Terrorism is Not An Ideology.

Prof. John Kozy, an American mathematician and logician, said that “The careless use of language makes it easier to have foolish thoughts”! I love that quotation not just because I am a lawyer who is trained to obsess on the definitions and meanings of specific words or phrases but because it is just simply true. A lack of care in the application of words to any situation can lead us into dead ends, unnecessary escalations, false solutions and worse because if we do not use the appropriate language, carefully weighing up the true meaning of each word and phrase that we are applying, it is easy for our attendant thought process to wander and miss the mark.

In the aftermath of the outrageous and tragic Westgate siege, the words of John Kozy came to mind. As politicians, the media and commentators looked for words to express their outrage, sorrow and disgust at the acts of the despicable people who subverted the teachings of a noble religion to murderous ends and were wreaking havoc, murder and mayhem in the centre of Nairobi, we started to hear refrains of language from George W. Bush’s “Global War on Terror”. We heard President Uhuru Kenyatta referring to terrorism as “the philosophy of cowards” and saying that Kenya will not yield in the war on terror. We heard other officials talking about this being a global war and how terrorism will be defeated wherever it is. We read about “Islamic terrorists” and “Somali terrorists” and in Samantha Lewthwaite, the so-called “White Widow”, we have a new terror mastermind, a white female Osama Bin Laden, if you like.

Let me be clear, I do not condone for one moment the outrageous acts of the terrorists and feel the deepest sadness for all those who lost loved ones or were injured in this gruesome and mindless attack.  However if we are to get a solution to this problem we cannot start by applying wrong definitions. 

Terrorism is not a philosophy and nor is it an ideology. Terrorism is not a state of mind, a state of being, a religion or an ethnicity. Terrorism is a method of war that is nearly as old as war itself.  It is used and has been used by legitimate and illegitimate armed groups that are engaged in asymmetrical fights over legitimate and illegitimate causes. It is the use of violence to achieve political ends by inflicting a psychological blow (fear or terror) on a larger adversary so as to cause the larger adversary to behave in the way that the terrorist desires. By necessity, terrorists do not operate openly or engage well protected and armed targets as conventional armies would do in a conventional war. They operate clandestinely and go for the “soft” targets, looking to inflict civilian casualties and/or massive economic damage so as to sow fear and reap a political reward.

The trouble with declaring war against terror, despicable though it may be, is the fact that you set yourself an absolutely impossible objective.  You cannot win a war on terror any more than you can win a war on conventional wars! Further by declaring “war” a legitimate government arguably bestows some kind of legitimacy on otherwise illegitimate violent non-state actors who mete out terror.  This is part of the political objectives that the terrorists actually seek, a propaganda victory which suggests that the state is panicking and has gone into war mode.  Then having inflicted a few blows they rely on the inverted principle of victory that Henry Kissinger illustrated when he said “The conventional army loses if it does not win. The [terrorist] wins if he does not lose.”

So how should the State react in the face of such heinous crime? The State should take a leaf from Sun Tzu’s Art of War and take on the terrorist where he is unprepared and appear where it is not expected. The terrorists and terrorism should be placed in perspective. It is crime; violent and gross, but it is crime nonetheless.  It should be defined and treated as such. Security agencies have to step up their game and citizens have to be vigilant but the threat must be defined as it truly is, a criminal threat against peace, law and order and not as an existential threat to a well founded and run state. The State should also contextualize the risk of injury or death arising from terrorism.  You are far more likely to die in a motor or other accident than you are at the hands of terrorists. Lastly, the State must find innovative and comprehensive ways of dealing with the underlying political issues that give rise to terrorism. Doing this is not giving in to terror, but a legitimate engagement in the solution of political problems. With the political problems solved the terrorists are denied a cause. This may not be easy or cheap but it’s definitely far easier and cheaper than trying to win a war against a concept or an endlessly shifting and morphing target.

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The Palace Is Not Safe If The Cottage Is Not Happy.

As I write this week’s column, school term started four days ago but most children in state owned and run schools have not been doing any studying because the teachers are on strike. The detailed facts, factors and actions behind the ongoing strike are beyond the remit of this column but suffice to say that it is in reaction to Government’s failure to honour a promise to raise teachers’ salaries by 20% in this financial year. Not being privy to the earlier negotiations between Government and UNATU, the teachers’ union, we have no idea about how the figure of 20% was arrived at or why the respective parties agreed upon it being paid in this financial year. However it is safe to assume that both Government and UNATU were represented by well informed, capable and adult representatives who understood the gravity and financial implications of the matter that they were discussing. So if a figure of increment and the date of commencement were mutually agreed upon, why are we at this juncture, with teachers on strike, the children idle and the Government belligerent? 

