Uganda is rotten with corruption, says RDC

Lira RDC Mr Emmanuel Mwaka Lutukumoi (R) recently. file photo

LIRA
Lira Resident District Commissioner (RDC) on Tuesday stunned visitors at the Uganda Technical College in Lira when he said “Uganda is rotten due to corruption”.
Inspecting 38 computers procured and delivered to UTC under the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) project, Mr Emmanuel Mwaka Lutukumoi who is the presidential representative in the district said Ugandans live in a rotten country because corruption has eaten all the sectors.

The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) report; Letting the big fish swim: failure to prosecute high-level corruption in Uganda, described corruption in the country as “severe, well-known” and something that “cuts across many sectors”.
“You know we Ugandans today live in a rotten country. We are in a rotten country, with rotten people and sometimes we get rotten things,” Mr Mwaka said.

He added, “The watchdogs have become dogs and the dogs are around. So we have to be careful and check everything that comes.”
The RDC urged UTC administration to utilise all the facilities constructed under the project for improvement of the institution.
Under Uganda National Education Support (UNES) project, the government has constructed facilities; library, dormitories, classrooms, laboratory and a health centre worth Shs9.8billion. The funds to put up the facilities were secured through loan from the IDB.

Mr Nathan Talwana Bucha, UTC principal assured the RDC that the institution will serve the purpose for which it was established.
“We are here to develop this country,” Mr Talwana said, adding that the IDB project has solved nearly all the challenges the institution was faced with.
He highlighted the challenges as lack of adequate accommodation for students, inadequate lecture rooms, workshop equipment, textbooks and computers.
“I would like to thank the government of Uganda and the IDB for supporting us. The project has done us a great deal,” the principal said.

Corruption deprives the Ugandan economy of 500 billion shillings each year according to the World Bank, roughly 130,000 euros.