ALHAJI FARUK KIRUNDA: Bad news for thieves: Balaam’s drive is unstoppable

What exactly do Ugandans stand for, “NO!” or “YES!” to corruption? This is the question coming to the fore as the Minister of Local Government, Balaam Barugahara and his state minister, Justine Nameere, continue with their sting operation into corruption and mismanagement in various districts and cities.

Starting in Eastern Uganda, they have unearthed and exposed pockets of corruption, outright theft and incompetence, winning public support in the process but also attracting alarm, condemnation and push back from some quarters.

Uganda is an interesting country; there is seldom unanimity on anything even where facts are right in our faces. Everyone has an opinion on anything. We make a step forward and two back. We set out to fix something but when sections of the public resist, we step back. The result has been back and forth in fighting the corruption monster despite strong political will and the means to do so.

But in this year of our Lord 2026, during the “No sleep, no corruption!” term, these half steps must be stopped.

For long, Uganda’s fight against corruption has suffered from a familiar problem: plenty of talk and discussion, alarm and anger over individual cases and little action. Ugandans are very loud about corruption, in an enabling environment for free public discourse on anything, but how come that corruption remains unchecked year in, year out?

Every year, audit reports expose abuse of public resources. Commissions of inquiry produce volumes of recommendations. Politicians make speeches. Technical investigations drag on for months or years.

Files disappear into bureaucratic corridors. Cases collapse on technicalities. Meanwhile, roads remain impassable, health centres lack medicines, schools deteriorate, and wananchi continue paying the price.
The result has been a dangerous public perception that corruption is discussed endlessly but rarely confronted decisively and that, perhaps, there is no political will to end it. That is why the hands-on actions by the ministers have generated such intense public interest. As if it’s an oddity that no one expected. This is despite the clear directive of President Yoweri Museveni at swearing in that the current term in for no sleep and no corruption. How did skeptics think that this directive was going to take effect? By magic or heavenly beings coming down first? The directive was for everyone to own and act upon, starting with officials directly under the command of the President and then everyone else in their respective capacities.

I know for sure that there have been previous sting operations by some commendable officials but Balaam has introduced something Uganda’s anti-corruption campaign has often lacked, and that is visibility.

For the first time in a long time, citizens are seeing senior government officials leave their offices, visit project sites, question those responsible, and demand immediate accountability in full public view.

The significance of this should not be underestimated. Corruption thrives in obscurity. It flourishes where there is distance between decision-makers and ordinary citizens. It grows when technical reports remain inaccessible in filing cabinets while communities continue suffering from poor service delivery and unmet expectations with political and socioeconomic implications.
Balaam’s approach has disrupted that comfort zone.

His critics, particularly technocrats, argue that investigations should precede public action. They raise legitimate concerns about due process, technical evaluations and the rights of public officers. Those concerns deserve consideration. However, there is another side to this debate.

For years, Uganda has relied almost exclusively on procedure. We have trusted systems, investigations, committees and reports. Yet corruption remains one of the greatest obstacles to national development.

Clearly, the problem has mestastised with this old approach. To solve it, another approach had to be applied. An approach that involves “boots on the ground” and demonstrating practically how audit and public accountability is done.

While care must be taken to act based on facts and to respect the rights of the officials in the respective administrative units, some things are visible even to the naked eye. It doesn’t require documents to see that there is no value-for-money. How the corrupt think and thrive is that they take everyone else for fools; that the ordinary citizens are not enlightened enough to audit and see for themselves that funds allocated do not correspond with work done. Take the case of that bridge constructed with timber and said to have cost Shs60million in Bulambuli. Was the timber shipped from Mars to cost that much? You look at a road and it’s lined with soil where there should be murram. Do you need a report and boardroom discussions to see that?

Conveniently, engineers and district officials aren’t doing enough to inform the public about works and projects being undertaken in their areas. This is done deliberately to keep people from asking question. The bigger problem is that district leaders (not all of them) are in cahoots with the technical branch whom they appoint and who are not transferable and are answered to them. In the end, because of the immense power that elected leaders have over these technocrats, they exert pressure on them for kickbacks and irregular allowances that eat into contract sums allocated for works. The result is substandard work and a populace desperate for services. For such officials, this a normal routine that they don’t want to see disrupted as long their own pockets are full and they are four wheel drive cars and getting treatment at government expense. It’s impossible to bet on such officials to do something about the grand theft and inefficiency from which they benefit.

Hence, need for radical measures that will awaken everybody and make all unserious officials reconsider their priorities in office. I saw political leaders from Western region opposing Balaam’s work. Can they assure the world that there is nothing wrong in their areas that requires attention? What are they hiding?

Bad news for the saboteur networks! Balaam’s operation has the full blessing of President Museveni and is, therefore, unstoppable!

The author is Special Presidential Assistant-Press and Mobilisation/Deputy Press Secretary-State House
Email: faruk.kirunda@statehouse.go.ug

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