.President says the economy is growing qualitatively and quantitatively
By Our Reporters
In his Easter holiday message ,President Yoweri Museveni has reiterated a renewed vigor to decisively deal with the endemic corruption fueled by politicians and civil servants- noting that it is hindering Uganda’s socio-economic transformation agenda.
“There is nothing that we aim at, that we cannot achieve. The only delaying factors have been the phenomenon of parasitism by some careerist politicians and civil servants (abakola kipakasi) and introduce corruption in the process of implementing government programmes such as: PDM, Emyooga, micro-finance etc. These should not be tolerated and will not be tolerated. Otherwise, the sky is the limit,” he said in a message that was shared on his social media platforms.
“After independence, some of the politicians joined the corruption. Before Independence, the few politicians that were around, such as IK Musaazi, had no access to power (decision-making). Hence, they had no opportunity to be corrupt or otherwise.”
“All these wealth creators are suffering because of the parasites in the form of some corrupt civil servants and politicians. However, this suffering is artificial. It is because the victims of corruption do not report. If they report, the corrupt will be crushed,” he said.
“Foreign investors and other service providers are being harassed by these parasites for bribes. Just report. It is easy to eradicate this vice. The war is between the genuine wealth creators (farmers, manufacturers, fishermen, service providers) on the one hand and the parasites in the form of some corrupt civil servants, now joined by some politicians who sell decisions for bribes,” he stated .
Agriculture ,industries
The corruption challenge notwithstanding ,Museveni was of the view that Uganda’s economy is expanding both quantitatively and qualitatively. He cited the sectors of agriculture and the automotive industry where Uganda’s flagship automakers – Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC) is taking the lead to produce vehicles locally.
“Picking five examples is enough to illustrate this. The 5 examples are the following: coffee, milk and tea. Coffee production in 1986 was only 2 million, 60kgs bags; it is now producing 8.5 million bags, targeting hitting 12 million bags soon. Tea was 3 million kgs in 1986. It is now 60 million kgs. Milk was a mere 200 million litres per annum; it is now 5.3bn litres per annum. The portion that comes to the factories, is 3.6bn litres,” he explained.
“Fourthly, cotton is no longer being exported as just lint cotton. The shirts I put on are from Uganda’s cotton, made by fine-spinners. Fifth example is that of Kiira Motors, where the Uganda Scientists supported by, sometimes, government funding, are addressing the issue of Electric- mobility by making electric cars, buses, etc.”