It is not unusual for people, corporations, or even Governments to fail to honour commitments to pay. If it was unheard of then lawyers and courts all over the world would be idle. So we need not dwell too much on the fact that Government has failed to keep its word to the teachers. What we need to look at closely is the fact that Government is unapologetic about its failure to meet its own solemn commitment.  We also need to ask ourselves why Government has failed to pay and is now talking about sacking the striking teachers, or sweeping them out of the way, as one minister was quoted as having said.

Education is a vital public service that is managed and provided by the State. Education policy and the spending priorities are set by the Ministry of Education and some of the bigger decisions are made at Cabinet and higher levels. However there is a key ingredient missing in the decision making matrix, which, I suggest, militates against the permanent resolution of the ongoing problems in this sector. None of the key decision makers in Government have their own children or grandchildren in state schools. This creates a fundamental disconnection between the decision makers and those teachers, parents and students whose very basic lives are affected by the decisions made. The key decision makers might as well be making decisions about schools in Liberia, because the decisions that they make do not affect them or their loved ones in a real tangible sense.

I have said it here before that if Uganda was a restaurant then it would have the dubious distinction of being a restaurant in which the chefs and waiters do not eat the food that they cook for and serve their guests.   In such a restaurant the guests must not be surprised by the poor quality of the food that is presented to them. The cooks and waiters show, in the loudest possible way, by their actions, that the quality is poor by not eating the food. However the restaurant analogy becomes strained here because guests can choose to take their custom elsewhere. Ugandans are captive in this system and must either pay through the nose for an alternative education for their kids or simply grin and bear it hoping that in the random hit and miss of Government decisions on education, there will be more hits than misses and that their children will get something useful out of it. But hope, as they say, is not a strategy.

The opting out of the elite from public services that they manage for and on behalf of the people of Uganda is not limited to education. No self-respecting official would be seen dead (pun intended) in a Government health facility yet they expect the people to suffer those same services or die in the hands of traditional healers. The problem of poor or irregular power supply does not affect them because they have dedicated lines that are not subject to load shedding or they have powerful standby generators which run at the taxpayers’ expense. In other words, the elite have opted out of or devised means of working around every key public service that they manage for and on behalf of the people. To add insult to injury, these opt-outs and work-arounds are funded by you and me the victims of the poor services.

In the result, Uganda is increasingly two countries sharing a single geographical location. One Uganda is a small self-entitled and deluded bubble that floats over the other Uganda, which lives in the daily reality of destitution and discontent. Bubbles are always very pretty when inflated and floating gently through the air. But they always burst when they come into contact with solid, sharp reality. Benjamin Disraeli put it in more stark terms, “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy.”

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Speak Out Against Abuse of Rights By Service Providers

A good friend of mine who migrated from law into active politics once told me a hilarious story.  He told me that his cantankerous and loud nature manifested early in his childhood. If ever he was sick or had any problem in the middle of the night, he said, he would cry and scream at the top of his lungs to ensure that the whole family heard him. That way, his parents attended to him quickly because if they didn’t his siblings would also wake up and start kicking up ruckus.

I took a leaf out of my friend’s childhood tactics last week when I related the tale of Umeme Limited’s illegal and unethical conduct. Fellow consumers woke up and filled my Twitter feed and my e-mail box with wide ranging related and unrelated complaints against the corporation. Perhaps the funniest came from a popular TV personality, who wrote that Umeme really stands for “Uganda’s Management of Electricity Mystifies Everybody” and signed off with the words “They are robbing us in the dark!”

As I told you last week, Umeme made a quiet apology to me and hoped that the problem would go away but, going by the volume of responses that I have had all week, it would appear that I was just one consumer caught up in the nightmare of Umeme’s bad behaviour. So this week, as the tide of complaints grew, the savvy public relations team stepped up Umeme’s game by offering an apology to the consumers on Twitter and on Sanyu FM’s Breakfast Show. This is, no doubt, a step in the right direction. But there are several unanswered questions and the gravity of the situation seems to me to merit a statement and an apology to all consumers from the top management of the corporation. There is no plausible way that such wide ranging and persistent misconduct could have gone unnoticed by the top management and Board. If it did go unnoticed, then top management and the Board should step forward and admit that they are not competent to manage a utility company. It is also beyond doubt, that all of this reprehensible conduct was done in the pursuit of the profits out of which top management and the Board have taken hefty chunks. An apology from a person who is paid to tweet on behalf of Umeme is good, but an apology to all consumers from the people who got the tangible benefits in the form of fat pay cheques and bonuses would be far better. To those whom much is given, much is expected.

