President Museveni is wrong about the children of the rich families in Uganda, they are corrupt to the core.

Growing up poor forces a person to work hard and opens a person’s mind to the consequences of corruption. It can make a person distaste corruption because the poor are the ones who suffer under the heavy yoke of corruption in Uganda.

In the state of the nation address of June 2021, president Museveni suggested that he will use the children from rich families to combat Corruption in Uganda. The president’s theory is that the children from rich families are already rich and thus less prone to corruption. It seems to be a valid assumption on the surface because you would expect rich people to have different motivations from poor people. It is easy to think that children of the poor are motivated by money and thus more likely to engage in corruption in order to enrich themselves and escape poverty. It is easy to assume that children of the rich because they have grown up soaked in riches and wealth are less motivated by money and enriching themselves. Even the Bible seems to suggest that more riches shall be added unto the wealthy.

In practice however, there is no evidence that the the poor are more predisposed to be corrupt than the rich. Actually history shows that the rich and wealthy have gone to extensive length including murder, genocide and drowning of entire civilisations so as to maintain their wealth and power. Philosopher and scholars alike agree that power and wealth have a corrupting influence on humans. I do not know why the president would assume that a person who has grown up serrounded by riches can be content living on a public service salary. One of the red flags that shows proneness to corruption is extravagant expenditure. Having lived their entire life in a life of luxury and affluence, children of the rich will do anything to maintain their life styles. In addition, children of the rich are usually entitled spoilt brats with no moral centre which makes them more predisposed to corruption.

I am not suggesting that children of the poor are immune to corruption because they are not. Having grown up with nothing, some children of the poor will do about anything, to get themselves out of poverty. When the children who have grown up in poverty and are prone to corruption get an opportunity to enrich themselves, they will plunder state coffers dry. Children of the poor can be as prone to corruption as children of the rich. However, in most cases the children of the poor are used to simple and down to earth existence. They are in most cases humble and good hearted individuals brought up with good manners and respect for the rule of law. They are aware of how far they have come from and the sacrifices their parents made to educate them. Children of the poor are the ones most likely to have grown up experiencing the negative consequences of corruption. They are ones most likely to have been discriminated in school, they most likely survived on one meal a day, walked several miles to attend school and toiled day and night to make something of themselves. Children of the poor are likely to grow up distasting corruption given all the pain and suffering it caused them. Children of the rich do not know the suffering and pain that corruption inflicts on Society because they are accustomed to the good life.

Apart from experience and up bringing, there are other factors that can lead to a person being corrupt. Experience and up bringing is just one of the factors that shape the character of a person. Other factors include peer pressure, greed, institutionalization, lack of oversight, lack of negative consequences and personal choice. A person might grow up serrounded by corruption and actually be taught to be corrupt but he or she chooses not to engage in corruption.

For these reasons, the president is wrong about children of the rich. Having rich parents and growing up surrounded by riches is not a guarantee that a person will not be corrupt. Growing up in poverty forces a person to work hard and opens a person’s mind to the consequences of corruption. It can make a person distaste corruption because the poor are the ones who suffer under the heavy yoke of corruption in Uganda.

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Administrator

Our collective efforts in combating corruption in Uganda will create the corruption free society that we love and want. Do not wait for the government to combat corruption because it will not do so since many people that serve in the government benefit from the corruption.

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