STRATEGIC GUIDELINES AND DIRECTIVES FOR

THE MINIMUM PROGRAMME FOR UGANDA TO

ATTAIN THE MIDDLE-INCOME STATUS BY 2020

AND VIGOROUSLY IMPLEMENT THE NRM

MANIFESTO OF 2016 - 2021

BY

H.E. YOWERI KAGUTA MUSEVENI PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

AT THE

INAUGURAL CABINET MEETING

ENTEBBE STATE HOUSE

23rd JUNE, 2016

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His Excellency the Vice President,

Rt. Hon. Prime Minister,

Hon. Ministers.

Over the last 50 plus years, the NRM has identified four

principles that shaped our ideology and ten strategic

bottlenecks that had to be overcome for Uganda to become a

middle-income status country in the next few years and a first

World country in this generation.

The four principles are: patriotism (non-sectarianism of religion

or tribe and no gender – chauvinism); pan Africanism; socio-

economic transformation; and democracy. The ten strategic

bottlenecks are:

Ideological disorientation;

A weak State, especially the army, that needed strengthening;

Under-developed infrastructure (the railways, the roads, the electricity, the telephones, piped water, etc.);

The underdevelopment of the human resource (lack of education and poor health for the population);

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Interfering with the private sector (either by policy or by corruption);

A fragmented African market on account of colonialism;

Exporting unprocessed raw materials and, therefore, getting little money and losing jobs and lack of industrialization;

The underdevelopment of the services sector (hotels, banking, transport, insurance, tourism, etc);

The underdevelopment of agriculture;

The attack on democracy.

During my address to the NRM Conference last year, I was able

to give an audit as to what has been done in the last 30 years

to eliminate these bottlenecks. The issue of ideological

disorientation has been addressed. That is how the NRM is

able to win democratic elections with absolute majority in the

last 30 years. The issue of a weak State has been addressed.

This is how we have a strong Army to keep peace. With

infrastructure, the issue of the deficit of electricity has been

addressed. We now have a surplus of 100 mgws even at the

peak hours of electricity use ─ that is between 6:00p.m

(18:00hours) and 10:00 p.m. (22:00hours).

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The roads are being tarmacked and the railway will be

modernized. Many of the towns now have piped water. This is

not only good for health but many industries need alot of water

in their production. The ICT backbone has been completed

and has been linked to the undersea cables in Kenya and

Tanzania. The Civil Service is educated although they have

issues of integrity and patriotism. Education and improved

healthcare have meant that average life expectancy has grown

from 43 years to 63 years and that the adult literacy rate has

gone from 56.1% in 1991 to 72.2% in 2014. Many youth can

now read and write, have mastered numeracy and can use the

internet. They, however, need more skills in the areas of

agriculture, metal work, construction, ceramics, motor-

mechanics, computer use, etc., etc.

On the side of agriculture, we have resolved the issue of

improved seeds and improved breeding stock. The problem,

however, is that this information is not available to all the

farmers. Some continue to use the old seeds when the new

ones are available. With the breeding stock, you find alot of

cattle that are under-performing yet consuming the grass that

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should be consumed by cows that are giving more than 20

litres a day.

The issue of the fragmented African market has been resolved.

Working with our brothers and sisters in EAC and COMESA,

we have created the regional market of 500 million people. We

have also negotiated for access to the international markets

(AGOA, EBA, the Chinese market, etc., etc).

By bringing durable peace to Uganda and liberalizing the

economy, we have emancipated the services sector ─ banking,

insurance, transport, professional services, tourism, etc. The

tourism sector is now bringing in US$1.4 billion per annum

with 1.4 million tourists coming into the country. Given

Uganda’s good climate and given the peace we have enjoyed for

a long time, tourism can bring in much more money for us. In

addition to the improved roads to Kisoro, Bundibugyo, Kitgum,

Moroto, we also need to work on the tourism roads such as

Kisoro-Bwindi, Moroto-Kotido-Kaabong, etc. We need to also

work on the airports such as Kasese ─ making it a hard

surface one. The hotels are there and increasing.

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The media need to be warned about irresponsible reporting

that can lead to unfounded scare for tourists from far away

that do not know the reality of Uganda.

By handling infrastructure, we have the possibility to lower the

costs of doing business in the economy especially if the

Ministry of Finance resolves the issue of high electricity costs

for the Bujagali power station that was badly negotiated. With

low costs of doing business in the economy, Uganda can now

take off as a middle-income country. Uganda now has the base

from which to take off. Previously, we did not have that base.

What, then, are the tasks of the new Government? What are

my Orders of the Day as the Head of the Government? The

following are my guidelines or orders, whatever is more

applicable.

1. Work with the proprietors of Bujagali to lower the costs of

electricity produced by that station. It may involve tax

exemption and whatever other measures that are needed

that must bring down the cost of that electricity to may be

around 6 American cents per unit from the present 11

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American cents per unit. Then a subsidy must be put in

place to reduce the cost of electricity to the manufacturer

to 5 American cents. These measures must be concluded

in the next six months i.e. by February 2017. Lower

electricity costs will attract more investors and make our

industries more competitive.

2. Negotiations for the Standard Gauge Railway must be

concluded so that the construction starts. Here, I may not

put a deadline because we are working with the Chinese.

With our oil money, I will not tolerate any delays of any

type because, then, we shall be able to fund everything

ourselves if necessary. These two measures, lowering the

cost of electricity and the cost of transport, will have

decisive strategic implications for the forward movement of

the economy. It will be much easier to attract and retain

investments as already pointed out above.

