There is no official national register of pensioners in the country of Uganda:

10 June, 2016

 

By Nelson Wesonga, Kampala

 

Government says it does not have records of pensioners due to “lack of data and personal files.”

According to the ministry of Public Service, many pensioners do not show up for verification thus leading to delays in payment of their monthly dues and the once off gratuity.

The State minister for Public Service, Mr David Karubanga told MPs during plenary that the ministry will, carry out a census and biometric validation of pensioners starting February 20.

“The ministry of Public Service does not have a national register of pensioners,” Mr Karubanga said yesterday.

“Despite the decentralisation of pension management, a number of votes [ministries] have not verified the records on the payroll.”

A day earlier, Aruu Member of Parliament, Odonga Otto had told the August House that many pensioners have not been paid for several months.

Many were, therefore, depending on their relatives – who already have other financial responsibilities – to pay their bills or to buy basics.

Those without relatives are borrowing items from shopkeepers.

Shopkeepers though can only lend them for a few months expecting to be paid once they get their gratuity.

Following Mr Odonga’s remarks, the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga said the government was treating the senior citizens disrespectfully.

On Wednesday, Mr Karubanga also said the Public Service ministry had for the last four years not carried out verification of pensioners “due to funding shortage and lack of clear addresses" [of the pensioners].

The verification of the pensioners will be done between February 20 and March 24 at the district headquarters by Face Technologies.

According to Mr Karubanga, Face Technologies will do the work, which the ministry failed.

However, it is still not clear how much the ministry will pay the company.

Face Technologies is the company that processes driving permits for motorists.

Workers Members of Parliament Margaret Rwabushaija and the Erute Member of Parliament Jonathan Odur said the government should tell Ugandans when it would pay the pensioners all their arrears.

Mr Karubanga said payments are the responsibility of the Finance ministry.

All that Public Service does is to furnish the Finance ministry with the particulars of the claimants.

 

 

Muha-kanizi on spot over Shillings 90b farmers' cash:

By Yasiin Mugerwa

Posted 29 September, 2014

 

 

The Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi who kept calling himself “ born again Christian” was today pushed on the wall and forced to apologise for the “inefficiencies” in the running of a Shs 90 billion facility meant for helping the poor farmers access cheap credit.

The Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee noted “gross inefficiencies, conflict of interest and lack of supervision of the funds” on the part of Bank of Uganda and Ministry of Finance. Because of lack of supervision, PAC Chairperson Ms Alice Alaso said, the money has gone to the well-off farmers at the expense of the poor farmers and written off more than Shs499 million in bad debts.

On December 3 2009, the Governor Bank of Uganda Prof Emmanuel Mutebile wrote to Ministry of Finance, saying that Bank of Uganda could not monitor the implementation and evaluation of the facility, citing conflict of interest however to date, Mr Muhakanizi had not taken action. The ST apologised for “inefficiency” saying “he is also human”.

The committee expressed concerns about the possible risk to the funds and ordered Muhakanizi to streamline the monitoring of the scheme within one month. Officials from BoU told the committee that they signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ministry of Finance and clearly STATED that monitoring of the agriculture 

credit facility will not be their mandate.

Mr Muhakanizi returns to PAC next week.

 

But The suffering goes on without any social welfare in this poor African country:

 

Nakasango nga asindika kitawe bagende okusabiriza ssente.

 

Taata Omusoga ava e Iganga ate nga mulema oluusi antuma okumugulira bamalaaya wano mu Kampala:

 

By Lawrence Kitatta

 

Added 21st September 2016

 

Nakasango anyumya bw’ati:

Nzuukuka ku makya ng’obudde tebunnakya ne tutegula ebikunta oluvannyuma taata bw’aba yeetewuulizzaako mu kaveera nkakwata ne nkasuula mu kipipa kya Kcca ekiri e busukkakkubo. kyokka oluguudo ndusala mmagamaga emmotoka zireme kunkoona.

Bwe tuba twasuze n’amazzi tunaabako mu maaso era tunywako oluusi ne njolekera Kiswa gye nsoma mu P1.

Taata eyandibadde ampa ssente za bodaboda okuntwala ku ssomero ate nze mba nnina okumusindika ku kagaali nga tuva e Lugogo we tusula ku mulyango gwa GTZ.

Olumu ku ssomero anzigyayo ssaawa 4:00 ne tugenda ku kkubo gye tusabiriza. Olumu nsoma naye olulala nnemererwa.

Olusoma oluwedde nakola ebibuuzo era okuva olwo saaddayo kusoma. Buli lunaku tuzunga ekibuga kumpi okukimalako ne mpulira nga n’obugere bunfuuyirira.

Kasango ng’azingako akaveera akakola nga bulangiti e Lugogo okumpi ne siteegi ya New Vision, we basula ate Nakasango nga yeetereza batandike olugendo lw’okubuna ekibuga nga basabiriza.

 

Naye taata bw’atuuka ku kaserengeto olwo ng’anteeka mu maaso ng’akagaali kayiringita. Taata yangamba nti maama wange ye Nasim Namulondo abeera Iganga era gye yanzigya okundeeta e Kampala okutandika okusabiriza ku luguudo.

Enkuba bw’etonnya mu budde obw’ekiro olwo ne tuyimirira ku lubalaza we tusula olumu n’okutukuba etukuba naddala ng’erimu kibuyaga.

Obudde buli lwe buziba mba mu kweraliikirira. Taata oyo talina nsonyi antuma okumuyitira bamalaaya ekiro!

Omanyi bwe tuba twebase nsula ku ludda kw’assa ebigere wabula olumu ngenda okusisimuka nga mpulira anninnya mu maaso, ngenda okulaba nga mukazi.

Olumu mpulira n’amaloboozi ekiro naye nga sirina kyakukola. Bw’aleeta bamalaaya nga sinneebaka olwo nsituka busitusi ne ntuula ku kkubo mu kayumba ka siteegi ya New Vision okutuusa lwe bamaliriza naye ate olumu nneekanga nsuze awo. Olumu antuma e Nakawa ngule sooda.

Wano nga beetegeka okugenda.

 

TAATA YANZIBA AWAKA

Bwe yali yaakandeeta okunzigya mu kyalo ng’annyambaza nnyo engoye z’abalenzi nga tayagala bamulaba kumanya nti ndi muwala naye kati nange nnyambala ngoye z’abawala.

Nzijukira nali mbeera ne maama wange ne jjajja, twali tuzannya ne baganda bange be twabeeranga nabo awaka, abakulu tebaaliwo kw’olwo taata yajja awaka n’anzibawo n’antwala ewa jjajja omulala.

Ono kirabika ye maama we amuzaala wabula nga naye saamwetegereza bulungi era simumanyi. Taata bwe yawulira nti gye yanzigya baali batandise okunnoonya kwe kunzigyayo n’andeeta e Kampala.

Kye nzijukira twatuuka kiro era ekkubo eryatuleeta sirimanyi naye angamba nti ewaffe Iganga we wali ekyalo kyaffe.

Wabula okuva lwe natandika okubeera ne taata embeera tebeerangako nnyangu kuba ennaku ezisinga tusiibirira capati n’amazzi emmere tugirya lumu na lumu ate tugirya Kataza Bugoloobi kuba we wali eya layisi gy’asobola okugula.

Eno ku 1500/- tufuna ebijanjaalo n’akawunga ate ennyama ya 3,000/- naye ennyama emirundi gye nnaakagiryako mbala mibale ate essowaani tugigabana.

 

In Uganda, the Older persons universal old age pension of dollars 7 a month, does not motivate enough the elders, to go forward and pick it up.

 

12 October, 2019

 

By Shabibah Nakirigya

 

 

 

 

  

Beneficiaries. Elderly Karimojong women being pushed in wheel burrows to go and receive their money under the Senior Citizen Grant Programme in Napak District last year. FILE PHOTO

 

Elderly persons under their umbrella National Council for Older Persons (NCOP) have asked the government to implement a universal old age pension scheme across the country.

In 2011, the Senior Citizens Grant (SCG) was introduced to provide income security for those who have been left out of the country‘s formal pensions scheme. But very few are catered for, the older people say.
Currently, the programme is in its second phase and by October last year, 150,129 older persons aged 65 and above were receiving Shs25,000 per month in the 61 districts where the programme is implemented.
Speaking at a conference in Kampala on Thursday, Canon Joram Tibasiimwa, the chairman of NCOP, said there is need to have countrywide registration of older persons because it is the only way the government can be accountable for them.
“Rolling out the SCG to everyone aged 65 years will reduce the national poverty rate, boost local economies and generate additional income for entire communities,” Canon Tibasiimwa said.

Registration
Canon Tibasiimwa said majority of elder persons are not registered anywhere and they did not register to receive national identity cards because the biometric machines did not capture their thumb prints.
“To have a universal old age pension, there is need to have biometric registration specifically for elder persons because majority missed out due to existing machines which are not favorable for older persons,” he said

Also read and study:

https://www.echalk.co.uk/Science/physics/solarSystem/InteractiveEarth/interactiveEarth.html


The acting chairperson of Uganda Equal Opportunity Commission, Ms Zaminah Malole, urged NCOP to work with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development so that every older person benefits from the pension scheme.
“Registering all elder persons across the country will enable them to access justice and legal services that are objective and easily accessible when they are victims of several cases like land grabbing and gender-based violence,” she said.
Ms Malole added that as equal opportunity commission, they are entitled to help elder persons but the considered only those registered.
“The ministry should take the responsibility to identify all the elderly person and make sure they are recorded in their respective areas because that’s the only way they can access justice from the legal institutions,” she said.
Background
About elder persons. According to the Ministry of Gender, majority of older persons live in rural areas and work mainly in the agricultural sector.
About 85 per cent of the active older persons are engaged in crop farming with not social security, rendering them highly vulnerable.
One out of six older persons live only with children under 18 years, whereas old women are two times more likely than men to live only with children.
At the age of 80, nearly 20 per cent of older women live alone, compared to only 11 per cent of older men.
About SCG. The Senior Citizens Grant programme is in its second phase and by October last year 150,129 older persons aged 65 and above were receiving Shs25,000 per month in districts where the programme is implemented. The SCG is designed to reduce old age poverty by providing a minimum level of income security to older people.

 

 

 

 

 

Ab'e Kalule, Luweero, Buganda, bakubiriziddwa obutalinda Central Gavumenti mu buli kimu:

By Musasi wa Bukedde

 

Added 1st July 2019

 

Ab'e Kalule Luweero bakubiriziddwa obutalinda Gavumenti mu buli kimu:

Bino byayogeddwa Steven Biyinzika owa Steven Biyinzika Foundation mu kuyiwa ettaka okuziba ebinnya mu tawuni y'e Kalule, nga bino bibadde biregamamu amazzi ne galeeta obucaafu mu kifo  naddala we basiikira capati, chipusi, saluuni ne bizinensi endala.

 

 

Biyinzika Owensonga yabakubirizza obutalindanga gavumenti kubakolera buli kimu n'abasaba okulondanga abakulembeze abalina obusobozi okutuusa eddoboozi obutereevu mu be kikwatako mu govt okubakolera ku bibaluma ate abalina omutima ogukolera awamu n'abalala okweggya mu mbeera embi.

 

 

Ssentebe  w'Omuluka gw'e Kalule, Yahaya Kizito ng'ali wamu n'owa LC 1 mu tawuni y'e Kalule, Ronald Ssentalo ssaako Abdallah Zziwa ow'ekibiina ekiyambako ku  kulabirira abantu abalina obukosefukosefu (NYIMUPHAS) baasiimye Biyinzika olw'omutima guno ne beeyama okutambulira awamu n'abakulembeze ababayamba okugonjoola ebyetaago by'ekitundu.

Nb

Kirungi nyo ekyo ekikolebwa ewaffe awo e Kalule mumaduuka. Naye waliwo okulowooza nti bulungi bwansi bwakolebwa abatuuze be bitundu, ate kiretera abavunanyizibwa emirimu gino aba governmenti okusuulayo ogwanagamba. Abakozi ba governmenti bano ekivaamu nga batandika okwewaana bo mubitundu byabwe bwebalina abatuuze abalungi abatatawaana kulinda governmenti oba okujibanja okukola emirimu gyayo.

