The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
THE LAST WORD: The lesson from pictures of many newly born babies packed on beds and chairs at Kawempe Hospital
THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Last week, someone took pictures of Kawempe Hospital with a multitude of newly born babies laying on congested hospital beds and plastic chairs. This provided considerable grist for the anti-President Yoweri Museveni and anti-government of Uganda mill. As expected, Uganda’s chattering elites went wild on social and other media; they denounced government for its corruption, incompetence and selfishness with self-righteous indignation.
We have highly exaggerated expectations of our poverty stricken and revenue starved governments. This is based on ignorance of our states’ capabilities. When this is combined with excessive prejudice about our governments, it turns self-righteous indignation into a toxic mixture of emotional debates and bad public policy.
Journalists who cannot get basic facts right or write proper grammar or spell words correctly or punctuate their sentences properly expect and demand that laboratory technicians get their diagnosis right, nurses be competent to a fault and teachers and policemen do similar. It never occurs to them that their mistakes as journalists and pundits, just like those of nurses, doctors and policemen, are a reflection of low levels of skills i.e. poor human capital.
I want to criticize this behavior with a lot of humility because for many years I was a leading priest of this attitude. Then I reached the road to Damascus. Over the years of self-reflection, it became apparent to me that we need to change our mindset. This realisation came in large part because I became deeply conscious of my own weaknesses. Once this happened, I felt liberated from self-righteous anger and what it leads to – the delusion that I am perfect and everyone else is incompetent and corrupt.
Ladies and Gentlemen
2225 deaths of Babies at “Kawempe Hospital” in One Year.
That is about 185 deaths of babies a month.
86 deaths of mothers a year.
7 deaths a month.
Is this still worthy the tag “Hospital” or it is a death trap
Volongoto System.
Let us dismantle it. pic.twitter.com/wJ7iGbpsNd— Ivan Bwowe (@BwoweIvan) September 1, 2019
Yet the paradox is that the pictures of kids congested on beds and plastic chairs at Kawempe Hospital are evidence of success, not failure, of the Ugandan healthcare system. They demonstrate increasing public confidence in public health facilities. Ugandan mothers used to deliver babies at home in the attendance of relatives, neighbours and/or traditional doctors.
According to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS), in 2001 only 37% of mothers were delivering babies in a health facility. However, in 2006, this number had increased to 42%. In 2011 it had jumped to 57% and then 73% in 2016. We can infer from this rate of growth that it has increased to 83% today. This must be a product of two things.
First, there is increased access to health facilities as government has built many Health Centers even in the far reaches of the country. Today 86% of our population lives within 5km of a health facility mostly owned by government. Second, that there is increasing public confidence in our public health facilities – that is why people are flocking there and the facilities are getting overwhelmed. In the specific case of Kawempe Hospital, it was designed for a smaller capacity, and is now overwhelmed by the closure of Mulago for renovations.
Excellent piece of article. All Ugandans of all grades need, as you rightly put it, is TOTAL MINDSET CHANGE and WORLD OUTLOOK of things rather than dwell on self-seated personal hatred because one cannot reap positive results with negative thoughts.
IT is laughable that you find this article excellent( you are of course entitled to your opinion) and advocate TOTAL MINDSET CHANGE and WORLD OUTLOOK and yet your HERO , once VILLAIN is the strongest advocate of CORRUPTION and thinks it is miniscule in the scheme of things.
ONE of the biggest issues we have as a MINDSET issue is to think that corruption is a SMALL and NATURAL issue and has no bearing, as M9 would want us to believe, on the overall outcome of development.
IF you are a fan of FORMULA 1, you would know that races are sometimes determined by a margin of 1 thousandths ; and that the team and the driver look to see where they have lost the 1/1000ths and where they can gain 2/1000ths. That is the WORLD OUTLOOK you are talking about BUT do not seem to have a clue. World currencies, stock markets and shares, production levels do not fall or rise in the 100s of percentages , sometimes not even 10s or units of thereof, but in fractions.
That is why some of S**pid leaders advocate an explosion of our population claiming that it is a good thing and not realising that it wipes out all the positives that we gain by way of economic growth, ditto corruption even if we claim it accounts for “only” 1% or whatever figure we may wish to apportion to it
AND yet here you are talking of mind set changes and world out look.
You know Andrew Mwenda we used to hate you with passion for your guts when at Makerere University in Lumumba Hall between 1991- 1995 ,as a then student reporter of the Daily Monitor, for the openness and blatant attack on government and other establishments. However, over time your analysis has become great that you are so balanced and I love your analysis everyday.
This is very mature analysis calls for applaud. Thanks for this explanation.
