
South Sudan: Omer Eshaq Mohammed from Lol State resignation letter to Maj. Gen. Rizik Zacharia Hassan (18.05.2018)









The National Resistance Movement (NRM) is something special and unique, their supposed vital role in society and their added liberation struggle, should in consideration make sure the society was better off after their reign, not being a burden after the NRM MPs leave office. However, they are just figuring out new ways to eat. Now the fallen MPs, the ones who served and had a majestic pay in Parliament want a bigger slice of the cake. Because getting 30 million shillings in pensions isn’t enough for this big-shots. They need more, they we’re representatives and honourable, they cannot go back to ordinary life after that.
The reports that they are poor and unemployed, shouldn’t make Museveni give them favors, he already have over 163 Presidential Advisors, a Cabinet reaching over 60 ministers and the space inside the Parliament isn’t big enough for everyone staying there at a Plenary Session. Therefore, this is just another waste. This is just more greed, from the previous Members of Parliament, who most of them at one point gave more salary increases and perks for themselves. Every single parliament of late has done so. They are getting suits, they are getting cars, they can spend allocated funds on foreign trips, they are paid for if they need health care abroad. Nothing is untouchable for these fellow brothers and sisters.
Now they expect to get a 100 million shillings add-on from the President, in way of a Presidential Handshake, paying them off, as you may, because of their previous engagement. Not that the ones now are getting the same, they we’re getting extra funds for voting on the age-limit and giving Museveni life-presidency. These people most likely we’re part of abolishing the term-limits and go their kick-backs for that.
That is why NRM is so special. So unique, so vibrant and fresh, it is the testament of greed. They we’re while in office, eating millions upon millions and getting kick-backs for voting correctly on the right laws. If they had been smart, they would have put the extra in the bank and in funds. To secure wealth for the years to come, if they cannot go into the private sector or get other jobs in their own districts. However, they we’re busy eating like there is no tomorrow. In addition, even when they have a giant pension package compared to the fellow citizen, they expect to nearly triple it. From 30 million shillings to 100 million shillings. That is insulting, to everyone else in the Republic who goes from hand to mouth.
They we’re supposed to represent the district, the people, the citizens, but their actions, time and time again. Shows, that they we’re only there to represent themselves and their tummy. It is a sad affair. It shows the greed and the lack of understanding of their role in society. Their lack of acceptance of their part of the play, which they anticipate to eat even more of the state. That has already doled dozens of millions on them, when they were representing.
Now they are just citizens, they are not honourable anymore, I am sure that the President can appoint enough advisors to have about 200 of them within next year. To fill the quota of former MPs. However, what they guide him about, expect being another crony on his payroll. Who knows, maybe they can all become deputy and chairpersons under the RDCs. So they get something to “do”. But that is still just a waste of public resources, just like giving them triple salaries. They shown now that they are not there for the public, but was there their tummy!
National Remittance Movement, that is the real NRM. Transmit funds from state reserves to private accounts. Handshakes, bribes, graft or overzealous pricing on government services. All of come into play and these former Members of Parliament knows that perfectly well. Peace.

Congestion at the site is creating huge challenges for humanitarian agencies who are returning to the area to respond to the urgent need to supply food, clean water and medical services for the displaced families.
JUBA, South Sudan, May 17, 2018 – Up to 150 peacekeepers are being rapidly redeployed to the Unity region to boost the UN Mission’s efforts to protect civilians being deliberately targeted by warring parties.
“What we are witnessing on the ground is the deliberate killing of civilians as well as the sexual violation and abduction of women and children. Homes and livelihoods are being systematically destroyed in a way that prevents families returning to their homes and being able to support themselves,” said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, David Shearer.
“Our fresh deployment will enable peacekeeping troops to patrol deeper to reach remote villages where the worst atrocities are taking place to create a protective presence and deter further fighting. It will also support the reinforcement of our base at Leer where many civilians are seeking sanctuary,” said David Shearer.
Thousands of civilians are fleeing the intense fighting as armed forces make their way down from Koch towards Leer. At least 30 villages or settlements have been attacked. UNMISS peacekeepers and human rights teams have witnessed the bodies of civilians killed during the fighting left unburied, dozens of huts burnt to the ground, cattle raiding and the destruction of critical services such as boreholes, medical clinics and food stores.
“The atrocities that we are documenting are a clear violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. Two aid workers have been killed and two wounded in the past month. Those responsible must be identified and held accountable for their actions,” said David Shearer.
A site next to the UN base at Leer previously held approximately 500 internally displaced people but the surge in violent clashes has increased numbers to about 2000. Almost 70 per cent of those seeking shelter are children.
Congestion at the site is creating huge challenges for humanitarian agencies who are returning to the area to respond to the urgent need to supply food, clean water and medical services for the displaced families. UNMISS is working closely with the agencies to support the safe delivery of aid.
The Mission continues to engage with local authorities and to urge the warring parties to stop the fighting and adhere to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed by all parties just five months ago.



