Last week while delivering his State of Nation Address, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni informed Ugandans that his next approach to fight corruption will be by recruiting affluent descendants of the National Resistance Army (NRA) to take forward the aspiration of their fathers.
“I have been discussing with my children, who are now senior adults, the timeliness of creating the DRA (the Descendants’ Resistance Army ) to take forward the work of the original NRA of their parents. This fraternity recently recommended to me one of their group. These are people who work for passion, not money. Against resistance, I put one of them, Ms. Irene Kaggwa, to manage Uganda Communication Commission (UCC).” he said.
His statements have been criticized by majority of Ugandans and some Civil Societies have warned that it may cause a country into another war which President Museveni will definitely not win.
According to reports and studies by Alliance for Finance Monitoring (ACFIM), President Museveni’s statements keenly point to the fact that corruption in Uganda is planned, budgeted, appropriated, and executed.
“Uganda is experiencing what is known as Systemic capture this is a type of political corruption in which private interests significantly influence the entire system of the institution’s decision-making processes to their advantage, ” reads one of the reports.
The report revealed that President Museveni’s plan of recruiting affluent children of the National Resistance Army cadres into government as a way of fighting corruption is not in any way different from a spoilt system where the government gives civil service jobs to its supporters, friends (cronyism), and relatives (nepotism) as a reward for working towards victory, and as an incentive to keep the party in power.
“If President Museveni pursues such an approach of recruiting descendants of the NRA into Civil Service, then there is a likelihood of the country transcending into a state of despair because those that will be left out will feel discriminated against and may decide to fight the system, ” the report warns.
The report further explains that it’s important for the entire country to understand that corruption is a moral issue, a person whether wealthy or poor can still engage in corruption as long as he/she is not morally upright. Therefore, it will be wrong for President Museveni to believe that all the affluent descendants of NRA are morally upright and cannot be corrupt.
It also noted that though President Museveni has always bemoaned corruption, he has not walked the talk. An example was highlighted in Uganda Revenue Authority where President Museveni claimed to have chased away the “parasites or weevils” but up now no efforts have ever been seen.
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