The Independent Uncensored News Views And Analysis

Following general public outcry over the deteriorating health sector, His excellency, the President of the Republic of Uganda set up the Medicines and Health Services Delivery monitoring unit. This was meant to be a partial solution to the numerous problems identified within the sector. Already existing measures to revamp the health sector are as follows: Funding to the health sector has been significantly increased; and more than one thousand health centres have been constructed. The government on its part has decentralized health care; and most of these health units are under the direct supervision of the district local governments. It is mainly the failure of this supervisory role that led to the deterioration of these services and facilities. Other parallel solutions to augment these  efforts are underway; for example, increase of health workers’ salaries in the next financial year and attracting and retaining more technical man-power within the sector.

This unit was set up in September 2009. In the last five months of operation, we have noticed a recurrence of the following problems that continue to plague our country’s health sector: corruption and embezzlement of funds channeled to the sector; absentee medical personnel; ghost health personnel and ghost health centers; theft of government drugs, health supplies and installations; understaffing that has led to unbearable work-loads for health workers. The following can further shed some light on the magnitude of the problem:

·         In Sironko district, 252 dedicated health workers had never appeared on the pay-roll even after being confirmed as health workers of the district.

·         In Mubende, a big number of children lost and are still losing lives  to treatable illnesses especially Malaria. Notwithstanding the fact that malaria drugs are availed to all districts by National Medical Stores and are misappropriated by some individuals.

·         In Manafwa, an in-charge of one of the government health centres is under investigation for making off with X-ray machines, an ambulance, gas canisters and drugs.

·         We have found that the greater number of private clinics are not registered, and worse still have unqualified staff running these clinics.

·         Concerning understaffing, Isingiro district has only one doctor employed by the government yet it has close to 60 health facilities. He is the DHO and has to coordinate  all  administrative work as well.

The above malpractices continue unabated all over the country with impunity,  mostly because health workers are perceived as a special group, mainly due to their scarcity in the country. It, however, should be noted that the era of taking Ugandans’ lives for granted is over. The long arm of the law shall reach any one, health worker or not, within the borders of this country that is involved in any form of unethical behavior. This action shall not exclude individuals or groups of individuals that infringe on health workers’ rights; like the right to be appropriately compensated for their work and the right to work in a safe environment. It is no longer acceptable. Ugandans have said no and justice shall be seen to be done.

We are not working alone in this enormous fight. Thus far, we have had tremendous support from civil society and health professionals within the sector. We are also working in close proximity with the police, the office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, IGG’s office, District Local Governments, health professional bodies and other security organs. It should hence be understood clearly that we are not here to antagonize or duplicate already existing efforts, but are here to fill an obvious gap; so that together with the existing institutions, we can achieve the desired goal; an efficient and graft free health care system with an equally well remunerated health work force.

We still call upon the public to work hand-in-hand with us, and also encourage all health professionals to join in this effort to clean the health sector. Furthermore, the ministry of health needs to increase on its already existing monitoring efforts. The health professional bodies like the medical council, pharmaceutical society of Uganda and the Allied health professionals’ body need to increase on their vigilance.

Lastly, yesterday Tuesday, the 9^th of March 2010; Dr. Richard Ndyomugyenyi- project manager, National Malaria Control Programme, Dr. Myers Lugemwa – focal person monitoring and evaluation, NMCP and Mr. Martin Shibeki were arrested by the police and charged under reference E/075/2010 of CID Headquaters Kibuli. Dr. Ndyomugyenyi- is charged with corruption contrary to section 2(i) of the Anti-corruption Act 6 of 2009 for neglecting to ensure the proper management of the Chinese donated drugs, duo-cotecxin and arco. Whilst Dr. Myers and Shibeke are jointly charged with corruption contrary to section 2 (h) of the Anti-corruption Act 6 of 2009 who by their acts or omissions caused the requisition and distribution of antimalarial drugs for the purpose of illicitly obtaining benefits for themselves or for third parties. We cannot further comment on a case that is due to be heard before a court of law.

 

We call upon the media to be accurate in its reporting and to further our cause for better health service within our country.

Thank you.

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY.

 

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A Kenyan student of Kampala International University (KIU) is held at Kabalagala Police station for allegedly stabbing her boyfriend to death.

Three top officials in the Ministry of Health who were in charge of the malaria control programme were yesterday remanded to Luzira Prison after they were charged with corruption.

The World Organisation (WHO) has finally approved the antiretroviral drugs manufactured in Kampala by Quality Chemicals Industries, a local pharmaceutical giant.

Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi was discharged from hospital yesterday, two days after being involved in a helicopter crash, injuring his back.

