The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
COMMENT | Olivia Nalubwama | The member of parliament (MP) position is so exalted and privileged that elected MPs automatically earn the title of ‘Honourable’ before proving their capacity for honour.
Over the past week, Rakai District Woman MP Honorable Juliet Kinyamatama has faced a baptism of fire and brimstone owing to her dishonourable remarks encouraging citizens to forgive thieving leaders who kindly share the loot with their constituents. Steal from Ugandans, share with Ugandans. Call it SUSU.
In response, Ugandan netizens helped her trend with the hashtag ‘Text the Thief’, encouraging Ugandans to express their displeasure with their MPs via text messaging.
Following the grave allegations over parliamentary corruption unearthed during the online Uganda Parliament Exhibition, Kinyamatama’s remarks (alongside similarly problematic remarks from the parliament speaker) are an unapologetic blunt-force slap in the face of President Yoweri Museveni’s ‘war’ on corruption.
In 2021, Kinyamatama featured in a current affairs show on the YouTube channel, Ben-LIVE and came off rather agreeably. Sharing her experience about joining parliament as a youthful 27-year-old in 2016, she intimated, “What you go through to become a member of parliament trims you enough to be humble.”
She continued, “To be a member of parliament, you have to have enough social skills with the voters for them to believe in you and think this is the right person who is going to represent us.”
Indeed, this MP is in her third term; surely, her constituents are confident she has ‘enough social skills’ and humility. She revealed that joining parliament as a young person was overwhelming and one could easily lose their head. Kinyamatama, awed by reputable parliamentarians such as the late Cecilia Ogwal, wisely resolved to keep her head down, learn from those around her, and serve her people.
To her credit, Kinyamatama caught on early enough that being an MP is about “pleasing her people.” Consequently, she cautioned youthful Ugandans aspiring to become MPs not to be dazzled by the perks and privileges of the position but to prepare for the backbreaking work of serving thier people.
She reminisced that as a ten-year-old girl, she aspired to become a member of parliament, urging young people to take up opportunities to
serve their country. She also cautioned that being a public figure meant people scrutinised your every message; so, one ought to measure their words carefully. The wisdom in the Kinyamatama of 2021!
On bribery and corruption in parliament, our wise MP was emphatic, “MPs do not touch public funds; we are not accounting officers… we don’t meet money anywhere!” She confidently reiterated that if there were incidents of bribery in parliament, the state institutions were more than able to deal with it. see, 2021 was a good time to be Kinyamatama!
Dear reader, some leaders have carved out reputations as unapologetic well- dressed thieving charlatans. They smile their fat-cat smiles, dripping in pseudo humility for corruption in Uganda is a pleasant and pampered experience. When fingered over corruption, these ‘leaders’ rush into the arms of their lobotomized constituents and hold lavish thanksgiving celebrations where they are feted like royalty.
Then there are leaders like Kinyamatama, who are largely unknown or forgotten outside their constituencies until they hit the headlines. This time Kinyamatama has made news, as the latest poster child for shamelessness. Perhaps she will soon move a motion for a national day to celebrate the shamelessness of our leaders.
In 2020, she fronted the “Public Holidays (Amendment) Bill, 2020 unsuccessfully. She argued that public holidays that fall on weekends should be moved to weekdays so Ugandans can enjoy them ‘propale.’ In 2021, Honourable Kinyamatama attempted to contest for the speakership of the Eleventh Parliament, pledging to make parliament more accountable to Ugandans.
Such is the cruel twist of 2024 that Kinyamatama who, as a ten-year-old, aspired to become a parliamentarian now tells ten-year-old girls that stealing from public coffers is wonderful, even kind – if the thieving MP shares their loot with their constituents.
In October 2023, she decried MP Francis Zaake’s derogatory remarks against her as an attack on all Ugandan women (see Dear female MPs, Play the Long Game in Parliament). One would hope that she would also cry that an attack on one thieving leader is an attack on all Ugandans.
Where Kinyamatama once cautioned that the responsibility of leadership meant measuring one’s words, she now openly spews SUSU, urging impoverished Ugandans to look past the very leaders who impoverish them. As we ponder the metamorphosis of Honourable Kinyamatama and the state of unashamed impunity right in our faces, dear reader, consider the simplicity of term limits.
Term limits tell us that people change and that change ought to be managed. If a two-term limit existed for MPs, we would still have happy memories of the youthful and wide-eyed Kinyamatama but alas, in 2024, an older and wizened Kinyamatama is a curtain raiser for corruption in President Museveni’s Uganda.
Oh yes, President Museveni has long argued against lifestyle audits because such pesky anti-corruption measures might scare the corrupt from investing their loot in Uganda. The logic is flawless, even patriotic. Just SUSU here.
Therafa, go easy on the dishonourable evolution of Honourable Kinyamatama – she is simply parroting the president’s impeccable logic. What else does she have in common with the president?
A painful lack of term limits. Hence, our heartfelt appreciation to Honourable Kinyamatama for reminding us once more why term limits matter.
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Olivia Nalubwama is a “tayaad Muzukulu, tired of mediocrity and impunity” smugmountain@gmail.com
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE OBSERVER
