Kabushenga and Mwanguhya: What their job rejections tells us about elites and their respect for rules

In August, the Parliamentary Commission advertised the position of assistant director, Media and Communication. The vacancy notice clearly stated the academic qualifications.

Applicants had to have two degrees: a master’s degree in communications, public relations, journalism, corporate communication, management or leadership and an honours bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, mass communications, public relations, media studies, or a closely related field.

Academic qualifications for many jobs are essential requirements, unless stated otherwise by recruiters. This means candidates without the qualifications stated in a job advert cannot be considered.

For the position in question, one of the applicants was veteran journalist and NBS TV FrontLine host Charles Mpagi Mwanguhya.

He has two bachelor’s degrees—mass communication and law—but two undergraduate degrees are not the same as an advanced degree.

Mr Mpagi also boasts of decades of professional experience in journalism/media. His background closely corresponded with the job description.

That probably made him confident he was a good fit. Nonetheless, unless long professional experience is equated with an advanced degree by the recruiting organisation, it cannot be considered as an equivalent of a master’s degree.

The selection committee rejected Mr Mpagi’s application, which was only expected. Sometimes job seekers try their luck hoping (against hope) that reviewers of applications might waive some requirements. It seems Mr Mpagi was banking on this.

But there is a problem. Applying for a job you do not exactly qualify for means that you are hoping that the selection committee/hiring manager will choose you over candidates who meet all the qualifications—which smacks of unfairness.

If the vacancy notice does not say, for example, that candidates without an advanced degree but with long professional experience will be considered, why would a candidate applying with only a bachelor’s degree think it is OK for them to be hired?

If they are selected, how can candidates with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree view the selection process as being fair?

Let us look at the matter in another way. Imagine if the Parliamentary Commission stated that applicants had to have only a bachelor’s degree.

Then candidates with master’s degrees apply for the job. By considering them, the selection committee would be ignoring academic qualifications stated in the vacancy notice.

Applicants with bachelor’s degrees can rightly protest the decision to select a candidate with a master’s degree, by alluding to the vacancy notice that stipulates that the position is meant for candidates with only a bachelor’s degree.

Mr Mpagi’s experience is reminiscent of what happened to former Vision Group CEO and coffee farmer Robert Kabushenga.

In 2024, he applied for the position of executive director for the Kampala Capital City Authority. The Public Service Commission advertised the role and it stated clearly: “Applicants should be Ugandans holding an honours bachelor’s degree from a recognised university/institution plus a master’s degree in law or business administration.”

Mr Kabushenga, who has a bachelor’s law degree, applied for the job anyway, emboldened perhaps by his strong background as former CEO of a well-established company. The Public Service Commission rejected his application.

Disappointed—although it is hard to see why he was—he took to X to tell his followers that he had been turned down. He thanked Ugandans who had “expressed their goodwill and support” and shared the rejection notification from the Public Service Commission.

Unlike Mr Kabushenga, Mr Mpagi did not express any disappointment. But the two men’s job search experience shows that while Uganda’s elite want a country where rules and regulations work, they also expect those rules to sometimes be ignored, especially where they have a vested interest.

The two are lawyers by training. They know how words are interpreted. But when they apply for a public service job and expect the selection committee to waive requirements every applicant is supposed to have, it means they are putting their sense of entitlement first. They probably do not care if rules are bent for them to get what they want.

Musaazi Namiti is the Founder and Editorial Director of OJ-UGANDA, on whose website this opinion first appeared ( https://ojuganda.com). He previously led the Africa Desk at Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, worked for Globe Media Asia in Cambodia and writes a widely read column for Uganda’s Weekend Monitor. His work has been quoted by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Jeune Afrique and The Africa Report.

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