THIRD EYE OPEN | Vukoni Lupa Lasaga
...
Shady land deals, Saleh's office blues spell trouble
November 28, 2006
Not surprisingly, three of the 176 secret buyers involved in the
controversial sale of Butabika Hospital land are members of President
Yoweri Museveni's own family.
Daily Monitor named some of the more high-profile of those names on
November 23, and among them are the president's daughter Diana and her
husband Geoffrey Kamuntu and Edwin Karugire, also Museveni's
son-in-law.
Other well-heeled buyers include dMaj. Gen. Ivan Koreta, Kampala
Central Division Chairman Godfrey Nyakaana and his wife, Charlotte,
FDC heavyweight Sam Njuba, one-time presidential candidate Muhammad K.
Mayanja, NRM cadre Sikubwabo Kyeyune, and Lt. Col. James Mugira.
It is clear that back room transactions taint the political class
across the board. The rot, starting from the head, is an equal
opportunity disease. And what does former Finance Minister Mayanja
Nkangi, who in his more humble political reincarnation as Land
Commission chairman, have to say about this fudging of the rules for
the benefit of the powerful?
"Mr Chairman, this was a mistake subject to correction," Nkangi told
the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. "We sometimes forget
those to whom we had allocated land because our meetings take a month.
We therefore cannot recall who took which plot."
Museveni has come a long way from the days when he derided former
President Godfrey Binaisa for signing business contracts in State
House and talked of buying furniture from Kawempe. No other first
family in Uganda's history planted both feet firmly in the world of
business and politics as the incumbent one.
Give it a few more years and we may have a scandal the proportions of
the Suharto family in Indonesia. Or to use an African example, we are
well on our way to having an Equatorial Guinea-size problem on our
hands.
Earlier this month, the news broke that Teodoro Nguema Obiang, the
playboy son of that recently oil-rich country's dictator, has acquired
a $35 million mansion in Malibu, a tony Los Angeles neighorhood chock
full of Hollywood types. How did the kleptocrat bought the oceanfront
piece of choice property from his official monthly salary of $3,000?
In a backhanded complimentary sort of way, our national affairs are
not (yet) as decrepit as that of Equatorial Guinea, but we have
frighteningly similar pasts. Macias Nguema, the more savage former
president of the island nation, was Idi Amin's contemporary and in the
same league of murderousness. Both were overthrown in the same year,
1979.
It isn't too far-fetched to speculate that our futures may be on the
same trajectory. An all-powerful president with associates who have
their hands in every economic pie is the most potent ingredient in
this salad bar of incestuous intercourse between politics and
business. And of course there is oil.
The land scandals are symptomatic of the maladministration. It's a
sure bet that everybody with the wherewithal is following the first
family's example. The other day, perhaps unable to wait any longer for
their turn as the commander-in-chief donates prime land and forests to
businesspeople, 250-odd former soldiers occupied the Children's Park
at Wandegeya, in addition to grabbing land at Wakaliga, Kawanda,
Buziga, and Namboole. I wonder what must be happening in places far
from the prying eyes of media and other activists who still care about
the rule of law.
Meanwhile, some Ugandans are so desperately poor that they are selling
their dignity for a dish of pottage. Take the bizarre affair of Dutch
artist Kristian Von Hornsleth whose ego is hitting the stratosphere
with the narcotic of a micro-credit scheme in which villagers receive
piglets etc for taking his name.
That's the direct outcome of the way that the Museveni regime has
handled development planning. Instead of paying enough attention to
expanding opportunities for rural changeofficials are busy feathering
their own nests.
Over-rated as it is as a tool for defeating rural poverty, a well-run,
large-scale micro-credit scheme could still dent the undignifying
levels of want upcountry. But, having hoodwinked voters during the
last elections, the NRM is now taking its sweet time to deliver on the
promise of instant wealth for all.
Henry Hornsleth Kayondo, a beneficiary and official of the Dane's
charity said it all. "If anybody is not happy with Hornsleth, they are
free to fund us and we shall never call ourselves Hornsleth again," he
challenged those who are badmouthing their project, now counting more
than 5,000 members.
There is a correlation between the popularity of Hornsleth's insulting
philanthropy and micro-finance (Bonnabaggagawale) Minister Salim
Saleh's strange inability to unleash the long awaited prosperity on
peasants. Six months af ter he took office, Saleh is twiddling his
thumbs or in his own words "without any activity, just meetings,
meetings and meetings."
The rumour is that so many fat cats are waiting to sink their claws
into the Shs80 billion micro-credit funds.
If Saleh, the president's own brother, is unable to keep the wolves at
bay, then, the breeders of this circus tiger of an economy are clearly
no longer in control.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
Gook
"Live what life brings; die what death comes"
M. Stewart: The Wicked Day.
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