{UAH} Pojim/WBK: From elaborate fraud to daylight robbery, we’ve come a long way - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/-/434750/2937306/-/fifvj6/-/index.html

From elaborate fraud to daylight robbery, we've come a long way

We humans tend to see some problems are being so big that they seem to have no solution. But then God or some superior force in a mysterious way resolves them so quietly that it just dawns on us that they are not there any more. Such was the case with corruption in Uganda.

Many of us had become resigned to watching our country being tortured by this evil succubus, believing we would never see its end in our lifetime. But now see what has happened.

Different people have fought the anti-corruption battle with different intensity and for different lengths of time. Many went to their graves without seeing the end of it.

But now we, the lucky ones, can now rejoice because corruption in government is no more. It has been replaced by robbery, which is very easy to see. We should not even use the word "detect" because direct robbery doesn't require sophisticated forensic investigations to unravel. But the grand robbery of public funds and property now taking place can just be solved by detective corporals, or sergeants at best.

For a long time, corruption used to give upright citizens a headache and investigators a nightmare. Not any more. It is hard to pinpoint when things changed and corruption went out of fashion.

But gone are the complicated schemes where corrupt people would painstakingly weave their plots and by the time their crime was noticed, the trail would be long cold, the proceeds laundered several times over. Nobody seems to have that time to waste on lengthy plots anymore.

We now live in a corruption-free era. When a robber learns of the existence of a certain fund, he just goes ahead and grabs it. Simple.

If a hundred billion has been earmarked to build a new road, you go ahead and grab it — no plotting. If you see a prime plot of land belonging to the government, you grab it and transfer it to your name, why waste time?

If you hear a hundred billion shillings is being released to pay pensioners, you hijack it and take it home, why waste time planning or hiding? If money is allocated to your office to rehabilitate people and institutions in a war-ravaged area, you grab it and go do your thing.

You don't even have to pretend to supply anything. That was for the old days of corruption that are now gone.

Without an iota of sarcasm, this is a very positive development. For while corruption was always hard to detect or investigate owing to the fact that there used to be several beneficiaries in every deal who would protect each other, robbery is very easy to see and prove. It gets even easier the bigger the theft. When a hundred billion shillings is looted, the hole it leaves is so wide that even the blind can feel it.

We are using the word robbery advisedly. Robbery implies the use of force to deprive others of their property permanently. Unlike corruption, which implies clever schemes of embezzlement and trickery, or even negotiation where bribery is involved, our robbers just use the force of the position to take away public funds.

But fortunately, because the robbery is so easy to see, Ugandans decide they no longer want it, they will just arrest and charge the robbers.

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

From elaborate fraud to daylight robbery, we've come a long way - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/-/434750/2937306/-/fifvj6/-/index.html

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