These things appear to be happening quick. Todays launch of his candidacy as President and Chairman of the National Resistance Movement (NRM). It is just all protocol and more of the same. It is neither funny nor insightful. Just another day in the Republic.
That Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is a Presidential Candidate was written in stone. It was in the hieroglyphics and in the ancient scrolls long before we were born. This is a way of life and how it treats us.
The removal of both term limits and age limits has all been in favour of one man. The man who proudly put these mechanisms in the new Constitution but deleted it when it didn’t fit him anymore. He didn’t change the law for the betterment of the Republic, but for his own selfish gain.
We can act like today is special, that the announcement is shocking. Breaking news. Read all about it. Well, we knew this was happening. Only the blindfolded, the ones with naïve thought someone else would pass the throne. That would be a miracle and a sensation. This would have sparked amusing tones and wonders. Because, it would not concur with the legends of ancient times.
This has been the case since the takeover of Kampala, 26th January 1986. Since then it has been all Museveni. He has ruled supreme. Been the Don and the Kingpin. The man in-charge and the only man with a vision. The one who is only fit to rule, and the rest must beg for mercy. That is what it is.
That’s why today isn’t special. His been selling the same story since that day. The day of fundamental change, the correct line and all of that. It has been his mustard seed of hope, which has turned into despair. We can act like everything is cool, but the man who will drop a manifesto for his 8th Term. Will most likely promise similar things of the past. The same sort of promises and possibly new lingo, but still the same tools from the shed.
It is a revised 10-point programme. The same sort of pledges and promises of a dream never succeeded. Because, he never intended to put the work in or deliver any of those. Just by mere luck that donors paid the duties and costs for a while. To keep the charade going.
Now, we are in 2020. In a time where his preparing for 2021. Alas his legacy is distorted, as people are arrested for poems, Facebook posts and jokes. There is no bottom, only an endless pit of suffering for the ones who oppose this man. Sooner or later the law catches up with you and give you a phony charge. A charge that you will keep and will haunt you.
So, will you believe in the man that has given out promises all his career and all his life? Only to determine or not even prioritize them. A man who has decided his own reign counters all other obligations of the state. Everyone must be jolly that he rules, and that his words are divine.
Today, was all ready prepared. Everything was aligned with it, the stars, the moons and the nsenene. Everyone was ready for this. It was inevitable. This wasn’t a journey; it was a road already taken. We have been here before and we just repeating the same thing over, and over again. Peace.
Well, the scholars will say its his 6th Term, which I defiantly says “no” too. That is not true. They are currently saying his on his fifth term. That he was elected in 2016 for his 5th. However, if you do that, then your taking away his first 10 years in power. You are initially deleting the years between 1986 to 1996 and that is not fair. That is unjustified behaviour and rewriting history. The Republic of Uganda doesn’t deserve that.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is currently in his Seventh Term. You can calculate the 5 times and see that I am onto something. That the man who has run the Republic are in his 34 years in power and by 2021 is at his 35th. By the end of the next term he will be close to 40 years. Which by dividing 40 by 5 turns into 8. It is every simple Math.
I know, I will read in the big-media houses like BBC, AP News and others where it will say that his going for his 6th Term. These fellas who write that doesn’t care that he went a decade in power without any elections. That he suspended it and didn’t want to hold any. No, they are just making click-bait and not holding the President accountable. He should be counted for the first years of his presidency. Even if his achievements from those years are long forgotten and his killing of enemies those years. Are also long time buried and dead.
Never the less. Let me just reissue this short time. So, that everyone understands my equation and how I get to 8th Term for Museveni. This here should be the gist, but I am sad to say. The international media will say its 6th because they don’t know better.
Short Timeline:
1986-1991 First Term by seizing power/coup d’etat,
1991-1996 Second Term by suspending elections.
1996-2001 Third Term by First Election after the coup d’etat.
2001-2006 Fourth Term, Second Election. Abolishing Presidential Term Limits.
