President's speech at 2006 Annual Conference & General Meeting of The East Africa Law Society
2006-10-27

Speech By H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
President of the Republic of Uganda
At the Opening Ceremony of
The 2006 Annual Conference
And General Meeting of
The East Africa Law Society
Speke Resort Munyonyo
Kampala
26th October 2006


The President of the East African Law Society and the other Presidents of the National Law Societies;
Their Justices the Judges of East Africa and of Uganda;
The Attorney General;
The Ministers and Members of the East African Law Society.

First of all, I have noted that a cardinal mistake was made not to involve the East African Law society in the consultations for the Fast Tracking of the East African Federation. This was a cardinal mistake, if it was done. I was not aware. Kwasababu wanasheria ni watu wenye maneno mengi sana; sasa okiwawacha inje watatuharabia mambo. They specialize in words, words -- maneno, maneno. It is, therefore, very good to mobilize these ‘manenoists’. So Hon. Musumba, you missed useful, potential allies – they should be fully involved.

It also happens to be the case that in terms of disorientation, the lawyers want to be like Lord Denning; and I can assure you that Lord Denning did not know anything about the East African Federation. Therefore, they are both useful as allies, but also in need of serious dialogue. I am, therefore, very happy to be here to talk to you; and I hope Hon. Musumba will tell Hon. Kategaya and the other East African Ministers that these are ready allies whose output we should not miss.

It is my pleasure, once again, to interact with members of the East African legal profession at the formal opening of your 2006 Annual Conference and General Meeting. It is also my great pleasure to welcome you to Munyonyo, a magnificent example of the vast and diverse beauty of Uganda. I do hope that our visitors will take time off to supplement your deliberations with excursions that will increase your knowledge of Uganda and its peoples.

This is the third time I have met with the East African Law Society in your eleven-year history. I have also had occasion to meet with the EALS governing Council at State Lodge, Nakasero, where we had a more ample opportunity to share views more comprehensively, on a wide range of issues of interest to the legal profession and to East Africans generally.

Transition and Transformation

Your topical theme: “Law, Business and Human Rights”, shall, indeed, among other things, explore how the legal profession in the region can contribute to faster economic growth, whose benefits are spread across a greater proportion of the citizenry than is currently the case. I am very happy with this theme. It is not very easy to transform society. The difference between Europe and Africa lies in the fact that in the last 500 years, European society has transitioned. I do not hear the words ‘transition’ and ‘transformation’ being used by the different ‘word-mongers’. You hear people ‘flying around’ with words like ‘sustainable development’ – what does sustainable development mean? How can something be in permanent form of development without transitioning?

Yesterday, I was talking to the Commonwealth group. We are going to host the Commonwealth here, next year, and they are coming to inspect the hotels and other necessary facilities. One of the issues we were discussing was the theme for that commonwealth. I insisted, as I have done in other meetings of the Commonwealth, that we must talk about social transformation; because that is where the problem is for Africa.

In some meetings I have given the example of the story of the baby – in the womb of the mother as a baby; as a child; as a teenager; and as an adult. That child to survive must experience two movements: quantitative growth and qualitative change. You cannot talk of sustainable pregnancy – that means that child is dead. How can somebody be sustainably pregnant; until when? When you hear the confusion going around – what does sustainable growth mean? How can you have growth without transition or transformation? Growth must result into transformation in order to continue. When the baby grows, at some stage it transitions into something else – not completely different, but different in some aspects. This goes on, until the child gets to puberty.

The problem with African societies is that they have not transitioned for the last 500 years. They are still peasant societies. I am hoping that, in my family, my father will be the last peasant; and I hope that in the whole of Uganda, we are seeing the last peasants. If you look at the statistics, the population of the United States is now 300 million (I saw on TV that the 300 millionth child had been born in the United States). Those 300 million people have got only 2% of their population in agriculture; the rest are in industry and in services.

However, here in Uganda, 82% of the people are in agriculture; and they are just doing nothing. If I was using my vernacular, which is much richer than English, I would say: “Nibaniogana”. For instance, here we are about 400 people in the room; but suppose we were like 2,000, we would be overcrowded, falling on each other. Going by this illustration, the people are overcrowded in agriculture in the rural areas and are, therefore, even destroying the natural resources.