3. To make it even easier for the investors to come in, we

must build the 22 Industrial Parks we have talked about

for so long. It is not serious to give an investor a swamp

that he must drain at his own cost, etc.

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The Industrial Parks should be built by the UPDF

Engineering Brigade. You should complete the one of

Namanve, construct the one of Nakasongola, etc. You can

even think of using manual labour of the prisoners. Get

moving to resolve this issue of Industrial Parks. Build five

per year so that in 5 years, you will have built the 25. It is

not complicated technology: make the access roads, pull

electricity, pull piped water, pull the internet under-

ground cables etc. It is, mainly, civil works. How can our

engineers fail to do this?

4. The Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) must get all the

necessary licences in two days. These must include the

Environmental Impact Assessment. None of these factories

is likely to be a pioneering one in the World. Similar ones

have been built in other parts of the World. Our soils are

known. Even me, a layman in those matters, I know the

soils that are enoombe (red-brown), eibumba (clay),

orusheenyi (sandy soil), etc. I will, therefore, not tolerate

any delays.

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It is a betrayal of our country to see anofficial tossing

(kuhuuba) investors as if they are his employees

(abapakasi) or people begging from him (abashabi). This

betrayal has gone on for too long. No delays whatsoever.

If it is a nuisance operation like stone-quarrying in the

midst of the population, involve all of us by approaching

quickly the concerned Minister and the Prime Minister.

The rock-out-crops (ebibaare) may be in the midst of the

people, granted. Those stones, however, belong to the

Government and the whole country needs them for the

country’s roads if they are not to be preserved for cultural

or historical purposes e.g. Nyero rocks, Oculoi, Karegyeya,

Kakijwiiga, Mugore, etc. The population around cannot,

therefore, stop these rocks being used to transform their

country. Witness the Roman stones in the streets of Rome,

2000 years old. Our Engineers could learn from the

Roman engineers. The villagers may need compensation

for their houses and also sensitization, etc.

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Before the Industrial Estates are built, investors will buy

their own pieces of land as the Chinese have done in

Mukono, Sanga etc., etc. Using standard assessment

methods, UIA and NEMA can quickly assess what needs to

be done to protect a river or a wetland. There should be a

standard formula for these purposes.

Besides, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of

Industry must have respective units that conduct

feasibility studies for all our potential products, across the

whole spectrum of our raw materials of agriculture,

minerals, etc., that they keep ready for presentation to the

investors. Investors have many other destinations they

can go to. It is, therefore, wrong for us to sit back and

think that it is the duty of the investors to conduct

feasibility studies. It is us to carry out the feasibility

studies because it is us who have the duty to promote our

country’s prosperity. If the ministries of Finance and

Industry do not do that, then their designations should be

changed and be called Ministry of Begging and Ministry of

Importing, respectively.

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The studies should not only cover our raw-materials of

agriculture, minerals, forests, fresh-water resources, etc.

They should also cover the products of skills (car-

assembly, machine-fabrication) and the products of the

brain (computers, soft-ware, etc.). Industrialization is an

instrument of liberation or domination. This was so in the

past and it is so today. On account of missing out on

technological progress and industrialization, Africa suffered

the ravages of the slave trade for 400 years, from the year

1502 when the first slaves were taken from West Africa to the

year 1860 when the Atlantic slave trade was abolished. That

is when England, having got machines to replace human

beings and, therefore, having no more need for slaves, led

the slave abolition efforts. On that account, again, Africa

was colonized. By 1900, the whole of Africa, except for

Ethiopia, had been colonized. Even if it was for the mere

survival of our people, let alone economic advantage,

Africa, or Uganda in particular, should not, again, miss

out on industrialization. It is, therefore, an unpardonable

crime for any Ugandan, official or otherwise, to delay or

frustrate the efforts of industrialization.

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Industrialization is, therefore, both an instrument of

liberation and a means of achieving prosperity. During

the State of the Nation Address, I told the country how

Uganda was bleeding on account of unnecessary and

excessive importing (buying-kugula) and very little selling

(kutuunda). What are called “rich people” in Uganda,

specialize, not in building factories or hotels, but, in

building shopping arcades that specialize in selling to our

people all sorts of imported goods. As a consequence of

this, Uganda donates to China US$ 875 million per year,

to India US$1.154 billion per year, to EU US$637 million

per year, to USA US$ 89 million per year, to South Africa

US$ 257 million per year, to UAE US$406 million per

year, etc. Yet our own exports to China are US$54.7

million per year, to India 24.8 million per year, to South

Africa US$4.7 million per year, to UAE US$62.6 million

per year. It is only to the EU that we export US$433

million per year and to the COMESA-EAC that we

exported goods and services worth of US$2 billion (in

2015). In this hemorrhage, textiles take US$888 million

per year, cars US$568.7 million per year, leather goods

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US$0.22 million per year, alcohol and beverages took US$

68 million (2015), foods and food extracts took US$612

million (2015). This is not only hemorrhage of money but

also of jobs. Building up our textile industry, which we

have already started in modest ways, would not only save

the US$888 million in imports but would also create for

us a total of 45,000 jobs from about 25- 30 factories, each

the size of Nytil, fully operational. Additionally, using our

comparative advantages, we would also export to other

countries, thereby earning even more money and creating

even more jobs.

5. There must be zero tolerance to corruption. It is a big

shame to see Government officials delaying or frustrating

investments because they want bribes. I partly blame

investors for not exposing these thieves. Indeed, the

investors who want to cut corners and do shoddy jobs,

actually welcome the corrupt tendencies of these officials

because they, then, get away with shoddy jobs or

products.

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Otherwise, the genuine and credible investors should

report these parasites for drastic action to be taken

against them.

