A look into the Roko Minority report

“Details on the ROKO bailout have emerged indicating that the planned purchase of shares by the government will also mean the government injecting operation capital as well as inheriting UGX 130 billion liability from the construction company. Experts advise government to audit ROKO Construction Ltd or risk going down with it” (NBS Television, 08.07.2022).

“Decision on the proposal to buy preference shares in Roko is stayed. The Speaker says the minister will need to take into consideration the concerns of MPs and come back to the House with a position before a vote is put” (Parliament of Uganda, 20.07.2022).

The fall guy and the needed construction company Roko Construction Limited is having trouble financially and the Government of Uganda is intending to bail-out the company. That’s why things are questioned, because it is a private company and suddenly the government comes to its aide. This is happening, because we know the company is used as a contractor for prestigious development projects.

The Roko company is getting a helping hand for one reason, it serves a purpose and a need of the state. Not because no one can else do the same, but it’s a useful entity for the government. Just like other companies who are in fields are getting similar treatment. That’s why it’s just an example of how the system is rigged.

This is why I will take vital quotes from the Minority Report on the company from the Parliament. Since the Opposition has no stakes in the company or how its run. They are not earning funds or kickbacks from it. The deals between the state, company and developers are done outside their knowledge. That’s why Roko shows up in all sorts of scandals. Not only this bail-out, but elsewhere too.

First: “The Executive Director of UDC informed the Committee that it did not undertake the required due diligence. This was attributed to failure to access funds amounting to UGX 800 million required to contract competent professional accounting firms to undertake the due diligence. It is therefore illogical for Government to fail to avail UGX 800 million for the due diligence exercise but instead proceed to seek approve from Parliament for UGX 207.13 billion” (Minority Report, 20.07.2022).

Second: “The President Directive referred to in the extract reaffirms the need to contract a profession competent firm to undertake due diligence of the Company. It should be noted that the Cabinet Extract was been drawn from a Minute of a Cabinet meeting held on 4^th July 2022. Please note that this directive was given almost a month after the proposal was tabled in Parliament i.e. 6^th June 2022” (Minority Report, 20.07.2022).

Third: “During the Committee meeting, the Ministry represented Roko Construction Ltd as a domestic investor. However, it was established that while the Company is registered in Uganda, based on its ordinary shareholders it is of foreign owned company. The 15,000 ordinary shareholders are owned by Swiss nationals who include. Jean Mann Francey Koehler (12,000), Friedhhelm Erwin Jost” (1,500) and Kurt Wolier Blaeter (l,500)” (Minority Report, 20.07.2022).

This Minority Report just proves how the state operates. The Roko Construction Ltd. is vouched for and one of them. That’s why it’s so easy to bail it out. There is a connection that is more important than reasons or even proper protocol. This is why the company is in favour and getting the good graces. It serves a purpose and therefore needs saving. Not because it is correct or done with the justified ways. No, the President and the cronies needs companies like this to work and entertain their prestige projects. In such a manner, that they all can profit and life moves on. That’s what the state hopes happens. Just like the scandals surrounding other companies like Dott Services etc.

One day it is a scandal, another day it’s totally forgotten. That’s what the state is hoping for and I think they will succeed. There is enough of other tragedies in the Republic. Which certainly make everyone forget about these billions of shillings spent on a construction company. Peace.

Auditor General Report says that the government wasted over 200 billion shillings towards investment projects under the UDC

“The Government of Uganda has committed over UGX.223.9Bn in various investment projects under Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) over the years 2016/17 to 2019/20. These investments which are highlighted as government priorities from National Development Plan (NDP I), through to NDP III, are meant to promote social and economic development and contribute to poverty eradication by increasing national and regional economic growth and development” (Auditor General, December 2021).

We know over the years that the National Resistance Movement and the Government of Uganda (GoU) knows all about writing fancy plans, but have no idea about to implement them. In this regard, the GoU have not failed us either. The same government have failed to use the investments and the spending Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) over the years. That is very obvious.

These investments has been questioned before and the lack of results from them has been in the public too. As the factories and companies haven’t delivered as promised. The companies in question is Soroti Fruit Factory, Kigezi Highlands, Mbale Tea Factor, Kayonza tea factory and Atiak Sugar factory. Especially, the Soroti and Atiak factories have caused a stir and headlines in the past. So, the Auditor General is validating what the public already knows, but it is friendly to see the state looking at their lack of results.

