The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Why the competition for power is always a quarrel over delusions rather than a contest over public policy
I argued in this column last week that governments in poor countries cannot govern by delivering a large basket of public goods and services associated with a modern state because they don’t have the human and financial resources to do so. The state in Africa faces a huge mismatch between financial human resources capacities on the one hand and the governance standards inherited from the West on the other. A significant source of our frustrations as Africans emanates from this mismatch.
Let me illustrate this with the state of our roads. During the last presidential election campaigns, the opposition made a strong case of the sorry state of our roads. There were videos online showing motor-vehicles stuck in mud along roads in a poor state of disrepair. My initial bias (or conviction) was that this is largely because of corruption at the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and state incompetence generally. But I have learned not to allow my biases to drive my conclusions. So I did research.
Our country has a road network of 68,000km. These include national trunk roads, district roads, streets in cities and towns and community roads under sub counties. It costs Uganda about $800,000 to
build a kilometer of tarmac road. Uganda has only 4,200km of tarmac roads. Therefore, if Uganda were to tarmac the rest of her road network (63,800km) it would need $51 billion. This financial year, our total budget is $5.4 billion. Even if there was zero corruption, it would take Uganda 10 years of its entire budget going to road construction alone for us to have tarmac roads everywhere.
Simply put, Uganda is too poor to pay for good roads.
Well, not many reasonable people in Uganda are asking for tarmac roads in every village. So can’t we afford to build and maintain gravel (murram) roads in good condition? So I went hunting for figures
on this. It costs $150,000 to construct a kilometer of standard gravel road. Out of 63,800km of gravel roads, only 10,000 are in good to fair condition. It would cost Uganda $8.07 billion to bring all her gravel roads to good condition – that is 150% of the country’s annual budget.
Secondly, because of our terrain and rains, it costs $15,000 to ensure periodic maintenance (once in a year) and regular maintenance (spot graveling, slashing and clearing drainage) of a kilometer of gravel road per year. Gravel roads deteriorate very fast and cost more to maintain. Therefore, maintenance costs for 63,800km of our current gravel road network alone would cost $960m – 96% of our road’s budget this financial year. This does not include salaries for staff in government ministries, consultancy fees for design of these roads etc. Simply put, Uganda is too poor to pay for good roads.
Location: Bunyoro
Issue: very poor roads
FDC: We are determined to build good, affordable road infrastructure pic.twitter.com/VDrPREAlJq— FDC Official (@FDCOfficial1) January 24, 2016
These findings have led me to rethink the entire discourse of development and politics in poor countries. Nationalist politicians in colonised territories sought independence on the claim that colonised peoples were not served by government because of the racial discrimination of colonialism. They demanded independence in large part because they wanted to extend public goods and services that were restricted to colonialists to the rest of the population. This critique was partly correct. Colonial powers had little interest in the welfare of the colonised. They invested little in education, healthcare, electricity and clean water to the colonised. They built roads and railways NOT to connect people so that they can trade but to connect areas of rich forestry, agricultural and mineral resources to ports.
Nationalist politicians hammered this point home in their struggle for independence. They derived their ideas for postcolonial administration from how colonial governments governed their own citizens at home. This is because in their home countries, colonial governments were by the 1950s providing their citizens with a wide range of public goods and services. Thus nationalist politicians staked the struggle for independence on the promise of delivering “development” i.e. in building a state that would provide public goods and services to all citizens.
Andrew do you therefore went to suggest that what we are being fed on is the best this nation can offer or are you inclined to support the argument of post colonial governments buying off influential elites and opinion leaders just as colonialists did rather then the rulers focusing on priorities that can change the lifestyle of the people using the little available and build slowly the moral social fabric of its people .surely poor countries like ours cannot only sit and make its citizens feel sorry for themselves amidst endemic corruption,public service breakdown .
We should rather focus on structural reforms that can make our country work for everyone .
Mwenda’s Development Theory does not explain the divide between south Korea & North Korea
Andrew Mwenda has through time and experience adapted to a number of good things and should be commended for his feat. However, in the process he’s also become “clever by half.” For instance, Andrew would state, “I have learnt not to allow my biases to drive my conclusions.” Under the normal state of things, this would be the natural “conclusion” arrived at by the reader, however, by making the statement himself, Andrew rudely captures, arrests and locks the minds of unsuspecting readers. Mwenda convinces himself like the proverbial Ostrich that by hiding his head ,therefore, no one is watching. Piffle. He makes a number of erroneous statements either honestly or calculated. He looks at the critics of President Museveni and his cronies on the African continent as negative forces, so Eurocentric in nature and who wouldn’t wish any positives for Africa. There is a narrative that attributes Africa’s backwardness to colonialism. But before the advent of colonialism how participatory was Africa in the World affairs? To put the record straight, colonial Africa treated and prevented diseases more than any African administration that preceded it. History also shows that Africa was more peaceful under colonial times than post independent Africa. Such voices also aggressively attach slave trade to colonialism. What is conveniently forgotten is that long before colonialism, slave trade had transpired amongst African communities. For instance, the Nyamwezi people of West central Tanzania had long opened up routes which linked to the coastal Zanzibar. By 1830s, they had opened trade routes in Lunda Kazembes in the Katanga and Karagwe in Buganda. Let’s also not forget that it is the Rights movements that emerged within the Western world at the time that agitated for the end of slave trade. I and other critics of African governments are not oblivious of the little steps these governments have made towards development. Neither are we saying that there were no faults made by the colonial governments. The facts have been simply exaggerated for the African governments and against colonial administrations. By 1896, the French had wanted to see Africa linked to three major international outlets i.e. the Mediterranean, Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. The British had wanted to link Cairo to Cape Town. Out of “selfish interests”, that is how outwardly they thought for Africa. For over 50 years of independent Africa, there is no railway line that runs from Mombasa to Kinshasa, no railway between Kampala and Harare, no railway between Addis Ababa and Cairo. On the contrary, there has been war or near war amongst almost all African countries. Uganda has gone to war or near war with, Tanzania, Sudan, DRC, Kenya and Rwanda. There is always an “international dispute” ranging from ethnic settlements to natural resources- like an acre of land. That’s how foresighted our “leaders” are. And we are quick to blame the colonialists? In Uganda and to some, majority being NRM and Museveni supporters, there has been groundbreaking socio-economic transformations- more noticeable in figures and hardly in material. From privatisation in the early 90s to now “Wealth creation” and the” Youth-livelyhood” programs. Such reforms have to an extent managed to realign the economy only to a “corruption axle.” Notably, the hurried privatisation process, relegated a huge number of Ugandans to the deep trenches of poverty. Of the companies that were privatised, more than 70% have continued to work below their previous capacity or have completely shutdown. This, however, has not prevented the national revenues from going up. The logical interpretation of this is that a few Ugandans are dying under the weight of taxation. Since the 1990s, five major banks have closed, these include: Teefe, Ssembule, Greenland, Nile and the National bank of commerce. However, since the 90s, the Ugandan population has more than doubled. So, why are the banks shrinking in the face of a booming population? Is this a governance issue, or , a problem of a social construct? What is the government’s policy on employment? (If at all there is one then, it remains an idea and not a practice.)
