By Francis Otucu
On Thursday afternoon, it came to light that Democratic Party (DP) President, Nobert Mao, had been appointed as the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs. Soon after the appointment, President Yoweri Musevni left for Arusha (Tanzania) for the Heads of State meeting on the progress of the EAC common market protocol and the EAC ordinary summit respectively.
As expected, congratulatory messages and criticism poured Mao’s way. He is a Cabinet minister, holding a docket very close to the heart of a 36-year-old National Resistance Movement – NRM party. At 36, no one plays with your life. At this stage, you literally have a sense of direction and have a picture of how the future looks like, and then there is Mao at Justice and Constitutional Affairs, admirer of the Presidency (at least as of when he was elected DP President).
A look at the agreement between Mao and Museveni, there will be another junior minister appointed to ‘I-don’t-know-where’. Then, the agreement provides for appointment of four people to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
But particularly where Mao stands, there is the Electoral Commission, Uganda Human Rights Commission and Courts. Ironically, Mao understands all these three very well.
The EC, UHRC and Courts fall directly under Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
Mao is a lawyer. This means he has relations with the Courts system. Mao has been brutalized before in his active political days. He could have a picture of the operations of the UHRC. Mao has contested before ( for Presidency, Member of Parliament and District Chairman – Gulu), with these activities supervised by the EC. Lest we forget, Mao was blocked from contesting as Gulu Municipality MP in 2016 because he did not own a national ID.
So, Mao goes to oversee the very powerful ministry but what is his and what isn’t!
To have ruled Uganda for all these years, Museveni must be the most clever Ugandan, if not the cleverest. He is capable of giving you and not giving it to you at all at the same time. JCA has a Permanent Secretary (PS) in oil and gas expert Robert Kasande. For some reason, he is not very popular at JCA. But the Ministry is blessed with two important and a few of Museveni’s very trusted cadres – Kiryowa Kiwanuka, the Attorney General (also partner, K & K Advocates) and Judiciary Permanent Secretary, Pius Bigirimana.
The NRM-DP agreement hints at reconciliation. What will the reconciliation address? Electoral, court or human rights related issues? As JCA Minister, does Mao have the capacity to propose, draft and change certain laws without the knowledge of the PS, AG or the Judiciary? Once you are able to answer all these questions, you will understand what Mao has and what he doesn’t. In summary, Museveni gave the man from the North a ministry but held back the useful part of it.
Francis Otucu is a student of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University.
