Where are Uganda's good leaders? Analysts ponder

OLIVIA NAKALEMBE

KIGO Thinkers, a think tank, has launched a paper that seeks to answer the question: "Where are the good leaders in Uganda?"

The paper was launched at Nanjing Restaurant in Kampala during a policy dialogue.

Political analyst, Yusuf Serunkuma said there is a leadership crisis in the country as Yusuf Sserunkuma, one of the contributors puts it.

He noted that the indicators of the "poverty of leadership" in the country include high corruption levels, the unwarranted constitutional amendments, commercialised politics and what he termed as moral bankruptcy.

Serunkuma said an elective system that locks out many people, especially public servants has left politics for people from the private sector and the unemployed.

In the 2016 general election, the NRM party beat opposition parties across the entire elective platforms with findings showing that opposition contested for only 75% of the positions, leaving 25% of the electoral positions without any opposition candidate.

Veteran journalist, Timothy Kalyegira, argued that the guidelines issued by the Electoral Commission (EC) among others barred candidates and political parties from engaging in any mass outdoor campaign rallies.

Kalyegira said the scientific campaigns are the best in our circumstances much as they have been opposed by the opposition and civic groups.

He said they will narrow the gap between the incumbent and other opposition contestants because all we have to rely on social media platforms.

The EC's issuance of scientific election guidelines was dominated by media reporting of the legality and political implications of the new style of campaigning.

Other analysts suggested that the scientific campaigns have advantages like improved quality of leadership, levelling the ground, reduced cost of campaigning, widened campaign financing options and may spur digital transformation.