The new ideas politicians could develop for Uganda

By Nsubuga Mukedi

As Uganda deepens into a political season for the 2016 national elections, a lot of manifesto pressure is beginning to emerge for every politician and political party.

Lots of ideas are being proposed and crafted into political programmes to induce the voters for support in the name of winning an election.

Ideological ambiguity, over ambition, political and factual emptiness in many times engulfs the minds of our political planners and in most cases their manifestos come out extremely exciting but totally irrelevant to the Ugandan hard won situation. Ugandans need Ugandan made politics fuelled with promises that add value to their endangered livelihoods.

Household and rural poverty, youth joblessness, corruption, land grabbing, excessive political spending with impunity, uneven economic growth, a worrying external debt and a perpetual trend of strikes in the state universities and public service coupled with low national export volumes are some of the strategic problems to revamp for Uganda.

Other critical national challenges include the endless and constitutional presidential term limits that confusedly crops an automatic presidential monarchy in Uganda, the poor state of urban and community roads across the country and an improper and decayed national health system that needs strategic redress. Others include, multiple taxation of enterprises in the name of speeding up economic development, the country’s unclear foreign and regional policies, political and socio-economic interventions and above all the uncontrolled fees and tuition charges asked in schools and higher institutions of learning that have heavily impoverished the Ugandan Parents.

A rightful politician works to transform communities and so must develop solutions to make Uganda a better country to live in. The new ideas to develop for Uganda in this regard may include:

·        Public partnership with established employers: To solve youth joblessness, the Government should partner with the already established employers in form of a percentage tax waiver to enable companies save funds, create jobs and pay for the new entrants. This initiative will inspire and enhance practical entrepreneurship and employability skills and knowledge in the youth to achieve sustainable self help overtime.

·        Establish Uganda coffee industries: A national coffee industry should be established to process all the Ugandan coffee into finished products and to sale and market such coffee locally and globally. This initiative will require the state to start up a national distribution company to undertake this service effectively at local and international levels.

·        Establish Uganda coffee stores: The Government should develop a national coffee store to buy local coffee at a government established farm price below which it is criminal to buy or sell. This store should collect and supply all the raw coffee to Uganda coffee industries and other stakeholder groups for processing and selling to the consumer markets worldwide. This initiative should be replicated in all the major agro income earners in the country.

·        Establish a national commodities exchange market: The Government should establish this market to bring together all the local producers and consumers at a one stop centre to enhance consumption and organised production at local and national levels. This initiative will induce global competitiveness and standards into the Ugandan products as the country positions itself for global markets.

·        Establish a national export leadership authority: Uganda is low in the export sector. Ugandan’s economy will never fully stabilise unless the country exports more than it imports to garner adequate foreign exchange. An export authority is significant at this stage to inspire, develop and promote the country’s export development strategy effectively.

·        Replicate KCCA Kabakaanjagala Road: The Government should replicate this road as a model and minimum standard for all Kampala city and other urban roads across the country. The rationale is to give Uganda a new urban facelift suitable for promoting urban tourism for sustainable development. A good politician always advocates for good and sustainable infrastructure for his and her peoples.

·        Establish holding companies in all higher institutions of learning: As a medium and long term measure to minimise strikes in higher institutions of learning, the Government should legislate for the establishment of holding companies to undertake business in support of the incomes acquired from students to stabilise institutional economies. The Government should also plan to support these companies in their infancy to accumulate adequate seed capital for faster development.

·        Develop academic research papers into business projects: As a requirement to complete any academic course, the Government should legislate for the implementation of a student’s project work by the authoring student as part of the requirement for the fulfillment of any academic programme in Uganda. This initiative, if supported by the Government will create self-help employment before a student finally leaves a college or university and so, youth joblessness will be eradicated in the short and medium terms.

·        Introduce a household production law: To improve household incomes and local production, the Government should legislate for mandatory production that engages every family across Uganda in some form of lawful economic activity for sustainable development. This law should then be domesticated to district local governments for effective implementation and local economic monitoring for development.


The writer is a senior public sector management scientists and the Executive chairman of Mukedison Group International a worldwide development consulting entity.