Brutality cannot solve Kampala street mess

 KAMPALA CITY

Hon Betty Kamya (BONK) stewardship of the Struggle for urban space between Kampala City’s affluent and its impoverished street Vendors is too mechanical, illogical and primordial. Ms. Kamya, the Minister for Kampala should learn one lesson - that social problems mechanical force never solves social problems quite effectively. Introducing mechanical and rudimentary methods to re mediate socioeconomic inequalities and failed policies only leads to destruction of life, the very essence upon which a safe, clean, and inclusive urban space is contested.

Ms. Kamya is not the first Minister to moot this idealist and yet simplistic proposal that the inner city is not for urban poor. She does not seem to understand the dynamics of a city, Kampala City! This grandiose is symptomatic of the bigger dilemma of poor planning that pervades nearly every urban setting in developing countries.

Without taking Ms Kamya to the fundamentals of what a modern city is, or should be, we owe her the duty to remind her that a city is also a living entity on its own right. The city has spirits, faith and aspirations to grow. As such, it must live normally, feed and excrete, breathe and expire; grow, decline and renew; expand and sometimes shrink. It is for these traits of a living organism that cities suffer wear and tear, grows old and at times large, calling for repairs and expansion in its infrastructure.

In this milieu of liberal market economy, Uganda has moved steadfast, into the money economy. The object of daily life is money.  Everyone now wants money, irrespective of how it is got. A 2016 Aga Khan University survey of 1,854 Ugandan youths found that many young people value hassling and do not care much about integrity; and value wealth, not minding much how one accrues their wealth, as long as they survive jail, and interestingly, the youths believed that corruption is profitable. Only 12% of those expressed interest in farming. In essence, the flight of rural to urban of our working force in search for money is partly the problem of Kampala City.

Second, Kampala is not expanding fast enough to accommodate the infrastructure demands for the underprivileged- the ones Senior Presidential media advisor Nagenda prefers to call the “unwashed” of the slums. While dwellings for the corrupted affluent, working, and middle class individuals have littered every hill around Kampala, affordable public housing, and commensurate public facilities to accommodate the spillage of internally displaced and migrant workers are not springing up.

Instead, the regime sells urban spaces for investments, Malls. Land for poor people are appropriated by land-grabbers;  widespread land conflicts, unequal distribution of resources and services, and persistent natural disasters – drought, landslides, presence of oil and so forth, brings people to Kampala. Many Ugandans find themselves transitory. Kampala therefore is a collecting centre of the victims of the chaotic life experiences in rural areas, and its attraction for money opportunities allures many.

One would argue that street vending is harmful to the economy of the City. It deprives legitimate and registered tax-paying enterprises from profiteering and paying taxes. Upon scrutiny of this claim, you find that street venders are only an extension of these businesses. They are a ploy for the big businesses to evade taxes, and yet the city has no modalities to tax the Vendors given their equally transitional businesses.  Fair enough!

Maybe ED, Ms. Jennifer Musisi has learned a thing or two from the Lord Mayor – that mechanical force cannot solve socioeconomic inequalities.

For my contribution, I propose the formation of Business Investment Area (BIA) within the City and tasking them to manage vendors. This idea will form the basis of my next article. However, for now, BONK should go slow. We should solve social, economic, and political problems with commensurate social policies, not with brutality or mechanically.

End. 

Gov't not doing enough to protect our girls in Arabia

Government is not doing enough for our girls in Arabia

Morris Komakech

The social media is awash with gory tales of many Ugandan girls suffering inhuman treatment – torture, sexual molestation, confinement in squalor, death, and denial of pay in Arab countries where they seek menial employment. The Daily Monitor story of the 30 girls who returned from Qatar confirms this troubling state of affairs. Evidently, the fatal fate of 22yrs old Nakachwa Sumayiya reported in the DM of July 30, 2017 shows that our government does little to protect the rights and lives of our citizens in these places.

