{UAH} Allan/Edmund/Pojim/WBK: Besigye proposes what every politician desires; now watch them - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Besigye-proposes-what-every-politician-desires/434750-3421780-jd7go1/index.html

Besigye proposes what every politician desires; now watch them

When Kizza Besigye returned to Uganda after a month's political tour overseas, he was tricked into making a false start.

Picked up from the aircraft staircase at Entebbe and whisked off at breakneck speed to his farm, he naturally began quarrelling with the police. His party got busy organising parallel Independence Day celebrations and so on.

Meanwhile, his supporters were screaming that the "people's president" was being treated unfairly. It was old Besigye in the image the state strategists like to frame him, firmly confined in his Kasangati farm and trading words with police, which has become to be regarded as normal business in Uganda's public affairs.

But the good doctor eventually composed himself and unveiled a fundamental plan, his blueprint to a peaceful and prosperous future for Uganda. By that time, I don't know how many people were still listening, as Besigye called for national dialogue, the one hundredth call we have heard, but one with a fundamental difference. 

In a drastic departure from the expected, Besigye declared that he has no problem with Museveni the person or president, but rather with the system, which will remain bad regardless of who is at the top (that possibly includes Besigye himself) and needs to be overhauled. But the most startling offer is the proposal of amnesty for those who have looted public resources.

National dialogues, you may recall, occurred in South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda and if you want, Zimbabwe. These took place in countries where people had been at each other's necks. There is no such situation in Uganda.

The government is not killing people of whatever description. The whole country is peaceful. Many people are frustrated but they are not tense. So will the dialogue idea sell when elections have just ended and been endorsed by the Supreme Court with a 9-0 verdict?

Looting public resources is at the very heart of Uganda's next major crisis, whenever this will occur. The institutions of accountability and of justice have failed to deal with the looting which just keeps growing.   

Take, for instance, the biggest construction project going on now, the $4 billion, 600MW Karuma dam. What news the public gets about Karuma is about shoddy works, secret recruitment, cracks in the dam before it is even commissioned and projected delays.

In the roads sector, a recent commission of enquiry found that four trillion shillings (about $1.2 billion) was stolen in the past few years by just a few dozen officials. Is this a big figure? Yes, it is. It is about a third of the government's annual tax revenue.

Besigye thinks grand corruption should stop and those who have bled the nation be granted amnesty from jail, and asked to return at least a small portion of what they took. It is this refund talk that makes people unable to admit they took anything.

Moreover, the poor thieves also share the loot with other officials who cannot be pinned down! So whoever wants to discuss a corruption amnesty, previously a taboo subject, should be prepared to allow a 100 per cent retention of stolen money, as even 99 per cent retention is not enough to ensure compliance.

The problem with the proposal for now is WHO is making it. If it were the bishops or civil society, maybe. But when Besigye raises his head, the state usually has one response – assign some middle-ranking police officer to "handle" him.

Joachim Buwembo is a social and political commentator based in Kampala. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com

Besigye proposes what every politician desires; now watch them - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Besigye-proposes-what-every-politician-desires/434750-3421780-jd7go1/index.html

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