6. Then, there is the problem of poor regulation. Who

violated the Government policy of not licensing new sugar

factories within the radius of 50 kms of an existing

factory? The Banyankole say: “ikumi ry’omukibuga, rikira

igana riragurwa’’ ─ “the ten cows you already have in the

kraal are better than the 100 the soothsayer (the

muraguzi) says you will have one day in the future”. Why

undermine the sugar operators that are already producing

420,000 metric tonnes (2014/15) of sugar (Kakira, Lugazi

and Kinyara)? These mistakes must be rectified if they are

injurious to the old sugar producers. The same goes for

the raw milk vendors. These undermine the milk factories

and undermine the nutrition of our people. The big market

of our milk is in the export area. You cannot export,

unless the milk is processed. Which enemy, then, would

want to kill our exports because he wants to give

advantage to cheating raw-milk sellers whose prosperity

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depends on selling milk diluted with water and mixed with

all sorts of dangerous chemicals for “preservation”,

including formalin, which is not monitored? I salute the

Ministry of Agriculture for having been firm on this.

7. As far as the sector of agriculture is concerned, we have

identified 13(thirteen) issues to deal with, some of them in

this Kisanja (term - enchuro).

These are:

(i) Converting the 68% of the homesteads from subsistence

farming to commercial agriculture. I have already directed

you to concentrate, for this purpose, on Clonal and

Arabica coffee, fruits (oranges, pineapples, mangoes,

grapes and apples), zero grazing Dairy cattle, poultry,

piggery, fish farming, cocoa, onion growing and mushroom

growing. However, for purposes of focusing for the next

two financial years, concentrate on: coffee, fruits, cocoa

and tea. Later, we can add the others. If we get additional

funding beyond the Uganda shillings 361 billion for

NAADS, then we can look at including the other activities.

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(ii) Lack of linkages between the Research Institutes and

many of the farmers. The planting and breeding materials

are there but they are not used by the stakeholders that

need them badly as has already been pointed out above.

All the RDCs and CAOs must popularize the improved

seeds and breeding stock. All the Radio stations and TV

stations must allocate time for the same.

(iii) The low use of fertilizers must be rectified. In Uganda, we

use an average of 2.5 kgs per hectare. In the USA, they

use 132kgs per hectare. The fertilizer projects at Sukuru

Hills and Mwitanzigye (Lake Albert) must be expedited.

Later on, you can get potassium from Lake Katwe, I hear.

That will enable us to formulate the NPK that is required

for many crops. The Ministers of Industries and

Agriculture must follow up this vigorously.

(iv) The ending of subsistence farming, must go hand in hand

with the correct enterprise selection and halting land

fragmentation which disables the profitability of land. Too

small pieces of land, 4 acres and less are no longer able to

economically produce crops like maize, sugar-cane,

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tobacco, cotton, sorghum, beans, etc., or cater for the

indigenous cattle. That is why we need high value crops

like coffee etc., as pointed out above.

(v) All crops and products that are not consumed fresh, must

be processed – value addition. This will enable us to earn

more money and also create more jobs for our children

and grandchildren. That is why we need rapid decision

making. No delays in decision-making in respect of

private sector investments where entrepreneurs have done

their own studies and are going to invest their own money,

without Government guarantees and they just need

licensing or land.

(vi) There is also the high cost of finance. The privatization of

Commercial Banks was supposed to inject efficiency and

competition into the financial sector and bring down the

interest rates. It has not. The interest rates are shameful,

23.5% etc. This is in spite of the inflation rate being 5%

per annum for most of the years. Therefore, the Uganda

Development Bank (UDB), which we had deliberately kept

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away from privatization, should be capitalized to fund

manufacturing and agriculture.

(vii) The Minister of Agriculture, working with the private

sector, should solve the problem of agricultural machinery

for ploughing, for harrowing, for bush-clearing, for water

excavation, etc. Who should be assisted to own and

operate agricultural machinery? Should it be some rich

individuals, should it be co-operatives?

(viii) We have done good work on vector eradication and disease

control for crops and livestock. We need to encourage the

production of acaricides (anti-ticks), injectables, salts,

vaccines, fungicides, insecticides, etc. here in Uganda so

as to create backward and forward linkages with

agriculture. Dr. Nantulya is already making some vaccines

here. Assist him to consolidate and expand. A British,

Northern Ireland Company had agreed to make acaricides

here. Conclude with them and they start production.

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(ix) There are agro-practices that are neglected but are known

─ spacing of plants, excavating of water harvesting

trenches, contour cultivation on the hillsides so as to stop

soil erosion etc., etc. All the District Agricultural Officers

(DAOs) must ensure that, through education, not

coercion, these practices are adopted or restored. Action

will be taken against any DAO that fails to do so.

(x) Eliminating of over-fishing on the Lakes. I talked alot

about this in the State of the Nation Address recently.

(xi) Beyond repairing Doho and Mobuku and commissioning

Olweny and Agoro, we have not done much on irrigation.

This is not because we do not know the importance of

irrigation. It is because we decided to deal with electricity,

the roads, ICT and the railways, first. When our oil starts

flowing, we shall be able to handle the mega irrigation

projects around Mount Elgon, Mount Rwenzori, the South

Western Highlands and the Agoro hills. As far as the

lowlands are concerned, I have already told Makerere

University to develop a solar powered water pump to push

water, at the local level, to any raised ground where it can,

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then, flow by gravity to the farm. Did Makerere succeed in

designing the solar-powered water pump or did they fail?

Let us get moving on this. If Makerere failed, what else do

we do?

