Problems Uganda has faced since Independence

Uganda got independence on 9th October 1962 with Obote as Prime minister. Kabaka Mutesa 11 as president a year later. At the time of writing, Uganda is under the presidency of Museveni. Since independence many problems have been faced and the note should be taken on.
 
Politically, political instability has raged the country. Just two years after independence (1964). Uganda, like other East African countries, faced the problem of army mutiny. From then, Civil wars, coup detats and inter state conflicts have been witnessed, e.g. The Kabaka crisis of 1966, the 1971 Amin coup. the 1979 war against Amin, the 1981 - 1986 NRM war, the LRA rebellion has been for years etc. This instability has led to frequent government changes, death of many people and a refugee crisis.
 
Dictatorship or undemocratic governance has been the order of the day in the governments Uganda has had. Ugandans have faced this in a relative way; whereas some have appreciated the rule of some presidents, others have had the worst. However, in general terms on average, dictatorship has been very high. For example, Obote with his one-man constitution, he told the members of parliament that, I have come not to beg you on what I should do but to tell you what I have done-'-. You will get the constitution in your pigeonholes.
 
Consider the regime of Idi Amin and his murderous nature. It was the most undemocratic government Uganda has ever had. There has been reluctance of the NRM government to free the political parties irrespective of the pressure; it was in early 2003 when it embarked on the transition to multipartism.

There has been power struggle in Uganda. Politicians have been power- hungry; a reason why there has been frequent change of governments even when they are not democratically elected. For example, Obote overthrew Mutesa in 1966; Amin overthrew Obote 1 in 1971, Yusuf Lule went on in 1979, Binaisa followed him just after 68 days and commented *the chair is sweet Obote II came in 1980, Okellos, then NRM to date. m fact in all the East African countries, it is only Uganda that has gone through this experience moreover mostly through violent ways. That is why there have been 9 presidents while the other East African countries have had three each.
 
There has been a problem of power monopoly. On top of assuming power through illegal means most politicians have not been willing to relinquish it for the sake of others. They have monopolized the "political dance" yet not only preaching that "power belongs to the people" but also that "politics is a dirty game" so as to keep the people out. No wonder one ex-president Binaisa admitted that the presidential seat is sweet. Museveni has ruled for 23 years but currently (2008), he pressed for amending the constitution to allow the president to rule for more than two terms.

Neo-colonialism has bedevilled the country since independence. Uganda just got flag independence (refer to signs of Neo colonialism e.g.- military signs, election monitoring.
 
Rigging of elections as claimed by a section of people as too high. However, analysis shows that in Uganda, whoever loses in the elections will always lament about massive fraud.
 
Economically, corruption has dug deep trenches in the Ugandan society. Politicians have swindled a lot of taxpayers' money. Many politicians have acquired juicy positions in power through corruption. And when they fall into things, they eat meat from the chest of bulls; their wives grow fatter and fatter while the bony voters continue to sleep on the same grass they slept before Uhuru! [Okol P'Bitek, Song of Lawino}. Politicians like staying in towns and only return to the peasants during the time of elections to h"be them with salt, sugar etc.
 
Economic dependence has been high ever since the country got independence. Uganda is not self-reliant; it depends on loans, expatriates, imported consumer and capital goods. For example, Amin heavily borrowed funds from the Middle East, Museveni's government has heavily borrowed and got other types of foreign aid mostly from Europe, USA and China. This has increased Uganda's external debt; by 1997 Ugandans external debt stood at $ 3.7 billion (Uganda debt network report).
 
Foreign dominance of the economy has been high in Uganda. By the time Amin came into power Uganda had almost become an Indian colony due to the influx of Indian investors. Presently, the expelled Asians and other foreign entrepreneurs have been invited intothecountry to invest. Multinational corporations like MTN, SHELL, Unilever have' increased. Hence profit repatriation has continued to deny the country of genuine development.
 
Inflation has been an economic problem in Uganda since 1962. In 1969, government was facing foreign exchange shortage. Commodities, therefore, became scarce and prices rose. During Amin's era, inflation was at its highest due to the economic war at that time. Though it has been contained to its low levels since 1986, inflation has not been wiped out completely. Since the Iraq- America crisis rise in 2003, prices of many commodities increased due to the rise in the fuel prices. Inflation has been a limiting; factor to the economic development of Uganda.
 
The problem of unemployment has raged the country for a long time since independence. This has been a serious problem faced by the Ugandans; they have not been able to earn to sustain their standards of living. In a bid to solve this problem, there has been use of radical means. For example, Obote expelled the Kenyan Labour force, Amin declared an economic war - chased Asians. The Museveni regime has had serious regular attacks from opposition groups for failing to solve this problem. It should also be noted that unemployment problem has not only been caused by internal factors but external factors too; like the SAPs with the demobilization /retrenchment policies, then the system of education which creates more job seekers than Job creators.
 
The unfavourable trade relations have affected the country since 1962. Uganda has been faced by balance of payments and trade deficits, e.g during Obote 1 regime, price of cotton and coffee went down drastically and foreign exchange from exports declined. The decline of exports for 1971 by 9% led to a 43 million shillings trade deficits. This was the first such deficit since independence.
 
