Hon. Evelyn Anite clearly doesn’t know the fair market regulation in the Communication Act of 2000!

 

“Speaking at the launch, the State Minister of Finance for Investment and Privatization, Hon Evelyn Anite praised UTL for taking the lead in spearheading such initiatives” (Uganda Telecom, 19.06.2017)

Honourable Evelyn Anite, the State Minister for Investment and Privatization, the one who was speaking on the 19^th June 2017 at the Constitutional Square in Kampala. This is where she uttered words of special disgrace. Especially in a free-market ideology that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) has bought into with the Structural Adjustment Plan (SAP). Together with the privatization of all sort of markets. Uganda Telecom isn’t the only Cellphone provider or the ones delivering telephone services in Uganda. There are dozens owned by local and by foreign investors. These are all from MTN to Airtel, even Smile Telecom and others. These are in competition and is one of the most profitable industries in Uganda.

Therefore, just look into what the Privatization Minister said yesterday, which is interesting.

“Once the managerial problems at Uganda Telecom have been fixed, Ugandans will be compelled to own a UTL Simcard just like having the national identity (ID) card Evelyn Anite, the outspoken State minister for Investment and Privatization has revealed” (…) “”It did not take us to get somebody from another country to come and fix what is [problems] in UTL. We’re not yet done but we are close by…I want to tell you something; that once we fix the problems in Utl, it is going to be compulsory for Ugandans to hold a UTL line just as it is for you to have a national ID, you must have a Ugandan line. That is the spirit of patriotism”, she said” (URN, 2017).

Sometimes, there should be given some public ethics and governance practices to fellow ministers, as their reach and their possible outreach of laws and proposals. Even the State Minister Anite should learn some parts of the Uganda Communications Act of 2000, which says: “56. Commission to encourage fair competition. The commission shall, in the performance of its functions under this Act, promote, develop and enforce fair competition and equality of treatment among all operators in any business or service relating to communication“ (Uganda Communication Act, 2000). So the laws abiding by the state itself, says it is supposed to be fair, but what is even more neat.

The Second section in Part X, which is worth looking at, since this is the exact part that the operators and the Minister totally forgotten or overlooked, if ever have read: “57. Prohibition of acts exhibiting unfair competition. An operator shall not engage in any activities, whether by act or omission, which have, or are intended to or likely to have, the effect of unfairly preventing, restricting or distorting competition in relation to any business activity relating to communications services. Without limiting the generality of subsection (1), an act or omission referred to under that subsection shall include— any abuse by an operator, either independently or with others, of a dominant position which unfairly excludes or limits competition between the operator and any other party; entering any agreement or engaging in any concerted practice with any other party, which unfairly prevents, restricts or distorts. competition; or (c) the effectuation of anticompetitive changes in the market structure and, in particular, anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions in the communications sector. Neither the Uganda Telecom Limited nor any of its affiliates shall hold or acquire an ownership interest in the second national operator or its affiliates. Neither the second national operator nor its affiliates shall hold or acquire an ownership interest in the Uganda Telecom Limited or any of its affiliates” (Uganda Communication Act, 2000).

So the idea of the State Minister of Privatization are actually thinking of making provisions for the failing state-owned company Uganda Telecom, to get all citizens to have sim-cards and making them costumers in the midst of free-market and also in the midst of all competitions. This is clearly a massive breach of the law and these pieces of legislation. You don’t need to be a scholar or a man of wisdom to understand the possible problems of UTL. This clearly can be seen as limiting the competition and the other companies, as the state only in this way looks into UTL and not helping the other companies. Because she didn’t say all citizens should have MTN and Airtel too, only mentioned UTL.

This is not enforcing free and fair competition and equality of treatment between them. The words of State Minister Evelyn Anite isn’t enacted or become law, even a motion to Parliament. But shows the disregard for functioning law by the own Parliamentarians. That is clearly needed and Speaker Rebecca Kadaga should get the functioning staff to teach their fellow MPs. So they know their laws and provisions within their departments. This so they don’t create these sort of embarrassment, which Anite has done yesterday and revealed today. If not maybe a NRM Caucus at Kyankwanzi could be a learning seminar instead of bashing in the glory of the President and his controlling ways. Peace.

Reference:

URN – ‘Uganda: UTL Simcards to Become Mandatory for Ugandans – Anite’ (20.06.2017) link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201706200332.html

President Museveni Kyankwanzi Key-Note speech today had deceit of NRM Economic policy and the similarities to Big-Men of old like Arap-Moi and Amin!