 

 

 

 

 

Wano e Buganda, ebbeeyi y'ebyennyanja okukka esanyusizza abasuubuzi, nabaguzi mu katale e Mukono

By Musasi wa Bukedde, Joanita Nakatte

 

Added 24th April 2019

 

Abamukubakolamubyenyanjangabasalaempuutaokuziguzaabazisiikakumakuboezifuuseezettunziwebuse 703x422

Abasuubuzi nga balongoosa empuuta ze baguze

 

Nga bakulembeddwa kkansala waabwe, Alex Kivumbi, baategeezezza Bukedde ng’embeera bw’ezze etereeramu okusinga bw’ebadde emabega mu bbanga lya myezi nga munaana era nga kati ebyennyanja omuli n’empuuta mu katale kano  bigulwa ku bitundu 70 ku 100.

 
 mpuuta ezitundibwa bwe zenkanaEmpuuta ezitundibwa bwe zenkana

 

Kivumbi yannyonnyodde ng’ensonga y’ebbeeyi y’ebyennyanja bwe yasinga okukosa abavubi ababiguza aba fakitole olw’obungi bwe byaliko wabula ng’ate si bwe gwali eri bo olw’ensonga nti n’abaali batabirya olw’ebbeeyi yaabyo, baatandika okubyettanira oluvannyuma lw’okubiteeka ku bbeeyi esikiriza.

"Gye buvuddeko tubadde tukaluubirirwa era nga tufiirwa bakasitoma olw’ebbeeyi okubaddusa ku midaala gyaffe. Okuva empuuta lwe yakka ebbeeyi kizibu okusigaza ebyennyanja naddala empuuta ku midaala kubanga babitwala mu bungi era mu wiiki weesanga osuubudde emirundi egitakka wansi w’etaano," Kivumbi bwe yagambye.

 

musuubuzi ngasalaasala ebifi byempuuta bakasitoma bye bagula mu kataleOmusuubuzi ng'asalaasala ebifi by'empuuta bakasitoma bye bagula mu katale

 

Yagambye nti, newankubadde guli gutyo bafunye okusoomoozebwa nga bo abasuubuzi omuli emmotoka z’ebyennyanja byabwe okubafiirako mu kkubo nga babireeta mu butale olw’amakubo amabi gye babitambuliza ekivaako okwonooneka, nga n’emiwendo gy’emisolo egibasoloozebwamu miyitirivu olwo ne beesanga ng’amagoba agandibayambye okwebeezaawo ate bagazzizza eri gavumenti.

"Tusaba gavumenti etuukirize bye yatusuubiza naddala ku nsonga z’okutukolera amakubo mu bifo eby’enjawulo gye tuggya ebyennyanja byaffe.

Twagala erongoose ne mu mbeera y’abavubi gye bakoleramu kubanga bwe banyigirizibwa naffe mu ngeri emu oba endala tukosebwa.

 

 ivumbi ngalaga empuuta nengege bye batundaKivumbi ng'alaga empuuta n'engege bye batunda

 

Twagala ekendeeze ku miwendo gy’amaato n’obutimba bwe tukozesa ebiri ku buseere era twetaaga okuyambibwa okulaba nga tutereeza omulimu gwaffe naffe tugufunemu ng’abalala tusobole okweggya mu bwavu," Kivumbi bwe yagambye.

Yawanjagidde munisipaali y’e Mukono okutuukiriza obuvunaanyizibwa obwabakwasibwa abagabirizi b’obuyambi abaabazimbira ekizimbe mwe baddukanyiza emirimu gyabwe, obw’okukirabirira n’okukiddaabiriza nga babateeramu byonna ebyetaagisa omuli firiigi n’ebintu ebirala ebinaabasobozesa okulongoosa mu mbeera gye bakoleramu.

Nb

Ekyenyanja bwekibeera mumazzi obulungi nekibiika namagi kitegeeza nti amazzi ago malamu era malungi eri obulamu bwomuntu. Ate omuntu tayinza kubeera nabulamu nga talina mazzi malungi!

 

Kirungi nyo nti okuteesa kutandise mubusubuzi bwebyenyanja mumazzi agali fresh aga Uganda amangi. Kisanidde ddala okukopa abalunyanja nabo bwebakola mugayanja aganene enyo (oceans) agomunyo. Kubanga byonna bikwatagana nyo kumbeera zobudde munsi yonna. Ndowooza nabamagye ga Uganda ebibala byabwe byebakola okuziyiza envuba embi bitandise okulabika.

 

 

 

 

 

Embeera zobudde nokutawaana okufumba emmere:

 

23 February, 2019

 

By the World Media

Abakyala be Buganda nga basanyukira okufumbisa amayinja ga volcano.

 

 

 

 

 

Munsi Uganda, Etteeka ku misaala gy'abakozi erya 'Minimum Wage Bill' litekeddwawo naye nga terimalayo byetaago byamukozi:

By Ahmed Mukiibi

 23rd February, 2019

 

Akakiiko ka palamenti akaweebwa omulimu gw’okwetegereza etteeka lino kaali kaleese ekirowozo nti hawusigaalo n’omupakasi w’awaka basasulwe ensimbi ezitakka wansi wa 130,000/- buli mwezi kyokka kino kyaggyibwamu ne kisalibwawo nti akakiiko ak’enjawulo akanassibwawo ng’etteeka lino litandise okukola ke kanaagereka ensimbi zino.

 

Unity 703x422

Pulezidenti wa Uganda nga amatiza Palamenti eyise amateeka nga bwayagala.

 

ETTEEKA erissaawo essalira ku ssente z’omusaala ogusookerwako buli mukozi gwalina okutandikirako lyayisiddwa mu Palamenti eyakubiriziddwa omumyuka wa sipiika Jacob Oulanyah ne kiwa Bannayuganda essuubi nti abakozi bawonye okunyunyuntibwa bakama baabwe.

 

Ku buli mulimu kujja kuteekebwako ssente ezisookerwako ezijja okugerekebwa akakiiko ak’enjawulo akajja okussibwawo etteeka bwe linaaba liyisiddwa, omukozi wa waka (house girl)ajja kuba n’ensimbi ez’essalira zaalina okusasulwa obutakka wansi waazo era nga kino kijja kukaluubiriza abantu bangi okukozesa bahawusigaalo n’abapakasi b’awaka.

Akakiiko ka palamenti akaweebwa omulimu gw’okwetegereza etteeka lino kaali kaleese ekirowozo nti hawusigaalo n’omupakasi w’awaka basasulwe ensimbi ezitakka wansi wa 130,000/- buli mwezi kyokka kino kyaggyibwamu ne kisalibwawo nti akakiiko ak’enjawulo akanassibwawo ng’etteeka lino litandise okukola ke kanaagereka ensimbi zino.

 

Etteeka eriyitibwa ‘Minimum Wage Bill, 2015’, eribadde likandaaliridde mu Palamenti lyayisibwa awatali babaka kwesalamu. Lirindiridde Pulezidenti okulissaako omukono litandike okukola.

Etteeka lino liragira omukozesa alemereddwa okusasula omukozi ssente ezessalira okusibwa emyaka egitakka wansi w’esatu oba okuwa engassi ya bukadde 10 oba byombi.

Etteeka lino ligenda kusikira etteeka eriyitibwa, ‘Minimum Wages Advisory Boards and Wages Councils Act’ eryabagibwa mu 1957 nga Uganda tennafuna bwetwaze.

Etteeka ekkadde eriyitibwa ‘Minimum Wages Advisory Boards and Wages Councils Act’ lyaggwa dda ku mpagala kubanga lwe lyabagibwa mu 1957, lyassaawo essalira ya ssiringi 33 ng’omusaala ogusookerwako era mu 1984 bwe kyazuulirwa nti omusaala ogwa 33/- tegukyakola makulu, omusaala ogusookerwako gwalinnyisibwa okutuuka ku 6,000/-, wabula mu 1987, Gavumenti bwe yawanyisa ssente, siringi 6,000/- zaafuuka 60/-.

Ababaka ab’enjawulo okuviira ddala mu 1996 mu Palamenti eyoomukaaga bazze bagezaako okuwoma omutwe mu kuleeta ebbago ly’etteeka ku musaala ogusookerwako kyokka nga balemesebwa nga Gavumenti egamba nti ensonga eyo egikolako okutuusa Omubaka Rwakajara lwe yeevuddemu n’aleeta ebbago ly’etteeka erya ‘Minimum Wage Bill mu 2013’.

Olw’akazito Gavumenti ke yassibwako ab’ebibiina by’Obwannakyewa, ebibiina by’abakozi n’abalala, mu June 2015, olukiiko lwa Baminisita lwayisa ekiteeso ekissaawo akakiiko okwekenneenyeza n’okusalawo ku musaala gusookerwako.

Akakiiko ako akayitibwa ‘Minimum Wages Advisory Board’ nga kakulirwa eyali omuwanika w’Eggwanika ly’eggwanga omugenzi Chris Manyindo Kassami ne bammemba okuli ; Chris Kanya, Milton Turyasiima, Juliet Nazziwa Musoke , Fred Robert Wapakhabulo Namawa (naye kati mugenzi), Joram Bruno Pajobo ne Dinah Kusasira kaasemba nti omusaala ogusookerwako tegulina kukka wansi wa 136,000/- awatali kufaayo ku mulimu omuntu gw’akola ne bw’abeera mukozi wa waka.

Omubaka Arinaitwe Rwakajara, yayongera amaanyi mu tteeka lino ng’awagirwa bannamateeka, Bannabyabufuzi, ebibiina by’abakozi n’ebibiina by’obwannakyewa ebyenjawulo era ku Lwokubiri lwa wiiki eno nga February 19, 2019, yaggusizza ensonga eno, Palamenti bwe yayisizza ebbago ly’etteeka lya ‘Minimum Wages Bill, 2015’

LWAKI ETTEEKA LIYISIDDWA KATI

Ebbago ly’etteeka lya ‘Minimum Wages Bill, 2015’ lyasooka okwanjulwa mu Palamenti mu December, 2015, Sipiika Rebecca Kadaga n’alisindika mu kakiiko akavunaanyizibwa ku kikula ky’abantu, n’embeera z’abakozi akayitibwa ‘Committee on Gender, Labour and Social Development’ gye limaze emyaka esatu okutuusa ababaka abaakakiiko akakulirwa Alex Ndeezi bwe baayanjulidde Palamenti lipoota yaabwe ku ntandikwa y’omwezi guno.

EBIRI MU TTEEKA

Etteeka lya ‘Minimum Wages Act 2015’ eryayisiddwa Palamenti lisengekeddwa mu bitundu bina ng’ekitundu ekisooka lirambika ensonga lwaki etteeka lireeteddwa, n’ennyinyonnyola y’ebigambo ate ekitundu ekyokubiri kirambika engeri akakiiko akasengeka omusaala ogusooka aka ‘Minimum Wages Board’, gye kalina okussibwawo, ani akalonda, b’ani abakatuulako, obuvunaanyizibwa bwabwe n’engeri gye balina okukolamu emirimu gyabwe.

Ekitundu ekyokusatu eky’etteeka lino kikwata ku nkolagana wakati w’omukozi n’omukozesa naddala ku bya kontulakiti, ensasula, embeera abakozi gye bakoleramu n’engeri ey’okutawululamu enkaayana n’obutakkaanya wakati w’omukozi n’omukozesa.

Mu kitundu ekyokuna kikwata ku kalonda omulala omuli; n’ebibonerezo ebiweebwa omukozi oba omukozesa singa amenya obuwaayiro mu tteeka lino.

Etteeka lino likirambika bulungi nti ligenda kukola ku bakozi bonna okuggyako abali wansi w’ebitongole ebyokwerinda nga poliisi, amagye ga UPDF, abakozi ba Gavumenti n’abantu abalala bonna abakozesebwa Gavumenti.

ABANTU BAWAGIDDE ETTEEKA

Arinaitwe Rwakajara, Yagambye nti akakiiko kaali kasembye omukozi atandikirwako asasulwe 130,000 oba ddoola 35 kyokka ne bakiggyamu ne bakirekera akakiiko akanaaba kateekeddwawo ke kaba kagereka omuwendo guno.

Paul Mwiru (Jinja Municipality East), yagambye nti abakozi bangi basasulwa ssente nga ne bwakolera emyaka egiwera tasobola kukyusa mbeera ye.

Yawadde eky’okulabirako nti abakozi abamu basasulwa 2,000/- olunaku wadde ng’ebikozesebwa mu bulamu birinnya buli olukya.

