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Northern Uganda’s Impact on Tourism

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Uganda Today
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As many of us prepare to walk on Gulu Walk Day on 22nd October to remind people of Northern Uganda…

Janet Museveni said that all stakeholders in the tourism sector need to identify, portray and market the uniqueness of the country’s tourism potential and avoid being ‘copy cats’ of what already exists in other countries.

Uganda may possess a lot of tourism potentials but the number of tourists visiting the country still remains small. The country’s spectacular tourist sites are still not exploited and some largely unknown, with only 20 percent of the projected tourists visiting the sites. This is in spite of the government’s efforts to improve the sector as a way of increasing foreign exchange base for the country while also benefiting many Ugandans, whose products or services could be consumed by the tourists.

President Yoweri Museveni early last year guided a crew of an American cable channel, the Discovery Channel, as part of marketing the tourism sector of the country. In October, the President continued his campaign by telling about 300 delegates, including 75 delegates from America’s biggest tourism agencies that attended the 8th African Travel Association (ATA) symposium, that Uganda is one of the countries safe from international terrorist networks making it a haven for tourists.

It is true that wildlife poaching and insecurity within the national parks and reserves have tainted Uganda’s image and tourism industry. The massacre of American tourists in Bwindi National Park some time back comes to mind. And the terrorism that struck Kenya and Tanzania did not help the industry. However, most of these horrible pages are being turned, giving hope to Uganda’s hotel owners, tours and travel operators, hand craft makers and the farmers-whose food is consumed by the visitors.

Although the President of Africa Tour Association (ATA) and Zambia’s Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources Minister, Patrick Kalifungwa says that Uganda is already a top tourism center in Africa, some people are saying that Ugandans can benefit more from the tourism sector than it currently doing. Dr. Gaynelle Henderson, the first vice President of the Africa Tour Association says that Uganda holds great tourist opportunities in the African continent, despite not having the sand beaches, which most tourists worldwide prefer. Henderson says that Uganda could even think about importing the sand, if it can improve the country’s tourism potential.

Janet Museveni, the wife to President Yoweri Museveni said at the symposium that all stakeholders in the Uganda tourism sector need to identify, portray and market the uniqueness of the country’s tourism potential and avoid being ‘copy cats’ of what already exists in other countries. Janet Museveni said that Uganda’s challenge today is developing its tourist attractions and making the country a destination for tourists. The first lady also says that there is need to preserve and ensure that Uganda’s cultural, traditional and physical features remain natural for the benefit of the present and future generations. She says that apart from a lot of unique physical, social and recreational features that are not necessarily in other parts of the world, the country is also blessed with human features.

Kolker agrees. United States Ambassador to Uganda, Jimmy Kolker, said that Uganda would in addition to the wildlife and physical features benefit from the social and cultural aspects of the country’s people, which he says many tourists visiting Uganda are also interested in. Kolker says that Uganda offers genuinely unique wild life experiences which the country should take advantage of. He says that with the majority of the world’s surviving mountain gorillas being in Uganda, the country has unique tourist attractions that many people world over would want to see for themselves.

According to the 2000/2001-gorilla census, 50 percent of the 690 mountain gorillas in the world were found in Uganda. Also more than a half (1060) of all the bird species in Africa and chimpanzees (16 of the 22 species of primates in the world) live in Uganda.

The country also boasts of Mount Elgon (the world’s oldest dormant volcano, which first erupted 24 million years ago) and River Nile (the world’s longest river that gives life to over 300 million people and provides power to 15 countries), which begins from Uganda.

Kolker says that many visitors to Uganda have been overlooking the religious and cultural sites, including the Uganda Martyrs shrines and the Kasubi monuments (tombs) to the Buganda Kings. He also says that the Abayudaya near Mbale are one of the most isolated, but also most fascinating Jewish communities in the world which tourists have had interest in visiting.

The Ambassador said that terrorism is not the greatest threat to American tourists to Uganda, and adds that the turmoil in northern Uganda could in fact be exploited to act as a source of tourism for the country.

“No visitor would ever forget the opportunity to hear first hand experiences in captivity of an abducted child, now returned and being rehabilitated in a center in Lira or Gulu,” Kolker says.

He reveals that unlike the usual talk that tourists fear terrorism, traffic accidents in the country has become one of the biggest hindrances to tourists (especially American tourists) visiting Uganda.

“We have been warning Americans that although it is always prudent to be alert to terrorism, the greatest threat to their security in is not terrorism but traffic accidents” he says, adding that traffic laws in Uganda are not adequately enforced and that many roads are in poor conditions.

Kolker also says that Uganda’s low level of technology advancement especially in the banking sector is limiting the number of American tourists visiting Uganda. He says that if financial institutions and organizations such as the Uganda Wildlife Authority were accepting credit cards, American tourists would spend a lot of time in the country and also spend a lot of money in Uganda.

