News analysis Health Business

Bobi Wine’s future Unleash dfcu’s golden NSSF members have a

after Arua torture your pee run ends? reason to celebrate

Issue No. 536 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

Kayihura, Kagame,
Museveni
Behind the worsening relations
between Kampala and Kigali

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Issue No. 536 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018

News analysis Business Health Arts Motoring

Cover story
Kayihura, Kagame, Museveni
Behind the worsening relations between Kampala and Kigali

4 The Week
33 Comments
Bailed MPs tell tales of torture
after weeks of incarceration A positive side to suffering:
Why good people have to
suffer and endure evil remains
9 The Last Word
a mystery to so many
The poverty of Uganda’s elites:
How our country stands at a critical
juncture between Museveni’s
37 Health
frying pan and Bobi Wine’s fire
Unleash your pee: And the harm
you’re doing to yourself if you don’t
14 Analysis
Bobi Wine’s future after Arua torture:
Museveni, Besigye’s politics will
determine next move
39 Arts & Culture
26 Business
Honey pot to attract young
dfcu’s golden run ends?: The lender’s solid artists: Top law firm
asset base, good brand recognition and a Mukumbya Musoke Advocates
good team could stir revenue growth awards art prize winners

STRATEGY & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Andrew M. Mwenda
MANAGING EDITOR: Joseph Were
INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR: Haggai Matsiko
BUSINESS EDITOR: Isaac Khisa
PHOTOGRAPHER: Jimmy Siya
WRITERS:Ronald Musoke, Flavia Nassaka, Ian Katusiime,
Agnes Nantaba, Julius Businge.
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2 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018

 Offline

(L-R) Vice President

Edward Ssekandi
(in a black coat),
Government Chief Whip
and Chief Runner, Ruth
Nankabirwa and State
Minister for Foreign
Affairs Henry Oryem
at the starting line for
the Rotary Cancer Run
“I am grateful to the country’s spirit
at Kololo on August that has forced this senseless regime to
26, 2018. The run relent. This shows determined people
sponsored by Centenary can achieve whatever they want,”said
Bank and Parliament of
Uganda raised Shs774bn Dr. Kizza Besigye on Aug.27 just after court in
to be used for purchase Gulu granted bail to MP's and others
of cancer treatment
machine at Nsambya
Hospital.   Courtesy
Photo.

Venezuelan bolivar -
what can it buy you?
On Aug.20, Venezuelan
President Nicolas
Maduro issued a new
currency to manage
the country’s runaway “When we were children, there was a
inflation, which the very vibrant cooperative union called
IMF predicts will hit
1,000,000% this year. Busoga Growers’ Cooperative Union,
The Venezuelan bolivar which was able to lend money to the
has become near- British government,”Speaker of Parliament
worthless, following
a severe economic
Rebecca Kadaga was commenting on how to
downturn. To show boost the agricultural sector at a convention in
the extent to which Amsterdam on Aug.24
hyperinflation has
gripped the country,
Reuters photographer
Carlos Garcia Rawlins
created images of
everyday food and
household items
alongside the amount
of money it costs to
buy them.
By Aug.16, a toilet “Each percentage point is equal to
roll cost 2,600,000 Shs73.5bn which means that the new
bolivars.
For a packet of rate translates into Shs1.1trillion that
sanitary pads you need will be credited to members compared
3,500,000 bolivars. to Shs681bn paid out the previous
year, equivalent to 61% increase,”said
State Finance Minister, Gabriel Ajedra while
announcing the NSSF's 15% interest paid to its
members

the amount of
the number of goals that Football the number of youths arrested by police in
3 46 Shs3billion
money spent on
team Tottenham Hotspur beat Luweero along the Kampala – Gulu highway renovation of the
Manchester United in a game for burning tyres on the road in jubilation as National Theatre
held on Monday. Kyaddondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu in Kampala

Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 3

 week

Judiciary gets new

Robert Kyagulanyi Mike Mabikke
Bailed MPs tell tales of torture after weeks of incarceration
Members of parliament
accused of treason for alleg-
edly attacking the person of the
President by throwing stones at
his motorcade in Arua recently
were granted bail on Aug.27
ending two weeks of incarcera-
tion at Gulu prison.
When released, the MPs
– Robert Kyagulanyi of Kyad-
dondo East, Paul Mwiru of Jinja
East, Kasiano Wadri MP elect
of Arua Municipality, Gerald
Karuhanga of Ntungamo
municipality and former MP
Mike Mabikke are said to have
rushed to various health facili-
ties to seek treatment as many
of them report being tortured
in the cells.
Paul Mwiru Kasiano Wadri
Speaking to the media on
Aug.28, Karuhanga for instance
said they were beaten, made to
sleep on the bare floor for days
in addition to going without
food. He said they only got
access to their relatives and law-
yers after two days of arrest.
While Kyagulanyi and
Mityana MP Francis Zaake
were reported to be the most
tortured, Karuhanga said they
were arrested together with
other people who are to date
nursing severe injuries of the
ribs whereas some women are
still bleeding from the private
parts as a result of torture.
Considering their health
state, the Gulu High Court
chief registrar
Esta Nambayo is replacing
Justice Paul Gadenya as the
Chief Registrar of the judiciary.
Nambayo who has been the
registrar of the court of appeal
received a letter notifying her of
the appointment on Aug.27 from
Gerald Karuhanga
the Judicial Service Commission.
Nambayo is filling this posi-
tion after her predecessor was
appointed a judge of the high
court early this year. Nambayo
presiding Judge Stephen
who before joining the Judiciary
Mubiru allowed the suspects
worked with a women lawyers
keep their passports to make
organization FIDA Uganda
it possible for them to seek
holds a masters’ Degree in Law
medical treatment abroad. By
and another in Management
press time, Kyagulanyi who
from the Uganda Management
is also considered the group’s
Institute. She also has several
ring leader had reported to
certificates in Anti- corruption,
Rubaga hospital in Kampala
gender and a diploma in man-
for checkups before travelling
agement. She becomes the
to London for more specialized
second woman to serve as the
treatment.
chief registrar court of judicature
The MPs were arrested
after Flavia Ssenoga who is now
together with over 25 others
at the high court. Nambayo has
with whom they were granted
also served as the Makindye
bail. However, as part of the bail
Chief Magistrate.
conditions, Wadri was barred
In her new role, she will be
from going to his constituency
assisted by a team of registrars
for three months.
to manage the technical wing of
the judiciary.

Kwoyelo trial to kick off in September

Trial of former Lord’s Resistance Army
(LRA) senior commandant Thomas
Kwoyelo who was being tried at the
International Crimes Division of the high
court in Kampala is slated to start on Sept.23
in Gulu. The former rebel leader who was
captured in 2009 from the DR Congo faces
charges of murder, hostage taking, kidnap
with intent to murder, aggravated robbery
among others, atrocities he is said to have
committed between 1993 and 2005 in
Northern Uganda.
On Aug.23, Principal Judge Yorokamu
Bamwine inspected Gulu High Court
to assess its preparedness for the trial.
The judge who was flanked by the Gulu
Resident Judge Justice Stephen Mubiru and
International Crimes Division Court Deputy
Registrar Harriet Nalukwago Ssali also met
with lawyers set to participate in the trial.
During the tour which also involved
tour of Gulu Prison to gauge its
preparedness to house the suspect
considered high profile, it was observed
they needed recorders and witness
protection essentials among others. Earlier
this month, a team from the International
Criminal Court also visited the court.

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4 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018

 Week

Over 60 registrars, magistrates reshuffled Psychologist

68 judicial officers including rank of chief magistrate, 18 new were moved from less busier
Ndyanabangi
registrars, chief magistrates
and Grade One magistrates
chief magistrates where 16 were
promoted from the rank of
stations to stations with more
workload.
succumbs cancer
will be reporting to new work Magistrates Grade One and two According to the Acting Psychologist Sheilah Ndy-
stations come Sept.01. The former Senior State Attorneys Chief Registrar Isaac Muwata, anabangi who became popular
transfers announced by the from the Office of the DPP. some of the transferred for her anti-tobacco campaigns
Judiciary on Aug.24 include At least 27 of the 68 officers have been at the same succumbed to cancer of the
the five registrars appointed by deployments were for the stations for more than two uterus on Aug. 25.
the President and other new newly appointed judicial years which is against the Ndyanabangi who until her
appointees – four Assistant officers whereas the 41 others Judiciary transfer policy. death was the principal medi-
Registrars promoted from the were either due for transfer or cal officer in charge of Mental
Health and Substance Abuse at
the Ministry of Health was diag-
nosed with the cancer in 2016
Electoral Commission put on spot over recent elections and underwent surgery that
saw her uterus being removed.
President Commission as a Later that year she was
Museveni has body is sometimes declared cancer free following
expressed unable to assert several confirmatory tests done
displeasure at itself especially in the country and in India.
how the Electoral But, just a year later, the cancer
in the face of
reoccurred and spread to other
Commission has an overbearing
organs. At a requiem mass held
handled elections executive”, said
in Kampala, Uganda Cancer
held recently. Crispin Kaheru, the
Institute based oncologist Dr.
The President coordinator of the
Fred Okuku said they had a
who threatened Citizens Coalition challenge of check early and
to punish some for Electoral detect how far the cancer had
individuals within Democracy Uganda spread because the country
the commission for (CCEDU). lacks a machine that performs
the malpractices Simon Mugenyi Byabakama Crispin Kaheru He recommended that function.
that have happened that to re-align He added that there are no
in the recent by candidates were of the elections the Electoral newer drugs to treat her type
elections said trounced. body. Commission back of cancer – endometrial cancer
that voters were However, “Over the on a professional which affects the lining of the
intimidated to the responding to past decade or and constitutional uterus which leaves doctors
extent that some his comments, so, Ugandans course they will with no many options when it
stayed away. He Civil Society have noted that need to restructure comes to treatment.
said members of his Organizations and most of electoral the electoral
NRM party have some members of malpractices framework to
been specifically parliament said the are aided by a put in place a
targeted giving president is now weak legal and competitively
examples of noting the same administrative appointed,
Arua, Jinja East, issues that they electoral professional and
Rukungiri and have highlighted framework. These impartial Election
newly created before and that malpractices Management Body
Bugiri Municipality there’s need to happen because that serves the
where his party complete overhaul the Electoral nation.

Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 5

Week
Prof Barya calls for an audit into management of MUBS America’s Senator
Censored chairperson
of Makerere University
which some members of
management and council
McCain dies at 81
Business School (MUBS) are the main suppliers At the age of 81, John S. McCain a two
Council Prof Venansius of goods and services to time contender for the Presidency of Ameri-
Baryamureeba aka Barya MUBS through pseudo ca died on Aug.25 at his home in Arizona. He
has called for an indepen- companies.
had suffered from a malignant brain tumor,
dent audit into the manage- He also indicates that
called a glioblastoma, for which he had been
ment and governance of MUBS management under
treated periodically with radiation and che-
the institution. Speaking to Prof. Balunywa, plans,
motherapy since its discovery in 2017.
journalists on Aug.27, Barya approves and oversees proj-
Following his death, international media
said he has evidence that ects including huge infra-
can pin incumbent Principal structure projects worth reported that President Donald Trump
Prof Waswa Balunywa for billions of Shillings without refused to issue a statement eulogizing the
Prof Venansius Baryamureeba
the gross mismanagement any oversight role by the fallen congressman but only choose to offer
at the institution. and dismissals of staff and university council. his condolences to the family through a
Among the areas he mismanagement leading to Barya who has been tweet. Also, Trump is said to have ordered
highlights for investigation financial loss to the institu- heading the council since his staff on Aug.27 that the US flag atop the
include alleged systematic tion. He also says MUBS is 2013 says his attempts to white house that had been flying at half-mast
and institutionalized cor- marred by lack of respect address some of the chal- since the death was announced to be raised
ruption at MUBS, gross for authority by the prin- lenges put him on a colli- to its normal position again, an act that was
mismanagement and abuse cipal, failure to harmonize sion path with the principal. criticized by Americans forcing the white
of office, capture of the pay and benefits with other It’s because of this that the house to return it to half.
council by management, public institutions, which council asked him to step However, Trump’s behavior was no sur-
blatant contravention of sees theprincipal bag Shil- aside for three months prise to followers of America’s politics as the
Laws and council decisions lings 40million each month. pending investigations into two men have had a bitter relationship. After
by management, illegal Barya also wants an inquiry their dispute. the Helshiki summit in July where Trump
recruitments, appointments into circumstances under held a joint press briefing with his Russian
counterpart Vladimir Putin, McCain who
was ailing called it one of the most disgrace-
Ministry clarifies after a Crimean Congo death ful performances by an American President
in his memory. Also, the senator has voted
Following reports especially on social positive. against his party’s drive to repeal the Afford-
media that there is an Ebola outbreak in the The Crimean Congo fever virus is pri- able Care Act in addition to endorsing the
country, the Ministry of Health on Aug. 24 marily spread to people from tick bites Republican tax bill in December.
confirmed that it wasn’t Ebola but rather and infected livestock animals. Human to
another hemorrhagic fever – Crimean human transmission can occur resulting
Congo. from close contact with blood, secretions,
According to a statement, a 32 year old organs or other bodily fluids of infected per-
female who had been admitted at the China sons. It has a case fatality rate of up to 40%
Uganda Friendship hospital in Naguru and shows symptoms fever, muscle ache,
succumbed to Crimean Congo fever. The dizziness, headache, sensitivity to light,
deceased is said to have first sought treat- diarrhea and shore throat among others.
ment at a clinic in her village in Mukono Uganda has had several outbreaks of
before being referred to the hospital. She the fever recently in parts of Luweero,
died that night and samples tested at Mubende and Nakaseke along the cattle
Uganda Virus Research Institute come out corridor.

6 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018

Humour Did you know?

There is a new
‘Equal Earth’ map
Cartographers have unveiled a new
map of the world which shows the size of
the continents more accurately.
The new projection is called Equal
Earth and is designed to represent the
relative sizes of the different land areas
President Yoweri Museveni has written a series of letters to the public without sacrificing a ‘visually pleasing
concerning the violence after the Arua Municipality by-election
and balanced’ aesthetic.
While Europe and the United States
appear smaller than on the Mercator
projection map we are used to seeing
in school geography classes, the
well-known map exaggerated the
size of the imperialist powers and
highlighted colonial trade routes. The
Mercator Projection, created by Flemish
cartographer Gerardus Mercator in
1569, shows the northern hemisphere
enlarged in size with North America and
Europe larger than South America and
Africa. New ‘equal Earth map’ reveals
just how tiny the UK actually is and that
Africa is far larger than old-fashioned
maps indicated. What is wrong with
the Mercator map? The most commonly
used worldview is called the Mercator
map after its creator Gerardus Mercator
and gives accurate shape to land masses
but distorts size. Many of the countries in
Zambia has announced a plan to tax phone calls made over the Europe look far bigger than they actually
internet to protect traditional telecoms companies. are, plus Greenland is typically seen far
larger than it is usually.
Countries like India and Brazil are
dwarfed by others in Europe whereas
they are, in fact, much larger.
In a new paper, Bojan Šavriča, Tom
Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny said: ‘We
searched for alternative equal-area map
projections for world maps, but could not
find any that met all our aesthetic criteria.
‘Hence the idea was born to create a
new projection that would have more
“eye appeal” compared to existing equal-
area projections and to give it the catchy
name Equal Earth.’
Experts welcomed the new map.
‘It’s astonishing to me (though not
having given it much thought frankly),
that we are still designing new global
map projections,’ tweeted climate
scientist Gavin Schmidt of NASA’s
Goddard Space Institute.
Gulu High Court has granted has granted bail to Kyadondo East MP, Mr Robert
Kyagulanyi and his 12 co- accused colleagues facing treason charges. Source: Internet

Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 7

Ugandans protesters and sympathizers in London, Nairobi and New York protest on Aug.23 against the detention of Kyadondo
East MP, Robert Kyagulanyi, a.k.a Bobi Wine. He was granted bail on Aug.27 by the High Court in the northern town of Gulu

The poverty of Uganda’s elites
By Andrew M. Mwenda
How our country stands at a critical juncture between
Museveni’s frying pan and Bobi Wine’s fire
U
ganda has a new hero: Bobi Wine.
He is being presented domestical-
ly and internationally as the sym-
bol of our struggle for democracy,
freedom, liberty and social transformation.
Even in some respected circles our “intel-
lectuals” are treating him as an alternative
to President Yoweri Museveni. This is the
pathway to disaster.
I sympathise with Bobi Wine for having
been brutally tortured by a cruel state secu-
rity apparatus. However, this cannot blind
me to the strategic risk he and his radical
extremist supporters pose to the values of
liberty and freedom that I treasure. And
neither is it lost to me that he lacks even the
most rudimentary understanding of our
economic needs.
Bobi Wine’s only qualification as an alter-
native to Museveni is that he is critical of the
status quo. Our “intellectuals” don’t care
what he stands for, the values he represents,
the policy alternatives he offers, the leader-
ship abilities he has exhibited, the alliances
he is cultivating and the organisational abil-
ity he has exhibited.
Museveni’s government has exhibited
dictatorial tendencies, exercised brutal-
ity against its opponents and sold off our
economy to multinational capital. So there is
a need for change. But such change needs a
broad coalition of Ugandans who believe in
liberal democratic ideals and who feel that
we need to give our citizens a bigger role
and voice in our economy.
Yet this is not the concern of Ugandan
“intellectuals.” They want Museveni to go
and hope the rest will work itself out with
“iron necessity” (to use Karl Marx’s expres-
sion) for the good of the country. They do
not care about the nature of the alternative.
This is the tragedy Uganda faced in 1971.
Milton Obote had killed and jailed oppo-
nents. So our elites embraced Idi Amin with
tragic consequences. We are on the same
road again.
Africa elite always argue that our con-
tinent has been cursed by bad leaders. Yet
they are extremely irresponsible when
selecting leaders. They easily embrace dem-
agogues; never recognising that such bad
leaders are produced by this irresponsible
attitude.
Every government promotes policies that
reflect the interest of its social base. So what
The Last Word
is Bobi Wine’s support base? It is not manu-
facturers with a vested interest in industrial
transformation. Neither is it large scale com-
mercial farmers with the vested interest in
the modernisation of agriculture. They are
not traders who seek policies that promote
free trade. Instead they are largely less edu-
cated or inexperienced and unemployed or
underemployed angry youths looking for
opportunities for salaried employment. At
best, therefore, a Bobi Wine government can
only produce Museveni’s patronage politics
without the president’s finesse.
If Bobi Wine became president, he has
a support base to reward but which lacks
basic skills or experience for professional
jobs. So he cannot force the private sector to
hire them. Neither can he recruit them into
the state’s professional jobs. So he can only
hire them in security services – army, police
and intelligence organisations – which are
always the dumping grounds of the lumpen
supporters in poor countries. This brings
us to their values, which will be reflected in
their work.
The Bobi Wine supporters I encounter
online are radical extremists – uncouth, anti-
democratic and intolerant of dissent. They
dominate social media where they indulge
in unrestrained cyber bullying – forgery,
slander, blackmail and lies. If they can ter-
rorise their opponents with the little power
they have on social media, what would
happen if they gained control of the state’s
powerful instruments of repression like the
police, the army, and the prisons? This is
how tyrannies emerge.
Bobi Wine himself is rich in rhetoric and
demagoguery but extremely poor on val-
ues, policies, and vision. I know what he
is against – Museveni’s government and
its corruption and incompetence. I do not
know what he stands for because he has not
articulated it anywhere. Mobilising popular
anger is easy. Organising people around a
set of policies backed by values is difficult.
I share the frustration many Ugandans
have towards Museveni’s government. I
also find it extremely incompetent and cor-
rupt. This is not to say I see no value in it.
On many indicators it has performed very
well. There is not a single indicator I can see
where Bobi Wine and the coalition of radi-
cal extremists is comparable to Museveni.
So I find it difficult to embrace any and
Opinion
every opposition politician simply because
they oppose Museveni. Africa has seen
so many critics of government coming to
power through a wave of populism. Except
for a few exceptions, they have turned out
to be worse than the ones they removed.
Our nations have seen very many changes
of government without much change in the
quality of governance.
So change is not the missing ingredient in
Africa. What is missing is qualitative change
in governance, or what the young Museveni
called “fundamental change.” Of course
upon taking power, Museveni proceeded to
reproduce the old politics of corruption and
patronage that characterised Africa, best
exhibited by Mobutu sese Seko of former
Zaire, Omar Bongo of Gabon, Daniel arap
Moi of Kenya etc.
So Ugandans are at it again – like all other
Africans elsewhere – turning a demagogue
who is backed by intolerant radicals, into
a hero. How can we repeat these mistakes
over and over again and then continue to
blame leaders instead of ourselves who
propel them to power? Why do we shun
people like Mugisha Muntu, Augustine
Ruzindana, Morris Ogenga Latigo, Nob-
ert Mao, Bidandi Ssali etc who exhibit the
values we claim to seek in our leaders and
embrace fascists who preach terror and
destruction?
I have urged Museveni to condemn those
of his troops who tortured Bobi Wine and
other Ugandans. He has not. I have urged
Bobi Wine’s enlightened supporters (if they
exist at all) to condemn the cyber bullying
perpetrated by radical extremists. They
have not. Bobi Wine is now out on bail. I can
predict that he will never condemn those of
his supporters who indulge in cyber bully-
ing, and intimidate and physically assault
his opponents. His radical extremists have
been doing all this evil without reproach
from him. Therefore, like Museveni, Bobi
Wine wants power and nothing more.
It is, therefore, saddening that all Ugan-
dan elites clamouring for Bobi Wine are
silent on the lack of values among the forces
propelling this upstart in politics. I know
where Uganda stands now: on Museveni’s
frying pan. But I don’t agree that we should
push ourselves into Bobi Wine’s fire.
amwenda@independent.co.ug
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 9
cover story

Kayihura, Kagame,
Museveni
Behind the worsening relations
between Kampala and Kigali
By Andrew M. Mwenda
On August 24, former Inspector General of Police in Uganda, Kale Kayihura, was
charged in a military court martial with kidnapping (by omission or commission)
“Rwandan exiles” aided by junior officers between 2012 and 2016. Although the
accusation is in plural, only one victim was named – a Lt. Mutabazi. This same
charge was made against police officers close to Kayihura last year.

