Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni admitted he miscalculated on corruption fight

President Yoweri Museveni has said he miscalculated when he introduced political positions in district local governments under the impression that the move would curb corruption in the public service.

He told anti-corruption activists that Uganda had been plagued by six major problems when he came to power in 1986. These are extrajudicial murders, lack of democracy, collapse of the economy, collapse of infrastructure, poaching and corruption.

In an attempt to combat corruption, Museveni said the Government introduced the positions of the district LC5, LC3 chairpersons and councillors to keep tabs on the activities of the civil servants. However, that decision, he added, has not yielded the expected results, and corruption has escalated.

"I made a miscalculation when I trusted the elected people to fight corruption. We thought there was corruption because civil servants were not elected. We decided to elect leaders from among the people, and we thought they would not be the same," Yoweri Museveni said, as reported by New Vision.

He was speaking during the 25th anniversary of Transparency International, a global coalition set up to promote transparency and accountability. The event was held at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala on Tuesday.

The corrupt civil servants, he explained, threatened to blackmail the Government among the population whenever there were attempts to move against them.

"Then we decided to get leaders directly from the population. After that, we worked on the laws and institutions, but corruption is still there. The population is fed up of the corrupt civil servants. We have given them time to expose themselves and they cannot blackmail us. We also have many graduates to replace them," Museveni added.