About the Karamoja iron sheets

The late Kabaka and former President Edward Mutesa II, the man who in the 1960s openhandedly donated his entire salary to help feed the famished people of Karamoja should be turning in his grave following today’s scandals that have infested the resources meant to support the people of Karamoja.

Those who conceived our national motto and sacrificed their well-being to build an inclusive Uganda, where a Ugandan from one corner cares about the plight of another Ugandan in another corner would also be turning in their graves. 

Indeed, our country’s degree of corruption is very high and it compromises the peace of our country considering that one of the essential conditions for a peaceful country is a corrupt-free environment.

Whereas it is expected that government officials are to support the President in designing and executing programmes aimed at transforming the country, the current cases of corruption scandals confirm that some of them join the government only for self-aggrandisement. This is unfortunate and is a national shame. When leaders take the oath of office, they close it by saying ‘So help me God!’. Therefore, we expect them to seek God’s guidance in their duties.

To assert that you were not guided in your duty means you have left God out of your work, because when we swear in the name of God and still honour our national motto, it means at the bare minimum, God leads our conscience.

The testimonies about the iron sheet bonanza are an interesting narrative. When government officials claim that they do not know who took the iron sheets to their homes, it raises the question of whether it is immoral to use items whose source is unclear.

In a standard democracy and civilisation, such leaders would have raised alarm about the presence of items from unknown sources in their compounds but on the contrary, they proceeded to use them. This makes one dispute the claim that they did not know the source of the iron sheets.  It is also bizarre in today’s republic and civilization that those who are implicated in fraudulent actions continue to hold public offices instead of stepping aside to allow room for uncompromised investigation.

One minister’s narrative makes it interesting when he claims that he was simply called and informed about the available iron sheets for grabs. It is like what we read in the Bible’s book of 2 Kings Chapter 7 about the four lepers who discovered that the Assyrians had abandoned their camp  when a great famine hit Samaria.

When the four lepers went to the camp in the twilight, they found the Assyrian had fled and left their tents, their horses,  asses, food and wine  behind. And after the four lepers had eaten, drunk wine and collected plenty of precious items for themselves, they said one to another, this is a day of good tidings.

They unanimously resolved to invite the others to come and also grab some of the goods at the Assyrian camp. This is exactly what the other government officials did – sharing the good tidings with their colleagues after they had collected enough iron sheets for themselves. Our government officials did even better than the four biblical lepers by not only informing and inviting them to the bonanza but also going the extra mile to take some items to the homes of their colleagues.

Bearing in mind that Karamoja is the most underprivileged region in Uganda with over 60  percent poverty rate, those who diverted the iron sheets should have instead been sympathetic and nationalistic enough to contribute to delivering Karamoja from abject poverty and marginalisation. However, the scandal also confirms what Bible says in Mathew 25:29: ‘For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him, that hath not shall be taken away even that little which he hath.’

The leaders who diverted the resources meant to uplift Karamoja are like housemaids who despite being well-fed and well-paid, eat up the sick and malnourished baby’s foods.

  Peter Cromwell , Ugandan citizen