{UAH} H.E Gen. Yoweri K. Museveni speech at Mayuge on Jan. 26 anniversary

SPEECH BY

H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
President of the Republic of Uganda
At the


THE 28TH NRA/NRM VICTORY DAY ANNIVERSARY

26th January 2014 – Mayuge District


His Excellency the Vice President;
Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament;
His Lordship the Ag. Chief Justice;
Rt. Hon. Prime Minister;
Rt. Hon. Speaker of East African Legislative Assembly;
Secretary General of East African Community;
Hon. Ministers and Ministers of State;
Hon. Members of Parliament;
Religious Leaders;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.

As we celebrate the 28th Anniversary of the NRM Victory in 1986, we
have, indeed, a lot to celebrate. First and foremost, we should
celebrate the victory itself. That victory has since, been able to
bring peace to the whole of Uganda. This was achieved because of the
correct line of NRM of organizing the people on a patriotic,
non-sectarian basis. That is how we were able to build a strong army
that won that victory and also contribute to regional peace building
efforts. The Banyankore have a saying: "Orutetera rwa guli nomwongo"
─ the seed of a pumpkin produces a pumpkin that is similar to the
original pumpkin from which the seed came from. The Bible puts it
another way. In Mathew Chapter 7:16-17, it says: "You shall know them
by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?"
"A good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit".
Verse 20, says: "Therefore, by their fruits you shall know them".

An indisciplined and ideologically bankrupt army cannot create peace
in the country. In spite of the general line of the NRA/UPDF of
always being on the side of the people, there were incidents in the
anti-insurgency campaign for which we are ashamed. I do not know why
the people did not report those incidents. Apart from the Mukura
railway wagon incident and the Bucoro pit incident, which were
reported, there were other incidents that are coming to light now.
These include: the incident at Kanyum where wanainchi were killed by
elements of our army for no reason at all after the army had been
attacked by the rebels; there were incidents of looting property
including cattle; and other incidents of indiscipline reported in
Nwoya. I am going to follow up all these incidents, unearth the
culprits if they are still alive so as, to hold them accountable and
compensate the victims or their descendants. It was a mistake for the
wanainchi not to report these incidents. It was also a failure of the
respective Division and Brigade Commanders not to have discovered
these crimes that were committed under their command using, first and
foremost, the wanainchi. Where these mistakes were discovered, stern
action was carried out. That is why, since 1986, about 23 soldiers
have been executed for homicide, rape, etc. I will personally
organize Mato-put (Okukaraba in Runyankore ─ blood settlement) ─ with
the concerned families and communities. I appeal to the people to
always report the misbehavior of police or army personnel without any
fear.

Now that the UPDF has pacified the whole country, it is only the
ordinary criminals that continue to disturb the people. One solution
for crime is identification. Identification enables us to fight crime
accurately and promptly. Hence, the importance of the identity card
project. The computerization of the identities of all Ugandans and
all the residents in Uganda, will enable us to identify criminals
accurately and promptly. The computerized record of all persons
living in Uganda will capture everybody's fingerprints, picture and
bio-data. This is not only good for fighting crime but also for
elections by ensuring that the crooks, who have been tampering with
the voters register, will be exposed. It will be impossible to engage
in multiple voting, etc. with the computerized record of persons.

Apart from stability, the NRM has been able to cause the recovery of
Uganda's economy. Uganda's economy in 1986 was a mere US$1.5 billion.
Today it is 64 trillion shillings, which is about US$ 24 billion.
Therefore, in terms of size, the economy has expanded 16 times in the
last 28 years. The economy could have expanded more if it was not for
the internal sabotage we normally have to deal with, especially the
delay of projects by the different power centres.

