tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40947816870392673962024-02-19T04:14:25.805-08:00publicaffairsreporting@makererepublicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-46135694913708288882012-04-07T15:49:00.001-07:002012-04-07T15:49:37.637-07:00Iranian Nuclear science students: Is the world safe?<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 5pt 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">By Robert Mugisha</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">About 1,300 Iranian university students have applied to switch their majors to the field of nuclear sciences following the assassination of a top nuclear expert in Iran</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">"Three hundred talented students at Sharif University and about a thousand brilliant students at the country's universities have applied in recent days to change their major and start studying nuclear physics and nuclear engineering," Kamran Daneshjo, Iranian Minister of Science Research and Technology, said in a press conference Monday, according to Iran's Tehran Times. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Daneshjo's comments came five days after the assassination of 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a former graduate of Sharif University and, until his death, the deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, according to Iranian media. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Assasinated: Iranian Scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Roshan was killed Jan. 11 when a magnetic explosive device was slipped under his car by a motorcyclist and then detonated, according to Iranian news reports. He is the fourth Iranian nuclear scientist assassinated in the past two years</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What is a nuclear weapon? </span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One of the largest atomic bombs in the world</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The global security institute defines </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">a nuclear weapon as a weapon whose explosive power is generated by the process of nuclear fission (an atomic bomb) or nuclear fusion (a hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb).</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How is a nuclear weapon different from a conventional weapon?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">In order to create a fission or fusion reaction, a nuclear weapon must use what are commonly called fissile materials, either plutonium or highly enriched uranium (HEU), to fuel its explosion. A conventional weapon does not use fissile materials as its explosive fuel. As a result, even a nuclear weapon with a relatively small yield is much more destructive than any conventional weapon, with the capability to nearly destroy an entire city.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What happens in a nuclear explosion?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">A nuclear explosion is the result of a rapid release of energy from a nuclear reaction, either fission or fusion. The result is an enormous blast of energy and thermal radiation.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">Nuclear Fission</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">: In a nuclear fission reaction, the nucleus of an atom is split into two smaller nuclei and other by-product particles. If this process is uncontrolled, as in a nuclear weapon, it starts a chain reaction whereby large amounts of energy are rapidly released. Nuclear fission is the type of nuclear reaction that was used in the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">Nuclear Fusion</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">: Whereas an atom is split in the process of nuclear fission, in a nuclear</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">Fusion reaction many nuclei come together to form one heavier nucleus, causing the release</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">of great amounts of energy in self-sustaining reactions. Thermonuclear weapons involve</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hardliner: Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">both fission and fusion.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What is a kiloton? A megaton?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>Kilotons (kt): </b>a unit of measuring the explosive power of a nuclear explosion. This</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">measurement is in relation to the explosive power of an equivalent amount of TNT. For </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">example, a 15kt nuclear explosion (the size of the explosion in Hiroshima) has the explosive power equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">Megatons (Mt): </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">Also in relation to the explosive power of an equivalent amount of TNT, amegaton is the explosive power equivalent to 1 million tons of TNT, or 1,000 kilotons. This level of power can only be obtained through a thermonuclear or hydrogen blast.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">If you wanted to picture the amount of TNT needed for a 1-Megaton explosion, imagine a</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">200-mile long train filled with TNT; for a 5-Mt bomb, a train 1000 miles long.</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Iran is said to be capable of making nuclear bombs in months</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Are we safe if all the 1300 students graduated as specialists in nuclear science?<i></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>The writer is a second year student of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.</strong></span></i></div>
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</div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-78939248637356646352012-04-07T15:35:00.002-07:002012-04-07T15:35:44.085-07:00Is UMEME ripping off Ugandans with new high power tarrifs?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By Faridah Namakula</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The cliché, ‘dropping from the frying pan in to the charcoal stove has recently gained significance in Uganda with the new increase in power tariffs. While Uganda<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a>ns lamented the high prices for commodities, fuel and utilities, another bomb dropped when the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) announced increment in power tariffs with effect from 15<sup>th</sup> January, 2012. Tariffs for domestic consumption are to be increased by 36% and for industrial use by about 26%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is in addition to the periodic 24 hour load shedding. The increment was precipitated by government’s announcement to remove power subsidies on power. Government argues that it intends to use the money for the subsidies to invest in other dams so that there is enough power generated for domestic and industrial use.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Besides the impact of increased charges that are about to be felt, the power outages have already caused loss of millions of shillings to both small and big enterprises, from saloon operators, maize mills to production and manufacturing industries. It is common these days to find Kampala streets in a blackout at night. The situation is not any better during the day since city traders in the arcades spend several days a week without power. If the power is available then it lasts only a few hours.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The recent policy by power suppliers to resume the 24 hours load shedding is virtually affecting all sectors of the economy. It has exacerbated the current economic meltdown that arose out of the global economic crisis, which has hit world economies to the extent of bringing down some governments in Italy and Greece.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Whereas the country has been suffering from deficient power supply for some time, the current crisis has reached unbearable levels. People took to the streets to protest the precarious situation in which they find themselves. However things have not changed. The response from the authorities has been quite unconvincing; ranging from increased consumption, breakdown in machinery to failure by government to pay private companies generating power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Officials from the energy ministry and private power suppliers attribute the shortage to low power generation and supply, and the increased costs of thermal generation. It is also true that the number of people seeking to be enlisted on the grid is on the rise as the population increases. Power supply has however been constrained, with the country relying on only one dam, Nalubaale, for power generation. This dam, which was constructed and opened in 1954, can no longer meet the power demands of the country. In 2000, another dam was constructed along the Owen falls dam to boost production. This did not however address the acute power shortages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Government has promised to address the crisis by constructing other dams in Bujagali and Karuma. Whereas Bujagali is expected to be opened in 6 months time, construction of Karuma is yet to begin. There is little hope though that the crisis will be adequately addressed because of the megawatts expected to come from Bujagali. This means the solution will be temporary. A permanent solution could lie in constructing small and multiple dams in various areas to meet situational and geographical power needs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Meanwhile, Kudos to parliament for suspending the increment of the electricity tariffs. Parliament has halted the electricity authority’s plans to increase electricity charges until all legal processes have been followed, and all stakeholders consulted. This has set ERA and parliament on a collision course with each party maintaining their stance on the matter. Parliament contends that ERA did not go through the necessary procedures established by the law to effect the changes, and so they should be suspended. ERA contends that parliament has no authority to block the increments. This impasse is likely to create more confusion around the issue of tariffs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The current crisis should enjoin government to seriously consider exploring other sources of energy like wind and solar. Hydro power has proved costly to produce, and may not be a panacea to the country’s power problems. Hydro power is largely vulnerable to the vagaries of nature and when the country is bedeviled by acute dry spells, water levels are adversely affected. This in turn affects power generation hence the incessant power crisis. Construction of hydropower dams has also attracted criticism from environmental activists who regard such huge dams as a big danger to environmental conservation and preservation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Taxes on such aspects like solar panels and generators should be examined by government to encourage their importation and use so as to minimize pressure on hydro power. Government should also marshal efforts to fast track the exploration of oil in the Albertine region so as to create opportunities for the emergence of thermal generation and increase availability of power in the country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Government should also create incentives to attract investment in the energy sector. In this regard a good tax regime and conducive political and economic environment are essential to realizing this goal. There is need to also consider the emerging debate in the country for the government to take over management of the power sector from the private investors up to such a time when the situation has stabilized.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The writer is a second year Masters student of journalism and communication at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.</span></i></b></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-33400469108146529722012-01-11T13:56:00.000-08:002012-01-11T13:56:34.743-08:00Prof Gilbert Bukenya’s re-election: about time we got a law to stop ex-convicts from contesting for public office<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By Pamela Nabukenya Wairagala</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On 1<sup>st</sup> December, former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya was declared winner of the by-election for the Busiro North parliamentary seat, which fell vacant early October after a successful law suit against Bukenya in which voter bribery was cited as the grounds for nullifying his victory.</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Surprisingly, Bukenya was among the four candidates that were successfully nominated by the Electoral Commission to contest in the by-election, which he went on to win with 10,728 votes (76.7% of valid votes cast) ahead of Kasta Hussein Bukenya whose successful petition had pulled the former Vice President out of the August house. Kasta, who was the second after Bukenya, polled 3,025 votes, representing 21.7% of the valid votes while the remaining two candidates barely managed 250 votes between them.</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Of interest however is the fact that in a constituency with 48,320 registered voters, only 14,518 (30%) participated in the by-election. Not even the Electoral Commission could explain the low turn-up and Mother Nature could not be blamed either, for the heavens only opened up at five o’clock, the official poll closing time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some circles have blamed the heavy police deployment for scaring away the voters, but I believe that for a population that got used to coming face to face with tear gas canister wielding policemen during the two editions of the “Walk to work” campaigns, when Gen. Kale Kayihura’s boys exhibited some of their not so popular antics, mere police presence is not deterrent enough. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Former VP, Prof Gilbert Bukenya in court awaiting judgement.