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Cabinet Reshuffle: Votes > Performance

I know, this should be obvious. The point of Museveni reshuffling cabinet was not primarily to ensure that the most qualified people become ministers of their respective ministries, but to secure votes for the not-so-distant 2011 presidential election. I know, but does government have to blatantly admit it?

In a recent interview with Uganda’s Independent magazine, the Vice President of Uganda, Professor Gilbert Bukenya gave the following response to the following question:

Q: How do you regard the newly appointed cabinet; is it the best the President would produce?

A: This [cabinet] is a perfect combination which is going to lead us to the next general election with developments that will help us generate more support as the NRM party from the masses. The new cabinet has people whom I think are great performers and this is what the President needs as we move toward the elections in 2011. This does not mean that the previous cabinet did not have performers but I think these are vote winners.

And there you have it. Votes > Performance. No shame, no beating around the bush.

My other favorite part of this interview? In regards to his supposed shenanigans as reported by the Ugandan media:

“What these reports have done to me is denying me a chance to dine and mix with people in open places because during such times stories are made up, actually it’s because of that that I decided to construct gyms and saunas in all my homes so that I work out privately.”

Oh, really? Phew. Gyms and saunas in all your homes? Thank goodness, I was worried.

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Who Cares About Cancer?

Cancer is not captivating. Or, at least, in sub-Saharan Africa it doesn’t seem to be when compared with, say HIV/AIDS or malaria. Why is that? Is it the sheer numbers? The assumption that you are more likely to die of a communicable disease before you will ever develop cancer in this region? Or maybe, like global warming, it’s a scary topic that it is easier to put off thinking about until tomorrow. Or the next day…Or the next day…

It seems like a lot of friends of friends are dying or have died from cancer recently in Kampala. On Sanyu FM this morning, a caller asked for advice on how to handle his relationship with a girl who had terminal cancer. While I have long been interested in health and healthcare in Uganda, I have never looked much into cancer prevalence or treatment. I assumed, at any rate, that treatment was prohibitively expensive for most people when available at all. But do we even have accurate figures on who has cancer and where? I went circles around the WHO Uganda site to find any figures. At best they have projections for 2005, based on 2002 burden of disease estimates. Not exactly what you might call up-to-date or very accurate.

I next went to Uganda’s most recent Demographic and Health Survey, from 2006. I was shocked to find that in searching “cancer”, there was a SINGLE result, out of 501 pages! It was a note on reproductive organ cancer made in reference to the Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy Guidelines that had been developed in 1994.

According to WHO’s stats, cervical cancer is the most common form of cancer in women, followed by breast cancer. In men, the most common is prostate cancer, followed by esophageal cancer. Lung cancer is surprisingly low on the list (9th for men, not even ranked for women), given the number of people I see smoking around Kampala (of course this is not indicative of the rest of the country, but still, Kampala-ites are more likely to be diagnosed anyway I would imagine).

Uganda does have a Cancer Institute, which is almost definitely underfunded, understaffed and ill-equipped, though I haven’t done much in-depth investigation of the place. While cancer may not yet be killing as many Ugandans as malaria or diarrheal disease (which primarily affects children), I have a strong suspicion that it is much more prevalent and pernicious than meets the eye. It may not be captivating, but it is killing. More on this to come…

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More Moyo, Less Bono!

Smart, sexy, Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo has recently published her first book, Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How there is Another Way for Africa. When I read her interview in the Feb. 19th issue of the NYT Sunday Magazine, I immediately shot an email to Andrew Mwenda telling him to pick up the pace with his own long awaited book, which will likely make some similar arguments to that of Moyo (though with considerably more Ugandan and Rwandan examples, among other things).

Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion and professor of Economics at Oxford, has written a review of Dead Aid in the UK’s Independent. Collier actually taught Moyo at Harvard and Oxford, where she did her studies, and I believe he gives a fair assessment of her work. That said, he seems to disagree with some fundamentals, namely that he doesn’t think cutting aid would solve many problems, because he says, “I doubt that many of Africa’s problems can be attributed to aid.” I am not so sure. Problems may not have started with aid, but many are certainly continuing because of aid….

I can’t wait to get a copy and make my own assessment. In the meantime, Andrew, we are waiting! And watch out, your suits are sharp, but Ms. Moyo looks waaaaay better in heels.

(Source: NYT)

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Andrew on Aid (Again)

In his excellent new blog, Aid Watch, William Easterly has posted a video of Andrew Mwenda speaking at a recent conference at NYU. Sadly, my Internet connection is currently too slow to watch it, but I have spent enough time with Andrew at The Independent and around town that I am pretty sure I know what he is saying…essentially that foreign aid makes governments accountable (if at all) to donors instead of their own people, which has damaging consequences for many young and emerging democracies.

I generally agree. In some cases, there is little evidence that governments need to be accountable even to the donors, who seem to keep throwing money at programs and government coffers without following up to see that the money translates into measurable outcomes. Domestic taxes are a good (if obvious) solution. When people are coughing up their hard earned money to pay for public services, for example, they are much more likely to make sure that government actually delivers these services.

Tax collection is not easy, however, especially when the richest businessmen are often top government officials themselves, or have close ties to the government. Studies from the Economic Policy Research Centre in Uganda have found that tax evasion in the country is widespread (an altogether expected finding). I am sure we would be shocked to know the real amount that is owed to the Uganda Revenue Authority. It is also hard to tax the informal sector, which constitutes a large and largely undocumented portion of the economies of many developing countries. Nevertheless, improved tax collection should be a high priority for those looking to create real systems of accountability in countries like Uganda. But who are these people exactly? Politicians? Government officials? The most powerful people in the land? Mmmm, methinks not…

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Not the First Lady I wanted in the news

Last week I noted the seemingly unusually frequent news stories related to First (and former First) Ladies around the world. I almost added at the end, “Who’s next, Mugabe’s wife?” Close, as it turns out. But instead it was Susan Tsvangirai, wife of the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (Morgan Tsvangirai) who died in a car crash in Zimbabwe last Friday, March 6.