Heavy rains have cut off sections of the Kabale-Katuna highway, leaving dozens of trucks and several travellers stranded in Kabale town and at Katuna border post.

Experts yesterday put government on notice that another devastating landslip is likely within the Mt. Elgon range.

The Mengo establishment has supported a recent petition lodged with The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), seeking the indictment of President Museveni over the September 2009 riot killings in Kampala and parts of the country.

Ministers who supervised Chogm projects have protested a planned move by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee to ban them from travelling abroad until they have accounted for their actions in the alleged abuse of funds.

The Banyankore Cultural Foundation has written to Omukama of Bunyoro Kitara kingdom, Solomon Gafabusa Iguru warning him against interfering in the affairs of Ankole kingdom.

Nasser Ntege Sebaggala, the losing candidate in the DP president general’s election says the new party Leader Norbert Mao is not that popular in his home region, northern Uganda, as he claims.

A former Supreme Court Justice has strongly criticised the opposition Inter-Party Alliance’s push for electoral reforms, saying the opposition should instead focus on ensuring that the existing electoral laws are enforced.

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Government issued a statement on the March 8 helicopter mishap which nearly killed Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi and six others.

Prof. Nsibambi, the Permanent Secretary in his office, Pius Bigirimana and three aides Rose Oyella, Apollo Munghinda, Peter Isabirye and the pilots Emmanuel Busuulwa and Elijah Matovu were injured in the crash.

They were flying back to Kampala after receiving 150 tonnes of food aid from the Kenyan government which was meant for the victims of the Bududa mudslide.

The victims were first taken Bugiri government hospital before they were airlifted to Kampala in an army helicopter for further treatment at Mulago Hospital.

The Bududa mudslides killed more than 300 people and displaced hundreds of others.

Addressing parliament on March 9, State Minister for Internal Affairs, Matia Kasaija, said the helicopter registration No.5x-MAC Augusta Westland 119 (USA), which according to the Minister is  “still new, was acquired by the Uganda Police Air Wing in 2008.  Kasaija said the helicopter had been well maintained. He said it was forced to make an emergency landing in Bugiri after the pilot detected a malfunction.

He described the pilot as “one of the most experienced helicopter pilots in the region with over 2,300 flying hours on helicopters and over 30 years in helicopter and plane experience.”

The minister said the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is investigating the accident and a report of the findings will be made public at an appropriate time.

Legislators welcomed the government’s immediate response. Chua County MP, Livingstone Okello Okello described the promptness with which the statement had been issued as “very unlike the government.”

The legislators doubted the government’s ability to investigate and expeditiously release a report. They also questioned the government’s health care and procurement systems.

Lwemiyaga MP Theodore Sekikubo, citing a case in the late 1990s when a small aeroplane crashed in the Karamoja region, said several other reports into similar accidents have never been released.

The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, Nandala Mafabi, said the decision to airlift the Prime Minister from Bugiri to Mulago only shows how dire conditions in health units in eastern Uganda are.

Mafabi told parliament that Bududa Hospital has for a long time lacked drugs and equipment. He said the situation was only exacerbated by the landslides.

“There have been no X-ray films since October. We were also told of a woman who was about to die because there was no fuel to run the generator. It was only after the two medical doctors there contributed money from their little savings that diesel was bought and the operation went ahead,” Mafabi told the House.

He said the accident was unfortunate, but added that it should serve as an eye opener to government to improve all medical facilities countrywide.

Legislator Yokasi Bihande Bwambale, pointed out that the same helicopter had crash-landed with minister Kasaija in Arua last year due to lack of fuel. He wondered how a helicopter that the minister was describing as new could have lacked a fuel gauge to determine how much fuel it had.

 

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Cabinet ministers who supervised projects as part of the November 2007 Chogm should not be allowed to travel abroad until they have accounted for their actions, MPs investigating the matter said yesterday.

Concerned that government’s proposed electoral reforms are not deep enough, the Opposition has sought leave of Parliament to bring a Bill that will amend the Constitution and allow for more landmark changes.

The government has summoned the manufacturers of the police helicopter that crashed on Monday, injuring Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi and five other people on board.

Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi who is recuperating at Mulago Hospital in Kampala after suffering minor injuries in a Monday plane crash has told of how he survived death.

At least four schools have been closed due to flooding of classrooms and latrines in Butaleja district.

The initial public offer of the National Insurance Corporation (NIC) shares defied expectations by picking sh2.3b in oversubscription. NIC, previously a government parastatal, sold the last 40% of its shares to the public yesterday.

