Theft is theft and we must not normalize it

Companies world over are making significant strides in embracing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles in their operations in recent years, with a focus on sustainability at the forefront. This shift towards ESG has been driven by the recognition that companies that prioritise ESG factors are more likely to be resilient, sustainable, and better equipped to meet the needs of society in which they operate without compromising the future generation to In the last couple of weeks, I have read about hundreds of cases involving people stealing from the dead.
In Boston, Massachusetts, US, police are hunting for one, Dion Smith, 33, accused of stealing from a dead man’s apartment. West of Boston in Janesville, Wisconsin, police arrested three people last week - they allegedly stole items from a home after finding the person who lived there dead.

In San Francisco, California an investigator entrusted with finding out why people had been dying in specific cases since 2017, just confessed to stealing from them (the dead) – ‘accidentally’. In Chicago, one Katrina Pierce, is said to have stolen the identities of dozens of dead people, and used the information to defraud the government of tax refunds and stimulus money.  
In Lebanon, a country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, thieves are now stealing iron fencing from cemeteries and grave sites. They apparently sell the items for a few dollars on the black market.
 It doesn’t get any lower than stealing from the weak, vulnerable and dead.  But why is it becoming common practice?  It is because stealing from the powerless, the poor, and the dead is a low-cost business. In most cases, the poor can’t sue; the dead don’t complain.

Bringing it home, the vulnerable, previously war-ravaged Northern Uganda (which includes Karamoja) has since 2002 received stimulus interventions amounting to about Shs 3.920 trillion.
That’s the equivalent of about 10 percent of the 2022/2023 National Budget. A quick google search on where the poor are most found in Uganda today, lists Karamoja, West Nile, Lango and Acholi in that order. This sounds ironic, doesn’t it? In this part of the world where the international community continues to play a significant patron role, the growling empty stomachs is the only reminder of a life that is soon to be snatched away by hunger, disease or effects of risky behaviours, cattle rustling inclusive.

So, why hasn’t the close to Shs4 trillion sunk into this area over a period of 20 years lifted people there out of poverty?
Well, the answer is simple, the grasping hands of kleptocracy do not spare even the ultra-poor.  I’m certain that if a follow-the-money audit was done, it would reveal interesting findings. From money not reaching the millions of intended beneficiaries to money meant for the region being kept by a few in the uptown suburbs of the capital, Kampala, for personal gain or even money going out of the country for personal reasons or returning to the donors (home of origin).

The abundance of the English language could describe all these things in exotic ways that don’t trigger alarm bells, but it is simply thieving.
You will find some, if not most of those entrusted to handle funds meant to transform the poor or vulnerable feasting on niceties in massive mansions and drinking high-end imported drinks under cool and well-lit conditions, mostly financed with funds stolen from the poor or those at the brink of death.
When we let people steal, let alone steal life-saving things from the poor or vulnerable with impunity we doom people to miserable lives.  Today morning it may be theft of beans, maize mill, goats, iron sheets, blankets, tarpaulins, mosquito nets, etc, in the afternoon, it may be theft of money meant for the elderly, the widowed, youth, refugees etc.

If we do not impose serious consequences, tomorrow we may be tussling the abominable; stealing from the dead – a vice that’s growing in the US. Worse, the behavior that got us into that trouble will have become habituated to a point of no return. By then, who knows, it could be the society of the dead and living that could be stolen.
Theft is theft and we mustn’t normalise it. Those found guilty and their partners in crime must face the music for their outrageous actions and the suffering they cause.

Crispin Kaheru, Commissioner, Uganda Human Rights Commission