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Uganda: My Scary Encounter With VP Paulo Muwanga

Hussein Bogere

23 March 2008

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opinion

I went to Muwanga, and he quarrelled with me. He said: you members of the Opposition, DP, you are supporters of Museveni. Muwanga spent 30 minutes quarrelling. Then I told him: I am in Parliament, don't ask me what goes on in the jungle. You are the ones who are fighting in the jungle - Ssebaana

It was 1967. At that time I was 32 years old. News came. It was the minister of finance, Kalule Settala. He rang me and told me: we are here in Cabinet; somebody has raised your name nominating you for the East African Legislative Assembly.

I said: what is this? He said: it is an assembly for the countries of East Africa and Uganda will provide nine members. Ditto Kenya and Tanzania. I said: what is this?

He asked: would you be willing to serve? I said: yes, I will be very willing to serve if nominated but even if I am not nominated, the fact that my name has come this far, I am very grateful for that. One hour later, he rang again.

He said: you have been appointed, you are a member of the EALA. It was a Friday. He said: on Monday you have got a meeting of the Assembly in Dar es Salaam. Will you go to the President's Office to pick up your documents and air ticket to travel to Dar es Salaam? I said: fine.

So I went. Nine of us went and it was a very good time for me because I have always believed in East Africanness. I was quite [interested] in economic issues because the East African Community at that time had four parastatals.

We had the East African Airways, East African Railways, East African Posts and Telecommunications and the East African Transport Systems. All those were independent corporations of East Africa and their budgets were discussed by the EAC and passed by the EALA. They were reporting to the EALA. So, I took a lot of interest in those.

At that time I was also holding my post as general manager of National Insurance Corporation or NIC. [Being EALA member] was not a full time job because we would meet for two weeks in Dar es Salaam, then after a few months you meet again for two weeks in Nairobi. We used to have about four meetings in a year. While there, I sat on many committees one of which was Public Accounts Committee. I was chairman of that.

There was also a special select committee on East African Airways because at that time there were a lot of malpractices in the East African Airways. I was then chairman of that and it took me to many places in East Africa. That time East African Airways was serving many towns in Tanzania, Kenya and in Uganda. I made a report which was much appreciated and was almost being implemented when the Community broke up - we made the report in 1974 or 1975 then in 1977 the Community broke up.

It broke up, in my opinion, because [Tanzanian President Julius] Nyerere said 'I will never sit on the same table with Amin'. We pleaded with Nyerere that this attitude was detrimental because one of the organs of EAC was the heads of state meeting - we used to call it the Authority.

The Authority was composed of the three heads of state. Things continued like that because the Authority has to approve the budget of the Community, it had to discuss a lot of issues about the Community and Nyerere had said he would never sit on the same table with Amin.

He kept that [position] although we pleaded with him that his deputy, at that time a man called [Sheikh Abeid] Karume [should stand in for him]. He was a Muslim like Amin. We said: if you cannot sit, at least let your deputy come and sit in your place. He again rejected the compromise. So the Community died because of that reason; but also because in Kenya there was a man called [Charles] Njonjo, a minister.

He didn't like Tanzania because it was a socialist state and he was very influential during the days of [Jomo] Kenyatta.

Although there are attempts to revive [the Community], it will never come to the same stage as it was.

At that time, these corporations were working very well and there was a cadre of people who were truly East African civil servants: people who would work here [in Kampala] today, next day they are transferred to Dar es Salaam, and the day after to Nairobi, working for the corporation. That can never happen again. I don't see it because we cannot rebuild.

When the Community collapsed, we got Uganda Airlines, Air Tanzania, Kenya Airways. These cannot surrender their sovereignty any more. In Uganda, Uganda Airlines failed, but Kenya Airways is doing very well. I also think that Air Tanzania is doing well.

I served two terms, the first 1967-1972, then 1972-1977. At some point or other I served with people like Roger Mukasa - he used to be the chairman of the Coffee Marketing Board. There was Elifaz Ntende, the chairman of Lint Marketing Board; there was a man called Ben Emo from Lango. There was another man called Nyeko from Gulu; another man called Yiga from West Nile.

There was also Prof. Ssenteza Kajubi, and Frank Mutagubya. There was a fellow from Mbarara who I don't see any more. He was a lawyer. The appointing authority was Cabinet and it used its discretion.

As I told you, Nyeko was from Gulu, Emo from Lango, Yiga from West Nile, there was me, Ntende was from Busoga, Roger Mukasa was from Buganda, Tibamanya was from the western region as well as [George] Kihuguru who used to be [dean of students] at Makerere and myself. So I think they were trying to satisfy the regional balance.

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I married in 1966. My wife Christine is from a family of a man called Michael Lwanga who used to be the Kabaka's Ggombolola chief, Omukulu w'Ekibuga in Kampala, a very powerful man.

