A letter to my old friend.

Dear Daudi,
Yesterday, I read your post in which you said Uganda was not a failed state and how citizens can put to task their leaders to deliver in terms of healthcare and other services. You also said we cant reduce Uganda’s political space to two people who are Museveni and Mbabazi. I agree that is realism, every right thinking Ugandan should be harnessing similar thoughts. But what is on ground is entirely different. One of my finest Ugandan columnists,  Kalundi Serumaga wrote an insightful piece on how it was absurd that Ugandans could reduce their future to two devils. The tragedy of our society is that first the only problem to them is Yoweri Museveni, now they will cling on to anyone they think can shake him and that is why Mbabazi comes in the picture. The times Mbabazi went to Namboole before this whole thing of harbouring ambitions began, he was booed thrown bottles at and words like twakoowa and Temangalo sufficed. Now I can say his popularity has soared and right now he can easily be carried higher. Unlike Besigye who left on principle(or so I think), wrote a long letter in 1999 and noted his points of departure which were strong in my opinion. The Mbabazi issue atleast as I (mis)understand is a party struggle for supremacy. Nothing is to change in their plan or ideology as NRM so in effect if Mbabazi were to offer himself for presidency i expect nothing in terms of social and economic transformation. Uganda’s voting patterns are not static they can change. Right now what most Ugandans want is change of a president, it does not matter who comes up. As long as he/she is viewed in equal standing and can challenge the incumbent. Ugandans are so powerless that they look at the next leader to deliver them, that is why they are high levels of apathy.  That is why only 55% of the registered voters turn up for voting. The gamble is on the new registered voters, but I for sure know that they are not going to line up. In fact hadn’t EC merged data with the National ID project, Ugandans would not have registered with the Electoral Commission. You see over the years Ugandans have withdrawn from the state and as I have always opined it is recipe for disaster.
Otherwise a failed state is one that is perceived as having failed at some basic conditions and responsibilities of a sovereign government. There is no general consensus on the definition but indicators would be a breakdown in services and delivery. In the failed state index and rankings Uganda grabs the 22nd position as top ranked failed state you can check out the rankings on Fragile State Index 2015,  so I dare say Uganda is in the top 25 failed states in the world, I may sound alarmist but indicators are there to substantiate.