ELECTORAL REFORMS WILL BE A SAFETY CAP AHEAD OF THE 2021 GENERAL ELECTIONS

The removal of the term limits in 2005 and the Age limit in 2017 left a gap in the

delivery of a free, fair and transparent electoral process in Uganda. Consequently,

the passing of the electoral reforms would help shape legislation needed during the

electoral cycle ahead of the 2021 general elections.

It should be noted that while some clauses of the proposed bills are prejudiced

towards particular individuals and towards stifling transparency during the elections,

the urgency of the reforms is one greatly felt in the electorate.

On 7th January 2020, Civil Society Organizations re-echoed the need for electoral

Reforms ahead of the 2021 general elections. The electoral reforms where presented

to parliament on June 29th, 2019 and civil society shared their analysis of the bills with

the Parliamentary committee for legal and constitutional affairs. Imperative to note,

the recommendations in the previous citizen consultations i.e. The Citizens’ Compact

on free and fair election (2015) and the Citizens’ Electoral Reform Agenda (2011) and

those forwarded by the Supreme Court need to be put into consideration before

passing the bills.

Therefore, as we begin the electoral process, sterner attention should be put to

passing the electoral reforms as a safety cap that will regulate and push for a

participatory electoral process. For us to redeem the closing space for dissent, media

coverage and continued witch hunt of the opposition, parliament needs to pass the

electoral reform bills with the needed amendments. This will be a stepping stone

towards securing legal frameworks that will govern the electoral processes and as

well as create hope within the electorate in elections as a capable channel for

delivering change and stability to the political life of Uganda.

By Tricia Gloria Nabaye

Research Fellow: GREAT LAKES INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES

gnabaye@gliss.org

THE RWENZORI AND ELGON REGION LANDSLIDES: A case of failed policy.

Landslides claim lives in hundreds yearly and leave many homeless and destitute. The Rwenzori
and Elgon region over a period of 10 years has experienced radicle landslides. Unfortunately,
many continue to grapple with the effects of these disasters continually.
In the wake of the Indian Ocean Dipole, a weather phenomenon which causes a rise in water
temperatures in the Indian Ocean up to 2C and as a result leads to higher evaporation rate off
the East African coastline —this has been regarded by scientists as the explanation for the
recent continuous rains in East Africa.

In October 2019, the government of Uganda in partnership with the University of Maryland ran
a project of installing rain gauges that would provide early warning signs on the rain levels.
This was aimed at providing early evacuation warnings to residents in the land slide prone
areas. While the equipment did provide the information on the increasing rain levels and
information was shared with the residents of Bududa, few adhered to the warnings.

It should be noted that government started the Kiryandongo resettlement project after the
2010 landslide disaster. The cabinet approved the project and the committee that was selected
in that regard established that 100,000 people were at high risk of experiencing landslides and
required resettlement in safer locations. Government agreed to acquire 3200 acres of land
each year and provide 2.5 acres of land to each family at risk.

In a period of 10 years a total of 32,000 acres of land would have been acquired, enough to
resettle many displaced Ugandans in the Rwenzori and Elgon region.

We cannot continue to pile the statistics of the dead as a result of the landslides, responsible
ministries have a mandate to the people in these regions to protect and provide for them as
citizens of Uganda.

It should be noted that from 2010 we have had seven major landslide incidents and very few
people have been resettled in each incident.

In March 2010, the areas of Names, Pukalani Subcounty experienced landslide and 100 people
were confirmed dead and 5000 people displaced. In June 2012, Namaga, Bunakasala in Bududa
experienced another landslide and 450 people were confirmed dead with property and
livestock lost as well. In August 2017, the region of Bufupa Parish in Sironko district
experienced landslide with 7 people reported dead and hundreds displaced. In October 2018,
Suume village in Bukalasi-Bududa experienced landslide with 42 people reported dead and 500
people displaced. In May-October 2018 the areas of Namisindwa, Manafwa, Sironko, Bududa
and Bulambuli experienced 67 registered landslides, while no deaths were registered thousands
were left homeless. In June 2019 the areas of Buwali Sub county in Bududa had an episode of
landslides and 5 people were reported dead and 400 people were displaced.

