Headache of civic education gaps, government fights with civil society

Performance is measured on the basis of the extent to which state and non-state actors affect individual freedoms, including the right to vote and freedom of expression and association. One of the considerations is whether non-governmental organisations (NGOs), particularly those that engage in human rights and governance are free to operate.

This is the latest fallout from the fight between the government and civil society. The fight dates back to the immediate aftermath of the debate in the National Resistance Council (NRC), on the Constituent Assembly Statute of 1993. That debate set the stage for the March 1994 election of delegates to the Constituent Assembly (CA).

In the run-up to those elections, 14 human rights, religious, media, legal rights associations and women’s associations including, among others, Action for Development (ACFODE), the Uganda Federation of Business and Professional Women, and the Association of Uganda Women Lawyers (FIDA) formed what was known as the National Organisation for Civic Education and Election Monitoring (NOCEM) to carry out civic education and monitor those elections.

This set the stage for the first fight between the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government and civil society. Two months before the elections, President Museveni, while presiding over the NRM day celebrations, accused NOCEM of being “a partisan organisation” and harbouring “criminal elements in its ranks”.

Mr Museveni was particularly irked by the presence among its ranks of Mr Nathan Kaleme, who he accused of committed atrocities in Luweero Triangle during the Obote II regime, where he was the district commissioner.

The chairperson of NOCEM, Ms Salome Bbosa, who later became president of the Uganda Law Society (ULS), a High Court judge and judge of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, denied accusations of partisanship.

The organisation was banned from operating in Mukono, Bushenyi and Mpigi districts as NRM officials turned on the heat.

It was at the time argued that the accusation against the organisation had been brought up by Movement officials who had been nabbed while trying to rig elections in favour of the Movement.

By the close of October 1995, two years after they had first filed their application, the NGO Registration Board had not registered their organisation.

It was subsequently disbanded. Writing in the paper, ‘Politics of Constitution Making in Uganda’, Aili Maari Tripp, concluded that, “…the experience showed the limits of autonomous organisations within the process and the government’s fear of alternative views regarding the role of political parties”.

Indicted

The latest Freedom in the World Report, which we have already alluded to, concludes that whereas some sections of civil society address some issues that are considered to be politically sensitive, their operations are vulnerable to “legal restrictions, burdensome registration requirements, and intimidation”.

The legal restrictions alluded to are some of the provisions of The Non-Governmental Organisations Act, 2016, and the Non-Governmental Organisations Registration Bill before it, which require NGOs to renew their operations’ licences every year; provide for the presence of large numbers of government officials, including security operations, on the NGO board and; give the board powers to deregister any NGO for contravening “any law”.

“The government has imposed laws and policies to restrict NGO activity,” says the freedom report.

In 2019, the screws were tightened by the introduction of a requirement for NGOs to report on staffing, finances, and activities to the National Bureau of NGOs. The NGOs were in another requirement that was introduced in 2022 required to register with the Personal Data Protection Office.

Thanks to those laws, in August 2021 the government through the National Bureau for NGOs, halted the activities of 54 NGOs “with immediate effect” on grounds that they had failed to comply with legislation covering their activities.

Enter CCEDU

Some of the closed NGOs included Chapter Four Uganda; Citizens' Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) and; the Femrite Uganda Women Writers' Association.

Launched in August 2009, CCEDU, an umbrella body that brought together civil society organisations and individuals involved in the promotion of democracy, was formed to conduct civil education and monitor elections during the 2011 and 2016 general elections.

In the run-up to the 2011 elections, it carried out a civic and voter education campaign under the tagline “honour your vote”, which was followed by “Topowa”, street parlance for “do not give up” in 2016.

CCEDU, like NOCEM, ran into trouble with the Electoral Commission (EC), under both former chairperson Badru Kiggundu and his successor Simon Byabakama Mugenyi, who accused the organisation of being partisan. Mr Kiggundu accused the organisation of using potholes in one of its messages.On November 26, Sam Rwakoojo, who was the EC’s secretary at the time, ordered a stop to the Topowa campaign on grounds that it was biased.

“The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to call upon you to immediately stop airing the Topowa voter education campaign on television and on some radio programmes until further clarification to the Electoral Commission,” Mr Rwakoojo ordered.

After the 2016 elections, where only 10,39,131 voters, or 67.61 percent of the 15,277,198 registered voters turned out, CCEDU wrote to Mr Museveni attributing the low turnout to the citizenry’s lack of faith in the electoral process.

“Your government’s reluctance to consider popular progressive electoral reforms, in order to address electoral deficits that have afflicted previous elections, has dented the credibility of electoral processes,” the February 2018 letter read in parts.

It should be remembered that in September 2017, Afrobarometer had released findings of a survey that revealed that only 22 percent of the population believes that Uganda is either a full democracy or a democracy with minor problems. CCEDU suggested that only reforms could cure the perception that elections were a ritual that would never amount to anything.

The February 2018 letter seemed to have placed it on the government’s radar. On July 4, 2018, Justice Byabakama suspended CCEDU’s activities accusing it of, among others, being partisan.

