News analysis Health Business

Nalufenya Whats wrong Sanlam moves to take- lebrating

torture latest with the men? over Lion Assurance Ce

Issue No. 487 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8
Years

20 women
killed
What security is
doing wrong

www.independent.co.ug
Celebrating


INSIDE: BUSINESS
Economic
POLITICS: Godber SUDAN: Matthew Musevenis vision
GOVERNANCE: FEATURE NEWS A NALYSIS NEWS A NALYSIS Why do experts, World Bank
anxieties

Charles Onyango- Tumushabe on Stein on the want shift in strategy?

Poverty looms as
gambling booms
Obbo on the new lessons from Ivory Souths walk to Foreign big-money Police PRO reappointed Experts divided NEWS ANALYSIS NEWS ANALYSIS BUSINESS

look of corruption Coast crisis freedom investment frenzy in again as major changes over HIV Teachers on Museveni can Shs 68 trillion
Tullows backyard rock force strategy new transfer save Zziwa but economy
policy what after?
Emirates Airlines in control

INDEPENDENT
Issue No. 239 November 09 - 15 , 2012 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8
THE

You Buy the Truth, We Pay the Price Issue 144 January 07 - 13, 2011 Ushs 4000, Kshs 180, RwF 1200, SDP 6

Issue No. 230 September 07 - 13, 2012 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8
Issue No. 347 December 12 - 18, 2014 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8
Obama II Win excites world Papal Visit

The Besigye, Museveni

How Museveni killed Amamas vision Exercise, diet against IMF cuts Ugandas 16-page
anti-Lukwago Bill for Uganda cancer of prostate growth prospects Special
Edition

problem

Secret
As seen from the
delegates conference
Issue No. 396 Nov. 27 - Dec 03, 2015 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8
Issue No. 395 Nov. 27 - Dec 03, 2015 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

oil deals
New rules to force www.independent.co.ug

CNOOC, Total, Tullow

to reveal money paid
By Haggai Matsiko

Welcome
Inside the hunt
www.independent.co.ug

Issue 347.indd 1 12/9/14 8:21 PM

Pope
for Al Shabaab
INTERVIEW NEWS ANALYSIS BUSINESS
Land grabbers
50 years of Joy & tears
All Makerere money Crane Bank

A SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
should be put in
one basket for
better staff pay
hit Entebbe






















opens Malaba
Branch
Shs 234 Bn brewery opens
INSIDE: Prof. Frederick Jjuko, Prof.Daniel Schydlowsky, Prof. John Ssali, Lawrence Kagwa, Mayanja Nkangi, Prof.
Mwambutsya Ndeebesa, Godber Tumushabe, Maj. John Kazoora, Yoga Adhola, Eliya Kisembo, Andrew Mwenda, Abbey
Francis
Ssemuwemba, Naomi Wolf, Simon Mayende, Moses Byaruhanga, Moses Matovu, Diplock Ssegawa, Ronald Kerajo 27: 11: 2015
By Andrew M. Mwenda THE ANNIVERSARY EDITION

www.independent.co.ug www.independent.co.ug Issue No. 280 August 30 - September 05 , 2013 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8
INTERVIEW INSIGHT BUSINESS NEWS ANALYSIS TRIBUTE: BUSINESS
Economy on Why
www.independent.co.ug
Issue No. 234 October 05 - 11, 2012 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8 Museveni Call rates stay up Independence Ali Alamin NSSFs
speech was thin but UCC says new
track- IMF on substance law will compel
Day in
pictures
Mazrui
Feb.24 1933 to
Shs 366
billion

Musevenis war within NRM

RWANDA: 37 men SUDAN: What are the COMMENT Prof. SPECIAL REPORT: SUDAN:INew BUSINESS: With RWANDA: SUDAN:Recent violence BUSINESS: Oct.13, 2014
accused of grenade implications for the Ian Buruma on Killed by the state currency still govt broke, oil Rwanda becomes in Abyei has potential Mobile money:
attacks are alleged ongoing stalemate in why Obama has at Kololo army base, shrouded in firms gain upper a Nyakatsiless to spark a wider north- So far so good,
FDLR agents Darfur? gotten it right buried in secret grave secrecy hand country south conflict but





 








INDEPENDENT INDEPENDENT INDEPENDENT
THE
THE

THE

Issue No. 218 June 15 - 21, 2012 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8 Issue No. 339 October 17 - 23, 2014 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

You Buy the Truth, We Pay the Price
Issue No. 154, March 18 - 24, 2011
Ushs 4000, Kshs 180, RwF 1200, SDP 6 You Buy the Truth, We Pay the Price Issue No. 157, April 08 - 14, 2011 Ushs 4000, Kshs 180, RwF 1200, SDP 6 You Buy the Truth, We Pay the Price Issue No. 158, April 15 - 21, 2011 Ushs 4000, Kshs 180, RwF 1200, SDP 6
Supplement
Uganda Health system
strengthening project
scholarships

Tight budget
scheme

The challenge behind the 2012/13 numbers What next

Banks make for Afande
Lord Mayor huge profits Kaweesi?
Lukwago 


  
Police boss Kayihuras
The Field Commander 


 

brings common mans Crane Bank


 
approach to the city billion

Besigye pays the price

FDC leader unleashes powerful strategy against Museveni

www.independent.co.ug www.independent.co.ug www.independent.co.ug

www.independent.co.ug
www.independent.co.ug
INTERVIEW: RWANDA: SUDAN: www.independent.co.ug Issue 339.indd 1 10/13/14 8:20 PM

RWANDA: SUDAN:IDanger of NEWS: Budget reading Economic turbulence War looms large in
www.independent.co.ug

Can its economy NGOs providing basic Whistleblower is ritual of same wont shake the South Kordofan,
services to almost Abyei and Darfur
accommodate its exposes smuggling old promises countrys optimism COMMENT
Q&A BUSINESS
Avalanche of banks
ROAD TO 2016 NEWS ANALYSIS BUSINESS
Richard Byarugaba Dont BoU committed
spiraling birth rate? 90% of the country ring inside tax body on reducing NSSF politicise `The country Foreign
suspense account fight against
corruption
EU to lead new UN
energy initiative World Paul Kagame, Yoweri Museveni, Barack Obama, Uhuru Kenyatta, Goodluck is about to be
plunged
TV wins
to ensuring
economic

INDEPENDENT
Jonathan, Bill Clinton, Augustine Ruzindana, Olara Otunnu, Ssebaana Kizito,
mourns Gerald Ssendaula, Pope Francis, Andrew Mwenda, Yusuf Sserunkuma,
Rebecca Kadaga, Kintu Musoke, Norbert Mao, Paul Kawanga Ssemwogerere,
into chaos stability
THE

Mandela
Issue No. 167, June 17 - 23, 2011 Ushs 4000, Kshs 180, RwF 1200, SDP 6

Issue No. 212, May 04 - 10, 2012

Amama Mbabazi, Ruhakana Rugunda, Prince William...
Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8

SUPPLEMENT:

Kayihura sacks
BUJAGALI LINE

Land grabbing,
You Buy the Truth, We Pay the Price Issue No. 159, April 22 - 28, 2011 Ushs 4000, Kshs 180, RwF 1200, SDP 6
COMMISSIONED
Issue No. 384 Sept. 04 - 10,2015 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

top police officers investors exposed

Museveni reacts, Oxfam, Uganda
Is it punishment or a purge? Land Alliance in trouble Issue No. 295 December 13 - 19, 2013 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8

2016
Election

www.independent.co.ug
or war?
Security experts

Walk www.independent.co.ug
NEWS ANALYSIS
Corruption in
RWANDA
Rwandas
BUSINESS
NEWS ANALYSIS
Unwanted
INTERVIEW
Politics should
BUSINESS
In-flight catering
raise alarm over






to war
High costs threaten comes of age
low cost housing investors be a sacrifice -
F
C igh
Uganda business capital sector
Making resource
rich regions Dr Ian Clarke Wining but not winning, yet
orr ti
INTERVIEW:
Besigye wants to
RWANDA:
Is corruption on
SUDAN:
South Kordofans up ng
in Uga
nda 
 






American companies make?
inflows firm Rwanda targets medical tourism become food poor
ti
topple the govt - the rise in the EACs volatile governor on
Public anger greets Kabushenga cleanest country? vote
Museveni even
www.independent.co.ug

before he is swornin
INDEPENDENT Nelson
THE

NEWS A NALYSIS INTERVIEW BUSINESS

Mandela
You Buy the Truth, We Pay the Price Issue No. 162, May 13 -19, 2011 Ushs 4000, Kshs 180, RwF 1200, SDP 6 Issue No. 261 April 19 - 25 , 2013 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8
Issue No. 268 June 07 - 13 , 2013 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8 Why Ugandan We want a world Big dairy
www.independent.co.ug pupils dont class, first-world opportunity
learn Police Force
1918-2013
Uganda, Sudan How Monitor was






SUDAN:
South Sudans
COMMENT: Onyango-
Obbo: Museveni won
BUSINESS:
Ugandan business SPECIAL REPORT: RWANDA: INTERVIEW:
Cut down on
ICC trial looms over Special Commemorative Issue

closed, re-opened
From bitter rivals

enter arms race

How Musevenis

Kayihura, Kivejinja
free or fearful because he is bad, not women coming teargas and
good president into their own success is creating to friends - how
press? conditions for Kagame and increase teachers
his downfall Sarkozy reconciled pay- Prof. Kajubi

INDEPENDENT
THE

Issue No. 318 May 23 - 29, 2014 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8

You Buy the Truth, We Pay the Price Issue 152 March 04 - 10, 2011 Ushs 4000, Kshs 180, RwF 1200, SDP 6

Issue No. 181, September 23 - 29, 2011 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8

Museveni doubles military expenditure, The Inside Story www.independent.co.ug





NEWS ANALYSIS INTERVIEW BUSINESS

Makerere
Issue 295 copy peter new.indd 1 12/10/13 4:04 PM
Central Bank Ministers Bank profit

Inside Umeme




to investigate have become delight
Was it under fire MTN too lazy
Big regional trade boost
News analysis
Besigye gains in the east, 


 

Interview
WFP launches
Business
Low tea price EAC Top donor

bought Museveni sweeps the north related violence 
 

worries aid recipients

shares deal
Universitys problems go beyond












or stolen? pay and strikes



 


!
%#$&




  




Issue No. 362 April 03 - 09 , 2015 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8
Issue No. 404 Feb. 05 - 11, 2016 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

















Electricity sector


 






Politicians battle over  


Shs800 billion








Sejusas money, investor

 
 
%#$&



arrest
www.independent.co.ug www.independent.co.ug
www.independent.co.ug What Museveni

camp feared
By Haggai Matsiko

NEWS ANALYSIS: Are government INTERVIEW NEWS ANALYSIS BUSINESS

HEALTH NEWS ANALYSIS BUSINESS

INTERVIEW: officials are lying on oil? Telecom fees to drop Health Spying Imperial Banks
Grounds exist for Museveni financial woes
Museveni is in REGIONAL: UNHCRs direction affirms Rwandas a rebellion - Col. insurance's on wrong
the midst of a stability, yet some refugees remain sceptical losing support, Online fraudsters empty promises `enemy Large consumers task Umeme
Tsunami Felix Kulayigye Besigye gaining threaten car market
BUSINESS: Greasy path for Ugandas oil industry

Issue No. 391 0ct. 23 - 29, 2015 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8
Issue No. 208, April 06 - 12, 2012 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8

www.independent.co.ug
Issue No. 185, October 21 - 27, 2011 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8

Fight over
www.independent.co.ug
www.independent.co.ug
Why is Museveni
Fina M
www.independent.co.ug
www.independent.co.ug

building regions nc inis

strongest army? oil pipeline STOP PRESS
World shocked as
government shuts
BUSINESS

Bad debts
relee qu try of
asesarte
r IV
NEWS ANALYSIS FOREIGN PRESS
UNEB In Uganda,
BUSINESS
Unhoused
News analysis
Musevenis bread and bullets
Health
Unease as only cancer treatment
Business

 

ERA announces
Uganda outspends Kenya on military 
 


 
down Daily Monitor
choking banks experiment its bust generation 


 machine breaks down investor quits 


Besigye predicts: 




 Chinese plans for Uganda oil and Red Pepper
Experts warn banks
on poor due diligence goes wrong before boom
Tenant versus landlord
Musevenis
regime is Issue No. 414 April 15- 21, 2016 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

collapsing Issue No. 266 May 24 - 30 , 2013 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8
Issue No. 355 February 13 - 19, 2015 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

Uganda: Defense Kenya: Defense

Tinyefuza Fallout Jennifer
Musisi
expenditure 2011 expenditure 2011
US$1.02 billion. US$735 million.

Museveni intervenes in
www.independent.co.ug www.independent.co.ug
www.independent.co.ug

Israel arms dealer case under siege
INTERVIEW NEWS ANALYSIS BUSINESS Concern over private
BUSINESS: PERSPECTIVE: Oil-bribes scandal agencies using security After Museveni, Kampala
Behind the
in historical perspective Lukwago Kyambogo EACs monetary
union minister, MPs, Lukwago spell
scenes at
By Andrew Mwenda
on Museveni
Universitys Mr. Fix it
Prof. Ndiege seeks to reconcile an of the unequal in turf wars out terms of engagement
Muhairwes exit and Musisi 





Time to eat, travel less

Issue No. 189, November 18 -24, 2011 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8
News analysis Health Business
Issue No. 294 December 06 - 12, 2013 Ushs 5000, Kshs 200, RwF 1500, SDP 8 Massacre on IGG Mulyagonja launches 
 


 
 





Masaka road 







 





 
  



Museveni, Besigye Museveni Vs Mbabazi www.independent.co.ug

www.independent.co.ug www.independent.co.ug

Issue No. 431 Aug 12- 18, 2016 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

need to talk 














Experts warn of explosion if they dont 





 

  
 News analysis

 


  
Eastern DR Congo
erupts again
Health
 


 

skin bleaches
Business
Stanbic Banks
  
 
Social
 
 



pounce
Issue No. 432 Aug 19 - 25, 2016 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8
Top lawyers reveal details
of land grab plot

 






 



 
over Karuma, Isimba






 

Muloni, Kabagambe

www.independent.co.ug www.independent.co.ug www.independent.co.ug

Issue 294.indd 1 12/3/13 3:09 PM

AmAzing
www.independent.co.ug

Years of telling a story

 Issue No. 487 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017

The Week The Last Word Analysis Business Arts &

Culture
4|Mulago conducts The false 14|Nalufenya torture 22|Sanlam moves
brain surgery on an latest: After mayor to take-over
gospel of 35|Gun,
awake patient released quietly, 21 Lion Assurance: flowers, masks:
governance: victims accuse security Industry regulator Multimedia artist
says merger is
How Africas major boost to
Xenson tackles
4|Suspects in 20|Banning second-hand contemporary
Kiggundu murder obsession with clothes:To stop relying on local industry issues with
charged `governance Western hand-me-downs, creative flair
African countries are
issues is too importing Chinese textile
5|Pomp as much ado companies
Uganda hosts the 24|We support
third edition of over little or government
JAMAFEST nothing 29|Whats to ban alcohol
wrong with the 39|VW Polo
sold in sachets-
men?: High HIV Vivo: The
UBL MD
car made in
5|Justice Owiny- prevalence among
Kigali?
Dollo vetted, men raises need
confirmed as DCJ to embrace new
interventions
targeting them

STRATEGY & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Andrew M. Mwenda
MANAGING EDITOR: Joseph Were
INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR: Haggai Matsiko
BUSINESS EDITOR: Isaac Khisa
PHOTOGRAPHER: Jimmy Siya
WRITERS:Ronald Musoke, Flavia Nassaka, Ian Katusiime,
Agnes Nantaba, Agather Atuhaire, Julius Businge.
CARTOONIST: Harriet Jamwa
DESIGN/LAYOUT: Ronny Kahuma, Sarah Ngororano.

PUBLISHER: Independent Publications Limited, Plot 82/84, Kanjokya Street, P. O. Box 3304, Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256-312-637-391/ 2/ 3/ 4 | Fax: +256-312-637-396 E-mail: editor@independent.co.ug | advertising@independent.co.ug
circulation@independent.co.ug | Website: www.independent.co.ug

2 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
 Offline

President Museveni
addressses land
matters on Buddu FM
in Masaka on Sept.
10. He said the land
tribunals would not
delay because of a time
frame for the appeals
process. The whole country wants to know
why women are being murdered, and
that is what they expected us to handle
today.Odonga Otto, Aruu County MP on
parliamentary motion to discuss women murders

Minister for Foreign

Affairs, Sam Kutesa,
speaking at the 1st
Annual Foreign
Ministers lecture
organised by Uganda
Council on Foreign
Relations at Hotel The Cobalt 60 therapy cancer
Africana on Sept. 5. He machine is an excellent model and
said regional security
and integration are key besides it consumes less power
interests for Uganda. compared to other cancer treatment
INDEPENDENT/JIMMY SIYA machines on the international
market.Minister for Health Ruth Aceng

Godfrey Mutabazi,
the executive
director of Uganda
Communications
Commission (UCC)
briefing the media after
the Capacity Africa
2017 Conference I have never worked as an NRM cadre
at the Kampala in my life, neither have I ever attended
Serena Hotel on
Sept.5. INDEPENDENT/ any NRM cadre courses at the National
JIMMY SIYA Leadership Institute Kyankwanzi
NALI) Deputy Chief Justice Alphonse Owiny-
Dollo after his approval by Parliament

9 96 Shs29bn
Suspects charged Senior police officers sent on refresher Money ex-ISO spies
with the murder of courses at Police Senior Command are seeking in terminal
Entebbe women and Staff College in Bwebajja,Wakiso benefits

Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 3
The week
Mulago Hospital conducts brain surgery on an awake patient Kayihura sends over 90
During a medical camp organised by Speaking to the independent, Dr. Micheal officials for refresher courses
nuerosurgeons at Mulago hospital together Muhumuza, the head of the nuerosurgery
with experts from the India based Yashoda unit said once renovations going on at the
hospital have conducted brian surgeries on hospital are complete, they are set to start 96 senior officials
over ten patient including one who under- conducting skull reconstruction for accident have been sent for a
went the procedure while awake but sedat- victims in addition to the other surgeries refresher course at
ed. This was the first time such a procedure that have been going on. the police training
is being done at the unit. college in Bwebajja
on Entebbe road.
In a notice dated
Sept.06, the selected
officials were asked
to hand over office
and all equipment Kale Kayihura
to their second in
command in prepa- the DPC Kira road,
ration for course SP Nsaba Charles
that was set to kick DPC Old Kampala
off on Sept.14. police Station,
Among those Sarah Kibwika
on the list include Deputy Director
SSP Norman Traffic, Charles
Musinga the Mutungi the former
traffic commander Commandant
for Kampala and SP Geofry
Mulago Hospital Executive Director, Byarugaba Baterana (C) explains how Metropolitan , Nkaheebwa among
surgeries will be done during a tour at the theatre under renovation. Kasigaire Michael others.

Raila, Uhuru back on Suspects in Kiggundu murder charged

campaign trail
After the Inde- his competitor
pendent Electoral Raila Odinga of
and Boundaries National Super
Commission Allaince party
(IEBC) set Octo- (NASA) started
ber,17 as the date off combing parts
for conducting of Narok county.
fresh polls after Campaigns
the supreme have been sched-
court overturned uled to end on
Kenyattas win in October 15.
a Sept.01 ruling, The original
candidates have poll held on Aug.
started traversing 08 saw Kenyatta
Kenya soliciting declared winner
for votes. While with 54% of
incurmbent the vote, a lead
President Uhuru of 1.4 million
Kenyatta with votes over the The suspects appear before court on September 07.
his Jubilee party main opposition
started off with candidate Raila. On Sept.07, the Director with the murder include Lutaaya and Jibril Kalyango.
West Pokot, of Public Prosecutions Sheikh Yahaya Ramadhan The suspects are to be
Mike Chibita told court Mwanje, who was the committed to highcourt
he has charged eight acting Tabliq sect leader for trial. However Sheikh
suspects in connection with at Nakasero Mosque in Mwanje, Ssekandi, Buyondo
the murder of a muslim Kampala, Muhammad and Sendegeya are also
cleric Maj. Muhammad Buyondo alias Matiya a charged with terrorism for
Kiggundu and his body boda boda rider, Abdul- they are accused of training
guard in November last Wahabu Ssendegeya, and recruiting people into
year. Kiggundu was boda boda rider , Musa the Allied Democratic Forces
gunned down at Masanafu a Ssekandi alias Masanafu, a (ADF) rebel group between
Kampala surburb. businessman, Yusuf Nyanzi, 2010 and 2017 in different
Raila Odinga Uhuru Kenyatta Among those charged Bruhan Balyejusa, Nurudin districts across the country.

