By Karoli Ssemogerere
Oct 8, 2003- Monitor
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WASHINGTON - At the height of the Zimbabwe land crisis, several months ago, Lt. Gen Yoweri Museveni, as he is known in combative mood, responded to a hapless questioner that those who thought revolutionaries quit like ordinary politicians were mistaken. Revolutionaries, he clarified, died in office. Reading the latest missive fired off in response to legitimate questions from the public about accountability regarding the use or abuse of official symbols of the state by private persons on private matters, one understands why the Cabinet memorandum to the Constitutional Review Commission acquired a repugnant odour. The repugnance and disdain for all forms of personal accountability is rising very high on the Movement’s priorities as it prepares to reinvent itself for the Ugandan electorate at the next sham elections. Semantics, aside, it was clear that waving the bar of mischief and seeking accountability from the firewood-chopping class of the Col. Kahinda Otafiire type was useless. The appointing authority in his good graces sees no legitimate distinction between the identity of the state’s resources and his own. His service to Uganda is an act of magnanimity even though it is achieved through well-documented instances of corruption; intimidation, violence and administrative chicanery all assembled to keep the revolutionary at bay. Coming to the subject of his daughters’ trips abroad using the presidential jet, some serious issues come to mind. The President’s argument was that as long as he “refunded” the state the cost of the trip and “invoices”, all was fine. To the best of my knowledge, the President for a long time has shunned any form of personal emoluments for himself, including food. At the same time, ironically, the cost of the presidential household, family, servants and sub-servants of the category - including the press secretaries who “meet the press” in a comic of sorts, firing volleys - is at its highest in Uganda’s history. State House is consuming at least Shs 50 billion a year, one sixth of the resources going to defending 24 million people from external intruders, an indicator of the success of that mission. The Presidency is now known for its familiar practice of commandeering the general budget for its own use after it runs out of the main and supplemental provisions early in the financial year. Museveni’s letter referring to his personal wealth boasted of structures like Rwakitura and Kisozi ranch, whose facilities were far superior to those in the Nakasero State Lodge. The costly expansion of the lodge includes acquisition of private properties like the Okello House and barricading of a confluence of areas of worship and residences. Many years ago, Kisozi ranch valued at the princely sum of Shs 2 billion was sold at Shs 800 million to the National Enterprises Corporation. A lot was said then, though the owner was smart enough to part with what later became the president’s personal retreat. Was it a public sale or a sale by private treaty that was facilitated by an act tantamount to compulsory acquisition? However, we the masses must thank the government for this utility (presidential jet) after the collapse of Uganda Airlines, immobile choppers and MiGs flying into the lake, it can at least fly our first family safely across the oceans. Of course, we live in an era where even the appearance of personal accountability is a negative. The long retinue of public servants consigned to poverty for taking only their fair share would never afford to raise what appears to Museveni to be small change, $27,000 to save their loved ones from life threatening illnesses. A university professor at an official pay of $500 a month would have to work for four years (without spending anything) to commandeer a presidential jet. Entry-level medical doctors would have to work twice as long for that privilege. The wisdom of 240 health centres offering what Museveni tacitly acknowledges as inferior medical services is as mind-boggling as the numerous hospitals of the Bugiri category where patients go without the most basic sanitary tools, and life saving kits. It is thus a stretch of imagination to talk of constitutional reforms, when leaders have not grasped the concept of their own fallibility and fungibility. Not even the Inspectorate of Government or the Human Rights Commission — fictional tools for apologists of a regime that seeks to operate on minimum levels of accountability, can interfere in this glorious service of our dedicated revolutionaries. Don’t be surprised when the Defence minister, Amama Mbabazi, will not bat an eye-lid before proclaiming that his wife, the Botany and Zoology graduate, is offering the same selfless service heading Luweero Industries and reporting to no one but her husband. And, this is after he has certified the junk helicopters as functional architecture even though they cannot fly missions against all the Movement’s stepchildren imitating its commercialisation of violence (read rebels). After all, Museveni’s math that has someone raising $20 million and living off a $25 million budget for her household is doing a lot of profitable work, duplicating services a functional government could deliver on time, more equitably and without attitude. The writer is a Ugandan working in Washington D.C, USA. |
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
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