Tragedy of Kitante school land: What will the Big Man’s successors eat?

So what would happen if a charter school system were created? First, Kitante would be so rich, you can be sure that the headmaster and all the 50 or so teachers and their wives would vote for an NRM presidential candidate anytime...

So I read in Daily Monitor that the Big Man has given away two more acres of Kitante Primary School land. In 2007, he gave away five acres.

Daily Monitor notes that the hospital that was supposed to be built on the land six years ago is still a myth, and the only activity happening on the land is some brick making.
That should not be surprising. The investor, apparently a one Dr Tamale Sali, who got the land, is better off not building a hospital on it. You see, if in 2007 the land was worth Shs1.5 billion, today it is probably worth Shs10 billion.

There is no hospital, even if it were offering some specialist surgery that elongates rulers’ lives by 10 years, that Dr Sali would build on that land and get that kind of return. Such are the mysteries of the market and capitalism that the good man stands to make more money doing nothing with the land, than sinking money in a hospital hoping to recoup his cost in five or six years. Now, all he has been investing is air, and he could be a billionaire.

However, there is a bigger story in the give away. I am a great believer in the open and free market, so I think that, first, there needs to be public consultation about whether such land should be given away. Secondly, if the agreement is that it should be given away, then it should be bidded for openly, not allocated arbitrary by a big man.

Thirdly, Kitante school, which has been the custodian, should get a cut of such land sales – say 35 per cent, which should go into an endowment fund for the school. This means there is a need for a new law to allow all public schools that have large chunks of land to sell some to the highest bidders.

Of course, corrupt school headmasters and headmistresses will steal the money, and the country could have a “civil war” as the politicians fight to appoint their cronies to schools that are land-rich. So I would suggest that the law establishes a “School Trust Fund”, fashioned along the lines of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) that would receive all the money and invest it. Schools like Kitante would receive a dividend cheque of about Shs1 billion a year. Surely, that is enough to build labs, buy books, pay teachers performances bonuses, and leave enough for the headmaster to line his pockets.

Oh, yes, I forget. All such schools should be reclassified as “charter” schools, and receive only a minimal grant from the Ministry of Education. That would free up more money to be spent on land-poor schools to also raise their standards.

Of course this won’t happen. Not because the proposal is too insane or overly disruptive for a traditional government education bureaucracy to accept, but because the Big Man is not thinking about tomorrow.
For the question a wise ruler would ask is; if the State House and leaders of today give away all public land, and dine on all the groceries, what will the Movement cadres of tomorrow feed on?

What patronage will the NRM leader who succeeds Museveni dole out to buy loyalty? Which public lands or forests will he (or she) give away if the Big Man hands out everything today? What will attract the army of self-serving Ugandans, who are usually very good political mobilisers, to the NRM of tomorrow if even all the markets will have been given away?

So my totally unsolicited advice is that the Big Man rethinks his approach to handing out public property. Giving nine acres of land to Dr Sali benefits mostly him and his family. It probably gets the Big Man two votes from Mr and Mrs Sali.

That is terribly inefficient. Such prime land is worth 20,000 votes and more. So the trick is to give it away in such a manner that it benefits the NRM.
So what would happen if a charter school system were created? First, Kitante would be so rich, you can be sure that the headmaster and all the 50 or so teachers and their wives would vote for an NRM presidential candidate anytime in future to protect the system. That is more than 100 votes already higher the current two.

Now imagine the School Trust Fund is sitting on Shs2 trillion. That would give the president who appoints its managing director a lot of power. The School Trust Fund could be directed to put money into a small business fund, from which more than 1,000 companies borrow—all those are thousands of votes for the future NRM leader.
So the real tragedy of the Kitante school land grab is the selfishness of the Big Man and his lack of consideration for what his successors will eat.

cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com & twitter@cobbo3