Why we are incomplete human beings

INCOMPLETE HUMANS

Our conditions of existence really reveal how incomplete we are as human beings. The many addictions and contradictions that we endure continuously prune us to utter imperfection. We are endowed with innate deficiencies as part of our humanness. It is this deficiency which makes us incomplete that also drives us to the service of many vices, including greed. We are greedy not because we are in dire need of anything; it is because we are accustomed to believing that greed cures our incompleteness.

So, what are these rampant vices; deceit, corruption, mediocrity, impunity, callousness, malefactions, imprudence, violence, vitriol and lack of intestinal fortitude to live calm, just, meaningful life in a shared common? The answer to this dilemma is that the human project is incomplete.

The design of our immediate environment is to fetter a feeling of inadequacy in human kind. Through the social media, commercials that confront us daily, and the stereotype of prospects that our own guardians orientate us with, only set us up for the panic. The future is painted grimly as that of adversities requiring many struggles for which we are intensely schooled. The future struggles are defined, as “taking and getting”; “accumulating and owning”. One is raised to own property such as land and houses in such numbers that may not be of any material benefit. Success is defined as living a life of abundance associated with success. This is characterized by too much food to eat for one person and leftovers to throw; numerous vehicles to drive; countless sexual encounters and multiple children born and raised as imps in to further this vicious cycle of logical fallacy.

The undercurrents that drive the pursuit of our “success” are nothing but the fear of our deficiencies, our incomplete nature. We fortuitously believe that what we lack by nature can be complimented by accumulated material wealth. We have become accustomed to believing in money as our religious faith and materialism as our orthodoxy. Our children learn more about scarcity, growing up petrified of the essence of scarcity and yet, we have enough resources for every human being.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that there is enough for everyone to share on this planet, but there is hardly enough for the greedy. Indeed, the more we accumulate wealth, the more we take into our custody, that which should have been shared by the global common. The more we achieve what the society has normalized as “success”, the more we aggravate our incomplete nature. The rich become isolated and loose the power of social interconnectedness because in actual reality, accumulated wealth imprisons. For the deprived - “riffraffs” - Thomas Hobbes once observed that life becomes “nasty, brutish, and short” but fulfilling. For, the scholar and founders of Karma Kitchen, Nipun Mehta believes that the act of generosity and giving are always initiated by those who have the least.

The human nature will attempt to become complete and liberated when we learn to share. True power lies in the relationship of giving and sharing. As author Dan Hamburg once said, the consumer culture, the bourgeoise culture, is threatened not because it is bad or wrong, but because it is incomplete. It may have mastered the processes of material production, but it has failed miserably in addressing the challenges inherent in the social relations between the modes and processes of production, distribution of resources and environmental sustainability.

So, when we give and share, we unleash transformative power that leads to social interconnectedness within the human race. The experience of generative power of sharing is the token by which the human project can get set on its path toward completeness. It is the means by which humans can emerge from isolation into public realm as a freeman. Sharing is the viable means to cultivate networks that meaningfully link one human to another; transmit equitable sharing of global common, configures and compliments common points of deficiency.

Nipun Mehta, coined the term Giftivism, and defined it as “the practice of radically generous act that change the world”. And through the Kharma Kitchen, Mehta and his colleagues proved that the incompleteness of human nature can get assuaged by acts of sharing. When people give to those they hardly know and come to learn how helpful that gift was, in transforming the lives of those who needed it, the sense of completeness becomes indescribable.

Perhaps, through self search, we can start to understand that we have unconsciously inhibited the human project from getting complete by the vice of greed alone. We now know that we are a race in panic, afraid of an imaginary scarcity in the future. We enslave ourselves with material possession of things that have no value and place in our lives. We deprive those who desperately need these things and we debase their utility values by keeping them redundant in our custody. If we gave up our addiction to hoarding all the materials in our possession, we would become more accomplished.

Go check in your storage for the tires you don’t need and have not used, bed-frames, mattresses; go in your kitchen, look for the cutlery and utensils you don’t really use. Look in your quarters for empty rooms; in your food stores and fridges for the foods you are not eating. Give those out to the people who have immediate need for you.