I have walked through the whole of East Africa on foot, when you were young people! If you go to Kirimanjaro, those fellows “nibaniogana” – I cannot put it in English because the English vocabulary is inadequate. Ukambani, Kikuyu areas; different parts here in Uganda – Mt. Elgon; people are just ‘piled’ on each other. And yet the population is not big! The population is big ‘artificially’ – it looks big because the societies are underdeveloped. Uganda is the same size in land area as U.K., which has got a population of 56 million people now. However, when you go there you only see the people in London; if you go upcountry, there are no people, because the society has changed!

However, here you do not hear people talking about transformation – they are talking about small, insignificant issues. The other time when I met you in Entebbe, you were asking me about ‘Third Term’; I said:
“Yes, third Term, we are still thinking about it; do not think that is the most important thing. The most important thing is transition”.
However, you thought ‘Third Term’ was important; we dismissed it: “Yii bule tuu!” This is tactical – when to go out. We shall see when to go out. The question is: go out after doing what? That is the most important thing. And whether it is one term, two, or three terms, what are you doing, what are you talking about? Onaongea mambo bule tuu? Okiongea mambo bule for one term or two terms, itasaidia nini? Okiongea mambo bule for five terms, the same! I therefore, told you in Entebbe: “You wait; tutashugurukia lile jambo”.

I am, therefore, glad to hear you lawyers -- the persons of the Honourable learned profession -- now talking about “Law, Business and Human Rights”. In the last 40 years in Africa there has been a lot of fundamental failures to know how to move forward. We have been like the children of Israel who wandered in the desert for 40 years – they could not know their destination. What is the proof that we are lost? I have the proof. In the case of Uganda, the excuse is that Uganda was unstable, we had political upheavals, we had Idi Amin, we had coup d’états; and that is why Uganda stagnated. However, Kenya has not transitioned either; and yet they had no disruption like we had. Tanzania is a very peaceful country but it has not transitioned; it is still Third world. We are, therefore all ‘democratically’ Third World; whether we were peaceful or violent, or whatever. What, then, is the problem?

There is not a single Black African country that has transitioned in the last 40 years of independence; not one. Botswana has been having multiparty democracy since independence and it is still Third World, in spite of having diamonds; a peaceful country like Tanzania, like Kenya, still Third World; violent ones like Uganda, still Third World. So what is the problem? That means something else is missing; and not all these little things you keep talking about, which we rejected here (usitupoteze na bago) – alibis. It is good that the lawyers and the judges talk about business because it is the core of the future. You need to first of all answer the question: “What is the engine of growth?”

Social Metamorphosis
Societies are like a butterfly, which goes through a number of stages: an egg, the larva, a pupa and the mature butterfly. In Biology that is called metamorphosis. What is lacking in Black Africa, therefore, is social metamorphosis; Sio hii mambo wanasemasema (not these non-issues they keep talking about).

The European society in the last 500 years has transitioned from feudal, peasant society to middle-class, skilled working-class society. If you go to England now, you cannot see a peasant – they are expired. Hawapo, hakuna watu washambani uko. The peasant class is no longer there in the whole of Europe. You know the situation in East Africa – peasants. Masai, was Masai yesterday, is Masai today and will be Masai tomorrow and for ever more. “As it was, so it is, and so it shall be”. The people of Arusha, when I go there, are still the same as I saw them when I was still going to university – they are still wa Arusha. Karimojong was naked yesterday, he is naked today, he will be naked tomorrow and for ever more. All these groups like here in Buganda, you go up country they are jut sitting.
“What are you doing, do you have money?”
“Do I ever see the money!”
He is just sitting there.
Some years ago I was going up country, twelve miles from Kampala here. I saw people with dogs and with nets going to hunt in the morning – 12 miles from Kampala! What are these people hunting? That they are going to hunt wild rats, watu hamsini (fifty people)! And how big is this animal? Five kilos; after twelve hours of work you are going to share these five kilos of wild rat.

