Has the revolution began to eat its children? - Part I
KAMPALA - What a dramatic day! Former health ministers Mike Mukula and Dr Alex Kamugisha were this morning arrested, interrogated and, later in the afternoon, charged with corruption.
It all relates to the $4.3 million corruption scandal under which chunks of the said money from the Global Alliance Vaccine Initiative were 'eaten' as folk say in these parts.
The two ministers have been remanded to Luzira prison until June 6, 2007, and the hunt is now on for Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi, the head of the ministry at the time who has vowed to go down fighting.
A source who attended the court proceedings tells me that several 'cadres' and officials of the ruling National Resistance Movement were at Buganda Road Court in Kampala to protest against the arrest of their fellow cadres. Spotted in the crowd was Singh Katongole, the NRM deputy treasurer, Prof. Peter Kasenene, former privatisation minister and several others.
None of them seemed to consider the charges labelled against the ministers -- and another former State House aide who is still at large -- unfair. They seemed more irked by the whole idea of the 'system' turning against those who helped build it (and according to the charge sheet, their pockets) in the process.
Has the revolution started to chew its children?
Here is an extract from a statement Mukula's lawyers prepared for the press in the course of the day:
"Today the 22nd of May, 2007, at around 6.30 a.m. several soldiers of the [Uganda Peoples Defence Forces] dressed in battle fatigues and armed with heavy automatic weapons together with several police officers riding in 13 vehicles including 5 mobile patrol pick ups raided our client's residence...
"They cordoned off an entire street adn besieged our client's residence for more than an hour...Our client was then driven in a high speed convoy complete with baring sirens in total disregard of other road users and subsequently dumped at the CID headquarters...
"We condemn in the strongest terms the manner in which our client was arrested. As a political leader, he was undeservedly hounded out of his house as if he was a run away criminal whose guilt had been predetermined..."
Of course all the officials are innocent until proven guilty. But when 'inner cadres' of the regime are picked up, sirens blazing in a manner more commonly used with pesky opposition types, the sounds of infant bones being gnashed under the giant molars of the revolution can be heard all over the hills of Kampala.
To be continued.
It all relates to the $4.3 million corruption scandal under which chunks of the said money from the Global Alliance Vaccine Initiative were 'eaten' as folk say in these parts.
The two ministers have been remanded to Luzira prison until June 6, 2007, and the hunt is now on for Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi, the head of the ministry at the time who has vowed to go down fighting.
A source who attended the court proceedings tells me that several 'cadres' and officials of the ruling National Resistance Movement were at Buganda Road Court in Kampala to protest against the arrest of their fellow cadres. Spotted in the crowd was Singh Katongole, the NRM deputy treasurer, Prof. Peter Kasenene, former privatisation minister and several others.
None of them seemed to consider the charges labelled against the ministers -- and another former State House aide who is still at large -- unfair. They seemed more irked by the whole idea of the 'system' turning against those who helped build it (and according to the charge sheet, their pockets) in the process.
Has the revolution started to chew its children?
Here is an extract from a statement Mukula's lawyers prepared for the press in the course of the day:
"Today the 22nd of May, 2007, at around 6.30 a.m. several soldiers of the [Uganda Peoples Defence Forces] dressed in battle fatigues and armed with heavy automatic weapons together with several police officers riding in 13 vehicles including 5 mobile patrol pick ups raided our client's residence...
"They cordoned off an entire street adn besieged our client's residence for more than an hour...Our client was then driven in a high speed convoy complete with baring sirens in total disregard of other road users and subsequently dumped at the CID headquarters...
"We condemn in the strongest terms the manner in which our client was arrested. As a political leader, he was undeservedly hounded out of his house as if he was a run away criminal whose guilt had been predetermined..."
Of course all the officials are innocent until proven guilty. But when 'inner cadres' of the regime are picked up, sirens blazing in a manner more commonly used with pesky opposition types, the sounds of infant bones being gnashed under the giant molars of the revolution can be heard all over the hills of Kampala.
To be continued.
posted by Daniel Kalinaki | 1:12 pm
3 Comments:
No Daniel, I dont think that there's such a phenomenon like "eating own children" in our politics. It's rather the reality of m7/state house politics: there are no permanent friends or enemies. There was never such a thing as a revolution in the first place, but just a one man's species evolution!
The ministerial jailings are just the politics of presence and image.
No doubt, in the near future, they might walk out of jail into cushy ministerial jobs just as Moses Ali did!
fuck off
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