President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday rallied Ugandan leaders to intensify efforts into the fight against corruption, saying that the vice is a moral, spiritual and material problem.
“It is a moral problem because you make yourself a parasite. Corrupt people are parasites because they get wealth which they did not earn,” he said at Kololo on Wednesday during an Anti-Corruption Walk ceremony.
Spiritually, Museveni added, corrupt people are bad investors “because they think that God does not see the bad things they do”.
“In the last 60 years, I have been watching and I have not seen these corrupt people being successful sustainably.”
Speaking at the ceremony, Oulanyah put it to the president thus: “Mr President, we are all corrupt. Let’s stop the pretence Mr president. We are all guilty as charged.”
He went on: “I come here because it is a show but deep down I know we are going back to same old corruption; I dare anyone challenge me on that.”
Oulanyah said many people pretend to fight corruption without even identifying who is corrupt.
“The struggle begins with you, it begins with me. Do not wait for anybody to fight against corruption. Do not wait to be the president of this country to start fighting corruption.”
He added: “You may a head teacher or military commander, or speaker of parliament or chief justice, that is your frontline.”
In response, Museveni said he is not corrupt despite being a wealth man.
“I have never stolen. But I am rich. I have never stolen anything from anybody but I am also not a poor man,” Museveni said.
