Betty Kamya
we hold a national referendum on the question(s) whether the Constitution
of Uganda should be amended to trim the constitution-given-powers of the
president, which mandate him to appoint electoral commissioners, Governor of
Bank of Uganda, Inspector General of Police, Chief Justice, Justices, Judges
and all public officers above the rank of head of Department.
With all due respect do you want a leader of a country without such powers?
May be you do not need the president at all, if you deny him to appoint
these people what is his use in office? These positions are appointed
worldwide and your preaching to deny them from State House is laughable for
it simply cannot happen in any country. Ugandans as you have been watching
the saga of Mayor Rob Ford in this city, a whole whack of ideas have been
thrown to the table. When the municipal law of this province was written,
all Municipalities were not put at the same level, the mayor of Toronto has
a more leverage than for example the mayor of Windsor or Ottawa, Toronto
runs almost as a government its self. The way the law empowers the mayor of
Toronto is very different from how the mayor of North Bay is empowered let
alone protected. You see we built the law according to what particular
cities want to accomplish, they show up to the province and plead their case
then the province empowers or refuse to empower as such, so it is on as we
go basis. Because the province sits in Toronto and because of our size and
economical value to both the province and the country, we have a larger say
in what we need, Toronto is the main economic engine of this province and
country.
When Rob Ford screwed up, suggestions came up for the city to go to the
province and strip the powers off him, but when we thought about it, the
problem is actually not the powers the mayor has, it is Rob Ford in the
position. You be very careful when setting up laws and making demands for
such decisions are going to affect the next mayor. So we went back and
studied the municipal law and how it empowered the council to deal with such
a case, and it empowers them to vote some powers off the mayor, and some
being the operative term here. Under a normal person when you are stripped
off powers this way you resign, but Rob Ford refused to resign even though
he was stripped. The Premier of Ontario must always be in contact with the
city mayor, but in Toronto she is in contact with the deputy mayor for he
took the powers of the mayor.
Never ever stand up to change the laws according to the situation you have
at hand for such changes come back and bite you. It is like how we never get
a family member of a murdered person and we ask him to write a law of how we
must punish killers in this province, no because you are a bias man and you
are going to write a law that is unfair to the victims let alone the
convict. The law must always be fair and must remain so in good times or bad
times. What we can do in this city is to use the example of Mayor Ford and
we plan to write a better law, then 10 15 years after Rob Ford goes away and
we have a good mayor in the city we sit with calm heads to rewrite the law.
Betty Kamya do you really want to strip these powers from the president?
What if you turn around and become the next president?
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of beti kamya
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2014 5:15 AM
To: Abbey Semuwemba
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: B.Kamya_Re: {UAH} THE CALL and Electoral Proposals///
Abbey,
Thanks for your positive comments about me. Yes, we are soooo determined
that by May 2014, UFA will present over 2M signatures of registred voters
supporting my petition that we hold a national referendum on the question(s)
whether the Constitution of Uganda should be amended to trim the
constitution-given-powers of the president, which mandate him to appoint
electoral commissioners, Governor of Bank of Uganda, Inspector General of
Police, Chief Justice, Justices, Judges and all public officers above the
rank of head of Department. It is this constitutional mandate that gives YKM
significant clout to do all the things he does. Whether M7's establishment
frustrates the holding of the referendum or not, M7 will have to struggle
with the fact that over 2M registered voters called for a referendum to trip
his powers. If Ugandans understood the significance of this and participated
in collection of signatures and we raised 5M of them, M7 would have a huge
problem to carry around, explaining to the world why we do not hold a
referendum on presidential powers as demanded by voters and as provided for
in the constitution of Uganda. For now, he hides behind being elected by 68%
majority to claim legitimacy.
Abbey, Dr Besigye and I made peace a long time ago and we have met several
times and exchanged views. We agree on most things, but it is impossible for
me to go back to FDC coz federalism is not a core value of FDC as it is for
UFA. Indeed, most FDC stalwarts I know, like Gen Muntu, Hon(s) Katuntu and
most of the other leaders of FDC do not support federalism. They emphasise
poor administration which has led to poor service delivery, corruption etc,
rather than ideological issues. There is national consensus on poor
adminstration, even among the NRM, so this does not provide a case for a
qualitative difference between the various political players. All political
parties promise better service deliver, fight vs corruption, promotion of
democracy etc. But what should really differentiate political parties are
the ideological platforms. In other words, all the 38 registered political
parties in Uganda promise good accountable managemnet of this country, which
will eventually lead to good service delivery but the question is which
system will the best environment for our promises to come true? UFA believes
the federal system provides the best system because it devolves power closer
to the people than the unitary system which over-centralizes power, and in
so doing makes the centre so remote from the people!
Anybody who is an opponent of federalism, even if s(he) is the greatest M7
hater, falls short of my ideological leanings and anybody who is a
federalist, even if he is a great M7 lover, I can talk business with. So I
would not go back to FDC because of that ideological difference although I
can do business with them on the things we agree. Similarly, I would not
join NRM coz we have serious administrative and ideological differences
although I can work with those who support federalism to push our common
agenda forward.
Indeed, I have collected hundreds of thousands of signatures of NRM
supporters who agree that we need to amend the constitution to trim the
powers of the presidency, yet there are numerous people in the opposition
who refused to give me their signatures on grounds that they have no problem
with the constitution as it is, as long as M7 gets out of State House.
