Current politics too messy, says ex-minister Ssekitoleko

When former Agriculture minister Victoria Sekitoleko left her thriving career in agriculture to join politics in 1986, she was certain Uganda would, for the first time, enjoy what she terms ‘good politics’.
More than 25 years after her departure from the political sphere, she still can’t believe how delusional she was.

When she sees what has become of today’s politics, she can’t help but wonder what inspires the multitudes that scramble to join politics every election year. She says what we have in Uganda today doesn’t even qualify to be called politics.
“I don’t understand what I see in the current politics”, she says. “I don’t even know if I should call what we have politics. It has become mismanagement of society instead of managing it; leaders insulting people at every chance they get. If you are in politics and nothing civil comes out of your mouth, I can’t call you a leader.  What example are you giving our children? We have reached a point where we no longer want our children to watch these leaders,” she says.

She nostalgically recalls the leaders with whom she served in Parliament and Cabinet. She says those were men and women of valour, who prioritised the country’s interests.

Background
Sekitoleko served in the National Resistance Council, the 5th Parliament between 1986 and 1994, and the Constituency Assembly which debated the 1995 Constitution between 1994 and 1995.
She was also minister for Agriculture between 1986 and 1995, before she resigned to take up a job with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as a representative.

“When I compare the current Cabinet to the Cabinet I sat in, I feel sad,” she says. “I always sat next to [former East African Community secretary general and minister] Amanya Mushega, [former Parliament Speaker James] Waphakabulo and Chango Macho. Opposite me was always Dan Kigozi, Betty Bigombe…”

Looking at that Cabinet, Sekitoleko says one could see the national and inclusive nature of the Cabinet the country had.
She wonders what the current more than 80 ministers are doing, saying the country seems to be in a mess yet there are many people supposed to be running the government.

She cites the demolition of Ndeeba Church in Kampala last year under unclear circumstance as an example of a messy government, saying if Uganda had competent leadership, the demolition would have forestalled instead of President Museveni coming later to order investigations into the act.
St Peters Church in Ndeeba was dubiously demolished in August last year after the High Court ruled that the land on which the Church sat for more than 40 years was fraudulently acquired.

President Museveni, after the demolition, apparently instructed the State House Anti-Corruption Unit headed by Lt Col Edith Nakalema to investigate the matter. The public is yet to be given the outcome of that investigation.  
 During the time she served in Cabinet, Sekitoleko says a ministerial position carried weight and the country would listen when a minister got up to talk. She says now, the ministers are too many and too inconsequential for her to keep recollection of who is minister for what.

 It is this change in Uganda’s politics that made the former minister detest politics even after she left FAO in 2006.
The current politics, she says, does not inspire her because it is no longer about the betterment of society but about individual selfish interests.
The situation, she says, is worsened by the level to which politics has been commercialised.

“For as long as politics is for sale, count me out of it,” she says. “I would be going against my convictions to give bribes to be elected to work for my people.”
She recalls the politics of the 1980s and 1990s where people would, unprompted, work for the candidate they thought would be fit to represent them without expecting any kind of payment.

“When I had joined politics, there was a man in my constituency who was a builder and was campaigning for me. I wanted to give him money to use to mobilise and he refused it. He would ride his bicycle and canvass all the villages without asking for anything. That’s the type of politics I understand. Can you imagine bribing a 20-year-old with Shs1,000 to vote for me? How will that make me feel? How will I sleep at night?” she wonders.

Because of this, Sekitoleko decided to put her energies elsewhere. She is currently writing her biography and pursuing her other passions – farming and activism for the rights of women and girls.
“I am a farmer’s daughter so I have been involved in doing everything around farming and advocating for the agribusiness sector, advocating for the women and the girl-child.”

Sekitoleko says she is involved in everything that will help Ugandans get out of poverty, saying it is poverty that is making Ugandans sell their rights and their vote to the highest bidder.
“People are in abject poverty, all they are concerned with is survival,” she says.

Sekitoleko is the deputy chairperson of the Private Sector Foundation Uganda board, chairs the Uganda Agribusiness Alliance board and is a member of many other boards, including HEIFER and BRAC international.
She urges Uganda to rethink its education system if this trajectory is to change. She says the system needs to change if the children are to learn things that actually benefit them.

“Critical thinking is not encouraged in our schools,” she says. “The students have to listen to the teacher and repeat what the teacher has said. The previous training of home economics, agriculture and nutrition should be emphasised instead of teaching the children about mixing of formulas,” she says.