My learned friends, therefore, the challenge and what should be rammed into everybody’s head is that the crisis in Africa is the stagnation of society in terms of transitioning from pre-industrial societies to industrial societies. From peasant, feudal societies to middle class, skilled working class societies.

Private-Sector-Led Growth and Transformation

The question, then, is: what will be the engine of that transformation? After many trials in the last 500 years, it is now clear that the more efficient means of causing social transformation is to rely on Private-sector-led growth and transformation. This has been tried and confirmed. In the Soviet Union (Russia now), there are very developed, very educated people with a lot of resources. Soviet Union is a very rich country with a lot of oil, and other resources; but because of stifling the private sector, their system got into a crisis. They were relying on government companies, which were missing one human element – the motivation to work.

The recovery of Uganda, which has been fast, has been mainly because of the private sector. We realized it because we spent a lot of years fighting and during that fighting we were watching, studying and doing research. By the time we came into government, we came to a conclusion that the medicine to apply is to allow the private sector total freedom. However, it has taken long, even for our people here to understand it; the civil servants do not understand it. You find they are still resisting – instead of being regulators and facilitators they want to be the ones to control it. You, therefore, get into that sort of crisis.

If the private sector is going to be the engine of growth, how should it be facilitated? That will form part of your debate here. You get a lot of problems. Recently, I was talking to some educated people, PHD holders; and they were saying we need to study the projects of the private sector!! Then what will the private sector do? If the private sector person comes to you with his project, you only need to establish two things:
• Will it damage the environment? That is why we insist on the environmental impact assessment; or
• Will what they will produce be poisonous to the society? Check this through the Uganda Bureau of standards.
The rest is up to the private sector. If this Indian wants to build a hotel here, it is not for the government to study whether the Hotel will be profitable or not. The Indian will sort it out with bankruptcy courts. However, these fellows think that they need to evaluate the private sector enterprises. They have, therefore, not yet understood the power of the private sector. Msiwacheleweshe – some will succeed, some will fail. That is not a big problem. You see it even in the news papers: “This project failed”; “This project failed”. That is in order. Why do you worry about some enterprises failing?

Why don’t you worry about infant mortality? What is the infant mortality rate in Uganda? Out of 1,000 Children born alive, before the end of one year, 88 have died. That is the present infant mortality rate. In the past it was even higher. If the children are dying, why will the businesses not die also? Can you say: “Because 88 out of 1,000 die, therefore, we shall have no more children”? This is all the responsibility of the executive, the Civil Servants, the Ministers.

When it comes to the courts now you must give expeditious justice to commercial cases if you want your economy to grow. If the business people spend three years in a court case, that is the best way to kill the private sector. Here in Uganda we have tried to segregate the courts. Some people specialize in commercial court and no other business. In the past, however, somebody would be dealing with murder; from murder he is dealing with commercial cases; he is everywhere and nowhere! However, we have controlled that now:
“You, specialize in commercial cases; you, specialize on divorce and marriage; you, specialize on murder cases”; etc, etc.
This is to ensure that there can be some speed. However, I do not mind other cases stagnating; what I do not want is for commercial cases to stagnate. The murder cases can stagnate, the property of the peasants, etc. However, for commercial cases, the people who are licensed under the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), I want those to get quick justice. Why? They are our future; if they do well, then even we: the Masai, the Karimojong and all those Banyankore who are just there in the villages, we shall also benefit. How?

You see in the same way as we measure the height or weight of a person, we also measure the economy. The measurement we have is GDP – Gross Domestic Product. GDP means the value of the production which is going on in a country at any one given time. The GDP of Kenya and of Tanzania and of Uganda (the whole of East Africa) today could possibly be about US$40 billion using the standard method. If you use another method called PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) it will be over US$100 billion . You can check it out; this will be part of your business sensitization. A small country in Europe called Belgium is as big as Karamoja and with a population of 10 million people; their GDP now is about US$300 billion. Little Belgium, therefore, has got a bigger GDP than the whole of East Africa! And in East Africa you have got these Honourables, judges and lawyers with a GDP of US$40 billion; and they are in no hurry to catch up. It is good that you are talking about business, because that means expanding the GDP.

