Hip hip hooray! UPDF provides reason to cheer

If its past has been a little chequered, the UPDF seems firmly on the path to building a glorious future for itself.
In Somalia, the grand project of stabilising that country’s politics with a strong army as an anchor has failed nearly 10 years since the UPDF deployed to facilitate that process. We just learnt this the other day from Gen Yoweri Museveni, the pan-Africanist. For Ssabalwanyi to concede this particular fact, the scale of defeat of the vision and mission must be quite spectacular. The planning for the UPDF withdrawal, in about 18 months, seems to have started.
The UPDF is also abandoning its years-long hunt for the LRA fighters and is returning home without the head of rebel leader Joseph Kony.

Pulling itself up slowly
That said, the Ugandan military has acquitted itself well. It may have failed to build a decent army in Somalia, but that country is pulling itself up slowly. Images of the UPDF treating the Somali sick and providing clean water over the years have not hurt at all.
And while Kony still holds out in a cave in Kafia Kingi, the LRA’s ability to kill, maim, abduct, and pillage is severely limited.
Accusations of rape, killings of civilians, corruption in these theatres and at home, while serious, seem to be isolated occurrences.
Which brings us to the UPDF’s latest exploits: evacuation of nearly 50,000 civilians, including nearly 10,000 non-Ugandans, from South Sudan in just days.

As a small ‘patriotic’ principle of mine, I never write about the Ugandan military unless I have something decidedly positive to say. At this point in the UPDF history, the working conditions of the foot soldiers could be much better if only its leadership applied itself a lot harder. I think the men and women in uniform give much, much more than they get back. That I respect.
It is all the more impressive to see these same hardworking and underpaid men and women do neat things like the South Sudan evacuation, which I believe is the first such operation in Uganda’s history. This is exactly the kind of stuff that justifies the existence of a thing called ‘the government’, or indeed ‘the state’.

Not so long ago, it could easily have been another country evacuating its citizens from a failed Uganda. So much has changed, making it hard to argue against President Museveni’s frequent boasts about turning around Uganda’s fortunes.
The trouble for him is that it is precisely because so much good has happened in the last 30 years — and some of us think a lot more could have happened — that we want more, better, faster. And going by the vote tally in the recent presidential election, millions believe Mr Museveni is not the leader to provide more, better, faster.

‘Noisily demand more’
But because the man is still around for another five years (it could be many more going by the carefully orchestrated noises that started in Kyankwanzi recently), Ugandans should noisily demand more. The UPDF’s successes need to be the order of the day throughout the government, not the exception.
Five years is a long enough time to do brilliant things. We want schools that teach, health centres that heal, roads that don’t kill, wetlands that are wet, thieves that are in jail, police that polices, factories that manufacture, agriculture that produces.
It is such a modest set of demands, wishes and aspirations. We need not wait another 30 years.
For now, berets off to the UPDF.

Mr Tabaire is the co-founder and director of programmes at African Centre for Media Excellence in Kampala.
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Twitter:@btabaire