</td></tr>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In his victory speech, the former VP said the voice of the people should not be mistaken this time around. “The people have re-affirmed what they stated in the February election,” Bukenya commented. But had they??</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If you are voted by 22% of the whole constituency, how legitimate is your representation? In essence, 78% have not sent you to speak on their behalf. Unfortunately this is becoming a common trend, even at general elections. The voter turn-up keeps reducing. Could it be that the voters have actually given up on the electoral process? Are the roots of voter apathy deepening? What then does this mean for a nascent democracy such as Uganda’s? Is there hope?</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But the Busiro North vote is just a tip of the iceberg. Whom does the electoral process in Uganda really serve? And what quality of democratic rule does it seek to foster? </span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Aren’t the three arms of government (The Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary) supposed to be independent but working together with clear roles and power stipulated by the constitution? Could it then be that these arms are not working for the common good, but undermining each other’s power and authority? How then do we explain the fact that someone who is found guilty by the Courts of law (the Judiciary) and subsequently thrown out of parliament (Legislature), is free to contest for the same seat, wins it and goes back to start exactly where they left off? Is it even worth it for tax papers’ money to continue being wasted in these so called by elections, with the current electoral law? Do the leaders, especially those that temporarily loose their seats, only to get them back, learn anything?</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Media reports claim that Prof. Bukenya opted not to have open campaigns, lest his political opponents mistook that for voter influencing! But was that the best lesson the good old Prof. could learn from this whole process? How about others like him, do they learn anything from temporarily becoming un-honourable? </span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">How about if the electoral law was more stringent? For example suspending or even completely banning politicians who are found guilty of committing electoral offences from participating in elective politics? Wouldn’t our good representatives act more honourably, especially when interfacing with their disadvantaged constituents?</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">While some may argue that voters should learn to reject the politicians’ bribes, the situation on ground is very different. For a common man for whom sugar, paraffin, soap and even salt have become a “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christmas</i>” affair, if some politician’s visit translates into “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christmas in February</i>”, so be it. </span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I believe that for as long as the electoral law remains unchanged, allowing convicted office bearers to contest for the same offices, voters will continue to be taken advantage of, and their votes exchanged for paltry offers. Until the rules change, the game will always be played the same way, with the same results!</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The writer is an MA student of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.</span></i></b></span></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-7333229495959209542012-01-11T06:07:00.000-08:002012-01-11T06:07:58.443-08:00Is the availability of cheap ARVs fanning the AIDS flame?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOeI_BQ6jnXsIH9MA_imrnB1ynJlpsszqCfpXlKPoIeHmeetn1zRzYWCbIYvr4f7wTGNChVjwzuqK0llKcaM9r-f2Wn4aeK6SZDJZoptIL0d00ZjfgiR57QCIEsrANZN8yBH_ze8hH-hx/s1600/arv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOeI_BQ6jnXsIH9MA_imrnB1ynJlpsszqCfpXlKPoIeHmeetn1zRzYWCbIYvr4f7wTGNChVjwzuqK0llKcaM9r-f2Wn4aeK6SZDJZoptIL0d00ZjfgiR57QCIEsrANZN8yBH_ze8hH-hx/s400/arv.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">By Rebecca Muyizzi</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Over the past two decades, President Yoweri Museveni has combined efforts with local, national and international organizations to campaign against the HIV/AIDS scourge, which has already claimed the lives of millions of people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, it is sad to note that AIDS continues not only to kill millions of people but also lower the life expectancy of Ugandans. This has also affected the country’s labor force, reduced agricultural output and food security and also weakened educational and the health services. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Surprisingly, many people don’t believe that Aids still kills. As much as HIV/ AIDS is a subject that has been talked about globally for many years, in many media channels, the society is still complacent. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is an assumption that, HIV/AIDS is like any other treatable disease. A friend of mine who works with the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) had this to say, “The current HIV prevalence rate in Uganda today is estimated at 6.5 among the adults and 0.7 among children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The number of new infections in 2009 was 120, 000, which exceeds the number of annual death toll in 2009 which was 64, 000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it is feared that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>HIV prevalence rate in Uganda may be rising.’’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, though many organizations like TASO, the Uganda Aids Commission, JCRC, government and private hospitals have come up to help reverse the situation, the HIV/AIDS scourge <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>still remains a challenge to individuals, families and societies at large. One wonders why the HIV prevalence rate is escalating. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Uganda as a country begun to implement routine or opt –out testing, where anybody can enter a health care facility, government hospitals and is tested.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of the reasons is that the availability of drugs like the ARVS delays the onset of the disease. Many people may look healthy but when they are already infected with the virus. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be believed that ARVs drugs have changed the perception of HIV/AIDS from a death sentence to a treatable manageable disease. This may have reduced the fear surrounding HIV and in return, it has caused an increase in risky behaviors. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One wonders, what can be done to change the behavior in society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If one talks about abstinence from sex, especially those who are not married, it is unbelievable, the society thinks it is not possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Abstinence could be one of the controversial areas in HIV prevention campaign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A teenager in my locality said, “We are in our adolescent age, trying to adventure in all activities including sex, how can someone say that abstinence is the way to go?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was so surprised to hear such a statement from a young boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, this revealed to me something<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which I thought would help parents, counselors and guardians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not enough to tell the youth that Aids is still a deadly disease, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but there is need to keep praying for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>them, such that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God assists them to understand the importance of being<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>male and female<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>creatures.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the old days, the virtue of virginity was so important and respected. Unfortunately these days’ young people shun it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">President Museveni has been encouraging the married people to be faithful to their partners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He normally uses the phrase “Zero- grazing”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This term comes from the agricultural practice of tying a cow or a goat to a post restricting it to a zero shaped section of grass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, in Uganda today there is an increase in multiple partnering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An official from the Ministry of Health made a comment that the number of sexually active Ugandans who are reported to have more than two or three sexual partners has increased in the previous<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>years. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What more could be done to stop the scourge that continues to spread like a wild fire?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em>The writer is a postgraduate MA student of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University.</em></strong></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-33125118031094892662012-01-11T06:00:00.000-08:002012-01-11T06:00:38.258-08:00Is Museveni talking peace with Besigye a New Year’s gift or round two of the Nairobi "peace jokes"?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By Julius Aboko</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is not that I don’t believe in surprises or better still, unlikely miracles. However, as I enjoyed seeing 2012 emerge from its shells, I woke to the really unexpected news (and possibly I am not alone in this) reading: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mkapa to chair Museveni, Besigye talks</b>. The news, which had been published in the New Vision, indicated that the two leaders have actually agreed to talk and resolve their differences.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCnR7w5lBKCfDxGENUC6si2j0xJTMoARLzdX8zRswX3rRjOib_niXZVNrNRcOqloFBnq-3WLF7Xulv7N53wcj7aYjbWa8MlArl1hI9aSJgbHu6Z51xLA984bkZQWpesTEq8TcPTmCR2iM/s1600/Kizza-Besigye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCnR7w5lBKCfDxGENUC6si2j0xJTMoARLzdX8zRswX3rRjOib_niXZVNrNRcOqloFBnq-3WLF7Xulv7N53wcj7aYjbWa8MlArl1hI9aSJgbHu6Z51xLA984bkZQWpesTEq8TcPTmCR2iM/s400/Kizza-Besigye.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Too good to be true: News that Beisgye (above) can talk peace with Museveni.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">According to the story, Besigye expects the talks to review the previous elections, campaign financing, electoral reforms as well as the restoration of the Presidential term limits. Museveni on the other hand is said to be ‘open to the talks’, but among others, asked Besigye to denounce the walk-to-work protests, denounce violence as a means to changing government and accept complicity in treason activities. </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Although I wanted to believe that the talks could actually take place, the nature of the two sets of demands looks, to me, like a rough edged stone being pushed through the mouth of a pot, which is not just clay, but badly undersized.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhABrbhyphenhyphenxlhulDApoGnSTZdqvLaz5tVlvk5d7h42Vwm01eOU5Kt2iv9dCSJs3ltfy-N7n2__WhSEjIBJp6zmb5dqI_qt1QHMOgKGcEyMAm-4QyOz5yz3zZcjxJfKx2689Vb9Ge_Mq7lJtK9/s1600/Museveni.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhABrbhyphenhyphenxlhulDApoGnSTZdqvLaz5tVlvk5d7h42Vwm01eOU5Kt2iv9dCSJs3ltfy-N7n2__WhSEjIBJp6zmb5dqI_qt1QHMOgKGcEyMAm-4QyOz5yz3zZcjxJfKx2689Vb9Ge_Mq7lJtK9/s320/Museveni.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Having derailed the Nairobi peace talks a.k.a "peace jokes" in 1985,<br />
