The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
If anyone wants to criticise Museveni, the reference point cannot be colonialism but the UPC government under Obote from 1962-1971. In eight years, Obote added on 1,000km of tarmac. Uganda’s tarmac network remained the same till 1989. However, when UNRA was created in 2008, Museveni began to take roads seriously. There were 2,200km of tarmac in the country of which 1,000 was in a bad state, 500 in fair condition and 700 in good state. UNRA embarked on upgrading some roads from gravel to tarmac and rehabilitation of bad tarmac roads.
Today over 2,000km have been upgraded from gravel to tarmac and over 1,000km of dilapidated tarmac have been rehabilitated. By the time the previous team at UNRA was fired, Uganda had 4,200km of tarmac. There were also 1900km of tarmac roads under construction (36 roads in all) and another 1000km to commence in the 2016/17 financial year. Thus the tarmac network in Uganda was projected to reach 5,200km by the end of 2016.
I can go on showing that Kyagulanyi’s letter was based on ignorance and misguided emotions. But I really do not take him seriously. He may be good at singing and dancing. But intellectual analysis doesn’t seem his forte. Instead I was surprised that many elite Ugandans whom I expected to know better thought he had written sense and were sending his hare-brained rant to me on whats app. The letter is a depressing litany of ill-informed, poorly comprehended historic and current facts. And although it claims to answer the question of “What can we do?” the only solution it offers is a vague call for “let us unite.”
I have frustrations with Museveni though different from the misguided criticism by his opponents. I am particularly frustrated by the lack of a nationalistic agenda in government’s economic policies. But then to embrace everyone who shouts “wolf” at Museveni’s scarecrow is dangerous. It risks replacing him with a worse alternative, exactly as happened in 1971 when Idi Amin overthrew Obote and Ugandans celebrated. For all his faults, Museveni is a serious policy president with a clear vision of what he wants for Uganda.
However, I find many of his ideas misguided. Museveni’s wholesale embrace of neoliberal policies has led him to worship foreign investors and free trade. These policies were critical during Uganda’s recovery from state and economic collapse. But they do not address the challenge of transformation that our nation faces today. His often naïve pursuit of them has displaced and/or stifled the development of local capital. This has undermined the growth of manufacturing, our nation’s only hope for transforming from a poor agricultural society to a modern industrial economy. The tragedy is that his opponents have no clue of these challenges and he remains much better than them.
amwenda@independent.co.ug
Mr. Mwenda
The Colonialist are long gone, Obote is long dead. None will ever come back. We as a people should focus on the here and now to pave a way forward.
Given my theory above, I want to bring your attention to the argument you make in your last paragraph. In your last paragraph, you site Manufacturing as the route that will take us from poverty.
To me, just like colonialism, the Industrial Revolution died and was buried a long time ago. Manufacturing for its own sake is unlikely to lead us to prosperity.
Today we live in a technology-driven and open global economy. The key driving force is technology-driven innovation. The US continues to lead the world because its people are innovative. To me, mind, The challenge for us as a people is how do we turn our society around to embrace innovation and become innovative.
To me, manufacturing is yesterday’s growth model unless that manufacturing is based upon innovation.
Henry
i remember very well that you used to be critical to government but currently you fight those who try to see issues as you used to see them previously, what happened mwenda where you brain washed or please tell us
Sometimes I read M9 articles and I do not know whether to laugh or to cry.
HE has this knack of trying to dissect what others have said and try to make them appear to be fools and pea brained while to make himself appear to be this all knowledgeable and know it all.
He resorts to the use of statistics which I am sure he does not know in the slightest how it correlates to other factors.
I will use a very simple example. What do we use roads for. At what point did we start to NEED roads in our development. Are roads used so that cows can walk on them. When did the first vehicles arrive in Uganda. What was the vehicular population for the periods that he quotes.
What is the ratio of tarmac and other roads to vehicles then and what it is now or during the various periods.
