{UAH} Musisi is a victim of NRM politics
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12:06 AM |
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My Brother Farouk Kirunda
Thank you for this article.
What I've learn over the years in our country is the deliberate diversion of issues – to create a semblance if imagined reality – this is referred to as rational conviction (self deception).
This does not work in a society like the one we have in Kampala!
I prefer for the good of this country, to avoid intetional negative discussion of Jennifer Musisi a public servant, by public servants. Musisi has created a completely different working culture and ethics. I was somewhere and a director of that government agencies exclaimed that Musisi was finished!I I asked how?
Don't you know when it goes to Mzee Museveni - it is done bamulopye - that kind of foolishness.
Creating such perception in people's mind is terrible and is a pinnacle of society dysfunctional!
KCCA is a completely different organisation in Uganda- you just have to go there an see how people are busy. But I'll hasten to inform you that the young people working with KCCA are completely demoralised with government incongruencies.
Who should the workers listen to now – the law under which they work or political directives?
I have people who passed through my hands who work with some these organisations and I intently listen to their concerns – they ask, " when are we going to work?"!
They are baffled that today their organisation ethics and work programs are being stopped (sabotaged) by the government because of politics!
Do you know why NEMA has been dead – people feared to act because of political repercussions whether imaginary or real!
In mature democracies – and if we take an example of urbanised societies of Europe or South Africa, popularism can't survive social democracy. In South Africa, Mandela's party swept votes in cities. That has changed today as the party can't provide or has delayed social services.
These are houses, pubic transport, education and medicare.
People's behaviour worldover, once confronted with earthly issues they behave in exactly in the same way. That is why all over Western Europe, during good economic times the social democrats ruled even the cities.
This brings me to NRM economic and social development issues.
Over the past four decades – there has been no tangible social development in Kampala or any other urban region in Uganda. NRM belief that once you have economic development the rest will follow, is flawe and founded on a wrong premise.
What do you see in our urban centres; it is squalor, flith, destitution, slums and abject poverty.
Where there is high economic growth, needs will also increase. And these needs are normally social. Uganda has no single social safety net. Maybe you need to study the number of mentally disturbed people on the street of any urban centre in the country.
I have mentioned that people's social needs are the following:
a. Free education for their children which is consuming a huge amount of their disposable income
b. Public Transport – NRM has completely failed to have a public transport system for the city and elsewhere
c. Housing – you can't believe how people sleep in this country's city. It is now raining just visit some of the wetlands and see how people live in misery – go to Kabaawo Ggaba or Kinawataka or Kawempe. Why NRM sold off NHCC to Libyans explains lack of grasp of this society structures?
d. People are spending huge amounts of money on medicare even in public hospitals where medical workers make a "difference"!
e. Working mothers need kindergartens – you can't imagine paying UG 500'000 – 1'000'000 shs just to have you kindergartens which can't even provide a proper meal for the kids. Just visit Christ the king kindergarten and find out.
There is completely no social order in this country!
A person who live in the slums of Bwaise or Natete and work in Owino or Nakasero market spend UG 3000 shilling on transport daily that is 90000 per month. If s/he is family has to spend another UG 500'000 shs on childcare. That is besides high rent for poorly built houses with no standards in a place we call a capital city!
If the above is lacking then claim to industrialisation is as empty – for the above underlies the foundation of the industrial structures of any society. Fail to meet an provie such needs then you will meet an unstoppable uprising.
All in all – what is happening in Kampala is a direct creation of NRM and Jennifer Musis Semakula has completely nothing to do with it whether that information is coming from the so calle military intelligence as you claim (!) or from a mysterious order!
Fact are facts.
Bwanika.
Musisi is a victim of NRM politics
Written by FARUK KIRUNDA
President Museveni lost to Dr Kizza Besigye in Kampala and NRM failed to win a single seat in parliament after losing the three it held (Nakawa, Makindye East and Kampala Central). The pattern has been the same at mayoral and other local levels.
There have been rave reviews on how this came about although Kampala and other urban centres have always been anti-establishment. NRM didn't expect a significant shift in its fortunes in Kampala but, again, not how it turned out.
President Museveni is reported to have voiced the same concern - of Musisi's work having alienated some voters. The way I know Museveni, he was quoting from hard research, most likely intelligence reports which tend to be spot-on. He is quoted to have said the city boss was doing a great job, but with a hard-stance approach.
But social media commentators have taken this out of context to fit their own preferences. Their interest was to impute a simmering rift between the president and Musisi, which is far from one topic. That's not how Museveni works – breaking news of fallouts with his juniors.
Let us first agree that Kampala, as the capital of Uganda, must be the epitome of development. Settlement and commercial activities have to conform to a certain standard, which is what KCCA set out to do.
For long, government was lenient and allowed a laissez-faire way of doing things and the city was becoming a huge slum as politicians put their careers ahead of development and modernization. That's how the opposition came to build a power base using substandard service to appeal to the urban poor while the elite remained gagged.
By the time President Museveni appointed Musisi, the city had long been sold to populist politics. It was largely under the reign of DP's John Ssebaana Kizito and Nasser Sebaggala that the city was run down with unplanned housing, poor waste management, traffic clogging, poor revenue administration, land grabbing, flooding, etc.
Musisi came and instituted drastic measures that pleased some and incensed many, including eminent leaders in the opposition, leading to the confrontation with lord mayor Erias Lukwago.
At the start of Musisi's tenure, while NRM thought Kampalans would appreciate a better-organized working and living environment, the opposition was worried its dominance was under threat. They hatched plans to disrupt business and found partners in FDC and DP to try and make the city ungovernable.
Undoing the rot had to come with a cost – both financial and political. It's in the course of overseeing such transformation that a section of city dwellers chose to think of resistors of change as allies and NRM as the enemy.
Vocal opposition politicians fed people on rhetoric while doing nothing on the ground. They found allies among political double-dealers who funded the opposition to oppose Musisi's work as she had blocked channels through which they pilfered taxpayers' money.
They wrote report after report, often acknowledging Musisi's effort but accusing her of highhandedness and toughness. One wonders if public officials are meant to compromise on their work to appease the incompliant!
In reality, opposition in Kampala is weak but appeals to emotions of those who are affected by the move to undo the backlog of a run-down city. With time, they have created a semblance of being majority.
Kampala voters are at peace with the likes of Erias Lukwago, Muhammad Nsereko, Kato Lubwama, Allan Ssewanyana, Mubarak Munyagwa and others who run that caliber of politics.
Eventually, NRM in Kampala has no ground structure to match the generation of voters in the league of the Lukwagos. This meant that Musisi's operations were not insulated from talkback of detractors while President Museveni has had to do the political mobilization himself, yet he is too engaged with other national and international errands.
This is where double-dealers wedged themselves into the picture to find relevance so they may be appointed to high places. They didn't mind who would become collateral damage.
It was even worse when a novice unknown in political and leadership circles was selected to be flag-bearer for lord mayorship. Much as Daniel Kazibwe (Ragga Dee) would appeal to the generation of Kampala voters as a celebrity, he was not as close to them as Lukwago.
To win, one must have a strong candidate, with a strong message and with ideological clarity. NRM has to groom such aspirants for future contests while the work of KCCA should be backed with pro-people remedies, but without compromising quality.
The author is a presidential aide for media management.--
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