can Museveni be trusted to engage in peace talks with Besigye?</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">One does wonder how comfortable Museveni will be in discussing campaign financing, yet he knows tough questions like the sh20m, which was given to MPs to purportedly supervise NAADS during campaigns, will most likely come up?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How will Museveni convince Besigye that the NRM got its over sh20b campaign money through clean processes, yet the FDC leader believes the President’s party used state resources?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">How will Besigye accept complicity in treason activities, yet he knows those charges were preferred against him and colleague activists as a political witch-hunt tool?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, assuming the highlighted issues will really form the backbone of the proposed talks, does anyone see a light at the end of the tunnel? I don’t quite think so. Anyway, if it comes, and the parties agree, then it’s worth celebrations. But, first pray that it doesn’t turn out to be a joke.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The writer is a postgraduate MA student of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-23602196149530937412011-12-27T09:55:00.000-08:002011-12-27T09:55:49.998-08:00Kim Jong Un: should sons and daughters of former presidents be allowed to rule?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><strong>By <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kabuga Daniel Mulindwa<em> </em></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">North Korea is in the spotlight after the death of the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-il. North Korea should be of interest to us for two reasons: it seems to exist outside the western tradition—operating under a communist ideology and eschewing elections. The latter settled succession debates after the death of Kim Jong II. Botswana and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are similar to North Korea because in both countries, the sons of former presidents are at the helm of political office. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrTaadbeSvRupIg0dRJJj6NBNbMzaCLQuGiX2IlHJ6RUicgxyYG73zROVsD9EiSS9ejXKv37FotQ1LDUQTU9VuxgRvvx8xJ7IABMt0xY6A9o7i2u6NszAtsMNesSZcOa2b6EdqCHQ19QRE/s1600/kim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrTaadbeSvRupIg0dRJJj6NBNbMzaCLQuGiX2IlHJ6RUicgxyYG73zROVsD9EiSS9ejXKv37FotQ1LDUQTU9VuxgRvvx8xJ7IABMt0xY6A9o7i2u6NszAtsMNesSZcOa2b6EdqCHQ19QRE/s320/kim.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kim Jong Un, the new president of North Korea.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">All this brings to mind a question; should sons and daughters of former presidents be allowed to rule? Col. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the first born son of Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been in the eye of the storm since the recent succession debates for Uganda’s presidency started. When President Yoweri Museveni transformed the Presidential Guard Brigade into an elite branch of the Ugandan Army naming it the Special Forces Group, Ugandans became suspicious that he was doing it to prepare his son to succeed him. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDT7ERUg3d1AyTg0IFNjfr6-rQUvhDf4gx7oI55K9aKnxR-AugvqgH_NEMIdp4HulGxNfg3dUthbXqUhpLlP857K9jt5FLVLoGxCnVn-y6NO1WdXNhKsulN3j8WrNkrqIQvuX9sGcOD-PH/s1600/Kim+Jong+Un+family.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDT7ERUg3d1AyTg0IFNjfr6-rQUvhDf4gx7oI55K9aKnxR-AugvqgH_NEMIdp4HulGxNfg3dUthbXqUhpLlP857K9jt5FLVLoGxCnVn-y6NO1WdXNhKsulN3j8WrNkrqIQvuX9sGcOD-PH/s1600/Kim+Jong+Un+family.bmp" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A younger Kim Jong Un sitting next to his father. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A lot of opinion disapproving President Museveni has been voiced in the Ugandan media. Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu, a former army commander in the government and now a top Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) politician wondered, “Is it for national security or is it for personal political survival? That is what we have to keep watching.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Subsequently, journalists questioned Muhoozi about his father’s intention to groom him for the top office. Muhoozi flatly denied it, “His Excellency President Yoweri Museveni is not grooming me for the presidency,” he said, adding, “avenues to become President in Uganda are clearly laid down in Uganda’s constitution. If any Ugandan citizen meets these criteria and wins elections, he or she will automatically assume that office.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes! That’s how it should be but will it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We should remember that Adolf Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte, Idi Amin, Joseph Stalin, Milton Obote and many other world leaders had special armies. Saddam Hussein and Mobutu Sese Seko had their sons in their elite armies. Mobutu’s son actually commanded his Special Presidential Division. But the elite armies generally failed to install the first sons as presidents. But there are some sons of presidents who took the army route and became presidents. Joseph Kabila and Ian Khama are immediate examples.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Will Muhoozi emulate Ian Khama or be as lucky as Kim Jong Un?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ian Khama is the current President of Botswana having assumed power only two years ago. Muhoozi and Khama share a few things in common. Both are sons of Presidents; Ian Khama is the first son of the much revered Seretse Khama (RIP) the first President of Botswana and Muhoozi is the son of Uganda’s current President Yoweri Museveni.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ian Khama attended Sand Hurst and served in his country’s army rising to the position of army commander. Muhoozi has done all that except becoming army commander. Instead, he commands the Special Forces Group. The eccentric difference between the two men is that Khama is unmarried and has no girl friend at fifty seven (the Khama brand could end with him). Probably he’s so busy with important national issues like Uganda’s UPC President Olara Otunnu to have time for ‘trivial’ matters like women (the women reading this are not trivial). </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHHrK8EceWduiegF3WYeLsLFi_l_YAMvrUFJxK-ibYr5YRNXhrmelH8V31ufVYse4GLwHgquzWnhew7dEqOMoy1ZBXhzLlFzMQlRYBlmBIXUOcLAalsYOO6QVexWhtNLNYDSySjncpDAZu/s1600/muhoozi_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHHrK8EceWduiegF3WYeLsLFi_l_YAMvrUFJxK-ibYr5YRNXhrmelH8V31ufVYse4GLwHgquzWnhew7dEqOMoy1ZBXhzLlFzMQlRYBlmBIXUOcLAalsYOO6QVexWhtNLNYDSySjncpDAZu/s400/muhoozi_3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Col. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, standing with his parents.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Muhoozi’s situation may be more difficult than Khama’s or Kim Jong Un. Imagine a situation where President Museveni tries to push his own son ahead of ‘the queue’ by-passing the veteran members who’ve been waiting patiently in line to reach the teller. Before other Ugandans like Besigye would make an alarm, those in the queue would be the first to call the Saracen Askari at the bank’s door to keep this guy in the line— behind them. It happened in Kenya when old Baba Daniel Arap Moi tried to bring in Uhuru Kenyatta, son of former president Jomo Kenyatta to succeed him as president of Kenya. The old KANU politicians could not hear of it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moi and Uhuru’s plan was thwarted although Uhuru has worked his way up the ladder and is currently the Minister of Finance. </span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC3Ko8TwFgMM5O5RjQ62oXMXSLjCMe9oRAyHwwkOypOXUJk7A1JTODiRHnjYcIaK7O_Wr25dDZRRyB3jFl-E5n2HCq1yCkBUDYIr8xFDHxpPiSpIu2AlVpho2wVBP9_dUzfDRkyF1feEgG/s1600/Ian+Khama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="209" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC3Ko8TwFgMM5O5RjQ62oXMXSLjCMe9oRAyHwwkOypOXUJk7A1JTODiRHnjYcIaK7O_Wr25dDZRRyB3jFl-E5n2HCq1yCkBUDYIr8xFDHxpPiSpIu2AlVpho2wVBP9_dUzfDRkyF1feEgG/s320/Ian+Khama.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ian Khama, president of Botswana.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Even the military option makes Muhoozi’s succession uncertain. With the current democratic wave, it may be difficult for any individual to rule by military means let alone being handpicked and imposed on the system. Serious lobbying, networking and consensus building must take place at least within the NRM party. Neither money nor guns are sufficient. Uganda has become too dynamic for parochial political approaches. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Muhoozi has been accused of being inept but such accusations have not been elucidated. Otherwise he should be given chance to meet the voters. He could contest after retiring from the army and, he doesn’t have to contest for President in 2016. This could be after the successor of his father. The odds against him are many if he attempts to be president now; his chances for victory are very slim. Having a god-father may not be sufficient for anybody to win the top office and be sustained there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Politics demands boundless energy, resolute character, being astute and eloquent. Thabo Mbeki the former South African President came to the limelight because he was a son to Govan Mbeki, a freedom fighter and a member of Nelson Mandela’s inner circle. But most importantly he possessed political acumen and was an intellectual. The ANC big men spotted talent in him and nurtured and supported him. Off the African continent, the world reminisces sons and daughters of former top politicians who performed exceptionally as presidents or prime ministers. John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States whose great ability history acknowledges his sonship to the second president of that country notwithstanding.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCIscBr3zfODt1AkXaRl3xbuxQPRg2BaGh-9VTE8J1jwdzamk_3z_1EXxDl7ROk967kcVtuG8UGt-0ScikyqxyxiTV71yqbEsamBwNOddaNw1_wBZ_eMbm0I5oG5FAyHWTcC4v2bAzfQsJ/s1600/kagame+kids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="288" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCIscBr3zfODt1AkXaRl3xbuxQPRg2BaGh-9VTE8J1jwdzamk_3z_1EXxDl7ROk967kcVtuG8UGt-0ScikyqxyxiTV71yqbEsamBwNOddaNw1_wBZ_eMbm0I5oG5FAyHWTcC4v2bAzfQsJ/s400/kagame+kids.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rwandan president Paul Kagame at the graduation ceremony of his son (right) from Westpoint Military academy, USA.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Benazir Bhutto, erstwhile lady prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996 was the daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikir Ali Bhutto from 1971 to 1977. But years before becoming prime minister, she had been elected as the first Asian female to serve as President of the Oxford Union. I don’t think she was elected to the post just because she was the daughter of a prime minister. Indira Ghandi a former prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984 was the only child of former prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru. Indira Ghandi won the elections to become India’s prime minister two years after the death of her father. She remained a maze to India’s senior political leaders in the dominant Congress Party who had doubted her ability. Notice that each of these ladies made a comeback to the top office after the death of their fathers; a sign of endurance, resilience and intelligence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">That aside, India and Pakistan at that time had some of the most turbulent, hostile and erratic politics in Asia. Meddling in politics was akin to climbing a slippery mountain with stones and broken glasses on a rainy day. No wonder the two ladies died in brutal assassinations but not after they had proven to the world that the children of former prime ministers have what it takes to lead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is also necessary to remember that the world’s notorious dictators— Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, Augusto Pinochet, Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Wazabanga Ngimbendo (the only cock), Badel Bokasa, Josef Stalin, Samuel Doe etc were not sons of former prime ministers or presidents. The problem seems to be the way leaders assume power or whether there are checks and balances in the political systems that determine the way they govern. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Talent and ability are a scarce resource. No prejudice should hinder us from getting them even though they<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a> may abide in the presidents quarters. Instead of shrugging our shoulders in rejection, individuals like Muhoozi should be allowed to face democratic processes. If the Julianas (voters) testify, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘guno munnyo gwenyini,’</i> (they are worthy), then they should lead. What I regard as evil is when talented men are left on the sidelines and less able ones are invited to enjoy the spoils of power.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kabuga Daniel Mulindwa is a postgraduate student of MA in Journalism and Communication at Makerere University</span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-78759011223718176972011-12-23T01:04:00.000-08:002011-12-23T01:18:53.569-08:00KARAMOJA: Where desolation and poverty reigns amid 'hidden' treasure<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #fff9ee; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By Irene Nakasiita</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today at church, we were praying for the marginalised groups in the country and one of my friends was wondering how many more ethnic groups fall under that category apart from the Batwa: I rushed to mention the Karimojongs, and another voice from the back loudly said “No”.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“A </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">marginalized</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> group is poor, but Karamoja has a lot of wealth, they have probably not yet realised how rich they are,” she added.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF87z9p-gEe-B4lk6DN39tuGDzit1KRx_YybnzvturgzTqKSUq97Sguf3G-hXZx1m55sFAtIj06aeZETPdXe-2hwnmZZAGzkzzsYg780HMvcsFMtqdPRC2BvOTqqXtpHh6BB6rm1Cs9mgY/s1600/artisinalgoldmine_karamoja-6_10382.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF87z9p-gEe-B4lk6DN39tuGDzit1KRx_YybnzvturgzTqKSUq97Sguf3G-hXZx1m55sFAtIj06aeZETPdXe-2hwnmZZAGzkzzsYg780HMvcsFMtqdPRC2BvOTqqXtpHh6BB6rm1Cs9mgY/s320/artisinalgoldmine_karamoja-6_10382.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LAND OF HIDDEN TREASURE:<br />
A young Karimojong girl working in the mines .</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This special prayer meeting reminded me of the presentation we did in class about minority groups in Uganda.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the reasons that make such groups to be termed as “minority” is the fact that they are underprivileged. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, research has it that Karamoja is one of the wealthiest regions of Uganda. It has great mineral deposits and vast land. A great Uganda might sprout out of Karamoja. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But one wonders, despite this great wealth, no one in Parliament was ready to be the minister for Karamoja. The First Lady, Mrs.</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Janet Museveni, who is also MP for Ruhama County, is said to have volunteered to serve in this “unwanted” position, and seems to be thriving.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFWYhcUhkgfch5vrTVsylooav4NdXjsJgZlNOzk0rK2DHnaQbd8mlkRyvR2xpXA7JF9iNbMKYSPZNxSb6FMVDMLDDBO9NFsn3v3eqClfh_XfRYToVXc7ZN5rU1apWI-J8QuwsX9_GiPpi/s1600/karamoja_women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwFWYhcUhkgfch5vrTVsylooav4NdXjsJgZlNOzk0rK2DHnaQbd8mlkRyvR2xpXA7JF9iNbMKYSPZNxSb6FMVDMLDDBO9NFsn3v3eqClfh_XfRYToVXc7ZN5rU1apWI-J8QuwsX9_GiPpi/s320/karamoja_women.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CALL OF DUTY OR GOLD RUSH: <br />
