As the next election campaign season approaches, the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba should reign in on UPDF Generals, and senior officers, serving and retired, who misuse personal guards to meddle in civil elections. Often, these officers who have connections with military installations around the country obtain unofficial soldiers who they deploy in support of their friends or relatives who are candidates. Without appearing to bad-mouth the UPDF, some are said to be on for hire by politicians in election campaigns. It is unclear how the UPDF reached this low point.

In the just concluded NRM internal elections we witnessed such illegal deployments of UPDF soldiers in Busia, Gulu, Butaleja and Sembabule districts where they obstructed candidates, their supporters, and police officers on duty. There was a recently retired General from Karamoja who was so notorious in Busia where police officers were so hapless in the face of his bullying. Earlier, the country had watched in consternation and embarrassment when UPDF got overtly involved including the deployment of heavy military war hardware in the Kawempe North parliamentary bye-election, and act that dented NRM support and image too.

Like the ongoing cracking of the whip on suspected corrupt officers including several Generals now in custody as investigations roll, errant behaviour by soldiers in civilian elections is bringing the UPDF into disrepute. For avoidance of any doubt, the official known role of the UPDF in securing stability including during elections is not contested.

It is also imperative, that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Abbas Byakagaba, provides strong and professional leadership and guidance to his officers and men so they can have confidence while in command to calmly withstand bullying and intimidation by these soldiers on illegal personal errands. A timid police officer in command, but unsure of his own orders, trembling and sweating in their uniform before an errant army officer, or irate politician, is a recipe for chaos during an election season, particularly bad on polling day. Similarly, over-board conduct by police officers, especially the District Police Commanders (DPCs) who sometimes take over the role of election officers upon being bribed by candidates, to announce the winners, must be checked.

But as the old adage goes, “it takes two to tangle,” and so to have a clean election season, we the politicians, especially candidates and supporters must check ourselves as a collective. While election politics is emotive, in Uganda today, it seems that anything goes, violence, intimidation, blackmail, open bribery, and extortion are all wrapped-up in the name of freedom and democracy.

Free speech is a cornerstone of democracy, but we have taken political rabble rousing down the line of slander and defamation against rivals in contests. Harmonization meetings often descend into shouting matches, or break-up even before they start, and so no mutual ground rules to govern the campaigns.

Abrasive conduct by candidates and supporters even against the police, law enforcement officers and election officials has become normalized, and so few respect the rules, yet surely Uganda is not a jungle. And with opposition activists on a hostile confrontational path, emboldened by the open mischievous conducts of some elements within NRM, it is hard to see how a trajectory of respect for common rules will be engendered.

The NRM is a huge party whose heart beats, but with a weak pulse because those at the centre probably do not feel or believe that they are powerful enough. To bring back discipline in the electoral process, my one pence proposal is that the NRM Secretary General, Richard Todwong, should hand every flagbearer a golden rule on election misconduct. In this era of capricious digital warriors playing by their own rules and constantly conveying mischief, the NRM must, as of necessity, be more alert and two steps ahead to deliver a cleaner election.