Jimmy Akena (Lira Municipality) yasabye okugereka emisaala kutunuulire n’obudde omuntu bw’amala ku mulimu.

Yawadde eky’okulabirako ky’abakuumi aba seculiko abakola emisana n’ekiro kyokka ne basasulwa kitono ng’ate tebafissa budde bukola kirala.

Yasabye okwongera amaanyi mu bibiina by’abakozi eby’obwegassi bibeere nga bisobola okulwanirira embeera z’abakozi omuli n’okubongeza emisaala.

Kasiano Wadri (Arua Municipality), etteeka lino ligenda kuyamba Bannayuganda ababadde banyigirizibwa nga basasulwa ssente entono bamusigansimbi.

Kyokka yalaze okutya olw’engeri etteeka lino gye bagenda okukakasa nti lissibwamu nkola n’agamba nti bwe bataweebwa liyinza okukoma mu bitabo ng’amateeka agamu agazze gayisibwa.

Richard Othieno (West Budama) agamba nti etteeka teryamusanyusizza kubanga bulijjo omuntu yenna okusasulwa omusaala kisinziira ku busobozi bw’amukozesa.

Yagambye nti atya bwe banaateekawo nti omukozi wa waka asasulwe 200,000/-, buli mwezi abantu batono abajja okusobola okuzibawa.

Etteeka lino singa terikwatibwa n’obwegendereza lituuse okwongera ku bbula ly’emirimu kubanga abakozesa bajja kutya okubeera n’abantu abangi.

Usher Wilson Owere, ssentebe w’abakozi mu ggwanga abeegattira mu NOTU yategeezezza nti ekyakoleddwa Palamenti buwanguzi bwe nnyini kubanga abakozi bamaze ebbanga nga balaajana okubakolera etteeka erinaabawonya okunyigirizibwa.

Agamba nti singa abakozi baweebwa ssente ezeegasa bajja kwongera obukozi era kikendeeze n’obwediimo bw’abakozi obutera okuwulirwa mu ggwanga.

Yasabye Pulezidenti okussa omukono ku tteeka lisobole okutandika okukola.

George William Katumba omusuubuzi w’e Busega yawabudde akakiiko nti bwe kaba kagereka emiwendo kafeeyo okuyisa emiwendo egisoboka okusinziira ku byenfuna by’eggwanga.

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Ensi ya Buganda era ne Uganda erina abakozi bangi nyo ddala abafuna sente entono naye nga balina abaana, abazadde abakadde, namaka ebyokulabirira buli lunnaku. Era balina nobuyinza bungi nyo ddala (People Power) kubanga basuula akalulu okulonda ani anabakulembera mubwavu obuyitirivu bwebalimu.

 

Ate era noyo awereddwa sente nga emirimu gimubuze naye nga akyanonya bwaweebwa shillings emitwalo 15 buli mwezi, alina naye okusasula omusolo shillings nga emitwalo 4 oba 5 buli mwezi okutuusa bwatuuka nafuna omulimu nate. Omulimu gwafunye negumusobozesa okumuwa ensasula yomusaala nomusolo esanide. Kibi nyo nti akakiiko akaalondebwa okukola kunsonga nga zino kaziteeka bbali. Tekalaga omukozi afuna omusaala ogwa shillings emitwalo 136000/- asasula musolo ki eri ensi ye kusente ze zaba akolede? Akakiiko kalinga akagala okulaga nti omukozi wa Uganda asembayo okufuna sente entono enyo ayambibwako buyambibwa abagagga. Nga bo abamusasula omusaala bebalina okumusasulira omusolo mpozzi nebilala ebigenda nokukozesa omukozi wano e Buganda.

 

Kisanide omukozi asembayo mu Uganda okufuna omusaala gwa shillings emitwalo 30 asasule omusolo gwa shillings emitwalo 11. Oba akakiiko katuule kakyuseemu okusinziira kunkozesa ya governmenti bwekozesaamu omusolo ogusasulwa munsi ya Uganda. Era wano abakugu mubyenfuna kyebava bagamba nti waberewo sente governmenti zesasula nga welfare kubantu abatalina mirimu munsi kasita balabika nga bagezezaako okunonya emirimu negibabula. Abagagga abaluvu abalina omululu omungi kukufuna sente enyingi ensonga eno tebagyagala nakamu kubanga eyagala okwenkanya ebyenfuna mubantu bangi nyo ddala.

 

 

 

 

 

The Buganda Kingdom history of flags:

The current flag of the Buganda kingdom comprises three equal vertical stripes of blue, white and blue, with the kingdom's logo placed in the centre of the flag on the white stripe:

 
 
 
 

1960-2018

 

 
 
 
 

The first known flag of RED during the history of Buganda 1861-1881

 

 
 
 
 

The next one is white and red during 1881-1889

 

 
 
 
 

The next one is white dark brown dark brown white and grey as outlined above. During 15 July 1891- 30 March 1892

 

 
 
 
 

This one is all dark brown with a logo in the middle during 1892.

 

 
 
 
 

The Buganda Royal Standard as the 19 Century approached.

 

 

 

 

 

The country of Uganda remembers the day of the People with Disabilities that is recognised all over the world:  

Togetherness. A PWD district councillor from Rukiga District, Mr Joseph Besigye (Right), aboard his fabricated tricycle at the International Day for the PWDs held in Nakaseke District on 3 December, 2018 Photo by Dan Wandera. 

4th December, 2018

Kampala. President Museveni has directed ministries to deliver their promises to People with Disabilities (PWDs) as part of government resolution to ensure that PWDs enjoy equal rights. 
Museveni in his speech delivered by the Vice President, Edward Ssekandi, during celebrations to mark International Day of People with Disabilities held at Kiwoko Church of Uganda sports ground in Nakaseke District on Monday, directed the Ministry of Education and Sports to fast track those with special needs in the education policy.

The President also asked Ministry of Health to facilitate regional orthopaedic workshops to provide rehabilitative services to the PWDs while the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development were told to finalise modalities for procurement of motorcycles for the PWD district councillors to facilitate their activities.

Facilitation
“The councillors representing PWDs at the districts do a great job of mobilising the PWDs to participate in development programmes. They are supposed to be facilitated consistently to enable them perform this task effectively. I, therefore, direct the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to finalise modalities for procurement of these motorcycles,” the President said on Monday.

The day was celebrated under the theme: ‘Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality in Uganda’. President Museveni said the day’s theme gives room to reflect on the challenges of empowerment and inclusion of persons with disabilities and to have their challenges placed on the development agenda and to remove obstacles to achieving their inclusion and empowerment.

“The NRM government is aware that the empowerment of vulnerable groups such as PWDs is a core value. The NRM manifesto provides for continuous promotion of equalisation of opportunities for PWDs through mobilising resources for specific programmes like the special grant for the PWDs which is included in the national budget,” the President said.
The State Minister for Gender and Culture, Ms Peace Mutuzo said the 2014 national housing and population census statistics put the figure of Ugandans who are disabled at 12.4 per cent translating into 4.6 million people.

The Ministry of Gender conducted an independent survey in 2017 where it was established that 17 per cent of the Ugandans aged 18 and above, 7 per cent of children aged 5 to 17 years and 4 per cent of children aged two to four years had a disability. 
The minister said such high levels of prevalence need a concerted effort and are the reason for which government through the Ministry of Gender is undertaking the different intervention programmes. 
“The Gender Ministry is working to establish the National Persons with Disabilities Council and preparations are in their final stages of registration,” Ms Mutuzo said.

Ms Night Grace, the national vice chairperson of National Union of Disabled Persons said the Copyright laws of Uganda undermine the ability for PWDs with visual difficulties to have the written literature translated to an easier version. 
“We pray that government makes a quick intervention,” Ms Grace said.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

 

 

 

 

 

Wano e Kampala, Buganda, Baby eyafa amasannyalaze akwasizza abakulu b'essomero lya Bright Future e Kawempe:

By Musasi wa Bukedde, Rose Mary Nakaliri

 

Added 21st November 2018

 

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Asuman Mutebi omu ku batuuze abaakwatiddwa mu kikwekweto ky'obubbi bw'amasannyalaze

 

OMWANA eyakubwa amasannyalaze n’afa mu Kiganda zooni e Kawempe akwasizza ab’essomero lya Bright Future P/S n’abatuuze abalala babiri olw’okubbirira amasannyalaze ne gaviirako omwana okufa.

Steven Umarruoph 1, yakubwa amasannyalaze nga November 2, 2018 ku muzigo bazadde be we baali bapangisa mu Kiganda zooni oluvannyuma lw’okutakula ettaka ng’azannya n’akwata ku waya y’amasanyalaze agaamuttirawo mbulaga.

Kino kyatanula ekitongole ekivunaanyizibwa ku kubunyisa amasannyalaze mu ggwanga okukola ebikwekweto ku bubbi bw’amasannyalaze obukudde ejjembe mu Kawempe era ku lwomukaaga kyakutte omusomesa wa Bright Future Agatha Nabukenya oluvannyuma lw’okukulu w’essoero lno okudda ng’alabye ab’amasannyalaze, oluvannyuma baakutte n’abatuuze okuli Asuman Mutebi ne Joseph Asimu olw’okuyisa waya mu ttaka ne babba amasanyalaze.

 

 gatha abukenya naye akwatiddwa mu bubbi bwamasannyalazeAgatha Nabukenya naye akwatiddwa mu bubbi bw'amasannyalaze.
 

Muhwezi Christopher eyakulembedde ekikwekweto kino agamba nti abantu bonna ababbirira amasannyalaze bakola musango gwa nnaggomola era baakukwatibwa awatali kuttira ku muntu yenna liiso ate bavunaanibwe ku lw’obulamu bw’abantu abatalina musango abattibwa amasannyalaze agatali mu mateeka.

Agattako nti Agatha Nabukenya,Asuman Mutebi ne Joseph Asimu baatwaliddwa ku Poliisi y’e Kyebando bavunaanibwe ate babeere eky’okulabirako  eri abatuuze abalala abeenyigira mu bubbi bw’amasannyalaze.

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UMEME mulekerawo okwonona ebiseera bya Police ne kkooti kunsonga eno era bannansi oba abatuuze be Kawempe bebalina okutwala UMEME mu court olwa Product gyemutunda eyasse omwaana wabende ali mu lujja lwa Maama we nga agezaako okuyiga okwavula nokutambula.

 

Kubanga gwe UMEME gwe otekeddwako olunwe okulaba nga ensi ya Uganda olwembeera zensi ezakiriziganyizibwako ensi zonna, abantu baayo balekerawo okutema ebibira okukozesa amanda nenku okufumba emmere. Ekitongole kino kirina obuvunanyizibwa okulaba nga kijjawo abantu bensi ya Uganda okukozesa ettaala zomuliro (open fire) ogwaka munyumba mwebasula.

 

Kizibu ddala okutwala ababbi bamasanyalaze mu kooti omusango gubasinge basibwe e Luzira nebisumuluzo bisulibwe mu nyanja. UMEME etunda product eyomutawana enyo esobola okutta nokwokya enyumba zabantu. Kirimu Health and Safety. Bwolaba enzimba ye bizimbe abantu bwebasula nabaana webasomera ekibuga Kampala okisasira. UMEME erina okutuula nabatuuze esale amagezi gokutunda product yayo mukwegendereza nokukozesa obukugu obuli munsi kakati nyingi nyo ddala.

 

 

 

 

 

Wano e Buganda, Amasannyalaze gasse abaana 3 e Kyengera:

Maama wabaana naye ali bubi nyo:

Abaana ababiri kubaana abasatu abafiridde ku wire za masanyalaze.

By Musasi wa Bukedde

Added 23rd October 2018

 

AMASANNYALAZE gakubye abaana basatu e Kyengera ne bafiirawo. Nnyabwe poliisi emuddusizza okumutwala e Mulago ng’ali mu mbeera mbi. Enjega yagudde Mugongo B Shell e Kyengera ku Mmande emisana, Jane Kezabu maama w’abaana bwe yabadde ayoza engoye.

Muwala we Allen Atenyi yabadde asitudde omwana Slavar Kiir ow’omwaka ogumu n’agenda ayambeko nnyina okwanika engoye. Bwe yakutte engoye okuziteeka ku waya kwe baanika bulijjo, yabadde ekoonye ku masannyalaze ne gabakuba.

