Madam Speaker,
At dawn of Saturday 6th April 2024, I felt strongly that I should write to you because you have risen against all odds through the sheer power of will, shrewdness and luck to become the fourth most powerful person in Uganda after the trio of Generals Museveni, Saleh and Kainerugaba. While the trio are blood relatives, and their power was or is inevitable, yours did not come on a silver platter. I commend you for attaining this feat. It is no mean feat!
For the avoidance of doubt, of the three most powerful people other than the President himself, you’re the only one capable of orchestrating a constitutional coup. The other two can only orchestrate a coup using extra constitutional means. I mean, you can champion the removal (by whatever means) of the President and/or his Vice President and constitutionally take the reins of power.
Having started by acknowledging your power and influence, I hasten to remind you about the truism that to those whom much is given, much will be required (demanded). This is also found in the text of the Holy Bible in Luke 12:48. (I am sure the chaplains at Parliament like our friend @martinssempa can expound on this). In the world of computing where I have spent the greater part of my adulthood, we paraphrased this as; with much power comes great responsibility.
Talking of truisms, there is another one that goes; he who pays the piper calls the tune. I am sure that I am the least qualified person to remind a whole Speaker of the hallowed house of the people’s representatives a.k.a the Parliament of Uganda that you’re paid by the tax-paying Ugandan citizens to the tune of 100%. Neither the President that you recently knelt before nor his son – not even the holy spirit a.k.a Gen. Saleh pays you a coin. If anything, Madam Speaker, you ought to have knelt before the citizens of Uganda, not because you erred in kneeling before the President, but because it is right and fitting that you humble yourself before your masters. I swear, even the Most Rev. Archbishop Paul Ssemogerere will tell you this in secret and in public if you ask him. By the way, even the Katikkiro Owek. @cpmayiga will tell you the same if you seek his opinion as a lawyer or advocate in private.
With the question of who is boss out of the way, permit me, Madam Speaker to address you as hereunder;
1. I have attached a screenshot of Article 1 of the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. This underpins the power of the people on deciding how we want to be governed and by who. By purporting to respect the President while showing disrespect to the people, you are heading in a wrong direction that is against the Constitution and like I wrote to Hon. @MathiasMpuuga on Easter Sunday, it does not matter how far you have moved in a wrong direction, you can always stop, retrace your steps and move in the right direction.
2. Since you have not yet used your powers or office to stop the Uganda Revenue Authority @URAuganda from collecting taxes from homosexuals or bumshafters as you call them or even from people who receive money from foreigners, it means that they are still legitimate citizens of Uganda who can fully exercise their civic duties and inalienable rights to hold you to account just like any straight-thinking and honest religious, cultural and political leader must do at this time of gross self aggrandisement by your good self and your acolytes in @Parliament_Ug.
3. Since you have implicitly and explicitly portrayed Ugandans who receive money from foreigners as being less Ugandan and non-patriotic, I would like to inform you that I want to lead the group of patriots that are going to write to all foreigners [including @usmissionuganda and @EUinUG ] who fund Government activities to take note of your arrogance in matters of accountability to the citizenry and the unwillingness or failure by your superiors and/or institutions of government to bring you to order. Now that the the FIA @ThefiaU declined to grant a simple request for information to a citizen-led organisation (@PublicSquareEA), which by law can institute and prosecute anybody on criminal matters (at least before the DPP jumps on to the matter to kill it), I have advised various citizens to write to all international organisations where the FIA subscribes or cooperates with when doing its work and notify them of the @ThefiaU’s impotence and role in facilitating money laundering, corruption and organised crime by politically exposed persons like your good self. I believe that you will agree with me on this since I am in the same corner with you and the President that we must not only condemn foreign funding, but must stop it by all means possible – if that is what it will take for us to manage our revenue with frugality.
4. When you went to visit the Katikkiro of @BugandaOfficial, you said that you will continue behaving the way you’re behaving regardless of who talks and who does not (I have paraphrased). I want to promise you that just as Gen. Kale Kayihura soon found out, we shall not just talk, we shall make effort to turn your favourite holiday and shopping destinations into hostile grounds and the world will begin shrinking on you and your acolytes. We are not in this for the short run, we are in it for the long haul.
5. While you have become the fourth most powerful person in Uganda, there once was @AmamaMbabazi, who was the third most powerful after the two senior Kaguta Generals (the siblings), but as he soon found out, the third position was given to him as a poisoned chalice. Today, he is just another senior citizen and retired politician. Things fall apart. Better to trim your pride than to let time and circumstance to cut you down to size. They are CRUEL.
As I conclude, permit me, Madam Speaker, to publicly extend my offer to advise you on pro bono terms on how to respectfully acknowledge your mistakes before the citizens and get a second chance to do the right thing. I am not suggesting that I am the wisest person in Uganda at the moment, in fact, I may be one of the least, but the ability to derive motivation to advise a very rich person like you at no cost might just propel me into the league of the wise. All I am saying is that the fellows surrounding you, including that man from Nyendo, the dancing flip-flop from Bukedea are only focusing on the money. When you fall, they will only say sorry and move on to praise the powerful of the time.
I refuse to believe that you are one of those politicians who have been poor students of history from the beginning of time.
Your fellow citizen,
ERL
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