4 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017

Pomp as Uganda hosts the third edition of JAMAFEST
It was pomp as the
East African Community
secretariat together with
Partner States kicked
off the third edition of
the Jumuiya ya Afrika
Mashariki Utamaduni
festival (JAMAFEST) in
Kampala. Among what was
showcased was live musical
performances by different
tribal groups in East Africa,
literary works, film shows,
fashion shows, arts and
crafts exhibitions among
others. Showgoers got a
chance of buying various
cultural products ranging
from ceramics, paintings
and crafts.
Speaking on the sidelines
of the event, Festival host
and permanent secretary in
the Ministry of Gender Pius
Bigirimana said the event is
aimed at bringing together
community members to
celebrate diverse heritages
and contemporary
practises across the
different countries as these
are primary drivers of
Dial *133 * 8#
sustainable development.
The decision to hold this
event was reached in 2010
when the meeting of the
East African Community
Council of ministers
resolved that the East
African Community
Secretariat organises regular
East African Community
arts and culture festival on
a rotational basis. The initial
event was held in Kigali
Rwanda in 2013 whereas the
second edition was held in
Kenya in 2015.
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
The week
Justice Owiny-
Dollo vetted,
confirmed as DCJ
The parliamentary appoint-
ments committee chaired by
deputy speaker Jacob Oulanyah
on Sept.08 approved Justice
Alphonse Owiny-Dollo as
the new Deputy Chief Justice
(DCJ). They also confirmed jus-
tices Richard Butera and Paul
Mugamba as Supreme Court
justices after serving in the Court
of Appeal. Speaking shortly after
approval, Dollo said his judge-
ments will be guided by consti-
tution and dispelled the talk that
he is one of President Musev-
enis cadre judges belonging to
the ruling National Resistance
Movement (NRM) party.
I am not a cadre judge. Ive
been practising for over 20 years
and Ive always been guided by
the law. Since this appointment
was made weeks ago, critics of
outgoing DCJ Stephen Kavuma
have gone ahead to warn the
new entrant aviod being influ-
enced by top officials in his deci-
sions. Kavuma has been cricised
for issuing controversial interim
court orders that are seen to be
in favour of government.
Owiny-Dollo
*terms and conditions apply
5
The week

The President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni together with the Tooro Queen Mother Best Kemigisa and the Transport Minister Ntege
Azuba among other officials cut a tape as he commissioned the Fort Portal - Kamwenge road on September 7.

EADB sponsors five to Judiciary suspends strike again, give another ultimatum
study in US University Following several meetings,
the judicial officials who had for
tools again.
However, government had earlier
The East African or Engineering and weeks laid down their tools over promised to work on their demands
Development Bank be under 40 years of salary enhancements and allow- that include providing them with
(EADB) is sponsoring age and citizens of the ances agreed to go back to work but medical insurance, housing allow-
five science teachers EADB member states promised this was only for three ances, vehicles and security as soon
under its EADB/AAI Rwanda, Kenya, months. Speaking to journalists as the public service ministry finish-
STEM scholarship Tanzania and Ugan- on Sept.06, Godfrey Kaweesa, the es the process of harmonizing sala-
programme to study da. They must also be president of Judicial officers asso- ries of all government employees.
a one-year Masters working full-time in ciation said the strike had just been This process, Constitutional Affairs
Degree at Rutgers public, government suspended up to December 11. If Minister Kahinda Otafiire had said
University in the owned, educational their queries are not solved by then, will be complete by end of October.
United States, it said institutions, have he said they will lay down their
in a press release on interest in pursuing
Sept.08 a graduate degree in
The beneficiaries the STEM fields in the
include; Miriam United States. This
Kabagorobya (Ugan- years beneficiaries
da), Edward Mureka have been selected
(Kenya), Barnabas from nearly 300 appli-
Wafula (Kenya), Den- cants across the EADB
ish Akuom (Kenya), East African member
Chris Mbae (Kenya). states. Vivienne Yeda,
The Scholarships are the director general
competitively award- of the East African
ed to experienced Development Bank
Teachers and lecturers said: This scholar-
of tertiary institutions, ship program will go
secondary schools, a long way in helping
and polytechnics, to increase the num-
who have at least ber of qualified aca-
three years full-time demics in the STEM
teaching experience. fields and strengthen
They must be univer- the workforce across
sity graduates, hold science, engineer-
a First Class/Upper ing and technology
Second Honours related employment
Bachelors degree in in East Africa.
Mathematics, Sciences Godfrey Kaweesa (standing) during a judicial officers meeting

6 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017

Government releases report on women
murders after push by parliament
Entebbe RDC Kirabira during one of the security meetings held in
Katabi town council.
On Sept.07, Minister for
Internal Affairs Jeje Odong
presented to parliament a
report on the recent spate
of murders of women in
Nansana municipality and
Katabi town council saying
44 had been arrested in con-
nection to the crime. Twenty
two of these he said had
been charged in court.
Odong said police inves-
tigations show the women
in Nansana had been mur-
dered by the same gang for
ritual purposes whereas
those in Katabi connect to
a serial killer Katongole
Ivan who contracts people
and gets involved in search
of blood and body parts to
build his wealth.
Earlier, legislators had
expressed disgust about
how the government was
handling the problem. For
instance Leader of Oppo-
sition Winnie Kizza said
that governments failure
to present a statement in
Parliament about the same
showed incompetence
in handling the murders
whereas Odonga Otto went
ahead to move a motion
that the house be adjourned
until such a time when the
ministers of Security, Inter
nal Affairs and Defense pre
sent a statement.
By september,04 bodies
of 21 women had been dis-
covered dumped in different
areas in the two places.
The week
Over 250 land titles given
to Kibale residents
President
Museveni during
his land campaign
tour handed over
a batch of up to 300
free-hold titles of
land in Bunyoro
that has been under
the land fund to
its lawful owners.
Museveni who
also launched the Robinah Nabbanja
Kibale zonal land
office on Sept.09
said land wrangles MP Robinah Nab-
in the area started banja said that
with the coming this batch is small
of the colonialists, considering the
who divided people fact that residents
according to tribes have been pushing
and rewarded those for this for long
that cooperated having suffered
with them. historical injustices
However, speak- when Bunyoro land
ing to journalists, was given away to
Kibaale woman Buganda.

Tortured Kamwenge mayor released on bond

Tortured Kamwenge mayor Godfrey
Byamukama was last week released on
police bond. Byamukama who was arrest-
ed at the Land Ministry offices in Kampala
was suspected to have been involved in
the murder of Assistant Inspector General
of Police Andrew Felix Kaweesi. Byamu-
kamas case who has since April been
detained at a police facility in Nalufenya
Jinja district came to the limelight when
photos of him being treated at Nakasero
hospital for severe injuries on the legs
allegedly inflicted on him by security
operatives were leaked to the media.
Speaking to journalists at his home on
Sept.09, Byamukama said he had been
ordered to be reporting at Kira Police
Station every week. He also said the day
Kaweesi died he was in Kamwenge and
even held a council meeting. However,
Police spokesperson Asan Kasingye said
Byamukama is still being invetigated over
the murder. Earlier, four police officers
Ben Odeke, Habib Roma, Patrick Murami-
ra and Fred Tumuhairwe accused of tor-
turing the mayor had also been arrested
and charged with misconduct.
Godfrey Byamukama

Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 7
Humour
The minister of Kampala Beti
Kamya has set terms for Lord
Mayor Erias Lukwago and the
Executive Director Jennifer
Musisi's foreign travels. She
is implementing cabinet's
resolution to have ministers
approve foreign travels of all
workers in their respective
dockets.

Opposition FDC party president Mugisha Muntu is under fire for allegedly President Yoweri Museveni loses sleep over Africa's bleak future. The pan-
spying for the ruling party. He says his colleagues should seek other ways of Africanism President says trivial things such European soccer have diverted
winning supporters to their side instead of talking ill of him. youth away from strategic thinking in an era of global bullies.

8 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017

The false gospel of governance
By Andrew M. Mwenda
How Africas obsession with `governance issues
is too much ado over little or nothing
L
et me articulate a heresy: the argu-
ment that Africas failure to prosper
economically is fundamentally due
to governance i.e. that our leaders
are greedy, selfish, corrupt, dictatorial and
power hungry is baloney. These ills may
be morally repugnant but they do not
automatically impede economic develop-
ment. Todays rich countries had leaders
with similar characteristics and in spite of
them (and sometimes partly because of
them), their nations transformed from poor
agricultural societies to modern industrial
nations.
The United States industrialised alongside
genocide of Native Americans and enslave-
ment of black people, which became convict
leasing; a system of conscripting labour
of prisoners that was actually worse than
slavery. During its most intense phase of
industrial transformation (1865 to 1900)
America did not allow its women and black
population to vote. Corruption was ram-
pant, in fact legal. Votes were bought and
sold on the open market. The U.S. overtook
Great Britain as the worlds largest economy
in 1890.
Yet during that period, U.S. politicians
were in the pockets of big money cats and
political parties auctioned government jobs
to their financiers (like they still do today).
It had no competitive bidding. During this
phase of its history, the U.S. never recruited
a single civil servant through an open com-
petitive exam. Indeed, there was no require-
ment for professional/technical competence
or qualifications for a job in the civil service
until the early 1900s.
America was not alone. European powers
industrialised in the mid to late 19th and
early 20th centuries against the backdrop
of officially sanctioned corruption called
prebendalism, cruel labour practices (read
Karl Marxs critique of early capitalism),
and voting restricted to a few adult males
with property. Many argue that it was pos-
sible to undergo industrial transformation
in those days with such ills but today things
have changed; that todays realities demand
honest government that is liberal-demo-
cratic with checks and balances.
This is sentimental hogwash. The most
rapidly industrialising countries of today
China and Vietnam are saddled with
high levels of corruption. Both are ruled by
single party dictatorships and no organised
forces in civil society hold them to account.
The Last Word
Chinas human rights record is appalling.
These factors may be morally repugnant
but they have not stopped China from rapid
economic progress.
Just next door to Africa are the gulf states
of the Arabian Peninsula. Dubai is the most
rapidly transforming mini-state with oil
revenues only contributing 4% of its budget.
It has no elections, no elected parliament
or free press and no political parties or any
form of competition for power. Instead it is
ruled by a traditional monarchy with abso-
lute authority and no term or age limits.
There is hardly a distinction between the
private property of the ruling emir and the
public property of the state of Dubai.
Even the Asian tigers are not exemplars
of the governance virtues often attributed
to prosperity. South Korea, Singapore,
Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia were very
corrupt and undemocratic during their
intense period of rapid economic growth.
They were ruled by military or civilian
strongmen; the type we are told are respon-
sible for Africas poor performance. Their
leaders clung to power for decades and
died, retired or were forced out of office
(Taiwan after 45 years, South Korea after 18
years, Singapore after 36 years, Malaysia
after 24 years and Indonesia after 32 years).
Even when it comes to economic policies,
the common gospel of low inflation, whole-
sale privatisation and liberalisation, open-
ness to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) etc.
does not stand the test of evidence. Japan
and South Korea industrialised with low
FDI and when banking was 90% in local
hands (either by the state or its private
sector cronies) as it is in China today.
From 1930 to 1987, Finland had a law cat-
egorising any firm with foreign ownership
above 20% as dangerous. It liberalised in
1993 only as a condition for joining the EU.
In South Korea, inflation averaged 19%
between 1960 and 1990, its most intense
period of transformation. In China, 65%
of industrial production today is by state
owned enterprises.
Nearer home in Africa, the fastest growing
economy is Ethiopia. It has not liberalised
and inflation has been at 30%. All banks are
either owned by the state or by its nationals.
It is a virtual one party state that brooks
little dissent it has one television channel,
one radio station and one opposition
member in parliament.
It is clear that all the ills that secular
Opinion
priests of development claim are holding
Africa back were rampant in all of todays
rich nations during their intense period of
transformation from poverty to prosperity.
If they are holding Africa back, we need
to know the special circumstances on our
continent that make them bottlenecks to
prosperity.
From the perspective of the history of
economic development, one thing seems
obvious: if what a country sells abroad
attracts more value than what it buys, that
country will prosper. This is how USA
(through industrialisation) and Saudi
Arabia (through oil) became prosperous.
The other factor is national control over the
most valuable parts of the economy.
Africa has been sold a gospel of gover-
nance that has taken our eyes off this ball.
We are permanently involved in struggles
over governance issues term and age
limits on presidents, press freedom, mul-
tiparty politics, corruption and favoritism
etc. As we fight over these peripheral issues,
multinational corporations take all our
banks, manufacturing firms, telecommuni-
cations companies and win all multi-billion
dollar public infrastructure projects.
My argument that corruption, longevity
of our rulers in power and undemocratic
rule are not fundamental constraints to our
economic prosperity is not a call for inac-
tion on these fronts. Rather it is to make the
point that in the struggle for prosperity, the
quarrels over these problems is a sideshow.
I am aware this argument gives my critics
an opportunity for ad hominem attacks,
claiming I am trying to justify those of our
rulers who are corrupt, dictatorial and
clinging to power because they have paid
me.
As I wait for the cheques to flow in, let me
insist that the most important battles we
must fight are national control and direction
of our economies and the shift from being
producers and exporters of raw materials
to value added products. Rich countries
are not rich because they had democratic
governments that were honest and
professional. Instead they are less corrupt,
more democratic and professionally
managed today because they are rich.
Good governance is a consequence of
development not a cause of it.
amwenda@independent.co.ug
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 9
Cover story

20 women killed
What security is doing wrong
By Independent Team

The womans body was lying in the bush near a popular boat docking site not
far from a barracks. Her skirt was covered in blood. Parts of her hands and on
leg were missing. Her husband was in the crowd that gathered to see the lat-
est victim of a spate of killings. Francis Bahati had become concerned when
his wife, a food vendor at the Kasenyi Landing site, had not returned home
from the market the previous evening. He came hoping she was not the one
lying there. And he could not recognise at first. But just as he was about to
move on, a yellow flower on the bloodied skirt struck him. This was his wife.
He fell into shock and lost consciousness.

(L-R) Gen. Henry

Tumukunde the
minister for
Security and
IGP Gen. Kale
Kayihura

10 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017

T
he dead woman was identified
as Aisha Nakisinde, a mother
of three little children. She was
25 years old and her ID photo
showed a petite woman, un-
smiling, and staring hard into
the camera with a businesslike air of impa-
tience. Nakisinde had been strangled and
her private parts desecrated. Up that point,
Aug.14, police was counting 16 women
in three months in two towns of Wakiso
district, Katabi and Nansana on the edge
Lake Victoria. Five other women would
be killed in almost the same fashion in the
next two weeks, bringing the number to 21
by Sept.04. Unofficially, the death toll was
higher.
Can police stop the murders?
David Pulkol, a former director of the
Internal Security Organisation (ISO) said
there is a puzzle that begs explanation.
How can insecurity get to this level
when there is security personnel paraded
everywhere especially in Entebbe?
Something else is happening and this
government is just not telling us. How can
you have all these informal groups like the
crime preventers and yet still have crime
penetrate the communities to such obscene
levels?
Among Pulkols, there are many more
questions that this situation has raised.
Questions of what for sure the crime wave
is about? Is it one gang committing crimes
in totally opposite areas? How will these
cases be resolved? Will police be able to
stop them?
So far police appears to be concentrating
on the victims phone contacts, swooping
down on them all before screening and
zeroing in on a few. This mode of operation
has been criticism as a blatant to attempt to
show that the police was doing something.
Top criminal lawyer, Caleb Alaka, says
this is not the first time he is seeing police
make such arrests. He says they do it when-
ever such an incident happens and stop at
that when things cool down. He says the
killings are happening at awkward times
and enforcement authorities have no clue.
This is worrying, he told The Indepen-
dent.
Alaka explained that if this is a case of a
serial killer, then police should be looking
at this as the handiwork of one person who
can kill very many people and do it right
under the nose of the security operatives.
Alaka says people should take individual
responsibility for their security.
People should avoid moving alone
and without informing people about their
whereabouts. This, he says is a short term
measure. What should work long term is
mobile police that was once vibrant but has
since died.
But this could be work of the same gang
in different areas and that this requires a
Some of the murdered women
In the case of Nansana
municipality murders,
eight of the
9
women were
murdered by one
criminal gang for
ritual scarified
purposes
tactical force to net them, he said. Unfortu-
nately, he said, the police do not have exper-
tise to thoroughly investigate homicides.
But when The Independent spoke to
Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson
Emilian Kayima, he said the force indeed
has a plan and the required expertise.
When the Independent interviewed Kayi-
ma the number was 13 but has now swollen
to 17. They had made a few arrests then,
which he said they made through tracking
the deceased phone records. The arrests
continue but no credible clue has been seen.
He said their investigations showed that
it was certainly one gang involved in the
criminal related killings.
The IGP has ordered us to rejuvenate
the neighborhood watch where ten house-
holds should have a monitoring system of
each other. With this, everyone in these ten
households ought to know the whereabouts
of the others and also have knowledge of
what exactly they do for a living.
Kayima also spoke of plans by police,
through Local Councils, to register all the
Cover story
people in their communities. He said this
initiative has been dubbed My neighbors
concerns are my concerns.
It is continuation of the forces commu-
nity policing strategy launched early in the
year to encourage residents to be on the
watch in their neighbourhood and report
suspicious activity. Kayima said the police
will follow up with setting up posts at par-
ish levels to ensure that theres constant con-
tact and mediation between the force and
the community.
The polices business as usual approach
appears to have missed an important point-
er. Nakisindes killing has become a turning
point of sorts. Following the discovery of
her body, parliament demanded an official
explanation from the executive and called
off all business when the line minister failed
to show up.
And when the Minister for Internal
Affairs, Gen. Jeje Odongo, finally deliv-
ered an official statement to parliament on
Sept.07, he offered a lot on details of the
murders, speculated on motive, but fum-
bled on action the government was taking
to ensure not more killings happened. He
said 18 of the killings were linked to witch-
craft while the other three women were
killed as a result of domestic violence. He
said 44 suspects had been taken into custo-
dy for questioning. But legislators were not
impressed when he said the murders were
the work of the illuminati, a broad descrip-
tion coined by tabloids to describe young
people with clear sources of wealth who
like to splash new money. Minister Odongo
want the MPs to believe what the tabloids
said about the shadowy illuminati; that they
went under water to get their money, and
were murdering the women to suck their
blood in rituals.
In the case of Nansana municipality
murders, eight of the 9 women were mur-
dered by one criminal gang for ritual scari-
fied purposes, Odongo said, The prime
suspect Ibrahim Kawesa confessed that he
had been contracted by Phillips Tumuhim-
bise to kill 12 women to draw blood for
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 11
Cover story

ritual performance to enhance wealth.

