WHEN IS ENOUGH EVER ENOUGH?

Many years ago a local paper published a story about how one minister had proposed he be paid a few hundreds of thousands of dollars to organize an audience with the president for the payers.

As soon as the story ran, the minister called the newspaper and in his defence complained that other people had eaten more money than him and that they should go after those ones before rounding in on him. He did not deny he had solicited the funds.

"We have been served up spadefuls of moral relativism over the last two weeks with the revelations about the Karimojong roofing sheets.

According to the story, the Office of the Prime Minister and more specifically the ministry of  Karamoja affairs, has been dishing out iron sheets meant for development in Karimojong to everybody but the Karimojong.

Beneficiary politicians have argued they used the sheets for roofing schools, health centers and even an animal shed. None of these charitable projects are within walking distance of the Karamoja region.

The politicians while sidestepping the question of why they got the iron sheets, clearly marked for Karamoja, have gone on to explain that the sheets were not for their individual benefit – though one minister acknowledged it would help his reelection prospects in 2026.

If you were hoping for a wave of cabinet resignations on this clear abuse of power, do not hold your breath.

One does not know whether to laugh or cry.

The NRM government has not got a patent on corruption.

The colonial project was a corrupt exercise, in which the colonialists  took control of the country, extracted resources cheaply for their industries, while putting back the bare minimum into the local economy, just enough to subjugate the people, train a local elite as their agents and ensure the continuation of the extraction. At independence out of a population of seven million there were 300 A-Level students.

"After independence, to reverse this naked exploitation, government, short on manpower never the less pushed the africanisation of public offices agenda, where the colour of your skin rather than competence was the leading qualification. This w as the beginning of the end of the little meritocracy that the colonialists bequeathed us....

We went beyond the colour of skin to the language we speak, the village we came from and who we married, non of which were a gauge of one’s competence.

When the NRM came to power in 1986, top of the agenda was to broaden their narrow political base. While denials will come fast and furious that it was not official policy for the victors to help themselves to public resources, it is clear at least that the NRM has pointedly looked away when officials have enriched themselves beyond what their public emoluments can justify.

It has not been unusual for senior officials to retort at questions about their wealth by evoking their bush day credentials.

And we are also complicit in this looting. We were so grateful for them saving us from the dark days that a penny pinched here another there, would not raise much alarm.

But as one media personality asked in exasperation many years ago, “Why don’t they give us their invoice and we pay them?”

And that is the crux of the matter. When is enough, enough?

However, corruption does not work like that.

Take a normal working Uganda who is used to a monthly paycheck. Take that away and there will be much gnashing of teeth and renting of cloths. The same with public officials take away their office where they have had unrestricted access to the public kitty and all hell will break loose.

"They have commandeered the public purse – this year’s budget was sh48trillion, and by some moral gymnastics they have convinced themselves they are allowed to plunder the treasury at leisure. You can see it in their replies when they are caught with their hands in the till. There is no remorse, to the point that they wonder what the fuss is all about...

And of course the extent of corruption has grown from year to year. Not only because the resources in the treasury have grown – many years ago one minister resigned because he had appropriated 2000 liters of diesel to himself, compare that with 12000 iron sheets stolen from the Karimojong and you begin to scratch the surface of the exponential growth of this industry.

It goes without saying that we should be worried. These rapacious officials will not suddenly get a moral revelation and stop but instead their appetites will grow and grow. They will become so powerful they will capture the state, making themselves untouchable and woe onto anyone who tries to move on them, they will dispose of that person install their own compliant crony and accelerate the eating.

The playbook is well established, documented and time tested.