I will agree with Mwenda that institutions are in a sense a product of culture. But these institutions formalise a set of norms, institutions are the things that keep the culture honest, determining how far it is conducive to good rather than to bad behaviour. To illustrate this, I will try to be more recent than 1860 America. The 20th century had three important examples, imposing quite two different institutions on two Germans (the West and East), two Koreas (in the North and South) and two Chinas (inside and outside the People’s Republic). The results were striking and the lessons quite clear. If you take the same people with more or less the same culture and impose two different institutions on each (in this case the communist and capitalist), almost immediately there will be a divergence in the way they behave. What helped the “Asian tigers” (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand) to achieve sustained and in most cases accelerating growth, was the various forms of state direction to ensure that savings were channelled into export industries of which the key first stage was textiles. For Singapore it was done under the stewardship of Lee Kuan Yew, for South Korea it was under General Park Chung-hee and Malaysia’s Don Mahatir Muhammad. If my President can fly three presidential jets, why do the structural bottlenecks prevent him from procuring a cancer machine at Mulago? Why do the structural bottlenecks prevent him from setting up at least four fully operational referral hospitals? Is it because he can’t, or, because he won’t?
Well said. Africans don’t have the concept of altruism, greater good. It’s an inherent zero sum game. Wondering why equatorial Guinea and UAE took different directions yet they have very similar financial and human resources.
Ah Mr Mwenda, what a creative mind. The general theme, revisited weekly, is “Uganda’s leadership must not be held accountable for the ignominious state of Uganda’s public services”.
This week’s sermon on this theme is “administering Uganda competently would simply cost too much, the fault is with the citizenry who have unrealistic expectations”. The implication is that all low income countries have rotten district hospitals like Uganda, something Mwenda knows is absolutely not true. he must have been to Arusha and Moshi, towns in a country which is in Uganda’s league economically. Mr Mwenda, in case you have not been to TZ, their district hospitals are also overcrowded; the buildings are old and so are the machines. BUT the places are clean, they don’t stink; the water runs; the staff are on duty. and there are cheap blankets on every bed.
And at Dar airport there is no expensive presidential jet!
But serukeera, TZ touches the sea and would under ordinary circumstances be a donor to Ug. What would a presidential be for? The territory is not as remote as Uganda or with as many enemies.
An incoherent statement Mr Rwasubutare. “Touching the sea” is a meaningless status. Tanzania has never been wealthier than Uganda so the “ordinary circumstances” you refer to are fictional. When both countries were under British rule Uganda was considerably wealthier. And as to having many enemies: Tanzania has been invaded once since independence (by Uganda). Uganda has never been invaded by any neighbor. Uganda has since independence invaded or sponsored rebellions in all neighbours except Kenya.
IN a previous article in this column, M 9 alluded to the “fact” that we needed leaders who are ruthless and lack of that ruthlessness has affected our fortunes.
M 9 states what is already known in governance and there is no doubt that the most suitable form of governance is DICTATORSHIP.
BUT this is qualified in capital letters and 2 font sizes larger by the word BENEVOLENT.And this simply means, as a parent you do not go and drink beer every day while you do not put two square meals a day and dress your family, you do not buy a mercedes when your kids do not have shoes and exactly as SSERUKEERA says, park the latest Gulfstream when you have people with jiggers.
M 9 goes back to the same argument, having failed to convince anyone and changes the full stops and commas and hopes that it will have a different effect.IS there any country that built all its roads in one year.Do we buy all the food we eat during the year on the first of January.If you do not have the school fees for the whole year, even when fees are paid termly, do you refuse to send your child to school.
Do you expect to lower the cost of providing roads when the president gets on his gulfstream and strikes a deal with the Chinese for road construction equipment worth $100m and we are told it can not do the job they were bought for and we have to spend another amount to buy the right equipment.
JUST like the article in MONITOR said , we can trade ourselves out of poverty.The NRM is happy to quote how it overthrew a government starting with 27 men ( that is success against all odds) yet we are not able to emulate LEICESTER ( with odds of 5000/1) who have won the premiership with a team put together for less than the annual salary of the first teams of its competitors – Man U , Man City, Chelsea.But we can not do this if as a country that used to export cotton, we are now having to import it.Just like the buildings that are collapsing around us, the consultants(rulers) are the wrong ones, the plans they have drawn are the wrong ones, the materials we are using are the wrong ones let alone the specifications.When you have people thinking that an architect can design a hydro electric dam let alone a civil engineering project then we are in trouble.
and in all this failure as you portray it, what do you do? you talk of collapsing buildings yet you (claim) are a quantity surveyor cum caterer what has been your contribution as a (good) citizen of this country to rectify the anomalies? People who preach others that the CHANGE starts with oneself should also teach HOW? by practising on own words to let their message reach to every person as to what they mean by the word ‘CHANGE’.” Your example of soccer shows how naive you are… when you compare it with participatory governance. great swelling words of emptiness are nothing if they are not translated into action. there is nothing you can do well even rioting.