MPs were not impressed. Many had
read a report attributed to Police Director
of Medical Services, Dr. Moses Byaruhanga
in the Daily Monitor newspaper that
police surgeons had found no evidence
that organs were removed from any of the
women as is common with ritual killings.
Even the neck, where the minister claimed
the illuminati were sucking blood did not
bear any cuts. The official statements also
were not sync with an earlier statement by
Police Spokesman Asan Kasingye. He had
dismissed any link between the murders
and said police had no evidence pointing to
a serial killer, as was widely believed.
But to back Odongo, Prime Minister
Ruhakana Rugunda told MPs that back-
ward tendencies like ritual killings remain
a reality in the country. Still, the air of dis-
trust hung heavy.
The MPs said that torture, rape and bru-
tality that are characteristic of the current
women murders were not typical of ritual
murders.
In ritual murders, perpetuators do not
rape women, one MP Margaret Komu-
hangi, told the government ministers blunt-
ly. She said the killings seen were typical of
war crimes where women are brutalised,
raped, and forced into prostitution. Kyomu-
hangi who headed a government probe into
human sacrifice advise the authorities not to
close off other routes of investigation.
This is an attack on our dignity that we
deserve as human beings; this is taking us
many steps backwards, said Anna Adeke,
a Youth MP, The manner in which these
women are killed is abusing our feminin-
ity. Opposition leader in parliament,
Winifred Kiiza said for killers to be lurking
with impunity in Entebbe, the seat of the Gen. Kayihura (R) with Municipality Mayor Bakite (2ndR) listening Nansana residents talking about the increasi
Presidency is a major attempt to test the
countys powerbase. She dismissed the
Ministers statement as lacking information they think that all that their local police offi- When asked whether they were aware
on how government intended to solve the cials care about is money and not their secu- the IGP was touring their area on security
problem. rity. These police men have sometimes issues, they answered in the affirmative.
We feel that our lives are in danger; released criminals who have offered them We expect him to come this side also,
and its a shame that the Minister is talking bribes and kept in custody innocent people one said. Deputy Mayor Ssali said many of
about witchcraft as the country prepares to who refuse to give them money. They are the murdered women were not residents
move into middle income status, she said. just money makers and not security opera- of the area as claimed by the police. They
Several MPs charged that failure to stop tives, said one elderly lady who appeared couldnt be identified, Ssali told The Inde-
the killing of women should be seen as rather shy. pendent, I am not happy with the way
more failure by the security agencies that At the Nakuule Police Post in the area, police is handling this whole matter. Why
have failed to arrest the killers of Muslim the two roomed facility had one officer arent they giving us all the information
sheiks, top policemen and army officers, seated on a small desk. He was speaking to about their findings?
and high ranking judicial officers. a woman who seemed to have come to get He said as local leaders, they have held
A twist in the reports is the manner in someone released from custody. It was her meetings with residents and agreed that
which the women mostly first go missing son. Another two police officers were play- pubs, bars and local clubs to regulate their
before their already decomposing body ing Omweeso, a local board game outside working hours and to close by midnight.
pops-up in bushes, by the road side, or the station. Ssali was speaking on the day when the
other places. Adjacent the police station is the open Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kayi-
In several interviews with residents of field where the residents most of whom had hura, was visiting Nansana.
Nansana, it was clear many of them do not packed their boda bodas, were listening to Kayihura who on Aug. 25 visited Bufulu
trust the police. Many women refused to the address of Deputy Mayor Isaac Keith village where the latest killing at that point
give their names because, they said, they Ssali of Nansana Municipality where many had just been reported, blamed laxity of
could be singled for retribution. Many said of the corpses have been found. local council administration for the rise in

12 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017

ing murder cases. Independent/Jimmy Siya
criminality. Kayihura had said their intel-
ligence shows a businessman in the area was
involved in the killings as rituals. He said
local leaders were letting in wrong elements
because they no longer register new people.
We dont know who our next neighbors
are. Even the chairman doesnt know. New
people need to be registered to know who
we are living with.
Pulkol says he is afraid this venture may
not be sustainable. I am skeptical of the
sustainability of this project because such
ventures have been done before, he says,
For instance what happened to the crime
preventers that were trained a while ago? At
what point did the state lost them. This too
may pass.
He also adds that though this may be a
good venture, it may not be feasible being
that there is mistrust between the police and
the people. The people dont trust the police
anymore. And I think it is because of the
police brutality.
Government list of murdered women as at Sept.07
1. On 3rd May 2017, a body of unidentified
female adult was found at Nansana west
zone with signs of manual strangulation.
This body has remained unclaimed to date.
2. On the 28th May 2017, a body of a female
identified as Nampijja Juliet alias Jalia
Nantabazi was found behind Kenjoy
Supermarket in Nansana West I. The body
bore signs of manual strangulation.
3. On 28th May 2017, a body of unidentified
female adult was found at Nansana East 1
zone with signs of manual strangulation.
This body has remained unclaimed to date.
4. On 31st May 2017, two bodies of female
adults, one identified as that of Nansubuga
Patricia alias Proscovia and another
unidentified were found near Kenjoy
Supermarket in Nansana West I, both with
signs of manual strangulation. The body
of the unidentified woman has not been
claimed to date.
5. On 5th July 2017, a body of a female adult
identified as Birungi Maria was found at
Nansana East II zone with signs of manual
strangulation.
6. On the 11th July 2017, a body of a female
adult identified as Nakazibwe Josephine was
found in her rented room at Ochieng Zone
in Nansana Municipality. The body exhibited
signs of manual strangulation.
7. On 16th July 2017, a body of unidentified
female adult was found in a trench at
Nansana East zone Bujagali. The body also
had signs of manual strangulation.
8. On 17th July 2017, a female adult body
identified as that of Nakacwa Teddy was
found lying in her rented room in Nansana
West II zone. The body had signs of manual
strangulation.
9. On 25th July 2017, a female adult body
identified as that of Kyandali Juliet, a
business woman in Ganda Nansana, was
found in her home.
Katabi Town Council Murders
10. On 7th June 2017, a female adult body
identified as that of Nansubuga Gorreti
was found along Kasenyi Road in Abayita
Ababiri with signs of strangulation and a
stick inserted in her private parts.
11. On 26th June 2017, a female adult body
identified as that of Komugisha Faith alias
Jamila was found at Katinda near Ssese
Cover story
Gateway Beach with signs of strangulation
and a stick inserted in her private parts.
12. On 13th July 2017, a female adult body
identified as that of Dona Zakanya alias
Kasowole Aisha was found at Abayita
Ababiri with signs of strangulation and a
stick inserted in her private parts.
13. On 21st July 2017, a body of a female adult
identified as that of Norah Wanyama was
found at Nkumba Central Zone with signs
of strangulation and a stick inserted in her
private parts.
14. On 24th July 2017, a body of a female adult
identified as that of Rose Nakimuli was
found behind Keba Inn near Jantos Bar at
Kitala, a few metres from her house with
signs of strangulation and a stick inserted
in her private parts.
15. On 11th August 2017, a body of a female
adult identified as that of Nakajjo Sarah was
found behind Faith International Nursery
and Primary School along Kasenyi road
approximately 200 metres from a one
Bwanika Jones Shrine. The body had a
stick inserted in the private parts. Her left
breast and other body parts were missing.
16. On 14th August 2017, a body of a female
adult identified as that of Nakasinde Aisha
was found at Kasenyi Landing Site with
signs of strangulation, a stick inserted in
her private parts and one leg missing.
17. On 27th August 2017, a body of
unidentified female adult was found at
Kitala Village along Entebbe road with signs
of strangulation with a stick inserted in her
private parts.
18. On 28th August 2017, a body of a female
adult identified as that of Nalule Jalia was
recovered from Nkumba Central in Kayilila
forest reserve with signs of strangulation
and a stick inserted in the private parts.
19. On 4th September 2017, a body of a female
adult identified as that of Nabilanda Mary
alias Maria was found at Nyanama Trading
Centre in Bunamwaya near a washing bay
with signs of strangulation.
20. On 15th August 2017, a body of a female
adult identified as that of Zawedde Regina
was found in Bulaga town.
21. On 16th August 2017, a body of a female
adult identified as that of Namuwonge
Jennifer was found in Bwaise, Kawempe.
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 13
News analysis

Nalufenya torture latest

After mayor released quietly,
21 victims accuse security
By Haggai Matsiko deliberate efforts to subvert justice.
On Sept.06, prison authorities denied
The ping pong being played by security authorities in handling experts from the African Centre for the
the case involving over 20 suspects charged with the murder of Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture
AIGP Felix Kaweesi, his body guard and driver, has renewed con- Victims (ACTV) access to examine some
of the suspects. As a result, Rwakafuzi
cerns of human rights observers. The latest controversy involves spent Sunday evening holed up in his
the release following a five-month detention without trial of former office at Uganda House on Kampala
Kamwenge Mayor, Godfrey Byamukama, who made news in April Road planning on how to beat this lat-
est huddle.
over the severe torture that police meted out on him. The said examina-

T
tion, Rwakafuzi
explained, was
he case of Byamukama, who over four counts; terrorism, two counts of ordered by court
has been released with no murder and aggravated robbery. as it is critical to
single charge, became public Some of them have sued the govern- prove the torture
when gruesome pictures ment for allegedly abusing their human allegations.
emerged during the Easter rights. Their case is being handled Rwakafuzi
season, days after he had by renowned human
been arrested, showing his deep wounds rights lawyer Laudislaus
on kneecaps, which appeared like they Rwakafuzi.
had been drilled and scooped of fresh Both cases are in
that revealed the full extent of the torture. the initial stages but
Critics are alarmed that police quietly Rwakafuzi says he is
released Byamukama with no single already frustrated
explanation to the public and no public by what he calls
apology to him after severely torturing
him to confess to the murder of Kaweesi.
Kaweesi and his body guard Kenneth
Erau and driver Geoffrey Mambewa were
murdered on March 17 when assailants
riding on motorbikes waylaid them and
sprayed bullets into the car they were
driving in.
In the days and months that followed,
police and the Chieftance of Military
Intelligence (CMI) carried out unprec-
edented operations, arresting, and tortur-
ing scores in a bid to force them to con-
fess to the murders.
At least 21 of these suspects are
being held in Luzira Maximum
Security Prison in Kampala

Former Mayor
Godfrey
Byamukama

14 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017

told The Independent that court had on
Aug. 31 given an order for experts to
examine the suspects who say they were
tortured. But when ACTV wrote to the
prison authorities seeking permission to
access the suspects, prison authorities
denied them access. The denial came in
a Sept.6 letter noting that ACTV was not
allowed to examine and compile a report.
They would only be allowed in to observe
as the prison authorities examined the
suspects. The report from the examina-
tion would go to the prison authorities
and not court. ACTV was supposed to
submit its report to lawyers the same day
they received the letter.
The response from the prison authori-
ties was surprising because, Rwakafuzi
said, it was a violation of a court order
and a contradiction on their part. The
prison authorities had just a few weeks
before allowed ACTV to access and
examine suspects following another
court order.
In a June 21 application to court, their
lawyers demanded that court declares
that the suspects were tortured, that
their continued detention was unconsti-
tutional, the confiscation of their prop-
erty was also unconstitutional and also
asked court to allow experts to examine
the suspects to confirm to torture.
The prisons authorities allowed ACTV
to examine 19 suspects and their reports,
which The Independent has seen, con-
firm that the suspects were severely
tortured and are still suffering from the
after effects.
Some of the suspects experience sleep
disorders, have intense headache, lac-
erations, body pains, others cannot walk
without clutches and others cannot hold
with two hands because of the torture.
But it is results of the psychological
evaluations that are more disturbing.
All the evaluations reveal severe
physiological suffering which is con-
sistent with general physiological con-
sequences of traumatic exposure. All of
the reports also show that the suspects
suffer severe post-traumatic stress.
When other suspects three suspects
heard about these examinations and the
purpose behind themto be submit-
ted to court to show torturethey also
requested to be examined. The victims
are; Ayub Sauda, Kalyango Gibriel and
Yusuf Nyanzi.
Rwakafuzi says he suspects the prison
authorities are trying to protect the other
government institutions who are respon-
sible for the torture of these suspects.
Court had said it was in the interest of
government that these suspects are exam-
ined as this would either absolve them or
show that indeed as they suspects allege
they were tortured, Rwakafuzi said,
but now the prison authorities have
The late Felix Kaweesi
There are many,
many people
being tortured,
one report reads
in part, It is
possible some
could be maimed
totally or even
dead
blocked the process. We have informed
court that its order was defied.
However, Frank Baine, the Uganda
Prisons Spokesperson denied that the
authorities defied the said court order.
When they first came they had a court
order for 19 suspects with a list of the
said 19 and they were allowed to examine
them, Baine told The Independent on
Sept.11, Then later they returned and
said let us examine these other three.
That is where the problem was because
you cannot examine these others without
another court order.
He added, however, that the matter
had now been resolved. The OC says he
has received the new order and they are
now free to come and examine the oth-
ers.
As we interviewed Rwakafuzi, around
the same time, police had just released
News analysis
Byamukama, who elements in police
inflicted what is possibly the worst form
of torture that nearly claimed his life
before he was rushed to Nakasero hospi-
tal. Rwakafuzi was equally disturbed that
police had not come out to confess, apolo-
gise, and tell the public they were wrong
about Byamukama.
This kind of impunity by the authori-
ties subverts justice, Rwakafuzi told The
Independent, It is absurd that those who
are supposed to ensure justice are the
ones subverting it.
To make the case of the impact of tor-
ture on these victims, Rwakafuzi said,
Byamukamas physical wounds might
have healed but the psychological pain
lingers onthe reason it is very critical to
examine victims like him.
The public only became aware of the
scale of the torture by the army and
police when Rwakafuzi carried out an
investigation and exposed the torture
meted out on the other suspects13 of
them. Images of the torture soon popped
up on social media. The number of vic-
tims has since jumped to 21.
The suspects told Rwakafuzi that the
torture was still on-going at the Chief-
tance of Military Intelligence (CMI), at
Kireka and Nalufenya.
At Kireka, the investigation revealed
that one Ddamulira Swaleh Kimuli
has broken legs, Uthman Mugoya and
Bawooli Mugoya, are also being tortured.
At Nalufenya, it added, Sulaiman
Mudeya, Hussein Kigumba and Kaliiri
Yahaya are also being tortured.
There are many, many people being
tortured, one report reads in part, It is
possible some could be maimed totally or
even dead.
The report sparked public outrage,
forced the Uganda Human Rights Com-
mission (UHRC) to summon and ques-
tion the heads of the army and police,
and parliament to launch an investiga-
tion. President Yoweri Museveni was
sucked in too. In a letter to CDF Gen.
David Muhoozi and police chief, Gen.
Kale Kayihura, Museveni warned against
the use of torture to extract confessions
from suspects.
But while Rwakafuzis investigation
exerted some pressure on the security
forces, Rwakafuzi continues to be frus-
trated by the same forces and is growing
more pessimistic about their willingness
to allow the victims get justice.
Despite Rwakafuzis assertion that
Byamukama was released without being
charged and should therefore be deemed
innocent, the police say that is not the
case.
But when pressed regarding what
charges Byamukama faces, Police Spokes-
person, Asan Kasingye, refused to elabo-
rate.
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 15
News analysis
I dont want to pre-empt the law,
we shall determine that when the DPP
(Director of Public Prosecutions) makes
public his charges, he said.
It is a stock response which often
means Kasingye is bluffing given that
previously he publicly linked the mayors
arrest to the murder of Kaweesi. Police
even apprehended some of its officers for
torturing him.
They knew he was innocent, Rwaka-
fuzi said, they have released him but
they wont apologise to him and the
public. The authorities need to account
for such illegal, inexcusable and glaring
attacks on peoples rights.
You said he is a murderer, Rwaka-
fuzi said, how then do you just release
him? What happens to his integrity? How
should his community see him?
When contacted, Jane Kajuga, the
Spokesperson of the DPP told The
Independent that when police initially
submitted the file for the suspects in the
Kaweesi murder, Byamukamas name
was not on it. Then two weeks ago police
submitted the file again with evidence
linking Byamukama to the murder.
But upon review of the file, she add-
ed, we found that the evidence was not
sufficient to charge him and we advised
police accordingly.
Asked whether that meant that
Byamukama was a free man, Kajuga
said: Yes, because there is no evidence
to charge him. Unless, the file returns
with sufficient evidence.
Byamukamas about-turn
In an added twist to the case, Byamu-
kama has since his arrest been heaping
praise on the police. He has announced
that he will not take any legal action.
Even his wife, who has been running to
the media to plead her husbands free-
dom, has suddenly gone quiet. The Inde-
pendent could reach neither Byamukama
nor his wife to comment on this story.
Earlier, when another torture suspect,
Godfrey Musisi, who was at Nalufenya
when Byamukama was tortured, made a
statement before his lawyer giving great
detail of what happened to him, Byamu-
kama appeared to contradict it.
Musisi said he suspected Byamukama
had been forced to say otherwise. Indeed,
ASP Patrick Muramira, who was arrested
over Byamukamas torture, also corrobo-
rated Musisis claims.
We arrested him through phone
tracking. We introduced ourselves
and explained to him about the ongo-
ing investigations about Kaweesi. We
put him in a van and brought him here
(Nalufenya), said Muramira, The
Mayor was delivered here without any
open would or a scratch. He walked from
16 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
the van to the counter. We can view the
images on the CCTV cameras.
Muramira was talking to MPs. Him,
ASP Fred Tumuhirwa, drivers Ben Odeke
and Roma Habibu had been arrested and
detained in Nalufenya over allegations of
torturing Byamukama.
Musisi, who had just been released on
bail in June said that the first time they
took Byamukama for interrogation, it was
in the wee hours of the morning.
When they brought him back, it was
clear he had been beaten but he was
still walking. But on the third time, they
brought him carrying him, he couldnt
walk.
He spent that whole night crying in
pain. On the second night, he was already
dripping pus.
One of the detainees banged the door
Gen. Kale Kayihura Gen. David Muhoozi
and asked that they take him or else he
would die. He had spent three days cry-
ing in pain. That is when Byamukama
was rushed to Jinja Hospital, where the
medical attendants failed to manage him,
then to Nsambya and lastly Nakasero
Hospital.
Musisi also revealed that one of the
other detainees, one Joshua Kyambaddes
brother died under torture, and another
suffocated and died as they were being
tortured.
These revelations sparked public out-
rage and forced Speaker Rebecca Kadaga
to launch a parliamentary investigation
into what appeared to have become a
pervasive misconduct with in security
circles.
How can one explain the electric
shock, the knocking out of teeth, the
breaking of knee caps, the ironing of a
persons body, the introduction of nox-
ious [harmful] substances into the orifices
of a person? Kadaga said.
Torture is not an issue of the Police
disciplinary committee, she said, It is a
matter of crime against humanity, it is a
breach of the Prevention and Prohibition
of Torture Act, and the perpetrators must
be arrested and charged in an open court.
We need to see justice done, she said.
The state minister for internal affairs,
Mario Obiga-Kania, apologised for the
torture of suspects. He informed parlia-
ment that the police have already arrest-
ed four officers for criminal trial in the
courts of law.
Kadaga ordered an investigation.
As the revelations about torture contin-
ued to spark outrage, President Musev-
eni, in a letter to the CDF and police chief
also attacked the use of torture to extract
confessions from suspects.
Legislator Muwanga Kivumbi, a mem-
ber of the defense and internal affairs
committee, was the first to raise a red flag
about Nalufenya early this year.
Indeed, a report by ACTV, a body that
Laudislaus Rwakafuzi
rehabilitates torture victims, reveals that
police accounts for majority of the over
6000 Ugandan survivors of torture that
the they have interacted with in the past
six years.
Some of the worst torturers at Nalufe-
nya are known. Victims reportedly told
Rwakafuzi that they Minaana and Kasiba.
They are so brutal, he said, they
tell the inmates that even the President
allowed them to kill. At CMI, he said, a
key torturer is Ali Eriasa. Other victims
mentioned others like Muhangi and
Nickson Ayesigire, who led the opera-
tions.
The two officers were never investigat-
ed or apprehended and police has never
come out to clarify on the allegations
against them. Most of the offenders keep
on their jobs, are reshuffled like Ayesigire
who became a police attach in Turkey.
For as long as the officers who are
behind these violations are not punished,
not fired, said Rwakafuzi as the inter-
view drew to the end, there is no justice
for these victims, there is no accountabil-
ity from the authorities. It is impunity. It
is inexcusable.
 News analysis

By Andrew S. Kaggwa

J
esus Christ on a wooden bicycle!
That is an expression often used to
show surprise, shock and disbe-
lief. It could easily come to mind,
for example, once someone tells you
that there are bicycles made out of bam-
boo in Uganda.But a group of youth in
Uganda is actually minting money by
making bamboo bicycle frames which
they mostly export to European coun-
tries and on order.
While many people cannot believe
that bamboo is strong enough to carry
someones weight, Noordudin Kasoma
and his team believe bamboo is the per-
fect material for making bicycle frames.
Kasoma would know. He rides
bicycles as a hobby and used to be a
competition rider with Tropical Heat
Riding Club in Katwe, a Kampala city
suburb.
We decided to use bamboo because
it has the ideal properties suitable for
bicycle construction, As a material,
bamboo has excellent vibration damp-
ening effects and effectively absorbs all
bumps on the road when one is riding, Kasoma working on a bamboo frame

