President Museveni
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I President Yoweri Museveni has warned leaders who throw the country into mistakes that should have been avoided through squandering national resources, promising funds for building of new roads.
In a wisely written letter he wrote to the grandchildren (abazukulu), the President said that among the mistakes he had to deal with was the mistake of squandering resources while budgeting- trying to be everywhere at the same time and ending up being nowhere; trying to do everything at the same time and ending up doing nothing properly.
“The NRA/UPDF has always succeeded because of the strategy of kamu kamu gw’emugaanda (one by one makes a bundle). Up to now, you find some of our soldiers in Maama ingiya pole grass-huts. Why? We had to choose between having lethal weapons and enough personnel on the one hand and having only posh barracks and individual cars for officers on the other hand, as was the case in the earlier governments of Uganda,” he said.
Said Museveni: “Just before the coup of 1971 of Amin, I had seen some of my schoolmates at Ntare who had joined the small completely inadequate Uganda Army in terms of equipment and personnel, driving personal cars acquired by soft loans from the government. One of them was driving a Jaguar, a very expensive, British made car of that time.”
He however said that this strategy of one thing at a time, was not shared by the wider government among the politicians and Civil Servants.
Teachers strike a bad sign
“That is why we have had to deal with Teachers’ strikes for higher pay, etc., while their country was still recovering from total collapse,” he said.
Museveni pointed the bazukuru to the Banyankore saying: “A stupid man was told that his house was on fire, then he told people to prepare a bed for him to sleep”. Sleep where, the house is on fire? When the house is burning up, the priority is to put out the fire.”
He said that while the hen pecks what it can swallow), in the Army, the wider Government, especially after 1996 with the influx in Parliament of careerists looking for quick enrichment, you get people who think that a hen can swallow a rat. “Hence, with a small budget, you get People trying to do a thousand efforts at ago.”
He said that the consequence of this is that by 2005, Uganda was getting into a crisis because the development budget of the government was mainly being funded by donors. Yet, the donors were bothering very little, with the pressures the country was facing.
“The big shame of depending on external support for all development projects, was shown by 3 situations: the reconstruction of the Kampala-Masaka tarmac road that had reached its end of life; the reconstruction of the Kampala- Mityana road that had also reached its end of life; and the electricity line from corner Kilak to Patongo-Kalongo-Abim, etc.”
He said that the donors had promised to do all these 3. However, last minute, they all changed their plans. No, they can no longer do them. Instead, one would do the Masaka- Mbarara-Kabale portion, but not the Kampala-Masaka portion.”
Museveni said that he told the leaders to forget about the donors and we build our country ourselves relying on our scarce resources and the NRA strategy of one by one makes a bundle.
“Of course, by 2005, our revenue collections were beginning to increase. The main problem was, however, scattering the resources on all the sectors. This is when I put my foot down and I said that it will be electricity and roads first and the rest later.”
Funding critical sectors
Museveni said that the budget for roads, beginning 2008 increased to 1.08 trillion for the first time in the history of Uganda. “That of electricity was also increased to 1.3 trillion. The budget for the two critical sectors increased to 4.62 trillion and 2.37 trillion in 2017 respectively. Actually, allocation for roads jumped to Shs 6.4 trillion in the year 2019 and that of electricity was increased to 3 trillion in the same year.”
He said the budget of the roads was Shs 374.14 billion and was raised to sh 4.467 trillion per year, while that of electricity was Shs 133.47 billion and was raised to sh 2.393 trillion per year.
“Apparently, the budget of the roads rose to sh 4.457 trillion per year in the financial year 2018/19. On account of that emphasis on electricity and the roads, we overcame the electricity black-outs that had gripped Uganda, starting with 2005,” he said.
The President said that the Energy Fund money helped Government to kick-start Bujagali. “It helped us to take electricity to Kitgum, Patongo, Kalongo, Moroto, Bundibugyo, among others. Indeed, today all the districts of Uganda have electricity from the Central grid except for Buvuma and Obongi districts.”
He said that with the roads, Government was not only able to do the Kampala -Masaka and the Kampala-Mityana sections using our own money, but did many more new roads- tarmacked.
“Those included: Soroti-Moroto; Olwiyo – Anaka-Gulu- Kitgum- Musiingo (247 kms); Mbarara-Kikagate; Lyantonde -Kazo-Ibaanda-Kamwengye-Fort-Portal that the donors had abandoned because a Chinese had slept with a local girl; Musita-Mayuge-Namayingo-Busia; Mpigi-Kisozi-Ssembabule-Masaka; Nansana- Busunju-Kiboga-Hoima; Mubende- Kakumiro-Kagadi; etc, among others.”
New fruits, new roads
He said the are the very good brand-new roads such as the clock Tower Road; the refurbished Kampala- Entebbe Road; the Kampala – Gulu road that is still in good condition; the good roads in Karamoja; the good roads in Bunyoro; the very good Municipal roads in Masaka, Hoima, Mubende, Gulu, etc., etc.
He said that the result of saving public resources was the important roads like Mityana- Mubende-Kyenjojo; Mukono-Jinja; Ibaanda- Mbarara; Mbarara- Ishaka; etc., that were very good but have now deteriorated because of under-budgeting for the road sector that has been allowed to creep back.
“Where that money is used well, the murram roads are excellent. In my West Nile tour, I drove on a good road in Obongi District. In my Bukedi tour, I drove on good murram roads: Kadama- Kibuku to Buseta road; Budaka-Butaleja-Namutumba road; Pallisa-Kamuge-Bulangira-Butebo road,” he said.
He said that when he checked with the budget of the Ministry of Works, it is now standing at Shs 5.912 trillion, which figure includes the Standard Guage Railway, the Uganda Airlines, among others.
“The road sector alone needs Shs 3.21 trillion to maintain our tarmac and murram roads in excellent condition. I have instructed the Ministry of Works and the whole Government to rectify that situation,” said the President.
New roads in offing
He said that very soon, Ugandans will see a lot of activity on roads such as Mityana-Mubende-Kyenjojo; Ibaanda-Mbarara; Ishaka-Mbarara; Mukono-Lugazi-Jinja; Kikoroongo-Mpondwe; Nebbi- Arua; Ntungamo- Rukungiri; etc. These are old tarmac roads being rehabilitated.
“However, we are going to start on new roads such as: Jinja-Budondo-Mbulamuti-Kamuli; Bwizibweera- Nsiika- Nyakashaka- Nyakabirizi. In the manifesto, these roads will be clearly laid out.”
He warned that targeting the creation of cities, new districts, higher pay for Civil Servants, among others, before you put aside adequate money for roads, electricity, security, wealth creation, is bad planning.
About the Author