10 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018

K
ayihura was also accused of
failure to protect war materi-
als – which fell into the hands
of Boda Boda 2010, a civil
group Kayihura was using to
deal with protests in Kampa-
la. The other was “failure to supervise arms
and ammunitions in Flying Squad, Criminal
Intelligence and Investigation Department
and the Special Operations Unit”.
Anyone conversant with national and
regional politics can see a codename for
a coup plot. In Kigali, they would see an
attempt to link them to such a plot. The
deterioration in the relations between Ugan-
da and Rwanda is vexing. But to under-
stand it better, we need to first look at the
relationship between Kampala and Juba.
In December 2013, Uganda sent troops
to South Sudan to prop the then rapidly
collapsing government of President Salva
Kiir. I took to traditional and social media
arguing that our government was commit-
ting a strategic blunder. I argued that we
could not solve the intractable problems of
South Sudan. Therefore, we should give the
war a chance so that either one side secures
a decisive military victory, or both sides
are exhausted by fighting and find mutual
accommodation more attractive than fur-
ther combat.
Then in late January 2014, I met President
Yoweri Museveni in State House Entebbe.
He said my arguments on South Sudan
were misinformed. Uganda had not inter-
vened in that country to fix its problems;
that was a secondary aim. The primary aim,
he said, was to safeguard the national inter-
est of Uganda, which he outlined.
First, he said, the fall of the Kiir govern-
ment would inevitably have led to the
disintegration of the state in South Sudan.
Riek Machar did not have effective control
over the militias that were about to take
over Juba and the takeover would lead to
a bloodbath. A chaotic South Sudan would
create opportunities for Joseph Kony’s
Lord’s Resistance Movement to reconstitute
and launch attacks on Uganda, Museveni
said.
Second, Museveni told me, South Sudan
was the fastest growing market for Uganda
exports. I later checked and found our
exports to South Sudan in 2013 were $330
million. He said northern Uganda was
recovering from civil war and South Sudan
was a big driver of economic recovery
because it was buying our food. So its col-
lapse would be economically ruinous to
Ugandan traders and farmers.
Thirdly, Museveni told me that as a
pan-Africanist and a revolutionary with
ideological ties to Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement (SPLM), he felt a humanitarian
obligation to help our South Sudan brothers
avoid a bloodbath. I was convinced by these
arguments although he was vague about
what would constitute “success” of such a
Kayihura in the dock.  COURTESY PHOTO
mission, how long he felt it would last, and
what his exit strategy was.
On an earlier visit to Kigali, I had talked
to President Paul Kagame of Rwanda over
the unfolding crisis in South Sudan and
Uganda’s involvement in it. Kagame told
me Museveni’s decision was correct, and he
supported it. He said if he were in Musev-
eni’s shoes he would have done the same
thing. In my meeting with Museveni, I told
him about Kagame’s position, which he
appreciated.
I was impressed by Museveni’s argu-
ments. Governments in Africa are often
under the control of foreign interests. Hence
state action in domestic and foreign policy
tends to represent foreign ideological posi-
tions as opposed to domestic interests. I was
happy Uganda had a leader with a clear
grasp of our national interests, and he is
willing to use our military power to safe-
guard them.
Yet the South Sudan story above stands
in stark contrast to the deterioration of rela-
tions between Kampala and Kigali. In May
of this year, the two nations amassed troops
near the border ready to battle. It is only
when Kagame made an impromptu visit to
Entebbe that tensions cooled down. Since
then, military preparations on both sides
have picked apace. This is a slippery slope.
I have worked closely with presidents
Museveni and Kagame on the relations
between the two countries as a volunteer
i.e. I am not a paid employee of either state.
This has allowed me some distance to
analyse the problem with a degree of inde-
pendence. So this article is really a view of
a Ugandan who is an outside-insider in the
two states.
Post-genocide Rwanda is, to a big degree,
a product of Uganda, specifically Museveni.
It is no exaggeration to say that without
him, the liberation of Rwanda would have
been a bleak possibility. Many leaders of
Rwanda today were politically initiated and
militarily trained in Uganda. Many aspects
of the post genocide political and economic
reconstruction drew heavily on lessons
cover story
from Uganda.
Of course this assistance was not a one
way. Thousands of Rwandans actively par-
ticipated in Uganda’s liberation struggle.
Many lost their lives. It is, therefore, also no
exaggeration to say that without them the
struggle in Luwero would have been very
difficult.
This history has integrated the two coun-
tries – especially economically. Rwanda
sends the largest number of tourists into
Uganda and they stay longest in our coun-
try. It is the largest destination of Ugandan
labour; both high and low skill. Rwanda has
tens of thousands of students studying in
Uganda from primary school to university.
It is also the largest destination of Ugandan
investments. In 2000, our export of goods to
Rwanda was $9 million, in 2014, $270 mil-
lion – 30-fold growth.
I used to be a critic of Museveni’s mili-
tary interventions in the region. But I was
focusing on his subjective motivations and
ignored the objective outcome of these mili-
tary adventures. Looking back, I can now
see their value. They have done more to
integrate our region economically than the
East African Community has done. When-
ever and wherever our troops have gone,
our traders and industrialists have followed.
It is not surprising, therefore, that today one
third of our total exports ($900 million) go
to South Sudan, Rwanda, and DR Congo
where our troops have been.
Thus one would think that given the
above, Uganda would treat the relation-
ship with Rwanda as strategic. I always felt
Kampala would (and should) court Kigali
the way a man courts a pretty woman, or
a businessperson does customers. If there
were any misunderstandings, Kampala
would be at hand to seek a resolution.
So what is the issue between the two
countries? Museveni has always told me
there is no major problem. But informally
I hear allegations that Rwanda has done
something sinister to Uganda. A cloud of
suspicion hangs in the air. One of these
allegations is that Kigali has, with the help
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 11
cover story
of Kayihura and the Uganda police, been
kidnapping Rwandans from Uganda and
taking them back to Rwanda where it kills
them. But Kampala has NEVER made a
formal or even informal protest to Kigali
over this allegation.
I am aware, however, that through Inter-
pol, Rwanda and Uganda had an arrange-
ment to exchange suspects. Kampala offi-
cially handed over nine suspects to Rwanda
and Kigali handed 26 suspects to Uganda.
Are these the kidnappings Uganda talks
about?
Museveni has never made this allegation
of kidnappings although his military, politi-
cal, and intelligence officials have repeat-
edly made it. When he was minister for
security, Henry Tumukude, told me he had
over 100 families of Rwandans in Uganda
who have lost their relatives through these
kidnappings. I asked him to bring evidence
- in vain. Mutabazi was handed over offi-
cially by the state of Uganda to the state of
Rwanda even though the officials involved
did not follow the established legal proce-
Gen. Museveni during a visit of the UPDF operations in Northern Uganda
dures. Kampala also knows these officials
acted in good faith.
For some years, I have worked as Musev-
eni’s private envoy to Kigali, specifically
to Kagame on a purely volunteer basis. In
this capacity, Rwanda has expressed to me
many concerns: the presence in Uganda
of people accused of genocide crimes in
Rwanda, the presence of Rwandan political
dissidents whom Kigali accuses of actively
recruiting rebels (with collaboration of our
security officials) to join armed rebel groups
against Rwanda based in Congo. And the
freedom Tribert Rujugiro, who is accused
by Kigali of funding rebels hostile to Rwan-
da, has to do business in Uganda.
I shared these concerns with Museveni.
He told me Uganda cannot host genocide
suspects. He suggested that a way be found
to hand them over to Rwanda. He also
said Rwandan political dissidents seeking
12 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
sanctuary in Uganda should be sent to a
third country. On Rujugiro, he said if there
is evidence he is supporting rebels against
Rwanda, his business presence in Uganda
would be reconsidered. Recently he told me
Rujugiro had agreed to sell his business in
Uganda.
I participated in official meetings between
the two governments to achieve these
aims but progress was never forthcoming
on the Ugandan side. Kigali sent files on
208 suspects accused of genocide crimes
but Kampala never did anything on them.
There were discussions to get Uganda to
ratify an extradition treaty it signed with
Rwanda in 2009 but it got nowhere. Meet-
ings were held, decisions taken, timelines
agreed to resolve these problems but the
state in Uganda consistently proved unable
to move.
One incident stands out. In 2013, 16 stu-
dents escaped from Rwanda to Uganda.
Upon arrival at Old Kampala Police Station
they sought asylum claiming their govern-
ment was forcing them to repeat exams.
Uganda officials said this cannot be a reason
for seeking refugee status and asked the
government of Rwanda to take them back.
The Rwandan High Commission in
Kampala arranged transport. But the
night before departure, Uganda security
operatives went and helped these students
change their statements. They did not know
that Rwanda had infiltrated the group. The
students now claimed they had escaped
Rwanda because the government in Kigali
wanted to force them to join M23, a Congo-
lese rebel group.
Soon the students were on international
media making allegations that fitted the line
certain international players wanted to spin
around Kigali. They claimed that Rwanda
hosts bases for the training of M23 rebels.
Kigali watched in consternation as the story
was changed. I warned many Ugandan
officials even at high levels that this show of
bad faith was undermining trust between
the two nations. Rwanda may cease to see
these as isolated incidents by a few errant
officials but as a deliberate strategy by Kam-
pala.
As a Ugandan who always had to listen
to Rwandan officials complaining and also
witness Ugandan officials drag their feet, I
felt frustrated. There seems to be a deeply
held suspicion in Kampala about Kigali’s
intention and every move. This mistrust is
like a clan totem. Every request by Kigali is
interpreted to represent some sinister intent.
Yet the suspicion itself is never officially or
informally stated. Over time, Kigali devel-
oped the view that this is evidence of a sin-
ister and hostile intent by Kampala.
There is a widespread view in official
circles in Kampala also shared by the oppo-
sition, “civil society”, academia and mass
media in Uganda that Kagame does not
forgive his critics and Kigali kills dissidents.
I always tell Ugandan officials that even if
their suspicions were correct, how Rwanda
deals with her politics should not influ-
ence how we relate to her because it is not
our business. What would Uganda say if
Rwanda made our government’s treatment
of Bobi Wine and other opposition legisla-
tors an issue in our bilateral relations?
Yet most of these suspicions were ill
informed. I interceded with Kagame to
pardon Patrick Karegyeya, to meet Rujugiro
and release Kalisa Mupende all of which he
agreed to, even though reluctantly. In each
of these cases, these people turned around
and betrayed what we agreed to. I will write
the details of these cases in a separate article.
The point is the prejudices in Kampala do
not fit the facts.
The examples I have given here are by no
means exhaustive. But they give a general
picture of the things that have torn our two
countries apart. Rwandan officials were
increasingly becoming of the view that
Uganda was up to some mischief against
their government and it was covering it
up. The complaints by Kigali and the poor
effort by Kampala to meaningfully address
them began to cloud every decision, how-
ever innocent, Uganda made in its relations
with Rwanda.
For example, discussions by the Coalition
of the Willing (COW) on the Northern Cor-
ridor infrastructure plans began. Uganda
kept shifting its position on the Standard
Gauge Railway – whether its first priority
would be the southern route to Kigali on
the northern route to South Sudan. I made
many efforts to get the two presidents and
governments on the same page but this
remained constantly elusive. There was also
a delay by Kampala to complete the con-
struction of an electricity transmission line
to Rwanda; the same applied to the fibre
optic line from Kampala to Katuna.
It is possible some of these delays reflect-
ed the incompetence that characterises the

state in Uganda. But in the context of raising
suspicions, Kigali began to see them as part
of a grand strategy by Kampala to under-
mine her economic development. Failure
cannot be on every issue. Hence, whenever
something between Rwanda and Uganda
was not working, Kigali saw it as deliberate
sabotage.
Thus, when Rwandair applied for rights
to fly out of Entebbe to London and Brus-
sels, the atmosphere of suspicion was toxic.
International aviation law allows Fifth
Freedom landing rights. Here the airline
based in one country is allowed to drop and
pick passengers from the airport of another
country. Uganda and Rwanda did even bet-
ter. They have a bilateral agreement for this.
Rwandair applied to Uganda’s Civil
Aviation Authority (CAA) to pick and drop
passengers on its flights from Kigali to
London and Brussels. CAA promised to
get back to them but never did. I discussed
this with Ugandan officials, including
Museveni, but a clear answer was not forth-
coming. One day a highly-placed Ugandan
official told me that Uganda was planning
to launch an airline. It would be disadvanta-
geous if it granted Rwandair these rights.
I told him this would violate our bilat-
eral agreement with Kigali. It would also
undermine the spirit of regional integration.
Uganda has a trade surplus with Rwanda in
hundreds of millions of US dollars. Should
Rwanda ban Ugandan goods to close this
trade deficit? You cannot build a functional
relationship where all gains go to you and
when you anticipate a disadvantage you
change goal posts.
I had to constantly explain these inexpli-
cable Ugandan positions to Rwanda. Often
times Kagame would say I am being naïve.
And officials in Kampala would say I am
pushing Rwanda’s agenda.
Soon Kigali was accusing Kampala of
planning regime change. I felt if Kigali
believes this, they would not sit idly and
watch. Yet whatever contingency measures
they would put in place for self-protection
or to retaliate would leak to Kampala. Soon
Kampala would also begin counter plans.
This portends a risky escalation.
Uganda has been a huge beneficiary of
Rwanda’s economic growth. Our country
is Rwanda’s supermarket. Our farmers and
industrialists make hundreds of millions of
dollars every year selling their products and
produce to Rwanda. In the last ten years
(2007-2016) we have sold goods worth $2.2
billion to Rwanda yet it has sold to us goods
worth a paltry $85.5 million – a trade sur-
plus of $2.1 billion.
Now this is not to mention export of
services and capital. Ugandan profession-
als work and earn foreign exchange for us
in Rwanda. Our schools, from primary to
university, are teeming with tens of thou-
sands of students from Rwanda. We receive
the largest number of visitors from Rwanda
Museveni, Kagame during the earlier good times.   INDEPENDENT PHOTO
and they stay the longest. Ugandan inves-
tors go to Rwanda more than any other
country in this region.
Now remember the story of South Sudan
with which this article began. We were
willing to sacrifice our blood and treasure
by sending our military to prop the gov-
ernment in Juba in defense of our national
interests. Yet we are unwilling to sacrifice
the least diplomatic effort to improve our
relationship with Rwanda. I cannot under-
stand this.
We always bend backwards to appease
the Chinese, Americans, Europeans, etc.
Yet our economic interests are best served
by our neighbours. In 2016, we earned $2.9
billion from our export of goods. Of this,
nearly $1.5 billion (52%) was earned from
our four neighbours in the region: Kenya
($485m), DR Congo ($400m), South Sudan
($281m), Rwanda ($226m) and Tanzania
($112m). Our imports from them were $570
m i.e. a trade surplus of over $900 million.
In 2016, the entire European Union with
a Gross Domestic Product of $17.4 trillion
imported goods from Uganda worth only
$430 million, less than Kenya’s $485 mil-
lion with a GDP of $80 billion. The United
States and Canada, with a combined GDP
of $21 trillion bought from us goods worth
$52 million, or 20% of what Rwanda with a
GDP of only $9 billion bought from us. Chi-
na with a GDP of $12 trillion bought goods
worth only $27 million from Uganda while
India with a GDP of $2.6 trillion bought
from us goods worth only $45 million.
I have deliberately omitted other areas of
cooperation between Uganda and Rwanda
such as security, crime, diplomacy that
would make us stronger and better. I have
focused on economic issues, not because
they are the most important, but because
they are measurable.
Museveni has been the most vocal advo-
cate of the EAC. These figures vindicate
his argument for regional integration. The
work of our political institutions including
the security services should be agents pro-
cover story
moting this vision. Instead they have been
instrumental in selling him rumours that
are undermining a strategic relationship.
Museveni has often acted as a reconciler
and unifier when problems have arisen
in Kenya, South Sudan, Burundi, and DR
Congo. In 2011, he successfully reconciled
with Rwanda. I worked closely with him
and was profoundly impressed by his bold
vision and strategic considerations. Yet
today, narrow-minded officials incapable
of appreciating our national interests have
taken control of foreign policy.
If Kigali feels Kampala is a threat, her
strategic objective would be to reduce her
dependence on Uganda. It will begin to
reorient its economy away from Ugandan
exports by turning her gaze to Tanzania
and beyond. When policies like these are
adopted in the short term, they have long-
term implications. So even if Uganda tried
to mend fences a year or two from now,
Rwanda will have invested too heavily in
alternative markets to turn her back.
The state in Uganda seems disarticulated
from the interests of its farmers, traders,
investors, and workers. Since these quarrels
began, scores of our traders and investors
have been asking me what is going on and
what can be done to stop the slide. Many
have lost their contracts to supply the gov-
ernment in Kigali. Some have lost their jobs.
Rwandan manufacturers who depend on
Ugandan inputs are being asked to look for
alternative sources. In the next three years,
Uganda’s exports to Rwanda may have
plummeted to a trickle.
Hence state policies and actions are
increasingly disarticulated from the
president’s vision of regional peace and
integration and from the interests of our
farmers, traders, and manufacturers.
In my many unhappy encounters with
Ugandan officials, I have been greatly
disappointed by the lack of appreciation
of our national interest.
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 13
news analysis
By Haggai Matsiko
T
he Aug.24 trial of former Inspector
General of Police (IGP) Kale Kayihu-
ra at the General Court Martial has
brought to an end speculation about
how President Yoweri Museveni intends to
deal with his former police chief.
The police chief has been a subject of
several accusations and investigations by
several security agencies ever since he was
fired early this year.
The most implicating of these investiga-
tions appeared to be the one over the mur-
der of Assistant Inspector General of Police
(AIGP) Andrew Felix Kaweesi. That is why
the collapse of these investigations last
month had raised hope amongst Kayihura’s
allies he would be released.
The trial has now dashed them and is
being seen as a pointer that President Yow-
eri Museveni is still keen to keep the former
police chief on a tight leash.
Arrested on June.13, the former police
chief was taken to court on Aug.24, over
two months later. Initially investigated over
the murder of Kaweesi, Kayihura has been
charged with two counts of failing to pro-
tect war materials and one count of aiding
and abetting kidnapping from Uganda of
Rwanda nationals while he was Inspector
General of Police (IGP), which insiders see
as merely intended to keep him on a leash.
His trial has coincided with the uproar
over the brutal arrest, detention and torture
of Kyadondo East legislator Robert Kyagu-
lanyi aka Bobi Wine and several other
opposition politicians following the chaotic
Arua by-election, which the ruling party
lost to Kassiano Wadri, the Independent
14 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
Why Kayihura case
has finally changed
but Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)—
leaning candidate.
These circumstances have sparked specu-
lation that Kayihura’s trial was intended to
divert the public and media’s attention from
the current political tensions.
Part of the reason is that these charges
appear to have come as a last resort after
investigations into other charges collapsed.
The other reason is that the alleged kidnap-
ping of Rwanda nationals happened five
years ago, in broad daylight and was even
broadcast by several media houses.
The only difference between then and
now is that back then, Uganda enjoyed
good relations with Rwanda, which have
since deteriorated, insiders say. For instance,
amidst Kayihura’s growing troubles, Presi-
dent Museveni is said to have been told that
the former police chief was allegedly using
crime preventers to train rebels in Mubende
with the backing of Rwanda.
That is why before his arrest, on June
11 – two days before he was arrested—
Kayihura travelled to Kampala and met
the president’s son, Maj. Gen. Muhoozi
Kainerugaba.
Kayihura hoped to lobby Muhoozi to
intervene and help clear his name before
President Museveni.
Part of the reason that did not work,
insiders say, is that concerns Museveni had
that the Rwandan leadership was using his
police chief to attempt to overthrow him,
were of a serious nature.
These concerns and now the trial might
also explain why despite several pleas,
President Museveni has declined to meet
his erstwhile “loyal cadre”.
Following his arrest on June 13, Kayihura
requested the Commander of Defence
Forces (CDF) Gen. David Muhoozi to pass
on a request to meet President Museveni.
Muhoozi passed on the information during
a meeting of senior army officers with the
president at State House Entebbe.
Insiders say Museveni declined to see
Kayihura. He told the army officers that he
preferred to keep emotional distance.
He said that if he met Kayihura person-
ally, he could be swayed by kindness and
emotion towards him. Before firing him in
March this year, President Museveni always
praised Kayihura as a loyal cadre.
The Independent understands that even
before Kayihura was removed as IGP,
Muhoozi had led a team of army officers
to meet Museveni where they expressed
concerns regarding the position of the
IGP whose powers had been significantly
trimmed.
A source at State House told The Inde-

