office to "eat", running for these positions, and the electorate voting them in. Issues-based politics is still a long ways off as these types will oppose someone for the sake of opposing them, even when their opponent is proposing solutions that take the nation forward.

I have a few thoughts on my mind on this; almost none of us would ever give our precious house construction project from hard earned income to a builder that is not tried and tested; but we almost always do that when it comes to the politicians we elect. No wonder we are where we are and yet we keep mourning about why we make little to no progress as a nation in many things. How many of us would sign off on the disclaimer form and go under the operating knife of a surgeon that has never been proven? Yet we do that all the time with these leaders whom we choose and elect. How many of us whilst you are undertaking a major agricultural investment would accept advice from an agricultural extension worker that has unproven competency, and take them on to manage a multi-million-shilling project where we are investing our hard-earned money? Yet we do that all the time with the politicians we choose without weighing them and their competency and abilities as leaders. Remember, it doesn't matter the sphere; what matters is that someone has proven that they are an achiever.

Is it any surprise therefore that we are getting a raw deal with the short end of the stick being served to us? Mourning about it won't change the situation but doing something about it will. The competent people no longer want to run for these offices because it has sadly become an arena of unrealistic expectations which are now placed on it. It is about money politics; just take a look at what is going on right now. The voter buying is on a totally different level lately that even within the parties themselves there is no more democracy (mostly). Turn on any political discussion and the shouting matches will turn you off, with the panelists shouting at each other and almost no substance being discussed. The one that outshouts the other is the hero of the day. There is many uninformed people talking authoritatively about what they know nothing about. The lying is all over the place; one only has to listen carefully, and you will pick it up being presented as an authority. Sadly, the good people opt out as this is too muddy and unnecessarily expensive on all fronts, money and otherwise.

This problem won't fix itself. We have to fix it by taking action. Let's say no to incompetent politicians and yes to leaders. No to talkers that have nothing to show for it, and yes to achievers that can show something they have done. No to liars that confuse the population with small "cheeses" on their "mouse traps". No to un-invested men and women that present themselves for elective office to lead other men and women that have heavily invested in themselves and in their communities. It is one bad apple that will spoil the barrel, and yet we have far too many of them right now fighting to jump in. Let us get rid of them.

We must raise this standard so high that if anyone wants to run for any elective office in Uganda, they must prove that they have paid the price in proven personal achievement and in good social standing as well. 

It is time to make the change! 

THE LAW IS AN ASS...(Is there no cause?)

 

So, three days ago I wrote this blog "THE LAW IS AN ASS..." I got swift readership, lot of encouragement and then I also got a whiplash across my face! Not that I expected any less, but Why? I had touched the leopards... (refer to Gen. Kaguta speeches to fill the blanks in!) as some people thought.

It is interesting that the initial reactions of correction I got were from the learned friends as they thought I had attacked the sanctity of the priests of the "temple of Justice." Not at all brethren, not at all. This was only a case of mistaken identity and reading at cross purposes (if there is any such thing!). In fact I did quite the opposite if you care to read my article and read it well. What I did was to raise a flag on a seething wound that is swiftly going septic, a weapon of mass destruction quickly coming together, which if it is not handled well can potentially affect a lot of things beyond our own personal spaces.

Let me illuminate; in 2016 my partners and I raised some investment to carry out a major project in one part of Uganda that has had serious land issues. I recall driving some potential investors to this part of the country and showing them the land that we had acquired and asking them to support the next phase that called for serious capital investment. One specific gentleman I will never forget, an American guy, told the others who were with him: "Do not place your money here; land issues in Uganda are very volatile. You will end up loosing your money!" First, I was shocked at his boldness to his friends, then I was sad for dear Uganda (“O Uganda may God uphold thee!”), then I quickly transited to some pensive introspection and wondered if surely there was no cause to this astounding statement.  Had my people really come to this that now internationally we were known as land fraudsters?