He says that Americans tourists use credit cards and that they prefer traveling to places where the credit card facilities are widely used and that that is why Ugandan tourism operators and other stakeholders in the sector need to figure out a way to accept electronic payments.

Nabagereka of Buganda tracks the rare mountain gorillas

By
Uganda Today
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The Nabagereka of Buganda, Lady Sylvia Nagginda on 15th October 2005 became the first queen in the whole world to track the rare mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and what a great time she had!

Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), a local non-governmental organisation for which the Nabagereka is patron, arranged the visit. CTPH were launching their tele-centre, and the Nabagereka was the chief guest. The tele-centre gives tourists an opportunity to communicate with home while in Bwindi.

Climbing steep hills, crossing wide rivers, negotiating her way through the thick jungle, the Nabagereka courageously took one step at a time with a group of 7 other trackers until, after three hours of tracking, they found the gigantic and amazing gorillas of the Habinyanja family. This is one of the biggest of the habituated gorilla families with 22 members.

The Nabagereka was thrilled by the experience, and later described it as “an experience out of this world”. She promised that the next time, she would be more prepared and fit for the exercise that began at 9.00am and ended after 5.00pm.

“It was such a challenge and it was the greatest adventure of my life, going through the forest, slipping and frantically clutching at the shrubs to avoid falling, finally seeing the gorillas, it was really amazing,” the Nabagereka said.

She said the gorilla are quite fascinating to watch, although they can be intimidating especially when they stand to their full height. Two Buganda ministers accompanied the Nabagereka including the Minister for the Royal Treasury Hon. Apollo Makubuya, and the Minister for Women Affairs, Hon. Apollonia Lugemwa.

Asked whether she would do it again, the Nabagereka answered, “I would do it again, and I would be more prepared. I would do exercises consistently for at least a month.”

There are just over 700 mountain gorillas remaining in the world, and over half of these are found in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The Nabagereka is the second known prominent Ugandan, after President Yoweri Museveni, to track the Bwindi gorillas.

Former President Milton Obote Dies

By
Uganda Today
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Milton Obote

Ugandans are greeting the news of former president Milton Obote’s death with mixed reactions. Supporters hold up his legacy as a member of Africa’s post-colonial movement that ended British rule and instituted nationalistic governmental policies. His detractors remember an autocratic and self-interested leader who led Uganda into economic and political disrepair.

Obote, who became Uganda’s first prime minister after British rule in 1962, died Monday October 10th. He was 81.

“I can confirm the death of my father who passed away today in a Johannesburg hospital,” said Obote’s son, Ben, Monday in a press statement. Obote had lived in Zambia for nearly two decades and only flew to South Africa recently to receive medical attention.

Like most African leaders of his generation, his ascent to power represented the promise of indigenous African leadership following decades of colonial government. But also like too many of his counterparts in independence-era Africa, the high hopes of Obote’s regime soon give way to the bitter realities that later became typical of African self-rule: strong-arm political tactics, corruption and other dictatorial policies.

Obote’s short-lived popularity in the 1960s started to slip when, in 1966, he designated himself president for life, disbanded the tribal monarchies and introduced a socialist system of government. Those decisions sparked outrage because it ended the rule of leaders like King Mutesa II, or “King Freddie,” who represented the Baganda, the country’s most populous tribe. Obote himself was the son of a farmer and village chief from the Langi tribal region in northern Uganda.

Soon thereafter, he survived an assassination attempt in 1969 and was ousted in 1971 by Ugandan army general Idi Amin while he was visiting Singapore during a Commonwealth conference. Because of his alignment with champions of communism and socialism in Africa, like Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere, western governments welcomed, and some supporters even suspect, plotted — his overthrow.

The bloody and corrupt regime of Idi Amin followed, plunging Uganda in a state of terror and chaos during most of the 1970s. In 1979, with the aid of Tanzanian troops and Ugandan exiles Amin was overthrown and neighboring Tanzania installed Yusuf Lule as president. Due to conflicts in Lule’s government he was soon replaced by Godfrey Binaisa on June 29, 1979. Binaisa was himself swiftly overthrown by a military coup in May 1980 by Paulo Muwanga. Muwanga replaced the Presidency with a Presidential Commission that ruled Uganda before the 1980 elections. With his party, Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), winning the elections, Obote soon returned to power. Many observers pointed out election irregularities.

Obote maintained power until a rebel incursion led by current Ugandan president, and Obote’s former aide, Yoweri Museveni, shook his power. The ensuing civil war lasted five years and about 400,000 Ugandans died. Obote was forced to step down in 1985 under pressure from his military general, Tito Okello. He left the country and remained in exile until his death.

Elitist Education: Turning Workplaces in Favor of Drivers

By
Uganda Today
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Some things take a long time to change. Take the disadvantages of higher education for example. In the 1970s, to be highly educated in Uganda was a risky business. The military government of the day was deeply suspicious of educated people, who were deemed to be dangerous. Many of the educated that didn’t flee the country were killed.

