ADAM KAMULEGEYA: Why do we have Governments?

“WE THE PEOPLE” So begins the world’s longest written charter of government and an affirmation that the government of the United States of America exists to serve its citizens.

This would ordinarily be the purpose or essence of any government anywhere in the world. But poor human rulership has largely failed this ideal.

In its simplest form though, a government is a group of people with the authority to govern a country or state. These people are often always chosen or elected to serve the interests of the people who chose or elected them.

There is no two ways about that except that we choose to forget. The ‘people’ not trees, animals, rivers, stones, etc. are the supreme in any country’s arrangement. Therefore when this arrangement is abrogated, a government ceases to have meaning.

And the people, as Mwalimu Julius Nyerere once advised, “Will pick arms and fight that poor or dictatorial regime.”

If you’re a fan of knowledge, there is a Muslim cleric called Sheikh Muhsin Kiti who talks a lot of sense on everyday life. He likes to say:

“It is only Allah (God) who decides what will happen… birds don’t work or keep food for the next day but they know: they will eat!”

But do humans, especially in Africa, know what will happen to them the next day? I don’t think so and the problem is solely from so-called governments led by myopic people.

I see every day in the Kampala streets the changing shed of Ugandans. Unless to the blind, Kampala is turning into a “small Mogadishu” a “small Eritrea”, a “small Ethiopia” and of course a “small Kinshasa” and a “small Juba and Khartoum.”

My sincere take on this issue is that: governments which are creating conditions that forces their people to run to Uganda, are fake governments. Then these people come to a country which, as it seems, has its priorities twisted. Uganda government has no idea whether it is ceding its territory to these folks from the horn of Africa!

I will tell you something you might have thought out already. The newcomers, like all foreigners elsewhere, they have more money to spend (source unknown) therefore they can afford to live in expensive areas. When I was living in South Africa, we never lived in Soweto, Khayelitsha, Langa, Nomuzamo ( shantytowns) but in Brampton Park, Summergreens, Table view, Sea Point, really affluent places.

The same is happening here with our foreign brothers nearly overtaking Muyenga, Bunga, Buziga, Kansanga and Kabalagala. Others, the super rich Eritreans are slowly eating away Munyonyo.

The question is: where will a fast- growing Ugandan population especially in Kampala leave? A quick answer: in the swamps and wetlands.

A government worth it’s salt has to think about these uncontrolled migrations especially in a country which has not enough resources.

But that was not the conversation of today though I wanted to bring out the issue of uncontrolled invasion of Uganda by a sinister and clever group of people who might, in the future, take over this country. If you recall your history, this is ‘migration’ 101!

WHICH UGANDANS WERE COUNTED?

Recently Uganda had a human census and found out that it has 45.9 million people. It means that every proceding census, 10 years apart, Uganda gets another 10 million people. Canada on the other hand ( I simply love to compare Uganda and Canada) had a population of 34 millions in 2014 and now it has 39 millions. Only 5 million people added in 10 years.

And yet Canada is 41 times bigger than Uganda. Well this one you won’t like it. But a Canadian spends US$ 49,000 (income per head) while a Ugandan has US$2,300. We are therefore a very people people while Canadians are overall a rich people.

Because the government of Canada is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, it knows when it needs more people’s numbers and or not.

I know as you should that the recent census was a mere exercise in ignorance. The people sent to count us never reached our homes. I know President Museveni was counted but if he makes an own small count, he will be surprised to find out that his workers at Kisozi were not counted!

Besides the point, now; who will feed; educate; provide healthcare; jobs; name anything, for this expanding population of 51 million people now? (Simply ignore the 2024 census because it wasn’t there in reality).

Sheikh Kiti would quickly say Allah will provide, but I would think a little harder when answering that question.

True that God has a hand in all that but He enabled us to form governments that will handle such issues on His behalf. Therefore, if the governments fails; God will not be around to hold our damn hands!

As my father used to tell us: “Wake up early to get God’s blessings otherwise He is in a hurry to also be in China!”

The government makes master plans and envisions the future of plenty for its citizens. It searches for the best brains in the land; people who can think for others, and puts them in positions of responsibilities. This of course can include one’s relatives but not always and not a necessary condition to have services delivered.

All the above and many more are done for one purpose and one purpose alone: to ease the hardship on the lives of the people living in that nation or state.

Therefore no single person, not even a president of a country, who can undertake anti- people policies and lives not to regret about it. Any leader who forgets that the ‘people’ are the supreme in any political or economic arrangement, then that leader(s) is doomed to fail.

Lets make a small tour to our neighbor Kenya to understand more how and why governments have to be extra careful when dealing with their citizens.

WHY KENYA WAS NEARLY DESTROYED:

We all know what has just happened in East Africa’s richest nation. The government led by President William Arap Ruto decided to think for everyone else by introducing anti-people taxes. It didn’t think for everyone; but it thought everyone else in Kenya was an idiot!

