๐จ Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Oboth Oboth, recently visited his former primary school in Tororo and became emotional as he recalled how his father struggled to pay the 13,000 shillings required for his secondary school fees. Despite scoring an impressive aggregate 7 in PLE, ranking second in the entire district, he nearly dropped out due to lack of school fees.
His story serves as a powerful reminder that with determination and a little help, one can rise from humble beginnings to the highest offices in the land.
What an inspiring journey from Tororo to Parliament.
Kiira Motors was never a good idea to begin with. Economics has a basic principle called comparative advantage. Countries grow by focusing on what they are naturally positioned to do well, not by forcing prestige projects.
Uganda is not at a stage where it should be sinking scarce resources into importing and refining raw materials, building complex supply chains, and assembling cars. That work makes sense for economies with deep industrial bases, strong research ecosystems, and reliable infrastructure. We do not have that.
For a country still struggling with power, basic manufacturing, skills gaps, and access to capital, car production is a distraction. That money and effort would have done well if it had been invested in agro processing, value addition in agriculture, light manufacturing, or even transport systems we badly need.
Industrialisation is not about copying what rich countries make, but about sequencing. Kiira skipped several steps, and no amount of branding or government press releases can fix that.
But it was also deliberate. Projects like Kiira Motors are a clean channel for moving public money into private pockets. The same people who keep allocating the funding, sometimes skipping due process, do not do it for industrialisation but rather because they benefit from the money themselves.