By Mulengera Reporters
Kampala Minister Beti Kamya has this Saturday morning appeared on Dunstan Busulwa’s Top Radio program and advocated for the ban of People Power and People’s Government saying the two political organizations are culpable for inciting violence against the NRM government and its officials.
“I agree with that gentleman petitioning court to declare People Power unconstitutional. They aren’t registered anywhere yet they want to continue operating and disrupting peace. What’s the legal status of their existence? How does the state and its lawful organs relate with them without being legally defined as who they are? Who are they answerable to?” Beti Kamya said.
She was responding to Busulwa’s question requiring her to give views about Mr. Adens Ntare Rutaro’s Constitutional Petition No. 2 of 2019 that calls on Court to declare PP and People’s Government unconstitutional and unlawful entities and subsequently direct a ban on them.
Once that prayer is granted, the implications will be that whoever operates under the auspices of PP or PG will be legitimate target for harassment including detention by the police and other security agencies. And the claim will be “we are enforcing a court decision since court can’t decide in vain.”
Yet without the slogan/name PP, the momentum Mr. Wine’s PP Movement had generated would all go into disarray as getting another equally catchy phrase won’t be easy. That could be the calculation by Mr. Rutaro and his ilk who opposition spokeswoman Betty Nambooze claims is a proxy of people in government who are afraid of both PP and PG-and growing unity between the two.
Being one of the key strategists President Museveni currently has, Beti Kamya’s generous endorsement of Mr. Rutaro’s petition corroborates the fears Nambooze expressed earlier that the petitioner could be a proxy of the government as the ruling party stands to be the largest beneficiary in case his petition succeeds.
NOT THE FIRST TIME
It will be recalled that under Mathias Mpuuga’s leadership, Activists for Change (A4C) had picked lots of momentum as the entity championing the Walk to Work protest movement in 2011 but became prohibited after then Attorney General Peter Nyombi successfully petitioned Justice Steven Kavuma-led Constitutional Court to declare it a “banned society.”
The activists then renamed it For God & My Country (4GC) which court still banned claiming it was a criminal organization whose activities were declared repugnant and violent. It was widely dismissed as a colonial/Starlinist practice but this being Africa, the state can do anything to keep power. Such proclamations by court gradually deescalated the W2W movement and the protest movement eventually fizzled out. Will the same work against PP? Beti Kamya thinks so.
Five years later, Col Besigye (saying he was the legitimate winner) engaged in defiance activities and worked with his FDC colleagues to hold weekly protest prayers aimed at exposing brutality the security forces were unleashing on defiance activists. The weekly prayers too were declared a prohibited activity by the same Constitutional Court still under Justice Kavuma whose express prohibition order is what then IGP Kale Kayihura frequently used to justify brutal crackdown targeting whoever professed defiance as a way of confronting the NRM hegemony.
The prayers were forcefully constrained by police and the lead preacher Pr Ngabo was several times jailed along with other activists. All this implies the Ntare Rutaro petition isn’t something strategists in the PPM or PG can take lightly. It could result into the state getting the moral cover it badly requires to justifiably crack down on them ahead of 2021 campaigning period.
Ntare is petitioning against four respondents who ironically include the AG whom he faults for merely looking on as the two groups commit illegal and treasonous activities. The other respondents include Dr. Kizza Besigye the head of PG, Bobi Wine the head of PPM and his publicist Joel Senyonyi.
He is represented by two modestly-known city law firms namely M/S Newmark Advocates and Owoyesigire Muhereza & Co Advocates. In the court papers, the petitioner particularizes himself as a voter from Ruhaama Ntungamo district.
Many won’t be surprised if courts, which have lately been renowned for churning out judgments that are pleasant to the government, agree with the petitioner and occasion a lawful ban on the two impugned political entities.
Kamya says the two-PP & PG-should be banned because besides propagating violence, their activities undermine the spirit of multipartism which Uganda adopted in 2005 as the chosen system of government. She holds her mentor and former close ally Kizza Besigye liable for using the PG to kill off FDC which she says is these days not vibrant anymore because its leaders have all been stampeded into PG. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
