Kasujja’s sacking nullifies nothing!

Perhaps last week's “event of the week” was the relieving of Haji Aziz Kasujja of his duties as Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC). Not surprisingly, the elimination list included five of his fellow commissioners, namely, Florence Nkurukenda, Charles Owiny, Ted Wamusi, Robert Kitariko, and Hadija Miiro.While it is clear the six commissioners have been relieved of their duties, there is ambiguity regarding the exact form of termination to which they have been subjected. The terminology applied by various authorities sources lacks consistency. Some sources say Kasujja and his colleagues were sacked, some say they were retired in public interest while others say their services were terminated. But that is merely a matter of semantics that should not cause any undue concern. The bottom line is the President, has kicked out Kasujja and and colleagues and deployed Sr Magoba head the EC. Given hat the EC has the uphill task of rebuilding its image which has been extensively damaged by allegations of financial mismanagement and administrative incompetence it would be unfair to expect Sr. Magoba to cope alone with the work of seven commissioners. This is particularly so in light of the fact that a number of by-elections are due to be held.there is need therefore to expedite the appointment of new commissioners to replace the six who left. The possibility of having to restructure the Commission has been hanging around for quite a while so the appointing authority must have had ample time to do a meticulous job.There has been a diversity of reactions to Kasujja's departure, but there is one I have found particularly intriguing. Listening to one FM station the evening following Kasujja's unceremonious exit I had an argument propounded by some novice (I can't find a better adjective) journalist. The gist of her argument was that the booting of Kasujja who superintended over the elections of all Uganda's leaders means that we have leaders whose election lacks legitimacy. That type of logic is obviously a jibe at President Museveni and seeks to harvest applause from those naive enough to accept theories based on shallow analyses. But let us examine the argument for what it is worth. The IGG's report which recommended Kasujja's dismissal levelled a number of accusations against him in particular and the EC in general. That report did not even in the remotest context accuse Kasujja or any of the EC commissioners or members of staff of having participated in any rigging exercise or having condoned any acts of rigging the elections at any level. The iniquities listed against the EC included irregularities in the awarding of tenders, incompetence in administering the commission's affairs, such as sending ballot papers to the wrong stations, abuse of office by some commissioners and staff, failing to account for billions of shillings, among others.I cannot, understand how the involvement of any member of the EC, be it Kasujja or anybody else, in mismanaging the Commission’s finances or wrongful award of a tender, render the election of John Ssebaana Kizito as Mayor of Kampala illegitimate! How can the election of Norbert Mao or Cecilia Ogwal be rendered “questionable” because the EC sent to Mbarara ballot papers that should have gone somewhere else, say Lira or Gulu? How can the victory of President Museveni by an overwhelming majority be undermined by financial and sexual scandals in the Electoral Commission? The only venue for testing the legal legitimacy of Museveni's current tenure of office was the Supreme Court. That court’s verdict, which is final, was that whatever irregularities there might have been, could not have affected the results of the polls. Just as the fact that President Bush had to win a court battle to enter the White House does not affect his status as the world's most powerful man, the fact that Museveni had to defeat Besigye in court does not in any way erode his status as Uganda's popularly elected President.