Corruption, Africa's chronic disease.

The fight against corruption is a challenging task for the average citizen because the perpetrators and beneficiaries of grand corruption tend to be the highly placed and connected in power echelons. Most often, in most African countries, the 'heroic' liberators of yesterday change shades and become extortionists. They come with this notion that they are here to liberate the country from bad governance, corruption and promote rule of law but they get off track and so end up doing the exact opposite. For a long time, we believe in the declarations and manifestos issued when their vote or mandate by acclamation were being sought. We toil with utmost zeal,  pay our taxes, and believe that the government means well for us and our life will improve. When the media(which is also biased) reports that government  has signed loan agreements to  construct this road and that hospital, we remain unflinching in our support because we expect our mandated government to deliver.

A combination of high poverty levels, illiteracy and feeling of powerlessness among our people leads to situations where unscrupulous elements in the political, administrative and commercial establishments use loopholes in the system to siphon public resources for individual gain and they are not censured. Ultimately, not only the our taxes, but also the money borrowed to build schools, good roads and hospitals, among others is also channeled to their pockets and bank accounts of a few people.  As long as the locally generated money through taxes, and the borrowed resources are not invested in areas that can improve  the people's well-being and also generate more wealth, the country soon gets  entangled in debt. Now our debt stands at an alarming 36% of GDP.

This explains the skepticism that has been rife among the rich creditors. It is not enough to ask that Africa be given more when there is no provision for  accountable government that  will ensure that what is given is used to alleviate the problems of the majority and increase the  stock of the countries' wealth. Truthfully, the challenge that faces Africa(or Africa faces) now is  not whether Africa needs aid or debt relief, because we really need it, it is whether Africa deserves the aid or debt relief. Any wishful thinking Ugandan would definitely say yeah, we deserve it, but our corrupt leaders are doing everything that shows we don't deserve it. The list of scandals involving influence peddling in sourcing investors who win bids, briefcase investors being offered units to buy when they don't even have the money and instead manoeuvre to raise it locally(who does that??), or money siphoned out of corporations before they are sold is endless.

Uganda's performance in other forms of procurement of goods, services and equipment for various government departments has also been seriously flawed as there have been numerous reported cases such as the purchase of  junk machinery  for the army at highly inflated figures. I just don't understand how drugs can expire in National Drug Authority stores when there are some public health centers with little to no medicine.

As I said in the beginning, forms of grand corruption which  worry me are perpetrated by the highly placed government officials in political and administrative structures, many of whom enjoy higher-level protection from the law. Indeed, the money so corruptly acquired is ploughed into political activity to bend the law, buy off political rivals, bribe others with political appointments and influence the way people vote  in elections through open bribery and other forms of manipulation. This way, regimes maintain the status quo, which essentially revolves around protecting the interests of a small  corrupt coterie at the top, at the cost of the majority and  cherished ideal of democracy.