Riding to riches
Kasoma explains.
His bamboo bicycles were a hit at the
recent Bamboo Exhibition organised by
the Uganda Bamboo Association at the

National Forestry Authority headquarters
at Bugoloobi between September 4 and
8. Many curious visitors took test rides
on the two bicycles made with bamboo
frames which he exhibited. Its a com-
fortable ride and I now no longer have
any doubts about the strength of the
bamboo bike, said an excited William
Okello, a resident of Luzira who weighs
83kgs, after doing the test ride.
Kasoma says international research
was made in the universities in US, Swit-
zerland and UK which found bamboo
a good material for bicycle making. He
adds that bamboo is beautiful and makes
more attractive bicycles than those made
of metal.
Kasoma explains that he called his
company BOOGAALI Bikes Uganda Ltd
because boo is the last part bamboo
and gaali means bicycle in Luganda
and many Ugandan languages. So Boo-
gali actually means many bicycles.
Kasoma, who trained in electrical
installation, shows many such sparks of
creativity. But he says he was first trained
in bamboo craft by an American instruc-
tor, Craig Calfee, in 2011 at the Entre-
preneurship Institute of Technology in
Lubaga, Kampala. His team started mak-
ing the bamboo frames in 2013 and cur-
rently exports the ready frames on order
to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Swe-
den. He has five permanent employees
on bamboo
Kasomas beautiful, environmental
friendly alternative to metallic bicycles
at his workshop at Zzana on Entebbe Road in
Wakiso District. He also trains students from
vocational institutions.
To make the bamboo frame, Kasoma and
his workers first have to find stems of the size
that would meet a customers specifications.
He said this is easy because many people
have not yet appreciated the value of bamboo
and sometimes even give him the bamboo
stems free of charge or cheaply. He only
needs to find the labour to cut them down, he
explains. The best bamboo, which is straight,
is only available in Kisoro in South Western
Uganda but transporting stems means incur-
ring additional transport costs.
After they get the stems, they measure out
the pieces and dry them in the sun which
strengthens them. Then they apply sand
paper to make them smooth and beautiful. To
strengthen the joints when joining the frame,
Kasoma says they use a bark cloth (olubugo)
from the bark tree (mutuba in Luganda). This
too has been tested in foreign laboratories and
found to be strong if woven in the right way.
The bark cloth is not only environmen-
tally friendly but light and easy to handle and
turn into any shape, once dipped into a resin
and dried, Kasoma explains. Since the bam-
boo stem is hollow, they add metal parts they
import to join the frames.
Kasoma says he can produce only 10
frames in three months as most of the work
is done by hand and it takes one worker
between 10-20 days to complete one frame.
Sometimes it becomes very hard for us to
satisfy our orders because we do most of the
work by hand as we do not have the neces-
sary equipment like our colleagues who make
bamboo bikes in the developed countries
do. So at times international customers who
have big orders or need their bamboo bicycles
urgently prefer to give the orders to makers in

Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 17
News analysis

Bamboo: Plant
of many uses
By Andrew S. Kaggwa rattan, bamboo has a higher spe-

B
amboo is an evergreen
perennial flowering
plant in the subfamily
Bamboosoidea of the
grass family Poaceae. Bamboo
is classified as a grass and not a
tree as many people think. Giant
bamboos are the largest mem-
bers of the grass family. Bamboo
is the fastest growing plant in the
world due to a unique rhizome-
dependent system. According to
research, certain species of bam-
boo can grow 3ft (about half the
height of an adult person) within
a day. It means they grow at a
stunning rate of almost one inch
every 40 minutes.
According to the website of the
International Bamboo and Rattan
Organisation (INBAR), a multi-
lateral development organisation
of 42 states including Uganda for
the promotion of bamboo and
cific compressive strength than
wood, brick, or concrete and
a specific tensile strength that
rivals steel. The Dutch-Sino-East
Africa Bamboo Development
programme, a project imple-
mented by INBAR to support
poverty reduction, sustainable
development, climate change
action and international trade
says Uganda has an estimated
40,000 50,000 hectares of bam-
boo. The project covers Uganda,
Kenya and Ethiopia which have
sub-Saharan Africas largest nat-
ural bamboo forests and account-
ing for 3-4% of the worlds total
known bamboo coverage.
Alternative uses of bamboo
Andrew Ndawula Kalema, a
farmer and bamboo enthusiast,
who is the national coordinator
for INBAR in Uganda and he
says bamboo has gained increas-
A lady displays bamboo shoots (malewa) packed in a plastic container
ing importance worldwide as a
substitute for timber in a wide
range of innovative products.
Bamboo shoots can be eaten as
food, poles for agriculture and
structures, panels and composite
materials for houses and build-
ings, versatile household prod-
ucts (furniture, kitchen utensils),
vehicles for transportation (such
as bicycles, boats, skateboards,
and even ultra-light airplanes),
pulp and paper, fibre for textiles,
medicinal and bio-chemical
products (including bio-plastics
and bio-fuels), charcoal for cook-
ing and heating, and so much
more. Kalema has a carboniser
drum which he said is used to
make bamboo charcoal from
bamboo stems. He describes how
bamboo is being used in making
lotions, shampoo and vaseline.
Carol Tusiime and Gertrude
Newumbe of the House of Bam-
boo Cosmetics make cosmetics
from bamboo products under
the Uganda Industrial Research
Institute (UIRI); a government
incubator which supports
research in industrial projects.
Other companies have added
value to the Bagisu traditional
delicacy of malewa made from
bamboo dried shoots. Noordu-
din Kasoma, the proprietor of
BOOGAALI Bikes Uganda Ltd
which makes bamboo bicycle
frames and make other artifacts
like lamp stands, chandeliers,
and key holders

other countries, he explains.
Kasoma says they sell each frame at
US$400 (about Shs 1,400,000) excluding
freight which is paid for by the customer.
That price pushes the bamboo bicycles
out of competition with the iron bicycles on
the local market. Kasoma says importing
some materials from abroad; including the
resin for hardening the bark cloth which is
used in the joints, is very expensive. Locally,
they have supplied to Christs Hope, a non-
governmental organisation which provides
palliative care to AIDS patients with offices
in Wakiso district in Uganda, Kisumu in
Kenya, and Mwanza in Tanzania. The NGO
has bought 30 bicycle frames from them
which it uses for fundraising riding. Though
they now concentrate in making only bam-
boo bicycle frames, Kasoma says they have
some complete bicycles with metals parts
imported from US, Europe and Asia which
they use in riding competitions under their
Boogaali Test Riding Club. The aim is to test
the efficacy of their bamboo frames.
He says all the bamboo frames they make
are customised depending on the specifica-
tions they get from the customer and they
offer a two year warranty on the frame
against any manufacturing defects.
We are confident about the quality of our
product and take the utmost care in selecting
the best bamboo and natural fibre we use to
make the frames.
Though our warranty is two years, if well
looked after, a bamboo bike can last even
between 10 to 15 years, Kasoma says.
Maintenance of bamboo bicycles cannot
be done by ordinary mechanics since they
require specialised metal parts which are not
easily available. Kasoma says bamboo bicy-
cles are very strong and there are examples
throughout the world of hundreds of them
which have lasted for between 10-15 years
after being ridden for thousands of miles.
He, however, says like any other product,
the better one looks after their bamboo bike
the longer it lasts. He cautions against leav-
ing it outside to the extremes of weather like
too much sunshine and rain.
Regarding what he calls the wrong
perception that bamboo bikes are heavy,
Kasoma says the frames they build are of
natural bamboo and the weights vary. He,
however, says that generally they are lighter
than a steel and aluminum frame but slightly
heavier than a carbon and titanium frame.
According to Kasoma, their bamboo
frames average about 1.8 kilograms whereas
those for the carbon fibre bikes used for rac-
ing weigh 1.2kgs. Depending on customisa-
tions, a complete bike with a bamboo frame
weighs about 12kgs. Those made of ordinary
steel and aluminium frame can weigh up to
15 kgs. The ones made of carbon titanium
frames are lightest at 8kgs.
Kasoma disputes another perception that
bamboo bikes are not strong enough and can
crack under someones weight.
Hundreds of bamboo bikes have been
built in the world and they have travelled
thousands of miles - some in difficult terrain.
In Uganda we have had riders competing on
bikes with our frames and they have had no
problem at all, he says.
Kasoma is looking forward to Sept. 18
World Bamboo Day on which his Boogaali
is organising a 458-kilometre bamboo aware-
ness bicycle tour from Kampala to Echuya
Bamboo Forest Reserve in Kisoro from Sept.
15. It is being billed as a promotion and
awareness ride to show the importance of
bamboo to Ugandan communities.
Kasoma says they expect over 100 riders
to participate in the event and already 10
people with bamboo bicycles have con-
firmed participation. The participation fees
include bamboo bike rental and a 20 percent
donation to the Echuya Batwa community in
Kisoro, Kasoma says.
Farther ahead, Kasoma says he wants to
set up a training centre for bamboo artisans
and a state of the art workshop for fabrica-
tion of parts of bamboo bicycles. He says his
ambition is to reach a state where even other
parts of their bicycles are made of bamboo
materials.

18 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017

Rwanda riders make history
By Jeffrey Stern
F
or the first time ever, Team Rwanda,
coached by former professional
cyclist of Santa Rosa, California,
Sterling Magnell, traveled halfway
around the world just for the chance to
make history.
During the second week of August, a
team of six riders that have been training
under the guidance of Magnell and founder
of the team Jock Boyer, tackled their first
UCI 2.HC sanctioned race in the United
States; the Colorado Classic. The competi-
tion jump from local and Africa Tour races
the team had competed in over the past
few seasons was significant, but they held
their own. What an honor and a privilege
to spend today with Team Rwanda, said
Magnell pre-race.
Coming from the cycling hot bed of the
Bay Area, Magnell knows talent when he
sees it. The dedication, kindness and pure
joy are elements from the young riders that
might come as the biggest surprise. Its odd
to not to find them with grin to grin smiles
on their faces at all times of the day.
Boyer and Magnell have a mission to not
only recruit, train, and compete in interna-
tional cycling competitions, but also share
knowledge with the next generation of
athletes and coaches for sustained growth
across the nation. Ultimately, Boyer and
Magnell see bringing the program to other
African nations as a way to help rebuild
build communities with histories of conflict
through the sport of cycling.
The Rwanda team fared pretty well dur-
ing the Colorado Classic competition too,
with four of six riders surviving to finish the
grueling high-elevation, four stage race in
the Rocky Mountains including Jean Cloude
Uwizeye finishing 47th out of nearly 100
riders. Didier Munyanez finished 25th dur-
ing the Stage 3 circuit in Denver and Jean
Paul Rene Ukiniwabo took 6th place in the
young rider classification (riders under 25
years old).
Considering the new environment,
atmosphere and long journey not only from
Africa but from the horrific 1994 genocide
that plagued the country (many of the riders
were young children then), their accom-
plishment carriers an even bigger meaning.
Rwanda President Paul Kagame believes
so much in the good the Team Rwanda is
doing for the country and its people that
they have stepped up support for over 35
men and women cyclists across all levels
and disciplines training in collaboration
with Rwandan Cycling Federation (FER-
WACY) under the guidance of the Ministry
Rwanda
of Sport and Culture (MINISPOC) as well.
Although a few riders have graduated
onto the bigger World Tour stage and
European racing, the heart and focus of the
program is growing these young men and
women into leaders in their own communi-
ties, Team Rwanda included.
One of Boyers dreams when founding
the program was to have Rwandans coach
and mentor their own. His dream came true
in 2017 after competing in the Olympics
last year in Rio, Nathan Byukusenge, an
original member of Team Rwanda from
2006, retired to become a coach for the
program. A selfless act for a person with as
much talent as Byukusenge, realising the
greater good of spending his time mentor-
ing the next crop of up-and-comers.
In just a decade Rwanda has become
somewhat of cycling hotbed in the country
of Africa, supported by the people, cycling
world and government. It is time for us to
step up and give you what you need to con-
tinue your success, President Kagame said.
Its this circle of support that will see
cycling in Rwanda, Africa and beyond
continue to touch lives, rebuild commu-
nities and provide inspiration for genera-
tions to come.
Source:bicyclemag.com
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 19
 Rwanda
Banning second-hand clothes
To stop relying on Western hand-me-downs, African
countries are importing Chinese textile companies
E
By Lily Kuo
very day the workers at C&H
Garment Factory are required
to learn a few words of Chinese.
Todays lesson, written on a
whiteboard at the back of a
humming factory floor, is the
numbers 8, 9, and 10written in Kinyar-
wanda, English, and Mandarin.
Were a Chinese company so we want to
introduce a little Chinese culture to them,
the textile companys owner, Candy Ma,
says. Like many workers in China, the staff
are required to do group exercises before
beginning their day. Signs with the words
diligence, quality, and responsibility,
written in English and Chinese, hang from
the rafters. Chinese and Rwandan flags
fly outside the glass-paneled building that
houses C&H, which began operations last
year in the Kigali Special Economic Zone on
the outskirts of the capital.
Mas factory is the culmination of gov-
ernment efforts to establish a Rwandan
textile industry and expand the countrys
almost nonexistent manufacturing sector.
For Rwanda, its also about moving on from
being another third-world African country
dressed in hand-me-downs donated from
Western countries. Ma has partnered with
the Rwandan government to train locals in
garment manufacturing, making clothing
to sell locally as well as to export. One of the
projects goals, according to Rwandas minis-
ter of trade, is to stop relying on second-hand
clothing and save the struggling dignity of
the Rwandan people.
Its about being capable and self-reliant
wearing clothing that was owned by another
person, is this dignity? Its about being
capable and self-reliant. We want to be inde-
pendent wearing clothing that was owned
by another person, is this dignity? Can this
make you proud? Gerald Mukubu, head of
Rwandas Private Sector Federation, which is
part of the textile initiative, says.
Second-hand clothing in Rwanda, better
known as chagua, or to select in Kiswahili,
another language spoken in Rwanda, is sold
in open air markets, shops, and by hawkers
along the streets. Elsewhere, these clothes are
known as mitumba, or bundle, referring Sector Federation. Before that she had set
to the plastic packages of donated clothing
from wealthier countries that arrive in the
region. More than 70% of clothes donated
globally end up in Africa, according to the
nonprofit Oxfam. Rwandans spend more
than $100 million a year importing clothing,
both second hand and new.
20 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
A trader (R) waits for customers at his stall selling secondhand clothes locally known
as mitumba at the Gikomba open-air market in Nairobi, Kenya, 27 July 2016.
Its not only worn by the countrys poorest;
most middle class Rwandans wear a mix of
new and recycled clothes. Mukubu says that
while he doesnt wear much second-hand
clothing, many of his colleagues and friends
do. Tharcisse Baranyeretse, a translator in
Kigali, commented to Quartz that his entire
outfita crisp button-up shirt, slacks, with a
matching leather belt, and gleaming shoes
is all chagua. Everyone wears it, he says.
The East African Community (EAC),
which includes Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania, and Burundi, as a whole has pro-
posed a ban on second hand clothing by
2019. They hope the ban will help domestic
textile manufacturers. Officials also claim that
second-hand clothing is unsanitary and can
lead to diseases. (There is little research that
says second-hand clothing, if cleaned and
stored properly, is unhygienic).
The campaign isnt restricted to East
Africa. South Africa has had a ban in place
for decades. Ghana barred the sale of second-
hand underwear in 2011. Malawi, and Zim-
babwe have also been considering bans. Used
clothing imports are also outlawed in the
Philippines.
This is where industrialists like Ma come
in. An energetic petite woman from Xian
in central China, Ma moved to Rwanda in
2014 upon invitation from Mukubus Private
Mas will come and eventually replace the
up shop in Ethiopia, one of the first African
countries to become a base for Chinese textile
manufacturing, where she first heard Rwan-
da was looking for investment. She also ran a
mobile phone factory in Kenya.
Ma says she was attracted to the Rwandan
governments business friendly approach
taxes are low, shes only required to pay
income taxthe cleanliness of the capital city
Kigali, and the people she encountered on a
scoping mission. Americas recent renewal
of the African Growth and Opportunity Act
(AGOA), which gives African textile produc-
ers duty-free access to US markets for 15
years, has been another incentive.
I have a lot of experience doing business
in Africa and thought, This could work,
she says. So far, C&Hs workforce of 800,
which includes trainees and already trained
workers, are making police uniforms, safety
vests, and most recently military kit for the
Rwandan security forces. C&Hs main prod-
uct, uniforms, are mostly exported to Europe
and the United States. They are branching
out into underwear, which Ma plans to sell
locally.
Mas remit is to help build a foundation
for the industry. Technicians from Kenya,
once home to a thriving textile scene, have
been brought in to help teach the group how
to sew, cut material, and inspect the produc-
tion line. Ma is also holding a management
course. A professional group, the Rwanda
Association of Tailors has been set up to help
promote the sector.
It wont benefit us at all
Its Kigalis hope that more operations like
need for the second-hand clothing market. But
getting rid of chagua wont be easy.
In the Biryogo Market, in the Muslim
quarter of Kigali, there are hundreds of stalls
with childrens clothes, nightgowns, and
lingerie strewn across cheap wooden tables.
The clothes here are from Canada, the Neth-

