Ugandans seem to acknowledge that the problems, which are rocking the country today and those to come, are beyond the human efforts and that divine intervention is now needed. This was manifested on February 14, 2006 through the National Prayer Day organized by the born-again Christian community in Kampala.

The prayers themed Repentance and Reconciliation in our Nation was attended by more than 500 people including pastors and some top political leaders of the land who prayed for repentance and reconciliation especially in politics for a new start and cried to God for forgiveness at the Mandela National Stadium, Namboole. They prayed for free and fair elections, honesty to stop corruption, economic transformation, resettlement of the people in IDP camps and reconstruction of Northern Uganda, the rule of law, the stopping bloodshed and violence in all forms among other issues of national concern.

Ruth Birabwa in the opening prayer asked God to bless Uganda and the speakers of the day and censor their words in order to bring about peace, unity and forgiveness in Uganda. Lord let the peace and forgiveness we receive from this place spread to all parts of Uganda and create a difference in the lives of the people, Birabwa prayed.

After the opening prayer, a string of prayers punctuated with music and scripture reading sessions ensued before President Museveni said a humbling prayer.

Dear God our God, I stand here to acknowledge the sovereignty which you entrusted in my hands as the head of the state, I know its not by human power but because of your divine choice. Thank you for the knowledge and understanding you have given me for all this long. I realize that you have given me great favor from you and your people. As your people, we people of Uganda, we have recognized the evil of the present and the past and here we pray for your forgivingness. I pray for your divine power and blessing with each step I take in the next five years as you have always done, prayed the President of Uganda from a written text.

Other prayers
Pastor Deo Musoke prayed for free and fair elections. He begun by asking God to cover Uganda with his blood and bring peaceful elections because Uganda is his country and should not allow it go to the dogs due to election violence and miss handling of the election process. He then asked the audience to raise their hands to join him in prayer, asking God to bless Uganda to exercise sanity and fairness in the 2006 elections.

The pastor said that leadership comes from God and that since God knows the hearts of all men, He should guide Ugandans to choose the right leader to exercise His rule over Uganda.

Musoke prayed for good leaders right from Local Council 1 to the President who are nationalistic, developmental and God fearing. He prayed for president Museveni saying that God should give him another term of office because he has done well and that he is the only leader in the history of Uganda who has acknowledged born-again churches as rightful places of worship. This seemingly confirmed earlier allegations that born-again churches are mobilizing their followers to vote for Museveni.

Then there was Pastor John Bunjo who got to the mike and prayed against the most cancerous problem affecting Uganda today-corruption. He pointed out that Uganda Revenue Authority, Kampala City Council and the Presidents office as the most corrupt offices in Uganda, which need cleaning up as soon as possible if Uganda is to develop.

Bunjo asked God to grant Uganda, leaders of integrity, honesty, and with a nationalistic heart. The pastor prophesized that corrupt officers will not serve in the new government which Ugandans are going to vote in the forthcoming national elections. You will remember that Uganda has featured in many reports as the most corrupt country in Africa, at one time holding the second most corrupt country position in the whole world. Currently, there is a commission of inquiry into the misuse of the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB. A number of shocking revelations have already been put to light and Ugandans are waiting to see how the government will respond.

Economic transformation was yet another issue presented to God for his merciful attention. Before Pastor Aloysius Bugingo could start praying for economic transformation, he briefed the audience about the economic status of Uganda. Uganda is among the 20 least developed countries in the world and due to this fact, Ugandans are discriminated against and labeled beggars, educated Bugingo.

Bugingo asked God to bless Ugandans with the spirit of hard work and investment in order to chase poverty with homegrown strategies rather than running to foreigners for help. He then cursed the spirit of war and foolishness, which he said have escalated poverty in the country.

Requests and promises
The leader of the National Prayer and Reconciliation Team, pastor Joseph Serwadda requested the President to set up a trust and reconciliation commission to spearhead reconciliation and forgiveness in Uganda for harmonious existence of all Ugandans. He went further and requested that February 14, 2006 be made a National Day of Prayer because even the world over it is cerebrated as the day of love (valentine).

