Tag Archives: between

The difference between Uganda development processes and outcomes

As we assess Uganda’s progress over the last fifty years of independence, we need to draw a distinction between processes and real outcomes. Often governments have recorded processes as outcomes thereby giving themselves underserved credit. Let me clarify with a few illustrations beginning with gender which is a cross-cutting issue.

We all know that Uganda girls and women face serious challenges. In order to address them, NRM government set up a ministry of gender and has until the recent cabinet reshuffle appointed a woman as minister in charge of gender affairs. The creation of the ministry of gender should not be recorded as an outcome but as part of a process towards addressing gender challenges. In order to get to real outcomes we need to ask to what extent has the ministry helped to reduce maternal mortality and domestic violence; empower women through education and gainful employment to take independent decisions that affect the quality of their lives. That way you can measure real outcomes.

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Differences between NRM and UDU development priorities

There are sharp differences between NRM and UDU development priorities.

1. For NRM urban and export-oriented economic growth and earning hard currency come first. This is a top-down approach where the people come last through a trickledown mechanism which sadly has not worked since it was introduced in 1987. Furthermore, NRM policy has focused on services in urban areas especially Kampala and its vicinity generating 70 percent of Gross National Income (GNI) with a population of less than 2 million out of 34 million Ugandans. NRM policy is designed to service external markets with food and raw materials first. For UDU Ugandans come first. The majority of Ugandans (over 85 percent) who are poor and unemployed live in rural areas. UDU will therefore formulate a bottom-up and pro-poor economic growth program based on agriculture and rural development (agro-processing, infrastructure such as roads – focusing on constructing permanent bridges with central government support – and affordable energy) thereby serving the people first and directly. In contrast to NRM food production will meet the needs of Uganda first and surplus will be exported to neighboring countries and beyond. With planned increased productivity, Uganda will have enough food for domestic consumption and increase exports. Under NRM policy food exports have undermined supplies for domestic consumption especially of proteins which are exported in beans and fish. Eating non-nutritious foodstuffs such as cassava and maize has resulted in neurological disabilities and insanity, undermining human capital formation.

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What lessons can Uganda learn from the French Revolution?

Uganda has entered a phase of intense debate about its future which is commendable because everyone has a chance to express their opinions provided it is done in a civil manner (threats and calling names are counterproductive) to produce constructive outcomes for every Ugandan. As the debate continues it may be useful to draw lessons from history because what Uganda is going through is not new. Conflicts between governors and the governed over political, economic, social, cultural and spiritual matters have happened before. The French Revolution (1789-99) seems a good place to start. As you read the following paragraphs try to see if there are similarities to what is happening in Uganda.

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Similarities between Yoweri Museveni and Oliver Cromwell

The people of Uganda are beginning to take a probing interest in Uganda’s politics. But I wonder whether we understand the potential dangers ahead. The 2011 elections have introduced worrying elements particularly the participation of foreigners in Uganda’s electoral process. If this practice is not stopped, we could easily have an Ivory Coast situation in 2016.

The purpose of this contribution is to compare Oliver Cromwell who started off as a liberator and ended up as one of the worst dictators with absolute power and intolerance of opponents. Let us briefly review conditions that led to the emergence of Cromwell as the Lord Protector of a republican government in England.

The Stuart kings succeeded the Tudor kings of England who had been very careful in dealing with parliament and succeeded in hiding their absolutism. King James I, the first Stuart King of England, subscribed to the doctrine of the divine right of kings and lectured to parliament about it. James wrote “The state of monarchy is the supreme thing on earth” and kings “sit upon God’s throne”. He added that “as to dispute what God may do is blasphemy, so is it sedition … to dispute what a king may do” (N. Barber 2006). Parliament objected to absolute monarchy.

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Comparison between Museveni and British colonial chiefs in Uganda

The comments and questions I am receiving from readers of my books and blog have rekindled hope that Uganda might exit from the current neo-colonial, private sector dominated and market oriented model to a truly poverty-reduction paradigm based on building viable and lasting institutions and infrastructure (rather than governments and individual leaders) and promoting public and private partnership. But for this to happen, leaders in Uganda must have a different political economy profile from those in power today.

Museveni has failed the people of Uganda and pleased his western sponsors because he has had two conflictingstrategies. On the one hand, he has told Ugandans the right things such as transformation of Uganda’s economy through industrialization and improving the living standards of all Ugandans etc. On the other hand, he has in practice implemented what western powers have demanded – integrating Uganda into a global market economy embodied in the Washington Consensus (WC) similar to what Britain demanded during the colonial period. The WC model requires Uganda leadership to adopt policies and strategies similar to those in the colonial days under the indirect rule system. In essence Museveni has behaved like an indirect rule chief under the direction of western powers including the World Bank, IMF and especially Britain. Let us review a few examples to show that Museveni has served western and not Ugandan interests.

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Is intermarriage with Bahororo women part of a political game?

Politics is the art of gaining and retaining power by any means. In the great lakes region (southwest Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and eastern DRC), intermarriage between Batutsi, Bahororo, Bahima and Banyamulenge (pastoralists) on the one hand and Bahutu and Bairu (cultivators) on the other hand was extremely rare in pre and colonial times. On those rare occasions, a king or chief would give a woman to a good warrior or promising leader from cultivators as his wife. The husband would then be ‘tutsified’ and abandon his ancestral roots. The main purpose of this intermarriage was to deprive cultivators of men of leadership quality. Cultivators would thus remain leaderless and politically powerless.

