{"id":13988,"date":"2021-07-14T15:55:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T15:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=13988"},"modified":"2021-07-14T15:11:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T15:11:35","slug":"corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss","title":{"rendered":"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Over the last fortnight two remarkably succinct statements were made about the state of Uganda.<\/p>\n

The first was attributed to Ibrahim Ssemujju, the Member of Parliament for Kira Municipality, who, commenting on what he saw as corruption in the distribution of the money to vulnerable groups to help them through the economic difficulties brought on by the recent lockdown, reportedly said that these days in Uganda you \u201cneed connections to be [considered] a vulnerable poor\u201d.<\/p>\n

The other was by researcher and journalist Timothy Kalyegira. On his Twitter page, he compared President Yoweri Museveni in his current term, and former president Milton Obote between 1981 and 1985, when he was ousted a second time in a military coup.<\/p>\n

\u201cObote was in control of the government but not the army, while M7 is in charge of the army but not the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are now getting beyond M7\u2019s control. Even if you steal a ministry\u2019s entire budget, he can\u2019t do anything about it\u201d.<\/p>\n

They are saying the same thing; that corruption has reached such absurd levels, you need a corrupt process to consider you poor and eligible for state financial support, and that corruption in Uganda has also become too big to fail.<\/p>\n

If corruption is so developed that it has made the cost of entry into poverty so high, perhaps it takes us back to the Kalyegira comparison of today\u2019s Museveni with early 1980s Obote; could it cost Museveni his job as it did Obote?<\/p>\n

Corruption in the NRM era has had an instrumentalist function. As Museveni used to say, it is cheaper to allow fellows to steal and not go to the bush, than to be hard on them and force them to go and wage war for their turn to eat. It is a deeply problematic view, but one can see its limited merit too.<\/p>\n

If in the initial years of Museveni and the NRM\u2019s rule corruption was seen as a tactical necessity to keep the peace, it seems that it has long since become a strategic goal. Corruption became important for the consolidation of the NRM\u2019s power, and one of the most important levers of Museveni\u2019s political control, perhaps even more than the army \u2013 until it becomes too big. It presents two sources of risk. We were reminded of one of the risks a few days ago in Haiti, when 26 hired guns (most of them mercenaries) on July 7 attacked the private residence of Haitian president Jovenel Mo\u00efse on the outskirts of the capital Port-au-Prince and riddled him with bullets.<\/p>\n

On the weekend the London newspaper The Times reported that; \u201cRumours as to who might have masterminded the plot to kill Mo\u00efse have focused on shadowy oligarchs and criminals who still make fortunes in Haiti. They may have felt that he was not a man they could deal with. \u2018He was not a team player,\u2019 one businessman in Port-au-Prince conceded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever stands to lose or gain from the assassination, nothing much will change in Haiti, a country\u2026ruled by a tiny elite, with democracy little more than a veneer. \u2018The system that Moise sat atop of was bigger than him. It predated and will outlast him\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

When a corrupt system becomes so big, it outgrows the president or prime minister. It reaches a point when the leader cannot be its patron, or if he remains in that role, the system will not see him as distributing the spoils fairly. The risk of a Haiti grows.<\/p>\n

But perhaps more disruptive, is the long-term effect it could have on the army, where Kalyegira notes Museveni has firm control.<\/p>\n

Corruption in politics, eventually ends in corruption in the army and other security services. Because it is anti-meritocratic, inevitably \u2013 and indeed by necessity \u2013 appointments in the army begin to elevate not the most talented, but the people who the leader and the system would like to reward through the riches of corruption. Also, people who can protect corruption.<\/p>\n

The quality of the army begins to deteriorate, and what we see in parts of southern African and in countries like Nigeria, becomes the norm \u2013 armies that are hollowed out and can\u2019t beat back even a bunch of jaywalking rag tag rebels. The hollowing out comes from the fact that as corruption rewards its cadres, partisan politics enters the army, with those outside the eating circle becoming alienated into a silent institutional opposition, no longer willing to put their necks on the line for the State.<\/p>\n

Just like corruption raises the bar for you to qualify as vulnerable poor, it does the same for one to be loyal to country. You need connections to be in a position where you can act out your loyalty to the motherland.<\/p>\n

The road from the Graft Republic portrayed by Ssemujju is a straight one to Obote 1985.<\/p>\n

Mr Onyango-Obbo is a journalist, writer and curator of the \u201cWall of Great Africans\u201d.<\/b><\/p>\n

Twitter: @cobbo3<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Over the last fortnight two remarkably succinct statements were made about the state of Uganda. The first was attributed to Ibrahim Ssemujju, the Member of Parliament for Kira Municipality, who, commenting on what he saw as corruption in the distribution of the money to vulnerable groups to help them through the economic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":13987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-13988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nCorruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Over the last fortnight two remarkably succinct statements were made about the state of Uganda. The first was attribute ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the last fortnight two remarkably succinct statements were made about the state of Uganda. The first was attribute ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-14T15:55:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60eefe8a99a51.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-14T15:55:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss\"},\"wordCount\":834,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60eefe8a99a51.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss\",\"name\":\"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss - Uganda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60eefe8a99a51.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-14T15:55:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Over the last fortnight two remarkably succinct statements were made about the state of Uganda. The first was attribute ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60eefe8a99a51.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60eefe8a99a51.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":480,\"caption\":\"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\",\"name\":\"Uganda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss - Uganda","description":"Over the last fortnight two remarkably succinct statements were made about the state of Uganda. The first was attribute ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss","og_description":"Over the last fortnight two remarkably succinct statements were made about the state of Uganda. The first was attribute ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss","og_site_name":"Uganda","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-07-14T15:55:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60eefe8a99a51.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss","datePublished":"2021-07-14T15:55:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss"},"wordCount":834,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60eefe8a99a51.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Uganda","uganda"],"articleSection":["all news","files","homepage-english"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss","name":"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss - Uganda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60eefe8a99a51.jpg","datePublished":"2021-07-14T15:55:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Over the last fortnight two remarkably succinct statements were made about the state of Uganda. The first was attribute ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60eefe8a99a51.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60eefe8a99a51.jpg","width":720,"height":480,"caption":"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/corruption-in-uganda-is-too-big-to-fail-discuss#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Corruption in Uganda is too big to fail. Discuss"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/","name":"Uganda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}