Cars moving along Masaka road

Four people died today morning along the Masaka – Mbarara road when a taxi had a head on collision with a Toyota Premio.

According to the Police’s Patrick Onyango, the accident happened on Sunday morning at about 5am at Nkalwe, Kkingo sub county involving taxi number UAW 361S from Kyankwanzi heading to Kisoro with a Premio Reg; No;UAY 613I from Mbarara to Kampala.

He says the taxi overturned several times killing the four occupants and injuring 10 others.

“All those in the premio whose number we are yet to establish are safe.Victims have been rushed to Masaka hospital and the bodies taken to the mortuary,” he said.

Onyango says inquiries over the cause of the accident have commenced.

Masaka road has in the recent past become notorious for accidents. Efforts by the traffic police in the recent past had seen some  reduction of reported cases of accidents along the route.

There have been campaigns such as Fika Salama that were introduced to curb over-speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and impounding cars that are not road worthy  among other measures.

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Amelia Kyambadde the Trade Minister.

The line minister, Amelia Kyambadde, said this while meeting the Parliamentary Natural Resources Committee on how to secure the country from famine.

He says government is in talks with ministry of finance on how to re-own the sold 36 silos in areas of Kiboga, Kyankwanzi, and others in Busoga and other parts of the country.

Kyambadde further informed the committee that government is soon acquiring a loan to repair the 162 ware houses that will be used to store food.

Meanwhile ministry of Trade has denied responsibility of poor quality car fuel on market.

Grain handling and sorting Silo in Masindi.

Kyambadde said that the responsibility of quality guarantee of products on market lies in ministry of Energy and Uganda National Bureau of standards.

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However, bailouts have happened before like in the USA where it worked and the economy recovered- the argument was that banks were too big to fall! In Europe however, Greece in particular sank economically and despite International Financial Institutions like the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) coming to try and rescue the country, the bailout hasn’t worked!

Dr. Richard Mukungu, the guest to the show and an economist, recommends a bailout but doesn’t agree with reducing interest rates.
The credit process has also not been followed by the banks, says Mukungu who is a Banker himself.

He also says there was a misrepresentation on the word bailout on the scheme.

Mukungu said there nine interventions recommended by economists that were founded to the Prime Minister, Ruhakana Rugunda, who was to brief President Yoweri Museveni for clearance. He said among these, were;

1. That was need for government to pay out all domestic arrears. In this case, the only category that would be considered to be on bailout were the traders who supplied South Sudan and were never paid, he said.
2. The second category were companies in the oil sector.
What increases domestic high interest rates is domestic borrowing.
Mukungu says there is urgent need to address local content. Local companies have not been supported to receive such treatment so that they can recover and help in the economic growth.

“When it comes to international companies, there are treated differently, this is not sustainable as most of this money is usually repatriated. If local companies are supported, the money remains within the economy and hence jobs can be created and maintained,” he argues.

Mukungu says 2 things are causing the current domestic debt. These he said is the current delay in the production of Uganda’s oil.

However, oil prices have fallen by more than 50 percent and China itself has slowed somewhat, these oil and gas exporters are facing a current account deficit.

Other economic analysts have also argued that the rapid economic growth that much of sub-Saharan Africa in the past 20 years with a growth registered between 1991 and 2011 appears to be coming to an end. And that is what is behind the present crisis leading to major Kampala companies requesting government intervention.

Hon.Ibrahim Nganda in one of the talks shows of the Gang at Capital FM studios.

Ibrahim Nganda Ssemujju, the Member of Parliament for Kyadodo East, claimed on the show that the list to bailout the companies in crisis are a “Saleh project”, meaning a list drawn up by Gen. Salim Saleh, brother to President Yoweri Museveni.

He mentioned that there were rumors in in Uganda that some of the companies in question are owned by the First Family, Ssemujju claimed on the show.

“Even if this is true, the fact of the matter remains that businesses are struggling because of fundamental weaknesses in the economy and the end of rapid growth of 1991-2011.One of the features of this 1991-2011 growth is something we often overlook: it was growth driven by heavy investment in infrastructure, most of which infrastructure was dependent on imported materials,” he explains.

