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Why parliament abolished LC 4 councils?

Walakira — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:31:56 +0000

The Parliament of Uganda this week abolished all county councils across the country. The move followed a proposal tabled by the government under the Local Governments (Amendment) bill of 2012.

Also the Minister for Local Governments, Adolf Mwesige says LC4 councils had become malfunctioned since their duties were being performed by the districts leaderships and sub county local governments.

The minister explains further that the current LC 4 county councils are poorly facilitated due to the decline in locally generated revenue at the sub counties across the country.

The minister says that out of the 169 counties in Uganda, over 111 counties were named districts and more 25 counties would be named districts in 2013. So Uganda remains with only 33 LC4 councils. This means the reason of maintaining these councils is no longer there thus the abolition of LC4 councils.

Ends

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Museveni says people in Buganda kingdom don’t love him

Walakira — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:27:42 +0000

While speaking at the burial of Lt Col Sserwanga Lwanga in Bumanje, Ssese islands in Kalangala district sometime back, president Museveni said he was shocked that Buganda region did not love him yet he had played an instrumental role in restoring the kingdom.

Museveni said “there are leaders here who don’t like other Ugandans. They don’t like me (Museveni), a man who came to help you (Buganda kingdom). Why don’t you (people in Buganda kingdom) like me? What have I done?” This information is got from The Daily Monitor of January 15, 1996.

Without mentioning names, Museveni said that Buganda had leaders who connived to disorganize the country.

He says the Banyankore also had bad leaders but the Baganda have leaders who don’t like to unite the country and don’t want to be assisted. Museveni said he came to assist Buganda to develop.

Museveni added that Sserwanga was a unique Muganda in that he worked hard to unite other people. Museveni’s comments came at a time when Buganda had intensified its demand for a federal system of governance. The relationship between Mengo (Buganda kingdom) and Museveni has grown colder since that time the height of which culminated into Buganda riots in 2009 after president Museveni’s soldiers blocked the Kabaka and Katikkiro JB Walusimbi from going to Kayunga (Bugerere).

Ends

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Google’s Eric Schimidt assessment after a week in Africa

Gerald Businge — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:36:03 +0000

Here’s a post that Eric Schimidt, Google Executive Chairman made after visiting Africa last week. I thought it would be a worthwhile read.

After a week of business meetings in the cities of sub-saharan africa, we can surely say three things are new for the continent:

a) the despotic leadership in Africa from the 1970s and 1980 is in decline, replaced by younger and more democratic leaders

b) a huge youth demographic boom is underway, with a majority of the population of 25, or even under 20

c) mobile phones are everywhere, and the Internet in Africa will be primarily a mobile one

Many of the older problems are still severe, including a lack of electric power, the general trend of rural to urban migration, and pervasive corruption. Every country we visited had an internal security problem, or a significant border problem, and the elites are sheltered from this pervasive concern behind guarded walls, hotels and restaurants with gates and security checks, and ubiquitous guards. I try to imagine what the US would be if we had the types of security problems in Africa.. how would WE deal with such threats?

Connectivity is much more important for security than many analysts think. Societies who are not connected lack opposing viewpoints and are much more subject to easy radicalization. The virtue of having more connectivity is that people will have more choices, and more choices lead a better understanding of the value to go to school, the need to treat women equally, the choice to not demonize others, etc.

Nairobi has emerged as a serious tech hub and may become the African leader. A combination of relatively stable politics, the British legal system, and a benign climate seem to attract a significant share of foreign investment. Incubators are hosting potential solutions to many problems, including connecting M-Pesa (their mobile money solution on simple phones using SMS) with payment systems for local stores. If they manage to get through the upcoming March elections without significant conflict, they will grow quickly.

Rwanda is a jewel with a terrible past. High economic growth and the development of a significant middle class is threatened by the withdrawal of aid due to UN complaints over the Congo. Rwanda feels like Singapore, an island inside of Africa whose small size allows great focus and a dynamic, stable government. A visit to the Genocide Museum in Kigali, and a trip to the Volcanic National Park where eight groups of eight can trek to see the gorillas made famous by Diana Fossey, are well worth it. Gorilla treks are also available through Uganda and the Congo, over the same mountains.

