Gen. Museveni and his regime of thieves. Photo: Facebook.
[My Free Thoughts]
Devil calling thieves to dine with him
Thief!
It’s the banquet of the thieves!
Come and dine with me!
It’s the banquet of the thieves!
African dictator thief steps forward
I am the greatest thief there has ever been on Earth
I came to power in a military coup, I murdered the elected president
He wanted to use the resources of our country for our peoples’ benefit
I proved to masters in the West
I could kill my own people just as well as the best to keep in power
(Lyrics from Thieves Banquet by Akala)
According to Wikipedia, Kleptocracy means a government whose corrupt leaders, the kleptocrats, use political power to appropriate the wealth of their nation, typically by embezzlement or misappropriation of government funds at the expense of the wider population. Also, thievocracy means literally the rule by thievery and is a term used synonymously to kleptocracy.
You may wonder where I am going with these complex, hard to pronounce words but I wanted to bring to your attention the best word that succinctly explains the state of Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) government whose leader military chief Gen. Yoweri Museveni seized power 35 years ago. At the time he claimed he loathed thieves and corrupt people. Now he is comfortably dining with them, and even though they were caught in flagrante delicto, he has re-appointed them. It’s no just cronyism. The once professed intense detestation he felt has since disappeared. He has ensconced himself into power and now he loves the most talented thieves, thanks to his successful apprenticeship.
Examine the warped priorities. Imagine the Ministry of Health splurged $8 million or 29 billion shillings for double cabin pickups from Japan. I mean these pickups are not for the public good but for carrying charcoal and Matooke on the highways for individual commercial benefit especially on Sunday evening.
These vehicles are used to chauffeur health officials to philander around as if they cannot afford to buy their own cars.
What about necessities to fight the Covid-19 pandemic like ambulances, oxygen, personal protection equipment (PPE’s), and intensive care unit beds? What about paying per diem to the frontline health workers before splurging on useless opulence? This is like a husband who buys Jack Daniels when his wife and children are at home without food.
This regime is the beast financed by the World Bank and the IMF.
IMF chief Ms. Georgieva. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
If the bigger part of the money which was borrowed in the name of fighting the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t misappropriated and looted, we wouldn’t be suffering with the latest lockdown which is also discriminately enforced. But unfortunately, the picayune portion is allocated to the necessities to fight the pandemic. The larger portion was misappropriated and embezzled by the responsible authorities. How can World Bank President David Malpass and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva ignore this reality?
Gen. Museveni waged a successful war against President Milton Obote accusing him of the crimes that have proliferated under his regime. Museveni catapulted the problem and installed himself as another problem.
Museveni has re-appointed Dr. Diana Atwine as a technical person when the health delivery system has remained in a shambolic state despite the huge loans accumulated. This is an insult of the highest order. Since last year the IMF has loaned the regime about $1.5 billion and the World Bank $300 million.
With the cooked accountability data for the COVID-19 money that Dr. Atwine presented to the public, it takes the complicity of the appointing authority to re-appoint her to proliferate such behaviors.
If Gen. Museveni was really an enemy of thieves as he wants us to believe, he would arrest them all and have them charged in courts of law. Instead, he
whimpers as though he has no authority. He re-appoints them as he sharpens their beaks to peck at more from the national coffers. If this is not complicity, then what is it?
We all remember how the late President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania revolutionized the fight against corruption. During his inauguration, he said it was better to drink poison than to steal public funds. He lived by his words. His legacy continues to shine in Tanzania.
Gen. Museveni practices the opposite. He once declared to Ugandans “‘I am not your servant.” He later told Kenyan journalist Jeff Koinange that he only works for himself and his family. This means as Ugandans we are on our own.
All societies have a limit.
In 1672, Prime Minister Johan de Witt was at the helm when the Netherlands lost a war with England, France and some German states. The enraged citizens, disappointed with the prime minister’s warped leadership, arrested him, lynched him, disemboweled him, skewered his skinned corpse, roasted and ate him. They were angry. They were hungry.
Ugandans are angry and hungry.
Columnist Kakwenza is a survivor of Gen. Museveni’s torture chambers. He can be reached via Kakwenzarukirabashaija.com
