This week a group of suspects were paraded by the police as
responsible for the wave of the wave of violent robberies that have plagued
Kampala suburbs and parts of the Masaka area.
The suspects’ testimonials suggested that they did what they
did to earn a living. Hired by organised groups, housed in the city and
unleashed on an unsuspecting population to wreak havoc and sow terror.
Police boss General Kale Kayihura said while he was aware
that parading them was stretching the law he needed to assure the victims and
potential targets of these crimes that the police force is working to resolve
the issue.
You may frown at Kayihura’s methods, even throw the book at
him, but looking at it from his point of view, an erosion of confidence will
make the police work that more difficult. It was a confidence building
exercise.
But it served too, to send shivers down our spines. That there is even the existence of thugs-for-hire rings, with suggested connivance of the police and even city businessmen, is enough to ensure you sleep with one eye open...
Below the surface though is the reality that the economy has
not be creating enough jobs to absorb the hundreds of thousands of youth coming
into the job market annually. As if that is not enough the current hard
economic times means that their benefactors are finding it hard to make ends
meet leave alone feed and clothe these able bodied men and women.
Jobless, without income and with the low self-esteem that
comes with that it should come as no surprise that for a few shillings they
would be game for anything, even a little smash-and-grab on the odd night.
That coupled with a society which condones corruption at
every level, means that the moral judgements that may have overrode their baser
instincts are non-existent. Not very jobless, hungry youth takes up the bait to
join a criminal gang. But for how long will be it until the hunger in their
bellies revolts against moral sense and they join a growing bandwagon?
The truth is that in the last three decades or so while
infant mortality has dropped, life expectancy has risen, we are increasingly
younger population on average. Because job creation is not keeping pace with
the new entrants into the work place we have a situation where more and more
people are dependent on fewer people for a livelihood.
"There is a vicious cycle at play here. We cannot create jobs because companies are not growing. Companies are not growing because there is no market for increased production. There is no market because on average our incomes are not rising. They are not rising because more and more of us are finding ourselves out of work...
We need some quick gains in the short term and more
sustainable long term solutions.
Current programs like the Social Assistance Grants for
Empowerment (SAGE) program, where the elderly in some parts are getting some
monthly stipend, could be a useful stop gap measure. Whereas government doling
out monies to any group of people has its critics, if done properly as a stop
gap measure to get those who can get back on their feet, it can be useful in
creating some demand and even jumpstarting some small enterprises.
Whichever way you look at it this a much better use of
government resources than the current plunder by a select few who squander it
on foreign holidays and ostentatious living. Which is why corruption is at the
center of our problems.
The youth livelihood initiatives too, if shepherded well can
in the short to medium term, help create an army of job creators rather than
job seekers.
"On a macro level government needs to focus all its energies on creating jobs. For starters they should start monitoring statistics on the net jobs being created in the economy on a monthly basis like more developed economies...
This is important because what one focuses on expands. And
we are not talking about government creating jobs, but creating the enabling
environment to allow businesses to start and thrive by removing the red tape in
registration and licensing processes, enhancing infrastructure – both soft and
physical and fighting corruption more determinedly.
The solution to youth unemployment is simple but it is not
easy to execute. Some hard decisions will have to be made in coming weeks,
months and years if we are to combat unemployment and maintain national
stability.