WHAT do you want me to tell you that I have done.As contractors we built all the milk collecting centers( now made obsolete by this government) in Teso among these Soroti, Kumi, Bukedea, Amuria, Kaberamaido as well as Sironko in Bugisu in the 60/70. We built almost every structure that stands in Kumi ( Ongino) leprosy center, we have 3 generation bulidings in NGORA Freda Carr Hospital – those built by my grandfather, my father and us .without mentioning private houses and were the biggest boat builders for boats on lake Kyoga and Bisina.We were the contractors for Tororo Diocese and built their estate and Diocesan Communications center in Mbale among others when Fr Smeets ( rip) was the director. We were the biggest suppliers of furniture, timber and hardware in most parts of Teso and were the biggest makers of school desks for Teso DA as it was known then, we were the 2nd biggest cattle owners ( next to Kabukumba) in Teso and our brand number(do you know what a brand number is and when someone gets one) were 5A and 12A. We built the kitchen and dining for soldiers in State house in the 90s when Akanga and katuku were in charge of the then PPU.We built the first lot oh houses for NHCC in Bukoto, designed and built the NIC estate in Muyenga, houses for Kawanda under the USAID project as well as being the contractors for the Tanzania High commission.
I was among the first Ugandans to know PIKE and drove him to the meeting we had with Victoria of the Guardian newspaper together with the late Ben Matoogo,after Pike had left his motorcycle at my house. I personally handed PIKE the video he took to and used in the bush, which were the first recorded images to be broadcast to the world and I took Ernest Rusiita to the studios to do the voice-over on the video. I personally took delivery of the radio that was used in the bush and was paid for by Dr Kisekka.
I was the 1st person to export Uganda meat to Rwanda for the UNAMIR and made the market for Quality Cuts ( Stefan and his father Josef Dyke) and Stefan got the idea of his restaurant from our Kigali restaurant, his father wanted an ice cream place.I was the first to export eggs to Rwanda, again for Unamir. We did the first million dollar contract with Unamir to move the Canadian contingent to Mombasa and later other units through Dar Es Salaam.Was the first to supply BATONS to the newly then formed police under Major Dennis Kareera( brother to ministerBusingye) and supplied the Rwanda Kadogo school with their first items under Rehabilitation, rehabilitated Christine Mutonis residence among many other things.
RWASUBUTARE – now you tell us what you and your father RWAKACUCU have done.
RWASUBUTARE- The world has moved on from the time when your father if at all owned one cow, he was the muliisa and the one who milked his own cow and also provided the “mubazi” when the animals were not well,probably with the wrong diagnosis and the wrong treatment .Today his son owns a 1 truck fleet, which he himself does not drive, but has a driver and if he is able to tell that something is wrong with the truck, he does not know exactly what is wrong or even know how to fix it.I have said over and over again that the problem we have is that people who claimed to know the problems of Africa, have become the problem.These are people who claim to know all the problems and all the solutions, people who think an architect can design a hydro electric dam, people who go to CHINA and buy agricultural equipment and think it can be used for heavy road construction.I just have to know it is wrong, I do not have to know how to fix it.People who hire an army of “advisers” and then admit they never take advise fro anyone.
as an achiever and entrepreneur ( if what you claim is 1% true) why then don’t you transform our institutions that are deteriorating? to be honest ejakait, we shouldn’t be joking at this time and place when things are going this bad and towards worse. you as well as I do that “you first rescue the girl, then slay the monster” vice versa being impossible. now since I and you are concerned with the welfare of society but have different (and conflicting) methods, it is a high time we sat and chartered a middle path which will be acceptable to both of us.
RWASUBUTARE – I do not argue simply because I want to argue or display the little knowledge of English that I have or say the things I say because I want to show off, because at the end of the day , you do not know me just as much as I do not know you.I say these things because I hurt to see the country in the state in which it is , very well knowing that things could be better than what they are now.It does not matter whether the things I have said are 1% or 50% or 100% , as they say, you can not live on past glory, it is the “here and now” and maybe the future that matter.I do not know when you started supporting the NRM, but some of us have been there and seen it all, as I have told you about PIKE, there is hardly anybody in the top NRM that I do not know, and when the war started in Luweero, we had cattle in Ngoma which were the first casualty and yet we have never claimed a single shilling , just like we have never claimed a single shilling for all we lost in TESO.
ASK Betty Kanyogonya if you know her, I was one of the staunchest supporters of M 7 in the 96 elections and he stopped at Kalerwe during the campaigns at which I gave him my $100 pen as good luck gift, and when he won, I was in Kigali, I was the one who organised and led the triumph drive through the town to celebrate the win.
SO it is not that I dislike anyone, it is just that I wish us to have a country that works for everybody, a nation that you and I can be proud of, a nation that we can leave to our children to enjoy. A nation where all have a chance, and like I told you , I was at school with Dr Okure ( now a lecturer at makerere) as well as Dr Obwona among many others, who were not from wealthy families; infact Okure missed a year and though he was initially ahead of us, he ended up in the same class, and yet he has managed to scale the heights he has.Today , in our Uganda, a child from a poor family who has no connections does not have a chance in life.
Richard Oput, Commissioner Lands, was my classmate in P1 before I was taken to P2 the same year in the most remote school, just like Mrs Aporu was at the same school, yet they have made it to these lofty positions. A child from the same school has NO chance to make it even to a half decent secondary school.IS that progress?
RWASUBUTARE – I have done my bit and continue to do what I can, just like I donated more than 5000 text books to schools in TESO, books which I gave to my brother Mr Akabway, books I sourced and transported at my expense, and despite pleas and all the necessary letters to show I was giving them as charity, URA charged me heftily , but I paid and still gave out the books.
so I here give an olive branch and honestly, proud to be acquainted with your person. arrange a meeting therefore anywhere anytime and yours truly will not disappoint. meantime we must respect Ugandans and their choice M7 first (and the loser too).
“The people who manage the postcolonial state in Uganda are not even Ugandans (a very unreal term)” ? which people and from where ?