Omulenzi omukulu Derick Musabe 19, yagenze okulaba nga banne balaajana n’adduka n’afuna ekiti akube waya okubataasa. Waya naye bwe yagikubye n’ekutuka ate n’emugwira naye ne gamukuba olwo ne baaba eyabadde azze okutaasa naye ne gamukuba.

Moses Lubadde eyaleese kimakansi okusala waya eva ku muti, we yaggyiddeko amasannyalaze nga maama ayisiddwa bubi naye ng’akyali mulamu kyokka n’omutuuze Kamuli Muhammed eyabadde azze okutaasa gaamukubye. Omwogezi wa poliisi mu Kampala n’emiriraano, Luke Owoyesigyire yategeezezza nti poliisi yaggyeewo emirambo ne bagitwala e Mulago era ne maama baamututte e Mulago naye ng’ali mu mbeera mbi.

Ayongerako nti bateebereza ng’obuzibu bwavudde ku kubeera nti amasannyalaze gano gaayungibwa bubi kyokka baabadde bakyalese abakugu banoonyereze bazuule ekituufu ekyavuddeko obuzibu.

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Kitalo nyo kino. Kakati bapuliida ba Uganda na ba Human rights bagamba batya kunsonga zino olwa family eno ezimbye enyumba wansi wa wire za masanyalaze aga UMEME. Oba bo aba UMEME nga bebaleeta wire zino nebaziyisa waggulu wamaka gano. Company eno yakamala okugabira abalinamu emigabo obuwumbi shillings 300 amagoba.

 

 

 

 

 

Uganda Kidnappers are so disgusting, they are demanding Shs 120m ransom for a 6-year-old Rubanda girl:

30 July, 2018

Written by URN

People claiming to be holding a 6-year-old girl, Angel Ahereza are demanding for Shs 120 million ransom for her release. 

Ahereza,  a top class pupil of Kibuzigye primary school in Bubaare sub-county, Rubanda district went missing on July 16 while on her way to school. The victim was last seen being offered a cake by an unidentified woman.  

Judith Asiimwe,  says that she has tried to trace for her daughter in vain. Joseph Besigye, the grandfather says that kidnappers first sent him a message this week demanding Shs 180 million.
 
 
The suspected kidnappers then sent another message saying they have now reduced the amount to Shs 120 million. Besigye says that he lacks money to give the kidnappers.   

Besigye says that the kidnappers claim to be holding Ahereza in Bombo, Kampala.
 
"They first sent a message asking for Shs 180 million, then they sent another message that they have reduced the ransom to Shs 120 million. They only send the message through an Africell number and when you call it, you can’t find it," said Besigye. 
 
The head teacher of Kibuzigye primary school, Francis Twesiime, says that efforts by the school administration and parents to find the child have failed. 

Rubanda district police commander, Tai Ramadhan says that the matter is being followed up by police. Kidnap for ransom cases were rampant at the start of this year.
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It is very unfortunate indeed that such acts of violence is meted out to the very young children of Africa. In all religions of all sorts of communities, children are sacrosanct. One would not like to put it to the liberation politics of Africa. Where children are used in civil wars to kill with guns as soldiers. Or where the so called African liberators used to kill parents in the villages in official army uniform and then the next day come along to sympathise and to take the poor children in war to avenge for their parents' spilled blood. It is wrong to use children for a political cause and for cash profits. Fellow Africans, this practice you must stop it.
 
Abasajja Abaganda muli ludda wa. Ensi ya Buganda etugwe ko eddalu nga tutunula nga abatali bazadde?
 
 
 
 
 

In Uganda, the government continues to promise the eldery a national pension:     

Waiting. The SAGE beneficiaries wait to be paid

Waiting. The SAGE(Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment) beneficiaries wait to be paid at Ngoleriet Sub-county in Napak District last year. More than 700 were paid. Photo by Mudangha Kolyangh 

By Isaac Mufumba

The promise:
In the run up to the 2016 General Election, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) committed to put in place a mechanism for ensuring that the nation’s elderly persons live more decent lives if it was handed a fresh mandate.
The party undertook to take action on three fronts, one of which was to “fully operationalise the National Plan for Older Persons”, which had been drawn up by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in July 2012.

In making the promise, the party boasted that it had in the period between 2006 and 2010 put in place, as part of the process of implementing the Plan, the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE), through which more than Shs2.75 billion was on a monthly basis being extended to elderly persons by Mobile Money. The party also said it had involved elderly persons in decision making by creating councils for the elderly at local government level.
Under SAGE, the elderly in about 55 districts, receive monthly grants of Shs25,000 for basic needs.

It also boasted that it had ensured that the elderly persons could access the necessary medical attention in government health facilities.
The National Plan for Older persons had been born out of the need to make operational the Uganda National Policy for Older Persons, which had been drawn by the same ministry in 2009.
The policy itself had been informed by research which revealed that most of Uganda’s elderly live in rural areas where a huge majority are involved in crop farming with about 92.9 per cent of them living without any form of remittance from provident funds or pension schemes.
An analysis of the conditions under which they lived revealed that Uganda’s elderly persons care for about 63 per cent of the country’s orphans and other vulnerable children.

A situation analysis report issued by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in 2009 had revealed that many of Uganda’s elderly often face challenges including lack of access to proper shelter, poverty, ill health on account of mostly non communicable diseases associated with age, food insecurity, malnutrition, gender equalities and abuse.

It was at the same time discovered that many a financial institution’s policies tend to discriminate against them. The elderly are often regarded risky borrowers and therefore unworthy of credit.
The tale of discrimination had also been traced down to the drafting and implementation and policies around HIV/Aids. Many of the HIV/Aids programmes were found not to have targeted them yet many of them are not only sexually active, but also taking care of children orphaned by the scourge.

It was also discovered that while age contributes to many psychosocial problems, the requisite support structures that society had previously depended on to tackle those problems had been whittled away by socioeconomic changes associated with urbanisation and development.
As a result, the report noted that many elder persons were living in isolation and suffer the brunt of stigma and stereotypes, while in other cases their rights to ownership of property, legal protection and work are violated.

The National Policy for Older Persons 2009, was formulated to help government address those challenges, while the National Plan of Action sought to guide actors in the area of care for the elderly in providing equitable services to improve their wellbeing.
The overall objective of the plan was said to be to “empower older persons with information, knowledge and skills to access services and participate in development programmes for improved standard of living”.

Documents from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development indicate that the plan, which provided for various interventions at various levels to ensure improved quality of the elderly, was to be achieved by focusing on 15 priority areas which included economic empowerment, social security, food security and nutrition, healthcare and lifestyle for older persons, HIV/Aids, education, training and lifelong learning, psychological support and care for older persons.
Others on the list of areas of intervention included conflict and emergencies, water and sanitation, shelter, gender, elder abuse, accessibility to physical facilities and information, research and documentation, and capacity building for service delivery.

The initial budget for the implementation of the plan was meant to cost Shs982.9 billion over a five-year period beginning with the Financial Year 2012/2013, which was meant to see Shs71.16 billion. 
Shs134.1 billion was meant to be spent in the Financial Year 2013/2014, Shs197.45 billion in the Financial Year 2014/2015, Shs261.44 billion in the Financial Year 2015/2016 and Shs381.79 billion in the Financial Year 2016/2017.
The promise to fully operationalise the plan would therefore mean that government would be providing more funds beginning with the Financial Year 2017/2018 and that many activities have been carried out in the local governments and communities where the elderly live.

Impact
Failure by the government to follow through with the plan has meant that the dire conditions that it had been formulated to cure have not only persisted, but increased over the last seven years in which the policy has been into an abeyance occasioned by lack of finances.
Uganda’s elderly continue to face challenges around lack of access to proper shelter, water, electricity and proper health facilities. They continue to suffer economic exclusion and remain sitting ducks in the face of famine, rights violations and malnutrition.
Improvements in living conditions and provision of better health services has over the years led into a drop in mortality. People are living longer with an average life expectancy of about 64 years now, but that has also meant that an increase in the aged dependency ratio (number of persons aged 65 years and older per 100 persons aged between 15 and 64 years).

Figures from the National Housing and Population Census 2014 show that the overall Age Dependency Ratio for 2014 was 103.2 per 100 persons aged 15-64 years. But with an increase in life expectancy, the figures could have shot up.
That can only mean that the number of people depending on crop farming has shot beyond the 85 per cent mark and that the number of people living without any form of pension has shot above the 92.9 per cent mark.

Official Position

More than two years since the promise to fully operationalise the plan, no move has been made. 
Even the activities that had been planned for the period between 2012 and 2017 were never implemented.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Mr Pius Bigirimana, told Daily Monitor on Monday that the Ministry is having a second look at the plan.
“We are in advanced stages of having the plan reviewed in terms of looking at what the elderly persons require in terms of medicines and other logistics. The other day I handed over a car. If we get the funds, we shall implement the plan,” he said.

Monitor position

The National Plan for Older Persons and the National Policy for Older Persons from which it was born are both great documents with great ideas on how Uganda could improve the living conditions of its senior citizens. But failure to implement the plan is once again testimony that there is a disconnect between the policy makers and planners and the men who keep our money.

The Plan was unveiled with a very clear list of activities planned and with corresponding budgets for every financial year since 2012/2013, but the planned activities did not see the light of day.
It is clear that our planners in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development did not keep their counterparts in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in the loop as they went about work on the policy and the plan. It, therefore, followed that the plans were not followed up with funds allocations.

This kind of approach to planning and budgeting must come to a stop. If it does not, very many good working documents will continue gathering dust on the shelves of government ministries and agencies as the citizenry continue to wallow in a situation of need that could have been avoided. The citizenry deserve way better than that.

imufumba@ug.nationmedia.com

 

 

 

 

 

In the post civil war Luweero triangle at Nakeseke, 8000 children are at risk of infection after school Latrines filled up:

 

Over 8000, Nakeseke, children, at risk, school toilets, fill up

Primary school pupils outside a makeshift latrine. COURTESY PHOTO 

NAKASEKE. Lives of more than 8000 primary school children in Nakaseke District are at risk after school latrines in 15 schools got filled up. The pupils are now reportedly using the nearby bushes to ease themselves.

The district councilors on Wednesday raised the red flag to the concerned district authorities at a heated council meeting where the Councilors led by the Chairperson for Education and Health Services Committee, Ms Juliet Dian Nassimbwa claimed that the situation may become worse once the rainy season starts.

Mr Julius Nabimanya, the Ngoma Sub county district councilor, claims that the lives of children cannot be compromised at any one time with the district now expected to consider the situation as an emergency.
“We should look into the possibility of using some local revenue resource envelope to address the emergency while rallying parents to get on board. It is true that we do not have the money as a district but we can still find ways of resolving the problem as an emergency,” Nabimanya said in an interview.

Benjamin Makanga, the district secretary for works advised the communities to team up with the district to build the latrines.
“The district has no money to build all the latrines which could cost more than Shs200m. We can rally the parents to mobilize resources to address the situation. We are just going into the budget planning process which may not address the problem in the short run because the situation is now an emergency,” Makanga said.

Nakaseke District education officer Mr Steven Batanude said the district was liaising with the School heads of the affected schools to ascertain facts on the ground.
“We want to find out whether some of the latrines can be drained which could be a cheaper way of addressing the situation,” Batanude told the district councilors on Wednesday.

Some of the affected schools include; Bukeeka, Kyaluseesa, Lumpewe, Kiziba, Magoma, Katooke, Mifunya, Kikamulo, Kivumu, Mbukiro, Kirinda, Kaddunda, Nakaseeta Roman Catholic, Nakaseeta Church of Uganda, Bukuuku Ddegeya and Nkuzongere Primary Schools.

A Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrine with 6 stanzas costs about Shs13m when complete, according to the information obtained from the Nakaseke District works department.
editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

 

 

 

 

 

On the African Continent in modern times, It is trying to survive the terrible Congo's massacres: 'I climbed over bodies to flee'

14 December 2017

By the BBC 

A boy rests with other Internally Displaced Persons (IDP's) as they wait for their daily food ration in a site for IDP's fleeing the conflict in the Kasai Province on June 7, 2017 in Kikwit
About 1.4 million people have fled the violence

The BBC's Africa editor Fergal Keane travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo's central Kasai region, a land littered with tears and mass graves.

