Walking to Work: The Test of Uganda’s Democracy and Human Rights Resolve
“When things go fine and everything is routinely good, this role of democracy may not be badly missed. But it comes into its own when things get fouled up, for one reason or another. The political incentives provided by democratic governance acquire great practical value at that time.” – Amartya Sen
In recent weeks, Ugandans have been ‘Walking to Work’ to demonstrate in protest against inflated living costs and rising fuel prices. The walking trail is blazed by opposition leaders who remain resentful, disputing the validity of recent elections in which the incumbent Yoweri K. Museveni was awarded a 68% landslide victory in February 2011. Uganda’s strongest opposition leader, Dr. Kizza Besigye, has taken the opportunity such economic insecurity has created, to begin a ‘walk to work’ campaign in order to draw attention to the issues of high costs of living and fuel prices. The end goal of these protests is a government intervention that would mitigate the severity of such economic conditions such as tax relief on fuel and an appropriate form of economic stimulus. Yet, as political leaders begin their walk to work, the right to movement and assembly is challenged and a democratic government boasting a Human Rights Commission is being stretched to both answer for a highly inflated economy and to protect the human rights of its opposition and nationals.
Following an election campaign during which the ruling party, NRM, spent approximately $350 million dollars of largely state funds to secure the presidential seat in February elections, Ugandans are now experiencing an added burden on top of the rising costs of food and fuel globally. In contrast to the expected forms of ‘rigged’ elections, where ballots are secretly stuffed and ghost voters are found in unreasonable numbers on the national voters’ register, these elections and the campaigns leading up to them proved that the competition was not driven by an issues based discourse, but rather a ‘money talks’ platform- which Museveni and his party exploited for all they were worth.
As a result of this extravagance, Bank of Uganda has reported a monthly inflation of 11.4 per cent in March, nearly doubling February’s 6 per cent rise. These figures have impacted enormously on a population where an estimated 25% are already living under the national poverty line. Food prices rose by 15% in March alone and according to the World Bank Report released mid April, the cost of maize alone, a staple food in the country, has increased by 114 percent, the highest year to year increase in the world. Although global inflation rates are taken into account, this crisis could have been quelled had national funds been invested in the countries strategy to develop, rather than a personified effort to maintain power. Threatening the progress made toward the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day, the depreciating Ugandan currency and elevated costs of high demand commodities inter alia could undermine such progress if sustained without intervention or eventual stabilization.
Food security remains a challenge yet to be effectively addressed by the Ugandan government for the past 25 years. Having ratified the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural rights, the Ugandan government holds an obligation to safeguard the rights of it’s citizens to adequate food and to attenuate circumstances which lead to hunger by measures which improve national production, conservation and distribution of food. Additionally, General Comment 12 on these same economic, social and cultural rights states that a progressive realization of these rights is acceptable; however, where unaccountable government spending is a contributing factor to such extreme inflation and therefore the incapability of those living in poverty to secure adequate food, a violation of these rights becomes apparent.
Opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye justifies the walking protests of high food costs by berating government for its inability to prioritize food reserves and develop irrigation systems which would harvest Uganda’s abundant rainfall to protect against lack of food during unavoidable drought seasons. With 85% of employment in Uganda employed in agriculture, a government initiative- National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS)- was established in 2001 to boost GDP and enable farmers to prosper, reducing poverty countrywide and stimulating economic growth through procurement of new livestock and better feeds. However, in the past 10 years, NAADS has become synonymous with corruption and has little measurable value in improving national GDP, food security nor poverty reduction for the large monetary investments made into these programs.
Although drought early this year has contributed to the high prices of food, costs are likely to stabilize with time and with approaching harvest seasons; however, while scarcity of food and capability to purchase inflated commodities continues, Ugandans are turning to the government for a response. They are exercising their public freedoms and civil rights by walking to work in protest of rising costs of living.
