RR ⚛️

Uganda used to be prominent on the international stage. Right now, it is nowhere to be seen. We have retreated to the East African Community. Our president no longer attends the African Union, United Nations, and other major events. His representatives don’t wield power.

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before SUMMA broke ground in Hoima to build one of the most efficiently executed public projects in Uganda, they were originally lined up to build the Lugogo Arena that project has not stalled because SUMMA lacks capacity or the state lacks ambition (this time round) it stalled because the government itself cannot agree on who owns the land there are many actors each claim overlappin' rights over the same parcel, includin' the National Council of Sports until those disputes are resolved, SUMMA will wait indefinitely, or pack up and leave entirely that is the level of dysfunction we're dealin' with the Jinja expressway faces a similar fate every kilometre of land the expressway needs becomes a negotiation marathon compensations, disputes, court cases, multiple value assessments, and evictions that drag on for years this is not abnormal in Uganda; it is the norm these are not problems that require a Ph.D. in development economics they require leadership with the courage and clarity to reform Uganda's land tenure system so the state can actually develop because the bottleneck to major infrastructure is not imagination or intelligence; it is access to land Tanzania can wake up and build a port, a bridge, a stadium, or a highway with remarkable speed because its land is predominantly nationalized compensation is predictable, transparent, and controllable the state has the legal authority and administrative coherence to access land without a decade of negotiations that's why Tanzania's SGR, roads, and airports proceed with far fewer delays Uganda, by contrast, has one of the most fragmented land tenure systems in Africa within just one kilometre, you'll find at least three different tenures: mailo, kibanja, customary, etc each requirin' separate legal processes, compensation frameworks, and valuation methods all of this inflates the cost of acquisition and delays implementation by years, sometimes decades this raises a simple question: do we really need an intellectual demigod to see this, or do we need a leader willin' to confront land reform head-on? because until Uganda fixes its land governance mess, no amount of technical expertise, foreign investors, or ambitious blueprints will move this country forward you cannot industrialize on contested land you cannot build infrastructure on tenure chaos and you cannot govern a modern state when its most basic resource, land, is trapped in perpetual dispute this is why governance must come first. only then can development follow but do pseudo-intellectuals see this, or they just want to hear Kyagulanyi speakin' eloquently with textbook theories?