Day: July 16, 2009

For the whole of this week, the news about Bashir has been selling like hot cake not only in Kampala but around the world. Today I was about to wind up my day this came to my attention. MPs on the foreign affairs committee are travelling to the US this month to observe how Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda is handling business as the president of the UN Security Council.

“We are visiting the Security Council in session. It gives us an insight into what is going on and how our own is handling the security issues. It is a good gesture. We will give him a boost.” the chairperson, Lule Mawiya of the committee is quoted to have said.

Though details about how many MPs ares set go are  still scanty, normally parliamentary committees have about 20 MPs and I don’t know if all of them will be going. But what is more important is can the MPs describe well what boosting Rugunda will involve? Is it just going to be the tour of the UN building and taking MPs around to show them amazing New York City?

At a time when Ugandans are starving, the MPs are at it making endless not so important trips. What does Rugunda want from a committee that can’t be passed on to him? This is truly another way of the continued fleecing of taxpayers money with no sensitivity to the problems of the country.

Uganda is caught in between the ICC and its need to keep good relations with Sudan. The President has no position yet on Bashir’s visit and whether he would be arrested. He made a phone call to Bashir to ‘apologise’ for a statement made by Minister Okello Oryem that Bashir would be arrested.

To make his minister look like a mediocre who knows nothing about his limits (Museveni said Oryem is not the right person to talk on the issue) and the media like they had exaggerated (he said that’s not what the minister stated) the president seems to have no stand as his hands remain tied.

Well too bad for him minister but for the media, you can’t deny a statement capture by many on camera in front of the ICC prosecutor. If this statement had been told to one journalist, this government would have been quick to say they were misquoted and that it was full of lies. But we were all there and the minister meant what he said and he didn’t say anything wrong. May be because he told the media what he wasn’t supposed to tell them. But such is the position Uganda is in. Most leaders in the country seem to support the arrest anyway so whatever games President Museveni is playing are meant for the international community and Sudan.

We will wait to see if Bashir came make this trip to Kampala which could be fateful or remarkable in that he would go free and make a statement bashing the west when he’s killing Darfurians. But news from Ugandan Foreign Affairs ministry says They have agreed that Bashir could send a deputy.