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Fellow Policy Implementers and Enforcement Officers,
Dr. Rugaju says: All excuses are equal, but they don’t cancel the responsibility. “I was ordered by above” is an excuse. “Everyone does it” is an excuse. “The salary is small” is an excuse. The President gave us an order in Article 99 of the Constitution: Execute government policy. Excuses are mutiny.
H.E. General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda, has never been silent. In every State of the Nation Address, NRM Manifesto Launch, and Liberation Day speech, he declares war on corruption. He calls it “the number one enemy of Uganda after insecurity.”
He has given us the tools: The Anti-Corruption Act 2009, IGG Act, Leadership Code Act, Public Finance Management Act, PPDA Act, and State House Anti-Corruption Unit.
Yet corruption lives in our districts. It sleeps in our offices. It eats from our desks.
2 Samuel 12:9 asks: “Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes?” Today I ask us: Why have we despised the word of the President by doing what is evil in our districts?
We have betrayed him. And our people are bleeding.
HOW WE HAVE BETRAYED THE PRESIDENT IN OUR DISTRICTS
As RDCs, CAOs, DEOs, DHOs, Engineers, Procurement Officers, Police, DISOs, and LC5s, we are the President’s hands and eyes in the districts. But look at how we have cut off those hands:
Area of Betrayal How We Do It in Districts President’s Directive We Violated
Normalizing “Kitu Kidogo” Inspectors take UGX 50,000 to ignore illegal holiday teaching. Health Inspectors take “lunch” to certify a dirty restaurant. Police take 20,000 to release a suspect. H.E. Museveni, 2023: “No one should pay a bribe to get a government service. It is their right.”
Ghost Projects & Shoddy Works Engineers certify a 1km road yet only 400m is done. CDOs pass ghost PDM groups. Head Teachers submit ghost pupils for UPE. H.E. Museveni, Manifesto 2021-2026: “Value for money. Every coin must be accounted for.”
Selling Jobs & Transfers DSC members sell teaching jobs for 2M. CAOs transfer hardworking staff who refuse to cooperate. LC5s push for recruitment of unqualified relatives.H.E. Museveni, Labour Day 2024: “Jobs are not for sale. Merit is the only currency.”
Selective Enforcement We close a poor woman’s kiosk for no license but fear to touch a politician’s illegal building in a wetland. We arrest a Boda rider without a permit but escort a tycoon’s untaxed trucks. H.E. Museveni, 2022: “The law is a lion. It must bite both the poor and the rich.”
Budgeted Silence We receive funds for monitoring and supervision, but write reports from office. The DEO’s fuel is used for private errands while schools illegally operate. H.E. Museveni, 2019: “Government money is not for eating. It is for working.”
Protecting the Guilty When IGG or SH-ACU comes, we hide files. We warn suspects. We transfer whistleblowers. We say “let us handle it internally.” H.E. Museveni, 2020: “Expose thieves. Don’t cover them. You are not a priest in confession box.”
Dr. Rugaju says: All excuses are equal, but they don’t cancel the responsibility. “I was ordered by above” is an excuse. “Everyone does it” is an excuse. “The salary is small” is an excuse. The President gave us an order in Article 99 of the Constitution: Execute government policy. Excuses are mutiny.
THE IMPACT OF CORRUPTION IN OUR SOCIETY AND COMMUNITIES
Corruption is not “eating.” Corruption is killing. Here is the blood trail in Kanungu and Uganda:
Impact on Service Delivery
Education: When a Head Teacher steals UPE capitation, a P.1 child sits on the floor and drops out. Literacy rate falls. We create a generation of houseboys.
Health: When a DHO steals PHC funds, a mother delivers on the floor at Kihihi HC IV and dies of bleeding. Maternal mortality rises.
Roads: When an Engineer takes 10% kickback, a murram road washes away in one rain. Farmers can’t take tea to market. Household income collapses.
Impact on Justice & Security
Police Corruption: When a CID takes money to lose a defilement file, the rapist walks free and defiles again. Community loses trust in government.
Land Grabbing: When Land Board members are bribed, widows are evicted. Land conflicts become murders.
