Opinion: Museveni and his axing of civil servants; it is not a quick fix to get the government institutions going!

We all know why all of a sudden all employees of Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) we’re fired, after scandal upon scandal where the prices per meter of road went into the imaginary and also the due diligence on the contracts of the roadworks wasn’t really done by the government institution. Still, resolving the matter with clearing the shop totally is more of a public stunt, than actually making it decent. The first culture of thieving, counterfeiting and all the matters lay in most of the government institutions already. That is being made from the top where the monies are spent on farm equipment for the president instead of pay-rise for the civil servants.

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has lost it. It is evident with the sacking of the medical personnel of the Nakawuku Health Centre III. This is proof of the wilderness of the Executive these days. As the hide and seek of professional manner from the top, down to the lowest civil servant. If the system we’re correct and the salaries made sense than the works would be done proper and the so-called laziness would not needing sanctions. The other reason for the laziness is the loose structure of the health-care and the systematic under-funded health care in Uganda. That is why there is not functioning Cobalt 60 Teletheraphy Machine for the needed Cancer treatment at Uganda Cancer Institute at Mulago Hospital Complex in Kampala. This is just the major proof of a degraded and worrying condition of health-care in general.

The elephant in the room is obvious, it is clearly not the laziness or the Health Care per say. It’s the structures, the funding and in the end the walking budget. The President, the Executive, the one man with a vision, the force of NRM. That man the elephant in the room is President Museveni. He has run the country for 30 years, by this time his vision and his play for making the country sustainable and steady progress should have made these problems obsolete. Instead he has gotten more land and bigger private planes, but not built proper institutions or procedures to check the government institutions. The laws and regulations of the government is loose. Because if it was transparent he could not get away buying giant and expensive helicopters while the hospitals are understaffed and the vaccine programs are only there because of donor-aid directly to the causes.

The reason for the fall of grace and the sackings is that he wants the respect of President John Pombe Magufuli. He has gone directly fired his minister for drinking while in parliament and also corrupt civil servants at the port of Dar Es Salaam not long after he was sworn-in. That perception is that President Museveni tries to get. What he forget his legacy is long sealed in the behaviour and knowledge of what the NRM really is. The Image of Museveni and NRM Regime is intertwining with corruption and embezzlement.

So the claims of fighting this and going against it are more a play of words than real actions. The times he does it is to save face and make sure the donors we’re happy in the end. That is why he has continued with what he doing and how he operate. The monies always end in ways where he manipulate and make sure the riches are around himself and his loyal cronies. So the service delivery is long gone as the NAADs and SACCO’s money all of a sudden disappear together with the steady pace of the all the other government funds that just vanish in thin air.

If you wait on and continue to wait for payment; if your boss waits for his salaries and the budgeted funds for procurement of needed technical equipment does arrive. And even if it comes, it is never on time and never allocated extra funds for the lost times and lost months as the back-pay are troubling enough. The system of this is in tatters as the government are more important for the close knitted staff around the ministers and the State House. While, the rest have to wait and live in oblivion for their service rendered.

With this in mind, the sackings are unfair as the Executive and his cronies have had 30 years to fix the system and build the government institutions. The Government institutions aren’t only the inherited ones from the colonial times and being a protectorate under the British. It has now been made in the image of Museveni. Therefore the vision and image of this laziness and the lack of supervision; is all in all his fault. It is his demeanour and his wish for weak institutions so he could beg for donor funds that is the reason for the lack of control of the health care facilities. It is the build off of poverty, so he can beg and ask for help from the international community. If the country we’re strong and had transparent institutions that worked on already government funds, than the NRM regime wouldn’t need the donor-funds and NGOs supporting the Ugandan Government. Something, President Museveni clearly knows well as he been skimming and eating of the plate for decades and hope for life at this point.

The sackings is the deepest approach of trying to action and act upon the words he sometimes utter to the public. No matter how right or wrong. He knows deep in his heart and in his soul that he is the one behind the massive need for restructuring and rebuilding the Ministry of Health and the Health Care in general. As the counterfeit pills from India and Pakistan isn’t what they say they are and not as effective as the grade A pills. That is something he knows as he takes what he can get and accept it because this make him wealthy and powerful. The legality and novelty of firing own men and woman for laziness proves the little common sense for the destruction of the institutions that knows very well about. But it is better for a few health care personnel to jump on their swords than the Executive. That is the key to this arrangement. President Museveni knew so very well and lives like it doesn’t exist because he is never the issue. The issues are always and will be somebody else than him. He is the one with the vision, the guiding star for all gracious men to follow. Therefore we are supposed to cherish and celebrate his actions. Instead of saying that this actions are really just a spark and proof of his neglect or inactions for decades, that isn’t welcomed; still it is the ice-cold proof. Peace.

