Genza Peter
Ms Rebecca Kadaga is the speaker of Uganda’s General Assembly. Her position accords her the title “Honorable”, which means “deserving of respect or high regard”. She is always addressed as “Honorable Speaker”. I will not begrudge her title.
In the wake of the current global pandemic, the assembly she presides over secretly allocated its 450 members 10 billion shillings ($2.8 million) to, ostensibly, carry out “supervision and advocacy against the spread of coronavirus”.
Half of the $2.8 million was deducted from the Ministry of Health’s supplementary allocation to combat the pandemic.
When news of the transaction hit the airwaves, the country was outraged. The public ferociously bayed the legislators, calling them a snouted animal made famous in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”.
The legislators never batted an eye. Madam Honorable Speaker defended them resolutely. She tweeted furiously, “We have ambulances commandeered by Ministry of Health. The drivers have to be paid and ambulances serviced. MPs are also busy on advocacy. Committees are following up on what is happening in hospitals & they are reporting to the country.”
Well, it is the responsibility and mandate of government, not the legislators, to procure ambulances for its citizens.
The country was aghast.
Two legislators took their own to court, challenging the decision by the assembly to allocate itself all those millions.
The High Court ruled that the procedure was irregular and granted an interim order staying appropriation of the money by the legislators.
They blew a collective fuse. How dare the 2 cretins? They promptly called their fellow legislators moles and turncoats.
George Orwell turned.
The Attorney General, the government’s legal adviser, jumped into the fray.
In a subsequent sitting of the assembly chaired by the Honorable Speaker, the AG made his opinion known. “The court decision, in and of itself is binding on the parties to the suit, and also on the members of parliament until it is reversed or until the court gives further guidance.”
Attorney General who? The Speaker was enraged and let fly a salvo of colorful responses.
“Members of parliament were not party to this suit. No, no, no, Attorney General, no, no, no. Next time, the court will say, take off your clothes when you are in the house, and we shall have to obey!”
The AG attempted to explain his position further but the speaker would have none of it. She shut him up mid-sentence with a dismissive wave of the hand.
She warned him sternly that if court interfered with her $2.8 million, the assembly would reconsider the entire supplementary budget of $85 million to fight the pandemic.
Screw the citizens locked down for nearly 4 weeks. The money swords were unsheathed. This was war and a body count was inevitable. Either give us our money or lose the whole lot. It was now time to decide who had the biggest testicles, or their equivalent.
The nation held its collective breath.
Madam Speaker was not done and issued two ominous warnings, repeatedly spraying them with the words “stupid” and “stupidity”.
Commercial banks that abided by the court ruling were going to be sued if they did not release the money to the legislators immediately yesterday. She swivelled quickly and took aim at the two cretins who ran crying to their mamma the court. Parliament is going to find way of dealing with you.
It will be 75 years in August since the allegorical novella “Animal Farm” was first published in 1945. Eric Arthur Blair, aka George Orwell, must be having the last of many laughs.
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