Boda Boda Flogged For Impersonation

By Emmanuel Okwi

There was drama and rib-cracking at Wiggins Secondary School in Kumi on Tuesday when a man impersonating as an uncle to one of the students at the school was flogged. The man identified as Okurut Desderio 39, is a motorcycle driver attached to Kanyumu Road stage in Kumi Town. The rider had allegedly been promised a reward of Shs2000 incase he successfully represented the errant student as a relative before the school’s disciplinary committee.

The Student identified as Otwani Paul [S5] had allegedly spent his school fees and feared going back to his parents for the same yet he had already been given money for school dues.

“Since I feared going to my parents, a friend of mine told me that he would help me get someone to stand in as a guardian so that we could sort the issue out without my parents’ knowledge,” Paul Otwani said. 

However, little did he know that the issue would backfire since the impressionist could not tell the disciplinary committee what the name of the boy he purported to be his nephew was.  The parents of the boy were alerted and when they arrived, the impersonator was flogged terribly. He later on accepted to receive Christ when the pastor prayed for him.

“This young boy put me into trouble but I will not be tempted to do this again. From today onwards, I have accepted to get saved,” the tear drenched father of three said.

The Deputy Head teacher in charge discipline, Mrs Grace Ikanut said that since the man had accepted to receive Jesus Christ as his personal savior, it wouldn’t be good to hand him over to police.

“You are free to go now since you have admitted and repented of your wrongs,” Ikanut said

Moral Leadership And Today’s Society

By Emmanuel Okwii

Embracing good or moral leadership entails a deep understanding of what leadership is and what it means by being a good leader. Although many scholars and individuals have had different perceptions of leadership, I would like my readers to view leadership as the ability to steer individuals under one’s control with the intention of creating results that could not be arrived at before the coming in of such a leader. For this reason, a moral leader should have a sense of self direction, self awareness, social awareness, ability to motivate and extraordinary vision if he is to create and achieve results.  With poverty and corruption eating the nerves and arteries of societies in the world, it is almost impossible to come by moral leaders. Whereas moral leaders ideally wouldn’t be elected, many political and other leadership candidates in the world vie for leadership positions claiming that they are moral enough. When they start making decision and implementing policies, they ignore the people that put them to such positions and work only to fatten their pockets, build their political strongholds and ignore the voice of the masses. 

To me, the moral leadership style is one that puts at forefront the usefulness of dialogue, values and attitudes in social deliberations, public rallies, offices, positions and in the decision making and policy implementation process. In this case, political, cultural, social  or administrative heads are required not only to use values and attitudes to govern their decision making but to be obliged to do the right thing and not just what is right. It is a leadership style devoid of lies, self-centredness and selfishness.   This kind of leadership is a very challenging one especially where dictatorship is to be employed in implementing government or administrative policies.  However, it should be noted that moral leadership does not sometimes spring from the personality of the leader himself but from the social fabric. When a leader is compelled to share judgements with others, then he will be moral in his actions. A moral leader speaks and his voice is heard, they advise and speak about morality in the society and if what comes out of their mouths is sensible enough to be followed; then they will be given the title of moral leader.

Moral leadership is and will continue to be a challenge in many modern institutions, governments and societies across the world. Many leaders still do not want to be criticized and worse so, do not want to learn from criticism. Several of world leaders still lack focus and more so, do not want to maintain a focus on the future of their leadership styles; they are poor listeners who do not want feedback on their leadership and this consequently affects the spirit of teamwork in leadership. Rarely do you hear of today’s leaders conceding a mistake or step back so others can step up but they instead lack humility and do not want to accept constructive dissent.   In the words of Jim Rohn,…. the challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly……..

As already noted, the concept of being a moral leader in Today’s modern society is not always more woven to elections or appointments to public offices than it is to an individual. Moral leaders assume their positions and work to advise on public morality. Their voices are strong enough and they speak to the moral sense of the society. A vivid example of such leadership was seen in the person of Martin Luther King who spoke to the moral sense of the Americans and he is honoured for that today.  

In Uganda, the role played by Mrs. Betty Bigombe to ensure peace and reconciliation in the war-torn northern Uganda in the 90’s cannot be ignored. She trod the paths that many appointed peace mediators between Joseph Kony’s LRA rebels and the Ugandan Government had trodden on but with a lot of failures.  Her self determination and life-risking quest for peace brought her face-to-face with one of the most merciless rebel leaders the world has ever seen. Through her, sustainable peace was realized although she was accused of cooling president Museveni’s ego and chastising the profiteering Uganda People’s Defense Force’s [UPDF] generals. Her morality, moral power and moral authority was able to coax Joseph Kony into a peace deal with the Ugandan government.

On the same line is Dr. Kizza Besigye, leader of Uganda’s FDC party who broke away from the current government in 1999 because of irregularities in governance. Though a bush war comrade of president Museveni during the 1982 to 1986 guerrilla war that toppled President Apollo Milton Obote, the growing levels of corruption in the Museveni regime was not to his taste.  Besigye openly accused the regime that he had been serving under as corrupt, undemocratic, opportunistic, sectarian and dishonest. He then went ahead to stand against his former leader thrice between 2001 to 2011 without success. He consistently attributes his lack of success in the elections to massive rigging, intrigue and bribery. Although always oppressed, arrested and detained for his activism; he has continuously held demonstrations over the purchase of military hardware, rising militarization of governance in Uganda and the extensive corruption in the Uganda Public service. He opposed the purchase of 2012 Sukhoi combat jets and the extension of budgetary allocations for Uganda state house yet teachers are not being paid.

