Aboneka Writes

By Michael Aboneka Jr The right to dissent is by and large an extension of the freedom of   conscience, expression, movement, religion, assembly and association   enshrined under Article 29 of the Constitution of Uganda, 1995.   Uganda too signed the African Charter on democracy, elections and good governance (ACDEG) in December 2008, which espouses the right to   dissent and holding opinions important for any democracy. The charter   further under Chapter 4 enjoins states to protect such freedoms and   under article 27(8), States are enjoined to protect and promote the   freedom of expression, opinion and the press and media.  Now that   Uganda has committed to promote and protect these freedoms, why is the   right to dissent in this country becoming increasingly an offence? In the recent past, we have had episodes where those who hold a divergent view from the majority have been demonized, threatened, and called all sorts of names just because of their different opinions about a matt

 By Michael Aboneka Since Uganda became a multiparty dispensation, the struggle of parties has seemingly grown! The sole purpose to transit from Single party politics to multiparty politics was to allow the thriving of democratic competition which is very healthy for any democracy. By and large, one can say that it is evident that Uganda is a multiparty dispensation if they choose to go by the data. I last checked and we have  more than  29 Political parties in Uganda and to most of them, I have never heard about!  If one chooses to go by the data that Uganda has  over  29 political parties, they will quickly pass off as being the most democratic! However, given all these political parties, Uganda still runs as a single Political dispensation! The NRM has consolidated itself into power for the last 3 6  years and the "Multi party dispensation has seemingly died off! Of course, there are opposition parties that have stood the test of time to challenge the status quo but whether the

By Michael Aboneka Jr The need to appoint more judicial officers is a song that has been repeatedly sang by many for the sake of dispensing justice unabated. This is in a bid  to salvage the human resource shortage of Justices, Judges and magistrates. The plea seems  to have  fallen on deaf ears or chosen to be ignored. I have read, participated in development of various reports and one of the major observations about the Justice sector has always been case backlog due to lack of human resource to handle it. The same reports have always recommended for appointment of more justices, judges and recruitment of magistrates and other officers to facilitate the dispensation of justice in Uganda. The call  has  re-surfaced again  at the swearing in of the new  Chief Justice  where he  pleaded for appointment and recruitment of more judicial officers  to clear back log and for the  dispensation of justice . It is almost two years now since the same call was made by the former  Chief Justice  a

By Michael Aboneka Jr It is  undebatable that COVID- 19 has caused deaths and left another lifelong impact on the lives of Ugandans since March 2020 when the pandemic was officially declared in Uganda. Majority of the focus has been on the prevention of further spread of COVID-19 and less about the social and economic life of Ugandans as many leaders have always retorted that they need to save life first and then deal with the rest later, which is not right. The model to fight COVID-19 needed to be a holistic one that touches all the spheres of life of Ugandans and not just focusing on one-saving lives yet actually more lives are being wasted away by men t al health related problems. COVID-19 has and continues to have a huge impact on the men t al well being of Ugandans and this cannot be ignored and only focus on asking us to wash hands and stay safe. Since March 2020, there have been incidents of severe metal illness manifesting into depression, suicide, hypertension among others. Th

By Michael Aboneka Jr In the recent past, the media was awash with debates on bail which is not the first time these conversations come up. There have been arguments for and against the President’s proposal to have Bail for capital offenders suspended or in what he calls postponed to 180 days. Much as I do not agree with the President’s proposal since the current status quo already cures his fears, we should not dwell on one component of the criminal justice system but the entire spectrum. It is time to review and reform the criminal justice system to ensure that every person can have a fair and speedy way since all judicial power is derived from the people and should be exercised in the name of the people and in conformity with the laws, norms, values, and aspirations of the people. As a people, there are several things that need an overhaul and others review if we are to have a justice system that reflects our aspirations. Manner of Arrest The Constitution under Article 23 provides f

By Michael Aboneka Jr As we are still dealing with the implied forceful Vaccination, yes, we have seen a number of institutions deny Ugandans services for lack of a vaccination certificate and also staff have been sent away. It may be looked at as a push factor to ensure Ugandans vaccinate against COVID-19 but we need to take a holistic approach to this issue. We should also allow room for debate on Vaccination because this will promote awareness in the long run. Much as the Government is putting a lot of emphasis on calling upon Ugandans to get vaccinated so that they fully open economy, it is not enough to just "call upon." By October 14th 2021, not more than 450,000 Ugandans have fully vaccinated which is only 0.9% and about only 2.3Million have so far recieved the first jab which is about only 4.9%. To reach atleast 7 million Ugandans fully vaccinated will have to take more effort. In order to do this, we need to do more on Education of our masses on the Vaccines, it is n