pendent that Museveni explained to the
officers that he considered Kayihura a good
cadre who had transformed the police from
an anti-NRM institution into a “progressive
force.” However, Museveni added, Kayi-
hura’s problem was that he had allowed
criminals to infiltrate the police – and then
as an afterthought added: “and foreigners.”
Owing to this, many feel that even before
Kayihura was accused of playing a role in
Kaweesi’s murder, before President Musev-
eni, he already had a case to answer.
When in June, the Director General of
ISO, Kaka Bagyenda, presented a report
to the president, which claimed that Kayi-
hura had assassinated Kaweesi in order to
forestall a possibility of the latter becoming
a successor, he only piled on Kayihura’s
already existing troubles.
Following this report and a meeting that
discussed its contents, President Museveni
directed that Kayihura is arrested.
Indeed, some of the “evidence” in the
report was openly put to Kayihura on June
13 after Deputy Chief of Defence Forces, Lt.
Gen. Wilson Mbandi, and the head of CMI;
Brig. Abel Kandiho, arrested him from his
farmhouse in Kashagama, Lyantonde Dis-
trict, and flew him to Entebbe in helicopter
and immediately drove him to Makyin-
dye Military Barracks, where he remains
detained.
After his arrest, Museveni instructed
that a joint investigations team comprising
police, ISO and CMI be set up to handle the
matter.
At the end of the investigations, the team
found that all the evidence against Kayi-
hura and his associates implicating them
over the murder of Kaweesi was allegedly
fabricated.
As a result, Kayihura has been slapped
with other charges almost completely simi-
lar to those the military court slapped on
another group of his aides on Oct.27, 2017.
These included; Senior Superintendent
of Police Nixon Agasirwe, the former com-
mander Special Operations Unit, Senior
Commissioner of Police Joel Aguma, the
commandant of the police Professional
Standards Unit, Assistant Superintendent
of Police Magada of crime intelligence, and
Benon Atwebembeire, Sgt Abel Tumuku-
nde, the Kampala Metropolitan Police fly-
ing squad commander, Faisal Katende of
flying squad and Amon Kwarisima.
Apart from these police officers, the other
two suspects were; a former Rwandan
soldier, Rene Rutanungira, who has been
living in Uganda and a Congolese national,
Bahati Mugenga.
Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti, the Chairman of
the General Court Martial, while reading
them the charges the same day, said the
officers, around October 25, 2013, while
in unlawful possession of firearms and
grenades, ordinarily a monopoly of the
Defence Forces, conveyed Joel Mutabazi
a former presidential guard for Rwandan
President Paul Kagame and Jackson Kale-
mera without their consent to Rwanda.
However, The Independent has seen a
document showing a list of persons, cars,
cash, cows and phones that Ugandan and
Rwandan police authorities officially hand-
ed to each other. Mutabazi is listed amongst
those handed to Rwanda.
Apart from this group, Abdullah Kitata,
the self-appointed patron of BodaBoda
President Yoweri Museveni
Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti
2010, and a renowned Kayihura ally, was
also arrested by the military over among
others possession of arms, and also linked
to the concerns over Rwanda.
Blaise Kamugisha, the head of the once
powerful National Crime Preventers
Forum, another Kayihura ally, was early
this year forced to flee to Kenya after a tipoff
that ISO and CMI operatives were looking
to arrest him over allegations that crime pre-
venters were working with Kayihura with
the backing of Rwanda to organise armed
rebellion against Museveni.
That Kayihura is being charged with
among others, the alleged kidnapping of
Rwanda nationals like his aides, therefore,
news analysis
might not have surprised many. It is on the
basis of this that some analysts say Kayi-
hura’s fall and his subsequent trial mainly
have to do with the deteriorating relations
between Uganda and Rwanda.
Part of Kayihura’s problem is that he
has a strong connection with the Rwandan
leadership at the highest level. President
Kagame was Kayihura’s best man at the
latter’s wedding.
Given these connections and the allega-
tions that he was being propped up by
Rwandan authorities to overthrow Presi-
dent Museveni, it was only a matter of time
before he was tried just like his aides.
He follows a list of top military officers
accused of attempting to challenge Presi-
dent Museveni who have been court-mar-
tialed. These have include former army
Commander James Kazini, now deceased,
Gen David Sejusa; the former coordinator
of intelligence services, and former Security
Minister Lt. Gen. Henry Tumukunde. While
for all of these charges varied in nature,
the central theme in all of them appeared
attempting to challenge President Musev-
eni.
In the end, all of them have had to negoti-
ate their freedom with Museveni and not in
the courts. Kayihura appears destined for a
similar route. He has already asked to meet
President Museveni and plead his case.
Apart from this, his legal team led by
former Solicitor General Peter Kabatsi, Elly
Karuhanga, Joseph Matsiko, and Ellison
Karuhanga, among others, all from Kam-
pala Associated Advocates, appeared keen
to plead mercy rather than fight for their
client.
Kabatsi said: “Our client was well aware
of his rights and what to do to stop this
injustice of unlawful detention because it
is beyond 48 hours. However, on his own
instructions and after consultations with his
legal team, we considered that his accus-
ers have a run through their pile of false-
hoods because we knew the truth would
triumph.”
Kabatsi went on to thank the UPDF
leadership for treating Gen. Kayihura with
respect.
On his part, Karuhanga asked court to
let Kayihura “walk out of the court to free-
dom and touch his wife” amidst laughter
in court.
Gutti advised the team to apply for bail
and the mood in court was not as tense as
is always the case with similar high pro-
file cases. A lot of that has to do with how
Kayihura is approaching the case—sending
a signal to Museveni that he is remorseful
rather than appearing to fight back.
And this is because he knows that his fate
will largely depend on his former boss who
previously considered him a “loyal cadre”
before they fell out.
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 15
news analysis
Bobi Wine’s future
after Arua torture
Museveni, Besigye’s politics
will determine next move
By Gaaki Kigambo
W
hen first term lawmaker
Kyagulanyi Robert Sentamu,
best known by his artistic
moniker Bobi Wine, headed
to Uganda’s north-westerly town of Arua
on Aug.12 to stump for his choice of
candidate in a by-election, only a super
psychic would have predicted what
eventually happened to him.
A day later on Aug. 13, soldiers of the
elite Special Forces Command (SFC)
that guard President Yoweri Museveni
kidnapped and tortured music star-
turned-politician to near-death. They
accused him of obstructing the President’s
convoy, in which one of the cars was
allegedly stoned, and being in illegal
16 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
possession of firearms. Both claims failed
to wash. The latter charge was withdrawn
as soon as he was arraigned before the
military court martial and the former
charge persists by a thread and is in civil
court. The ordeal earned Bobi Wine the
kind of outpouring of love and sympathy
in Uganda and beyond that every
politician craves. It cemented his place
on Uganda’s political stage in a fraction
of the time it took those who, at the very
least, must now share the national stage
with him.
The candidate Bobi Wine backed in
the Arua municipality parliamentary
by-election; Kassiano Wadri, won. And,
since winning his own Kyaddondo East
constituency by landslide last year, Bobi
Wine has backed winning candidates in
by-elections in Bugiri, Jinja, Rukungiri.
The self-styled “Ghetto President”, a title
appropriated after Kampala’s Kamwokya
slum in which he grew up, has become a
bona fide MP maker and a threat worth
undercutting in the best way Museveni
knows how.
Since his armed rise to power in 1986,
Museveni has set life as the ultimate
premium for anyone who dares to
challenge his hold onto power. He has
responded to those who have stood
against him in elections with the same
ferocity as those who have taken up arms
against him.
The public has responded by reserving
the most respect for opposition politicians
who demonstrate willingness to pay
Museveni’s absurd price. In Uganda
today, the political rite of passage
involves daring to face everything
Museveni will throw at opponents, to the
point of death.
For nearly 20 years now, only Col.
(Rtd) Dr Kizza Besigye has consistently
met Museveni’s price. His “extraordinary
courage and resilience in the face of
extreme physical and psychological
suffering at the hands of vicious regime
enforcers places him in the number one
spot on the honour roll of those who
have challenged the personalised rule of
President Museveni,” noted Dr Munini
Mulera, a prominent social and political

commentator and until recently a top
official in Uganda’s main opposition party
the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
In 2011, Besigye suffered in full public
view what security forces unleashed
on Bobi Wine in the dark. His car was
smashed with a hammer and pistol butt.
He was pepper sprayed to temporal
unconsciousness as one would were
she killing vermin. He was then stuffed
under a police patrol van, driven at
breakneck speed and dumped in a fetid
cell some 30 Km away from the site of
his attack. By risking death (Besigye had
to be airlifted to Nairobi for emergency
care), Museveni’s former physician had
ascended hallowed political ground
from where nobody dared to question
him. Thus birthed his so-called defiance
campaign, which has strangled and all
but split up his FDC. This earned him
ascension to hallowed political ground
from where he has been untouchable in
opposition circles. In Arua, Bobi Wine was
catapulted into this exclusive territory.
Lessons from Besigye
If the lesson out of Besigye’s ordeal
is that upon paying the ultimate price
in Ugandan politics today one gets a
blank cheque, there are only trinkets for
guessing which way the country will head
with the Bad Man (from Kamwokya),
as Bobi Wine self-praises in one of his
popular songs by that title.
The fabled million-dollar question
now is what the 36-year-old multi-gifted
independent legislator who has found
love all across Uganda and beyond, will
Bobi Wine do with it. Will his ‘People
Power, Our Power’ campaign, as Bobi
Wine’s movement seems to be called,
subordinate or accept to co-exist with
others like Besigye?
Bobi Wine is a reprise of Besigye. For
what he lacks in military background, he
has more than made up for with his past
hard knock life. He has translated it into
a potent militancy decked in red berets
and overalls. He has stamped himself on
the national psyche as a fearless fighter
against social injustice because, as he says
in his 2007 hit song `Ghetto’, he speaks
exactly what is on the poor and oppressed
person’s mind. In Uganda today, those
come in droves.
But again, if history offers any pointers,
newfound fame seems harder to manage
than to attain. And, as a musician Bobi
Wine possibly knows this. In music it is
not uncommon for a new star, especially
in his favourite Afrobeat/Dancehall genre,
to talk down everyone he finds on stage.
Bobi Wine was in this place when he
started out in music in the early 2000s. His
first songs were the happy-go-lucky types,
a number of which dissed his supposed
rivals. Then he switched to the political
themes he is now associated with.
In Arua, Bobi Wine pulled up at a
rally of his erstwhile mentor, opposition
stalwart and four-time presidential
contender, Kizza Besigye and appeared to
paralyse him. Besigye, who was stumping
for the choice candidate of his Forum for
Democratic Change (FDC); Uganda’s
strongest opposition party, was for at least
a few minutes silenced. Now many ask
whether that was a hint of things to come
between Bobi Wine and Besigye.
Bobi Wine appears articulate against
disunity in opposition ranks. On Aug. 12,
a day before his world would turn upside
out, Bobi Wine tweeted: “I have said it
before that any party that tells you that it
can single handedly (sic) liberate Uganda
is a jocker (sic). For us to defeat President
Museveni, it will take more than one
political party, more than one tribe, more
than one religion and yes, more than one
generation…We can no longer be limited
by the walls of the parties, we can only
realise that we’re all prisoners. We’re in
the eater and eaten situation.”
It is a message shared since 1996,
when different opposition formations
tried to coalesce around their shared
desire to break Museveni’s monopoly
on power. They have failed. As Dr
Catherine Promise Biira notes in her
2013 book `Collapse of the Opposition
Inter-Party Coalition in Uganda’, after
the 2001 election the desire by Reform
Agenda (now FDC) “to enter into a
formal cooperation agreement with the
opposition parties (the DP and the UPC)
was met with disdain, ostensibly because
they felt they were too big to work with a
pressure group”.
Beyond Bobi Wine’s scorecard
Bobi Wine has framed his landslide
victory in his own Kyaddondo East
constituency last year in nationalistic
news analysis
terms and embarked on his first ever
nationwide music tour. Uganda’s
politicised Police was rattled by it and
blocked him. He got into a heated
exchange with Museveni, who roundly
dismissed him as an undisciplined,
uninformed and arrogant young political
upstart – charges he has maintained in an
ongoing entanglement with him.
Bobi Wine retorted that 74-year-old
Museveni has grown too old and out
of touch, inflexible and unfit to lead
Uganda anymore. He presented himself,
or at least his generation, as more than
ready, willing and anxious to take the
country’s reins and lead it into the future
it deserved, which Museveni was unable
to even imagine. While the challenge
was altogether not new, the brash and
irreverent way it was delivered was.
When SFC soldiers invaded parliament
at the height of the removal of age-limit
debate in September last year, Bobi
Wine singlehandedly staved off some
members of the SFC while all around
him colleagues either got paralysed
with fright, scampered for dear life, or
sought safe distance and watched in
utter disbelief. The soldiers had invaded
Parliament’s debate chambers to force
through debate to scrap presidential
age limits from the Constitution to
clear the way for their Commander-
in-Chief to extend his 32-year rule to
date. Bobi Wine also organised and led
public demonstrations against a social
media tax the government imposed
to undercut online criticism against
Museveni. Bobi Wine’s protests forced
Museveni to promise to review the tax.
Bobi Wine has defeated Museveni in
five parliamentary by-elections. Will
Bobi wine now see the ultimate victory
as effecting change at the top?
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 17
news analysis

Amama Mbabazi’s presidential petition in session. The Supreme Court upheld President
Museveni’s victory but made several electoral law reform recommendations

When judicial decisions

become ‘painkillers’
Ignoring Supreme Court recommendations in Mbabazi election
petition exposes government’s cynical view of constitutionalism
By Ronald Musoke speakers revealed that they, in fact, never probably his not coming here was strategic.

A
public lecture on constitutionalism
held in the main hall at Makerere
University Kampala on Aug.24
turned into a scene of anger, frus-
tration, and venting when one of the ex-
pected main speakers, the Attorney General
of Uganda, William Byaruhanga, failed to
show up.
Organised under the theme, “Implica-
tions and execution of the decision in
Amama Mbabazi v.Yoweri Kaguta Musev-
eni & Others (Presidential Petition No of
2016): Implementation of Electoral Reforms
Proposed by the Supreme Court’, the public
lecture was meant to take stock of how the
government has responded to the recom-
mendations the Supreme Court ordered for
several government agencies, including the
Office of the Attorney General.
The talk, organised by the Makerere
University School of Law-based Network
of Public Interest Lawyers and the Public
Interest Law Clinic, came just two days to
Aug.26 which marked two years since the
Supreme Court issued 10 recommendations
following the March 20, 2016 Amama Mba-
bazi presidential election petition ruling.
But instead of taking stock, many of the
expected that the government would imple-
ment the Supreme Court Recommenda-
tions.
Dr. Christopher Mbazira, an Associate
professor of law and Coordinator of the
Public Interest Law Clinic at Makerere Uni-
versity School of Law, said judicial decisions
in Uganda will only continue to play the
role of “painkillers.”
“When one examines the architecture of
the judiciary and the Supreme Court, you
get to know that litigation can never deliver
democracy in Uganda,” he told the audi-
ence of mainly law dons and university
students that filled the large chamber.
He added: “To think that the current judi-
ciary and Supreme Court can have these
recommendations implemented is to think
that Panadaol can cure malaria.”
He said, instead, the judiciary should
play its catalysing role while “other process-
es outside the courts advocate for change.”
Mbazira said he is aware the Chief Jus-
tice has written to the Attorney General to
update him on how far he has gone on the
Supreme Court recommendations.
“So this was supposed to be a forum
where the Attorney General accounts to us
as citizens of this country,” he said, “But,
Nevertheless, we shall pursue the Attorney
General’s Office to ensure that the recom-
mendations are implemented.”
Dr. Busingye Kabumba who delivered
the keynote address said it is not surprising
that little has happened in the last two years
and it points to what he referred to as the
NRM government’s cynical view of consti-
tutionalism.
“If ever there was any illusion around
how we are governed, then the events of
these last few weeks have torn away the last
vestiges of those illusions,” he said.
He was referring to the recent fallout
from the Arua Municipality by-elections
of Aug.15 in which soldiers of President
Yoweri Museveni’s Special Forces Com-
mand attacked civilians on the streets,
hotels, and homes; beat up several, killed
one and arrested and tortured several MPs.
The events sparked international outrage
and riots and protests across the country
in which the security forces beat up more
people, including journalists and killed at
least five more people.
Tough contest
The 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary
elections were one of the most contested

18 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018


general elections since Uganda returned to
multi-party democracy in 2005.
On Feb.20, 2016, President Yoweri
Museveni was declared winner with 60%
of the vote, but his main challengers, FDC’s
Dr. Kizza Besigye and Amama Mbabazi
(Go Forward) rejected the results, alleging
widespread rigging and intimidation of vot-
ers by the security forces.
The parliamentary elections were equally
hot and were mainly marred by disputed
intra-party primaries that saw many defeat-
ed and disgruntled candidates break party
ranks and run as independents. In total, 118
petitions challenging results were filed in
courts.
But it was Amama Mbabazi’s peti-
tion— the third against Musevenisince
1996— that put the nation on a knife’s edge.
In an unprecedented move, a group of civil
society organisations and a team of nine
Makerere University law dons joined the
petition as Amici Curiae, loosely interpreted
as “friends of the court.”
In their application, the law lecturers
argued that “they had something new to
bring to the adjudication of the petition.”
They said their application was based on
the fact that in 2006 and 2011, the Supreme
Court while adjudicating presidential elec-
tions petitions made several recommenda-
tions for electoral law reform but on both
occasions these were ignored by the govern-
ment.
They argued that, this time, the imple-
mentation of the recommendations would
improve the country’s electoral democracy
and avoid some of the issues that emerged
in the 2016 elections.
The dons urged court to endorse its rec-
ommendations and even issue a structural
injunction to ensure that these were imple-
mented.
“Court judgments that go unimplement-
ed are considered a futile effort for both the
parties and the court that adjudicated such
a matter.”
The court agreed with the Amici on the
novelty and relevance of their submissions.
All this went on with Besigye under
house-rest from the day the presidential
election results were announced.
Mbabazi argued that during the presi-
dential election, several offences and illegal
practices were committed contrary to the
Presidential Elections Act and the constitu-
tion.
Mbabazi accused Museveni of voter
bribery, intimidation, making derogatory
statements against opponents, using of state
resources without proper authorisation,
meting out violence on supporters of his
opponents and war mongering.
He also accused the EC of failing to prop-
erly compile a national voters’ register, retir-
ing the previous register illegally, illegally
nominating Museveni, giving preferential
treatment to Museveni, delayed delivery
of polling materials, chasing away of other
candidates’ polling assistants, allowing
people to vote before and after the polling
time and allowing the commencement of
the polls with pre-ticked ballot papers.
Mbabazi accused the EC of using the bio-
metric machine which was slow and unreli-
able, failure to control the distribution and
use of ballot boxes and papers, allowing
voters without valid cards to vote, allowing
crime preventers at polling posts and tally-
ing votes in the absence of his agents.
In a judgment by nine justices, the Chief
Justice, Bart Katureebe, said although they
had found evidence of several malprac-
tices; including security interference with
Mbabazi’s campaigns and late delivery
of polling materials, the evidence was not
good enough to affect the final result in a
substantial manner.
The Supreme Court dismissed the peti-
tion but also made several recommenda-
tions while delivering their final judgment.
The justices said the time for filing and
hearing presidential election petitions from
10 and 30 days respectively needed to be
reviewed and increased.
They also recommended that in addition
to affidavit evidence, oral evidence should
be allowed while the enactment of electoral
laws should be made in a timely manner.
The Supreme Court recommended that
the giving of donations during campaigns
by all candidates, including the incumbent
president should be prohibited and that the
law should be made explicit to ensure that
public servants are prohibited from involve-
ment in political campaigns.
The justices further recommended that
the law should be amended to make it
permissible for the Attorney General to be
made respondent to a presidential petition
because it is the office that is the principal
legal advisor to the government.
Other recommendations included; the
increase of time from 20 days within which
to hold a re-election in case of an annul-
ment and that the law should regulate the
use of technology in elections while the
unequal use of the state media should also
be addressed.
“The Attorney General must follow up
the recommendations made by this Court
with the other organs of state such as Parlia-
ment and the Executive.”
“The Attorney General shall report to
the court within two years from the date of
this judgment, the measures that have been
taken to implement these recommendations
and that the court may thereafter make
further orders and recommendations as it
sees fit.”
Going after the Attorney General
Two years on, it was clear the govern-
ment has no intention of acting on the
Supreme Court recommendations. This
was cemented by the Attorney General’s
news analysis
skipping the Makerere University function.
He is unlikely to report any progress to
the Supreme Court in spite of the two year
deadline elapsing.
It also emerged that only two recommen-
dations have so far been fulfilled, according
to Anne Mirembe, a lead consultant for a
research project which recently made an
inquiry into the implications of the petition.
Mirembe told the gathering that the
recommendations that have so far been
implemented include; the extension of the
time for filing the determination of a peti-
tion from 10 days and 30 days respectively
to 60 days (15 days for filing and 45 days
for determination of the petition); and the
extension for the time for a re-run from
20 days to 60 days to enable the Electoral
Commission re-organise to carry out a
credible election. These are both embed-
ded in the Constitutional Amendment Act,
2017, which law is under appeal before the
Supreme Court.
For Sabiiti Makara, a professor of political
science from Makerere University’s College
of Humanities and Social Sciences, there is
nothing surprising about the military com-
ing out aggressively in recent months to
rein-in protesters because all across the con-
tinent, governments like the NRM which
gained power via unconstitutional means
do not believe in constitutionalism.
Lydia Namayengo, the manager of the
Voice Project at the Citizens Coalition for
Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU)
said the government has no political will to
implement electoral reforms.
“Constitutional reforms will only hap-
pen if Ugandans decide to stop keeping
quiet amidst violations of their rights and
freedoms,” she said, “The citizens must
demand for the implementation for the
reforms as spelt out in the Supreme Court
recommendations.”
Mirembe said, considering that the
Supreme Court was making such recom-
mendations for the first time, the court
should have borrowed from jurisdictions
like South Africa where interim orders are
also issued when such recommendations
are made.
“They would have tasked the different
agencies to report to the Supreme Court,
say every six months,” she said.
Although he skipped the Makerere event,
the Attorney General and the government
are not completely off the hook. Dr. Mba-
zira said they will soon go after them again
- in the Supreme Court- with a petition
showing that the government is not acting
on the recommendations.
“We shall continue to push the boundar-
ies of judicial power if we want to promote
rule of law in Uganda,” he said,“We shall
push the Court to pronounce itself on
whether there are grounds for contempt of
court charges.”
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 19
rwanda
Brig. Gen. Lapthe C. Flora, the US Army Africa Deputy Commanding General, lays a wreath of flowers on the mass grave.   By John Mbaraga.
Soldiers vow not to
let genocide happen
Shared Accord exercise participants says Rwanda 1994
genocide against Tutsi could have been stopped
By John Mbaraga
P
articipants at the recently-concluded
Shared Accord exercise in Rwanda
say the international community
should have intervened to stop the
1994 genocide against the Tutsi from hap-
pening.
“I feel angry at the International Commu-
nity for failing you; at the same time, I feel
tremendous hope for the future of Rwanda
given its achievements after the 1994 geno-
cide against the Tutsi. I think the world can
learn from Rwanda in many aspects as the
identity of politics,” said Brig. Gen. Lapthe
C. Flora, the US Army Africa Deputy Com-
manding General, and one of the Shared
Accord military exercise participants.
The Shared Accord exercise aimed at
assessing abilities of participants in con-
ducting peace keeping operations and to
enhance positive bilateral and regional rela-
tionships in severe environments with coali-
tion partners. It focused on African partner
capability and interoperability in support
of a United Nations/African Union peace
keeping operations.
“The world can learn to never let this
20 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
happen again elsewhere. The world
should emulate Rwanda’s resilience and
reconciliation for foster national unity,
reconstruction and development,” said Gen.
Flora during a visit to the Kigali Genocide
Memorial Centre in Gisozi to pay tribute
to genocide victims buried at the centre
by Shared Accord exercise participants on
August 24.
During the tour of the memorial centre,
the soldiers laid wreaths of flowers on the
mass graves of over 250,000 at the memorial
centre.
“I think the most powerful weapon that
Rwanda has is forgiveness and unity that
have enabled it to move forward to rebuild
the country from ruins into a better nation,”
the officer noted. “We have conflicts all
over the world today, in many aspects with
ethnic violence, and the world can learn
Rwanda on how to overcome and rise from
such dark history and rebuild affected
nations.”
Flora also urged fellow soldiers and
peacekeepers on uprightness in their
mission to protect civilians.
“As soldiers and peacekeepers, this
definitely reminds all of us the importance
of what we do and the consequences of
failure or not doing the right thing,” he said.
Brig. Simon Barwabatsile, from
Botswana, said countries need one another
to strengthen peacekeeping services.
“We all need each other, and it is not only
about the military, we need other services,
all the institutions and nations to establish
and provide security for those experiencing
conflict. We also need the civil populace’s
contribution to peacekeeping missions as it
is fundamental for our success,” he added.
The servicemen and women also visited
the Campaign Against Genocide Museum
to learn about the liberation struggle and
how the genocide was stopped as part their
two-week training exercise.
The exercise at Rwanda Military
Academy, Gako, in Bugesera district
brought together over 200 participants from
military, police and government personnel
from Botswana, Gabon, Germany, Malawi,
Morocco, the Netherlands, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal,
United States and Zambia as well as the
international organisations, such as the
United Nations and the International
Committee of Red Cross (ICRC).