Just read this conclusion, it says a lot about the lack of good governance by the NRM:
“Government has invested over UGX.200Bn in various sectors of the economy with the objective of boosting value addition mainly in the agricultural sector. There has been a noted increase in both tea and sugar production. It should however be noted that the levels of outputs and other expected benefits are not commensurate with the investments due to challenges of budgeting and planning, lack of feasibility studies and criteria for allocation of funding, inadequate contractual arrangements to clarify roles and targets and limited oversight and monitoring of investments. There is a risk of failure to achieve the intended objectives. There is still potential for improvement by ensuring UDC staffing levels are increased to undertake the above-mentioned tasks. It is also necessary to enhance autonomy for UDC by providing capitalisation instead of project related financing, so that management is flexible in allocation and re-allocate resources where they are urgently required at the time” (Auditor General, December 2021).

When reading this… you can state this is “white elephants” and could have been produced by any sort of foreign development agency to sell good stories to their donors and well-wishers. The GoU is initially dropping money like a drunk sailor without plans or sufficiently study the needs for it. Secondly, they don’t have secured or checked the plans to ensure the value for money. Alas, they are just printing money and throwing it on strippers. Hoping the stripper will come with the man who is making it rain. It is possibly that the stripper will be picked up by someone else or has a man already. So, why should the enterprise succeed when it’s just mere luck, if you actually get a shot to kiss or spend time with the girl.

In the same fashion the GoU has invested in the UDC. They have thrown money at the wall and hoping that something will stick. This is just running wild… and not putting any real efforts in. As they are just spending money and investing them without any precautions. That should be a worry anyone and the AG couldn’t be any clearer in this instance. Peace.

Andrew Mwenda’s flawed logic; He claims that Mzee is not the problem with Uganda; I beg to differ

Andrew Mwenda keeps with his flawed logic. Like he has lost the plot and forgotten his traits and his theories of old. But hey, he is hungry and wants to eat. Here is has ploy of arrogance on facebook:

“It is simplistic to argue that Uganda’s problem is Museveni. A better argument is Museveni has failed to solve the problems of Uganda” (…)”Museveni (with Besigye) once told us that getting rid of Obote would be a major step in improving anything. What happened?” (…)”Besigye’s weakness is to personalize Uganda’s problems to Museveni and argue that his removal is all we need. The problems of poverty, weak state, poor Government services and democracy deficit were there before Museveni” (…)“If we fail to diagnose Uganda’s problems, the solutions will always elude us” (Andrew Mwenda, 17.01.2016)

Well, in sum there has gone 29 years of the one-man rule since 1986. There have been many benefactors and Members of Parliament since them, but the main factor in the calculations have been President Museveni. Since he took rule he has marginalized or used tactics to get people loyal to Museveni and not directly to any state institution. Therefore he is a major problem, because if it didn’t really happen, then he didn’t sponsor the benedictional project or program. Museveni could only support a program if he could benefit from it.

That Mwenda has a problem with Besigye is that he is in stark contrast to Museveni. Besigye asks for accountability and transparency something that doesn’t fit the world of development and growth for the editor and creator of the Independent Magazine. Something that is weird considering his past at KFM Radio and trouble for blasting governmental cronyism.

It is true that Museveni isn’t the only problem, but he is the one that creates the problem and feeds the issues, instead of fixing them. He doesn’t mend or complement them. Instead he adds on the weight until he overpowers it; because he has to do what he can rule and control it. Therefore he is the problem, as he is the executive power and the man who has had the majority rule or even rigged himself the majority. So Mwenda must have forgotten that part of the issue, if not he is blind by his own ego.

It is true that all the issues that Mwenda mentioned in the government of Uganda as the bad governance, weak state-institutions and democratic deficit. This was inherited in 1986 from the Obote II and the short-term presidents in between like Yusuf Lule and Tito Okello. So there aren’t all Museveni faults, but he has had the time to fix many of the issues and defects in the governmental structures and democratic facilitation if he really cared about them. It is not like he was sitting for a hot minute and didn’t have the time to fix the corruption of UNRA, NSSF and other state-organizations.

When you see excellent record of higher and higher loan-rate on the government budget for any year, when the value of the currency falls and escalating inflations you can wonder if the government and economical institutions under the regime is for the people or the rich elite who is fed by the government. The Neo-Liberalization of Uganda has lead the government to expand the businesses into every part of society instead of governmental control as the Chicago School of Business wanted in 1970s, with the IMF and World Bank controlled Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) that demolished state-financed agricultural and subsidized industries that was supposed to be controlled by market-powers instead of supported by tax-money to sustain growth and higher employment rate. The result of inflicting this on the Ugandan economy as the NRM-Regime has done with such a passion is that the business that has no cut for the government has been left astray and the ones that is not strong enough has gone bankrupt. Now Uganda has to imports of finished products and stop of productions from industry and factories in former towns like Jinja. Also with the historical institution of the Uganda Development Corporations, who from the 1950s gave growth through state-funds, and not through direct market power!