The long-standing land wrangles between Busoga Kingdom and Iganga District administration have intensified, with the latter voting to evict the cultural institution from its land.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said his government will send evidence to France to prove that Ms Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the assassinated president Juvenal Habyarimana, participated in 1994 Rwanda genocide.

An NRM candidate who lost the Rukiga by-election primaries has defied the President’s request to bow out of the race in favour of the official flag bearer.

 

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Uganda is a strategic central trade hub for the East African Community (EAC). For example, the country has managed to present itself as a link necessary to leverage trading benefits in the resurgent lucrative markets in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and the Southern Sudan.

The Customs Union protocol came into force in 2005 and by 2007 the total intra –EAC trade had increased by 22% from USD 1342.6 million to USD 1,973.2 million. The Common Market protocol will be operational from 1^st July 2010 with yet more fortunes for trade. The foregoing protocols mean that trading gets freer with myriad barriers mitigated.

Specifically the Common Market means that a single economic space within which business and labour moves and operate so as to stimulate greater productive efficiency, increased employment and intra and extra regional trade is created. It also means that Uganda will have to compete with the rest of East Africa in labour markets, commodity markets, finance markets, and above all- the market opportunity presented by 140 million people in the 5 EAC countries. What is obvious is that a well organized and technologically astute country will realize gains and possibly swallow economies of others. Is Uganda ready to take advantage of opportunities presented by the integration?  Is Uganda’s business environment competitive?

According to a 2010 World Bank doing Business Report, Uganda is ranked 129^th out of 183 economies in the World! Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1 – 183, with first place being the best. A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is conducive to the operation of business. This index averages the country's percentile rankings, made up of a variety of indicators, giving equal weight.

Globally, Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore ranks 1^st with Mauritius leading the pack in sub-Saharan Africa. The case of Uganda as 129th is intriguing and curious! Today I will look at why Uganda got the tail in rakings.

Look, it takes six administrative procedures to acquire a construction permit! First one is required to submit project relevant documents( like building plans and site maps), obtaining all necessary clearances (e.g. certificates, permits, licences), completing all required notifications, receiving all necessary inspections and obtaining utility connections (e.g. electricity, water and sewerage) – on the ease of dealing with construction permits, Uganda ranks 84^th! This unacceptable, Uganda should move first to conduct a detailed mapping exercise to pinpoint blockages and barriers in construction permit administration procedures. Why should Kampala City Council have only 3 building inspectors for the entire 5 Divisions and only one senior architect?  Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry inquiry shows the few available inspectors lack transportation equipment to carry out inspection in the field. They only rely on drawings and information provided by architects to decide which projects are accepted or rejected! The foregoing explains the rampant collapsing buildings in the city!

To improve our doing business rankings as a country, the cost and time to connect to utilities must be reduced. In Kampala, it for example takes 54 days and two million Uganda Shillings to connect to electricity! It takes 14 days and 255,000 to connect to water.  I really think that Electricity Regulatory Authority should outsource electrical inspections and certification in order to increase its efficiency.  Registering property in Uganda is also a nightmare. Uganda ranks 149^th out of 183 countries. Look, for example, to register property transfer, an entrepreneur in Uganda first has to arrange for a government official to inspect the property and assess its value. Then the entrepreneur has to complete an assessment form to pay the stamp duty at a bank and then another assessment to pay property registration fees. This is an exceedingly cumbersome and costly unnecessary process which encourages informal transactions and underreporting of property values. The government must adopt a new age approach that charges fixed fees based on the property size with an affordable maximum ceiling independent of the property value.

Finally, accessing affordable credit for business in Uganda remains a major hindrance to doing business. Uganda is ranked 113 out 183 ranked countries.  Collateral registry needs to be revamped in order to facilitate lenders in moving movable collateral to secure loans. Uganda needs to ratify and codify the Chattels Securities bill in order to expand collateral possibilities other than land is the process of securing loans. Interest rates should also be checked by the Central bank, especially for business and agricultural loans.

According to 2010 global competitive index, lending rates in Uganda range between 18% -23%, while in Kenya they can be as low as 8% - 10%. In Uganda, taxes on financial services further aggravate the problem. They include 1% stamp duty on all processed loans, a 15% withholding tax payable to bank funds sourced externally and 0.5% stamp duty on the values of valuation reports. The foregoing presents a million dollar question. How are Uganda’s businesses going to compete with other countries in the region that are offering better incentives? The government and the private sector must continue honest dialogues and engagements in order to come up with enduring solutions.

Morrison Rwakakamba

Chief Executive Officer

Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry

rwakakamba@chamberuganda.com

 

 

 

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I've become more and more upset and discouraged by the blatant, biased journalism surrounding pre 2011 elections in Uganda. Some parts of the media in Uganda seem hell bent in helping president Museveni win the elections by covering him about anything and also promoting some divisive candidates among the opposition.