As the 10^th Parliament of Uganda is starting and the vetting of Members of Parliament are touring the National Army Leadership Institute (NALI) at Kyankwanzi as they have the retreat to make sure the National Resistance Movement MPs and Cabinet are acting right. Especially the policies that is right for the Executive and his Elite. But other than that he had the Key speech today and said some questionable things again.

“Even to negotiate credible and durable trade deals with the USA, the EU, China, India, Japan, Russia, Brazil, etc., we need Pan-Africanism. It is only through the EAC (160 million people) and the whole of Africa (1.25 billion people) that the other foreign countries or trading blocs can listen to our voice in the long run. It is, however, not correct for the regulators not to take action against the Chinese and Indian retailers who unfairly compete against our retailers. Those foreigners should not operate at that terminal level. They should be re-directed to manufacturing in particular and other areas like construction. Retailing should be preserved for the Ugandans or, possibly, the other African immigrants as well” (Museveni, 2016).

Well, it got me thinking about another Ugandan president back in the day; that apparently President Museveni we’re proud to bring down together with the Tanzanian Army and Milton Obote, but that is forgotten saga in his head. As President Idi Amin said this:

“For instance, between 1962 and 1968, the government of Uganda sponsored as many as 417 Asians for training as engineers. Today, however, only 20 of the 417 Asians work for the government. Within the same period, the government sponsored 217 Asians to train as doctors, but to date not more than 15 doctors of these are working for the govt. Finally, within the same period, the government sponsored 96 Asians to undertake law courses, but of these only 18 are now serving in the government” (…) “I am further informed that some of these Asians who were sponsored to take courses abroad refused to return to Uganda after thy qualified, which means that thy have contributed absolutely nothing in return for the training benefits which they received from this government” (…) “it is painful in that about 70 years have elapsed since the first Asians came to Uganda, but despite that length of time the Asian community has continued to live in a world of its own” (Semuwemba, 2016).

Not only the former friendly Ugandan dictator had his say on the matter in the past, even the former Kenyan President Daniel Arap-Moi said this in 1982:

“Instead of Indians using their advanced knowledge in business to help Africans improve their profit margins” (…) “Asians in this country are ruining the country’s economy by smuggling currency out of this country and even hoarding essential goods and selling them through the backdoors” (…) “I am not discriminating against anybody, but I am against people who are out to enrich themselves through false means. From now on, anybody found hoarding or smuggling will be punished severely. If he is an Asian, he will be deported immediately regardless of whether he is a citizen or not, and if he is an African, he will have his licence canceled” (New York Times, 1982).

So now the Mzee is sounding in the same regard as Daniel Arap-Moi and Idi Amin Dada; with his new cabinet with Democratic Party MP, Uganda People’s Congress MP and Uganda Federal Alliance MP; the similarities to Democratic Republic of Congo former dictatorial President Mobutu Sese Seko comes to mind. He is really stealing from all the totalitarian leaders of East Africa. It is magnificent how he kept it up. While speaking progress and democratic values while contemplating that the Asian’s are the problem for doing their retail instead of Ugandan citizens, even if the Asian’s happen to be Ugandan; just another heritage than the Pan-African he speaks of.

Ironic that he said this a bit also today:

“We in the NRM, therefore, have never accepted the shallow social science of the Western countries that fetishized capitalism and elevated that useful social system, but one with limitations and weaknesses nevertheless, to the high pedestal of a deity (God-like). The position that capitalism was the only useful social system in the modern era, was wrong. The dramatic rise of the Chinese economy, in terms of GDP size, to the second biggest economy in the world today is proof of the correctness of our position. By mixing both the capitalist and socialist stimuli to the Chinese economy, the Chinese Communist Party has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty and registered gigantic steps for the growth and transformation of the economy” (Museveni, 2016).

Well, here is lie from the Executive as didn’t follow whole heartedly the Marxist or Communist paradigm or socio-economical structure as after the regime change by the rebellion of Museveni; he easily traded his ideal of the communist paradigm.

“Six years after Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Movement took power, Uganda has made remarkable strides in overcoming as grim a legacy as any African government has known. Improved security has been an important factor in allowing the country to rebuild. Economic policy has helped, too. The past six years has seen economic growth averaging more than 5 percent per year, as idled land and vacant factories were brought back into use. The economy has also achieved lower price inflation. Now, in 1992, Uganda is at a crossroads. Economic growth is slowing, and inflation is beginning to rise. Uganda is highly indebted to foreign lenders. Further increases in capacity utilization will be a costly means to grow and cannot represent a strategy for sustained economic growth. Infrastructure remains inadequate in transport and communications. The preferred road is clear: public and private investments are needed to continue the reconstruction” (Warnock & Conway, 1999).