Women in peacekeeping
Special skill sets awareness leads to call for more inclusion
By Stephen Nuwagira
U
N Peacekeeping has
set a goal of recruiting
women as military
observers and staff
officers by 15% by the end of
this year, and to increase female
police by 20% on its deploy-
ments by 2020. However,
former UN servicewomen say
these figures are small and are
calling for more recruitment
and participation in peacekeep-
ing missions globally.
They say that increased
inclusion and participation of
women in missions is crucial
because servicewomen play a
central role in peacebuilding in
conflict areas, supporting the
most vulnerable groups, includ-
ing women and children.
According to Rwanda’s Capt.
Lausanne Nsengiyumva, there
are currently far more men
participating in peacekeeping
compared to females, a situa-
tion that should change.
“We need to understand the
importance of women in these
peacekeeping missions. The
women in uniform are the voice
of the unheard women in war
zones and they bring differ-
ent perspective in operations,
peacebuilding, and conflict
resolution,” says Rwanda’s
Nsengiyumva, who served
in the UN Multidimensional
Integrated Stabilisation Mission
in Central African Republic
(MINUSCA) in 2014.
Nsengiyumva was speaking
during a “Women in Peace-
keeping” panel discussion at
the just-ended Shared Accord
Exercise at Rwanda Military
Academy in Gako, Bugesera
district. “It is easier for most
vulnerable people caught up in
conflicts to approach women
peacekeepers than men,” noted
Sgt Jantina Pranger, a Dutch
medical corps officer who has
served on UN operations in
Burundi and NATO’s Bosnia
mission.
UN Security Council resolu-
tion 1325, which was passed
in 2000, calls for female par-
ticipation in the peacebuilding
process. But as of 2014, women
comprised only 3% of military
personnel and 10% of police
personnel in UN peacekeeping
missions.
“We still have a long way to
go to achieve parity and imple-
ment the women, peace, and
security mandates,” notes head
of UN Peacekeeping Jean-Pierre
Lacroix.
UN women peacekeepers
also contribute significantly to
better handling of challenges
like rape and domestic violence
cases, among others, faced
by women and children in
conflicts, says Maj. Ketty
Chikwekwe.
Maj Chikwekwe (right) and Sgt Pranger (left) chat with
another officer during the break.   By Stephen Nuwagira
“Women in conflict have
great ideas but lack a platform
to channel them as they are
always excluded in most pro-
cesses. However, when there
are women peacekeepers, it is
easier for them to confide in
their fellow females,” she adds.
She says that it is also impor-
tant to create environment that
motivates females and eradicate
misconceptions like women
fear, are weaker, and will run
away. Support and motivate the
servicewomen to attain their
full potential; all starts from
recruitment. But they must
work hard to earn their promo-
tion.
According to Pranger, wom-
en have to work extra hard to
prove themselves.
“It’s like there are always
inbuilt prejudices about our
capabilities as female soldiers,
even in missions, and I always
have to work harder for my
idea to be accepted,” she adds,
asserting, “I am a soldier first,
then I am a woman”.
Chikwekwe stresses that
women are up to the task; add-
ing that they need support and
capacity building to enable
them fulfill their peacekeeping
duties better, just like any other
servicemen.
“Once you empower
the servicewomen with
necessary skills and tools,
I assure you that you can
never be disappointed,” says
Chikwekwe, who served in
UNAMSIL in Sierra Leone,
MONUC in DR Congo and
UNMIS in Sudan.
Nsengiyumva also
underscores the importance of
training, saying that quality is
everything.
“Our commanders,
governments and colleagues
must believe in us; believe that
we are able to do what our male
counterparts do, but we need
appropriate training because
quality is essential,” she says.
The officer also calls for
policy direction at national
level to support and empower
servicewomen in all areas.
SSP Goreth Mwenzangu
concurs, noting that if there is
no political will to include more
women, the wait will be longer
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
rwanda
to have a big number of females
participating peacekeeping
missions; or as officers in high
positions of leadership of
national armed forces.
“Expose women, give them
leadership positions and not
only those roles that are seen
as easy and “fit for women”.
Women are most affected by
acts of violence and terrorism,
so it’s important that they are
part of efforts to eradicate these
vices,” the RNP officer who
served in Darfur, Sudan under
UNAMID, adds.
The Rwanda police officer
says women should be
encouraged and supported,
right from recruitment, to help
them realise their full potential.
Mwenzangu was happy that
30% of every recruitment
exercise by Rwanda National
Police must be females, though
she advocates for a 50-50
percentage representation
for women and men in the
armed forces. However, she
appreciates that the number of
females has gone up in RNP;
at inception 18 years ago,
the force had only about 53
policewomen.
What servicemen say
Maj. Justhe Bruce N’gourou-
Mayala, from Republic of Con-
go, says increasing participation
of women in peacebuilding
is very important, noting that
they play a big role supporting
women and children caught up
in conflicts.
“We should support women
in operations because they
have certain skills that are key
in peacekeeping; the future of
peacekeeping is with women.
Besides, many of brave warriors
in history were women.”
The Shared Accord military
exercise in Rwanda ended on
August 29. It attracted partici-
pants from Botswana, Gabon,
Germany, Malawi, Morocco,
Netherlands, Republic of Con-
go, Rwanda, Senegal, the Unit-
ed States and Zambia as well as
the international organisations
like the UN and International
Committee of Red Cross.
21
interview

Time for savers to look

beyond land, livestock or
real estate,says RSE chief
Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE) CEO Pierre-Celestin Rwabukumba who is also the current
chair of the regional exchanges association, spoke to The Independent’s Stephen Nuwagira
about challenges and opportunities surrounding local and regional capital markets development.

One of the interventions by

the government aimed to
promote domestic savings is the
implementation of the 10-year Capital
Markets Master Plan. What should
Rwandans expect from the master

T
plan?
he master plan is coming to
bring sense of ownership of
the capital market industry
among Rwandans. Currently,
when you talk about the capital
market it is understood as something
meant for a few privileged section of
the population and, administratively
and operationally, concerning only
those like us at the RSE or Capital
Market Authority who work in the
sector. Therefore, the master plan seeks
to demystify the stock market so that
people view and take it as a national
project that concerns every Rwandan
and, therefore, they have to participate,
one way or another.

How is RSE working to ensure

the country realises its saving
mobilisation targets in the medium to
long-term?
RSE is sensitising people to join the
capital market ecosystem; bringing
onboard everyone, from corporates
to startups. RSE is also playing a role
of advocacy with the other industry
players to increase the numbers of
savings levels whether at institutional
level or individual level. We are
using all forms of communication
tools available in the country, print
media, radio, TV, and social media to
deepen awareness among the public
on the benefits of saving through
the stock exchange. We also plan to
continue targeted marketing while
the government is doing public
education through the existing
structures of mobilising people for
savings. However, one must note that
the number one priority is to mobilise
the resources first; then the issue of

22 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018


where to invest the money is left
to the professionals to advise
accordingly. Of course, the most
efficient way of investing such
long-term savings is through a
structured and regulated market,
which RSE offers. But we shall also
have to bring more products on the
market to attract savings.
Last month, the central bank
reissued one of the Treasury
bonds. What is your view on the
approach and doesn’t it ‘dilute’ the
market?
The approach is completely
fine as it follows best acceptable
international standards and is good
for capital market development in
the country as it is both increases
liquidity in the market and
provides more avenues for different
investors to invest. But the most
important aspect of TB reissuance
is helping in developing a proper
yield curve for the market, which is
very crucial as it gives a benchmark
on the price of money in this
country’s financial sector. The issue
of diluting the market is not there
at all as there is enough liquidity in
the system so far.
The equity market has so far
not performed well during the
first 6 months of 2018, with both
benchmark indices dropping
compared to end of December
2017. Market capitalisation has
also dipped to Rwf2.893 trillion as
at June 29, from Rwf2.936 trillion
in January. Give us a peep view
into this performance.
This is normal market corrections
(movements) due to different
reasons. The prices went down due
to the usual demand and supply
forces, where we had some counters
shedding a few points here and
there. But there is no cause for
alarm as these companies all
performed relatively well looking
at available results over the same
period. So I would not call this a
dip, but a slight decrease in some
market prices.
There are reports that two firms
are planning to come to the
market. Can you tell us more about
these firms and when the public
can expect them?
I am not aware of any such
reports, but what I can say is that
listing or fundraising in the market
is a whole process that takes time
and resources. Talking of two or
more companies planning to come
to the market would not be wrong
either as we have intensified our
campaign for different companies
with a special focus on SMEs as we
launched an official platform to
accommodate their needs during
the first quarter and many have
expressed interest and we are
working with them to get ready
for listing. I cannot say more
than that but we shall make an
announcement in due course.
How are SMEs that were selected
by RSE in March to prepare
them for listing on alternative
market doing? What have been
the challenges working with
these firms since its RSE’s first
experience of its kind? And should
we expect one of them to list in
near future?
The SMEs selected in March are
already going through the mills
of the capital market ecosystem
in order to be able to raise funds
in the near future. The challenges
we encountered are the usual you
find with most SMEs and other
corporates, such as governance,
RSE is also playing
a role of advocacy
with the other
industry players
to increase the
numbers of savings
levels whether at
institutional level or
individual level
accountability and structural issues,
among others. However, they all
have one common one goal of
accessing long-term capital. But
that alone is not an end in itself
before they take care of the issues
I just mentioned above. So our job
is to “hold their hand” through the
process, and what I can say is that
interview
the process is going according to
plan and we are excited about it.
As the chair of regional exchanges
association, what can be done
to attract more local investors
across the region? What do you
make of initiatives by NSE and
Kenya central bank to sell TBs
via mobile? Any lessons here for
others exchanges in EAC?
An initiative such as M-Akiba
in Kenya to attract retail investors
using mobile devices is a welcome
as we are all in the age of digital
revolution and it is good as far as
financial inclusion is concerned.
What I can say is that we are also
watching and learning from their
experience. However, what we
already know is that the issue of
limited uptake of capital market
products is not about technology; it
has more to do with the general
challenges of financial literacy and
low levels of savings. So, we need
to intensify our public education
and financial education, in
particular, for people to understand
that there are many other saving
vehicles like stock exchange, and
that it is not only about land,
livestock, or real estate. 
What happened to automation
plan of the local bourse?
Full automation of RSE is just a
few months away as all is already
in place now to complete the
project. The exercise had stalled
due to some issues emanating
from the regional capital market
infrastructure project that will link
us with the rest of the markets
in EAC, which have now been
resolved. 
Offshore investors are exiting
developing countries for markets
like the U.S. where interest rates
have been improving over the past
year or so. Do we see this trend
affecting the local and regional
stock markets?
In principle that should be
the case as interest rates on the
other side of the Atlantic improve
liquidity moves there. However,
for our markets we have not seen
that much of an impact as our
economies also remain resilient
and the big markets such as Kenya
have regained momentum with
the political stalemate coming to
an end, and our own market has
stabilised as well.
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 23
rwanda
Genocide survivors seek
role in fate of convicts
By John Mbaraga
T
he procedures followed by the
Mechanism of International Crimi-
nal Tribunals (MICT) to grant early
release to the 1994 genocide against
the Tutsi convicts should be reviewed to
include participation of survivors, the Um-
brella for Genocide Survivors, commonly
known as IBUKA, has said.
And the decision by MICT president,
Judge Theodor Meron, prohibiting the con-
sultation of third party was against survi-
vors and victims’ rights, IBUKA adds.
IBUKA’s concern follows separate release
of different genocide convicts by the MICT
before the end of their sentences.
Established by the United Nations Securi-
ty Council, the mechanism has the mandate
to track and prosecute the remaining geno-
cide fugitives and supervise enforcement of
sentences. The judge also has the power to
grant early release to genocide convicts once
they complete two-third of their sentences,
among others.
However, IBUKA president Prof. Jean
Pierre Dusingizemungu says that though
the release follows laws of the mechanism,
MICT should always consult the associa-
tions of genocide survivors before to mak-
ing the final decision as releasing such con-
victs early affects them more.
“The recent decision by Judge Meron
prohibiting consultations with third party,
including genocide survivors and victims,
from participating in the early release pro-
cess is very sad and regrettable,” Dusingize-
mungu said on Aug. 27.
The process only allows requests from
convicts and the Government of Rwanda.
However, all released genocide convicts
were freed without informing the govern-
ment of Rwanda or any other genocide sur-
vivors’ organisation, according to IBUKA.
IBUKA president Dusingizemungu won-
ders how the survivors can be denied the
right to contest such decisions or call review
of the process. “IBUKA finds this decision
of not allowing input from genocide survi-
vors and victims on such cases, which make
a big portion of their history, as a depriva-
tion of their rights. We, therefore, present
our heartfelt concern about this issue and
we do request the relevant organs, includ-
ing the United Nations Security Council, to
intervene and Judge Meron to reconsider
his decision,” he said.
International law scholar and IBUKA
member, Jean Damascene Ndabirora
24 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu
Ndabirora Kalinda
Kalinda, explained that early release is
allowed once the convicts are proved to
have been rehabilitated.
“However, the majority of released indi-
viduals are going across the world refuting
and trivializing the genocide, as well as
preaching genocide ideology. I wonder how
a single individual can solely assess that a
person charged of such has been rehabili-
tated without considering second opinion,”
said Ndabirora.
The scholar said the convicts must be
assessed from the time were arrested
through the prosecution process; how they
cooperated with court during the process
until they were sentenced, and their con-
duct in jail.
“There are 10 people who were released
and are currently living in the US, Europe
and elsewhere where they continue to
refute and trivialise the genocide against the
Tutsi. This contradicts the aspect of a reha-
bilitated person.” “How were they rehabili-
tated if they are claiming that they were not
sentenced over the genocide; that the geno-
cide did not happen and claiming there was
two genocides?” Ndabirora questioned.
For Ndabirora, individuals behaving in
such way were illegally released.
“This is the sign of how they were unlaw-
fully released because they were not reha-
bilitated as required by MICT guidelines,”
he added.
Rwanda has repeatedly requested for the
review of release procedure, but all efforts
have been ignored by MICT president, who
is the only one mandated to handle the pro-
cess. In addition, IBUKA and individuals
survivors requested the review of the proce-
dures but were also ignored.
IBUKA also looks to petition judge
Meron and UN Security Council over the
decision, says IBUKA president Dusingize-
mungu.
Ndabirora urged the UN Security Coun-
cil as the body heading the mechanism and
from which MICT gets mandate, to put
them on pressure Judge Meron to review
his decision and also consider input from
genocide survivors and other relevant
stakeholders in early release procedures.
“We also want the Government of Rwanda
to advocate for us so that our voices are
heard in the decisions,” he said.
According to IBUKA, three convicts filed
their request on June 1 to the mechanism
requesting to be granted early release.
Those are Hassan Ngeze, a former journalist
who preached hatred and genocide ideol-
ogy, Col. Simba Aloys and one Ntawuku-
liryayo.
Though in July 2018, the United Nations
Secretary General extended the contract
for the 88-year-old judge to January 2019,
IBUKA observed that Meron has “never
taken any positive decision in regard to
Rwanda genocidaires”. “There were no
empirical reasons which Meron based on to
release all the Rwanda genocide convicts…
nowhere do hear or see them encouraging
co-accused to seek pardon or giving certain
messages of remorse to the survivors,” said
Dusingizemungu. MICT was established in
2010 replacing the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