After fifty years of war, South Sudan is the worlds newest country. In a country where every issue is an urgent one, mobile networks can unify a poor country with isolated villages, significant flooding in the rainy season, and the constant threat of attacks from rebels from the north. A courageous group, the Satellite Sentinel project. uses satellite data and other sources to document ethnic cleansing in remote areas of Sudan (the northern Sudan) and serve as a record of the terrible ongoing violence against innocents.

Chad is a poor petro-state, with a long history of conflict and one pipeline and one fiber link. Africa has submarine fiber cables on the west and eastern side. Landlocked countries are at the mercy of their neighbors, and all have learned that competition with multiple fiber connections from differing borders dramatically reduces costs. Chad like some others, has determined that future spectrum should not be auctioned as that only increases the eventual mobile costs and are simply allocating it to a set of competitive carriers. Less than 1% of Chad has electricity.

Nigeria, known as a land of oil corruption and the ubiquitous 419 email scams, is the biggest surprise to a first time visitor. Nigerians are entrepreneurial, stylish, educated, and have the belief that their country can emerge as the next Brazil. With 170 million citizens, and a record breaking eleven years of civilian elected government, the compound growth and the shared memory of real internal conflict almost guarantees their short term success. Future growth of Nigeria should help with its international image problem, as the real story of its success gets out.

The emergent model of the African internet is a set of competitive fiber suppliers to the capital, a set of fiber rings owned by local telco’s, and 3G and 4G networks. Some of the countries are late with licensing plans for 3G and 4G, a costly delay for countries that have very little residential broadband. Solar charging can help with the power needs of handsets, but the electricity needs to be more reliable or costly backup systems will be built at each tower. Many of these countries have telecommunications as a major contributor to their GPD (Cote d’Ivory is about 12%) and even Somalia, which we did not visit this time, has a profitable competitive telecommunications industry.. the most profitable legal industry in that country. Some countries are reluctant to turn on the data portion of their telecommunications industry, another costly delay to their future digital commerce, education and entertainment industries.

Many Africans will be last, unfortunately, to be connected to the rest of us. For them, the best short term outcome will be feature phones (inexpensive voice and SMS phones) and a private network of microSD cards that can be traded behind oppressive authorities to get information in and out of trapped, occupied and remote locations. Information is power, and more information means more choices. Documenting abuses, getting pressure from outside to fix real problems, and solving illiteracy are just a few functions of even the most limited of feature phones.

The demographic dividend in Africa of young people is their greatest hope, in my opinion. Today high rates of unemployment show an economy underperforming to its true potential. This new generation expects more, and will use mobile computing to get it. Optimism is appropriate for Africa, as the people we met will do much more with less than we can imagine, and the devices and systems built in the first world will be used in the most creative ways in the emerging new world of Africa.

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UNEB releases Primary leaving Examination PLE results

Gerald Businge — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:38:24 +0000

The Uganda National Examinations Board together with the ministry of education have today released the results from the 2012 Primary Living Examinations indicating a 2.2% increase in performance rate at 88.2% in 2012, up from 86.4% in 2011.

According to the UNEB Executive Secretary Matthew Bukenya the male candidates outperformed their female counterparts.

English: Uganda’s Coat of arms (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He also said that results of upto 1,603 candidates had been withheld due to suspected involvement in various forms of malpractice that included external assistance and impersonation among others.

He says these students are from a total of 43 districts across the country.

Over 8,700 scouts were deployed across the country to ensure that the exams are leakage free.

Meanwhile the minister for education and sports JessicaAlupo has noted a reduction in the number of candidates who register but do not sit for the exams.

She has also asked district leaders to work towards changing the attitudes of their people towards education.

UNEB Chairman Fagil Mande says the 2012 performance was good but there is still a lot that needs to be done to improve even further.

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Mutebile wants James Mulwana’s life contribution documented

Gerald Businge — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:47:35 +0000

The governor Bank of Uganda Mutebile is calling for the documentation of ate James Mulwana’s life

This was contained in his condolence message to the bereaved family and the entire business community.

In a statement, Mutebile who’s also the Chairman Board of Trustees Makerere University private Sector Forum says Professor James Mulwana was one of the Trustees and founder members of the Forum since 2006.

Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile

Mutebile says that as a result of his good leadership in business and Private Sector development in the country, Mulwana earned an Honorary Professorial award of Makerere University in December 2006.

