Late at night on Friday December 14 in Uganda’s capital Kampala, came news of the sudden death of a Member of Parliament, Cerinah Nebanda of Butaleja district.

Ms Nebanda was a member of the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement.

Usually the announcement would have sent shock waves through society, especially because she had died so young, and then people would have turned their attention to the formalities that go with bidding farewell to deceased members of the country’s political and politically-connected elite: church services, official viewing of the body in parliament, and official funeral arrangements. Nebanda, however, was no ordinary MP because of both her age and conduct in parliament.

She was barely 23 years old and fresh out of university when she joined parliament. In Uganda’s age-obsessed society, where wisdom and courage are associated with how old a person is, she was something of an anomaly. Few expected her to do more than simply fill a space in the House and quietly toe the party line. They were to be disappointed.

The young woman went on to display courage and independent-mindedness of a kind not common among ruling party MPs.

As a result of her willingness to defy party positions when she felt they made no sense or were against the interests of her constituents or the country at large, she joined the small band of “rebel MPs” who have made life as difficult for the NRM as have their opposition counterparts.

Given Uganda’s long history of cloak and dagger politics, some members of the public have long believed that “something” would happen to these MPs, who are seen by some as commendably public spirited and by others as self-obsessed, distracting and disruptive attention-seekers.

It was in keeping with this view that the announcement of Nebanda’s death mainly raised the question “who” and not “what” had killed her.

It did not help matters that her demise followed a controversial debate in parliament about how Uganda’s oil resources and the expected revenue should be managed.

Nebanda had openly taken a position different from that favoured by the executive and a sizeable number of her fellow ruling-party MPs. And so the story became “she has been killed,” apparently as a warning to other rebels. It goes to show the degree of mistrust the government and its leadership evoke among sections of the population.

Truth be told, lack of trust in government among ordinary people is hardly surprising given the many promises politicians make and never keep, and the frequent scandals or questionable activities they get caught up in.

It assumes different dimensions, however, when people such as Members of Parliament, including those from the ruling party, display the same untrusting behaviour towards a government they are supposed to be supporting.

Which is what has become evident as the government has struggled to distance itself from the young MP’s death.

Meanwhile, growing numbers of influential public figures have cast doubt on the government’s innocence and claims, doubts that have been compounded by seemingly politically motivated actions of the police, including arresting a pathologist involved in investigating the cause of Nebanda’s death, threatening and moving to arrest a number of rebel MPs and, allegedly attempting to manipulate Nebanda’s family into accepting their own version of events.

And as the police and the government have fought to minimise the impact of the public’s mistrust in their intentions and actions, questions have arisen about the degree to which the Inspector-General of Police trusts his own officers and police systems.

As soon as Nebanda’s death was announced, General Kale Kayihura was among the first people to arrive at the health facility where the body had been taken and to announce what the police was doing and what leads they were following.

It is not the first time he seems to take over the functions of specialist investigative officers and those of the police spokesperson whenever major incidents happen.

Which raises the question: Does he trust them to do a good job without hovering in the background or looking over their shoulders? If not, why does he not trust them and why, therefore, should members of the public or even MPs?

The issue of mistrust among the political elite and between some of them and agents of the state, is a much-neglected subject in discussions about politics and public life in Uganda. Ms Nebanda’s death has shown how potentially destabilising it is.

Frederick Golooba-Mutebi is a Kampala- and Kigali-based researcher and writer on politics and public affairs. E-mail: [email protected]