He said government needs to quickly come out and recognize that there is indeed a problem to be fixed with the economy before this get out of hand.

To build the arcades, airports, roads, supermarkets, high-rise apartments, government offices and other infrastructure, we imported most of the materials.

Thus we were growing – but growing ourselves into national deficits and debt.
It was not our fault to wish to upgrade our infrastructure; but lacking the capacity to produce industrial materials of our own we had to import them and that is how we grew our way into the deficits we now see.

It was the same thing for the growth in the purchases of mobile phones, cars, televisions, computers, music home theatres, fridges, cosmetics, clothes and other imported consumer goods.
Growth that is mainly from imports had to one day come back to haunt these African countries and finally it has.

“You will be surprised that many of the traders in South Sudan are actually not Ugandans. Some People are just making claims for their benefit,” Ssemuju says.

Abdu Katuntu, the Bugweri County Member of Parliament however says there is also a problem on how these companies are managed.
He argues that many of the companies need restructuring to enable them work more efficiently.
“Some of the managers in these companies luck the necessary skills that can foster growth. What do expect if you have an incompetent team of managers running your businesses?”
He also wondered where government would find the 1.3 trillion shillings since it has a huge foreign debt already to think of.
The Gangsters as the like to be referred to also had a discussion on the on-going NRM retreat in Kyankwanzi and wondered if this time, government would improve on the delivery of services to Ugandans.

The weekly programme is moderated by Journalist Oscar Semweya Musoke.

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Denis Obuwa

The deputy spokesperson NRM Caucus Denis Obuwa has dismissed allegations that MPs are plotting to increase their salary. This follows the previous reports in media that the recently concluded NRM Kyankwanzi retreat that members of parliament had proposed an increment of their salaries. Obuwa said that nothing like salary increment was discussed and if it was proposed it was a personal opinion.

He noted that even the chairperson of the party Mr Yoweri Museveni stressed that no salary increment will be addressed apart from the teachers. He also confirms that  Government accounting officer’s will work on contract appointments as it was a resolution of Kyankwanzi Retreat. He says this is one of the measures of improving service delivery and also cab corruption in the country.

Obuwa says permanent secretaries and local government accountants will be receiving five years contract of working and if found corrupt they will be expelled.

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Newly Elected MPs at orientation retreat in Kyankwazi

Speaker Rebecca Kadaga faced tough time in parliament while presiding over  parliament proceedings without most of  NRM MPs and NRM leaning Mps who are in Kyankwanzi retreat. The opposition wanted to hijack the government role of making ministerial statements in parliament.

The opposition chief whip Cecilia Ogwal after realizing that the minister of health had not turned up to make a ministerial statement over the update on Hepatitis B took the floor to update house on this disease. However, the speaker pleaded with her to return to her sit since she could not exhaust the answers MPs will ask related to 10 billion allocated for vaccination against Hepatitis B in affected districts.

Parliament sat with few NRM losers attending the proceedings since most MPs who were returned had gone for a retreat at Kyankwanzi. Speaker in the sitting was forced to request some members to present committee reports on behalf of the committee chairpersons who were absent for the house to transact business though many MPs were not available. Among the NRM MPs who attended are minister of education Jessica Alupo, Justice and constitutional Affairs minister Kahinda Otafire, Agriculture minister Teracce Bucyanayandi, minister of  state for public service, Mbarara municipality MP Merdard Bitekyerezo, Rosemary Nyakikongoro, Eddie Kwezira, Onyango Kakooba, Kyewalabye Kabajo among others.

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A source in NRM parliamentary caucus has intimated to us that the supporters of DP, FDC, UPC, JEEMA and PPP among other opposition party are free to go to Kyankwanzi when the president summons NRM cadres to go there.

Kampala Central MP, Medde Nsereko says that when NRM summons its cadres for meetings, they use public facilities so any member of the public can also go since the facilities used are owned by all citizens.

MP Nsereko is considered in NRM circles as an opposition element who contested for parliament on NRM ticket.

By Walakira Nyanzi

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