(xii) One other problem in agriculture is to sensitize our

farmers about the post-harvest handling of products.

Harvest, do not put on the ground, convey in a container

(ekitemere), up to the canvas or tapaulin (entundubaare)

for drying. This will ensure that there is no contact

between the soil and the products. There will be no

foreign matter. Some of the crops need silos (e.g. grain).

Others need cold-storage. The concerned ministers

(Agriculture, Industry, Veterinary, fisheries), need to work

with the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) to attract

private investors, promote Public Private Partnership (PPP)

or recommend direct Government action to ensure that

the production chain is completed: produce, store safely

and process.

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(xiii) In order for the small and medium-scale farmers to

aggregate their products, they should be encouraged to

form farmers’ groups or cooperatives so that they can

either market or and process together, although they

produce separately.

8. The Petroleum and Gas sector is moving well. We have

agreed on the Refinery and the Pipeline. Let the officials,

then, expedite the granting of production licenses so that

the actual production starts. The petroleum, through

both the refinery and the pipeline, will give us cash that

will help us expand infrastructure (electricity, some of the

roads, the railway, irrigation, etc.) and fund innovations

and research. This petroleum and gas should be flowing

by 2019/2020, latest. Much of the work has been

accomplished in this area: exploration, the discovery of

the petroleum and gas, agreeing on the pipeline, agreeing

on the refinery, training our scientists, etc., etc.

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9. There is, apparently, great potential in the minerals

sector. There is iron-ore, copper, cobalt, gold, vermiculite,

aluminum clays, wolfram, tin, coltan, uranium, etc. There

are, however, three weaknesses in the Minerals

Department that must be rectified in this financial year or,

at the latest, the next one. One, that Department must be

equipped with a modern laboratory to test and, therefore,

help to quantify the mineral presence in an area and

determine its quality. The Department should not depend

on the mineral prospectors to do this. This is a wrong

policy. The officials must do this themselves. They must

do the drilling and the assaying (testing) of the quality and

determine the quantity of the minerals present themselves

rather than depending on the miners to do the drilling.

The second mistake is to allow chaos to exist in the

mining area and to allow illegal mining. All the artisan

miners should be registered and, for instance, the gold

they mine should be declared so that it is exported

through formal channels. The NRM people who are

involved in this mining should be sensitized to see the

importance of this.

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The country is losing alot of money in this chaotic

situation. The worst mistake is to allow these artisanal

miners to block scientific exploration that could get us to

the rock of gold from which the alluvial fragments came

from in the past. Nobody should interfere with the

exploration. With the unimpeded exploration, the taming

of artisanal mining and stopping the illegal exports, we

shall, then, be able to know which minerals are to be

found in Uganda and in what quantities. If, for instance,

we find that we have got alot of gold, we shall, then, start

considering the idea of building the gold refinery to purify

the gold (from 88% from Karamoja and Busia to 93% of

gold from Buhweju – Bushenyi) to the required 99.9%.

10. One problem that has been rampant is the damage to the

environment by invading forests, encroaching on the

wetlands, damaging the river banks and destroying the

vegetation protecting the lake shores. This must stop and

where the ecology demands it, the encroachers, using

persuasive and educative ways, should be made to vacate.

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If necessary, some more land should be purchased from

the private owners to increase the forest cover. I normally

see Islands of settlements inside the Mabira Forest. Why

can’t the Government persuade them to sell to the

Government so that the forest becomes one continuous

mass like the Bwindi and the Imaramagaambo forests?

There was supposed to be a belt of 200 metres, from the

beach of the lakes inwards, of undisturbed vegetation

cover or forest that would help to filter soil from being

washed into the lakes to cause pollution and silting. What

happened to that plan? The Minister should review the

issue of the protection of the lake shore. Our great

grandchildren will curse us for these mistakes. To clean

the environment even more, the Kampala Capital City

Authority should quickly license investors that have been

seeking to recycle garbage, recycle polythene bags and

plastics and, more recently, to recycle E-waste (old

batteries, old TV sets, old computers, old mobile phones,

etc.). This, together with the protection and expansion of

forests and protection of the wetlands, will safe-guard our

environment, at least, locally.

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We shall, then, remain with the global problems of

greenhouse gases etc. that are being handled under the

Kyoto Protocols. There is a scientist called Mafabi and his

group. They told me that by allowing the wetlands to be

dried up, we may destroy 40% of Uganda’s rainfall per

annum. They told me that, for instance, the difference

between West Nile and Karamoja, in terms of the rainfall the

two areas get, is that West Nile benefits from the swamps of

South Sudan and the forests of Congo, being on the same

latitude with Karamoja notwithstanding. West Nile gets

between 1350-1500mm of rain per annum while Karamoja

only gets 808mm of rain per annum. I had agreed with the

opinion leaders in the Ankole ─ Kigezi area to get a fund to

help our people who, innocently, encroached on the

wetlands to vacate and be helped to own shops, houses for

renting or buy land elsewhere. In any case, we need this

water for irrigation, around the swamps and down-stream,

now that we are serious with agriculture. I had started

dialogue on this Fund with Prince Charles of the UK and

some of the UN bodies. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

and my staff should remind me to conclude that dialogue.

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11. This Cabinet must address the issue of service delivery

decisively, especially in the areas of health care, education

and feeder roads. Poor service delivery irritates the

population greatly and undermines the support for the

NRM. The NRM would have scored 80% in the last

elections if it was not for the weaknesses in service

delivery. In health care, there is the problem of stealing

drugs from the Health Centres and the problem of medical

workers neglecting patients. There is the problem of

shoddy work in health care infrastructure ─ wrongly

constructed buildings, for instance, even brand new ones.