erlands, the United States, and Europe. Stall
owners estimate there are as many as 1,000
chagua sellers here.
The way you can judge the quality is by
the look and feel, says a woman seated on a
stool next to a stack of clothing still folded and
packed in a plastic bag. She rifles through a
pile and pulls out a striped polo, made with
a thick heavy cotton, as demonstration. Like
many of the sellers here, she has been in this
business for a long time30 years of sup-
porting five children through sales of chagua.
When asked what she thinks of the govern-
ments concern for the dignity of its people
and hygiene issues of recycled clothing, she
accuses the government of conspiracy. The
government is lying, lying, lying. Theres
something else behind it, she says. She has
heard about the proposed ban on television.
It wont benefit us at all, she says.
Those clothes they want to sell us from the
factories are made in China. Theyre very fake,
people dont trust them.
For many, used clothing is all they can
afford. For others, shopping chagua is a way
to curate their wardrobe and ensure they
arent caught wearing the same thing as any-
one else. At a recycled clothing shop in central
Kigali, a smaller selection of clothes are on
display, carefully hung in rows or folded into
neat piles on a set of shelves. A young man in
a denim shirt studded with rhinestones and
paneled jeans scoffs at the idea of buying only
new clothes. The new clothes are like uni-
forms. It looks bad, like we are a sports team
or a group of church singers.
Critics say banning second hand clothing
wont necessarily boost local industry. And
operations like Mas wont be enough to
replace chagua; most of the C&H products
are for export. Others say that used clothes
will likely be smuggled in. Higher taxes on
imports of second-hand shoes, introduced
recently, have so far failed to seriously dent
business, according to traders.
Marc Vooges, director of Sympany, a Dutch
charity that recycles used clothing, says the
ban also limits citizens rights to make their
own decisions. You disrespect the choice of
your citizens who are choosing those second
hand clothes instead of new clothes which are
available for them. There must be a reason for
that. Respect that reason, he says.
Made in Africa, with China
Other African countries have already
attracted Chinese textile makers. Chinese
shoe assembly operations in Ethiopia have
inspired more industry around it like leather
processing, recycling old plastic bags into
plastic goods, as well as more shoe factories
from other countries. Huajian, one of Chinas
largest shoe producers, is expanding in
Ethiopia and in East Africa. Other Chinese
investors have expressed interest in setting up
shop in an industrial park in Tanzania, turn-
ing local cotton into cloth.
Shoes and clothing may be just the begin-
ning. As labor costs in China have risen over
the last decade, prompting Chinese factories
to seek cheaper locations or move into higher-
end manufacturing, African officials have
hoped some of that manufacturing might relo-
cate to Africa. Lately, Chinese officials have
been dangling that prospect even more.
At a high level China-Africa summit, the
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, in
Johannesburg late in 2015, Chinas ambas-
sador to South Africa Tian Xuejun told a press
briefing, We want to change the narrative
from made in China to made in Africa,
with China. In one of conference sessions
titled, Catapulting the African industrialisa-
tion renaissance, Chinese officials pledged
to help the continent reach its goal of seeing
manufacturing account for more than 50%
of GDP by 2063. For now, industry accounts
for just 10% of Africas overall GDP, the same
rate as it was in 1990, according to John Page,
a Brookings Institution fellow and former
chief Africa economist for the World Bank. As
China moves out of low-end manufacturing,
there may now be a chance for Africa to gain
some of that business. There is a window of
opportunity, Page says.
Chinese investment in African manufac-
turing has already grown, and examples of
Chinese factories producing in Africa are
becoming more common. In Kigalis special
economic zone, another Chinese company,
Beijing Paper, produces sanitary napkins
under the brand Every Time, sold in stores
locally. A nearby Chinese company makes
wooden doors. Ma is considering reopening
the mobile phone factory she attempted in
Kenya five years ago. China FAW Group, one
of Chinas biggest auto makers, now has an
assembly plant in South Africa.
In some cases, Chinese investment in Afri-
can textile industries has actually hurt local
producers. In Ghana, Chinese manufacturers
are out-competing artisans and putting them
out of business. This past year, Nigerians have
been protesting Chinese who are manufactur-
ing their traditional fabrics and selling them at
cheaper prices.
Some initiatives to inspire manufacturing
have been underwhelming. At the workshop
Rwanda
of the China Rwanda Bamboo Project in
Kigalia Chinese initiative to train local
workers in bamboo manufacturingthree
young men and a woman nap on a piece of
foam meant to be used for furniture. The room
is littered with unfinished bamboo screens,
baskets, and lanterns. The power is out so the
staff have stopped early.
They dont work. You teach them one
thing, they learn it, and the next day they
come back and theyve forgotten, says
Huang Daizhong from Chinas Zhejiang prov-
ince, who has been leading this project for the
past six years. The results have been meager.
So far, just two factories are making use of the
bamboo processing techniques he has taught
themboth are making toothpicks.
In Huangs home province of Zhejiang in
eastern China, mass production of bamboo
handcrafts was the first step in establishing
a textile industry and training a largely rural
population with few technical skills. (Tex-
tile producers now account for 10% of that
provinces gross industrial output.) Huang
had hoped the same principle would work in
Rwanda, but has been disappointed.
Rwanda hasnt reached this point of being
able to manufacture yet. It will still take many
years, he says.
For a countrys civilization
Rwanda isnt the easiest place to start a
garment industry. Transportation to the land-
locked country is expensiveit costs more
to send a container from Kigali to Kenyas
port city of Mombasa, where all of C&H
products depart from, than to send goods
from Mombasa to Guangzhou in southern
China. Ma has to import all of her materials,
including the cloth, string, and the zippers.
Still, Ma, who has been working in textiles in
developing countries for more than 16 years,
believes she is uniquely equipped to meet the
challenge. Unlike Huang and other Chinese
managers who grow frustrated with their
local staff, she says she tries to understand
her employees and how they work best.
You just have to know them, she says.
The company is not yet profitable, but
she expects this year to be better. Ma antici-
pates more Chinese production moving to
Africa as Southeast Asia becomes saturated
with Chinese factories searching for cheaper
locations. She will still have been the first in
Rwanda. And perhaps most importantly,
she relates with the governments campaign
to wean the country from chagua. In China
during the 1980s there were also a lot of peo-
ple wearing old, second-hand clothing. Now,
not a single person is wearing recycled cloth-
ing. I think that for a countrys civilization to
progress you do need to stop that.
This story is part of a series about Chinas
engagement in Rwanda and reporting was
supported by the International Womens Media
Foundations African Great Lakes Initiative.
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 21
 Sanlam moves to take-
over Lion Assurance
Industry regulator says merger is
major boost to local industry
By Isaac Khisa
South Africa-based financial services firm, Sanlam, controls just 2% of Ugandas insur-
ance business but it has shown its determination to upgrade its market share with the
planned acquisition of Lion Assurance Company (LAC). The deal worth US$5.7million
awaits approval from the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda (IRA-U).

S
ources familiar with the
transaction told The Indepen-
dent that Sanlam Groups
subsidiary in Uganda, San-
lam General Insurance Ltd,
is currently preparing to
integrate LAC into its operations.
The company has so far submitted
an application to IRA-U ahead of the
planned merging of the two compa-
nies, the source said.
This comes nearly a month since
Maureen Erasmus, an independent
non-executive director at Masawara Plc, Continued...
LACs parent company, said an agree-
ment for disposal of the Ugandan sub-
sidiary was inked in May this year.
Masawara Plc is incorporated in Jer-
sey and is listed on the London Stock
As part of the process for any new
acquisitions, Sanlam has already writ-
ten to the Lusaka-based Common
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
(COMESA) Competition Commission
x 2015 AT A GLANCE seeking for approval to acquire LAC in
Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda
Annual Insurance Market Report, 2015
Uganda.
Sanlam, which entered the Ugandan
insurance market through a 50.3%
acquisition of NIKO insurance in 2013,
is a much smaller insurance entity,
ranked 14th out of the countrys 21 non-
THE YEAR 2015 IN BRIEF life insurance companies.
LAC MD Newton Sanlam General In 2015, it recorded Shs9.33bn in
Jazire Insurance MD Gary gross underwritten premiums, down
Corbit
Company-wise non-life gross written premium income (Ushs 000)
Company-wise non-life gross written premium income (Shs 000)
Comparison of gross written premium by non-life insurers(Ushs '000')

Exchange with about US$300 million in Rio Insurance Company

assets mainly in Zimbabwe and South- CIC General
ern Africa region. Nova Insurance Company

Erasmus told the Zimbabwean news- First Insurance Company Ltd

paper, Daily News, that the agreement
for the disposal of the Groups invest-
ment in LAC was entered into on May
22, 2017 and is subject to conditions
Alliance Africa General Ins Ltd
Pax Insurance Company
Transafica Assurance Co Ltd
Sanlam General Insurance Ltd
NIC General

precedent inter alia the receipt of regu- East African Underwriters

company

latory approvals. Excel Insurance Company

Statewide Insurance Company
She added that the timing of the receipt Phoenix of Uganda Ltd
of the regulatory approvals will have an APA Insurance (U) Ltd
effect on the timing of the receipt of the ICEA General Insurance Company

sales proceeds that will be utilised to Britam Insurance Company

settle the Groups long term facility. Goldstar Insurance Company

Lion Assurance Company
Masawara Plc acquired a loan worth AIG Uganda Ltd
US$11million from First Rand Bank UAP General Insurance Company
Limited, AfrAsia Bank Limited and San- Jubilee Insurance Company

lam Life Namibia Limited at 10% fixed - 20,000,000 40,000,000 60,000,000 80,000,000 100,000,000 120,000,000
interest rate in 2015 to pay TA holdings Gross written premium income
Limiteds minority shareholdings.

22 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
Company-wise life gross written premium income (Ushs 000)
Company-wise life gross written premium income

from Shs10.4bn in 2014 and Shs 8.25bn
in 2013, according to the data from IRA-
U.
But it has a strong backing of its par-
ent company, Sanlam Group, listed on
the Johannesburg and Namibian Stock
Exchanges with a market capitalization
of $11 billion as of March 2017.
The company also has presence in a
number of African countries including
Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius,
Swaziland and Zambia in Africa as well
as US, UK and Asia.
On the other hand, LAC, which is
ranked fourth, recorded a gross under-
written premium of Shs 35.2billion in
2015, up from Shs23.7billion in 2014 and
Shs19.1billon in 2013.
Last year, it recorded a 67% growth
in net profit to Shs5.36bn on the back of
innovations and take-over of AIG bro-
kers, according to its parent companys
financial statement for 2016.
LAC has been offering over 40 non-
life insurance products that cater for
personal, family and commercial risks,
including the likes of motor insurance,
fire and special perils insurance.
Others are contractors all risk insur-
ance, marine insurance, money insur-
ance, domestic (household) insurance,
travel insurance and farming risks
insurance, among others.
LAC acquired 42 out of the 48
American Insurance Groups agents
in November last year; increasing its
network of insurance agents to 102.
This followed AIGs decision to quit the
Ugandan market citing hard economic
conditions.
The new move comes at a time when
Ugandas insurance industry is enjoy-
ing a relative surge in growth in gross
underwritten premiums, albeit at a slow
pace.
Insurance premiums underwritten
over the years have grown from Shs-
463bn in 2013 to Shs634bn in 2016 as a
result of massive promotion campaigns
and affordable product innovations tar-
geting customer needs.
Newton Jazire, the LAC Managing
Director, could not answer our repeated
calls or emails to confirm the new
development as he was reportedly out
of office for meetings, a section of the
workers at the regional insurance firm
said.
But one of the workers, who did not
want to be named, said the matter is yet
to be made official.
The issue (merger) is yet to be com-
municated. You still have to wait for
the official communication, the source
said.
But Mariam Nalunkuuma, the com-
munication manager at IRA-U con-
Other Sanlam General
Insurance companies in Africa
NICO Malawi
(direct 49% and 13% indirect
via NICO Holdings)
Sanlam General
Insurance Tanzania
(direct 47% and 5% indirect
via NICO Holdings)
NICO Zambia
(direct 49% and 13% indirect
via NICO Holdings)
Shriram General
Insurance, India
via Shriram Capital
Pacific & Orient, Malaysia
Legal Guard, Botswana
via BIHL
Soras AG, Rwanda
via Soras Group
Santam Namibia
Enterprise Insurance,
Ghana
Gateway, Kenya
FBN Insurance, Nigeria
At the same time, the
Group also acquired a
22%
stake in UK-based
micro-insurance
provider, MicroEnsure
Holdings Ltd
(MicroEnsure) at an
undisclosed amount
business
firmed to The Independent that the two
insurance firms have indeed submitted
their applications to the industry regu-
lator seeking for a go-ahead to merge
62%
their operations.
Of course, they (Sanlam and LAC)
have approached IRA-U and theres
a procedure that they have to follow
52%
before the formal approval is made,
she said.
She said the procedure includes how
they intend to integrate LACs staff and
customers into Sanlam as well as ser-
vices to be offered.
62%
Another issue that needs to be ful-
filled, according to Nalunkuuma, is
LACs chief executive officer to intro-
20%
duce his Sanlam counterpart to his cus-
tomers to ease transition without nega-
tively affecting service delivery.
The planned merger is purely a busi-
49%
ness decision and it is normal in any
business, she said, We do believe that
the merger will strengthen the com-
60%
panys operation in terms of financial
capability to undertake even bigger
risks but also in terms of bringing on
board new skills.
63% Executives in the insurance industry
across the African continent are cur-
rently calling upon insurance firms
37%
to mergetheir operations within the
respective countries and across borders,
so that theyhave large insurance and
40%
re-insurance companies with balance
sheets that are better able to ensure last-
ing legacy and compete with the biggest
56%
and the best in the world.
Since 2014, Sanlam Group has been
on the expansion spree after it allocated
R4 billion (Shs1.12 trillion) as part of its
35%
strategy to expand in Africa, India and
South-East Asia.
For instance, in March this year, the
Group acquired a 40% stake in Zimba-
bwe-based Zimnat Lion Insurance Com-
pany Ltd in a deal worth $11.5 million.
Zimnat now plans to unveil new
products for agriculture businesses,
infrastructure development and
strengthen its micro finance arm.
At the same time, the Group also
acquired a 22% stake in UK-based
micro-insurance provider, MicroEn-
sure Holdings Ltd (MicroEnsure) at an
undisclosed amount.
This follows acquisition of a 63%
interest in Soras Group Limited, Rwan-
das largest life and non-life insurance
company for US$24.3 million and a 51 %
stake in the Malaysian-based Koperasi
MCIS Zurich Insurance in 2014.
Koperasi MCIS Zurich is a life and
general insurance provider in Malaysia
that was formed after a merger between
MCIS Insurance and Zurich in 2002.
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 23
business
We support government to ban
alcohol sold in sachets- UBL MD
Mark Ocitti is the managing director at Uganda Breweries Limited. He
spoke to The Independents Julius Businge on the sidelines of a joint
roundtable press briefing held in Kampala recently.
You have spent a year at UBL. What experi-
I
ences have you noted so far?
inherited a great team that inspires and
supports me to achieve success. As an
organization we have come a long way
in driving our culture from a more in-
ward focused to a more outward focused
culture. I have been put in a company with
great heritage of 71 years old with great
brands like Uganda Waragi, Bell Larger
and Tusker. These brands bring our brand
purpose to life.
What strategy are you deploying to
achieve growth?
We are building our physical distribu-
tion network which has doubled in the
last one year; the other is regionalisation of
our products where specific products are
offered according to the need of consum-
ers in a specific region. The third thing is
innovation that has seen us come up with
two products Uganda Waragi coconut
flavour and Black bell all have been well
received by the market.
How did UBL record a 31% growth in prof-
it in the year ended June 30?
We are happy with the performance that
we recorded for the last 12 months. If you
look at the volume performance, we grew
by 7% above the previous year with the key
performing brands being Uganda Waragi,
Senator and Smirnoff. Our profit delivery
came out at a higher gearing with a 31%
growth driven by great brand positioning,
productivity initiatives and managing our
costs. We had a negative gearing perfor-
mance which means that we are selling
more and more products which have lower
revenue. Customers are choosing to con-
sume those products Senator and Uganda
Waragi because of what is happening in
the economy where people have less dis-
posable income.
What is your view on governments
lamentation of banning alcohol sold in
sachets?
This is a thorny issue; we think that if
we manage that area well, we can give our
customers a product of good quality and
ensure that the tax man collects what is due
to him. This is part of the larger conversa-
24 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
tion about alcohol industry. We are open to
supporting government in the ban of alco-
hol sold in sachets.
We believe the industry has not been as
responsible as it should be when it comes to
packaging alcohol in sachets. The privilege
of doing so has been abused by some indus-
try players and therefore regulation in this
area will solve that abuse. When you look
out in the market, some sachets are being
sold at Shs 600 but ours that are packed in
same quantity is retailed at between Shs
1, 500-2, 000 after factoring in all factors
of production. So we wonder how other
players get the price of Shs 600 and remain
profitable. There can only be two things;
either they are taking shortcuts in the manu-
facturing process which means they are
putting consumers at risk of getting medical
problems or they are taking shortcuts in
respect to payment of duty which means
government is losing revenue.
How should government go about pre-
venting illicit alcohol on the market?
Market research has told us that 70% of
alcohol consumed in Uganda is either infor-
mal or illicit. Informal alcohol per se is not
bad. Illicit alcohol is what is bad because it is
produced in the backyard without required
standards and some is smuggled into the
country without paying tax. The third illicit
alcohol in this category is called counterfeit.
We therefore think the time is right for gov-
ernment to come out and pronounce itself
against illicit alcohol because of the dangers
related to health and reduced tax collection.
In terms of consumption, Ugandans con-
sume 110 million liters of alcohol and 67.7
million of this is illicit and only 43 % is from
the formal, regulated, taxed sector. The
lack of consistent or proper enforcement,
inspection and registration of traders and
transactions has allowed illicit production
to flourish.
What economic impact does UBL have for
Uganda?
We are working with 20, 000 farmers who
supply us with raw materials and we proj-
ect this number to reach 50, 000 in the next
two years. Last financial year, we paid over
Shs 64 billion to farmers and we expect this
to grow to Shs90bn in the next two years
with a positive tax policy.
We have increased purchase of four main
ingredients for our beers including cassava,
maize, sorghum and barley by 151% from
6610 tonnes in 2012 to 16585 tonnes in 2017.
We have added a total economic value of
over Shs 150 billion from stakeholder invest-
ment, employment, taxes, consumption
and forex savings and opportunity for beer
export income in the past five years.
Alcohol products are highly taxed in this
country. What is your view on this?
UBL is the fourth biggest tax payer in
Uganda, having paid Shs 110 billion in 2015
alone. The leading two players in the alcohol
industry are among the top five taxpayers
contributing in excess of Shs330 billion in
tax revenue in 2015. Only 0.1% tax payers
account for 75% of tax base in which cat-
egory we belong. We believe that overtaxing
Ugandan goods makes them expensive and
Uganda unattractive investment destination.
What is the future like for UBL?
We will continue to focus on innovations
as a growth driver in response to changing
demands of our consumers in addition to
driving distribution and availability of our
brands. We will continue to focus on quality
of our brands so that our consumers con-
tinue to enjoy our internationally acclaimed
gold award winning brands.
 Executive Style
SafeBoda driving passenger safety
What are the key elements
in your management style
A
as a manager?
s a manager, my
primary objective
is to ensure that
all players observe
rules and regulations and
also value the vision of
SafeBoda.
What is your assessment
of the performance of the
transport system especially
in Kampala?
The industry is mainly
informal but presents
several opportunities to the
population. For instance,
our study shows that boda
bodas (motorcycle taxis)
make between Shs800, 000
to Shs1.3million a month
yet most of them are not
graduates. It is thus a big
sector that deserves some
kind of attention. That is
why SafeBoda has come
to provide some sort of
solution by bringing most
boda boda riders together
under one platform.
WHO statistics project
that by 2030 road accidents
willmatch HIV/AIDS in
terms of the number of
annual fatalities in low
income countries; how is
SafeBoda working to solve
this?
The reason for high rates
of accidents is because
riders/drivers do not get any
formal training on safe road
usage, protection of self and
passengers. Our strategy is
therefore to empower them
through trainings, enabling
them to understand the
magnitude of the problem
and how they can help solve
it.
At the moment, we
provide riders on our
platform with top quality
equipment for their safety
and that of their passengers.
Statistics indicate that
having a good quality
helmet reduces the risk of
severe injury by around
Ricky Rapa Thomson is the co-founder and
the executive director of SafeBoda, an Uber
for motorcycles based in Kampala. He spoke
to The Independents Agnes E Nantaba
about efforts to transform the transport
system in the countrys major towns.
40% and risk of death by
around 70% because most
accidents get severe due to
not wearing a helmet. We
are also empowering them
to respect other road users
and pass on the message to
other people. With all these
done, we hope to realise
some change in reducing
accidents.
You recently unveiled
SafeBoda ride credit. How
does the program work?
This program works in
a way that SafeBoda users
can now pay for their ride
using mobile money. One
only needs to simply access
SafeBoda app, tap on the
payment option, select add
credit and just add money
to your SafeBoda account.
This is consumed within
the SafeBoda platform and
its free of transaction costs.
The main purpose of the
programme is to save riders/
passengers from looking
for change every time they
want to pay for their ride.
However, this does not
mean that we are phasing
out cash payment. The two
payment options will still be
available for the passengers.
Take us through the
installation and activation
of the SafeBoda app?
Download the app from
the apple stores at no cost,
register with your phone
number and get verified.
With that, you are ready to
go. All you need is to type
in where you are and your
final destination to get an
estimate of the price based
on distance and time taken.
With the app, there is no
negotiation and in case you
are not okay with it, you are
free to get back to us to look
into the charges.
You recently won the
Business Category of
the Young Achievers
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
Awards. What does the
achievement mean to your
operations?
It was really
empowering to a young
entrepreneur. And to other
young people out there,
it was a signal that efforts
are worth rewarding. But
it was also the beginning
of a new journey given
that with the award, I still
need to make impact in the
future through creating
jobs for others and also
empowering thousands of
riders who believe in road
safety.
What are the main
challenges facing the
bodaboda industry in
Uganda?
The biggest challenge
is the politics around the
industry. For instance,
in Kampala alone, we
have over 54 boda boda
associations and all these
have god fathers who
seem to be powerful and
fighting for domination.
These associations are
allegedly fueled by big
names in the country and
ultimately delaying growth
of the industry. If nothing
is done to clear this mess,
then, the industry will
never develop or even be
respected.
What is the future outlook
of SafeBoda operations in
Uganda?
We are looking at
achieving more with regards
to road safety but also hope
to have around 2,000 riders
on our platform by close of
this year and an additional
1,000 next year. We hope
to continue empowering
and supporting our riders
financially. We aim to have
all our riders holding bank
accounts so they can directly
benefit from the services of
financial institutions as well
as continue with road safety
campaigns.
25
business
INVESTMENT RETAIL

EU to invest Shs420bn in SMEs Rise in orders gives hope to

cooperation in Uganda, Cedric Ugandas private sector

Geoffrey Ssekatawa (M), the CEO of Brent
Technologies with Joshua Mutambi (R) from the
Ministry of Trade. INDEPENDENT/ JIMMY SIYA
Merel.
Merel, who was speaking during
the SEED East Africa symposium
at the Kampala Sheraton Hotel,
said the initiative aims to boost an
inclusive green economy through
creation of descent jobs for youth
and women to reduce income
inequality and poverty.
We are still identifying specific
areas where to invest this money,
he said, adding that the support
U
gandas private sector has continued to
register an increase in both output and
new orders for the seventh consecutive
month during August.
The latest Stanbic Banks Purchasing Managers
Index (PMI), which is based on data compiled from
monthly replies to questionnaires sent to purchas-
ing executives in approximately 400 private sector
companies, shows that PMI went up to 54.3% com-
pared with 54.1% during the past month.
Although not too much above the tipping point

T
he European Union plans to
invest over Shs 420 billion in
small and medium enterprises
that are environmentally
friendly in the coming years,
according to the Unions head of
comes at the time SMEs finds it
difficult to access to finance. During
the SEED East Africa symposium,
six businesses from Uganda and
Kenya were recognised for being
outstanding in the eco-inclusive
enterprise development in the region.
of 50 %, the latest PMI reflects a gradual recovery
from the pessimism that prevailed during much of
2016.
More than 36% of the participants reported a rise
in output compared to 24% registering a decline.
Similarly, approximately 38% of survey panelists
recorded greater inflows of new orders while 23%
of firms saw falling new business.

