By Aggrey Baba
Senior Lawyer and Jinja East member of Parliament (MP) Paul Mwiru has punched holes in the Minister of Local Government, Balaam Barugahara’s approach to fighting the deep-rooted corruption in the NRM government as little more than a publicity stunt which may excite the people of Uganda but will ultimately fail to fix the country’s governance problems.
Speaking during NBS Frontline on Thursday night, Mwiru said he has no issue with Balaam’s style of carrying out surprise inspections infrastructure of cameras, but insisted that such operations won’t defeat the stinking corruption in Museveni’s governmet without addressing the systems that breed it.
“I have no problem with Hon. Balaam’s publicity stunt, but it won’t yield anything,” Mwiru said.
His words come after Balaam’s recent anti-corruption campaign across the Bugisu sub-region, where he has been making unannounced inspections of roads, health centres, schools and local government projects. Balaam been confronting local government officials on the spot, ordering investigations into suspected theft of public funds, visiting facilities at odd hours, and promising action against public servants accused of frustrating service delivery.
The operations have generated widespread public attention, with some officials being arrested or investigated, while many tired Ugandans have praised Balaam for personally taking the fight against corruption to the district level instead of waiting for reports from Kampala.
However, Mwiru believes the approach is focusing on the consequences rather than the disease itself.
According to him, Uganda’s biggest challenge is not corruption but poor administration, weak institutions and a leadership system that has failed to enforce accountability from the top. He argued that as long as the NRM government continues spending trillions under classified expenditure with limited public scrutiny, corruption will simply mutate into new forms regardless of how many district officials are publicly exposed or arrested.
“The classified expenditure is UGX 4 trillion. It has become part of corruption,” Mwiru said.
The outspoken NUP leader also linked the governance crisis to a lack of political legitimacy, arguing that several leaders remain in office while election petitions challenging their victories are still pending before court.
He further maintained that anyone entrusted with taxpayers’ money must be compelled to account for every coin.
“Whoever takes public money must account,” he added.
Mwiru’s criticism adds to the growing debate surrounding Balaam’s leadership style, which has remained heavily camera-oriented since he first entered government as State Minister for Gender and Children Affairs.
During his tenure at the Gender Ministry, Balaam frequently turned sensitive government interventions into high-profile public events. Perhaps the most memorable was the exhumation of the late Kadongo Kamu legend Paul Kafeero’s remains for DNA testing in a bitter inheritance dispute. The exercise, which attracted nationwide attention, eventually established that only four of the more than 24 people claiming to be Kafeero’s children were his biological offspring.
Now at the Ministry of Local Government, Balaam appears to have carried the same approach into the anti-corruption fight, winning admiration from supporters who say he is shaking complacent public officials out of their comfort zones, while critics insist that without institutional reforms, the dramatic inspections will remain good television but deliver little lasting change. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