By Stephen Nuwagira
R
wanda’s agricultural export rev-
enue and volumes for the year
ending June 30 inched up strongly,
a signal that different initiatives by
the government and stakeholders to expand
the sector’s exports are paying off.
According to the National Agricultural
Export Board (NAEB) export report for the
financial year 2017/18, the country realised
over US$515.9 million (about Rwf447.8 bil-
lion) cumulatively for the period July 2017
to June 30, 2018. This represents 44.73%
increase in terms of value compared to
US$356.5 million (about Rwf309.4 billion)
recorded in the same period the previ-
ous year. NAEB attributes the growth in
revenue to rising earnings recorded by
different export crops, including tea and
coffee, whose average prices were high on
the international market over the reporting
period compared to the 2016/17 fiscal year.
Tea exports raked in US$88.06 million
over the period under review compared to
US$74.5 million recorded the previous fis-
cal year, boosted by good prices on global
market that averaged US$3.17 (Rwf2,751) a
kilogramme up from US$2.97 (Rwf2,577) in
2016/17 fiscal year.
Cereals added over US$104.2 million last
FY, increasing by 53.3% from US$68.04 mil-
lion; revenue from pulses inched up 48.8%
to US$15.02 million compared to $10.09
million and fish was another big contribu-
tor, adding US$25.6 million, representing
growth in value of 58.7% from more than
US$16.1 million in 2016/17 financial year.
In terms of volumes exported, over
237.6 million kilogrammes of cereals were
shipped out of the country compared to
more 141.5 million kilos previously; fish
exports were 13.16 million kilos, up from 8.6
million kilogrammes, while pulses exported
were over 28.5 million kilogrammes, an
increase of 68.07% from more than 16.9
million kilos exported during the previous
year. Coffee brought in US$69.35 million
from 20.35 million kilos exported over the
reporting period compared to US$58.5
Cereals, fish push
up Rwanda exports
Interventions to increase productivity
and value addition contribute to surge
million from 18.5 million kilogrammes of
coffee beans during the preceding year. The
beans were traded at an average of US$3.41
(Rwf2,959) per kilogramme during the peri-
od, slightly higher than US$3.16 (Rwf2,742)
previously. Other drivers of revenue
growth during the 2017/18 financial year
include vegetable oil dominated by palm
oil and other vegetables cooking oil which
have their origin in Malaysia and re-export-
ed to DRC, the NAEB report indicates.
Overall, non-traditional agricultural
exports, including vegetables, flowers and
cereals, were the biggest contributors at
US$354.7 million, a rise of 59.9% year-on-
year from US$221.7 million during the
earlier reporting period. Traditional exports
like coffee and pyrethrum added US$161.2
million, indicating a growth of 20% in value
from US$134.7 million previously.
Rwanda’s products are mainly exported
to the East African region countries of DRC,
Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi, as
well as to European countries like Italy, the
Netherlands, UK, Germany, Belgium, and
other countries like Japan, the US, Vietnam,
Gabon, Australia and South Korea, among
others.
“NAEB’s interventions geared at increas-
ing production through productivity and
value addition initiatives have greatly con-
tributed to the surge in export volumes and
revenues,” the agro-export body indicates
in the report.
Meanwhile, the government’s push
to increase Made-in-Rwanda products
rwanda
seems to be affecting some export items,
with hides and skins plummeting 64.4% in
export volumes to 3,400,949 kilogrammes,
the biggest drop recorded for any product
year-on-year.
As a result, earnings from hides and skins
dipped 24.4% to US$5.85 million compared
to US$7.9 million realized during 2016/17
FY when over 6.3 million kilos of hides
and skins were shipped out of the country.
Hides and skins were all exported to Kenya.
Revenues from forest products decreased
22% to US$228,044 from US$294,684; while
volumes plunged 74.6% from 480,360 kilo-
grammes to 121,701 kilos over the report-
ing period as the country focuses on and
strengthens its import substitution strategy
that seeks to reduce the import bill and
support the balance of trade. During the
month of June, total export revenues were
US$56.17 million, an increase from US$44.7
million during the same period in 2017,
representing growth of 25.4% compared to
a similar last year.
Annual returns from flower exports
inched up to US$4.1 million from
704,736kg shipped out, indicating an
increase from 177,660kg exported in
2016/17 period worth US$1.2 million. Dairy
products brought in US$20.6 million worth
of returns from exporting 17.5 million
kilos, an increase from US$13.06 million
the previous reporting period. According
to NAEB, 99.95% of the flowers were
exported to the Netherlands; 0.04% to
Gabon and 0.02% to Australia.
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 25
dfcu’s golden run ends?
The lender’s solid asset base, good brand recognition
and a good team could stir revenue growth
d
By Isaac Khisa
fcu Bank seem to have
come to the end of its short
golden run in the first half
of this year with double
digit drop in its net profit.
The lender has recorded
a 63.5% drop in net profit for the first half
of this year to Shs41.6bn as it returned to
its normal growth path following the full
integration of assets and liabilities of the
defunct Crane Bank.
In 2017, dfcu’s profit was bolstered with
Shs121.8bn fair valuation of the Crane
Bank assets and liabilities enabling it to
record Shs 114bn as net profit. In 2016 it
recorded Shs23.3bn.
“As per the requirements of IFRS
3-Buisness Combination, dfcu Group
was required to carry out a fair valuation
of the assets required and the liabilities
assumed,” officials said in a notice
released on August 24.
“The fair valuation resulted into a
fair value gain of Shs212.8bn that was
recognised in the results for the six
months ending June 30, 2017.”
The lender said the value of
amortisation will be included in the
financial statement over a period of five
years.
Meanwhile, as a result of the one-off
gain valuation last year, the bank’s net
income fell from Shs255bn to Shs146bn
during the same period under review.
26 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
This comes barely two months since the
Norwegian and Netherland government
asked the Ugandan government to
intervene and manage media reports and
negative propaganda against dfcu that
were feared to negatively impact investor
confidence and general performance of
the economy.
The reports claimed that the bank
was on the verge of collapse and that
the current Executive Director, William
Sekabembe had resigned.
But officials from the bank dismissed
the reports in what many analysts
interpreted as one way of ensuring
shareholders do not lose hope in their
company.
Currently Arise B.V., a joint venture
comprising Norfund (the Norwegian
investment fund for developing
countries), Rabo Development BV and
FMO (the Dutch Development Bank)
holds 58% stake in dfcu.
However, the lender’s equity
significantly increased by 52% to
Shs552bn compared with Shs363.7bn this
year driven by the successful rights issue
and retained earnings.
The lender’s asset base remained stable
at Shs3trillion while loans and advances
to customers grew by 9%.
“Customer deposits grew by 10% over
a period under review mainly driven by
our ongoing digitalisation programme
and customer confidence on our brand,”
the lender said.
On the other hand, total operating costs
grew by 6% during the six months to June
2018 compared with the same period last
year.
Officials attribute the increase in
operating expenses to the Shs12bn
amortisation of the bargain purchase
and continued investment in the digital
infrastructure.
Commenting on the performance, Aeko
Ongodia, a financial analyst and the chief
executive officer of Xeno Technologies, an
indigenous investment fund management
company said the bank’s profit reflects its
normal growth trend.
“The profit for this period might be
much reflective of its long term profit
growth levels than for last year because of
the one-off transaction,” he said.
He said the bank may not record a
sharp growth in profits in the future
similar to the 2017 performance unless
management embarks on a significant
growth strategy.
Ongodia, however, said the bank has a
solid asset base, good brand recognition,
and a good team that could see it record
substantial revenue growth in future –
becoming one of the dominant players in
the country’s banking sector.
This would almost put it on the
battlefront with Stanbic bank –
which controls nearly a third of the
industry’s profits – with an asset base of
Shs5.1trilion.
 Business
By Julius Businge

N
ational Social Security Fund rarely
misses the opportunity to boast
about the billions of shillings it
rewards to its members every year
in form of interest income.
This was the same situation on August
28 as the pension fund announced a 15%
interest rate on members’ contributions, the
highest ever in the country’s history, dur-
ing the 6th Annual General Meeting held at
the Pearl of Africa Hotel in Kampala for the
Financial Year 2017/18.
The announcement was made by the
State Minister for Finance, Gabriel Ajedra L- R: Byarugaba, Ajedra and Kaberenge standing before the
Aridru. members after declaring the interest rate for FY2017/2018
“The government is committed to sup-

NSSF members have

porting the fund…it is through such institu-
tions [NSSF] that we will grow the culture
of saving that we need as a country. We
remain steadfast on our focus on macro-

economic stability,” Ajedra said.
“Each percentage point is equal to
Shs73.5bn which means that the new rate
translates into Shs1.1trillion that will be
credited to members compared to Shs681bn
paid out the previous year, equivalent to
61% increase.”
This year’s AGM was held at a time
government was considering amending
the NSSF Act to incorporate some issues
that were raised during the pension sector
liberalization consultations and debate in
Parliament.
Key issues among others includes; mid-
term access of savings, new products and
widening the Fund’s scope of investment
beyond East Africa.
The Fund’s Board Chairman, Patrick
Kaberenge and Managing Director, Richard
Byarugaba said the contribution had grown
tremendously over the past years.
The duo informed members that the
Fund’s Assets Under Management (AUM)
had grown from Shs5.68trillion in 2015/2016
to slightly over Shs10trillion as at the end
of July 30, 2018, with 75% of the total assets
invested in fixed income (treasury bills and
bonds), 18% in equities (listed companies),
and about 7% in real estate.
They said 60% of the assets were invested
in Uganda, 31% in Kenya, 8% in Tanzania
and 1% in Rwanda.
Kaberenge said that the Fund carefully
assesses areas of investment before making
final decision so as not to lose members’
savings to bad investments.
He defended the declared 15% interest
rate for FY2017/18, the highest in the Fund’s
history pegging it on the good performance
of the economy.
“We move with the economy; last year
it wasn’t doing good and we managed
11.2%...,” he said adding, “As the years go
by with the economy of Uganda growing,
we think even Shs20trillion target by 2025 is
an understatement.”
a reason to celebrate
Fund pays 15% interest to
members, the highest in history
Kaberenge said that the 15% interest
rate was higher than the 7.4% ten year aver-
age inflation rate – meaning the members
attained value for their money – and that
signified the good governance and current
status of the Fund.
According to its financials, the Fund’s
total income grew by 77% to Shs1.6 tril-
lion before interest to members and taxes
compared with a year earlier citing rise
in investment income, strong recovery of
regional equity markets and depreciation of
the local currency.
Its total Assets Under Management
(AUM) also hit Shs9.98trillion as at June
30, 2018, representing a 26% increase from
Shs7.92trillion the previous financial year.
“Uganda experienced improved eco-
nomic growth of 5.8% compared to 3.9% the
previous financial year, which meant that
generally, the investment environment saw
significant improvements at a macro level,”
Byarugaba said adding, “We were also
aggressive in the market, seizing opportuni-
ties presented by growth in regional mar-
kets especially in Uganda and Kenya.”
Total member contributions also
increased by 14% to Shs1.05trillion for the
FY2017/2018 compared to Shs917billion the
previous year.
This was the first time in the history of
the Fund, that it recorded over a trillion shil-
lings in collections from members. It was
attributed to a steady rise in compliance
level reported at 81% over a three months’
period, and contributions from the Fund’s
voluntary members totaling to 10,000 as at
June 30, 2018.
Benefits paid to qualifying members rose
by 29% to Shs360billion for FY2017/2018
from Shs278billion the previous year.
Byarugaba also said that the Fund con-
tinues to effectively manage its costs. The
cost to income ratio declined by 1% to 12.6%
for the Financial Year 2017/2018 from 13.4%
the previous year. The Fund currently has
2.2million members but only 900,000 are
active. The target is to have 5 million by
2025.
“We have not only grown more efficient
in the way we do business, but we have
maintained the required discipline to ensure
high levels of productivity at the lowest cost
possible,” he said, adding, “This is a com-
mitment we made and we will continue to
focus on creating value for our members at
a low cost.”
Despite of this record performance,
members raised issues regarding possible
access to their savings before the mandatory
55 years, introduction of new retirement
packages inform of housing and property
instead of cash, and investment beyond the
East African region.
However, Ajedra said the issues raised
would be given priority by government
in addition to the amendment of the
Public Procurement and Disposal of
Public Assets law to ease the investment
process of the Fund.

Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 27

Business
Umeme’s profit rebound
Big industries boost company sales in first half of 2018
By Isaac Khisa
T
here is good news at Umeme
Limited. The power distributor
has recorded an increase in net
profit by Shs20bn to Shs61 billion
in the first half of 2018 compared to the
same period a year before.
Financial statement also shows that
the company recorded a 10.3% growth
in revenue to Shs768.3billion for the six
months to June this year compared with
last year driven by a reduction in energy
losses, improved supply availability,
reliability and increased power purchases
stemming from additional customers and
higher industrial capacity utilisation.
The company’s energy losses fell from
17.5% in 2017 to 16.7% in 2018 amidst
increase in customer numbers.
This performance puts it in a good
financial position after recovering from
Shs115.2bn loss that was as a result of
the changes made in its license by the
industry regulator –Electricity Regulatory
Authority.
ERA made Amendment 5 in its
license that denied the company of an
accumulated five year extra income from
the sale of extra units of electricity sold
beyond the set target.
This comes when the company’s share
price is oscillating between Shs300 and
Shs350 compared with around Shs 490
recorded in the same period under review
on the Uganda Securities Exchange.
Commenting on the results, Umeme
Managing Director, Selestino Babungi said
electricity demand is on a steady growth
and this could see the company record a
rise in profits.
“…the sector is growing. Maximum
demand grew just slightly under 600MW.
The main drivers are the large industrial
customers who are registering high annual
growth rates of up to 13%,” Babungi said.
He said electricity demand by industrial
consumers grew by 8.6%, up from the 7.5%
registered in the same period the previous
year.
Babungi said the setting up of National
Cement Company and the new Hima
Cement plant, the two new cement plants
in Tororo and the expansion of Tororo
Cement Industries, all of which were fully
commissioned, boosted industrial sales.
“Existing industrial consumers like
Coca-Cola and Roofings have also
boosted their production. The Buy
Uganda, Build Uganda drive is helping
28 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
a lot. The South Sudan and DR Congo
markets have also reopened. Commercial
use of electricity is fundamental.
Industrial use is essential in up taking the
increasing generation capacity,” he said.
He said industrial demand for
electricity was in line with the GDP
growth, which is projected to grow at
over 6% in the FY2018/2019 up from 3.9%
in 2017, adding that GDP growth goes
hand-in-hand with electricity demand.
In terms of revenue collection, the
company said it has maintained an average
collection rate of 99.2% over the last three
years, while the revenue collection rate
for the period under review stood at
102.8%, attributed to the rollout of prepaid
metering, recoveries of past unpaid bills,
timely payment by industrial customers,
government agencies and provision of
payment systems available 24 hours per
day.
Customer base
During the first half of the year, the
company added up to 82,373 customers to
the grid, increasing its total customers to a
record 1.21million. The firm targets to add
a total of 200,000 new customers to the grid
by end of 2018. At the same time, customers
on prepaid metering increased to 76.3% of
the customer base.
Based on this performance, the
company’s top management has
recommended a Shs12.7 dividend pay-out
per ordinary share (equivalent to Shs20.6bn)
to all its shareholders.
Investments
It has invested Shs113.3billion for
the period under review – in network
expansion and energy loss reduction
projects and additional customer
connections in anticipation of 780MW from
Isimba and Karuma Hydro Power Stations.
Some of these investments include,
among others, Kampala Industrial
Business Park/Namanve 33kV Industrial
ring, GET -FIT Switching Station in
Kasese, new connections and Siti II inter-
connection line to evacuate power from
the 16.5MW Siti II Hydro power dam.
Others are Kawanda - Kapeeka load
transfer project, Upgrade of Gulu sub-
station and Nyakesi Sub-station in Tororo
to support growing industrial demand.
Financial analysts say the company’s
decision to diversify payment options
for its customers as well as increase in
demand for electricity by large industrial
players could boost its revenue growth
going forward.
“On the other hand, there is no
clarity on their ability (Umeme) to win
the concession,” said Aeko Ongodia,
a financial analyst and the chief
executive officer of Xeno Technologies,
an indigenous investment fund
management company. Umeme’s
electricity concession ends in 2025.

EAC’s single currency strides
Why member states still have an uphill task to accomplish
By Julius Businge
C
entral bank governors in the East
African Community need to be
cautious as they move towards the
planned operationalisation of the
Monetary Union in 2024, according to Clara
Mira, the International Monetary Fund
country representative in Uganda.
Mira, who spoke during the 22nd ordinary
meeting of the EAC monetary affairs
committee held at the Kampala Serena
Hotel on August 24, said a number of
global factors including escalating trade
tensions, tightening financial conditions,
strengthening of the US dollar and rising
commodity prices need to be considered.
She said normalisation of monetary
policies in some advanced economies and
the associated rise in interest rates, coupled
with escalating trade tensions pose risks for
macro-economic stability as well as overall
economic growth in the region.
Clara recommended that member states
ensure potential monitoring exposures to
potential capital flow reversals and flexible
exchange rates that can serve as key buffers
against economic shocks.
In response, the committee that was
chaired by Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime-
Mutebile, the Governor Bank of Uganda,
said in a joint communique said that indeed
the central banks need to remain vigilant
in identifying and building resilience
to shocks arising from the recent global
developments.
They also underscored their commitment
to enhancing coordination of fiscal and
monetary policies to boost their capacity
and preparedness to withstand economic
shocks.
The member states also stated that in
order to attain effective monetary union
implementation, they must first attain the
set macro-economic criteria and maintain
them for at least three consecutive years.
This criterion entails capping core
inflation at 5%, fiscal deficits excluding
grants of not more than 6% of Gross
Domestic Product and a minimum tax-to-
GDP ratio of 25%.
The member states must also meet the
macro-economic convergence criteria which
entail maintaining a ceiling on headline
inflation of 8%, a ceiling on fiscal deficits,
including grants of 3% of GDP, a ceiling
on gross public debt of 50% of GDP on net
present value terms; and maintaining a
reserve cover of four-and-a half months of
imports.
Enock Nyorekwa Twinoburyo, an
economist told The Independent in an
email that whereas notable progress has
been made starting with ratification of
the monetary union protocol, lessons
learnt from the European Union suggest
that Monetary Unions take a long time to
materialize.
He said, from 2021 onwards, the EAC
countries will have to attain and maintain
the primary macro-economic criteria so that
the EAC single currency is introduced and
adopted if at least three partner states meet
the criteria for at least three consecutive
years.
Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile
He said that varied performance is
noted and that the main area of non-
compliance relates to fiscal deficits that have
risen substantially in the last five years.
Twinoburyo said none of the EAC countries
currently meets the ceiling on fiscal deficit
(including grants) of 3% of GDP.  includes; Patrick Njoroge, the governor of
He also said the pace of growth of debt
has been elevated in all countries, with
Uganda’s debt having grown by an average
of 30% per annum over the last six years.
He said the recent lessons of debt
crisis from the oldest economic bloc – the
European Union— suggest that untamed
fiscal deficits and debt accumulation can be
a threat to regional integration.
He expressed fears about failure by
member states to deal with effective
implementation of the monetary union as
it is the case with the other protocol – the
Business
Common Market and Customs Union –
which he said have not been fully attained.
“Implementation of the protocol needs no
political interference from heads of state if
countries are to benefit from the integration
process,” he said.
According to Twinoburyo, adopting a
common currency will entail significant
economic changes for the EAC countries
in terms of closer integration, lower
transaction costs, price stabilisation, more
efficient resource allocation and improved
access to goods, labour, and financial
markets and thus stimulating trade,
investment and economic growth.
The EAC’s journey to monetary union
started on November 30, 2013, following
the signing of the Monetary Union Protocol
by the heads of state in Kampala which
paved way for a 10-year roadmap towards a
monetary union in 2024.
In May this year, the bloc moved a step
closer to attaining it when the Council
of Ministers adopted two key bills that if
passed, would enable the partner states to
establish a single currency.
The Council adopted the Draft East
African Monetary Institute (EAMI) Bill,
2016 and the Bill establishing the East
African Statistics Bureau.
The two draft laws are a pre-condition
for having a single currency, and will
enable the partner states to establish the
East African Central Bank. The EAMI is
a transitional institution that will carry
out preparatory work for the East African
Monetary Union (EAMU).
However, the central bank governors
said there have been delays in realising
targets set out in the East African Monetary
Union (EAMU) road map and that there
are several challenges that could further
impede the full implementation of the
protocol.
Among those who attended the meeting
the Central Bank of Kenya, Prof. Florens
Luoga, the governor of the Bank of
Tanzania, Dier Tong Ngor, the governor
of the Bank of South Sudan, and Monique
Nsanzabaganwa, the deputy governor of
the National Bank of Rwanda.
Others were; Louis Kasekende, the
deputy governor of the Bank of Uganda,
Vénuste Ndikumwenayo, representing the
governor of Bank of Burundi and Kenneth
Bagamuhunda, representing the Secretary
General of the EAC Secretariat.
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 29
 Executive Style
Africa has potential for
intra-continental trade
What do you say about Af-
rica’s push for a free trade area
at a time when some countries
in the West are becoming in-
F
creasingly protectionist?
or Africa, a clear de-
termination to expand
trade among ourselves
is an important step.
Uncertainties in international
trade increase the premium
on regional intra-African
trade. Secondly, what we have
learned from the rest of the
world is that even if there is
populist protectionism, it is a
short-term phase that we’ll ride
out. But for Africa to learn from
the experience of East Asia and
Latin America even as we wait
for protectionism to end, we
must build productive trading
capacities through regional
value chains. Africa trading
among its component states
strengthens its ability to trade.
The experiences gained from
that will deliver a greater mar-
ket share internationally. Africa
needs to build the capacity and
structural transformation neces-
sary to be a competitive interna-
tional player. The creation of a
continent with a free trade area
is therefore an important step
towards building, collectively,
the competitiveness of African
labour and African products
internally and internationally.     UNCTAD has not only encour-
What are the three most im-
mediate gains for an African
country in a free trade area?
All studies show that what
Africa sells within Africa has
more value added than what
Africa sells to the rest of the
world, which is mostly raw
materials. That means intra-
African trade creates more
employment in the source
country than Africa trading
with the rest of the world. We
look to gain more industrial
and value-added jobs in Africa
because of intra-African trade.
Secondly, it will build com-
petitiveness, which you can
then unleash onto the rest of
the world. Thirdly, we will be
30 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
removing domestic market
distortions, which have been
adding a burden to domestic
consumers because of too much
protectionism.
Will the AfCFTA influence
UNCTAD’s approach in its
operations in Africa? Will you,
for example, deal with the con-
tinent as a single entity as op-
posed to individual countries?
At a personal level, I was
involved in designing the
architecture for AfCFTA, so I’ve
been working with this from
day one. As an organization,
aged the AU to create a free
trade area, but we have also
been training negotiators for the
regions and the countries. For
example, we have been training
the regional technical officers
from ECOWAS [Economic
Community of West African
States] and SADC [Southern
African Development Com-
munity] on service negotiations.
What are the offers? What are
the implications? What can you
do? What should you not do?
What are the remedial actions
in case of a flood on certain
services? This technical support
to national negotiators has been
a role we played before the
AfCFTA, and we are intensify-
ing it now as we prepare for
49 of Africa’s
55 countries
have signed the
framework for
the AfCFTA to
create a single
continental market.
Once 22 states
ratify it, AfCFTA will
come into force.
Africa Renewal’s
Zipporah Musau
spoke with
UNCTAD'S SG
Mukhisa Kituyi on
the gains a head
the next phase, which is more
attention to trade in services
beyond goods, for building a
continental common market-
place for electronic commerce.
So we are working with AU
member states and organs to
build capacity and translate the
promise of the AfCFTA into
actual economic gains.
Tariffs alone are not the big-
gest impediment to intra-Af-
rica trade. Poor infrastructure
and the low level of manufac-
turing in some countries mean
they don’t produce a signifi-
cant amount of finished goods
to export. What is your take?
Tariffs are not the only prob-
lem, that’s a mainstream truth.
There is a lot standing in the
way of realizing the potential
of intra-African trade. But the
claim that we are producing
similar goods is not true. Even
neighbouring villages trade
with each other. I come from a
place near the border between
Kenya and Uganda and I know
from my early days that we
traded with our neighbours.
Africa trades quite a lot across
borders. For example, there’s
a large market in West Africa
for East African tea and cof-
fee. There’s a large market in
East Africa for plantains and
specialized nostalgia products
out of West Africa. There’s
a large market for the cre-
ative industry, for example,
Nigerian movies and music,
in the rest of Africa. Africans
have a phenomenal potential
for intra-continental trade.
Similarly, trade is not static.
There is no law that says that
a country like Tanzania, for
example, must only trade
in a certain set of products.
Countries will always build
capacities and opportunities,
and innovators will bring
in new products that you
add into the marketplace.
So diversification is taken in
stride as trade deepens eco-
nomic interaction.
What then are the main chal-
lenges to intra-Africa trade?
One of the main challenges
to intra-African trade is the
nontariff barriers. When there
is a deficit of political goodwill,
excuses are made to slow down
trade. Many times, traders will
reach the border and be told,
“This product looks too old to
be sold to us” or “The quality
doesn’t seem to be right,” or
“We cannot ascertain that this
was made in your country.”
The absence of goodwill leads
to the use of too many nontariff
measures as excuses to slow
down trade. Cultivating good-
will requires that nontariff bar-
riers are rolled back and trade
is increased between African
countries.
Trade agreements can take
years for the impact to be felt.
When, realistically, can all
countries be expected to be on
board and begin to implement
the AfCFTA?
If there is sufficient political
goodwill, it can be done over-
night. There is no reason why
we would repeat the mistakes
that have been done in other
countries. We have to learn
these processes within existing
regional integration mecha-
nisms and then scale them up.
Scale up best practices.
 business
CSR Telecom