FINANCE
AVIATION
Umemes Babungi wins CPA Award

U
Kenya Airways now to fly to US memes Managing Director, Se- sional standards.

K
enyas national carrier, Kenya Air-
ways, can now fly to the United
States after it was granted permit
to operate direct flights. The permit
became effective Se 05, according to the or-
der issued by the US Department of Trans-
portation.
The US Department of Transportation
had in June recommended that the Kenyan
national carrier be allowed to access if there
were no public objections.
President Donald Trump was also given
a 61-day window to disapprove, if he so
wished.No objection had been given by the
time the window expired, which was when
the permit became effective.
KQs foreign air carrier permit now allows
it to schedule and charter foreign air trans-
portation of persons, property, and mail
from any point or points behind Kenya, via
lestino Babungi, was awarded
the Certified Public Accountants
of the year Award for the 2017
Financial Reporting Awards. The awards
were organized by the Institute of Certified
Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU)
aimed at enhancing the quality of financial
and business reporting of Uganda.
Babungi won the award because of his
relentless efforts of supporting seminars
organised by the Institute; involvement in
practical training programmes and men-
toring young accountants, chief finance
officers as well as maintaining high profes-
RETAIL
URA moves to auction Nakumatt
Supermarket goods over tax arrears
While receiving the award at Imperial
Resort Beach Hotel in Entebbe on Sept. 08,
Babungi said that accountancy profession is
fundamental for business growth in a coun-
try. I encourage other people to join the
accountancy profession, he said.
Other winners included Uganda
National Roads Authoritys Manager for
Auditing Catherine Asiimwe for the young
accountant of the year Award; Nalendra A
Taaka, Gold Service Awards; John Muhaise,
Accountancy Services Award; Gerald
Kasanya, Gold Services Award and Betty
Kiganda, Gold Award winner.

U
any point or points in Kenya and any inter-
mediate points, to any point or points in the ganda Rev-
United States and beyond. enue Au-
Kenyas main airport, JKIA, was granted thority has
Category One status by the US Federal Avia- commenced
tion Administration (FAA) to allow for non- auctioning of Naku-
matt Supermarkets
stop direct flights between the two countries
goods as it seeks to recover
last February.
millions of shillings owed
by the struggling regional
retail chain. The clearance
sales at two of Nakumatts
Kampala outlets, Bugolobi
and Kamwokya, com-
menced last week even as
the taxman said that talks
are still ongoing with the
retailer over possible re-
covery of US$71,000 dues.
Last month, URA took over
Nakumatts operations in
the country to give itself
first priority on all income,
as several creditors in Kam-
pala and Kenya bay for the
retailers blood.
The move saw it take
over three Nakumatt
branches and the retailers
warehouse, which also
doubles up as its Uganda
headquarters. The clear-
ance sale has started with
Bugolobi branch... as we
continue talks with the cli-
ent, the URA said on its
official Twitter page. Naku-
matt is facing huge debt
woes in Kenya and Uganda
with several creditors sur-
facing to claim worth mil-
lions of shillings. URA said
it will later advertise auction
dates for Nakumatts non-
perishable goods, winding
up with auctioning at Oasis
Mall branch.

26 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
 business

NSSF in services deal

with MTN Uganda
By Julius Businge mobile money customers and

P
rivate individuals and
Small and Medium
Enterprises are now
able to remit their
savings via mobile money
platform to the National Social
Security Fund (NSSF). This
follows the Funds partnership
with MTN Uganda launched
on Sep. 12.
The process involves dialing
*165*3*4# and following the
prompts, with the maximum
Fresh Dairy Marketing Manager, Vincent Omoth, donates blood with amount payable under this
the assistance of Uganda Blood Transfusion Service (UBTS) staff arrangement being Shs4mn.
onSeptember 7. The companys staff raised 25 pints of blood in an effort Charges for the service ranges
to contribute towards replenishing the Uganda Blood Transfusion Service from Shs 190 to 40,000.
regional blood banks. INDEPENDENT/JIMMY SIYA MTN Chief Executive
Officer, Wim Vanhelleputte,
said the key word for this
partnership is convenience
and that transaction limits can
be increased upon request by
the contributor.
The partnership aims at
boosting financial inclusion
which is a key element of
economic development,
Vanhelleputte said, adding,
...we believe that on top of
facilitating transactions, we can
also have real impact on lives of
people. MTN has 8.8 million
controlled about 60% of the Shs
44 trillion that was transacted
via the mobile money platform
offered by industry players last
year.
Richard Byarugaba, the
NSSF managing director said
the initiative feeds into the
Funds 10 year strategic plan.
He said the Fund conducted
a survey on voluntary
contributions in 2016, in
which 67% of respondents
cited mobile money as a
preferred transaction when
remitting their social security
contributions.
The platform is expected
to ease reconciliation with
an option of automating the
upload of contributions onto
members accounts but also
improve data accuracy as well
as instant confirmation of
received contributions through
SMS to contributors.
We believe we can improve
our efficiencies significantly,
Byarugaba said. This new
partnership is expected to add
onto the 1.8 million members of
NSSF and significantly grow its
Shs 7 trillion balance sheet.

Nabaweesi Dinah (R) of Masupa Enterprises demonstrates to prospective

customers on how to use an energy stove during the 2017 energy week expo at
Uganda Manufacturers Association ground on Sept. 11. INDEPENDENT/JIMMY SIYA Weekly share price movement (Sep 8))
Security Sep 08 Sep 01 Movement
BATU 30000 30000 00
BOBU 110 110 00
CENT 1,465 1,492 1.84
DFCU 759 759 00
EABL 8,685 9,146 5.04
EBL 1,396 1,527 8.59
JHL 16,603 16,443 0.98
KA 155 169 8.45
KCB 1,474 1,580 6.69
NIC 12 12 00
NMG 3,907 3,980 1.83
NVL 538 538 00
SBU 27 27 00
UCHM 140 136 2.83
Fabian Kasi (L), the managing director, Centenary Bank, listens to Benedict
Ssekabira, the director Commercial Banking, Bank of Uganda (BoU), during the UCL 14 14 00
breakfast meet on Agent Banking organized by Centenary Bank at Imperial Royale UMEME 451 444 1.58
Hotel in Kampala on Sep 06. Ssekabira said BoU plans to approve bank agents in ALSI -- -- --
two weeks. INDEPENDENT / JIMMY SIYA Source: USE
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 27
Norvatis brings cheaper cancer,
high blood pressure drugs
Novartis, a global healthcare company based in Switzerland recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) with the Ministry of Health to supply the country with, among others, cancer drugs. The Independents
Flavia Nassaka spoke to Dr. Nathan Mulure, Cluster Head Norvatis Social Business for East and Southern
Africa during the Joint International Conference on Cancer and Palliative Care in Kampala.
Norvatis earlier this month
signed an MOU with the
Ministry of Health to supply
drugs for Non-Communicable
Diseases (NCDs). What are the
W
details of this MOU?
e signed an MOU
with the Min-
istry in June to
introduce what
we call Access Programme
in Uganda. The programme
comprises 15 molecules that
treat hypertension, cancer,
asthma and diabetes. We are
offering these drugs at a cost
of one dollar per treatment
per month. They will be sup-
plied through either National
Medical Stores or Joint Medi-
cal Stores.
Apart from that, we are
helping the ministry and faith-
based hospitals to carry out
capacity building activities like
screening, creating awareness,
and training healthcare provid-
ers in these disease areas. We
based our decision on the fact
that many people are sick
and dont know and
even those who
are aware of
their status
cant afford
treatment.
28 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
What specific drugs are we
looking at and when do we get
the first deliveries?
The first supplies will be
delivered in December. We
have not yet known what
quantities the country will
need for sure but I have asked
NMS to do some quantifica-
tion. For breast cancer we are
offering Letrozole, Tamoxifen
and Anastrozole, Amlodipine,
Ramiprilab, for high blood
pressure Valsartan, Hydro-
chlorothiazide and Bisoprolol,
for diabetes Metformin and
Glimepiride, and Salbutamol
for asthma and Amoxicillin for
pneumonia.
Currently, the big story in
Uganda is fake drugs especial-
ly for cancer. What guarantee
do you give us that we will
only get quality?
The name Norvatis means
new skills. We have been in
the business of pharmaceuti-
cals for a long time and we are
assuring people of high quality.
Our drugs are manufactured in
Europe and U.S. and they are
FDA Food and Drug Admin-
istration approved. In Uganda,
our drugs have gone through
NDA National Drug Authori-
ty approvals. You need to know
that counterfeits come about if
drugs are very expensive and
in trying to find alternatives for
cheaper ones, people end up
making ineffective products
and sometimes harmful prod-
ucts. Counterfeits are criminal
and shouldnt be allowed to
thrive in the market.
Research shows over 90% of
prescriptions in Africa are
of generic drugs than brand
name drugs. Does this pose
any danger?
Norvatis has a very big
generic division called San-
doz and is the second largest
manufacturer of generics in the
world. What is key really with
generics is to ensure that theres
quality. Manufacturers should
ensure that their generics are as
good as the original products.
When this is done then there is
no danger at all.
Many companies, aid agencies
and even government mainly
focus on infectious diseases
like HIV. Why are you focus-
ing on NCDs?
More and more we are see-
ing that with many interven-
tions going into infectious
diseases, they are going down.
For instance malaria deaths
have generally reduced by 50%
in the last ten years and for HIV
we are seeing people living lon-
ger. But, as they live longer also
other diseases set in. Actually
the more you live the more you
get prone to NCDs which is a
reason we should start focus-
ing seriously on these diseases.
People are surviving malaria
and HIV but are ending up
with hypertension.
How do you rate Ugandas po-
tential as a healthcare market?
While its smaller compared
to countries in the U.S. and
Europe, the pharmaceutical sec-
tor for East Africa where Ugan-
da belongs is very vibrant first
because the region has a high
population of about 100 mil-
lion people now. Also it being
in the tropics means there are

many diseases that are communicable and
non-communicable which means the market
is there. What should be of concern now is
sustainable supply and drug quality.
What strategies do you have in place to en-
sure that your drugs get market here with
Uganda being a country that largely relies
on medical donation?
We might see the demand of these drugs
increasing in Africa with NCDs being on
an increase. With our approach of Novartis
Access we are aiming to achieve sufficient
numbers to allow sustainability of the pro-
gram.
Ours is not a donor funded program, but
one designed to be self-sustaining. We believe
that affordability will increase access and
improve patient outcomes. Some of the drugs
in the access program are beyond reach of
many people when sourced from the private
markets. In short we are opening the space
for many patients to be able to afford such
treatment that is otherwise beyond reach.
You introduced Coartem to this market and
you are conducting a trial for another anti-
malarial compound. Is Uganda one of the
countries you are targeting?
We will soon launch a trial center in Toro-
ro. Its a new class of drug called KAF156 and
is very different from existing ACTs. This has
been developed by Novartis and Medicines
for Malaria Venture (MMV) imidazolopipera-
zines, a new class of antimalarials. The first
trial center is operational in Mali. KAF156
has potential to be a game-changer in malaria
elimination, rapidly clearing malaria infec-
tion, including resistant strains, and blocking
parasite transmission - making it a possible
future first line therapy for the prevention
and treatment of malaria. KAF156 is fast-
acting and potent across multiple stages of
the parasites lifecycle, rapidly clearing both
P. falciparum and P. vivax parasites from the
blood and the liver.
The initial trials were done in Asia and
Australia. This is phase two where were
focusing on Uganda, Kenya and Mali. In total
we will establish 17 sites across in 9 countries
in Africa and a total of 500 participants. The
trial has already started in Mali.
Lastly, how are pharmaceuticals like Norva-
tis tackling drug resistance?
Resistance is of big concern; espe-
cially for antibiotics and anti-malarials. Thats
why we developed combination therapy for
malaria. Initially there was monotherapy
like chloroquine, quinine, and the rest but
we realised if that trend continued we were
going to lose a lot of drugs along the way. So
we decided to combine and have two drugs
in one pill so that if a parasite develops resis-
tance to one the other would knock it out.
Thats why our drug coartem has been in the
market for over 16 years now and is still effec-
tive because its combination therapy.
Whats wrong
with the men?
High HIV prevalence among men raises need
to embrace new interventions targeting them
By Flavia Nassaka
P
reliminary results of the 2016
Uganda Population HIV Impact
Assessment (UPHIA) survey
released recently have raised the
concern of health sector workers on the
issue.
Preliminary results of the survey
showed HIV prevalence to have generally
fallen to 6% from 7.3% in 2011. But the
survey conducted in 12483 households
where men and women of ages 15 to 64
years were interviewed across the country
also showed that an estimated 1.3mil-
lion live with the virus. While in different
cohorts categorized prevalence was seen to
be declining,
the cohort of
older men of
45 to 49 years
remained
highest at 14%
whereas that
of women in
the same age
group was at
12.8%. Also,
in 2016 alone,
14348 men
died of AIDS
compared to
9600 women.
The surveys show 45% of HIV infected
men have not yet been diagnosed and of
those who know they are positive 48%
have not yet been initiated on treatment
despite the new guidelines of Test and
Treat where the World Health Organisa-
tion has recommended that whoever is
tested positive is initiated on antiretroviral
drugs immediately.
Armstrong Mukundane, the National
Coordinator HIV at Communication for
Healthy Communities says these figures
highlight an urgent need for healthcare
managers to come up with interventions
specific for this group if the epidemic is to
be controlled.
People in this age group are a threat
because they have money, they have
power, big positions at work places and
can lure young girls, he said.
According to Dr. Achilles Kiyimba of the
Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), HIV
health
is now concentrated among older men
because they are shy. They fear to be seen
in the queues at health facilities. Instead
they say they do not have time to go to the
facility and when positive claim they are
still strong and do not need to start treat-
ment. Kiyimba adds that youth, who face
a similar problem of shyness, have also
reported high prevalence of HIV.
Dr. Joshua Musinguzi, the head of the
AIDS Control Programme at the Minis-
try of Health, says there has been a gap
among men when it comes to both testing
and treatment.
UPHIA results showed us preva-
lence among young girls of 15 24 years
who have been our greatest worry actu-
ally reduced
from 3.7 to
3.1% but
now men,
who are the
main source
of HIV for
these girls,
dont know
their status
and are not
on treat-
ment, he
says.
He says
the low involvement of men in HIV pro-
grammes has got even President Yoweri
Museveni involved. In June the President
launched his Presidential Fast Track Initia-
tive to ramp up support and response at
all levels; from the community to national
leaders.
The Differentiated Service Delivery
Model
The Ministry is embracing a new strat-
egy the Differentiated Service Delivery
Model (DSDM) which they hope will help
more men to access treatment without
queuing up at health facilities for drugs.
This patient-centered model involves
people who are adhering to treatment
forming groups and receiving their
medication in the community without
frequenting the health facility. This model,
in addition to encouraging men who fear
being seen in the queues at health facilities,
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 29
health

The seven tactics of

By Rob Moodie

A
cross Africa there are examples of
governments trying to introduce

unhealthy industries
policies that improve health, and
protect the environment only to
find their efforts undermined by unhealthy
corporations, and their industry associations.
A case in point is South Africas efforts to
introduce a tax on sugary drinks to reduce
the growing burden of obesity. In the process
And how they use them to
they are facing a barrage of resistance. This
is one small example of unhealthy industries
undermine public health policies
undermining the publics health and the
global environment.
If you are working to improve public
health and the environment in Africa, you
need to know what your opponents are up
to. Below is a quick guide to their tactics,
which I have assembled as a summary from
three sources: Naomi Oreskes and Eric M
Conways `Merchants of Doubt, William
Wiists `The Corporate Playbook, Health, and
Democracy: The Snack Food and Beverage
Industrys Tactics in Context, and Nicholas
Freudenbergs ` Lethal but Legal.
1. Attack legitimate science
 Accuse science of deception, calling it
junk science or bad science, claiming
science is manipulated to fulfill a political
agenda.
 Attack the scientific institutions and
government agencies perceived to be
acting against corporate interests.
 Insist that the science is uncertain by
claiming scientists dont know whats  Exaggerate the uncertainty inherent in and allege ulterior motives.
causing it, and that more research is any scientific endeavour to undermine  Have attack dogs intimidate
needed. the status of established scientific opponents.
 Withholding any data unfavourable to knowledge.  Smear the enemy for example, by
the corporate product.  Use corporate-funded studies. calling environmentalists watermelons
 Using information in a misleading way;  Fund researchers sympathetic to (green on the outside and red on
cherry-picking by using facts that are true corporate causes or products. the inside), use hatred and fear of
but irrelevant. communism to transfer animosity to the
 Insist that there are many causes to a 2. Attack and intimidate scientists environmental movement.
health or environmental problem, and  Create doubt by attacking the  Threaten to sue - or actually sue -
that addressing just one of them will authenticity and integrity of the author. scientists and advocates but avoid or
have minimal impact.  Attack the credibility of the messenger

is also meant to reduce the congestion there.
The congestion at health facilities is expected
to increase because, under the `Test and
Treat program, 1.3 million Ugandans are
expected to be picking their refills monthly
or every after two months from the various
facilities.
William Kidega, Deputy Chief of Party at
PATH, Advocacy for Better Health Project
says the new approach will tackle self-stigma
among older men. They can now form and
use male support groups and treatment
buddies in the community to remind them
to adhere to treatment.
Dr. Kiyimba of the Infectious Diseases
Institute (IDI) who was speaking during a sci-
ence cafe organised by the health journalists
network said the model has been tested and
found effective in reaching out to men and
youth in South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimba-
bwe and IDI has been using it privately.
We want men to get their medicine from
the nearest post. If they are stable on treat-
ment they really dont need to waste time
in the queues. The model is designed in a
rotational way that one will visit the facility
once in six months to pick medicines for the
colleagues. This is when he is reviewed, he
explains. This model is divided into parts
including putting testing services out of the
clinic, health workers taking drugs to par-
ticular points in the community or choosing
one patient in the group to pick supplies for
colleagues. The approach poses questions
of safety of drugs and patients privacy. But
experts The Independent spoke to are opti-
mistic that such initiatives close the gap for
those who shun health facilities and gives
people a range of choices.
However, Angelo Kaggwa of AVAC, a
global HIV organization, says even as new
interventions are coming up to target men,
old strategies like voluntary medical male
circumcision must be rethought to ensure
faster pace of their adoption.
Already preliminary UPHIA results indi-
cate the proportion of men aged 15-49years
that are circumcised has increased from 26%
in 2011 to 43% which is good progress.
Behavioural change campaigns
But the Uganda AIDS Commission Ag.
Director General, Dr. Nelson Musoba, warns
against making conclusions out of the less
detailed data so far released. He says high
prevalence figures should not cause any scare
as they communicate to the fact that people
with HIV are now living longer. To him, men
should embrace methods that have been sci-
entifically confirmed for efficacy like circum-
cision and Pre- Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)
that involves giving HIV drugs to negative
people at high risk of infection as protection.

