Obunga should apologise to the catholic community
Jul 01, 2003
Your Platform:<br>I recall what ex-president Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa once said during his short tenure in the presidency: “The bush telephone is faster than the modern telephone.â€
Your Platform:
I recall what ex-president Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa once said during his short tenure in the presidency: “The bush telephone is faster than the modern telephone.â€
He was referring to how fast rumour, false rumour at that, took such a short time to run across the country in those days!
Although this still happens even today, the press, both electronic and print, now excel beyond estimation. Press manipulation is becoming a new science in Uganda’s public affairs!
I have arrived at this unfortunate conclusion after a lot of interest in the “Catholic Bishops position on the third term†saga.
The Catholic truth is that their graces did not have third term as an item on their agenda and therefore did not discuss it. Msgr Obunga, clearly with his own agenda, called a press conference, set up innocent and saintly Hon. Peter Kasenene and then the saga started!
Unsuspecting Prof. Kasenene came to the press conference after it had been addressed.
A picture was taken seemingly with Prof. Kasenene’s approval for him to be accused of being opposed to the bishops.
The following day he dissociated himself from what was attributed to the bishops on the third term. This was the authentic Kasenene in defence of the bishops.
What did the press carry? A story that put Kasenene on collision course with the church!
What was at best a half-truth (incase some Bishops privately expressed opposition to 3rd term) now became the manipulated untruth.
A spate of letters followed the most ridiculous of which came from Rev. Fr. Kanyike who called Sabakristu a protestant, perhaps a person to be excommunicated if the reverend had power to do so!
Cries for Kasenene to resign came from everywhere! He should not go to Namugongo or speak at the martyrs celebrations. Thank God, we have a decent man, a genuine person, who may well be more catholic than those hurrying to put him on the cross.
The president advised bishops, indeed church leaders on the basis of what appeared in the press and the dust it swept across the country. The church as represented by the Bishops, which never discussed the issue is now set against Museveni!
What actually amounts to a lie on serious investigation amounts to a political truth!
In view of the incorrectness of the origin of the saga, the public must demand an apology from Msgr. Obunga, he must apologise to the bishops, the catholic community who have been misled and to honourable Kasenene who has suffered unfairly because of Rev. Obunga’s own agenda.
As for Rev Fr. Kanyike, he should think of voluntarily leaving Makerere hill because (perhaps he has overstayed), that intellectual centre cannot accommodate intellectual lack of liberalism.
Democracy, freedom and human rights cannot be protected by intrigue or political manipulation based on untruths of the type that one has observed in the “Bishop’s third term saga.†We may well be nurturing fascism a problem, most Ugandans should now be fully frightened of, given our past.
Prof Tarsis Kabwegyere
Minister Local Government
I recall what ex-president Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa once said during his short tenure in the presidency: “The bush telephone is faster than the modern telephone.â€
He was referring to how fast rumour, false rumour at that, took such a short time to run across the country in those days!
Although this still happens even today, the press, both electronic and print, now excel beyond estimation. Press manipulation is becoming a new science in Uganda’s public affairs!
I have arrived at this unfortunate conclusion after a lot of interest in the “Catholic Bishops position on the third term†saga.
The Catholic truth is that their graces did not have third term as an item on their agenda and therefore did not discuss it. Msgr Obunga, clearly with his own agenda, called a press conference, set up innocent and saintly Hon. Peter Kasenene and then the saga started!
Unsuspecting Prof. Kasenene came to the press conference after it had been addressed.
A picture was taken seemingly with Prof. Kasenene’s approval for him to be accused of being opposed to the bishops.
The following day he dissociated himself from what was attributed to the bishops on the third term. This was the authentic Kasenene in defence of the bishops.
What did the press carry? A story that put Kasenene on collision course with the church!
What was at best a half-truth (incase some Bishops privately expressed opposition to 3rd term) now became the manipulated untruth.
A spate of letters followed the most ridiculous of which came from Rev. Fr. Kanyike who called Sabakristu a protestant, perhaps a person to be excommunicated if the reverend had power to do so!
Cries for Kasenene to resign came from everywhere! He should not go to Namugongo or speak at the martyrs celebrations. Thank God, we have a decent man, a genuine person, who may well be more catholic than those hurrying to put him on the cross.
The president advised bishops, indeed church leaders on the basis of what appeared in the press and the dust it swept across the country. The church as represented by the Bishops, which never discussed the issue is now set against Museveni!
What actually amounts to a lie on serious investigation amounts to a political truth!
In view of the incorrectness of the origin of the saga, the public must demand an apology from Msgr. Obunga, he must apologise to the bishops, the catholic community who have been misled and to honourable Kasenene who has suffered unfairly because of Rev. Obunga’s own agenda.
As for Rev Fr. Kanyike, he should think of voluntarily leaving Makerere hill because (perhaps he has overstayed), that intellectual centre cannot accommodate intellectual lack of liberalism.
Democracy, freedom and human rights cannot be protected by intrigue or political manipulation based on untruths of the type that one has observed in the “Bishop’s third term saga.†We may well be nurturing fascism a problem, most Ugandans should now be fully frightened of, given our past.
Prof Tarsis Kabwegyere
Minister Local Government