Janet Museveni greeting Karimojong women.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>O</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">n March 9, 2009 Museveni explained his wife’s ministerial appointment to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that: “Since many of our elite ministers did not want to work in Karamoja, I asked Janet to help me develop one of the backward areas of our country.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As if his wife would be insecure there, the same president appointed his half-brother, in the position of presidential advisor on defense matters, Salim Saleh a.k.a Caleb Akandwanaho, to oversee implementation of security in the land.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Until now, no minister seems to feel better enough to succeed Janet in ministering to the “underprivileged” region. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Just like Karamoja, many other regions in the country are in a destitute state ye t they are naturally gifted and blessed with great resources. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSI8RrC9W7Q9zky6rdJKw91k7VVI8ShTsNwDW1Ie7891CoMryQ0A_LawU5rxLqaVVO0SlvJ-4_jRGnBl0qw4gjbXLN1HDUtu7Y6LIESKgN9urQY3EpfF9oTvcr4WW6kMminGbVqPDZSsSo/s1600/KaramojongWarrior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSI8RrC9W7Q9zky6rdJKw91k7VVI8ShTsNwDW1Ie7891CoMryQ0A_LawU5rxLqaVVO0SlvJ-4_jRGnBl0qw4gjbXLN1HDUtu7Y6LIESKgN9urQY3EpfF9oTvcr4WW6kMminGbVqPDZSsSo/s1600/KaramojongWarrior.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A PROUD PEOPLE: A typical Karimojong warrior. </td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is just a matter of the country’s leadership being good stewards of the country’s resources and Uganda will take off to the economic stratosphere. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Apparently, the programmes running in northern Uganda are not anywhere near gold mining rather too agricultural. Food security is not the only rapid response needed in the land to curb poverty.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The leadership however, has been focusing too much on the NAADS programmes rather than opening the eyes of the locals to the great gold deposits in Kaboong and other parts.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"We want to see how (local people's) minds can be engaged in production so that they are not at the periphery but participating in development alternatives," said Pius Bigirimana, permanent secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister. <br /><br />However, one wonders how the local people will benefit from the wealth in their land. Since much activity has not taken place, let’s watch and pray for the best out of this.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Irene Nakasiita is a second year Masters Student at Makerere University, Department of Journalism & Mass Communication</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-77178756822156030192011-12-23T00:23:00.000-08:002011-12-23T00:26:43.277-08:00How Uganda’s ‘strongmen’ have killed democracy<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">By Peter Nyanzi</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Over the past three decades, President Yoweri Museveni has invested much effort in ensuring that good governance and democracy are entrenched in Uganda’s politics. As soon as he took over power in 1986, Mr Museveni’s government embarked on the laborious and expensive task of drafting a new Constitution to form the foundation on which wide-ranging political reforms, good governance and social transformation would be built. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Indeed, the 1995 Constitution was drafted, debated and promulgated with the noble aim of “building a better future by establishing a socio-economic and political order … based on the principles of unity, peace, equality, democracy, freedom, social justice and progress.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">To that end, the State was mandated by the Constitution to endeavor to mobilise, organise and empower the people to build <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">independent</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sustainable foundations</i> for the development of Uganda and to guarantee and respect the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">independence</i> of organisations that protect and promote human rights. In the same spirit, more than 10 institutions were created by the Constitution, which are supposed to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">independent</i> and “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">must not be subject to the control and direction of any person or authority in the performance of their duties</i>.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">These institutions – the majority of them oversight institutions – include the Uganda Human Rights Commission, Electoral Commission, Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Judicial Service Commission and Bank of Uganda. The others are, the Office of the Auditor General, Public Service Commission, Education Service Commission, Health Service Commission, and the Inspectorate of Government.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Implicitly, the other two arms of the state - the Judiciary and Parliament - are also supposed to be independent of the Executive in line with the universally-acclaimed principle of ‘separation of powers.’ This is intended to ensure adequate ‘checks and balances’ as a safeguard against dictatorship so that one arm of the State does not wield absolute power.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Why independence?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The framers of the Constitution purposely shielded the 10 institutions from external control or and direction because they knew that these <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">independent state/public institutions would have a big role to play </span>in consolidating democratic governance and an accountable government. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There are other non-state institutions such as the Church, the media and civil society organizations, which are also supposed to be independent and autonomous; given their importance as bulwarks against autocracy, bad governance and abuse of public office. Indeed, these institutions are necessary to safeguard the public interest by standing as ‘a go between’ for the private sphere and the State, which is why it is absolutely important that they are autonomous, independent and free from bias as a result of external State influences.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Over the past 25 years, President Museveni’s government has been credited for setting up dozens of other semi-autonomous bodies under various ministries to support public service provision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These include the authorities – such as UFA, URA, CAA, ERA, NEMA, UIA, KCCA, UCC, etc) and corporations such as UBC, NW&SC, and semi-autonomous entities such as Vision Group and NAADS.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A MERE CHANGE OF GUARD OR FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE? Yoweri Kaguta Museveni swearing-in as president in 1986 soon after his National Resistance Army rebels captured power. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">25 YEARS LATER, NOT YET UHURU: While the NRM has made significant improvement in the area of security, and economic recovery, allegations of bribery, corruption, nepotism, and human rights violations continue to dog Gen Yoweri Kaguta Museveni's government. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">However, one does not dig too deep to note that the independence of most if not all of these venerable institutions has been compromised, politicized or abused under President Museveni’s regime. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every one of them, notably the IGG, Bank of Uganda, the various Commissions and the DPP have totally lost the shine on their independence and autonomy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically, it is President Museveni who pushed for their creation who has contributed most to this state of affairs. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Strong institutions vital to democracy</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">On his first trip to the African continent in July 2009 only months after being elected US President, Mr Barack Obama famously stated that, “Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.” Indeed, Uganda is gradually moving back to a situation whereby a few strongmen are more powerful than the august institutions that are supposed to protect the public interest and ‘public goods.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We see what ACODE Executive Director Godbar Tumushabe describes as “strategic political opportunism” that has put these noble institutions under immense pressure from “entrenched interests” and “patronage networks” that make it impossible for them to achieve their constitutional mandate and eventually the long-term development and governance objectives of the country. All these key institutions have lost credibility in the eyes of the public because of patronage and public service delivery is suffering.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I think it is not too late to reverse this trend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do agree with President Obama that Uganda indeed does need strong and independent institutions more than a strong Presidency. One way to avoid this is to ensure that the heads of these institutions are not appointed by the President, because there is a danger of one pandering to the whims of the appointing authority.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If institutions were given the legroom and freedom to do their work professionally without undue external pressure, President Museveni would not even have too much work to do and he would perform his mandate more effectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Assuming the various organs of an organism are doing their roles well without any disruption, the brain would not have to work a lot. Yet, here we are with a President who is stressed, overworked and losing control because almost everything is referred to his attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it any wonder that he has never taken a holiday like his peers in other countries do every year?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In this new term of office, the NRM can determine to revisit the ideals of the past, rebuild trust in institutions and give them the freedom to fulfill their mandate, which as I have already stated, is the bedrock of accountable government, the rule of law and democratic governance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The writer is an MA student of Journalism & Communication at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.</span></i></b></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-76968521081845385832011-12-21T08:37:00.000-08:002011-12-23T00:53:28.200-08:00Daring to be different: inside the life of award-winning Ugandan gay rights activist Frank Mugisha<br />
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<b>By Patience Akumu</b></div>
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Frank Mugisha, 29, pulls up in his red sports car. Nothing too fancy, but you can tell it is one of those cars the owner has developed a personal relationship with - old number plate, faded paint…. He lowers his windows and flashes his trade-mark smile - the smile of a man who has negotiated the tricky path of advocating for the rights of homosexual people in Uganda since 2004. </div>
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In a country where the socio-legal regime outlaws homosexuality and most people support the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which if made law would make some homosexual acts punishable by death, Mugisha has sure had his fair share of bumps, potholes and tight corners. His facebook page describes him as: “Out and proud.”</div>
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Today, he is not focusing on the battles lost, the lives taken, the humiliation, or the media bashing that are part and parcel of the lives of LGBTIs (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Intersex people) in Uganda. He is too elated and humbled by the Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Human Rights award he received on 11<sup>th</sup> November, he says. The award was established in 1984 to honour innovative people striving for social justice throughout the world. It recognises the kind of courageous activism associated with former U.S Attorney General and New York Senator (Dem) Robert F. Kennedy, a noted civil rights activist.</div>
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This is not the only reason Mugisha is smiling. Under his leadership, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), the umbrella organization for homosexual rights groups in Uganda also won the 2011 Rafto Prize award, which seeks to promote intellectual and political freedom, and is awarded to voices that are otherwise oppressed by corrupt regimes. Mugisha received the award on behalf of SMUG on 6<sup>th</sup> November in Norway.</div>
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Winning two international awards within one month is no mean feat. Mugisha says it is because of the unique situation of LGBT people in Uganda, a country which has shown unbridled homophobia. He adds that fighting for homosexual rights in Uganda and living as a homosexual is not easy. And that no amount of money or influence would make anyone choose to live as a homosexual.</div>
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“It is who we are. We cannot do anything about it,” he says, adding that he has always known he was a homosexual since childhood.</div>
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But tracing his childhood and familial background is something of a sensitive issue. Revealing the Kampala suburb where he grew up might make it easy for people who hate homosexuals to identify his exact home and possibly make his family a target, he cautions.</div>