The ongoing land slides in the Rwenzori and Elgon region are a clear indicator of how
implementation of policies is still evasive to us as a people. There is a looming gap that needs
to be addressed in providing resettlement, emergency rescue plan and rapid response units for
the people of Bududa. With no alternatives, they will stay in Bududa regardless of the life
threat the region poses.

There needs to be a deliberate resettlement plan for these people and a conservation remedy
for the Elgon and Rwenzori Mountain slopes in order to avert the continuous outbursts of
landslides that are as a result of erosions and tree cutting in the mountain regions.

The low lands continue to pose a life threat to the people of Bududa who by far have only had
spades and hoes as rescue tools. Government should revisit the relevance of the rain gauges
installed in the region and provide early warning alternatives to the residents in the Rwenzori
and Elgon region.

As the rains wage on, we stand in solidarity with the people in the Rwenzori and Elgon region.
We continue to advocate for the ubuntu ideology in these communities, so that as many as can
help will be placed in that position to do so.

Tricia Gloria Nabaye
gnabaye@gliss.org

THINKING OF 2021

In thought of the future, the general election of 2021 always floats with blur...

What will happen then, how many state politicians and security will be there then.Will the god father have his strongest allies by his side. How will the feel of the pending elections makes us. Will we be waiting anxiously on who our next president will be, or we will know that voting would not suffice change for us?

I wonder what the ballot system will be like, will we vote electronically like the passports we will have then? Or we will stand in cue and cast our paper ballots.

Will we count one paper vote at a time or they will be electronically tallied...I wonder.

Will our politicians still be promising us safe birth and hospital care for mothers? Will we be promised roads and fly overs on our own taxes? I still wonder.

Will the electoral commission be the one chosen by the powers that be, will there be an amendment in the electoral laws and by laws. Will we have some radical new face to the electoral system of our land or it will be the same?

The people that matter, the voters, will they be still taking bribe of sugar and soap or they will have elevated to holding their leaders accountable when they come to ask for their votes. Will they allow their own money to be given to them, without doing its purpose thereof?

Will the people be willing to trust the ballot system yet again, will they check their names in the register  and confirm their polling stations? Will they vote?

The security forces, will they come out in angry battalion gear or they will go to their respective polling stations and vote too. Will the red top be participating or standing by with their guns? Will there be an order to arrest opposition big wigs or they will let them vote peacefully?

In thought of the future, my head runs wild but in hope I carry on that the experiences of the past, the blood shed , the rigging, the military forces, the police brutality will be an experience of the past for a tired Ugandan like myself.

My bittersweet delight: For him who is my ever losing battle yet my greatest war.

He said He loved me...

So why is my heart pained?

Why is my gut stopping with hiccup in thought of us?

He said that he loves me...

But every emotion within that desires him screams in fear of what he is capable of...

He is the object of my affection but in him lies the power to break me.

He holds my heart’s aching bits but he is the pain that resides in that ache.

And maybe someday I will be able to look at him and believe in his three little words but until then, I can only but hope his heart means well.

-My bittersweet delight-

OF POEMS THAT DEFINE THE STRUGGLE

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.


The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.


There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.


There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.


Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.


There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.


The revolution will not be right back after a message
About a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution WILL put you in the driver's seat.


The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

Gil Scott Heron

OF POEMS THAT STIR JOY

TO HIS COY MISTRESS: ANDREW MARVELL

Had we but world enough and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love’s day.

Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side

Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the flood,

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.

My vegetable love should grow

Vaster than empires and more slow;

An hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;

Two hundred to adore each breast,

But thirty thousand to the rest;

An age at least to every part,

And the last age should show your heart.

For, lady, you deserve this state,

Nor would I love at lower rate.

       But at my back I always hear

Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.

Thy beauty shall no more be found;

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound

My echoing song; then worms shall try

That long-preserved virginity,

And your quaint honour turn to dust,

And into ashes all my lust;

The grave’s a fine and private place,

But none, I think, do there embrace.

       Now therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on thy skin like morning dew,

And while thy willing soul transpires

At every pore with instant fires,

Now let us sport us while we may,

And now, like amorous birds of prey,

Rather at once our time devour

Than languish in his slow-chapped power.