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Prof Ogenga’s obsession with Madhvani is suspect

 MODERN INVESTMENTS

Prof Morris Latigo Ogenga appears to be a man of stead and objectivity until he begins to sound like recent NRM converts. I find that his obsession with Madhvani’s investment in sugarcane plantation in Amuru is suspect. I have read his numerous interviews in the media and followed his recent infatuation with Madhvani and oil palm plantations to be quite strange.

It is noteworthy to reiterate that no Acholi person in his or her rightful frame of mind can refuse a genuine investment to take root in Acholiland. However, the cornerstone of the contention is in the manner by which these investments are being shoved down the throat of Acholi folks. We have not forgotten the militaristic advances of Divinity Union who harassed our folks for land at the peak of the war era.

It is contemptible to believe that Dr. Latigo has become desperate for handouts from the state as his detractors are suggesting. Many of us have come to admire the brevity of Prof Ogenga and believe that he is the bridge that connects the old conservative mindset and the neo-liberal sprouts of contemporary Acholi generation. One aspect of Prof Latigo’s dilemma is that his perception of the true potential of Acholiland has been definitely compromised. I suspect that his recent association with pessimistic, devious, deceitful and psychopathic characters in the NRM government has done him in.

It is arguable that Acholi as a region is juxtaposed between depleted leadership which was instrumental and relevant during the genocide period, but whose relevance in post conflict Acholi has staggered. None of these leaders have proposed a robust post conflict roadmap for developing Acholi. Most of them either lick Museveni’s boots or oppose whatever is NRM, a hallmark of opposition politics. Nonetheless, Prof Morris Ogenga Latigo is faced with endurance of moral crisis in such an environment of limited capacity among our leaders.

The Oil Palm project in Kalangala as a justification for Madhvani usurpation of land in Amuru is merely a red herring. People in Kalangala who have had to forfeit their land for the Oil Palm project will tell you that they are trapped and enslaved. Their stories are no different than the stories of those in Kakiira or Kinyara sugar plantations. However, the manner in which their tales of suffering get to the public realms is purely a manipulation to justify plantation investments.

Acholi region, like all other regions in the world is situated for competitive modern technology investments not plantation. There are many ways to inspire growth, and one very crucial factor of economic growth is the cultivation of industrious minds. An industrious mind would look at opportunities in Acholi beyond Madhvani plantations. Acholiland has lots of resources in the form of land. It is disadvantaged by a diminished population due to depopulation policies of the NRM/A through genocide. To counter this disadvantage, Acholi leaders have to carefully moot a comprehensive post conflict economic program which targets investments in modern technology and value adding industries.

Industries do not run on water and fertile soil alone, there must be various sources of green energy to drive these industries. One of the challenges with relying on plantation as key industry for the entire Acholi land is that Madhvani will always be the sole person to determine market price for sugarcane harvests and energy needs of the region. This is the same problem that out-growers in the Oil Palm projects are facing in Kalangala. They are enslaved because the monopoly of the buyer permanently locks them up in loan arrears and a hand-to mouth life that limits human development. In short, plantation workers are never free people, they are slaves.

If Prof Ogenga does not have personal interests - and we should confidently assume that he is being selfless and all genuine - why doesn't he, as a leader, advocate for a comprehensive industrialization policy for the entire Acholi region? Is the region too backward to have value adding investments such as car assembly plants, international airports, major supermarkets and five star hotels investments to offer competitive advantage over Southern Sudan and Eastern Congo markets?  It is this western “Messiah” syndrome which detracts Prof. Ogenga to make him think that people who are critical of his ambitious ploy to give away land to Madhvani are also jealous of his personal achievements. Plantations are the things of the past.

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Illuminati is definitely behind Muhoozi Project

FAMILY RULE

The recent media fit about the famed Muhoozi Project is one that has generated public curiosity at home and abroad. Many people are wondering whether such a grand plan as Muhoozi Project exist within the NRM top echelon about a possible Muhoozi Presidency. The question that many people are asking is whether President Museveni is preparing his son to inherit the Presidency like most African dictators do.

