Humanist

When I saw in the media the pomp and ceremony of the commissioning of “St. Karoli Lwanga in Kigarama Catholic Parish Bitereko, constructed by Tayebwa in honor of his late grandmother, Julita Kaijarubi Tiruhongyerwa,” as reported by NilePost, I was reminded of my opinion piece of 2015 titled:

“Ugandans’ anti-corruption senses blocked by ‘charity’ of politicians”

And when I read reports quoting Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa, clarifying that he raised the 2.7 billion shillings that was used to construct the church mostly through donations from his friends from the business community, I shuddered.

Apparently, it was so easy that more than half of the money 1.7 billion shillings was raised within only thirty minutes and during one meeting. I shuddered at how so brazenly Tayebwa declares he is a bought man, whose impartiality as he executes the duties of Speaker is seemingly compromised.

I mean, some of the “friends from the business community” who showed up at the commissioning of the church and were praised for their gifts have had or continue to have or will likely have run ins with Parliament.

Deputy Speaker of Parliament of Uganda, Thomas Tayebwa, 2024.

To whom shall Deputy Speaker Tayeba be loyal?

Anyway, back to the point, Max, a follower of my blog, did share a comment which is aptly exemplified by Teyebwa’s gift of a huge church. Max wrote:

“One word stands out of this blog “disempowerment.” My view is that politicians, I mean the big ones who control resources, have always known we like things easy and we have been conditioned through:

• The giving of brown envelopes here, a Pajero there, UPE (Universal Primary Education) and now USE (Universal Secondary Education.
• Creating a political district and constituency there.
• Payment of war claims without and proper assessment and accountability mechanisms in place.

And because we are not used to accountability, as our psyche has been conditioned, so our ambitions remain small and life continues. We have reached a state where we need no Panadol or sedative, because the pain is normal and is part of us.

You can see this from the young politicians who were born and have grown up in “pain” of poor service delivery and have never known any health from the time of their birth. And have learnt the art of individualism, greed, trickery and corruption.

What would you expect of the people who elect them?”

Indeed, Max described the state of dis-empowerment we, Ugandans, are in, quite well. In addition, our dis-empowerment is the inability to recognise that our individual votes are worth more and that they are actually powerful. We are so dis-empowered that we accept ‘politicians charity’ in exchange for no public service delivery. How so sad.

Featured photo @ NilePost – the Church Tayebwa Built.