For every goal Uganda scores, it somehow finds a way to equalize with an own goal

Eritrea. Imagine living in a country where there is no constitution, no elections, no parliament, without an independent judiciary, and no free press.

A country where you can be arbitrarily arrested, tortured and jailed without ever being arraigned in court. One where citizens have to choose between compulsory national service, jail or exile.

The Democratic Republic of Congo. Imagine a country where no matter how much you work, you will never make it out of poverty or be able to afford good education or healthcare for your children. One where a road and high-rise fences are what separates your squalid tin houses from the opulence of the rich who you continue to watch getting richer.

I recently picked up a habit – watching documentaries as part of my lunchtime routine. The practice is something I copied from a friend, Raymond Mujuni; and I think it is a great way to passively acquire new knowledge, especially because you can’t always schedule reading times during the day.

My two recommendations from this week are ‘Escaping Eritrea’ and ‘The life of the super-rich in Central Africa’. Those two stood out for me because in some way, they will have you drawing parallels between Eritrea, the DRC, and Uganda, in ways that make you a little uncomfortable.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a contradiction, in that it is one of the wealthiest countries but also one of the poorest. Nothing epitomizes that complex such as the banks of the River Congo, where some of the poorest Congolese, foraging for a daily meal as fishermen, traders, and casual laborers have views of some of Africa’s most expensive residential estates.

Basically, people who live below a dollar a day are in the same neighbuorhood with others who are paying close to a million dollars for a house. There are many who work hard and have legitimately acquired that wealth but there are hordes of others, mostly connected to the government of the day, who, through unscrupulous means, have acquired so much at the expense of everyone else.

It the kind of thing, if you looked at Uganda, you would juxtapose with neighbourhoods in Luzira and Mutungo, Muyenga, Bunga and Munyonyo (we shall return to these), Kololo and Nakasero – and in future, the general Wakiso-Kira area. Basically, obscene wealth accumulated by a few, in an economy that just doesn’t seem to be working for a majority who are barely managing to get by.

In countries like the DRC and Uganda those sorts of conditions result in sustained social, and occasional political crime, alienation and immigration. Ironically, these problems are not unique to us. Recently, a Kenyan friend sought to draw comparisons between the current rights violations by the President Museveni government with their own experience under the ‘Professor of Politics’, Daniel arap Moi.

We explained that while Moi’s folly was in squeezing everyone and leaving no breathing space, it is not exactly the same with Uganda. In our case, it is probable that there will be no consensus on the legacy of President Museveni. By the time of his departure, there was a general consensus and loathing for Moi, who had successfully managed to alienate everyone through arbitrary arrests and jailing, impoverishment, exiling and killing, and ground the economy to a halt.

It is kind of bizarre that Uganda is a bit like that but not really. You have people living in abject poverty and others thriving – on hope and vibes, or through sheer thievery; you have an economy that is evidently growing but without a proper plan for the largesse to reach everyone; you have government critics and activists resisting and getting away with it, some even engaging in business, while at the same time, others get disappeared – sometimes in broad daylight – for similar or even lesser crimes. It is like a lottery that is rigged well enough to ensure there are wins, but only enough to keep the house from collapsing.

While our social inequity must ring alarm bells for everyone, you also look at the influx of immigrants from the DRC and Horn of Africa along Gaba Road, and thank God things aren’t that bad for us. In many ways, there is a lot going for us, which is all the more infuriating that there is no certainty that things are always going to be that way, because we are always finding ways to screw it up.

Mr Rukwengye is the founder, Boundless Minds. @Rukwengye