Claimed impacts on liberating the Economy through IMF’s SAP:

“Two principal reforms mandated by the IMF arrangements were trade liberalization and the progressive reduction of export taxation. But as the external review points out, “Liberalization of cash crops had only limited beneficiaries.” This was the case because only a small number of rural households grow coffee. Liberalization had little impact on rural incomes over the period of adjustment- rural per capita private incomes increased just 4% over the period from 1988/89 to 1994/95” (…) “The IMF also mandated the privatization of state-owned industries, a process that has met particular criticism in Uganda. The Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network (SAPRIN), which was launched jointly with the World Bank, national governments, and Northern and Southern NGOs in 1997, has reported that the privatization process in Uganda has gone too fast and has been flawed from the start. A report by Ugandan NGOs who participated in SAPRIN found that “The privatization process in Uganda has benefitted the government and corporate interests more than the Ugandan people. . . The privatization process was rushed, and as a result, workers suffered. Some 350,000 people were retrenched and, with the private sector not expanding fast enough, unemployment sharply increased. Those laid off were not prepared for life in the private sector, with no training being provided.”(Naiman & Watkins, 1999).

So not only being anxious today about Asian retailers; today the Executive Museveni claimed there rewards of liberating the economy, which is not so very communist and even more capitalistic of NRM! Together with the liberation escalated the unemployed, which has happen to this day. And isn’t inspiring to read contemplating the recent numbers of unemployed and how this man still tries to ‘inspire’ MPs and Kyankwanzi. There is just something wrong with that picture.

The thing that should be inspiring today, not only sound-bite of Amin and Moi, but the lie:

““We in the NRM, therefore, have never accepted the shallow social science of the Western countries that fetishized capitalism and elevated that useful social system, but one with limitations and weaknesses nevertheless, to the high pedestal of a deity (God-like)” (Museveni, 2016). When the IMF said this in 1999: “Two principal reforms mandated by the IMF arrangements were trade liberalization and the progressive reduction of export taxation” (…) “The privatization process in Uganda has benefitted the government and corporate interests more than the Ugandan people” (Naiman & Watkins, 1999).

So if you see this little detail, you see the deceit of Museveni to his own Elite and MPs. As he claims the mixed economy, but the IMF with their Structural Adjustment Program that Museveni accepted and agreed on. This was far from God-like more State-liberated economy through neo-liberal ideas that the IMF and World Bank wanted so that the Ugandan Government could get their donor-funded loans that the NRM needed.

So hope you learned something of the nature of Museveni today and his actions of the past or his nature of deception. There are certainly some who is not surprised, but as I have said before. President Museveni rewrites the history to his liking and today he did it again, just with a twist. Peace.  

Reference:

Museveni, Yoweri Kaguta – ‘Re-focusing on the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Ideological Orientation’ (26.07.2016) link: https://www.yowerikmuseveni.com/statements/keynote-address-joint-political-leadership-nrm-central-executive-committee-cabinet-and

Naiman, Robert & Watkins, Neil – ‘A Survey of the Impacts of IMF Structural Adjustment in Africa: Growth, Social Spending, and Debt Relief’ (April 1999).

New York Times – ‘KENYAN SAYS ASIAN MERCHANTS RUIN ECONOMY’ (07.02.1982) link: http://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/07/world/kenyan-says-asian-merchants-ruin-economy.html

Semuwemba – ‘AMIN’S SPEECH BEFORE HE EXPELLED THE ASIANS WAS AWESOME!’ (27.11.2014) link: https://semuwemba.com/2014/11/27/amins-speech-before-he-expelled-the-asians-was-awesome/

Warnock, Frank and Conway, Patrick – ‘Post-Conflict Recovery in Uganda’ (1999)

The ironies of Socialism versus Neo-Liberalism; why I believe in a Keynesian approach instead of the Socialism or the Neo-Liberalism

Well, it is about that time, I make mockery of two statues of civilization and ideas that rules the world while not hoping the blindly followers of either comes to attack my person, my thoughts or my widely allegation on the parts. Both of the political views and framework have made a difference and is the reason why we have societies like we have today.