Let us roll all our strength and all

Our sweetness up into one ball,

And tear our pleasures with rough strife

Through the iron gates of life:

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Book Review: Robert Calderisi: The Trouble with Africa; Why Foreign aid isn’t working. May,2007

“Africa is the richest continent in the world, in terms of natural and mineral resources. It has nearly 600 million hectares of uncultivated-arable land, about 60% of the global total. We spend a lot of time talking about this wealth, but mostly doing nothing with it. Look, nearly 90% of containers that bring goods to East Africa go back empty… the world won’t, can’t just sit by and watch if we don’t put our resources to productive use. Global players will come, take and do something with them. It’s the cold reality. It’s the way the world works.” Eriya Kategaya; Former First Deputy Prime Minister in Uganda and Former Minister of East African Community Affairs. Kategaya, sums up the elephant in the room in regards to African Development, while we are busy blaming everyone other than ourselves for our under development, the world continues to develop.

In his book, “The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign aid isn’t working”, Robert Calderisi retells stories and experiences from his 30 years of service at the world bank connected to Africa. He argues that foreign aid has failed Africa and Africa for the better part has failed itself as well.

He debunks the victim mentality that Africa has carried since the end of colonialism and argues that Africa’s problems are more a creation of the factors within Africa than outside of it and these problems can be solved even without the abundance of money —— aid.

He deflates the narrative that Africa is poor and is lagging behind because of its history of colonialism and slavery. Africa is caught in a pity party of a history who for the better part, improved the state of African Nations and pushed their development into a much desirable state.  He argues that as much as colonialism had its undertones, its perks were evident on the continent as well. He notes that even with the exit of the colonialists, Africa rather has experienced a digress in growth close to 30 years.

He notes that Africans continue to blame the unfairness of the global economy for the continued loss of markets for goods from the continent. Consequently, everyone is to blame for the underdevelopment of Africa apart from Africa itself.

Calderisi argues that Africa’s problem is its leaders who are complacent, corrupt and unwilling to share the truth with their people. Notwithstanding, there are many people on the continent that are working towards making Africa a better place. In the long run, it is going to take Africans in the diaspora and on the continent to change the trajectory. Ultimately, Africa’s commitment to development should be driven by the people and their governments other than a continued overflow of foreign aid. In a sense, he stresses that Africans are responsible for the development of Africa or lack thereof.

Calderisi also notes that Africa continues to lose its human capital through the continued migration of many Africans from the continent, most of whom have the capability to change Africa. there has been a creation of a diaspora divide that has increased the alienation between Africans in the diaspora and Africans on the continent.  

Calderisi notes that Foreign aid by itself has never amounted to much on the continent, but where it has been intertwined with good public policy, political will and a strong determination it has been capable of taking masses out of poverty. He notes that Africa is eroded with despots and failed democracies and over the years has been hijacked by coercer leaders who have eaten away the wealth of the continent that is accumulated in swiss accounts.

Africa needs to deal with the infestation of megalomaniacs who have failed to provide their countries with basic public goods i.e. Health, Education and good roads in order for development to ensue. He notes that the responsibility of African governments needs to become real, otherwise they continue to be cheerful receivers of the generosity of foreign agencies without cause to redeem their nations out of poverty.

Political correctness has also injured African development, Calderisi notes that for the longer part, Africa has been seen through pity by many foreign countries who also believe in the need to increase foreign aid on the continent. But Calderisi argues that an increase in foreign aid has not helped Africa in the past decades and will certainly not help even if it is increased. He argues that without disrespect to the sovereignty of governments in the South, aid needs to be structured and availed to countries deliberately working towards providing the basic goods to their people and those evidently working towards bringing their countries out of poverty.

He notes that in line with that is the complacency and corruption in the governments of many African leaders. Many people on the continent have not been empowered with information on what the money both in taxes and in foreign aid is used for. Many Africa leaders are unbothered and detached from the plight of their people. Therefore, in the need to provide accountability and proper show of how most of the money is used, the leaders of these African Countries have failed their constituencies. “I once asked a president of the Central African Republic, Ange-Félix Patassé, to give up a personal monopoly he held on the distribution of refined oil products in his country. He was unapologetic. "Do you expect me to lose money in the service of my people?" he replied. That, in a nutshell, has been the problem of Africa. 