Unequal exchange rate has persisted since independence. Uganda has never had equal exchange rate of its currency with the other currencies. The Ugandan shilling has had the lowest value against the dollar, pound and now the Euro. By 1986, a dollar was exchanged for less than 1000 shillings. To day, it is different; the Ugandan currency depreciation against the dollar has alarmed every body. The US dollar, for example, is close to Uganda shillings 2000.
 
Unbalanced regional development has been witnessed in the country since 1962. Some regions are more developed than others: the central and western against the North and Eastern. The Northerners mostly time and again have complained against government for having neglected them. This state of affairs, however, has its background in the colonial era; this is how they developed the country differently and even Obote showed that there was need to halt the granting of independence until the North had picked up; This however, has continued to persist; economic opportunities have not been extended to this region.
 
The problem of low industrial progress has not been solved. Uganda still has few industries mainly concentrated in urban centres, eg Kampala and Jinja, few in Mbarara and Tororo plus Kasese. Worth noting, most of these industries produce semi-finished products, while others are just agricultural processing industries. Hence, that is why the industrial contribution to Uganda's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has remained low, yet economic development can be achieved if the industrial sector is doing very well.
 
Poor and inadequate infrastructural development has hindered the economic development of Uganda. Uganda has poor road network, railway network is poor and even it has more or less collapsed. Fairly good roads are found in towns (urban areas) and this has affected accessibility (the case with which a desired destination is reached), production is thus affected. Most areas have no access to energy supply and yet this power is instrumental in economic development. Many areas are still remote, like the Karamoja region in the North Eastern region.
 
Socially, Uganda has inadequate education standards. This has been because of high education fees yet people are poor. There has been lack of trained teachers, even the few trained ones have not been remunerated well; so they have invested little effort in teaching adequately. Then until recently, the education of girls had not been taken into consideration. It is the NRM government that has encouraged the education of female children by giving a bonus point' at the entry into public universities. However, at a lower level, UPE which was introduced in 1997 has not yet achieved much especially on the girls' side; only about 9% of all girls who finish primary level have been able to join secondary schools.
 
Poor health facilities have caused poor quality population in Uganda. It is true we have had structures (hospitals, dispensaries) but there are no drugs. Also, the ratio of doctor to patient has been high; e.g by 1992, 1 doctor was for very 23,000 people, 1 hospital for every 200,000 people, 1 health unit was for every 2332 people and one health bed for every 800 people. Though this has reduced the situation is not a desired one as yet. Even during the cholera and Ebola out break in 2000, Uganda had to import medical facilities and personnel.
 
Disease, poverty and ignorance have affected a unified development in Uganda. Uganda has been hit by the three problems; each relates to the other. Ignorance has led to diseases and this has led to poverty. For example, many Ugandans, because of ignorance, have contracted AIDS epidemic. Hence much money has been spent on its treatment and this has bred to poverty; even other diseases have been caused by ignorance. AIDS has impacted on the level of economic production because of the decline in labour force; it has hit those who are in their most economically productive years like, doctors, teachers, tax drivers, civil servants, businessmen etc. The poor health situation has partly been responsible for the decline in the life expectancy and generally low levels of development.
 
Ethnicity has caused under development in Uganda. This has been enhanced sometimes by leaders themselves through many ways e.g, during Obote regime, while in Soroti, he cautioned the Teso not to be like the Baganda because "a good Muganda is a dead one". Army promotions during Obote and Amin eras were based on ethnic backgrounds. In 1964, the Banyoro were against the Baganda on the issue of the lost counties. Currently (2004), there is an ethnic problem between the Bakiga and Banyoro in Kibaale district. All these have hindered the achievements of unity in Uganda since independence.
 
Religious differences have been and are still rampant in the country. There has been sectarianism on religious grounds. In the early post independence period, and even long after independence, DP has been seen to be for Catholics while UPC has been taken to be for Protestants. The religious differences have even been identified at lower levels; the social distance between Christians and Moslems is wide. The Christians have always questioned the authority of Moslems as the only ones to slaughter animals.
 
Immorality has been on the increase. During Amin's time, it is true that Amin exposed or showed his stand against imperialist cultural influence" the dressing code, but no class in society treated women as sex prey objectives like the fascists and mafutamingi. Of recent, prostitution, homosexuality and lesbianism (gayness) have increased and have been very common. It is funny and shows the level of moral decadence when some people in the Ugandan society are advocating for the recognition of such people's rights- minority group rights. In fact at the time of writing, mere is a proposal to licence "ekimansulo" [nude shows].
 
Natural calamities have also left a horrendous impact on Uganda. Drought (1999), Famine (1969, 1989 in some parts of the country). Earth quakes eg those m Fort-portal that killed many people and destroyed property. Floods during the 1998 el-nino rainfall which caused transport problems, specially in Kasese where the bridges collapsed, in Kampala where there have been floods on the roads; Kampala has continued to face this problem.
 
Rural urban migration has continued to manifest itself. This has led to congestion in towns development of slum areas e.g. Makerere-Kivulu, Mengo- Kisenyi, Namuwongo, Katanga, Katwe etc. Several crimes are in both towns and rural areas.
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