In the ordinary civic narrative, the citizens’ need to know their rights is expressed as a guarantee against abuse or exploitation meted out by the State or State officials.  We tend to think about human rights in terms of the Chapter 4 of the Constitution; regularly citing the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to life etc. against the Police, the Army, RDCs and Ministers. But few of us have realized the subtle but important change in the terrain that came as a result of the World Bank imposed structural adjustment program. The wide ranging privatization of the delivery of basic public services means that these days, your fundamental human rights may be impacted as much by a foreign owned corporation seeking and working purely for profit as by a government official motivated by local politics. 

Over the years, our history has taught us to fear the Government and to roll over when our basic rights are being trampled upon, if only to save the most fundamental one of all – life. A few bold souls speak out against abuse of rights by the State but the overwhelming majority has been preprogrammed not to rock the boat. We grin and bear it, just grateful to be alive. 

Therefore it is no surprise that some of the private corporations which acquired the parastatal organizations that used to deliver public services have premised their plans for profit on the back of the presumed ignorance and gullibility of Ugandans. They make a calculation of profit based on practices that they simply wouldn’t contemplate doing in their home countries. They get away with it most of the time because of our predisposition to silent compliance and our inordinate gratitude for services that we are paying through the nose for. We are cowed by the fact that we could have been going without and made to suffer in silence because these corporations are allegedly doing us a big favour.  

I believe the key lesson that we must draw from this still unfolding Umeme episode is that we must end the twin culture of ignorance of our rights and suffering in silence.  There is every reason to fear men with guns but we should not also fear these men with briefcases. If you are reaching into your pocket and paying for any service the service provider is your servant and you are his boss. The corporations have no right to disrespect or treat you shabbily as they take your hard earned cash. Speak out and you will be heard.

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The Foolish Looters With Powdered Milk on Their Lips! (From December 2012)

When I was growing up in the 1970’s, Uganda was experiencing extreme shortages due to Idi Amin’s mismanagement of the economy and poor regional relations. My mother worked for the East African Examinations Council and therefore used to make regular trips to headquarters in Nairobi.  These trips were an opportunity for my mother to stock up on regular household supplies such as sugar, powdered milk, soap, toothpaste and the like.  It is hard to imagine now, but back then these commodities were so precious that my mother had to regulate their consumption very closely so as to ensure that they lasted until her next trip.  The alternative was to go without because the parastatal Foods & Beverages never had stock or to pay several times more for the same commodities on Kampala’s thriving black market.  In order to achieve the closest possible control of consumption in a household of over ten people, my mother used to keep these precious commodities in the wardrobe of her bedroom – where ladies keep their several hundred pairs of shoes these days.

Now, being six or seven years old, I didn’t quite understand why there had to be very tight rationing of the commodities such as sugar and powdered milk.  I had a great fondness for Safariland powdered milk and used to love licking it out of the palm of my hand.  On every occasion that I could sneak into my mother’s bedroom, I would always test the wardrobe door to see if it was unlocked. On the few occasions that my mother’s security system was lax, I would prize open the green and gold Safariland tin, scoop out a spoonful of powdered milk onto my palm, lick it as quickly as I could, replace the cover and then run away from the scene of the crime.  This behaviour soon stopped because of, what I shall euphemistically call, the “drastic negative consequences” that my mother unleashed every time I did it. 

 At the time I came to believe that my mother had supernatural powers because although she never ever caught me in the wardrobe, she always knew when I had been licking the delicious milk powder. It wasn’t until I grew older that I realized how my mother had always been able to catch me.  My petty criminal modus operandi had two fundamental flaws. First of all, I used to run away from the scene of the crime.  We lived in a small house and it was impossible for me to conceal my movements as I ran down the corridor.  So why was I running away from my mother’s bedroom if I hadn’t been up to something naughty?  It was this hunch which used to cause my mother to call me to wherever she was for interrogation – “Ovva wa? Obadde okolayo ki?” The second, and perhaps more fundamental, flaw was the fact whilst  I always remembered to replace the cover of the tin, it never dawned on me that licking powdered milk always left traces of powder on my little chin, shirt and  grubby little hands. No lie could get me past that evidence. It never dawned on me to run to the bathroom first to wash my face and hands.

The inevitable detection and the stern penal consequences made me stop the bad habit of stealing powdered milk.  It was also easier to be well behaved and then ask for a spoonful, which favour would be granted once in a while in the same way that good children may be rewarded with a chocolate these days. I was also taught the lesson that this was a commodity which was for all us and that my mother did not keep it in her wardrobe because she was cruel, but rather because she loved us very much and wanted the precious stocks to last us for as long as possible.

This is a lesson in life that the looters and base thieves who masquerade as leaders and public servants in Uganda today obviously did not learn or internalize. The proceeds of their looting are invested in large mansions, posh cars, commercial buildings and offensively opulent lifestyles that they obviously cannot afford on their regular salaries.  But like six year old children, they do not realize that we can see the clear traces of stolen milk powder on their faces.  They think we are so foolish. 

