By Betty Nambooze
In a piece entitled “CONCERNED THAT DP IS AWOL IN MBALE,” Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze vows to expose the dirty secrets embedded in Justice Owiny Dollo’s Mbale Court and the following is a verbatim reproduction of her article. She says these are things millions of Ugandans watching just on TV can’t see. Read on;
By Hon Betty Nambooze Bakireke
I have been on the road since Monday and after a full day in the Constitutional Court sitting at Mbale yesterday that went up to 9:30 and travelling back on a bumpy Tirinyi road, I was but too spent that I almost went into comma when I hit my bed after 4:00am.
My body had been completely sudued by pain killers that at times I must take to control pain, the tortuous adversary court system we have in Uganda that is only meant to torture and intimidate witnesses,the pain of having to sit and listen to people who tortured me to near death,raped our constitution and placed our Country at the cross roads talk with impunity and almost venerated by court. This in addition to sitting all day in a small packed court room in a situation where judges place themselves only next to God and then having to bare the fear that comes with travelling on the silly Ugandan roads which are death traps themselves. Dont blame me for the silence, I have just woken up from a deep sleep.
I’m going to sit down and write you a comprehensive article about what I saw, faced and observed in this Court but before that, I want to ask where my Party DP is in all what is taking place in relation to fighting for constitutionalism in Uganda.
It’s DP which came up with a slogan KOGIKWATAKO meaning that it’s promised action was in case Museveni and group touched the Constitution. In Parliament we modified this to TOGIKWATAKO (don’t dare touch it).
Anyway the warnings were ignored and here we are…I felt concerned that almost the entire FDC executive is camped at Mbale and my DP, a Party of Lawyers is nowhere near the Court.
Their only representatives in the matter would have been Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago who is the lead counsel for the Petitioners but our wonderful Ag Secretary General Siranda told the world that DP led by Mao no longer considers Lukwago a member of their DP! The other is Honourable Ssewanyana one of the Petitioners,but I know he is not getting any back up from his party, the way his FDC colleagues get from their mother party and he has been swallowed by the big FDC presence.
Another representative would be me, who swore an affidavit in support of the petition and had the responsibility to stand in the dock on behalf of all those opposed to this constututional amendment but as all of you know am on an indefinite “three months suspension” from conducting any activity for and on behalf of the party.
So when we in DP said KOGIKWATAKO what did we exactly mean? I hear now that at this crucial moment in the struggle for constitutionalism for them, they are pursuing something called re-union of UYD a keen to organising a get together party!
Am coming back soon with the full story on what happened when I came face to face with the Owinyi Dollo’s Constitutional Court sitting in Mbale, a nightmare of some sorts,leave alone what you see on TV…..you need to be made of steel not to breakdown with frustration at the administration of justice in what would be a temple of justice.