However, when the President stood to pray for the nation, he instead promised to change the law, which requires born-again churches to register and renew annually with the ministry of internal affairs and promised to direct the ministry to acknowledge them just like other religious groups. The news was received with ululations and cheers from the mammoth crowd.

Pastor Serwadda expressed happiness towards the president for accepting this sensitive repentance prayer and reconciliation event to take place and for attending it in person. Of the 5 presidential candidates in the February 23rd election, only President Museveni attended this national prayer day.

The decreasing levels of Lake Victoria are affecting East Africa’s economy. Providing potable water, hydroelectric power and inland water transport, the lake also supports many different industries, such as agriculture, trade, tourism, wildlife and fisheries. The lake basin serves as a major source of employment for an estimated 30 million people. Approximately three million people are engaged, directly or indirectly, in subsistence and commercial fishing, and more than 80 percent of the population is engaged in agricultural production as small-scale farmers and livestock owners.

The low water levels have begun to affect the country’s electricity supply. Uganda’s capital, Kampala, has experienced unprecedented power cuts recently. The country has resorted to severe power rationing, with some areas having electricity for less than five hours in a day. Ugandan industrialists have already predicted hard times ahead for the industrial sector, saying escalation in operation costs will force them to shut down, costing thousands of jobs. The Chairman of the Uganda Manufacturers’ Association, Abid Alam said his organization was pushing for dialogue with the energy ministry to mitigate the problem.

“We want the government to subsidize the cost of fuel so that industries can power their own generators, and the government should expediently increase thermal-electricity generation as stopgap measures,” he said.

The Secretary General of the East African Community, Amanya Mushega says the rapidly decreasing levels of Lake Victoria threatens huge trade disruptions among the three East African countries (Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania) that heavily depend on lake borne shipping. Mushega who was speaking hours after a new report accused Uganda of contributing to the drop of the lake water levels secretly said that Uganda along with Kenya and Tanzania would badly be affected by the decline.

“We are soon going to have serious strains on trade because of the alarming receding lake water levels. Shipment charges are already skyrocketing and this will eventually impact on the cost of trading among the three countries, ” Mushega told journalists in Kenya.

Demonstration over abrupt power shortage coming:
The National Tax Payers and Tax Protection Organization (NTAPO) has threatened to mobilize a national demonstration in April against abrupt power cuts in the country. The National Executive Director NTAPO, Joseph Kasibante says that the ungazzeted irregular power load shedding has made the presence of electricity useless. Kasibante asked power suppliers-Umeme Ltd to publicize their load shedding schedules to enable the public to cope up with the system. However, his appeal came on the same day the power distributors published a power load shedding schedule for February.

According to the schedule published in the Monitor and New Vision newspapers, an area which gets power during the day, does not get any at night and an area cannot have power for two consecutive days. The day time load shedding begins at 6:00am and ends at 6:00 pm while the night load shedding starts at 6:00 pm and ends at 6:00 am.

On Friday, Umeme said in a statement that the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited is generating only 170 MW instead of the installed capacity of 300 MW because of the decreasing levels of Lake Victoria.

The Daily Monitor quoted the Umeme Manager for Corporate Communication, Robert Kisubi, as saying on Monday that as the water levels drop, the electricity sector must reduce usage of Lake Victoria water by increasing the load shedding. Although the explanation by Kisubi could be genuine, it took some business people by surprise as many were not expecting a decrease in load shedding. The fear, especially by those businesses renting premises that use a standby generator, is that they will get rent increment from their landlords while those renting in premises without generators fear losing business all together. With the planned closing of one of the power dams in Jinja as a measure to control the water loss from the worlds second largest lake, the situation is only expected to be worse and daytime load shedding could increasingly be experienced daily.