He notes that there has been a curb on public opinion and political engagement of the opposition. While his examples were centered from his experience in Ivory coast, one must acknowledge that they speak volumes on the character and nature of many African governments who in nature are multi party oriented but in practice full time controllers of dissent.  For Africa the trouble could be herself and the mismanagement that goes on in the structures mandated with pushing for development and the people managing them—sitting governments.

Calderisi notes that Africa can save Africa if those that are given aid use it as it is purposed. He notes that there are many people on the continent who are doing everything in their power to push for development and push Africa out of the dependency on Foreign aid.

Calderisi notes that while the African story has been covered with negative experiences, Africa is not void of development success stories. He notes that the 1960s were times when the display of African Unity was experienced. The East African Community was flourishing in growth and development. Today, while the East African Community has increased its membership to include Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi and Congo. It continues to grapple with border conflicts among the countries, trade restrictions. The benefits of the East African Integration are vast and the leaders of these countries have a stake in pushing for the greater good of their constituencies.

The pettiness of African leaders has also led to a failure in creating a thriving integration, Calderisi notes that at the risk of enlarging markets and pushing for developments, African leaders hold standoffs at the expense of their citizens and the international community. For example, the recent cold war between Rwanda and Uganda has caused many Ugandans and Rwandans to lose valuable items, goods and money. While many argue that the money lost is of little impact to both economies, one cannot ignore the impact the impasse has had on the integration.

Calderisi, notes that Mwalimu Julius Nyerere noted the obsolete nature of foreign aid and why Africa needs to generate money from within to change Africa, he had pushed for African Socialism and continuously saw “ foreign aid as not the answer to Tanzania’s problems” Key to note is that while Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s Ujaama failed to achieve its envisioned success he was hailed both in Africa and abroad for choosing to create home grown solutions for his Country away from foreign aid. While many people argue that he was getting help from socialist China, he proved that if African leaders channel their efforts into changing the lives of their people, development can certainly be achieved.

He insisted that agriculture is the back bone/basis for development in Africa, unfortunately many governments have neglected agriculture in favor of industrial development. There is no doubt in the ability of Agriculture to lift Africa out of poverty one such true example of agricultural led development were the Asian tigers who through a commitment to change the lives of their economies were transformed.

The global south needs to reinvest in agriculture and in creating markets on the global scale to stir development. Most of the South is endowed with good weather and fertile soils and therefore can radically push for agricultural development that can as well go with the industrialization taking place in order to provide value added commodities on the global markets in order for Africans to benefit from the global economies at large.

 Africa economic prowess is in the limbo compared to its counterparts from the East Asian and on the global markets as a whole. And a revamp in Agriculture could be the answer to some of Africa’s dilemmas with development.

A lot of autocrats that ran the governments in Africa have swindled and plundered their countries into debt and with a combination of lack of information, many Africans will continue to blame the foreign institutions and foreign aid for their demise. African leaders simply do not care. They have managed to buy off shore properties and transferred money from aid and their national treasuries into swiss accounts. And unless the cycle of corruption, indifference and unpatriotic nature is deterred in Africa. A lot of the aid provided will be but an enabling factor for the continued corruption and outright theft going on in the continent.

Press censorships and manipulation of the electoral systems among other issues that deter democracy is evident of the “self-absorption and self-enrichment of political

leaders who also set a pattern for others to follow.” These men are not looking forward to winning Nobel Peace Prizes indeed. “The absence of these checks and balances, including a free press and an independent judiciary, had allowed personal ambitions to weaken the foundations of the nation, rather than serve as rushing water at a mill of national debate and growth.”

Calderisi argues that until Africans can deal with the infestation of megalomaniacs running governments, then the fall back on neo-colonialism and the blame on foreign aid will not stop. Africa’s definitive problem according to Calderisi is the need for personal enrichment for those who are mandated with managing the wealth of their governments.

Calderisi notes that within Africa, amidst the failing systems are people that are working hard to redeem their agencies and change their lives. While they lack the knowledge on the role of economic forces at work in their labor, they show up every day to change their poverty written realities.

Calderisi notes that even with the possibility of Africa working together, the impossibility of such a unity makes it hard for Africa on the geo-political stage. Africa is by far divided even in meetings where causes for Africa are on the center table. It goes to say, today in 2019, we have had many countries hold summits with Africa and for a continent, Africa always shows up as individual countries representing their respective countries other than Africa as a continent. Even then, Africa has failed to organize an Africa summit where they can table their mutual concerns, development agendas before they roll out inter-continental development interests. Africa continues to exclude herself from the geo-political table by simply existing in discord and disunity on the continent.