The main parts of socialism is that there is policies and regulations that fit for social and bigger government who cares for the citizens, like subsidized health-care, schools, university, transport and local government. Through taxes and higher fees on produce as the socialism need funding for the ability to make the government organizations and government programs. The Government need more taxes to able to serve the public with what they expect through the socialistic view, while the taxes are set-up in a way that the ones with more income is generating more revenue is supposed to pay more tax; than the ones that are paid less.

So with the big-government and grander government policies comes the address of the public will and citizens loses power, but that for the price of cheaper health-care, schooling and other government institutions. That stops the higher prices and free-market pricing of health care that lets major parts of the society might even be able to pay for the needed operations. So the reasoning and hateful measurement against big-government is wrong in some parts as the people are stronger when we work together and divide the expenditure on the whole society; instead of billing the whole ordeals on the single individual.

Neo-Liberalism is not as straight forward as this is supposed to be measurement to weaken the state, make it liberal and little. Give more power to person instead of the government and give more choices to the citizens of the given country. The issue is that Neo-Liberalism has come with certain ideas and prospects. For instance the New Public Management (NPM) is a Neo-Liberalistic idea. NPM have given the societies and the government who added these policies more watchmen and ombudsmen then before. They have given the power away from the departments and created institutions under the departments with specialist and experts that sets the standard and gives advice to the department. While the departments still need manpower, so need also the lower-expert-institutions. So you have two fronts with specialist working the same field and advising each other. So before NPM most of the experts and brains where at the Department and Local Government that worked with a given subject or the project that needed a specialist; thanks to NPM they have become self-serving and not cut down the amount of bureaucracies have become fluent. As much as the wish for the NPM as parts of the Neo-Liberalism idea, it hasn’t created less government, but more and longer away from the decision making.

The Neo-Liberalism of free-market and starch corporate control have not given added freedom to the consumer. As the markets are controlled by less and less owners and stakeholders; the corporate power have become stronger, but more centralized in conglomerates that issues the policies and secure the profits. The riches of the corporations and the borderlines agreements are built for the corporations not for the welfare for the citizens. The original businesses we’re built for single projects or for fixed procurement that the state and citizens needed like building roads and bridges. Not gaining profits that sky-rocket and then moves away the tax-money into tax-havens. That is the Neo-liberalism ways of economies. In a way the movement of money should happen without government interference or taxation.

The Neo-Liberalism brought also an idea that was worse than the NPM. That was the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) under the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). SAP was made in the 1980s to liberate the subsidized agriculture, health-care and other public institutions as government got great loans through the funding of IMF and WB. So they released the governments and free-market ideas that killed the Co-Op’s in the countries that was already lots of them. They had commissions and centralized crop sales through Co-Ops that served the farmers, either they produces cocoa, coffee or tea. This was a standard of fixing training, production and prices to influx together a stronger unity. The ironies of this is that the IMF and WB gave this order through SAP to Low-Developed Countries while the countries that funded this had Co-Ops in agriculture themselves and still have to this day. So with the SAP they made the inside trading before the export more intricate and gave “supposed” more power to the farmer. Instead they became more reluctant and needed more to be careful to whom they offered their crops to. As the traders from capital who went up-country could fix prices and lie about the values to earn more on the trade to export. So the farmer would not get a given price on the world-market because there we’re less voices giving the farmer a hand in the trade of their cash-crops and their goods that they we’re not consuming themselves. So the SAP agreement stalled the government institutions and weakens them together with the trading experience on the ground. The structures we’re given big loans for building up trade-networks and export facilities while dismantling the structures that secured and fueled the industry and agriculture. As the Agriculture and Industry should not get subsidized, but get funding through free-market ideal and that killed the initial funding as the cheaper production came from abroad instead of making it locally. Therefore it is more normal to Chinese, Egypt and Brazilian products than own local products in the supermarkets of Uganda, for instance. Even meat, juice and toilet-paper are imported than produced in the country. That is because of the SAP and the Neo-Liberalism ideas.