Today, higher education is required for most jobs. That is why so many people these days are going to university to earn a degree or improve on their ‘papers’ in the hope that this will open for them the doors of employment and thus better life.

But no sooner have they finished their courses than they realize that this kind of education has its disadvantages. Many of us have leant that it tends to condemn a person to total dependency on salaried employment; making you vulnerable to sudden destitution should you lose that job.

Strangely enough, at the end of the day, when you trace the adult lives of people at most work places, it is the drivers, messengers and cleaners who do better as far as individual financial security is concerned. This is our new reality world.

After working for five years, a tea girl will have invested more than the secretary along with whom she was recruited. You look around and you will notice that the driver will be more financially solid than the mid rank graduate officer.

The tea girl, you see doesn’t only earn a salary. She also supplies refreshment to the secretaries at break time. She arrives at work much earlier than they do, to make sure her merchandise is distributed to various agents such as junior tea girls in the nearby offices and a few street side vendors.

When the secretaries arrive, the tea girl greets them politely and asks what they would like for their break. Since she extends credit, many of her ‘bosses’ are in her debt. They pay as soon as they get their salaries, because it would be beneath their dignity to default on the tea girl’s money.

Meanwhile, her younger sister, whom she brought over from the village two years ago, is manning their stall in the market, where they sell second hand clothes.

From among these clothes, the elder sister regularly selects the “first class” pieces and sells them at higher prices to the secretaries, who do not want to be seen in the down market stalls like Balikudembe (formerly Owino) bargaining for used garments.

Because of spending so much time with educated people, the tea girl has decided that the child, whose birth forced her out of school six years ago, will have the best education she can provide. She puts the child in a good school and pushes her to work for good grades. She will even make sacrifices to pay for private coaching.

As for our driver, he is doing equally well. Extremely humble and obliging before the executives, he is regarded as indispensable. After working there for 10 years, he knows the secrets of the top men in the organization. They therefore tend to let him get away with small sins like bills that seem on the high side for the mileage covered.

Unbeknown to his bosses, the driver is running two or three taxis as well as a small shop near his home. He has a line of one-room rental houses (mizigo) in a far off place like Nansana and any tenant who is late with the monthly payment is evicted ruthlessly.

His drivers and wives, who double as shop assistants, bow lower before him than he does before his bosses at work. His children, who are subjected to very strict discipline, will be sent to the best schools if they are academically promising. Otherwise, they are absorbed into the family business at an earlier age. He rules over his small empire with an iron hand-for the driver is the new master of our uncertain world.

Of course you know that the tea girl and the driver get salaries that are much lower than those of the secretary and the middle class officer. But because they live close to the ground, as it were, they spend much less and so are able to save and invest.

The young graduate, on the other hand, cannot imagine running a soda-and-cake network in the office. So, she has no income apart from her official salary. And its not much these days. Yet she will always be seen at Nandos, Garden City or the Venue, the expensive ‘happening’ places in town. And she wears trendy clothes, keen to impress.

So, come the end of the month, she has no money left, whereas the driver no longer touches his salary, relying instead on his diverse incomes to run his home.

The graduate cannot invest in places s/he frequents and the circles s/he moves in; s/he cannot build a five star hotel, which he or she would be comfortable to own. But the driver can open kiosks and bars in his slum. One day, both these people will have to leave their employment. No prizes for guessing who is better prepared for life after retirement or sacking.

The privatization and downsizing of public service gave us many sad cases of senior officers who tried to start business with their retirement packages. At their age, it was too late to learn new tricks, and most got cleaned out within a week, ending up as frustrated alcoholics. Unlike the drivers and tea girls, they hardly knew ‘the world’.

You must have seen or heard about them. The stronger ones converted their family cars into cabs, and can be seen touting for teenage passengers, or quarrelling with their growing children who cannot cope with the fall in their standard of living.

As the driver’s and tea girl’s offspring join the business sector with ease, the former officer’s sons and daughters sit around idly talking about western film stars and singers, now that Big Brother Africa has ended. Such are dangers of an elitist education.

Expecting Tourists from China

By
Uganda Today
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Uganda’s tourism sector is expected to boom after government endorsed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese government to encourage Chinese tourists to visit Uganda.

State Minister for Tourism, Jovina Akaki says that government is targeting over one million Chinese tourists in the next coming five years.

Speaking to journalists in Kampala, Akaki said that the tourism in Uganda has improved tremendously due to government good relations with global players.

Meanwhile, Akaki estimates that over 500,000 tourists in general are expected this year, and with them annual returns in excess of 260 million US dollars are expected.

The minister says government is to establish working relations with travel agents in the country, who will link the Chinese tourists to the country.

He calls on the public to invest in improving the infrastructures like hotels and recreation centers to offer tourists a variety of attractions.

The Senior Advisor for the International Trade Centre, Emmanuel Barreto has said that for every 100 tourists projected only 20 of them visit Uganda’s tourist destinations.

