Politicians enforce respect through titles such as honourable, right honourable and excellency. This is the case in every country on every continent in the world. In democratic or deceptively democratic societies, the politicians acquire the titles through elections or appointment by openly or deceptively elected people.

Whether or not they stole the elections the titles are there for them to take. They value them very much because they create the kind of social stratification that allows them to do certain things beyond public scrutiny.

Honourables in politics include the elected legislators (members of legislative assemblies, and members of parliament) and heads of government (the prime minister, union ministers, chief ministers, deputy chief ministers and governors) as well as leaders at the local level. They are all formally called honourable followed by their name. The president and his or her vice-president is often referred to as his excellency or her excellency.

some like the speaker of parliament or legislative assembly and his deputy speaker are called right honourables.

The titles are specifically used as a sign of respect and authority. However, it has become increasingly clear that these titles are often misplaced, considering the behavior and actions of many individuals who bear them (Kudzayi Mutisi, 2025). In Uganda, the Honourables and Right Honourables have been accused may have been accused of corruption, land grabbing, drug trafficking, human trafficking, organ trafficking and stealing of the mineral wealth and tree wealth of the country for self-gratification financially.

Others may have used violence and fear to become Honourables, for example. The African continent is punctuated with people who committed genocide but became honourables, right honourables and excellencies, and violence and fear-sowing became their trade mark. They never stopped being agents of concealed genocide.

The sowing of violence and fear may have resulted in the overthrow of another political regime atop numerous skulls, but that does not deny them the titles or being addressed using those titles by the people they rule or give favours to. In fact, violence and fear are frequently used as a strategy in elections to scare as many people as possible away from ballot boxes or electoral stations so that the results are determined for them by those in power rather than the electoral commission. This makes the elections deceptive.

Even when they deny others their entitlements such as employment, education, transport, medicines, and various opportunities such serving as soldiers, police officers or business people etc, they retain their titles of honourable, right honourable and excellency. They will retain the tiles even if they are central to generating divisions and conflicts along ethnic lines. They will retain the titles even when they are central to environmental degradation and environmental poverty in their countries, or to construction of unsustainable infrastructures and giving political support to them, resulting in failed development.

The continued use of titles like excellency, honourable or right honourable often serves to shield politicians from public scrutiny. These designations create an environment of deference that undermines the accountability that is essential in a functioning democracy (Kudzayi Mutisi, 2025). Without accountability dedemocratisation overshoots democratisation. Elections, for example, will be marred by militarisation and killings of the voters, and the voters will instead be blamed for the militarisation and killings.

Kudzayi Mutisi (2025) has reasoned that citizens are discouraged from challenging the status quo or questioning decision-making processes when those in power are afforded such lofty titles. The practice perpetuates a culture of [political] elitism, where politicians become disconnected from the realities faced by the ordinary people.

Instead of serving their constituents, many politicians prioritise their interests, leading to an erosion of public confidence and trust. In fact, in Uganda the President never stops to tell the citizens that it is interests, not identities, that matter. And those interests, are increasingly the interests of His Excellency the President, the Honourables, Right Honourables, Indians, Chinese, Banyarwanda and their households and other foreigners, including refugees and those connected to them.

The words encapsulate the sentiment of many who feel that their leaders are more focused on looting public resources than on serving the public good (Kudzayi Mutisi, 2025). By refraining from using “Excellency” and “Honourable,” “Right Honourable” we can send a clear message that respect is not a given but must be earned through actions and integrity. This change can also empower citizens to hold their leaders accountable (Kudzayi Mutisi, 2025). 

Without the protective barrier of titles, politicians may be more inclined to act in the best interest of their constituents, knowing that they are being observed and judged based on their behavior rather than their title. We can work towards a brighter future for the country, one where respect is earned through service, not bestowed by title. should serve as a rallying cry for the accountability and justice that our nation so desperately needs.

One thing is true. Politicians need not be honourables, excellencies or right honourables.  A Right Honourable, an Honorable or an Excellency should be a one who believes in truth and doing the right thing – and tries to live up to those high principles.

Most politicians are not people of principles or morals or ethics, and tend to fall prey to telling lies and sowing seeds of violence and fear to stay in politics. In this case they should not be referred to as Honourables, Right Honourables or Excellencies at all.

Uganda’s sociopolitical landscape repeatedly reveals that politicians (some politicomilitary) engage in all sorts of scandals driven by greed and selfishness. Greedy, selfish people cannot be Honourables, Right Honourables or Excellencies.   It is possible that when the designers of the Uganda Constitution 1995 described the holder of the post of President as Fountain of Honour, they had this in mind. However, they did not bother to think about the possibility that the holder of the office of President could behave or act un-honourably as President or as an individual while constitutionally cast as the Fountain of Honour.