You make a good point here, pro Museveni people don’t relate those “impressive” statistics to other factors…..When you talk of the improved kms of tarmac roads, do you look into the tax base (note that the government collects overwhelming figures in taxes which actually is not properly reflected in the infrastructure in place)……………does the writer of this article look into cost of living and standard of living of Ugandans. When he mentions that there are more Ugandans now enrolled in school, does he compare it with the general population of over 35m Ugandans and then of course the quality of education…it’s like comparing a footballer scoring 500 goals in 30 years and one who scored 50 goals in two years…..the second is clearly better!
LIKE I have said, MWENDA is this kind of person , very like TAMALE MIRUNDI, rather strangely , and I am sure each will be offended by the comparison, who comes across some fact, and by sheer brute force tries to ram it down the throats of the audience. VERY comical it sounds, and sometimes even intellectual it sounds, but put it to close analysis and it all empty air.
When you go out to try and make an analysis , one must put certain factors into context. When we talk about roads and other services now and at other times, we must ask at what point each one started – the BASE. The colonialists started from an absolute ZERO in terms of schools, hospitals, roads etc. If again we are to look at figures of students who were in A level at a time when the education system was in existence for only less than 100 years, how do the numbers compare with our colonial master who had had educational systems in place for probably thousands of years. Ditto for hospitals, roads etc.
And one has to realise that even if they are public services, there are cost factors to consider. The roads after all were meant to benefit the colonialists themselves first and foremost, so it was mostly in their interest to build them.
The building of roads, schools , hospitals was and has been a gradual process , just like it is easier for Mukwanos son to expand on his already existing fathers business than for someone from deep down in Kabarole to start a business and make it a national success , they deserve more credit if they do.
I cannot blame M9 except for one reason.; that he claims to know what he is saying about the colonial legacy. He wasn’t born yet and knew things as they function quite recently but all the same he cannot honestly answer the following questions without vindicating himself. Museveni is not wholly to blame for reverse development of Uganda but he is the driver; so he must bear the brunt of the disappointeds.
1. Does Mwenda agree that WARD C of Mulago Hospital had a radio and earphones for every bed by 1968? Where did they go?
2. Does Mwenda agree that all Government maintained/assisted secondary schools served bread and butter for breakfast,meat and rice for lunch and other traditional dishes on rotational basis…. because the Ministry of Education knew that the students were still in growth stage(teenagers) where their bodies were supposed to be fed well for growth? What changed?
3.In the 70s, every Karimojong who accepted to go to school did not pay fees and got pocket money on top from the UG. Was this money got from aid, loan or other foreign handout?
4. When AMO was shot in 1969, he was treated in Mulago, President Amin himself was shown on UTV undergoing an operation by military surgeons and 1 Russian on the neck in Mulago in 1975. All the presidential kids were delivered in Mulago. What changed? Mulago, medics? or deterirating standards?
5. Mix and Caboose trains were running round the clock from Mombasa to Kasese and to Pakwach; not that they made profits but because they were public utilities that the state could subsidize to keep operations going. Why did they stop? Lack of funds,initiative or lack of will?
6. Uganda and Ugandans have always been same and better and more than the 60s when they performed so well in sports that Uganda flag was always flying.what happened?Did they become weaker?
7. Wearing a Crane necktie in Nairobi in the 60s and early 70s was so prestigious that beers could flow to your table without knowing who paid for them. I once heard one fellow (in Chemu’s bar Nairobi) ask a barmaid whether she had not misplaced the order and she said a ‘gentleman who was well entertained in the CraneLand” is reciprocating. What happened? Can a Ugandan ever be so respected in a foreign land just because of their Ugandanness again?
8. All neighbours of Uganda flocked to Uganda for security,fortune and just leisure. The Rwanda and Burundi kings were frequent guests of HM Edward Mutesa in the 40s and 50s (according to Barbara Kimenye’s memoirs) and enjoyed the city entertainment spots even unescorted. Why is Uganda no longer affording the foreigners all and most of the gravy that kept them coming though they have not ceased to come? Isn’t it deteriorating standards?