We met at a friend's place. I had just come back from the United States in 1963. I was a quiet young man determined to settle down quickly.

I wanted to start a family quickly. So I met this young woman. She was a teacher in Mengo. Immediately after we met, she got a Commonwealth scholarship to go and study in Australia. Later on I got a scholarship to go and study insurance in Switzerland, so we were not in Uganda.

But later on we came back and got married in 1966. We had children immediately after our marriage. Our first born [came] in 1967, then another in 1968, another in 1970, and another in 1973. We had a young family and [yet] I was all the time leaving her to go to Nairobi, everywhere.

During those trying periods of Amin when there were no essential commodities, she was staying alone for at least two weeks or a month, then I would come back, then go away.

My children are Joseph Kizito, who works with the World Bank in Washington, D.C.; Joyce Kajoba is a pharmacist based in the UK; Jennifer Kizito and Basiima Kizito are both engineers working in the UK.

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Before the break up of the Community, Amin had decided that he was to give all top positions to Muslims. So when I was in Nairobi in 1976, my position [of general manager NIC] was given to someone else.

I would not have minded that but then they threatened me with imprisonment and people warned me that I should not come back yet. So I stayed in Nairobi for one year. While there, I started my insurance brokerage business with some Kenyans. In 1977, I came back here. There was no job for me but I had some insurance knowledge with me.

Fortunately, there was an Italian who was an insurance broker here. He was not pleased with the regime of Amin. So he wanted to sell. I went to the bank, borrowed money and bought his company F. Longoroni. At that time the insurance business was difficult but we were making some ends meet.

In 1979, when Amin was about to be toppled, the minister of finance, who was in charge of NIC, invited me and asked: would you like your job back? I said: no, you have messed it up. Then he came to me a second time, third, fourth, fifth and I said: no.

But the sixth time I was with my neighbour, James Mulwana, in Kansanga. He said: they have asked you to come and help us, but you have refused. I said: yes, I have refused because you have messed things up. I left the corporation in good financial shape, all the money has been used, and I don't want to be involved in that thing anymore.

Then Mulwana said: this is Amin's regime; unless you want to go back to exile, you cannot refuse. So I took it up. I went back to NIC. But, as I told you, it was in a mess. We tried to bring it up but then the war came, Amin was toppled, and after that there was preparation for general elections.

I said I am going to stand for general elections, and I resigned my job when we were in the process of putting NIC up [but] I am proud to say that people I trained have carried my work forward. They restructured NIC and it did very well.

By the time these Nigerians came to take it over [a few years ago], it was one of the strongest financial institutions here. I just wonder why the government decided to sell it because the original idea was to sell parastatals which were a burden to the government. NIC was not. It was even paying dividends to the government.

I contested for elections in Kampala South and I won. I was to remain a member of parliament until 1996.

***

Life during the Obote II government was very difficult for the Opposition. First of all, we were not allowed to have public meetings although we were members of Parliament.

Secondly, many of our supporters were hunted down; the [government] had youth brigades all over the country.

They were marauding around the country arresting people. I lost a few of my supporters especially when the bush war intensified in [the] Luweero Triangle. Many of us in the Opposition did not feel safe. They were suspecting us of sending assistance to Yoweri Museveni in the jungle.

That was very dangerous for us. At one time many people thought we were going to run away because many things were happening to us. Not only during Obote, but even during Amin's regime.

Apart from politics, I was building my insurance business. For example, I have told you about brokerage. We started this one, Statewide Insurance Company, in 1982.

We applied for this plot of land on Bombo Road [where Sure House stands] in 1983 from the City Council of Kampala. Everybody thought we were mad.

What are we going to do with this piece of land? How can you build in this regime? But I think now, our wisdom was well tested. This is a whole acre of land.

The war between Museveni and Obote was a very fierce war especially in my part of the country where I come from - Luweero. I lost five relatives. My uncle died there, we lost everything - a lot of cattle, homesteads. Many of our people were lost. When Museveni came, we started to look for them in camps. We went from camp to camp. Some we discovered, others we were given stories that they had died.

Apart from the war, there were serious dangers to our lives. There was a time when I was the acting Leader of the Opposition [in the absence of Paul Ssemogerere] when Dr Andrew Kayiira raided Lubiri Barracks. Paulo Muwanga was the vice president. In the evening, Muwanga sent his assistant to me.

I was not at home when he came. When I came back, I was told, "Muwanga is waiting for you at Nile Mansions." That was a Friday. I said: I am not a fool, I cannot go there.

I didn't go there. On Monday morning as I was preparing to go there, he sent his envoy again. The envoy asked me: did you receive my message? I said: yes, I received your message but I couldn't come.