2006-2011 Fifth Term, Third Election – First Multi-Party Elections since the Coup d’etat.
2011-2016 Sixth Term – Fourth Election.
2016-2021 Seventh Term – Fifth Election -Abolishing Presidential Age Limits.
2021-2026 Eight Term –Sixth Election
This is just my gist of it and how easily it can be calculated. Something, I find important, because all years should count. Not only the timeline from the election in 1996 until now. Than the same media houses should say he has ruled for 24 years, instead of 34. Why?
They are not counting it in the sense of terms, when they are accepting not to count the 10 years of suspended elections and coup d’etat. If your straight about, be straight forward and not glean in the middle.
Take the whole account, the whole time served and not just from the first election. That is just fair. This President has rigged elections and will rig the upcoming one in 2021 too. It is just a matter of levels and to what extent. Also, what sort of play he wants to do. He decides. His legacy is already tarnished and this election will not make it better.
His the soon, eight term president. Remember that. It is insane, but still true. Peace.
“I thank my Colleagues in CEC and the NRM Parliamentary Caucus for forwading my name to continue adding more steps on our mission-oriented journey. Am therefore very pleased with your confidence in me and since am still very able and I happen to be among the most conversant with this journey, I happily agree to serve” – Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on the 18th March 2019 at Kyankwanzi Summit
I am tired of reading in the media, both local and international, that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is running for the Sixth Term starting on the 2021 to 2016. I beg to differ, because like last time before the General Election in 2016. They we’re stating and saying he was going into his fifth term, which for me was also false. I am the sort of man, that claims this President is already serving his seventh term and going into his eight.
I have in the past explained it thoroughly, today I will be more relaxed, because this should be common knowledge. If it isn’t let, me enlighten you about this old man with the hat. There is a reason why he has a magical date of 29th January 1986, when he was sworn in for the first time after a brutal civil-war to seize power. Something, the President have never intended to leave ever since.
That is why he stopped elections until 1996, even if that a “No-Party” Elections and a part of the Movement System. This is where people start to count, as there was elections, but by doing so. Than, your deleting without thinking the decade between 1986 to 1996. That is disgraceful to the civil-war or the Bush-War and even to the ones fighting to hold elections in the mean time.
As the President ushered his constitution the year before in 1995, an Constitution he has amended plenty times since. So that he would be eligible for a re-election. Therefore, with all of this, we have a decade before the first election after seizing power and knowing the Republic have 5 year terms. Meaning, that before the 1996 elections. The President have practically had two terms already. So his third was between 1996 to 2001.
His fourth term was the 2001-2006, which was the term where the President abolished the Presidential Term Limits, so that he was eligible for another term and also had a referendum for a Multi-Party Democracy, meaning more parties than the National Resistance Movement (NRM) could run. Because, the government lost that Referendum, the other parties was able to run as well. So, that the Movement System, which was announced with the seizing of power had to be abolished.
From here, he went into his fifth term between the 2006 – 2011. He continued to push it to his sixth on the 2011 – 2016. It is here things started to get hectic. As he continues to be in power. A sixth term should be more than enough, than he had already had 30 years in power. However, this President is still power-hungry. Because of this he went on for the 7 term, which is between 2016 to 2021.
In the midst of this term, he has changed the Constitution to abolish the Age Limit, just like he terminated the Term Limits, he ditched the Age Limit, so that he is eligible for the up-coming election in the year of 2021. Which in is my opinion, the eighth term.
To recalculate and show by short list:
1986-1991 First Term by seizing power/coup d’etat,
1991-1996 Second Term by suspending elections.
1996-2001 Third Term by first elections after the coup d’etat.
2001-2006 Fourth Term, Second Elections. Abolishing Presidential Term Limits.
2006-2011 Fifth Term, Third Election – First Multi-Party Elections since the Coup d’etat.
2011-2016 Sixth Term – Fourth Election.