These and many others will convince M9 that things have gone reverse and not forward because, in the 1960s primary school teachers bought scooters, dressed better than today’s bank clerks (I swear) medical assistants drove prefect,austin and morris cars (not bought on loan) and health centres were there and most of the beds were made but unoccupied. I have no reason to lie. I swear to God that my grandmother refused to be admitted(in 1968) and we (a family of 8) shifted to a health centre and occupied a wing so she was to be convinced that the Gombolola chief had ordered that we all shift to that big house.
I also find the topic very strange “Ugandas Donald Trump” especially when one reads what M9 wrote about DT in the same column way back in March.
Only M9 can know what this means
M9 meant that Hon Kyagulanyi is a ‘bull in a china shop’ just like DT threatens to deport all Mexicans and black Africans (excluding white South Africans of course), all muslims, arrest Comrade Bob and M7 and nuke North Korea.
Ejakait, I have a simple answer to your question about the kind of person Muwenda is, forget about his unlirated correlated statistic from google it’s as simple as Fortportal =mutoro
Information is a FORTUNE, only if and when in the right hands and used in the way that it is meant to be used, and just as they say , a fortune in the hands of a FOOL is a MISFORTUNE (DISASTER).
A lot of fools go on GOOGLE and get a lot of information, who peed where and when , who did what , what started when and they simply think by reciting it and repeating it and putting it just in any order and adding a few choicy words is creativeness.
be honest ejakait. Have you heard me present googled information? I know some things google doesn’t. Whe I was in Nyangole in 1971, one Kenya Army lieutenant; a one Hussein, quarreled with S/Sgt Arikanjeru Baru of Air and Seaborne Batallion. Baru shot and killed him. Gen Amin ordered that a court martial be instantly instituted and the Baru guy was sentenced to death by firing squad; which was executed in the airfield. The fatal fight had taken place in Rock hotel.
Bantu you do injustice to Mwenda by saying he sees so near. Long before Mwenda was born Fort Portal was multi-ethnic residential place of Congolese, Rwandese,bakonzho,Bamba,Baganda and all Northern nilotics….. and by the way, Batooro are a rebel off-shoot of the mighty Bunyoro-Kitara empire who are also Nilotes by DNA but Bantu by language….. This I lecture to acquaint you with little known facts.
AND when you try to use some coincidence as material fact or as a basis for something it becomes even more absurd. To say that the building of tarmac roads was because Africans were elected to the LEGICO for the first time in 1957 is absurd to say the least. BUGANDA for instance almost fully administered its own affairs like roads where it had its own PWD (Public works division PIDA) at one time headed by the late ADONIYA MUKASA, who was also a celebrated referee , how come they did not build their own tarmac roads.
Mr Mwenda
you are boxing with an imaginary foe. Kyagulanyi did not claim that Uganda was perfect at independence. He said it worked. Big difference.
The few roads you listed were finished on time and on budget. Today we have the 21km Northern Bypass which took 7 years to build (longer than the railway from Mombasa to Kisumu). The few hospitals you listed were stocked and staffed.
As to the Uganda of 1962 being a horrible place; a time traveler from then to now might be surprised to note:
-A Minister of Works on trial for embezzlement
-A Permanent Secretary in prison, convicted of the same
-stinking hospitals where mothers and their new babies sleep on the floor
-dozens of collapsing private companies secretly begging for government bailout
-Ugandans going overseas to work as maids and watchmen
-Ugandans completing training overseas and reluctant to return home
-Senior police officers in handcuffs charged with kidnapping
-Army officers stopping the police from questioning a person during a criminal investigation
-University graduates working in markets, while 120 districts all lack the funds to fill their staffing needs
-A motorcade for a certain VIP which contains more vehicles that the total number of ambulances in the government service!
I warned Mwenda sometime back that he will unwittingly make this forum a battlefield. but Sserukeera, you must be meaning DRC. Mwenda is best advised to advocate for change; radical fundamental change for the betterment of status. Like he aptly said, it does not have to be changing M7. He can stay and still reform the status quo. It is a question of harnessing the collective energy and expertise of all well-meaning Ugandans and then a miracle will be for all to see in just 1 year. These unemployed youth can be made into a very important force that can develop the country faster and better than loans and aid.
