8 activists vs 3 ministers: To fight or not fight corruption?

The talking iron sheets refuse to let our fight against corruption prosper.

Rattling on like rickety Kisaasi-bound taxi navigating the highs and lows of Kampala’s potholed roads, the iron sheets mock our pretentious anti-corruption efforts. Corruption has eaten so deep into the Ugandan fabric, it can comfortably parade its bulky potbelly as a national virtue.

A few Ugandans dissatisfied with our commitment to fighting corruption saw the iron sheets scandal as an opportunity. On March 28, these Ugandans, brimming with patriotic zeal, took to the streets, accusing the government of dragging its lethargic feet over the prosecution of the iron sheets suspects.

The protest proceeded as usual for any public demonstration not coated in the withering yellow hues of the ruling party. Descending into a physical confrontation with the police, the protest ended with police arresting eight of the activists on charges of assault and inciting violence.

On March 30, the eight appeared in court and were remanded to Luzira prison. During their court session, their lawyer, Samuel Wanda told court that the activists had been tortured while in detention and, therefore, needed medication.

Wanda said his clients sustained abdominal, chest and back pains due to the beatings earned in police custody, reported the Daily Monitor. In response, the court swiftly ordered the Uganda Prisons Service (UPS) to ensure the suspects received proper medication and remanded the activists until April 12.

When they reappeared in court on April 12, the magistrate further remanded them until May 2. Why? According to the New Vision, the court session was abortive as “the trial magistrate and state prosecutor were indisposed.”

May 2 came and went with hardly a squeak in the media about the eight activists’ court session. On May 6, columnist and satirist, Jim Spire Ssentongo, tweeted, “The young men who protested against the theft of Karamoja iron sheets were sent back to prison yesterday…”

Juxtapose the case of the eight with the cases of the three ministers (so far) facing corruption charges over the iron sheets. The police arrests of the three ministers were a thing of beauty – the police escorting the suspects with such dignity that we could pass for a civilized society.

If only the eight had cooperated with the police in maintaining our civilized image. The police arrested the eight in a manner reserved for barbarians, snakes and commoners. The police claimed the eight assaulted a police officer.

The eight would then have received the starter pack of police arrests – thrown like sacks of potatoes onto the hard surface of the battle-hardened police patrol vehicles. The eight then appeared in court, two days after their arrest. The ministers appeared in court fresh from their dignified arrests, not a hair out of place.

The eight, like the three ministers, applied for bail. The second court session of the eight activists was abortive as the magistrate and state prosecutor were absent. The ministers, thankfully, did not have to suffer such minor inconveniences.

The glaring similarity between the eight activists and three ministers: both parties cited complex health challenges as grounds for bail.

For the eight activists, their complex health conditions arose due to beatings generously doled out in police detention. T for Torture. For the three ministers, their delicate health conditions ranged from heart conditions to blood clots. Their lawyers argued that Uganda Prisons Service was not equipped to manage such complex health challenges.

The Independent Magazine stated that for one of the ministers, the lawyer told the court the minister has a complex heart condition, which condition had only been recently diagnosed on March 15. The lawyer further argued that the two days the minister had spent in custody had worsened her delicate heart owing to the stressful situation.

For the tortured eight, the court swiftly ordered UPS to ensure the eight received medical care. We ought to laud the regime for ensuring UPS health services are robust enough for victims of torture.

Dear reader, should we find ourselves on the unfortunate side of the law, facing remand, we would be unwise to use torture as a basis for bail. Cite blood that clots on demand, a heart that beats erratically when fingered for corruption, a self-combusting head filled with impunity, a stomach that refuses belt-tightening measures, a tongue that considers accountability a swear word!

Be dramatic. Be urgent. You could die in jail like a commoner!

For the bigwigs, accustomed to the soft life sponsored by lack of accountability, finding themselves in jail over ordinary iron sheets unlocked a new level of stress. How fortunate for the bigwigs who can flaunt complex diseases to bail them out of jail, their diseases too rich for the poor prison hospital.

Thus, the eight who protested the theft of public resources and the lack of political will in Uganda’s anti-corruption fight, remain in jail. Those caught with their long fingers in the cookie jar of iron sheets are out on bail.

I come in peace for eight Ugandans – frontline soldiers marching against corruption.

smugmountain@gmail.com

The writer is a tayaad muzzukulu