2016-2021 Seventh Term – Fifth Election. Abolishing Presidential Age Limits.
2021-2026 Eight Term – Carrying on Traditions, I suppose.
That is the simplification of the hardships, the toils, the sweet and the tears of dictatorship, where they are trying to make it look like he has spent less time in power.
His reign has been active since 1986, even if there was no elections, that time before the 1996 should still count. If not, the international media and others are only validating the time after 1996, which is foolish. That is distasteful.
That is why, his not going for sixth term, that was already done by 2016, before the recent term, which is his seventh. Now, as he is the not so breaking news, the sole candidate of the NRM. He is running for the eight time. Surely before his dead, he will have run for 10 terms and seen more American President, than the Queen of England. Peace.
“Let me tell you, Kyaligonza is not a person to joke with” (…)“You must not forget that I contributed to the peace you are enjoying in the country, yet you ridicule me?” – Maj Gen Matayo Kyaligonza (New Vision, 26.02.2019).
Well, Mr. I’m Above the Law, because I went to the Bush in 1980s. What’s up?
How is it hanging? Right, left or straight? Because, your not entitled to force yourself on people, to harass and harm them. Because you took arms and brought down a government in the 1980s. How entitled are you?
When can this stopped being invoiced to the public? Since the public is continuing to pay for the misgivings and hardships, you and your comrades did in the 1980s. The bills never stops, the reality of it all is that it continues to this day.
The so-called liberation has only been for a few, the way you act Kyaligonza and other weapon brothers act. The high-ranking officials of the Bush-War, which has now their entitlement put into stone and the rest, can just vanish. They are just people that can used and let be canned. That is how you act.
You deserved to be mocked, as your act oblivious to the fact, that you act like your superior, above the law and like you’re the esteemed bourgeois, whose only supposed to get served and be high and mighty. The rest are your slaves, they are not supposed to order you around or tell you anything. Your so special, so unique and smell of royalty. That is who you think you are.
That the Bush-War and the legacy of that entitles you to slap woman, grab land, be grandeur and get away with any legal ramification. Since you picked up the guns in the 1980s and because of that, you should be shielded from the law, forever, ever since.
Let me be straight with you Maj. Gen. Kyaligonza, as you have to force yourself on woman, use your armed guards against a traffic officer and surely you would easily repeat this offence. Let me tell you this, your are a coward, the only difference between an ordinary coward and you? Is that you’re a coward with a gun.
You wouldn’t act like this if your were righteous, if it was correct, but because of stature, you have allowed to act this way. It is beneath your station and stature, but you think you can do it. That is who you are, a bonafide coward with titles and a bush-war legacy. Your not great, your weak and your only manhood is proven, when you take others freedom, liberties and even their dignity away.
Your not a man of principal or ethics, your not a man of honesty or of justice, you’re a man of entitlement and scaremongering. You are still a foot soldier for the President. He will not save you, even if you think so.
Kyaligonza… shish, you think your all that, but in reality your not. It is a reason you’re the ambassador to Burundi. You’re a crony and imbecile, who force yourself and your titles on people. Time for you to retire and maybe serve with grace, though it’s a waste saying that. Because, you never will. Your like your master, will linger in the realms of power until your last breath. Peace.
Well, there wasn’t much news or much breaking news in the midst of this Independence Day Speech. However, when it comes to Bosco or Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, he is the king of recycling. I will not even go into that. I don’t have the time or the bother to address it. We want to live and breathe too. Museveni is himself to a T, but that is not securing the state, but solidifying his position. He is really showing his revenge and his wish for all control in this speech. This wasn’t a speech of statesman or a father of a nation. Not that he is either of those, he is the guy that made a coup d’etat and wasted what he inherited by the ones he overcome.
So, with that in mind, Yoseri from Ankoli, what’s up?
