The Inspector General of Government, Betty Olive Namisango Kamya is has been taking rounds on social media asking the poor people who are victims of corruption to take the lead in its fight. In a short video, the IGG says when medicine is stolen from government hospitals, it’s the poor people who suffers because a person of her status, when she falls sick, she has the capacity to ask President Museveni to chatter for her a plane to Aghakan Hospital in Nairobi. “For your information, I will not die from Mulago Hospital, therefore, if you the victims of Mulago Hospital don’t respond when medicine is stolen from there, you will suffer locally,” Kamya says.
The Inspectorate of Government also said the government vehicles which are air conditioned are not affected by potholes in most of the roads in Kampala and other parts of the country which resulted from poor works due corruption. Those and more words which were meant to make Ugandans rise up and fight corruption did not land well in the ears of most of the Ugandans, a good number of them have fired back at her. Amongst those, is Dr Olive Kobusingye (Dr Besigye’s sister). She writes;
Our dedicated, upright, and compassionate Inspector General of Government, Beti Namisango Kamya, has advised citizens without privileges to do something about their plight.
Speaking very plainly – a bit too plainly maybe – she let us know that the corruption that has eaten Uganda to the core is not affecting her.
She and others like her do not suffer from poor health services – they go abroad for medical care.
They do not feel the potholes – the monster all-terrain vehicles we buy and maintain for our privileged class cushion them against pothole discomfort.
She could have added that they are not held up in traffic, they have lead cars to help them cut through, pushing the victims off the narrow roads..
She perhaps has not had to deal with our wonderful Police and judicial system – some handlers that we pay work behind the scenes to make all annoyances disappear…
Has she noticed the malnourished children (and adults) on the streets?
From the comfort of her air conditioned chauffeur driven car, has she noticed throngs of underweight dust covered children walking to schools that provide a dead-end education?
Does she worry about where they will end up?
Is she not bothered by entire families sitting on one BodaBoda, because they cannot afford safer transport?
Does she not see her son in every boy whose future is cut off by corruption in schools?
Does she not see her mother or niece in every woman who is turned away from a hospital because they cannot afford to pay?
Does she not see her brother in every young man who could have been a success in their chosen field, but who now begs from relatives, because corruption shoved him off the employment ladder?
Has she not been to funerals where people talk about the deceased having died on their way to a third hospital, after the first two were unable provide a basic service such as a blood transfusion?
How many young people knock on her door, hungry, angry, and exhausted from months and years of trying to find jobs? Maybe the handlers keep these irritants out of her sight.
If Ms Kamya is not touched by these things, if she is incapable of feeling the pain of ordinary Ugandans, she has no business holding public office.
It is being able to feel each others’ pain that makes us human.
I may never have gone to bed hungry, but the thought of hundreds of thousands of children going hungry day after day makes me sick.
If any Ugandans are victims of corruption, we are all victims.
Ms Kamya probably intended to say that the ordinary Ugandans who suffer the most from the effects of corruption need to play a more active role in its eradication.
To see a drowning man and you start to demonstrate to him how to swim from the safety of the shore is not helpful.
Throw him a lifeline. You can teach him how to swim later.
Ms Kamya should step aside so that the Office of IGG gets filled by a Ugandan who feels our pain.