FAREWELLL EMMANUEL TUMUSIIME MUTEBILE

 On Sunday morning Bank of Uganda governor Emmanuel Tumsiime Mutebile breathed his last at a Nairobi hospital, bringing to a close a life well lived in the service of his nation, but only punctuating a journey he helped begin in Uganda’s economic recovery.

Fortunately or unfortunately the majority of us have no clue the depths from which our economy has come in terms of our economy. About eight in ten Ugandans were not born in 1986.

We came from a place where bar soap, sugar and paraffin were luxuries; where it took six hours to get to Jinja from Kampala by road, because there were more portholes than tarmac and where loadshedding was more frequent than not.

"The enormity of the task of turning the economy around would have drove lesser men to tears....

Hard decisions had to be made to turn around the economy, which included tightening on government spending, privatizing public enterprises, layingoff thousands in the public service and a breakup of the “kibanda market” by liberalizing the trade in foreign exchange. All this was being done when the NRM was trying to win the population over to its side.

It took a man of firm convictions to ensure government stayed the course even if the popular thing to do was to do the easy thing.

First as PS finance and secretary to the treasury and for the last two decades as Bank of Uganda governor Mutebile has been the constant in Uganda’s economic recovery other than President Yoweri Museveni.

In recent years critics have complained that the over reliance on the private sector has among other thing exacerbated the wealth inequalities in the country. Their prescription, a return to the day of state control of the economy as a way to even out inequalities, proof that the thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.

"Mutebile was not infallible and criticism of the economic path we have taken merit some attention. But we have the luxury of having that debate because of the economic foundation set under his watch...

His work is not complete by any measure – we are still among the poorest countries in the world, but he always knew the transformation of the economy was a marathon and not a sprint. Many economists have been mentored by him and we can only hope that his legacy is secure.

Rest in Peace Emanuel Tumusiime Muteble.