Does it ever occur to you that with direct taxes scrapped-off in the late 90's; the elite citizens of this country more willingly pay their tithe, participate in / give to charity drives organized by Churches, NGOs, Associations etc than give to government.
Unfortunately for every individual Ugandan avoiding taxes is not an option because for every sum of Ushs.10,000/= that is spent in transactions that pay for ones day to day needs about Ushs.1,800/= is taken to the “public” coffers code named “consolidated fund” which is managed by Government. The fund is meant to serve the ordinary Ugandan by offering quality Health, Education, Transport and other services and infrastructure but an ordinary Ugandan does not stand the opportunity to enjoy that right from the delegated government parastatals.
Unfortunately for every individual Ugandan avoiding taxes is not an option because for every sum of Ushs.10,000/= that is spent in transactions that pay for ones day to day needs about Ushs.1,800/= is taken to the “public” coffers code named “consolidated fund” which is managed by Government. The fund is meant to serve the ordinary Ugandan by offering quality Health, Education, Transport and other services and infrastructure but an ordinary Ugandan does not stand the opportunity to enjoy that right from the delegated government parastatals.
Recently the privately owned Pioneer Bus services that had become a heart-to-heart transport fare solution to most city dwellers had its services suspended by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) due to tax deficits amounting up to Ushs. 8 billion in a space of one year. The ordinary Ugandan would have payed this tax and seen no fruits had the buses used the same fare rates as the commuter taxis. Every time fuel prices go up, the taxi tout increases the taxi fair; s/he makes the passenger pay for the high costs involved in the importation of the fuels including taxes imposed by URA at the border.
Instead this tax-money is used to buy and maintaining (including fueling) luxury comfort-enhanced fuel-guzzling four-wheel-drive vehicles for Government officials (including ministers, permanent secretaries, members of parliament etc), paying allowances and salaries for the same officials, funding statehouse and Defense (UPDF) supplementary budgets and of recent paying off donors whose “tied” aid was swindled by a few rogue elements in government. No accountability is availed to the ordinary Ugandan who contributes each and every detail of that money.
Every time a you find pupils studying under a temporary / weather-structure or tree, a teacher absent in class, you are referred in a government hospital to a private clinic for treatment / to buy drugs or are asked to pay a fee to facilitate a police investigation into a case you have reported to police, pay a fee to get a cesarean operation or help to give birth in a hospital, a desperate Ugandan youth jumps off to death from atop worker's house, falls prey to commercial sexual exploitation name it, please be sure someone is not doing his / her job right and that is literally theft of freedoms, money (tax) call it obtaining money under false pretense that one is willing to serve Ugandans at a fee, rights, peace (of mind) and security to mention but a few; all these have been sugarcoated as corruption, abuse of office etc which is more or less “calling a spoon a young spade”.
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that in one senior police commander's words “are known for and are good at only conducting business in conference and board rooms” have come out to lead the citizens by example to join the quest for social justice in Uganda for Ugandans by Ugandans through the Black Monday campaign. The Black Monday campaign is not aimed at inciting public into violence as police claims but to sensitize the public on the need for them to demand accountability of their taxes from the government which is meant to account to the tax payer any way.
It is rather unfortunate that the police who suffer similar or even worse living conditions than the teacher, farmer, nurses, doctors allow to be manipulated to think this honorable campaign is harmful to the citizens of this nation and therefore harass the leaders of the campaign.
The Black Monday campaign is designed in such a way that it is purely voluntary and has strict guidelines along which all who opt to join it are meant to operate in response to the societal injustices some of which are hinted on above:-
The CSO leaders have gone an extra mile to sensitize the public on the effects that this theft of public funds has on each and every sector of life that concerns the citizen including but not limited to education, trade, transport, health, agriculture and industry / economy as well as remind the public that it is their right to demand accountability from the government that they legitimately put in place and recognize.
None of the above actions incites the public into violence as the police claim every time they have members of the campaign arrested and hours later released because they have “no case to answer” thus, a government committed to stamping out corruption should instead of intimidating their best allies leverage this opportunity to tap into the public policing system that they have always asked the public to adopt in helping police to detect and avert crime.
Instead this tax-money is used to buy and maintaining (including fueling) luxury comfort-enhanced fuel-guzzling four-wheel-drive vehicles for Government officials (including ministers, permanent secretaries, members of parliament etc), paying allowances and salaries for the same officials, funding statehouse and Defense (UPDF) supplementary budgets and of recent paying off donors whose “tied” aid was swindled by a few rogue elements in government. No accountability is availed to the ordinary Ugandan who contributes each and every detail of that money.
Every time a you find pupils studying under a temporary / weather-structure or tree, a teacher absent in class, you are referred in a government hospital to a private clinic for treatment / to buy drugs or are asked to pay a fee to facilitate a police investigation into a case you have reported to police, pay a fee to get a cesarean operation or help to give birth in a hospital, a desperate Ugandan youth jumps off to death from atop worker's house, falls prey to commercial sexual exploitation name it, please be sure someone is not doing his / her job right and that is literally theft of freedoms, money (tax) call it obtaining money under false pretense that one is willing to serve Ugandans at a fee, rights, peace (of mind) and security to mention but a few; all these have been sugarcoated as corruption, abuse of office etc which is more or less “calling a spoon a young spade”.
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that in one senior police commander's words “are known for and are good at only conducting business in conference and board rooms” have come out to lead the citizens by example to join the quest for social justice in Uganda for Ugandans by Ugandans through the Black Monday campaign. The Black Monday campaign is not aimed at inciting public into violence as police claims but to sensitize the public on the need for them to demand accountability of their taxes from the government which is meant to account to the tax payer any way.
It is rather unfortunate that the police who suffer similar or even worse living conditions than the teacher, farmer, nurses, doctors allow to be manipulated to think this honorable campaign is harmful to the citizens of this nation and therefore harass the leaders of the campaign.
The Black Monday campaign is designed in such a way that it is purely voluntary and has strict guidelines along which all who opt to join it are meant to operate in response to the societal injustices some of which are hinted on above:-
- wear black clothes every Monday,
- boycott / avoid / blacklist / shun all business (hotels, supermarkets, shopping malls, shops, drinking joints name it) confirmed to be linked to stolen public monies,
- shun all those found guilty of dipping their fingers in public coffers by not reserving (front) seats for them in church, marriage ceremonies, burial ceremonies, campaign rallies; reject their “brown envelopes / tithes” etc.
- report any and all incidences of corruption at all times to +256 776 511 001, the Black Monday Facebook page (Inbox / message), Twitter account (Direct Message), blackmonday@gmail.com.
The CSO leaders have gone an extra mile to sensitize the public on the effects that this theft of public funds has on each and every sector of life that concerns the citizen including but not limited to education, trade, transport, health, agriculture and industry / economy as well as remind the public that it is their right to demand accountability from the government that they legitimately put in place and recognize.
None of the above actions incites the public into violence as the police claim every time they have members of the campaign arrested and hours later released because they have “no case to answer” thus, a government committed to stamping out corruption should instead of intimidating their best allies leverage this opportunity to tap into the public policing system that they have always asked the public to adopt in helping police to detect and avert crime.
