Corruption Walk signals NRM National Chairman’s Final Onslaught Against Graft

By Richard Kintu

Ahead and after the December 4, 2019 walk against corruption, pockets of opposition figureheads and their followers tried as much as they could to pour cold water on the all-important event. While agonizingly trying to belittle the walk as a waste of time, they alleged that the NRM National Chairman, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, was going to lead the real perpetrators of corruption to march against a vice they have created and sustained in the country. But what a shallow and weak lame way of thinking!

Everyone knowledgeable about the developments in Uganda and globally knows that corruption, despite being widespread in Uganda, is a global problem. What is even more telling is that reports upon reports as well as surveys show that in Uganda corruption is deeply entrenched in our societal lines and as such it can’t be an NRM or Museveni thing or problem alone.

Many times, the difference between a shamed corrupt man and the next man chiding him for swindling government money is merely the prevailing opportunity gap; many saintly bashers of the corrupt quickly turn worse than those they berate the moment they get the opportunity to land an office where they can be corrupt.

The above pretty sums up many anti-corruption crusaders from the opposition. According to the 2019 Global Corruption Barometer Africa Report, 69% of Ugandans surveyed accepted that corruption has increased in Uganda. Relatedly, half of those interviewed confessed having paid a bribe to access government services in 2018.

The above figures show that corruption is entrenched in Ugandan society and so we should all support the President’s decision to come out and lead this fight. This call is premised on a number of fronts.

Firstly, by now every sane Ugandan must understand that President Yoweri Museveni has an enviable and unmatched talent to think strategically; the reason he is hard to fault on judgment. In several of his addresses, he has clearly stated that after years of mismanagement by past leaders, Uganda was reduced to a shell country that was characterized by so much malaise that it has needed NRM about more than two decades to fix. This is in line with infrastructure, security and poverty issues among others.

But with the hitherto humongous challenges (referred to as the hardware) cured by the NRM government, now is the time for the Visionary Chairman to fix the “software” by tackling issues that affect the quality of life of the wananchi.

With the Kony war done and dusted and with the country boasting sufficiently satisfactory infrastructure among other key achievements of NRM, it is now time to address the quality issues among which is corruption.

While commenting on the biting levels of corruption, many commentators have persistently blamed government for dilly-dallying with the corrupt by not heavily punishing them. Some of these figures, it is always alleged, are people known to the president.

 But while freedom of speech ushered in by the NRM/A revolution allows everyone to speak as they wish, it is worth bearing in mind that Uganda is a country that espouses the rule of law as prescribed by the dictates of the 1995 constitution of Uganda. This gives the judiciary as well as the police the powers to investigate cases— including corruption— and then prescribe set punishments and deterrent measures as stipulated in the people’s constitution.

It is therefore foolhardy for opposition enthusiasts and charlatans to pile pressure of the Chairman to offer extrajudicial punishments to those accused of corruption most especially after they pass through the judicial system.

Many times the president has bemoaned being frustrated by courts and on each of such occasions the detractors have reminded him to respect the rule of law. If that’s the case why then must the president be pressured to handle corruption suspects extrajudicial?

To address such queries, the NRM government has put in place measures that supplement police efforts in form of the IGG, Auditor General among others. Most recently, the Chairman created the anticorruption taskforce led by Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema to help capture the corrupt. As we speak now, the team’s footprints are there for all to see.

A recent survey by the European Union revealed that more than three out of 4 Ugandans don’t report corruption. This alone shows that either these Ugandans see corruption as normal or they are always part of these schemes.

This is however not a big surprise given that stories abound of fresh graduates who would rather remain unemployed once they analyse a prospective job but fail to see as they can irregularly earn extra perks laden with dots of corruption. The “enjawulo” culture is so engrained that even in home there are cases of women swindling home maintenance monies given to them by husbands. It is no wonder that president Museveni beseeched parents to start the corruption fight at family level because it is these fundamental units of society that breed and produce future civil servants, businessmen and politicians that simply use their newfound status and opportunities to perpetuate the corruption that was nurtured right from home.

To stamp corruption out of Uganda therefore, there is need for a multi-faceted approach involving all Ugandans— after all, a corruption-free society is every Ugandan’s dream. The president wont nose around every citizen’s home to cut the sprouting buds of corruption so his timely interventions are only worth praise and support. We therefore have to rise up and keep the torch that our dear president lit on December 4, 2019. This is not a time for finger-pointing or empty ranting.