Life in Arab world is culturally dramatic requiring adequate preparatory training.  Just in April, Minister Janat Mukwaya assured the nation that Uganda signed bilateral agreements with some Gulf Nations to safeguard the rights of these workers. Legislators need to follow up with stringent mechanisms to monitor, review, and enforce these agreements. These countries must account for the abuses of our citizens.

According to the Gender Ministry, Uganda has 65 fully licensed and operational employment agencies exporting surplus cheap labour. These agencies should commit to stringent obligations over the safety and evacuation of our girls.

Government is not doing enough!

Unfortunately, for Ugandans, it is the dysfunctional state syndrome where the people who own the employment agencies are also those within the nexus of political power. As such, they are above reproach and at own liberties to dispose Ugandans for profit. At the minimum, these agencies should provide save exit plan in countries that undermine women’s rights.

The plight of these girls illuminates contradictions in the fragile economy that resorts to selling human labour abroad. One wonders how Uganda will achieve the middle-income status on slave export.

The colorful economic growth indicators are the most deceptive. Having endured rigorous bureaucratic adulterations, these indicators make sense only on paper. Their real effects manifests in the vulnerability of our young populace to human trafficking and modern slavery.

Recently, Mr. Museveni praised UPE and USE as the cornerstone for youth skills development. Incidentally, UBOS tells us that 83% of youths, who form nearly 78% of our population, are either under-skilled or unskilled; as such, they are mostly unemployed, under- employed or unemployable. These correlations only make absolute sense given the quality and investments in UPE/USE.

The youth unemployment rate also tells us that the economy is not expanding and diversifying fast enough to accommodate the employment needs of our large youth population. Employment opportunities are in low pay services sector, and concentrated in few urban centres; Government distributes it jobs on sectarian basis and; lucrative opportunities are ring-fenced for regime loyalist and foreigners –Indians, now Chinese contractors, and others.

Clearly, UPE and USE potentials are under-utilized, leading to the low quality of human resource that we dispose off in Arabia. Many of these girls are not seeking high-end tech jobs. Those high pay, high-end skilled jobs belongs to Indians, Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans. Ugandans do the menial, dirty, undervalued, precarious, and shunned low-pay jobs that machines do elsewhere.

Ugandans could do better if the regime expects to harness and sell its surplus labour abroad. These girls bring in foreign currency to sustain the regime. The labour must have value, and it must attract protection from host government, employment agencies, and our government.

Parliament of Uganda should review and tighten some of human export laws to protect these girls. Continued inaction affirms that our government is the active agent committing our own citizens into slavery.

It is disheartening that foreigners, especially those Arabs come to Uganda where they are treated on red carpet. Imagine that they extend their cruelty to Ugandans even at home, where they openly discriminate, assault, murder, sodomize, and rape our people. Instead, the law protects these criminals. In Uganda, the foreign investor is above the law. That means, Ugandans are disposable both at home and abroad.

The End.

Allow Public Debate on National Health Insurance

NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE

Until the advent of structural adjustment, the Ugandan government provided quality and equitable universal health care and tertiary education. Under the liberal market milieu, both sectors are on a steady decline.

Health care and education are critical aspects of the economy because they shape the human capital for economic development. A healthy and educated population is the engine of economic growth, and determines whether Uganda will become a middle-income country.

However, under the liberal market environment, the government has retracted from its core obligation to universal health provision. Its budgetary allocation is less than half the 2001 Abuja declaration where Uganda committed to allocate 15% of its budget towards improving the health sector.

Recent increase in budget allocation for the health sector from UGX 1.270 Trillion in the FY2015/16 to UGX 1.853 trillion in FY2016/17 still leaves a glaring gap in healthcare financing. The 2016/17 health budget is far below the amount needed for Uganda to sustain high quality human resource and meet its health sector obligations. The Civil Society Budgetary Advocacy Group ascertained that the current budget still leaves 72% of the health sector-financing budget in the hands of the donors, given the slow private sector investment in healthcare.

Although several proposals to bridge the health sector financing gap by introducing health insurance, it has attracted limited public debate.  The proposal by Dr. Francis Runumi, the Commissioner and Director in the Health Ministry need further public debate. Dr Runumi has single handedly shaped the debate on health insurance that will shift the obligation for health financing from public to private - in the murky market economy.