” This realisation came in large part because I became deeply conscious of my own weaknesses. Once this happened, I felt liberated from self-righteous anger and what it leads to – the delusion that I am perfect and everyone else is incompetent and corrupt.”
ON this I may wish to digress , because I think you still have a very high level of self righteousness and always present your opinions as fact and consider all those with a differing opinion (sometimes rooted in concrete facts) as ignorant.
YOU are very much a TRUMP and a M7.
You are “dividing” Mwenda between a “Trump” and a “Museveni?” I think you’re are being “conservative” in your judgement. Mwenda Trump Museveni Putin. Those are not “four” different personalities, no. That is Mwenda himself. The man might appear to be Small in stature but is very Big on ego.
“We are fixated with the excuse of corruption. Nowhere is propaganda more effective (and dangerous) than when it uses (and abuses) actual facts. Of course there is corruption. But it does not explain the fundamental causes of poor health delivery in our country. Its contribution is negligible. The real issue is low levels of public revenues to finance the very many competing demands on a poor government. While it is very important to improve efficiency and minimise corruption and abuse, its contribution to overall healthcare outcomes is negligible.
This lesson came vividly to me following Rwanda, the most efficient government in use of public resources in Africa. At a very low level of income ($800 in per capita income and about $250 in per capita spending), Rwanda is governed like a rich country. Indeed, the World Economic Forum index of efficiency in the utilisation of public finances places Rwanda 5th in the world behind the richest nations such as United Arab Emirates, Singapore, USA and Qatar – all of which have 50 times its per capita income.”
M9 seems to suggest that the contribution of corruption is negligible; and yet you say in the same breath that the reason why services are poor is because of a “small purse” , made smaller by the same corruption.
Likewise you seem to suggest using the example of RWANDA that the effort it puts in reducing or eliminating corruption has a diminishing return effect.You also say that despite the seemingly small purse, not to mention most of our health care is foreign financed. Any right thinking person would stop and think, if Uganda is doing well with a “small purse” , how much so would it do if all these funds were stolen. Likewise one would ask, if RWANDA despite or in spite of putting a lid on corruption is not doing so well. how much worse would they be if they had rampant corruption.
BUT M9 who wants to argue from a PRO CORRUPTION angle will always put a spin on his narrative.
“how much so would it do if all these funds were stolen”
meant ……….. if all these funds were not stolen………”
Mr Andrew Mujuni M9, I would like to seek clarification from you sir. When u say ” Then I reached the road to Damascus “; what exactly do u mean, is it arguing from pro-wanainch (opposition) to pro-govt (NRM) point of view? I ask this because m9’s own original views – in his earlier editions of “The Independent” magazine – were spiced by the words “you buy the truth we pay the price”. Many of us preferred to spend our hard-earned little coins to buy that vibrant copy of then weekly magazine to missing a meal! But, alias, we were very wrong as the man himself has now pleaded guilty writing all those “researched facts ” from a point of ignorance!
“Mr Andrew Mujuni M9, I would like to seek clarification from you sir. When u say ” Then I reached the road to Damascus “”
M9 and indeed some people think that a change is always for the better.
The fact that he changed his thought process does not mean he changed onto the right thought process. M9 says that he was ignorant , and now he has “changed” , but as far as a I am concerned, he changed and became even MORE ignorant.The GANDA say “nobusilu bukula”!!!!!!
Give him another 5/10 years and he will be telling you what he was writing in 2019 was s**t, this time I do not know whether he will have seen the road to where (Damascus).
1.I really love babies.
2.When it comes to pleasing men, a woman can do anything in Africa for example; the only way of booking space in a man’s heart is by producing babies thats how we mark our territory unfortunately at times we get losses in the processing of booking a place in a man ‘s heart hence unwanted pregnancies.
3. What are the main causes of premature births and how do we address them?Poor feeding and STDS can at times cause premature birth.
4.There is alot of pressure from men to have unprotected sex and naturally women are submissive in nature they are told by their sengas that sex is the best thing on earth and they should be generous with it.
5.The biggest distributors of HIV these days are young girls and ladies.
True@Mwenda.it is also interesting to note the our health outcomes are similar to those of Rwanda yet the Rwanda government is known to be so efficient.
I do believe that this also applies to our personal lives where the elite focus on becoming highly educated ignoring the emphasis on embarking on a deliberate basic trading opportunities to enrich the economic outcomes of them selves and their families.
Some one has a PHD or a masters in business administration but cannot be deliberate to run a supermarket with Capital of 20 Million
We need to remember that what is important is to ensure that our countries are rich first , then we can focus more on other moral related endeavors .
What is happening now is that we are focusing on what is not our priority