[YP_Ke] Uganda: Is Prof. Gilbert Bukenya’s Rhetoric Authentic?

Uganda's political opposition is in search of an authentic leader who
can be trusted to lead a honest and formidable challenge against
President Yoweri Museveni and the National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Like the proverbial drowning man, it is holding onto straw – and with
Professor Bukenya, it is bound to sink. This is partly because
Bukenya's record on siding with principled positions is sketchy. At
almost all political junctions in Uganda's drive to democracy –
Bukenya always sided with expediency.

On, August 11, 2013, Bukenya gave an interview to Sunday Monitor's
Richard Wanambwa where he projected himself as a convener and savior
of political opposition including the Democratic Party (DP), Forum for
Democratic Change (FDC), Conservative Party (CP) – and to a certain
limit the Uganda People's Congress (UPC). Is Professor Gilbert Bukenya
trying to breathe life into the defunct, moribund and scattered Inter
Party Cooperation (IPC)? I am sure career opposition politicians are
looking at him with suspicion.

Prof. Bukeya makes grand accusations against the government where he
not so long ago served as Vice President. He seems to suggest that
once he left, things went wrong! He accuses the government of constant
torture, use of bullets against civilians and extra judicial killings.
Really? How can a leader who rose to the second most powerful
position in this land accuse his government of extra judicial killings
without offering detailed evidence?

Prof.Bukenya says he is still a member of NRM- why can't he raise his
claims with the party organs responsible or compel the relevant party
organ to call for a deliberate inquiry into his claims. As a person
who has won and lost some cases in Uganda's courts of law, he knows
that the rule of law is present in this country. Why can't he litigate
extra judicial killings in Uganda's courts of law? If he has grown
suspicious of our Courts, why can't he go the East African Court?

It is Prof. Bukenya's solemn right to offer himself before the people
of Uganda for any office- including that of President. But to use
outright blackmail and smear tactics for political advantage instead
of articulating an alternative credible and concrete agenda is
trivial, hypocritical and counterproductive.

In the interview, Bukenya claimed that government has neglected the
poor and it pains him! Isn't this political hypocrisy? While he was
Vice President, Bukenya crisscrossed the country, aided by tax payers'
money to spread the upland rice scheme gospel. He has also, lately,
been talking about poverty eradication projects in his Busiro North
Constituency. Was promoting upland rice scheme, as a Vice President in
the NRM government a show of neglect for the poor? Did poverty
eradication programs stop when he left the position of Vice
President? Is poverty in his Busiro North constituency below the
national poverty scale? Those, who know Busiro North Constituency, are
aware that a lot will have to be done to contain and eliminate poverty
there.

When it comes to poverty, Prof. Bukenya knows he is being economical
with the truth. It is no longer a secret that poverty in Uganda is
reducing at a rate faster than our sister countries in Eastern Africa.
Indeed according to the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
World Bank (WB) Global Monitoring Report 2013, Kenya's poverty head
count stands at 43.37 per cent against Uganda's 38.01 per cent using
the poverty cut-off point of $1.25 per person. Tanzania stands at
67.87 per cent; Rwanda poverty stands at 63.17 per cent while in
Burundi it is at 81.32 per cent. The poverty level scoring was based
on the number of people living below $1.25 a day. Previous studies
have used $1 daily but that has since been replaced with the higher
amount.

If these statistics were published by a Ugandan agency, Bukenya would
claim that they were cooked. With the foregoing numbers, we cannot at
all celebrate or relax, but rather we have to work harder as a people
to get everybody out of poverty. This is a herculean task but
achievable.

Those countries we often talk about as developed and wealthy are also
still grappling with poverty. For example, in 2012, the United States
Census Bureau reported that 46.2 million people were living in
poverty in the United States in 2011- the largest number of persons
counted as poor in the 53 years of poverty measurements. The poverty
rate in United States is at 15 percent. Things are not easier with
China- where a whopping 128 million people were below the poverty line
as of 2011. Although this is 13.4% of the population, this really
shows that the entire world needs to create new ways of eradicating
poverty, spreading wealth and deepening inclusive growth. I am
waiting for Prof. Bukenya's back pocket alternative ideas that he kept
secret when he was Uganda's vice President. Over to you Prof. Bukenya.

By Morrison Rwakakamba
Special Presidential Assistant – Research and Information
mrwakakamba@gmail.com

http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=7403&magazine=452









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Why should we not all live in peace and harmony ? we look up the same stars
, we are fellow passengers on the same planet and dwell beneath the same
sky , what matters it along which road each individual endeavours to reach
the ultimate truth ? the riddle of existence is too great that there should
be only one road leading us to an answer
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QUINTUS AURELIUS SYMMACHUS
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