Dr Runumi proposed the Social Health Insurance (SHI) common in low and middle-income countries. The assumptions underlying SHI are that the affluent would subsidise healthcare costs for the poor; the single wealthy subsidises for families, and the young subsidies for the old, etc.

From the onset, this proposal is problematic, because of the intricate complexities of health insurance buying in an “open-palm” society like Uganda. A 2010 peer reviewed study by Juliet Nabyonga Orem and Charlotte Muheki Zikusooka questioned the equity factor in the proposed NHI. They concluded that in the short term, the NHI would achieve the important equity characteristics of pooling, cross-subsidisation, and financial protection. However, they cautioned that success of NHI would be limited by a fragile liberalised market place that would influence accredited Insurers. The study was quick to observe that the current method of disbursement would in the long term, escalate the disparities in healthcare access among the population.

The characteristic of the labour market and human resources determines the success of any health insurance. Uganda, with an estimated population of over 39 million, with 19.5% living below the poverty line, and 72% of unbanked Ugandans (FINCA Observation). The workforce estimated to be 15% of its population has less than 2 million people with formal employment. health Insurance requires buy-in or renewals that requires reliable income. Many Ugandans are employed in small private enterprises, while majority are in subsistence farming. Given that health insurance is better serviced within an economy that emphasises full employment, the challenge of adopting the most appropriate National Health Insurance is daunting.

Debate should focus on the Private Health Insurance (PHI) for the affluent segment of society and the Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI), popular among the poor. A 2012 Systematic review of health insurance in Africa and Asia published in WHO Bulletin, highly appraised CBHI as favourable for improving resource mobilisation, encouraging health utilisation, reducing out-of-pocket expenditures, and increasing community empowerment. However, by Ernst Spaan and colleagues, noted that CBHIs tended to exhibit weak financial sustainability due to low renewal rates, high claim-to-revenue ratio, and high operational costs.

In sum, with 90% youth unemployment in Uganda, widespread economic inequality, and low financial inclusion within an inelastic market economy. Any NHI modeled after any  industrial countries’ will create more disparity in healthcare access. At least, Uganda should avoid the USA’s highly inequitable and predatory health insurance model. Next, we examine CBHI and policy implications.

END.

Cheap Opposition?: The whole country is on sale for cheap

BUYING UGANDA

This weekend was an embarrassing one for the two-faced Opposition. They must be walloping in humiliation with the revelation by chief-buyer, that Opposition members including their MPs are cheap in the political market.

The cheapness of our Opposition is a matter of interpretation. It reveals the outcome of social transformation under the three decades of NRM corrupted rule. Mr. Museveni has previously applied numerous tactics, including doling out brown envelops, but most effectively, through political appointments to extract from the midst of Opposition, their most tenacious cadres. That is how he purged life out of DP in the early 90s and sucked the living hell out of UPC recently.

Characteristically, when Museveni fails to woo opposition characters, he jails them and even capitulates some from a productive economic lifeline. The economic alienation makes this country so unequal in wealth distribution, such that corruption became the natural means to equalize. Uganda has transformed into an economy where corruption is a means of production for many. Those privileged to own opportunities to steal public resources are at the top of the food chain. Many of them ally with the regime solely to safeguard their loot, while the NRM uses their “success” stories to entice members of Opposition.

Without any competitive buyer, the monopoly holder naturally sets the market price of goods. Where the supply of “good conscience” becomes too much, the price naturally falls. It has fallen to a low point where a mere lavishing of his targets with praises such as “good or better member” of Opposition can win him such an Opposition leader, cheaply.

The confusion over who pays better is even worse among the youths who should be flashing out this absurdity. The 2016 general elections brought out the worse among the youths – the Poor NRM Youths vs the jobless brotherhoods. They oscillated between Amama Mbabazi’s camp and Museveni camp, looking for who pays higher. Politics to them is for eating; wellness of society is reflected as an aggregate of economically well off members in this money nexus.  

