Mao should be honest and readjust his expectations
Rukirabashaija Kakwenza. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Mr Mao understands, undoubtedly, the nuts and bolts of our despicable justice system and in the same measure knows that his appointment is not about disentangling or transforming anything, but to enjoy the privileges of a Ugandan minister.
I hesitate to ponder that Justice minister Nobert Mao, who spent most of his youthful years fighting for justice with aplomb, turned around and joined the Executive whose incessant impunity he once fiercely spoke and wrote against.
However, much as he wants us to believe that he accepted the Cabinet position to change things from inside, how does it feel to fight against impunity yet the beneficiaries of the same are in the Executive branch of government in which you sit?
Mr Mao understands, undoubtedly, the nuts and bolts of our despicable justice system and in the same measure knows that his appointment is not about disentangling or transforming anything, but to enjoy the privileges of a Ugandan minister.
The day Mao shall fully make use of his competence and brilliance without dying inside is the day he will be shown the exit.
We all have a stake in our justice system and have a legitimate entitlement to a view on the meaning and execution of the same. The reason why we are currently stuck with the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government is because of people who think that they can join the government and ensconce themselves in positions of empty power, yet they know that fish rots from the head.
When you look at Chapter Four of our 1995 Constitution and other statutes pari materia like Uganda Human Rights (Enforcement) Act of 2019, Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act 2012, among others, you will realise that we have the best laws against human rights abuses.
But the country is full of victims of torture and yet no personnel from security circles have been prosecuted, yet they are the ones who kidnap, torture and then drive victims to court, armed with defective charge sheets for speculative prosecutions and ineffective trials.
Innumerable torture cases over the years are evidence that criminals’ rights matter more than the victims. It is folly not to know that the Judiciary is composed of some officers who are out of touch and could be pushing the agenda of the NRM.
It is only a foolish person who would justify the horrendous actions of judicial officers who remand suspects whose rights have been trampled upon to wit; those who are kidnapped and driven in drones, panda gari style, held in illegal places for more than the constitutionally inviolable 48-hours rule while being tortured and blindfolded, and later smuggled into courts of law without lawyers, limping and oozing pus!
Apart from aplomb statements of condemnation from the minister of Justice, what else is he capable of doing beyond rhetorical statements? He would be honest and recalibrate his expectations to keep his integrity undiluted.
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija is an exiled novelist and a scholar of PEN-Zentrum Deutschland @KakwenzaRukira