She commends the government for opening technical institutes, but says the equipping of these institutions is still lacking. She also has a problem with the distribution of these vocational institutions where one part of the country has several and the other parts have few or none.

But establishing these institutions, Sekitoleko says, is not enough. She wants the government to promote them and make attending them compulsory during the long holidays between the different levels of the formal education.
She applauds Ugandans for striving to make ends meet amidst unimaginable hardships and what she terms as ‘abandonment’ by their government.

“Ugandans are not lazy but they have been let down by the system. Ugandans deserve a system which supports them to live to their potential and abilities,” she says.
The system, Sekitoleko says, has let down Ugandans by not prioritising the activities that would better them and through corruption that has siphoned all the resources from those who need them more.

If Ugandans were helped with value addition, Sekitoleko says she is certain they would be far better off. Apart from the lack of adequate value-addition facilities, the former minister says value-addition is not being approached appropriately. “Value addition is used wrongly,” she says.

She says government needs to be more specific when talking about value-addition by specifying what mode of value addition is appropriate and feasible.
“Value addition facilities are only in Kampala; UIRI (Uganda Industrial Research Institute), Makerere University, Kabanyoro. What happens to other areas?” she asks. “We need to have an incubation centre in every district.”

Sekitoleko, joined politics in 1980 and quit in 1995 because things were not moving as she had expected. The people with whom she thought she was pushing in the same direction, she says, started pushing for a different agenda.
She had joined politics hoping to have a platform to influence and effect change but had within a couple of years realised that was not what everyone had in mind.

 “When I was in government, I thought we were all pushing in the same direction. I put in so much that at one point, I fell sick and was put on bed rest because I was told I was cumulatively tired. The leadership was so respectful and the civil servants did their job.”
To her surprise, things began to change and she thought it wise to exit before being kicked out.  
“When I saw how things were going,” she says, “I told the President I wanted to exit. I had even got a good offer at FAO, so I thought it best to leave.”

Although she had seen the tale-tale signs of departure from the agenda she thought the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party under President Museveni was pursuing, she had no idea how far they were willing to go.
“I had no idea President Museveni could stay this long. I didn’t see it coming. When we started, it looked like we were all pushing in the same direction.”

She says she even supported his idea of banning political parties because she thought that was what was good for the country.
“There were those agitating for multiparty,” says Sekitoleko, who was previously a member of the Democratic Party, having joined it in 1980.
“I was not one of them because I knew under multiparty, the women would be marginalised. As you know, most parties are started by men.”

Her other problem with political parties was that they choose candidates and impose them on the electorate and this choice is rarely on merit.
“I am not going to judge Mr Museveni for overstaying in power, she says, “but I wouldn’t do it if it were me.”
Although Sekitoleko couldn’t influence the change she had hoped to, she is happy with her contribution and is grateful for having been appointed to serve in a ministry she is passionate about.

Future
What she would love to change
Although she vows never to return into the kind of politics prevalent in the country now, there are some things she would have loved to change.
She would have loved to remove the element of money from politics and change the education system.

“Our education system should educate people on things that are relevant and advocate for people who are educated to be the leaders. Properly educated people would be relevant and push for relevant policies.  Having lived in Amin’s regime, I know what damage an illiterate leader can do.”

She adds: “Even now, there is a problem with analog people leading a digital generation. This speaks a lot about the current mismatch. Now we are talking about scientific elections, we are not prepared for that kind of thing.”

Background
Sekitoleko did a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at Makerere University, majoring in farm management and extensions in 1973.
Although she got a job with the Uganda Development Bank immediately after her degree, it was clear her passion was in activism and advocacy for women’s rights and the fight against poverty.  She became part of an organisation called “Friendly hands”, which was fighting against poverty and malnutrition in Busoga Sub-region, which made her a member of the NGO Association.

In 1985, she and other women started Action for Development (ACFODE). Her breakthrough was in 1986, when the NGO association organised a women’s day activities at Nile Hotel in Kampala. She was at the forefront of these activities, which were broadcast on television.
Her passionate participation in the activities did not only enable her catch the eye of Uganda’s newly sworn in President, Mr Museveni, who was the chief guest at the event, but also made her popular enough to win a parliamentary seat in her home constituency of Butembe in Jinja.

She was appointed State Minister for Agriculture shortly after that and two years later, she ascended to the 5th Parliament, the National Resistance Council, unopposed.
She was re-elected to the Constituency Assembly in 1994, but left in 1995 to joined FAO.