Uganda, April 26 -- Some have argued for a while now, that corruption is the glue that holds the sitting government together. Take it away and the thing will collapse. It is hard to argue against that viewpoint because what would the alternative theory be? A friend who used to work in government once told me how a newly appointed cabinet minister got introduced to official corruption. Apparently, for a couple of months after the Minister's appointment, public complaints about the quality of services became too loud to ignore.

So, the Minister put out feelers to find out what was going on. When his people reported back, it was far from what he had imagined. It turns out that his coming in had closed the taps so no one was eating. The dela...