Asserts the Ugandan-born moderate columnist in Kenya, about corruption in his native country: "Back home today, the horror stories about mega corruption in the
Office of the Prime Minister continue to unfold. This corruption
(though this point is not often emphasised) succeeds partly through
collusion by officials at the Treasury and Bank of Uganda. This network of officials and political leaders
involved in the OPM scandal and the endless others in Uganda over the
last 25 years, are true heirs of African slave traders. While 500 years
ago they sold children for mirrors and women for bottles of wine, today
they steal money meant for medicine, schools, and vaccine for children,
and spend it on mirrors, wine, women, cars and extravagant houses."
He continues his commentary: "Some of the cynical donors play pretty much a similar role to
that of the European slave traders. To appreciate this, let us look at
aid history. Up to about 15 years ago, the bulk of the aid to countries
like Uganda was not handled by our officials. The donors gave the aid,
and if it was for a road, for example, they would get closely involved
in appointing the contractor, and would manage the payments to the
company. In Uganda, this period saw the most significant and speedy
construction of roads mostly through European Union aid because they
handled most of the money. There were many criticisms of this approach; that
it was 'neo-colonial'; aid was poorly coordinated and resulted in
duplication; and that it was unsustainable because Ugandans needed to
develop capacity to manage the aid, and they would only do so by
actually taking charge of the money. More and more aid was, therefore, shifted and
given as budget support — in other words, it was put into the government’s
coffers and it apportioned and spent it as it deemed fit. The benefits
of this approach, however, came along with greater corruption — now we
had the goods, so we ate them."
Charles Onyango-Obbo: "Uganda’s Corrupt Politicians Are The Children Of Africa's Ancient Slave Traders"