Sadly for the looters, we are not foolish.  We can see you.  We know where you have been and we know what you have been up to.   We may seem so stupid to you right now that you think we shall fall for any explanation that you put up for your gross violation of the public trust.  In the alternative, you may know that we can see through the thin tissue of lies that you use to cover up your gross crimes against the people of Uganda but think that we are powerless to do anything about it.

But in fact it is you, the looters, who are foolish.  This state of affairs cannot last any length of time.  We know the truth and the time for you to make full accountability is coming. 

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Umeme's Prepaid Electricity Scandal!

Tuesday this week was a long and stressful day, then I got home late in the evening to find a document from the Head Office of the electricity distribution concessionaire, Umeme Limited, marked “NOTICE TO CONSUMER” lying neatly on my dining table.  The notice required me to report myself to the Kitintale District Office within 48 hours to “explain my circumstances”, failing which I would be liable to “DISCONNECTION and/or PROSECUTION under section 52 of the Electricity Act/or section 270 of the Penal Code Act.” Why? Because I had “TOTALLY REFUSED YAKA PREPAID ELECTRICITY”. 

The notice did not come out of the blue.  In January 2012, I had received a letter directing me to spend Monday, the 27^th February 2012 at my home waiting for Umeme’s engineers to turn up, at their convenience, to install a YAKA prepaid electricity meter. The lawyer in me picked up on the mandatory language of this letter. I wondered where Umeme, a private company, derived the power to direct me to switch from the postpaid to the prepaid arrangement and where it got the power to direct me to stay at my home all day on a working day. I looked up the law and was not surprised to find that neither the Electricity Act 1999 nor the regulations of the Primary Grid Code give it such powers.

I engaged the Head Office and was pleased to meet with their in-house counsel, the head of marketing and the head of the YAKA pilot project.  We had a polite and good humoured exchange in which we agreed that there is no law requiring anybody to shift to a prepaid payment plan and that therefore all consumers have a choice to switch to the prepaid plan or to stick with the legally mandated postpaid plain.  I told them that as an informed consumer I chose to remain on the postpaid plan because I did not want to lend a large corporation money and would not do so unless the law expressly states that I have to.  In that meeting it was conceded that the mandatory language in the letter was misplaced and most of the time was dedicated to discussing how the YAKA prepaid project could be legally marketed – with the consumer being informed that they have a choice.

On Tuesday I found out that, contrary to what I was told by senior managers in January 2012, Umeme did not go away to change the language of its marketing for the Yaka program.  It had retreated to hatch a plan to threaten me with disconnection and prosecution!

Now, if you are going to threaten anybody, leave alone a lawyer, with prosecution then you had better cite a law which criminalizes the conduct complained of.  The laws cited in the notice left at my home were completely irrelevant to the alleged offence of “totally refusing Yaka prepaid electricity.” Section 52 of the Electricity Act provides for reversion of a hydropower plant with a generation capacity exceeding 10MW to Government after the expiry of a generation licence. Section 270 of the Penal Code Act provides courts with powers to make compensation orders against people who have been convicted of causing financial loss, embezzlement or theft by agent. In colloquial Luganda “baali banyungako section”! 

Using social media, I reached out to Umeme and many fellow consumers on this issue. The response was overwhelming.  Nobody has been told of the basic fact that Umeme does not have the power to compel anybody to switch to the prepaid plan. Many consumers have been compelled to switch under threats of disconnection and prosecution and have complied out of ignorance. This despite the fact that Umeme knows that it has no legal powers to compel the consumers. 

You can’t help but wonder why a listed company that is majority owned by Actis Capital (a subsidiary of the UK’s Commonwealth Development Corporation), with top notch institutional investors like the International Finance Corporation (a division of the World Bank) and managed by some of the best qualified individuals (judging from the size of their pay cheques) would engage in such unethical and, frankly, illegal behaviour. The answer is simple; it’s because there is a lot of money to be made and Umeme can, and most likely will, get away with the shabby treatment of its ignorant, pliable and captive consumers. 

Umeme expects that a quiet apology made to me will make the whole thing will go away. Being Uganda, I am sure that Umeme, its investors, Board and senior management will carry on with business as usual. Blame will be apportioned to the lowest possible level, perhaps even outsourced to a contractor.  There will be no widely publicized apology, leave alone compensation, for all of the consumers who were illegally and unethically intimidated into giving up their legal rights under the existing law so that Umeme may make more profits. 

But at least now you know your rights and you know what kind of corporation Umeme really is. If you are not holding onto a hydropower plant with a generation capacity of 10 MW after the expiry of your generation licence, you are perfectly entitled to say “No, thank you!” to Yaka prepaid meters.

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