Kabushenga is a liability to NRM

Mar 22, 2006

<br>My people, the Banyarwanda have a saying that Ulusha nyina wu’mwana imbabazi aba ashaka kumulya (if one shows more sympathy to a baby than its mother, it may be because that person wants to eat the baby).

My people, the Banyarwanda have a saying that Ulusha nyina wu’mwana imbabazi aba ashaka kumulya (if one shows more sympathy to a baby than its mother, it may be because that person wants to eat the baby). Media Centre Director Robert Kabushenga's over-protection of NRM revolution boarders on madness that may actually end up destroying the very revolution brought about by many silent majorities. The saga in which Canadian journalist Blake Lambert was denied permission to continue operating in Uganda is sickening.
Kabushenga, like the various Uganda media authorities, has failed to do what they are supposed to do, which is accreditation and instead are doing licensing, which is wrong. Accreditation is not licensing. Accreditation of journalists by government agencies is to merely give credentials to genuine media representatives, in order to distinguish them from quack journalists. Instead of winnowing out the self-styled journalists who invade workshops to get free meals and drinks and on top of that ask for bribes to run their stories, the Kabushengas are more concerned with licensing genuine journalists.
Under normal circumstances, once the vetting authority confirms that Mr. X is a bonafide journalist, then it issues an accreditation card, which the journalist uses together with his or her company identity cards. For example, a journalist from New Vision would have an identity card issued by the employer and an accreditation card from the ministry of information.
Kabushenga has dropped the name of the President saying that President Museveni recently warned against foreign interferences. But I can also say that it is President Museveni who abolished exploitative licensing boards like former Coffee Marketing Board and the Lint Marketing Board. So why does Kabushenga want Ugandans to believe that President Museveni now supports a Media Licensing Board?
Kabushenga’s problem is part of the larger national problems. Ugandan society especially the elite is very dishonest. As a lawyer, Kabushenga gets appointed to a job requiring someone with a Masters degree or a PhD in journalism, and he opportunistically accepts without appearing to be bothered. There is a new book titled, “The Media and Modernity: A social theory of the media” published by John B. Thompson (1995, reprinted in 2004). On page 143, Thompson writes about the “risk of backfiring”. He writes: “On August 24, 1990, Sadam Hussein staged a press conference in which he showed a group of British hostages and their children.

Dressed in civilian clothes, Sadam fondled the children, asked if they had had sweets, enough exercises and food. He thanked their role in preventing war”. Lesson for Kabushenga: While Sadam Hussein had thought that his action assured the West that he meant no harm and also believed that his action would force the West to desist from using military actions to overthrow him, on the contrary the West dug in and eventually removed him from power.
Similarly, while Kabushenga believed that his wind is going to cool off Western Journalists, on the contrary, his wind may turn into a whirlwind, which may even uproot him. In Sunday Vision of March 19, 2006 Kabushenga mimics President Museveni when he accuses Canada of having given military support to the Milton Obote regime as a basis for his belief that a Canadian national therefore has no right to comment on Uganda’s political issues. Kabushenga blames Canada for having assisted Obote without mentioning that Canada has sunk hundreds of million of dollars into the Ugandan economy during President Museveni tenure. In addition, Canada was one of the rich countries which wrote off the non-performing loans we owed them.
Kabushenga should read Thomas L. Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat” published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2005). We live in a borderless global world of faster communication, and cross-boarder deals involving $1.5 trillion a day. Uganda cannot be yawning for international investments and at the same time want to remain closed. An investor will first get Fitch Sovereign’s rating on Uganda before he can bring in his money. Fitch, which is an international credit rating agency, will look at the country’s political atmosphere, the freedom of the press, the health of companies doing businesses in that country etc. In March last year, Uganda was rated “B”, which is not attractive at all. With friends like Kabushenga, I will not be surprised if Uganda is rated “B-” next time. When a country has poor credit rating it cannot raise international capital.
I found the article that earned Blarke Lambert’s the sack very mild. Andrew Mwenda, Onyango Obbo, David Balikowa and Munini Mulera write worse articles. To make matters worse, not more than 700 people in Uganda read the prestigious Weekly Economist, which cost Shs 10,000. Its impact is therefore negligible. So why use a hammer to kill a fly? The solution is for President Museveni to award jobs on the basis of seniority, (the older the wiser), loyalty and merit (qualification). In that way, the Kabushengas of this world would be given the opportunity to grow within the system, and eventually become solid pillars of NRM. But as of now, the amateurism of Kabushenga and the like, however well intentioned they may be, is a big liability to the NRM government.
Ends

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});