Until today, I had chosen to be silent about what Mr Mwenda and his friends in government write about our country and its people . I guess it is always better to engage you in the way you understand belt. The historical data you use can be interpreted in various ways to suit ones argument.
If you cared about Uganda and the futures of its people you would simply fault one man on almost all the problems facing Uganda today. If what brought NRM in power was different from past governments then we would have functional government structures not influenced by a single person for the sake of his own egos. Ofcourse those that have benefitted from the loot and disfunctional institutions still echoe similar reasoning. Just like yourself , the NRM sees no capable Ugandan to take them to a new era. Ofcourse if you reasoned beyond the political or business gains, many young journalists would be coming through your establishments. Let’s face issues at hand while putting our country first.
Indeed industrialisation is a theory you out to do more research on and not simply picking examples s from other countries. Why would VW and other major car manufacturers consider Rwanda and Kenya ahead of Uganda? I guess yo answer would be Bujagali and the opposition. Why are best performing businesses in the world ecommerce related than the so called industries you talk of? With that number of university graduates, Uganda would be the Singapore( financial management hub) of Africa.
Mr Mwenda learn from the GFC and you will best advise your friends in power where the future lies. Actually Uganda can be a superpower in Five years. Ask we how. The future of warfare and economic growth is Cyberspace. Uganda can lead in Africa.
“HAS MUSEVENI BECOME UGANDA’S PROBLEM?” And like the Baganda used to say, “jako akabuza” or translated, take away the question mark or change from question to statement” MUSEVENI HAS BECOME UGANDA’S PROBLEM.”
Cheap talk and shady journalism are not going to take our people out of poverty.
Are journalists, cheap and shady ones as you claim Bwaisi, responsible for your poverty? Look for what you can do Mr, if you aren’t lame physically….. as for mentally I don’t doubt it.
“The DP government under Benedicto Kiwanuka did 210km (Jinja-Kamuli, 59km; Mukono-Sezibwa, 40m; Tororo-Mbale, 49; and Mbale-Soroti, 102km in its short life. Therefore, tarmac roads built before independence, were only possible because Ugandans got involved in governing.”
A very clear example that the i***t in MWENDA should not be involving himself in the complex subject of STATISTICS when he does not even understand SIMPLE subject of ARITHMETIC. 59+40+49+102=250, NOT 210 as he quotes. If you do not have the basic brain to do simple sums and can not edit and reason the figures you put forward, what sort of brains do you have????????.
That was a slip of the pen(keyboard) ejakait and you do yourself and Mwenda injustice by judging him on the frivolity of the arithmetical sum.
RWASUBUTARE, oh man of NYANGOLE, the lone voice of reason, nice to hear from you. You and I of the old school, we who dotted our i’s and crossed out t’s lest they be mistaken for l’s, such seemingly simple things make a lot of difference.
I hope you do know that the LUWULIZA KIRUNDA (DR) was struck off the medical list simply because he dis not count the items he used before and after the operation to make sure they added up. Simple and trivial you may say, only that the item was left inside the person who had been operated with disastrous consequences.
Likewise, you know, like our learned friend WINNIE would that if you made such a mistake in a legal presentation, the opposing counsel would have you for lunch.
IT is with such slips of the pen/keyboard that this country has been robbed blind as in when a 50km road is tendered as an 80km road, or a 50KM road is tendered as a 50 MILE road.
DETAIL.DETAIL,DETAIL
AND most newspapers and publications worth their salt have a “clarifications and corrections ” column, whereby if they print information which for some reason is not correct or has been interpreted differently from what was meant, then they do issue a clarification or correction to that effect.
I wonder if MWENDA can swallow his vo**t!!!!!!!!