In contextualizing Mr. Museveni’s mockery of Opposition, one needs to understand Museveni’s innate contempt for multiparty democracy and rule of law.  The Opposition has demonstrated little understanding of the exploits of a Multiparty Political dispensation in that sense. Some expect Mr. Museveni to “allow” them to operate. Museveni’s mission is clear – finish the Opposition by 2021. The revelation of cheapness of Opposition therefore is a blow to opposition credibility and further to undermined multiparty politics.

On its part, the Opposition unconsciously or consciously plays to the tunes of the Piper. The Opposition obeys every draconian law; lack ongoing agenda to engage electorates until the time of elections; exhibits too much in-house treachery – betrayal and snitching that goes unpunished; lack ideological identity or policy preferences distinct from that of the ruling regime; and consistently fails to demonstrate the ability to offer an alternative government.

As such, the Opposition is confusing to the electorates and youths because the only difference between NRM and the so-called Opposition appears to be the briskness of their leaders. Opposition is not about hatred, envy, ignorance and the drive to remove a regime. It entails a systematic organizing to form an alternative government in the waiting and to produce alternative policy framework to push society forward. In that sense, the Ugandan Opposition is atypical, unconscious, and unprincipled.

Not only Opposition politicians are on sale in Uganda. The whole country is. From traditional leaders, church leaders, youth, women and worse of all, the NRM carpetbaggers. Even with their numerical strength, the NRM secretariat still buys their MPs to pass egregious laws towards the life-presidency or mortgaging Uganda. If the regime buys conscience from Opposition, it pays heftily for loyalty from within.  The cheapness of the Opposition is not distinctive; rather, it is a continuum of Museveni’s corrupted rule.

END

Regular screening could reduce noncommunicable disease mortality

PREVENTIVE TREATMENT

The article “What can be done to reduce cancer deaths in Uganda” (DM of June 23, 2017) was a compassionate appeal that must be heeded. The author raised many core issues about the escalation of cancer in Uganda. He left many concepts unexplained.

First, the increasing incidence of cancer and other non-communicable diseases in Uganda should be discussed within the liberal market orientation – the commodification of social spaces, healthcare and rapid consumer cultural transitions. Underneath these are major behavioural changes inspired by the industry that makes available, harmful products such as alcohol, cigarette, ultra-processed foods, etc.

I was recently surprised when I saw four extremely obese kids with their equally super obese parents walking out of a fast food outlet on Kampala Road with four full buckets of deep fried chicken. Many associate fast foods with class and stature.

The increasing propensity among consumers for fast foods in the Fast Foods outlets that litter our streets, illustrate the transformative influence of liberalisation, and its impacts on our cultures and health. Dietary transition, for instance, is a matter of public health, as an indicator of rapid cultural shift among young and middle class people from organic traditional foods to ultra-processed industry foods.

I have until recently, believed in the singular discourse of behavioural explanation of the rise high morbidity and mortality from non-communicable diseases in the so-called emerging markets of the developing countries.

However, after deeply investigating, I now believe that the loss of environmental control is a powerful predictor of such behaviors. Underneath this, are powerful driving forces of multinational corporations. These manufacture, transport, and distribute carcinogenic and harmful products. These corporations are vicious in taking control of our everyday social environment and transforming them into markets, through targeted advertisements, targeted product packaging such as the alcohol sachets, and investing in trade policies that galvanizes their operations. Sachets are designed to attract the poor; sweetened drinks and highly salted foods are targeted at children.

Moreover, certain products such as tobacco, whether over the counter, or counterfeit, most are laced with addictive chemicals.

The claim of sedentary lifestyle as a “causality” in an African settings is questionable as it capitulates upon scrutiny against sound evidence. What is the percentage of Ugandans indulging in sedentary lifestyle, and why? What population are most afflicted by Cancer and Diabetes, and why? When we analyse these questions, and others, with the help of National Health Survey data and from HMIS reports alone, we may discover interesting trends and intersecting patterns between cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and heart diseases with poverty, age and gender, and HIV/AIDs status.