About 90 percent of all the power consumed in Uganda is generated from the two dams at Jinja. Although, Uganda has some hydroelectric potential along the River Nile, only a fraction of it has been developed. As a result, Uganda is experiencing insufficient power. Currently, the country’s power demand is greater than the supply, with fewer than 10 percent of the population having regular access to electricity yet many towns do not have any power supply.

UN official blames drop in water levels on Uganda
Writing in the New Scientist magazine on Wednesday, Daniel Kull, a hydrologist with the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction in Nairobi, Kenya, said Uganda was using more of the lake’s water than was agreed upon 50 years ago under an international pact.

According to Kulls calculations, the water level in the lake is almost half a meter lower than what it should be, with water releases at Ugandas Owen Falls and Kiira dams at almost twice the permitted rates.

Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest fresh water lake, is shared by the East African nations of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. It is one of the most highly populated areas in the world, and the surrounding basin is intensely cultivated. Water levels have plummeted since 2003, and are now at an 80-year low.

However, the United Nations office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs quotes Ugandan authorities dismissing Kull’s conclusions and blamed an ongoing drought in the region for the lake’s low water levels. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Karisa Kabagambe, said the impact of prolonged drought has been severe and that all the lakes in the region have had declining water levels in spite of the fact that Kiira Dam is not connected to them.

Kabagambe says the reduced water levels are the result of a 10 percent to 15 percent decline in rainfall across the lake’s catchment areas during the past two years. But Kull insists that the dams on Lake Victoria were as much to blame for the low water levels as the drought. He adds that if the dams had operated as agreed, the drought would have accounted for only half the water loss.

British engineers designed the Owens Falls dam to generate hydropower without disrupting the natural flow of the water from the lake. A formula known as the agreed curve was set, detailing the maximum water flow of between 300 cu.m. and 1,700 cu.m. per second, depending on the water level in the lake.

According to engineers, the problems began in 2002 when Uganda finished building the Kiira hydropower complex in the eastern town of Jinja after the second dam created a second outlet at a lower gradient than the natural barrier.

Kull estimated that over the last two years, the two Ugandan dams have released water at an average of almost 1,250 cu.m. per second – 55 percent more than is permitted given current water levels.

As the election date for Presidential and Parliamentary Elections draws closer, some people are wondering why there has not been major violence incidents during the ongoing campaigns. Many pundits predicted the current campaigns would be violent.

Today it is exactly 23 days to the February 23, 2006 Election Day and the campaigns seem to be generally going on well and peaceful.

However, some people especially in the opposition are wondering why the ruling National Resistance Movement Organization (NRM-O), which was accused of orchestrating violence in the 2001 elections, has not caused violence as yet.

Nation Media group Managing Editor in charge of Convergence and Syndication, Charles Onyango Obbo, says that given the history of NRM-O, it is surprising that more than a month into the Presidential campaigns there has not been any major violence, save for the arrest of Besigye and a few individual incidents where supporters of the different political parties fight or quarrel.

In 2001, there were many organized groups who beat up, maimed, and in some cases killed people in elections related incidents, especially the Kalangala Action Plan led by controversial Maj. Kakooza Mutale.

Onyango while appearing on Kfm Andrew Muwenda live talk show on Thursday said that the government could be employing non-violence as a strategy to dupe the electorate that all is well and that they are free to exercise their power to choose the leaders of their choice.

Many people say that in spite of lack of major violence, there is too much intimidation going on emanating from both the president and his ministers and the political aides.

Some people are quick to point at the display of military hardware and intimidating language as some of the replacement of the violence, which characterized the previous elections held under the movement regime before it became the NRM-O party.

However, other people suspect that the reason for a non-violence campaign period is due to the reduction in the support of NRM-O leaving it with fewer people who are willing to carryout violence. This has made the government to resort to underground methods of manipulating the election.

Johnson Mutumba a political analyst doubts whether the government can prolong the prevailing peaceful campaigns. He says that the massive support the leading opponent (Besigye) is enjoying will definitely force the government to embark on violence and increased intimidation.

