UGANDA MPs NEEDS TO LIE DOWN BEFORE THEY HURT THEMSELVES

The public always likes a good show, and for the most part this parliament has provided just that.

The NRM MPs slighted during the last polls by the party hierarchy are getting their own back, ministers now understand the true meaning of “No one is innocent” scampering for cover before being forced to resign kicking, screaming and -- when all else fails resorting to blackmail, in an attempt to hang on.

More recently MPs set their sights on the central bank but their “irrational exuberance” may have got the better of them on that one. More about that later.

Two weeks ago the constitutional court pronounced itself on a petition filed by Severino Twinobusingye questioning parliament’s authority to urge ministers named in the recent oil probe to step down as well challenging whether the ad hoc committee to address the matter was constitutionally put together.

The five judges of the constitutional court agreed that parliament had no power to compel the ministers under suspicion to step down pending the completion of their investigation and were critical of the house’s conduct in coming up with the resolutions, which were “passed in a very emotional, hostile and unparliamentarily fashion, perhaps, unprecedented in the history of this country since her return to parliamentary democracy”.

Despite this, four judges thought the ad-hoc committee was constituted constitutionally and that to rule otherwise may be seen as an attempt by the court to interfere in the workings of parliament. Justice Steven Kavuma differed.

Kavuma held back no punches in ruling that the conduct of the house “offended the principles of natural justice”, the ad-hoc committee’s set up was “fundamentally flawed” and that “it was irredeemably tainted with unconstitutional acts of the whole house from which it was constituted and from which it drew its character and derived its authority”

Arguing that separation of powers does not mean the constitutional court should not exercise its role to point out when excess have been committed by the other arms of government he said, “Parliament acted unconstitutionally and it is the duty of the court as the custodian of the constitution, to so find as such.”

While the court’s ruling was being communicated MPs were still basking in the afterglow of having caused the resignation of ministers Syda Bbumba and Khiddu Makubuya.

The ministers are alleged to have helped inflate, by billions of shillings, compensation claims by businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba. Basajjabalaba lodged the claim following the cancelation of his tenders to lease Nakasero and Owino markets.

Unsatisfied by those scalps they mounted pressure for the resignation or sacking of central bank governor Emanuel Tumusiime Mutebile.

Mutebile on request of then finance minister Bumba wrote a letter of comfort to banks Basajjabalaba owed money, to stay action on the beleaguered businessman who had fallen back on his debt payments.

MPs added to Mutebile to their list of most wanted, arguing that he overstepped his mandate in guaranteeing the businessman’s loans.

The long and short of it is that Basajabala had borrowed money from the banks and was having problems paying it off. He appealed to the finance ministry for help since the government owed him about sh140b for cancelling his leases to the city markets. The finance minister asked the central bank to help Basajabalaba. In Mutebile’s judgement a letter of comfort to the banks was his best course of action.

He wrote to the banks assuring them that Basajabalaba was good for the money – given written assurances by the finance minister, and that if the compensation did not come through by a stipulated time the central bank would make good on the loan and square their accounts with the government later. And there is a paper trail to that effect.

It is hard to see what Mutebile’s fault is in the whole arrangement.

Never mind that they have no constitutional right to cause the governor’s dismal, MPs argued he should have queried the size of the compensation, but that is the role of the auditor general. They argued he should have queried the legality of the compensation but that again is the role of the attorney general. They argued he should have refused to pay afterall, “Didn’t he smell a rat?” But as the banker of the government who is he to say no to the client when he has all supporting documentation?

It was reported that the cabinet sub-committee exonerated the central banker of any wrongdoing and will report to parliament as much.

We are all for parliament keeping the executive on its toes. We are all for parliament going hammer and tongs after the corrupt, we mere mortals actually enjoy seeing the high and mighty squirm in their seats as details of their wrongdoing are revealed.

But as the justices of the constitutional court counseled, parliament needs to guard against degenerating into a village crowd, meting out mob justice at the slightest provocation in the belief that their cause justifies whatever means they apply.

Parliament is critical to the building of a strong democracy, maybe the MPs need to seat back and better appreciate the enormity of their responsibility and act accordingly.

RWANDA TAKING ON POVERTY BY THE HORNS

An hour’s drive east of Kigali is the Nyagatovu model village, a 90 home settlement and one of the showpieces of the Rwanda’s attempt at eliminating poverty.
The settlement is built on the premise that by concentrating families and their resources, farm productivity can be improved, services can be delivered more effectively and subsequently incomes will be boosted and poverty will be shood out the door.

Barely two years into the project and the settlement has begun selling surplus matooke to local markets and Kigali, they have forty head of dairy cattle in a fast growing herd and they have several tomato green houses.

The village’s young eager leader Jean de Dieu Ntirenganya tells me he moved to the settlement a year ago and can see the light at the end of his tunnel.

“We had our small plots and were just growing food for eating and it was not enough, now not only do we have food for ourselves but we are now selling and making money, and there is still a lot of land,” the 25 year-old said.

Under the program, which is being rolled out to all the 30 districts of the small east African nation, consultation and sensitatisation of the communities leads to resettlement – where beneficiaries exchange their land for land at the earmarked sites and join up to 150 other families.

At the settlements government builds each family a two bedroomed house, in addition each family gets a cow, to improve family nutrition, income and whose waste is employed as manure in the fields. Each family also gets about four acres of land in a consolidated tract of land. At Nyagatovu the crop they concentrate on is matooke and more recently tomatos.

For all intents and purposes Nyagatovu is now a urban center, with lines radiating from power poles into homes and roads quartering the more than 50 acres of residential area.

I am suspicious of government handouts – or handouts of any type. Our guide Emmanuel Mugabo of the Local government ministry said they were aware of the dangers of this government largesse and ask every family to build their own kitchen and pit latrine in order to get buy into the project and ensure sustainability.

The Chinese collectives of the 1960s and 70s, on which this scheme seems to draw a lot of lessons, were successful in raising farm output but failed because the farmers were restricted to selling their produce to the government. In Rwanda the settlements sell their produce on the open market not only getting better than market rates but being paid cash.

At the heart of the poverty challenge is poor productivity, before you even talk about access to markets.

In explaining the historical wealth divide between the more developed northern versus the poorer southern economies of the world, is the fact that agricultural surpluses thanks to the agrarian revolution of more than 600 years ago, have been registered in Europe and later America ever since. These surpluses meant two things, that those societies could sustain thinkers – inventors and administrators as well as professional armies, which then could project their will abroad and secure markets and raw materials for their industries. By extension in fighting poverty the issue of surpluses has to be addressed.

With concentration of populations, delivery of social services – education and health as well as infrastructure will be more efficient ensuring a better quality of human resource and lower costs of doing business in Rwanda. In addition since each settlement is generating income and wealth financial services follow and all other services like retail trade as well.

The market economy has been shown to be the most effective driver of wealth creation. Market economies evolve and cannot be designed. However governments have a responsibility to create an environment in which markets can thrive. In addition through good governance, nations then mitigate the worst excesses of the market by ensuring good service delivery that can allow everybody a chance at material advancement.

It is still early days but barring bureaucratic inertia, Rwanda is setting itself up to be the real breadbasket of the region. But the implications of this scheme go far beyond that. This model with some variations can be applied to creating clusters of anything from crafts, manufacturing and ICT to make Rwanda the economic hub of the East African Community.