It may sound mean but it is very true! Before you call me ‘sectarian and tribal hater’, look at the record. Some Ugandans have developed a habit of drawing negative conclusions when they do not like what they are reading. They do not even bother to rebut but are quick to blame the author and question the motive. When you speak the truth, they call you a divider and other outrageous names and/or threaten to silence you or members of your family.
We are not going to solve Uganda’s problems without a serious critical analysis of what is going on and how it has come about. When people genuinely ask whether or not Museveni is a true human being or a true Ugandan it shows the gravity of the challenges they are facing under his regime. I have done research focusing on poor people in remote rural area and I know what I am talking about. Those who disagree let them present their facts. When an increasing number of Ugandans is telling you that on balance Amin was better than Museveni what does that tell you. Obote is already a hero in most parts of the country especially for his work in the 1960s. Friends of mine who were totally opposed to Obote are now softening because they have compared his record and that of Museveni. The level of the standard of living set by Obote in 1970 has not been approached under 25 years of Museveni misrule.
When I wrote an article on ‘How Rujumbura’s Bairu got impoverished’, a senior government official who has known me very well for many years approached me in a personal capacity and wondered why I had written such a disturbing article that could cause me trouble with the authorities. I told him that it was not my article. It was the article by the poor people of Rujumbura who wrote it through me! He was not convinced. I challenged him to visit Rujumbura and wander a short distance from the main road and photograph the conditions of the people and how they are living. As a principled man he indeed visited Rujumbura. Upon his return he confirmed that what I had written was correct.
As I have written in an earlier article posted on www.kashambuzi.com, Museveni believes that it is easier to govern unemployed, illiterate, sick, drunkard and impoverished people. That is why he continues to export food when mothers and children are starving to death. He refuses to provide lunches when children are dropping out of school because they are hungry. He refuses to improve hospitals that are increasingly turning into hospices. Do some of you still remember an article by a nurse in the children’s ward at Mulago hospital who wrote that she was trained to help patients recover and not to see them die for lack of medicines and supplies?
There was a Summit at the United Nations General Assembly in 2008 to discuss how the rising prices of food had affected consumers in the world. Museveni shocked the whole world when he said in two meetings – one specifically on Africa and the other in the United Nations General Assembly Hall – that Uganda was very happy with food price rise because farmers like him had become very rich!
Here is what he said officially (a better version of what he said orally) in the General Assembly Hall on September 23, 2008 “As far as Uganda is concerned, apart from the lazy ones, the only groups that are adversely affected [by high food prices] are salary earners in towns. Unlike farmers, they cannot benefit from the higher food prices. Yet they must buy food. Fortunately, however, all these families in Uganda have a dual capacity. Apart from being salary earners, they also own land in rural areas or their relatives do. They can, therefore, subsidize themselves through growing food using this land. Africa and other agriculture-based economies should rise up, utilize their full potential and take advantage of the high food prices”.
After the meeting, I discreetly checked whether the president was not properly briefed because the meeting was about the adverse impact of rising food prices on consumers and not producers. It was confirmed by three sources that he had been advised appropriately but he chose to speak as he did. Basically, Museveni dismissed the argument that rising food prices had adversely affected Uganda food consumers because they can in one way or another reduce food prices.
Museveni took advantage of stabilization and structural adjustment which was imposed on Uganda to impoverish the people. He adopted the extreme version (shock therapy) of structural adjustment with severe conditionality (after he had taken thirty percent of Ugandans’ savings as conversion charge for the new currency against the advice of IMF) that made life miserable for Uganda people except his family members, relatives, in-laws and friends. He was fully aware that Ghana had rejected shock therapy version after five years of implementation because it had caused serious hardship. He knew the donors would not fault him because he was implementing the option they recommended. He was implicitly allowed to beef up security forces to prevent riots against structural adjustment.
The stabilization part with harsh conditionality (a belt tightening phase) was expected to last three to five years after which the country would enter the economic and social development phase. Since 1987 when structural adjustment was launched Uganda is still in the stabilization phase characterized by controlling inflation through high interest rates, retrenchment of civil servants, reduction or elimination of subsidies and increased exports to earn foreign exchange and retire outstanding external debt.
Although structural adjustment was abandoned officially as Uganda’s development model in 2009, in practice Uganda has continued to implement stabilization program. Recently a central bank official stated that Uganda will continue to maintain low inflation at 5 percent per annum, meaning that interest rates will continue to be very high to discourage borrowing and investment (to limit the quantity of money in the economy) in business that creates jobs.
Museveni whose intention is to stay in power for life and hand over to his handpicked relative when time comes knows that keeping Ugandans poor is good politics for him. Accordingly, keeping Ugandans drunkard and out of school, watching naked movies and praying throughout the night, hungry and insane and criminals that end up in jail ties in very well with his long term strategic plan. You can see how his plan is working with the unemployed youth during the current campaigns. He has given them a yellow shirt each and ordered them to campaign for him by harassing his opponents and the youth are very happy to comply.
Museveni believes that Ugandans are afraid of soldiers and get intimidated very easily. That is why although he retired from the military he insisted he must wear his military uniform when he is challenged. That is why when he wants to scare Ugandans he speaks with his eyes protruding out of the sockets. This is not the Uganda way of behavior. Now that he is sensing defeat, he has started talking about mobilizing armed forces to scare those who oppose him into either voting for him or staying away on elections day. So when Ugandans ask whether Museveni is a Ugandan or foreigner, they probably have a point. And instead of silencing them, Museveni should demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt whether he is a citizen by birth or naturalization (and where exactly he was born) and the matter would end there. Ugandans have a right to know and must receive accurate answers. It is their inalienable right to know who their leader is. Politicians and others must therefore stop muzzling Ugandans from asking questions when in doubt.