Mutumbas prediction could come to pass especially with reports of loss of jobs and arrests of opposition supporters increasing each day that is passing by. Over the weekend, Ben Bogere a boba-boba rider in Mukono district was reportedly arrested for refusing an NRM T-shirt yet the motorcycle he rides was given to him on loan by the NRM government.

At the close of last week, another election related arrest was registered in Lira district of one Abdul Wambedi. Wambendi a driver with Lira hospital was arrested for being seen flashing a V-sign. The V-sign is known to be the campaign symbol for Forum for Democratic Change.

Apart from arrests and loss of employment of opposition supporters, there have also been reports of buying of voters cards from voters of places believed to be strongholds for opposition candidates. Such reports have so far come from Kawempe division in Kampala district and Entebbe in Wakiso district among other areas.

On Saturday, Maj. Kakooze Mutaale brought a halt to all activities in Soroti town when he marched with his KAP troops in Soroti campaigning for President Museveni and threatening anyone who thinks there is any other candidate worth supporting.

Over the weekend police released the first election violence report and put NRM ahead of all parties with over 80 cases followed by FDC with 24 cases and DP with only eight. Though all were minor violence acts, the police report seem to confirm Mutumbas fears that close to election day, parties will swing into action and shower us some violence.

The utterances by some top politicians has added more wonder to Ugandans who have been left with no option but to guess what exactly the ruling NRM is planning. Some analysts say that the government has changed strategy from open arrogance to underground plans to rig the elections or a combination of both.

Last week, Mughisa Mondo, an ardent campaigner of President Yoweri Museveni and NRM-O told a rally in Wakiso district that the NRM will not accept to lose an election. These are the same people in charge of organizing, counting and announcing the votes. The statement left many people worried that amidst all odds, the NRM were going to steal the election. This and other signals according to FDC spokesperson, Wafula Oguttu that the election is already rigged. Such an environment is likely to send many parties to use violent means to influence the outcome of the election.

If you ask many Ugandans right now, many will tell you about their worry that the campaigns and elections are going to be violent, especially given the strong contest between the two former colleagues, President Museveni of NRM-O and Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye. In the same vein, many Ugandans want a free and fair election, which is only possible if there is no violence and intimidation amongst the political parties and the electorate.

I was passing Nakasero Market in Kampala city Centre on Thursday January 19th 2006 when I saw leading male reggae artiste like Bob Wine distributing campaign posters of Erias Lukwago who is contesting for Kampala Central parliamentary seat.

As he reached the center of Nakasero market, traders abandoned their merchandise and surrounded him with a yearning like that of young kids rushing to find out what their dad has brought on his return home. Others stood on top of their parked vehicles to have a glimpse of the celebrated musicians.

He parked his green Land Cruiser in the market-parking yard and walked around the food stalls greeting traders and distributing campaign posters. He told them “onno ye muntu waffe” (this is our candidate). I later learnt Bobi Wine is promoting the Democratic Party. It is then that I remembered what had not become clear yet.

Ugandan’s growing love for music and the popularity Ugandan musicians are gaining is now forcing politicians to target the music industry for political campaigns.

Different political parties and candidates are now paying lots of money to musicians to perform live at their political rallies. Some candidates have even enlisted musicians to compose, sing and record tunes on them meant to woo voters during campaigns.

Also some musicians have independently started releasing musical albums praising some political parties. This is a trend that has been going on for some time as politicians realized the power of music artists to pool crowds on rallies and to woe voters through songs; and the musicians’ realization is that there is money to be made by singing to impress the politicians or even singing songs particularly for them.

It all begun with politicians gracing album launches of some artistes and buying albums in millions of shillings.

In September 2005 when Bebe Cool was launching his Album the Kisanja (meaning another term of office) Defence Minister, Amama Mbabazi paid shs7m for a CD.

Kisanja is the name given to the candidature of the President Yoweri Museveni who is contesting for the third term in office.

