Challenges
Democracy, Corruption, Accountability
Perceived deterioration of governance and increase in corruption threatens to tarnish Uganda’s image as a development model and challenge its future development efforts.
– Uganda Country Brief , World Bank Group (2011)
To that statement, NAPE can only add that the problems of governance and corruption also challenge our ability to overcome our environmental crisis. Many of our most serious environmental problems originate top down from central government officials who make momentous decisions with serious environmental consequences in secret, ignore our constitution and laws, abuse the human rights of affected persons and communities, commit corrupt acts – or simply are incompetent.
We are all familiar with recent instances, such as conflicts of interest, intimidation of rural communities, arbitrary arrests, and secret agreements. We also know that corruption has been increasing in recent years, with only minor steps taken to curb it. The forms of corruption include: bribery of tax officials, nepotism in high-level hiring, fraud and embezzlement, corrupt awarding of procurement and services contracts, pocketing salaries for “ghost employees,” police corruption, and intimidation of judges.
Examples of Corruption
For example, the annual loss through procurement fraud alone in Uganda totals US$500 million – 20 percent of the procurement budget – according to a 2006 World Bank estimate. Also, Uganda ranks 127th out of 178 nations in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index. This is a shameful ranking that can make responsible, ethical foreign investors hesitate before investing in our economy – and instead attract only predatory, corrupt investors.
Also, the results of incompetent, inefficient, corrupt government leadership are visible and shocking – unhealthy public water supplies, pot-holed highways, unreliable electrical power, stinking uncollected garbage, increasingly polluted rivers and lakes, dismantling of protected areas, declining fish and wildlife populations, and more.
The conduct of elections continues to cause widespread concern that they are rigged in the government’s favor. After the 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections, the Commonwealth Observer Group reported “localized incidents of violence” and problems with regard to the Electoral Commission's poor management of the process, the lack of a level playing field and the 'commercialisation of politics'. As a consequence the group found that the key benchmarks for democratic elections were not fully met."
Human Rights at Risk
More broadly, the abuse of human rights is growing in Uganda. As government submitted its required 2011 annual report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, stakeholder cited serious problems as executive department refusal to obey lawful court orders, trials of civilians by military courts, arbitrary refusal to grant bail, laws that limit press freedom and access to public information, assaults and arrests of journalists, and arbitrary restrictions and punishment for peaceful assembly.
More disturbing are recent warnings by officials that questioning their decisions are acts of “economic sabotage,” a recently imagined crime. For example, Energy Minister Hilary Onek in 2009 warned companies and NGOs against criticizing oil policies, thus misleading the public. “I would wish to advise the NGO officials who are masquerading around that they know a lot about oil and are calling for transparency to go and do something else like looking after orphans,” he said.
Right to Bail Threatened
President Museveni proposed in 2011 a new law that would suspend bail for people charged with economic sabotage, participating in demonstrations, committing murder, defilement, rape and treason. “We need development in the country,” he said, “which can only be achieved through a stable country. A country that is free from demonstrators.” Controlled by his party, Parliament is considering this, and likely to enact all or some of it.
Besides violating international human rights standards, this is violates the National Oil and Gas Policy, Objective 7, which aims to ensure full public participation in oil and gas exploration, production and decision-making. As the organization Revenue Watch stated, “One of the tools in the effort is active civil society engagement in helping to build a productive, vibrant and transparent oil and gas sector.”
NAPE is Not Afraid
NAPE is committed to organizing affected communities and concerned citizens to call out these officials and demand that they adhere to the rule of law and due process, holding them accountable for inept or corrupt performance. Our goal is to provide even the most remote communities with the capacity to understand the environmental values at stake and to stand up for themselves.
With the Mabira National Forest Reserve newly threatened in 2011 by destruction of one-fourth its protected area for a sugarcane factory farm, NAPE is once again mobilizing opponents, as it did four years ago. After discovery of oil in Lake Albert, NAPE has helped organize local communities and other NGOs to demand transparency by the government – while also organizing a pan-African coalition making common cause with others across sub-Saharan Africa.
In response to Nile River hydroelectric dam projects near Jinja, NAPE has mobilized affected communities to demand adherence to World Bank requirements that such projects minimize their impacts.
NAPE also has a legal strategy that makes use of public interest attorneys to take the government to court, as a last resort only after failed repeated appeals to government officials to obey Ugandan and international laws. In some cases, we have been defendants in criminal proceedings and have used public-spirited defense attorneys to exonerate us. We also lobby Members of Parliament and Ministry officials to influence legal and regulatory changes, providing them with authoritative studies by NAPE, other NGOs, and international agencies.
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