A Snippet of the Independence Day Speech:
“On the side of stability, I want to assure Ugandans of their security. The country is generally secure and peaceful, save for the persistent threats and incidents as well as violent criminality. Uganda had a lot of challenges even after the NRM took power. Eventually, by 2007, the UPDF totally defeated Kony, ADF, the other rebel groups and disarmed the Karimojong. Some of the terrorists of ADF as well as other criminal elements, seeing that they could not survive in the rural areas, infiltrated into the towns where we had not fully focused in terms of developing intelligence capacity. As a consequence, we had 7 Sheiks assassinated as well as Major Kiggundu, Joan Kagezi, AIGP Kaweesi Susan Magara, Abiliga and Kirumira of recent” (Museveni, 09.10.2018).
That he said he has defeated Kony and LRA is not true, they are just not in his territory. The LRA are still existing to a degree and causing havoc in the Central African Republic. Neither is the destruction of the ADF, which he always blames for crimes and terrorism in the Republic. They are even blamed for the death of Kirumira and who knows for Abiriga, when that comes up. ADF are still in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Therefore, these security measures are not fulfilled, secondly all these assassination and killings are not proving that the Republic is safer, but otherwise. Certainly, no one can say that Operation Thunder in the DRC in 2008 was a success, only if you rewriting history and forget losing a military helicopter over nothing.
An extract of what was said at the CCTV Launch:
“These killers must be afraid that Uganda is rising, which is why they are murdering our people to scare us. However, we shall defeat them. People who trust God like me are never shaken by lice. When you want to wage war, you should come and declare. The Killers have touched the Leopard’s tail and the will see. But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water. They came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”…But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” The killers in town do not have the capacity to fight, but to hide like mosquitoes. This forced us to install cameras, to be our nose, ears and eyes. I was even able to see those who eat sugar canes and litter the streets.” (Museveni, 09.10.2018).
Certainly, he pounds on security and today he unveiled the CCTV Cameras and the Surveillance Centre of the state, which was new on Independence Day. It is a nice effort after promising for dozens of elections and plenty of rallies over the years. That he finally could show it off. However, this is not the ones that solves all crimes. If so, in the city of most CCTV Cameras there wouldn’t be crimes committed or even unsolvable crimes, alas, there is and the Kampala Metropolitan Police should co-operate with London Metropolitan Police to learn from their years of experience and how to use the CCTV. Because they are the city with the most cameras.
Clearly, this has all hurt his pride, as he knows these killings are leaving a deadly stench on his hands. As the old sins are buried, but not forgotten, however, easier to get away with. Now, the fresh wounds are in the open and these mechanisms can make him look a bit good, however, that train is a bit late. The flight has already taken-off and his time is over. It is just like he doesn’t accept that, as the President thinks he can still micro-mange things. Nevertheless, he cannot, because he even back-talk what people are doing.
He even talked down people eating sugarcane and if your complaining about littering and garbage in the streets, why haven’t you made a substantial budget, put in the efforts to give money and polices to clean Kampala and secure that the waste is already gone? You haven’t even invested in bins or garbage trucks. So, let this people eat their sugarcane, not like you cared before you watched for a hot minute today on the screens.
Bosco, should get serious, but that opportunity has left us a long time ago. He is just winging it and hoping it doesn’t fail him. Spending on cronies and wasting government funds like there is no tomorrow. Peace.
Dear honourable, His Excellency, the fountain of honour and anything else, high and mighty, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni!
I am writing this simple and short letter to you, as the Republic is celebrating that it went from being a protectorate of the British to become an own independent state. These 56 years has been rocky, and you have been the longest lasting leader and the only one being supreme for this long. You have had all control since 1986. That is 32 years of the 56 years. Which is a long time in power.
Today is a hard day to celebrate, as the problems of the independence are still there, the same issues. Maybe people have cell phones and internet, maybe some have businesses and there are more influence from abroad, but development as whole isn’t that bright. The weakest currency in the area, growing debts and lack of a positive future. As the black gold and the secrecy of deals, is the stuff that only you know off.