When the number one track on this album the Ekisanja is played at National Resistance Movement Organisation rallies, you see ministers and other very important people dancing to the tunes like the best thing in the world has just happened to them.

When NRM-O was launching its campaigns in Eastern Uganda in Soroti, State Minister for Health Mike Mukula donned in the party T-shirt jumped to the stage and showed the crowds his dancing strokes receiving applauds from his supporters.

After Bebe Cool, Kads band also released 12-track album called Kisanja praising Museveni for the achievements he has consolidated for the last twenty years.

Prosy Kankunda who is a band member in her song Tumwongyere Ekisanja talks about women emancipation, improved roads, and increased number of buildings in Kampala brought by President Museveni.

The song also talks about good governance. In this song’s video, Museveni is shown being sworn after capturing power in 1986 and when he was addressing United Nations Conference in New York in the presence of the former United States President Bill Clinton and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The trend of musicians cashing in on the hot political environment has made music artists expensive and some more popular. Now, hiring a musician to perform at rallies is proving to be more expensive than usual performances because of high demand for their services and their impact on the audience.

You might have heard Musicians like Joseph Mayanja a.k.a Jose Chameleon saying he cannot perform live at any rally below shs2m.

You may think that he is just living in dreams and failing to take the little money when it is available. But the National Resistance Movement Organisation (NRM-O) has promised to pay this amount to Chameleon who was voted Uganda’s best artist for 2003 and 2004.

State Minister Primary education Nyombi Thembo who is also an Executive member of the party is said to have reached an agreement with Chameleon to always perform at their rallies for 2millions shillings.

In October 2005, Chameleon said that the NRM-O and leading opposition group Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) were fighting over him to sing their campaign songs.

Many musicians are not letting this opportunity pass them by and doing all they can to gain the cash they can from political parties. As a matter of fact, almost all candidates from Presidential to parliamentary positions have had songs composed for them as a move to woe voters in their favour.

Never mind whether these musicians will vote for the political parties they sing for or they are just doing business. For now, it seems a working mission and many artists have found a big opportunity in politics.

Some Musicians like Juliana Kanyomozi have not sung any political song for any candidate or political party but their songs continue to rule parties and candidates as they mobiles votes. For example Juliana’s hit song of 2005 Nabikoowa (I’m fed up) is being used by the opposition parties especially FDC to tell Museveni that they fed up of him.

On 14TH November 2005 when FDC was launching its manifesto at Nakivubo stadium, the party officials sung the song to the excitement of the mammoth crowd. It was like a campaign gift sent from heaven.

One of the lyrics in the song says “Wampisa bubi nange nenkukyawa” meaning you treated me badly and then I chucked you but FDC changed it to Museveni watuyisa bubi naffee nitukukyawa– Museveni you treated us badly and we chucked you. And you guessed right, the crowd pulled and danced to the song which is being used by opposition politicians to this day. The Museveni camp has for long been using Geoffrey Lutaaya’s Akyali Mboko (sung in reference to a lady still young and beautiful) to tell Ugandans how Museveni Akyali Mboko and still has a lot to offer.

Ronald Mayinja’s Tuli Kubukenke (we are on tension) is being used by the opposition to tell the world how things are not at their best. Forget that the song is about economic tension due to using borrowed money. The politicians have taken it over and given it a political tinge to work the crowds and their gains are not disappointing.

For now, no music artist seems to be worrying about what will happen after the elections. With the heightened standards and fees they are demanding for their performance and of course singing for candidates who will lose the election, straightening their music and popularity to no political alignments may be hard.

As the February 23rd election date in Uganda nears, political parties are engaged in rigorous battles of wits and maneuvers not only to ensure their presidential candidates win the elections, but to also have the majority members of in next Parliament.

Nominations for Parliamentary candidates were held on Thursday January 12th and Friday January 13th 2006 beginning another platform on which parties have to show their might if they are to ensure they dictate or at least control matters for the next five years.

