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DRC vs Uganda: When fathers eat sour grapes and children get the sour taste
What you need to know:
- It’s not a proverb many people are familiar with, since it is in a book that many churches don’t particularly enjoy – that of Jeremiah, “The Wailing Prophet” (31:29-30).
It’s not often that one throws a sermon at the BBC and gets away with their sins; so I think that is why the BBC Swahili Service reporter, Isaac Munena, chuckled a tad, when I summarised my argument in a Bible proverb – Baba wamekula zabibu chachu, meno ya watoto yakatiwa ganzi. (The fathers ate the sour grapes, [but it is] the children’s teeth [that] are set on edge). Those who have eaten highly acidic fruits like oranges (in excess) will recognise the familiar pain at the edges of the teeth whenever one opens the mouth soon after.
It’s not a proverb many people are familiar with, since it is in a book that many churches don’t particularly enjoy – that of Jeremiah, “The Wailing Prophet” (31:29-30).
The Israelites were throwing the proverb around a bit too casually for God’s liking, complaining that it was not fair for sins of the fathers to be visited upon the children – who took no part in their fathers’ sins. You’d say the same about former president Idi Amin’s children; but probably hesitate if it came to those of someone else. Not now, please.
The Lord tells Jeremiah, no problem; in the new dispensation coming up, everyone will die for their sins. Yeyote alaye zabibu chachu, meno yake mwenyewe yatatiwa ganzi - the one who eats sour grapes is the one whose teeth will be set on edge.
So I assured Isaac that what bothered me most was not that Uganda was defending itself against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a 22-year-old case at The Hague, Netherlands, in the International Court of Justice, where DRC demands a $10 billion compensation.
The real problem, I argued, was that while it is a handful of individuals – President Museveni’s inner circle – who looted the minerals and timber of Congo and hugely enriched themselves, it is the Ugandan taxpayer who is footing the legal costs of the case (in billions of shillings) and we are the ones Mr Museveni expects to pay the DRC. The President’s inner circle ate the sour grapes; hardworking Ugandans are getting the sour taste – our teeth are set on edge!!!
The people who got rich out of the Congo war, through completely illegal and outrageous activities are walking scot-free, enjoying their ill-gotten gain – while we, who toil night and day, to make ends meet in a heavy taxation regime, are expected to pay for their sins. By 1997, gold (from DRC, thank you!) was Uganda’s second biggest source of export income – but truth is that the gold belonged to just a handful of people.
Our army venturing into DRC did not enjoy parliamentary sanction as laid down in the Constitution. It became a tale of military entrepreneurialism, State control over private patronage, the use and abuse of the military by the untouchables in this country and the interconnection between military occupation and illegitimate economic enterprise. Hundreds of Ugandan soldiers were killed in Congo; not in national cause, but, for the most part, purely in the course of making a few individuals rich.
The Museveni administration showed their disapproval of impunity by appointing a judicial commission of inquiry to establish culpability of those named by the United Nations (UN) and recommend punishment.
Apart from Maj Gen James Kazini and Brig Noble Mayombo, who died within two years of each other, (2009 and 2007, respectively), the rest of the culprits named by the UN are alive. Gen Kazini after all the chaos in DRC was initially promoted to army commander. He was later fired, but not for his Congo misdeeds; it was largely because he had committed what we know as the unforgivable sin in Uganda – read my lips! Had he not strayed into the political, he’d be nowhere near jail.
Brig Mayombo was promoted from Colonel to Brigadier General and made Permanent Secretary ministry of Defence. That’s serious disapproval! The others are alive and well; serving in high government positions, controlling trillions of our Budget. Again, serious punishments! When you see quick amassing of wealth in a poor country, there’s almost always something not right. Problem is; they eat the sour grapes, we get the sour taste.
Mr Tegulle is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda [email protected]