Recently, Rtd. Col Kasirye Gwanga fired the first salvo in the media, warning that a possible Muhoozi Project will not only split the military and the country, but is objectionable within the security circles. Had Kasirye Gwanga spoken about this Muhoozi Project in isolation and moved on, the issue would not have gained gravity, in the manner it has now. The additional voice of a top security figure, Gen David Sejusa on this matter, has given this Muhoozi Project a form, shape and life of a Dragon.

At its appearance, the NRM apologists would have argued that this Muhoozi Project is a mere illusion. However, we all know how Mr. Museveni operates. We can contend that this media buzz with the Muhoozi Project is a plot by the calculative President Museveni to focus test the idea of a Muhoozi inheritance of power. Through his soldiers, he wants to prepare the landscape for the public acquaintance with a Muhoozi Presidency after Dad. For Muhoozi, it is easy to develop a sense of entitlement to the Presidency; after all, his father worked for it, built it for him and helped him build a personal army within the UPDF for his defense.

If you follow Ugandan politics, you would easily recognize how the President has become so predictable these days. He has become blunter and his frustrations are no longer camouflaged. In the past, he used decoy and other guerilla war strategies to wood-wink the population into trenches. For instance, in 1996 when the president smuggled back censured ministers, he used the most hated and feared man at the time, Maj Roland Mutale Kakooza as a bait, by enlisting him in cabinet. The population had to juggle their conscience to choose between insanity and criminality. They chose the latter and Museveni got back the Sam Kutesa gang of censored ministers back into his government, thereby cementing corruption as acceptable government strategy.

The Muhoozi Project is definitely not an illusion. Gen Sejusa is neither a fool nor a man acting out of delusions. The Muhoozi Project is real and it has roots in the infamous 1990s Basiita clan meeting resolution whose main objective is to place the Bahiima in control of Uganda for at the least, 50 years. This resolution was first leaked out during the 2001 general elections. As usual, the government has denied its existence and distanced itself from any such meeting. But we know that a Muhoozi Project is to perpetuate this grand plan of family rule in Uganda.

Most analysts will agree that this government has redefined public relations as a game of denial. So, whatever secret agenda they have in private will be ferociously denied of its existence in public. The truth is that the Muhoozi Project is a well orchestrated plot by a powerful group of regime loyalist and evidences are there to corroborate its existence, development and subsequent manifestation.

First, it took Muhoozi less than 12 years to rise to the rank of Brigadier in the army, a rank that many officers spend half their military life to attain. The biased selection of Muhoozi to get military trainings in some of the most elite military academies in the world, in the UK, US and South Africa are a living testimony that this man was being processed for a mission specified by the powers that be (the illuminati).

Interestingly, Muhoozi's leadership of the most elite military unit, including the mechanized units of the army places him in charge of a private army within the UPDF. In this unit, most of its officers were handpicked, thoroughly selected and trained through very rigorous procedures to ensure loyalty. Most of these officers, men and women are either Westerners or Bahiima, like the President and the ruling class in Uganda. If one wants to deny this fact, it is worthy a challenge to unveil the names of the top 100 members of this group by rank.

The revelations by Gen. David Sejusa therefore should not be taken lightly as recommended by Dr Chrispus Kiyonga, the Defence Minister. Gen Sejusa is not some pet shop boy around town. He has been the coordinator of security services for a while now and he knows fully what he wrote about in the papers. Gen Sejusa’s revelation also feeds into what Prof Gilbert Bukenya - the former Vice President once opined that this government is full of mafias – the illuminati.

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Museveni's Cowboy economy - Money-in-the-sack

RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION

In the last two weeks, President Museveni has been in the international media for his unusual act of generosity. The President carried money in a sack worth 250million shillings and gave it away to Busoga youths. The following few weeks, the President was back in Busoga, this time officiating at an inter-city tourism innovation between Jinja and eleven Swedish townships. The picture of the President whitewashing buildings in Jinja was splashed all over the media in Uganda.