Mukasa, this was actually a telling remark by Mwenda. It is the closest he has come to accepting the fact that Uganda’s leadership is incompetent. But being Mwenda he cannot speak plainly, he has to put it in analytical intellectual terms.
NAYE GWE M9 who told you that ugandans or opposition are asking for all 68,000 km of roads to be tarmaced. Not a single ugandan has asked for that. Those are your own words and therefore your culculations are irrelevant. All we are asking is to at least tarmac 1/4 of this road network, or at least tarmac the ones m7 has been mentioning in his speeches for the last 15 years. Every yr for 10 yrs now the road to my village is mentioned that work has now began to tarmac it but when i go visit my granny nothing at all happening on that road.
Andrew do you know that in ethopia they started building cobbled roads(stones) instead of tarmac in towns and cities. Not only is it far cheaper(it uses local materials)), it also provides mass employment to youths becoz its labour-intensive work done mainly with hands by both boys and girls and the roads are far far longer lasting than tarmac yet easy and cheaper to mentain. Do you know that only a tiny fraction of volcanic rock from the Rwenzori mountains(your home area) would be enough to cover the entire road network of uganda. Countries like portugal have almost entire road network made this way with cobbles. KITALO.
OPIO – you can see people are even offended when they try to compare us with TANZANIA. They would rather we were compared with Burundi and Chad or Somalia.So SWITZERLAND is a land locked country , is it not doing better than those countries around it that have access to the sea.YOU look at an idiot like RWASUBUTARE that you can not compare what Leicester has done with “participatory governance.What is Sir Alex doing after retiring from Man U? He is one of the most sought after public/inspiration speakers and do you think he talks about how to score goals or is sought by championship clubs to tell them how to get to the premiership.NO.He is sought by corporate organisations who seek his wisdom on management and success.JUST like CLINTON and BLAIR are sought, not by governments on how to win elections and stay in power, but by mega corporations.AS you rightly say and like I have said, we do not want all the roads in one year.As you say, there are better and cheaper ways of providing good roads.The roads that were built by the Romans 1000s of years ago are still standing.
MUKASA – “The people who manage Uganda……………are not even Ugandans…………..”. DO not look far, just go and look at the interview that M 7 gave to the Kenyan journalist, this I do not know whether it conforms to what Obote(rip) said that “……. says the truth by accident” and whether this was an accident or someone was pointing the “middle finger” to all of us Ugandans, but they said”I work for myself and my family………..”.Even the colonialists tried to leave a legacy.
Thank you this analysis. However I don’t agree that we are too poor to afford a better life. poverty is a description of state NOT destiny. What we need to pay much attention is the causes of our current state. This I believe that even our “mighty” leaders have willingly or unwillingly failed to recognise. Armed with the correct diagnosis and will power wr can make use of resources to move from poverty to wealth. The missing link is leadership. I am convinced leadership failure is the root cause of Africa’s ills.
IN sex they say ” its not the size but how you use it”; likewise as Patrick has said, it is very well known among Ugandans that money does not build a house.There are people who earn or have got so much money and have failed to build a house, yet there are those who do not earn or have a lot and have somehow managed to build.IT is the WILL and determination and how one goes about it.The RULERS we have do not have the will, no desire and also lack what it takes in terms of imagination to provide us with the very basic of what we need – not want.
naye your folly ejakait should go into the guinness book. can your or anyone else’s will buy a bag of cement you ass? mbu will building a house? this is proof you have never and will never build one. did your father build the house in which you were born using will you ape? what currency is will?
A dog will pass a 50.000/- note and yet go hungry not knowing that the note it passed on the way would have bought kilos of bones.YOU are that DOG and what do you know about currencies and money you whose father sold milk using a kimbo tin to measure out a litre. If one says cement is used to build a house , does it mean it is the ONLY material used. GICUCU GICUCU. ENYANA YEMBWA.
true of my father used to sell milk in a tin can, and we have progressed to state house; it is understandable that we have gone a long way, not so? now you have not heard me claim that I contracted for the UN, UG and other assortment of NGOs, privates and parastatals. why? we did not need to because we are traditionally the backbone of the economy. we rear cattle.
while you ejakait see a cow or goat as walking meat, I see it as a breeding animal that will multiply and create wealth not only for me the husbandman but also for society. in your thick head, you see son of Kaguta with 1000 cows and you say he is a thief yet he is your herder because he cannot consume more than 2 litres of milk per day though he produces more than 5,000 you imp. the rest is consumed by you and your fellow rioters who want eat cattle; instead of rearing it.
READ my article in response to your trash and you will realise that my father owned more cattle than your miserable father ever did and try as he would have , my father would not have had your father as his mulaalo. It was until your own decided that the likes of us had no right to own cattle, that we ended up losing ours.M 7 ( mind you I choose not to call him son of Kaguta) probably did not have a single cow in his name before 1986 and what he has now is courtesy of the tax payer after buying KISOZI ranchers from the KASOZIS who also accumulated their cattle stock in TESO.
LIKE you tried to argue that WILL has no financial value, most things do have a value which may not be directly translatable into monetary value, even a fool or the village idiot like Rwasubutare has value because you use him as the benchmark, you tell your kids” do not be like Rwabusutare and the idiot of his father Rwabucucu whose calves die every year because they over milk the cow and leave nothing for the calf and put milk above the welfare of calf”
OUR “rulers” have the BALAALO ( balaalo is an occupation and anyone an Etesot, Musoga , Karamojong) can be one. They milk the cow( make us pay taxes) without feeding the CALF ( providing services to the people who pay the taxes) and instead use the taxpayers money to buy jets and pullman limos.
IT is well known that a mulaalo will kill off the calf, by denying it the milk, and then use the skin to continue deceiving the mother that the calf is still alive to make it easier to milk the cow.The present rulers have put the population in the same trance.
My father, with the said Kabukumba(with all the cattle he had he did not even have a house until my father bought land for him in Nakatonya in Soroti and built him a house) were the biggest suppliers of cattle to the then Uganda meat Packers , right next to Teso College , where I studied.
