Raila Odinga – Please come and rule Uganda
By Chantal Kembabazi
23rd April 2012: It was reported in the Kenyan media last week that the country’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga had ordered the Internal Security Minister Prof George Saitoti to take “immediate action” against Kenya’s police boss after police officers blocked a youth meeting. Here is a taste of what Raila is reported to have said:
“Kenyans were yesterday (Wednesday) treated to a spectacle that they thought had been banished from their lives with their new Constitution. The sight of police officers putting up roadblocks on a major thoroughfare and repeatedly firing rounds of tear gas at hundreds of perfectly peaceful people caused intense alarm.
The police did not maintain law and order as they are required to do. Such police tactics are a recipe for disaster. They also besmirch the integrity of the government’s commitment to uphold the law. They take us decades back and raise alarm to the fact that despite giving ourselves a new constitution, we are not out of the woods yet. The forces of status quo are still lurking and are ready to take Kenya back at the slightest opportunity.
Scenes of Archbishop Reverend David Gitari and former MP Hon Paul Muite, who fought gallantly for the freedom we have today, being tear gassed and shot at, will not be tolerated by Kenyans any more, nor images of unarmed youths being chased away like criminals from the scene of a licensed meeting.
It is unacceptable that police can cancel a gathering on grounds that thugs planned to disrupt it. Police indicated to the organisers that a group led by a Member of Parliament had threatened to disrupt the meeting. But rather than arrest those who were threatening to cause a breach of the peace, and provide security for those meeting lawfully, the police chose to assist those who were sabotaging a lawful meeting!
The action yesterday (Wednesday) sent very wrong signals about the commitment of our security agencies to a free and fair democratic process. Those rights include the right by the people of Kenya to make independent political choices without intimidation or blackmail.”
Challenge to PM Mbabazi
Reading the tough stance that PM Raila Odinga took against the police in Kenya’s national interest, I wished and prayed quietly, and said: “God, please send Raila Odinga to come and rule us Uganda…we desperately need him here Lord.” I prayed. Of course, that is a desperate cry for help…because Raila can never leave Kenya to come and give us good leadership.
What I am really asking is whether our own Prime Minister John Patrick Amama Mbabazi can ever take such a tough stance against our own Inspector General of Police [IGP] Gen. Kale Kayihura, the man whose officers have blocked hundreds of peaceful opposition rallies, shot at and killed several protesters, and even molested Ingrid Turinawe sexually in full view of television cameras.
That is the challenge I would like people who are close to PM Amama Mbabazi to pass to him. Can he rise above his partisan NRM interests and for once, just for once act in the interest of the Republic of Uganda? END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
Ms Chantal Kembabazi is a Ugandan based in Austria
