By Mulengera ReportersThrough rallying millions of young people, whose behavioural change was impacted through the activities of Uganda Youth Forum (UYF), Uganda’s First Lady Janet Museveni did a lot to re-energize and amplify the fight against HIV-Aids which her husband Gen YK Museveni was leading in the late 1980s and early 19990s.Riding on the impact that had been enabled through her NGO UWESO (Uganda Women’s Effort to Save Orphans, which catered for orphans and mothers widowed by HIV-Aids), Janet Museveni in 1992 founded UYF whose primary objective as of that time was to prevent the virus from spreading, through popularizing the President’s message of behavioural change that was synonymous with the ABC strategy.ABC, which made Uganda a model of excellence for the rest of the world in containing the virus, stood for Abstinence, Being faithful to one’s partner and using Condoms in case one was unable to adhere to the first two prevention options. The Janet-led movement, under the banner of UYF, stressed sex purity while calling on young people to abstain from sex before marriage.FAST FORWARD:Mrs. Museveni now believes that it’s possible to leverage UYF, now officed in Kololo, to replicate that same momentum and defeat corruption the way the rapid spread of HIV-Aids was slowed and tremendously reversed in the 1990s.Speaking Sunday at Migera UWESO Secondary School in Nakasongola district where her 77th birthday was being celebrated, Janet said there is no way Uganda, which defeated Aids which was more complicated, can or should be failing to defeat corruption and totally kick it out of its borders, when it’s a much easier task.She declared readiness to dedicate her coming three years on earth, before clocking 80, to redirecting and revitalizing the fight against corruption, while leveraging the UYF network, the way she did against HIV Aids in the 1990s.Janet deliberately chose to address the problem of corruption as the core message of her birthday speech because there was clear need to adequately publicize the problem. Asserting that it won’t be business as usual anymore, Mrs. Museveni repeatedly said that, if not stopped, corruption will soon “decimate” Uganda the way we know it, to total extinction.Without specifically revealing any names, the President’s wife said that greed and desire for material things and for luxurious living had pushed many Ugandan public officials into corruption practices. She referred to existence of irrefutable evidence that many such officials had taken to building big mansions in their home districts upcountry using money and wealth that isn’t commensurate to their known verifiable earnings or monthly incomes.Janet, who was flanked by fellow First Family members who had a designated tent at the celebration grounds, added that many such big mansions have (without a doubt) been constructed using filthy money which has been obtained through stealing and misappropriation of public funds. She predicted that, because God punishes as opposed to rewarding evil, such thieving officials will end up with nothing and in total destitution.She called upon such leaders, many of whom now have much more glamorous country homes than even Museveni’s Rwakitura (which is increasingly looking dilapidated in some parts) to genuinely turn to God who can help them learn how to tame their desire and appetite for material things and unjust enrichment. She advised the earlier such decadent public officials do this the better, the anti-corruption movement she is going to be championing won’t spare anyone.Janet Museveni added that the renewed war against corruption, she is offering herself to lead, will be led by the young people coalescing under UYF and other like-minded youths organizations, because they are the people to live in this otherwise very beautiful country longer than herself or even her husband Gen YK Museveni who officially is currently aged 81 years.She registered her disappointment about the fact that humility and servant leadership attributes are increasingly becoming rare and lacking in many of today’s leaders and public officials. She said this is one reality which the youth movement she will be patronizing must create awareness about.She added that leaders who are stealing public funds to put up huge mansions lack discipline, self-restraint and are inadvertently bringing curses and condemnation to their own children and grandchildren of generations to come. She illustrated her point by referring to the holy scriptures under Jeremiah 17.11.She wondered why any Ugandan leader should crave for “exaggerated and complicated way of life” that is derived from unwarranted opulent and ill-gotten money. She observed that only mansions and residential houses built using clean money ought to be acceptable and it’s the only way God will bless Uganda as opposed to cursing and turning his back on it.An unusually tough-talking Janet, speaking after clerics like Bishops Laban Jjumba & Joshua Lwere, also agreed with UYF Chairman Dr. James Magara that public officials had stolen so much money and become the new problem for the country to the extent the acronym AIDS now had a new meaning-namely Acquired Integrity Deficiency Syndrome.This is something she said she was more than prepared to fight and defeat just like she rallied the young people in the 1990s to significantly diminish and eventually defeat HIV Aids.Other speakers at the Migera event, including Gen Museveni and First Daughter Patience Rwabwogo who led the opening prayer, had already indicated that millions of young people would have succumbed to HIV-Aids in the 1990s had Janet not intervened the way she did through UYF.The President’s wife made it clear she was convinced that the same God who enabled her prevail against the deadly disease in the 1990s will divinely enable her equally prevail against the corruption-related AIDS, which she defined as contemporary Uganda’s biggest challenge yet much easier to tackle.She indicated that the corrupt will find it risky to continue acting with impunity and doing their thing once millions of young people are empowered with the relevant information and charged or incited to keep exposing them.She also castigated those who pretend to be Christians and exaggerate their credentials as God’s people yet they don’t find anything wrong with engaging in corrupt practices.Mrs. Museveni wondered why Japan, which doesn’t