Dealing With Murderers
The political atmosphere is getting increasingly charged. No one can say with any certainty what Uganda will look like after the 2006 presidential election.
President Yoweri Museveni has not yet come out to state categorically whether he will stand for re-election or not, while his once-close associates such as Bidandi Ssali and Eriya Kategaya have cautioned against amending the 1995 constitution to provide for a third term for him.
Political parties are in a charged mood and are threatening to continue taking the government to court and not to participate in the planned referendum come 2005.
This is not the first time that a foreign investor, after going through all the hurdles involved in setting up a business in a Third World country, has been killed in cold blood.
The feelings of investors in Uganda were summed up by Uganda Martyrs' University Vice Chancellor Prof Michael Lejuene, during the requiem mass for De Greave held in Kampala: "Today, all seems shattered in one moment."
In the past, a number of local investors have also been murdered. The trend calls for tough action from the security machinery in the country. It is strange that even with such a large number of security organisations, the taxpayers who support them continue to be killed at will.
De Greave, who was hacked to death by unknown assailants, was the first investor to set up a private fish laboratory firm, Chemiphar Laboratories, in Uganda.
Those who knew him remember how he would go from office to office trying to persuade stakeholders that his laboratory would help to boost Uganda's fish exports; Uganda's annual earnings from fish have now reached some $90 million.
Moreover, De Greave, who was 39, set up his laboratory at the height of the fish ban by the EU over poor hygiene conditions.
President Museveni has said that the export of raw materials with no value added is forcing Africa to donate its wealth and create employment for people in the developed world. By setting up his laboratory here, De Greave was therefore acting in Uganda's interest.
It is high time that an outfit similar to Colonel Elly Kayanja's Operation Wembley be reconstituted to deal with such murders.
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