This hotel is by an Indian; he is not my relative, he is not a member of my clan; I do not know where he came from in India. However, now he is my ally in providing service to the people of Uganda. First of all, we have got a nice place where we can sit; that is already a service. Secondly, if you ask how many people are working here – I do not know how many people this person is employing – it is possibly about 500 people. Suppose he is employing 500 people; and suppose we had 2000 of this type of hotel; that would be 10,000,000 (ten million) jobs! There would be no problem of unemployment in Uganda because the adults who can look for jobs in Uganda are not much more than 10 million at any one time.

Therefore, the problem is first of all with the political class. They are the ones who delay the business people. Wanawatukana, wanafanya nini … – because they do not understand where the future is. I encourage these Indians – they are not my relatives; but I am using them to build Uganda. However, they suffer from the politicians; from the politicians, the next victimizers are the civil servants; from the civil servants, the judges; then the courts, you the lawyers. Watu wafanya biashara wanakwenda huko, wana kwenda ule; mpaka wanachoka. Businessmen are tossed around until they get tired and they go away, especially the ones from outside. The ones who are from here are stuck because they have nowhere to go. Like they say in Christian marriages: “For better or for worse”; because where can they go?

With this hotel, we are employing our children, maybe 500 of them. If we had 3,000 such facilities, we would have a labour shortage in Uganda and begin to import labour from other countries. This is what is happening in Japan. Japan is a country slightly bigger than Uganda, smaller than Kenya or Tanzania; but with a population of 125 million people, imagine! They are more than all the people of East Africa! However, they all have jobs and have surplus for the Africans who go there to do the sweeping. In addition to jobs, our tax base would be wider; because this man can pay taxes; we can tax him both directly and indirectly.

Law
I see that in your meeting of this year you are going to discuss law. It must be law that promotes business. If it is law that discourages business, then you are not a useful player for your country’s transformation. Recently we had a meeting with the private sector and they gave me a list of 17 laws which are needed. I asked the Attorney General to bring a complete list of those laws for you so that you can see how much the private sector is inconvenienced and constrained by archaic laws which are not business-friendly.

Human rights
You cannot defend human rights unless the economy improves. You cannot be a peasant society permanently and think that you will guarantee human rights. Why? Of course you can legislate. You can put the Universal Declaration of human rights in your constitution. Will you be able to protect those rights? You do not have the money! For instance, part of the problem for the cases in the court is lack of money – there is no money to bring witnesses, there is no money to do this and that. Therefore, the ones who violate human rights cannot be dealt with! But how will you guarantee human rights without money; without tax revenue? And where will you get tax revenue without business?

In your topic: “Law Business and Human Rights”, the central point is business. In the Bible it says: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of heaven and the rest will be added unto you”. Here in your topic I say: “Seek ye first business and the rest will be added unto you”.

I am informed that there are over 400 members of the legal profession, drawn from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania (including Zanzibar) and Rwanda present here. I am pleased to learn that, earlier this year, your governing Council undertook a Solidarity Mission to Rwanda with the objective of learning more about the legal and judicial system of Rwanda with a view to ultimately admitting the Rwandan Bar into your midst. I highly commend you for this. As you know, we as your political leaders, had already moved fast in that direction and will be formally admitting the Republics of Burundi and Rwanda into the East African Community, when the Summit meets next month in Arusha. I am, further, happy to learn that you have stated intentions of making a similar Solidarity Mission into Burundi early next year; and I wish you Godspeed in these noble endeavours.

I am pleased to note that EALS is one of the few organizations that has proactively initiated programmes and activities to partner with the various EAC Organs and to promote a more meaningful and people-centred regional integration. I am informed that, in the last two years alone, you have held seven training and dialogue seminars on the EAC Customs Union, and four more on the East African Court of Justice. Further, that you have published magazines and law reports in support of and providing space for learning and debate on the EAC, and its place in the larger African Union. This is highly commendable. East Africa would be a much better place if the majority of civil society adopted this approach, rather than the endless bickering and lamenting that is common amongst sections of civil society.