Barreto attributes this to lack of knowledge about what the country has to offer in terms of tourism sites and services due to lack of promotion and advertising of the tourist destinations.

Speaking in Kampala, Barreto said that although Uganda has a lot of tourist attractions like guerilla tracking and mountain climbing, which are liked by tourists from especially Europe and North America, but they do not know this tourism potential.

He says that investors in the tourism sector should exploit the country’s tourism potential by offering leaflets in hotels and do outdoor advertising along roads to make Uganda’s tourist destinations known to all those who visit the country.

Barreto also says that there is need for Tour and Travel Operators as well as hotel owners to standardize and promote tourist packages.

John Garang Buried; Museveni Angers Sudanese Authorities

By
Uganda Today
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Former rebel leader and Sudanese vice president John Garang de Mabior, who was killed along with eight Ugandans and six other Sudanese in a helicopter crash July 30, was buried Saturday in an elaborate state funeral. His death has caused riots and killings in the streets of Sudan. Now, tensions are rising between the Ugandan leadership and Sudanese authorities in Khartoum.

Garang, who was returning to Sudan after having private talks with Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni, was a popular leader among his people and it showed Saturday. People lined the streets in towns across southern Sudan, waving his picture and carrying placards with statements of support and grief. His funeral was attended by the leaders of Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa and other world dignitaries including representatives from the United States. And, his coffin, draped with a Sudanese flag and preceded by a southern Sudanese flag, was flown from town to town in Sudan before being taken to his hometown of Juba for burial on a hill.

Declared a national holiday in Sudan, the day of the funeral remained calm — but the commemorations of Garang’s life did not end without controversy. Museveni, a close friend, political ally and material supporter of Garang, told mourners in another town, “Some people say accident; it may be an accident, it may be something else. Either the pilot panicked, either there was some side wind or the instruments failed or there was an external factor.” In a move that onlookers are calling a snub or an avoidance of confrontation, Museveni did not attend the funeral but sent his minister of defense to represent Uganda. He also declared a national day of mourning for Garang in Uganda on Aug. 4th.

According to the Associated Press, Sudanese authorities responded angrily to Museveni comments, calling them inciting and insinuative. “We are making efforts to investigate the saddening incident,” said Information Minister Abdel-Basit Sabdera to the official Sudan News Agency. “And we have already started our investigations by setting up a technical committee and we hope that all parties, especially Uganda, would stop issuing statements which are not based on facts.”

Some 130 people were killed in riots in Sudan last week following the announcement of Garang’s death.

Leader of the dissident Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) for 21 years, Garang stood up to the predominantly Muslim and Arab government on behalf of the black, Christian and traditional African religion adherents in the South. He demanded freedom, rights, economic equality for his people and spoke out against government abuse and state violence against blacks in the south. Called “charismatic” by most who met him, Garang led with an iron hand and enjoyed widespread loyalty. Then on July 9, as part of a groundbreaking peace and power-sharing agreement in the fractured East African country, he was inaugurated as president of the south of Sudan and vice president of the Sudan. Only three weeks later he was killed while flying in a Ugandan helicopter in southern Sudan.

Speaking at the funeral, Garang’s wife, Rebecca, said she will not mourn her husband’s death as long as the people of Sudan remain committed to his cause. “Dr. John wanted you to be united,” she said, looking at the coffin repeatedly. “If we were not united, we would not have reached here.” She also encouraged the mourners to put their differences aside.

Emphasizing the Sudanese government’s commitment to peace, Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir emphasized his intention to carry out the peace plan. On Sunday, he installed, Garang’s successor, also a member of the SPLM, Salva Kiir Mayardit to take Garang’s place. Kiir vowed to execute the ideas of Garang both in “letter and spirit.”

Meanwhile, the helicopter black box has been recovered and a team of investigators from Uganda, Kenya, Sudan and the United States are looking into the cause of the crash. The SPLM has agreed to wait until the end of the investigation to state its official position.

Bujagali: Remembering Rippon Falls

By
Uganda Today
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As Ugandans around the world silently await the destruction of yet more of Uganda’s ecology by the hands of our government, Henry Kiiwa Musoke speaks up and hopes to save Bujagali from corporate greed. Just like the Rippon Falls before it, Bujagali Falls will soon cease to exist.

A good number of us, Ugandans, do not have any idea what “Rippon Falls” is- or was for that matter. We have no idea what kind of beautiful scenery this area of Uganda was. We cannot fathom why, in the 19th century, it was this that brought Speke, and hundreds of others immediately after him, to this heart of Africa that was so hidden from, and yet sought by, the rest of the world. As these explorers gasped at its magnificence, the Rippon Falls was simply a neighbor in our midst, some backdrop to our daily lives. Now this neighbor no longer exists, as the Rippon Falls, once known as the Source of the Nile, once the source to the longest river in the world as it left from Lake Victoria on its way to Egypt, is submerged by something we are more familiar with- the Owen Falls Dam.