That must have been forgotten by the Andrew Mwenda, that President Museveni sold everything to foreigners or liberated the economy to point that the URA can’t tax, or control to tax without losing the control over the sold merchandise. That is why Uganda has one of the lowest rates of taxation on products since the URA doesn’t have the manpower or the regulations to without taxes. They can’t keep up with citizens and movement of money, if they had then they might catch up with more of the embezzlement and corrupted agreements between liberated companies or new structures in the market own by the ruling elite. But that is not good is it? Send cases to the DPP and OAG to fix the matters together with Uganda Anti-Corruption Commission which is so meager that they can’t keep the state of affairs and make government institution accountable, something that President Museveni doesn’t really want them to do, unless he want to get rid of somebody who has the dream of succeeding him. Then they will find something on the man or woman show some of the dirty laundry.

You don’t need to be giant man with much knowledge to diagnose some of the issues that the government of Uganda has to tackle, some the state of affairs and some tangible structures that need to be fixed. The government needs taxation with representation, also need to re-focus the money and also be more accountable for their actions. Not have a one-big-man rule as they have had since 1986 that keeps to eating of the plate, instead of serving the people. That is a problem: a problem that knows that he is the problem, if he stills remember what he studied in the end of 1960s and beginning of 1970 at the University of Dar-Es-Salam in Tanzania. President Museveni should know the issues and know how he made them, or prepared them through his loyal cronies. As Andrew Mwenda seems more like one of his mouth-pieces more as the time goes, instead of pseudo-intellectual as he wishes to portray himself.

This is a direct address to the issue, as he can try to clean his slate, but he has lost the plot. The problem and the real man behind it is President Museveni is only leader and nearly the only one who has been there from the get-go and have ruled so long that he know what has been done differently than under his wings. The reign will not be remembered as the ones who follow the dream story of liberation, but also of eating the riches and wealth while forgetting to feed the public, or let the get opportunity to eat and earn a living.

So Mwenda has a flawed view on the matter, that he at the same time says Besigye is wrong. Besigye has also said that the institutions need accountability and transparency which is starch contrast to Museveni. Something that is vital to rebuild them and prove that the government institutions are for the people and not the Executive to eat of. So if that have to change then the public funds and public expenditure together with strengthen them, not in ownership of the executive but by giving the civil servants power to execute the necessary flows of technical assistance or regulations to let the teachers, policemen, judges and bureaucrats to do their initial service to the public; now they are handpicked men to serve the executive. That is problem because the paycheck from the executive is more important than doing their job to the public who need the men to secure their daily life and be there to safely govern the territories of the state.

As we can see Mwenda has judged the matter very easy without thinking it through, if he has then his logic is very flawed as President Museveni is a problem in state clogged with issues and the problems. There isn’t a way solution to it all, how to fix the economy is there many theories, though the stability of the currency and inflation should be the first, also secure low loans-rate so that the growth can be similar to the inflation rate. There is also the level of building trust between government institutions and people as they are supposed to be connected and for each other. Not letting the state and its institutions being on an island, and when they need the public hire a ferry to let the visit. That is not the idea of the state, the state is supposed to be mirrored in the people with transparency and accountability where the public can question the behavior of the rulers, governors and mayors, as they are set to represent the public, not just execute the laws and regulations without mercy, then the government is an totalitarian state, where justice will not prevail unless you are on good term with the head or executive power on the top. That is how the system is now with government of Uganda. We can easily see that he is one of the major factors, why President Museveni is the elephant in the room when you discuss progress and development issues in the country, since he can decide where to go or who to hire to fix it.

That is it. Peace.

President Museveni’s speech on 9. October – 52nd Independence day celebration – Theme: Unity, Security, Economy and Regional Integration.

Speech By

H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

President of the Republic of Uganda

On the Occasion of the

52^nd Independence

Anniversary Celebrations

Of Uganda

THEME:  UNITY, PEACE, SECURITY, ECONOMY AND REGIONAL

    INTEGRATION: KEY PILLARS FOR TRUE AND

SUSTAINABLE INDEPENDENCE

 

Kampala – Kololo Airstrip

9^th October, 2014

Your Excellencies the Invited Heads of State and Government;

H.E the Vice President;

The Rt. Honourable Speaker of Parliament;

The Hon. Chief Justice;

The Rt. Hon. Prime Minister;

Honourable Members of Parliament;

Your Excellencies the Ambassadors and High Commissioners;

Distinguished Invited Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is with great pleasure and honour that I welcome Your Excellencies and all the distinguished guests to this occasion as we mark 52 years of Uganda’s independence.