Alas, there was cause! I was to discover first hand only a few months after that utterance the ridiculousness of the land issues in dear country (Story for another day). Therefore, I did not speak lightly nor redundantly when I mentioned what I did in my blog. I know for a fact that there is a lot of Judges that are doing their best to ensure that justice is served (I know a couple of such). But I also know there has been a few that issued terribly shocking judgments that have costed a lot of honest Ugandans their life’s savings and in some cases their lives due to broken hearts.

I am reminded of this land case where the mountain of evidence against the defendant could not stop the judge presiding over the matter to pass a shocking ruling in favor of the defendant. Everyone in court (and the matter for the complainant was handled by a rather competent senior counsel) including the defendant’s lawyer was in utter shock. This not withstanding that the case had trudged on for over five years up to this point and had costed the complainant loads of costs, only to experience an abortion of justice! That specific case is currently on Appeal and it has been over Four years now; it hasn't been heard yet. In the meantime, this bought the defendant time to wreck havoc on ground to the extent that even if he lost the case on appeal it only gives the Complainant an empty nest (never mind that there was a court order to maintain status quo with case on appeal). Of course, the circumstances leading to this state of affairs are so telling as to the state of some unscrupulous officers in the lands offices as well, who will work for and with anyone throwing potent “green” at them. Well, like I said, "the law is an ass!"

In my tribe we have a proverb that goes "omulya mamba abeera omu navumaganya e’kika" loosely translated it means, "it only takes one bad apple to spoil the barrel" or "others reputations are often sadly concluded from the misdeeds of one of their kind." Whilst my blog was not about the judges but rather about the manipulative Ugandans that will litigate on anything including matters where they flatly know the truth and the fact that it is not anywhere in their version of the story, my point was that these kinds of people have taken advantage of technicalities in the laws and exploit them to the extent that they end up getting "justice" which they then ride upon to cause so much destruction in their wake, which destruction in any case is the least of their worries. The situation is dire and must urgently be fixed otherwise people can only take so much.

Now to my brothers and sisters in the Legal profession, there is another way rather than trying to point out apparent "misdeeds" of the legally ignorant when they stand up to comment on this “divine language” of the law; stand up and be counted. Fight for the justice for which you burnt many precious hours learning to defend. When weird stories come up over matters legal, provide clarity on these matters where you can and as well make an effort to understand the full story. When two media houses post the same story two days apart from each other and there is a loud din from the competent, what does that tell you? You leave matters of interpretation to the aggrieved, and interpret they always will.

I challenge my brothers and sister of the "learned tribe", rise up and steer this ship of the law back on course, otherwise soon, the much-treasured profession will soon be a slaughter house where the law will be the treasured tool to effect the final blow upon those that most need justice. It is no longer OK for you to standby and look the other way when so much is at stake and their purpose with the pride of your profession. In time past you were known as the defenders of the weak, the vanguards of Justice and the dependable ones. There comes a time when there is cause for a fraternity to rise up and defend their pride .

My question to you learned friends, is in the quotation from the bible below.

1 Samuel 17:28-30 - King James Version

28 And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.

29 And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?

30 And he turned from him toward another, and spake after the same manner: and the people answered him again after the former manner.

….Is there No cause?

THE LAW IS AN ASS...

Recently in early September 2020 I picked up a copy of one of Uganda’s  Daily News papers, and somewhere conspicuously hidden in the middle pages was one of the most shocking articles of recent time; the Constitutional court had quashed the decisions and recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into Land matters in Uganda. The cost of this Uganda shillings Fifty-Four Billion (UGX 54bn) of the tax payers money and valuable time of 3 years blown away by the wind! There was the hidden costs as well; the lives lost and property destroyed as well as livelihoods cut short.

