Eureka

Finally this blog has been submitted and graded. I must say i am happy with the grade because of the work i have put into it. I would like to thank you all for the support and for being good sports when i stalked you for responses. I am now torn between wanting to be done with it as the course is finished or continuing with the cause because it is something i believe in. I would like to hear what you think.

Very first Newsletter

Hello to you all and thank you for being a part of this forum. The purpose of this forum is to build knowledge on how to increase people's participation in the fight aganist corruption. The goal of this project is to produce a news letter where participants share their ideas of how we can achieve a corruption free environment. I would like to invite you to take a look at our very first news letter and make your comments and contributions. I look forward to hearing from you and i thank you for you constant support.

PAC ignores VP Bukenya chogm pleas

I am very impressed with the members of parliament taking on not only Ministers and Permanent Secretaries but the Vice president of Uganda. The MPs are not listening to the excuses of the ministers that they cannot appear before the Public Accounts Committee because of travel commitments. They have ordered the respondents to appear or risk being arrested and their travel prohibited. They have threatened that they will contact the donars to have the visas revoked. I must say it is an amazing turn of events and it is refreshing to see that Ugandans are taking a stand againist corruption.

Governance, planning, engagement and learning the virtue of patience

As the course comes to the end; i am thinking more about the course title. Community Engagement, Planning and Governance. In the process of developing this project Governance played a major role in considering the involvement of the community in fighting corruption. I believe that good governance is initiated by the people because it is through them that leaders are elected. One of the participants on this blog made it clear that the people need to take responsibility for their actions by electing the right leaders to office who will be instrumental in protecting their rights and resources. It may be said that when the election is finished then there is nothing left to do, and no way to change the situation should the leaders turn bad. However, most constitutions and laws including Uganda's provides for the recall of leaders who the people feel are not perfoming as is expected. The purpose of this project is to build knowledge about the importance of the community in the fight aganist corruption; as well as to develop ways to educate the community about their role in ensuring good governance.

In endevouring to build knowledge on community involvement in governance there is a need to engage; and engage i did. It is important in planning for action to build a body of participants through different ways, and with that this blog was born. In addition to the blog i created a facebook group called CORRUPTION LETS FIGHT IT which i would encourage you to visit and drop me a line. In trying to engage with the community out there for the purpose of achieving the goal of this project i found that enagement takes a long time and may or may not occur as we would like or as we plan. In the initial stages there was a positive response to the idea; however, there was very little action. I was disappointed because i expected response and action to be immediate; boy was i wrong. What was interesting is that almost at the end of the project there was a great big huge response and thats when i realised that to initiate and implement action, especially community based action, there is a need for patience. And patience is a virtue i had to learn.

I am thankful to all those who have been involved in this project in various capacities. I am appreciate your advice, your words of wisdom and your encouragement through this journey. I would like to invite you to continue to take part in this blog, for us to take our country forward. Please read our friends responses on the news letter and i look forward to hearing from you.

We are part of a whole

As part of my course I am required to initiate action and participation in a community based approach against corruption in Uganda. I am considering the integration of the community, the people, in the fight against corruption. I believe that in the decentralisation system in Uganda has allowed access to services to the people down at the grass roots. I believe that the management of these services is better governed by those for whom they are intended, the community. In my work with the Inspectorate of Government I was privileged to have interacted with the community and with the public in the receipt of complaints, participation in community discussions and taking part in radio programs. I am appreciative of the efforts of government agencies to decentralise not just utilities but offices of authority like the Inspectorate of Government, Director of Public Prosecutions, Attorney General’s office, and Auditor General’s offices to ensure that
people have easy access to services.

I still feel that a lot can be done to improve people participation. The stake holders in the anti corruption war are part of a system. I believe that this system is made up of different components. These components need to work together to ensure success in achieving a corruption free environment. I am of the view that the community has not been well integrated in this process and yet they are a useful resource in the fight.

I would like to request for you participation in this exercise. I would like to inform you that it is a purely academic exercise at this point; however, I would like to hope that at a later date it would develop into a fully fledged program.

I would like to request your contribution to ideas on how we can involve or increase community participation in the fight against corruption in Uganda.

Your ideas are welcome and I really appreciate your input. If you have the time I would request that you visit my blog on http://ugandansandfriendsunite.blogspot.com/ as well as a facebook group called corruption lets fight it.

I realise you are very busy but I implore you to take out ten minutes of your time to draft two paragraphs with your thoughts and ideas.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as is convenient

VP GILBERT BUKENYA FINALLY FACES CHOGM PROBE:

what do you think

It is interesting that these are the kind of pictures i had in my mind, growing up, of someone who was corrupt. Someone in authority with the instruments of power abusing resources for their own personal gain. Ofcourse in a child's mind you doesnt really think in this way. I just thought 'that man/woman is eating money'. One of my classmates raised an interesting point that teaching children about corruption from an early stage in an start of building a nation with intergrity. A former collegue and a soldier in the fight aganist corruption started a project where book covers were distributed to students/pupils and on these covers children were ways to recognise good and bad practices in schools like cheating. The encouragement of early teaching aganist practices of corruption is a good strategy in ensuring that we have a clean community