Are we paying tax for systems that are no longer working?

During Budget reading for the Financial Year 2018/19, President Museveni while addressing Members of Parliament and millions of Ugandans, said he had been provoked enough. As reported by media, the President said he did not want to hear that suspected killers whom he described as ‘pigs and idiots’ who kill Ugandans, have been released on police bonds and court bails.
His statement, a clear violation of the rights of those detained, did not shock Ugandans. In fact, the sentiment received an excited response from Members of Parliament, who cheered him on.
Later, again while addressing the Parliament this time about the state of security in the country, President Museveni is quoted by the New Vision saying, “When I intervened in the murders of women in Entebbe, in Masaka (New Year’s Day), of accountant Susan Magara, in Namayingo, I just sat with the people. Straight away, you could see the clues.”
Negligence and collusion with the criminals by some elements in the security forces have been part of the problem.
He goes on to add: “I had not directly involved myself in the fight against crime until the killing of Maj Muhammad Kiggundu and AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi. I had assumed that our police force, which is full of educated people, would handle crime. However, the earlier killing of Muslim clerics and state prosecutor Joan Kagezi, provoked me into action.”
With this, the President discredited the police force that is mandated to protect the citizens of the land; and appeared to be the only one who can manage the security of the country.
Many might argue that what the President says is public policy, and therefore, it becomes government policy. This argument is flawed for the inconsistencies when it comes to structures in place to follow up the Presidents’ directives.
In 2013, the committee on Government Assurances, then headed by MP Odonga Otto, published a report with 871 unfulfilled pledges by President Museveni from 1986 to 2013, at an estimated cost of Shs 12.9 trillion in key areas of infrastructure like roads, hospitals, schools, airports, etc.
This Shs12.9 trillion excluded assurances that cannot be quantified in pecuniary terms like creation of new districts and setting up of town councils.
Jacob Oulanyah, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, ruled saying the promises cannot be verified if the Prime Minister was not present or any minister to note them down. The report has never been discussed on the floor of Parliament.
This basically means that the President can go around making promises that he won’t keep and no one will hold him accountable. The money, children, army and oil can be referred to in first person possessive as we have heard before. The media has remained complacent in the narrative, feeding as headlines of donations to churches and saccos without clarifying where the money is coming from. Are they personal donations or taxpayer donations? If personal, from where?
It appears that institutions are not working, and human rights and certain privileges are only extended to a small group. The system is rigged for certain identities and class that determine the access one might have.
So maybe we just need to be clearer about what this is, and cut away all the expenses to the taxpayer. If Parliament is not doing anything, let’s dissolve it and use the money they spend on sittings, iPads and cars on medicine in hospitals.
If the police are not doing anything, let’s trim the Force too and do not have to worry about housing and salaries. Uganda, otherwise, keeps spending money on a large Cabinet without power, an overpopulated Parliament and a toothless Judiciary.

Ms Kemigisa is the head of content for Center for Policy Analysis.