Day by day the truth recedes from view. It is concealed by thick grasses. Only a few fragments of bone and shreds of cloth reach from the earth and demand attention.

"The blood is speaking," said "Papa" Isaac, a local translator with the UN in Tshimbulu town in the central Kasai region. He had brought us to the centre of a field where, he says, "the blood of my brothers is speaking".

Nobody knows how many bodies the army dumped here.

A woman working in a field nearby approached, curious at at the presence of UN soldiers. Her 12-year-old son was among those buried in the grave.

"The military were burying the bodies. We saw where they stopped and how they dug to bury the corpses… some were as young as 12," she sad.

"They did not only kill the militia. They killed innocent people."

A Congolese women, who has had her arm amputated after a gun shot wound, sits on her bed on October 23, 2017 in TshikapaDeath and life-changing injuries haunt the people left behind

The violence began last spring when long-simmering resentment exploded into rebellion against a central government seen as remote and corrupt, whose police and army were feared for their brutality.

The spark was the refusal of the government to recognise a traditional chief, Kamina Nsapu, and the imposition of its own man.

In August the chief was killed by security forces, but his followers struck back, killing all whom they regarded as collaborators of the state.

In the fighting that followed, nearly 1.4 million people were displaced, among them around 850,000 children.

Kasai is now in the grip of a hunger crisis caused by the displacement of subsistence farmers who cannot plant crops to feed their families.

The Kasai road where everyone is hungry

In the two weeks we spent in Kasai, the consequences of violence were shockingly evident.

We saw it in the skeletal frames of malnourished children, the teeming crowds of women and children sheltering still in church buildings, and we heard the testimonies of those who had survived atrocities of immense cruelty.

There have been mass beheadings by militias. Villagers gunned down by soldiers.

A woman stripped, beaten, publicly raped and then beheaded because she was accused of treachery by the Kamina Nsapu militia. It forced her stepson to carry out the sexual assault.

A voter registration activist for elections due next year, Prosper Ntambue, became a target because he was regarded as a representative of the state.

His office was burned but he survived.

However, tragedy continued to stalk the family: his daughter and son-in-law were captured at a roadblock, taken away and beheaded.

Their crime? The son-in-law was an engineer who maintained roads for the government.

A severely malnourished child stands on his bed inside a feeding and rehabilitation centre on October 23, 2017 in Tshikapa
Millions are at risk of malnourishment after farmers were forced to flee

Mr Ntambue showed me a photograph of the couple's five children, taken when the family was still a family.

"Their children are orphaned and they have remained here. I take care of them now," he told me.

The state's response to the uprising was pitiless. The army and police turned their guns on militia members, often villagers armed with homemade weapons and wearing charms they believed would protect them from bullets. But civilians who had no link to the Kamina Nsapu were also killed.

In some areas the instability exposed ethnic rivalries, but it would be a grave mistake to characterise what took place as "ethnic" violence.

It was the violence of the poor and the alienated in a place where the state was anything but an impartial actor.

We spoke to numerous witnesses who described atrocities by the security forces and the Bana Mura militia, which supports the government. The witnesses asked us to protect their identities for fear of reprisal by the army.

By the side of the Kasai River in the town of Tshikapa a man pointed at the fast-flowing current. He was remembering the bodies toppling into the river to be swept away downstream.

"The military were taking people and throwing them into the river. People started to run away and hide. They followed them, killed them and threw them into the river," he said.

People walk across the Kasai Bridge linking the two sides of Tshikapa, Democratic Republic of Congo on July 28, 2017.
Soldiers are accused of throwing bodies off this bridge

Sheltering in a church building, a mother told us how three of her four children were beheaded by the Bana Mura militia. She pleaded with the army to intervene but they did not stop the killers. Her mind is flooded with the imagery of a night of killing.

"I saw people with machetes, guns and clubs. They were beheading people, cutting arms and legs, slashing bellies. I had to climb over dead bodies to flee," she said.

Another mother told how she and her 15-year-old daughter were taken by the militia to separate farms.

The child who sat opposite us did not look more than 12. In a low monotone her mother recounted how she had been violated so many times she could not count.

"I only found that my daughter had been raped afterwards," she said. "There is great bitterness in my heart that my child has been defiled. She is just a kid."

map

The Location of the inhumane madness of African leaders doing the worst to their own fellow Africans.

 

In Kasai, only the UN stands between the people and exactions of the state and different militias. Unlike eastern DR Congo, the UN does not work alongside the army in Kasai. It is a stance that speaks loudly about the army's record.

But the UN is under pressure. It has fewer than 20,000 troops in a country two-thirds the size of western Europe.

Even this relatively small force is being cut back by 3,000 as the United States moves to reduce the costs of peacekeeping.

Not all of DR Congo is under threat of violence but besides Kasai there have been renewed outbreaks in the east, where 15 peacekeepers were killed last week, and in Tanganyika where hundreds of thousands are displaced.

I asked the UN's chief in Kasai, Charles Frisby, what could be achieved with so few troops? "Quite simply imagine what would happen if they were not here," he replied.

It is not a vista anybody who has recently visited Kasai would wish to contemplate. The region bristles with subdued violence. There is no real peace to keep in Kasai, only a daily effort to hold back the forces of chaos.

 

 

 

 

On the Wide World Web of international Satellite broadband,  economic growth is around the corner, if taken on board by backward African governments:

December 6, 2017

Written by Farhad Khan

Mr Farhad Khan

 

 

The African Development Bank projects that Uganda’s GDP will grow from 5.1 per cent in 2017 to 5.8 per cent in 2018.

Among other factors, the government has highlighted the role of information and communications technology (ICT) as a key enabler for this trend toward growth.

As key stakeholders in the country continue to promote the use of ICT for economic and social growth, Uganda’s internet penetration has increased in the last two years from 31 per cent in 2015 to 53.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, according to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).

In East Africa, Uganda is second only to Kenya in terms of internet penetration. While this figure is significant, a section of Uganda’s population still lacks internet access. A critical issue is that many live in rural areas that are hard to reach through traditional methods.

Satellite broadband can break through both the cost and planning barriers to these remote areas. Since it is not subject to the same physical and infrastructure limitations of cable-based systems, satellite broadband offers an alternative that is less costly to connect and requiring less complicated infrastructural planning.

This could significantly improve connectivity in rural areas for individuals and businesses. In neighboring Kenya, many rural areas that are under-served or not even served are already enjoying the benefits of satellite connectivity. One of the main segments to benefit is the country’s public healthcare sector.

In Kiambu county, for example, satellite connectivity is delivering quicker and more effective patient care through the sharing of knowledge and resources via the internet.

Through the provision of satellite broadband connectivity and the implementation of new software, local healthcare facilities are now able to share critical information and better manage patient inquiries since medical records are now available to all connected healthcare facilities within the county.

Anyone can go to the nearest facility and receive the consultation and medicine they need within a matter of minutes.

Other sectors such as education facilities continue to reap similar benefits. Today, a student is able to access vast amounts of e-learning tools with a simple click of a button. Information that is essential to learn, grow and pursue his or her ambitions is now more readily available.

In addition to enabling students and medical professionals, satellite broadband has also enabled government organisations to streamline their processes and ensure that their services reach individuals, no matter where they reside.

In South Africa, approximately one in every 10 pensioners was either unaware of the value of their pensions, or was unable to access them. Hence, the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) launched an outreach project aimed at engaging with pensioners.

An always-on broadband connectivity facilitated real-time access to pension data, no matter how remote the location of the pensioner. Through collaboration between public and private organisations, 1.2 million members of GEPF and their beneficiaries were able to gain access to valuable financial services.

These are just some of the examples of how satellite connectivity is driving social and economic change. Through satellite communication, communities can now access many services, and the way they educate their children, access local and global markets for their goods and maintain good health is also changing.

Until very recently, these kinds of scenarios would have seemed far-fetched. According to the World Bank, the GDP of developing nations rises by 1.38 per cent for every 10 per cent increase in broadband connectivity.

With such a direct correlation between investment in broadband connectivity and the growth in economic activity, connecting rural Uganda is central to the achievement of the 5.8 per cent growth expected in 2018.

The collaboration between governments, technology partners and businesses is key to extending the benefits of connectivity.

The author is the  chief commercial officer, Yahsat.

 

 

 

 

The Authority in Kitgum, Acholi District in Uganda, is detaining minors with adults in a government juvenile facility:

By Vision Reporter

 

Added 10 October, 2017 

 

The nearest remand home is located in Gulu district, 100 kilometers away

 

Kitgum LC 5 Chairperson, Jackson Omona has appealed to the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development, to establish a juvenile detention facility in the district.

He said he was shocked to learn that children who come in conflict with the law in Kitgum district were being detained in the same cells with adult offenders.

Cornelius Magara an official from the ministry condemned the act of detaining minors with adults.

He advised the district to lobby for a juvenile remand and rehabilitation home.

In the Courts of Law in Uganda, Food shortage rocks Gulu remand home:

9 October, 2017

Written by ABALO IRENE OTTO

In this third and last part of our series on Gulu remand home, ABALO IRENE OTTO brings you the story of a food crisis that has forced officials to threaten to expel districts that have failed to remit their quarterly contributions. She also explores the possibility of a government takeover that has stalled for over two years.

Gulu district chairman Martin Ojara Mapenduzi says they are nearing a breaking point if other districts do not meet their financial obligations towards the running of Gulu Remand Home.

At a recent visit to the facility, Mapenduzi said management of the remand home has been left on the shoulders of Gulu and well-wishers as government and other districts have kept a distance.

A juvenile inmate at Gulu Remand Home prepares porridge

“If they cannot contribute and help us, we are going to stop these districts from sending their children here. They should also know that children are children. If we do not give them the reform they deserve, they will become more dangerous,” said Mapenduzi.

“Some of the children in this facility are for capital offences which explains how much we have to do to rehabilitate them but the conditions under which they are living tantamount to child abuse.”

Gulu Remand Home accommodates juvenile offenders and suspects from Gulu and the neighboring districts of Nwoya, Amuru, Pader, Lamwo, Agago, Kitgum, Omoro and Oyam.

In June, Gulu district contributed 50 bags of rice to this facility from the 500 bags given by the prime minister’s office in response to food crisis in the region. But this was just a drop in the ocean.

In the financial year 2016/2017, Gulu district contributed about Shs 6m to running the facility. According to Joseph Kilama, the in-charge of the remand home, this could only take them for less than two months since they need at least Shs 3.7m per month. 

UNMET PROMISES

The remand home was eventually hit by a food crisis in March this year and inmates went without food for three days until neighbours and well-wishers rushed to provide the little they could.

Gulu district local government resolved in 2013 that every other district that sends juvenile offenders to this remand home should contribute Shs 500,000 quarterly towards its operation.

Douglas Peter Okello, the Omoro LC-V chairman, was Gulu district speaker then and he says the agreement was a gesture to save the remand home from collapsing. However, compliance has since been a problem.

Okello says his district is still new but they intend to incorporate this contribution in their budgeting process for accountability purposes.

Meanwhile, Patrick Okello Oryema, the Nwoya district chairperson, says his district has fulfilled its obligation and remitted the Shs 500,000 to Gulu.

“We are meeting our obligation as a district. Amidst the meager resources we have as local government, we should spare some percentage to contribute for the rehabilitation of our children,” said Oryema.

NO OBLIGATION

However, according to Amuru district LC-V chairman Michael Lakony, there has been no written agreement in relation to this contribution.

He told The Observer that since he became the district chairman in 2016, contribution for the remand home has never been a subject of discussion by the councilors, neither has it been tabled before him.

“There is no formal agreement between Gulu and Amuru to contribute for the remand home. It is not reflected anywhere. I have never seen a signed agreement on this,” he said.

Lakony added that it is the responsibility of government, through the ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to budget for the remand home.

“We need the government to budget for the remand home because if other remand homes in the country are being budgeted for, why not Gulu?” he said.

In 2015, Gulu wrote to government requesting it to take full control of this facility that is the only correctional center for children that come into conflict with the law in the sub-region.

However, James Kaboggoza Ssembatya, the assistant commissioner for children affairs in the ministry of Gender, says the ministry has never received the letter.

However, records show that the letter dated June 5, 2015 was received by the permanent secretary’s office on September 3, 2015. This same letter was handed over to Ssembatya during a recent visit to the facility and he claimed to be seeing it for the first time.