Mutebile says the country has lost a great man, a visionary industrialist whose institutional memory should be tracked and documented even when has passed on.

Meanwhile, the shadow minister of finance Geoffrey Ekanya says he will move a motion before parliament in recognition of Late James Mulwana’s contributions to the country.

He described him as someone who lived a decent life, respectful, honest, principled and approachable.

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Goods entering Uganda now inspected from country of origin

Gerald Businge — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 19:23:50 +0000

The Uganda National Bureau of Standards has introduced a new system which will be used to inspect goods entering the country.

The executive Director Uganda National Bureau of standards Ben Manyindo says, effective 3^{rd December the Bureau started using the pre-export Verification of conformity to verify the goods.}

He says, now the goods are being inspected at their country of origin before they are exported into the country.

He says in total six companies have been contracted to carry out the inspection of the goods on behave of the UNBS.

He reveals that the companies include, S.G.S Company, Intertek and Bureau veritas will deal with inspecting the general goods entering the country.

He says other 3 companies Jevic, EAA and Jabal Kirimanjaro will deal in inspecting vehicles imported into the country.

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UIA appeals for more local investors in Uganda

Gerald Businge — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 15:53:11 +0000

The Uganda Investment Authority has called for more local investments in the country to ensure more balanced economic growth and development.

The Chairman of Uganda Investment Authority

Patrick Bitature

, Patrick Bitature says foreign direct investments are dominating the country’s economy.

He says there is need for a balance to ensure proper cash flow in the country as locals keep their profits within the country.

He adds that government needs to create a favorable environment in to attract more local investors.

He also advises the local investors to forge partnerships with their foreign counterparts to reap big from their investments.

UIA Director Frank Sebowa warns investors on encroachment

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Uganda seeks for better trading with India

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:32:58 +0000

Uganda has a trade imbalance with India which totals to over 900 million shillings.

The minister for trade and industry Amelia Kyabadde says although government has tried to put in place strategies to correct the trade imbalance little has been achieved.

She says, this situation must be reversed through creating more textiles and promoting agro- processing industries in the country.

She says this will enable the country to expand on its exports between the two countries.

She says government is currently in talks with the Indian government to promote trade between the two countries.

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FDC Presidential campaigns heat up

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:53:14 +0000

With only three weeks to the Forum for Democratic Change presidential elections the three candidates continue to traverse the country with some drawing new strategies.

Nandala Mafabi

Nandala Mafabi is today headed to Kiboga district where he is meeting delegates before heading to the Elgon region in his home towns of Mbale, Manafa and Sironko tomorrow.

Geoffrey Ekanya on the other hand continues with his door to door strategy meeting Kampala delegates.

He says that under his new strategy they have divided roles with the campaign agents currently combing the Western region for votes.

While Maj.Gen. Mugisha Muntu is still out of the country where he is soliciting for funds from friends and well-wishers to help finance the last phase of his campaign.

The FDC presidential election is slated for Nov’ 22nd at Namboole stadium.

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Nandala mafabi to rejuvenate cooperatives

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:33:34 +0000

The leader of opposition in parliament Nathan Nandala mafabi has promised to invest in rejuvenation of cooperatives in west nile to enable the people in this region to fight poverty and have income for health and educating their children .

Nandala made the remarks while addressing FDC delagates in Adjuman, Moyo, Yumbe,koboko ,Arua, Zombo, Paidha and Nebbi distrcts where he is currently looking for votes from the party delegates to become the party president.

He said that he wants the people of west nile to have economic activities where they earn a living as they support FDC instead of them living on empty stomach when are doing poitical work for the party.

He said that cooperative unions if are established in most parts of the country will be the way of helping people to fight poverty unlike the NRM prosperity for all.

Nandala also asked FDC delegates in the country to vote for him so as he puts in place party structures that will enable the party to unseat NRM government in 2016.

He vowed to clean up FDC and get rid of party members who divert the party funds for their selfish intrest and kill the party support.

He promised to enable the party have offices and motorcycles for activities .

FDC delagates are to vote the party president to replace Dr. Kiiza Besigye who decided recently to shoten on his term of office and give chance to other party members to lead the party and the voting is expected on on 22^nd November at Namboole stadium and the candidates vying for this party top seat include Nathan Nandala Mafabi, Major General Mugisha muntu and Geofrey Ekanya who all now looking for votes in different parts of the country.

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