Parish Development Model and Uganda’s rural economy

Last Thursday (August 18), the Electoral Commission of Uganda conducted a by-election in Busongora County South, Kasese District.

I reached Kasese Town on Tuesday, August 16 at 10pm. At 10.05pm, I received a WhatsApp message from an old friend (whose name shall remain anonymous for now) reading: “Election thief Asuman Bisiika sighted in Kasese Town a day before Busongora South by-election”. I died of laughter but still managed a response: “Shame on you. I am in Kasese to study Parish Development Model. His next message: “Thieves and their quick excuses…”

I had been thinking about my brother Arafat Asuman and his hustle with the soil (and tending a few animals). With the unforgiving drought in Kiburara, Arafat knows what he needs: a water pump with one kilometre pipe. The last time I visited, he was elated about what he called Palisi Modo. “I don’t need their money; they should bring me a water pump and I show them that we young people are hard workers,” he intimated

Even with overly presumptuousness, my young brother knows that cash should not be thrown at people who earn from their sweat. Yet the main plunk of the Parish Development Model (PDM) seems to be ‘the distribution of cash’ to the beneficiaries. And you ask: really? Didn’t we have enough lessons from Emyoga?

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Mr Adrian Katwetejyeke was the district Co-operatives Officer for Kasese when I was working in the Public Health Department of Kasese Town Council (as Kasese Municipality was then styled). Katwetejyeke is now the big man with Cotton Development Organisation (CDO) in Kasese.

So, after the sim sim bumper harvest last season, my brother is doing cotton on his two-acre shamba which has been adopted by CDO as one of the model cotton fields. He had a few hitches here and there but for good measure, Mr Katwejyeke intervened to sort my brother’s issues.

But as I write this (on Thursday afternoon), there are no cotton seeds in Kasese District (this time even my friend Adrian Katwetejyeke may not be helpful). The cotton seeds are expected to reach Kasese next week and you can bet they will reach the growers in the week after next.

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President Museveni has been consistent in getting the rural folk into the cash economy. Unfortunately, for Mr Museveni, he looks at these things as part of his political projection. That’s why I think the money aspect of PDM will deploy in the 2025-26 Financial Year (do not wink…!).

The people involved in some kind of production in rural areas just need a small non-cash push to increase their production. The rest should be handled in the mainstream government service delivery profiles. Therefore, Mr Museveni should just give my young brother a water pump so that my brother “shows Ugandans that the youth can be youthful and useful”.

Anecdote

During the 2021 General Elections, I had a contact (in the system) who had some campaign funds. I had this boda boda Sacco whose chairman had a very easy-to-understand project proposal. The Sacco needed Shs30m to purchase five motorcycles and get five more on loan. In one year, returns from the five motor cycles (bought on cash) would have cleared the cost of the five purchased on loan.

I got the Shs30m and gave it to the Sacco guys. As I write this two years later, there are no motor cycles bought. The Sacco chairperson and his executive committee just ‘ate’ the money. Dear PDM implementers, please don’t give cash to our people, teach them to make cash.

Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of the East African Flagpost. [email protected]