“I have just been to the remand home today and discovered that Gulu district actually wrote a letter to hand over the facility to government. I didn’t know they had written,” he said.

The commissioner said it is not automatic that the remand home can get a budget once they have written to the ministry. He says they have to get a vote from public service for staffing and for the budget at the ministry before they can begin remitting funds.

“It is good that they have written that they are willing to hand over the remand home. Now we have to start thinking of getting approval from the ministry of public service for staffing. Reasonably, they have the structures. They already have separated dormitories, they have staff houses and they have enough land,” said Ssembatya.

He says the new proposal at the ministry is to have children with shorter sentences of six months and below to serve them from the regional remand homes rather than taking them to Kampiringisa, the national remand home.

“We can only take some cases which require two to three years to go through some training at Kampiringisa,” he said.

Most regional and district juvenile remand homes are under the jurisdiction of local governments, further stressing their meager resources.

According to the law, remand homes are supposed to operate with short-term programmes. But in ideal situations, capital child offenders should not take more than three months on remand while minor cases should not take more than 45 days on remand. This, however, has not been in practice at most remand homes. At Gulu remand home, some children have stayed for years.

MEDICAL DILEMMA

The ministry of Gender recently initiated a special court piloted in Naguru Remand Home in Kampala that hears juvenile cases expeditiously with the aim to decongest the remand homes and release reformed children back to the community.

Gulu Remand Home was not saved of disease either. About 80 per cent of the children were recently diagnosed with malaria while 20 per cent had hepatitis B.

Life Church from the United Kingdom came to the rescue with medication and the facility now conducts two clinics a week to improve the health of the children.

One such big champion is Shirley Crawford, a registered nurse with Uganda Medical Council. She has been working with children at the remand home and was part of the team that fundraised to build a medical facility and pay for medication for children here. She says nutrition is a fundamental issue for children at the remand home.

“For children who have HIV, food is fundamental because you can’t take medication on an empty stomach,” Crawford told The Observer.

She says the priority for donors is to provide medication to the children. While Kilama, the in-charge, is happy about the medication provided by the donors, he says the facility’s biggest problem is food.

“They eat. I am not saying that they are gluttons but they are boys. The girls are always four, five but you know when they don’t eat well, they turn out to be a problem. Running a remand home requires a lot of funding. Many districts want their own remand homes but with this experience, I don’t advise them to start unless they are ready for the challenges,” Kilama said.

He intimated that between February and March this year, four boys fled the remand home due to hunger.

“They fled through that open space. As you see, we have no serious fence here and we never got them. We followed them to their parents’ homes but they never reached home. We had to abandon the case because I have to use my vehicle and fuel to follow them, which is expensive,” Kilama lamented.

irene.abalo@gmail.com

UGANDA National Office of Standards is waking up to its hard job of protecting consumers against Chinese dodgy imports:

 



UNBS executive director Ben Manyindo

UNBS executive director Ben Manyindo 

UGANDA, Kampala.

Following increased public outcry over the poor quality of consumer products on the Ugandan market, the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has started engagements with other law enforcing entities to find means to protect consumers from substandard goods.

Speaking at a sensitisation conference on UNBS mandate in Kampala on Wednesday, UNBS executive director Ben Manyindo said their major duty is about consumer protection where they must ensure that the public consume goods that meet the required standards.

He, however, said there have been persistent complaints from the public that consumers were being exposed to substandard goods something that needed the relevant entities to come together to promote human life and enable the consumer get value for money.

UNBS mandate
“Our mandate deals with goods that do not meet standards and those are the goods were trying to eliminate.
“Such goods come to the market through importation of poor quality goods, locally manufactured goods especially from SME’s , adulterated products and those that get expired while still on the market,” he said.

He said to stop substandard products coming to the Ugandan market, initiatives like Pre Export Verification of Conformity to Standards has been introduced to ensure that goods are inspected from their countries of origin.

“Working with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, we are in the process of registering all enterprises that produce for the local market and we have a surveillance team on the ground to ensure the elimination of all substandard goods,” Dr Manyido added.

 

jbahingwire@ug.nationmedia.com

In Uganda again, another Pension scam has come out in the Ministry of Public Service:

Officials from the ministry of Public Service have failed to account for over Shs 23 billion in what is suspected to be another ghost scam

 

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 18 2016

The permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Catherine Musingwire (2ND LEFT) and the Director Human Resource, Adda Muwanga (LEFT)consult each other before the committee. PHOTO BY ERIC DOMINIC BUKENYA 

Officials from the ministry of Public Service have failed to account for over Shs 23 billion in what is suspected to be another ghost scam.

While appearing before parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, the officials led by Ms Catherine Musingwiire, the Permanent Secretary failed to explain the money which was paid to pensioners beyond the lawful pensionable period of 15 years after retirement, between 2013 and 2015.

According the two reports by the Auditor General 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, the money, Shs 12.7 billion and Shs 11 billion respectively was paid to claimants without proof of life certificates.

“Absence of evidence of continued existence of pensioners in form of life certificates to support pension payments may imply payments to non-existent pensioners,” noted the Auditor General.

On the spot is Ms Grace Atepat, the Senior Accountant in Charge of Pension, Mr Laban Bulwa, the Senior Accountant in the ministry and the former acting Permanent Secretary, Ms Ada Muwanga.
Ms Musingwiire was saved from the mess since she was not yet in office during the troubled years of audit.

“I can only advise that this money be recovered or proof be provided justifying the payment,’ said Mr Mathias Mpuuga (DP-Masaka Municipality) who led the committee in probing the officials.

Section 18 (1) of the Pensions Act provides that, public servants are entitled to pension for a period 15 years, after which they are supposed to present annual “life certificates’ as evidence to claim their benefits.

However according to the reports a total of 17,593 received pension in the two years under mysterious circumstances.

Ms Atepat told the committee chaired by Vice, Gerald Karuhaga (Ntungamo Municipality-Ind) that the figures had been inflated by the Auditor General, claiming that he reconciled figure was shs. 5.2 billion shillings, while Ms Muwanga blamed the figures on the old pay roll, inherited from Christopher Obey.

“We decided to tackle the gratuities first and leave the monthly pension pay roll as it was, “she said
The two however failed to present supportive documents to back her claims.

Mr Cassiano Oketcha, the Senior Principal Auditor in the Office of the Auditor General convinced the committee that the findings were premised by information availed to auditors during the audit period
“The management letter that was issued at the time of exit indicated shs. 11 billion for 2014 while in 2013 it was Shs 12.7 billion,’ Oketcha said.

Mr Karuhanga warned that the officials risk joining their predecessors in jail unless they can account for the funds.
“I want to caution you, (Christopher) Obey was like you, don’t take the committee for granted,” he said.

Mr Mpuuga later told Daily Monitor that the scheme was well orchestrated to steal tax payers’ money.
“Our basic finding is that the cash bonanza in the ministry has not stopped and we can’t let this fictitious payment go unabated,” he said.

Mpuuga said that the several irregularities within the ministry indicated a broader web targeting pension funds.
“With these unscrupulous payments we can only conclude that this was fraud and we have no choice as PAC but to demand that they refund the money,” he said.

The committee also learnt that the ministry carried out multiple pension payment amounting to shs 1.2 billion approved by Mr Laban Bulwa, the Senior Accounting officer in the ministry.
Meanwhile, it was established that the ministry is still grappling with over shs 200 billion in arrears, out of which shs 199 billion is for gratuity and shs 108 billion is meant for pension.
Figures
2013-12.7 billion
2014-11 billion
14.7 bn mischarge
200bn Debt (199bn gratuity arrears +108.6bn pension arrears)
2.4 billion Multiple Payments.

 

Munsi ya Buganda, e Najjanankumbi, Abaana batuuse okuggwawo nga omuliro gwenyumba mwebasula gubatta. Amabujje 3 basirikkidde mu nyumba yabazadde:

By Musasi wa Bukedde

Added 12th November 2016

 

Nnaalongo Nakayima ne mutabani we, Bukenya eyasimattuse ate emabega y’ennyumba abaana abasatu mwe baggyiiridde. Ku ddyo ye mugenzi Frank Wasswa.

 

EKIKANGABWA kibuutikidde abatuuze b’e Najjanankubi Church Zooni ku luguudo lw’e Busaabala, abooluganda basatu okuli n’abalongo ab’emyka 3, bwe baasirikkidde mu nnyumba eyakutte omuliro mu kiro ekyakeesezza Olwokutaano.

 

Ennyumba eyakutte omuliro ya Nnaalongo ne Ssaalongo Edward Bukenya omuvuzi wa bodaboda ku luguudo lw’e Busaabala. Abaana baabwe okuli; Frank Wasswa, Mariam Nakato 3, ne William Kizza 2, be basirisse oluvannyuma lw’enju okukwata omuliro oguteeberezebwa okuva ku musubbaawa ogwalekeddwa mu nnyumba.

Maama w’abaana bano ategeezezza nti omuliro we gwakwatidde yabadde mu ffumbiro eriri mmita nga ssatu okuva ku nnyumba kyokka gwagenze okukwata ng’abaana bonna bali mu nnyumba era babiri be baasimattuse.

 

Ronnie Lubega, 7 yasimatusse n’ebisago eby’amaanyi nga kati ajjanjabibwa mu ddwaaliro ly’e Kiruddu - Mulago.

Ate Raymond Bukenya Kigongo yataasiddwa nnyina era teyafunye kisago kyonna. Nnaalongo Aidah Nakayima agamba nti yabadde mu ffumbiro ng’afumba kyaggulo ku ssaawa nga 3.00 ez’ekiro, n’alaba ekikka eky’amaanyi nga kikutte waggulu ku mabaati ate ng’abaana baasimula nga bwe bakuba emiranga.

Ekyaddiridde, muliro kubumbujja n’alaya enduulu eyaleese abatuuze kyokka baagenze okutuuka ng’abaana basatu bafudde. “Eggulo nasiibye nnumizibwa era Ssaalongo ye yafumbye ekyemisana kubanga teyakoze ku makya.

Yavudde awaka ku ssaawa 12 ez’akawungezi okugenda ku mulimu kyokka omuliro we gwakwatidde yabadde tannadda waka,’’ Nnaalongo bwe yategeezezza. Sarah Nsanja ow’abakyala w’ekyalo yagambye nti abatuuze bano tebabadde na buzibu na muntu yenna n’asaba abazirakisa okubadduukirira kubanga tebasigazza kantu konna.

Emirambo giri mu ddwaaliro e Mulago gye gigenda okuggyibwa gitwalibwe ku kyalo Buwama Ssango gye bagenda okuziika.

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Abange abazadde banaffe, ffenna tweyiwe ku Parliament etere esale ku bbeyi ye ttaala za masanyalaze. Government egyewo omusolo gwa solar kutabaza. Nga sibwekityo abalaba ebiriwo kubaana baffe bagamba nti olwobwavu abazadde tuli mulukwe lwakwokya abaana bave munsi okusinga okubonabona bwebati nga bali munsi yabwe.

 

 

In Uganda at Butaleja, the parents are so miserable in poverty, they are marrying off their daughters to buy the basic family necessities.

By Owen Wagabaza

Added 31st December 2016

Evelyn Mukeera behind her ramshackle mud and wattle hut. Photos by Owen Wagabaza

 


Unknown to Mukeera, her father and his neighbours were working behind doors to have their children marry each other. “Their first born had been struck by lightning and he died without a child. To avoid a similar scenario, they approached my father and requested him to marry me to their second born child who was 21 at the time,” Mukeera says.

The two parties agreed a fee of sh400,000 for Mukeera’s hand in marriage. The father was paid a deposit of sh300,000 and upto now, the balance of sh100,000 has never been paid. Mukeera says her father spent all the money on Waragi. “I would want to go back to school, but I’m worried my husband may not allow me,” Mukeera says.

For Monica Namugambe, her father chased her away after she got pregnant while in Senior.2. Namugambe says, her father Emmanuel Mbulate was not contributing in anyway to her education and this forced her into sexual relations with a boda boda rider who had promised to pay her fees as well as take care of her basic needs.

When she got pregnant, her father forced her into marriage with the bodaboda rider, despite his wife’s protests that the girl was still young for marriage.  Mbulate was paid sh300,000 as bride price out of the agreed sh500,000.

