The promise by the new leadership of the legislative branch of government to press the reset button after the 12th Parliament received the baton from the 11th, has been welcomed with a collective sigh. Under the past leadership, the House hit rock bottom after not only doing the bidding of the Executive but also having less skin in the accountability game. With a new page turned, Jacob Marksons Oboth-Oboth, the new House Speaker, and his deputy Thomas Tayebwa, have vowed to make amends.
We commend the new House leadership for not showcasing a reluctance to admit to mistakes that may have contributed to a dire need of an investment of trust. The acknowledgment is a crowd-pleaser that will play well to a wide audience. But only in the short term. If, eventually, hype is not met with substance, the public will continue to be deeply at odds with the Legislature. Far from being prophets of doom and gloom, we invite the new House leadership to pore over why such apocalyptic outlooks continue to persist in their existence. Mr Oboth-Oboth’s promises of better housekeeping and procedural reforms in the 12th Parliament arouse fears and fascination in the same way. To put it in the simplest of ways, there’s deep mistrust. Some of it is conscious, some subliminal, but it is there.
Promises to make the House more people-centred and submissions within its precincts qualitative have been made before, only for a dense downpour of the opposite to be delivered. So, again, we are not quick to dismiss those that have not seen encouraging signals. Yet. We are also mindful of the fact that the process that culminated in Mr Oboth-Oboth and Mr Tayebwa assuming the House leadership reins was one that shows how Mr Museveni’s presidency seems grimly determined to subvert the time-honoured doctrine of separation of powers.
It should not recede from the collective memory of Ugandans that well before decision-making processes in the ruling NRM party kicked in, Mr Oboth-Oboth and Mr Tayebwa were both cherry-picked for the leadership roles that eventually dropped in their laps. An attendant question of who the pair is beholden to does suffice. It is immediately obvious that both the House Speaker and his deputy have come to their leadership not through swaggering certainty, but by learning to follow what the presidency deems fit. Ditto the lawmakers that gave both Mr Oboth-Oboth and Mr Tayebwa an overwhelming mandate on Monday.
It, therefore, invariably follows that the country should collectively ask one pertinent question: Can the House leadership and its leaders bite the hand that not only makes but also feeds them? The unhesitating answer to this question, we reckon, does not inspire confidence. More than anything, the answer should be the subject of perpetual fascination and disbelief because it illuminates the dangerous path the country is charting. As such, it is-to borrow a common parlance-not yet Uhuru.
Rather than expect Mr Oboth-Oboth to wave a magic wand, Ugandans should make it their preoccupation to ensure those in the top echelons of the country’s leadership get in the habit of building institutions. The institutional collapse that confronts the country should continue to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. It is for this reason that we invite all well-meaning Ugandans not to rest on their laurels. It is not yet Uhuru.