Aboneka Writes

 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 ...

  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 unnecess...

  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 declar...