I greet you and congratulate you on the 52^nd anniversary of Uganda’s Independence.

As we celebrate this day, the whole of Uganda is peaceful and has been so since we ended the removal of the 40,000 rifles from the cattle-rustlers in Karamoja some six (6) years ago.  Earlier on, in 2005, we had defeated the terrorists of Kony.  This is therefore, the first time in 114 years that the whole of Uganda has been peaceful.  Even, during the time of the British, cattle-rustling in Karamoja, using guns from Turkana and from Ethiopia, was going on.  On account of the strength of the UPDF and the growing strength of the Police Force, this peace will not be disturbed.  Use this peace to create wealth for your families as we have guided you before.

On the side of the economy, it will grow by 6.1% this financial year. Having started from a very low base of US$1.5 billion as the size of GDP in 1986, our GDP will be US$25.3 billion by the end of this financial year.  This economy has been growing (in spite of the bottlenecks of electricity, high transport costs, insecurity in the past), at the rate of 7.3% per annum for the last 28 years.

Now that we have the capacity to address the issue of tarmacking the major roads with our own money (such as the just completed Kampala-Masaka road and many others), some of the electricity dams (big and small) and we continue to benefit from solidarity from friends (such as ADB, World Bank, EU, Japan, Badea, etc) on some of the other roads, our economy will grow much faster. The Chinese are helping us to solve the issue of electricity for some of the hydro-power stations on the Nile and its tributaries and are feverishly working on the building of the Standard Gauge Railway.  The Uganda economy will, therefore, for the first time, get a low-cost base from which to operate.  The sky will be the limit.

As you know, Uganda discovered petroleum and gas in 2006.   It is now 8 years since that time.  We have, finally, agreed with the oil companies on these issues of the refinery, the pipeline and power generation. With more investigations, it is now established that the oil reserves in the 40% of the potential area are 6.5 billion barrels and 499 billion cubic feet of gas.  This is good because this gas can help us to remove oxygen from iron-ore (obutare) so that we develop our steel industry given our considerable iron-ore reserves of over 200 million tonnes already identified so that we stop the importation of steel from very far.  By 2017 our oil will be flowing into the refinery and the pipeline.

Apart from the oil and gas, after the recent survey, we have identified alot of minerals as follows: iron-ore, marble/limestone, gold, uranium, vermiculite, nickel, platinum, chromium, kimberlites (diamond), bentonite, aluminium clays, phosphates, copper, cobalt, wolfram, tin, coltan, rock salt and brine.  Uganda has, therefore, a large base of natural resources that will help us in our development.

As the Government is solving the infrastructure problems, the rural families should take advantage of the deployment of UPDF officers to distribute the planting and breeding materials to get themselves out of subsistence farming and join commercial farming.  I have repeatedly pointed out to you the unacceptability of having only one (1) homestead in a whole parish like Ndangaaro in Rubirizi district of 2,500 homesteads as I found out when I visited that area many years ago or seven (7) families in the parish of Rwengaaju out of 1,500 homesteads being the only ones engaged in commercial farming. I am happy to report that in Ndangaaro parish today, 112 homesteads are engaged in commercial farming out of 2,560 homesteads while in Rwengaaju, 130 homesteads are engaged in commercial farming out of 1,946 homesteads.  This, however, is not enough.  Why should the other thousands of homesteads be spectators (abaloleezi) of commercial farming while only the minority are the only ones engaged in that poverty eradicating activity?

With the involvement of UPDF, I am sure that many more families will get access to planting and breeding materials.  Their role in the former NRA/Fronasa operational areas in the last two seasons has already seen them distribute 11 million seedlings of coffee, 2 million seedlings of tea and 464,135 seedlings of fruits.  This involvement of more families into commercial farming, will boost the volumes of production in the country to unprecedented new levels.  Already, the involvement of UPDF officers in the former war zones has pushed the volume of maize from 1,163 million tonnes per annum to 4,100 million tonnes per annum of maize.

Those increased levels of production must be matched with increased levels of processing and value addition.  Therefore, the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), the Ministry of Trade and Industries and the Ministry of Agriculture must work in overdrive speed to solve the problem of value addition and processing for the increased production as well as the problem of storing.  We have reactivated Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) to, where unavoidable, to step in and do the processing if the private sector do not show up.