A revered drunkard, the man spent all the money on Waragi. “I think it was a blessing in disguise for him, because he had on many occasions prayed for the day I get married so that he gets his bride price when he is still alive,” Namugambe says.

Jimbo Jalia went with her sisters for an outing on Christmas day at Nabigando Town Council, because people were many, she lost contact with her sisters, on her way back home, she was waylaid by a gang of men who kidnapped her and took her to unidentified place.

The ringleader who in fact was her neighbour defiled her all week long, and when she was finally released, Jimbo had conceived. Though Jimbo’s parents had reported the case to police, they later withdrew it and rather opted to solve the case amicably. In the end, Jimbo was married off after the defiler paid sh700,000 to Jimbo’s parents.  “My father spent all the money in a bar,” she says, with eyes filled with tears.

Big problem

Mukeera, Namugambe and Jimbo are some of the hundreds of girls who have been married off at every tender age to their defilers by their parents.

A report titled the situational analysis of child poverty and deprivation in Uganda 2014, by UNICEF ranks Butaleja as the district with the highest concentration of child marriages in the country at 59%, a little higher than the national average of 57%.  

Felistars Koire, a nursing officer at Butaleja Health Centre III agrees that teenage pregnancy and child marriage are on rise in the district. According to Koire, more than 50% of the women who attend antenatal services in Butaleja Health Centre III are girls aged between 13 to 16 years.

“Each pregnancy poses great risks to a girl. It endangers her health. It takes psychological toll on her. Very often it forces her to leave school,” she said.

Nationally, according to the 2011 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey, one in four girls aged 15 to 19 is pregnant or has had a child. “Statistics further show that 50% of married women and those in union get married before their 18th birthday.

“Child marriage is a violation of the rights of girls and women. Girls who are married as children are more likely to be out of school, suffer domestic violence, contract HIV/AIDS and die due to complications during pregnancy and child birth,” the report says.

Dangers of marrying defilement victims to defilers.

Steven Langa, the Director of Family Life Network says child marriage robs a girl of her childhood, and imposes adult roles and responsibilities on her before she is physically, psychologically and emotionally prepared.

“It isolates girls from their friends and families and disempowers them to refuse sex or negotiate condom /family planning use, making them vulnerable to teenage pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Child marriage also denies girls the opportunity to get an education and fully develop their potential, keeping them and their future families in poverty,” Langa says.

 

 

Bakwatiddwa e Buganda lwa kusuza mwana mu kiyumba ky'embizzi

By John Bosco Mulyowa

 

Added 12th October 2016

Omwaana Nsubuga asuzibwa wamu ne mbizzi wano e Buganda. Kirabika tali trained kweyamba mu byobuyonjo!

 

POLIISI y'e Kaliisizo mu Rakai ekutte abafumbo n’ebaggalira lwa kusuza mwana Junior Nsubuga 10,  mu kiyumba ky’ebizzi.

 

Abakwatiddwa be: Francis Ssekikubo ne Margret Lukowe eyaliko Omumyuka wa Sipiika w’eggombolola y’e Kaliisizo Rural.

 Akulira ekitongole ekirwaanirira eddembe ly’abaana ku disitulikiti y'e Rakai Suzan Nakawojjwa yeyakuliddemu enteekateeka y’okubakwata

 

Nb

Ekitongole ekirwanirira eddembe lyabaana munsi Uganda nakyo omulimu gwakirema dda. Anti government erabika tekiyamba nga bwekiri munsi nyingi. Welfare ya family kitongole kiramba ekya government nga bweriyo ekitongole kyokusoma kwa baana. Obwavu bwa bazadde yensibuko yokubonabona kwomwaana ono! Ate Military Police ya Uganda okusiba abazadde, ekisumuluzo kisulibwe mu nyanja Nalubaale, nakyo tekigya kumalawo kubonabona kwabaana ngabano mu nsi Uganda.

 

A children’s Bill has been introduced to restrict the adoption of Children in Uganda:

President Museveni of Uganda

 
BY LILIAN NAMAGEMBE

Posted  Thursday, June 2  2016 

 

UGANDA, Kampala:- President Museveni has assented to the Children’s (Amendment) Bill 2015, which seeks to strengthen the protection of children’s rights and restrict legal guardianship of children to Ugandan citizens.

The law moved by Mr Bernard Atiku, the Ayivu County MP, amends the old Children Act, 1997 (cap 59), which focused on the basic needs of the child.

The passing of the legislation followed a push for a watertight law to protect Uganda’s children being exposed to abuse and exploitation by those who take advantage of the gaps in the parent law.

Uganda is home to about three million orphans, about 1.2 million of whom are said to have lost their parents to HIV/Aids.

The Act also provides for guardianship of children; prohibit corporal punishment and other related matters.

The President assented to the Bill on May 20, two months after the Bill was passed by Parliament.

The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef), an organisation which promotes children’s rights in Uganda, hailed the move as a milestone in promoting human rights.
Uganda ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, committing itself to putting children first so that they grow, survive and reach their full potential.

Clause 11 of Act offers clarity on guardianship. It introduces legal customary guardianship in which guardianship is only possible if there are no relatives willing to look after the child or if alternative care options have been exhausted; and is restricted to only Ugandans.

Non-Inter-country adoption will be a matter of last resort after other alternative care options have been exhausted and clarify on the offences of an administrator of the estate of a child to ensure that children’s property is not abused.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

 

In Uganda, Shs 8bn is needed to sustain the orphanages effectively:

Written by URN

To close an estimated 30 illegal children’s homes countrywide, the ministry of gender, labor and social development requires about Shs 8bn. 

Kaboggoza Ssembatya, the assistant commissioner for children’s affairs, told URN last week that the money would be used to trace families and resettle the evicted children with their relatives and help establish an alternative care framework for totally-helpless orphans.

Last year, a ministry survey found that 80 percent of children in orphanages across the country have parents who can look after them. Kaboggoza said the Children (Amendment) Act, 2015 would help ensure that only quality orphanages and children homes come up.

Nb

One would wish to know the cause of this loss of parents over their children. It seems it has all got to do with poverty that does not seem to go away! This is a Uganda government on the continent of Africa that has lost direction in international human social welfare policies.

 

Three former Ministry of Public Service officials accused of fraudulently budgeting Shs 88bn of pension money as National Social Security Fund (NSSF) pension contribution have a case to answer.

Justice Lawrence Gidudu made the ruling at the Anti-Corruption court this morning. The suspects are Jimmy Lwamafa, former permanent secretary, Christopher Obey, former principal accountant and Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa, former commissioner compensation department.


Suspects L-R: Christopher Obey, Kiwanuka Kunsa and Jimmy Lwamafa at Anti-Corruption court recently 

In his ruling, Justice Gidudu, said each of the suspects has a case to answer for their role in the pension scam.

Justice Gidudu noted that he had reviewed evidence contained in the testimonies of Keith Muhakanizi, permanent secretary and secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of finance, planning and economic development, Adah Muwanga, the former Acting accounting officer at Ministry of Public Service, Dr Christopher Makanga, an auditor from the Auditor General's Office, Accountant General Lawrence Semakula and considered this evidence vis-à-vis the accused's mandate as accounting officer, commissioner compensation and principal accountant.
 
“What comes out clearly is that pension funds like all public resources are budgeted for, defended, appropriated, requisitioned for, paid out and accounted by public officers within their mandate and schedule of duties,” said the Judge. He noted that, “Before payments are effected, internal verification processes are triggered to ensure that only genuine payments are made. This is intended to guard against misuse of public resources.”
 
He said in the budget cycle, Lwamafa as accounting officer and permanent secretary is constitutionally responsible for the proper accounting of ministry's funds as article 164 (1) demands.

“I was asked by the defense not to put Lwamafa on defense because he was acting on work processed by his junior technocrats had given him but in view of the above legal provision, I am unable to do so,” he said.
 
 He said although Shs 88bn was budgeted and requisitioned for as NSSF pension contribution, the body has never received those funds.

 

L-R: Christopher Obey, Stephen Kiwanuka and Jimmy Lwamafa from court cells going to the court room for the reading of the ruling in which court found that they had a case to answer in connection to Shs 88billion pension cash. Photo by Michael Kakumirizi

 


Justice Gidudu noted that prosecution tendered in a report that showed that those funds were disbursed to ‘ghosts’ in Cairo bank, the permanent secretary, he said must rise to the occasion of his office and explain, why he didn't discipline anybody for those errors as he is mandated to do.
 
“I accordingly find that the prosecution has established a prima facie case against each of the three gentlemen and I accordingly put them on defense…” ruled justice Gidudu.

The trio faces several corruption charges including; causing financial loss, abuse of office, corruption, false accounting, conspiracy to defraud to diversion of public resources. The charges are in connection to the alleged fraudulent budgeting of over Shs 88bn of civil servants' pension contribution to NSSF very well knowing that civil servants don't contribute to NSSF.
 
Soon after justice Gidudu delivered his ruling, he gave each of the suspects three options on how they should defend themselves. The first option was that they give un-sworn evidence and that with this option; the prosecution will not ask them questions and their respective lawyers will not guide them.
 
The second option was that they give a sworn-in evidence meaning that their lawyers will guide them and the prosecution will in turn ask them questions.  The last option was that the suspects can decide to keep quiet and leave court to decide their fate. In response, all the suspects briefed court that they would give their defense by taking oath.
 
This means that their lawyers will lead them and the prosecution lawyers will also ask them questions. The judge also asked the suspects if they will call witnesses to defend but all the three were not sure if they will call any witnesses. To that effect, the judge fixed May 18 and 19 as the dates the suspects will start their defense. They were returned to Luzira prison till those dates.

 

The famous Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi
 

One of Uganda’s biggest corruption court scandals ended on Friday, with three senior civil servants earning a combined 22 years in jail.

Some might argue the sentence was light if weighed against the stolen Shs 88bn, but Justice Lawrence Gidudu sentenced Jimmy Lwamafa (former public service permanent secretary) to seven years in prison; Christopher Obey (former principal accountant) got 10 years; and Steven Kunsa Kiwanuka (former director of research and development) got five years on top of the fact that the trio must also refund Shs 50bn to the government.

As DERRICK KIYONGA reports, Gidudu’s judgment gives insights into how corruption thrives. In essence, prosecutors argued that the three men colluded to sneak a total of Shs 88.2bn into the public service ministry budgets for 2010/2011 and 2011/2012. The money appeared as contributions to the National Social Security Fund, but it was never paid to NSSF.

Instead, it was withdrawn by the trio through Cairo International bank, using fictitious accounts. On the face of it, this was a clear illegality since, pensionable public servants do not contribute to NSSF. Hence, the ultimate question was, since there is an elaborate budgeting process, how could such colossal sums be processed for two financial years without detection. Such questions and many more were answered in Justice Gidudu’s 24-page judgement.

“This syndicate was crafted in the ministry of public service, modified in the ministry of finance, smoothened in Bank of Uganda and perfected in Cairo bank.”

The common thread of the accused’s defence was that the budgetary provisions for the two financial years were okay. Instead they squarely attributed the blame on Joses Tegyeza, the ministry’s assistant commissioner for planning responsible for uploading budget estimates into the Output Budgeting Tool (OBT).


Jimmy Lwamafa, Christopher Obey and Steven Kunsa Kiwanuka leave the Anti-Corruption court after being convicted

The accused claimed that Tegyeza uploaded the money as if it was an NSSF item yet it was pensions and gratuity for teachers, traditional civil servants and veterans.

But that line of defence was broken down when Tegyeza who testified as the fifth prosecution witness said that his role in the ministry was to compile budgets from internal departments and upload them on the OBT. He said that he would provide drafts to the heads of departments to proof read and make any corrections.

He insisted Kunsa gave him the figures for social security contributions (NSSF) and even offered to defend that item in parliament if the need arose. Indeed, according to Justice Gidudu when Lwamafa and Kunsa appeared before parliament, they justified the item as social security contribution for scientists on contracts.

INCONSISTENCIES 

Justice Gidudu, who heads the Anti-Corruption court, pointed out that a look at the ministry’s work plan for financial year 2010/2011 shows that Shs 44.2bn had been allocated as pensions for teachers, traditional civil servants, UPDF, and local governments yet in the same document in the budget estimates at page 51, Shs 44.2bn is captured under code 212101 as social security contributions (NSSF).