Airtel spends Shs16m on rising star soccer teams MTN, TIDAL partners

emerged the overall winner in
the boys’ category after beating
Buganda region on penalties
(5-4) and was given Shs5m and
Shs3m respectively.
For the girls’ category,
Kitara region beat Western
on penalties (4-2) and were
awarded in the same order.
Airtel’s Managing Director,
V.G Somasekhar said they
are committed to continuing
with the initiative which has
given talented boys and girls
One of the participants (in red jersey) lifting the trophy an opportunity to showcase
their abilities and getting
G
lobal music and video
streaming platform,
TIDAL in partnership
with MTN Uganda are
in a partnership to provide the
latter’s customers with options
of streaming music, videos and
concerts. The two companies
said in a notice on August 22
that Africa is a continent that
has long been an inspiration for
music heard around the world
and TIDAL is excited to high-
light the vibrant musicians on its
platform. The partnership comes
with an array of membership
options where customers can

T
elecom firm, Airtel, has
given out Shs16million
to four teams that made
it to the finals of the 7th
edition of the under 17 Rising
Stars soccer initiative. The teams
that qualified for this year were
awarded with prizes, trophies
and money in Fort Portal on
August 26. Kampala region
chance to play for the national
team and other international
teams. King Oyo of Tooro
[Kingdom], who was the chief
guest, decorated the winners.
tap into one, three, seven and 30-
day memberships, all of which
include data and a free 30-day
trial for all first-time members.
Payments for this service will be
done via mobile money

ICT
Entrepreneurship
NITA-U to spearhead electronic payt solution

T
Innovation Village he National Information Technol- prises will also receive payments for their
to get capital ogy Authority – Uganda together supplies using the same platform. Of-

K
ampala-based Innovation Village
executives will join 14 other tech
hubs, seed funds and accelerators
selected from hundreds across the
continent for training in Nigeria and South
Africa in November, 2018.
The program, by non-profit Village Capi-
tal, will equip these top ‘entrepreneur sup-
port organisations’ to make promising local
ventures more visible and investable for
with the Accountant General’s
office will spearhead the imple-
mentation of the National Electronic Pay-
ment Gateway, a solution that will see
suppliers deal with government via on-
line. A notice from NITA-U dated August
24 says the private sector business enter-
Aviation
RwandAir could fly to Italy
ficials say this will promote e-commerce
and financial inclusion in the country. In
addition, the Acting Commissioner for
Financial Management Systems at the
ministry, Aiden Rujumba, said the move
will promote transparency and efficiency
as government conducts daily business.

R
investors, so that they get the funds to grow. 
“Passion and vision are important, but wandAir could Colombo, Sri Lanka. Brussels and London but
entrepreneurs also need to have a plan fly to Milan, Italy The agreement, which is has in their medium term
to deploy capital efficiently to generate a soon following the referred to as BASA, will plans foreseen additional
return on investment,” said Allie Burns, the signing of a bilat- pave the way of airlines European destinations
managing director at Village Capital. eral air services agreement from the two countries following the recent rollout
Burns said at Village Capital, they spe- between Rwanda and Italy entering into discussions of five more in Africa
cialise in helping entrepreneurs think like governments’ authorities and eventually launching and China. Presently,
investors, and they are excited to share on August 20. This follows flights between Kigali and RwandAir flies to 26
what they have learned over the past eight the conclusion of the nego- Rome and other Italian destinations globally.
years with the elite group of leaders in tiations held recently at a cities like Milan. RwandAir
Africa. Rachel Crawford, the innovation global aviation meeting in already flies from Kigali to
manager for Emerging Markets at Village
Capital said the number of incubators and
accelerators in Africa has grown exponen-
tially, but the number of successful start-ups
on the continent has not grown at the same
rate. The finalists were chosen from more
than 200 incubators, accelerators and funds
that applied. They operate in 20 African
countries, including Rwanda, Tanzania,
Nigeria and Ethiopia. The programme is
supported by the Impact Programme fund-
ed by the UK Department for International
Development (DFID).

Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 31

 business

Karuma dam completion

pushed to July 2019
By Julius Businge banking on Karuma and the

T
he government has
extended the date
for completion of
the 600MW Karuma
Hydropower dam to July
next year citing insufficient
funds to carryout
compensations associated
with the implementationof
the resettlement action plan.
The dam was planned
to unveil in December this
Stanchart CEO Albert Saltson (L) receives a bancasurance licence from the IRA year. Irene Muloni, the
CEO Kaddunabbi Ibrahim Lubega recently. The Bank became the 11th financial Minister of Energy and
institution approved to work in partnership with Insurance companies to offer Mineral Development, told
insurance products and services.   Courtesy Photo President Yoweri Museveni
during his first guided tour
of the dam on August 23,
that only about 70% of the
required project land has
been acquired to date.
She said the delay to
effect compensations has
necessitated re-valuations
of compensation packages
thus escalating costs.
She also revealed that
the dam construction now
stands at 80% completion
while that of transmission is
only at 42%.
The government is
180MW Isimba hydropower
dams to reduce electricity
tariffs from the current 8
US cents to around 5 US
cents or below in a bid
to attract more investors,
boost industrial growth,
create jobs and growth the
economy in general.
President Museveni said
his inspection was driven
by the fact that soon the
dam will be submerged
in water and therefore
some underground will
not be visible once water is
released.
“I came here to see the
progress of work and
what I will not be able to
see in future; the power
house and the dam before
being swallowed by water.
Karuma is a Uganda
Government dam, built with
our own money with a soft
loan from China,” he said.
The US$1.4bn dam is
being financed by the
government and the
China Export Import
Bank at a ratio of 15 to 85,
respectively.

Passengers disembark Air Tanzania’s maiden flight to Entebbe International

Airport on August 26, 2018. The carrier plans to connect Mumbai-India,
Johannesburg, Bangkok and Guangzhou- China and Harare in the 4th quarter
of this year.  Courtesy photo

Weekly share price movement (August 28)

Security August 28 August 06 Movement
BATU 30,000 30000 00
BOBU 144 140 00
CENT 1,266 1,253 2.8
DFCU 900 900 00
EABL 7,634 8,440 9.5
EBL 1,862 1,815 2.5
JHL 18,657 18,577 0.4
KA 402 366 9.8
KCB 1,787 1,769 1.0
NIC 16 17 5.8
NMG 3,202 3,335 3.9
NVL 444 450 1.3
SBU 33 32 3.0
The IRA’s Spokesperson Mariam Nalunkuuma (in a red vail) and Steven UCHM 52 51 2.0
Kaddumukasa the Senior Inspection Officer offers support to Kitovu UCL 23 21 9.5
Fistula Specialist Hospital to facilitate the treatment of women suffering
UMEME 350 320 9.3
with obstetric fistula on August 27, 2018. The hospital treats over 300
women per annum from Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. Courtesy photo ALSI -- -- --

32 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018


By Allen Kagina
UNRA’s 10th anniversary
If you want to understand 100 years of
Uganda, follow the story of her roads
T
his July marked the start of 10th
anniversary celebrations of the es-
tablishment of the Uganda National
Roads Authority (UNRA). But if you
are a historian, you could argue that it was
also the 150th commemoration of a dream of
a Uganda connected by a modern network
of roads.
Or it could be 100 years of infrastructure in
contemporary Uganda. Or 30 years of what
you could call “the infrastructure renais-
sance” that begun in earnest in 1988.
But let us start with Alexander Mackay;
known to most as a mid-19th century Scot-
tish Presbyterian missionary to Tanzania
and Uganda.
The explorer David Livingstone, a fellow
Scot, was Mackay’s hero. History says that
on December 12, 1875, Mackay picked up a
copy of the Edinburgh Daily Review, and in it
was a letter that excited him a lot.
It was by another explorer, Henry Morton
Stanley, friend of Livingstone. Stanley had
written the letter at the request of Buganda’s
King Muteesa I. In part it read:
“King Muteesa I of Uganda has been
asking me about the white man’s God …
Oh that some practical missionary would
come here! Muteesa I would welcome such.
It is the practical Christian who can cure
their diseases, build dwellings and turn his
hand to anything—this is the man who is
wanted…”
Mackay, a practical man (Ugandans nick-
named him Muzungu wa Kazi) who was
passionate about mechanics, and for long
had desired to follow in the footsteps of
Livingstone and Stanley, thought that he
was the man for the job.
Within four months Mackay, along with
seven other young missionary volunteers,
was on a ship bound for Zanzibar and
Uganda.
The records say that Mackay under-
took to build a wagon road from the
coast to Mpwapwa (now a market town,
in the Dodoma region of Tanzania), 402
kilometres inland. He faced a lot of diffi-
culties, but in the end succeeded, though
the road didn’t reach Uganda.
But he wrote in a letter to his father as
the road was nearing completion. “This
will certainly yet be a highway for the King
Himself; and all that pass this way will
come to know His Name.” It’s debated
whether by the King Himself he meant
God, or Muteesa I. But the idea of a connec-
tion to the East African hinterland by some-
thing more than a footpath, had been born.
Some have argued that in Mackay’s letter,
or better still Muteesa I, was the seed that
eventually gave birth to the most defining
infrastructure project in 20th century
Uganda – the Kenya-Uganda Railway. The
railway reached Tororo in 1929, Kampala
in 1931, and Kasese in 1956. Its northern
route continued through Tororo, Mbale,
Soroti, Pakwach, and Lira and ended in
Gulu Town. The railway was important in
defining modern Uganda. And equally so
was the establishment of UNRA, though for
more modest reasons.
Until 2008, for over 100 years, the building
of roads and bridges in Uganda (and most
other African countries that now also have
their road authorities) was a central political
activity and part of the legitimacy of the
colonial and post-independence govern-
ments was based on their direct control
of building roads and delivering on the
promise. It was the responsibility of public
works departments, and later ministries of
Works.
The setting up of UNRA as an executive
infrastructure management agency was,
therefore, first and foremost a political act.
We were given power that previously was
wielded by politicians, who exercised it on
behalf of their electorate. Giving it to UNRA
was a big change in the delegation of
authority and in our democracy. Therefore,
we take the 10th anniversary to appreciate
that heavy responsibility, humble ourselves
before and account to the people on whose
behalf we do what we do.
That is because the work we do is part
of a history of one of the forces that has
impacted Ugandan nationhood most.
To appreciate that, we need to return to
when construction of the Kenya-Uganda
Railway begun in Mombasa in 1896. While
people like Mackay were missionaries, and
saw “wagon roads” to Uganda as part of
the Lord’s work, the first primary reason
for the railway was to give the British a
foothold at the source of the Nile, to control
the headwaters of the river, in order to exert
influence over Egypt and the Suez Canal
– and control the key eastern trade route.
Later, to transport raw materials for British
industries to the coast.
One result of the railways is that economic
development in Uganda (and Kenya)
became concentrated along the “railway
corridor” (generally the areas about 120 km
from the railway).
comment
It is our roads that took “development”
from the railway corridor to the rest of the
country, and incorporated periphery areas
into the national project.
One would argue that roads are among
the leading factors that made Uganda a
country. This continues today.
While roads and other infrastructure
help create economic opportunities, let
us begin to look at these other social and
political benefits in measuring their value.
That helps us price the investment more
accurately, and is also another reason why
we should exercise ownership and treat the
roads better (not to vandalise the guard rails
or steal the beacons).
At a broader regional level, roads are
one of the things that make Uganda East
African, and define our strategic signifi-
cance to the hinterland economies of central
Africa and further north to the Sudans.
We just launched the construction of
the Kapchorwa-Suam road. This road is
approximately 73 km long and snakes
through north of Mt. Elgon National Park
through the districts of Kapchorwa, Kween
and Bukwo, and ends in Suam at the border
with Kenya.
It will foster transport linkage with Kenya,
Uganda, South Sudan and DRC. It is, there-
fore; at a strategic level, another cog in the
East African integration project. We cannot,
therefore, over emphasise how much our
roads offer us great potential to leverage our
location and to develop policy to secure our
prosperity.
Recently President Yoweri Museveni
noted that Uganda, which to all intents and
purposes is East Africa’s bread basket, pro-
duces over 5 million bags of maize a year,
but we consume just over 1 million and
export the other 4 million to East Africa.
Without infrastructure, most of these 4
million bags would not get out – and any-
thing up to 75 million East Africans would
have less to eat.
This anniversary is an opportunity to
build a new social contract with Uganda
– and East Africa. And to take a bow to all
Ugandans who have invested so much in
the infrastructure to make a life for them-
selves and our neighbours. We shall also
return to explore the journey ahead.
Allen Kagina is the executive director of the
Uganda National Roads Authority. Twitter@ @
UNRA_ED
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 33
comment
By Francis Mujjuni
Checking Uganda’s electricity numbers
A look at the key electricity industry numbers shows that
the claim of surplus electricity on the grid is a myth
Y
ou have heard of the saying that
“the thing behind the thing is the
thing”. I find no better motiva-
tion to questioning the “facts and
figures” usually flaunted by government
agencies; especially when they are intended
to feed into the public appraisal narrative
of justifying the agencies’ relevancy or
heaping praises to them.
One of the government’s agencies keen
on regularly providing and updating the
data within the industry it regulates is the
Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA). This
has created a domino effect where all other
ERA sister agencies within the industry also
update their databases regularly. It is on this
that we owe our ensuing analysis on four
critical areas of ERA’s reports namely; the
954 MW of installed generation capacity,
the 300 MW of surplus supply of energy,
the 20.4% Household Electrification, and
the 93 kWh per capita consumption.
954 MW of Installed Generation
Capacity
In April 2018, ERA reported that the
country has an installed capacity of 954 MW
and since then, one or two plants have been
commissioned bringing the total installed
capacity to 964 MW. This comprises 630
MW from three large hydropower plant,
116 MW from the 14 small hydropower
plants (six of which have been commis-
sioned over the last year), 98 MW from the
five thermal bagasse plants, 20 MW from
the solar power plants and 100 MW from
thermal Heavy Fuel Oil plants.
There are four major off-grid plants in
the country with a combined generation of
7.6 MW half of it from hybrid solar-diesel
plants and the other half from hydropower.
This, therefore, contributes to the overall
972 MW installed capacity; from both grid
connected and off-grid power plants.
Due to the age of one of the hydropower
plants, which is operated by Eskom Uganda
Ltd, and the condition of ‘curtailed’ water
intake applied to Eskom’s generation
license, the average generation from the
large hydro power plants over the last five
years has been 389 MW (potentially 250
MW for Bujagali and about 139 MW from
the Eskom Plants). Also two of the thermal
co-generation plants (SCOUL and Mayuge)
with a combined 18 MW use the produced
power for own consumption with barely
any power fed on to the grid.
Furthermore, the computed plant factor,
34 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
which is the fraction of the amount of
energy generated by the plant in relation
to its maximum capacity, reveals that on
average, the country’s power plants operate
at 48% of their potential. This, therefore,
infers that although the installed generation
capacity is 972 MW, the maximum available
capacity that can be reliably dispatched for
transmission is about 600 MW.
This value is further attenuated by the
technical transmission and distribution
losses; which at the moment stand at 3%
and 10% respectively. This inadvertently
means that the average available power
guaranteed to be supplied to the end user is
520 MW.
About 300 MW of surplus supply of
energy
It has been widely voiced that Uganda
has “a lot of power being generated and
not being consumed” and it has often been
faulted on poor and inadequate transmis-
sion and distribution systems. The case for
surplus supply is usually mooted by those
who juxtapose installed capacity against
total demand, and having subsequently
obtained the 300 MW difference, they hence
build a case for surplus.
The Uganda Electricity Transmission
Company Limited (UETCL), the govern-
ment company that operates the transmis-
sion line and also buys power from the
generating companies, reported in April
2018 that it registered a maximum domestic
demand of 612 MW.
The obvious objection would be how
UETCL is able to supply to a demand,
which outstrips the available supply as
illustrated earlier. The probable solution is
usually implemented by asking selected
producers to operate within their spinning
or reserve margins. In other words, it is not
uncommon to require a 100 MW capacity
plant to produce temporary at 115 MW.
Also local supply can be supplemented
by UETCL importing power from the
neighbouring countries who share an
interconnection point. To this effect last
year, 2017, Uganda, although a net exporter
of power, imported on average 4.5 MW
(about 41 GWh annually) from both Kenya
and Rwanda. In the event that the demand
cannot be supported by the wheeled energy
on the system, the operator then effects
load-shedding or in other instances, certain
components of the grid automatically shut
down.
It is suffice to say that the reported surplus
supply at the moment can be discredited
basing on the available power for supply
rather than installed capacity. It is not
debatable that in some months of the year,
we have surplus supply. But it is prudent to
refer to it as surplus supply if indeed it can
be dispatched all year round to meet peak
demand whenever it arises. At the moment
this might not be the case.
20.4% household electrification
In the Ministry of Energy and Mineral
Development report titled `Uganda’s Sus-
tainable Energy For All Initiative Action
Agenda’ of 2015, the electrification rate
was reckoned to be 26.1% although the
adduced assumptions seem to stem from a
misinterpretation of the UBOS 2013 Statis-
tics Abstract report and over-estimation of
customers connected to off-grid solutions.
There are no known credible researchers
and substantiated data that agree with the
rate stated in that report and so it shall be
treated as erroneous.
On the other hand, Uganda Bureau of
Statistics (UBOS) reported that in 2016, the
percentage of households with access to
electricity was 20.4% and the total number
of households was 8.02 million. Within
the same period, Umeme recorded to
have attained a customer base of about
0.96 million which figure can be inflated
by 15% (the share of the market for other
distributors), to obtain a national electricity
household usage of about 1.12 Million. It
can be observed that by using raw data,
the computed national electrification rate a
year and half ago was 14% in contrast to the
reported 20.4%.
It has been argued by some government
officials, albeit with no evidence, that the
rest of the 6.4% connections that make up
the 20.4% are off-grid connections. This
argument seems to be refuted by the data
acquired by UBOS which infers that the
electrification rate computations were based
on the premise of a household having
a light which was aided by an electrical
source; a definition well suited for off-grid
solutions like solar home systems and diesel
generators.
4. 93 kWh Per Capita Consumption
UBOS reported that by 2017, the average
person in the Uganda consumed about 93
units of power annually. This figure is sig-
nificant as many development analysts use

