Dr.Ayub Mukisa: If Civil Servants Were Honest: Could Hon. Balaam and Nameere Put Them on Tenterhooks?

This article examines the concept of honesty, which remains a major concern among Uganda’s civil servants. Before I once again thank Hon. Balaam Barugahare and Justine Nameere for exposing corruption in district local governments, let me first clarify my use of the term “civil servants.” Here, it refers to the permanent professional employees of district local governments hired to implement policies, manage public services, and run daily local government operations.

This raises an important question: if civil servants were honest in performing their duties, could Hon. Balaam and Nameere have put them on tenterhooks?

 In his 2018 study, “Combating Political and Bureaucratic Corruption in Uganda,” Wilson Asea argued that corruption is not practiced by outsiders or trespassers. Instead, he observed that corruption is institutionalized within government agencies, where corrupt practices are continuously sustained and reinforced. This explains why the aggressive, direct approach adopted by Hon. Balaam and Nameere is necessary to disrupt corruption within local governments.

Wilson further argued that individuals with good intentions cannot easily dismantle a corrupt system from within. They are often forced to either compromise their integrity and join the corrupt, or look the other way to protect their jobs and even their lives. This disturbing reality prompts a critical question from the Karamoja Anti-Corruption Coalition (KACC) Department for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis: if Hon. Balaam and Nameere had not intervened, for how long would this deep-seated dishonesty among District local government civil servants have continued to fuel corruption?

Similarly, as Daniel Masumba Walyemera observed in his 2021 PhD thesis, the enforcement of Uganda’s anti-corruption legal regime remains largely ineffective. For this reason, KACC argues that creative and unconventional oversight methods are absolutely necessary to confront the administrative dishonesty associated with corruption.

In conclusion, corruption acts like a virus, systematically attacking every vital organ of the nation. Therefore, it must be confronted from every possible angle through diverse and uncompromising strategies. Only through genuine administrative integrity, effective enforcement, and innovative public oversight can Uganda make meaningful progress in this critical fight against corruption.

Ayub Mukisa, PhD
Executive Director, Karamoja Anti-Corruption Coalition (KACC)
Email: ayubmukisa@gmail.com

 

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