The culture of the President giving out cash money to the folks in the countryside is something which is now entrenched in the mainstream politics of Uganda. It is this cowboy-ish conduct by the President which, to a greater sense, amplifies corruption and de-incentivize genuine human indulgence in economic production. The President has used brown envelops often to give out money to individuals disguise as rewarding hard working Ugandans. That the brown envelop is not included in any systematic national program to be distributed on merit, lends credence to the fact that it is a campaign strategy. In my opinion, the President has launching his 2016 Presidential campaign in Busoga.

The flipside of this money-in-the-sack gang-ho heist is a manifestation of the cowboy economy. We all know that Museveni is an avid cattle keeper and many commentators have likened his management of the Ugandan economy and society to the way he manages his cows. More interestingly, the way the money is withdrawn, and from wherever it comes from before getting distributed, reminds me of the cowboy movies of the 60s, 70s and 80s. Most of the cowboy movies depict lawlessness, bank robberies, scramble for minerals and holding of hostages for ransom. All these features are rife in our Uganda today under Museveni.

President Museveni is known for breaking banks (treasury) to withdraw moneyy for military hardware, thereby increasing military spending without due process (parliamentary approvals). It is so characteristic of cowboys to carry money in sacks to distribute to fellow bandits. In Uganda, the secrecy surrounding minerals, mining, such as gold in Karamoja and oil in Bunyoro qualifies this government as a regime of cowboys and bandits. Indeed, the infatuation with guns, coupled with state inspired corruption is symptomatic of the underlying cowboy culture that is so contemptuous of due process.

It is unfortunate that we people do not treasure history. Although some commentators have derided Ugandans for being lazy, disengaged and blinded to the woes of history, the picture of the President whitewashing Jinja town while clad in his traditional cowboy hat told many unforgettable tales.

Jinja town is in ruins today because of the economic policies pursued by the NRM regime in the 90s. Before the NRM regime, Jinja was the economic heartthrob of Uganda. It was a town adored by many and quite attractive to a host of economic activities. Most importantly, Jinja was the economic gateway, the backbone and the economic heart of Busoga and Uganda. It was the industrial hub of Uganda. Because of Jinja’s industrial powers, it sustained the economic life of the entire eastern Uganda. Towns like Tororo, Mbale, Iganga, Kamuli and many others drew their lifeline on the successes of Jinja. Busoga was a content region, with some of the best healthcare facilities, robust railway network and strong workforce. Jinja therefore provided Busoga and Basoga, the worth and pride of a people.

All these glamour were raided by economic cowboys from the NRM “banditry” disguised as agents of structural adjustment. Jinja Nytil fell, the Chillington, the pulp industry, and then every industry followed. Jinja became a ghost town with many investors leaving the vicinity and relocating elsewhere. The poor, uneducated and those without skills remained to chew on the dust from the industrial ruins.

Buildings feel the absence of humans too and they become old quite quickly once uninhabited. The shops in Jinja became empty quite quickly as the uneducated started developing small retail shops that sold mostly imported goods, such as clothe, soap, match sticks, hoe blades, machetes, plastic shoes, body scrubs, slippers…. that were formerly manufactured in Jinja.

For many years, Jinja developed into ghost city. Its only output is electricity from Owens falls damn and votes to the NRM as if in appreciation for its predicaments. The people of Busoga transmitted this decadence in different ways because they were never prepared for the transition through the shocks created by the death of industries. The emergence of potholes, disparate people, increasing crime rates, diseases, jiggers and horrible slum dwellings have become the landmark identity of Jinja.

So, the cowboy approach of carrying bags of money to lavish to the Busoga youths and then whitewashing Jinja town by the President himself herald the underlying attitude the regime has towards Busoga. Basoga youths do not need cowboy money; they need infrastructure to provide them with vocation and institutions to provide accessible services. But this dire lack of effective services, robust youth skills development policy and employment enhancement policies cannot simply get whitewashed.