The politicians gathered in Parliament with their suits and ties on and forgot who enabled them to be there; indeed who pays their salaries. They passed a tax law which would changed lives of every Kenyan.

President Ruto made one mistake: thinking that the ‘people’ were no longer part of the Kenyan journey to prosperity. He wanted to develop Kenya and to pay all its foreign indebtedness which was okay but not necessarily right.

Two years ago, President Ruto came to power by appealing to the common people, describing himself as a “hustler” and vowing relief from economic pain. Kenyans, unlike their counterparts in Uganda and Tanzania, live in what we would describe as a “super market” country.

In such an economy, the citizens get all their needs, including food, in supermarkets. In Uganda, we simply get our needs from our villages or bushes. That is the only reason why we survived the madness of Idi Amin and recently Covid-19 lockdown without any assistance from government.

In Kenya, especially in big towns, you can be hard-pressed to find people cooking dinner in their homes. They simply head to ‘nyama choma- roasted beef” joints to take their lunch or dinner. In Uganda, even homeless people literally cook their food!

It was these people President Ruto wanted to mess with.

Kenyans look humble on the surface but rough inside. Imagine they even burned Uganda House in Nairobi because they have this twisted idea that their young leader gets tips from Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni. Of course Mr. Museveni as, a rule of thumb, has to be friendly to whoever is in charge of Kenya (Moi, Kibaki, Uhuru and now Ruto including the next one after Ruto- no pan intended).

Unfortunately for President Ruto; he forgot that little fact of his “super market” country.

It was the same childish mistake (increasing the prices of foodstuffs especially wheat) which took Gen. Bashir of The Sudan out of power and plunged this once- prosperous country into the greatest disappointment it long became.

This same fact is what normally determines political changes in Zambia. If you want to lose political power in Zambia, faster than you change your shirt, increase the price of “ugali- meal meal or maize flour.” It is called “nshima” a food so revered that even God cannot compete.

Yes Mr. Ruto came in as an ordinary folk but nearly half the voting population did not subscribe to his ideas. This he forgot so quickly.

If you look deep into the eye of the storm, you will discover quite clearly that these “Generation Z” youth are actually agitating for political change. Strangely enough, even those who voted for William Ruto were not happy that he became the president. And I think some foreign entities had a hand in misadvising him.

Sometime in the 1990s, I remember seeing photos of then Kenyan president Daniel Arap moi standing happy infront of a heap of ivory tusks he was about to order burned. They had a street value of some US$28 millions.

Well, President Moi was all jubilant and high-fiving the foreign press infront of the $28 million he had just turned into ashes!

Friends, some fellows don’t have to get near to national governments or even to lead them.

If that pile of ivory was in America (compare it with confiscated marijuana or cocaine), the government wouldn’t burn it. Instead they would have kept it for ‘sting’ operations or even sell it secretly to finance budgets of narcotics police. This is what clever leaders do.

Don’t be surprised with Kenya: the land where a one Arap Moi is born; there is always a big chance that another Arap Ruto will be born. None was a true leader of people.

Most importantly, President Ruto forgot this fact that he barely scrapped a win two years ago. You don’t come out with such anti- people economic reforms with such a small mandate they gave you!

Like most failing leaders elsewhere, President Ruto dreamt of a great country with a small foreign debt therefore freeing a lot of cash to finance development. This was a good idea except that the envisaged new taxes were going to make everyday living unbearable for the Mwanainchi.

Uganda! Ooh Uganda government! I am coming for you next time.

BY WAY OF CONCLUSION:

Friends, we all know that governments were configured not by man but God Himself.

In the Bible book of Genesis (1:28), it is clear that God authorized man to have dominion over all other creatures or His creations. He also authorized men to select leaders among themselves in order to have this control in an orderly manner. God never said anywhere in that great book that “Go and misrule others” or that “I have created all these good things for the lucky ones among you!”

As leaders, we are all, we have to be constantly aware that we’re all equal in the eyes of the Almighty. We may have temporary or borrowed power, but we have to keep our feet firmly on the ground. For power to shift hand, brinking is actually not fast enough.

I therefore implore African leaders to prioritize the needs of the people God authorized them to lead. As a matter of fact, they have to work on their death when still alive.

Had the marauding Kenyan youth caught President Ruto, some of his fingers would have been sent to Uganda. And yet Ruto was a youth like them and a poor boy when growing up. Don’t ever allow power to corrupt you absolutely, as Lord Acton, once said, but use that power to empower others to also realize their dreams.

When I was finishing this article, around 4am July, 2rd, I received a troubling phone call that Affande Col (rtd) Rauben Mugenyi “amefariki dunia- has passed on!” He was a great man and a leader who loved this country dearly. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

That will be the last word of today.

Adam Kamulegeya
adamkam2003@gmail.com
0779 104 336