----- Original Message ----- 



Comrades,

This is an argument Museveni can't win. There nothing legal that Kanyeihamba has contravened. the man just gave his opinion. Thereafter from political theory, Museveni is treading on very slippery grounds. He is raising the Marxist question of the state. The constitution is a definition of the state. The state in Marxist terms is an instrument of the ruling class. This raises the question: what is the ruling class in Uganda? Museveni will find that it is not the peasantry. Further to that, Museveni is opening grounds for us to demonstrate that the so-called participation of the people in the constitution process was a farce. Let us watch where this debate goes.

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  From THE MONITOR, March 22, 2004

  Museveni vows to fix Kanyeihamba
  By David Mafabi & Badru D. Mulumba
  March 22, 2004

        Says he's not fit to be judge

        SIRONKO - President Museveni has reacted angrily to Justice George Kanyeihamba's assertion that peasants have no power to make important decisions.

        Mr Museveni has vowed to have the Supreme Court judge disciplined.

        "How dare you [Kanyeihamba] say this, the judge should explain to me," an angry Museveni said at the weekend.

        The judge reportedly told lawmakers at a seminar on, Peaceful political transition in Africa, that although he has heard that people have the power to change the Constitution, he was not aware of a country where important decisions are made by peasants.

        But on Saturday, Museveni said that the Constitution of Uganda gives peasants power. 

        He said that Kanyeihamba was abusing the peasants and the law that gives them power - and he was therefore not fit to be a judge.

        "Even if you are a doctor, a judge, a General like me, a professor, you can't decide for us in our own home," Museveni told a one-day mobilization workshop at Masaba Secondary School.

        "When I read this story in the New Vision of Friday March 19, I was shocked. I decided to underline it and I shall take on Justice Kanyeihamba to give an explanation, why he made this utterance," he said.

        Museveni said that by saying peasants can't make important decisions in a country, Kanyeihamba was in essence saying his employer (Museveni) does not know how to look after his home. 

        Museveni said that he wants Kanyeihamba 'disciplined' - then, the judge would learn that peasants have a 'lot of power' in this country.

        Yesterday, Justice Kanyeihamba declined to comment.

        "I have not seen it - I have not heard it [statement]; I can't comment on something I have not heard," he said by telephone.

        The judge reportedly made the statement as he fielded questions after presenting a paper on Constitutionalism at the March 19 seminar. 

        The European Union funded the seminar; Parliament's Legal Affairs committee organised it.

        Kanyeihamba made it clear that he is not allowed to comment on politics as a judge.

        But the judge's remark can be interpreted as an affront on Museveni's insistence that peasants be left to decide whether presidential term limits should be lifted - potentially handing him chance to stay on after 2006. 

        Museveni has admitted that he directed vice president Gilbert Bukenya to encourage Ugandans to debate the constitutional amendment that lifts term limits. 

        This was after cabinet colleagues had rejected it.

        Museveni said that his father Mzee Amos Kaguta never went to school - and could only gamble with Luganda language vowels a,e,i,o,u. 

        Museveni said that much as himself is educated he can't decide for Mzee Kaguta how to run his home.

        Museveni said that those who are running around talking about "Ekisanja" (third term) are wasting their saliva because the issue was resolved in 1993 when the people whom Kanyeihamba regards as peasants were given power to decide on the leadership in this country.

        Museveni urged the Movement supporters to save their saliva for useful talk in the near future.

        Ministers of State Mr. Michael Werikhe (Communication) and Dr Beatrice Wabudeya (Higher education), Members of parliament from Sironko, the district leaders, women and youth councils and the entire LC V council attended the seminar.
       


  © 2004 The Monitor Publications

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