If they stand up to you, they get imprisoned, get detained and arrested, they get tortured and charged for crimes against the state, your security forces quell demonstrations and riots, your security forces kills civilians and you accept that. It is hard to see freedom in that, as well, as all agreements and transactions has to be accepted by the State House, meaning you.
Nothing is done without you, the orders from high above, the orders of destruction, the orders of loans and the orders of arrests. These are all done on favours for your and the company you keep.
The citizens aren’t free today, they are limited and the limitations you have given them. It is your boundaries and your micro managing that controls them. Mr. President, they are not liberated. They are liberated from the Crown of England, the Commonwealth of the United Kingdom, but they are not free from toils, sweat and tears. They are not free from tyranny and oppression. Instead of being an white man who is sanctioned from London to monitor the Protectorate, there is a guy in the State House doing the same. That is why Besigye was detained like a colonial criminal in Moroto, to get him away from the Baganda. That is the reality.
Instead of developing a better future for the generations to come, you will be remembered as the man who did the same as the ones before him. Just for his own personal greed of power and wealth, while keeping the public poor. Instead of remembering the achievements and programs like the Ten Point Program, you will be remembered for the tyranny and the oppression, the acts of contempt for rule of law and justice. The rigging and the lack of succession.
They will never really be free as long as everything is by decree from you becomes law, the other institutions and government organizations are your mere foot soldiers. That is maybe what you wished for, when you said your were the only man with a vision, now everyone is following your visions blindly.
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” – C.S. Lewis
I don’t know about you, but me and Bosco’s God must be two different animals, different deities or even another spiritual power. Because the God he talks off, cannot be the same God I am worshiping and praying too. That the President has to power to know and explain of other people’s lies, but not his own. As the President should be blessed, because he took a chance and joined Nyerere’s war against Idi Amin. That is the story he is telling. The Pre-Bush-War of the 1980s, was a God-Given opportunity for him now. That is really something else. Not that we mere mortals are able to understand gods ways, but the way of war, the way of killings and civil war that went on for years. Doesn’t seem so holy, unless your in the same evil spirit as Joseph Kony and his Lord Resistance Army. Alas, he is praising God for giving him the power of taking parts of FRONASA and later making NRA to defeat Obote and UPC/DP with the guns.
Just look!
“Museveni said it was because of this diligence, that God looked at him and thought he would be deserving of bigger responsibilities.” “Because I fulfilled that little trust of Mwalimu, taking a big risk, God said; ‘I think this man should get more trust.’” The President added, “When we talk of oversight don’t think of these MPs. Think of God because he is looking at you, whatever you do, whatever lies you tell.” (Wasawa, 2018).
That is why I have a big issue with this statement, because who is he to say, that God would give more trust in him, because he took a risk? Where in what scripture is this mentioned? In what sort of warfare passage and lack of love was this mentioned? Was it the Shiva who said this to him?
That he mismatches God with his ego, says how much he believes in himself. When he uses spirituality and faith to base his place. That is like saying it is Gods will for him to still reign, even if that is surpassing all his promises to step-down and his promises not to change the Constitution. This is from a man who lies constantly and not keeps his promises. A man who micro-managing and not trust an another living human being. That person is saying God said he should get into a position of bigger things.
And the method he has done that, has been by guerrilla warfare, been by manipulation and deceptions, been by corrupting and consolidating all powers within himself. That is what he has done. Therefore, instead of trusting in people, he know is saying his powers is in-directly God given. Even if he took it by the gun and living by the gun. That is the mere fact and he should accept that.
Bosco shouldn’t involve God in it, he knew what he did and what purpose for his actions. That isn’t Godly, but because of human attributes of greed and ego. Because he was the only man with a vision, the only man who could and since then. No one else have had the ability, because he has stifled them, arrested them, tortured them or sent them into exile. This is the man, that says God saw bigger things in him.
