Fourth appearance on Radio Munansi
Greetings fellow Ugandans and friends
In this session I wish to share with you why in Uganda land is life and cannot be sold or leased to outsiders as is being done by NRM government.
1. Every human being needs land for a house, factory, recreation, garden, final resting place or a combination of all these functions.
2. Thus, every Ugandan whether educated, urban dweller, wage earner or not should have a piece of land. President Museveni stressed this point of land ownership when he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 23, 2008. He stated that in Uganda all families own land. This point was well received by the audience.
3. Land ownership is especially vital for those who do not have non-agricultural skills.
4. Based on how an urban area is defined, some 90 percent of Ugandans still derive their livelihood from land.
5. The issue of land occupied the attention of colonial authorities. After serious debate between London and Entebbe taking into consideration the failure of European plantation agriculture in the 1920s, the colonial administration decided that Uganda’s land would be owned and worked virtually by Uganda peasants.
6. Foreigners would be confined to urban areas or in very exceptional cases would be leased a small piece of land for sugar cane and tea plantations. Sugar would be produced primarily for domestic consumption.
7. Our deep gratitude goes to British colonial authorities for their wise decision to leave Uganda land overwhelmingly in the hands of peasants.
8. Since that time Uganda peasants have produced export commodities and food crops for domestic consumption with surplus (over and above domestic consumption needs) for sale in external markets.
9. All post independence governments have respected the centrality of peasants in Uganda’s agriculture and rural development.
10. Even the comprehensive NRM economic reforms launched in 1987 wisely excluded land from privatization, outright commercialization and foreign ownership. Land tenure and use have remained anchored on peasants or small holder farmers who have continued to grow export and food crops – to feed their families and generate income for other basic needs like education, health care, housing and clothing.
11. Because Uganda’s education system has not produced skills outside agriculture, land has remained the single most reliable asset and source of wealth and security for those without non-agricultural skills. For this category of Ugandans one can easily say that “Land is Life”.
12. As Ugandans know, most jobs outside agriculture have been taken by foreigners including from neighboring Kenya leaving over 80 percent of Uganda youth unemployed. The youth of Uganda must be angry at this blatant violation of their right to work.
13. NRM government cannot escape responsibility and accountability for this very serious employment deficit. Museveni as head of state and government created this problem by the policies he adopted including privatization of public enterprises and opening Uganda’s economy to unfair competition resulting in loss of jobs. He has refused advice on how to address unemployment challenges. Where he is recently reported to have expressed concern about unemployment problem he is just shedding crocodile tears. Marginalization and impoverishment of Ugandans including through unemployment has been Museveni’s strategy to create a docile population that is easy to govern. Immigrant workers he has attracted do not pose a political challenge to his rule.
14. As an aside, it is important to note that Museveni has deliberately destroyed learning institutions because “Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave” (Andrew Clapham 2007).
15. Cheap imports like second hand clothes have outcompeted domestic textile and apparel industries resulting in de-industrialization and job losses.
16. Immigration policy has also resulted in many Uganda skilled jobs going to foreigners.
17. Thus, a combination of liberal economic, social and immigration policies as well as slow economic growth have resulted in far fewer jobs than demand.
18. The outcome is that over 80 percent of Uganda youth are unemployed. Those that have some work are underemployed or suffer disguised unemployment and earn below or subsistence wages under very poor working conditions.
19. Unlike other governments in developed and developing countries Museveni has refused to launch public works to absorb the unemployed and to establish adequate vocational training facilities to impart skills relevant to the 21st century’s global economy that is knowledge-based.
20. Therefore, without non-agricultural skills land remains the only asset that we have for present and future generations. Consequently, Ugandans must retain every inch of it.
21. However, NRM government sees the role of land differently. It wants to sell or lease it to foreigners using a wrong reason that Uganda peasants are not productive and efficient.
22. Yet, there is indisputable scientific evidence that small holder farmers including Ugandans when facilitated with credit and extension services are more productive, efficient, environmentally and socially friendly than large scale farmers. The international community including the World Bank has recognized the critical role of peasants in agricultural development and so should our government.
23. Another point to stress at this juncture is that communal or cooperative farming which has been discredited under the NRM government works very well under favorable conditions.
24. For example Israel through communal or cooperative farming has inter alia made the desert bloom. Similarly, Uganda peasants are capable of doing the same under the right and supportive leadership which NRM is not.
25. With adequate assistance and committed leadership Uganda peasants have the potential to increase productivity and efficiency to meet domestic demand and generate substantial surplus for export taking into consideration environmental and social concerns.
26. Ugandans should not let any government sell their land to foreigners – Africans or non-Africans – whether within or without the East African economic integration and political federation framework. Keeping Uganda’s land for Uganda’s children is the right thing to do under the circumstances.
27. Large scale farms use environmentally harmful and labor–saving machines and chemicals and displace settled communities and produce for export. Ugandans should stand firm and together in opposing any government that attempts to transfer land from Ugandans to foreigners.
28. Finally, NRM’s demographic and land policies are contradictory. On one hand poor Ugandans are being urged or forced to practice birth control because of limited resources such as land against increasing number of mouths to feed. On the other hand, Museveni is stating that Uganda has so much unoccupied fertile land implying it should be sold or leased to foreigners. Museveni appears bent more on a demographic and economic metamorphosis of Uganda dominated by immigrants and foreign-owned large scale crop and herding economy than indigenous population and small holder agriculture. This is simply unacceptable.
29. In Africa decolonization was bloody in areas of white settlement such as Algeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa because African freedom was based on getting land back. To avoid a recurrence of bloody fights over land ownership Uganda’s land must not be sold or leased to non-Ugandans even within the context of East African economic integration and political federation.
30. Peasants in the Roman Empire produced food crops for domestic consumption. Unfavorable market conditions forced them to sell their land to large scale farmers who switched from producing food crops to grazing cattle and sheep and growing olives and grapes for rich families. Peasants ran short of food and their population declined. Rome was unable to recruit for the army and was eventually invaded and defeated by barbarians.
31. In Uganda sale of land to large scale foreign farmers will result in switching from producing food for domestic consumption into large scale agriculture including cattle and goat herding as well as cut flowers for families abroad. Animals that eat grass produce lean meat that is more popular in developed countries than meat from animals that feed on grains. Ugandans will run short of food leading to a decline in their population with foreigners taking over as happened in Rome, thereby creating another Ivory Coast on the Africa soil.
32. These are serious developments under Museveni’s rule. Museveni is ready to sell Uganda land to sustain foreign support for his personal gain. He wants to become the first head of the East African political federation as an integral part of his Tutsi Empire dream.
33. Fellow Ugandans time has come to take charge of our destiny with a helping hand of our friends around the world. Museveni reversed the order when he put foreigners in charge of Uganda’s destiny in effect re-colonizing Uganda. For all intents and purposes Uganda is a neo-colony.
34. Museveni who was imposed on Uganda and sustained in large part by western support does not fit the profile of leaders that must listen and serve the interests of the people. His rule by default must end.
35. February 18, 2011 offers a golden and unique opportunity to elect a new president who will listen and not dictate to the people of Uganda. Let events in North Africa serve as a guide.
36. Let us change the government through the ballot box and avoid bloodshed.
37. The choice is yours. Remember: your vote is your birth right. It is not for sale. Use it wisely to preserve Uganda land for present and future generations.
38. Thank you for your kind attention.