Another important factor of the Neo-Liberalism idea is the abolishing ideas of Workers Unions and trying to ban them. As the Free-Market should fix the pay for the worker and the business it should fix it. That is why there been less strikes and less new Unions in our day. The reason why Unions in our time is important and the socialist idea of them is that the riches of the corporations; does not seem to trickle down to the citizens; it only left back to the stakeholders and owner, not to society or the workers that works for the rich corporations. Settling this is not easy. During the Reagan and Thatcher era tried to kill of the unions for their meddling and dissolve them so to actually centralize power. Instead this killing of mining-unions and other unions in the United Kingdom have weaken the industry and the ability of workers to fix pay while the corporations come with contracts that are good for business, but not good for steady income for proper work. The recent years of cover-ups in Sports Direct that is owned by Newcastle United Mike Ashley that offers their workforce lots of “Zero-Hour Contract”. Zero Hours Contracts work in the way that the employer has more people under their wings without paying extra for them. The Contract gives not benefits or sick-leave. As the Employee is paid by the hours and amount of time they work for the employer and nothing else. So all the benefits is added to the business and none for the worker, who has to fight and bend-over to add hours as the pool of willing workers are there. Even if the Zero-Contracts are bad, the non-Union and not-allowed to unionize work-force cannot go together and fight for their benefits and rights. As the Employer can continue to use and get new workers without having to stand-by them. Sports Direct is just an example of it, there are more business who uses this model and creates massive profits as they don’t have to offer needed benefits or health-care programs to the employees. As Wall-Mart have had low-hourly pay and no health-care benefit while letting their employees sign-up to government funded programs for health-care so that the Wall-Mart employees get little paid and at the same time uses food-stamps and Medicaid instead of Wall-Mart having health-Care benefits. So the business saves the money for salaries and also save the benefits of their employees; this is something you can thank the beautiful neo-liberal ideas.

The difference with the neo-liberalistic ideal of work is that the employee would give sufficient pay and have a contract that benefits the company and the workers. As they would have social responsibility for their workers as they have health benefits through the standard with standard payments of salaries together with state fueled community health care. The Neo-Liberal is that personal pay of the health-care instead of tax-payers money. So the health-care will be opened to the once who can have insurance or ability to pay for it. Instead of funded through the tax-payers pockets as solidarity between all citizens as in the socialist idea. That cannot be seen as a problem for a liberal person, to bring solidarity and also a structured health-care that everybody pays their fees into and when needed pay a small personal fee to get access, instead of footing the whole bill on their own.

Let me finish this up with the ideals that are ironic on the matter.

• Smaller Government under NPM has actually made more Ombudsmen and Expert Organizations. Meaning that the Government didn’t become smaller, just longer away from the Department to the Experts and the Ombudsmen that the Government want to control
• The SAP in Neo-Liberalistic method didn’t bring wealth to the countries it was applied to. The Farmers, the government institutions got weaken, while the loans got higher and less development as the Free-Market got the resources, but without control of the Co-Ops or other ways of maintaining support of citizens. The economies became more fragile as a result of the Neo-Liberal SAP then under the Co-Ops with the control of selling cash-crops and so on.
• The Free-Market idea of Neo-Liberalism while destroying Labor-Unions to secure more government control of the market. While deteriorating the labors ability and therefore opening for the “Zero-Hour” Contracts that gives all the advantages to the corporations and none to the employee who only get security for the hourly work and nothing else for the employee. That would not happen with stronger unions and government who could enforce the rules for corporations.

All of these is ideals against each other I myself is not a clear socialist, even if I am raised on socialist country in a social-economic balance system. I myself is a clear Keyenist in the way that I believe in free-market and free-society to an extent. That extent is that the governments automatically bails out the necessary institutions and have a hand into the banks and other needed businesses of a society. That the workers are secured and fixed through strong barriers so that the market is made sure that the governments, and also facilitate the marker for the corporations. So that the market will have input from the government as the eruptions is inevitable and needs a structure to control it.

This three main components are basic:

• Aggregate demand is influenced by many economic decisions—public and private.
• Prices, and especially wages, respond slowly to changes in supply and demand, resulting in periodic shortages and surpluses, especially of labor.
• Changes in aggregate demand, whether anticipated or unanticipated, have their greatest short-run effect on real output and employment, not on prices. Keynesians believe that, because prices are somewhat rigid, fluctuations in any component of spending—consumption, investment, or government expenditures—cause output to change. If government spending increases, for example, and all other spending components remain constant, then output will increase.

So with that in mind you understand why I am in between of the socialist and the free-market neo-liberalism as the Keynesian ideas that are more subtle and securing society as the mixed of government control and free-market gives sustainable societies. Not only full freedom without security for other than the corporations which is the main mantra of the Neo-Liberalism as the individual freedom usually get used by the legal person the corporations and not coined will by the persons themselves as the belief is under the ideology of liberal ideas. Instead of having total control of the state in the Communism, and strong big-government with socialism; but the Keynesian sees it in middle of that and have a free-market with control of the wages and workers by the government. That gives a steady economy and also a greater stability in the values of inflation and stronger value of the person instead of being a commodity as resources in the free-market thinking of the neo-liberalism that have deteriorated the markets and only winner is the corporations; not the fellow human beings. Peace.

