Editorial
March 3, 2004
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Two Cabinet ministers were at the centre of an ugly fight last week over who should be elected woman Member of Parliament for Bushenyi. On one side, the Minister of Water, Lands and Environment Col. Kahinda Otafiire was urging the electorate to vote for a Protestant, arguing that the district was already too “Catholic dominated”. The Catholic laity led by its Chairman, Prof. Peter Kasenene, got incensed by the suggestion. Kasenene, who is also a minister of state for Privatisation, retorted that Col. Otafiire’s suggestion was against the principle of individual merit. But Otafiire was not done yet. He went on the airwaves to remind Kasenene that he too had benefited from what he called “affirmative action”. It is widely believed that Kasenene got his ministerial job even after he had lost the parliamentary elections, because of his central position in pushing for Catholic interests. What is disturbing though is that two ministers should be quarrelling publicly about two principles they should be helping the public understand better. The principle of “individual merit” is as old as the Movement government. Yet this is not the first time that the public is witnessing this kind of political twaddle. Last year in the local council elections, the President stopped an elected LC5 councillor in Kibaale from assuming office after the Banyoro petitioned him. The Banyoro rejected the newly elected LC5 chairman because he was from the settler Bakiga community. It is interesting to note that while this meddling ensued in Kibaale, people like Kasenene never raised a finger about the need to respect the principle of individual merit. Is it because it had nothing to do with religion? But that is not to say that Kasenene is not raising a genuine point. The saga in Bushenyi adds to the one in Kibaale in setting a very dangerous precedent. |
© 2004 The Monitor Publications
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