After an irksome 38 years in power, Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party has aged into a humongous machine of corruption and incompetence that seems to grow and grow.
Once all the processes of big decision-making started being nudged towards the President, and the trend of emasculating institutions became the norm, the expression of loyalty to the President became far more important than the application of reason; or truth and integrity; or fair play; or patriotism.
To do what the President wanted became the first duty for those in high places.
But even in a banana republic like Uganda (where the World Bank has projected that the citizens may soon be operating at a mere 38 percent of potential capacity), there are thousands of government tasks that get done.
The problem is that it is impossible for one person to describe in exact detail what they want done in every set of circumstances where a task has to be performed.
Like many other animals, human beings tend to take advantage of the gaps and weaknesses around them.
Sensing that the President who wants to be central in everything just cannot be everywhere at once, Uganda’s bigwigs have increasingly shifted attention from public duty and used their offices to pursue personal interests.
And they have become very bold at using some of the negative tools the President uses to retain power to serve themselves.
So widespread is the decay, it seems alamost impossible to clean the NRM machine without bringing down the regime.
From the pathetic health and educational facilities, the rotten roads and dubious research and engineering projects, to parasitic public officials; the uniting features are incompetence and corruption.
When you were fooled 10 years ago that you were about to see Ugandan-designed and Ugandan-developed electric vehicles mass-produced locally and driven on your roads; or more recently that there were wonder drugs and vaccines in the works; or that you were about to witness the mother of censuses, you had virtually no say as trillions of shillings went down those drains, even if your heart told you in advance that you would be exceedingly surprised if these beautiful events happened as promised.
The power contest between President Museveni and Parliament (regarding Shs700-plus billion whose allocation the President accuses MP’s of tinkering with to serve their selfish interests) must be won by the President, because he is the President.
But after the items that the President insists must be left in the appropriation Bill/law are restored, only an extremely tiny number of individuals will benefit. Otherwise the mass of Ugandans will notice absolutely nothing.
In very recent years, including the new 2024/2025 financial year, the Executive has committed huge amounts of money in both allocations and tax exemptions to ‘investors’, to promoters of coffee consumption, to poorly managed failing business enterprises and other entities whose value to most Ugandans remains dubious.
Furthermore, President Museveni and other senior NRM/government leaders have repeatedly mocked voters who elect Opposition MP’s and then cry for improved services.
Mr Museveni’s camp argues that only NRM legislators can successfully lobby for their constituencies. But part of the President’s quarrel with Parliament now is that some MPs exploited their positions during budget work to do just that.
It is a small-minded interpretation of how to use power to divide national goods and services, which belong to all Ugandans.
But if the President has now genuinely realised this inconvenient truth, however belatedly, and discrimination (whether it is by MP’s or State House) truly belongs to the past, it must be a matter for celebration.