The Airport Indiscipline: Museveni, Among Spared the Rod to Spoil Bamuturaki but Aided Impunity to Grow by Folds

In my Luganda tongue, there is saying which warns about the dangers of the unnecessary pampering of the children by the parent. This piece of wisdom goes thus; Ekisigula ennyana (okulya omuddo) kiva mu kibeere. This loosely translates to; `what stops a calf from feeding on the available pasture is the boundless availability of milk in the mother` adder.

Fortified by this adage, I can now dare opine how the ongoing cases of indiscipline and impunity at the country’s Entebbe International Airport, is due to the President and the Speaker’s acts of favoritism towards the top management there. Without such kind of unnecessary courtesy and treatment from the two leaders, there is no way they would be such daring, as to engage in outright abuse of resources, taking of bribes and torture of users of the facility.

To be fair to Madam CEO Jennifer Bamuturaki, no concrete evidence of her taking part in the fresh claims of bribes and torture of travelers, has yet been laid on her head. But because she leads those said to be torturers and bribe takers, the CEO cannot be absolved wholly, of what is all going on by that fact.

This position, given that she is enjoined to ensure total adherence to the company’s core values and ethics as the CEO of the airline firm. Hardly a month and, as luck would have it, after Speaker Anita Among Magogo had swept under the carpet what was being touted as the damning financial abuse report against the top managers, yet more damning reports of corruption and torture rung out from the facility.

Without quoting any rule or law to back up her action, Among oddly reasoned how she could not use the Cosase report to do something about the misdeeds mentioned therein merely because, she had alleged without evidence, its contents had been leaked to the public. That reasoning by Among was and is still rather outrageous and suspicious.

The same beats common sense and the tenets of justice and rule of law, honestly. Nothing has been heard previously about a judge refusing to deliver a judgement merely because the same had leaked to the public. The public interest to know what is in the report far outweighs Bamuturaki’s own interest to have it vetoed as doing as such would be really a travesty of justice. I will explain more.

A lot of public funds had been expended on carrying out the Cosase inquiry into Bamuturaki and group. So, stopping the inquiry from being made public would amount to unnecessarily laying to waste such huge sums of public funds. That Among is now understood to have hobnobbed with Bamuturaki ahead of the release of the inquiry report, would render her action in stopping the release of the report not only suspicious but also dubious and in bad faith.

Merely because Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi as a Chairperson of Cosase has been exhibiting laziness in as far as other inquiries before his committee are concerned, and as Among accuses him to be, cannot be a justification by Among, via any stretch of imagination, to use to stop the release of the inquiry in the case of Bamuturaki. As we are still at it, the IGG is said to be currently inquiring into the fresh allegations of bribe taking and torture at the airport.

Whereas that is commendable a thing to hear, the same shouldn’t be used as a sleeping pill to put Ugandans to deep slumber as to forget about Among’s misadvised non-disclosure of the contents of the earlier Cosase inquiry into largely the same misdeeds as the ones the IGG purports to be inquiring into currently.

That said, what is being investigated by the IGG is a damning indictment of Among who had a few days back swept under the carpet, the Cosase report touching on the same very issues. The same report, we respectfully hold, is also a damning indictment of the president. Bar that he can’t be dragged to court presently, by reason of the operation of the law.

We call it an indictment of him, the President himself having previously put up a big fight in favor of Jennifer Bamuturaki. Yet, the President was doing this in light of not only the damning proof of lack of requisite academic qualifications, but also irresponsible use of public funds on part of Bamuturaki.

This stance, without even mentioning the issuance of air tickets without due consideration being paid out in exchange thereof. The moment the President stepped out and publicly defended Bamuturaki, is the minute it began to look quite clear about how his stooge in Among wasn’t going to allow the reprimand of the daughter of her Master`s mentor and old boy.

Small wonder, from henceforth, Bamuturaki would develop airs of arrogance around her. That was to the extent of refusing to appear at Ssenyonyi-led Cosase. She had prior to that abscondment directed Ssenyonyi to keep journalists out of the hearings. Or else, forget about her continued attendance. Imagine such kind of arrogance.

Considering the same President who had previously interfered with the inquiry into Bamuturaki is the one still in charge, one can hazard a guess even the IGG’s own inquiries into the fresh misdeeds are bound to come to naught just as those of Ssenyonyi’s did. Should that happen, another round of public funds will end up burned on yet another useless inquiry and also help impunity and indiscipline to take deep root at the airport.

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Stephen Kasozi Muwambi: Mr. Stephen Kasozi Muwambi is a seasoned crime investigative writer, majoring in judicial-based stories. His two decades’ experience as a senior investigative journalist has made him one of the best to reckon on in Uganda. He can also be reached via [email protected]