Uganda, When Mere Talk is Cheap: By Akamai Team

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The news coming out of north eastern Africa is that The Republic of South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya have joined hands to implement a massive infrastructure programme that includes design and construction of a new sea port and airport at Lamu, installing oil pipelines to South Sudan and Ethiopia and building new rail and road networks radiating from Kenya into South Sudan and Ethiopia.
The news of the tripartite efforts to develop infrastructure hit Uganda like a tootache that comes right in the middle of a feast. For years Uganda bore the aggression from Khartoum as it doggedly supported the self determination efforts of the people of South Sudan. Now that South Sudan has got independence, one would expect that Uganda would now settle down to enjoy the pieace dividend together with its neighbour only for the ‘meat’ to be snatched by Kenya.
Ugandans talk big then fail to act. In 1995 Uganda and Kenya signed a memorandum of understanding to extend an oil pipeline from the Kenyan town of Eldoret to the Ugandan town of Jinja. Two feasibility studies were later undertaken followed by news that a Libyan firm had got the contract to build the pipeline. Then in 2010, news came out that with the oil find in Uganda the pipeline would not be built. So is it any wonder that the Kenyans have now opted to move on with more action oriented countries?
Way back in 2010 Ugandan officials reported that the Gulu Nimule road would be upgraded to Tarmac. This is the main connection through Uganda to Juba and hauls a lot of passenger and cargo traffic. Now we wait for the actual work to start and then wait some more for it to be completed hopefully before the Lamu road is done.
The former Uganda Railways got up to Gulu then continued to Pakwach in West Nile. We could have worked on two railway lines one to Nimule from Gulu and another to Koboko from Pakwach if Uganda was serious but as we slept the Kenyans were wide awake.
Since the 1980s Uganda has talked until it lost its voice about upgrading the airfields in Gulu and Soroti to International Airport status. But talk is cheap when it is not followed by action.
The question must be asked: why is Uganda and Ugandans so sleepy? Why do we fail to grab opportunities that have been literally thrust onto our laps?
I do not think it is because Ugandans are more corrupt than the people in the neighbouring countries. It cannot be that Uganda is more resourced strapped than Ethiopia or even South Sudan, we just need to act more than we talk.

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