Opposition leaders appear before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee to submit their proposals on the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2015. PHOTOS BY FAISWAL KASIRYE
In many ways 2015 returned us to 2001.
In 2001, we looked at Dr Kizza Besigye, then a man with a small political profile, and waited to see what his act of courage would yield.
The retired colonel had only broken ranks with his commander in chief, looked him in the eye and said ‘Mr emperor you are naked’.
Fast forward to 2014 and deeper into 2015, we got another shot from President Museveni’s inner circle stepping out to say the emperor is naked.
Besigye’s 2001 moment was Amama Mbabazi’s 2015 moment.
The only constant actor in these scenes is Yoweri Museveni. The plot has rotated around changing Museveni’s occupancy from State House to whatever place he selects to take milk from on his retirement seat.
2015 was, therefore, a fairly defining year in the politics of our country, at least since 2001 to the extent that we, for the second time, got a serious contender for the top job right from within Museveni’s own courtyard.
That doesn’t necessarily mean we shall see tables turn upside down at State House Entebbe. In fact, the latest opinion poll by this newspaper indicates Museveni has just about 59 per cent chances of retaining his coveted seat.
The events that transpired in 2015, be it Mbabazi’s declaration of interest in the presidency or the President’s own handling of affairs in the National Resistance Movement where some giant political trees were felled by men behind bars and efforts by eminent citizens under the auspices of The Democratic Alliance all but speak to a wind of change blowing from Gulu to Kisoro.
Citizens’ compact
The free and fair elections campaign that morphed into the Citizens’ Compact on Free and Fair Elections was evidence, if any was ever needed, of the resolve by some Ugandans.
At Hotel Africana mid last year, men and women of all age grades, social strata and political affiliation spoke about what needed to be done to get the elections next to free and fair let alone credible.
With the same spirit, we got into The Democratic Alliance. Again, another resounding statement that affirmed the commitment of Ugandans to fix the country’s biting governance challenges.
In more ways than one, you felt we were back to the hey days of the Moshi Conference, the Lancaster Conference, and the late night meetings held here and out of our borders to answer those issues of the running of the State we agree should be done better.
Unlike those conferences and deliberations of yesterday, the 2015 discussions seemed to end at just that. Meetings, talk and talk and less action. Where action was visible, it fell out of touch with the letter and spirit of talk.
Efforts by TDA, for instance, to come up with a joint presidential candidate and the same with local government and Parliament positions collapsed under the weight of a clash of egos and tragic complexity of consensus building.
In the same way, we saw civil society and Opposition leaders make high sounding proclamations, some as ambitious as taking over Parliament should the august House fail to pass the proposed electoral reforms.
When that suffered a stillbirth, the position was changed to Citizens Reforms Now whose action plan hinged on no elections without reforms.
Electoral reforms
We mid last year got the rude shock of the impossibility of a radical realignment of the electoral system.
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