Mzee and his Militarized State; the Guns never left the Executive it seems!

“Soldiers feel that the Police are not serious with the criminal elements and that they are corrupt. The army had to come in and insist that criminals must be punished. It happens in all countries, there is a time when the army assumes the duty of internal security”. General Museveni (Daily Nation – Nairobi – January 26, 1987).

This is ironic that President Museveni said in 1987. We can see that times has changed or that his mind set to other perspective then directly from the bush. With the guerrilla warfare and the so-called liberation struggle, that has been discovered more and more about the tactics done to get power.

It is surely and clearly many ways President Museveni talked democratic values while it has been uncovered that he oppressed the media and opposition. It has done that since day one of the regime, just different how far and to what extent. It has always tried to look beautiful on the surface and smiles to the donors and Election Observers Missions while in the end, the institutions built around the Mzee. That the Electoral Reforms haven’t really been there for free and fair elections. When I went through the 1996 elections the stories are similar to today’s oppression of the opposition.

While opening up for free-market thinking has over time and letting the United Kingdom, Kenyan, South African, Indian and Libyan businessmen got easy trading ability in the country, while the exports and trade boards are gone, less of unions and other governmental structures. In the later years the government has started with micro-credit, Operation Wealth Creation and Youth Livelihood Programs as a cheap way of trying to patch up with the loss of sufficient structures that are sold out, by government to get loans in the beginning of its administrations.

We can easily see that the government who came to power with the guns and ammunition, and still has MPs directly from the army is bound to have the militarized effect on the politics. As the Police are acting with direct force and not following always rule of law. While the government overflows with former colonels and generals becoming politicians instead of businessmen and civil servants as the President is a bush-man himself and been part of two insurgents to power. One in the end of 70s and one in the famous 1986, so the guns never left the power and stayed there; even the tale with the donor-funding of the army from abroad to fight dirty wars the U.S. don’t want to stick their finger in, as in Somalia and Central African Republic.

The Electoral Reforms as discussed briefly the NRM-Regime have stifled most of the time any kind of reform and ruling power therefore had to have two elections on referendum to release the Multi-Party Democracy and also been making the difference between using government funds and using the well-known factor of promises pledges from direct government subsidies to the big-men and chiefs, even Parejo’s and other SUV’s given to men to secure the votes and loyalty to the Mzee.

There been steady shifts in leaders underneath Mzee as he has taken down the men who has been built by his leadership, as he want the ones with his former MPs, VPs and PMs as they wanted to elevate themselves and leave him behind. As the founding father of NRM, nobody else should rule the party and have the Executive control. He took it with a gun and easily takes pictures with it to show where his strength is.

The government have used all kind of methods and tricks to gain riches to NRM elite and leave the certainty of other manufactures, industries and even achieve certain outcomes only for the closest allies of the NRM, even on Town Council levels where NRM members and NRM elders have closest call to get add-ons and secure funding for projects, while the opposition and other institutions have to get hands-out by international NGOs or Bilateral funds to get enough for what they need. The Resistance Councils and the now Local Councils are built for securing de-facto loyalty to the Executive and learn the strength of regime, not to be a democratic system.

The Police and Army is built around loyal men in the top and men the Executive can trust to follow his suit and have his family close connected, even with Gen. Salim Selah not in direct leadership position as he has been involved into too much thefts, thieving and other activities to clean the leadership to look decent for international community, even with Brig. Muhoozi Kainerugaba who is groomed and quickly up the ante with running the Special Forces Command. The ruthlessness of the army and Police never left, and the new laws in place have given lee-way to them to use it as free-for-all to shut down dissidents. While the leadership is steady shifting  and moving as they don’t want the DPC, RPC and Army commanders to be on short-leach and not be to homely where they work.

The continuation of post-election violence in Bundibugyo and Kasese, the way the army is deployed there days on days, shooting Rwenzururu Kingdoms security guards, while the treat of the ADF-NALU who is stations right over the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and as always the Police issues statements blaming other forces, even when video footage and other eye-witness counter their words and intelligence; in the end insulting the intelligence of the people.