pretend to profess or practice the Christian faith that much, ranks among the least corruption-infested countries in the world. Yet in countries like Uganda where more 80% of the population professes to be Christians, corruption is the order of the day.Mrs. Museveni contrasted the two countries-that in Japan if someone lost his wallet in a public place anywhere, they are certain to get it back intact yet in Uganda, a country full of self-professed Christians, such a wallet will never be recovered even if the place where it gets lost from the owner from is a church or any other place of worship.She wondered how more than 80% of Ugandans can profess to be Christians yet people’s belongings can get stolen even inside churches-and can’t be recovered.Mama Janet said that time had come for people who claim to be Christians to become Christ-like by demonstrating extreme contempt for corruption and for those who steal public funds.The President’s wife also observed that, unless the corrupt are identified, isolated and decisively crashed, the integrity of Uganda as a country is going to be destroyed before the international community of nations. She called on the young people not to accept this because Uganda is going to be theirs for longer than any of the public officials currently engaged in corruption and primitive accumulation at the expense of service delivery.Speaking immediately after his wife, Gen Museveni declared support for the Janet-led war against corruption. He said he has reason to believe that a Janet-led fight against graft will end in ultimate success because she is a cautious and very calculative lady who always prays to seek God’s guidance before declaring war on anything.He expressed optimism that the same God who guided and enabled Janet to tremendously impact Uganda’s war against HIV-Aids in the 1990s is still able and will ensure that her latest declaration of war against corruption ends in total clear victory, to the detriment of corrupt individuals.Agreeing with her characterization of public corruption as a “cancer that will decimate our country,” if no effective interventions are made, Museveni also registered his readiness to play his part as President to ensure that the Janet warriors (mainly young people identified & mentored through UYF) get all the resources and the appropriate deployments they require to play their rightful role in wiping corruption out of Uganda.Gen Museveni said that he has the faith that Janet’s things are always divinely-inspired and made reference to her 2006 decision to run for Ruhaama County MP, a platform she used to significantly impact service delivery in Ntungamo which is the birth place for both of them.He said that Janet always succeeds in her interventions because she always prays before plunging into anything besides the fact that she is always selfless and not opportunistic or self-seeking, like other leaders whose identities he didn’t disclose.He signalled readiness to leverage on Uganda Christian Lawyers Fraternity from which the same Janet a few years ago identified for him Counsel Annie Muhairwe who has since gone on to excel and do wonders in the fight against corruption in her capacity as Deputy IGG.Museveni revealed to an attentively listening audience that he made the incorruptible Annie Muhairwe the Deputy IGG at the instigation of Janet Museveni. He said he was proud to have deployed her in that role because in the last few years of her assignment, she has tremendously enriched and strengthened his larger fight against corruption.He gave the example of Kiteezi as one of the many high level investigation cases Muhairwe has personally handled. He praised her for writing her reports with clarity as opposed to other key corruption fighters who he said indirectly shield the corrupt by writing to him ambiguous and vague reports which make it impossible for him to decisively intervene.In contrast, he said Muhairwe is a honest and corruption-free investigator who always clearly particularizes the guilt for him on part of those implicated and makes clear recommendations as opposed to hiding behind being a lawyer to write ambiguous or vague things which confuse the President and thereby making it hard for him to take clear action against wrongdoers involved in a given scandal.Museveni implied that it becomes easy for him to determine who gets fired and who gets prosecuted and for which offence once the anti-corruption investigations report has been written by a clear-headed investigator like Annie Muhairwe who won’t make vague recommendations.He made it clear to the gathering (that had Ministers, MPs, Judges, top clerics, his family members etc) that he was more than prepared to appoint to positions Annie Muhairwe-like actors from Uganda Christian Lawyers Fraternity once Janet identifies and recommends to him such decent actors the way she did in the case of Annie Muhairwe.Museveni challenged Christian Lawyers to do a good job and not let down Janet or Muhairwe once they are identified and deployed to serve as front liners actors in the war against corruption. He said the fight against graft is easy to win once clear-minded investigators get deployed and disclose to him clear facts.He said no one will succeed cowing or intimidating such Janet-recommended anti-corruption warriors because the UPDF and the National Resistance Movement cadres will always be at hand to shield and give back up to such fighters. He said there is also need for individuals to be personally committed, thick-skinned and incorruptible like Muhairwe had been thus far.The President narrated how Muhairwe has also been intimidated but stood firm and ended up prevailing against the corrupt actors who like cowing investigators by dragging names of bigger people into their corrupt dealings. That Muhairwe one time motivated him when she stood up and pushed back against such corrupt actors by assuring them of readiness to die for the truth just like her Savior Jesus Christ did more than 2,000 years ago.Gen Museveni also agreed with Janet Kataha that for the war against corruption to sustainably succeed, as opposed to being a one-off event, the young people of Uganda will have to be at the heart of every intervention because they still have a lot of time to be here and that Uganda is going to be theirs for longer than for him or his wife Janet whose 77th birthday anniversary was being celebrated.