Today, Nigeria is being despised in the West African ECOWAS circle for closing her borders yet they are signatories to open border trade among the west African countries. In the effort of Africa for Africa, one needs to be alive to the lack of solidarity towards development on the continent.

Calderisi argues that Africa has not been a victim of globalization. He asserts that Africa has walled itself off from the rest of the world and it has only but itself to blame. The shrinking economies of Africa are only a reflection of Africa’s pull away from the competitive global economy.

He asserts that, “Africa’s economy is small for two reasons. First, governments have hobbled and even persecuted small farmers, and second they have been only slightly more encouraging to private investors.”

He argues that tourism is small to bank on and agriculture which was and is the main industry for Africa has been watered down and there has been no cause in advancing the agriculture sector into a competitive and productive one.

Claderisi argue that the rest of the world can do very little for Africa except support countries making progress. He notes that as of 2006, Five African countries were making progress on the developing their economies and these needed to be supported.

Unfortunately, some of the countries that Calderisi provides as steadily achieving development for their countries have fallen off track in providing basic public goods. Uganda discovered oil and gas deposits but has gone on a spending spree, reportedly ordering fighter planes worth $300 million from Russia, according to a recent report in the New York Times and as well as depleting the petroleum fund for purposes other than oil extraction.

Calderisi provides ten ways of changing Africa without the overload of Foreign aid.

1.   Introduce mechanisms for tracing and recovering funds; Calderisi notes that Africa would benefit if its politicians stopped amassing wealth abroad and he recommends closing safe havens for illicit money in order to benefit the economies and the political reform of many African countries.

2.   Require all heads of state, ministers, and senior officials to open their bank accounts to public scrutiny; He notes that political officials should have audits made to their accounts.

 Uganda has over the years through the office of the Inspector General of Government conducted a wealth declaration exercise among the politicians but this over time has not yielded any cause in curbing corruption and checking illegal absorption of wealth. Therefore, such a remedy needs to have public interest groups involved for the exercise to have some semblance of transparency as well.

3.   Cut direct aid to individual countries in half; Calderisi argues that aid channeled to more general purposes such as the establishment of regional universities, multi-country infrastructure projects, agricultural research, and cross-border HIV/AIDS initiatives. Such efforts would benefit several countries at a time or, for that matter, the entire continent.

4.   Focus direct aid on four to five countries that are serious about reducing poverty, i.e. Uganda, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, and perhaps Mali. Unfortunately, today Uganda still grapples with the very problems Chad went through. Basic services have come to a crackdown and today, Uganda would be among the countries that require quarantine from receiving direct aid.

5.   Require all countries to hold internationally-supervised elections; Have all African countries receiving aid to hold open political debates and elections. Calderisi stresses that aid should be denied to all countries that refuse to have internationally supervised elections.

6.   Promote other aspects of democracy, including a free press and an independent judiciary; Calderisi notes that there is need for regulation to stop Africa leaders from stifling dissent, arresting journalists and arresting people for insulting political leaders. He notes that there should be increased support of pressure groups that check governments.

7.     Supervise the running of Africa’s schools and HIV/AIDS programs by keeping everyone of school age enrolled and improve the quality of teaching and learning. Support measures would include eliminating all school fees, subsidizing textbooks and uniforms, and compensating poor families for the loss of their children’s labor; upgrading the quality of teachers and raising their salaries; building safer and cleaner schools; and making curricula more suitable to local cultures.

8.     Establish citizen review groups to oversee government policy and aid agreements: these will be tasked with checking on government policies without duplication of work. To have these groups check government and continually call out government when it goes off track in using taxes and aid. The role of non-state actors is becoming very important in tasking governments to push for development and have such public interest groups in Africa could help in pushing for development in the long run.

9.     Put more emphasis on infrastructure and regional links; Aid resources not devoted to individual countries should be focused increasingly on targets of common rather than national interest, such as agricultural research, control of infectious diseases, and regional communication and transportation links.

10.   Merge the World Bank, IMF and United Nations Development Programme: Because these three institutions are compatible in the work that they do for and in Africa. And a merger of the institutions would combine their power and Africa would move to the center of the UN’s agenda.