The NRM-Regime and the words of their Executive is now totally different than what he was talking the first years of their reign. The Economy is dire, the donors are more futile and less interested in involving themselves in a militarized economy and where the NRM-Elite instead of the citizens and general population, the ones that get funding is direct funded projects as roads and buildings, but not economic prosperity as the inflations is high, the value of currency dwindles, the amount of monies to buy ordinary food-stuffs, the government have added higher loans to sufficiently take up the vacuum of the loss of donor-funds to the governmental budgets.

The whole picture is not as it should be after the ruling-party have run the country for 30 years, the picture should be a steady economy, a secure police-force respected and honor the citizens, an army working for securing the borders and doing international missions not for securing funding, but to generate peace. The country should have beneficiary institutions and taxations with representation, the ones that been done have not delivered, the steady progress has not been delivered, and when is when the media has blasted or BBC have got a whiff of it. As the NBS or NTV cannot whip the power to change, the same with the papers as they are mostly censored and controlled as the radio-stations have lost their transmitters, license and even their hosts been detained while being on air, the Daily Monitor ransacked for two days and the NTV banned from following the Presidential Campaign trail of the Executive.

There is an issue when the army is such a big part of nation, in the parliament, in the streets, in deployment and around all the time. The internal security is based on the army, not the police who is also militarized with sections of special units with military equipment for breaking down demonstrations and other gatherings of opposition, even independents who was former NRM have struggled with army and the Police Force. As the detaining of Opposition without charges, house arrests of Presidential Candidates and taking people with Candidates Declarations Forms from the Polling Station.

The whole picture is not of the state of business, the way of government that NRA and the NRM promised, it has overtaken the control of the institutions, but not given the accountability and transparency, not the economic landscape or investment climate that they have promised for so long, the basics are much of the same and the deals between the oil companies and drilling has been happening behind closed doors; like not open dealings and showing how the companies pay for their operations and how the government structures are as the oil-laws are not strict and not fully operative yet.

The tear-gas operations and the live bullets are not showing the proof of democratic values and society. The internal security and the structures are not strong, when the army enters all kind of operations, as they even killed bed-bugs in neighborhoods of Kampala in mid-February as the KCCA didn’t have the manpower to reach the area, as the UPDF have been used in any kind of processes, even the training-center of the army Kyankwanzi the National Leadership Institute and military training camp; where the NRM MPs has had retreats before the new parliament like the 9^th and 10^th Parliament went there.

The Kyankwanzi resolutions or decrees as party MPs has set precedence for the coming term and the evolution of the ruling-party as the structure in the last go-around left many of the old-foes behind, and the former secretary-general and Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi behind. While this time the struggles with Justine Kasule-Lumumba, Jacob Oulanyah and Rebecca Kadaga might go through hardships in the coming 10^th Parliament as the internal security means the security of the Executive and bring down the men and woman who has ambitions. That is why the Executive have centered the powers close to him. As even ambassador’s claims he is hard to read, the generals of UPDF fear him and just want to do his will, and the same with the police force who has a loyal Inspector General who follows every whiff from him. Even former Warlords and M23 are yearly on the payroll from the State House. As they are securing the security of the state and the government institution as civilian militia-men that does their army bidding; also does discreet business for the Executive as their role have never been told to the world. Therefore we can only be guessing at this point; though they are not cutting the grass at Entebbe or Nakasero!

The way the Army is embedded in the society and external politics, the guerrilla warfare brought the Executive first to a Ministerial Position before the General Election of 1980 and again at the takeover in 1986. He came with the gun and never left it, and never let it go, in all endeavors and structures the embedded army has followed, the loyal cadres and commando have continued, the re-payment of loyalty and offered protection have come in handy. The kickbacks and graft never left the offices, the building of the businesses have also centered the government officials, while the former government businesses has been sold for quick bucks or privatized.

The internal security can be questioned with the army running the streets in Kasese, Kapchorwa and Kampala as a steady force and looking like Marshall Law or state of emergency as the government shows the display of power, and the Police rides around in Personal Armored Carrier and have mortars as Journalist lose their cameras and the media get muffled with. The insecurity created and the ballots been stolen in broad daylight, the impunity of law of fellow citizens is not creating the peaceful atmosphere the Executive have promised and said he delivered, as the Kenyan funding of the campaign and Sudanese Army men proves the Executive went far to secure his stay in power, instead of trusting the ballots and votes, he trusted his instinct and went for the guns and ammunition that have given him the power before, as he had loyal well-paid puppets in the Electoral Commission and generals in the Campaign Team, together with losing NRM Primaries who was paid off; in his mind this should have gone in silence and gotten the credible result needed to be respected statesman abroad, instead the announcement and the cracks of the army and the social media showed the true colors and not the story given by the Executive or his party cadres, which shows the payments and party program is shell of keeping power by any means, instead of building fruitful societies and institutions for better tomorrow. The lies are not invisible anymore, the questions the actions and killings is not only in the hands of semi-army police force and the general populations knows it. As the mourning of the announcement and the weakness of the state comes forward; therefore army had to be deployed and the reshuffling of Police Commanders happening a month after Election Day.

