Chris Mubiru’s inadvertent gay allies

The more the Red Pepper publishes his pornographic pictures, the more it brings gay sex out of the closet

Since Chris Mubiru became a mega celebrity in Uganda, the pro-gay rights lobby has withdrawn into resigned silence – sensing a reversal of “the cause”. Two current members of parliament and a former one who had written articles opposing the hang-the-gays bill for The Independent withdrew them before we went to press. They claimed the atmosphere was too charged and they “did not want to be misunderstood”. It is funny how fear of being “misunderstood” i.e. moral cowardice, governs our lives. At a point when people need to stand up in defense of their beliefs and values, they bulk.

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The complexity of Uganda’s graft

The war on corruption is first and foremost a war over values and these have to be embedded in society first

Let me finish the argument on corruption I left hanging last week: that actually, a war on corruption is as much a war of values supplied from above (leadership) as it is a struggle for accountability demanded from below (by citizens). We have ignored the first part – the values part – and put too much emphasis on politics – the will to crack down on thieves.

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Graft: thinking out of the box

Many states in this world have corrupt officials. In Uganda, the corrupt have a state
 

Over the last year Uganda has latched from one major corruption scandal to another. The paradox of our nation’s corruption is that although it goes on with impunity, it does not go on with impunity. Although the corrupt plunder public resources at will, the public and the state seem to be permanently engaged in ferocious combat against them. 

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How to save Congo from the UN

The best way to save DRC is to let it burn. From the ashes of catastrophe lies the chance for a solution
 

Last week, M23 rebels matched into the eastern Congolese town of Goma with very little resistance. The Congolese army simply dropped their weapons and ran. International television footage showed them leaving the town in haste, driving Armored Personnel Carriers and tanks at full speed. Meanwhile the rebels, armed largely with light infantry weapons, marched on foot and some on civilian trucks into the town. How can a mechanised army give up a strategic town to a light infantry force so easily?

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Best way to fight corruption

Focus on the civil service where graft is most lethal rather than in politics where it is most politically attractive

 

Over the last three weeks, government of Uganda has done what was previously unthinkable. First, police rearrested the ringleaders in the scam in the ministry of Public Service that saw our country lose close to Shs 500 billion paid to ghost pensioners. Second, it subjected them to rigorous interrogations, which led to the recovery of 256 titles of properties they had accumulated. These properties have an expected value of over Shs 800 billion. Third, it froze their bank accounts and placed caveats on their assets. Fourth, police is initiating the process of recovering the money by confiscating the properties and handing them to government for auction.

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Africa and Obama’s second term

How the newly re-elected US president is not the solution but the problem for Africa
 

Last week, Barak Obama was re-elected president of the United States. Since his first election in 2008, many African elites were happy that at least “one of us” has won the presidency of the world’s only, albeit declining, superpower. Behind this “one of us” label lies hope that Obama, being “black”, would do more to “help” Africa fix its problems like dictatorship, poverty, corruption and bad government. And it seems from his rhetoric during his first election campaigns that he would try to “fix” Africa. Nothing is scarier about Obama than this ambition.

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Who will fight corruption?

With billions in stolen funds, the thieves are in a position to compromise investigations, prosecution and judgment
 

Over the last few months, it has been exposed that officials in the office of the prime minister and in the ministry of public service stole over Shs 600 billion (US$ 250m). Our country has bad roads, 26 mothers die in child birth per day, 80,000 kids die every year from preventable diseases (in ten years you have a number equal to the Rwanda genocide of 1994), children study under mango trees for lack of classrooms, limited agricultural extension services and supply of electricity is only to eight percent of our people. Therefore Uganda needs every coin of public funds to serve its citizens. However, this collective vision has been lost. Instead, we see a pattern of actions where the interests of the many have been usurped by the greed of a few.

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