Yep, the biggest bank and the Bretton Woods Organization called the World Bank has commended the works of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his plans for added taxes. That comes from the similar institution like International Monetary Fund, that ordered Uganda to follow the Structural Adjustment Plan (SAP), therefore, the IMF that fixed more privatization without lacking investments. Are now okaying a higher rising taxes on the Republic’s citizens. This is done, while the economy is not strengthen, but with added external and internal loans. Therefore, the rise of GDP and use of loans, as well as repayments on those loans will sooner or later hurt the economy. Even with the rise of taxes. This will be start of vicious cycle where the state is issuing loans and taxes, while the revenue is used to repay loans, not development. It is basically. But before I go into the deep of the part of the troubling take from the World Bank. Let me just show you quickly the result of the SAP and their advice there.
“The studies also make it clear that for SAP-type policies to have a chance of success, certain preconditions are necessary. The public sector had certain social responsibilities that the current framework has pushed it out of but without “a proper handing over” to the private sector. The assumption and hope were that the market would fill the gap left by the retreating state. Clearly this has not happened. There is therefore need for Government either to retain certain key social sectors, or only hand them over to the private sector only when the latter is ready to effectively take them over. Clearly non-profit making aspects of social responsibility cannot and do not get taken over by the private sector. For poverty to be reduced there are certain social responsibilities or even whole sectors that can only effectively be handled by the public sector. Welfare systems and subsidies to farmers in the developed world attest to the need for the retention of these key areas by the public sector. Therefore a policy that proscribes such a hand-over must also ensure that it is done in a verifiable manner so that the private sector can be held to account. Civil society has in the past tried to fill the gap but this has been done in an ad hoc manner” (Kevin Akoyi Makokha – ‘STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PARTICIPATORY REVIEW INITIATIVE (SAPRI) – UGANDA COUNTRY REPORT: A synthesis of the Four SAPRI Studies’ September 2001).
So, when the last system from the World Bank and IMF was introduced the system and the government wasn’t ready to privatize, however, that didn’t stop them or the government to do so. Especially since the funds and loans at the time came with the hitch of doing so. Therefore, the troubles with the privatization and the lacking oversight is also partly because of these programs subsidized by these organizations. That is why the World Bank and IMF should be more careful professing what sort of thing would be genuine and sincere, since they have messed up before. It isn’t only the State House who has messed up, he has gotten help and followed the procedures of these mechanisms. If not, he wouldn’t be able to eat such vast amounts of donor funding in the past. This is well-known, but the lack of oversight, is because of the will of wanting to have control and a say in everything. That is why the letter from the President to Minister of Finance, is the reason for the new levied taxes. So, if you wonder why I have distrust to the World Bank and IMF, it is because of their history and that the public is paying for it, because their impact on the governments for the reasons. That these states should be guinea-pigs for the economy belief of trickling down economics, even as the results has begged differ if it really drips back into the system again. Which it doesn’t because the ones that gets a lot want to keep it and get some more. No dole it out to anyone they can find.
Here is what the World Bank stated today: “In the special section of the Update, the report analyses how Uganda could raise more domestic revenues to support its development. Uganda’s tax system is one of the most modern in the region, but revenue collections, at 14 percent of GDP, are low, and way below its tax potential. Tax avoidance and evasion, partly resulting from generous tax exemptions to investors, weak tax administration, and a large informal sector (now at 80 percent), pose challenges to increasing revenues. Up to 5 percent of GDP is lost annually in tax leakages. Personal income tax contributes roughly 18 percent of GDP compared to up to 40 percent in developed countries. VAT collections amount to 4 percent of GDP, but would rise to 6 percent if there were no exemptions. The report suggests that Uganda could widen its tax base by tapping into areas that are outside the tax net; applying tax instruments correctly and fairly; improving efficiency, transparency and accountability in tax administration; and delivering better public services” (World Bank – ‘Improving Taxation to Finance Uganda’s Development’ 15.05.2018).
Therefore, the World Bank likes the idea of adding more tax on the Mobile Money transactions and the movement of digital cash, as well as on Airtime and other needed things. The ones that hasn’t a bank-account or the ability to fund or even try to get a loans from the banking system. Are okayed by the World Bank as possible targets for taxes. This isn’t transparent, but making it more expensive to be poor, as the rates to transmit and the use mobile money will come. The companies whose use this method will bill the users, they will not take the hit. The same with all the traders and the importers of all the other items that was on the lists of the newly taxed items.
I doubt these new taxes will do any good, it will just be more funds for the elites, the NRM and the President to eat. They are not delivering government services with the trillions of shillings they are using now. They are billing up to their asses and spending rampant, without having the revenue. That is why the rising debts are there. Instead of living frugal and thinking of the future, the NRM and President Museveni are eating like there is no tomorrow!
State House, the President and the Cabinet are eating heavy, they are not delivering, they have no plans to do so. If so, they give locally when needed, but the lack of transparency and accountability, is the reason for missing funds. Recently even the documents from the GAVI Funds was taken from the Ministry of Health. Therefore, a government who cannot be trusted with funds giving donations to help the sick, how can we believe the tax put on Mobile Money will go to roads or teachers?
I doubt that, I am not that naive, this NRM has proven for 32 years, that they are eating and not caring. The World Bank can commend and praise. While I condemn, until they prove that they money are delivered to the schools, that the teachers have their salaries and the civil servants are properly paid. Not just hiring some random Cubans to fix the issues for a short time. That is not how to build a national health care system. That is how to mock the ones you already have. Peace.