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Rwanda’s medical tourism is brilliant innovation

MEDICAL TOURISM

The numerous reports of children and their mothers dying in Uganda’s healthcare system is not something that a citizen should be proud of. Clearly, most of the maternal-child deaths are preventable with a robust healthcare system. There are many success stories in the African continent where communities or governments have been able to help curb child-mortality rates and Uganda could learn from these. Comparing Rwanda to Uganda to me is like comparing apples and an egg but Rwanda offers such a glaring example for us to learn from.

While Rwanda and Uganda draws much international attention over its regional aggression and total disregard for its neighbour’s autonomy, Rwanda actually has lots of concrete socio-economic achievements that one can benefit from studying. Being an inspiring Global Health leader and a consultant in Public health, I am attracted naturally Rwanda over its robust anti-corruption and universal healthcare policies. In these aspects, Rwanda appears to be hundred steps ahead of Uganda.

Last year, I did a scoping review on maternal-child healthcare in which I compared Rwanda’s health care system with that of Uganda and South Eastern Asian countries where maternal child health is rampant. I discovered many important lessons from Rwanda’s steady progress and vision as compared to that of Uganda and other aforementioned regions. A great article written by a group of researchers had appeared in Maternal Health Matters, a public health journal with a focus on maternal-child health. This, article described how Rwanda’s community health insurance scheme had helped build community bond with their healthcare facilities. The healthcare insurance, levied on sliding scale system depending on household income, ensures that Rwandese, and not the government, supervised their healthcare facilities. This approach has made healthcare become very accessible to all Rwandese, especially to expectant mothers and their new born babies.

According to the Millennium Development Goal report, Rwanda did sustain maternal mortality rate at 5% from 2000-2010. Over 52% of deliveries now are being attended to by qualified professionals and Rwanda cut its child mortality rate to nearly half from 2000-2007. One would be confident that at this pace, Rwanda would surely require just a little impetus of goodwill to transcend access issues due to difficult terrain, and to achieve MDC goals 4 and 5.

Last week, I saw a picture of magnificent hospital facility – brand new with top of the art equipment, sitting glamorously on the peak of a hill. Down the foot of hill was a projection of bravura of scenery whose deep green and haziness surely infers therapeutic appeal.

Talking to my Rwandese friend at Butare hospital on the phone about this facility, I came to learn that Rwanda has decided to invest in medical tourism. What a splendid idea?

In Uganda, we are still stuck on wildlife based tourism. Our investments are still on traditional goods such as sports goods, building materials, second hand clothing, farm implements, used rifles, expired drugs, scraps and so forth. For many years, we know that Makerere University has trained competent medical doctors and variety of healthcare professionals. These professions in Uganda appear ineffective and almost incompetent. The same MUK graduates in Kenya, Tanzania and in Rwanda stand out as exemplary in the services they offer to their country. The explanation for such a stark difference lies in government policies and work environment.

While the government and medical professionals in Rwanda and Kenya root for medical tourism, in Uganda, their counterparts lack innovation and rely on government for livelihood at the detriment of their service consumers.

So, what does a medical tourism look like? Many Ugandans will recall President Museveni flying his daughter to Germany for delivery; Brig Mayombo and Wapakhabhulo dying in Kenyan hospital or Mzee Bidandi Ssali being flown to Bangkok in Thailand for very simple treatment. In other words, Rwanda’s vision is such that government can invest in its medical facilities, bringing in modern equipment, train and retain some of the best surgeons and keep an efficient medical system. The next time any member of the Ugandan ruling regime becomes ill, Rwanda will be a destination of choice. Rwanda offers many advantages, its security is very efficient, it is closer than Israel or Germany from Uganda and its services are a hybrid of culturally oriented care with western medical technology.

Medical tourism will help fund the system and boost tourism because naturally, people recovering from illness find much comfort in an appealing peaceful, clean and organized environment. I applaud the Paul Kagame leadership on its strong vision on streamlining its healthcare system and taking a leadership stride towards investments beyond basic necessity.