Opinion: Why is there so little sanction on Corrupt behaviour and why don’t the donors stop the funds?

We should question the ability of certain leaders to be able to squander away government funds, donor-funding while keeping their citizens in poverty and neglect the civil service, the state functions and keeping the state fragile; so that the Executive can brown envelope the Members of Parliament and that other civil servants to get paid, instead of government salaries depend on being paid under table for government delivery.

This is not one nation problem, this is not a one continent problem, and this is a worldwide problem. Not only government acts like this organizations, multi-lateral organizations and businesses. Corporations and other LLCs are also misusing their fortunes and ability to generate wealth for their stakeholders through intricate and complex banking structure that fixes the profits away from the countries we’re they earn high profits; while squandering away the profits so that the owners and stakeholders gain massive funds and leave the consumers, workers and the nations as they keep the funds away from the State of real business.

Why can I address the neglect of government in the same regard as tax-avoidance in modern business, because the same ethics and norms are made and regulated by the Parliaments, Executive Power and by the interests of politicians; that needs funds and create business in their constituency as they earn currency on opening business there. So with that in mind, the way the business is set-up and regulated are by admission from the political framework and laws, not to talk about tax-regulations together with multi-lateral agreements that either opens or closes doors for tax-fugitives from the profitable country.

The Government are the Sovereign Power, the ones that represent and distribute the resources and funds to their citizens through departments, ministries, institutions and programs that are sufficient to make sure of education, security and development of the country. That happens as they can either use their taxes, aid and loans to fund the government work. Well, they could if they wanted to represent the people who paid the tax and elected them.

One key reason for the maladministration and mismanagement from the government are that they are responsible for sham elections and rigging themselves in power; worst case scenario the government and executive took the power with the gun; so the responsibility is more on the ammunition instead of the transparency and accountability towards the citizens. The citizens are supposed to have safe-guards from corrupt behaviour and alleged graft; as the Auditor General and Ombudsman are supposed see through the files and budgets, together with registered procurements, so that the actual facts are the same as the planned efforts from the State.

That is why the breaking figures and knowledge of squandered monies from the funds. Something that shouldn’t be that easy to do or get away with; as so many leaders and executives have saved giant bank-accounts in Swiss Banks and in Tax-Havens. So the humble men from villages all of sudden own 30 luxury cars, 4 mansions and have a wife who spends a ministries months salaries on exclusive clothing and shoes in Paris and London. While the taxpayer are struggling to eat and feed their families, which is an issue that shouldn’t be there when the Executive and wife can have a cortege of 25 cars driving from their State House to their Ranch without any consideration.

The worrying sign is that the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other Multi-lateral organizations don’t sufficiently sanction this kind of activities or even punish the countries with this behaviour; except when the nations are on their back hunting wild goose. The United Nations and European Union, other Pacts doesn’t even sanction much either. The diplomatic tensions and the wish for resources sometimes stop the knowledge of the thievery, if not to save face of both parties as they doesn’t want the public of the nation importing to know about the maladministration.

What I am wondering with all the corruption scandals, with the rich executives and the haemorrhaging of monies from the state and businesses; It happens daily while the begging for funds from international community and also getting investors from the exterior to invest in business. These businessmen are set in function with civil servant and government officials that are corrupting the state; something that the world knows… and still keeps it going around.

Certainly the knowledge of this isn’t something in the shadow, some places all of this is in the spotlight and expected by the officials, as a second way of getting add-ons on their meagre salaries as the government doesn’t pay enough or on time for the Police Officers and Teachers to secure pay to pay for food and even rent. Therefore the system generate where the Government can’t even supplement funds for their own, while their leaders eat the most delicious stakes. This should be a warning, but the world moves on.

What worries me… is how this keep on happening with different names, different places and with different funds, while the sanctions and the stopping of funding from the communities doesn’t stop; while the massive overload of stolen monies are hidden and the ability to use this banked currency in developing the state and nation, instead lost in trail of lies and deceit where the accountability got dropped in the ocean.

We should question these transactions and not accept these facts of life, this is the ones that steal the development and progress, steal foreign taxpayer’s monies into personal bank-accounts and private business of elites instead of the public functions as they we’re supposed to go.

