CPAR Uganda Ltd

It is that season again – Presidential and Parliamentary Elections are due next year and the election canvasing has began. During a similar season leading up to the 2016 elections, i wrote:

When Ugandan politicians are electioneering – as they are actively doing in 2015 in preparation for the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections – they give out basic food items such as salt and sugar, household materials such as cooking utensils; ‘sponsor’ community projects such as sinking boreholes; and are active in social activities.

The constituents, the voters, the majority of whom are poor, are so happy and grateful to the ‘big men’ for providing for them that they do not stop to question why, in the first place, they were not able themselves to purchase their own basic food items, to pay for sinking of boreholes and to feed mourners at their burial ceremonies. They do not stop to question how and where the ‘big men’ got the ‘personal’ money that they are spending on them.

Often, as hinted by Byanyima, such politicians’ ‘personal’ money is but a small fraction of public funds that have been diverted and stolen. The bulk of the stolen money is often likely retained for the thieves’ personal use; in other words corruption.

Norah Owaraga, 2015

What I wrote then in 2015, remains relevant now in 2020 leading up to the next general election in 2021.

Read my full opinion which was published in the Daily Monitor here

By Ms. Norah Owaraga, Managing Director