For one to have several heads of cattle or riches for that matter does not make them a thief,and there are rags to riches stories galore, but I do know a thief when I see one.
as for your industry of supply (which you so much dream of but might die before even knowing the procedure) it transfers products which have already been manufactured by others, it is brokerage and can be done by all and sundry so is nothing to boast of. it is production and husbandry which M7 has been advocating all along and some people have heard but other are yet to. reason you lag behind in coming aboard the bus is because the bus is not a feast but a mill. although you see us eat and drink merrily, we first toil and sweat.
SO in your stupidity, all you saw in the things that I did was supply- of which the latest specialise in supplying junk helicopters and undersized uniforms.So you did not manage to notice, or you conveniently decided to black out your brain to the facts, that we owned more than 1000 head of cattle by 1987 with 5A and 12A as our brand numbers, and the late APORU as our veterinary doctor,is construction, and employing more than 200 people just supply, as the making of furniture and building boats just supply.
So what is the big deal in using your FUSO mbu ” to transport cassava ( emuimbati) to BUKAVU . Is that not merely service provision with absolutely no enterprise more so when your fleet consists of 1 FUSO. We own 1 square mile of land in Kakooge and 300 acres in Baale, do you think we use it as football pitches.
DREAM – just go and prove to the people that I never supplied meat and eggs to Rwanda, that we never built all the buildings we claim to have built etc etc. YOU are in DENIAL and it will not take away what I have done.
And so M 7 produces his 1 million liters of milk, does he not require services to take the milk to the market, the people who own shops that sell the milk serve no purpose at all.
Just like I told WINNIE – who has gone MIA- you have fallen in QUICK sand, and the more you try to wriggle yourself out, the faster you sink.The more you are trying to explain yourself and attack me, the BIGGER a FOOL you are looking- and actually ARE.
ejakait I see no trace or signature of Teso College Aloet here in your rant. Not even a watchman of Teso College would have spoken like you do. be it in grammar,prose and presentation, you sound like….
as for your(plural) folly of saying 30 years of NRM (which you confuse with M7) have been a disaster, try telling that to a man/woman who was born in 1987 does not need and has never stepped outside Uganda,is now a medical doctor and has kids of his own. he will know who you are and what you want. what have you attained in these 30 years? olina kye wekoledde? what did you want to have attained?, what hindered you? what have you lost that you ever had?
you like to claim big and I assure you that that is the wrong route to attain the dream.
IF you have appointed yourself the one who vets all those who went to Teso College, my no was 71147, was there when Adoniya Tiberondwa(rip) was the headmaster, Charles Kareeba was the deputy head prefect, Prince David Ndayondi ( rip) was my friend, and his brother Robert Katushabe was my classmate and buddy. Dr Edward Okello son of Mr Ekochu -pps to Obote and Amin- (we built his house in Asuret) and cousin to Mukula , Jack Nziza was my classmate and house mate in Esabu house.Also Prof Okure was my classmate and we were the two top students in Maths in our year at o levels.
Someone is following up. see http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Government-build-regional-cancer-centres
It is the same relativistic analysis. Every issues must be compared with some developed country as though African countries cannot be considered on their merit, or their own terms, as if they lack merit or their own needs, their own aspirations, their dreams, their own lives, their abilities and capabilities. Who cares what Britain does or has done? What has it got to with Britain? The answer is zero. If you are pegging every issue to Britain or some developed country you are not independent. Most countries put their interests centrally important instead of constantly comparing themselves with everybody else before taking action or deciding what to do. What exactly works in Uganda that is a showcase for all these years NRM has been in power? Thirty years of no success, of nothing. Instead the colonials who had little or zero national interest in their colonials left more consequential markers of development than Mwenda’s so-called elite, worthless self-seekers, who nobody has no respect or regard for. Entitled, good for nothing, self aggrandizers.
Colonials performed better than all previous and current government, given that during that time uganda was a newly formed country not even a single road was present in buganda or bunyoro, technology was not available, today we have Internet, world Web, aeroplanes, all in all we can connect one end of the world to another, within seconds. Back in the colonial time it used to take at least 6years to travel from buganda or bunyoro to England -to -fro , we today I would expect things to move more first with great efficiency, but that is not happening due to poor planing, judgement and decision making usually a companied by corruption, sectarianism, cronism all these issues hinder progress. All this concludes by poiting a finger @ our leaders who run the country as a private affair, with little knowledge on public and private policy such as fiscal ,monitor and supply side polices, we are still amatures in this capitalist world, till we must the game of capitolism and become professionals then we can think of “sustainable development” for now we can only expect shambles from our a mature leaders.
did the colonialists have Kony,Mukulu or Besigye? I was privileged to go to Kigali with Hon Cosmas Adyebo during the first swear-in of the present government of Rwanda. that was July 1994. Hon Adyebo told the listeners in his speech which was full of emotion that statecraft and public administration was a tedious task which required patience for the recipients. “so, I implore you to let these people work” he implied that the civil servants and the politicians were tasked with nation building and that they were as human as you and me. when you insult, cajole and harangue them, they also lose their temper and sense or are simply obstructed. so James try to look at the good side and criticise constructively.
WHY do you chose to site ADYEBO(rip) knowing very well that he is dead and no one can verify that mythical trip that you claim.And to show what a fool and absolute lack of manners you have, etiquette dictates that if you refer to a deceased person you accord them the courtesy of using the RIP – rest in peace.
MBU did the colonialists have KONY, so did OBOTE have to quote the menace that M 7 was at the time or are you acknowledging that it did indeed affect governance and delivery of services at the time.
YOU are the type who will not buy your children shoes telling them ” did my father buy me shoes at your age”.
