Corruption Can Only Be Won Through Openness [opinion]

US president James Madison once remarked that knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to govern themselves must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives.

If people were able to access critical information and public records, corruption in Uganda would be history. Information comes with knowledge and enhances citizen power to hold their leaders accountable in all public domains.

Unfortunately in most aspiring African democracies, the right to access information is in the hands of state organs. Citizens are not in the know of policies that affect them. For this reason, they are unable to meaningfully participate in the decision-making process.

Often times those in authority exploit this public ignorance to abuse their mandate. This explains why corruption is still prevalent in most countries that are still enshrouded in secrecy.

Whereas most African countries have constitutional guarantees for the right of access to information, only Uganda, South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe have made specific laws on access to information.

In the case of Uganda, the purpose of this law is to promote accountability and transparency while protecting those who disclose evidence of corruption.

This is a positive law in a country like Uganda grappling with unending incidences of corruption. Perhaps the biggest, most recent scandal is the recurrent mismanagement of the workers' fund.

This is one of the open incidences. There are many more that have not yet been reported. I attribute these vices to the lack of public scrutiny and participation to make those responsible accountable. Public participation can certainly be enhanced using access to information laws.

The law on access to information is now in place and has started to influence information paradigms. However, there is still no procedure for accessing documents in custody of public authorities. This is because the requisite regulations that ensure document access are not yet passed. However, this should not be an impediment since it is not at all times that the public have to use the prescribed forms to pay fees.

As Uganda sets out to outlaw corruption that continues to raise public concern, the citizenry should be afforded their right to know and participate in issues and policies that affect them.

The right to know is also critical in environmental and resource management aspects. These are critical as the country ventures into oil exploration.

This they can only achieve, however, where public authorities are willing to avail them with such information which will in turn depend on a - fully operational and respected legal regime. Every year on September 28, the world celebrates the Right to Know Day.

Uganda is one of the countries that embraces this day and hence recognises the importance of the right to know and access to information.

Uganda is the only country in East Africa that has the law on access to information in place. With this step, other East African countries have been inspired to move towards this direction. Currently, most of them have draft bills on access to information before their respective legislatures. Significantly, Uganda now hosts the Africa Freedom of Information Centre.

The centre was previously located in Nigeria to coordinate and support campaigns for freedom of information laws across Africa. Being the steward of this campaign thus, we should be seen to promote openness in all public and private spheres subject to public scrutiny. This way, corruption will be surmounted not only in Uganda, but expressively so in Africa.

The writer is the coordinator for the African Freedom of Information Centre

Related terms: africa, angola, exploration, law, legal, nigeria, oil, regulations, south africa, uganda, zimbabwe