WeeklySA_AdminWINDS OF CHANGE: Anti-government protests have spread to Uganda, where ordinary people are tired of passively accepting elite misrule…
By Gilbert Nuwagira
Kenya is the talk of the East African neighbourhood because a cross-section of its citizenry continues to demand accountability and speak up against vile egocentric economic policies. Kenya is a prime example of a people who have rejected spectator citizenship.
In contrast, Uganda, Kenya’s counterpart to the west, which shares similar struggles, has enjoyed relative peace (and quiet strategic state plunder) since 1986, ushered in by the self-proclaimed revolutionary Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. He was as fiery as they come, enamelled with the doctrine of fundamental change enshrined in the 10-point program.
In Uganda’s case, there is a critical thread in the country’s collective memory—a pre-1986 memory and a post-1986 memory.
Admittedly, though, in some parts of the country, this collective memory is blurred; Northern Uganda and Luweero, among others, bear the marks of a complex story and a reflection of undone transitional justice work.
On the heels of the 2021 presidential elections, I had a conversation with an elder regarding the state of politics in our country and sought their advice on how to vote, as this was my first election voting experience.
They laughed and shared with me that what we are seeing today—the corruption, arrests, kidnappings, and assassinations—are the very things that pushed a disgruntled Museveni to the bush. I was taken aback and realised we had come full circle. I voted and hastily returned to my residence in the capital, Kampala, to an internet shutdown and the sight of snipers on the rooftops in Old Kampala, ready to gun down any protestors.
These experiences have remained with me, and I continue to wonder what engaged citizenship in Uganda looks like.
Nicholas Opiyo, a human rights advocate, has offered an analysis of what it doesn’t look like. He rejects the disarming and patronising language used to refer to young Ugandans born after 1986, who are called bazukulu, meaning “grandchildren.”
I agree with Nicholas Opiyo. We are certainly beyond the days of being an infantilised citizenry. Most Ugandans like myself are trying to escape living in the luxurious discomfort of spectator citizenship. How did we get here?
Our elected and appointed officials have shown us corruption scandal after corruption scandal—from the junk helicopters to GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation) funds to the recent iron sheet saga. This is no coincidence, but rather a systemic undoing of what could be a better Uganda.
We hoped for better, but have continued to get worse. We have a cartel of leaders ransacking our country and those aspiring to do the same if given the mandate by the citizens. It is, therefore, not surprising that any requests for accountability are met with inaction and drowned in a deceptive illusion of statistics comparing pre-1986 Uganda to the current Uganda.
Of course, for most Ugandans, this comparison does not bode well and is akin to comparing guavas and mangoes. I suspect most Ugandans find it insulting. Where do we go from here?
One thing is certain: our collective silence, as Audre Lorde urges, will not protect us. Silence is not an option. First, we have to show up in the public square and have uncomfortable conversations, be it in the kafunda or at places of worship.
Our collective reflection will generate a critical mass to catalyse engaged citizenship that feels the inadequacies subjected to us by some of our thieving political class. These efforts ought to be documented for posterity. The exhibition hashtags on X initiated by Professor Jimmy Spire Ssentongo—#UgandaHealthExhibition, #UgandaParliamentExhibition, and #KampalaPotholeExhibition—do a commendable job of this.
Generating a collective memory is critical in creating a framework for accountability and countering state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.
Secondly, we should ask for systems that actually work for us, the citizens. Mothers should not die of preventive deaths during childbirth. We should not resign ourselves to floods every time it rains in Kampala.
We should not accept the absence of teachers, doctors, and civil servants from their duty stations. We demand a public service that works—actually works for the everyday Ugandan. In demanding a functioning public service, it is also fair to demand that unnecessary public expenditure be checked—annual purchases of the latest Toyota Land Cruisers should not be normalised.
A public service with a service orientation is urgently needed, and there is evidence that this is achievable; anyone familiar with the Uganda Driving Licensing System (UDLS) knows that we should demand and expect more from government institutions.
Finally, we need to count the cost from the onset. Individual spectator citizenship costs more, but our collective losses from disengaged citizenship are greater and continue to compound. We are enduring broad-daylight robbery massaged with tokenist progress presented as a gift to Ugandans.
Our future is ours to shape, and we should not allow the inadequacies of a politicised public service machinery to take our country, Uganda, from us. Every Ugandan should be discontent enough to become an engaged citizen—to participate in the work of showing up intentionally and imagining a better Uganda.
* The writer Gilbert Nuwagira is a Ugandan MS student in Public and Urban Policy at The New School’s Milano School of Policy, Environment, and Management. The article was sourced from Africa is a Country, is a platform of opinion, analysis, and new writing on and from the African Left
Comment
STOP THE CARNAGE ON OUR ROADS
Children are our living legacies to the future, a gift and a reward from the Lord and every effort must be made to love and protect them at all times.
It is therefore of grave concern, recent reports of innocent school children dying tragically while under the care of those who are supposed to protect and drive them to and from school. Twelve children and their driver perished in a horror accident early last month when the minibus they were travelling in near the Kokosi-Wedela area near Merafong in Carletonville, was slammed from the rear by a bakkie. This resulted in the minibus erupting into flames and the twelve children dying in a fiery death. A total eleven of these children attended Rocklands Primary School and the twelfth child was enrolled at Laerskool Blyvooruitsig in Carletonville. The driver of the bakkie that slammed into the children’s minibus has since appeared in the local magistrate’s court in connection with this tragedy.
Almost a month after this accident, six more school children died in a horror crash when the bus that was carrying them from school collided with a train on the R104 near Mafube village near Middelburg in Mpumalanga this week. About twenty other children sustained serious injuries. The bus driver, who has since been arrested and was under police guard in hospital, is alleged to have failed to stop at a stop sign while the train was approaching.
The causes of both accidents have not yet been officially declared as both matters would be determined by courts of law. What can be confirmed however, is that both the driver of the bakkie that crashed into a minibus in Carletonville and the bus driver were involved in both tragic incidents. The causes of the accidents could be as a result of overspeeding, overloading, drunk driving, unroadworthy vehicles and fatigue. This will be determined by the courts.
Although holiday periods was the time when there was a surge in road accidents throughout the country due mainly because of traffic volumes and drunk driving amongst other factors, there had been reports of fatal accidents occurring even during the year caused by reckless and negligent drivers. Law enforcement agencies are urged to be consistent throughout the year in the monitoring of motorists who caused a lot of carnage on our roads.
Those responsible for the fatalities on our roads must face the full might of the law. Those drivers must be dealt with as harshly as possible. Causing fatal accidents on the roads is tantamount to murder and those responsible must be convicted and jailed just like murderers. People cannot lose their lives because of drivers who care less about the country’s road traffic rules. Losing a total 18 innocent school children in two months allegedly due to negligence, is unacceptable. The police must act swiftly to investigate and ensure that those responsible for these horror crashes are convicted and received appropriate jail sentences. Children are our future and a mother’s ultimate sacrifice for she gives everything she has for her children.