Presidential Parliamentary and LC5 (district Chairperson) elections will be held on the same day, February 23rd 2006.

All parties are fully aware that while it is important to win the national presidency, it is equally important to have a majority of the Members of Parliament if the elected government is to have its way in the national legislature.

Any lesser achievement than a majority in Parliament will mean the winning government will have a hard time implementing their manifesto and program unless they are to depend on coalitions, which do not have a good history in many African countries, let alone Uganda. Many of you may want to remember the result of the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) and Kabaka Yekka (KY) Alliance of 1965.

So as they campaign to take charge of the country, both the ruling National Resistance Movement Organization (NRM-O), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) and the Democratic Party are hoping they can get enough Members of Parliament to help them manage the government. Because of the odds against him to win this election, few people, if any, are thinking of how Independent candidate Dr. Abed Bwanika will run the government when he doesnt have a party or stable supporters to help him run the government. Of course the parties are also aware that even if their Presidential candidates lose, their having a good or majority number of Members of Parliament is a good consolation and can always play in their favour, if for nothing else to at least to prepare good ground for the particular majority party to win the next elections.

As a result, the NRM-O Presidential candidate, Yoweri Museveni who is also the current President of Uganda has laboured on almost every rally to call upon party supporters to field only one Parliamentary candidate in any given constituency so that they dont divide votes of the party and hand victories to the opposition candidates. Museveni, who is the Chairman of the NRM-O party, has even threatened to suspend any member who dares to stand as an independent candidate in any constituency. But following the violence and fraudulent allegations that marred NRM-O party elections for who should be the partys flag bearers in the constituencies, many NRM-O faithfuls have gone ahead to contest for Parliamentary seats as independent candidates against their own party members.

Even other parties like DP have been marred by the same scenario where people who felt they were cheated in the party primaries decided to stand against the official DP flag bearers even in DP strongholds like Makindye East where current MP, Michael Mabike is standing against official party candidate, Sarah Ssebagala. This of course has a lot of bearing on what a particular party will achieve on elections day.

One of the strategies that parties are using to ensure their official candidates win is to offer them financial support to beat their rivals. The NRM- O is reported to be giving its official candidates 10million shillings as campaign facilitation. The Democratic Party is reported to be doing the same. The NRM-O party has gone ahead to promise big jobs to losers in primary polls to discourage them from competing against other NRM-O candidates.

The opposition on the other hand is depending on allying or also fielding one candidate per party, but the results are far more satisfactory for NRM-O than any opposition party. The head of international relations in the FDC, Reagan Okumu who is convinced that FDC is going to win with a landslide victory in the Presidential polls on Monday January 16, 2006 said that FDCs first government will be a transition government and will have members of other parties including the ruling NRM in its cabinet.

If you read between the lines, this FDC official is conceding their likely poor performance in Parliamentary elections. The NRM already had 10 seats since their 10 of their MPs have already been returned unopposed.

Okumu however says the reason FDC will not get a landslide in the Parliamentary elections is because they agreed not to field candidates in areas where there are strong opposition members whom they hope would support their programs in the 8th Parliament.

Recently, the National Progressive Alliance Party (PAP) declared that they had reached an understanding with the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) to support their Presidential Candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye in return for FDCs support for PAP Parliamentary candidates in unspecified constituencies.

He also says some FDC candidates preferred to stand as independents for fear of intimidation and harassment from the state agents. This is politics, and anything can be something. But the prospect of an opposition candidate winning the presidential election is being tested by the fact that they will not get enough seats in Parliament to help their government as Museveni has depended on the majority in Parliament of the last 10 years.

That is why between now and February 23rd, 2006, many parties are minding much about who is elected in each constituency as they are about who wins the Presidential elections.