The media has been promoting Mao ever since he was elected as DP president by one of the DP factions in Mbale. We are now left wondering whether Mao’s popularity started with this election or before, because a good candidate should have been hitting the front pages for a long time even before they are elected party president due their established popularity on the ground.

This biased reporting is a fine example of how the media carefully gets it wrong.  The press has indirectly decided to declare president Museveni the winner of the 2011 race before the first vote is cast by creating the opposition candidate of their own and this is very unfair to Ugandans.

President Museveni can fool others with this Mao excitement from Mbale but not some of us. I have even got a feeling that the order to promote Mao in the media came from the above, because what he is getting in the media, is just too much out of nothing. How can the media start giving coverage to a person whose election as the president of a party is still in dispute? Note even the second biggest opponent to Museveni right now, which is Buganda and its Kabaka, can be accorded this kind of media coverage. Let us remember that some resolutions were passed last year by the Broad Casting bosses in regard to the coverage of the Kabaka and Buganda affairs. Some journalists sympathetic to the Buganda causes lost their jobs last year and they aren’t working up to now. Not to mention the fact that CBSfm is still closed.

The major debate going on in the media, in political parties and with their friends and allies is necessary. But it is also necessary to move beyond debate and create the clarity, that is, the basis for eliminating some candidates that look too divisive to the opposition. Something does not smell right with the Mao situation but hopefully everything will come out in the open in due course. You can't hide a bad smell forever in the closet. It always comes out at some stage. Mao may be personally innocent in this but

President Museveni knows that by promoting him(Mao), he will confuse the voters in the opposition in terms of choice. They will not be sure whether to elect Mao or Besigye or anybody else, and the strategy seems to be working against the opposition at the moment. How they deal with it will define the 2011 electoral process.

Nevertheless, alliance or no alliance, we all know who NRM is most afraid of in the opposition, and that is Dr.Besigye. NRM and Museveni will do anything to make sure that he is not on the ballot paper in 2011, like they miserably tried and failed in 2006.

They have still got the treason charges standing against him and I’m sure this will be raised at some point before the general elections, particularly if the Mao project does not work out for them.

Besigye has been blocked from addressing people on various FM stations in the country, but Mao has not encountered the same experience so far, which raises more questions than answers.

I think broadcasters should devote reasonable time to fairly presenting all sides of any controversial issue discussed on the air. Uganda should emulate the Americans in this sense. For instance, between 1928 and 1929, when the Republicans were in power, one radio station in New York owned by the

Socialist party was warned to show ‘due regard’ for others opinions and all stations were told to serve the ‘general public’ not themselves.

Some Americans are also campaigning for the reinstatement of the ‘fairness Doctrine’ to prevent their nation from being swamped by exactly one point of view, that of corporations and the filthy rich, like it has been for the last 20 years, with everybody else rudely elbowed aside.

I also think that it’s high time the NRM starts minding its own business and leave the opposition alone.

We have had enough of politics of sponsoring fake political parties and presidential candidates. Let the ground be leveled.

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba.   abbeysemuwemba@googlemail.com

The views expressed here are those of the author and not The Independent Publications.

 

 

 

 

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March 8 is International Women’s Day.  This year, it also marks the 15th anniversary of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing.  Fifteen years ago, 189 countries signed on to a Platform for Action that affirmed the need to work for women’s equality in access to education, healthcare, jobs, credit, and more.  It stressed the need to have women participate fully in the economic and political life of their countries, and to protect women’s right to live free from violence.  It was at this conference that then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton declared:  Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.

In the spirit of that conference, the United States has been working to integrate “women’s issues” into mainstream foreign policy.  We recognize that it is a human rights issue when mass sexual violence is used as a tool of war in the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  It is a human rights issue when women are excluded from the peace negotiations that affect their lives.  And it is a human rights issue when women and girls are held like chattel by human traffickers and when girls are forced into child marriages.

Women’s rights are human rights, and women’s issues are human issues.  They cut across traditional spheres of concern, and they are central, not peripheral.  They are international development issues:  Study upon study has shown that aid given to women is reinvested in their communities, and skills-development programs turn women into drivers of economic growth.  And they are peace and security issues:  When women are targeted in conflicts around the world, societies fray and destabilize; the places that most exclude women from public life and seek to constrain their lives are the same in which extremist ideology finds a receptive home.  The status of women is a bellwether for the political and economic health of nations.

