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.