Impact on the Economy & PDM
Investor Flight: No investor comes to a district where the LC5 asks for 30% before signing a land lease. Jobs are lost.
PDM Failure: When Parish Chiefs give PDM cash to relatives who buy boda bodas instead of enterprises, the fund dies. In Kanungu it is on record after the baraza held in Buhoma and CDO, Parish chiefs and PDM chairpersons arrested after people complained that they are charging them 300,000 shillings before giving them money, suspects were immediately released and intervation immediately haulted. Poverty persists. The President’s dream is buried by our greed and corruption.
Impact on Morality & National Soul
Normalization of Theft: Children now say “Tukole ko butukole” “Let us eat but work a little.” We are raising a nation of thieves.
Cynicism: Citizens say “Gov’t etuyamba” “Government doesn’t help.” They stop paying taxes. They stop voting. The social contract breaks.
Proverbs 29:4 “By justice a king gives a country stability, but those who are greedy for bribes tear it down.” We are the ones tearing Uganda down.
LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT LESSONS – WHY WE FAIL
From Organizational Leadership Theory:
Broken Accountability Triangle: In Kanungu, the CAO fears the LC5, the LC5 fears the voters, and the voters fear the police. So, no one holds anyone. The President is far. We have built a “conspiracy of silence.”
Lack of Ethical Courage: James MacGregor Burns says true leadership is “transformational” it lifts people’s morals. Most of us practice “transactional” leadership: You give me silence; I give you peace.
The Rotten Apple vs. Rotten Barrel: We say “only a few officers are corrupt.” Wrong. When a barrel is rotten, even good apples rot. When the system protects thieves, good officers either join or quit.
From Scripture: Jeremiah 48:10 “Cursed is the man who does the work of the Lord with laxity.” Enforcing the Anti-Corruption Act is the work of the Lord today. Laxity is a curse. We are a cursed district if we keep quiet.
CONCLUSION – THE WAY FORWARD FOR KANUNGU AND UGANDA
As a graduate with a PhD in Organizational Leadership and holder of an Honorary Doctorate in Leadership, I charge us:
To Enforcement Agencies, Police, IGG, SH-ACU, DISO: Stop waiting for orders from Kampala. Article 212 of the Constitution gives you power to arrest. The President already gave the order: “Fight corruption.” Every day you don’t arrest a thief in Kanungu, you betray him.
To Technical Officers – CAOs, DEOs, Engineers: Your signature is a weapon. A clean signature protects the President. A dirty signature shoots him. From today, let every certificate you sign say: “I have defended the President.”
To Political Leaders – LC5, Councillors: Romans 13:1 says “There is no authority except from God.” You are not in office to be re-elected. You are in office to be righteous. If fighting corruption makes you lose in 2026, lose with honor. Better a one-term saint than a three-term thief.
Final Word to Us All:
The President has done his part. He speaks. He legislates. He funds. Our part is to implement.
We have betrayed him by our silence, by our “kitu kidogo”, by our selective justice. The impact is dead mothers, drop-out children, and a cynical nation.
All excuses are equal, but they don’t cancel the responsibility. “The system is bad” is not a defense. You are the system.
So today, choose: Will you be the officer who made H.E. Museveni’s words a reality in Kanungu? Or the one who made him look like a liar?
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke.
“If you see a thief and agree with him, you partake in his sin.” Psalm 50:18
FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY. FOR A CORRUPTION-FREE KANUNGU.
Dr. Ahimbisibwe Gad Rugaju (PhD, DCM) Honoris Causa
Deputy Resident District Commissioner
Kanungu District
Tel: +256 772 912 643
, https://eastafricanwatch.net/the-president-museveni-speaks-but-we-sleep-how-we-have-betrayed-h-e-general-yoweri-kaguta-musevenis-war-on-corruption-and-the-blood-it-has-cost-out-people-dr-ahimbisibwe-gad-rugaju/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-president-museveni-speaks-but-we-sleep-how-we-have-betrayed-h-e-general-yoweri-kaguta-musevenis-war-on-corruption-and-the-blood-it-has-cost-out-people-dr-ahimbisibwe-gad-rugaju
Hello. And Bye.