On regional and global matters, you all saw that UPDF, working with the Somali army, liberated a number of Somali towns southwards from Mogadishu, including the Port of Barawe.  It is said, that this is the last Port that the terrorist group, Al-Shabaab, controlled.  Globally, there is alot of suffering in North Africa and the Middle East caused, mainly, by mistakes by certain global players, initially.  These global players are always in cahoots with incapable puppets.  It is that permutation that is, mainly, responsible for these tragedies of human haemorrhage, destruction of social and economic capital and loss of development time in those unfortunate lands.

Serious dialogue is necessary in the world to see how these tragedies can be rolled back and new ones avoided.  Within the under-developed countries themselves, who are the victims of these global mistake makers, the main authors of the tragedies are the ideologically disoriented groups that, instead of working for the legitimate interests of the people, promote sectarianism of religion or tribe; or promote male chauvinism.  In so doing, they tear up society and cause tremendous damage.  Our brothers in Somalia need to evolve the ideology of patriotism and Pan-Africanism so that they re-orient their country into a sustainably positive and progressive direction.  With the building of the Somali army, supported by AMISOM, it is possible to pacify Somalia.

The pushers of the hegmonistic agenda have been misusing the ICC, an institution we initially supported.  In the matter of President Uhuru Kenyatta, the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State resolved that no African sitting President should be summoned by that court.  This resolution was taken to the Security Council where there is no permanent member from Africa.  There are only seasonal members. That group did not see much merit in the collective wisdom of the African leaders; and the court summoned President Kenyatta on the eve of our Summit here.  Was the aim of ICC to disrupt our Summit?  Too bad for them!  Our Summit went on yesterday.  The problems that occurred in Kenya in 2007 and that happen in other African countries are, first and foremost, ideological.  ICC to handle them as just legal matters, is the height level of shallowness.  My view is that, at the next summit, African countries should review their membership of the ICC treaty.  The ICC is turning out not be the value addition product that we had expected it to be.  It is instead, a biased instrument of post-colonial hegemony.

As far as Uganda is concerned, the greater mutual interest with the western countries is trade and tourism.  The total global trade is valued at US$ 101 trillion per year.  The USA accounts for US$16 trillion of this.  The EU accounts for US$17.4 trillion of this.  The two of them, therefore, account for about US$34 trillion of this.  The other US$66 trillion is accounted for by the other countries with China taking US$16 trillion and Africa taking US$2.5 trillion but growing very fast. The USA, EU and Africa need, therefore, to harmonize our long term vision based on mutual benefit and equality.  Our recent meeting in the USA was a good beginning.  It is irresponsible for anybody to mishandle this potentially lucrative relationship.

Finally, a point on public health involving another incident of Marburg here in Uganda, recently, as well as the Ebola which is ravaging West Africa.  These are zoonotic diseases; this means that they are diseases that can go from the human being to the animals and vice-versa.  They are very aggressive and lethal.  Yet, they are easy to stop because, fortunately, they do not go through the air like flu.  They infect by contact.

Therefore, in order not take any chances, I request you to suspend the habit of shaking hands in addition to the measures the Ministry of Health is taking in respect of handling those who are sick or who are suspected to have had contact with the sick or with those who died.  I must also request those communities, especially in the forest zones, who have the customs of eating monkeys and other primates to stop that custom.  Those creatures are relatives of humans.  Moreover, they are the ones that harbor those dangerous viruses ─ Marburg, Ebola, etc. Avoid them please.  Eat the livestock we look after ourselves: cattle, goats, chicken, pigs, etc. as well as plant proteins.  The bats also seem to harbour these viruses.  The Ministry of Veterinary should work out plans to eradicate these dangerous sources of this problem.

The fact that 60% of the infected people survive, means that we can develop a vaccine.  When you get sick, please report to the medical authorities immediately. Infected people have a high chance of surviving if they get medical support of especially rehydration early.   Therefore, prompt reporting is crucial.  As far as the medical staff is concerned, they should always use gloves.

There is also another factor in connection with these repeated outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg.  These viruses have not just emerged.   They have always been there, in the forests.  It is the reckless invasion of the forests by those who break the law of conservation that are provoking these viruses. Therefore, conservation is part of Public Health.  Leave the forests alone for tourism and conservation,

Thank you so much and I wish you success in the next year of Independence.

Yoweri K. Museveni

P R E S I D E N T