Nelson Mandela’s struggle against apartheid was one of the biggest examples of moral leadership. A society in which racial and skin colour distinctions wouldn’t be made was his vision.  Not only was this his view, but a notion that existed amongst the many African and Boer communities in South Africa by then. He didn’t rule for more than four years because he knew that morally the voice of the people wouldn’t be with him. This is  a sharp contrast to leadership in Africa where leaders literally become fossils in power. A clear example is that of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the leadership crisis in Africa stem from the inexistence of moral leaders. For instance, the expulsion of Julius Malema from the South African ANC is a battle between vision and dealing with change.  The South African government has failed to maintain morality in leadership and when change agents sprout; they are crushed as in the case of Malema.

Worthy of notice too is Liberia’s Johnson Sirleaf who started her activism while still in government serving under President William Tubman.  While in the treasury department as a junior minister, she had the moral courage to stand against the president, not just once, but several times. She strongly opposed the then government’s oversized expenditure and consequently resigned. African governments spend at leisure and most of the resources are wired into administration as opposed to public development. Nowhere in Africa have we seen cabinet ministers opposing their heads while still in office.

In a nutshell therefore, since many leaders today see no gain in becoming the voice of a society without any pecuniary settlement; they contest for leadership positions.  Many of them seek to use their positions to accumulate wealth, win sexual favours, undermine rivals and advance their selfish whims.  Leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa like President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda are not concerned with giving service to their community.  They work to advance their careers, privileges and their own ideas.  The level of morality in leadership has greatly diminished due to poverty and great suffering that the people are undergoing.  It is only until leaders bend to social opinions, desist from selfishness, listen to the masses and champion the fight against corruption and all forms of injustices that we will have a fertile ground for the cultivation of moral leadership. Communal and individual responsibility to leadership must be emphasized and leaders must know that there is shared origin and destination in moral leadership.

 

Violence, Grief as Man Slaughters Wife and Hangs Self

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By Emmanuel Okwii

What began as a rumour turned out to be a chilling revelation of a tragedy that horrified all the residents of Ocanga Village in Lwala Sub County in Kaberamaido district.  The residents woke up to the horrifying news on Friday morning that one of their own, Mr Ekweru David had slaughtered his wife identified as Anyango Agnes and later on hanged himself.

It is alleged that David Ekweru, a peasant and a trader at Lwala trading centre on Thursday afternoon last week went for a lunch time devotion in which the diviner at his local church told him that some one had planted a charm on his compound and was intending to harm him, a revelation residents say disturbed him and slowly impacted on his behaviour.

“When he came back from church, he told us that the pastor at the church had told him that someone wanted to take his life and that the person was in his compound. He then started behaving strangely,” Aelo Sandra, one of his daughters said.  She adds that later in the evening on the same day, the late invited members of the charismatic wing of his church to come and pray for him. However, the group couldn’t come because it was getting dark.

Mr Richard Ocen, the Ocanga village chairperson said that the matter was reported to him at about 10PM on Thursday evening and he at first couldn’t believe until he went to the scene and saw the dead bodies of the victims of the tragedy.  

“The man’s mother knocked at my door and told me that the late had slaughtered his wife. Because I couldn’t believe, I took it upon myself to go and find out and we confirmed it as true,” Mr Ocen said.  He adds that the victim first slaughtered his wife, fled and came back and hanged himself in the same house using a rope he picked from a sheep’s neck. Ocen also said that the matter was reported to police on account of its gravity and social implications.

“We reported the case to police because we knew that it would turn bloody if the girl’s relatives came and attacked in vengeance. However, we appreciate the fact that the police did their part in calming a possible violence that indeed ensued the next morning,” Ocen went on.

On Friday morning, the relatives and parents of the slain woman armed with machetes and spears came and demanded that the bride price be fully paid before any burial arrangements could be made since the slain woman had never been married and no bride price had been paid. The boy’s family allegedly mobilized and a total number of 11 cows which were realized were handed over to the woman’s family.

“Through my mediation, seven bulls and four cows were paid to the relatives of the woman. An agreement that bound the relatives of the man to a further shs500000 was made and a promise made to that effect,” Ocen explained.

Cultism, tragedy or crime?

According to the Lwala Parish LC2 Chairperson, the tragedy is attributed to the mushrooming cultish denominations that boast of diviners able to predict people’s futures and things holding the economic and social progress of individuals.

“Although I have recorded more than six murders in which the victims are strangled and stabbed in the month of July alone, I need to say that the church played a big role in this case,” Mr Abdallah Elyanu, the Lwala parish LC2 chairperson said. He adds that had it not been for the divination the deceased received from the local church, he wouldn’t have had such mental disturbances leading to suicide and the gruesome murder of his wife.  “He was made to believe that his wife was his enemy and it affected him,” he went on.

The Lwala Police OC CID, Mr Opio Sam Etimu ignored the cult allegations though he said that investigations into the matter were still ongoing.

“This is a case of domestic violence and we advise all people in Kaberamaido district to seek peaceful solutions to wrangles instead of violence,” Mr. Opio said. “Small children have been rendered orphans prematurely because of this tragedy. Who will take care of them,” he added.

The Eastern Region Police Spokesperson, Mr. Juma Nyene said that this was the fourth case of domestic violence involving murder in Teso in the month of July alone.

“We are still investigating whether anyone assisted him in the crime before hanging himself. In the month of July alone, we have registered four cases of domestic violence leading to death and this can raise anyone’s eyebrows. We appeal to residents to desist from violence and seek peaceful means to disagreements,” Mr Nyene said.  He adds that the linkage between the church and the tragedy had not been ruled out but was still under investigation.

The family is survived by five children; Sandra Aelo 17, Stella Amwako 16, Henry Elugu 14, Asero Monica 11 and Michael Ekweru, 13 Months.