Bosco isn’t King David, neither is he King Solomon, no, he is just Yoseri or Yoweri who took it all and trying to make himself holy. It doesn’t work. We can all see and we all knew what went down. The bodies are buried and gone, but we have to remember them. Because they are the reason for why this man is in power. Peace.
“If everything is amplified, we hear nothing.” – Jon Stewart
Man, I am tired of his shit. Pardon me, but I am. I have seen and heard enough of the Musevenism and the giant National Resistance Movement (NRM) apologist Ofwono Opondo, the Director of Uganda Media Centre, which is under the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, therefore, he is also employed now by the Minister Frank Tumwebaze. Therefore, the famous OO are far of the left-field and everywhere. He is steady on Capital Gang and NBS Frontline. I am tired of him. Today he even written a piece.
He is defending the NRM and Museveni at a rate, that is extensive, that his blood-pressure isn’t out of whack is strange. Because his level of lies and deception that he plays. If he is proud of his work, I would feel sorry, but everyone wants to eat. I am sure the hypocrisy and the tarnish of reality must hurt his brain-cells. Since it is long inbetween any truthful statements and the reality. That is because he has to play to his master. The reason why I am tired of his crap.
“So, those like Besigye, opposing NRM by propagating outright lies perhaps need to trade very carefully because Ugandans know the truth, otherwise, voters may not be kind to them at elections” (Ofwono Opondo – ‘NRM is Delivering on most of its Election Promises’ 10.05.2018).
It’s kinda hard believing that OO had to go this and say these words. When he knows the reality, but trying to make the numbers and the words fitting the paradigm of success. That always going back to the 1980s, always going back to a time with nothing and with inflation after a bush-war. Because that is the standard the NRM every single time seeks to. That they secured peace and made progress. But after doing, they haven’t delivered to the public, that is proven with the schools, the health care system and the unemployment rate. The lack of delivery of service, the rampant poverty, the debt level of the state and the lack of development in the state. All of that is the serious mess that the NRM are leaving behind, combined with a growing elite eating of the dying and rotten state, which is created in the image of Museveni. He has created this with all of his cronies and his self-control, that OO always say is right and doing the right thing.
OO is off the wall and high as a kite, when saying that, as the state is levying more tax on the public, the government loans are maturing and the oil revenue is still not hitting the fan. The giant development projects they have borrowed monies for are not to be sure off and the Rural Electrification Projects are still continuing. There are so many things missing and so much funding taken away, creative financing and creative spending of funds. That makes roads more expensive, more projects taking longer time and more cronies paid off, while land-grabs and grace periods to foreign investors, which makes sure the state earns less, but someone gets a favorable kick-back for so.
That OO is still praising all this is beyond me, that he is professing to a state that intimidate its citizens, that messes up the Sim-Card Registration for over a year and make a mockery out of the media. A state that is disconnected with the community, as they are not engaged delivering the needed services or state programs that actually could bring development. Instead they are looting and eating on the public plate. To say otherwise, is to look outside the window and lie.
That is why I am tired of the likes of OO. He can lie about his amount of hair on top of his head to his side-dish, he can lie about how many cups of tea has during the day, but he cannot lie about the reality and the state of affairs. Which he does everytime in public.
So, please shut up, OO stop lying, your bad at it! Peace.
“President Yoweri Museveni has implored parents who are financially sound to give their children a better education to guarantee a better future even it means taking them to Private schools” (NTV Uganda, 04.03.2018).
The pledges of yesterday is losing value for President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the process and the service delivery doesn’t matter, if it ever did. The Universal Primary Education was one of the brilliant moves he did and also got much more donor funding in the beginning of his Presidency. He introduced UPE in January 1997, as the time went the Government of Uganda invested more into the schools. As the Overseas Development Institute in February 2006, which stated: “The UPE programme has required a significant increase in public expenditure devoted to primary education. Total education expenditure increased from 2.1% GDP in 1995 to 4.8% of GDP in 2000, while the share of the education sector in the national budget increased from 13.7% in 1990 to 24.7% in 1998” (ODI – Policy Brief 10, Feb 2006). So the DFID sponsored brief are really explaining how the National Resistance Movement and President Museveni really used funds into the schools to make it happen. However, down the line the investments hasn’t continued and the progress of the policy has lost value. Since they have not continued or hold into that standard.
