Afrigather Abuse of public funds. Failing hospitals. Potholes within the streets of Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
These and different points characteristic in a web based protest marketing campaign that’s rattling authorities officers and others on this East African nation the place road protests are virtually outlawed — and the place corruption is widespread and infrequently lethal.
The marketing campaign has been trending on the social media platform X, previously Twitter, as #UgandaParliamentExhibition. It depends on leaks of official paperwork and has been solid as an “exhibition” — in a sequence of postings — about controversial points.
The most recent posts, about Uganda’s Nationwide Meeting, purport to disclose particulars about abuse of public assets, nepotism in workers recruitment and even collusion between civil servants and lawmakers on oversight committees.
Additionally they concentrate on Parliament Speaker Anita Amongst, an influential member of the ruling social gathering, who’s criticized for allegedly accumulating enormous sums in allowance spending on overseas journey, together with journeys that didn’t occur.
The marketing campaign alleges Amongst was paid the equal of $894,500 in per diems and leisure allowances between July and January, an astonishing quantity in a rustic struggling to implement its finances amid persistent income shortfalls.
A parliamentary fee which Amongst heads had earlier raised every day per diem charges for the speaker from $990 to $4,000. The annual per capita revenue in Uganda was $850 in 2022, in keeping with World Financial institution figures.
Amongst has not commented on the web marketing campaign, and The Related Press couldn’t independently confirm the allegations posted by its organizers, who embrace Jimmy Ssentongo, a distinguished rights activist in Uganda.
Chris Obore, a spokesman for the Nationwide Meeting, mentioned in an announcement that “Parliament acknowledges issues raised within the ongoing #UgandaParliamentExhibition on the establishment.”
“Within the spirit of openness, accountability and transparency, we’re obligation certain to review the specifics of all issues and conclusively tackle them,” he mentioned, with out elaborating.
The federal government of President Yoweri Museveni, who has held energy in Uganda since 1986, has lengthy been accused of protecting corrupt however influential officers from legal prosecution. After his reelection to a sixth time period in 2021, Museveni promised to crack down on corruption.
However many Ugandans are usually not hopeful.
Native media shops steadily report on corruption points, however activists, opposition figures and others who attempt to stage road demonstrations face arrest below a legislation that requires them to first notify police of their plans to rally.
The web protest motion has develop into vital for its capability to call and disgrace particular people earlier than an attentive viewers, mentioned Marlon Agaba, head of the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda watchdog.
“In a rustic the place civic house has been shrinking, residents are discovering various and revolutionary methods to specific their displeasure when it comes to how the nation is being ruled,” he mentioned. “This marketing campaign additionally exhibits the facility that new media has in shaping discourses on governance.”
The #UgandaParliamentExhibition has additionally solid a large internet, in search of proof of wrongdoing amongst each authorities and opposition figures.
Mathias Mpuuga, a former opposition chief within the Nationwide Meeting, was mentioned to have obtained a $131,000 “service award” for his work in Parliament.
Mpuuga denies any wrongdoing, however one other opposition determine who nominated Mpuuga to the parliamentary submit is accusing him of abuse of workplace.
“If we enable that corruption to get into us, then it should destroy us,” mentioned Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, a well-liked singer who’s also called Bobi Wine, chatting with native broadcaster NTV on Monday.
“Each time enormous sums of cash change palms … there’s one thing that is being given in change,” he mentioned.