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Sitting peacefully at the balcony of his apartment and taking in the serenity of his surroundings, the idea that someone would witch-hunt him, let alone his family, seems far-fetched. Yet, the November 2010 Rolling Stone newspaper incidence, where the now defunct Rolling stone newspaper printed the names, pictures and addresses of supposed homosexuals with a call to “hang them” is still fresh in Mugisha’s mind.</div>
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“I would like to tell you all about me. But the reality is different when you live as a homosexual. I have to protect my family, my friends and other homosexuals who have not yet come out.”</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 2011 Rafto Prize laureate, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), represented by Frank Mugisha (right), Executive Director of SMUG and Pepe, Program Coordinator at SMUG, during the torchlight procession after the award ceremony at the National Venue of Theatre in Bergen on 6 November 2011. Photo: Liv-Randi Lind and Oddmund Lunde.</td></tr>
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Mugisha says that his present residence is safe. His land lord knows he is a homosexual, while the neighbors mind their own business. This is unlike his previous home where he tells of how the neighbours would peer at him and keep tabs on all his visitors.</div>
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“They would be very confused today because I brought home a pregnant woman,” he chuckles, looking pointedly at my swollen belly.</div>
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It is for this same reason he does not want the schools he went to published in the media. He however reveals that he was something of an academic high flyer, scoring aggregate 8 in Primary Seven and later 16 points at A’ Level. This, he attributes to the fact that he went to top schools in the country. For High School he was at a catholic single school that today ranks in the top five.<br />
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Mugisha does not remember exactly what he scored at 0’ Level, but he says they were good marks.</div>
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“I never had to make a CV. I have been doing activism work si<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4094781687039267396" name="_GoBack"></a>nce 2004 when I was at University. That is why I do not remember all the details of my marks.”</div>
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Mugisha went to Kyambogo University where he started the group Ice Breakers so he could relate to people of similar orientation. “We were not out to make noise or anything. We would just get together and talk about things affecting us,” he says.</div>
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Mugisha however, found himself writing passionate articles to mainstream media and on the internet, all of them in reaction to the remarks politicians and church leaders would make that he felt violated the rights of homosexuals. He wrote letters to the New Vision and The Daily Monitor, and contributed to online magazines like Queer Ty and Behind the Mask. He also contributed to LGBTI friendly blogs. Mugisha graduated with an Upper Second Bachelor’s Degree in Graphics Design. In 2007, he became chair of Sexual Minorities Uganda and went on to design their first newsletter.</div>
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Far from being proud of his achievements as a human rights activist and international award winner, Mugisha says the schools he went to would be offended if he mentioned their names.</div>
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“I think even if an LGBTI person won gold for this country they would never be appreciated,” he adds, and you can detect the disappointment in his voice.</div>
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Mugisha may have lost friends along the way for being openly homosexual, but he says today there are a lot of people who care and understand him. “They know I am not a child molester. And they have never seen any white man trying to convert me. They realise I am a good person,” he says.</div>
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Mugisha credits this to the relentless activism of the LGBTI community. “A small percentage of particularly the elites now appreciates that we are also human beings.” Also, the people who matter the most, like his mother and only brother, are fine with who he is and what he does.</div>
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“Some people think the awards are a shame. When I called my mother, she had already heard about it in the media. She is happy for me.”</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frank Mugisha, receiving the RAFTO award.</td></tr>
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Mugisha says that the best part of winning the awards is the fact that they highlight once again that homosexual rights are also human rights. And also, it sends an important message to young activists that they too can be recognized for their work.</div>
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One of Mugisha’s very close friends, a homosexual male, describes him as an “open, generous and happy person.” While another says he has never met anyone quite like him. But does this kind of open generosity warrant an award?</div>
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“Definitely,” says one of them. “It is hard doing what he does.” Asked if he would, like Mugisha, ever come out, he says: “No! Are you crazy? My parents would kill themselves.”</div>
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It is getting dark, and Mugisha’s Apple iphone is incessantly ringing. He has to go and meet his partner of three years. It is time to say good bye to the spotless apartment with pretty furniture, and the numerous pairs of stylish shoes that fill half his corridor. One of them was lucky enough to grace his feet when he stepped up to receive his medals of honour.</div>
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The writer is a second year Master of Arts student of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University. She writes for the bi-weekly Observer newspaper in Uganda <a href="http://observer.ug/">http://observer.ug/</a> specializing in human rights reporting and coverage. <i>veroak2001@yahoo.com</i></div>
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<br /></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-44630507143896387552011-12-01T05:48:00.001-08:002011-12-01T06:08:42.026-08:00WORLD AIDS SPECIAL: About time Uganda rethinks its HIV/AIDS strategy<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">By Arthur Oyako</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yesterday a friend gave me information that should have shocked me but it did not. She said the HIV infection rates in Uganda had a hit a new all-time high.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“In Uganda 356 people get infected with HIV every day,” she said. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">While this is a high number to live with, the country has lately taken on trends that would, if not encourage the spread of AIDS, provide a platform for an escalation of the pandemic. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Looking at where the Uganda HIV/AIDS story begun, it is unfortunate to note that what was once an international case study for major populations grappling with the AIDS scourge, Uganda is slowly becoming a failure at managing the once health threatening pandemic.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9LoyLhPEj-fqPqLUEBYBPJBhEJPmrjfQBow5Ma7NSgzpZgGr7WCRzS_3IsvKR9GcAeND5D22Hn-qGHnyS5agl63J4040acOBhSd2vEF9DmLjKfrfTUmFUDPNkELgQkqnigytujS1Sqg6W/s1600/aids_ribbon.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9LoyLhPEj-fqPqLUEBYBPJBhEJPmrjfQBow5Ma7NSgzpZgGr7WCRzS_3IsvKR9GcAeND5D22Hn-qGHnyS5agl63J4040acOBhSd2vEF9DmLjKfrfTUmFUDPNkELgQkqnigytujS1Sqg6W/s400/aids_ribbon.bmp" width="336" /></a></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The scope of Uganda's success published in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lancet</i></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> M</span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">edical Journal</span></i></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> in 2002 questioned the dramatic decline that Ugandan leaders had boasted about over the years. </span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The same report claimed that statistics were distorted through inaccurate extrapolation of data from small urban clinics to the entire population, nearly 90 per cent of whom live in rural areas.</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_Uganda#cite_note-10"></a></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Also, recent trials of the HIV drug <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nevirapine</i> have come under intense scrutiny and criticism.</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As if that is not bad enough, the Global Alliance on Vaccines (GAVI) alongside the Global Fund have yet again cut funds towards the fight of HIV in Uganda<a href="http://www.blogger.com/" name="_GoBack"></a>. Their reason for this move is that Ugandans are corrupt and cannot account for the monies they receive. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One wonders if that money would not have come in handy in crafting some radio and television advertisements for a media awareness campaign to step up the AIDS fight. Would we not style up our act if not just this once? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Just last year, the BBC carried a report on the increase of HIV in Uganda, and when I shared it with a few colleagues they jokingly told me that life was too short to live worrying about HIV. And besides, there was a way of living a healthy and productive life for decades to come. In short, there was nothing to worry about. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One day at an adolescent’s seminar at one of the upscale secondary schools, I realised that while there was a general fear of contracting HIV/AIDS, the fear of getting pregnant was higher amongst most students. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That begs the question, what has become of society? Is there need to revisit the many AIDS campaigns and policies from the early 1990’? Is there a need to redesign these messages, and if so, who should these messages target? </span> </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1SIhvCAjrytch7TSzgKQJOvW5XcFSOvcAZ_kkIPvt3DNOoMwQdJJ2Zlmh_JMEfiBwa0QTIK1l190sy2nXr03Eng-2KsLizjprZC1aF04tv9KP5ba1JDicTssDwM4h07Qtv7i_0Wg3rOWm/s1600/GideonByamugisha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1SIhvCAjrytch7TSzgKQJOvW5XcFSOvcAZ_kkIPvt3DNOoMwQdJJ2Zlmh_JMEfiBwa0QTIK1l190sy2nXr03Eng-2KsLizjprZC1aF04tv9KP5ba1JDicTssDwM4h07Qtv7i_0Wg3rOWm/s200/GideonByamugisha.jpg" width="145" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Canon Gideon Byamugisha, one of Uganda's leading AIDS activists.</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Current statistics show that there is an increase in HIV among the married more than the young and single.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The challenge here is that the same girls that we (my age mates and I) would have probably felt more comfortable associating with are also the very same ones being targeted by the older men, including those who are married.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The older women are no better at protecting the younger boys either, and yet there is a likelihood that consistence at condom use for the sexually active is bound to fall as people become regular sex partners. </span></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif";">Arthur Oyako is a 2<sup>nd </sup>year Masters student of Journalism and Communication, Makerere University, Kampala. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Garamond", "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-89503905582997470392011-12-01T02:55:00.001-08:002011-12-01T03:17:20.111-08:00Why Autocrats Drag Their Families in State Affairs<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>By James Thembo</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">There are times when one’s gathered thoughts lead to the conclusion that some leaders intentionally toil towards their ill-fate, and then that of their family. Let us explore this starting with the fresh occurrences in Libya.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">November 18<sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup> 2011 came with two big prizes for the National Transitional Council, the new leaders in Libya: The capture of Seif Al-Islam and Abdulla Al-Senussi. The former was, until his father’s slaughter, the presidential heir-apparent while the latter was the powerful brother-in-law to Muamar Abu Minyar Al-Gaddafi. He was the intelligence chief of the Gaddafi regime and was associated with a myriad of atrocities. The two captives are wanted by the International Criminal Court.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Seif Islam is a Western educated sleek face who acted like an informal Prime minister of Libya. He recommended ministers and recruited the dreadful mercenaries whose acts sustained Gaddafi’s response to the Benghazi-based rebels. Needless to say, he was loaded with money and businesses and sporadically ran his dad’s charities, including one to the mighty London School of Economics. Other Gaddafi children, seven in number, were absorbed in state affairs with varying degrees of meddling. Three of them; Saif Al-Arab, Khamis and Mo’tassim were killed fighting NTC forces. </span><br />
