There is a common joke in Uganda that if you find yourself without money in your pockets, you are poor alone.
That do not ever think that your poverty is the poverty of others. Thus, it is incumbent upon you, individually, to do whatever it takes to improve your condition. The problem with this clearly selfish capitalist joke is that it hides both our collective suffering and the structural roots of the problem.
Presently, this has gotten worse: Ugandans are stinkingly broke! It is not true that one can be broke alone. Millions of hard-working Ugandans are on the edge of life but have been denied the opportunity to see their condition as a collective condition.
To this end, the power of collective action has been compromised. The Pentecostal Movement – to which many Ugandans subscribe – which sells a “good life” in commodity terms has also cemented this worldview of individual suffering: one is poor because they are unlucky or bewitched – individually.
To this end, one has to look for deliverance from witchcraft or has to seed for blessing to come their way. The most progressive Pentecostal preachers challenge their followers to be more hardworking and more frugal with their expenditures.
The problem rests with the individual. But it is not true that millions of Ugandans are all unlucky, bewitched or lazy. To this end, even the witches would be bewitched themselves. There are some individual Ugandans – the supposedly lucky ones – driving the latest models of cars, completing building units in just a couple of months.
If one strolls through Kyanja, Bulindo, Ggaba, Entebbe, among other places, one is blown away by the number of glossy residential apartments being constructed. Music festivals in Kampala are always sold out.
But all these create a terribly wrong impression of a country doing okay – and if you are not, this is all on you. First, notice that all this concentration is in Kampala, which is the country’s capital – and a few major towns.
A centre-periphery analysis (dependency theory applied at a local level) will demonstrate to you that the little wealth created across the country, tends to concentrate in major towns.
Indeed, all the thieves – local and international – creaming off resources from the remote parts of Uganda, concentrate their loot in Kampala before having it shipped abroad. If they are to invest locally, the concentration is still in Kampala or other urban centres.
This explains the ridiculous amounts of petrol stations germinating in every part of Kampala; apartment blocks among others. I am endlessly wondering for whom are these fancy dollar-rent units being constructed? Fellow thieves?
I could be cynical, but it remains my principle that whenever I encounter any of our so-called billionaires or city tycoons or anyone constructing these high-rise apartment blocks or driving these monster automobiles, I conclude that I am looking at a thief.
The first instinct is that this money is part of the Shs 9 -10 trillion Uganda loses to corruption annually. The second is that these are commission agents and board members of foreign corporations milking Uganda for sport.
And the third are these tenderpreneurswho have the front-row being gifted with any government tender announced, and often, eat all the money. Can you imagine a man – of course, with all associates – ate 294 train wagons?!
THE SHAPE OF PENURY
In 2022, Bank of Uganda told us that only one per cent of working Ugandans earn more than Shs 1m (about $250). This is one per cent of 9-10m Ugandans in the workforce, including the informal sector.
In a word, most of this work cannot enable these Ugandans to afford the basics of life. Out of an alleged 45m Ugandans, it is arguable that above 25m Ugandans thrive on tilling the land – thanks to providence.
Otherwise, all of them would be starving. The ministry of Health has another painful a story to report: 14 million Ugandans are suffering from economic-inspired mental illness, “and the numbers could be higher,” the ministry added. Another 12 million Ugandans – not just in Karamoja – are facing starvation.
An estimated 230-500 Ugandans leave the country every week for menial work in the Middle East. Working in the Middle East has been described as working in slave relations. Against this, then the problem cannot be the individual.
It is a national condition, which needs a collective response. Interestingly, it is not difficult to map the cause of this bone-biting penury – and why people actually have no money in their pockets collectively.
On the one hand you have (a) the banks – charging as high as a mindboggling 20 per cent interest rate, and on the other you have (b) a government tax body and ministry of Finance imposing taxes on people earning just $100.
According to a PWC analysis, Ugandans pay the highest taxes in the region. Why? Notice that this is all happening in a country where (c) the government, embracing the madness of free market economics, handed over all its natural and human resources, all parastatals meant to serve the public good, to foreign corporations.
These are happily creaming all the country’s resources from the major cash-cow of coffee trade to our lakes, marble and gold mines, to electricity distribution and telecommunication, to banks and forex exchange, all controlled by foreign corporations and foreign dealers.
Studies done show that officially, foreign-owned companies in Uganda generate roughly $1.43 billion in net profits annually – and are endlessly reducing their profit reinvestment. Remember that most profit expropriation is never reported. (Most notable Ugandan companies are endlessly applying for bailouts – and many have actually closed).
You could add (d) an unpredictable political environment, a nervous country – with a long and endlessly growing list of notable Ugandans fleeing into exile – and everyone with some wealth using the earliest opportunity to take anything they can touch outside of the country. This has been happening for the last five years as the spectre of transition rears on the country.
EMYOOGA, PDM, ENTANDIKWA?
A first-year student of political economy will tell you that a government cannot double as a credit facility lending or giving money to people directly. People do not need donations of capital to uplift themselves.
No wonder, these initiatives are ever returning under different names – NUSAF I and II, Emyooga, PDM etc – but doing the same thing, with no result. Let’s say that I became so successful after an Emyooga or a PDM donation; to grow further, I cannot go back to government for bigger credit.
I have to turn to the banks. But a banking regime where an average 22 per cent – 40 per cent interest rate is the norm will surely have me bankrupted. People need an environment that enables different talents to thrive.
This environment is often defined principally by (a) protection against aggressive foreign competition (there is none in Uganda), (b) a good banking regime, and (c) fair and contextually responsive taxation. (I have written here before that in Europe – Germany, specifically – before a startup makes €20,000 in net profits, it is exempted from taxes.
Why would a poor country tax a starterup?) Indeed, no one is poor alone. But we are poor collectively. (The concubine of a government official returns next week).
yusufkajura@gmail.com
The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University.