Excerpt from 'Song of Lawino'

The Democratic Party

How does it differ

From the (Uganda People's) Congress?



Ocol says

They want Uhuru,

His brother says

They want Uhuru and Peace,

Both of them say they fight ignorance and disease!



Then why do they not join hands,

Why do they split up the army

Into two hostile groups?

The spears of the young men

And their shields,

Why are the weapons

And the men and women

Dispersed so uselessly?



And while the pythons of sickness

Swallow the children

And the buffalos of poverty

Knock the people down

And ignorance stands there

Like an elephant,



The war leaders

Are tightly locked in bloody feuds,

Eating each other’s liver

As if the D.P. was leprosy

And the Congress yaws;



If only the parties

Would fight poverty

With the fury

With which they fight each other,

If diseases and ignorance

Were assaulted

With the deadly vengeance

With which Ocol assaults his mother’s son,

The enemies would have been

Greatly reduced by now.



Okot p'Bitek was born in 1932 in Gulu, Northern Uganda to Acholi parents. He began writing in his mother tongue Lwo, one of the Western Nilotic languages, subsequently his works White Teeth and Song of Lawino were translated into English. 'Bitek passed away on July 20, 1982.

BATTLES

Battles in my heart. Battles in my soul. Tugging and pulling at my soul. Struggling in my spirit!


What happened to me? Where is the God who intervened with fire ? With blood? What?


Where? Are you O God? Can't you see I tussle?My habits pull me down, my body disappoints me. Am hit, torn, dragged , beaten against the rocks-


These hard rocks!
Against the shore by these huge waves of sin, despair and hopelessness-


Like a ship at sea,
Am pushed
am pulled-
its getting closer
closer to my doom
the tide-
rises
higher and higher
anytime now I will be vanquished!
lost...
gone into the deep darkness


Like an Eagle-
you come to my rescue
sweeping me away
your wings beating the huge dark winds
with energy, valour
lightning


Awash! Awoosh
you sweep me away
to safety in the highest place
up, up
and away-


yeeaaaahh


O God you were there
Your eagle eye always looking
watching
minding my business-
I am your business
minding your business-
-me!

Court ‘orders’ 70 Legislators disqualified

It has been reported that the Ugandan Constitutional Court on the 31st of Jnauary 1 ruled that ''it is illegal for independent MPs to stand for elections on any party ticket and also for political party MPs to contest as independents.'' The report indicates that ''the court ruled that any independent MP should have vacated their seat before being nominated to contest on a political party ticket.'' Further, that ''an MP who was elected on a political party ticket in the previous election, should also have vacated their seat before contesting again as an independent.'' See Court ‘orders’ 70 Legislators disqualified http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1099978/-/cimlw6z/-/index.html also Court throws out 70 MPs from polls http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/745494

I appreciate the finding of the Court in so far as one should resign (or 'vacate the seat' as stated in the Constitution)when one's political leanings change. However this should only apply during the current term of Parliament referred to and in this case, the '8th Parliament'. However I am not in agreement with the finding of the Court that the subsequent nominations for the next parliament are null and void.

This is because my reading of the Article 83 doesnt seem to suggest this. In my view, this is also what Moses Serwanga seems to be opining when he states that 'the candidates for seats in the next parliament therefore need not to resign as per article 83 as declared by court.' see http://msserwanga.blogspot.com/

To put it colloquially, how can they resign from a parliament that is not yet in existence? If the effect of this judgement is to disqualify the 70 MPs who have been nominated, doesn't that give an unfair advantage to their opponents? or worsestill, what happens in situations where such MP/candidate stands unopposed? Does the disqualification of such candidate mean that the constituency will not be represented in the next Parliament? If not, doesnt it mean that such candiate will be entitled to run again - albeit having resigned from the 8th Parliament which will have more or less concluded its term of office?

In my opinion therefore, (which is unfortunately based on reading the newspaper reports and the law but not the judgement itself) is that the effect of the judgement, if allowed to stand, would mean that we re-do the elections at least for those 70+ constituencies. However my opinion might change when i read the full judgement although i doubt it

on love

...so, love is selfless and kind. We do not EARN it by what we do or say. We take it when it is given to us and it makes NO demands that we should repay. When 'love' purpotedly asks for payback, we should question its purity and content....
DRRZ, 01.02.2011