By Ssemujju Ibrahim, Kyadondo East MP.
Times like these are the most difficult for weekly newspaper columnists. Many things of huge significance happen in quick succession. Choosing the most significant one for debate is certainly left to guesswork.
For example, on Thursday last week, the revolutionary, through his finance minister Matia Kasaija, delivered, to a sleeping parliament, the 2015/16 budget. I skipped this event like I did the state-of-the-nation address. In a future article, I will explain why.
The budget process has changed, I think in all East African countries. Parliaments study the budget and propose changes, if any, before it is read. Reading it is thus a ceremony, but a more meaningful one. In the past, a budget would be read and then debated, and sometimes changed, by parliament.
The revolutionary singled out three things in next financial year's budget: works, energy and security.
Works has become the new catchword for stealing taxpayers' money. You all still remember the Mukono-Katosi scandal in which nearly Shs 25 billion taxpayers' money was stolen. The contract sum for Katosi was Shs 165 billion.
This, by the way, means that for every Shs 100 billion road project, more than Shs 15 billion is stolen. We were lucky to get to know the Katosi scandal because some of the actors such as Apolo Senkeeto were new and hastily shared the money before paperwork was concluded. Yes, there is tarmac from Arua to Kampala, to Mbarara and to Kisoro; but how much has been stolen in the name of paving these roads?
And like I have written in the past, most of the roads' money is borrowed. That is why our debt portfolio to GDP is almost 50 per cent now. We have borrowed nearly $10 billion yet our GDP is reportedly about $25 billion. And the story can't be different in energy.
That is why Aga Khan is selling every power unit from his Bujagali dam to us at 11 cents, yet power from the dam constructed by colonialists is at three cents.
I watched the revolutionary telling the opposition that they should use a tape measure to determine the degree of electricity penetration in the country. Unfortunately, that is not how development is measured.
Development is people, and not the infrastructure itself. For example, official figures show that access to electricity has remained at seven per cent in the last 52 years of Uganda's independence. What the revolutionary should boast about is electricity per capita and not just the number of poles and length of cables/wires. And every year, we borrow money for this cause.
As I said in my last article, the 2016 elections are not just about the candidates, but our country. Unfortunately, we will not have time to analyze in detail the money lined up for stealing the next elections.
And the trouble with Uganda is that the parameters of accountability have been changed and the media has accepted it. The revolutionary will always speak about primary school enrolment of 8.2 million children and skip our 25-30 per cent miserable completion rate. He will speak about the money allocated to the sector, and not the exact value extracted from that money.
That is why we should thank Gen Gregory Mugisha Muntu not for declaring his presidential bid the same day with John Patrick Amama Mbabazi but for struggling to build the FDC party.
Muntu told the FDC special delegates' conference at Lugogo on Friday that he didn't use the last two and a half years of his presidency to market himself but to build FDC. And I can tell you FDC internal elections have been extremely competitive. The positive is that FDC elections are not easy to rig.
Many senior members were uncomfortable with Wasswa Biriggwa, who joined FDC yesterday, to instantly become their chairman but the delegates overwhelmed them. It is only in FDC where newcomers also have a chance.
If that didn't demonstrate faith in FDC processes, at least the victory of Nathan Nandala-Mafabi did. Muntu and Alice Alaso, as chief executive officers of the party, were in charge of the process but never interfered with the party electoral commission as it did its work.
That is why Mafabi subjected himself and won elections organized under Muntu and Alaso's leadership. Because of his rare humility, Muntu never gets the credit he deserves. The man is obsessed with building institutions. That is why he keeps repeating himself, "you cannot give what you don't have."
Finally, in a future article I will tell you why Ugandans should embrace former NRM Secretary General John Patrick Amama Mbabazi. Remember what Gen David Sejusa said as he fled Uganda to the UK for his self-inflicted exile. He said there was a plan to eliminate him, Amama and Gen Aronda Nyakairima. The three were reported to be against a plan by the revolutionary to hand over power to his son.
But most significantly, governments fall very quickly when they are fought by insiders. What took Museveni to Luweero, Tito Okello did it within hours without having to leave Kampala first. And it is Mwai Kibaki that defeated Daniel arap Moi's chosen successor Uhuru Kenyatta in 2002. People, especially the senior ones, running away from Museveni must be received with open arms. Let people stop treating opposition as a permanent abode.
The author is Kyadondo East MP.
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