[UAH] Kasese floods show just how easily laundered money can be washed away - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

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The people who live around Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda and those who live around Mount Rwenzori in western Uganda have several things in common.

Well, first of all they both live on the slopes and at the foot of great mountains. The other thing is that they are among the very few Ugandan communities who circumcise as a rite of passage into manhood. The others only circumcise for religious or health reasons.

Another common factor is that the two places are vulnerable to the vagaries of weather during the rainy season. Almost every year, the rains bring with them landslides that kill people around Mount Elgon. But this year's long rains will mostly be remembered for the floods in Kasese at the foot of Rwenzori. People have died, bridges have been swept away and for a while, the area was inaccessible.

But while perusing a recent World Bank report, I stumbled upon another similarity between Mbale and Kasese districts. In its June 2012 situational analysis of the country's tourism sector, the Bank working with the British DfID pinpointed Kasese and Mbale as among the 13 strategic districts (out of some 120 ) to which specialists should be deployed for rapid development of their tourism potential. And last week, the local press reported concerns from different officials that the devastating Kasese floods could have adverse consequences for the tourism industry.

Now this is a very positive development. First of all, the tourism potential of these two vulnerable regions has been pointed out by people whose views are respected. Obviously, locals have always called for the fixing of the infrastructure in these areas, but then their views do not amount to much. Now that it is the donors who are saying it, chances are that the problems of these areas could be fixed after all.

Secondly, many of the national decision-making elite are now investing in the property and hospitality sectors. For this, we have the terrorists to thank. After bin Laden did his thing on September 11, the US top security people realised that terrorists do no need to carry bombs and guns across borders, that all they need is money to buy raw materials in the targeted territory and then strike.

So the movement of money became subject to tighter scrutiny. Now the corrupt African elite can no longer easily transfer stolen millions to accounts overseas. So, they have over the past decade learnt to convert their stolen millions of dollars into property. That is the poorly kept secret that almost everybody in East Africa now knows.

So our political and civil service have become investors and besides building shopping malls and apartment blocks, they are becoming more enlightened and have started building hotels. There are only so many hotels that our congested capitals can take, and then someone has opened the elite's eyes to tourist lodges upcountry. That is where the peasants are going to become unintended beneficiaries of public investment.

The drainage in Kasese and in Mbale will have to be fixed in order to allow access to the hotels and lodges being developed by the political and public service elite. The roads will also have to be fixed so the big people can realise their profits. Too bad if the peasants also benefit.

Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International fellow for development journalism. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com