30 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017

delay hearings of the facts.
 Make accusations using the rhetoric of
political suppression.
 Infiltrate scientific groups and monitor
prominent scientists.
 Create enough doubt to forestall
litigation and regulation.
 Constantly repeat the doubt, using
surrogates or message force
multipliers.
 Use pejorative terms repeatedly such as
excessive regulation, over regulation,
unnecessary regulation, nanny state, 
and health Nazis to promote fear and
disdain.
 Always demand more proof.
 Alternatively, aim for self-regulation
instead of regulation; introduce corporate
voluntary codes to forestall government
regulation.
3. Create arms-length front
organisations
 Create front groups.
 Run projects through front groups
(information laundering) especially 
law firms, because they can avoid
scrutiny due to attorney client privilege.
 * Create research institutes that can
create their own scientific studies.
 * Sponsor conferences and workshops.
 Create independent newsletters,
magazines, and journals (not subject to
peer review).
 Publish findings selectively.
 Manipulate research funding, design,
and authorship.
 Distribute materials targeted
pamphlets and booklets, social media.
 Use public opinion polling.
4. Manufacture false debate and insist
on balance
 Create the impression of a controversy.
He says the behavioral change commu-
nication campaign ABC for Abstinence,
Faithfulness and Condom use was very
instrumental in bringing down prevalence
from the highs of 18% in the 90s. He says
for years, the commission has aggressively
invested in prevention messages since its the
best strategy of handling a disease that has no
cure. For him, almost every one now knows
that HIV is here.
But, if they know what have they done
about it? Why then is the prevalence among
men still unacceptable high? What are health-
care managers not doing right?
To get these answers, the Ministry of
Health got Amos Zikusooka; a health com-
munication expert behind one of its biggest
campaigns - `Obulamu to do a survey. The
ministry wanted to know whether people
actually see and act on their Obulamu mes-
sages. The survey was conducted by IPSOS,
 Maintain the controversy, keep the
debate alive.
 Create false dichotomies.
 Insist that responsible journalists cover
both sides of the argument equally.
 Demand balance, relying on the Fairness
Doctrine.
 Divert attention from harmful products.
 Focus on corporate social responsibility.
 Set up corporate social responsibility
foundations; find small-scale, apparently
well-meaning community activities.
Focus on other issues as the problem,
like physical activity instead of diet, for
example.
5. Frame issues in highly creative ways
 Insist that the problem is very complex,
thus implying it cant have a simple
solution, if any.
 Insist it is premature to suggest
remedies.
 Constantly repeat that technological
advances will obviate the need for
regulations and that the problem can be
solved only through the marketplace.
Insist on personal or parental
responsibility and insist that government
should have no role in influencing
individual health behaviour.
 Use colourful imagery such as a
billion dollar solution to a million dollar
problem); use words like speculative,
oversimplified, premature, and
unbalanced.
 Use the creation of fear as a tool for
change of policy.
 Diminish the severity of the problem
while giving some ground.
 Admit that it is a serious problem, but
not a life-threatening one.
 Admit that there may be a problem, but
it is less severe than everyone says.
 Argue that the problem is less severe
than other problems - those should be
the research organization and results were
released in July.
The results indicated 85% of the people in
the 60 districts they considered in the survey
had ever heard or seen these messages on
either radio, television or billboards but,
only 15% had done something as a result of
exposure to the message or what the message
suggested.
Now Zikusooka is working on new ways
of ensuring the HIV message goes to those
who need it most; the men.
The biggest number of positive people are
men. They dont like going to the health facil-
ity so they dont test, he says.
In his new campaign HIV testing for
men to be launched soon, Zikusooka uses
language that men usually use; their slung
and their excuses, to draw their attention.
Men say they dont have time to go to
the facility. They also say they are still strong
health
the priority.
 Argue that the cost to fix the problem is
too high.
 Argue that the benefits of the problem
havent been considered.
 Argue that other options havent been
considered.
 Understand and use the power of
language the other sides language is
filled with uncertainties, so make sure
yours is certain.
6. Fund industry disinformation
campaigns
 Run industry disinformation campaigns
using new and creative forms.
 Pay and co-opt celebrities and
sympathetic expert witnesses.
 Sponsor conferences to challenge
scientific consensus.
 Align with other issues employment
discrimination, antitax groups.
7. Influence the political agenda
 Donate to political parties across the
political spectrum.
 Get representatives from unhealthy
industries around the policy table, for
guideline development or standard
setting.
 Invest heavily in paid lobbyists.
 Get friends in important and
influential government roles - for
example, by targeted hiring of politicians,
their advisers, or senior administration
officials once they leave office.
 Aim to reduce government budgets for
regulatory or scientific, or policy activities
against corporate interests.
Rob Moodie is professor of Public Health,
University of Melbourne
This is an edited version of an article that
appeared in a publication of the American
Journal of Public Health.
and dont need to start treatment. What we
will do is give them information that they are
familiar with so they can make behavioral
decisions, he says adding Our approach
now is to craft messages with the same idea
used in making a shirt. We first measure you
and make a fitting shirt. So if that message is
not meant for you it will definitely not make
sense to you. Only that person will under-
stand that message.
Armstrong Mukundane is also crafting
new messages targeting men. When The
Independent visited the Communication for
Healthy Communities offices on Sept.08, he
was working on a flyer reading, Women
are too many but I will choose one and only
Sarah. Another had, Its not that I dont
trust her, I use condoms to protect myself.
Such strategies Zikusooka and Mukundane
are taking have been for long rated high in
tackling the public health concern.
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 31
comment
By Ian Buruma
The power of monuments
Why the belief that smashing an image will somehow
solve the problems associated with it is wrong
T
he ghastly spectacle last month
of neo-Nazis marching through
Charlottesville, Virginia, carrying
torches and barking slogans about
the supremacy of the white race, was
sparked by the citys plans to remove a
statue of Robert E. Lee, the leader of the
Confederate army, which fought to retain
slavery in the secessionist South during the
American Civil War. The statue of General
Lee on his horse has been there since 1924,
a time when the lynching of black citizens
was not a rarity.
Inspired by the events taking place in
Charlottesville, advocates have emerged
in Britain seeking to pull Admiral Nelson
off his famous column on Trafalgar
Square in London, because the British
naval hero supported the slave trade.
And two years ago, protesters at the
University of Oxford demanded the
removal of a sculpture of Cecil Rhodes
from Oriel College, where the old
imperialist had once been a student,
because his views on race and empire are
now considered to be obnoxious.
There always was something magical
about this kind of iconoclasm, which
rests on the belief that smashing an
image will somehow solve the problems
associated with it. When English
Protestants challenged the power of the
Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth
century, mobs laid waste to stone-carved
saints and other holy representations
with pick-hammers and axes.
Eighteenth-century revolutionaries did
the same to churches in France. The most
radical example occurred in China only
a little more than 50 years ago, when
Red Guards destroyed Buddhist temples
and burned Confucian books or indeed
anything old and traditional to herald
the Cultural Revolution.
It is easy to deplore this type of
destruction. Great buildings and works
of art are lost. One is tempted to assume
that only people who believe in the
magical power of images would wish
to erase them. The sensible way to deal
with monuments of the past would be to
see them simply as artifacts of history.
And yet it is not so simple. Who would
32 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
argue that after 1945 streets and squares
in German cities should continue to be
named after Adolf Hitler? It was surely
not just a childish mistake to remove
sculptures of the Fhrer or of Soviet
leaders in Central and Eastern Europe
after 1989. One could argue that images
of these leaders and their henchmen
lacked the artistic value of great churches
of medieval England, or Tang Dynasty
Buddhist sculptures in China. But then
statues of General Lee are hardly worth
preserving for artistic reasons either.
The question is where we should draw
the line. Should a historical figure be
judged by the amount of blood on his
hands? Or should we establish a proper
time frame?
It might be argued that monuments
celebrating villains who lived within
living memory and would still cause
grief to surviving victims must be
removed, and that anything older should
be left alone. But that doesnt quite work,
either. The argument for preserving a
sculpture of Hitler in a public place,
assuming that such a thing still exists,
does not get stronger as time goes on.
Many people in the U.S. South argue
that Confederate monuments should
be protected as mere reminders of the
past, as part of a common heritage.
The problem is that history is not always
neutral. It can still be toxic. The way
we tell stories of our past, and keep
memories alive in cultural artifacts, is
a large part of how we view ourselves
collectively. This demands a certain
degree of consensus, which often does
not exist, especially when there has been
a civil war.
The case of postwar Germany is quite
straightforward. Both East and West
Germany set out to build their collective
futures in direct contrast to the Nazi
past. Only a resentful fringe still wishes
to cling to fond memories of the Third
Reich.
Nonetheless, to this day, German
authorities ban the display of Nazi
imagery, fearing that it might still tempt
people to repeat the darkest episodes
of their countrys history. This fear
is understandable, and not wholly
irrational. Such temptations could even
become stronger as Nazism fades from
living memory.
Britain has a less traumatic recent
history. The views of Cecil Rhodes,
or Admiral Nelson, though fairly
conventional in their time, are certainly
no longer fashionable today. It is highly
unlikely that many British people gazing
up at Nelson on his column or passing
Oriel College, Oxford, will be inspired to
advocate slavery or build an empire in
Africa.
The American South, however, is still
a problem. The losers in the Civil War
were never quite reconciled to their
defeat. For many southerners, though
by no means all, the Confederate cause
and its monuments are still felt to be
part of their collective identity. Although
hardly anyone in his right mind would
advocate the revival of slavery, nostalgia
for the Old South is still tinged with
racism. That is why statues of General
Lee in front of court buildings and other
public places are noxious, and why many
people, including southern liberals, wish
to see them removed.
There is no perfect solution to this
problem, precisely because it is not
just about images carved from stone.
Resentment in the South is political.
The wounds of the Civil War remain
unhealed. Much of the rural south is
poorer and less educated than other parts
of the .. People feel ignored and looked
down upon by urban coastal elites. That
is why so many of them voted for Donald
Trump. Knocking down a few statues
will not solve this problem. It might even
make matters worse.
Ian Buruma, Editor of The New York
Review of Books, is the author of Year
Zero: A History of 1945.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2017.

By David Harris
A betrayal of Americas soul
President Trump should not have made it possible to
arrest and deport thousands of young people
F
or the United States a
country of immigrants and
their descendants September
5, 2017, marked a betrayal of
the nations soul. The announcement
by President Donald Trumps
administration that it is ending
the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) program, which
President Barack Obama established
by executive order in 2012, threatens
to upend the lives of an entire
generation.
The DACA program permitted close
to 800,000 undocumented young
people (known as Dreamers),
brought into the country as children,
to be protected from deportation, so
long as they passed a background
check and maintained a clean criminal
record. What we saw on September 5,
of course, is that an initiative begun
by executive order can be dismantled
through a counter-order by the
executives successor.
But ending the program creates a real
possibility of arrest and deportation
for hundreds of thousands of young
people who feel themselves to be
American through and through
indeed, who overwhelmingly have no
memory of living in any other country.
They have committed no crime, and
are building productive lives in the
United States whether by going to
school, working, starting families,
establishing businesses, or serving in
the armed forces.
The administration announced that it
would continue to renew permits for
those already in the DACA program
for another six months, and then stop.
No new applications will be accepted.
Only enactment of immigration
legislation by the U.S. Congress
before the March 5, 2018, deadline
a formidable challenge in view of
todays highly fractured political
conditions can enable Dreamers to
stay without fear of being tracked
down, rounded up, and expelled.
On occasion, Trump has expressed
sympathy for the Dreamers. While
vowing during the presidential
campaign to end DACA, he also
acknowledged the moral case to be
made for maintaining it, saying that
he would be faced by a very, very
hard choice. And even after the
repeal was announced, he declared
that he wanted to resolve the DACA
issue with heart and compassion.
Yet, apparently convinced that DACA
beneficiaries have taken jobs away
from citizens, he concluded that the
same heart and compassion were
needed for unemployed, struggling,
and forgotten Americans.
Sadly, in making this choice, the
president has opted to turn away from
the classic American vision engraved
on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty
in New York Harbor, expressed in
Emma Lazaruss poem, which begins,
Give me your tired, your poor, your
huddled masses yearning to breathe
free. That credo has benefited tens
of millions of newcomers, and it has
immeasurably strengthened America.
The same vision ought to apply to
American
through and
through
indeed, who
overwhelmingly
have no memory
of living in any
other country
comment
young people who yes, it is true
were undocumented at the time of
arrival, but who came to America
through no choice of their own.
Instead, they now face the risk of a
total disruption of their lives and an
uncertain fate.
As a result, Trump positions himself
in the dubious company of those
throughout American history who
displayed malice and suspicion
toward new arrivals: the supporters
of the Alien and Sedition Acts of the
1790s, which lengthened the period for
naturalisation to 14 years; the Know
Nothings of the pre-Civil War years,
who sought to bar Catholics from the
country; those in the early twentieth
century who claimed that newcomers
from eastern and southern Europe,
and from China and Japan, could
not be made into Americans, and
whose arguments led in the 1920s to
stringent quotas for immigration from
those regions; and those so intent on
keeping out Jews seeking to flee Nazi
Europe that even the small immigrant
quotas for those countries were not
filled.
In sum, I am saddened and ashamed.
As a Jew, I am all too aware of the
Torahs direction, given no less than
36 times, to love the stranger. And,
as an American, I feel that we have
succumbed today, at least to small-
minded, short-sighted xenophobia,
rather than lived up to the vision of
our country at its most welcoming and
compassionate best.
David Harris is Chief Executive Officer of
the American Jewish Committee.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2017.
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 33
comment
By Morris Komakech
Musevenis land obsession
Without legitimate land acquisition processes, Presidents
land grab scheme invites legitimate resistance
W
hen you read the article
by Kiira Municipality
MP, Hon. Ibrahim
Ssemujju Nganda in
the Observer (See: When Muzee
goes, people will understand we
never had a govt), you get a clear
sense that it is bureaucratic lapses in
planning and budgeting that cause
unnecessary delays and cost over-runs
in government projects. It is not that
citizens are refusing to give land.
These corrupt NRM cadres plan,
budget, approve, and secure
loans on government project way
before gazetting and settling land
negotiations with landowners. Why
is Museveni not addressing these
glaring internal flaws, tightening his
government, and making it lean and
efficient?
Whereas former Ugandan dictator,
Idi Amin expelled Asians from
Uganda, Museveni is determined
to expel indigenous Ugandans from
Uganda, if not resisted. Already, this
regime is selling back birthrights at a
walloping US$400 to Ugandans who
fled its earlier violence. These are
signs that Ugandans are on track to
losing their land and property rights.
The vested interest of Museveni
in amending land acquisition laws
is suspicious and calls for public
scrutiny. Musevenis own Partys
legislators have rejected the proposed
amendment. Why is the President
becoming so obsessed with usurping
land from Ugandans?
This Museveni land usurpation
scheme has shifted the boundary
of trust and patience among
Ugandans. Imagine that former
regimes implemented every national
development without grabbing
land from citizens. Historically,
the traditional land tenure systems
have existed in various parts of the
country and yet Dr. Obote built
schools and hospitals, Amin built
hotels, presidential lodges and Mpoma
Satellite station without grabbing the
land.
34 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
The contentions in the proposed
Land Amendment Bill is the agenda
to acquire lands deemed necessary
for public interests forcefully, and
then later consider a compensation
value for its owners. Moreover,
there is no guarantee for fairness
and transparency in the land
valuation processes. Additionally,
the compensation is based on what
the government decides, and the
evacuated victim of such land grabs
cannot refuse or negotiate. If there
were to refuse, government would
dump the compensation package at
any nearby courthouse.
By any measure of sense, this
proposal is frivolous, dehumanising,
and heinous. Museveni wants to
deprive Ugandans of their rights
to land and property, and such
should invite legitimate resistance
nationwide.
Museveni should know that his
regime is not trusted because of its
reputation of unrivalled corruption.
Museveni;s own declaration that
he is not anyones servant, and that
he is pursuing his own ambitions
Museveni
should know
a planning space of 20-30 years. Such
that his regime
is not trusted
because of
its reputation
of unrivalled
corruption
has changed public opinion of
him, making this land amendment
rightfully suspect.
Museveni should attend to the
current investigations of dubious
land deals to learn why the public has
little faith in his proposal. If this land
amendment is imposed on Ugandans,
the reality of mass displacement,
unjustifiable suffering, and
dehumanisation due to homelessness,
famine, and conflict for subsistence
space will overwhelm this country.
In developed capitalist societies
where governments are the sole
authority over land, the challenges
of housing and homelessness are a
hallmark. Any sensible Ugandan will
never support this land amendment
proposal. Let Museveni take the
land by force like they have done in
Amuru.
It is up to Ugandans to give up
their rights to their land under
these dubious schemes. Otherwise,
Museveni should allow a legitimate
land acquisition process, consistent
with current laws and market rules
to prevail. His priority should be
ending corruption and inefficiencies
within the planning and procurement
divisions in government. The National
Development Plan should reflect
future government projects allowing
a plan would allow preservation of
lands for national development in
advance. Where citizens are affected,
the state should respect property
rights, and apply social justice
principles to compensate citizens at an
agreed market price.
Morris Komakech is a Ugandan social
critic and political analyst. Can contact
via mordust_26@yahoo.ca
 ART | BOOKS | SOCIETY | TRAVEL | CULTURE
Gun, flowers,
masks
Multimedia artist Xenson
tackles contemporary
issues with creative flair
By Dominic Muwanguzi
Even before I entered Afriart on 7th street in Kampalas Industrial
Area to see Samson Ssenkaaba aka Xenons latest exhibition, I
knew I was going to see rare creativity. It is a quality that defines
this artist. The exhibition is teasingly titled GunflowerMask, which
is an intriguing juxtaposition of clichd symbols.
O
nce inside, I was struck by
Xensons apparent fiery
hunger to push art creativ-
ity to the limit. There were
paintings, photographs,
and installations. Every-
thing was mostly imposing in large format.
There was this model posing with, as a
fashion object, an AK 47; one of the most
lethal contemporary weapons. In another a
gun was hidden inside a cluster of bananas
atop a womans head, and yet in another,
it was worn across the chest of a little girl
who kept playing with it as if it is a toy and
in another the gun was shielding a mans
genitals. What was going on?
The figurative allusions to the social-
political global landscape are clear enough.
Just as the invitation to discuss topics like
migration, war, human brutality and suffer-
ing. It was also clear the artist was cleverly
employing the technical tools of poetry and
fashion, pop-art (graffiti) and theatre on
display for comic relief while dealing with
the hard issues.
The gun, flower, and mask motifs kept
recurring. He was emphasizing a message,
highlighting the unusual. His figures were
made to interrupt thought processes with
questions about the status quo. The context
is disrupted.
When he paints poppies; they are little
yellow flowers in blossom symbols of
peace, justice, and the end of wars. These
are not the red poppies of World War
remembrance of injustice, uncommon
bravery, and sacrifice. Poppies dominate
his canvases but in a playful way. The artist
s adoption of these delicate flowers in the
midst of tackling hard topics like war, immi-
gration and brutality that have left commu-
nities fragmented and decimated is a mark
of empathy for humanness. He implores
his audience to feel the social injustices and
break the bondage. In one painting, a naked
female with a masked face is breaking free
through barbed-wire. But in the background
is a play mat. The suggestion of a return to
innocence in spite of this melee is clear.
Xenson does not come from a culture of
masks as symbols. But he loves them and
wears them in performances. In African
iconography, masks are spiritual objects,
specifically in masquerades. When Xensons
subjects wear them, they protect, hide, and
obscure.
In an installation titled `Kibuuka
Omumbaale, a figure of a popular god of
war in Buganda is sculpted from rubber
tyres and barkcloth with an elaborate tail in
flight to suggests fierce bravery and intoler-
ance; qualities that are linked to warfare.
His apparition of thunder and lightning is
known to make enemies shiver.
Xensons photography is of global cul-
ture with allusions to Buganda. The subjects
are either paired, inclined to a certain posi-
tion, or breaking free in black and white
monochromes.
This powerful display cements Xensons
argument that artists need to move out of
their comfort zones and present persuasive,
relevant, current and cross-cultural art-
works. That is authentic engagement. The
exhibit GunflowerMask is curated by Jenni-
fer Mpyisi, and is showing until November
2017 at Afriart Gallery, 7th Street in Kam-
palas Industrial Area, opposite the Bread
and Cake Shop.
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 35
Profile
Charles Ssenkubuge `Siasa:
Dramas living legend
By Agnes E Nantaba
R
enowned stage and
movie drama actor
Charles James Ssen-
kubuge aka Siasa is
cocky, with a loud laugh, and
a natural suaveness what
is sometimes called swag. It
is, therefore, not surprising
that he is a dominant figure in
Ugandas entertainment indus-
try circles. That he has spent 35
years in the limelight merely
adds to his clout. Although he
had for years been on stage with
plays like Ndiwulira and TV
with the 1990s series Kigenya
Agenya, Ssenkubuge became
a true household name when
he took the radio airwaves
by storm as part of the Radio
Simba FM early morning show,
`Binsangawano crew. His acting
career is so powerful that even
his contesting as a presidential
candidate in 2001 which many
would highlight as a peak of
their life, is a mere blip for Ssen-
kubuge. Today, he works as the
General manager and Special
Programmes Director for Salt
Media.
Pastor Bujingo had heard
about me and loved my radio
work but he also knew that I
had accepted the Lord Jesus as
my personal savior in 2007 so
he encouraged me to work with
him, says Ssenkubuge.
It all started at Kampala High
School where Ssenkubuge and
colleagues like Aloysius Matovu
and Andrew Benon Kibuuka
started acting to pass exams
rather than make money. As stu-
dents of literature, Ssenkubuge
says they chose to live the char-
acters in one of the plays, `The
road by Wole Soyinka for an
easier understanding.
The acting was a success and
Ssenkubuge soon joined Kam-
pala Dramactors. He recalls first
foray was with a play titled Mr.
Kateete; a political theme which
did not please then-president
Milton Obote and the group
was disbanded and in 1982,
it morphed into Bakayimbira
36 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
Drammactors. and killing snakes from as early School Entebbe, Old Kampala
Ssenkubuge started writing as eight years as the home was Senior Secondary School, Kam-
his own scripts kicking off with located in the middle of the for- pala High school and Makerere
Agaali amakula that would est. But he says they are fond High School from where he
later be picked on as a set book memories. joined Makerere University to
for A-level literature. It depicts a He went to Ssanda Primary pursue bachelors in Literature
home suffering from loss of one school, where his fondest mem- and Philosophy and later Mas-
parent. Ssenkubuge says it had ory was when two helicopters ters in Drama.
hints of autobiography. landed in the neighborhood fol- Ssenkubuge is married to
I lost my mother, Evan lowed by truckloads of soldiers. Agnes Lillian Ssenkubuge
Norah Nakintu Mugambe in He would later learn they were whom he met at Makerere
primary seven and the environ- searching for a British High University and they have four
ment changed, he says, We Commissioner who had report- children. Ssenkubuge says
got detached from our father. edly gone missing and was later although theatre seems to
He says the play was a massive discovered in hiding with an be fading, TV could be the
hit because many identified African girl. He went on to savior as it is on the
with the sorrow and tribulations Uganda Air Force lookout for local
depicted. Primary content.
Ssenkubuge has maintained
that trait of observing real life
experiences keenly and arrang-
ing them into plays or perfor-
mances.
Even at Makerere Uni-
versity as a student of Lit-
erature and Philosophy,
Ssenkubuge still juggled
school and acting. Four
years after graduation
and working with a
clearing and forward-
ing company, Ssen-
kubuge was awarded
a contract with minis-
try of health to write
a play on HIV/
AIDS. This
was during
the scourges
peak. It was
also personal
as he had lost
four siblings to
AIDs. He came
up with Ndiwu-
lira cautioning peo-
ple about HIV/AIDS.
It was so successful that
it was commissioned by
President Yoweri Museveni and
toured the whole country.
It was Bakayimbiras great-
est achievement, Ssenkubuge
says. Today, he boasts of writing
over 50 plays/ scripts. He says
he has retired from stage acting.
Born on December 2, 1962,
Ssenkubuge is the last of 23
children of the late Fenenkasi
Mugambe. He recalls fighting