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #4f81bd;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Five of Gaddafi’s sons, two of whom died fighting NTC rebels and a third bombed by NATO.</span></span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Many such cases are sprinkled across Africa. Eyadema senior in Togo was succeeded by his son Faure Gnassingbe Eyadema. It was the same story in Gabon where deceased Omar Bongo was substituted by his long geared-up son, Ben Ali Bongo. Ben Ali of Tunisia and Mubarak of Egypt were scheming the same transgression until their stratagem was thwarted by the Arab Spring. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was a rushed substitution, monarchy style, of eliminated Laurent by young Joseph…and a Mobutu son who is a presidential contender this year (2011) is failing to convince voters that his mission is not re-establishment of ‘Mobutuism.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Imagination is good. So visualize how nosy the children of Idi Amin and Jean Bokasa (in Uganda and Central African Republic) would be if they became adults at State House! These two rulers’ offsprings at a pre-teen age were already receiving first rate state medals of achievement when their fathers were toppled.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is why I think these things happen. Dictators, especially in Africa, have molded the practice of taking care of their own into a form of fine art. If it is not nepotistic job offers, it is business rewards using taxpayers’ money… (making P.A.Y.E, one of the top taxes griping citizens’ throats in Uganda echo like: Pay As Yoweri Enjoys!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Again in Uganda, journalist Andrew Mwenda on March 11, 2009 wrote a story in The Independent titled:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Family Rule In Uganda. </i>He quoted American journalist David Lamb in his book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Africans</i> (p. 9) thus:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">“William Tolbert, the assassinated Liberian President had his brother Frank as pro tempore to the Senate, his brother Steven was minister of finance, his sister Lucia was Mayor of Bentol City, his son A.B was an ambassador at large, his daughter Wilhelimina was the Presidential physician, his daughter Christine was deputy minister of education, his niece Tula was the Presidential dietician, his three nephews were assistant minister of Presidential affairs, agricultural attaché’ to Rome and vice governor of the national Bank, his four sons-in-law held positions as minister of defense, deputy minister of public works, commissioner for migration and board member of Air Liberia. One brother-in-law was ambassador to Guinea, another was in the Liberian Senate, and a third was mayor of Monrovia.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Uuhhh, you sigh to even-out your breath after reading the quote. But again, you gather your thoughts: How does the extract above compare with Uganda’s current nepotism? Has anything changed since Mwenda wrote his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Family Rule in Uganda</i> story and later adding another article, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">By-bye Republic of Uganda, Welcome Rwakitura Kingdom</i>? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">In the first article, critical Mwenda gave a vast number of Museveni’s relatives and in-laws in government while in the second piece, he wrote: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">“And so, we have finally neared the summit of our journey from the Republic of Uganda to the Kingdom of Rwakitura under the Kaguta dynasty.” This media celebrity concluded his articles by stating: “Short of walking nude on the streets of Kampala, there is nothing that Museveni can do that can shock anyone anymore…he behaves like Nyungu Ya Maawe of 19<sup>th</sup> century Nyamwezi.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">So, yes, a few key things have changed, beginning with Mwenda himself. He is now a part-time critic; infrequently condemning Museveni’s unchanging government and praising it under the same breath. Mrs. Museveni has since become a full cabinet minister while first son Muhoozi is in-charge of his dad’s security. Muhoozi allegedly recruited members of the presidential guard squad after he, himself irregularly joined the army as an LDU. This brings him closer in terms of nature of job to the Gaddafi soldier sons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">I suppose autocrats encircle themselves with relatives and tribes henchmen to stave-off betrayal, including that which relates to assassination. Then together, they elongate their stay until the chief is replaced by a son.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">But by doing this, they construct conditions for what they fear most: Loss of power. Resentment accumulates against them and when the bubble bursts, you see a slain Gaddafi put on view like a prized trophy. You see a Mubarak caged like an animal during court trials. You see a Yemen president hit by a rocket in his palace, and still refusing to quit (there is nothing as mad as an infuriated dictator!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">In Uganda, the above tendencies have bred what characterizes our country today: Political god-fathering that rules the job market with big careers and big pay for the well connected, some, hardly out of their teens, leaders’ meddlesome and vindictive behavior, endemic corruption, organized crime syndicates in league with government officials, compromised integrity of media houses and a long list of lead-sycophants to vocally smoothen the status quo. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">James Thembo is a 2<sup>nd </sup>year Masters student of Journalism and Communication, Makerere University, Kampala.</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Thembojms@yahoo.com</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-33232284938290512542011-11-25T03:06:00.001-08:002011-11-25T03:08:21.492-08:00Summer Grants for African students, Call for nominations<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> HEA is a platform for young African social, business, and political entrepreneurs educated in leading colleges and universities in Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In partnership with international corporations such as Intel, GlaxoSmithKline and Nestle, the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance is providing summer grants to young African students and recent graduates with entrepreneurial initiatives in Africa. Thanks to the Tony Blair Foundation, HEA Associates also have access to internship opportunities in the office of the Presidents of Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia, as well as a growing number of international and African companies. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="background: yellow; font-size: 12pt;">If you have come across any young African students who can benefit from these opportunities and our mentorship program of established African professionals and entrepreneurs in Asia, Europe and North America, please enter their name and email address at <a href="https://webmail.osiea.org/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">healliance.org/nomination</span></a>, or simply forward them this email.</span> You may nominate as many students as you'd like. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Final selection will be made from a competitive pool of over 600 applicants, so your nomination will be an essential component of our decision-making process. Selected applicants will be invited to attend our 5th Annual <a href="https://webmail.osiea.org/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Symposium</span></a> at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Yale, and Bretton Woods, taking place March 30-April 2, 2012. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To learn more about our Alliance, please feel free to read our recent CNN and University World News articles: </span></span><br />
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">CNN Article: <a href="https://webmail.osiea.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=25aa9e3798ff47f7af597310e5dedbd2&URL=http%3a%2f%2fedition.cnn.com%2f2010%2fBUSINESS%2f10%2f27%2fafrican.expats.return%2findex.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/10/27/african.expats.return/index.html</span></a> </span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">University World News: <a href="https://webmail.osiea.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=25aa9e3798ff47f7af597310e5dedbd2&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.universityworldnews.com%2farticle.php%3fstory%3d20110415201235524" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110415201235524</span></a> </span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Thank you for your time. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sincerely, </span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Stella Hope<br />Director of Admissions<br />Harambe | Entrepreneur | Alliance<br /><a href="https://webmail.osiea.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=25aa9e3798ff47f7af597310e5dedbd2&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.healliance.org%2fhbws" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">www.healliance.org/hbws</span></a><br /><a href="https://webmail.osiea.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=25aa9e3798ff47f7af597310e5dedbd2&URL=mailto%3arecruit%40healliance.org"><span style="color: blue;">recruit@healliance.org</span></a></span></span></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-82139868340517170762011-11-24T11:04:00.001-08:002011-11-24T11:15:15.259-08:00URA wins tax case against Heritage Oil<div>
<strong>By Emmanuel Gyezaho & Ephraim Kasozi </strong></div>
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Uganda Revenue Authority has won a case against Heritage Oil and Gas Limited after the Tax Appeals Tribunal yesterday dismissed the oil company’s contest against paying capital gains tax to the tune of Shs 1.1trillion. </div>
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The three member panel dismissed with costs an appeal filed by Heritage Oil challenging the tax body’s decision to slap a $404million income tax assessment after the company sold its 50 per cent stake of exploration rights in Blocks 1 and 3A in the oil-rich Albertine Graben to Tullow Oil in January 2010 for a cool $1.5 billion.</div>
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Chairman Asa Mugenyi and members Stephen Akabway and Pius Bahemuka ruled in a judgement this newspaper has seen that Heritage Oil had “failed to satisfy” that URA’s income tax assessment was “excessive and or erroneous”, handing the oil company yet another legal defeat in its objection against paying capital gains tax. </div>
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Heritage lawyers requested the Tribunal in July to halt proceedings on grounds that the firm had already started an arbitration process in London over the tax dispute, an appeal that was also dismissed. The oil firm appealed that decision before the High Court in Kampala in September but failed to get a favourable decision. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">HOPEFUL: URA Commissioner General Allen Kagina.</td></tr>
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URA Commissioner General Allen Kagina expressed delight and said the ruling would have “a significant impact on the arbitration case in London.” “We have a favourable ruling here in Uganda on the same grounds that the London case was filed so I hope that London will uphold the same,” she told this newspaper yesterday. <br /><br />Heritage Oil, however, said the proceeds it earned from the transaction with Tullow Oil were not taxable in Uganda. The firm also argued that the sale of assets took place outside Uganda, in the Channel Islands off the coast of France and that the company filed its tax returns in Mauritius. </div>
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The Tribunal disagreed, saying the oil fields were located in Uganda and that in order for the sale to go through, there was need to obtain consent from the Uganda of government. </div>
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“What was abroad were discussions and signing of documents but the income obtained from the sale of the applicant’s (Heritage) interest arose from activity based in Uganda,” noted the Tribunal. “Hence any income derived from the said activity is liable to taxation in Uganda.”</div>
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In August 2010, however, as Tullow Oil set sight on selling part of its interests to Total and China’s National Offshore Oil Corporation, agreed, on behalf of Heritage, to pay URA $121 million (Shs266b) and another $283 million (Shs622.6b) into an escrow account with Standard Chartered Bank in London, pending resolution of the tax dispute.</div>
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<strong><em><a href="mailto:egyezaho@ug.nationmedia.com">egyezaho@ug.nationmedia.com</a> & <a href="mailto:keasozi@ug.nationmdia.com">keasozi@ug.nationmdia.com</a>. Story first published by the Daily Monitor Newspaper, Thursday 24, November 2011. </em></strong><a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1278202/-/bgq382z/-/index.html">http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1278202/-/bgq382z/-/index.html</a></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-44227340043303855242011-11-16T03:49:00.001-08:002011-11-16T04:14:59.065-08:00There is more to being a journalist than writing a good story! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>The pen may be a mightier tool than the sword, but not when we’re using it to lobotomize ourselves - Douglas Rushkoff.</em></td></tr>