Fuel prices continue to rise nationally, already doubling in some parts of the country, due to conflict emerging in oil rich countries in Arab African states, contributing to rising prices of basic commodities. Where government taxes could be cut back on fuel in order to alleviate the economic pressures (as done in neighboring Kenya), the president defends his decision not to cut taxes with the argument that taxes are needed to continue improving Uganda’s infrastructure, namely in roads and energy production. However, there is much speculation on the sincerity of these goals, due to unfulfilled promises from the past of the same ends.
A majority of the Ugandan population live on one meal a day and struggle to access quality healthcare and education due to the state of both systems being underdeveloped. However, despite current economic conditions, the Ugandan government has revealed a purchase of 6 military fighter jets from Russia under the instruction of the president at an expense of 740 million USD entered into prior to parliamentary approval for such an expenditure. Such a move reeks of poor governance and autocratic leadership, eroding trust among its citizens that government funds are being managed accountably. An upcoming inauguration ceremony costing over 1million USD, leaves the door wide open to those who would accuse the incumbent and his government of not taking action to address the conditions that are threatening the lives and livelihoods of its citizens.
Subsequent to loosing the elections, Uganda’s opposition leaders united in what they claimed would be an uprising similar to those in Tunisia and Egypt in recent months. However unlikely an overthrow of government is in Uganda, protests were banned by the government and President Museveni declared at a press conference a few days before elections that there would be “no Egyptian-like movement’ in Uganda. He continued by saying, “We would just lock them up… in the most humane manner possible, bang them into jails and that would be the end of the story.”
As prophesied by President Museveni, when the walks began, they were met with zero tolerance from the Ugandan government. Riot police dispersed crowds walking to work with tear gas and rubber bullets, injuring civilians, including protest leader Kizza Besigye who was shot in the hand with a rubber bullet and subsequently sustained eye and ear injuries from a severe pepper spray assault by police. Five civilians have been killed in the first weeks events when they came under fire from police attempting to ‘crackdown’ on protests as directed by President Museveni.
Walks have been set to continue twice weekly until government responds favorably to the economic situation faced by Ugandans. Despite constitutional rights to movement and assembly, in only 4 days of walking protests, political party leaders had been arrested and imprisoned for what the police are saying is ‘inciting violence’ and ‘unlawful assembly’. The imprisonment of opposition leaders is not a new event in the history of the reigning regime.
Washington has voiced strong concern for the recent events stating, “Freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly are fundamental human rights and a critical component of modern, functioning democracies. We call on the Ugandan government to respect the opposition’s right to express its viewpoints and citizens’ rights to demonstrate peacefully and without fear of intimidation.”
Amartya Sen considers a great interconnectedness between political freedoms and the understanding and fulfillment of economic needs. His argument states that “the intensity of economic need adds to- rather than subtracts from- the urgency of political freedoms.” Currently, both economic need and political freedom (in the form of public expression drawing attention to unbearable economic inflation) are being restricted. Although praised for its move to democracy, progress toward development and the establishment of the Ugandan Human Rights Commission, it is evident that as circumstances present an opportunity for these institutions to be challenged, Uganda, often called the ‘darling of the west’, may not be quite as fetching in such times.
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Millennium Development Goals Report for Uganda 2010, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) Consumer Price Index
ICESC (Article 11)
General Comment 12 ICESC
The World Bank, Rising Food and Fuel Prices Take Their Toll on Eastern Africans. [Available at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAE/0,,contentMDK:22887720~menuPK:2246551~pagePK:2865106~piPK:2865128~theSitePK:258644,00.html]
Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) Consumer Price Index
Hellen Otii, ‘Do Ugandans Have a Right to Protest?” [Available at http://www.vote4africa.org/blog/entry/do-ugandans-have-a-right-to-protest]
U.S. Department of State, [Available at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/04/160528.htm.]
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom. The Importance of Democracy pg 146-159
© 2011, Rachel Parsons. All rights reserved.
This is a powerful and succinct explanation of a very difficult situation. The way forward to freedom is always fraught with danger and can only be accomplished with courage and determination. Something must be done to break through the inequities expressed in the nation of Uganda.