MASEREKA EDISON

Back in 2013, Ssemujju Nganda gave a speech and demonstrated how NRM had turned citizens into beggars.. he said: "At the time, I travelled to Karamoja with the parliamentary committee on the National Economy to assess the viability of four projects which, if properly implemented, had the potential to turn around this sub-region. These included a high-voltage industrial power line from Soroti to Moroto, rural electrification, paving the Muyembe-Namalu-Moroto road, and the establishment of an agricultural zone with piped water, power, functional schools, and hospitals—much like the millennium model villages. The government had presented to Parliament requests to borrow more than $100 million to finance these projects. The committee on the National Economy, of which I was a member, was responsible for scrutinising these loan requests on behalf of Parliament, but of course, it had turned itself into a rubber stamp. The bulk of those loans were to be obtained from the Islamic Development Bank. Contrary to what our visionary leader kept telling the country, we were still a very poor country that relied on loans for its major infrastructural developments. You could point to any project, and I would tell you where the money came from. We had borrowed a trillion shillings from China for the Entebbe express highway, $100 million from the EU to expand the Northern Bypass and construct the Mbarara bypass, $80 million for the Karamoja high-voltage line, and over $100 million for the Bujagali-Kawanda-Masaka power line. Even short stretches of Kampala roads like Bukoto-Kisaasi and Kawempe-Ttula were constructed on borrowed money. That is why our total debt portfolio had skyrocketed to nearly $6 billion, having previously been reduced to about $1.5 billion in 2006. Uganda’s annual budget then was about $4.5 billion. The bulk of the money that we raised locally was turned into pocket change by our leaders. It was mainly local revenue that they packed in sacks and boxes and distributed to various groups. Packing money in sacks and boxes had become a full-time job for Brig. Proscovia Nalweyiso at State House Entebbe. African strongmen don’t respect fellow citizens, but they respect white people. That is why when about Shs 40 billion in donor money was misappropriated under the nose of then-Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, our visionary leader repaid it using our taxes. The features of corruption were highly visible in Karamoja. Local MPs showed us three-bedroomed houses constructed using Peace Recovery Development Plan (PRDP) donor money, each costed at Shs 300 million. Visibly, each of these houses couldn't have been constructed for more than Shs 50 million, but the Office of the Prime Minister spent Shs 300 million on each. My hope was that when we finally approved those loans, the scavengers would not feast on them. That particular visit was my second to Karamoja and the farthest I had ever moved into the sub-region. Karamoja, until this government came into power, was a region of two districts: Moroto and Kotido. By then, it had been chopped into seven districts: Kaabong, Abim, Amudat, Napak, Nakapiripirit, and the original two. The 2002 census had put the population of Karamoja at 882,881. The same census put Wakiso at 907,988 and Kampala at 1.1 million. Yet Karamoja was represented by seven women MPs, while Wakiso and Kampala had one each. Obviously, you could understand why there were more NRM MPs than opposition in Parliament. That was a subject for a separate discussion on how the visionary used constituency gerrymandering to create artificial numbers in Parliament. But that short visit exposed me to some grave happenings in Karamoja that we needed to address together as a country. At Lolengedwat sub-county in Amudat district, we bumped into a group of mothers who had taken their children for immunisation. Each mother would be given some posho in return for bringing their child. I was then told that, actually, for them to do the right things, the Karimojong had to first be bribed. Children who attended classes were given cooking oil and other items just to stay at school. Many of the Karimojong you met on the way would raise their hands to ask for something or point at their mouths to inform you they wanted something to eat or drink. No wonder Karimojong children became experts at begging on Kampala streets. I was no expert on Karamoja and couldn't claim vast knowledge just from one or two visits, but I detest begging. 'Project, project, project,' was slowly becoming a Karimojong word, even among their educated leaders. And because they 'voted wisely,' nobody was forcing them to grow food for their own consumption; instead, the World Food Programme and UNICEF were expected to provide. At a nearby UPDF unit in Lolengedwat, soldiers had grown everything from watermelon and tomatoes to maize. Meanwhile, the neighbours were waiting for the World Food Programme to feed them. As a result, more than 50 people starved to death. Yes, someone had to go slow on the Karimojong, but we needed to force them to grow food rather than encourage them to beg. We didn’t have to be iron-fisted, but we needed to provide leadership and stop being opportunistic. The government needed to concentrate on paving roads, extending electricity, and providing other social services. In Karamoja, we were providing food, and in other areas, sacks of money. I argued then that we had to stop that nonsense."