The sedentary lifestyle claim in Uganda in that sense is far-fetched given our modest modes of social interactions, poor transportation system, irregular and expensive electricity and television. The increasing use of social media may augment the risk of inactivity given that nearly 19.5 million Ugandans are now on social media. Most of these behaviours are associated with the emerging digital neoliberal economy.

Ugandans are becoming more obese with a bulging belly morphological dilemma. Government must at least make screening services universal and mandatory. In Uganda men tend to resist screening because of reputational masculinity – fear of diagnoses which may alter their social status. This is problematic because most of these conditions, when diagnosed early, are reversible and treatable. Many Ugandans live with hypertension and various conditions unknowingly. The culture of gauging illness by pain or immobility compromises treatment efficacy, and fans mysticism of poisoning, bewitching, etc. Ever heard of an oxymoron where one particular MP is always poisoned and goes for “surgery” in south Africa?

In sum, the liberal market emphasises labor market attachment, production, and productivity. There is little room for being indisposed from the production line. You are responsible for getting sick and expected to get well on your own, perish!  

END

Kyadondo East expose FDC’s lack of structure

GRASSROOTS

 One of the challenges of African society is the fortification of elders - those considered of high repute and advanced age - from scrutiny. However, democracy sets aside this cumbersome tradition and demands for transparency as well as accountability in social discourses. For instance, the Kyadondo East by-elections is about to expose a generational fallacy that FDC is building structures!

First, I have doubted the argument that FDC is building grassroot structures. If it is, Kyadondo East would by now be coloUred blue. In reading Hon. Nandala-Mafabi’s interview in the Observer of June 12, 2017 (Refer to: Nandala-Mafabi: FDC shall not work with Mao’s DP), it downed on me that this pep talk of building party structure is hypothetical.  Hon. Nandala-Mafabi confirms that FDC is unable to form and sustain grassroot structures because NRM "invaginates" such a structure with bribery and coercion. Nandala-Mafabi’s explanation speaks against the credential of current FDC Party President, the amiable and respected Gen. Muntu that is cultivated around this building party structures mantra. These days, every Party uses this cliché to sound busy and present at the periphery, whereas they are ensconced in the capital.

At least, Uncle Muniini Mulera, on numerous occasions, praised Gen Muntu for working towards building grassroot structures. This emerging discourse is intended to legitimize  FDC power and brands around gen Muntu. In essence, hasten the alienation of,  and a focus on Dr Besigye.

This “structure” hyperperbole reminds me of the fierce debate in the 90s between Ministry of Agriculture under Hon. Specioza Kazibwe and Parliament. The scandal was about some dams built in the cattle corridor somewhere in Western Uganda. When the MPs went to inspect the Dam, they could not see any. Incidentally, an Agriculture Ministry officials was quoted to have opined that if MPs could not see the dam, at least the cows were able to.

The 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections exposed FDC’s lack of grassroot structure.  Therefore, there is legitimacy in entertaining the discussion around the same. However, Gen Muntu was FDC’s Secretary for mobilization prior and he should know better. Without a real structure, winning a 34 years old establisment will require divine providence. The ingeniousness of Dr Kizza Besigye and his minders, with support from the diaspora allowed the P10 matrix system to fill this gap in 2016. FDC cannot therefore remain wishful about structures, or depend on the good will of resentful Ugandans exhausted with the antics of the tyranny.

This, by no means, is anindictment, nor intended to undermine Gen.Muntu’s vision of building party structures. It is only to reiterate that there is a lapse in its realization, as  if the cart is placed before the horse.

In hindset, the Aruu South MP, Hon Odonga Otto once stated on his facebook page that FDC did not have polling agents in nearly 22,000 polling stations around the country, most of them in Western Uganda and Karamoja. This figure is startling, especially to know that these agents were there but coerced, jailed, or compromised.

This fate may be an FDC trademark, which will render its efforts minimalist, even in Kyadondo East. Their inability to read the constituency well may cost the party here. Mr. Kyagulanyi is a man of the people, a grassroot mobilizer who rarely wears shiny suits, or speaks polished “Brexit”, “Donald Trump” and modern English on TV. He speaks the language of the unwashed peri-urban dwellers and employs the people he aspires to represent in Parliament.