The destruction of the Rippon Falls and the ugly, rusty, aging concrete monster left behind can almost be forgiven to lessons from the past. During the 1940s, there was a growing move towards huge HEP plants in all corners of the world. But that was more than half a century ago and many lessons have since been learned, and the rest of the world has come up with solutions that have less of an impact on a region’s ecology.

 

About ten kilometers away from the buried Rippon Falls, is a still vibrant cousin. The Bujagali Falls are not so high of a drop but the enormous volumes of water, passing through with enough speed that the waters become white, make these rapids a site to see. Bujagali, whose banks are adorned with unique carpets of vegetation and life, has a lot to offer. Hundreds of tourists flock here as nature lovers, to see unseen varieties of birds and plants, as well as to do some intense white water rafting.

All this is known by the World Bank and the Ugandan Government as they move ahead with plans to build a 200-megawatt dam near Bujagali. They know very well what happened to Rippon Falls and they are well aware of the future of Bujagali Falls, if they continue with their plans. They have ignored all other sources of energy and alternatives to large dams, choosing to emphasize on Uganda’s desperate need for energy. They are well aware that a good number of us still use charcoal to cook even when availed with electricity in our homes. So where is this huge demand?

 

Uganda has no major thriving big city that warrants a continuous and deliberate destruction of our ecology to meet energy needs. What is abundant in Uganda is a good number of corrupt government officials collaborating with the less obvious but even more corrupt officials from agencies in Kampala, working for groups such as the World Bank.

The world already knows how corrupt African government officials are. What they need to look at is what often feeds that corruption. Surprisingly this corruption is initiated and fanned by the donors themselves under the veil of giving aid. Away from the checks and balances of western-like information hungry media, good record-keeping and much more, these officers get away with a lot when they are in Africa acting as distributors and financial controllers of the aid. Then there are those donors from country A that give aid, which the rest of us call LOANS, to African governments so that these governments can pay a particular company in country A to come to Africa and complete a lucrative contract such as building a huge dam. To make sure the right company gets the contract, bribes are exchanged and so on. No one is watching them in Africa where record keeping documents are so easily forged.

 

Why the World Bank insists on a project that many everyday Ugandans are clearly against is puzzling. Any Ugandan who knows their economy would tell you that they need the tourist more than the electricity, which is so disorganized in its distribution that it has become too expensive for a good majority of Ugandans. Ugandans have lived with power cuts for years and should be able to wait a little longer for better and less grandeur solutions.

There is actually now a thriving economy in Uganda that lives off of power cuts making it almost okay to be without power. For example, many Kampalans remain in town after work, when they know it is their turn for the lights to go out at their places of residence. Apart from improving people’s social skills of interaction without computers or television sets, this has provided good revenue for many bars, restaurants and hang outs that Kampala now has an extremely busy nightlife. One cannot be bored in Kampala when the sun goes down, any day of the week.

Unfortunately, it seems, our governments are still colonized, and the ordinary Africans are never well represented in these chess games with the West.

UPDF Finds Kony Arms Cache

By
Uganda Today
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THE UPDF has unearthed large quantities of Joseph Kony’s arms in southern Sudan.

The army also killed two LRA rebels and captured three others during a battle at Atepi river valley in southern Sudan recently.

The UPDF’s 503 Brigade public relations officer, Lieutenant Robert Kamara, said, “We recovered 94 tins of 12.7mm anti-aircraft ammunition, five tins of machine-gun ammunition, one solar plate, one long-range radio communication system and RPG pipes, among others.”

Kamara said that among the captured rebels is Kony’s wife, identified only as Adong, together with her baby girl and a rebel signaller identified only as Lieutenant Ojara.

He added that the army recovered food and other items that the rebels had looted but had dropped while fleeing the UPDF.

Bidandi Ssali Responds to Museveni

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Uganda Today
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Bidandi Ssali

BIDANDI Ssali resigned as second vice-chairperson of the National Resistance movement Organisation late last year. In the letter below, he addresses issues President Yoweri Museveni raised in the letter in which he accepted the resignation

The Chairman
Interim Executive Committee
National Resistance Movement

Your Excellency,

This is in reference to your response to my letter of resignation as second vice-chairman of the Interim Executive Committee of NRM. I am sorry I could not respond earlier because I was sick as you have been aware. For the record, however, I thought it was important for me to comment on some of your ‘opinions’ which I believe are wrong.

Uganda’s problem
On the claim that I am the leader of those who say that the main problem of Uganda is Museveni, Mr. Chairman, I find it strange; very strange indeed that I, Bidandi Ssali who spearheaded your presidential campaigns so committedly in 1996 and 2001, only two years later turns out to be the leader of those who say that the mainstream problem of Uganda is Museveni.

I say you are wrong Mr. Chairman in holding this view. I am not your enemy in any way; nor have I been your opponent. I am simply a sincere colleague who has committed himself to the service of this country as you have and who has always given his views objectively in the interest of Uganda.