Times change and one has to operate in the changing environment and that is what shows what you are made of, not like giving excuses that “the population has grown” – yes , a lot of people might have been killed in Luweero and the Acholi region, but populations do grow and governments have to plan for that.
aren’t you government you ape? alluding to government as third party and making yourself a mere spectator as though you are a foreigner? and if your opinion is minority then follow the majority’s direction towards progress. yourbig problem is that you hear from your rear. i alluded to Hon Adyebo with all respect I accorded him then which respect I still accord him despite his demise. I still cherish his guidance; hving had the opportunity and privilege to work with and under him.
and if he (Hon Adyebo)was still alive, would you consult him to verify my presence in his entourage? the PM of Uganda had of necessity, big entourage comprising of among others, big security contingent because Rwanda was post-war status. we were with many other guys who you are still around anyway.
and ejakait, since you sound as though you know much and claim to have done even more, why don’t offer your services to FDC and hopefully raise their votes by at least 45%?
RWASUBUTARE -let me make a last ditch attempt to bring you to civilisation from your state of wretchedness because in life even the wretched can be turned around. I am not the one who started arguing about personalities; we are here to debate issues to do with how our nation is run and what we wish it to be within the means available, something which the likes of OMEROS, KAKYAMA have tried to do.
NOW come in Rwasubutare and he starts being abusive and everyone who has an opinion that he does not agree with, then they are fools and he is the only clever man on earth.
I am not here to prove whether or not you went to KIGALI with ADYEBO, because in the scheme of things, it will not in any way improve the bad roads we have or give CAROL back her life.You want me to consult a dead person and yet you can not verify a simple fact that EZRA BUNYENYEZI is alive, the reason you glorify dead peoples skeletons and bring them out at every opportunity you can. You derided and challenged me to say anything that I have ever done, and I told you the little that I have done and it is within you to say ” No ejakait, you did not build the houses in Ngora hospital, or Kumi leprosy center, or St Austins in Mbale, or the kitchen and dining at state house , because I know the person who did.Your father did not have the cattle you claim he had and the number 5A did not belong to him, it belonged to so and so.You did not export meat to RWANDA because I have talked to Stefan Dyke of Quality cuts and he tells me the person who did was so and so.” That is how people with any modicum of intelligence would reason.
Instead you resort to abuse and insults.It is OK for you to tell all who can listen how you went to Tororo College, how you have a FUSO which takes cassava to BUKAVU and how you went to Kigali with Adyebo ( rip), but the rest of us can not.
GO ON, I am not going ever to respond to anything you say, no matter how intelligent it may be.I just seem to glorify your stupidity by my responses.
1.Europe and USA 1st invested in areas; like Automobile,Aviation,Banking,Broadcasting,Electrical Appliances,Foods and Breverages ,Hospitality Business,Armiations etc thats why brand names like Audi,Kenwood,Range Rover,Jeep Cherooke,MacDonalds,Coke,Hilton Hotels sell alot but in Ug we rely on Taxtion,Toursim and Agriculture which are not so reliabe .e.g If USA sells just 3 planes to Ug how many tonnes of coffee will a farmer need to sell to generate that income? so we need to be realistic with our demands.
2.@Rajab did you know that Banking was a Business?They are closing shop coz (i) They charge unrealistic fees and high interest on loans.(ii)They exaggerate their books of accounts.(iii) BOU does a good job during supervision.
3.@Ejakiat;I used to hear stories that NRM stole cows in Teso bambi when you see the breed of cows in Teso and you compare them with those of Ankole you can die of laughter.What is the market price of an Ankole cow and that of Teso?Actually Ankole cows look like Fresian cows in Europe they are big,produce more milk and have more meat.
4. Most Africans get big jobs with charity organizations like OXFAM coz the plight of Africans can easily move Europeans to tears making it a relaibe marketing avenue for collecting donations and by the way such jobs are given to Africans as a after thought by the Board Members .
5. KB and Byanyima have always been defiant.On a wedding day the bride normally stands out in a tight fitting gown but Winnie wore a maternity dress on her wedding day coz she was 7 months pregnant their wedding was so secretive instead of welcoming guests,they were being asked “Who told you about the wedding”
correction on point 4 Winnie. allow me to elaborate. there was one Peter Otai who formed a rebel group called UPA (Uganda People Army) and he had his ideas (and he shared them with some of his friends) just as weird as they all are. in their belief that they are superior (mbu at arms), they engaged the NRA. now there is a principle of war (since creation)which says that the adversary must (where possible be made to) defray the cost of the conflict; and also pay punitive compensation after defeat (if he can). although I cannot confirm that Teso cattle was eaten by NRA, neither can I deny it because I know soldiers are entitled to use all resources at their disposal to defeat enemy… it is called BBA (beg,borrow or appropriate). In war Winnie, just like in love, all tactics apply and are acceptable.
Kindly see article in reply to yours of the 10th.OLIVE branch accepted without reservations or conditions.
WINNIE – hope you enjoyed the celebrations.IT is now time to get down to serious business.YOU seem to deride the cattle in TESO,and probably suggest that the NRM looted the cattle to rid the Iteso of these skinny cows, but as an expert on sexual matters I am sure you have heard this one “size does not matter”, it is what you do with it.There is a reason why the cattle in Teso were the size they were and I am sure you will know that animals and plants are sometimes environment specific.The Bahima and Banyarwanda in Teso – Kabukumba, Ntembagale, Bitanako etc – all had local breeds.That is why it is claimed that most of the cattle that was taken from Teso to places in the west ended up dying, just like we also lost some when we relocated some of ours to Baale.
Despite the size, there was more milk collected from Teso than there was from Ankole, just like Meat packers was located in Soroti because they could get more disposable animals than from other areas.The Bahima owned cattle mostly for prestige and one could have a big herd yet be a “very poor man” as the Swahili say “mutajiri mujinga”- a rich fool.
The Iteso were ” smart farmers” and they owned their cattle not just for prestige, but for welfare purposes.So in addition to bride price, they used them to take kids to school, the reason Teso had one of the highest numbers in Police, army ,prisons and the civil service and were also disciplined and not corrupt because they had the wealth back up.The animals were used also to pull ox ploughs, an item that was almost exclusive to Teso and that is why Teso was the ” food basket” of the nation as well as the highest cotton growers and our unions were cotton based.
That is why the restocking exercise is misplaced because the dynamics has changed and people mostly used to own small herds, which they herded to the pastures, most of which are now gone.Our advise has fallen on deaf ears.
