Kampala — At Uganda Talks we welcome guest blogs from our readers. Today, contributor Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba writes about political murders and the need to create greater public confidence in the central government.

Political murders happen all over the world, including Uganda, and in most cases such decisions are made by a few high profile people in the government. Obviously, those of the NRM cadre will keep telling you otherwise. Compared to Uganda, Kenya has got more stable military institutions such that even the murders of Tom Mboya in 1969 and J. M. Kariuki in 1975 did not lead to political instability.

Kenya's political stability rests on several things: a balance within the military system, on the centralization of power within the state structure and on the neutralization of potential organized opposition. The way Kenyatta set up Kenya after independence has contributed to its long-term stability. Moi weakened the government institutions but Kibaki strengthened the principle of respect for institutions--despite his problems with corruption. If he had not done this, probably the Kikuyu and Luo would have fought each other indefinitely after the recently disputed presidential elections. â-¨On the other hand, in Uganda, just losing a UPDF General has got a lot of tongues wagging. If a person like Salim Saleh or the president himself is murdered or assassinated it could destabilise the whole country, because of the way the UPDF is set up.

Nevertheless, we can categorize all murders that happen between now and the 2011 elections as political murders because the NRM and Museveni have lost popularity among the wanaichi but wish to stay in power at all costs. Many Ugandans agree with Timothy Kalyegira's version of Kazini's death on the Uganda Record website because they have lost trust in the regime in power. That's why we need an independent commission of inquiry to investigate into both Byran (Dr.Bukenya's son) and Kazini's death regardless of those who cheer brutality and murder of these NRM Generals.

Again I would like to say that all murders are about hate at some level. Even the guy who kills the cop trying to escape from a crime scene or riots- has hate in his heart. There must be a good reason why Mukyala Atim Draru decided to bat Kazini's head to death. At what point did she decide to kill him?

As part of the murder probe, police must investigate the friends of lady Atim to see if she had premeditated thoughts to murder the General. Her mobile phone must be in police safe custody by now to establish the people she has been in contact with for the last 6 months. MTN and other communication companies can help on this one. The only problem is that the government does not set commissions of inquiry for purposes of getting to the bottom of the matter. That's why Kazini's family and friends should do their own investigations. Most African governments are corrupt. Anybody can murder anybody and get away with it. When governments agree to set up official investigations, they usually hope to divert public criticism of human rights abuses. They hope either that public interest will have waned by the time the inquiry is complete or, better still, that the investigation will find in the government's favour.

For instance, in 1986, the Museveni Government set up a Commission of Inquiry headed by Joseph Mulenga, to investigate human rights violations from the country's independence in 1962 until it seized power. Up to now, we don't know the conclusions and recommendations of the report. Yet if they had made everything public, probably some Ugandans, like some UPC supporters, would not have continued to accuse the NRA rebels of murdering people in Luwero and blame it on the Obote two government. Mulenga later became our Attorney General in the same year. I wonder why he was given this post after heading such a sensitive inquiry.

Another example is when in June 1974, President Idi Amin Dada established a Commission of Inquiry chaired by an expatriate Pakistani judge, Justice Mohammed Saied, to look into the 'disappearance' of large numbers of Ugandans since his government came to power on 25 January 1971. But the report never came into public domain though the Commission concluded that the Public Safety Unit and the State Research Bureau, special security bodies set up by Amin, bore the main responsibility for the 'disappearances'. It also criticized army officers for abuse of powers, as well as the activities of the military police and intelligence.

The bottom line here is that the current government should facilitate murder investigations into the country and reports from these inquiries should be made public. This builds public trust in the government. There is no point in the president ordering a probe into Bryan and Kazini's death if the public never gets to see it.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

N.B. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of Independent Publications Ltd.