OPINION: Museveni did not disarm, but armed Beti Kamya with his ‘corruption and five-star hotel’ comment

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below”, wrote William Shakespeare in Hamlet. 

Was he referring to Museveni and his recent words about ‘corruption and five-star hotel’?

Of all the controversial comments Museveni has made in his long political career, few have caused more furore and misunderstanding than his advice to the IGG Beti Kamya to ‘Go slow on cracking the whip in the big fish’ - Nile Post, 10th December 2021).

 

http://nilepost.co.ug/2021/12/10/before-you-bite-go-slow-on-cracking-the-whip-on-the-big-fish-museveni-warns-beti-kamya/

 

“We are lucky that corrupt people are here... stealing mainly government money. They steal the money, they put it here, you see a five-star hotel, from corruption. Now you if you concentrate of the life style then they will take the money out, and you will have no evidence here and it will be another struggle.”

The majority of social media warriors claimed this was an incontrovertible proof that Museveni is the Godfather of corruption, enabling and protecting the perpetrators, mostly but not limited to people in his inner circle. 

Others warriors, just as virulent in their view, said Museveni has so publicly contradicted and disarmed his own appointed IGG that she has no option but to apologise to Museveni and withdraw her comment, or resign.

After all, the man now telling Ugandans they are “lucky” to have corrupt people, is the same man who came to power 35 years ago, promising to get rid of corruption and other evils. 

We hold firm that Museveni is only guilty of using ‘words that fly up, while his thoughts remain below’, according to Shakespeare. 

Alternatively, the failure to understand Museveni’s point throws a sharp light on the invisible communication barrier between the Musevenis, who took the Cambridge school certificate in the 60s, and those who the did the latter East African School Certificate, and the latest and Uganda School Certificate now re-baptised Uganda Certificate of Education.

The Bazukulu have their communication barrier too. The graduates of Kampala Parents, and their counterpart graduates from UPE and USE schools in the north, east, central and western regions, struggle to understand each other. 

Whereas the former speak better glass-cutting English than the British upper class, the latter speak English as their ancient parents of my age and those NRA bush war heroes still do, with unmistakably heavy tribal accent.

Whatever our version of spoken English, carefully listen to Museveni’s comment again, and you find that he was not disarming, but arming Ms Kamya:

“They steal the money, they put it here, you see a five-star hotel, from corruption”, In other words, use these hotels as prima facie evidence and take the proprietors to court.

His next comment needs no interpretation: “If you concentrate on the lifestyle then they will take the money out, and you will have no evidence here and it will be another struggle”.

Granted, the 2005 United Nations Convention against Corruption is a  legally binding international anti-corruption multilateral treaty, in theory.

In practice, however, international politics would make it a struggle for IGG Kamya and government to trace and locate and use as evidence, any property purchased in foreign countries. Billions of dollars stolen from Africa still lie hidden, sometimes forever, in numbered accounts in Zurich and elsewhere in the west.

Yet, even yours sincerely is asking these $64 thousand dollar questions:

What difference does it make to an expectant mother and her unborn child waiting to die at home or on hospital floor because government funds are stolen to purchase a five-star hotel in Kampala or Kuala Lumpur?

Or, what difference does it make to the medical interns, our priceless national assets, who are being summarily expelled because someone has stolen the money that should be used to meet their legitimate demands?

And what does it matter to a poor child who cannot afford the extortionist school requirements because their hard up head teacher must have these to supplement their teachers’ income?

Should we say the last words?

By “we are lucky that corrupt people are here”, Museveni did not mean to say the corrupt are a blessing to Uganda.  Rather, he meant to say, they are here with the self-incriminating evidence of their corrupt practices. 

Why hasn’t any State House official, or one of the armies of Presidential Advisors spotted this and stepped forward to correct the damaging misunderstanding of Museveni’s comment, making clear that he was not disarming, but arming the IGG Ms Kamya?

Why?

Sam Akaki

Apac sub county, Maruzi County