“The President clarified that parents should feed their children and those who can’t afford should take their children to Universal Education Schools which he insisted should not charge fees, while the capable ones can pay in private schools or ‘big government schools’. “Universal Education Schools should not charge fees and parents must provide a meal for their children, called ‘entanda’. Government has provided UPE and USE for poor parents and here it is free. Those who can afford can take their children to other government schools and private schools where they pay but no child should be withdrawn from school” he emphasized” (Opio, 2018).
When you hear the man who is the leader, whose been the President since 1986, been there 32 years. Saying if you want to give your kid a good education, send them to private schools. The ones who are poor can send their kids to government schools. Therefore, if you have money, you will care more about the future for your kids. Because we as a state has given up the Universal Primary Schools.
This financial year the state is using 10,87 % of the national budget in 2018/19, that is down 11,37% in 2017/18. Both years are really proving how little it is concerning how it was when the UPE was booming around the millennium. In those years the state used about 20% or more on Education. Meaning the means to build and upgrade schools where there, also for more staff and more equipment was there. This has been forgotten and deemed unnecessary by the state.
Already in 2006, the UBOS Statistical abstract stated this: “However, the education facilities including classrooms, teachers’ houses and libraries have not matched the upsurge in the number of pupils. In 2004, provision of classroom space remained an enormous challenge. Table 2.2.2 shows that, only about half of the pupils had adequate sitting space” (UBOS, 2006). So the problems we are seeing today, is systemic from the mushrooming of schools and districts who built-up schools after the announcement of the UPE in 1997. I am not saying it is easy to keep the upkeep after the surge of schools, but if the state wanted them as a priority. They would have allocated funds to it over time.
Clearly, that part has gotten wasted and the state hasn’t figured out that buildings needs upkeep, schools needs equipment and teachers needs salaries. I know all of that seems basic, but the deep understanding of that seems lost somewhere.
Since if you are seeing the numbers, the Education Ministry got 24,7% in 1998 and now in 2018 it get’s 10,87 % of the National Budget. The schools has surged then and the budget is smaller, that meaning the more schools and teachers are getting significantly less funds for their operations. This is clearly the will of the state, as they are prioritizing other parts of government and not the schools. So the pledge before the 1996 Election is now being abandoned, the Ten Point Program point is being dismissed and the State showing disregard for its own system, as the rich can have their own. The poor can have lesser quality and the ones who care about their future can got to the private ones. Because of this I want to go back to 1996, because it says a lot, about why its like this today.
So, we are not going back to 1986 today, but 1996, when this happen:
“Given his earlier opposition to the idea, President Museveni’s decision in March 1996 to make universal primary education part of his manifesto for the upcoming presidential election campaign represented a sharp break with existing policy. In a radio speech delivered on 27 March, Museveni promised that, if re-elected, he would implement a plan giving four children per family access to free primary education (the plan would also apply to orphans) (Radio Uganda 27.3.1996). This education promise was, however, just one part of an overall election manifesto that included pledges concerning liberalisation of the economy, road building, defence, and renewed East African cooperation. In fact, improvement in education was listed as only the fifth of seven bullet points on the back of Museveni’s
published manifesto (Museveni 1996). Though free primary education was only one small part of President Museveni’s initial election manifesto, during the course of the campaign it soon became clear that the promise to abolish school fees was striking a chord with the electorate. Ugandan officials from the period recall that several of Museveni’s close advisors repeatedly sent messages to the Ministry of Finance after campaign meetings in order to emphasise how the UPE promise had been well received” (Stasavage, 2006).
