Corruption in Museveni’s regime can cause war
By Charles Ochen Okwir
The subject of corruption in Museveni’s government and indeed in Uganda as a whole has hit the headlines once again after our “most beloved” and only visionary President Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni called for national prayers to heal the country from the vice. Great stuff! It reminded me of a TV documentary I watched several months ago and wrote about; simply because it had shaken me to the bone. The program, “Ross Kemp on Gangs”, had just been aired on a Sky TV channel. Ross Kemp, the so-called “Hardman” of British television, basically travels around the world talking to gangsters about their lives and what inspires their lifestyle. From Kenya’s Mungiki, to Somali pirates; he has talked to all of them.
On this particular occasion, he was in Belize City, the capital of Belize. Belize is situated at the mouth of the Belize River on the coast of the Caribbean. No, Belize City is not your typical Caribbean tourist hotspot like Barbados with its clean long sandy beaches. Like most Cities in developing countries, Belize is a City of two halves; one very affluent, and the other as deprived as Kampala’s Makerere Kivulu. With a population of just over 300,000, Belize is not only the smallest country in the Americas but it is also one of the poorest countries on earth.
It also has a reputation for being a major transit point for cocaine trafficked from Colombia to the US. The locals who supply fuel to the cocaine barons [who are in transit] are paid in kilos of cocaine instead of cash. So the mathematics, for once, is very simple for me: Cocaine, guns, poverty plus massive unemployment means it is also one of the most violent places on the planet. The per capita murder rate is five times higher than that of the USA; and 98% of it is gang related.
It is here that Ross Kemp met a young ex-gangster who is paralyzed from the neck downwards; courtesy of a bullet from a rival gang. With a distinct Caribbean accent, the ex-gangster told Ross Kemp: “…I cried for two years, I can’t cry no more. I can’t feel no pain no more. I can’t move, this is my world, right here”; before showing him heart wrenching sores on his hips and buttocks. So where is the proximity factor between this Belize gang story and Uganda’s corruption?
Well, here it is. In the months before this documentary, there had been an incessant flow of sickening corruption stories in Uganda’s newspapers. From Temangalo-gate to the 40billion shillings of taxpayers’ money allegedly lost through Bassajjabalaba’s suspicious property dealings. Then finally, the multi-million dollar scandal that allegedly involved one of the most powerful and most tainted Ministers in Uganda [take a wild guess] came along. All the accused were of course inextricably connected to Museveni’s NRM! But that was only one half of the problem.
The other half was that these despicable corruption stories had finally broken down one Ugandan; a young woman who had previously maintained an arm’s length relationship with Ugandan politics. After a quick glance at the headline story about the latest multi-million dollar corruption scandal, she turned to us at a friend’s house in East London and said: “I got fed up of being angry at the theft in Museveni’s government long ago. I feel really bad that it doesn’t hurt me anymore because I don’t believe it’s going to change, so why bother talking? If I had my way, I would simply fight them”.
Question is: Would it, in your view, be justifiable for her to pick up the proverbial “kitchen sink” and throw it at Museveni’s corrupt regime? I think the jury is still out on that one. What is beyond doubt is that the resignation that was apparent in her statement was exactly like the one I had heard from the paralyzed ex-gangster from Belize. But what struck me even more was the realization that actually, this young Ugandan girl had skipped the political activism phase that most revolutionaries start with and jumped straight into talking about picking up weapons to fight Museveni’s government. For an African woman, that was without doubt a very radical political metamorphosis.
Even more fascinating was the fact that she had not been radicalized by opposition rhetoric but by the unending corrupting in Museveni’s regime. That is patriotism at it best. Strangely though, while a part of me was asking why we couldn’t have many more patriots with that level of passion, the other part was quietly grateful that we don’t; because if we did, Uganda would have gone up in smoke long ago. And the most unfortunate thing is that if that were to happen, then it would be the innocent peasants who would bear the full brunt of that violence while the real thugs are enjoying their loot somewhere in exile. It’s a tough choice; no doubt about that! But it’s also a choice that will have to be made sooner or later.
We all know that corruption is not a victim-less crime. It costs lives; and especially the lives of you the ordinary Ugandans and especially our poor peasant brothers and sisters. You are the ones who die from preventable diseases because some technocrat in the Ministry of Health stole Global Fund money that would have bought life saving malaria drugs for you and your children. You are the ones whose children can’t get good jobs because they went to Museveni’s bogus “bona bakone” UPE schools. You are the same ones who die needlessly in road accidents because some Ministry of Works Engineer corruptly diverted road construction funds to build his swanky hi-tech house in affluent Lubowa. So clearly, you are the biggest victims of corruption in Museveni’s government. The time is ripe for you to think very seriously and carefully about the direct impact that corruption is having on your lives and decide whether or not you want to do something about it right away. Museveni is not, and can never be a valued partner in your daily struggles to merely stay alive. And that is why an insulting and totally bankrupt day of national prayer is the answer for him and his well off friends and relatives.
Charles Okwir is Ugandan Lawyer and Journalist based in the UK