I am just writing in frustration… and tired of seeing and hearing about the scandal after scandal… While the ones dishing it out are silent, while the punishment is not happening and the characters who are behind the thieving is walking like kings and queens in main-streets of capitals all around the world. That is what is bugging me. It shouldn’t be like this and the behaviour should be tormented, questioned and also charged for their stolen cash. This cash we’re not automatically made for and created for the Executive’s and their Elites; which isn’t justified. So why does it seem that some people are allowed to steal a country, steal a national treasury and the foreign exchange funds are walking scotch-free while hanging around the mayors and government-officials; but when a pocket-thief or a man stealing a goat, gets detained and not hired again.

The rules for this is provable not equal, not for all men are equal under god, except if you like shrimp. Well, that is not the case in this matter, there are too set of standards, the Executives and their Elites; while the citizens and public are a disgrace and can be disregarded easily, but the rich can get-a-way-jail-free-card! Peace.   

Wasn’t it supposed to be Civilian Authority is and always above Police Authority; What happen to justice for all?

It’s not my way to utter these words, but I feel I need it, not because I am right man; I am far from being the right man to address it. As I was raised in peace, lived in peace and endured peace. Still, feeling the sorrow of the lost in Juba, the extra judicial killings in Kenya, and the unarmed African American citizens killed across the United States, while an armed former Afghan Veteran kills 5 Police officers. The scores are so uneven, the justice is not prevailing and the cases are staggering. The Police brutalities in dozen countries like Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia; the Police are detaining without charges, torturing and battling the citizens as they are vicious armed criminals.

All of these killings, all of these Police Officers acting on behalf of oppressive states, the others are systemic inaccuracies blended with the ignorance and racial bias. The state of affairs is different in the United States, compared to the other Nations, but the systems are still brutally attack the civilians like they are cows ready for slaughter. Instead of fearing the public they are harassing it silence. The tormented and the families who lose their loved ones, the ones that are bystanders and just happen to be by a Political Rally or pass by a Demonstrations in a town; gets shot, get killed and even detained as they are vile creatures instead of a human being.

Nairobi, Kenya, 2016

The color of skin, the creed, political affiliation or faith should not be the factor if you’re waking safe down street or taking a public transport… Instead they are law-abiding citizens who even comply and do their duties to demonstrate, to act upon the fate of affairs, conduct meetings and rallies, the cost is detained at police post, taken away from their homes on conspiracy and even killed. These matters are happening to often in 2016.

The leaders of these reactions to the Government, the leaders who are addressing the civil concerns of the state, are prosecuted, detained and even monitored by the Security forces of the states, as they are worse criminals then rebels or terrorists. They are addressed in speeches by the leading fractions and the MPs connected to the ruling regime as personal vermin, people who fronts sectarian violence and creates the problem. Even if the state security forces are the ones that makes issues in peaceful affairs and puts gasoline on the fire. Not that all demonstrators are peaceful or correct, but that does not give the Police rights to shot live bullet, water-canons and tear-gas at any given movement of crowds against uneven and unrighteous cause.

The killings, the brutality, the sincere atrocities, the blatant ignorance, the little fear of the ruling regime, the masters of violence, the killers and Police Officers are guarded by the ruling regimes. As they are co-conspirators with the ones that systemically control the state ordered violence and want to shut down the spirit of any organized demonstrations, movements that are positive for democratic change or even just question the legitimacy of the ruling regime. This does not comes to mind in the United States, there it is more racial biased approached as the human and gun-laws are yet again proof of misguided regulations as the loss of life in small-fire arms shootings are staggering. Still, the Senate and Congress are not able to sustain and make amendments that can stop the guns from coming to hands of people who have a unsteady mind and unsound health condition to pull the trigger at innocent citizens. While the Police Officers are nearly hunting on the innocent and creating an atmosphere, where your guilty until proven innocent, which is not any ideal approach.  

Uganda, 2016

We can all wonder when this power-struggles, when the bullets, when the tear-gas, when the water-canons and when the ignorant violence, when the killings will stop and to what extent does it has to happen, before the hash-tags, before the blazing guns and blistering barnacles!

There are just to many lives, to many hurt and to many questions, to many unsolved mysterious, too much blood and to many tears. There are something sinister and something uncertain as the attempt to sustain power by any means, the profits, the structure of society, the fabric of our existence, the approach the viciousness and vile attempt of resigning to the fact the only way we can solve the fear of each is with guns and ammunition. There must be other ways of dialogue than with John Wayne, Al Capone and Giles de Rais. There are too many men and woman who have lost their life, too many who have been taken away from their loved ones and too many to mention.

