Uganda leader wrapped in cash-sack scandal
President Yoweri Museveni gives bag containing $100,000 to a youth group, leading to outrage.
The Ugandan president has given a sack of cash to a youth group at a meeting in a small town, creating outrage in the capital of Kampala.
Critics have been slamming the handout, which is said to be $100,000, on social media networks, using the hashtag “sack of money”.
Patronage is central to politics in Uganda and during the elections in rural areas it is normal for politicians to simply buy votes for cash or bags of sugar.
The practice is seen by some as the only effective way of canvassing political support, at least in the countryside.
Yet in the city, among the middle class, things are different. Expectations of the government are much higher, and they are rising fast.
Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb reports from Kampala.