Prime
Are our rulers in an alternative universe?
Author: Moses Khisa. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Much like his IGG who believes a broken and dysfunctional healthcare system doesn’t affect her, Mr Museveni is in an alternative world.
The Inspector General of Government (IGG), Ms Betti Kamya, recently kicked up quite a storm, or at least on Twitter... Blunt and bordering on arrogance, she exhorted citizens to take on the fight against official corruption because it is they, not the privileged political and bureaucratic class, who suffer the adverse consequences of graft.
Her message was unequivocal – the ruling class easily gets airlifted abroad during medical emergencies or when needing to manage a serious health matter. She and the large army of government officials in our hugely bloated government apparatus don’t have to deal with the decay, dysfunction and decrepit state of our hospitals due to deleterious corruption and abuse of office. They don’t have to suffer the pain of potholes given they ride in swanky, powerful and comfy SUVs
The IGG couldn’t have been more apt, but she was also utterly disingenuous. No doubt, it is the everyday citizen that suffers the brunt of a decayed system of government and inefficiently managed public sector, weighed down by theft and misuse of resources.
But it is also true that the privileged political and bureaucratic classes do not necessarily live healthy and long lives compared to the wretched of the earth despite access to the trappings of state power and largesse. Without adequate and immediately available healthcare at home, relying on facilities far away abroad has its limits even for emergencies and conditions that are otherwise easily manageable and treatable. Time can be of utter essence in circumstances of medical emergencies. We have had quite a few cases in the recent past to disabuse the IGG.
More importantly though, Ms Kamya was being disingenuous because she understands very well the contours and context of political corruption in Uganda. The citizen can express outrage and vigilance, but ultimately it is the rulers in charge of the corruption enterprise who can beat it back or let it flourish. They choose the latter because that is precisely what serves them best – corruption is not incidental or random, it is integral to the system, in fact a critical pillar of the NRM government. Ms Kamya is acutely aware of this, and knows that the job she holds as government ombudsman has been enfeebled by the very people who put her there! We perhaps need to back up a little bit and recall that Ms Kamya has come quite a distance, politically. As MP for Rubaga North and a key member of the then main opposition party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), from the mid-2000s up until the early 2010s, Ms Kamya held the line firm.
There were hushed tones about backdoor dealings with State House. But in the pages of this newspaper, she wrote often sharp-edged and sometimes below the belt opinion articles, directed very pointedly at President Museveni.
As has happened with not so few opposition leaders in our times, a long-standing speculation ultimately culminated in a Cabinet appointment, then onwards to IGG.
Ms Kamya is not unique in blaming victims of a corrupt and dysfunctional government, the citizens, or passing the buck and burden to them. In some ways, she is actually singing from the same hymn book as his boss, Mr Museveni, only placing emphasis on a different line or using a different language to make the same point. On his part, the ruler-in-chief who is Ms Kamya’s boss, blames everyone else for all that goes wrong except himself and members of his family occupying prominent positions of power, official and unofficial.
Apparently, he and his brother, Gen Salim Saleh (arguably, he would add his son too), have worked so hard to save Ugandans only to be frustrated and failed by a corrupt bureaucratic class!
One of the clinchers in the state of the nation address mid-week was the salacious, quite offensive, claim that fuel subsidies would benefit Ugandans going to nightclubs!
The president is blithely unaware that Ugandans who go to nightclubs are a tiny minority who perhaps care less about the price of petrol. But the pet-railing against fuel subsidies ironically comes from by far the largest fuel consumer yet one who does not have to pay a penny for it. The taxpayer foots that bill.
Much like his IGG who believes a broken and dysfunctional healthcare system doesn’t affect her, Mr Museveni is in an alternative world. He appears uninterested in knowing that high pump prices hit majority Ugandans, especially the very poor. All this of course must not surprise or alarm Ugandans. The aloofness and arrogance we hear and live with today is a natural consequence of the trappings of power. But it also comes with a rulership that holds the country captive with the bravado of feeling firmly in charge. Paradoxically, it is also possible the end is nigh when a sense of assuredness and living in an alternative universe is so palpable.