When I met and held talks with members of your Governing Council last year, they requested me to intercede with my colleagues and the other EAC organs to effect a speedy expansion of the jurisdiction of the East African Court of Justice, to scale to the heights that had been reached by the East African Court of Appeal, during the old EAC. I am sure that you have taken note that we have acceded to your requests (and those of other East Africans) and have published a zero draft Protocol to operationalize the extended jurisdiction of that Court. I am happy to learn that you have been progressively debating this draft and that you shall further discuss it at this meeting, whereupon you shall submit your views and proposals to the EAC Secretary General.

A fortnight ago, the three East African countries opened national consultations on the future of the political federation of East Africa. In a similar vein, I hope that you have set aside sufficient time, in the course of this meeting, to debate this manifestly important issue and that you will further extend this debate when you return to your respective homes. It is imperative that you also interact with the wide diversity of East African citizens and groups, so that you may put forth progressive views and suggestions that will help us all achieve a meaningful regional entity that can take us forward in this fiercely competitive, globalized world.

I am informed that in May 2003, the EALS Council established the Regional Integration Committee to, among other things, spearhead ways and means of promoting greater interaction amongst East African Lawyers and to contribute to more meaningful and beneficial East African Regional integration in general.

I would like to commend the Society’s intervention and interaction with the EAC Fast Tracking Committee. A Political Federation is, indeed, the way to go. There are certain documents which I have published in the past regarding the East African Federation which I will give to your Chairperson to duplicate and give to you because you should read them in detail and then you can also form your own ideas.

Peace in Northern Uganda

Regarding the peace in Northern Uganda, I would like to say a few things before I conclude. That conflict was actually an indirect conflict between Uganda on the one hand and Sudan on the other hand. You know Sudan is an Afro-Arab country. Unfortunately, however, the Arabs had a wrong idea. Instead of seeing Sudan as an Afro-Arab country, they decided to try and make it an Arab country, to ‘Arabise’ the Black people of Sudan. This is also an issue which is not understood. The Black people of Sudan, obviously, were not interested in becoming Arabs. Therefore, from 1955 (when I was in Primary three), they started a war of resistance against the Arabs. That war went on until 1972 when there was a temporary peace between the Arabs and the Africans; then again it broke down in 1983. For the last 50 years, therefore, except for 10 years, the Arabs and the Africans have been at war.

When our government came into power, the Arabs were very suspicious of us, because they know our history. They said:
“These people are Pan-Africanists, they are Black nationalists; if we allow them to stabilize in Uganda, one day they will side with these Blacks inside Sudan and turn against us. Let us, therefore, get rid of them before they stabilize”.
So they attacked us on the 22 of August 1986 with the aim of what the Americans call ‘Regime change’; to overthrow us, so that they replace us with a pliant African regime – a puppet regime in Uganda. We were also, of course, not very much interested in being overthrown. The Arabs made a very big miscalculation because they did not know what sort of people we were. They thought we were the usual Blacks whom they can intimidate.

When they attacked us, they solved one of our dilemmas. We sympathized with the Black people of Sudan all along; but there was the OAU. With the OAU, even if your neighbour is dying, you do not do anything about it.
“Let him kill his people, after all they are his people.”
When Amin was killing us, Africans were criticizing the late Mwalimu Nyerere for standing with us to help us fight Amin. They were saying that it was the right of Amin to kill us because we are his people! Mwalimu, however, did not agree with that, so he helped us.

There was, therefore, that problem of internal affairs of Sudan. Although we sympathized with the Black people, it was not easy for us to side with them because of that OAU non-interference policy in the affairs of the other states even when genocide was being committed. Fortunately for us, however, the Arabs made a mistake – they attacked us. We were then at liberty to back our Black brothers in Sudan. That is, therefore, the war you are talking about; it is not really a war between Uganda Government and these terrorists, those criminals you hear about. Those were agents of Sudan; being used to overthrow or intimidate us into saying:

“We repent all our sins; we are not going to sympathize with the Black people of Sudan anymore”
However, we did not do that. Instead, we sided with our Black brothers, until Khartoum was forced to negotiate with them and they reached a comprehensive agreement.