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Amnesty for the corrupt is an infatuation with the devil

SALEH'S PROPOSAL

Reading the proposal by Gen. Salim Saleh that the corrupt should be offered amnesty should have left many as awed as I was. The core of Saleh’s proposal is that government should provide a channel through which people who have accumulated wealth illegally and by corrupted means, should declare the loot and get taxed. He proposes that government should emulate the success in ending insurgencies in the country through the instrument of amnesty. There are other interesting details about this proposal in the Saleh dossier, but let us look at its core recited above.

The proposal by Saleh, should not shock many people who knew Saleh of the 90s. Only those who had expected a changed in Saleh to a less greedy and mature Saleh in 2013 should be shocked. Saleh’s proposal therefore has roots in his own personal guilt as the pioneer of blatant corruption in Uganda. First, to assume that corruption is forgiveable and should be provided amnesty constitutes an infatuation with the devil itself. Second, it reveals how contemptible these people are to the misery of the Wanainchi that the corrupt deprive of basic social services such as medicine, drinking water, electricity and so forth.

But we also know that Saleh is not aware of  what constitute corruption because of his privileged access to state resources. One could say that this grandiose proposal is a personal statement or wishes to absolve himself from accounting for his expansive record of graft and corruption. I recall in the 90s when censor motions in Parliament targeted the corrupt, Saleh himself offered millions of shillings for anyone who could define this taboo – corruption. Since no one has come to claim that bait, we would surely assume that Saleh himself still does not understand that he is at the pinnacle, in fact a pioneer role model of the corrupted Uganda under this NRM regime.

A quick google search with key words “Salim Saleh AND/OR Corruption” generates more than ten pages on the subject with one click. When you begin to read each link, you begin to feel that the name Salim saleh is almost synonymous with corruption. One good reading is from the STAR of the World Bank and United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes website. STAR is Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative. The STAR recounts how Salim Saleh almost single handedly dismantled UCB while at Greenland Bank where he improperly engineered the takeover of 49% shares of UCB.

One would be damned not to recognize that Saleh himself partook in the primitive accumulation of wealth, breaking down legal and due processes to rob Ugandans of industrial complexes during the privatization process and swath of arable land in the country. There was no destruction of any major government asset in the 90s that never had the characteristic signature of Saleh’s hands on it. From UCB, NYTIL and so on…all were ravaged by the insatiable greed of one legend who is now asking government for a concession it cannot afford - to  give amnesty to the corrupt.

Corruption is a deviant act and criminal in nature. For professionals, corruption compromises on quality of services and deprives the masses of what is due. If the corrupt were offered amnesty, those hard core criminals who steal human organs or mediate human sacrifices would also demand for amnesty. Imagine serial killers like Arinaitwe of the 90s and serial rapists, drugs, arms and human traffickers asking for amnesty so that they could pay taxes on their loots! That would compel the country to degenerate into modern day Sodom and Gomorrah!

The lessons we learn from this particular proposal is that the NRM regime has its ideology dried up. However, what is satirical and quite disturbing is how lack of accountability is normalized. Uganda is where the new normal is what every sane society objected to in the past. The real bankers are the robbers, security agencies are the very agents of insecurity, the criminals are the heros, the hard working people are the villain in an economy where survival is only secured for the bushwar veterans like Saleh.

By no means shall a country develop and lay a firm foundation in this manner. Everywhere we go now, people appear to be obsessed with living fast and dubious lifestyles. The poor want to be rich by any means possible, irrespective of due process. In Uganda today, everyone is corrupt. Unfortunately, bribery has become normalized; elected leaders now procure the will of the masses to lead. If we buy into this self directed propendency of  Gen Salim Saleh, then we are damned as a nation.

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Ugandan churches are a hub for corruption

CHURCH $ CORRUPTION

Over the weekend I visited one of my Professors, so intent at rehabilitating some of us to return to the Church. There is a Catholic church that has special service slot for an African group. My professor attends to this service and he has observed a remarkable level of enthusiasm which distinguishes the traditional Canadian mass from the African way of praying. Accordingly, the Canadian Catholic priests say mass while their African counterparts do celebrate mass.