What you call “inhibitions” is actually a simple caution from a sincere friend, given the fact that our contract with the people of Uganda as per your manifesto was that 2001-2006 would be your last term as president in accordance with our constitution which we painstakingly made hardly 10 years ago. I remember the only recorded reservation you expressed was on the provisions on land and the abolition of the name National Resistance Army.

Foundation for movement ideas and principles
Your Excellency, when we met at the International conference Centre and resolved to form the NRM, the intention was to create an institution which would house our collective ideas and principles for the governance and development of this country. It is the founding of this institution and at the same time VEHICLE to carry our embodiment from generation to generation, that is the issue I was addressing – NOT the origin of those ideas and principles.

After all I believe Mr. Chairman that every generation builds on the highest achievements of the previous one, the latter moulding and perfecting them to serve the new never-static environment as society evolves.

A close scrutiny of the 10-point programme will reveal that over 70% of its content has its roots in the Uganda patriotic Movement manifesto drafted by a small committee of our colleagues, including late Mugenyi, the late Bakulumpagi and Rwakakooko. They, in turn, promised them on the aims and objectives of UNLF. When we are off the scene those coming after us may author 20 or 30-point programmes as may be dedicated by the political and economic environment.

Look at the generation that evolved the Mutongole, Muluka, Gombolola, etcetera structure. I doubt whether anybody today can tag a name or names of those who originated the concept. Look at the generation that adopted that structure and renamed them sub-parishes, parishes and sub-counties. Recall the structure and operation of Mayumba 10 under the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere or during the UNLF and relate these to the RC turned LC structure of the Movement. They all seem to share the same unknown grandsires who existed before us and obviously before the NRM.

The point I am making Mr. chairman is that the “new document” circulated at Kyankwanzi was a summation of what you and us your colleagues always discussed in different places for an including Cabinet, sub-committees, workshops, etcetera. You remember we had even come up with a 15-point programme amending the earlier 10-point programme.

If you look closer again, much of what is contained in all those documents (our vision) is shared by sister countries like Tanzania, south Africa, Botswana, Kenya and others, where some are already ahead of us. With those realities, it is difficult for anyone or group to claim ownership of originality.

insults
To the claim that I am insulting you, Mr. Chairman, my family upbringing and political mentoring moulded me well in dealing with my elders or leaders. I never insult them and if that is what you discerned in my letter then I owe you an apology. However, that upbringing and political mentoring also inculcated in me a clear conscience whenever I have expressed my views or tendered my advice to you as my leader on matters where I feel you are going astray to our detriment, and to the detriment of the country. Certainly you may disagree with my views or refuse to heed my advice, but you will be totally wrong to label them insults.

Funds
the claim that when funds are not passed through me it becomes dishing out money, insinuations apart, Mr. Chairman the point I was making was aimed at protecting the NRM as a party governed by the Political parties and Organisations Act which demands one to account for the sources of party finances.

The source of the funds I handled as your task force vice-chairman in 1996 and 2001 was owned by my candidate Mr. Museveni who under a different law accounted for it to the electoral commission. The source of that money had nothing to do with the MOVEMENT.
It is in this vein that I say that the MPs money was not sourced by the NRM-O but by the chairman of the Interim Executive Committee as an individual. Hence your statement, “I authorised it” instead of, “the IEC authorised it.”

On the statement, “Undermine the cohesion of the movement… I will oppose you,” Mr. Chairman I assure you that in all my communication with you on matters of the future of our country, I have never done so with the intention of undermining the Movement. On the contrary the thriving intrigues perpetuated by palace politicians around you is undermining the Movement. It is these intrigues that have alienated many of us your colleagues, friends and others who form the NRM.

Your own Prime Minister, hopefully not shedding crocodile tears, has given testimony to the prevalence of intrigues which according to him “were undermining” the Movement. He was addressing movement members of Parliament, according to the press.

Succession
On Bidandi Ssali is “vehement” in his stand that the constitution must be arranged in such a way that Museveni will never again provide top leadership, Mr chairman, you are definitely imputing wrong motives on my part. Surely I am not the one talking of rearranging the constitution. It is your lieutenants the kisanja crusaders who are campaigning for the rearrangement of the Constitution so that you can stand again come 2006. They are busy manipulating and blackmailing the population and prophesy doom if Museveni does not come back in 2006 with claims like, “there is nobody in the country who can take over from Museveni”.

My plea was and still is that we, under your leadership, should not seem to be so vehement in rearranging the constitution in order for you to be President again. Mr. chairman, even at this late stage of our political transition, I still believe that you hold the key to a peaceful transition and the future stability of our country. This will not be by you providing “topmost leadership”, that is by being president, but by honouring your promise in our manifesto and the provisions of the constitution you promulgated only 10 years ago.

