Just read Rwabwogo’s interview in the New Vision today and I thought, it’s ok for me to express my opinion right or wrong.
Because of my tourism advocacy, I have met in person our President, current President of Kenya and the former President of Kenya. I met President Uhuru when he was a minister of Finance.
I believe that the former President of Kenya (Mwai Kibaki) was a weak President in a strong Presidency and that’s why change of guards was easy. The systems and the people around a Kenyan presidency are very strong.
The political class in Kenya is generally speaking the same and is the second generation of leaders. Why? These guys have same ownership in some busineses. I once visited Green park in Naivasha (a weekend retreat place for some of Kenya’s powerful people) and I was surprised because opposition and the rulling top boys own houses in same large compound and play golf together over some weekends.
Those guys own businesses run proffessionally in Kenya and one guy can support a political party financially and if they lose an election, it isn’t the end of their survival world (this applies to both sides).
In Uganda’s case, we have a very strong President in a weak Presidency and that is going to be a tall order for the one who will someday replace him. Uganda needed a strong President for stability and could have even done better with a strong Presidency but that isn’t the case.
The most unfortunate thing in Uganda is that, when people get the opportunity to serve as leaders at all levels, they rush for a cosmetic show even in parastatals. Brand new car, escorts etc and that way, people fail to create wealth even when they have had an opportunity to earn a tax payers money.
Cosmetic show and wealth creation can’t go hand in hand. With someone opening the door for you and driving with windows up, you lose touch with reality and creates false self importance that one has to maintain. When table turn, such people become a problem( you can see on both sides)
Why would a minister who is an MP earning over sh50m per month officially be poor after 10 years of serving?
That way, people aren’t running public instititions well for us to identify great leaders to take us as a nation to another level and that partly explains the recycling and this applies to us the wanaichi( if you are an accountant, are you being the best that their can be? As a tour operator, am I running this entity well? If you can’t look after small money well, you can’t look after big money).
It all starts with us as individuals and you know what, we can change for the sake of our nation and for the next generations.
Mr Wekesa is an entrepreneur in tourism.
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