Charles James Ssenkubuges Liteside
Any three things we dont
I
know about you?
ts now ten years
since I accepted
Jesus Christ as my
personal savior. I did
it silently for not wanting
to be overwhelmed and
indeed, it has worked
as people can tell the
changed personality in me.
I am a pastor at Gospel
Lite Independent Baptist
church in Kansanga. I am
also a very kind person.
What is your greatest fear?
The fear of sin; I fear for
if the Lord returns now,
will he find me ready? As
human beings, we make so
many mistakes but repent
less and that worries me
a lot.
What is the trait you most
deplore in yourself?
I am a very shy person
which many people can
refute. However, being shy
is one of the ingredients of
a good actor.
What is the trait you most
deplore in others?
Talking unnecessarily;
I hate people who talk
unnecessarily a lot
although Ive learnt to
deal with the different
characters in people.
I dont allow to be
influenced by other people.
Which living person do
you most admire?
I admire President
Museveni for his ability to
rule Uganda for more than
30 years.
What is your greatest
extravagance?
I often give away my
money but I pray to
God to help me reduce
because I can give away
money when I too have
pressing needs.
What is the greatest thing
you have ever done?
Its still under
construction and just about
to materialise. I have been
working on it for so long
so in a period not so far
from now, it will explode.
What do you consider the
most overrated virtue?
I may not know the most
overrated virtue but one
weakness I have observed
about Ugandans is the
growing begging culture.
Many Ugandans have
been made to believe that
begging from one person
to another is no problem
and yet we have to instill a
culture of hard work.
What does being powerful
mean to you?
Being able to stand in for
others like Jesus did.
On what occasion do you
lie?
When someone needs
money from me and I have
not yet got the money,
I would rather tell a lie
especially when I am short
of words. But we all tell
lies especially on phone.
What do you most dislike
about your appearance?
I believe that I dont
look bad and I dont know
how it feels like to be
taller or shorter so I am
comfortable.
Which living person do
you most despise?
Presidents Kim Jong-un
and Donald Trump for
being careless yet they are
in control and have the
ability to avoid havoc. One
of them should come out
smarter to avoid havoc.
What is the quality you
most like in a man?
Caring, hardworking,
loving, comforting,
listening, problem solver
and protective of others.
What is the quality you
most like in a woman?
Loving and listening .
What or who is the
greatest love of your life?
My wife, Agnes Lillian
Ssenkubuge is ever there
for me and even before I
got born again, she used
to understand me and the
environment around me.
God manufactured her
specifically for me.
When and where were you
happiest?
I am happy many times.
Which talent would you
most like to have?
Nothing beats being an
actor.
What do you consider
your greatest
achievement?
Being an actor for the
last 35 years is not a mean
achievement.
Where would you most
like to live?
Uganda but particularly
in my home village for
the green vegetation and
relaxed environment.
What is your most
treasured possession?
My art and talent of
communication; I always
thank God for my voice
and even when I went for
insurance, I only insured
my voice.
What do you regard as the
lowest depth of misery?
I have been very lucky
to have come out alive
Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
Q&A
and never hit during the
hardest political times.
But being tortured is
incomparable .
What is your favorite
occupation?
Being a servant of God.
What do you most value
in your friends?
No betrayal, caring, and
straight forward.
Who are your favorite
writers?
Ngg wa Thiongo and
Chinua Achebe talk about
things happening around
us. They organise events
and write about them to
address issues affecting
people.
Who is your hero of
fiction?
Alex Mukulu has
managed to put up
spectacular performances
to an international level
and Mariam Ndagire is
persistent and tells good
stories.
Which historical figure do
you most identify with?
Mahatma Gandhis
thinking about humanity,
Nelson Mandelas selfless
efforts as a visionary
leader and Princess Diana.
Who are your heroes in
real life?
The world is without
heroes.
What is your greatest
regret?
I dont regret anything.
What is your motto?
Do you see someone
skilled in their work? They
will serve before kings;
they will not serve before
officials of low rank.
37
Cleverly-mirrored tableware tricks you into eating less
Two London-based art students, Saki
Maruyama and Daniel Coppen, collectively
known as Studio Playfool, have come up
with an ingenious tableware design that
relies on mirrors to trick your eyes into see-
ing more food than is actually available.
Named Half/Full, their recently unveiled
tableware has two plates, a cup, a bowl, and
a knife, fork and spoon that feature a reflec-
tive surface. So when food and drinks are
placed on/in them, these mirrors increase
the portion size only visually, which is
enough to induce a sensation of fullness
and limit the amount of food the user feels
they need to eat. It sounds like bogus, but
the concept is apparently based on scientific
research. Apparently volume of food can
influence ones satisfaction from a meal, if
the quantity of the food appears greater, the
feeling of satisfaction is greater.

Model with longest legs in the world
A Russian model has official-
ly set a new record for having
the worlds longest womens
legs. Ekaterina Lisina, who
stands at 6ft 9in, has two Guin-
ness records to her name having
also been crowned the worlds
tallest model. The 29-year-olds
left leg measures 132.8 cm (52.2
in), while her right leg is 132.2
cm (52.0 in) long. That is about
as long as a full-size bed.
Dont mess with dumped woman
When Mitchell Lloyd broke
up with Lauren Adderley after
a two-month romance, he pos-
sibly did not suspect that she
would spend the next two years
making his life a living hell. First
she claimed she was a victim
of and asked him to provide a
statement to the police. He was
soon contacted by Robert Hay;
supposedly a police officer, ask- ure to obey would result in fines
ing for the statement by email. of up to 15,000. Two years into
He did not know that Robert the nightmare, Mitchell finally
Hay was actually an online alias told his friends and they advised
of Laurens. The fake policeman him to go to the police. Real offi-
soon started setting curfews for cers immediately deduced that
him, banning him from certain the emails he had been receiv-
bars, and from seeing or even ing were fakes and were from
speaking to some of his friends, Adderley. She was jailed for
mostly women. He said fail- nine months.

German beats record for Ghanas first satellite? Smart umbrella lets you
carrying beer GhanaSat-1 began its orbit recently, know its going to rain
with a little help from some friends.
40 meters and The cubesat, built by a Ghanaian
The new high-tech umbrella is called
then set them engineering team at All Nations
Oombrella not only can it predict the
down. University, was delivered to NASAs
weather, its also impossible to lose. The
But two International Space Station in June
smart umbrella syncs with a smartphone
tipped over at on a SpaceX rocket that took off from
app, sending users updates about weath-
the last min- pad 39a at Kennedy Space Center, a
er conditions 30 minutes in advance,
ute, so that NASA spokesperson. Weeks later,
and reminders if they happen to leave
the record GhanaSat-1 deployed into orbit from
the device behind. And heres the added
is 29 jugs, or the Center and is now operational.
bonus it wont ever flip inside-out.
more than 69 This particular satellite has two
A new Oktoberfest, kg (152 lb) missions, Project Manager Damoah
world record the worlds of beer and told TechCrunch. It has cameras on
has been set biggest beer glass. board for detailed monitoring of the
for carrying festival, Oliver He had set coastlines of Ghana. Then theres an
mugs of beer Struempfel the previous educational piece? We want to use it
in southeast- cradled 31 world record to integrate satellite technology into
ern Germany. beer-filled tan- of 25 jugs in high school curriculum. The Gha-
In Bavaria, kards stacked 2014, Munich naSat-1 deployment marks increased
interest and activity in Africa toward
which is up in two daily Merkur
space exploration.
also home to tiers, walked said.

38 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
 VW Polo Vivo
The car made in Kigali?
By Motoring Guru
Since Volkswagen announced in 2016 that it plans to set up a
manufacturing plant in Rwanda, there has been anticipation regarding
what the cars from the plant will be like.

O
f course, they will be a version of
the German car makers famous
Polo models. And since these are
already being manufactured in
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, we can
base on these to get a sense of what to expect
when the plant finally opens by the end of
this year.
The Volkswagen Polo Vivo has been
South Africas best-selling passenger vehicle
for some years. Its only competition for top
spot is its cousin the Polo.
The Polo Vivo concept is based on the
older-generation model Polo and its main
selling point is the budget-friendly price tag.
The Polo Vivo has a 1.4-litre engine; just
slightly smaller than the engine of the Toy-
ota E110 (kikuumi) which is well known in
East Africa. According to factory specs, the
Polos outputs of 55kW and 132 Nm, it com-
bines a fuel economy of 6.2 litres per 100kms
with performance reliability.
Some models pack more power from the
1.4-litre engine; up from 55 kW to 63 kW,
with all other vital statistics remaining the
same. There is also 1.6-litre model (same as
the Toyota Corolla) but it is slightly more
costly. This has an output of 77 kW and
torque (155 Nm) and yet its fuel consump-
tion is not any worse. Some models have
rear seats removal capabilities to create a
van like feel. This can hold up to 1 060-litres
of space and can withstand 519kg of weight.
At this point it is not clear which models
will be produced at the Kigali plant.
Whichever model/s are produced, they
will most likely include the modern ameni-
ties that car buyers have come to expect,
including Bluetooth, Auxiliary and USB
inputs, a CD player and front electric win-
dows as standard.
That is a point that DT Dobie CEO Zarak
Khan emphasised during the opening of the
Kenyan plant in 2016.
He said the new Volkswagen Vivo made
in Kenya would demystify the thinking that
locally assembled vehicles are limited in
options. He said it would come with a wide
range of standard features; including alloy
wheels, CD players, and more.
The Volkswagen brand has a long
relationship with Africa. In the 1960s,
Volkswagen vehicles were being made
in Kenya. Way back VW was assembling
microbuses and Combi vehicles at the Thika
plant in Kenya. By 1990, it was rolling out
4600 units per year. If the Kigali plant is
designed with the same strategy as that of
Kenya, then it will be flexible design facility
that offers several models easily.

Sept 15 - 21 , 2017 39
 Global comment
By Jacek Rostowski
Anatomy of illiberal capitalism
What happens when politicians use the economy
as an instrument for strengthening state power?
P
opulists such as U.S. President
Donald Trump and de facto Polish
leader Jarosaw Kaczyski, and au-
thoritarians such as Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdoan and Russian President
Vladimir Putin, do not just share Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orbns brand of
so-called illiberal democracy. Each also
espouses a form of illiberal capitalism. But
what does illiberal capitalism entail, and how
compatible is it with illiberal democracy? For
starters, as nationalists, Trump, Kaczyski,
Erdoan, Putin, and Orbn regard the market
economy not as a means of boosting dyna-
mism, efficiency, prosperity, and individual
freedom, but mainly as an instrument for
strengthening state power.
Historically, there have been various
schools of authoritarian right-wing thought
about the relationship between the market
and the state. At one extreme, the Nazis
established a command economy while
maintaining private property and a high level
of income inequality. At the other extreme,
early twentieth-century social Darwinists in
Europe and the United States called for unfet-
tered domestic free markets in which only the
fittest would survive, leading to a stronger
country.
Today, Russia sits at one end of the illiberal-
capitalist spectrum. Putin views the collapse
of the Soviet Union as largely an economic
failure, and he recognises that private
property and the market can make the Rus-
sian economy more resilient in the face of
Western sanctions. But he also believes that
private-property rights come second to the
needs of the Russian security state, which
means that ownership is always conditional.
As befits a former KGB officer, Putin also
believes that the Russian state has ultimate
ownership rights to its citizens private
assets not just in Russia, but also abroad.
Russian oligarchs and companies operating
internationally such as those that have inter-
acted with The Trump Organisation are
thus potential instruments of Russian foreign
policy.
Hitler famously quipped that while the
Bolsheviks had nationalised the means of
production, the Nazis had gone further by
nationalising the people themselves. This is
similar to albeit more total than Putins combines social Darwinism and nationalism.
own understanding of the relationship
between capitalists and the state, according
to which even the richest Russian oligarch is
40 Sept 15 - 21 , 2017
essentially a serf of the state.
Under Russias highly concentrated owner-
ship structure, the Kremlins control of wealth
is synonymous with political control. Rather
than trying to control millions of bourgeoisie,
the state can deploy secret police to manage
just a few dozen oligarchs.
Trump is at the other end of todays illib-
eral-capitalist spectrum: no less comfortable
than Putin with deep income inequalities, but
not as inclined to use the state to favour par-
ticular businesspeople (other than himself).
As a result, his administration has been using
executive orders to roll back many of the
regulations that former US President Barack
Obama introduced.
Still, there are exceptions to Trumps sup-
port for free-market policies. He is in favour
of protectionism and cheap money, pre-
sumably because these positions play well
with his core political constituency white
working-class voters.
If Trump goes down the protectionist road,
however, U.S. trade partners will retaliate,
often with measures targeted directly at his
base, as when the European Union recently
threatened tariffs against Kentucky bourbon.
Given that threat, Trumps economic popu-
lism will most likely manifest itself through
abstinence avoiding pro-market measures
that clearly hurt the white working class. In
Turkey, Erdoan came to power in 2003 as
the champion of devoutly Muslim Anatolian
entrepreneurs. Opposing the traditional
statism of Turkeys Kemalist ruling elites,
Erdoan introduced pro-market reforms and
feigned a commitment to the EU-accession
process by supporting Turkish democratic
institutions.
Having achieved his political aims, Erdoan
is now dispensing with his commitment to
democracy. But it remains to be seen if he
will do the same with market capitalism.
Even when he first came to power, Erdoans
support for free markets never stopped him
from denouncing imaginary economic con-
spiracies. But if he tries to usher in a return to
statism, Turkeys rising entrepreneurial class
may well turn on him.
In Hungary, Orbns approach to capitalism
has been more complex. Although he is often
called a populist in the West, his approach
On the one hand, he has introduced a flat
income tax that favours the wealthy and a
child tax credit that benefits only higher-
income households; on the other hand, like
Putin, he maintains a coterie of friendly
oligarchs who help shore up his power, not
least by controlling the Hungarian media.
Kaczyski is the most economically populist
of the illiberal capitalists. He started out as
a social Darwinist, once introducing a child
tax credit that would later inspire Orbn. But
since his Law and Justice Party (PiS) returned
to power in 2015, Kaczyskis flagship policy
has been monthly cash payments of 115
($138) to Polish families for each child after
the first.
Moreover, Kaczyski has pushed for raising
the minimum pension rather than all pen-
sions and for lowering the retirement age,
which plays well among rural, lower-income
voters, even if it renders the pension system
less sustainable. When it comes to trade,
Kaczyskis government loudly protests pro-
tectionism directed against Polands interests,
as in the case of changes to the regime for
delegated workers proposed by French Presi-
dent Emmanuel Macron.
Todays examples of illiberal capitalism
range from toleration of extreme inequality
to favouring heavy redistribution, and from
overweening statism to broad deregulation of
markets. Beyond a shared inclination toward
protectionism, they do not seem to have
much in common. But far more important
than each governments economic policies is
its political orientation.
It is no coincidence that all five leaders
discussed here have attacked the indepen-
dence of their countrys judiciary. To be sure,
Putins and Erdoans crackdowns have been
far more effective than Trumps tweets or
PiSs stalled attempt at judicial reform. But in
each case, independent judges are viewed as
rival power holders.
When politics comes first, there is a temp-
tation to bend the law toward ones own
ends. But without the rule of law, businesses
lose confidence that contracts and private-
property rights will be enforced or indepen-
dently arbitrated, and the economy cannot
sustain strong long-term growth. That is why
illiberal democrats who place politics first
will ultimately undermine the prosperity
and strength of their countries, and thus their
own legitimacy.
Jacek Rostowski was Polands Minister of Finance
and Deputy Prime Minister from 2007 to 2013.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2017.
 Stay Informed
Our online platforms have
limitless possibilities

www.independent.co.ug
@UgIndependent
The Independent magazine

Independent Publications Limited, Plot 82/84, Kanjokya Street, P. O. Box 3304, Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256-312-637-391/ 2/ 3/ 4 | Fax: +256-312-637-396 | E-mail: editorial@independent.co.ug,
advertising@independent.co.ug, circulation@independent.co.ug Website: www.independent.co.ug