You can lie once and fool the crowd, but lie twice and then the storm comes on the horizon. That is what is happening now and the Executive knows and knew before these elections that the people are tired of his lies and reprogrammed pledges. As the changes of society has only brought bottled water from mountains of the Rwenzori and cellphones, certainty at one point the Universal Primary Education and extended Local Councils that has benefited, but also after a while the schools started to disappear and become depleted. The more districts, sub-counties and counties have taken a toll on the economy. Also been set-up to secure more loyal cadres in Parliament and locally. Through the chain-of-command as the structure is militarized and set to fix the monies, the government institutions, government businesses, government organizations and the commission to be loyal to the Executive, even the churches and holy institutions, if possible they can have some dissidents and opposition; that is just enough for the country to have a rouse and jolly while eating the donor-funding and letting the people stay poor while the NRM-Elite stays powerful. Especially the NRM and the Executive does not care about the FDC and their claims to justice, as the justice is the basics, but for the NRM it is to keep Power and let their Executive stay continuously. And by the minute does not seem to want to leave the country in a state that he promised when he took power.

As his guns does not seem to be silenced, the level of fear, the way the PAV rides down the streets and highways, the way the roadblocks are put, the way the Police detain without charges and the way the government mend laws to fit the Executive, the way the banks are demonstrating their will of following him to earn monies, the way the businesses are centered around him and given favorable deals, the way the harassment of opposition and media, the way the army and police involve in politics and daily life, it does not seem as a democratic and just society. The detention of the ballots and preventative arrest of citizens are worrying, as much as the control and efficiency of it. The pride of the government and its institutions are weak when the KCCA need the Army to fight local problems, the Executive does not trust anything else and therefore the biggest smiles on the photos from him comes in army fatigue and guns as that is the place he feels the best, not in the office or at state meeting. If not it is on his farm relaxing while the monies are piling in without doing anything. Peace.

Press Release: African Human Rights Body Cautions over Privatisation in Education in Uganda (02.03.2016)

Press Statement by FAWU on the Campaign for Privatization-by-a-back Door (16.1.2015)

16 January 2015

The Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) notes with disgust, the suggestions and proposals; made by some representatives of Big Business and Capital, such as Barclays Bank, and by some political parties, such as the Democratic Alliance (DA); for our Government to consider embarking on Privatization of State-owned Enterprises, at the back of ESKOM’s electricity delivery challenges as a justification.

We wish to reject such suggestions and proposals with contempt they deserve and regard those as nothing but blackmailing program to the Government to privatize those critical assets to the highest or even lowest bidder from the ranks of private sector.

We call on our Government to employ a professionally-based yet development-mandate program to get ESKOM and, certainly several more of the State-owned Enterprises (SOEs), back into shape for a continued role as an enabler and catalyst for economic development and delivery of basic needs to the people.

Therefore, FAWU will not accept any attempt, even an inch of such a move, to privatise those SOEs and doing so will be regarded as a sell-out policy offensive against the clarion call of a radical phase of the transition and to the agenda of a radical socio-economic transformation in eradicating poverty, substantially reducing inequalities and creating full employment with decent jobs.

If anything, FAWU will mobilize for a, or be part of any, rolling mass action that is likely to unfold from the working class formations and communities.

The R86 billion could easily be achieved through a re-introduction of a progressive taxation system and the increased taxes to the rich than through sale of shares in companies owned by the State.

We hope our government will ignore such calls and, instead, embark on fiscal expansionism by raising taxes for the rich individuals and to the corporates so as to mobilise resources needed to support SOEs, to roll-out both social and economic infrastructure and to deliver basic services to and/or meet basic needs of the people.

For more information feel free to contact the FAWU General Secretary, Katishi Masemola at 082 467 2509

Issued by
KATISHI MASEMOLA
FAWU General Secretary

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