#EXPOSE THE CORRUPT: CAN BALAAM BARUGAHARA WIN THE WAR ON CORRUPTION?

as it appears in the reports of the Auditor General. And then there is the government as it actually exists at nine o'clock at the healthcare center where you have 50 patients being treated by the Ascari. Or schools where a government is paying for hundreds of students that simply don't exist. Or in public works that are not being done. There is a government with finance and there is a government receive. And there is a big gap. You know what we pay for and what we get. And our guest tonight has decided to go and look for that government. Be sure that the government we pay for is the one that we get. And he's looking for it not from his office. He's not looking for me through a report. He is not studying the last 50 reports of the Auditor General or those of the inspectorate of government. But he's asking simple, basic questions. This is a school where the teachers, the health center, where the doctors. His methods have attracted both support and criticism. Serious questions about power, processes and authority are being asked. But tonight this conversation is beyond inspections and it's beyond headlines. Tonight you want to know what the honorable minister of local government and his team have discovered. How deep is the problem? Why this method? What is the plan? Government is certainly not a building in Tampala. Government is whether teachers teach. Government is whether nurses, nurses, government is whether public money produced as public service. And somebody answers when it doesn't. So tonight we have a conversation with the man. We have the conversation about the mission. We have a conversation about the methods and we have a conversation about the controversy. And ladies and gentlemen, we have that conversation on these judicial service conversations with none other than the honorable Balam Barugahara. Minister of local government, from the Republic of Uganda, in the government of Uganda, as well as established. Honorable Balam, you are most welcome. You think my name is very well. I am Balam Barugahara. Balam Baram Baram Ateni. I don't believe it. You have a good name, Kakarhanga. Come, come and come see me. You're nervous, always correct. So, you got it? I think I have to unmute your phone for X. I mean, you got it. I mean, you got it. I went to schools. I did become a major in marketing. I have an MBA and the other qualifications, but recently... Because you have to come to your question. Yeah, recently. So, I'm telling you, Balagara is... Before I ask you, you are proper. Okay. Maybe we will come. We will come to a conversation. Now, Honorable, why I wanted to stop you there? Because before we get into... Getting your... Answering our question, we wanted to first tell you about these judicial service conversations. A brief word about them. These conversations started as a result of certain internal processes that I don't have to go into within the law society. People came for a commission, but they have stayed for a conversation. These conversations were really conversations among lawyers talking about the judiciary and the administration of justice in Uganda and the institutions that make the law work. But it's grown into a larger thing, a thing of its own. Now, these conversations consist of lawyers, law students, business people, members of the public, all manner of professionals who are asking themselves the questions about how we can make our institutions work. And along the way in these conversations, we've had the rare privilege of hosting very senior people, including the five justice emeritus in the leadership of the Honorable Winidolo, the principal judge emeritus, his leadership justice, Iracamba Muine, the first deputy prime minister, and minister of the State of Canaphas, right Honorable Rebecca Alito Alacadaga, the Honorable Minister of Justice and Constitution Affairs, the Honorable Norbert Mao, the Honorable, the Attorney General, the Honorable Dr. Sam Mayanja Senior Council. We've hosted international lawyers, including the lawyers of the ANC, Mousi Sikahané from South Africa. We've hosted big human rights names in Uganda, like I was going through the Honorable, but Mr. Nicholas O'Pio, our guests have not always agreed with each other, and they certainly haven't always agreed with us. But we don't invite people here to agree or disagree or to interrogate them. We invite them to understand them. And so tonight, the purpose of all inviting you here is to understand you, Sam, what you're doing, to understand your method and your mission, to understand what you've seen and what you've learned. And so Honorable Balam, Ar-Gahara, the father of Karhang, it is our intention to start at the very beginning, where you had started, because you were starting, and I want to start exactly there. The people who are listening, we've all seen you, we've seen your activities, we've seen you in action, but people want to know who is Honorable Balam, and what makes him tick. Karhara Balam was born in 1979, is a neuro, a graduate of commerce, a major in marketing, master in marketing, enrolled now for PhD, at Columbia International University, Akademikia 2025-26. Columbia. Columbia International University, so I'll be doing a PhD in business administration. I started this full program. My journey started from my main, Hamburg, I'm not a Balkan child, I wasn't born to one of the historical, the 27th and the historical, I was born to a peasantry, my neuro father, who was an engineer, who studied his engineering in Dallas-Slam. It's happened at the same time, that's the time the president and Wapawa there. So Wapawa, so he passed on in 1991. So he left a mother to struggle, who distilled the world, I'm sure that we all study. So my God is grace, many supported us to prosper. But I didn't wait, I never waited for so long, people to keep pushing me, I began my new student at the MOOC. I did a course of four years, took