I am not a fool because if they take you on the weekend, you know that you are going to leave after the weekend - if you are lucky. So I went to Muwanga, and he quarrelled with me. He said: you members of the Opposition, DP, you are supporters of Museveni, he is staying with your chairman [Kagulire] of Kiboga. I said: I don't know who sleeps in the chairman's house. [Kagulire] is NRM now. Muwanga spent 30 minutes quarrelling. Then I told him: I am in Parliament, don't ask me what goes on in the jungle.

You are the ones who are fighting in the jungle. If anything, I should be the one to ask you what is happening in the jungle. He said: don't you know that I have the powers to go and destroy your house and kill your wife and children?

At that time, Ntege Lubwama, who had been minister in the Kabaka's government, had just lost a house and a child and we were wondering how it had happened. Then I said: oh, I see, now I know who destroyed Lubwama's house and killed his child. But since you are the vice president and minister of defence, you can do whatever you want. I am in your hands.

If you want to kill me now, you can kill me but it will be for no reason. In the end he told me to go away. When I went home, I didn't inform my wife until Tito Okello took over [in a military coup in July 1985]. When I informed her, she said if I had told her then, she would have run away. That is what I suspected.

The other incident is when [Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen.] Oyite Ojok died in a [military helicopter] accident [in 1983]. Obote was out of the country, so Muwanga was the acting president. Paul Ssemogerere, Livingstone Ssewanyana and I decided to go and pay our respects to the vice president. So we went.

Muwanga was very happy; he was in a very jovial mood. I had never seen him as pleased as he was. So it gave me the impression that he had a hand in that death. He ordered lunch for us, and then he brought us cold drinks.

There was a man called Luwuliza Kirunda, he was the minister for internal affairs. He came and said: the President is coming, we need to go to the airport.

Muwanga said: you can go, I will find you there. I am still with the leader of the Opposition. So we thought from his appearance that he knew someone was dead and it was a relief to him. The country was not sorry for the death of Oyite Ojok. Very few people were.

Next Sunday Ssebaana Kizito talks about bringing Binaisa back from Nairobi after Amin's fall, the 1985 coup, DP's clandestine links with NRA rebels and how he ended up serving in Museveni's Cabinet. Intriguing tale

ins5: FLASHBACK: Ssebaana was an Opposition (DP) Member of Parliament when Muwanga (top) was the Vice President in the 1980s during Obote's second term. Photo by Stephen Wandera and file

Get rid of the 'dead wood' and 'empty tins' but don't up fees

Yesterday, Daily Monitor ran the first part of this exclusive insight into why Makerere University is suffering. Dr

Mukwanason A. Hyuha, a former academic registrar, today argues that the management must get its priorities right

The Makerere Papers: Mukwanaso Hyuha's words

Priorities of a university must be based on its main functions. Academic and related activities--including teaching, research, provision of teaching and research facilities, provision and maintenance of a good library and other academic infrastructure, appropriate remuneration of academic staff, and timely outreach activities--must take priority over non-academic activities.

There has been a never-ending argument that the positions of, say, the Academic Registrar, University Secretary, Bursar, Chief Librarian and Director of Planning are each equivalent to the rank of full professor in terms of salary and related financial benefits. This is fundamentally wrong.

An administrative staff need not have a Master's degree, leave alone a doctorate, in his/her area of competence (incompetence?).

Further, in most cases, promotion of administrative staff in a university in Uganda is not based on value for money, nor on performance criteria arising out of attainment of pre-determined, measurable output or scientific publications, but on subjectively determined levels of efficiency (or lack of it) and length of stay in a given position.

This is in contrast to the promotion of an academic staff member that must be based on teaching efficiency (as assessed mainly by students), research output, supervision of research and contribution to the community. In my opinion, there is, therefore, no justification at all to equate a bursar's salary and other allowances to that of a professor or associate professor.

In any case, one does not need an honours degree to occupy most of those administrative positions being equated to professor, associate professor or senior lecturer. This anomaly must be rectified.

Without matching positions with specified output or productivity and qualifications in a value-for-money approach, a university ends up having a higher wage bill than optimal. To reduce the wage bill, one should also work towards an optimum employment level.

'Dead wood' must be gotten rid of. In my opinion, Makerere University is overstaffed with non-academic staff; many of them are 'dead wood', just hanging around to get their salaries and wages at month-ends.

Some suffer from chronic late-coming and absenteeism. This was one of the problems in my department at that time: a few 'empty tins making a lot of noise' but with productivity equal to zero or hovering in the neighbourhood of zero or even negative.

The 'dead wood' does not only increase the wage bill but also causes unnecessary disturbances that impact adversely on working relationships within an institution. Yet, these 'empty tins'--despite most of them having very poor academic qualifications (poor diplomas and pass degrees--continue to earn salaries and allowances equivalent to those of professors, associate professors, senior lecturers, lecturers, or assistant lecturers.