Those responsible must be traced and punished.

Impunity in that sector has gone on for too long.

On the side of Education, there is a problem of

absenteeism from school by teachers. Recently, while

watering my cattle, a six year old boy, son of one of my

herdsmen, requested me to give him money to go to a

private primary school. When I asked him the reason why

he does not go to the Government Primary Schools, he told

me: “Abaana nibasiiba nibazaana” ─ “the children spend

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the whole day playing” ─ in other words, teachers do not

teach. UPE was supposed to be free. However, one

encounters so many children that have been expelled from

schools for failure to pay school charges. This must stop.

Why should Government spend shillings 68,540,381,340

billion on UPE and shillings 129,509,250,451 billion on

USE per year, but, then, the children of the poor are

expelled from schools that do not teach and where the

teachers are paid more than in the private schools that

teach well? The problem is poor supervision. If education

must be paid for, then let us divert that money so that we

complete our programme of road ─ construction. The

problem is that the schools inspectors do not do their

work. That is where the problem is.

We are supposed to have one Government Primary School

per Parish, one Government Secondary School per Sub-

County and one Government Technical School per

Constituency. In these five years, this Government

country-wide infrastructure for Education must be

completed.

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The US$ 200 million I borrowed from the African

Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) was

misused by constructing “five star hotels” in the form of

650 Secondary Schools and 60 Centres of Excellence ─

sometimes brand new but over-designed multi-billion

shining secondary schools. My plan, using the old Masaba

Secondary School as a model, was to spend Uganda shillings

500 million per school, at that time, to build many sub-county

level secondary schools. Once the money was received,

however, nobody consulted me. All the money was used to

build fewer but over-designed “five star hotels”. Let us use

simple bungalow, brick, cement and mabaati school

structures – no storeyed buildings ─ to cover all the

parishes with Government Primary Schools, all the Sub-

Counties with, at least, one Secondary School in each and

all the Constituencies with, at least, one Technical School

in each. In some cases, parents have already built, on a

voluntary basis, community Secondary Schools. They only

want the Government to take them over. Where there is

no Government Secondary school in a sub-county, let that

method be used.

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The same goes for healthcare centres. We need a district

hospital per district, a Health Centre IV per Constituency

and a Health Centre III per sub-county. I refused to take

on the HC IIs which some groups had gone into in order to

get contracts for construction. The HC IV should be

manned by 49 health workers including doctors and the

Health Centre III should be manned by 19 health workers.

The details were agreed on and they are available. HC IIs

would have added another army of, I think, 63,000

workers that would have simply “chammed” (eaten) our

money with no significant value addition in terms of

healthcare. The Sub-county is not too far. Let us

consolidate our health delivery there.

The ministry of Health should assist Ms. Enrica Pinetti to

build her hospital at Lubowa so that referrals abroad stop

and we stop the hemorrhage of an estimated US$ 150

million per year that goes into “medical tourism” to India.

The heart, the kidneys, the brain and the cancers should

all be treated here. In order to consolidate service delivery

in education and health care, we must revive the policy of

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institutional houses for teachers and health workers.

Either by using self-help (hydra-form machines) or any

other method, the issue of houses for health workers and

teachers must be resolved. As part of that effort, the

diversion of the Education and Health funds to private

schools and private clinics must stop. This is sheer abuse.

Why should we fund private clinics and private schools,

when the government ones are not funded?

The other issue that irritates the people in the rural areas

are the impassable feeder roads. We are buying 1151

pieces of equipment from Japan. These will enable each

district to get an additional grader, a wheel-loader, a road

compactor, a water bowser and two tippers. At the zonal

level (Teso, Busoga, etc.), there will be one bull-dozer and

its low-loader. The Municipalities will also get their share.

Some of this equipment will enable the Government

agencies to tarmac some of the roads using direct labour

mysteriously named “force account”. The districts and

municipalities will now work on the roads without using

the notorious contractors that, working with corrupt

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officials, had become the main channel of haemmorhage

for the State resources.

12. A parasitic collaborator class was created in, especially,

Buganda by the British through the wicked scheme of

Mailo. Our people in this area were turned into serfs. The

British, eventually, had the common sense to rein-in these

vultures in 1928, through the Busuulu and Nvujjo law. The

Busuulu had to have a ceiling and no evictions could be

carried out without the permission of the Governor. When

we came on the scene, we strengthened that legislation

and even criminalized eviction. However, the evictions are

going on mainly using the ignorance of the bibanja owners

and the corruption and collusion of the Gombolola Chiefs,

Miruka Chiefs, the Magistrates, Security personnel and

the RDCs. Otherwise, there is no legal basis for these

evictions. Nevertheless, this historical injustice to our

common people in Buganda must be ended. The

Government should, therefore, look into the possibility of

raising funds to pay off these land lords so that the

bibanja owners get ownership (obwananyini).

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The measures to raise money should include discussing

with the British to provide a grant for, at least, part of the

cost if not the whole cost because it was their mistake.

Here we should not forget the war crimes the British and

their Baganda collaborators committed in Bunyoro.

Bunyoro is also entitled to some compensation. Therefore,

in this term, the NRM should think of how to resolve this

issue once and for all ─ one of the past mistakes which

was one of the 10 points programme.

13. The Armed Forces have played a decisive role in the

recovery of Uganda. Especially for the NRA/UPDF, the

driving force has been the ideology that was inculcated

into them by the NRM leadership right from the beginning.

On account of that mentality, the NRA/UPDF has been

able to give total peace to Uganda cheaply. With a small

budget of US 500 million dollars per year, the NRA/UPDF

has been able to provide security to the people of Uganda,

across the whole land, for the first time in 500 years.