One of our cardinal obligations to the future of this country as of now is to create and foster a political environment in which political institutions like the NRM can be established and to ensure democratic institutions which will ensure democratic and sustainable succession in the governance of this country.
They alone will produce your successor and the successors of those who will be Presidents after you.

As for individuals, I beseech you to believe that there are quite a number of capable Ugandans within the Movement and without, who can take over from you. All that is demanded of you and us your co-leaders is to support the process and eventually support whoever will emerge.

Other issues
Finally, Mr. Chairman, once again want to express my apprehension on other pertinent issues touching the NRM and the country.

For instance, the approach to the formation of NRM branches. It is very unfortunate that the third term saga has derailed the healthy formation of the NRM to such an extent that support for kisanja that is, Museveni determines support for the organisation. Every Uganda opposed to a kisanja for Museveni is automatically branded anti-NRM by many of those mobilising for the party.

Mr. Chairman any organisation founded around an individual is certainly bound in shallows and misery. It is also sad to watch cadres premising recruitment on financial promises and lures under the guise of fighting poverty.

Leadership insensitivity
It is amazing the way we leaders have become so insensitive and therefore unreactive to many of our actions, which have produced loud cries from the society. Take for example;

a)The way we have justified and even glorified the ‘facilitation of MPs with money and promises for more, just to go out and sell government policies, including the third term, which, they are supposed to debate and pronounce on in parliament. Even then, before the vote, an amendment must be effected so that provisions requiring secret ballot (on third term) is removed — Tubalabe (let us see them).

b) The mastermind behind the hatching of the omnibus bill – sheer arrogance and impunity on the part of the government. In this bill on opening up political space and removing term limits, the government has ordained that no Ugandan must say ‘NO’ to one and ‘YES’ to the other.

c) The way we are handling high profile corruption cases whose prima facie has been established by judicial commissions, some being shelved by dealing with them administratively while others directed to the courts of law leaving the public to impute different motives on the criteria.

d)The impunity and arrogance with which Kakooza Mutale trains youth brigades giving them military training under the guise of mobilising for the return of Museveni come 2006.

In doing all this however, the Movement Secretariat, the NRM or even the government cannot dare raise a finger.

The training, according to the press, also involves arms completely outside the legal provisions. I wonder what will happen if the youth of this country balkanise into armed wings in support of different political parties, especially during election campaigns!

Mr. Chairman, all this, and indeed much more than this, makes me apprehensive and worried having witnessed political events in Uganda since 1962, many of which are a replica of what is happening today.

Bidandi Ssali

Bwanika Shines at Africa’s First Presidential Debate

By
Uganda Today
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Opposition political parties in Uganda on Wednesday revealed their strategy on a number of national issues including corruption, the northern Uganda question, the current electric power load shedding, education, health care as well as the economy and Gender issues.

This was during the joint Presidential candidates debate organized by the United States of America based International Republican Institute, a non-partisan, non profit making organization whose aim is to promote democracy around the world.

Independent candidate Dr. Abed Bwanika, Uganda Peoples Congress candidate, Mama Miria Kalule Obote attended in person the first ever-Presidential candidates debate in Africa that was broadcast live on Uganda Broadcasting Corporation Television.

Incumbent and National Resistance Movement candidate President Yoweri Museveni and his main rival, Forum for Democratic Change President, Dr. Kizza Besigye sent representatives. Democratic Party candidate, Sebaana Kizito did not appear because he was campaigning in Adjuman in the northwestern part of the country and had just survived an accident there.

Corruption:
Independent Presidential candidate, Dr. Abed Bwanika warned that should Ugandans vote him on February 23, he will not only arrest and imprison the culprits but will also sell off their property to recover money stolen.

He said that the money got from the sale of property belonging to the corrupt officials would go a long way in benefiting the rest of the people, as it will be channeled in people benefiting programs.

Bwanika, a former Makerere University Veterinary Medicine lecturer attacked government officials including former vice president, Specioza Kazibwe over corruption and other Ministers for living a luxurious lifestyle. Bwanika looking angry did not heed to the calls from the moderator not to attack personalities and said that Kazibwe, who is now doing her PhD at Harvard University joined politics with almost nothing but now has a lot of property and money.

Betty Kamya who represented the Forum for Democratic Change presidential candidate, Dr. Kizza Besigye said that his party is emphasizing zero tolerance to corruption. Kamya, who is FDC Presidents Special Envoy, said that her party will strengthen institutions like the police and the office of the Inspector General of Government by making them independent with no state interference. She says that FDC will ensure that the opposition heads graft-fighting agencies like the Inspectorate of Government because they have more interest in checking all tendencies of corruption. UPCs Miria Obote, a wife to former Uganda President Dr. Milton Obote also said her party will ensure that there is zero tolerance to corruption.

The northern Uganda question:
On the over a decade war in northern Uganda between the rebels Lords Resistance Army and the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces, all opposition candidates blamed the insurgency on the NRM government. Bwanika, UPC and FDC blamed the continued war in northern Uganda to lack of political will to end the conflict.