Africa has the potential to recover and start on a journey of growth and development but there are radical changes with Africa that need to be achieved before such development becomes a reality. Without a doubt, Africans are the only ones that can help develop Africa with only some support from Foreign aid.

ARE YOU KEEPING BUSY JUST TO STAY NUMB?

The first time I noticed how busy I kept was when my dear cousin Catherine noticed it. I was angry that night and because I couldn't reconcile it with my need to control...I went into a busy frenzy.

That night I re-organised my bedroom, cleaned up and folded all the clothes until I was exhausted and by that time, it was 5:00 am in the morning. But that was an exception in time. Eventually I noticed that in keeping busy, I was able to avoid the hard thoughts and maybe pending depression. The busy was a distraction from anything that needed to be addressed. As I look back it was a way of staying numb. Numb to the pain, heartache and to any emotional outburst that could have needed me to invest my very being.

In answering the question of why I was busy, I realized that I was trying to keep busy to avoid an emotional melt down. Lately, I sit in the quiet of my thoughts and let them take me on a wild chase for answers and a fill of the blanks. I indulge enough to come back and live and go on with life. I feel more melancholic than depressed these days. The sadness as an emotion no longer scares me with its ability to turn into depression. Maybe I am learning to embrace the things that I can't change. I have been found wanting on many things and learning to embrace the unthinkable has helped me find peace in the things that necessitated my busy.

No, I am no longer keeping busy  to stay numb. Whenever I feel numbness flowing in, I visited the one place where my emotions run raw and I deal with what is in the way.

IN DEFENSE OF VERNACULAR

Recently Ugandans on Twitter were divided on a tweet from Serbian-Ugandan PR guru Nada Andersen that said, “Luganda at the expense of English has set us back a century”

It opened a discussion on how Ugandan are we and how comfortable are we in embracing our culture and in speaking our languages.

Language is a uniting factor in many countries and while I wouldn’t want to ask Nada what the official language of Serbia is, we all know the answer to it.

 What this matter-of-fact opinion misses is the influence language has had on development and on many economies in the 20th century, especially for the Asian Tigers.

In the 1990s, the Asia miracle to development notes the influence of language in boosting the development strategy for the Asian Tigers. Chinese, Singaporeans and Koreans don’t speak English, they write and speak in their native languages. And this unity made it easy for them to forge a way forward for a development that embraced their culture wholly.

In learning from these Asian Tigers, one needs to note that Uganda in the 90s was way ahead of South Korean, the year is 2019, South Korean is many years ahead of Uganda.

Nada presents English as the panacea to our development, I beg to note that Scandinavian countries that are rated to have the highest indexes in human capital, health care, gender equality and are the epitome of happiness scales are either dutch speaking or Swedish speaking countries. Need I say, English is not the preferred language for these developed countries.

It has been posed that Uganda being multilingual is challenging as opposed to single lingual nations. Yet we have countries on the African continent that have developed in a multilingual dynamic.

Kenya is multilingual, and has made kiswahili thrive over English. One cannot overlook the strides they are making along the development scale. They have the Gikuyu, Luo, Luhya speaking their native languages alongside Kiswahili as the official language

South Africa is a blend of zulu, xhosa,Sotho,Venda,Swati,Tsonga and has over thirty five languages but I hear them make language part of speaking English. They speak their language in parliament and it is mandated on the speaker of the house to offer translation devices for those that don’t know the dialects. South Africa’s development is thriving in a blend of the native languages and English. And not a negation of one for the other.

Luganda and any other local language has not set us back as a country, I dare say, if we had developed in our native language we would be farther than we are.

To glorify English is some sort of colonial mindset. What has speaking Luganda got to do with our development in negation to our urgent reality of Autocratic leadership, corruption and core apathy. You risk sounding unschooled in the realities around you for a person who lives in Uganda.

We as a Nation are grappling with far worse issues than lingual. Albeit, a push for our local languages as official modes of communication would propel us farther than English would. Because I am certain, no country ever develops in a foreign language.

Tricia Gloria Nabaye

Research Fellow at Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies.

CIVIC EDUCATION IS NEEDED TO PREPARE UGANDANS FOR THE 2021 GENERAL ELECTION