The dilamma is that Mr. Kyagulanyi’s nascent support for Dr. Besigye during past hardships endears him to opposition politics. Mr. Kyagulanyi was in courts, visited jail, and at KB’s  home amidst confinement. He paid his dues to the cause when some MPs-elect were denying KB like Peter did to Jesus. Bobi’s star power, organic local support, history of concrete community development initiatives and leadership credentials makes his candidature appealing!

END 

There is no justification of strongman rule in Africa

STRONGMAN MALAISE

The wisdom of African strongmen rule in Africa is an utter contradiction with no justification whatsoever over 60 years of post-colonial profligacy. Does any nation need a strongman ruler, given the history of their dismal performances thus far?

Consistent evidence show that when dictators establish themselves over their gullible populations, they rule uninterrupted by internal opposing forces. With few exceptions, (eg Ghadafi), all dictators drive their nations to economic downfall and over dependency on foreign aid. By the inherent nature of dictatorship, human suffering follows a steady environmental degradation, low economic productivity, decline in human conditions, unfettered expropriation of resources by foreign interests, and inexorable alienation of citizens from the state. Many unpleasant traits of dictatorships makes strongmen rule in Africa unjustifiable.

Mobutu  of Zaire ruled the vast African country for 31 years.  By the time he was deposed, the entire Zaire had barely 1000 km of road into the countryside with a huge part of the mineral rich countryside inaccessible and isolated. Nearly 92% of Congolese lived under the poverty line of US$2 a day. By not investing in infrastructure, Mobutu perpetuated under-development and the haemorrhaging of Congo’s resources by foreign interests. It took a combination of foreign forces in tow of malignant internal insurgents to kick Mobutu out.

Back home, Idi Amin ruled Uganda with an iron fist and presided over economic collapse and immense human suffering. Like under Mobutu, internal dissent attracted a death sentence under Amin. Only with an external force of arms by Tanzanian People’s Defence Forces were Ugandans able to rid itself of a vicious rule of tyranny and economic collapse in 1979.

Recently, ECOWAs forced out the deranged Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh with the combination of diplomacy and potential for external force. There are many strongmen buttressed all over Africa such that to depose them, only an external force may suffice. Internal opposition has proven insufficient to galvanise the critical masses needed for change. Strongmen are vicious, employing corruption, and collaboration with external capitalists to exploit Africa.

Moreover, terrorism charge is strategically employed as a weapon against internal dissent and armed insurrection.

The young Joseph Kabila in DRC, himself a trainee dictator, seems to have graduated given his clutch on power. Soon he will join the regional club of full time dictators armed with strongmen ambitions run their countries down. Nearly every African country where strongmen rule, they have lurked and disabled internal dissent.

The lessons are there for us to draw from in order to realise the potentials of good governance and development.

African scholars should increasingly interpret the terms “good governance” and “development” correctly. These terms exists in situations where western capitalist interests of exploitation are guaranteed. Clearly, good governance and development are interpreted differently for Africa.

Even those who claim to value democracy and good governance as a pretext for development, support the entrenchment of dictatorship in Africa in as far as their interests are guaranteed.

We have to only look at the 2015 report “How the world profit from Africa’s wealth” which highlights the exploitation of Africa. According to the report, African nations received $162 billion in aid, loans, and remittances in 2015. At the same time, Africa lost $203 billion through resource extraction, debt payments, and illegal logging and fishing.

In Uganda’s 2017/18 budget, about 52% was allocated to debt repayment and government is reported to have paid taxes for several investment companies to keep them afloat! Indeed, Strongmen rule is akin to steady decline of Africa.

Nevertheless, not all love is lost with strongmen of Africa. Decisions by Rais Arap Moi of Kenya and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania to relinquish power demonstrated that when strongmen hands over power peacefully, their countries tended to harness the potential of transformation into a form of democracy quite quickly. Further analyses and theorising of this phenomenon may be of scholarly interest to academics.

End.