Kanyeihamba tips leaders on power

Oct 11, 2009

SUPREME Court judge George Kanyeihamba has warned leaders against overstaying in power and recycling ministers, saying it leads to unrest.

By Cyprian Musoke

SUPREME Court judge George Kanyeihamba has warned leaders against overstaying in power and recycling ministers, saying it leads to unrest.

Kanyeihamba also advised leaders who lose elections to accept defeat.

“The highest priority by the new African leaders came to be how to stay in power longest. The urge to ensure the security of the state turned into the love for power. The protection of the nation changed into the protection of the leader and their immediate supporters,” he said.

After Independence, Kanyeihamba observed, the priorities which inspired African nationalists to fight against injustice were altered.

The leader, the judge noted, their immediate family, loyal ministers and public servants became the most important assets of the state to be sustained and protected at all costs.

He explained that the army, police and security forces were trained and ordered to be obedient to leaders of the ruling class and to suppress those who oppose breaches of law even if the protesters were exercising their constitutional rights.

Kanyeihamba made the remarks while speaking at the second annual rule of law day organised by the Uganda Law Society at Kampala Serena Hotel on Thursday.

He criticised the Judiciary over rampant instances of graft and commended President Yoweri Museveni for ordering the arrest of corrupt public officials.

“There should be no room in public service for the idle, malingerers or abusers of office. Mr. President, Uganda will support and applaud you if you start weeding out those near to you, otherwise the public will despair if your bold condemnation of corruption is not followed by immediate and effective actions of discipline, dismissal, prosecution and if evidence is shown, removal from office,” Kanyeihamba said.

The judge noted that in poor countries like Uganda, access to the national wealth and resources are important for the maintenance of law and order.

No leader, he observed, has a monopoly of wisdom and intelligence at all times to originate the right policies or solutions to national and global problems.

Kanyeihamba also accused the Government for meddling in the independence of the Judiciary by influencing appointments of the Judicial Service Commission.

In a statement read by Attorney General Khiddu Makubuya, President Yoweri Museveni said the rule of law is in line with the NRM’s vision for socio-economic and political transformation.

Young jobless people, the President said, were being influenced by opportunists to break the law, hence the need for sensitisation through patriotism clubs.

He explained that the Government was undertaking several programmes like modernisation of agriculture, Prosperity-for-All and industrialisation to ensure that the youth are engaged and not easily distracted into breaking the the law.

The Government, Museveni added, is committed to ensuring that the institutions it created to fight corruption deliver, together with dialogue on transparency to ensure the rule of law.

Gulu LC5 chairman Nobert Mao cautioned judges against giving lawyers too much room to adjourn cases, saying justice delayed is justice denied.

Former ethics minister Miria Matembe said the clergy should not be barred from talking politics, adding that Jesus Christ is the greatest politician that lived.

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