The news of Chris Obore sacking as director of communications at the Parliament of Uganda is supposed to be sad to an individual but in this case this news is sad to the country if parliament succeeds in the case before courts of law.
Media reports indicate that Obore was terminated following IGGs findings that the parliamentary commission recruited him when he didn’t meet the job qualifications at the time of recruitment which he clearly has at the moment of termination. I will avoid delving into the merits of the case before court to avoid the subjudice rule for this article.
For you to understand this latest development from our house of shame, one needs to go back to Uganda’s employment politics. Jobs in most institutions are not given based on merit but rather relations. In the Obore story, you read a fall-out of the individual with his god fathers who could afford to flaunt recruitment rules to have him employed at all costs. Now they find themselves between a hard place and a rock when their “child “has developed a big head not hiding to their relationship interests. They now want him out at all costs something that we should resist.
Obore in the public eye is a media and communications guru whose mastery in articulation of issues is matched by a few as clearly seen from the short list of candidates when his employer considered to head hunt. Without a doubt, he performed well according to his subsequent confirmation following expiry of his probation period. So what could have absolutely gone wrong for the employer to terminate his services based on history rather than performance?
The parliamentary commission should save its face by retracting this misguided decision in the Obore case in order to restore confidence among members of the public especially thousands who have ever applied for a job and those intending to work with parliament in future. In addition the IGG whose office is under intense criticism for doing everything else apart from its core mandate should also save its left-over image but not making a fool of themselves because limiting if they were half serious their lead into what they call Obore’s faulty recruitment should have extended their investigation into all people /positions recruited by same parliamentary commission , why should we believe the IGG’s report when it went for an individual rather than telling us the role of his employer.
Did the IGG investigate circumstances under which the speaker of parliament recruited a special principle press secretary few days before the termination of Obore. If not, then one can’t be wrong to speculate about personalization of the institution of parliament where employment and termination depend on the whims of the person of the speaker.
This Obore sacking is ridiculous and sad because the employee can never be faulted for the wrongs of his employer. Is parliament and the IGG telling the country that going forward, when you apply for a job, you should put the would be employer to task to provide you with evidence to show that you qualify for the job?
Parliament of Uganda has done many bizarre things without condemnation, this case should not escape our condemnation because it sends a bad precedence that when an employee falls out with an employer at a personal level, the employer will deploy all means possible to have this employee fixed.
The writer is a private citizen
