The proposal by Shadow Public Service Minister, Ms. Anna Adeke Ebaju, to reduce the size of Uganda’s Parliament and Cabinet is nothing more than a hollow attempt at deflecting attention from the real issue plaguing the country: an inherently corrupt, inefficient, and self-serving political system. Cutting the number of lawmakers from 529 to 260 and reducing the Cabinet from 82 to a mere 21 ministers might sound like a reasonable idea, but in reality, it’s a shallow and futile gesture that does nothing to address the cancer of political manipulation, patronage, and greed that has corrupted Uganda’s government at its core.
Ms. Adeke’s suggestion is little more than political theatre aimed at creating the illusion of reform while allowing the same parasitic political elite to maintain their vice-like grip on power. Uganda’s government is not bloated merely due to the number of positions in Parliament or Cabinet. The real problem lies in the widespread culture of greed, inefficiency, and cronyism that has allowed Uganda’s political system to devolve into a self-serving enterprise where the only concern is feeding the insatiable appetites of the political class. The suggestion that reducing the number of lawmakers and ministers will improve efficiency is laughable, as it fails to address the root cause of the dysfunction: the utter lack of accountability and the system’s preoccupation with self-enrichment.
The proposal to separate the legislative and executive branches of government is also a feeble and naïve attempt to remedy a far deeper problem. The real conflict of interest is not the dual role of MPs serving as ministers; it is the entangled, symbiotic relationship between the political elites who view the country as their personal fiefdom. The idea that having ministers resign from their parliamentary seats will somehow solve Uganda’s systemic corruption is a futile and misguided wish. It’s nothing but a band-aid solution to a much larger problem—the unfathomable depth of political greed that has left Uganda teetering on the edge of collapse.
Ms. Adeke’s proposal is nothing more than an exercise in futility. Reducing the size of the Cabinet or Parliament won’t change the fact that Uganda’s government is run by a corrupt few who are more interested in sustaining their own power than in serving the people. It will not stop the rampant mismanagement, the siphoning of public funds, or the institutionalized nepotism that has become the hallmark of Uganda’s political system. In fact, the most recent increase in the number of state ministers—from 50 to 51—serves as a perfect example of how the political elite continue to manipulate the system for their own benefit. The idea of creating more “state ministers” to address “regional representation” is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to buy loyalty from regional power brokers, all at the expense of the taxpayers.
Ms. Adeke’s reform proposals are built on a flawed assumption: that reducing the number of lawmakers and ministers will solve Uganda’s fundamental problems. The real issue is not the size of government—it is the systemic corruption, the endless pursuit of self-interest, and the unrelenting greed that has infiltrated every corner of Uganda’s political establishment. Until Uganda’s leadership is fundamentally reshaped and held accountable to the people it claims to serve, any “reform” is just a smoke screen, a charade designed to maintain the status quo and perpetuate a system that has utterly failed its citizens.
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