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<strong>By Moses Odokonyero</strong><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">More than a decade ago, Teddy Ssezi Cheeye’s ‘atom splitting’ Uganda Confidential made a sudden U-turn and became a paper for ‘modernity’. But how did one of the most feared and resented government critics develop feet of clay? Were his soles cracking under the weight of pressure even before he threw in the towel? And who was exerting this pressure? These and more, are some of the questions that were ringing in many a reader’s mind. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But it wasn’t long before the answer came in. Uganda Confidential was a thin affair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But after embracing modernity, the vociferous newsletter suddenly grew obese, and twice or thrice published as many as 100 pages, mostly adverts from government. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">To put it in perspective, let me state that ‘modernising’ Uganda was one of the reasons that Museveni cited in 1996 to justify why he thought he was best placed to continue as president.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I used to be an ardent reader of Andrew Mujuni Mwenda, the Managing Editor of the Independent magazine, as well as a fan of the writings of Charles Onyango Obbo, and Timothy Kalyegira. Mwenda while still at Makerere occasionally signed off his commentaries with ‘the writer is a student of contemporary politics’. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And it was Mwenda, then a firebrand, bullish, intelligent, confident know-it- all, who first raised the red flag about Cheeye’s abnormally obese newsletter with a screaming headling:<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Gov’t bribes the independent press,’</i></b> in The Monitor, now Daily Monitor. In that article, he questioned the logic of why government was spending millions of shillings advertising in a paper with such a low circulation, and concluded that the government was bribing Cheeye through adverts.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Before then, Mwenda and Cheeye had had a cat and mouse intellectual relationship, fighting several public battles on development economics, public policy and globalisation, among other topics.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In September this year, Cheeye lost his appeal in the Supreme Court and was carted back to Luzira to serve a ten-year prison sentence for causing a financial loss of 120 million shillings to the Global Fund. It was such a twist for a man who was once a fierce critic of corruption. Cheeye’s jailing deprived Mwenda of someone who had been a regular and willing sparring partner.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Coincidentally, Cheeye’s fall began about the same time that Mwenda’s was on the rise or fall (depending on who you ask).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In December 2007, the bohemian journalist launched The Independent. He said the magazine would be Uganda’s equivalent of The Economist (it has not lived to that billing but neither has it been a complete failure).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But now, Mwenda finds himself in the same situation that Cheeye found himself more than a decade ago. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Independent gets millions in advertising deals from Rwanda just like the Uganda Confidential did from the Ugandan government after the owner embraced the NRM. So would Mwenda say that he has been bribed by Rwanda?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Responding recently to comments posted on the Uganda Journalists Facebook page about the numerous rumours against him, particularly the reasons why he did not publish the infamous oil documents when he claims he was the ‘first man’ in Uganda to receive the documents, Mwenda showed that a lot of water had flowed under the bridge since he accused Cheeye.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">‘It is by balancing the conflicting interests of readers, advertisers, government and donors that a media house is able to survive. These pressures are not necessarily bad,’ he wrote.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">‘If you lean too much on your advertisers or donors or government, you may lose your audience etc. Whether it is CNN, Sky or New York Times these challenges are delt(sic) with daily and independent and Mwenda therefore are not an exception,’ he added.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-Fm8FCuTMaw970AkEAy_8Rs0PgPhtsuUwCTBDFkSJ8hyFoIsIQW_mZmTB6qnT6C1m5xyov1dtCrn0_kgicGS_xtfCSlGa6Lv9rn3MIJX-jYc9x7u0za89RZjzPNVVgKUD6aSzjHgaRXD/s1600/Andrew_Mwenda2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" hda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP-Fm8FCuTMaw970AkEAy_8Rs0PgPhtsuUwCTBDFkSJ8hyFoIsIQW_mZmTB6qnT6C1m5xyov1dtCrn0_kgicGS_xtfCSlGa6Lv9rn3MIJX-jYc9x7u0za89RZjzPNVVgKUD6aSzjHgaRXD/s1600/Andrew_Mwenda2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>Andrew Mujuni Mwenda, Managing Editor, The Independent.</em></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In July when the Daily Monitor run a story that Mwenda’s sister and former Kabarole Woman MP. Margaret Muhanga and Information Minister Karoro Okurut were involved in a shady land deal, Mwenda responded with fire on Capital FM by throwing spiked jabs at a top executive at the Namuwongo based media house. But the victim of his virulent attack did not respond to his accusations, not publicly atleast. Or if he did, then I missed it. It would have been different story, had it been with Cheeye. The debate would have rumbled on for weeks.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Often times, on radio, one may be tempted to think that when Mwenda is speaking he’s competing against himself to finish whatever he wants to say in the allotted time( this is not communication). The radio host has to constantly peg him back lest he takes charge of the studio.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This could perhaps be a small indication that Mwenda misses his mate Cheeye. Whenever I hear Mwenda on the radio, I draw a mental picture of a boxer eagerly itching for a fight but without a willing opponent; and so the boxer concludes that he is the best fighter.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But in Mwenda, media trainers and journalists have a positive example from which to learn; that writing good essays alone does not make one a good journalist. Journalists need a firm grasp of the content that the essays are supposed to convey. This is a key requirement in public affairs reporting. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>The writer is a post graduate student, in the department of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.</strong></span></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-89297717590801719702011-10-28T01:49:00.000-07:002011-10-28T06:26:08.177-07:00Gaddafi’s brutal end is not the first or the last for an African tyrant<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By Moses Odokonyero</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Swinging a can of beer, the sweaty and yelling rebel commander asked the battered and visibly terrified man: “Where is the money?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a cornered animal, the man, dressed only in blood-soaked underwear, desperately pleaded for his life but the gang of seemingly intoxicated rebels ignored his plea and went ahead to slice off his ears(presumably because they never listened) before executing him like an animal. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It may sound like an episode from a bad Nigerian movie but no, it is how former Liberian strongman, Sergeant Samuel Doe’s life ended when rebels captured and executed him in 1990.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">You can still watch this grotesque video online, if you have the guts, and you are above 18. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWHZaEG8aALJB9mdLvFLfn5sTvIn3W9WSUd1J1Ikicif5w-NFt9-97XEXI_8bd-pXke-jBkFxoXV47rp6o08VWHrNbh1t2Ww25jVhHZulztuTgNhlslvhJYbjb3OBD7l3lZQUGfGV3FqAe/s1600/gaddafi.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWHZaEG8aALJB9mdLvFLfn5sTvIn3W9WSUd1J1Ikicif5w-NFt9-97XEXI_8bd-pXke-jBkFxoXV47rp6o08VWHrNbh1t2Ww25jVhHZulztuTgNhlslvhJYbjb3OBD7l3lZQUGfGV3FqAe/s320/gaddafi.bmp" width="242" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So the gruesome and to many, joyous death of the flamboyant and eccentric former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, is not the first horrific death of an African tyrant that the continent has witnessed.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But even then the sight of a once proud and prancing ‘king of kings’, bloodied and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>plucked out of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘ a rat hole’ and shortly after, according to some accounts, executed, must have sent a trembling cold chill in many presidential spines across the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>African continent. Palace occupants who are ‘believers’ in the existence of someone more powerful in the skies might have said one or two prayers for such a calamity not to befall them.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Only in April this year former Ivorian President and ironically a former history Professor, Laurent Gbagbo, failed to learn from history by attempting to cling onto power only to be<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>disgracefully drilled out of a presidential bunker with his wife and son in tow.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Of all the African tyrants who have since been ousted from power only Sani Abacha of Nigeria had a ‘sweet’ exit reportedly after his heart snapped due to an overdose of Viagra during a hot sex orgy gone bad.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Africa is now littered with examples of what befalls leaders who cling on and rule their countries like private property. Gaddafi is sadly (because he should have been tried) the latest addition to this impressively growing list? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he may not be the last.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After the end of the cold war tyrants who had aligned themselves to either the Americans or the Soviets lost relevance to their allies. Mobutu Sseseseko was one such jerk that fell off the swing for his failure to appreciate the changed world order. Unlike Gadaffi, Mobutu did not have the ‘luxury’ of dying in his dear Gbadolite (an equivalent of Gaddafi’s Sirte).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">At about the same time Mobutu fell, a clique of African leaders emerged. These were mistakenly called ‘new breed’ by then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Among this group is Uganda’s Museveni. This lot, having learnt lessons from the fall of the likes of Mobutu, perfected the art of strategically and cunningly positioning themselves to be of constant relevance to the West.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But even strategic positioning may no longer be a guarantee for monarchical rule. Hosni Mubarak was strategic to the Americans so much so that Washington in the initial stages of revolts in Tahir Square dilly-dallied without a strong position on what do to with Mubarak until the old despot was drowned in a sea of protesters.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In his visit to Accra two years ago, Barrack Obama, urged Africans to take their destiny in their own hands. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Libyans with the obvious big hand of NATO literally did so when their hands landed on Gadaffi. It was a pathetic sight seeing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the ‘king of Kings’ powerless being tossed around but also a stark reminder to clinging tyrants that when you drive people nuts during decades of absolute misrule you make these very people capable of doing nutty things on you when you fall.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong><em>The writer is a post graduate student, in the department of Journalism and Communication at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.</em></strong></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By Moses Odokonyero</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> - </span><span class="apple-style-span"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">modokonyero@masscom.mak.ac.ug</span></i></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-1414275284619740342011-10-20T07:53:00.000-07:002011-10-20T07:54:09.215-07:00Mass Media or Public Media?In his 1956 book <em>The Power Elite </em>the American sociologist C. Wright Mills sketched the difference between a 'public society' and a 'mass society'. He thought this difference could best be understood in terms of the characteristic forms of communication found in each.<br />
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In a public society the archetype of communication is a conversation between equals where 'virtually as many people express opinions as receive them' and 'communications are so organised that there is a chance immediately and effectively to answer any opinion expressed in public'. A public, as opposed to a mass, can translate its opinions into effective action. It can change policy as its opinions change. In a mass society, on the other hand, the most characteristic form of communication is a broadcast that delivers one unanswerable voice to millions of quiet and attentive listeners. There is little or no scope for individuals to answer back to the messages they receive. There is certainly no way that the inhabitants of a mass society can translate their opinions into politically effective action.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVjlXq_sMz8SlTpzSL7UZJSRpRxCO5N6Nf4crkK6EDSK8gn-oX9w8fSCZpZhCCQkQD6cni4y27yd2PC_gMiK-1BW6b47v9qtMtCaH_LBTXEGD5J_j-DvLFMJY7r99XXzq0SaA-Th_iEtvw/s1600/mass+media+or+public+media.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" rda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVjlXq_sMz8SlTpzSL7UZJSRpRxCO5N6Nf4crkK6EDSK8gn-oX9w8fSCZpZhCCQkQD6cni4y27yd2PC_gMiK-1BW6b47v9qtMtCaH_LBTXEGD5J_j-DvLFMJY7r99XXzq0SaA-Th_iEtvw/s320/mass+media+or+public+media.bmp" width="320" /></a></div>For much of the time after Mills wrote <em>The Power Elite</em> the trend in the West was towards greater massification. In America, the formal and informal publics that convened to discuss matters of shared concern were, to some extent, supplanted by televised and heavily stage-managed events - the studio audience replaced the town hall meeting. In Britain, political parties, which once provided at least some scope for public discussion in Mills’ sense, became increasingly centralised. Party conferences ceased to be venues for debates about policy and active membership dwindled.<br />
