Cheeye Should Be My Ally Against Corruption!

SIR— I am writing to inform all those who may have read Cheeye’s article entitled, “The truth behind the George Sserunjogi woes”, published in the Uganda Confidential of May 17-23, that all that he wrote about me hating Bahima and persecuting Mr Aziz Kasujja, chairman of the Electoral Commission, is absolute rubbish. And I call on everybody to treat it with the contempt it deserves.I do not know who has chosen Cheeye to be the spokesperson of Bahima because the people whom I represent in Parliament, who love me as I love them, cannot have chosen such a person that has grossly misrepresented them. As a matter of fact, they must be angry with him for this kind of nonsense that he is hawking around, which is likely to poison people’s minds thereby inciting violence. Has Cheeye forgotten the ugly genocide of Rwanda resulting from such poisonous minds as his? In discharging my duties as minister of ethics and integrity, I am not guided by anything else except the principles of ethics and the law. The origins or religious background of the personalities involved in the cases we handle do not matter to us. I am sure when the President appointed me to this job, he very well knew the integrity of the person he was entrusting this honourable but difficult assignment. I used to know Cheeye as an ardent fighter of corruption who is supposed to be my ally in the struggle to fight corruption. What has happened now? Is it because he has failed to pay us our damages and is now trying to cover up by inciting hatred against us?Cheeye should sober up; the sooner he meets his obligations to us the better. “Okuharabagana” like a person drowning will not help him.As for my persecution of Mr Kasujja, I am sure he is shocked by Cheeye’s unfortunate revelations because he and I have been colleagues working together for a long time right from the Uganda Constitutional Commission, the Constituent Assembly to the present time as I handle issues of corruption about the Electoral Commission. I do not see the relevance of Sserunjogi’s incident to my hatred of Bahima and Kasujja. Cheeye should spare us from his poisonous mind.Since Cheeye works in the President’s Office where my responsibility is — to instil ethics and integrity in public office — I wish to caution him to refrain from such unethical conduct. Further, I caution him from defaming me more since he has up to now failed to pay his judgment debt. I am seeking my lawyers’ advice about suing him again.Miria Matembe, Kampala