Safety of fat cats from corruption is only in a fool’s paradise

In case she fell ill and needed medical attention, President Yoweri Museveni will quickly dispatch her and other big people to the magnificent medical facilities in the US at the taxpayers’ expense.

Yet the same taxpayer will have no option but endure the rundown, ill equipped, hospitals that are thinly staffed by poorly motivated health servants due to corruption.

Similarly she talked about her four wheel drive fuel guzzler, purchased by the taxpayer. It comfortably moves her around to shield her from discomfort of the pot holes and craters on the road delivered by corruption.

Should it break down, the ordinary folks will pick the tab. Yet the same small people will face their own escalating garage bill visited by the pathetic roads.

It all makes a lot of sense in the short run as she plainly puts it.

But with time all end up in the same place because corruption is like a great flood.

The mud and wattle houses will fall faster than the permanent structures. But the latter still falls.

The best way of understanding this matter is to first know what exactly corruption is.

Many times we look at the dramatic side of it which the media reports case by case for us to lament, get angry and move on.

An impression is created that corruption is  glorified theft, with an accused person viewed as an amplified village chicken thief.

That is why we often call it a moral issue and from time to time organize prayers for the perpetrators to see the light and reform. They never do.

Corruption is largely a political matter that helps a group of people to remain in  power and load it over others for as long as possible.

They capture the state and all its resources. They grab forests, lakes, rivers etc. Then the financial resources like the banks and public companies, and or destroy them.

They use these resources to reward and punish for regime maintenance and perpetuation. If you are good for the regime you are taken to the US hospital.

The ‘useless ones’ as far as the safety of the government is concerned, remain here and die like the rest of us.

If you are struggling in the opposition the government can use these resources selectively to rescue and co-opt you.

It also uses the same to build a friendly opposition; one that is vocal in the media but doesn’t mobilize effectively on the streets to threaten the regime.

Then they take over all the institutions of state from the Judiciary to the legislature, to schools, hospitals, the police and army, emasculate and pad them with loyal cadres.

These are empowered to help the regime. It often means watering down everything in sight to have a weak and vulnerable citizenry that can be easily subjugated.

They become untouchable for as long as they keep up with the above assignment. That is why it is next to impossible to prosecute them and remove corruption.

You can’t for instance stop land grabbing even with all the pronouncements and threats; for the grabbers serve a purpose.

The poor road contractors give a cut to the godfathers within the government so their backs are covered for the shoddy work. 

The previous IGG, Justice Irene Mulyagonja, once said that many times when following up cases of corruption, the trail leads to the State House. She left and returned to a relatively smaller salary in the Judiciary.

When the government becomes deeply mired in corruption a culture develops where everyone has to grab whatever they can within their means to survive.

The corrupt government leaves everyone to their own devices.

That is how the District service Commissioner, traffic policeman, the nurse, the teacher etc. becomes a habitual bribe taker to bridge the gap left by the government.

Then the cancer spreads and corruption becomes entrenched and every facet of society becomes too weak and paralyzed to safeguard the people in every way possible. Security, health, education, justice all collapse.

We all now live in fear of the many who have been marginalized because of corruption. The iron bar hit men want to eat those who they perceive as rich.

They may kill the child or relative of the one who rides around with body guards in a four wheel drive.

A minister once died when his safely maintained and guarded Land Cruiser overturned as the driver tried to dodge a pothole on a poorly built and maintained road. 

In another case a big man wanted to take his mother to the airport then to a US hospital but the ambulance found it impossible to maneuver in the traffic jam of the narrow potholed roads that corruption delivers and so she died. It gets everyone.

But the best case study is Mobutu Sese Seko’s Zaire which was such a terribly corrupt country. Mobutu and his cronies stole the country bare.

He then used the resources to buy off everyone who threatened his hold onto power.

Almost everyone in the army became a General and used this to accumulate wealth.

When a group of people led by Laurent Desire Kabila rose up to fight him, Mobutu had no real General or army to talk about.

It had no equipment or properly trained personnel to defend Mobutu.

Many times when public officials retire or fall out of favor, they find that the judiciary or the police is too weak and corrupt to help them yet they no longer have access to orders from above.

That is when they understand that corruption is a risk to everyone.

In Mobutu’s case, Zaire was easily overrun the way the Al Shabab terrorists did to a Ugandan base in Somalia recently.

Museveni attributed the incident to corruption in the army which left many dead and injured. Mobutu died in exile and was buried in a cemetery in Morocco.

The corruption Mobutu used to maintain his regime and keep his cronies safely and comfortably in power like it happens in Uganda today under NRM, did not save him and his fat cats that had lived in a fool’s paradise.

In the long run it brought them down to the level of those who travel on the potholed roads and die in the run down hospitals at home.

Nicholas Sengoba, Plainly speaking 
Twitter: @nsengoba