Speedy Besigye trial

Dec 02, 2005

UGANDA’S No1 COLUMNIST.. INFORMED, CONTROVERSIAL AND PROVOCATIVE<br><b>John Nagenda</b><br><br>On Sunday I took part, by high invitation, in a meeting of the all-important government Security Committee. It enabled me to take a fresh angle on the Besigye Affair.

UGANDA’S No1 COLUMNIST.. INFORMED, CONTROVERSIAL AND PROVOCATIVE
John Nagenda

On Sunday I took part, by high invitation, in a meeting of the all-important government Security Committee. It enabled me to take a fresh angle on the Besigye Affair.

Hitherto, and quite rightly as far as I was concerned, I was a very strong advocate of bailing Dr. Besigye, who, as the “world and his wife” (as we used to say) well knew, is remanded in prison awaiting trial for treason. Not very small potatoes! I was also very hot, as were very many others, about the duopoly of courts, the High Court and the General Court Martial (GCM), concurrently hearing evidence of the case. The GMC is the appellate court of all the courts martial in the country.

Having expressed my views with some vigour, I owe it to my readership to explain my new variation on the theme. Starting with the two-courts situation, my well-founded fear was one of perception, that, whatever its legality, it would be seen as unnatural justice. Fortunately Besigye’s lawyers have appealed the matter to the Constitutional Court, as they had every right to do. Let that august court take the strain!

Incidentally, and reassuringly, any GCM judgment can be appealed to the civil Court of Appeal.

As for the bail question, my own view had been that by bending over backwards to play fair to Besigye’s presidential aspirations, the Uganda government would be assured of the necessary kudos. Thus within and outside Uganda it would have scored a major public relations coup. But then what? Is life only, or even principally, about public relations, or do more serious considerations obtain below the surface? For example, what about equality before the law; in this case between Besigye and his co-accused? Should all of them be bailed?

And if so, which in itself should not prove an insurmountable obstacle in security terms since they were less than two dozen in all if they tried to abscond, what about perhaps hundreds more who might come under similar charges? Little flickers of doubt started assembling in my mind! And in any case, it seemed Besigye had not even asked for bail from the GCM, a necessary step!

I had also rather airily thought, hoped, that the case could be started, the first submissions given, against and for the accused, and perhaps then the case adjourned to a future date, which might even stretch to beyond the presidential elections.

Here I must confess. It had not escaped me that the charges against Besigye (as read out by the Chief Magistrate) might so revolt the electorate, that Besigye’s goose would be cooked, however hard his defence team fought in its answering submission. One up to Government. But then my lawyer friends told me that once the case juggernaut started rolling, in Uganda it could only be stopped in very special circumstances.

Imagine standing up with a straight face and intoning, “Adjournment is sought because Dr Besigye is a presidential candidate my Lord.” You would be (rightly) laughed out of court! So now the important thing is speed.

The DPP is ready to start the government side, and would take a maximum of two weeks. Therefore the whole case could be over in five. Who is afraid to start? Not Government!
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Meantime, elsewhere in Uganda we were not starved of merriment on the political front — or should that be “back”? Certainly new UPC leader, Miria Obote, widow to the recently deceased two-term Uganda president, enjoyed a piggy-back ride from his name for her win. True, it is a meaningless honour, UPC now even further destined for bottom place in Ugandan politics for the foreseeable future.

Widow Obote is one of our nicest First Ladies ever, but Party leader in the turbulent times ahead? That is merely a sad joke, but stinging tragedy for real UPC followers.

Even then she garnered 20 times the votes won by the man time and nation forgot. Aggrey Awori, who laughably took on Museveni in the presidential elections five years ago, now received a mere 12 votes for the UPC one. What a mere figment of his own imagination! Final rites are in order.

The DP also voted and chose my old (old in every sense) friend, Ssebaana Kizito, 71, to take over from another ancient, Paul Ssemogerere, holder of the position for a quarter century. Paul it seems almost twice that.

Both SK and PS are decent nice men. But sometimes “nice is not”, when it comes to politics; more’s the pity! Meanwhile, First Lady Janet Museveni has thrown her hat in the ring to run for parliament. First Ladies are unique, MPs are comparatively two for one shilling.

Besides, the Opposition will strain every sinew to get at the President, government and the Movement through Mrs Museveni, and, take my word for it, it won’t be a pretty sight, nor the consequences. That she packs a heavy punch nobody can deny, and her courage is unquestioned.
But when, in a parallel situation, 40 years ago, Ssekabaka Mutesa II chose to accept the presidency of Uganda alongside his, then, mightier Kabakaship of Buganda, some of us wailed. We were proved right. Now again?

But let us break well clear of these entangled woods, into the enchanting light of the enthronement of Archbishop John Sentamu as Archbishop of York, the second top position in the Church of England, and also arguably of the Anglican church worldwide. I much doubt, what is more, that during his reign at York he will double up as Assistant Bishop of Birmingham diocese, England!

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