The proportion of the people below the poverty line has declined from
56% to 22%. The GDP per capita is now $600 in spite of much of the
population still being mired (stuck) in subsistence farming. If all
the homesteads in Uganda wake up and engage in small scale commercial
farming, the GDP per capita will be more than double. This is because
many families are either not contributing to the monetary economy or
are doing so marginally. I have repeatedly told you that for the
rural population, with small pieces of land (4 acres and less), need
to listen to our advice of the 1996 Manifesto of selecting enterprises
with the highest return per acre per annum. Back, then, we
recommended one acre for clonal coffee, one acre for fruits (mangoes,
oranges, pineapples, apples or grapes), one acre for food-crops
(bananas, cassava or Irish potatoes) and one acre for elephant grass
as livestock pasture for zero-grazing dairy cattle. Add to these
four, two backyard activities such as poultry and pigs for those who
are not Moslems. Such a family will get an annual income in the
region of 40 million shillings. In dollars, this will be US$ 16,000
per family. Since an average family may have five persons, this will
be US$ 3,200 per capita. On account of reasons I can not easily
understand, this simple anti-poverty formula could not be grasped by
many actors. This is what NAADS and all those agencies were supposed
to implement. Recently, I started using the army in the Luwero
triangle, the Rwenzori region and other Fronasa bases to implement
this 17 years old plan. Here in Mayuge, Lt. Colonel Dhamuzungu has
distributed 68,390 seedlings of coffee, 5,000 seedlings of fruits,
maize and beans. Overall, General Saleh and Hon. Sarah Kataike have
distributed 5,540,074 seedlings of coffee, 1,000,000 seedlings of tea,
230,324 seedlings of fruit, cassava, beans, maize, etc.
We are going to expand this programme in the coming financial year.
Here in Mayuge, Dhamuzungu distributed the 68,390 seedlings to 102
families, orange seedlings to 37 families, etc. With UPDF, we are not
populist actors. Each family must get, at least, 450 coffee seedlings
per acre and 120 orange seedlings per acre. We want impact and
results and not show for cheap propaganda. This financial year, we
needed 810 billion shillings to role out this programme to as many
families as possible, throughout Uganda. We only managed to get 57
billion shillings for this purpose. We are restructuring NAADS in
order to do away with the coordinators so that most of the money goes
for breeding and planting materials instead of being consumed by
salaries.

With the increase in the size of the economy, our tax collection also
went up. That is why we are now able to fund very many infrastructure
projects by ourselves. Here in Busoga, we have been able to take
power all the way to Bukhungu and reconstruct Jinja-Kamuli road,
complete Iganga-Bugiri-Busia/Malaba road and we are going to tarmac
Musita-Mayuge-Nankoma-Namayingo-Majanji and Busia road using our own
money. This capacity to fund our infrastructure projects by ourselves
is a source of great pride to me. It is a harbinger of things to
come. Those with eyes to see, should be able to discern its
importance.

Throughout the country, there are numerous road and electricity
projects that are being executed with Government funding. We are
grateful to friends from the USA, EU, China, India, etc. that have
been funding or offering to fund various infrastructure projects.
These projects include Karuma, Isimba, Ayago, Oraba Rd, Nimule Rd.
etc. With discipline and the greater resources at our disposal, the
future is bright. We should discourage the thinking that all problems
can be solved at one go. Our time-tested way of solving problems is
"kamu-kamu gw'muganda" ─ one by one makes a bundle.

I am told that the recent fighting in South Sudan has caused the
decline of prices for agricultural and industrial goods. The prices
have come down. While this is good for consumers in Uganda, it is
not good for farmers and for the industrialists. The higher prices,
on account of the bigger markets in East Africa, South Sudan and Congo
were greatly boosting and stimulating greater production in
agriculture, industry and services. The obvious linkage between
bigger markets, greater production, job creation, wider tax base and,
eventually, more prosperity, again, expose the bankruptcy of those who
push sectarian position. If tribes, gender chauvinism and religious
sectarianism are very important, then, why were so many Ugandans
caught inside South Sudan? What were they looking for? Why abandon
their tribes, their religious groups and their social peers and go to
South Sudan even, when the situation is not very stable. The answer
is simple. One's prosperity and that of his family depend on taking
the advantage of the opportunities available and opportunities may be
outside the tribe, the religious sector or the gender fraternity. I
am sure given all the concerted efforts, South Sudan and DRC will
stabilize so that regional trade can resume in full force. This will
be good for everybody.

I would like to conclude today's remarks by talking on health. By
emphasizing immunization, hygiene, nutrition, behaviour change and
malaria control, we would eliminate more than 80% of the sicknesses.
Sicknesses like hepatitis-B, hepatitis-E, AIDS/HIV, etc. are
preventable by either behaviour change, immunization or hygiene.
Health is wealth. Let the District Medical Officers educate the
public about these health issues so that everybody participates in
promoting health and we get rid of these diseases of ignorance. Some
of these diseases are very dangerous and yet they are easy to avoid.
Hepatitis-E, for instance, is caused by either open defecation or
uncovered latrines. It is oral-faecal ─ from faeces to mouth.
Hepatitis-B goes through sex, kissing or sharing injection
instruments. Both these diseases affect the liver very dangerously
and can lead to death. Yet, they are easy to simply, avoid. I do not
have to talk about AIDS. You know that story.

Let us wake up from sleep and transform our country. In the coming
years, let our slogan be: "Improved service delivery, improved
infrastructure and wealth creation by all persons and all households".


I thank you.

26th January 2014 - Mayuge District