While the laymen are prosecuted and the civilians are too, the men in charge are walking away, the men and woman who protect the manufactures, the military, the Police Commanders and the Executives are just free-men and can do as they please, as the violence, the killings are reappearing as the sun is setting and making sure it has the energy for another day.

The men and woman who are in charge, the men and woman are taken away; we’re supposed to be living in the same society, under the same laws and under the same regulations; where justice and freedom should prevail, where men and woman are equal, where there isn’t fear and isn’t unbalanced treatment between State Security Organizations and the Civilians. As long as there are unbalance, as long as there are inaccurate procedure and executives are not handling it peacefully, if they are giving way to impunity and injustice, their rule will be remembered for the justifications of these vile attempts of self-justice, these atrocities under their leadership and reason for the loss of these lives.

Burundi, 2015

The deaths, the murders and senseless killings proves the arrogance of leadership, the certainty that guns can create power, that the guns can solve matters and prove justified to settle either political framework or even power-struggle, the fear and amassed causes the personal bias, the blatant accurate shootings and killings are vicious. The men and woman deserves more than becoming a hash-tag. The terrorist killings in Turkey, Paris, Brussels, Beni, San Bernadino and all the others, deserves more than the hot-minute of fame, change of status on Facebook and blended Profile Picture, they deserve more credit and remembrances, as all the souls of the lost got vanished by brutal force in matters of hours.

The continued civil, political and armed unrest in Libya, Syria and Yemen, the skirmished between Eritrea and Ethiopia; proves the hostile environment other places, the Somalian forces are both fighting in their own territory, but also going against their oppressors on their domain  to retaliate. While the Burundian are detaining school-kids for painting slurs on the President Nkurunziza’s pictures and killing opposition, being violent and answering the men and woman who demonstrated against the 3^rd Term President of the Burundian Government. President Magufuli have detained a man for writing hostile words on WhatsApp and charged and detained MP for calling him a ‘dictator’, as the President proves that he is similar to his counterparts in the rest of the East Africa. This is not vile crimes, but proves how far the government uses their security forces to control their citizens and their will to speak. I am sure in one of these countries, they would detain me in second, to silence my train of thoughts.

The 2016, have been and is bloody, as the boats of immigrants from the civil wars are drowning in the Mediterranean sea as they cross in tiny boats by smugglers to safety in Greece or Italy; as the safe heaven are supposed to get them safe from the spoils of war and power struggle between government forces, militias and armed opposition forces, as the death-toll and weak government structure that we’re centralized under one big-man is fractioned and dwindling away as the Civil Society Organizations, International Organizations and Multi-National Dialogue and stakeholders doesn’t have the capacity or the will to take charge of the unrest and uncertainty.

We have to question; will our government deal with the matter at hand? Will the government who are in charge take approaches for dialogue, for talks and creating a space where the safety and the justice have a place in the society, where the force of the state is not killing and not abundantly forcing themselves with violence on the civilians. The system of oppressive behavior and the crisis of leadership as the problems in the states, the dissolved the assertiveness of people, as the men and woman are torn, the parties are polarized and the peace has crashed; the tensions between the sovereign power and the self-righteous state officials that aggravate the public, it is not right for the leaders to use their internal squabble for power create havoc that birth more violence between two parties. That is not in the parties that one part is the state, the other is peaceful protesters, which is a different scenario, than when both are armed and kill each other to secure power and rule indefinably.

Is this what we want to remember 2016 for the civil unrest, the civil wars, the civil casualties after the violence and state organized shut-down of the public disobedience…? The disobedience and the demonstrations should be able to happen without any reactions that create a problem for the state or the state goes in a turn it into a battleground. There are so many questions, so much we miss and so many political and structures that needs to be reformed, so many leaders who need a bit of humility, the humility of Police Officers, the humility of the Executives and the leadership of the States. It’s complicated, it’s all very HiiiPower. We have to ask and we cannot let this go, we cannot let these men and woman just die for so little, as a hashtag and a little social media drops. There are just too, we have to question the powers to be and what they are doing to stop this. We cannot be silent, accept it and let it go. This is just too much. I know I am not the right man, I am the wrong man, but I had to say my peace, I just couldn’t let this one be. Hope you start to think, question and wonder why we let them get away with it. Peace.  