Besides, the UPDF has also contributed to regional peace.

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In this term (Kisanja), I want the ministry of Defence, the

Army leadership, the ministry of Internal Affairs and the

ministry of Security to solve the problems of the Army, the

Police, the Intelligence services and the Prison services.

First to be resolved is housing. The ordinary soldier

should have, at least, a two bed-room bungalow or flat.

Next to be solved is the education of the soldiers’ children.

Right from 1986, I directed the concerned people to build

primary schools in all the barracks where the soldiers’

children should study free. The same should be done for

the secondary schools. The secondary schools used to be

in Masindi, Jinja, Nakasongola and the Kadogo School in

Mbarara. Even if there was an Army Secondary School

per division, provided they were boarding and the army

produced food for feeding the Schools that would be

adequate. An Army University may not be economical.

Instead, the Army leadership should conclude discussions

on my directive to them to find a formula of funding

University education for deserving soldiers’ children.

Should we use the Army SACCO? Should we make

deductions from the soldiers’ salaries?

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Similarly, the leaders of the Police, the Prisons and the

Intelligence Services should work out plans for housing,

education for the children and welfare for their personnel.

Get a solution. All soldiers’ spouses should be

economically active around the barracks instead of sitting

around and gossiping. Poultry farming, mushroom

growing, fish-farming, knitting, weaving, etc., etc. are

some of the activities the soldiers’ spouses should be

engaged in. These would give the soldiers’ spouses

additional incomes for their families. The same applies to

the spouses of the policemen, the prisons’ personnel and

the intelligence services. Finally, in the coming financial

years, we should gradually and affordably increase the

salaries of soldiers and other security personnel until they

come in line with the salaries of the teachers and the

medical workers.

14. In these five years, Uganda will encourage the setting up

of a National Airline. Ugandan travellers are suffering

because of, apparently, not having a National Airline. A

ticket to Nairobi costs between US$ 1100-1200 (business

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class) and US$ 500-700 (economy class) depending on the

time of booking while a ticket to London costs between

US$ 2700-3000 (business class) and US$1000-1300

(economy class). This is a big shame. I did not care much

about a National Airline. I thought that our brothers in

Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, etc. having airlines, would

serve all of us. That, however, is, apparently, not the

case. Hence, the Ministry of Works and Transport is

directed to conclude discussions with the investors that

can help us to start a National Airline. A National Airline

would help us to save US$420 million per year Ugandans

spend on travel. The National Airline will also create jobs

and career opportunities for our children who train as

pilots at the Soroti Flying School. These children

apparently suffer when they try to get jobs. Apart from

joining the Uganda Airforce, opportunities for them are

very limited. The Airlines of our brothers and sisters that

benefit from Ugandan market should have remembered to

treat our children as their own because our purchasing

power is supporting those airlines.

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15. According to the resource envelope, without deviating from

the priorities of defence and security, electricity, the roads,

the railways, NAADS, Education, Health, Innovation and

the Industrial Parks, we should budget for the gradual

elimination of our indebtedness to the veterans of the

army, the kasiimo of the civilian veterans and the cattle

compensation in the areas of Lango, Acholi, Teso, abit of

West Nile, some parts of Karamoja and Sebei. This money

should be given directly to the beneficiaries and not

through lawyers or anything like that.

16. I have set up a new Ministry of Information and ICT. One

of its jobs is to stop the criminally irresponsible and

biased reporting by many of the media houses. We

liberalized the Media Houses in the year 1992. The first

private TV station to be licensed was Lighthouse TV, a

Christian channel. I remember very well, when I brought

the matter to the Cabinet, Mzee Paul Etyang was very

apprehensive and he pointed out that to give up the

monopoly by the State of information dissemination was

wrong precisely because the criminally minded people

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could misuse it in order to cause chaos in the country. I

insisted in my support for the liberalization because I

believed that a performing Government did not have to

fear a liberalized Press. However, this was on one

condition and that was that, the media houses engaged in:

informing, educating and entertaining the public. This

excluded the telling of lies. Unfortunately, on account of

the weak regulation by the concerned State bodies, many

of the media houses specialize in that. Nevertheless, the

strong performance of the NRM in some crucial sectors

has enabled the majority of the population to maintain

confidence in the NRM, the vicious and mendacious hate

campaign of some elements of the media notwithstanding.

All the same, we cannot allow that nonsense to continue

because such an irresponsible press gives a wrong image

of the country, especially to the outsiders who do not

know the truth because they live far away from here.

Furthermore, more consensus built around harmony

created by the truthful dissemination of information,

would do no harm to the country. That is the reason I

have merged the ministries of Information and ICT,

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bringing together broadcasting by radio stations, TV

stations, newspapers and magazines, the media centre of

the Government, the internet, the social media and the

Uganda Communication Commission (UCC). This is in

order to bring discipline and truthfulness in the media

and brand Uganda correctly ─ a country that has had

tremendous success in the last 30 years, that will become

a middle-income country in the near future, problems like

corruption and a disloyal public service notwithstanding.

A country of success in spite of problems is not a failed

State as some of the media try to portray the country.