Women’s issues are a critical component of the most urgent transnational problems we face today, and they should be on the agenda of everyone, men and women, from the grassroots to the policymaking levels, in political life and beyond.  Violence against women is endemic around the world.  Ending it requires everyone’s participation, including an active and vocal role for men and for religious leaders of both sexes.  The United States is supporting programs around the globe in order that their voices will be heard.

Despite the pledge made in 1995 by so many countries to end the discrimination that robs the world of the talent it desperately needs, women are still the majority of the world’s poor, unhealthy, underfed, and uneducated.  To the silent majority around the globe that supports women’s equality, we say:  The time to translate support into action is now.

We look forward to the time when International Women’s Day will be a historical and retrospective celebration of women’s path to the achievement of equality – when every day belongs equally to women and to men, and every day is a good day for human rights.

By U.S. Ambassador Jerry P. Lanier

 

 

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Eighty people were confirmed dead while at least 350 were reported missing after a landslide struck Bududa District on Monday night.

High Court has fined Tingey MP Herbert Sabila Shs4 million after he was convicted last week of giving a bribe of Shs700, 000.

Women are shying away from cervical cancer screening because they fear to undress before health workers, a senior medical has said.

Police in Kibaale District are concerned about the increasing tensions between the Bakiga and the Banyoro.

Namagunga, Budo and Naalya SS (Bweyogerere) were the best schools in last year’s A’level examinations.

Why do minorities shun the Winter Olympics?

 

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About 500 academics at Makerere University are to lose their jobs in the ongoing restructuring, the university announced yesterday.

Fear gripped the National Forestry Authority headquarters in Bugolobi in Kampala yesterday when fetishes were discovered in a senior manager’s office.

National Resistance Movement members have up to this Friday to register, Secretary General Amama Mbabazi has said.

A restaurant manager in Kampala city yesterday fell off a shopping arcade and died instantly.

The Rwandan government has thrown the net to catch Lt. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa wider after a reliable source said the renegade former military chief, initially reported to be hiding in Kampala, had escaped to South Africa.

Almost half a million people have petitioned Parliament to drop debate on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

A government minister and an MP who is his bitter political rival were on Sunday night at the centre of police investigations into shooting at a fundraising function.

 

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The speaker of parliament Edward Sekandi has today received a petition from a group of people that comprise AIDS service providers, spiritual mentors and counselors calling for the rejection and withdrawal of the Anti Homosexuality Bill, 2009 from parliament.

The group, which includes prominent AIDS activists like Canon Gideon Byamugisha and Rtd Maj Rubaramira Ruranga, said “We’ll lose what we’ve achieved in the AIDS fight.” Pressed to show how the bill would do that, Rubaramira said “Gay infected patients will fear to go for treatment since the law requires the doctors to report the patient within 24 hours.”

Byamugisha said, “if the law is passed it will interfere with the constitution which promises freedom from discrimination on grounds of sex, race, color, ethnic origin, and tribe.”

'In our well considered opinions', the group said ,' this bill is not about protecting Ugandan culture and tradition as it purports. On the contrary it is violating our cultures, traditions and religious values that teach against intolerance, injustice, hatred and violence'.

Bishop Christopher Senyojo explained that he would consider it unconscionable to report someone who approached him in his capacity as counselor on the grounds of the person's sexuality. Yet his refusal to do so would make him vulnerable to prosecution and imprisonment. 

At a press conference in Kampala this morning, a panel of four representatives explained that one of the major problems with the Anti Homosexuality Bill, and indeed, with the petition, is that few Ugandans are used to openly discussing matters of sex and sexuality, which inhibits their involvement with this highly contentious issue. Yet, the panel maintained, even with this sense of awkwardness or privacy holding back potential opposition to the Bill, 'no mother or father could give up their son or daughter to the authorities because they have a sexual orientation which is not the common one.'

Bishop Senyojo remembers when, years ago, people in his diocese became aware of AIDS, they were convinced the cause was bewitchment. As a result AIDS sufferers were stigmatised and treated with irrational caution and censure. Similarly, Byamugisha recalls being beaten as a child for being left-handed, a treatment which ended when family members and teachers alike realised that his left-handedness was a natural disposition, rather than evidence of belligerent stubborness. 

Byamugisha ended the meeting with an important distinction: criminal, he said, is not the same as sinful. What might be regarded in scripture and religious teaching as sinful, might fail to justifiably qualify as a crime. 

The panel said they were 'well received' by the speaker. Sekandi promised to forward their views to the relevant committee of parliament to be incorporated in their discussion. But he assured them that he cannot withdraw the bill from parliament - not even Bahati, who sponsored it, would be able to do this.

By Bob Roberts Katende & Maya Prabhu

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