We could see it was his own initiative, as the President knew what would strike a chord, making sure the kids was educated and had a better future. The same resonates today, but the state has forgotten that. They are not caring, they build a giant program, a big school system of Primary Schools, but not allocated or planned the upkeep of them. That is why the state of the schools are going down and the level of poor public schools is rampant. The districts and sub-counties are not getting enough to keep the schools in functions or even the buildings up. That is why we can find pictures of schools falling apart and looking like they we’re forgotten the day after they finished building it.
From a report from the Ministry of Education and Sports in 1999 said this: “Uganda spent only US$8 per pupil in the early 1980s, and in financial year 1997/98 US$32.50 was spent per pupil” (…) “ UPE is one of the surest means that will lead Uganda to the attainment of the Jomtien Conference (1990) pledge of providing basic education to our primary school going population. As we provide that ìminimum package of knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes required by every person to enable him or her live as an independent, productive and effective citizen in a societyî the individual is empowered to meet her or his daily needs and aspirations, those of the community and the nation, which are focused on modernisation. Uganda is confident that by the target year 2003, Universal Primary Education will have been achieved for all its children” (Ministry of Education and Sports, P: 19, 21, 1999).
So in 1999, the State was hopeful, today in 2018, UPE is not for all children. Not if you listens to the words and the statement from Museveni. It’s Private Schools for the wealthy and the UPE for the POOR. Therefore, Museveni is claiming to classes and two system, which is really demeaning to the ones going to the UPE schools. This is his fault that the schools are bad. He introduced the system, he made it and built it. However, he forgot to the upkeep. He forgot the pledges of the past, even the goals of his own ministry in 1999. It is nearly 20 years since or 19 years ago. Therefore, if Museveni has forgotten it is natural, I don’t remember what I wrote a year ago. However, he promised this and used his Presidency to promote this. The UPE is one of the few grand achievements of Museveni. Even I can say that. But now its rotting and that is because the State has stopped funding it. It is their own decisions not upgrading or even maintenance of the buildings. It is weird that the NRM went into this, build this giant school program and had no plans for maintenance of the Schools or the Salaries of the teachers.
It is easy to start something, but when it continues, you needs to allocate, secure and also funds for day-to-day business. That is forgotten and today, Museveni has given it up. If not he doesn’t care about the UPE he introduced officially in 1997 and pledged during the 1996 Campaign. I say that because, well they have gone from using over 20% of the yearly budget in the 1998 to around 2000, but now the state has allocated as little as 10%. So it the Primary Schools are neglected, because the State has decided to neglect them. It is because the state has built a lot of them, but not funds to maintenance of them. Museveni knows this, but doesn’t say it. That is why the schools are for the poor, because the President even keeps the Government Primary Schools poor themselves.
I just have to ask the President, you used years and your time in the beginning of your time as President to build up the Universal Primary Education, have you officially given it up? Should the Ugandan population give it up too?
If you I can put the whole situation into one simple explanation: Museveni wanted to give the public a giant castle, he pledged to give the public that giant castle. He actually built the giant caste and made sure the public could use the castle. However, with time he didn’t have the funds or the money to maintain the castle. The walls and barricades are failing, the walls are weaker, the structure needs fixing. The servants, the people who are inside the castle are not getting paid and even educated to keep the walls steady. So, the stones and the building are looking more like a ghost-town than a castle. Museveni could have had a castle, instead he has a rundown ghost-town.
There are too many UPE schools that are rundown without proper buildings, which has been neglected. The same has the teachers and the pupils, who them all are living through it. Their future is depending on it and they are forgotten. Now the President tells, the ones who can afford it should go to the Private Schools instead. The poor has enough with the UPE schools. That just shows how he has given up the 1990s project.
Isn’t this a sign that you as a leader should have retired, since you have actually given up one of your achievements?
MinBane 