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Uganda Economic migrants |
ECONOMY
A number of Ugandans have emigrated from their home country,
seeking fame
and fortune elsewhere
This makes Uganda’s leaders happy. Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni once equated economic emigrants to traitors. Now he is actually encouraging his fellow countrymen to leave their own country, and to try and better themselves and their families, elsewhere. He says: «The money that is sent back home, has done good things to our economy, and has allowed many children to attend school».
And so, happy government officials no longer describe Ugandans who have gone to seek «fresh woods and pastures new», as sinners and unpatriotic. Even the term, «Nkuba Kyeyo» that once was used derogatively for Ugandans who go for manual labour abroad, is now seen in positive terms. Indeed, skilled personnel are happy to be associated with such a term, which literally means «road sweepers».
Recently, cabinet minister Professor Gilbert Bukenya, met with the British High Commissioner in Uganda to discuss the prospect of skilled Ugandans working in Britain, so that they can send money home and thus help to improve Uganda’s economy. Britain is a favourite destinations for Ugandans, and visa restrictions to enter the United Kingdom have been eased, especially for skilled workers.
The fact is, the UK is looking for skilled workers in certain fields. «Doctors are in great demand here», says Grace Bisase, an immigrant from Uganda now working in the UK. «The British see it as cost effective to recruit from developing countries, because the cost of educating a British doctor in Britain is obviously higher than in developing countries».
Promising jobs overseas has become an election issue. Nasser Sebaggala, a candidate in the presidential elections, promised the unskilled that he would secure 100,000 jobs for them in the Middle Eastern states, if he were to be elected.
The preferred destination, however, is a western country and those who can get a visa for work purposes, utilise it to the maximum. And therein lies a danger, because some overdo it, and end up complete wrecks. The temptation is to work too hard, because the prospect of all those lovely Ugandan shillings (there is a favourable exchange rate) being made available to build a house or buy up land, causes some people to work up to eighteen hours a day, with disastrous results.
The Kampala situation
The Kampala area is a prime site for turning one’s British pounds into a land purchase or into bricks and mortar for construction purposes. Former bush land is now filled with lovely houses. The expansion of residential areas has gone beyond expectations and the public services find it difficult to cope.
The Uganda Electricity Board (UEB) is one such service in difficulties. The Board simply cannot supply sufficient power to connect up the 100,000 houses built annually (government figures). The National Water and Sewerage Corporation is another parastatal with similar problems. It has failed to provide main drainage and sewage disposal to a number of newly established Kampala suburbs, including Muyenga, a rich man’s suburb. The residents are obviously not happy. In fact, Muyenga has been so poorly planned and developed, that new houses face different directions. The road network is completely inadequate and prospective visitors to the area find it hard to reach their destination. The authorities say that if conditions are to be improved in Muyenga, 600 houses will have to be demolished. This is a «hot potato» as many of the houses are owned by politicians!
With the bulk of the money coming from overseas being spent on construction, this has led to Kampala’s widespread expansion. What originally was known as the city «built on seven hills», now has expanded to 21 hills.
Such expansion was unprecedented and has become a nightmare for the public services! The most desirable areas are Nakasero and Kampala both of which are on hills, not far from Kampala city centre.
Both areas have a pleasant environment and large gardens. Because they were once occupied by Asian and European communities in addition to high ranking civil servants, the houses were properly built and serviced. There are other suburbs like Mbuya and Naggulu which are also on the way up.
Uganda’s brain drain
The fact is, many of Uganda’s professional and skilled workers are leaving the country to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Dr Japheth Nzaramba says there are only 910 doctors working in the country and that the doctor to patient ratio is worsening, despite the fact that Uganda trains more doctors than ever before.
He explains his position: «Many of us would have liked to have been patriotic and stayed at home, but look at the pay they give a doctor! It’s just not worth it to work in Uganda».
The same situation applies to the teacher brain drain. Uganda’s education system is desperately short of secondary and high school teachers. The situation is made even more critical by the increase in the number of primary school pupils, as a result of the donor funded universal primary education. In 2003, it is expected that there will be one million pupils who should go on to secondary schools. But Uganda’s current secondary schools can only cater for 490,000 pupils.
Nevertheless, Museveni is unconcerned about this. His view is that even though skilled Ugandans may leave their country, the fact they send money back home is significant enough to indicate that Uganda is benefiting from the age of globalisation
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