The passing of a motion in Parliament urging the intervention of the United Nations in the Kenya-Uganda Migingo dispute exposed the Kenyan MPs as extremely emotional people, totally incapable of legislating with cool heads. It also exposed their ignorance about what is now happening between the two countries to end the small dispute over a tiny island of Migingo.
The two governments have engaged the services of experts who will determine the legitimate owner of the Migingo Island after proper examination of maps and surveying activities. The entire exercise is costing millions of shillings yet Kenyan Parliamentarians seem to be in total darkness about what Kenya and Uganda are doing to solve the dispute amicably.
This is a terrible weakness given the fact that they occupy the country’s most supreme lawmaking body. It may be true that only a handful of parliamentarians were in the House when the motion was passed; but of the 49 MPs present none of them, with the exception of Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula and Information Minister Samuel Poghisio, showed any sign of examining the Migingo issue in a mature manner which is a necessary qualification for leaders with the ability to intellectually probe intricate national issues calmly.
The manner in which they were making reference to the Ugandan leader, as an expansionist who does not get along well with his neighbours, clearly indicated their ignorance about the importance of Uganda to Kenya. The financial benefits Kenyans get from the fishing at the Migingo Island is a mere drop in the ocean compared to other economic benefits derived by Kenya from trade relations with Uganda. Through Uganda Kenya also benefits from trade with Rwanda, Burundi and DRC. Antagonizing Uganda is killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
The 47 MPs who wanted the Migingo dispute to be taken to the Security Council also showed how ignorant they were about the functions of the international body. At the moment the Security Council has such major issues to examine including the North Korean nuclear adventures and Pakistan’s civil war that asking it to examine Migingo simply exhibits our MPs’ narrow mindedness and ignorance about the functions of the Security Council.
According to the Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia the Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization of military action. Its powers are exercised through United Nations Security Council Resolutions. Any sane person would clearly see that the relationship between Kenya and Uganda does not require the intervention of the Security Council.
Only the very narrow minded can seriously conclude that the current minor dispute over Migingo amounts to a threat to international peace and security. Kenya and Uganda are such natural friends that it really amounts to extreme foolhardiness to even think of a military intervention in the minor disagreement over Migingo between the two countries. From time immemorial the people of Uganda have had such cordial relations with their Kenyan neighbours that some families on the borders can become citizens of either country. There is a classic example of the former Vice President of Kenya Moody Awori whose brother was an MP in the Ugandan Parliament.
The hostilities that take place between cattle-rustling communities living in the northern border of the two countries are regarded as petty thefts by the two Governments. They have been traditional ways of life of the communities that have stolen livestock from each other from time immemorial. No war can be declared between the two countries because of cattle-rustling that takes place between the Northern Ugandans and Northern Kenyans. Yet that confrontation between the cattle rustlers is far more bloody and serious than the Migingo dispute where not a drop of blood has been shed.
Unfortunately the Migingo issue has also been blown out of proportion by the media. A headline like “MP Vote for Military Option in Migingo Row” is not only inaccurate but unprofessional. This was the heading of the Daily Nation of May 28; yet according to the journalists’ own Code of Ethics headlines must reflect the facts to be found in the body of the story. Reading the Nation headline one would think Kenya was ready to invade Uganda over the Migingo row. Nothing was further from the truth. The story on the Nation’s front page did not professionally justify the usage of such an alarming headline.
The media in Kenya were obviously angered by the Ugandan President’s rather reckless words against the Luos. It may be a fact that President Yoweri Museveni has a pathological hatred for the Luo community and of late has uttered very unpalatable words against them. He knows the part of Kenya he wants to grab – the Migingo Island – is also part of the Luoland. The people on it are almost all Luos from Kenya whom Museveni refers to as “Wajaluo”. The majority of the people on the island are fishermen and so no one can really continue to live on that island without fishing. And that is exactly what Museveni wants to destroy for he has openly said though he believes the island is the property of Kenya, the water surrounding it is Ugandan. That means the fish at Migingo belongs to Uganda. This is provocation in its most naked form.
No matter how belligerent Museveni appears, however, when he calls the Luos of Kenya “Mad Wajaluos” he actually means no harm to Kenya as such. As a matter of fact he did not intend to insult the entire Luo community in Kenya. Addressing Kenyan journalists at his Kampala State House he categorically said the “mad Jaluos” remark was only intended for the hooligans who were uprooting the railway line to Uganda at the Kibera slum. Whether the people who uprooted the railway line were mad or not, is not a subject for debate but it would not be difficult for Museveni to prove that they behaved like very nutty and crazy people who had gone round the bend and forgotten that the same railway line supplied essential goods to their own people of Nyanza.
Museveni cannot make a sweeping statement against the Luo people because in Uganda there is quite a sizable Luo community. Granted, the Luos of Uganda are also giving Museveni hell. The Uganda Luos also known as the Acholis and their cousins who extend right up to Southern Sudan have been fighting Museveni’s regime for quite sometime. So when he hears the word “Luo”, even in his dreams, Museveni has a nightmare.
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