Uganda, Oct. 27 -- In the last two weeks this column argued that the logic underlying our political economy is structurally flawed. Electoral support does not translate into economic reward. Some parts of the country have been ignored and even regressed on key development indicators, despite voting for incumbency.

It is partly a transmission problem. Grassroots social and economic demands at the wheels rarely flow through the gearbox of political decision making to inform resource allocation in the engine room. Even where they are articulated dramatically, through public consumption of live rodents, as once happened somewhere in Tororo, or through the culturally provocative self-disrobement seen by mothers in northern Uganda a few years ...