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Museveni’s first 100 days: ‘More of the same’

Saturday October 01 2016

Since taking oath for his fifth term, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has made repeated calls to rally his troops to “mean business,” but a report by the Uganda Governance Monitoring Programme (UGMP) says the leader’s first 100 days in office saw a regurgitation of old rhetoric, with no clear direction on how to improve service delivery by the government.

While presenting the report findings on September 16, Arthur Larok, country director for ActionAid Uganda, said on the balance of things, fail was the verdict.

Immediately he was sworn in on May 12, President Museveni vowed to end corruption and delayed decision making — two of the vices that have characterised the better part of his 30-year rule — and have led to a sick public healthcare system and failing education sector.

But the president’s immediate headache has been how to get the economy to grow faster by reducing the high cost of energy, modernising agriculture, and implementing value addition and industrialisation.

“Coming back to the economy, we must expunge two weaknesses — corruption by public officials and delay in decision-making. These two mistakes irritate the public and frustrate investors. It is betraying the country. In this ‘kisanja’ [term], I will directly deal with the weaknesses,” President Museveni had said.   

For Museveni, whose new mandate will see him clocked 35 years in office in 2021, it is a misnomer to audit his first 100 days — a yardstick of performance normally reserved for first time leaders.

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The spectre of failure and appalling delivery of social services that his opponents pointed out during the presidential campaigns saw the president declare 2016-2021 as “Kisanja hakuna mchezo,” (a term of no playing games).

But the authors of the Museveni First 100 Days Report Card argue that the bulk of the president’s proposals are a regurgitation of the same old ideas, programmes and declarations.

“It is challenging to draw defining lines between old and new ideas,” Mr Larok said, adding that so far, there is no evidence to suggest this term will be different from the others before.

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