Uganda government more dangerous virus than Covid 19

African leaders are good preachers of sustainable development whenever they get the opportunity to engage with the public. The thought-provoking point is that while some of them are busy walking the talk, others are busy dashing the hopes of their electorate.

Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, however, is a special breed when it comes to the declarations he makes to the electorate and what he actually does. Just a few weeks after his sixth swearing in as President of Uganda, Museveni once again proved to Ugandans that in his world, meritocracy takes a back seat. 

For evidence, look no further than the appointments he made. Be it his cabinet of fishermen, as he called it, the heads of parastatals and accounting officers - permanent secretaries of different ministries and other government bodies. 

This not to mention the litany of senior presidential advisors – many of them out of favour – who like those before them, he hoodwinked with these positions for welfare purposes.  He now counts over 100 senior presidential advisors, all paid by the Ugandan taxpayer, for doing completely nothing.

When it comes to the appointments in key or lucrative ministries and parastatals, it is crystal clear that Museveni sees such appointments as an opportunity to reward his praise singers other than delivering for Ugandans. One doesn’t need one to be a specialized investigator to identify the bitter reality of Museveni’s preferential treatment which continues to sink Uganda.

Last week, Jane Kibirige, who was until then the Clerk to Parliament, was not only reshuffled by Museveni out of the job as the parliament’s chief accounting officer. She was also given a lifelong blemish on her otherwise stellar public service career after the President decided to retire her in public interest.

Inside sources have it that her only crime was trying to block the machinations by Museveni’s luminaries to continue looting the country through the works to expand the parliamentary building.

For trying to be accountable to tax payers' money, her reward was to be “dismissed for public interest”. A true revelation that Uganda will have seen it all; when the President and his family entourage, exclusively represent “public interest”. An interesting Made in Uganda reality.

Shamelessly, Museveni ascertained that he has got a personalized definition of accountability and public interest as he kept Dr. Diana Atwine as Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health despite her having sided with the looters of Covid-19 funds. Let's also not forget the mysterious vanishing of the money that was meant to buy ICU beds last year.

Needless to say, Atwine is so close to Museveni, so much so that she has for long been the physician for the First Family. Another revealing appointment is the appointment of journalist Andrew Mwenda’s sister, the scandal-ridden Margaret Muhanga as state minister in charge of primary healthcare.  This appointment in the middle of a pandemic clearly shows the priorities for Uganda’s President.

To quote Ugandan legislator, Mathias Mpuga, the government of Uganda is the most pervasive and potentially dangerous virus to Ugandans than Covid-19. I was forced to conquer with Mpuga’s statement after my shocking discovery of Museveni’s recent spending, when he ordered his government to spend $30 million of taxpayers’ money for the purchase of luxurious cars for members of parliament. This was highly questionable at a time his government is failing to provide healthcare for Covid-19 infected people.

Hundreds of Ugandans are dying everyday for lack of medical care due to the pandemic. The country is unable to supply much needed oxygen to its people in ICU wards and thousands die yet it would have been avoidable. For Museveni, Ugandans can die so long as his notorious mafia network is well secured.

For three decades, Museveni’s nepotism has been very consistent and a concern to many.  Uganda is increasingly plunging into a chaotic state. The economy is more and more unsteady and the distribution of wealth among Ugandans is imbalanced more than ever before, as capital is centralized in the President’s family and his notorious brother’s mafia network through looting and other serious economic crimes by Museveni’s entourage at the detriment of the Ugandan people.

Remarkably, the once alive National Resistance Movement (NRM) has turned out to be ideologically bankrupt. The values of accountability, people centeredness and pragmatism are no longer wanted. 

The question, however, is: have these values ever been the NRM’s real etiquette or just slogans used to ascend to power? How come the NRM is increasingly disintegrating along particular reimbursements issues or along some misunderstanding with the President’s inner circle?  What place do Ugandans occupy in Museveni’s governance equation? Where does the NRM place Ugandans in all its considerations?