That's why we need to be issue, rather than personality oriented and work
with whoever promotes ones goals. In UFA, coz we are ideological rather than
personality driven, we are able to work with both opposition and NRM
supporters, as long as they are federalists and will work with us to promote
it.
Take care - Beti Kamya
On Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 4:27 AM, Abbey Semuwemba <[email protected]>
wrote:
WBK,
Beti seems to be a good mobilisor, organisor and very determined. She should
have been handy in the current crisis in FDC. Besigye should make peace with
her!
Abbey
Sent from my iPad
On 14 Feb 2014, at 07:25, WB <[email protected]> wrote:
Ms. Beti Kamya:
Keep on doing what you are doing, which is educating Ugandans about the
merits of federalism. But also be honest with them that like any system
there may be some cons such as decentralized corruption and thieving as seen
in Kenyan counties, but overall the merits of federalism overweigh the cons.
Your message is definitely getting through and the best thing going for
federalism is actually YKM! So it was music to read the minions at
Kyankwanzi, ok, NRM MPs falling over each other to nominate YKM. The more
YKM stays in power the better for the federal question. This is an example
of proof by contradiction. YKM may not want to hear about federalism, but he
is actually the best thing going for federalism. So let the opposition in
parliament DEMAND electoral reform while also fighting about juicy shadow
cabinet slots.
Keep focused on what you are doing like a laser beam.
WBK
_____
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2014 16:12:09 +0100
Subject: B.Kamya_Re: {UAH} THE CALL and Electoral Proposals///
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Kamya,
Thank you for trying but please tell us how you are going to stop the mass
printing of paper money, which by thr way can only be carried in sacks? How
many years have you people not been talking about the so-called sensitizing
of the empty-bellied peasants - and almost each time only when elections are
near?
Talking of existing law, my foot! How come Lukwago is where he is today. If
my chicken brain is to help me, i remember there has ever been the useless
refurendum - how did it end?
Try something else next time, if any...Nyar
On 13 Feb 2014 18:19, "beti kamya" <[email protected]> wrote:
CORRECTION - It is not the "Opposition" that launched the demand for
electoral reforms but "The Opposition in Parliament". Uganda Federal
Alliance (UFA), Peoples' Development Party (PDP), Peoples' Progressive Party
(PDP) and many others were not represented.
If UFA had been consulted, we would have advised the Opposition in
Parliament and civil society that "demanding" will NOT be useful!
"Demand" of who?
- The President, to help legislate himself out of the power he loves so
much?
- The Electoral Commission to help legislate themselves out of jobs?
- The 9th Parliament which has 267 NRM MPs who just endorsed
President Museveni sole NRM presidential contestant in their
parliamentary caucus in Kyankwanzi VS 54 Opposition MPs?
I can predict without fear of contradiction that their demands will at worst
be ignored. At best, if they table them before Parliament, a few concessions
will be made, for Govt to look good, but the important ones will be
defeated.
There are only two fora under the constitution of Uganda where laws are made
(i) Parliament (ii) referenda. The act of "demanding for electoral reforms"
is not provided for in the constitution of Uganda and even when 10,000,000
Ugandan "demand", it has no force of law and is not binding on anybody,
least of all the President. So why would the Opposition in Parliament and
Civil Society take us to MUK to "launch demands..." which will be ignored
because demanding for electoral reforms is not backed by law, when we can
demand for a referendum as provided for under Article 255(1) of the
constitution and mobilize voters to make decisions that "are binding on all
persons, organs and institutions of the State of Uganda..." as provided for
under Article 255 (3)?
UFA is already collecting signatures of registered voters under Article
255(1) to demand that the EC organises a referendum to amend the
Constitution of Uganda to among other things, overhaul the manner of
constituting the Electoral Commission, appointment of the IGP, Governor of
Bank of Uganda, Chief Justice and Judiciary. We have so far collected over
900,000 signatures of registered voters who have suppoterd the petition for
a national referendum to amend the constitution. It includes all the
electoral reforms proposed at the launch
Plan B should be to support the referendum effort where Ugandan voters will
decide directly on all the obnoxious items in the constitution. Neither
Parliament, the EC or the Executive can or will do it for us, we have to do
it ourselves and the referendum is the only channel that will have the force
of law
Beti Kamya - President, Uganda Federal Alliance
On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 6:05 PM, John Nsubuga <[email protected]> wrote:
Comrades,
The opposition is way too fragmented to adhere to these demands. As usual,
Museveni is not going to yield to the demand for electoral reforms,
therefore, what we want to read about is:...what else does the opposition
has in store? In otherwords, "plan B"
Is it going to be business as usual, giving him company "AGAIN" to state
house?
_____
From: Abbey Semuwemba <[email protected]>;
To: <[email protected]>;
Cc: Kale Kayihura <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>; beti
kamya <[email protected]>;
Subject: {UAH} THE CALL and Electoral Proposals
Sent: Wed, Feb 12, 2014 10:55:47 PM
Read the attachments please. Thank you.
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:
From: Okello Lucima <[email protected]>
Date: 13 February 2014 01:13:07 PST
To: Abbey
--
___________________________________________
No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every Man
is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a
Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse,
as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor
of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans
death diminishes me, because I am in-
volved in Mankinde; And therefore
never send to know for
whom the bell tolls; It
tolls for thee.
John Donne
____________________________________________________________
_____
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