it to assess the population’s stan-
dard of living and subsequently
use it for feasibility assessments
of foreign investments. Therefore,
it is not uncommon to have many
developing countries inflating it.
By 2017, the population was
estimated at about 37 Million
and within the same period,
3,426 GWh were produced by
power plants amounting to 93
units per person per year. It can
though be recalled that 13% of
this energy never reaches the
consumer because it is wasted
within the electricity transmission
and distribution infrastructure.
Therefore, the representative per
capita consumption of electricity
in Uganda by 2017 was about 81
kWh.
Conclusion
Based on the raw data analysis,
it seems that the electricity gen-
eration sector has power plants
which were overly sized and this
could be attested by the low plant
factor; it is reckoned that the low
plant factor is derived from lack
of sufficient ‘fuel’ to keep the
plants running at full capacity
and on a smaller instance, lack of
demand to off-take potentially
generated energy. While there is
a higher installed capacity than
the current demand, it appears
that the surplus supply might not
be available when it is required.
It can also be noted that the two
power plants run by Eskom have
been operating at an average
of 139 MW in contrast to a
combined installed capacity of
380 MW. This is way below the
acceptable limits notwithstanding
the conditions applied to it by
the Directorate of water Resource
Management (DWRM) limiting
its water intake. It should also be
noted that the 180 MW Nalubaale
Power Plant’s overhaul is long
overdue.
Due to several inconsisten-
cies with the data from sister
organisations, more collaboration
and criticality in computations
is required to ensure that the
divulged figures are beyond
reproach given the fact that they
impinge on a number of other
analyses and decisions.
Francis Mujjuni is a Renewable
Energy Specialist and an Assistant
Lecturer from Makerere University
in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering. Email: Francis.
mujjuni@gmail.com
By Pastor Fred Ssozi
A positive side to suffering
Why good people have to suffer and
endure evil remains a mystery to so many
H
ave you ever asked yourself why bad
things happen to good people? For
example someone who has been so
faithful serving God falling sick all of
a sudden and die or losing a beloved ones like
a spouse, child or parent prematurely. Truth
is, suffering remains a mystery to so many
and mostly in the Christian fraternity.
It has gotten even worse in the reign of the
prosperity gospel which promises its hearers
a utopia where people must un interruptedly
continue live in a stress free and problem free
atmosphere. Of course the fans and adherents
that (utopian life) will tell you they are using
the Cross of Jesus Christ as the basis of their
rosy message insisting that all life’s suffering
was carried away by Jesus on behalf of all
believers.
But a deeper search in scriptures as reveals to
the contrary. While he was still living on earth,
Jesus told his disciples in John16:33, that; “In
this world you will have trouble. But take heart!
For I have overcome the world” implying that
for as long as we continue to live on the earth
often referred to as the ‘fallen world of sin’,
there will always be instances of troubles and
suffering.
Several years ago, I got into an inspiration
which gave me a memorable insight into
the mystery of suffering. It all started as an
accident when a child who was crossing a road
was knocked down by a speeding vehicle!
In a desperate attempt to get himself out of
danger, particularly from the gathering angry
mob, the driver continued to speed away as
fast his vehicle could allow.
Surprisingly though, little did he know that
the child’s mingled body got stuck under his
car, and that the tarmac was doing its toll on it
the course of his frantic escape.
It was after several meters away from the
scene, when the fate of the boy was brought to
his attention as he was going uphill.
Thank God the child miraculously survived!
This incident filled my heart with anguish,
anger and tears as I continued reflecting on
the pain which the child as well as the parents
were going through. In the course of my
anguish, I asked God why the righteous and
innocent, like this boy suffer? Quiet often they
lose their property, health, beloved ones, jobs,
marriages, while others helplessly see their
children slide into delinquency as a result of
drugs and alcohol, to mention but a few.
In a quest to find out what God says about
the subject, I have since been searching the
comment
scriptures in my long experience of serving
God until I have found out several reasons
why, and what positive experience that could
accompany thereafter.
Sometimes Christians suffer so that, they
may receive an insight of God’s nature.
Suffering has a way of opening up our
faculties so that we start to perceive God in
a more special way than we have ever done
before.
Job’s experience is a good case in point. He
confessed after passing through the school of
suffering in Job 42:5 that “My ears had heard
of you but now my eyes have seen you” bearing
testimony to the fact that he had received a
new insight of who God was and meant to
him thereafter.
This is not to ignore equally inspiring
experiences (on the subject) of other servants
of God like Isaiah who, while mourning the
death of king Uzziah in Isaiah 6:1-3 got into an
experience which he admits in scripture took
his knowledge of God to yet a new level.
Moments of suffering draw believers closer
to God. In 1977, quite often the seeds of a
spiritual renewal and revival are sown during
times of suffering. No wonder, lots of classic
Christian literatures including the famous
“Pilgrims Progress” by John Bunyan were
written during times of great suffering
Additionally, Paul’s best letters including :
the one to Philemon, Ephesians, Philippians
and Colossians were written while he was
undergoing torture and imprisonment, an
adversary which he turned into an advantage
of drawing closer to God resulting into special
inspirations which he was apt to share with
others and are, till now, an anchor of faith to
many.
What about prayer. Have you ever realized
that most people worldwide pray hardest
during when trying times strike? True. And
it is not without a back ground in the bible.
When Peter was arrested by Herod in the
twelves chapter of the book of Acts, the
Church was drawn together and earnestly
kept on praying for Peter until he was
released. That said, it is important to always
remember that while you may be going
through suffering of any form, it is only for
a season and yet most importantly it could
be for a reason which you would do well to
find out and act upon for the better not for
the worse! (The writer is a theologian, lecturer at
Glad tidings Bible College and senior pastor of Soul
Winning and Deliverance Church)
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 35
comment
By Ramesh Thaku
Kofi Annan’s achievement
He focused on the big issues where action could
be pushed by investing the prestige of the SG
K
ofi Annan deserves to be remem-
bered as a near-exemplary United
Nations secretary-general (SG).
Great chief executives need a
guiding vision for the exercise of authority,
and all the more so when that authority is
international civil authority. Annan’s suc-
cess was based on his ability to combine
pragmatism and humility with an enduring
vision of human progress and solidarity.
This fusion of vision and character was
perhaps best encapsulated in the Millen-
nium Development Goals (2000-2015),
which mapped an ambitious set of priorities
for the UN. In addition, animated by an
abiding humanism and faithful to the spirit,
as well as the letter, of the UN Charter,
Annan stretched the executive authority
of the organisation through creative inter-
pretations of the Charter and a charismatic
personality to secure the adoption of the
exciting, but challenging, “Responsibility to
Protect” (R2P) principle.
The grandson of tribal chiefs and son of a
provincial governor in the British colony of
Gold Coast (now Ghana), Annan blended
an aristocratic style of leadership with
soft-spoken personal charm, empathy,
intellectual gravitas, and sartorial elegance.
His years as SG (1997-2006) were marked
by political judgment, tact, and integrity.
An eloquent testament to the quality of his
ten-year tenure at the helm is the lasting
loyalty, bordering on devotion, he inspired
in the immensely talented group of senior
advisers he assembled.
The world witnessed many profound
changes during those turbulent years.
Annan oversaw a massive expansion in UN
peace operations, in response to growing
demands and expectations, but many were
dogged by charges of ineffectiveness, finan-
cial corruption, and sexual exploitation.
A central challenge with which Annan
had to contend, with mixed success, was
how to combine the UN’s unique legitimacy
with the Security Council as the world’s
geopolitical cockpit. When the big powers
were united, he could but obey. When they
were at one another’s throat over clashing
vital interests, he could do little. But when
the international community was bitterly
divided, he tried to forge agreement by
identifying common interests and nudging
member states toward face-saving compro-
mises.
Annan’s approach to UN reform was
36 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
instructive. Identify the big global issues
that require UN engagement, he told me.
Then ignore issues where states will not
agree to common action, as well as those
where they can agree on their own because
of shared priorities. He saw no point in
expending scarce political capital in either
case.
Instead, he focused on the big issues
where action by member states could
be pushed beyond the tipping point by
investing the prestige and authority of the
SG in the cause. Annan succeeded as SG
through the skills of soft leadership: the elu-
sive ability to make others connect emotion-
ally and intellectually to a larger cause that
transcended their immediate self-interest.
Treated as a “rock star” celebrity in his
first term, Annan was in regular contact
with leaders of governments, international
organisations, multinational corporations,
and civil-society organisations. Quiet diplo-
macy within the confidential confines of his
private office was only rarely supplemented
by the public diplomacy of the UN’s bully
pulpit. On one hand, Annan tried to expand
the “license” function of international law
to empower the UN to take necessary action
against recalcitrant states using sovereignty
to shield their behavior. On the other hand,
he upheld the “leash” function of checking
aggression by great powers.
In 2004, Annan pointedly noted that the
invasion of Iraq was in breach of the UN
Charter’s law on the use of force. This
earned him the undying hostility of the neo-
conservatives in US President George W.
Bush’s administration, who threatened to
make the UN irrelevant. Yet if the Security
Council had capitulated to Anglo-American
pressure to endorse the war, based on
trumped-up charges of terrorist attacks and
fabricated evidence of weapons of mass
destruction, the UN would have suffered
graver and more lasting harm.
Annan did become entangled in the oil-
for-food scandal, which his neoconservative
enemies exploited to the fullest. Yet even
there, the ethical lapses by member states
– including the U.S. and Australia, which
refused to take action on red flags raised
by UN officials – were more serious. The
involvement of his son in shady dealings
was personally painful to Annan.
The more indelible stain on Annan’s repu-
tation was his responsibility for the restric-
tive interpretations of the UN mandates for
the peacekeeping operations in Rwanda
and Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1994-1995.
Indeed, some people contend that Annan
never paid the political price for these two
derelictions of duty.
But Annan did commission internal
reviews into these conscience-shocking
failures, encouraging the investigators to
go wherever the search for truth took them.
When the investigators were finished, he
authorised the publication of their reports,
including adverse findings of UN systemic
shortcomings and a failure of leadership on
his part as the top peacekeeping official at
the time. Deeply scarred by these searing
experiences, Annan converted a troubled
conscience into an enduring legacy of three
principles and institutional advances. The
protection of civilians was made a top
priority in UN peacekeeping operations.
He championed the R2P principle to cir-
cumvent the abuse of state sovereignty by
brutal rulers committing atrocities against
their own people. And he welcomed the
creation of the International Criminal Court
as the legal instrument to end impunity and
prosecute and punish military commanders
and political leaders for the most heinous
crimes. Annan’s dedication to serving
humanity did not end with his departure
from the UN. He remained engaged with
poverty alleviation, conflict resolution, and
humanitarian relief efforts through UN
requests, the Kofi Annan Foundation, and
the Group of Elders as a custodian of world
conscience.
Annan was exceptionally considerate and
solicitous of the welfare of his staff, often
with a gentle sense of humour. On one occa-
sion, some UN personnel were trapped in
a rapidly escalating conflict zone. A couple
of senior aides were trying to explain the
danger to Annan when one stopped and
asked: “Why are you not panicking, SG?”
“Why should I panic,” he replied, “when I
have you to panic for me?”
Ramesh Thakur, an emeritus professor at the
Australian National University, is a former
UN Assistant Secretary-General who was the
principal writer of Kofi Annan’s second UN
reform report in 2002. He is the author of``
The United Nations, Peace and Security: From
Collective Security to the Responsibility to
Protect’.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018.

O
By Ellen Scott
h, the cleaners
are in the
toilets again.
Guess you’ll
wait.
Ah. Cool.
Now all the cubicles are
taken up by people changing
their tampons and making
phone calls. You can’t really
be bothered to hang around
in here.
So you return to your desk,
cross your legs, and hold
tight. An hour later you’re
so immersed in whatever
you’re doing that you forget
to return to a now-empty set
of loos.
You’ve gone a whole
morning without peeing. Oh
dear.
You might hold in your
wee quite regularly on the
job, either because of the
scenario above, the deep
shame of leaving your desk
for two minutes when the
capitalist need for production
marches on or because your
job requires you to remain in
one room or place without
immediate access to a toilet
for long periods of time.
Yes, it’s uncomfortable and
inconvenient, but you put up
with an hour of feeling like
you could wet yourself so
you get the incredible release
of unleashing your fluids at
the end of the day.
It feels harmless, but it’s
not. Holding back when you
feel the urge to urinate can
cause all kinds of damage.
So, let’s talk about peeing.
“The normal adult bladder
should be able to hold around
500ml on average before
you feel the strong desire to
pass urine,” explains Sachin
Malde, consultant urological
surgeon at LycaHealth,
“During this time, the urinary
sphincter muscle is closed,
preventing urine leaking
out.”
“Once the bladder is full,
nerve messages pass from
Unleash your pee
And the harm you’re doing
to yourself if you don’t
your bladder to your brain
telling it that you need to
pass urine. When socially
convenient, the brain passes
messages back to allow your
sphincter muscle to open and
your bladder to squeeze the
urine out.”
When your bladder is full
and you do not allow yourself
to go to the toilet, you
confuse your body, refusing
to allow its natural signaling
system to do its thing.
That can cause a decline in
your ability in knowing when
you need to go, putting you
at risk of wetting yourself as
you tune out those important
signals.
But beyond baffling your
brain and bladder, the choice
to hold it in rather than give
in to your need to wee can
cause longer term problems.
First off, the dreaded UTI.
“Whether you are male
or female, if you continually
hold the urine in for long
periods of time throughout
the day it can lead to a
number of longer-term
problems,” explains Sachin
Malde.
“Firstly, it allows bacteria
within the bladder to
multiply and therefore
increases the chances of
developing a urinary tract
infection which can cause
pain and bleeding.”
UTIs are more common in
women, as a woman’s urethra
tends to be shorter, allowing
bacteria faster access to the
bladder.
Left unreleased and
untreated, that bacteria can
build and make its way to
the kidneys, which can then
require hospital treatment.
Symptoms of a UTI:
 A persistent need to
urinate
 Feeling the need to
urinate frequently, but
having little fluid come
out when you do
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
 Pain or burning when
weeing
 Blood in the urine
 Urine that looks cloudy
 Pain around your pelvis
and tummy
 Strong-smelling urine
As anyone who’s
experienced a UTI will
tell you, they’re not fun. If
you’re holding in your pee
because you feel you cannot
leave your desk, a urinary
tract infection is the last
thing you want, as you will
feel the need to wee almost
constantly.
Holding in your pee can
further damage your body
because you’re squeezing
your sphincter muscle shut,
which it’s not designed to do
for long periods of time.
“This can prevent it from
fully opening when you
actually decide to pass
urine,” says Sachin.
‘This will stop you from
being able to fully empty the
bladder when you do pass
urine, and again this urine
build-up in the bladder can
lead to infections.
“In less common cases,
holding on for too long can
over-stretch the bladder,
leading to complete retention
of urine and, rarely, can cause
kidney damage.”
This is called urinary
retention, a condition that
prevents you from fully
emptying your bladder when
you pee.
That might not sound
awful, but having a lingering
bit of urine in your bladder
can trigger the sensation
of needing to pee more
frequently. So, again, by
trying not to urinate, you risk
needing to urinate more.
Regularly closing your
37
health
sphincter for long periods of
time can also overstretch the
muscles, weakening them as a
result. When you lose control
of your sphincter muscles,
you are less able to control
when you urinate… meaning
you may leak urine before
you have time to rush to the
bathroom.
There is one more risk of
putting off your toilet time. It’s
rare, but worth considering.
As SciShow recounts,
a Danish astronomer and
alchemist died thanks to his
entire bladder bursting. Why?
Because he had refused to
leave a banquet to do a wee,
believing it to be impolite.
When he reached home, he
found he could not urinate
at all, fell into delirium, and
died.
As we mentioned, a bladder
rupture is rare. Typically you
will wet yourself before your
bladder shows any chance
of tearing or bursting. When
bladders do burst, it is usually
because they had previous
damage or a medical issue.
Urine-passing issues are
rarely as dramatic as a bladder
explosion, and Sachin warns
that changes can occur so
slowly that you don’t notice
something’s going wrong until
it’s too late.
That’s why it’s so crucial to
go to your GP or a urologist
the moment you have any
weeing issues, and do what
you can to look after your
bladder yourself.
Yes, that does mean weeing
when you feel the need.
Stop putting off that toilet
trip, don’t hold in your wee
until you’re ready to burst,
and if you know you are going
to be in a meeting room or
standing outside for a long
period of time, schedule in
bathroom time beforehand.
Refusing to move from
your desk is not good for your
body or your brain. You need
regular breaks from focusing
on work, whether that is to
stretch your legs or just give
yourself some mental space.
Needing to wee is not
weakness or a sign you are not
doing your job properly, it is
being a human. Stop holding
back. Unleash your wee.
38 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
Blue light from phone
damages eyes
By Agencies
S
mart phones, laptops, and other handheld
devices all transmit light. However, the
blue light in particular may be toxic for
your eyes.
Scientists at the University of Toledo may have
discovered how blue light emitted from your tech-
nology has a potential to lead to macular degen-
eration — one of the leading causes of vision loss
in the United States.
“It’s no secret that blue light harms our
vision by damaging the eye’s retina” said Ajith
Karunarathne, PhD, assistant professor at the Uni-
versity of Toledo’s department of chemistry and
biochemistry in a released statement.
Macular degeneration is the result of photore-
ceptor cell death in the retina.
The function of the photoreceptor cells is to cap-
ture visual images
and signal them
to the brain using
a molecule called
retinal.
Retinal, which is
produced by the eye,
is triggered by blue
light and causes vari-
ous chemical reac-
tions. These reactions
within the eye can
be poisonous to the
photoreceptor cell
molecules rendering
them damaged.
When these pho-
toreceptor cells die,
there’s no regenera-
tion.
“The retinal-generated toxicity by blue light is
universal. It can kill any cell type,” said Karunara-
thne.
Part of this phenomenon may be because blue
light has a shorter wavelength in comparison to
other colors, and as a result, has more energy. The
extra energy can be the reason for this chemical
change causing retinal-generated toxicity.
Don’t freak out just yet
Despite the discovery that the combination of
blue light and retinal can damage cells, the experi-
ments were conducted in a laboratory setting, not
on eyes themselves.
In a statement on his university web site,
Karunarathne states, “We caution the public that
our study does not show that light from mobile
devises or other digital screens cause blindness.”
Protecting yourself may seem as easy as avoid-
ing blue light — but it may not be that straightfor-
ward.
Not only does blue light come from our digital
devices, it also comes from natural sunlight.
Also, certain situations such as using your tech-
nology at night can intensify the blue light as well.
Transmitted blue light, especially in the dark,
channels the light into a very small area inside of
your eye.
One study author relates this phenomenon to
using a magnifying glass in the sun — the light
can become so intense and focused that it can
burn your eye.
The blue light from these screened devices can
also lead to dry eyes.
“Studies have found that with the increased
usage of smart phones, iPads, and laptops, there
has been an increase in the development of dry
eyes due to a decreased blink rate,” explains
Angela Bevels, OD, founder and owner of Elite
Dry Eye Spa
in Tucson,
Arizona.
Over time,
the more
someone
engages with
their devices
the less they
blink.
“This in
effect causes
the tears to
evaporate
faster, leaving
the cornea to
dry out,” says
Bevels.
To help
fight this
phenomenon, several technology companies have
already created potential solutions.
Apple currently offers the “night shift” set-
ting and Samsung offers a “blue light filter” to
decrease the amount of blue light that’s displayed
on the screen of the device.
Fromer recommends that people should “con-
sider decreasing your time on these devices” and
to “give your eyes a rest if performing extensive
tasks on the computer.”
He recommends simply closing one’s eyes for a
short time or gazing into the distance to help relax
the muscle of the eye and reduce unnecessary
strain.
Although this study is good information for
those who are at risk of degenerative eye condi-
tions, it’s yet another reason for everyone else to
consider limiting their exposure to the screens —
especially after sunset.
Source:healthline.com
ART | BOOKS | SOCIETY | TRAVEL | CULTURE
Honey pot to attract
young artists
Top law firm Mukumbya Musoke
Advocates awards art prize winners
I
By Dominic Muwanguzi
n the midst of a busy art calendar with
the third edition of Kampala Art Bien-
nale and KLA ART18 festival already in
full gear, the first art awards organised
and sponsored by a local corporate in-
stitution took place in Kampala recently.
The Mukumbya Musoke Advocates Art
Awards, initiated by Mukumbya Musoke Ad-
vocates, an upscale law firm, were inaugurated
at the Afriart on 7th art gallery in industrial area
recently with an impressive crowd of artists,
art buyers, and the local corporate fraternity.
The four shortlisted finalists were Matthew
Kayemba aka Matt Mayem, Pamela Enyonu ,
Sarah Marione Akol and Ocom Adonias. They
were selected from 12 artists who submitted
entries. Each of the finalists presented an art-
work in the competition that was judged on
concept and presentation. Matt Kayem’s ter-
racotta figurine `Kanyesigye’ was influenced
by contemporary archeological findings in the
South Western district of Kiruhura, under the
concept of African culture and identity; Pamela
Enyonu’s `Bwino’ was inspired by the grow-
ing wave of fake news globally precipitated by
controversial U.S. President Donald Trump
political speeches and the validation of street
culture into the mainstream; Sarah Marione
Akol’s Nambi `Sky Goddess’ inspired by the
ancient fable of Nambi and the subject of femi-
ninity and sexuality and Ocom Adonias’ `Saint
Kikuubo’ that responds to the subject of social-
political prejudices across the global in these
contemporary times.
It was Pamela Enyonu’s conceptual paint-
ing with paper collage depicting the human
skeletons that figuratively allude to the subject
of credibility of information, hence ` Bwino’ ( a
street lingua word that loosely means having
facts on information) ,that stole the evening.
She walked away with a Shs3.5 million cheque.
Ocom Adonias was second. All the four final-
ists received certificates from the senior partner
of the firm, Julius Musoke, himself an art buyer.
“As a law firm, we felt that supporting art
through these awards was part of our corporate
social responsibility. It is one way to grow the
arts in Uganda, especially when the creative
sector provides a lot of opportunities to young
people and contributes to national GDP. These
awards will act as a honey pot to attract the
young artists who want to establish themselves
in the industry,” he said in his speech.
The Mukumbya Musoke Advoactes Art
Prize is slated to be an annual fete to celebrate
and award young artists in the industry.
Mukumbya Musoke Advocates Art Prize 2018
was in partnership with Afriart gallery.
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 39
Trump gives himself an A+ grade for his presidency
Donald Trump has said his work as pres-
ident is worthy of an A+ grade. Speaking to
Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt in an
interview, the president said: ‘I would give
myself an A+. “I don’t think any president
has ever done what I’ve done in the short…
we haven’t even been two years.
“Biggest tax cuts in history, soon to be
two unbelievable supreme court justices…
“You look at all the things we’ve done
with regulations. The economy is the best
it’s ever been in history.
“The only thing I’m doing badly in is the
press doesn’t cover me fairly.’
Trump went on condemn the media for
its attacks on him and his presidency – and
warned that any attempts to impeach him
would crash the US economy.
Trump said: ‘I don’t know how you can
impeach somebody who’s done a great
job… “If I ever got impeached, I think the
market would crash, I think everybody
would be very poor, because without this
thinking, you would see – you would see
numbers that you wouldn’t believe in
reverse.’

