The government of Uganda’s image has, over the last few months, been cast under unpleasant light as various reports show billions of shillings have been being stolen time and again. Of course, that’s not necessarily news, although the public anger appears to have reached new levels.
A new portal, NotInMyCountry.org, has now collected a database of over 3800 lectures in 38 institutions in Uganda in a move that will see those corrupt exposed while the best praised.
The online platform expects to help end the vice anonymously instead of risking the lives of activists. The founders say they were inspired by Hillary Rodham Clinton on her Nairobi visit in 2009.
“There’s an opportunity for young people and for civil society to use modern technology to run corruption watches and reporting. … I think there ought to be a way to use interactive media … to report real time allegations of corruption. …what if we had groups of young people anonymously reporting all of this [with] consequences aimed at individuals?” – Hillary Clinton
Kenya’s John Githongo also inspired them on his fight against the menace.
According to reports, the founders say they are an international group of students, lawyers, journalists, businesspeople, human rights activists, security specialists, and technology and communications experts working to free the world of corruption in a anonymously.
NotInMyCountry.org is not affiliated to any political association in Uganda and all users are protected from the public. Users can add the individuals they find engaging in corruption or who are not performing their duties as supposed.
The can adept or user or profile of their liking easily. The site currently has volunteers from across the world and also takes in anonymous donations to run their operations.
Now students at universities in Uganda are anonymously rating their lecturers and administrative staff performance which then is aggregated and made public.
The portal highlights strong and weak performers not to shame them but to motivate them to perform better at their jobs and will also make them accountable to the government, university authorities, students, parents, media, and the entire population. It also gives students power to govern their studies and avoid poor performance.
Notinmycountry.org tracks the staff’s attendance to duty, communication skills, accessibility, timeliness and fairness to students.
The comment part also gives them space to explain why they rate the staff so as long as they are not personal or in vulgar language and defamatory. However students ought to know the site as not as anonymous as they think because if one posts a defamatory comment or lie against the staff, they may face the law on their own. The site also requires students to sign up and provide an email address to cut fraud.
Musicians in Uganda have also joined students and recorded a song to end this menace. You can listen to the song here.
Information from Techmoran was used in this report.