Efforts were being made then, through Serere Reseach and Arapai Agricultural to raise the size of the animals as well as increase milk production, but this had to be done gradually, especially regarding resistance of the animals.This is what the government should have done, not to relieve the ITESO of their livestock.
Strangely enough, there is a picture of NIC and it shows their building and you can see the “added ” two top floors that Mr Sekaziga did.What an “eyesore”.Could he not make the two floors look like the rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1.@Ejakait i just cant trust you to think and make connections never ever joke around with a lawyer i just trapped you.Why would NRM have stolen cows that are weak and genetically resistance to cold weather?( Coz western Uganda is cold i thought the aim of stealing something is to benefit from it).
2.If there was plenty of milk in Teso as you claim how come Obote and Amin’s govt failed to build a dairy firm there ? it seems it was more cost effective to set up a special bridge under Peter Otial to control cattle rustling than have a dairy firm.How come the Iteso are well known for being drunkards than having been pastralits? Just asking coz there is a big difference between milk and booze.Do cows produce booze?
3.You are just confirming the great works of Sekaziga (coz you mention him as having designed the NIC Building that was built in the 1970’s)Now in the 1970’s M7 was not yet in power how did he get that deal? it must have definitely been his great expertise.
4.Did you know that Technology keeps on improving? these days Architects use Auto-card,3D and Adobe for Designing did you know that A range Rover Vogue and Sport are different in design, comfort stability on the road and extras ( i know this coz i have driven them)
5.Ejakait you keep on mentioning Ezra Buyenyenzi’s name even if its not necessary do you just love his pretty wife?
Winnie wrote: “2.If there was plenty of milk in Teso as you claim how come Obote and Amin’s govt failed to build a dairy firm there ?”
There was a meat-packing factory in lango.
The meat packing factory was in TESO and at ALOET just next to the school and ofcourse the railway station, where students who used to travel by train used to board or alight, using the train pass which let them use the train to and from their homes without paying a shilling.
we paid ejakait. to be exact 25% of the standard adult fare. anyway it was so little that it is as though it was free. it cost me 2shs 20 cents. from Tororo to Kampala by mix train. and it cost me me 2 shs by UTC or Suleiman Serwanga Bros buses from Kampala to Hoima. But the government supplemented. The students’ travel warrants were for the transporters to be refunded the difference.
THERE is a lot of nostalgia over the things that used to happen those days and one has to feel sorry for the likes of WINNIE.As you rightly say, you and I were brought up in a different era, where we dotted our i’s and crossed our t’s and even a single misplaced letter meant a lot.Just like at the end of the day I saw the fun in referring to CAMERON as CAMEROON, for me it means all the world.
MY contention is that if these things could be done by someone like OBOTE with very rudimentary education and exposure, what about the present generation.My father always made us to believe that one should not live and enjoy in isolation, that we can all live off each other and as an employer and someone who made furniture, he told me we were not the ones to buy what we made, but if we did not help those around us to prosper so that they would become the market, then it was a big mistake.
We make so much noise about exporting, but what we do not realise is that AMERICA developed without hardly exporting anything – ofcourse the USA is very big, but the USA was its own market.Do we drink enough milk, do we eat enough food- meat , chicken , vegetables,fruits, kawunga etc, do we have enough clothes that we could make ourselves. Do we drink enough coffee, do we take enough tea.If we produce and then consume a lot of these items, the government will raise revenue from all that and the population will be healthy as well.And then we can export.
INDIA up to a certain point did not allow the importation of so many items and made do with whatever they could make no matter how crude and in the 70-80 if you went to India with even a camera, it was stamped in your passport on entry, to make sure you did not sell it on.That is how they developed TATA vehicles , that is how they developed BAJAJ All this free trade is a big lie and even if we were allowed to export to these big markets, not many of our goods would qualify.We as poor countries are better off trading with each other rather than try to access so called foreign markets.Free trade is meant to stunt the markets of developing countries and to provide markets for their goods rather than the other way round.
WE CAN DO BETTER and that is all we ask. That is why KAGAME was so annoyed with M 9 and believe me I have a lot of people I know in Rwanda and one of them said he has never seen PK so annoyed and it was something he talked about even after that fateful event.Because he knows we can and deserve better instead of settling for second or even third best.
Just like we paid 600 shs tuition fees per year; yet we fed like kings; I know well that the Tororo Girls (TGS) and Manjansi menu was not much different from the neighbouring Rock Hotel; and in some cases was better. Rock Hotel did not have grilled Nile perch (from Masafu or atapa). yet it was available in the 3 schools. The 600 shs would not afford the menu understandably so the government added a capitulation grant of 2200 shs per student per annum to cover-up the upkeep.
YES at TCA we paid Shs 550. And for that you got two Yamato shirts, two pairs of shorts, you got all the exercise books you used, you got soap for laundry and bathing as well as toilet paper and as you rightly say very good meals.Students from less well off families also got a “bursary” from their districts and this was generally in the region of shs 150- 250 depending on the district, and it was with this money that some bought their first trouser or pair of shoes.
Once you got to A levels, then it was clear sailing , since not only did you not pay fees, but you got a bursary which was more than the fees paid, so there was a small balance.
Unfortunately much as I wanted to I never got to travel on the train but the stories that our friends that did were just mouth watering and made you wish you could join in on the act.We had the likes of Andrew Nyakatura, John Kintu and others who came from the direction of Kampala, but some also from nearby , as long as the train was the most convenient for them.
There was this story about a guy whose home it was claimed was almost along the line , but a distance from the station.You know we used to go with our mattresses – foam or cotton- and you either left it in the school store or went home with it.It is claimed that this guy used to throw off his suitcase – which was mostly a tin box, and then he would wrap himself in the mattress and jump off while the train was moving- to save himself getting hurt but also walking the distance from the station.Thankfully the place was a steep incline and the train was moving slowly at that point.
I of course did not forget to mention the wonderful Tororo College; breeder of Bernard Onyango (first black) registrar of University College of East Africa aka Makerere. and ejakait you make me cry over the decayed services I have to make do with when compared to the then. I will never forget the day (one Sunday morning) President Amin arrived in Tororo college unannounced and was received ceremoniously by one Ikito (of S3) on behalf of the headmaster.he took Amin around the school; with all of us in tow showing and explaining everything.