Kenya: Invitation to Attend a Breakfest meeting between the NGos Co-Ordination Board and Country Directors & HR Managers of International NGOs regarding the Isuuance of Work Permits to Expatriates working in the Charity Sector (22.06.2016)

Former LRA abductee says she has been exploited (Youtube-Clip) and the troubles of the NGO the Invisible Children!

“A former abductee of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels has accused a Non Governmental Organisation in Northern Uganda of using her to solicit funds from donors without offering her any support. Stella Lanam, was abducted by the rebels in 1998 in Lamwo district. She told NTV that the NGO exploited her as she struggled to resettle in the community. The NGO has not responded to the accusations” (NTV Uganda, 2016)

What I was able to find out:

If you wonder which Organization that used her story for their benefit, it was the Invisible Children, the American NGO who is famous for the Kony 2012 campaign. She was trained under their MEND program that lasted from 2007-2014.  She herself told her story to the Campaign in 2009. So the truth is in the pudding and is viable for the people to find out about.

What was told about her through the Invisible Children Mend Video:

” it is impossible for most 12 –year-olds to imagine being taken from school one day along with 150 other students and dragged into the bush by the LRA. That is Stella’s story. She and her classmates were abducted from their primary school by the rebel group and were trained to be a child soldiers and deployed into the bush with guns and machetes. They were sent to overthrow the Ugandan government. While fighting, she was given to a rebel soldier and was soon impregnated. Of the 150 students kidnapped alongside Stella, more than half were killed. Despite all that she has been through, Stella keeps smiling and singing. But Stella also continues to fight for the rights of formerly abducted women, as she dreams of becoming a local councilperson. A born leader, she is making the future brighter – not only for herself, but for all child mothers in northern Uganda. And for the first time, the brightness of her future outshines the dark memories she has passed through” (MEND.co/VIMEO, 09.09.2016).

Dissolved?

“These kinds of problematic representations ultimately led to a backlash against the organization. This became particularly clear during and after the Kony 2012 campaign and had a fundamental effect on the fundraising efforts of the organization. Traditionally, most of IC’s funds were collected as a result of its tours: countrywide presentations in high schools and colleges about the conflict and the organization’s work during which merchandise such as T-shirts and DVDs were sold and a large number of donations were collected” (…)”A second important issue is the market-based functioning of Invisible Children, whose operations have become increasingly in line with Dan Pallotta’s thinking. Russell and Keesey often cite Pallotta’s work as a major influence on how they conceptualize the future of charity and Pallotta sits on their advisory board. He was also a featured speaker at IC events in 2009, 2012 and 2013. Pallotta’s basic argument is that charities should be run according to private sector principles. Concretely, he argues for the “multiplying effect of smart investments.” This involves paying large overheads in order to attract the most talented people who in turn are expected to produce the best results, but also in the belief that higher spending in these “smart investments” will pay off: the more you spend, the more you raise and therefore the more you grow” (…)”Kony 2012 was not the first time Invisible Children had been confronted with accusations of grossly misrepresenting the conflict or its role in ending it. It did initiate, however, an overwhelming tidal wave of exposure to which the organization was ill-prepared to respond” (…)”Unlike a for-profit corporation, however, Invisible Children’s closure will have lasting effects on the many communities and students to whom it committed and whose lived experiences it aims to represent. Charitable organizations have a profoundly different set of relationships with their beneficiaries” (Ticea & Sebastian, 2015).

That is the reason why she the abducted woman never got what she was promised by the NGO, it was dissolved and a NGO who is famous for using the conflict for their own gain, instead of trying to really help the people in the Northern Uganda the LRA abductees. The plot it seems for the Invisble Children was to gain as much funds and donor money, through smart marketing instead of actually doing great work on the ground. Peace.

Reference:

Ticea, Kristof & Sebastian, Matthew – ‘Why did Invisible Children dissolve?’ (30.12.2015) link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/12/30/why-did-invisible-children-dissolve/

Jobless Brotherhood Leader Arrested: Norman Tumuhimbise picked from home by security (Youtube-Clip)

“Norman Tumuhimbise one of the leaders of the political pressure group Jobless Brotherhood has been taken into Police custody following yesterday’s incident at State House Nakasero when a Piglet was dropped in protest at the Electoral Commission’s handling of Feb. 18th Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.  Tumuhimbise was picked up from his home Kasubi today morning by security operatives. His wife who preferred that we protect her identify spoke to Reporters who arrived shortly after her husband had been bundled into a car and whisked away” (WBS TV, 02.03.2016).