Why Ugandans are scared of ‘investors’ and ‘development’

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  • Happy 25th birthday to the Daily Monitor and what a worthwhile journey it has been. May there be many more to come.

Surprisingly today, two words with positive nuance make very many Ugandans jittery. The first is ‘investor’ and the second is ‘development.’ Before we settled for ‘investor’, the term would be tagged along with the word ‘foreign’ to make ‘foreign investor.’ That was until it became apparent that this unique breed of human beings were always going to be foreign and, therefore, it was being verbally extravagant to state the obvious.


How did these words undergo a metamorphosis in the minds of many Ugandans, that makes them dreaded in this day and age, is very interesting. Once upon a time, in 1986 when the NRM shot its way to power, the catch phrase for the revival of the economy was building an independent, integrated, and self-sustaining economy. Uganda had to care for herself and not depend on aid and foreign help, said President Yoweri Museveni. The other leaders regurgitated the same and versions of the above.


With time, we went bowl in hand to the Bretton Woods institutions and soon the song changed to ‘Uganda is so peaceful and promising that is why it is the largest recipient of foreign aid south of the Sahara.’


The institutions came with their money and conditions. Soon we had to restructure and privatise. The government had no business in doing business. The parastatals, it was claimed, had become dens of thieves.


Jobs were lost and hitherto government property, factories, houses, etc, were sold to many officials in the regime at giveaway prices. Services that were previously provided by the government like the marketing of produce were left in the hands of individuals. Many of these borrowed to take on the herculean task and ended up losing their deposit to financial institutions.


Most of the private capital not adequate for the task and many of what we called the tycoons were in for a quick return on their money, which money in most cases, was not sufficient to handle huge transactions and make long-term investments. Uganda became desperate and went shopping for foreigners with money to come and invest it here. NRM threw sweeteners and several incentives in their faces to attract them.


For instance, they could come and get free land, and repatriate all their profits. The investors came alright. Many did big things that transformed the economy in the telecoms, banking, insurance, hospitality and manufacturing sector. But phony ones came along too. Soon it emerged that the investor could become a great avenue for those wide-eyed schemers to get rich quick.


Schemers connected to the higher echelons of power begun interesting foreigners (for a fee) in all sorts of schemes to get rich quick. They brought these investors and connected them to get concessions on say a huge chunk of land to build a hotel, a mall, housing estate or factory. The original occupants were dispossessed of their land to give way to ‘development’ by an ‘investor’, who was going to bring money to this poor country. This would ostensibly create the badly needed jobs and enhance household incomes as the country speeds towards ‘middle income.’


The investor and his development then became a threat to property of several locals. In the Altertine graben, and in parts of northern Uganda where it is speculated that oil exists under the ground, this is a story many can relate with. Now the government has taken it a notch higher. There is a proposal to amend Article 26 of the Ugandan Constitution. It will allow government to ‘forcefully’ take over land prior to compensation and consent of the sitting owner - all for the sake of - you guessed what investment and development together with other government projects.


As Mr Museveni and the NRM government move further and deeper into the scheme of perpetuation (term limits gone, age limit threatened), the terms ‘investor’ and ‘development’ in this context becomes abundantly clear. The foreign investor is favoured for he is an easier agent to control. Should he get entangled in the politics of the day, which pits citizens against a government whose legitimacy is declining exponentially, you threaten their capital through expulsion from the country. The local then becomes a mere employee on the job and squatter on the land, who may be similarly controlled through the investor. Should they get entangled in Opposition politics, it is easy to press the investor to sack them.


So the development brought by the few favoured investors is essentially meant to rein in the locals. The investor becomes a good cover to use for sinister politics. Should the government have its way on the law to acquire land forcefully the investor will come in handy.


It will then be easy to influence and manipulate people. A threat to remove them from a piece of land and give it to an investor if they don’t vote this way or that way, could be tabled to them. So may the government opponent lose his farm or home for a huge investment in a factory.

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Happy 25th birthday to the Daily Monitor and what a worthwhile journey it has been. May there be many more to come.

Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. [email protected]
Twitter: @nsengoba