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By Muhimbise George
In a movie by the Banyakigezi Actors called “ensi nikweri” loosely translated as “that’s how the world is”, two couples engage in a fight over a non-existent cow! The husband narrates to the wife how he intends to buy an egg, give it to a neighbor’s hen to hatch it into a chick that will grow into a hen & will produce more chicken that will be sold to buy a goat which will give birth to many goats that he will sell to buy a cow.
And the man says he will tie the cow in the kitchen to avoid thieves which the wife objects to and a fight ensues! Neither the egg, the chicken, the goat nor the cow was in place, so why did they fight?
This puzzle explains the Ugandan tragedy; time check, it’s 8:00 PM, Wed 27th July 2022, after a busy day, I switch on my TV to find none other than H.E the President of Uganda. I choose to listen because I know the media would invite me for a comment, little do I know that he intends to speak for 3 hours! I pity the media houses which have to adjust their programming including suspending adverts to broadcast a speech that gives no hope! Researchers should conduct a study and tell us how much we lose every time Museveni makes a two hours addresses, as always; a forest of lamentations and a desert of solutions!
This time, the old Muzeyi seems relaxed and in a good mood, he is excited about the new discovery by scientists! How much we can earn if we sell processed coffee! The way he speaks is like he has just assumed presidency, he doesn’t remember that he came to power when coffee was our major cash crop and for 36 years he has done nothing other than killing farmers cooperatives.
Then he is excited about the electric cars and a train as the game changer to our crisis! Scientists around him must be eating big! When you see them speak, you might think they are serious people, guess what, just a bunch of money makers! So where are the electric cars? Just like the pioneer bus, Naguru-Nakawa smart city, free internet, Lubowa Hospital, Musenero’s factory for vaccines etc. nothing is in place!
In this budget I am told over 150 billion shillings have been allocated to buy vehicles for government officials; but of these, how many will be electronic?
Apart from cannibalizing the railway transport he found in place, just like many other state parastatals, the President has consistently promised the standard gauge railway. The groundbreaking was done ten years ago and to date there is nothing to show. So is this train the solution he is giving Ugandans to address the current crisis? Is he different from the above man in the movie who wanted to get a cow from an egg?
Can electric cars help the 900 people who have died of starvation in Kalamoja? Can they answer the worries of the hawkers who have been chased from streets? What about the schools that have closed before the official closing dates?, what about poverty which has increased according to UBOS?
As I reflected on the above, I saw a letter in which the President directed the minister of Agriculture to give public land in Entebbe to an investor to put up a specialized hospital, few weeks ago on orders of the President, parliament passed 203 billion to buy shares in Roko constructions Ltd, I have seen several other letters where the President is awarding contracts, terminating public servants, taking loans etc. Museveni runs Uganda like a retail shop!
My hopes got shuttered when last week Minister of Education Hon Janet Museveni delegated the Vice President Jesca Alupo to represent her at a function in Kololo organized by the IGG! When I saw a vice President who is number two in the hierarchy representing a minister who is number ten, in any case whom she supervises, I realized that our country is upside down, and I accepted to limit my expectations!
Muhimbise George, 0787836515 muhimbiseg@gmail.com
The author is a member of Alliance for National Transformation
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