KAMPALA/UGANDA: In the wake of a corruption scandal involving stealing iron sheets meant for the poor northeastern region of Karamoja in Uganda, a new study has concluded poor citizens cannot advocate for their rights.
Titled: “Poor citizens cannot Advocate: Learning Citizenship in Constrained Settings in Uganda,” the study is a subject of a Doctoral thesis submitted by a Ugandan student, Dr. Ahimbisibwe Karembe, to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Jyväskylä, in December last year. Jyväskylä is a multidisciplinary university situated in the city of Jyväskylä, which is located in Central Finland.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) report for the year 2019/2020, the national poverty rate in Uganda stood at 21.4% for that same period, which was a decrease from the previous year’s figure of 25.8%.
This means that out of Uganda’s estimated population as of 2021 is 47.8 million people, the number of people living in poverty in Uganda, is approximately 10.2 million people.
While it is certainly concerning to hear about repeated corruption scandals in Uganda, the vice diverts resources away from important public services and programs, such as those intended to help the most vulnerable in society who cannot advocate for their rights.
“That is why my study concludes that citizens who are economically disadvantaged, are not able to effectively promote their interests or participate in the political process due to their financial constraints,” Dr. Karembe tells ResearchFinds News.
He adds that this is due to various factors such as limited access to education, lack of resources, limited networks and opportunities, and the need to focus on meeting basic needs like food and shelter.
His study which was conducted in much of the rural poor in the Busoga Region of eastern Uganda and Rubiriizi District in western Uganda discusses how poor citizens living in constrained environments in sub-Saharan Africa may face challenges in exercising their advocacy, claims-making, and dissenting rights due to systemic constraints and limited material capacities.
The author argues that NGOs and local associations often step in to fill this gap and promote grassroots development that enables poor people to achieve material improvements and agency, which can promote and strengthen certain forms of citizenship.
However, the author also raises questions about the long-term implications of such incremental change for political claims and the accountability of the state and explores the experiences of those who may remain excluded from these community-based initiatives.
While exploring the contentious and complex subject of citizenship in Uganda, specifically in relation to how it is promoted and learned in illiberal settings, his thesis has been able to argue that citizenship can be promoted in civil society spaces and has implications for NGO-led development in constrained settings.
The author conceptualizes citizenship as taking place in various spaces where rights and responsibilities related to decent living and dissent are contextually constructed. The thesis suggests a theoretical approach based on citizenship as a constellation of participatory, socio-material, and lifelong learning.
Methodology and Findings:
The author used a qualitative participatory research methodology to explore the routine citizenship practices of communities participating in the activities of two NGOs operating in eastern and western Uganda.
The findings show that citizenship emerging in civil society spaces is localized, active, gendered, and material.
“It is learned in and through everyday belonging and social participation but is apolitical,” he writes.
The thesis argues that this type of citizenship, which foregrounds personal responsibility for development and ingenuity over political advocacy and claim-making, is constrained.
The thesis thus concludes that in constrained settings where political advocacy and claim-making are unpredictable and untenable, civil society spaces can enhance citizens’ material survival and incremental change.
“It is important to appreciate and encourage the handiness of civil society spaces in such contexts, he argues.
The findings are set against the historical and public discourse that both predicts and threatens (the possible recurrence of) violence in contemporary Uganda, and the thesis advances the notion of constrained citizenship as a novel way to illustrate a state-society relationship that socializes citizens to eschew dissent.
Karembe observes that citizenship in civil society spaces is more attuned to solving material and survival needs than promoting dissent and advocacy against non-performing state institutions.
The author then discusses the contradictory perception of the Ugandan state as inefficient but stable, and how this perception dominates public perceptions. This view holds that the government has saved the country from decades of militarized ethnic violence and has created an environment for everybody to learn what to do as long as they do not joke around with this peace.
The author advocates for NGOs to play an essential role in development activities for rural communities in Uganda, particularly in constrained settings marked by state dysfunction, poverty, and persistent traditions that are biased against women and collectively inimical to the exercise of citizenship.
“Citizens living under profound and systemic constraints need practical knowledge to be able to function in their daily lives. The study finds that in Uganda, NGOs and local associations are more effective than the state in enabling citizens to act as citizens at the local level,” says.
It’s important to note that poverty in Uganda is still a significant issue, and efforts are ongoing to reduce the poverty rate further. The government and various organizations are implementing programs to improve access to education, healthcare, and employment opportunities, among other initiatives aimed at reducing poverty in the country.
About the Author:
Dr. Fabian Karembe Ahimbisibwe is an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Adult and Community Education, at Makerere University.
He has vast experience in teaching and training in areas of philosophy, political economy, gender studies, and adult literacy. His research interests are in the fields of community education and learning, empowerment of vulnerable people, indigenous knowledge practices, and transformation of rural livelihoods. His thesis can be accessed here: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-
Is a longtime journalist in Uganda who has served as a cab reporter, Bureau Chief, Managing Editor, and Digital Media Editor at the country's prominent publications such as Daily Monitor, Red Pepper, and now, Research Finds News since 1999.
Rugyendo is currently a Ph.D. Fellow in Journalism and Communication at Makerere University, a Desmond Tutu Fellow, Crans Montana New Leader, and Chairman of Young Engineers Uganda and Uganda Premier League.
The findings notwithstanding, I find the poor and illiterate citizens of Uganda more interested, engaged and therefore empowered to play part in agitative political activities than the so-called elites who are not poor in material, intellectual or liquidity forms. Because of this, the former are almost always targeted with harassment and abuse in various forms: arrests, teargas, threats, bribery, misinformation, disenfranchisement, etc. The latter are rarely interested or willing to sacrifice their comfort in pursuit of their political rights or those of the entire citizenry;. In Uganda, the elites have largely taken their place as political spectators and commentators. My thoughts!
We share the same thoughts!