That, however, is not the only reason for creating this

ministry. The second and more important reason is to

develop electronics. Mastering of electronics, leads to

artificial intelligence, the intelligence (amagyezi) of the

machines. This is the science of harnessing electronics to

create the intelligence of machines. Electronics influences

all aspects of human Endeavour ─ factories, transport,

mathematics, aero-space knowledge, defence, etc. It is as

dangerous for Africa to miss out on the electronics

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revolution as it was when we missed out on the

introduction of gun-powder in warfare from the 13th

century. It is, therefore, the mandate of this ministry to

propagate the use of electronics in Uganda and supervise

the mastering of this technology. The ministry should,

initially, encourage the assembling of computers in

Uganda and do away with importing already assembled

computers ─ old or new. Eventually, we should build our

own computers. In indigenizing the computer technology

(electronics), we should work with the other East African

Governments in the already agreed policy of protecting our

region from second-hand clothes, second-hand shoes,

second-hand cars, second-hand computers, etc. Why?

This is on account of killing our jobs and causing

hemorrhage of our money. That ministry must, therefore,

have a strong electronics department in order to master

electronics and build our own computers instead of just

using other peoples’ computers.

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17. Investments cannot flow into a country that has got a

weak or corrupt judiciary. Therefore, this government

should work with the Chief Justice to gradually and

affordably improve the working conditions of the Judiciary

─ salaries, institutional houses, offices and cars. Through

inspection and intelligence, however, corruption must be

eliminated from the Judiciary. It is shameful that the

Judiciary contains corrupt elements that take bribes in

order to distort the deciding of cases. It must be stopped.

18. Planned urban development, safe water for everybody,

irrigation, three lanes or four lanes roads, etc., are all

priorities for the government. However, on account of the

limited resource envelope, we may, in the short run, only

engage in limited efforts. With Kampala, using the

Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) funds,

we are going to build flyovers from Kibuye-Clock tower-

Nsambya junction-Mukwano to Mukwano-Jinja road and

Nakumat-Kitgum house. This is to separate the vehicles

of Kampala from the vehicles going through Kampala to

other parts of the country and East Africa.

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The vehicles using the flyovers will be the vehicles going to

the distant parts of Uganda. If our resources do not allow,

we can borrow from a cheap source, to make a master-

plan for the cities, towns and trading centres. Using earth

moving equipment, we can make good murram roads

showing the planned lay-outs of the towns and trading

centres ─ where the roads should be, where the water

pipes will be, where the electricity and internet cables will

pass, etc. Voluntary labour should also be thought about

for people to bring development to their areas.

19. Although we have this year only allocated Ug. Shs. 736

billion to the Water sector, this is not to say that water is

not important. It is in order to avoid the temptation of

trying to be “everywhere and ending up being nowhere”.

Since 2006, we put emphasis on defence and security, the

roads, electricity, ICT backbone, health and education.

You have seen the impact in spite of the alleged corruption

that sometimes erodes the work that could have achieved

much more. There are many more kilometers of tarmac

roads and almost all the districts of Uganda now have

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electricity. Nevertheless, expanding the clean water

infrastructure is a priority of the NRM government. All the

cities, towns and trading centres will, eventually, get clean

water: piped water and bore-holes. All the 60,000 villages

will get clean water eventually. There are already 105,000

boreholes in the country, only that they are not properly

distributed. I now direct you to be systematic in

distributing these bore-holes. Let every village get, at

least, one bore-hole, a protected spring, be a beneficiary of

a gravity flow scheme or piped water communal taps,

whatever is more cost effective.

Plan so as to cover all the villages. Once water has

reached all the villages, then plans for increasing the

distribution points should be intensified. Areas without

streams or underground water such as Namayingo or

Isingiro, need to be served by pumping water from the

nearby lakes (Victoria, Nakivale) or rivers (the Kagyera, the

Nile) to the high-ground and, then, using gravity to

distribute the water. I am ready to borrow concessional

loans for some of these projects.

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As our budget improves, we shall add money to the water

sector ─ Ug. Shs. 736 billion per year mentioned above as

we did with the roads (from Shs. 398 billion in 2006 to

Shs. 3,440 billion today).

20. In order to put proper emphasis, I need to remind Cabinet

that, on account of ensuring peace and on account of the

liberalization policy, the services sector has grown

tremendously since 1986. All elements of services have

grown: banking, insurance, transport, hotels, professional

services (lawyers, auditors, accountants, medical, etc),

tourism, etc. Especially tourism, has grown tremendously.

Earnings from tourism in 1986 were only US$6.5 million with

a low base of 47,000 visitors. In 2015, earnings from tourism

were US$1.4 billion. These earnings can grow tremendously.

The Uganda Tourism Board must promote Uganda more. The

major roads to the Parks are now good (Kampala-Gulu,

Karuma-Arua, Kampala-Kisoro, etc). You need to plan for the

remaining ones: Moroto-Kotido-Kaabong; Kisoro-Bwindi;

Katunguru-Ishasha; reconstruct Ishaka-Katunguru; etc.

Kasese airport asphalting has been long in gestation. Plans

should be worked out for executing it.

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The hotel beds, standing at about 45,000 in the whole

country, are reasonable. The new Minister of Information

and ICT needs to deal firmly with the mendacious media.

They must stop telling lies about Uganda. It affects

tourism.

21. As a matter of emphasis, although we have already

referred to the issue earlier, I must highlight to Cabinet

the issue of the youth. The NRM Secretariat needs to

make serious efforts, working with the Patriotism clubs, to

raise the ideological level of the youth. Deal with the big

body of the young Ugandans in the schools and

universities (ten million of them). Apart from ideology,

there is the issue of the skills of the youth. That is why,

above, I talked of the need for a technical school per

constituency, apart from a government secondary school

per sub-county and a government primary school per

parish. There is also the discussion I have had with Dr.

Ben Mbonye about some additional skilling efforts. The

Prime Minister should bring that team to me for

conclusion.