Amin asking some eager questions and being answered satisfactorily; until Ikito turned and saw Mr Mafumbo (deputy HM) and introduced him to the president after which Mafumbo took over and invited Amin for church service to which Amin obliged. After church service (led by Father Wiedmeyer) we took many photos and we went to locate and raise Amin’s guards who were dozing near the Chemistry lab in their Mercedes 220. Amin had already gone when they woke and followed towards town.
ejakait, you mention things that sound fiction to the likes of Winnie. Her language shows her generation, and you agonise we who were beneficiaries of the wonderful times past; which, no matter how hard the present generation tries will never equal (due to their greed) yet we know they are possible and attainable because they once were here. On 6th May I saw a get-together of the Old Kampala OBs and it was holow. it is unbelievable how such a school could accomodate them. they cannot fit into Namboole let alone the decaying Old Kampala grounds
It implies they just did not turn up… meaning shunning an old mother. Revival is here called so people should revive old values else the nation will dissipate.
I can guess why your annual tuition in TCA was 550 UGX and we in TC 600 UGX. Bukedi was near arid though Tororo was more industrialized. We had 5 fully running factories that worked all the 3 shifts. Jute Factory on Nagongera road, UCI, EATRO (a research institute which employed more than 300 staff) and UMA for asbestos and TICAF. sSo it is understandable that
so Tororo was a consumer town with no substantial food production yet many eaters. Teso District produced all sorts of foodstuffs in both quality and quantity and livestock too. food suppliers therefore were quoting lower rates than in Tororo. 50 UGX was a big amount those days ejakait. Citroen 16 DS cost 34k UGX brand new. Peugeot 404 estate 24k UGX from the showroom and I think a bag of cement cost 1 sh. American dollar exchanged at 7 UGX; if you were lucky to get a bank that would accept it.
COULD not agree with you more even if I wanted to.We were among other things, produce dealers and we had a 200 ton capacity store in Ngora dealing in maize, millet, sorghum among others, and all this from subsistence farmers who brought the odd 50kg here, 20kg, with very few who had say 1000kg, yet all this added up.We used to sell the produce to Asians say in Soroti and it would still stay in the store, then the Asian would send you a note to say another person from Masindi had bought the produce and yet it would still be in our store and finally it could well be collected by a dealer from Arua. And yet now when we want to produce commercially we do not have the storage facilities.We are lucky, through no fault of our own that we are surrounded by countries that can produce all the food they need yet we can not take advantage of this.You mentioned how your truck takes cassava all the way to Bukavu/Cyangugu, a place where I worked for a short time and used to go up to Lubumbashi where my late sons mother had relatives who were very proud to call themselves “Banyamulenge”.Imagine these people eat “tshombe”- cassava leaves which we give to our goats.
I had a neighbour who was just a subsistence farmer, growing cotton and a few other cash crops here and there with a few heads of cattle yet he had a 403 Peugeot which I remember his sons used to drive barefooted.
Tororo, as you say was an expatriate and my cousin worked in UCI as the chief accountant in the 60s and they had one of the most wonderful supermarkets called KHOSLA and you could get anything you would get in Europe including ice cream,apples, chocolate and it was where I bought my first camera- a KODAK- when we were coming from Mbale on a school trip.
We as a country are VERY blessed, it is just that we have to find a way to make maximum use of what GOD has blessed us with otherwise even HE will never forgive us.
MADAM lawyer -the word is FARM not FIRM as in the JOHN GRISHAM novel.And it is genetically”resistant” not “resistance” of course you are thinking of NRM.
You can not even put 1 and 1 together.Read again my article; Sekaziga only designed the 2 top floors, as an addition, that is why I was wondering why he could not even make them match the other lower floors.By the time the building was built in the 60s he had not yet even qualified.
A lawyer who can not read a simple article and make out what it says, maybe they have software that helps fools like you to read legal documents.I would not hire you to defend my dog if it bit my neighbour, because it would end up getting the lethal injection.
“Pastralists” – for heavens sake, what word is that, and do you not know, you who knows all about these design programs, that there is one simple one called ” spell check”.
MILK collecting centres are exactly that – they were for collecting milk, which was then transported to Mbale and Kampala , where the packing centres and most importantly, the MARKET were.
@Ejakait; Madam lawyer is always so confident sorry i didnt proofread before posting this comment let me make these corrections (i) Special Bridge should read Special Brigade(ii)Resistance to Resistant(iii)Firm to Farm( But this one arouse coz i am used to law Firms) i hope this makes you feel better. Next time you should make comments you understand and can substantiate okay………
Madam Lawyer – I think the best word to use to describe you would be LOOSE CANNON – because you just never know when or in what direction it will blow, so you are best keeping away from it. Like I said before, you are in quick sand , the more you try to loosen yourself, the faster you sink.I forgot to tell you that spell check can check your spelling mistakes, but it can not correct your poor English , which you as a lawyer and “born Briton”, unlike some of us born and bred in Uganda, I find very annoying to say the least.”But this one arouse……..”, ofcourse you being a glorified “malaya” only fit to serve others their wine, you were thinking of sex when you used the word “arouse” where I am CONFIDENT you meant to use “arose”.
YOU being the loose cannon you are , you are now going to tell us how you fly first class and how you stay in 7 star hotels.
Ya mugore “oriirata, ofite amafyeeri”- now why do you say things that are so stupid and so obvious. Ofcourse the Vogue and the Sport are different models , that is why they have different names in the first place.Would it make sense if the same car with the same specs had different names, unless they are made for different markets like the SHOGUN, PAJERO and MONTERO which are all the same model but for different markets even though they too have subtle differences .
1.Ejakait you are just a slow coach.
2 @ Adhola & Ejakait if Teso region had alot of wealth during Obote’s time why is it that West Nile, Acholi and Lango regions are more developed than Teso region?
3.UPC is found of concocting stories.