me 70 years to finish. Because I was running a campaign, running a marketer, Baza, running a miss, Baza, marketer, running everything. So because of that, I could not concentrate to finish at the same time with the carangas who are provided for. So... So... Yeah, so the journey has taken us to rent a pre-noise ship, it has taken me through youth empowerment, political mobilization, and our public service. Each stage has shaped me different. In business, I've learned a discipline of money. I don't just waste money. Many of you kept asking, you know why you use one shot, but yes, one shot, the process... So you pick it up, didn't you? Yes, the process of drying it becomes easier. I don't have to, I need... You wash it in the evening by morning, you are going to sleep, it is ready by morning, I mean you shouldn't go as carangas looking for which tie matches, which suit, which... So, but because of etiquette, I was told you see now, Minister, you need to have a neck tie, coming to parliament, you need a tie, such an inconvenience, because what we speak don't come from the ties, but you want us to have ties anyway. So I had to respect the protocols put in place by the August house and the cabinet. So, each stage have been shaped differently. Mobilization, I kept listening to ordinary Uganda and I know the problems of ordinary Uganda and understand the aspiration. Then in the government as a civil servant, I've been told leadership, that in leadership you need to have results. So having results doesn't mean you sit home and wait for another appointment without working hard. What makes me believe that I'm good, I'm ticking whatever I'm doing is the enormous potential that we hold and that we must translate to better the lives of Ugandan's, not only the money or not only my children, but all Ugandan's. I believe ordinary Ugandan's need to be better and the president has provided a platform for people to get out of poverty. A different part of our television program, which at times are mismanaged by the very corrupt that we have started to fight on. So, patriotism has defined me, I'm a member of patriotically, you of Uganda, which is not a political party, but the civil organization led by my mentor, the one I call role model, Mosque in Erugawa. Why call Mosque in Erugawa role model? He abandoned the balcony life of a fast son to drive a nescalade. We are very sons, drive a sitting in fast class, ticket going to London, to check on Mimi, coming back, children are studying the other side. So, it didn't choose that life. It decided to go to Garamba, Central Africa, probably Congo and all these other places to train and defend their country, defeat the different rebel groups that are the emergency. So, the purpose, I feel, I feel is my role model and so is my leader and his personal belief and his machia man of the civil organization. Unlike many of you who belong to political parties, may belong to a civil organization, but at the same time, I subscribe to the ruling party, the NIRM as a supporter, but they are a member of Pauly, particularly of Uganda. So, that's about Gara. That's about Gara for you. Thank you, thank you, honorable minister. If you're just joining us, we have the honorable minister of local government, the honorable Balam Barugahara, Atene, a father of three, one of them called Parangha. He denies he said he was the son of a president, but he has a president in the army, I've never had such a thing, but he knows those borkeners as, but on the other hand, I think let's move straight into it. We've been seeing you. We've been seeing you on the road. We've been seeing you traveling through various local governments and districts, and what have you discovered? What? How wide and how deep? Because corruption, how wide and how deep is the, straight away the corruption in Uganda? If you can just tell us, are we just dealing with a few disorganized people? Do we have a syndicate? What are you doing with? But more importantly, we have seen you. You started in the east, you are in the west, you're in West Nyland, you are touring Uganda in a way, and in a manner we have never seen before. So if you could just take us through your journey in the eyes of the honorable barangah. The important thing, the war of embankton is the war of every shielding in local government. Every shielding in local government should go to its intended purpose. That is the war I'm on. As you may be aware, like you mentioned in your area communication, over 5,000 reports have been presented and not tabled over the years. 5,000 reports. And the district, I learned today that the last 10 years, no district park report has ever been tabled to parliament. So just to get the, yeah, the, every district has a public account. Public account's committee has a district. So we do not have a challenge over a system. We have a system right from the talk from the president down to the village. We have a, one chaperson with members representing each sect. The women they use, they disabled, they elderly, the treasure, the defense, we have all that. And then we have a, which is a parish where we are now managing our PDM. So the way you know, the one first of all, the viewers and listeners to understand that the local government ministry entails 76,000 villages, all sales in Uganda. 76,000. 1,000 villages, all sales in Uganda. We have 10,751 parishes, which we, we are, we are managing our PDM. We have close to 2,100 plus subcounties. And then we also have counties. And then we have constuences. In the constuences, we have a total of 390. Then we have municipalities, which are 29 and city divisions. Then we have the cities, we have 10 plus campala. So local government, you exclude campala for KMP because campala have their own statue, they have their own minister of campala. So we are running the rest of the country. Can this get back? Yes. We need campala to also be inspected. Yeah, it's easy, but you see, now like the town class.