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Apart from education, ideology and skills, there is, then,

the issue of jobs and livelihood. Industrialization,

commercialization of agriculture, ICT and modernizing

services, will create jobs for the youth. The micro-finance,

the youth fund, the women fund, the innovation fund, the

NAADS fund, will help the willing youth to create a

livelihood for themselves. Health education is very crucial

for the youth. Through immunization and ante-natal care

for the mothers, the NRM has contributed to better health

for the children and the youth. The youth, nevertheless,

need to be warned about the teenage and adulthood risks.

Many youth have survived childhood problems, only to

perish during teenage and adolescence. The NRM

Secretariat, the ministry of Youth, the ministry of Health,

the ministry of Education, the AIDS Commission, etc.,

need to most loudly warn the youth on the issue of health.

Health is Wealth. Therefore, the plans for our youth are:

health, education, ideology, skills, livelihood, jobs, the arts

(music, drama) and sports.

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22. All these will be better assisted if we raise more revenue

but without raising tax rates. There is alot of tax evasion.

There are the telephone companies under-declaring calls.

There are the property owners concealing their wealth.

The URA needs to be assisted to close all these loopholes.

The GDP tax ratio in Europe is estimated at 44.3.% (2015).

The average in Africa is estimated at 22.8.% (2015). In

Uganda, however, it is still at 13.2% (Financial year

2015/16). This is too low! The potential is bigger.

Especially by more families coming into commercial

agriculture, indirect taxes (through buying beers, shop

goods, buying fuel for vehicles, etc), will increase. It will

be easier to collect more taxes. One reason for the low

tax: GDP ratio, is a high percentage of subsistence farmers

(people outside the money economy).

23. The ministry of Finance, the ministry of Industry and the

Uganda Investment Authority need to resolve the issue of

building a packaging industry. This needs to be singled

out from the general industrialization efforts. The

packaging is very crucial in the food industry and in many

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other sectors. We need paper packaging, plastics

packaging and glass packaging (bottling, etc). The State

bodies mentioned in this paragraph must ensure that they

attract private investment in these sectors. If any gap

remains, then Uganda Development Corporation (UDC)

should fill the gap. Imported packaging materials add to

the cost of manufacturing in Uganda.

In order to avoid doubt, our priorities among priorities remain:

Defence and Security; electricity generation and distribution;

tarmacking all the major roads already identified; Japanese

equipment for the feeder roads; the Standard Gauge Railway;

NAADS; the Industrial Parks; the Innovation Fund; the Youth

Fund; the Women Fund; as well as the ongoing programmes in

the Health and Education sectors. We should not tamper with

these core priorities. The logic for insisting on this prioritization

among priorities is to improve the competitiveness of Uganda

and create jobs for our people. Prioritization was repeated in

the Bible. It says in the Book of Mathew, Chapter 6:33 that we

should first seek the kingdom of heaven and the rest will be

added to us.

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The exact quotation goes as follows: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”. Solomon was a good prioritizer. When God asked him what he wanted, Solomon only requested God to give him wisdom. This is in the Book of 2 Chronicles, Chapter 1:7-12: It says: “In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, ask what I shall give thee and Solomon said unto God, thou hast shewed great mercy unto David my father and has made me to reign in his stead. Now, O Lord God, let thy promise unto David my father be established; for thou hast made me king over people like the dust of the earth in multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this thy people, that is so great? And God said to Solomon, because this was in thine heart and thou hast not asked riches, wealth or honour nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast asked long life; but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people, over whom I have made thee king. Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches and wealth and honour such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like”.

The NRM has always been a good prioritizer. When I met

Muammar Gaddaffi on the 21st of June, 1981, he asked me

what I wanted. I told him: “guns and bullets” ─ the rest I

would get myself. Did I not want money, drugs for soldiers,

clothings for soldiers, radio for propaganda etc.? No, just guns

48  

and bullets, the rest we would get ourselves. In the Book of

Genesis, Chapter one verse 3, it says:

“Then, God said ‘let there be light’ and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. So the evening and the morning were the first day”. In verse 8 it says: “And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day”. In verse 22, it says: “And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth’. So the evening and the morning were the fifth day”. In verses 26-31, it shows that it was on the sixth day that God created man. It says: “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him: male and female created He them: And God blessed them and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth, And God said Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day”.

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Can anybody say that the human being was not important

because he was created last? No. It was the correct logic ─ the

universe and creatures on it first and, finally, man to establish

dominion over them. Last in this case does not mean least

important.

No delay in decision making in relation to the self-funded

private sector enterprises, zero corruption and strict regulation.

Now that we have the foundation, Uganda will take off. As far

as corruption is concerned, we are going to impose strict

discipline in the Public Service as we did in the Army and,

where possible, also in the Political class.

In the past, I was not using this method of consolidated written

directives to the whole Government. This was because I

thought that it was not necessary since decisions and exchange

of ideas would be taken by (and would be in) the Cabinet where

all the Ministers would be, not to forget the Head of Civil

Service who represents that branch of the State.

50  

When we were fighting Amin, we would heap all the blame on

his illiterate soldiers. Little did I believe that even the educated

people could let down their own people. Therefore, as the

lawyers say, for the avoidance of doubt, I have put pen and

paper together, to ensure that no portion of our plans that is

implementable will remain un-executed.

With that happening, Uganda will be a middle-income country

by 2020, now that we have the foundation.

In future, from time to time, I will be giving detailed sub-

directives in the different sectors outlined above. In any case,

all that should not be necessary because we are all privy to our

plans and our mission.

Rubanga Kony.

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (Gen. Rtd.) PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA 23rd June, 2016 - Entebbe State House

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