By Aggrey Baba
Charles Onyango-Obbo, a respected Ugandan journalist and political commentator, has sparked fresh debate after highlighting persistent concerns that Ugandans are being kept poor, uneducated, and sick, not by accident, but possibly by design.
In his latest “Ear to the Ground” column, in yesterday’s daily monitor, Onyango-Obbo pointed to the state of Uganda’s public services, asking whether the ongoing failures in healthcare, education, and environmental protection are simply the result of poor governance, or a calculated system to weaken citizens and limit resistance.
He singled out the stalled Lubowa International Hospital project as a key example. Despite the government allocating about ugx 1.4 trillion to Italian investor Enrica Pinetti, the hospital’s completion has been pushed from 2021 to 2026, with no clear explanation.
Onyango noted that even MPs and the Health Minister have been denied access to the site, raising questions about transparency in the use of public funds.
At the same time, he highlighted that many public health centres across the country remain underfunded and overstretched, with patients being asked to buy basic supplies and some walking long distances to get treatment.
The education sector is no better. Obbo cited figures showing that up to 43% of primary schools lack proper classrooms, furniture, and sanitation. In many parts of the country, children still learn under trees, while teachers grapple with poor pay and lack of teaching materials.
On environmental matters, he expressed concern over the rate at which Uganda is losing its wetlands, forests, and rare tree species like the shea nut, especially in northern Uganda. Forests are being cut down for timber or turned into charcoal, while wetlands are reclaimed for factories and housing estates, with little regard for local communities and ecosystems.
He warned that such destruction, if unchecked, could mirror tactics used by other regimes to destroy livelihoods in opposition strongholds and weaken resistance.
Onyango referenced historical examples in countries like Zimbabwe, North Korea, Venezuela, Sudan and South Africa, where leaders allegedly used poverty, restricted education, selective healthcare, and environmental destruction to maintain control over the population.
Though he did not directly accuse the Ugandan government of the same, Onyango said the patterns are too similar to ignore.
“These global examples don’t prove Uganda pursues such strategies, but they invite the question: are the broken hospitals, collapsed schools, and vanishing forests merely mismanagement, or could they serve a purpose?” he asked. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
