Soildier Businessmen: The marriage of armed politics and Money in Uganda E-mail
Written by Moses Kalanzi   
Friday, 02 January 2009 21:48
Twenty three years ago a young guerilla led a peasant revolution to make dictatorship history in Uganda. In the five year protracted peoples struggle ten points were laid down to guide the revolution among which was the Elimination of corruption and the misuse of public offices featuring prominently as point number seven. The socialist oriented rebels were perhaps motivated by the desire to liberate Ugandans and could not be prematurely accused of harbouring motives of plunder once in power. The commitment of the rebel movement to curb the ugly vices was expressed in punishments given to combatants accused of dubious dealings. When the NRA came into power during the early days of the broadbased government, they mantained a clean record. The office of the IGG was instiituted, the public face of the army took a metamorphosis and came to be accepted as a pro-civilian force. The President took to the demystification of the gun and politicisation of the army. These have remained the greatest mistakes of the NRM which have mothered the bulk of the prevalent woes. The politicisation of the army reduced the nationalist army to an armed wing of a political faction in a pseudo-democratic climate. Army officers have increasingly gained interest in public political issues by often taking sides in matters they are supposed to arbitrate. Thus with the new face of politician army officers, they are availed with the liberties enjoyed by partsan politicians including involvement in business. While it is acceptable and even encouraged for civilians to indulge in business with the motive of sustainability it becomes a nightmare scenario for gun holders to get involved in businesses most especially in our lowly developed societies, for it exposes them to the excesses which counter democratic practices and rule of law. Lets take an example of Egypt where most of the heavy industries as a government policy were owned by the army( not clandestinely as is the case in Uganda). The military almost failed to move out of power because of the grip on their economy. They were eventually deposed because their hold on the economy had a decisive impact on fuelling inflation and to the peasants they were viewed as wrecking the economy. In Thailand in the early 1990s, all the biggest enterprises were run by 'retired' Generals(emphasis on retired) and some few serving officers. The country suffered from one of the highest incidences of graft only comparable to the situation in Uganda today. In Nigeria business-cum generals-cum-politicians with their long history of military coups have thrived unabated in Oil business. The army top brass also doubling as business mafia not so peculiar from their Ugandan counterparts in our times were controlling the economy under dictator Sani Abacha. Now that oil has been discovered in Uganda and that the NRM has not exhibited signs of retiring Mr Museveni, Ugandans can rationalise about their future, the fact that even now oil a profitable business has been discovered. The Congo penalised Uganda for plundering her resources and a number of Generals including the president's brother were accused of looting.

Almost every aspect of business in the country has been infiltrated by this new class of prosperity soildiers. A survey on the ownership of market tenders in Kampala confirms this. A simmilar survey on the ownership of fuel stations in the country could provide even more wild revelations. Almost no week passes without an officer getting involved in a land grabbing scandals. It is almost a norm to grab land by army officers. The fact that soildiering as a vocation is a forceful enterprise where commands take precedence over reason, it becomes a nightnmare scenario when soildiers involve themselves in businesses which involve mutual trust and recognition of equality. This being Uganda,our soildiers have often abused human rights and conflicted with the values of democracy and good governance. The country's top brass especially members of the historical High Command have been accused of grabbing land measured not in acres but square miles. This makes the marriage of armed politics with business an abhorred relationship. The NRM and its cadres have undergone an ideological metarmophosis. This metarmophosis should not be viewed from the banishment of Kaunda suits to double-breated suits. The rhetorical leftist ideology of frugality of the armed forces has only remained in the rooms of Kyankwanzi as Generals rise to lavish heights and compete favourably with tycoons for spaces in the country's tabloids of the who-is-who in dishing out cash prizes to beauties. Like the Mafutamingi culture under the Amin dictatorship, they have even infilitrated the micro-level involving in such petty issues as the governance of city markets. Those who proffess to have waged a war to liberate Ugandans from plunder were infact creating space for their own plunder.

Moses Kalanzi

Kampala

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