Hadn’t recalled how a misplaced coma,let alone a wrong figure, does irreparable damage ejakait, pardon a long-route driver yours truly. You realise Mwenda does not address what became of the old institutions that did so well before the arrival of this Visionary? Yet the visionary himself was a beneficiary of the services I alluded to when he was a child up to adulthood,completing university and picking on the job he craved among very many vacancies that were available. How does Mwenda think his own Dad feels when he has seen things deteriorate starting from the day Mwenda was brought home in nappies from hospital, services slowly deteriorating down to where they are now. Does Mwenda need any other research? His own father Dad and Mum are the witness of how things have changed, they cannot lie, why doesn’t he talk to them,then quote them instead of going by cooked statistics? ejakait, we should tame this Mwenda before he misleads readers who are addicted to this publication and if necessary, we take it from him. I am serious. Let him not think he owns it though he once did. we are the owners we the readers and he is a caretaker. If he persists we shall deal with him. we cannot tolerate an irresponsible person in-charge of the second-to-none Independent. The custodian must be objective as per the name of the publication. I hope he reads this.
Bobi Wine will eventually cool down its too early for him to start analyising critical issues in uganda coz his background is so disturbing he cant even think for a moment why he only appeals to the mentally unstable Ugandans.
Ssebagala used to be loved by the same bunch of people who worship Bobi Wine; Lukwago even threatened to burn UNEB if Ssebagala’s papers were not found to be authenic where is Ssebagala now?
Winnie, he is appealing to the mob. Remember he used to call himself president of uGANJA (bhang) before he went to Parliament and he was overthrown by Buchaman; another regular user. As for Sebaggala, none can equal him of those Lukwagos and other rioters combined. The gentleman is brilliant. I have engaged him in conversation and I assure you he is smart and informed. Search him out and you will separate with a lot of respect for the fellow.
When you’re a true journalist worthy of respect for the profession of journalism, you do not write silly things like this so-called Andrew Mwenda does. For all the so-called schools he is said to have attended or the academic education he is said to have attained, Andrew has nothing significant to show for all that. What a shame! He really gives a bad taste for Yale and Stanford universities that he is said to at least sat his foot on and attended some minor fellowship classes. His constant bombastic writings are testimonies that the guy never learned well or never learned any academic humility from those high-calibre schools! How not? How comes he remains half-baked? The true educated are always humble and true journalists rarely use glaring adjectives in their writings and especially if the adjectives are insulting or end up perceived as scolding to your readers. Journalists are the masters of word choices! When one is educationally half-baked, he or she tends to be overly excited and always reminding their readers or listeners that he or she knows more or is so well educated, when in fact the opposite is what is being portrayed. The eloquence, articulation, and the humility level with which honorable Bobi Wine’s letter to Ugandans came across was exemplary and honestly unmatched for a gentlemen that is so humble and willingly degrades himself very often as a ghetto man. Mr. Journalist Andrew Mwenda thinks he is the darling of Uganda in education. But his writing and ideas are so crooked and flawed as he has shown us again and again. No class and no eloquence and honestly no academic humility in his DNA!
You are arrogant yourself. Who made you judge over this forum? The man, Mwenda presents the material as best as he can. If you feel you are better educated and could present it better, you only need to set up and compete with him or give alternative views like we all do here. He has never claimed, unless I have forgotten, that his opinion is the only correct version. He just presents it like the orator he is, though you dispute it, intending to win some people to his side which he aptly does. Otherwise how could he be welcome in two state-houses as regularly as we hear? By the way what do you do for a living aaahhhMr Odong? You who want us to believe that Mwenda can con his way into two state-houses Rwanda and Uganda for years without any merit. Some people is difficult to convince but you must be the thickest.
Mr. Rwasubutare,
I am Mr. Mwenda’s frequent reader just like you and all others! I do nothing so worthy for a living. But I love reading what you all write here on a free public arena and I owe my own opinion as s reader. Don’t I?
But you will agree with me that the guy is bright and eloquent Odong. No matter how we disagree with each other, we both know that sugar is sweet and woman is ahhhh you know. on that we cannot dispute.
