Uganda as a failed state

When security agencies subjected opposition leader Dr Kizza  Besigye to brutal arrests during the ‘walk to work’ protests in April and May, they unwittingly placed Uganda into the spotlight of ‘failed states’.

Today, the country ranks among the top 30 failed states on the index dubbed ‘Postcards From Hell, 2011’. The index published by the influential Foreign Policy (FP) magazine on June 20 specifically cites Besigye’s violent arrests as the reason Uganda places twenty-first out of 117 countries.
“From all appearances, the democratic opening in Uganda is closing and human rights are the collateral damage. Protests have been blocked; cell-phone service has been sporadically cut off,” the index notes.
“Ugandans hoping for relief for the growing ranks of the poor will also be disappointed. Analysts blame [President] Museveni’s government for spending more to win elections than to ensure public welfare.”
Uganda is followed, in 22nd position, by North Korea, a regime that has been bashed by the West for being: “fastidious about keeping news from getting out and keeping the world from getting in.”
The country has company among the failed states class, faring slightly better than some of her neighbours in the East African region and neighbouring states:  Somalia (1), Sudan (3), DR Congo (4), Burundi (17), Kenya (16), Zimbabwe (6), Ethiopia (20) and Central Africa Republic (8). Rwanda is in 34th position.
According to FP, Somalia, Chad, and Sudan have topped the list of failed states for four consecutive years. This 2011 failed states ranking was prepared by the Fund for Peace and looks at the world’s most vulnerable countries.
The index, according to FP, obtained information from 130,000 publicly available sources, analyzed 177 countries and rated them on 12 indicators of pressure on the state during the year 2010 – from refugee flows to poverty, public services to security threats.
“Taken together, a country’s performance on this battery of indicators tells us how stable – or unstable – it is. And the latest results show how much the 2008 economic crisis and its ripple effects everywhere, from collapsing trade to soaring food prices to stagnant investment, are still haunting the world,” the magazine states.
But Livingstone Sewanyana, the executive director of Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, says that while Uganda has challenges in enhancing democracy, it is not fair to rank it as a failed state. This, he says, is underestimating progress the country is making in areas of security, road network, universal primary and secondary education.
“Much as the election was not free and fair, we now have a parliament and a judiciary that are free to speak,” Sewanyana says.
He adds, however, that Uganda has challenges of consolidating a culture of law enforcement that adheres to constitutionalism and offers adequate space for the opposition to play their role under a multiparty dispensation.
He also cites challenges in citizenship democracy, media freedom, and in ensuring that law enforcers do not engage in acts of torture.
“Uganda has not been fairly ranked as a failed state; a failed state has no functioning parliament, the judiciary is not functioning, it is under siege and conflict. I do not agree with the ranking but I cannot deny the challenges,” he says.
Similarly, Information and National Guidance minister Mary Karoro Okurut believes that to rank Uganda as a failed state is totally wrong.
“Things are running smoothly, they cannot call us a failed state in total anarchy. It is not just wrong, it is a misdirected missive,” she says.
The FP magazine warns that Uganda might decline from its 21st position to a more miserable ranking. It notes: “Uganda’s incumbent President Yoweri Museveni was reelected in February, but the opposition has cried foul and his inauguration was met with violent protests.”
As for Kenya, the magazine says the country moved out of the top 15, showing that it continues to recover from its bloody post-election ethnic warfare of recent years.

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