“The Commission and Uganda at large need credible, honest and impartial partners to assess the electoral process and make pertinent recommendations. It is, therefore, upon this background that the Electoral Commission has suspended its relationship with CCEDU until further notice,” his letter read in part.

The suspension was precipitated by comments made by Ms Charity Ahimbisibwe earlier that day, in which she while appearing on a talk show on one of the local televisions, described the women's council elections that had been held the day before as “a sham”.

It was as a result of that suspension that CCEDU did not conduct voter education or observed the LC1 and LC2 elections of July 10, 2018; the LC3 elections of July 24, 2018; the July 27, 2018, parliamentary elections in the seven newly created municipalities; the Arua Municipality parliamentary by-election of August 15, 2018, and the Sheema North parliamentary by-election of October 8, 2018.

Although the EC lifted the suspension on October 24, 2018, it never observed the 2021 elections and has since wound up.

Civic education suffers

Watchers of matters democracy and elections in Uganda have always attributed the poor turnout at elections and the number of spoilt ballots as a serious pointer to humongous deficiencies in civic education and voter education programmes.

Voter turnout has been below 70 in the last four elections. It stood at 69.19 percent in 2006; 59.29 in 2011; 67.61 in 2016 and; 59.2 in 2021.Dr Patrick Wakida, who heads the social research firm Research World International, blames both the government and the Electoral Commission.

“Every country has a duty to provide civic awareness to its people. It is very critical and it should be a priority area for the government to ensure that its citizens not only know about voting, but also about their civic duties. The prioritisation of that activity in the planning of government has been lacking,” Dr Wakida says.

Whereas he will not concede that the turnout is being partially affected by deficiencies in civic and voter education programmes, Justice Byabakama acknowledges that it is not one of the Commission’s strong points.

“So many stakeholders have told us that we are weak in the area of voter education. The law says that we are supposed to carry out continuous voter education. We do not have to wait for the electoral cycle,” Justice Byabakama told Sunday Monitor in a recent interview. According to the EC supremo, this is because the Commission is provided with very little funds to conduct voter education.

“We are given only Shs320 million every financial year. We have told Parliament and the Ministry of Finance that we need Shs3 billion per year for that purpose, but the money has not been forthcoming. We tend to be more robust when it comes to general elections because the budget for general elections is bigger,” he said.

Confounding

Mr Godfrey Kabyanga, the State minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and National Guidance, suggests that the government is unable to raise all the money that the EC would require to conduct civic education throughout the year.“Uganda here now is running a cash budget. We have to cut our coats according to our cloth. We do not have a lot of money. That is why when we give money to the Electoral Commission (EC), what they allocate to civic education may also not be enough,” Mr Kabyanga says.

The argument, however, becomes a bit baffling. Why is the government standing in the way of civil society organisations like CCEDU and NOCEM before it, if it cannot raise enough money to give to the Commission to carry out the kind of civic education that the nation requires? Mr Kabyanga insists that some sections of civil society are locked out because their messaging is wrong.

“Some of these organisations just come to stir up people and promote hatred against the government, which is wrong. Some of them come saying that they intend to carry out civic and voter education, but you find them sponsoring homosexuality. That is what brings them problems” Mr Kabyanga says.DM.Crosshead: By design

Mr Patrick Amuriat Oboi, the president of the Najjanankumbi faction of the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) says the fact that the government will not provide yet at the same time not let others bridge the gap suggests deliberateness on its part.

“The beneficiary of lack of civic education has really been the NRM. It has become unpopular over time because it has failed to meet the aspirations of the citizens. It is, therefore, within their interests to make it impossible for members of the public to get information that would inform decision-making,” Mr Amuriat says.

Mr Amuriat claims that the NRM government will continue on that double-pronged line of not availing the EC with enough funds while at the same time blocking the way of civil society, but Mr Kabyanga insists that if civil society is being blocked it is because it has failed to operate within the law.“Some of these NGOs do not want to show government accountability. Even if you are an NGO, if you come here you must show us the source of your funding and who you are funding. 

Those are some of the conditions that some of them have failed to fulfil and when they fail we close them,” Mr Kabyanga says.DM.Crosshead: Civics missing

Mr Wakida believes that matters are not helped by the government’s decision to push the teaching of civics off the formal curriculum. But minister Kabyanga defends the government’s decision, saying “The curriculum has to change according to the times”.

He argues that the teaching of civics at primary school level is now done under the teaching of social studies. That, he says, is complemented by the teaching of Political Education in secondary schools, but if the number of ballots that get spoilt at every election is anything to go by, it is clear that the teaching is not enough to empower young Ugandans.

In the 2011 elections, for example, there were 334,548 invalid votes, which represented 4.04 percent of the 8,272,760 votes cast.

In 2016, there were 477,319 invalid votes, which represented 4.62 percent of the 10,329,131 votes cast. There were also 29,005 spoilt votes. In 2021, there were 393,500 invalid votes, which represented 3.66 percent of the 10,744,319 votes cast, but there were also 29,913 spoilt votes. How does one cure such a problem?

“We need to introduce nationalism classes. Young people must be taught their civic responsibilities and duties as citizens. They must know what to expect as citizens and what to expect from their government,” Mr Wakida says. Might that fix the gaps in our civic education requirements?