Rwasubutare, you must agree with me that Mwenda started out as a learned fella but lost his way. He’s been tainted over the years that we can not compare the man he is today to the man he was years back. To call him bright and eloquent is such an insult to the learned fraternity.
Rwasubutare,
Mr. Andrew Mwenda is mainly a critique nerd. He earns his living through critique writing. As a prolific political critic, he will plough through your weaknesses, not strengths, but weaknesses. He hits hard exposing weaknessss to the public and repetitively and after a while, it begins to bite the victims real hard. At some point, the victims will want to stop the embarrassment thus begin making desperate attempts to have such individual on their corner for better management. In our banana republics of Africa, dissenting political voices are hated by most ruling class. So they will clamor for control of such a situation. That is how Mr. Mwenda ended up close to the ruling NRM elite in Uganda. In developed democracies like United States, Britain, Canada and others, political critics are the order of day and usually no big deal. They are not feared. Mr. Rush Limbaugh, for instance, is bombastically crazy in criticizing American presidents that he hates. But he is mainly ignored. But yes, Rush is still enormously famous and popular in political arenas. So, it may not be the eloquence, but the fear of such individuals. Rush Limbaugh is not eloquent as many will agree on that assertion. But he is surely famous and popular. Let’s not confuse the two words!
Mwenda, where are the Cotton gineries, coffee factories, Cop. Societies? The present Income collected by URA CAN and SHOULD be able to do all Roads in Uganda and support drug supplies in all Hospitals, but what do we see, all the Collections are spent by M7 and to make matters worse, he spends on useless issues, far and wide OUTSIDE his Budget! Now that he has made Every VILLAGE a District, what better do we expect!
Andrew,
Please stop expecting too much from every Jean, Mark and whoever.
How do you expect a person like Bobi Wine to put all these historical facts together and and form a discussion, comment or whatever.
Truth be told, however much we are in denial, the likes of Bobi Wine, Kaisibante, Kato Lubwama and many others in the House today, surely belong somewhere.
The question is, where are the politicians / parliamentarians of some years back hiding.
Check gentlemen like Hon. Katuntu, Prof. Latigo and some few. They oppose the Government but with reason and logic.
ANYWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Bw AJIKU, so what historical facts has MWENDA used to advance any logical analysis.Spewing facts does not in itself construe analysis.
Andrew,
The first point I noticed in your article was emotional sentiments. These can never form fair logical debate.
Otherwise I would implore you to share with us the wider economic facts related to exports, imports, balance of payments and trade, GDP per ca-pita, the taxes collected in colonial times vs now and how these are utilized to benefit the wider populace.
I would not call it emotional sentiments, it is definitely very deep rooted bias based on certain considerations , otherwise we may be overrating MWENDA just as much as he overrates himself.
Yes as you say, MWENDA quotes these GOOGLE based facts and statistics completely in isolation, and knowing the little I know about statistics , he uses them to conveniently push his line of thought.
This just underscores the fact that Mwenda has nothing substantive to talk about. He is frivolous. Nine or so months ago when Trump won the US elections he was profusely felicitous towards to him. Now here he is disparagingly, degrading him by comparing him with a little known personality. Mwenda wrote that Trump was better than the rest of Western establishment politicians and elites whom he called hypocrites because unlike them, Trump tells it as it is, presumably the truth. Mwenda has nothing of any significance to say except hurling puerile insults: he is just another shrill troll.
Exactly my point, the things he said then about TRUMP, and the fact that he calls BOBI WINE Ugandas Donald Trump, either he does not remember what he said then,or he has conveniently forgotten, because to the best of my knowledge, I do not know M9 as a satirical writer.
I believe and know for sure that Andrew Mwenda is intelligent,well educated innovative and can be controversial on many a topic but sometime back he was so critical of Museveni yet they remained buddies with the fisrt son Muhoozi.A
t one time he appeared closer to Paul Kagame and this may have worried Ssabalwanyi and he called him to order in his usual style of buying off enemies instead of fighting them.Mwenda is now a completely changed man.