Before proceeding with the story of intermarriage with Bahororo women, let me explain the relationship between Batutsi, Bahima, Bahororo and Banyamulenge, and the term ‘tutsified’ which appear to have caused confusion in my previous articles.

1. Batutsi is an umbrella word from which Bahima, Bahororo and Banyamulenge spring. According to Gerard Prunier (1995) and Linda de Hoyos (1997) Bahima are a clan of Batutsi.

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The relationship between Kagame and Museveni raises a fundamental question

Is Kagame a Muhororo like Museveni?

When an individual becomes a public figure citizens have a right to know who this person is and who his close allies are within and without the country. Because of the close relationship between Kagame and Museveni since the 1981-85 guerrilla war in Uganda, it is rumored that Presidents Kagame and Museveni of Rwanda and Uganda respectively belong to the Bahororo group of Nilotic people whose Luo-speaking and cattle herder ancestors entered the great lakes region from Bahr el Ghazal of southern Sudan.

Bahororo are Batutsi from Rwanda who under the leadership of Kahaya Rutindangyenzi of Bashambo clan founded the Kingdom of Mpororo in north-north-east of contemporary Rwanda and most of south-west Ankole in mid-17th century (Karugire 1980; Ehret 2002 and Chretien 2006). Before Mpororo kingdom was founded the area was occupied by Bantu people. All the people of Mpororo kingdom (Bantu ‘agriculturalists’and Nilotic Batutsi cattle herders) became Bahororo (the people of Mpororo kingdom).

Because of internal feuds the kingdom disintegrated within one hundred years. Bahororo cattle herders who came from Rwanda lost their special political positions in an overwhelmingly Bantu population and many returned to Rwanda where prospects were better. Others remained in former Mpororo kingdom or got scattered in Uganda and possibly beyond.

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In politics there is no permanent situation

Reading stories about broken promises between NRM and Buganda that were reached during the bush war in Uganda (1981-86) has reminded me what I learned in international relations classes: in politics there is no permanent situation and the enemy of your enemy is your friend. When the common enemy is gone as Obote did in 1985 the situation changed. And Baganda should have known that and adjusted accordingly.

During the Cold War Mobutu Sese Seko was an enemy of Communism which was the enemy of capitalism. Therefore Mobutu and capitalist Belgium, France and USA became friends throughout the Cold War period because they had one common enemy – Communism. With Communism out of the way in 1990 the situation changed. Mobutu who had been protected twice against rebel attacks and was showered with foreign assistance and diplomatic niceties was left to fend for himself when Angola, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda forces attacked in 1996. Mobutu was defeated, fled the country and died in exile. His own trusted troops attempted to assassinate him at Kinshasa and Gbadolite airports when they realized that the situation which had kept them together had changed. He narrowly escaped in a cargo plane, fled the country and died in exile a few months later.

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Similarities in suffering between Rujumbura’s Bairu and Indigenous peoples

The indigenous peoples from all over the world are meeting (April 2010) at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. For the last six years I have attended their meetings. I have listened carefully to their stories and read their publications. Their common theme has been land that has economic and spiritual value. They are therefore trying to hang on to what is left and to utilize it according to their priorities. But they are facing daunting challenges from global demands. Their stories about the negative impact of losing their land are similar to what Rujumbura’s Bairu are experiencing as they lose more land to newcomers. I will compare the experiences of the two groups, draw conclusions and propose corrective actions.

The story of Indigenous people in the Great Lakes Region

Before Bantu-speaking people arrived in the area some 3000 years ago, the Great Lakes Region was occupied by indigenous people (the term ‘indigenous’ has not been accepted by governments in the region because it is considered divisive and the term ‘Pygmy’ has been rejected by indigenous people because it has derogatory meaning). For the purpose of this article, I will use indigenous people for lack of a better term.

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Uganda silently becoming two nations in one

After the release of Nelson Mandela I travelled to South Africa and visited many parts in towns and the countryside. I came to the conclusion that the deliberate apartheid policy of separate development between black and white people had created two nations in one. There was a first world nation of white people and a third world nation of black people. This dichotomy was evident through differences in education, healthcare, agriculture, housing, etc and overall standard of living between white and black people. I therefore rejected the generalization that South Africa was a middle income country based on GDP and per capita income figures. My subsequent research and observations about Uganda’s development trajectory since the 1990s indicate that there may be a potential for creating – unintentionally – two nations in one.

At the start of his administration in 1986, President Museveni correctly noted and repeated that Uganda was a one class society – of peasants. The tiny middle class which had emerged during the 1960s virtually disappeared during the chaotic period between 1971 and 1986. Drawing from the ten-point program, President Museveni stressed his government’s determination to transform Uganda from a class of subsistence peasants to a middle class society. It was underscored that the transformative policies, strategies and programs would leave no one behind. The modernization of agriculture blueprint underscored government’s determination to effect real transformation. Similar steps were taken in education, healthcare, food and nutrition security. These efforts were well received and earned the NRM government some support. Ugandans saw an opportunity for real transformation from subsistence to modern life.

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