They concurred that the war in the northern part of the country can only be solved through negotiations. They blamed the ruling government for using both dialogue and war against the rebels.

According to the government, the strategy is effective because gun power forces the rebels into negotiations. The director of the governments media center, Robert Kabushenga, who represented President Museveni, said that the war in northern Uganda was almost over and that people were free to return home.

But Mrs. Obote said that one cannot talk about returning people back to their homes when there is no resettlement plan. Miria Obote said that people cannot return home when there are actually no homes to go to. There are no homes. You can only tell that there used to be a home when you find a mango tree in some sort of compound, she said.

Electricity power load shedding:
The most challenging to all candidates was the short-term measure to the load shedding in the country. Electricity power load shedding currently goes on for 24 hours, something that has affected businesses and increased power expenditures as people go for other power alternatives that are in most cases more expensive.

Kabushenga said that the government has already finalized plans to build a power station at Bujagali falls and another one at Karuma falls. He said that as a short-term measure, government was to produce 100 mega watts using thermo generation. Kabushenga downplayed claims that the decrease in the water levels was as a result of constructing two power stations at Owen falls dam, saying one is just a water channel.

However, Bwanika described Kabushengas claims as lies. Mr. Kabushenga forgets that he is talking to people whose understanding is above average. How can he says that there is only one dam at Owen falls dam, Bwanika asked, prompting the observers to cheer him. Dr. Bwanika said that he will take a bold decision and close one of the dams to ensure that there is reduced loss of water. He said that by doing this, there will be increased water to run the turbines and be able to increase power generation. He also attacked Kabushenga for saying that the current power load shedding is due to increased development brought about by the NRM government. Kabushenga had described the power crisis as not a crisis but a sign of development.

Bwanika wondered how the government could deceive people when the dam, which was meant to produce 360 mega watts, and is now producing about 170 mega watts as a result of the technical error of constructing a new dam. How can a reduction in power generation from 360 to 170 mega watts be a sign of development, he wondered.

FDC representative, Beti Kamya and UPC presidential candidate, Kalule Obote said that the NRM government had 20 years uninterrupted but failed to build even a single dam.

Kamya said that FDCs short-term strategy was to encourage the use of solar panels by subsiding them such that they are affordable to the majority of Ugandans while Obote said she will consult experts on the short-term measure. Both gave the building of new dams as their long-term strategy.

Education:
All candidates supported Universal Primary Education, which was introduced by the NRM but added that although it is a good program, it is not well managed.

UPCs Kalule said that the NRM stole their program but failed to implement it. She said that in 1980s, the Uganda Peoples Congress has started preparing the ground for UPE only for them to be overthrown.

UPC started by building Teacher Training Colleges to produce enough teachers for the UPE program. However, the NRM came and closed some when it was also introducing UPE, she said. Kalule promised to build more Primary Schools and reduce the student pupil ratio to 1 teacher to about 35 students.

For FDC, the UPE program will be improved by increasing pay for the teachers and fighting corruption in the school construction program and remove ghost UPE pupils from the roll. Kamya said that the figures by government do not rhyme with the total number of pupils finishing primary seven. She says there must be forgery involved.

Independent candidate, Bwanika said that he will improve the nutrition of the pupils by providing meals to pupils at school.

Health care:
The NRM noted that the problem of the health care system lies in the doctors who steal drugs meant for patients and take them to private clinics. Kabushenga said that the government has therefore banned doctors who operate private clinics from working in government health centers. He said that this will reduce on the number of doctors in these facilities and in the long run will lead to increase in pay for those who remain.

But Kamya said that the reason why the doctors do part time work and steal drugs from hospitals was that they do not get adequate pay. She said that FDC was going to increase the pay for doctors and increase medicine in the hospitals, noting that today, in many government health centers, one is required to buy a razor blade that costs only 50 shillings.

Miria Kalule said that whereas UPC managed to build tens of hospitals in the country, the NRM government has built none. However, Kabushenga interjected, saying the NRM government has been able to build health centers at sub county level.

General Economy:
Bwanika said that his government if elected will transform Uganda into a world food basket. He said that Uganda has a competitive advantage in terms of producing organic agricultural products, adding that the country has the sweetest pineapple in the whole world. Dr. Bwanika said that there is no way a country like South Africa can refuse Uganda from selling its products there when over 40 companies from South Africa are doing business in Uganda. He said that he would make it a condition that in exchange, South Africa and other countries accept Ugandan products if they are to do business in Uganda.

As for FDC, their strategy lies in the taxation system. Kamya said that FDC would reduce taxes in order to encourage more production and consumption of goods produced locally. She said that by encouraging consumption and production, government would have a bigger tax base, which will lead to increased revenue that would be used to fund other government programs.

If we were to go by the articulation of issues, come February 23, many Ugandans who have attended Dr. Bwanika rally, or listened, or attended the debate would vote for the Independent Presidential candidate. We wait for Election Day!

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