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More generally, politicians in both country adopted techniques and personnel from the entertainment and public relations industry and aspired to create the illusion of public engagement while suppressing its potential to disrupt elite decision-making. For a while it seemed that new technologies would only provide them with new resources for manipulation and surveillance.<br />
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But there are now encouraging signs that a public society is reviving. In part this is because modern communications technology has made it possible for at least some groups to communicate without relying on broadcast and print media. Social network sites have made citizens audible and visible to one another. In the run up to the occupation of the City of London, for example, thousands of people used a Facebook page to express their intention to show up. Occupations in hundreds of other cities have taken advantage of social media in similar ways.<br />
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To a much greater extent, though, something like a public society is emerging because the major media no longer seem able to describe the world accurately. The ongoing financial crisis in particular has done huge damage to the prestige of the major news operations. They didn’t see it coming. They misunderstood it when it happened. And they still struggle to state the blindingly obvious, that the private credit system has failed, and that banking must now come under effective democratic control.<br />
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As a result of these shortcomings in the media, politically motivated publics are starting to assemble online and in the real world. And this, I think, is what is driving the occupations movement - the recognition that the descriptions on offer in the mainstream media don't make sense, that the machinery of representative politics is broken, and that these are two aspects of the same problem.<br />
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When people meet at the occupations they adopt techniques for discussion and deliberation that aspire to what C. Wright Mills would have called public communication. The assemblies that have sprung up are explicitly intended to ensure that ' virtually as many people express opinions as receive them'. The occupiers are seeking to create a shared understanding that in turn informs a political programme, that is, to communicate in publicly effectual ways.<br />
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So far these innovations and the conversations between equals they make possible have barely featured in the world of broadcast publicity, the information system that most people rely on most of the time. Television likes to draw on a stable spectrum of supposedly legitimate opinion to frame debates about public policy. It has, for the most part, never occurred to them that they might better spend their time facilitating discussion between citizens. Consider this - when did you last see two 'ordinary people' discuss any matter of public interest at length on television?<br />
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<strong>A deliberating public</strong><br />
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Any process of free deliberation can easily be misrepresented and many in the conventional media are busy doing so. This is hardly surprising. The occupations have declared the spectrum of opinion visible in the broadcast media inadequate and indeed unreal. They are discussing first principles on the basis of equality and mutual recognition. It will take time for some journalists to recognise that their current working assumptions and practises are part of the problem the assemblies are seeking to remedy.<br />
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A deliberating public is not an organised and disciplined group, which can be expected to remain unswervingly on message. So it is a simple matter to find cranks and to declare that they somehow embody the meaning of an occupation. When they aren’t accusing them of deranged extremism, broadcasters and others sometimes decide that the occupiers are incoherent and confused, which is another way of criticising a participatory model for not adopting the message control preferred by modern political parties and corporate public relations departments.<br />
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Indeed, for the most part, the major media cannot bring itself to notice the political intent of occupation-and-assembly, to register that what is being tried is another kind of politics, which entails a different model of communication. Yet this is a movement with a long history. Though significant numbers of people in Britain and the United States are only beginning to master the language of assemblies and working groups, citizens in Latin America have been building participatory forms for decades.<br />
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Journalists are not stupid. They must know that their audiences will not be satisfied for much longer with coverage that defers to a ridiculous political and economic establishment while mocking or misrepresenting serious and well-intentioned citizens. It is past time that journalists found ways of reporting that support public participation. They have been trained to convey the views of the decision-makers inside to the masses outside. But rather than watch a simulacrum of public life, more and more people are looking to achieve public status for themselves. They are looking for media that acknowledges this and helps the citizen body to form itself, to clarify its opinions, and act as it thinks best.<br />
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The challenge for many journalists, in other words, is to describe what is happening in front of their eyes. If they choose to remain committed to their understanding of how communications should be organised, if they remain wedded to their privileges as operatives in the mass media, they risk irrelevance. For the occupations are not demonstrations or mobs. They are an attempt to create a public society.<br />
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<em><strong>Dan Hind has worked in publishing since 1998 and is the author of two well-acclaimed books: The Return of the Public and The Threat to Reason. He is also a regular contributor to The Guardian.</strong></em><br />
<em><strong>Follow him on Twitter: <a class="InternalLink" href="http://twitter.com/#!/danhind" target="_blank">@danhind</a></strong></em><br />
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<strong><em>Article ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED Oct 20, 2011 ON AL JAZEERA website; CLICK LINK: <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/201110207714864929.html">http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/201110207714864929.html</a></em></strong>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-66850093647634264702011-10-14T05:30:00.000-07:002011-10-14T05:30:01.150-07:00Ministers appear in court over ChogmThree Ministers who voluntarily stepped out of office on Wednesday were yesterday granted bail, after being charged in connection with misappropriation of funds meant for the preparation of the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meetings (CHOGM) in 2007.<br />
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The trio; Sam Kutesa (Foreign Affairs), Eng. John Nasasira (Government Chief Whip) and Mwesigwa Rukutana (State Minister Labour) appeared before Anti- Corruption Court Chief Magistrate Irene Akankwasa, where they denied the charges. They were later released on bail upon presenting 15 sureties who were also ordered to deposit their passports. <br />
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<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHaGzhvEJfcpqjsXN_tLKfj2gG-GhlUb_iN0Ozf-PPlE7PLUzo26YQrJJMAODHZHWmeRA364tulF0JUMwDV_sKbzL3rpGoKwYS3bbkO6E7QDkJTkDVNSisLAvhsQD9AF0DzpcVzQHc5T0P/s1600/chogm+scoundrels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHaGzhvEJfcpqjsXN_tLKfj2gG-GhlUb_iN0Ozf-PPlE7PLUzo26YQrJJMAODHZHWmeRA364tulF0JUMwDV_sKbzL3rpGoKwYS3bbkO6E7QDkJTkDVNSisLAvhsQD9AF0DzpcVzQHc5T0P/s400/chogm+scoundrels.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Driven to court individually in government vehicles, the accused were charged with abuse of office and causing financial loss of Shs14 billion Chogm 2007 funds. Ms Akankwasa ordered each of them (Kutesa, Nasasira and Rukutana) to pay cash bail of Shs40 million and deposit their passports in court. Court also ordered their sureties to deposit their passports and bonded at Shs1 billion each not cash. </div></div><!--Ads and Related Buttons--><!-- Ads minus related Buttons --><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">A plea by Mr Rukutana to have his passport returned to enable him travel to Tanzania for a business trip was denied. “The request for the order stopping the accused persons from accessing their offices is not necessary. They will honour their own commitment earlier communicated but the accused persons and their sureties will deposit their passports,” ruled Ms Akankwasa. The trio appeared calm and relaxed amidst heavy security deployment both in plain clothes and in uniform. The court registry was closed for close to four hours as the formalities of the case were done.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div></div><!--Ads and Related Buttons--><!-- Ads minus related Buttons --><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">“We reiterate our innocence and we have full confidence in the Judiciary, we are sure that our innocence will be established,” the trio later said in a joint statement.<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Prosecution led by the Head of legal Affairs at the Inspectorate of Government, Mr Sydney Asubo, alleges that on December 17, 2005, at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Mr Kutesa, Eng. Nasasira and Mr Rukutana while performing their duties as ministers abused the authority of their offices an arbitrary act prejudicial to the interest of government.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">It is alleged that the trio irregularly convened a consultative cabinet sub-committee meeting on behalf of the cabinet sub-committee on Chogm and decided government would fully fund the construction of drive ways, parking areas and marina at Munyonyo Speke Resort Hotel which decision they did not have the mandate to make.</div></div><!--Ads and Related Buttons--><!-- Ads minus related Buttons --><div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The IGG said the ministers, purporting to act on behalf of the Chogm sub-committee, irregularly committed government to fund the constructions that cost Shs14,008,138,092 well knowing or having reason to believe that such commitment would cause and did cause financial loss.</div></div><!--Ads and Related Buttons--><!-- Ads minus related Buttons --><div>Story by ekasozi@ug.nationmedia.com & <a href="mailto:rwanambwa@ug.nationmedia.com">rwanambwa@ug.nationmedia.com</a> published in the Daily Monitor Newspaper <a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1255146/-/bi19n0z/-/index.html">http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1255146/-/bi19n0z/-/index.html</a>. </div></div>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4094781687039267396.post-16267396615918031062011-10-14T05:20:00.000-07:002011-10-14T05:20:55.626-07:00Makerere suspends Masters in Journalism<a href="http://in2eastafrica.net/directory/makerere-university-kampala-uganda/" target="_blank" title="Makerere University">Makerere University</a> has suspended its master’s programme in journalism and communication due to ‘inadequate competent staff.’<br />
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Journalism is the second post-graduate programme to be suspended in a space of one year. Over 100 students had applied for the course, following newspaper and online adverts which the university ran in February.<br />
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The university had earlier in September 2010 suspended its doctor of philosophy degree (PhD) programme in education management and administration also due to inadequate proficient teaching staff.<br />
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The proposal to suspend the master’s in journalism programme was mooted by the administrative staff at the mass communication department after some of their senior academics resigned early this year. Master’s and PhD courses are taught by professors and senior lecturers who have PhDs.<br />
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Those who resigned include Dr. George Lugalambi, who was the head of the department. He had succeeded Dr. Peter Mwesige, who resigned in 2008 to take up a senior position in a Kenyan media company, before setting up his African Centre for Media Excellence the following year. Lugalambi reportedly got a lucrative job with the Revenue Watch Institute and was posted to its Ghana office. Other staff allegedly went on sabbatical.<br />
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However, Prof. Godfrey Kirumira, the deputy principal of the college of humanities and social sciences, said the suspension would only affect students who had applied to join the course.<br />
“The department suggested that we do not admit first-year students. The programme will run with the continuing (second-year) students who will be doing their research,” Kirumira said.<br />
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The 2011/2012 academic year starts next week on Saturday. But Kirumira explained that this year’s journalism applicants will wait for the 2012/2013 intake, where they will not need to reapply.<br />
The university senate, which is the institution’s topmost academic decision-making organ, meets next week to formalise the suspension of the course.<br />
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However, some of the students who had applied have not been amused by the development.<br />
“Makerere ought to get serious. If they knew there were not enough lecturers, why did they advertise the course?” a student asked.<br />
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Story by Francis Kagolo, <a href="http://www.newvision.co.ug/" target="_blank" title="The New Vision">The New Vision</a><strong><br />
</strong>publicaffairsreporting@makererehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16187720337405195813noreply@blogger.com2