There has been some speculation that the crash was not an accident but a malicious attempt to oust the PM, but given the decrepit roads, poor driving and sky high car accident rates in the region, I would not be surprised if the official story (that the driver of the truck that plowed into the Tsvangirai’s car) was true. In any case, it is a great loss and tragedy for the Tsvangirai family (which includes 6 children and two grandchildren).

There have been a number of high profile road traffic deaths in Uganda as well, which has one of the highest road accident/death rates in the region. Yet despite the fact that nearly everyone I know has lost a loved one to the roads, there is little to nothing being done to improve the condition of roads or people’s driving. I don’t understand why. It wouldn’t seem to be a collective action problem, because everyone is suffering and I don’t think one group is disproportionately affected. Perhaps it is a fatalistic mentality when it comes to the roads? I have heard multiple people explain these deaths as “God’s will.” Others have told me they do not wear seatbelts because they would rather be killed than maimed for life.

While I do not consider myself very religious, I do generally understand the “God’s will” sentiment. I do not think it applies here however. It is not God’s will that people within the Ministry of Transportation are not doing their job. It is not God’s will that corruption eats up money meant for road construction so that in the end you have roads that have developed potholes before they are even completed (ahem! Northern Bypass). Submission to incompetence gets you nowhere at best and, evidently, killed at worst.

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First Ladies Galore

Is it just me, are are there an awful lot of first ladies in the news these days? There are Michelle’s biceps (which you too can get with the help of CNN!), former Zambian first lady Regina Chiluba convicted/imprisoned on corruption charges, former Nigerian first lady Oluremi Obasanjo kissing and telling in her new book “Bitter-Sweet: My Life with Obasanjo”, Ugandan first lady Janet Museveni adding Minister of State for Karamoja to her portfolio…who’s next?

In any case, this is the book I want to get my hands on. I hope Mrs. Obasanjo inspires more women to tell the real story of the “Big Men” they love and hate.

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Why?

This weekend should have been a time of celebration for Uganda’s best performing secondary school students. Instead, the family of Isaac Bunkedeko, the best A level candidate of Namilyango Secondary School according to the New Vision, was in mourning.

The young man had planned to study law at Makerere University and become a lawyer, according to today’s article in New Vision. But last week he got a headache, and was subsequently taken to a clinic on Thursday. When his condition did not improve he was taken to the (infamous) Mulago hospital, where he died at 1am on Friday morning. The medical report stated that he had died of “sinuses”.

All I can wonder is WHY?? While it is possible to die of sinusitis, it is very rare, and usually due to the condition going untreated or undiagnosed, or complicated by another more pernicious illness. In any case, I do not understand how or why this happened. In the absence of contradictory evidence, I can only conclude that Uganda’s deplorable public health system has let down yet another bright star.

RIP Isaac Bunkedeko.

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Go abduct yourself

Invisible Children, a “movement” that has tasked itself with resolving the conflict formerly in Northern Uganda and restoring peace and prosperity in the region, is embarking on the latest in its series of adventures — abducting themselves.

Why or how you can “abduct yourself to free the abducted” is unclear. Nevertheless, come April 25th, one imagines that thousands of youngsters across the western world will be in “9 COUNTRIES. 100 CITIES. ONE VOICE,” attempting to kidnap themselves.

A constant debate will be whether an abundance of uninformed and idealistic naiveté, sometimes laced with unconscious hubris, will do more good than harm. While I have my own misgivings about this organization, founded by accident by “three young filmmakers [who] traveled to Africa in search of a story”, I think the jury is still out on whether their intentions, however good, translate on balance into real benefits for the people they seek to “help.”

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Covering Congo


If you’ve been reading/watching international media recently, you’ve probably seen more coverage of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) than you have in a long time. In short, General Laurent Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi, and his National Congress for People’s Defence (CNDP) have been fighting the Congolese army and other militia (including some former genocidaires from the 1994 Rwandan genocide) in North Kivu, Eastern DRC, displacing thousands of Congolese in the process. Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Rose Kabuye, a high ranking Rwandan official, has been arrested in Germany on arrest warrants issued by a French judge.

Most of the coverage you will find in the international press will (and has) focused on the humanitarian crisis that has ensued from the fighting, as well as the possibility of this becoming a regional conflict, not unlike the Congo war from 1998-2003. This conflict, however, is far more complex. European leaders have been jumping into the fray, in my opinion largely because they don’t want to be blamed later for not taking action (a la the Rwandan genocide). Well intentioned though they may be, I have serious doubts as to the level of understanding most outsiders have of this conflict (which is not at all new and stems from fundamental issues involving state capacity and human security in the Great Lakes Region). I also wish the international coverage reflected a deeper understanding of the issues at hand — which include the fast-eroding French-Rwandan relations, French involvement in the Rwandan genocide, the legitimacy of Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his government, the scattered but ongoing Hutu-Tutsi conflicts regionally, the lack of DRC state capacity, and many more. The Economist ran a fairly good piece and I look forward to their future analyses. Mr. Izama at the Daily Monitor also wrote a good analysis of the wider implications of the conflict, including the non-coincidental arrest of Mrs. Kabuye.

Just to give you a different idea of Goma, above right is a photo I took of the would-be idyllic city, as seen from a beach in Gisenyi, Rwanda (just a few miles away from Goma on Lake Kivu).