When Khartoum realized that they had no profit in trying to fight us, eventually they stopped supporting these terrorists – but this is recent, about 3 years ago. We then reached an arrangement with the Khartoum government. We told them:
“Then you disarm them because you are the ones who had armed them”.
Khartoum said they had no people to disarm them; so we said:
“Okay, you allow us to disarm them”.
That is how they allowed us to enter Sudan and we started disarming those terrorists.

The peace talks you are talking about are, therefore, really a tail-end of the problem; the problem is finished. Those terrorists are defeated. We agreed to talk to them to provide them with a soft landing, so that if they want they come and rejoin the society.

I have seen some people attacking the International criminal Court (ICC):
“ICC is the one blocking those terrorists from coming out”.
This is not correct. The ICC is actually very good for the process because it makes the terrorists untouchable in the region. People in Khartoum who used to back them cannot touch them now; because if they touch them, they also become liable. The ICC indictment, therefore, should be maintained until these terrorists come out and bring peace.

In exchange for peace; as a reward, then we can now go and intercede with the ICC:
“Please ICC, forgive theses people because we have used a different approach to deal with the question of impunity”.
ICC is against impunity, which is why it was formed. Impunity is caused by two factors: either the national government is unable to arrest and prosecute those who have committed crimes; or is unwilling. That is how ICC comes in. If these terrorists are clever, this is really their way out. If they do not, we shall get them all the same. Peace is coming irrespective of what happens in the Juba talks because the main problem was Sudan; it is not these terrorists. Our real war was with Sudan; and maybe it was God’s will that Sudan make a mistake and mobilized us to support the Black people of Southern Sudan. It was a very big miscalculation on their part, thinking we were simple people.

If these terrorists were clever, they would come out now. Fortunately, traditionally, before the Europeans came, we had our tribal systems. There is something we call ‘okukaraba' in Runyankore. It is called ‘matoput’ in Acholi; in Rwanda they call it ‘gachacha’. This is a traditional system in these tribes of the Great Lakes. In the past, if my clan killed somebody from your clan, your clan had the right to revenge on my clan. It is called “okuhoora” in Runyankore; your clan was duty bound to do this. Of course the injustice in it was that they were supposed to kill not necessarily the one who killed, but anybody in my clan. It was some form of collective punishment for the clan. However, because my clan did not want “kuhoorwa” (to be revenged), they would approach the other clan and say:
“One of our members has committed a mistake against your group; we beg you that we settle this problem”.
This is what is called “okukaraba”. What would happen is that the two groups would now sit down and then they would charge the offending party cattle. They say you must give us so many cows; and, then, we would give the cows. Once we have given the cows, religious ceremonies are performed. A cow is killed; we wash in the blood of the cow, bring some herbs to remove the spirit of the person who died and then peace is restored. Nobody will ever refer to that matter again.

We have been saying, therefore, in order to help those people get a soft landing; why don’t we use traditional justice, so that they come back. However, all this must happen after these people have accepted to come out peacefully. If they do not, do not blame us; we shall go and get them the usual way we have done it and it will work. There is really no fear because the main conflict was with Sudan; that one is over. It is now really mopping up the consequences of the big conflict between the Black people of Sudan and the Arabs supported by us and a few other friends in the last 20 years. That is really the characteristic of that conflict.

When I read what is being said in the newspapers, however, it is clear that they do not understand this – they think that it is a civil war within Uganda. If it was a civil war, between which sections of the society is it? A civil war must have two sides: either regions, religions or other sections. You hear that in the north of Uganda there are internally displaced people. People are displaced by the terrorists attacking them on the orders of Sudan. Those people who are displaced are from the same area where these terrorists come from. In other words, the target of the terrorists are the local population. Between whom and whom is this civil war, therefore? There is no civil war in Uganda; it is a terrorist campaign against the population near the Sudan border, orchestrated by these terrorists in the payment of (on the behalf of) the Sudan government; and that has been the nature of the conflict.

I would like to wish you fruitful deliberations throughout your conference and General Meeting. I believe that your shared experiences from our sister countries shall richly enhance our vision for a one East African entity.

Thank you very much.
Speke Resort, Munyonyo,
27th October 2006 ..End.