Xavier Ejoyi

THE year 2001 will go down in history as a black spot in the democratic process of Uganda. The level at which incidents of violence were organised, orchestrated and meted out to civilians by different groups during the 2001 presidential general elections was glaring.

Todate, the dreaded yet mysterious Kalangala Action Plan (KAP) which traipsed this country intimidating, harassing and torturing civilians is still at large. With the elections around the corner and an already charged atmosphere, are we prepared for another round of violence? Let all Ugandans rise up and say no to violence.

To begin with, all Ugandans should do some soul-searching on the culture of poll violence. Democracy is meant to be an alternative to violent acquisition of power and peaceful co-existence. However, poll violence defeats this very purpose if intimidation and brutality are allowed to thrive.

Government and state institutions need to come out clean on this issue. A parliamentary select committee that investigated the 2001 poll violence implicated the Army, Local Defence Forces and other militia groups in orchestrating the violence. Government has lost millions of shillings of citizens’ hard earned taxes in compensating the victims of these obsequious brutes. Yet perpetrators of this heinous crime still remain at large and are probably poised to cause havoc in 2006 elections.

After thorough consultations, the parliamentary committee recommended that the Army should stay out of the election process. Parliament also discounted the argument that the involvement of the Army in elections was only to help an “over-stretched Police Force”, recommending an expansion of the Police Force.

Parliament was right, the Police Force has been “over- stretched” for the last 18 years and indications are that it will remain so for a while. Government has maintained in the White Paper on Constitutional Review that the Army may be used to maintain law and order during elections. This was also the case in the previous polls. However, the role of the Army in elections remains ambiguous, as it has not been clearly regulated.

Parliament needs to define the deployment, operational mandate and command structure of any Armed Forces likely to be involved in the election, as the devil is usually in the details. Most importantly, disciplinary procedures of errant officers must be clarified and made available to the public.

Unless this is addressed, election violence remains a threat in the next polls. Ultimately, these are only remedial measures. The business of maintaining law and order should remain the duty of a sufficiently resourced, appropriately trained, and effective Police Force.

The Police must not be made to delegate this responsibility to other stakeholders such as the Army, against their will. The proliferation of shadowy militia groups with no clear legal mandate who abuse human rights with impunity must not be tolerated. How can we pride ourselves in having a democracy if we fail to hold our armed Forces accountable for their misconduct?

Ugandans need to be vigilant and denounce politically motivated violence to ensure themselves a just and transparent democratic polity. A peaceful election period will not only demonstrate our political maturity, but will also be a solace to those Ugandans who lost eyes, ears and limbs to torture.

Political leaders should be responsible for the actions and consequences of the decisions or lack of them which affect all Ugandans. History will stand testimony to the mayhem if they fail to avert violence.

The writer is a researcher with Commonwealth Human rights initiative, East African Police reforms project