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Who Controls Armed Officials?

New Vision (Kampala)
OPINION
October 6, 2004
Posted to the web October 6, 2004

By Cyprian Musoke
Kampala
For quite some time now, a number of complaints have been flying about over the
conduct of gun-totting public officials, especially Resident District
Commissioners (RDCs).
The criticism has been precipitated by a number of incidents, two of which will
suffice here. Fresh on our minds is the shooting dead of a suspected robber at
Kampala Parents school by the Movement Director of Information Ofwono Opondo.
While the complainants have roundly criticised the conduct of the officials in
the execution of their general duties, the sharp edge of the criticisms has
landed squarely on the RDCs for their habit of meddling in the turbulent realm
of politics.
Just last month, the Bugiri deputy RDC, Isaac Lulaaba drew his gun and shot in
the air to disperse a crowd being addressed by the National Freedom Party, one
of the newly formed political parties. He reportedly asked them who had sent
them to 'disorganise his people', warning that they would soon know that he was
'the president' of the place, before raining a barrage of blows on one of the
organisers. Now, the Local Government Act, the instrument by which the RDCs are
appointed explicitly assigns them the sole responsibility of overseeing the
implementation of national policies and adherence to national standards in
their respective local governments.
This, of course is within the confines of the stipulations of the constitution
which is the supreme law of the land. Section 71 (1) of the Act provides,
"There shall be for each district a Resident District Commissioner who shall be
a senior civil servant appointed by the President."
Though this might not seem apparent, the key word here is 'senior civil
servant'. Those more conversant with the civil service I have spoken to like
the chairman of the public service and local government committee Capt. Charles
Byaruhanga, strongly contend that for a civil servant of even low standing,
meddling in political activity is near suicide.
Unfortunately, this is not spelt out anywhere in the laws. It only happens to
be an established norm developed out of practice, but has been badly abused due
to lack of accountability.
Sub-section 2 of the Act goes further, "A person shall not be eligible for
appointment as an RDC unless that person is of high moral character and proven
integrity, and demonstrated competence and is of high calibre in the conduct of
public affairs.
The problem here too, is that the section, like all other regulations
concerning the conduct of the RDC, does not explicitly or expressly give us the
parameters against which the high moral character and high calibre are to be
measured.
Having perused the Local Government Act in search of a particular section that
expressly forbids the RDCs from politics in vain, my conclusion was that there
is nothing that prohibits them from using their offices to play politics.
The closest the Act came close to this, is in section 72 which spells out the
duties of Local Governments generally thus, "A person shall not hold a
political office, or a full time office in the service of more than one Local
Government."
The Public Service Act too tries, but does not succeed. Section 22 gives powers
to the public service commission to regulate the manner in which district
authorities perform their functions.
If no explicit law makes the RDCs and other government officials strictly
accountable to someone, they will continue causing pain in public places.
Surely, is that what we want?

   

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