There are structural flaws in supposedly democratic society, which enable politicians to lie. There are also structural flaws to the conditions, which cause lies to be “necessary” (e.g. Ramsay and Cliffe, 2010). In other words, political deception appears to predominate the sociopolitical landscape of a country. Dixon (2018) cites former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s ‘dishonourable deception’ over Iraq cast a shadow over his ‘honourable deceptions’ to bring peace to Northern Ireland. A political landscape burdened by political deception is also likely to be burdened by honourable insults, right honourable insults and excellency insults of other politicians or even the constituents who supposedly vote to determine leadership and governance of a country. If institutions are broken down, such insults will characterise the communications of the leaders and governors.

Akuffo-Addo (2017) said that if we want to strengthen institutions in democratic governance and one of the ways is that public figure, political leaders are seen to be men of their words, not liars, not people who will say anything to get into office, or remain in office. There can be no democracy and respect where political office is converted into a lucrative job, as is now the case in Uganda. We have recently been treated to witnessing the degradation of the parliament of Uganda, where His Excellency the President agreed that he had given each Member of Parliament Ush100 million, ostensibly in appreciation of what they had done to make life easy for him, while giving each Parish in Uganda only Ush100 million for development under the Parish Development Model.

Charity Agaba (2024), in her article ‘Shaping a New Type of Honourable’ published in the Daily Monitor of July 12 2024 recognised that the title ‘honourable’ has traditionally represented integrity and commanded respect. She recognised that historically being referred to as honourable was to signify ethical conduct, accountability to constituents and commitment to legislative responsibility. She could as well have written another one ‘Shaping a New Right Honourable’ and another ‘Shaping a New Excellency’.

Unfortunately, most honourables today are being associated with corruption, electoral misconduct and self-serving conduct and most are liars (Akuffo-Addo, 2017). On the other hand, many politicians live hypocritical lives (Bamuturaki Musinguzi, 2020) and many are villains with the title Honourable (e.g., Kılınç, 2021) and are sectarianising the country while advocating non-sectarianism (e.g. Kılınç, 2021). In Uganda, many Honourables, Right Honourables interact with their constituents far less that the president does. They are known more by the President who uses them to achieve his political ends, than by their constituents who lose genuine representation in Parliament to the President. This is a case of political disorientation in service of power achieving disconnection of leaders from the led.

What should be the way out?

There is need for the leaders to be genuine leaders rather than political and resources dealers. Our politicians are the business people and more or less own us and everything in a country to our detriment. This is the main reason they have to use violence and fear to remain in their political offices. They know once they lose power they lose everything, they grabbed from us. They know they will be asked for accountability they failed to show while in power. They must change and be committed to the political, social and economic development of the people in Africa in general and Uganda in particular. So far so bad.

Most important, there is need to shift from Political Honourables, Political Right Honourables and Political Excellencies to Environmental Honourables, Environmental Right Honourables. The shift from political honourables, traditionally focusing on government and policy, to environmental honourables signifies a growing recognition of the importance of environmental protection and sustainable practices in all the dimensions of the environment (ecological-biological, socioeconomic, sociocultural and temporal).

This transition involves acknowledging the environmental implications of political decisions and integrating ecological concerns into policymaking. It also highlights the need for leadership and advocacy in environmental issues, with prominent figures in the field of environment becoming prominent in political leadership and governance locally, nationally, continentally and globally. Environmental politics should supersede political politics.

Currently there are virtually no environmentalists in the diplomatic circles, yet meaningful peace and security is not military but environmental in all dimensions of the environment.

“Environmental honourables”, environmental right honourables and environmental excellencies typically refer to individuals or groups recognised for their outstanding contributions to environmental protection and sustainability. These can include politicians, activists, researchers, or business leaders who have demonstrated exceptional dedication to the environment.

The terms are often used in the context of awards or accolades that acknowledge significant environmental achievements. However, the terms should now carry political weigh if we are to make any headway in development (particularly environmental development) this Century and beyond.

The policies and decisions of orthodox reasons are the reason why we are making no progress in environmental conservation, security building, peace building, freedom building, democracy building and justice building in Africa in general and Uganda in particular.

For God and my country.

• A Tell report / By Oweyegha-Afunaduula / Environmental Historian and Conservationist Centre for – Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis (CCTAA), Seeta, Mukono, Uganda.

About the Centre for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis (CCTAA)

The CCTAA was innovated by Hyuha Mukwanason, Oweyegha-Afunaduula and Mahir Balunywa in 2019 to the rising decline in the capacity of graduates in Uganda and beyond to engage in critical thinking and reason coherently besides excellence in academics and academic production. The three scholars were convinced that after academic achievement the world outside the ivory tower needed graduates that can think critically and reason coherently towards making society and the environment better for human gratification. They reasoned between themselves and reached the conclusion that disciplinary education did not only narrow the thinking and reasoning of those exposed to it but restricted the opportunity to excel in critical thinking and reasoning, which are the ultimate aim of education. They were dismayed by the truism that the products of disciplinary education find it difficult to tick outside the boundaries of their disciplines; that when they provide solutions to problems that do not recognise the artificial boundaries between knowledges, their solutions become the new problems. They decided that the answer was a new and different medium of learning and innovating, which they characterised as “The Centre for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis” (CCTAA).For God and my country.