Is Beti Kamya’s politics just about eating?
By Bernard M. Ddumba
27th Sept 2010
Rubaga North MP Beti Kamya last week asked Ugandans to only vote for legislators who will champion the fight for federalism in the next parliament. To be absolutely clear, this is exactly what she said:
“It is the responsibility of every electorate to go back and vote for a member of Parliament who is a branded federalist so that our views are passed in the 9th Parliament…it is only through this system that regions can equitably share with the centre the proceeds accruing from the resources located in different areas as bestowed by God”.
I have to say that I am very disappointed with Kamya and her Uganda Federal Alliance [UFA]. And I will tell you why. For a long time, I held Hon. Kamya in very high esteem as a politician. She was witty and focused. She sounded nationalistic and expressed emotional concerns about the welfare of others other than herself. It was exactly what I look for in a politician as an ordinary voter. In Kamya, I could see a potential female Ugandan president; not anymore.
As soon as Kamya fell out of love with FDC over her insistence to undemocratically replace the late Suleiman Kiggundu as FDC national Chairman, she changed beyond all recognition. Without sounding mean, it was as if her brain had somehow shrunk overnight.
And the reason for my deep disappointment with Hon. Kamya and her UFA can be clearly discerned from the second half of her statement that I just quoted above: “…only through this system that regions can equitably share with the centre the proceeds accruing from the resources”, Kamya says.
Is that what politics is all about? It appears her agitation for federalism is purely premised upon her perception of inequity in the distribution of the national cake by Museveni’s government. That is the only thing that has come out of Kamya’s mouth ever since she was kicked out of FDC. In other words, it has been all about eating, eating, and eating!
In fact, as UFA’s presidential candidate for the 2011 elections, Kamya is worryingly sounding like the same Museveni she wants to get rid of; the Museveni who said he can’t leave the wealth he created for Ugandas to be managed by people who never fought to liberate Uganda in Luwero. That the liberators should have a say in how our wealth is managed!
Is Beti Kamya’s politics now just about eating? Over the last few months, I have heard Kamya repeatedly saying Museveni is not Uganda’s problem. She says the problem is with the system. What system? Does she mean the system of eating or the system of governance? I would like to think she means the system of governance; but I can’t! All because of her insistence on eating at every opportunity!
It makes me very suspicious. In fact, I think these are the very first signs of the unbelievable greed that has driven our country into hell and back over the last 25yrs. The greed that stopped our increasingly opportunistic politicians from thinking about anyone else in the country but themselves! The electorate have been turned into disposables towels; picked up, used, and dumped in the bin every five years!
Ugandans must wake up and reject politicians like Beti Kamya with the contempt that they deserve. In fact, if it wasn’t for fear of being charged with inciting the public, I would have suggested that all greedy politicians like Kamya should be stoned with rotten eggs as soon as they approach us to talk about democracy and good governance when all they really care about is how they will access dinner table. It’s disgusting!
Uganda is crying out for selfless politicians. Statesmen and women! Politicians with a great sense of altruism! Politicians who think about their country; their regions; their constituents; and themselves in that order, not the other way round.
The other sad thing that I also see from Kamya’s insistence on eating is that it’s a very bad advertisement for the case for having more women in politics. We the men, me inclusive, have failed our country since independence. I include myself because I think I could have done more, even as a kid, to stop the Obote, Amin, Okello and Museveni generation from ruining our country. I could have at least thrown a rotten egg at one of them but I didn’t.
I had a lot of hope in the sanity and composure of our mothers. I thought they would do better than our fathers’. Now, people like Kamya who should have made it their primary business to nourish our hope in them are beginning to show us that they are not any different from their greedy male counterparts. Cry my beloved country! END. If it’s Monday, it’s Uganda Correspondent. Never miss out again!