The exuding spiritual vigor set aside, we sustained a debate about the role of churches in social and political development in Africa. There was the argument that western religious belief systems have found such a stronghold in the hearts of African communities because by nature, these communities were already deeply spiritual. I agreed with this analysis because from personal experiences, African communities that I know believed in plethora of religious belief systems, rituals and traditions. For instance, the concept of resurrection is nothing new since a large section of African traditional societies believed in life after death. Making sacrifices were common practice, believed to reconcile the two worlds, of the living and the dead, but also reinforced the concept of sharing and caring for each other.

Given the strong beliefs in Africa, one would still find it difficult to explain the animosity of the African race towards each other. It is amazing how we almost gnaw at each other during moments of sharing, when have to distribute resources or in an election. Clearly there has not been an illustration of the intersection between Christian values and African tradition belief systems as both appear to be fading fast among the youngsters.

The biggest dilemma manifests in the form of corruption that is nearly bringing African societies to its knees. The magnitude of corruption that exists in our contemporary society is transmitted through community organizations such as churches and state agencies. The societal superstructure is one that is positioned to produce, reproduce and transmit this vice called corruption which complicates its relations with the base. From Marxian perspective, the base comprehends the forces and relations of production in which people enter to produce the necessities and amenities of life. These relations determine society’s other relationships and ideas, which are described as its superstructure. The superstructure of a society includes its culture, institutions, political power structures, roles, rituals, and state. It is believed that the base determines and predominate the superstructure (Marx, 1977; Scaff, 1984; Morrera, 1990). However, in a corrupted and dictatorial society like Uganda, the superstructure has usurped the influencing acts over the base. As it is, the Churches in Uganda, which should be the moral foundation of society, have become subservient to this vice of corruption.

The church, both traditional Catholic and Protestant have failed the society in as far as cultivating strong Christian values of honesty. These churches are deficient in moral authority to hold sway over their congregation because they appear to be beneficiaries of corrupted society. It is saddening that churches are already tripping on their own robes. Whether they can hold on firmly to their own centres and avoid a crack due to pervasive current moral crises through the 22^nd century is yet another steep test. For instance, the Catholic Church must now deal with moral dishonesty and duplicitous priests who are on rampage of sexual abuse of children and bearing illegitimate children, some with Nuns and members of the congregation.

Seemingly, with fading of religious values in the population, the emergence of all the other so-called Born-Again movements have truly diluted faith and commercialized its practices too. Churches are now the places where corruption finds its own life and soul food; a place where being corrupt is encouraged and redeemed by these Preachers.

Preachers in Africa have excelled in the art of duplicity and extraction, striking at a time when the population is most vulnerable. Many people run to churches to seek the guidance of God towards their own survival. Most of these people live with HIV/AIDS, are poor and may have lost their loved ones, or are jobless. Some of the people may be transitioning through personal difficulties, so they turn to the Church for consolation. At their most vulnerable, this is when the churches strike them to pry on their vulnerability for an exploit.

The link between churches perpetuating corruption is ebbed in luxurious lifestyles of the church leaders. In the Bible, tax collectors were always portrayed as wretchedly for their wealth accumulation. We recall the story of Zacharia who had to climb the sycamore tree to seek Jesus’ redemption (Luke 19:4). In Africa, most of the Preachers are the new Zacharias who collects the tithe on behalf of the Lord for their own aggrandizement. This way, these churches have become the platform where the corrupt cleanse their sins and get redemption for their injustices.

It is important to question the materialistic agenda of these churches. Why are churches not bothered with social inequalities or the rampant corruption that undermine genuine economic development? Just take a trip through Kampala’s wealthy suburbs, you would be amazed at how owners of churches also live in meticulous villas; you must see their brand new multibillion cars and the kind of toys that their children play with. When we were growing up, church leaders were not exactly paupers, but they were not as rich as politicians and even more. It is unusual that that at this time when corruption is so rampant, church leaders are also stinking wealthy. This pattern explains why some Muslims are converting to born-again beliefs and opening a church because it is just a cash-cow! It also tells how desperate and vulnerable the people are in the hands of corrupted religious institutions.

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