Toronto residents put pothole to good use! Man rides 1,450Km

Man asks girlfriend’s
forgiveness with 300
billboards and signs
A young Indian business-
man who wanted to get back on
his girlfriend’s good side after
an argument put up 300 bill-
boards and signs all over their
local suburb, to let her know he
wanted her forgiveness. It’s not
clear what 25-year-old Nilesh
Khedekar had done to upset
his girlfriend, but after hearing
that the girl, named Shivde,
was returning from Mumbai to
her home in Pimple Saudagar,
a suburb of Pune, the young
man commissioned hundreds of
different-sized posters with the
message “Shivde, I am Sorry!”.
Then, on the night before the
girl’s scheduled returned, he
paid a group of boys to hang the
signs and billboards all over her
neighborhood. While most peo-
ple online thought it was roman-
tic how someone had gone to
all this trouble to apologise to
their loved one, the local police
tracked him down and fined
him for defacing the locality. It
is not clear if the girl forgave the
hero of our story.
After waiting for local author-
ities to fix a massive pothole
for several months, residents of
Poplar Plain Crescent, in Toron-
to, decided to make the best of it
by transforming the hole into a
community tomato garden.
It’s unclear who came up
with the idea of plating tomato
seeds into the neglected pothole
earlier this summer, but as the
plants sprouted and flourished,
neighborhood residents started
caring for them, even installing
stakes to keep them from falling
over. Photos of the fully grown
Football club sells 18 Players to buy 10 goats
Gulspor, a small football
club from one of Turkey’s
lowest divisions, recently
sold 18 of its players
in order to buy 10. The
club’s president, Kenan
Büyükleblebi, told Turkish
media that the unusual
decision was dictated by
lack of funds, as there are
tomato plants featuring dozens
of juicy green tomatoes are a
testament to both the locals
care and sense of humour, but
also of the indifference of local
authorities. Luckily, the thriving
tomato garden has been getting
so much attention online this
past week that authorities had
no choice but to notice it. “I’m
hopeful that getting attention
doesn’t get this fixed too soon,
because I think we’re still a
couple weeks away from har-
vest time,” one neighborhood
resident said.
virtually no sponsorships or
government investments for
teams performing in lower
leagues. He said the club
plans to build a herd of 140
goats in the next few years
and generate extra income
from milk and meat sales.
“We must have a constant
income,” Büyükleblebi told
for, well, pizza
Kyle Messier, a 31-year-old
bike mechanic, won the Big
Red Gravel Run, a 100 kilome-
ter bike race that takes place
in Harrington, Quebec. What
makes Kyle’s win truly excep-
tional is that he had already
pedaled more than 650 kilo-
meters to the race site, and a
few hours after winning he got
back on his bike and peddled
back home to Waterloo. That is
a whopping 1,400km ride.
When asked what the secret
behind his extraordinary suc-
cess was, Kyle said he used
a technique known as active
meditation; a form of medita-
tion that focuses the mind on
performing just that physical
action and nothing else. Kyle
said throughout the race, he
didn’t think about the distance
or about how much his legs
hurt; he just thought about
the pizza he was getting at the
finish line. “I was just thinking
about getting back to another
pizza…It becomes a mind
over matter thing, versus just
turning the pedals,” he told a
journalist.
CNN Turkey. “We need to
get more investment for the
kids.”
On one hand, this is
pretty funny, but on the
other, it’s kind of sad that
one of Turkey’s oldest
football clubs – Gulspor was
founded in 1954 – has to
rely on goats to keep going.

40 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018

Hidden danger of worn
out shock absorbers
By Agencies
S
hock absorbers might not be the
most exciting part of a car, but along
with tyres and brakes they are im-
portant elements of the safety of a
vehicle. They are hidden beneath a car’s
wheel arches, so unlike tyres are not easy to
check regularly for visible signs of damage
and wear.
The role of the shock absorber is to keep
the car’s tyres in permanent contact with
the road, helping to provide optimum
grip, when cornering and braking. Shock
absorbers are part of the suspension, so if
the shocks are worn, the vehicle’s ride and
comfort is compromised.
The mechanics of a shock absorber all fol-
low the same principle of controlling wheel
movement by forcing oil through small
holes, with the size or valving of these holes
`tuned’ to suit the chosen characteristics
of each vehicle type; large or small, family
saloon, load carrying estate, MPV, 4x4 or
high performance sports car.
Most people are not even aware of the
potential dangers of worn shock absorbers,
or that the safety of their vehicle, its occu-
pants and other road users is seriously com-
promised even if all other safety features are
working correctly. An example of the extent
of the problem is illustrated by two recent
surveys. In Britain, it was found that over
6 million of the 25 million cars on the road
had at least one worn shock absorber, while
in Belgium, research showed that 20-25%
of motorists are driving cars with worn
shocks.
Below are the `top ten’ dangers
associated with worn shock absorbers:
 Reduced braking effi-
ciency resulting in
longer stopping dis-
tances
 Reduced efficiency of Anti-Lock Brak-
ing Systems (ABS) and Electronic Stabil-
ity Control (ESP)
 Increased risk of skidding in the wet
 Aquaplaning occurs at lower speeds
 Less control when cornering or caught
in a cross wind
 Increased driver tiredness and reduced
speed or response
 Increased wear of tyres and other sus-
pension components
 Uneven/oscillating headlight level caus-
ing dazzle to on-coming drivers
 Increased passenger discomfort
 Increased risk of `snaking’ when towing
To highlight the danger of driving with
worn shock absorbers, Tenneco Automo-
tive has recently conducted a number of
comparative tests between vehicles fitted
with 50% worn shocks and 100% effec-
tive shock absorbers. Having teamed up
with TUV, one of Europe’s leading road
safety institutes, the first tests showed that
a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) such as a
Renault Espace with worn shocks can have
a braking distance that’s up to 4 metres lon-
ger than the same vehicle fitted with new
shocks.
The second test featuring a new Volkswa-
gen Beetle found that despite being fitted
with the latest car safety systems such as
Anti-Lock Braking (ABS) and Electronic
Stability Control (EBS), with worn shocks
the vehicle can have a braking distance of
up to 6 metres longer than when fitted with
new shocks. The final set of tests set out
to demonstrate what effect ice
and snow would
have on a
car’s anti-
lock
braking and anti-skid systems, when com-
bined with worn shocks. In the braking
test, the results showed that a vehicle such
as a Mercedes-Benz C250 Estate fitted with
ABS but also with 50% worn shocks, had an
emergency braking distance of 1.8 metres
longer than the same vehicle fitted with
100% efficient shocks.
The same test conducted on a Peugeot
206 with ABS and 50% worn shocks, took
an extra 1.2 metres to stop. The braking test
results thereby prove that a car’s ABS sys-
tem does not function properly with worn
out shocks. Finally, when comparing a
car’s acceleration slippery surfaces, the tests
found that a car such as the Mercedes-Benz
C250 fitted with an ASR anti-skid system
and 100% efficient shocks accelerated to a
speed of 35.6 km/h (22.1 mph) in seven sec-
onds, whereas the same car fitted with 50%
worn shocks could only achieve 34.2 km/h
(21.2 mph), a 16% improvement for the first
vehicle. Furthermore, the time period of lost
traction was 37% shorter with 100% efficient
shocks compared to 50% worn components.
This test confirms the importance to
check that a car’s shocks are in good condi-
tion, even when fitted with ASR.
Source: Internet
Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 41
Profile
Pastor Moses Solomon Male;
torching the rot in churches
By Agnes E Nantaba
P
astor Moses Solomon Male is an
outspoken critic of corruption in
churches; especially by pastors and
clerics who promote the gospel of
manipulation and mind control. He also
cares for victims of paedophilia and homo-
sexual abuse.
Male also campaigns for greater financial
accountability in churches. He says that the
practice of giving land, cars or household
goods to pastors in exchange for blessings,
known as ‘sowing seeds of faith’, which is
widespread in Uganda is not biblical“Those
are treated as personal income of the pas-
tors,” he says.
He started on the journey close to 20
years ago in 1999, upon starting Arising
for Christ (ARCH) to address the rot of
religious cults, homosexuality, and sexual
abuses.
Male had just converted to Christianity
three years earlier and had served with
several pastors in the country. He recalls
surrendering his life to Christ at a time
when there were factions of Pentecostal
churches and pastors tracing their roots to
Ghanaian-born former Catholic priest and
self-proclaimed prophet, John Obiri Yeboah.
Two weeks into the salvation journey, Male
was appointed a secretary to one faction led
by Bishop Makumbi which to him proved
to be a revelation opportunity of the dirty
games of pastors.
Months later, Male joined self-proclaimed
prophet Samuel Kakande and his wife Lois
of Holy Church of Christ, “New Chapter”
renamed 'The Synagogue Church of All
Nations.'
“They were prophets who had just
returned from Europe,” says Male.
He would serve at the church as second
in command for the next four years which
according to him proved the existence of
fraud in church.
Male says, “I saw people robbed of their
property, healthy people manipulated into
relationships with HIV positive people after
falsifying tests”.
Male left that church in 1992, denounc-
ing it as a cult. The following year, he was
arrested as a result of his accusations against
the church, but was later released and the
case withdrawn.
Once invited to Makerere University’s
famous prime time fellowship led by Pastor
Martin Sempa, Male had the opportunity
of sharing his lifetime experience of serv-
ing the Lord with the congregation. And
42 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
at the end of the service, two young men secured her independence from Britain
approached him seeking his help. in 1962. He was raised by his mother in
“They revealed to me that they are vic- Ntinda Kigoowa as his parents never mar-
tims of sodomy by some pastors,” says ried due to religious differences between
Male. Muslims and Christians. He attended
This would later mark the beginning of St Lugalama, Ntinda Primary School,
several other revelations from young people Kyambogo College School and Caltec acad-
about being victims of homosexuality and emy Makerere where he completed the
cult by some church pastors, fellow young advanced level of education. He is married
people and priests. to Justine Nanziri Male and together they
He says Arising for Christ (ARCH) aims have three children.
to restore the sanctity of Christ and to rid
the church of fake and selfish people who
carry themselves as pastors to con the des-
perate and unsuspecting public. Under the
organisation, Male says he has compiled a
list of over 300 believers who accuse born-
again pastors of extortion, fraud, sex slavery
and other crimes. He says he has failed to
get allies in the fight.
He also started the cult awareness pro-
gramme countrywide focusing on schools.
“Some pastors wanted to silence me
but I vowed never to stop until the vice is
stopped,” says Male, “They had no moral
authority to silence me”.
In 2012, Male and five others were fined
Shs1 million each and ordered to do 100
hours of community service after being
convicted of conspiring to destroy Pastor
Robert Kayanja’s name and profession.
But even with all the trials in
the struggle, Male is not about to
resign. He continuously advocates
for an end to religious cults and
homosexuality; especially in
churches.
“Over the years I have real-
ized so many misconceptions
and mis-teachings and unfor-
tunately the church has done
nothing to correct them,”
he says.
He says that he is the
defacto leader of the
crusade against homo-
sexuality and cults in
Uganda.
“I am a pioneer in
the fight,” he says,
“I don’t think that
Uganda’s religious his-
tory can be complete
without Male.
“I have been fore-
most in shaping Ugan-
da’s spiritual and moral
history and planes”.
Male, 56, was born just a
few months before Uganda
 Q&A
advertorial

Pastor Moses Solomon Male’s Liteside

Any three things that we arrested and detained. able to pay the price for me and support me to

I
don’t know about you? every achievement. realise that vision.
cannot be What is your current
compromised state of mind? What or who is the Who are your favorite
and I have the Everyday has its own greatest love of your life? writers?
heart for victims challenge but right now, I love myself, my Chinua Achebe and
of homosexuality and I’m not happy because parents and my children. Elechi Amadi; Elechi
religious cults. I am worried about the wrote ‘The concubine’
destiny of my country. When and where were which describes a young
What is your idea of you happiest? man obsessed by a
perfect happiness? What do you consider Much of my life has woman and eventually
Seeing someone in need the most overrated been tainted with pain. I said that ‘even if I die,
and making them happy. virtue? am yet to see my happy my soul will go to heaven
Basing on media moments. singing’. The two are
What is your greatest reports, we tend to give inspirational writers.
fear? a lot of attention to What do you consider
I believe in politicking and forget your greatest Which historical figure
predestination; whatever that there are other issues achievement? do you most identify
I go through, God has that are eating up our Creating awareness that with?
predefined for me; so I society. sodomy exists and that Martin Luther King
am fearless. not even clerics or priests stood against the rot in
What does being should be taken to be the Catholic Church,
What is the trait powerful mean to you? holy. I have also helped was tried and later
you most deplore in It is a combination of many victims. excommunicated. He
yourself? wealth and titles. risked and stood against
Sometimes I have been Where would you most an institution at the time
taken advantage of for On what occasion do you like to live? no one could. Because of
my generosity because I lie? If I weren’t here, who him, the renaissance of
care a lot. Even where I have would be doing what I the protestant movement
gone wrong, I admit as do. I am happy to be part was realised.
What is the trait you opposed to telling a lie. of the contributors to the
most deplore in others? betterment of humanity. What is your greatest
People, including What do you most regret?
Christians, are so dislike about your What is your most My greatest hurts have
hypocritical. appearance? treasured possession? become my greatest
I am contented with the My greatest asset is my assets and much of what
Which living person do way God created me. personal experience and I have gone through is
you most admire? story. part of the discipline that
My uncle, Dr John Which living person do I have.
Fredrick Ssemwogerere you most despise? What do you regard
has a heart that cares, is People who are selfish as the lowest depth of How would you like to
generous and I think that and greedy for gains; misery? die?
I have partaken of it. the only thing they think Being subjected In my sleep when
about are themselves. to any degrading God chooses but mostly
What is your greatest treatment, framed or when I have published
extravagance? What is the quality you even persecuted for own my works. But I also
I have had to pay a most like in a woman? conscience. don’t want to die before
price even from my own Caring, ability to witnessing power change
pockets to invest in the identify and respect What is your favourite hands peacefully in
cause. authority of a man and occupation? Uganda.
being motherly. I write a lot although I
What is the greatest haven’t yet published. What is your motto?
thing you have ever What is the quality you No matter if I fail, so
done? most like in a man? What do you most value long as I shall always tell
The fight against Taking charge of real in your friends? myself that I have tried.
homosexuality and cults; life situations, sensitive to I value a friend who
I have paid a price for other people’s existence understands my vision
both including being and needs and must be and is ready to stand with

Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018 43

Global comment
By Kaushik Basu
Prevent winner-takes-all democracy
Voters need to learn that their decisions can
fundamentally alter the nature of the game politicians play
D
emocracy is in crisis. Fake news –
and fake allegations of fake news
– now plagues civil discourse,
and political parties have proved
increasingly willing to use xenophobia and
other malign strategies to win elections. At
the same time, revisionist powers like Vlad-
imir Putin’s Russia have been stepping up
their efforts to interfere in elections across
the West. Rarely has the United States wit-
nessed such brazen attacks on its political
system; and rarely has the world seen such
lows during peacetime.
And yet, democracy’s crisis is not com-
pletely new. When I was a student in
Delhi in the early 1970s, it was commonly
assumed that the U.S. “participated” in
Indian elections. Then as now, rumours
circulating through informal communi-
cation channels made it hard for ordi-
nary citizens to tell fact from fiction. The
joke – which was not always a joke – was
that if you suspected someone of being
a CIA agent, you should immediately
phone the local Indian intelligence office,
but you should not be surprised if the
same person answered the phone.
That said, events today have risen to a
different level. The United Kingdom will
soon leave the European Union, with or
without a formal exit agreement. And the
U.S. is waging an escalating trade war,
which could be followed by a debilitating
currency war. How can all of this be hap-
pening in democracies, and what can be
done about it?
On the first question, one hypothesis
is that new digital technologies are
changing the structural incentives for
corporations, political parties, and other
major institutions. Consider the case
of corporations. The wealth of propri-
etary data on consumer preferences and
behavior is producing such massive
returns to scale that a few giants are
monopolising markets. In other words,
markets are increasingly geared toward a
winner-take-all game: multiple corpora-
tions can compete, but to the victor go
the spoils.
Electoral democracy is drifting in the
same direction. The benefits of win-
ning an election have become so large
that political parties will stoop to new
lows to clinch a victory. And, as with
44 Aug 31 - Sept 06, 2018
corporations, they can do so with the
help of data on electoral preferences and
behavior, and with new strategies to
target key constituencies.
This poses a dilemma for well-meaning
democratic parties and politicians. If a
“bad” party is willing to foment hate
and racism to bolster its chances of win-
ning, what is a “good” party to do? If it
sticks to its principles, it could end up
ceding victory to the “bad” party, which
will do even more harm once it is in
office. A “good” party may thus try to
forestall that outcome by taking a step
down the moral ladder, precipitating a
race to the bottom. This is the problem
with any winner-takes-all game. When
second place confers no benefits, the cost
of showing unilateral restraint can grow
intolerably high.
But this problem is not as hopeless as
it appears. In light of today’s crisis of
democracy, we would do well to revisit
Václav Havel’s seminal 1978 essay “The
Power of the Powerless.” First published
as samizdat that was smuggled out
of Czechoslovakia, the essay makes a
simple but compelling argument. Dicta-
torships and other seemingly omnipotent
forms of authoritarianism may look like
large, top-down structures, but in the
final analysis, they are merely the out-
come of ordinary individuals’ beliefs and
choices. Havel did not have the tools of
modern economic theory to demonstrate
his argument formally. In my new book
The Republic of Beliefs, I show that the
essence of his argument can be given
formal structure using elementary game
theory. This, in turn, shows that ordinary
individuals have moral options that may
be unavailable to the big institutional
players.
The “power of the powerless” has a
key role to play in saving democracy.
Unlike corporations and political par-
ties, ordinary citizens are not locked into
winner-takes-all games, because they can
make small moral commitments without
incurring intolerable costs.
Consider the case of shoe manufac-
turing in a developing country. If there
are just two companies in the sector,
the one that refuses to violate minimal
labour standards risks losing the entire
market to an immoral competitor,
which can ultimately sell its shoes more
cheaply. But if consumers show that
they will pay a little more for shoes that
are made without violating labour stan-
dards, they can undercut the immoral
firm’s advantage.
The same dynamic applies to voting.
The bulk of classical voting theory, pio-
neered by the mathematical statistician
and economic theorist Harold Hotelling
and the economist and political theorist
Anthony Downs, assumes that people
vote in their self-interest. Yet if citizens
decide that they will vote in their self-
interest within the restraints of a moral
code, immoral campaign practices would
suddenly impose a cost, rather than
confer an advantage. A similar view is
expressed in Sebastian Haffner’s unfin-
ished memoir, Defying Hitler. As Cass
Sunstein, commenting on Haffner, put it,
“the ultimate safeguard against aspiring
authoritarians, and wolves of all kinds,
lies in individual conscience.”
For ordinary citizens to develop and
abide by such moral codes, we need, at a
minimum, better civic education, so that
people understand the latent power they
wield and so that users of digital plat-
forms learn to check the sources of news
stories they encounter.
I believe there are corporations and
political groups that actually want to
adhere to minimal moral standards but
cannot, for fearing of losing everything.
They should put up money to effect
the change that our democracies
need. Voters need to learn that their
electoral and consumption decisions can
fundamentally alter the nature of the
game that corporations and politicians
play. The future of democracy is in
citizens’ hands.
Kaushik Basu, former Chief Economist of
the World Bank and former Chief Economic
Adviser to the Government of India, is
Professor of Economics at Cornell University
and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the
Brookings Institution.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018.
www.project-syndicate.org
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