Corruption, sanctions and the folly of worms

News regarding economic sanctions imposed by the UK government on Uganda’s Speaker of the 11th Parliament, Ms Anita Annet Among, and two former ministers Agness Nandutu and Mary Goretti Kitutu, landed like a bombshell.

Questions were asked. Why is it that of all the billions stolen in Uganda annually, which includes those meant for the vulnerable HIV/Aids patients, the UK government only interested itself in that of iron sheets meant for the poor people of Karamoja? How did the people (Bazungu) who civilized and taught us about natural justice, condemn people without giving them a hearing? Why did they only punish women yet the male Junior Minister of Finance, Mr Amos Lugolobi, is also in the dock on the same issue of stolen iron sheets? The fact that women rights defenders did not pursue this angle is a loud comment.

It is even louder that Ugandans are not falling over each other in droves to defend the Speaker. Unlike her supporters, many are not crying about an affront to this sovereign state from ‘imperialists’ and people meddling in the internal affairs of an independent country. Notably, we find it acceptable to beg for and receive aid from the ‘meddlers’ even for basics like food and clean water, things we have in abundance.

Instead many, including the leader of the Opposition NUP party, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, a.k.a Bobi Wine, are chest-thumping that these are the fruits of their labour.

In what is a verdict of the viability of the Ugandan State 60 years after Independence, it is apparently more effective to ‘report’ supposedly errant officials to the ocean of the international community and donors. There, our local chiefs are out of depth and vulnerable to swim like silverfish among sharks. Yet in the local pond where they enjoy the largesse of big fish among tadpoles, it is a herculean task to even pat them on the hand.

But that has not deterred Among from alleging that she is a marked woman. Allegedly, her crime, to the chagrin of the West, is presiding over the House, when the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 was passed. She has trivialised the sanctions which besides visa bans also include financial restrictions, by alleging that she is not interested in going to the UK.

Many Ugandan officials have suffered a similar fate. These include former IGP of the Uganda police, Gen Kale Kayihura, for corruption and human rights abuses, ex-head of the CMI Maj Gen Abel Kandiho, and Commissioner of Prisons Johnson Byabashaija for human rights abuses. 

The late Justice Masalu Musene, retired Justice Moses Mukiibi, lawyer Dorah Mirembe and Patrick Ecobu also made the list for alleged involvement in corruption in a child adoption scheme.

What is intriguing is that six decades after Independence, it is still foreign governments, especially from the West, that have the temerity to take this superior responsibility to save natives in Africa from their leaders. This is the same way they did it in the 19th Century when they came to colonise, civilise, and Christianise.

Secondly, the West has shrewdly built and worked on an all-encompassing muscular monetary system that controls global finance and the movement of money. It puts them at a vantage point from which they can opt to monitor and influence when, how, and who we transact with.

Thirdly, they have the chutzpah in their conviction that refusing the reprimanded people like Among to visit their countries is an effective punishment.

What the West knows is that in Africa and most third-world countries the State is not a viable entity that can stand on its own without foreign intervention. Curiously, many times the West is complicit in keeping it this way to create a power relation in which it presides over the affairs of the resource-rich continent, which they may exploit.

The major fault for the State in Africa is a ruling class bent on holding onto power perpetually by destroying the State and capturing it with their well-selected cabals. They emasculate the state through corruption for self-aggrandizement thereby keeping as many people economically impoverished.

So you have the majority living from hand to mouth on less than a dollar a day. They are powerless and subservient to the ruling class. Many times the West provides aid knowing that the environment in the country does not ensure accountability and can only be stolen by a few in the ruling class and their acolytes. This makes the latter more powerful and widens the gap between them and their charges from whose reality they are heavily guarded by armed escorts. 

So, you end up with hospitals that have become hospices. Lousy schools that don’t provide meaningful skills for graduates to transform society. Most of the products are either unemployed or vote with their feet to survive as blue-collar workers abroad. The good talent therefrom also moves to greener pastures with better pay for the ruling class are also the captains of the economy and may decide to pay slave labour wages. They may also influence the government not to increase wages as this not only decreases what is available for them to pilfer but that may also risk empowering people.

Because most people are living on the margins, the ruling class hardly invests their money in the economy or in industry for there is no foreseeable effective market. The best they can do is put up real estate, buy government bonds, or ship their money for safety and interest in viable economies like the UK and the USA.

We end up with economies that grow but the spread of money is limited to a few in the ruling class and their associates. These economies have no proper social services because those who captured and steal from the State won’t invest in schools and hospitals. They have the option of accessing world-class facilities and services abroad in places like the UK and the US.

That is how we end up in this conundrum of sanctions that freeze the money stolen from the African State and also ban our high-flying officials from transacting in the global economy.

The Baganda have a saying about the folly of worms. They wreak havoc in the belly of the victim, kill him, and then are buried with him.

That is the futile fate that awaits those who capture and kill the African State. They may not end up enjoying their forbidden fruits or in future be much happier than the rest of the victims of the State failure they orchestrate.  

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues
Twitter: @nsengoba