Aboneka Writes

WE ARE NOT TOURISTS IN OUR OWN COUNTRY World over, every person is proud to belong to their country and they work day and night to ensure their country is the best. The citizens are the most important facet of any state; they determine the system of governance, distribution of resources and their livelihood. In Uganda, the Constitution gives the power to the people who shall determine when and how to be governed. This means that hey should be at the center of every aspect that will affect them from policy formulation to implementation. I have keenly followed events and my observation is that it seems we are being taken as tourists in our own country that those in leadership are doing us a favour to deliver the little they do. Do we need need for example to demonstrate in order to get good water, electricity, have roads fixed, increase our pay, pay arrears among others? Aren't there alternatives for dialogue? We as citizens give two things to the leaders; votes and taxes and in

In Uganda most of the cabinet ministers also double as MPs, something that we have generally accepted as normal. But looking at it from an angle of effective service delivery, this kind of arrangement needs to be dumped. For instance, how do you expect an Attorney General, who is supposed to be the government’s chief legal counsel, to articulate grievances of his people who accuse the same government of grabbing their land? Even without such contradictions, ministers tend to be very preoccupied with government work and rarely get time to attend to the problems of the people who voted for them. I personally last saw my area MP during campaigns and ever since she was appointed a minister, she has become a rare sight. Her agents keep telling us that the ministerial job has kept her busy but we elected her to represent our views. I know very many people get excited when their MP(s) are appointed to cabinet and hardly ever wonder how then these people would deliver on their campaign