There has been a tendency in Makerere University to steer planning away from the basic functions. For example, more often than not, salary enhancements (top-up allowances) for even non-academic staff are overemphasised at the expense of academic activities. Managers tend to look at short-run solutions, rather than long-run considerations.

If one sacrifices short-term benefits in favour of long-run gains, one appears to be unreasonable. I am saying this from experience. The Academic Registrar's Department, under my leadership, was able to put up one of the largest buildings on campus, using just net savings from user fees (mainly application and registration fees).

The building cost us over Shs3.5 billion. I had to sensitise and convince my colleagues in the department to forego increases in their top-up allowances during the gestation period of constructing the building (promising them increased benefits after the building was completed). Given the teamwork at that time, my colleagues agreed to make the required sacrifices, whose end result was the completion of the building in record time.

This Academic Registrar's Building, as it was referred to up to the time I left Makerere, was put up at the time the university's student population was just over 15,000, and the Academic Registrar's account (where the net incomes from relevant user fees under the department were deposited) had initially only Shs80 million.

Through sacrifice, visionary planning and foresight as well as teamwork, we were able to complete the building, sufficiently furnish it, and use it starting in early 2000.

I refused to get a top-up allowance of about Shs3.3 million per month as Academic Registrar from the Academic Registrar's account. Yes, when management decided that all of us in administration at ranks equivalent to full professor had to get this allowance, I started getting the allowance from accruals to the central administration, not from the Academic Registrar's account.

Later, my deputies and other colleagues in the department were incited to request for drastic increases in their top-up allowances. I did not mind such increases, provided the payments to cater for the increments were not effected from the Academic Registrar's account; we still had to buy more furniture and other facilities for the new building, for we had not yet attained the bliss point.

I expected any increments in top-up allowances to be catered for from the accruals to the central administration. Note that even the department contributed to these accruals; I believe at least 5% of our collections were deducted at source and deposited on this central administration account.

In any case, all other officials in the Main Building were getting their top-up allowances from this central administration account, not from their departmental accounts. It is now history that this was the beginning of my 'problems' in Makerere; I was accused of refusing to raise the top-up allowances of my colleagues, yet I was myself getting an enhanced gross top-up allowance of over Shs3.3 million per month!

Now, what has gone wrong with planning at Makerere? The Academic Registrar's Building--which is now known as Senate House--has, among other things, a canteen, two large conference rooms, a number of lecture rooms, office space for renting out and an ultra-modern facility to accommodate a bank (indeed the Uganda Commercial--now Stanbic--Bank, Makerere Branch, started renting the space immediately it was ready in 2000).

The student population is now well over 33,000. What is happening to resources from the private student sponsorship scheme? What proportion is being put aside to expand teaching and research facilities? What proportion is going to academic staff development? Are the resources being used transparently and efficiently? Are priorities right?

The bottom line is that there is urgent need to effect a surgical operation on the once famous Makerere University in order, inter alia, to put priorities right, to streamline general administration, to get a small but efficient cadre of supporting staff and other administrators, and to use the available financial and other resources efficiently.

This is the only way to avoid, for example; episodes of collapsing walls and other financial upheavals, incessant strikes, negative publicity, seemingly declining academic standards and a plummeting image/ranking.

Tuition and other fees

There have been calls that Makerere University increases tuition and other fees so as to get out of its current financial quagmire. Fees increases can never be a lasting solution to the incessant financial problems at Makerere University. Let me put on record the underpinnings of this opinion of mine.

First, in any university, fees should cover only a small proportion of the total operating costs. This proportion should preferably range from 33% to 50%. The bulk of financing should come from other sources, such as grants-in-aid or donations, endowments, earnings on investments, earnings from research activities, chairs at various Faculties or Departments, donor assistance and partnerships, fund-raising activities (from alumni, the business community, industrialists and such other sources), and net incomes from consultancies and other contractual activities.

If fees are to finance 100% of the university's recurrent and development expenditures, then the fees will be perfunctorily too high to be afforded by ordinary homo sapiens; the university will cater for children of the affluent, not those of the wretched of the earth--to use Franz Fanon's terminology.

Second, a fees increase assumes that the current revenue from fees and other sources is 'insufficient'.

This can be justified if and only if the current revenue is efficiently collected and efficiently deployed (utilised). If collection is sub-optimal and utilisation is also sub-optimal, then one will find it difficult to justify any fees hikes. Is there an efficient system for collecting revenues at Makerere?

Are the revenues (from fees and other sources) being used optimally according to well-thought-out plans and value-for-money mechanisms? Given suspicions of financial mismanagement arising from exorbitant trips and collapsing walls, albeit circumstantial, it is extremely difficult to answer the above questions in the affirmative.

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