So how can this be? How can 3 years of a very expensive inquiry go up in smoke just like that yet it is discussing such a very sensitive issue? How can a matter of that magnitude of national volatility be seemingly left to fight on for dear life? One doesn't have to look very far to see that land issues in Uganda are a flash point just waiting to happen. There is so many aggrieved parties, both settlers and land Lords alike. Lives have been lost over land matters in Uganda and property destroyed and the bleeding continues unabated in many cases for now.

Land seems to be the one thing that over 80% of the Ugandan population still draws its livelihood from. What happens when the livelihood of such a big group of people gets threatened? I leave it to your imagination.

So, how did we get here? The Constitutional Court quashed the decisions and recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into Land matters which the Constitutional Court judges ruled as having acted illegally when it convened itself as a court of law in handling land disputes. Then begs the question, where and how did the commission of inquiry convene itself as a court of law?

Apparently one senior and very powerful citizen of the republic rushed to the court after the commission issued a warrant of arrest against him, thus the resultant action amounted to exercise of judicial power. Now, my learned friends have a common proverb that goes something like "the law is an ass" import being that the law, as created by legislators or as administered by the justice system, cannot be relied upon to be sensible or fair. Thing is, technically the judges are right, however matters of justice are not simply technical.

One wonders how far such manipulation of the law by selfish citizens (who use their advantage and never flinch to revert to the courts of law arguing the letter rather than the spirit of the laws) will stretch to serve the interest of those few to the chagrin of many; how those in vantage positions will continue to rub in the salt of their powers and for how long. In the meantime, the real world goes on like a ticking time bomb. At some point there is an inflection point always against injustice and when that time comes it does not care about the law, albeit only about getting the things crudely fixed to what the aggrieved think they should be.

This is just one example of how things can start to go terribly wrong, how a tsunami begins to boil up far out at sea and the would-be victims of it continue to sip at teas and cocktails at beautiful beaches totally oblivious of the approaching disaster. In the moment the tsunami becomes physically apparent to those at the beach it is usually too late to do anything about it. Somethings will carry out of their way, in their force, whatever they come across whether good or bad and usually only leave regrettable damage as they recede. Such is the power of a tsunami, and such is the power that manipulation of the law by those few selfish citizens puts into the hands of aggrieved and oppressed people.

Being a non-legal mind, I often ask my lawyer friends if nothing can be done about such injustices that are supported by the law. Often their answer is predictably the same, "it is the law!" In pursuit of this, I also recently during that same timeline saw a social media item making its rounds. In a local traditional court, "Mato Put", an alleged murderer was seeking reconciliation for loss of life apparently accorded by him. He wanted reconciliation with the family and friends of the deceased. The accused faced a panel of elders who questioned him and cautioned him to tell the truth; what followed has been subject of many arguments. However, my position has been that perhaps the African traditional courts had something that the western legal systems missed, something that sets things right; things lost when "the law is an ass." I pointed the opponents to my argument to The Truth and reconciliation Commission of South Africa, constituted by the late President Nelson Mandela otherwise called Madiba, the son of a traditional chief and himself a traditional chief by birth. Did this commission work? Did it deliver results? I would shudder if anyone said it did not. I recon this commission is one of the reasons present day South Africa has managed to achieve its current harmonious existence between the Black and their former white oppressors. Is it the best of relationships? Of course not, but it definitely is much better than would have been had the path of "the Law" been taken.

I also pointed my opponents to the Gacaca system used to reconcile Rwanda after the 1994 genocides. The Gacaca court is a system of community justice inspired by Rwandan tradition, loosely translated to "justice amongst the grass". This traditional, communal justice was adapted in 2001 to fit the needs of Rwanda in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan genocide where over an estimated 1,000,000 people were killed, tortured and raped. Now Rwanda is not at its best after such trauma, but it is definitely light years ahead of where it would have been.

So, there is something about these alternate systems of justice that stabilizes society when the law fails. Sometimes, stability of the society is much more important than the "rightness" of the law, hence the need for such interventions. The trick is to know when such a time and event calls for this kind of justice and for one to have the wisdom to put it together. This is where true patriotism begins.