A new Parliament order takes off (1990 - 2000)

Uganda will mark its 58th Independence anniversary on Friday. In this eighth edition of our pre-independence series, we go back in time to examine the fifth and sixth Parliaments which meant business and held public officials to account

The last decade of the 20th century was so far the most action-packed period of Uganda's six decades of Independence. It started off with the most democratically elected parliament ever, which had been voted in 1989, at the Resistance (Local) Council IV, to expand the bush war legislature, the National Resistance Council (NRC). Because everything was done in the open, there was no need to use money or other corrupt methods to get elected and rigging was impossible.

So, school teachers, underpaid professionals and other honest people found their way into Uganda's Fifth Parliament. It was also the longest - running from 1989 to 1996 - under Al Hajji Moses Kigongo as Speaker. He also doubled as Vice-Chairperson of the NRM.

The Fifth Parliament, otherwise called the NRC, enacted all the laws that made the economic reforms and restructuring possible. The privatisation, divestiture, liberalisation was all actualised by the NRC. The start of the decade saw the freeing of the foreign exchange market, the disbanding of the marketing boards, and easily the most significant development — the creation of Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).

Tax collection outside the main civil service structures sounded incredible at first and indeed, an expatriate from Ghana was brought in to nurture the new animal called URA.

The NRC was a real people's parliament whose members were not materially different from the people they represented. Half of them did not own a car when they were elected. While government had bought uniform cars — black Nissan Laurel - for its ministers, the plight of the MPs was starkly obvious and they were facilitated to acquire some pick-up trucks. As a young reporter in the press gallery then, I vividly recall one wealthy minister called Richard Kaijuka thanking government for enabling the MPs acquire vehicles because sitting with them on a hot afternoon after they had come walking from various distances had been uncomfortable.

Another significant and incredible development was the freeing of the airwaves. After the monopoly of Radio Uganda and Uganda Television, which was the only form of broadcasting that Uganda knew, private broadcasting was allowed and 1997 started with two vibrant private stations on air - Radio Sanyu and Capital FM. They soon changed marketing and advertising as it had been known for time immemorial and, significantly too, gave a shot in the arm of the local music industry.

But the real game changer was the new global telecommunication mobile technology, to which Uganda was an early subscriber. The national Uganda Posts and Telecommunications (UPTC) that had been the monopoly was faced with superior and flexible competition of Celtel and, later, MTN.

From a total of 40,000 telephone accounts nationwide in 1994, Celtel added 5,000 mobile subscribers in its first year of operation. The super expensive Celtel then did not know what hit it when MTN came in and with correct pricing, overnight added a million accounts. By the time UPTC, which was in effect the regulator of its competitors woke up and created its UTL — Mango mobile service, MTN was far away and the shocked Celtel was trying to re-organise.

In the mid-nineties, the Internet started entering the country through media houses and sophisticated international organisations. The printing industry was also an early use of the Internet. The Constitution was promulgated on October 8, 1995 - meaning the Silver Jubilee is being marked right now — paving way to the first direct presidential elections in 1996. Hard to believe that the Electoral Commission that is struggling with the voters register today was actually the trailblazer in mass application of IT. By the time Ugandans were going to the polls in 1996, the interim Electoral Commission headed by Mr Stephen Akabway had put the entire voters roll on computer and voter tallying was already a digital process. URA was to overtake EC as the leader in IT application. Specialised bodies such as NITA-U, UCC and NIRA were to come much later.

In 1996, the Sixth Parliament was elected under the Movement no-party model. For the first time, the country held direct presidential elections and it was on a different day, some weeks before the parliamentary elections.

Without parties, the polls were viciously contested, much like this year's NRM primaries. The idealistic elections of the fifth parliament completely forgotten, vote buying and outright vote theft characterised the voting for MPs in many constituencies.

After fighting so hard to join Parliament, the MPs of the Sixth Parliament took their role rather too seriously. They scrutinised government's project plans to the detail and thus delayed many.

To date, President Museveni has never forgotten, nor forgiven the Sixth Parliament. They torpedoed Bujagali and Karuma dam proms plus several other projects, and it took several years for them to take off.

The MPs got angrier by the day and, finally, they started invoking their powers to sack Museveni's ministers. At some stage, the word censure was the most used by MPs. They censured Jim Muhwezi (minister for basic education who first implemented UPE) Sam Kutesa (minister for economic planning) and they were going for Matthew Rukikaire and Kirunda Kivejinja, but these two did not wait to be humiliated and resigned. They were going for Vice-President Speciosa Kazibwe for her role as agriculture minister and the President relieved her of the agriculture portfolio.

A couple of months ago, influential retired legislator Elly Karuhanga disclosed that the Sixth Parliament MPs were actually finalising the plan to boot President Yoweri Museveni himself, but that he got wind of the plot and had it neutralised. What is important in this narration is that all the battles of the Sixth Parliament were about economic matters. The reforms were happening so fast and the MPs were also working overtime on their oversight role to enforce accountability.

There had not been and there may not be again, another parliament as powerful as the Sixth Parliament.

Indeed, they started by taking care of themselves first, so they could fight well. Unlike the Fifth Parliament that was hardly earning anything, expect survival allowances, the Sixth Parliament MPs started off with industrial action — staging a strike for better pay. The Executive caved in and gave them what they were demanding, a package that many ordinary Ugandans today still think is very big, though by comparison with most other countries, it is not anything to talk about — less than $10,000 per month.

When their term ended in 2001, many of the MPs admitted to simply being exhausted. Some just wanted out and did not even contest again.

Some soldiered on and are still serving and are standing again and are getting nominated in a matter of hours from today. Those who remained in politics either joined the NRM or helped form new opposition groups when parties were freed by the referendum - ahead of the 2006 general election.