Prime
Incoming LoP must rally warring troops
L-R: National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine outgoing Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP), Mathias Mpuuga and the new LoP, Joel Ssenyonyi during the unveiling of the new shadow cabinet at the party headquarters in Kampala on December 22, 2023. PHOTO/ MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
What you need to know:
The issue: Politics
Our view: The incoming LoP has to spare no efforts to ensure that while the majority in the House has its way; the minority has its say.
Ugandans had more than just turkey (if indeed they could afford it) to digest this Christmas. The appointment of Mr Joel Ssenyonyi by his National Unity Platform (NUP) party as the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) designate also provided lots of food for thought.
Only in his first term as a lawmaker for Nakawa West, Mr Ssenyonyi already counts chairing the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (Cosase) as a feather in his cap. His bosses were particularly pleased with the tenor of his remarks during a month-long probe into the goings-on at Uganda’s debt-ridden flag carrier, Uganda Airlines, in 2022.
State actors, however, thought Mr Ssenyonyi was too candid to the point of being mean during the probe that—at his behest—was not held in camera. The 37-year-old lawmaker’s probe report is as such gathering dust on the shelf with no hope of being tabled in the House, ostensibly because it was—per Speaker Anita Among—leaked to the public.
As a matter of fact, it will be fascinating to see what kind of relationship the Nakawa West lawmaker forges with the House Speaker. She has previously said that the burdens of the Cosase chair saw Mr Ssenyonyi work through fewer reports than anticipated.
Mr Ssenyonyi will also take over the reins of the LoP office at a time when many observers think a willingness to be reckless has become NUP’s qualifying threshold. Rumoured attempts to supplant Mr Francis Zaake (Mityana Municipality) with Mr John Baptist Nambeshe (Manjiya County) in the Opposition Chief Whip office gave more fodder to the aforesaid observers. As did Mr Nambeshe’s extraordinary outburst on a local FM station in Mbale last weekend that culminated in him deeming Mr Ssenyonyi too inexperienced to occupy the LoP office.
Taken together with NUP principal Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine’s recent comments that a number of the party’s lawmakers do the bidding of President Museveni, the optics do not look good for Uganda’s leading opposition party. The incoming LoP has to spare no efforts to ensure that while the majority in the House has its way; the minority has its say. It will also be instructive for Mr Ssenyonyi to acknowledge that a splintering in the Opposition has birthed a majority on the one hand and minority on the other hand. The LoP designate will therefore have to display an old head on young shoulders in a bid to bring a fractured Opposition back together. He may find a lot of intellectual purchase in English political theorist Harold Laski’s take that “men who are to live together peacefully must be able to argue together peacefully.” While it is encouraging that the Opposition’s shadow cabinet has room for defeated rivals, it will be vitally important that a more competent and less sectarian approach is taken up. Since the Opposition’s frontbench is powered by what, at first glance, looks like a confused mixture, Mr Ssenyonyi will have to push the limits of his performances. He will need to offer diligence and expertise; not bellowing and finger-pointing.
We wish Mr Ssenyonyi every good fortune as constructive suggestions from the LoP office and the constitutional checks and balances that guard against power abuse can only make Uganda better.
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