Ronald Birungi retweetledi
The Sovereignty Bill Is Nothing More Than Immunity for State Failure.
=======
A serious sovereignty law would protect Uganda from illicit financial flows, predatory contracts, tax theft, policy capture, procurement fraud, debt dependency, and the outsourcing of national intelligence, industry, and economic direction. But this bill takes a different route. It does not go after corruption with precision. It does not go after waste with discipline. It does not go after state inefficiency with reform. Instead, it creates broad language that can be used against the very people who expose these things.
Read it carefully. When a law says publishing information that “weakens” the economy can amount to economic sabotage, what exactly is being protected? Because corruption weakens the economy. Theft of public funds weakens the economy. Bad debt weakens the economy. Procurement fraud weakens the economy. Capital flight weakens the economy. Policy laziness weakens the economy. Donor dependency weakens the economy. So if a researcher, journalist, lecturer, activist, or ordinary citizen points to these realities, are they exposing the sickness, or are they now to be treated as the sickness?
That is the trick. A failing state always tries to reverse the mirror. The person who names the rot becomes the problem. The person who questions illegitimacy becomes anti-national. The person who points at waste is accused of undermining confidence. The person who asks why a country rich in brains, minerals, and labor remains trapped in dependency is suddenly framed as serving foreign interests. In such a system, incompetence hides behind patriotism, and impunity wraps itself in the national flag.
True sovereignty is not the right of the powerful to avoid embarrassment. It is the right of the people to know, to question, to correct, and to rebuild their republic. A country does not become sovereign by criminalising criticism. It becomes sovereign by defeating the conditions that make criticism necessary.
If this bill stands as it is, it risks protecting corruption more than country, shielding inefficiency more than sovereignty, and intimidating citizens more than empowering them. Uganda does not need a law that fears scrutiny. Uganda needs a state that can survive it.
English
