Uganda voters should not sell their birthright for a kilo of salt

This 2011 election will save or destroy Uganda. Re-electing Museveni will change Uganda as we have known it – make no mistake about it. The trajectory is very clear. Museveni is already negotiating with foreigners to sell Uganda’s land – the deal with Egypt is in final stages of finalization.

When Roman food crop producing peasants were forced to sell their land to large scale farmers, the latter switched from food crops for peasant consumption to grazing cattle and sheep or growing grapes and olives for rich families. Rome’s population declined in part from high mortality rate of impoverished, hungry and sick peasants. The weakened Rome was invaded and conquered by barbarians.

Similarly, through the sale of Uganda’s land to foreigners who will then grow foodstuffs to feed their own people, Uganda peasants will dwindle and be replaced by ‘invaders’ through East African economic integration and political federation. This is not a joke. The brilliant, dynamic and jovial children that Uganda has known will be gone as education standards decline and child malnutrition and associated diseases take its toll.

Museveni continues to deliberately impoverish the people of Uganda

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.

NRM government is deliberately impoverishing Ugandans

It is not a secret that the NRM party and its government under the leadership of Museveni is primarily interested in retaining power indefinitely. Impoverishing Ugandans is seen as one way of doing so. There are four principle ways of making a country strong and prosperous or weak and poor. They are adequate food and nutrition security, quality and relevant education, good preventive and curative health care and remunerative full employment in decent work conditions. On these four areas NRM’s performance has been deliberately poor. Stabilization and structural adjustment imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave the government an excuse to impoverish Ugandans and get away with it. But before outlining how impoverishment is proceeding, let us review the 20th century record by way of introduction.

There is sufficient record that before colonial rule Ugandans ate well, although they suffered from famines when the rains failed or pests or warfare destroyed crops and granaries. The young were orally trained, learned on the job from parents and obtained additional knowledge through interaction with relatives and neighbors. Traditional medicines handled local diseases pretty well. The introduction of foreign diseases required new medicines. There was no unemployment as gender specialization of labor kept everyone busy.