The manifesto is organized in six main themes covering all sectors of the Government of Uganda

• Creating a viable economy.
• Re-establishing security, law and order
• Restoring economic prosperity for all
• Management of Human Resource
• Developing agriculture, fisheries and animal industry
• Management of natural resources
• Development of infrastructure and improving Uganda’s role in world affairs
  (Details Got verbatim from the party)Democracy
  The UPC reiterates its position that the NRM government has never had any intention of creating a truly democratic political environment in Uganda.

  Throughout its 20 years of rule, it spanned a stream of lies and empty promises to justify its continued stay in power every time the nation puts forward pertinent demands for genuine democracy.

  It created an oligarchy in Uganda, a state of rule where policy issues are evolved and pronounced by and around the person of President Museveni.

  The nation has been torn to shreds by civil strife covering a significant portion of the country for most of the 20 years of the NRM rule. Throughout this period, many Ugandans have lived in traumatic conditions in camps that lack the most basic security, social and other services and therefore have no appreciation of the role of government.
  The UPC government will establish a transparent mechanism for the review and enhancement of the electoral systems, the management of justice and the rule of law and good governance. It will specifically address itself to eradicating the existing corruption and lack of accountability.

  It will also take all the necessary steps to end civil strife in the country and to return it to deserving peace, tranquillity and prosperity. We shall immediately put in place a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to bring about speedy reconciliation and an everlasting peace in the country.
  We will redefine and rationalize the roles of all the security agencies, including the army, police, prisons and intelligence organizations; and establish and implement a framework for ensuring their accountability.

  The Economy
  Over the last two decades, the bulk of the Ugandan economy has served only a few high ranking officials in the ethno-centric NRM Government. The status quo has prevailed while the bulk of Ugandans in both the urban and rural areas live in abject poverty. National statistics indicate that the level of poverty has worsened and that currently, nearly 40 percent of Uganda’s population (over 65 percent in northern Uganda) live below the poverty line.

  The per capita Gross Domestic Product has stagnated at approximately $300. Yet over the 20 years of the NRM, Uganda’s external debt burden has risen from $1.2 billion in 1986 to over $ 4.5 billion. It is estimated that, in the same period, Uganda has received grants amounting to $ 16 billion.

  The President’s Office and the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development seem to be responsible for both the planning and implementation of government programs while, the National Planning Authority which according to the Constitution is responsible for planning, has been deliberately starved of resources and has never been effective.

  The result is that government planning and policy formulation and evolution are at best ad hoc and at worst non-existent. The UPC government will re-establish discipline in the evolution and financing of government programs.

  The planning function, which evolves evidence-based development plans, will be empowered and separated from the financial management and implementation functions. Other agencies of Government, including ministries, the Central Bank, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics and Uganda Revenue Authority, will be strengthened to play clearly defined roles.

  The UPC government will also facilitate the private sector to play its business role as a key partner in national development. The government, on its part, will focus mainly on standard setting, regulation, monitoring and evaluation.

  Social Services
  Under the NRM government, the health sector has suffered the most brutal damages. For over 20 years, while the population of Uganda has more than doubled, there has been no increase in infrastructure development necessary to provide services to Ugandans as the last batch of hospitals were built by the UPC government in the 1960s.

  Hospitals lack equipment, sufficient staff and recurrent expenditure to provide services effectively. As a result, there are no drugs; patients sleep on floors and medical staff are demoralized. It is not therefore surprising as political leaders and senior public servants have lost confidence and interest in their own medical services and instead prefer to be flown abroad with their families for medical treatment at taxpayers’ expense.

  The education sector has seen the decline of standards in the government – aided institutions of learning. These institutions have been starved of educational resources and their infrastructure deteriorated forcing teachers to move to greener pastures. The quality of graduates at all levels is not able to effectively service the country.

  The UPC government will strengthen the delivery of health services by providing more resources for the rehabilitation and re-construction of infrastructure required for the medical and education services.

  It will also review the policy environment to clearly articulate the roles and responsibility of government and the private sector.

  The UPC government will confine itself mainly to standard setting, regulation, monitoring and evaluation while empowering the private sector to fully play its role.