By Michael Aboneka Jr For long, schools have been left to determine their own set of rules including school fees and other sets of rubrics which have been normalized even though they are out rightly illogical and unacceptable. Many have argued that schools like any other business are in a free-market economy and therefore are entitled to charge exorbitant fees and demand for requirements that are unreasonable. It is now over 2 years since schools have been officially closed and much attention and time has been drawn to discussing how they recover their loans and survival and little about reforming our education sector, especially the curriculum. We should have spent the 2 years discussing the ideal education for our economy, regulation of the education sector including fees charged. It is unfortunate that as many schools closed, others continued to operate, and this has created two classes of citizens of the same generation widening the equality gap further as some are sitting home wai

By Michael Aboneka Jr There has been a rush for MPs to buy Ambulances to their voters as a token of appreciation for their votes. It seems purchasing an Ambulance is an unwritten rule within the corridors of Parliament or out of peer pressure. These MPs purchase anything and call it an Ambulance; I have seen toyota premios, probox vehicles passed off as ambulances of course with huge emblems of the MP so that the voters cannot forget them at the last hour. There seems to be no policy regulating ambulances because ambulances are categorized in grades depending on their purpose and the least standard  ambulance costs about USD 25,000 and a specialized one about USD 150,000. There are further regulations on how these should be and that most times, what we see MPs donating is merely a transport vehicle baptized as an Ambulance. We need to have a robust policy to regulate the ambulances so that whoever wants to extend charity, they do so while meeting all standards.  Be that as it may, it i

 By Michael Aboneka Jr The Ugandan legal framework provides for an MP to double as a Minister at the appointment of the  P resident.  There has ensued debates on the constitutionality of such provisions considering the principles of separation of powers and public interest. The Constitutional Court on March 18 th  2021 delivered a landmark judgement in the  Constitutional Petition No. 16 of 2016  in which the Court emphasized that a Judicial officer who has not resigned their judicial position/office cannot at the same time work in a public office following the appointment by the Executive as this breaches the principle of separation of powers among others. It is now clear that a Judicial officer cannot serve with one leg in the Executive and the other in the Judiciary as this offends Judicial Independence. It is now time to look into steering clear of the fusion between the Executive and the legislature as a number of MPs are appointed as Ministers by the Executive which in my opinion

  By Michael Aboneka Jr We have been fighting COVID-19 since March 2020 and the fight is still on, the Ugandans have tried their best albeit many consequences such as loss of income over the period. In what you would term as the first wave era of COVID-19, there were many errors from the crafting of measures to implementation of the same. We witnessed loads of violations and abuses of rights with total disregard to due processes. A number of Ugandans were clobbered, maimed, assaulted by some enforcing agents in the name of enforcing COVID-19 measures. The enforcement agencies must operate within the set principles and at all times respect the rights of Individuals as they implement the new Measures in trying to curb the further spread the new wave of the Virus. We should have learned from the past experiences and by now, the state and its agencies should know how  best  to implement these measures without causing unnecessary mayhem to the people. We do not expect unnecessary shootings,

  By Michael Aboneka Jr Governments around the world including Uganda learnt about COVID-19 in November 2019 and it is expected that the planning for responses to the same should have started then. There could have been some planning perhaps but the way we have responded to this pandemic exposes our lack or poor planning.    There was a need to have scenarios  drawn  for immediate-, medium- and long-term  interventions for  dealing with COVID-19. We are not sure how long COVID-19 shall stay especially since it keeps mutating everyday. I am aware that we have several task forces, scientific and legal committees etc dealing with th e  pandemic response but the social economic aspects have largely been ignored. We have always emphasized the need for data in all spheres. For example, we are still struggling to define and identify the vulnerable persons who need urgent support. It is now 5 days since another lockdown was declared and we haven't reached out to the vulnerable persons; one

As we are trying to get wind of the electoral period, the confirmation from the Electoral Commission that it excluded results from over 1,200 polling stations dampens the mood for the struggle for participatory electoral democracy. This is not the first time results are being excluded from the final tallying of results, this too happened in 2016 when results from some Polling stations including Kampala were ignored. This kind of precedent is not acceptable for our democracy. The voters spent the entire day casting their vote and then you tell them that their votes cannot be included because they cannot make any significant change.  In an electoral Democracy, every vote counts and it doesn't matter what their effect is. It is unfortunate that this kind of precedent continues to be perpetrated by the Electoral Commission and hopefully it can be legally put to rest. You cannot spend time and resources calling upon Ugandans to vote and then exclude their votes in the final tally all i