Going forward, in the financial year 2011/2012, the work plans captured Shs 44.2bn as NSSF for scientists at page 95. In the same document, the budget estimates at page 50 captured Shs 44.2bn as social security contributions NSSF.

“In other words the ministerial policy statements for the two financial years by the ministry of public service show a mismatch between the work plans and the budget estimates,” Justice Gidudu ruled.

“It is strange that money should have been released at all on this item in view of this mismatch which seems not to have been captured in the various internal meetings held at the ministry of public service and later with the ministry of finance.”

FINANCE MINISTRY

Though none of the officials at the ministry finance were indicted, Justice Gidudu relied on the auditor general’s report to show their involvement. The auditor general’s findings were that the accused used to budget for the money as NSSF but ministry of finance officials would reclassify the same as gratuity and pension.

“The ministry of finance played the role of reclassifying the illegal budget item to hide this money under items such as gratuity for civil servants, teachers and veterans in order to make it appear lawful since the ministry of public service cannot budget money for NSSF legally,” noted Justice Gidudu.

According to the judge, John Muwanga, the Auditor general, faulted the desk officers at the ministry of finance for allowing the scam to happen. Muwanga noticed that money would be released irregularly without the director  of budget writing to the accountant general advising the availability of funds on each item, program and vote.

“The auditor general concluded that funds budgeted for as social security contributions [NSSF] were actually released on the pensions salary account in Bank of Uganda and spent as pensions, gratuity, and pension arrears instead of being paid to NSSF which was the budget item,” Justice Gidudu said, “According to the auditor general, these funds were expended on other items contrary to regulation 39 of the Public Finance and Accountability regulations 2003.”

INDISCIPLINE

Defence lawyers had used a letter written to parliament by the secretary to the treasury, Keith Muhakanizi, which had an effect of exonerating the accused from any wrongdoing.

In the letter, Muhakanizi told parliament that the questioned funds were released to the item with the right description on the Integrated Financial Management system (IFMS) namely 212101 social security contributions, which caters for gratuity as well for paying bonafide beneficiaries of pension and gratuity, and not to “ghosts”.

However, in his testimony in court, Muhakanizi stated that there was no need to budget for NSSF by ministry of public service because it was not one of the items the ministry is mandated to do.

Muhakanizi said that if one budgets for NSSF but ends up using that money to pay genuine pensioners then he/she could not have caused loss. He said that such a scenario is classified as “indiscipline”. He clarified that the letter was prepared for him by his director of budget, one Ocailap. Muhakanizi concluded that there were errors in the letter since the ministry of public service had no mandate to budget for social security contributions under code 212101.

The defence lawyers had asked the judge to let go of their clients on grounds that they couldn’t have accessed the money without the involvement of other officials since budgeting is such a long   process. Nevertheless, the judge was having none of it.

“I agree. This money was lost through a syndicate of fraudsters in the ministry of public service, finance and Cairo bank,”  Justice Gidudu ruled,“It is no defence to say the accomplices in the ministry of finance and Cairo bank are not in the dock. That is the discretion of the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions].”

dkiyonga@observer.ug

 

 

On planet earth, 300 million elderly people are not receiving long-term care:


Publish Date: Sep 29, 2015

The elderly of Uganda in community committee

meetings.

More than half the world's elderly lack access to long-term care, the International Labour Organization has said in a report, condemning the "deplorable" situation facing a rapidly ageing population.

A new report from the UN agency showed that some 300 million people over the age of 65 cannot easily access long-term care when needed.

Despite the ballooning need of the elderly for long-term care, Monday's report showed most countries were ignoring or under-prioritising their needs.

"This deplorable situation is reflected in the very low public LTC (long term care) expenditure, which amounts to less than 1.0 percent of GDP on average globally," study author Xenia Scheil-Adlung said in a statement.

The ILO report charged that "discrimination and negative attitudes towards older persons" were a big part of the problem.

"Ageism is a global phenomenon that is sometimes even laid down in regulations and legislation, for example higher costs or unfavourable conditions of certain insurance policies for older persons, or being refused for specific medical services due to age," it said.

Only 5.6 percent of the world's population lives in countries, including Germany and Japan, that provide universal long-term care.

A full 48 percent of the global population meanwhile is not protected by national legislation on long-term care, while another 46.3 percent are largely excluded from coverage due to narrow regulations that limit benefits to the poorest.

In Africa, more than 90 percent of the elderly have no access to long-term care when they need it.

But even the most "generous" countries, found in Europe, spend only two percent or less of their GDP on long-term care, the ILO report said.

This forces many older people living in even some of the world's richest countries to pay for up to 100 percent of their care from their own pockets.

"Persons in need should not face financial hardship and an increased risk of poverty due to the financial consequences of accessing care," the report said.

The study showed that the world would need 13.6 million more care workers to cover the needs of the elderly.

The current shortfall is largely made up for by unpaid female family members, who often are forced to reduce the time they spend at a paying job to care for elderly relatives, putting the entire family at risk of sliding into poverty, the report said.

The ILO study dismissed as "ageism" fears that care for the elderly is becoming unaffordable as populations grow older.

Instead of fretting over the cost of caring for the elderly, countries should realise it is in their own interest to expand long-term care, the report said, pointing especially to the job creation potential in the field.

At times I wonder if we have a government.  

The New vision, The Daily Monitor, Bukedde, NTV , NBS, UCB, The Observer, Independent and even The Red Pepper can only see naked wasped waist girls but not the breathren who needs help  
 
The very Poor live badly in the International city of Kampala, Uganda:
 

Kampala as any other town in this country is about to be overwhelmed and crowded with mentally sick and homeless people whom no body seems to care about or notice. 


What a shame?!

At night the streets are filled with these very unfortunate people sleeping in alleys, open streets, on road islands , virtually everywhere. 

They eat from dustbin and defecate anywhere anyhow. 

 This is in addition to street children and homeless mothers and the disabled littering Jinja to Bombo road, Ben Kiwanuka, Nile avenue everywhere. 

William Street is now a heaven to open sex as it is with Makindye around the military barracks behind chicken tonight. KCCA every other morning collects used condoms in hundreds dropped on these streets in the middle of the city?!

Just imagine mad women walking naked in a city of 5 million and no one appears to care but rather the same generates fun as onlookers giggle at the misfortune of these people!  

It is absurd that people can live like this in this modern times in Urban Africa.


With millions stolen and wasted on over 450 Members of Parliament, we can reduce their salaries to do somethng about our fellow human beings.

Please build homes for these people and help them.

Advanced by:

Bwanika Nakyesawa of Luwero.

17th October 2016

There are currently some efforts in Uganda to help all the old people financially:

The elderly line up to pick Shs25,000(£4.80p) each, every month, from the elderly

grant project in Kyankwanzi District.

While the money has benefited them, there are plans to phase out the project. PHOTO BY EPHRAIM KASOZI

BY EPHRAIM KASOZI 

Posted  Wednesday, August 12  2015 

IN SUMMARY

Since 2010, the elderly in 15 districts of Uganda have been receiving Shs25,000 every month as part of a programme to empower them. However, there are plans to phase it out.

M/S Ephrance Bukirwa walks out of her ramshackled house limping. Her left side is paralysed as a result of the injury she sustained after falling down.

She does not know her age but on observation, Ephrance Bukirwa’s body appears old and frail, and her hair is now grey with age. She cannot do any job for herself apart from making fire and keeping it burning while preparing food.

Bukirwa is being taken care of by her only surviving daughter, Rebecca Nalunkuuma, who stays about 300 metres away from her home and she cannot tell where the grandchildren are.

“I cannot dig nor collect food from the garden. I could even take months without sugar and even meat,” says Bukirwa, adding that her house is only good during the sunny season; “But when it rains, it is leaking and it used to be too cold for me until they bought me a blanket from my money.”

Bukirwa recalls that before the coming of senior citizens’ grant, she faced difficulty to access tablets during illnesses and shortage of food whenever a dry spell hit their area
The resident of Butemba Cell in Kyankwanzi District is one of the thousands of elder persons, who access the monthly grant of Shs25,000. Kyankwanzi is part of the cattle corridor that experiences dry spells leading to shortage of water and food.

However, due to her inability to walk, Bukirwa’s 67-year-older daughter Nalukuma, who is also a beneficiary of the same programme, collects the money for her.

“When she collects the money, I can now have sugar, meat, beans and porridge. I am also able to get tablets in time in case of any sickness,” smiles Bukirwa adding; “I have asked my daughter to start saving some of the money because I am looking forward to sleeping in a well roofed house.”

The programme
The Senior Citizens Grant, one of the core components of the Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment, started in 2010 with financing by government and development partners. This was aimed at responding to the legal obligation of the state to provide welfare and maintenance for the aged.

Currently, the programme benefits 110,135 persons aged 65 and above in 15 districts and it is aimed at enhancing access to basic needs such as food security, better nutrition, health care and improving housing among others.

Janet Nakyanzi, 75, of Bukwili Cell, says apart from buying food, she saved the money to buy household utensils like basins and saucepans.

“I saved part of the money and I have since bought a pig,” says Nakyanzi who takes care of three grandchildren and her blind sister.

She narrates: “We no longer find problems to buy soap, sugar and I saved money which I used to buy bedsheets.”
Joseph Mugisha, the Social Protection and Advocacy Advisor at Help Age International says there is need to ensure that older persons live respectfully.

“We have now embarked on the campaign that would see political parties include social protection issues into their campaign programmes while canvassing for votes for the 2016 elections,” he says.

M/s Ephrance Bukirwa seated outside her home in Uganda

Mugisha says they want government to commit resources as a priority towards social protection to help older persons to live decent livelihoods because they are the bridge between the past and the future.

He explains that over Shs30b was expected the national rollout if the programme was to benefit 100 persons per sub-county but government has committed Shs9 billion in the current budget.
“This is not enough and yet the pilot arrangement had ended. We want government to find means of getting the money and prioritise the senior citizens grant with a view of enhancing the livelihoods of elderly,” adds Mugisha.

How they have been benefitting
Reports from the Ministry of Gender indicate that the senior citizens grant is increasing productive investment where 32 per cent of the beneficiaries use the money to buy small livestock or petty trading while 27 per cent of the beneficiaries invest their money in hiring additional labour for digging in their gardens.

“…Sixteen per cent of the beneficiaries report saving of their previous month’s payment. Savings were mainly to cover emergencies (20 per cent), to support productive investments (17 per cent), cultivation (15 per cent and meeting the education needs of children and or grandchildren taking 14 percent,” reads the report on expanding social protection programme for senior citizens grant.

According to the report, majority of the senior citizens grant beneficiaries spend the large part of their transfers on food leading to increased frequency, quantity and quality of meals eaten by beneficiary households.

“Senior Citizens Grant beneficiaries especially women consistently report improved participation in community affairs, sense of self-esteem and empowerment. Older people report feeling less discriminated against in their communities and more valued by their families on account of their ability to make social contributions to community- based social support mechanisms which are based on reciprocity like funerals and weddings,” reads the report.

ekasozi@ug.nationmedia.com

The Government of Uganda has finally thought about the Public service elderly. It has released Sh23bn for 60,000 public service pensioners. But no National Pension for the poor majority elderly of this country.
Publish Date: May 10, 2015

 

By David Lumu

KAMPALA, UGANDA - The Government has released sh23bn for 60,000 pensioners, ending the long wait that many have endured without money during the month of April.

According to Henry Kajura, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Service, the funds are expected to be wired to the pensioners’ bank accounts on Monday this week.

Kajura, who apologised for the delayed payment of the monthly pension to public service pensioners, said: “The ministry received sh23bn for this purpose (payment for April) on May 5, 2015, and has completed the necessary process. Funds are expected to be on individual accounts by Monday, May 11.”

Speaking to New Vision at the ministry’s headquarters in Wandegeya, Kampala, Sezi Mbaguta, the state minister for public service, said in February, the Government released sh37b to clear gratuity and pension arrears.

“These funds (sh37bn) have been paid out, except for the Ministry of Defence,” she said.

She said the defence ministry is “still validating” information of the accounts of the beneficiaries, adding that the ministry of public service needs sh133bn to clear all gratuity and pension arrears.

According to Ada Muwanga Kabarokole, the acting permanent secretary, the ministry has money to pay the 60,000 pensioners sh23bn every month up to June.

“The funds for the entire quarter have been processed,” she said.

However, Muwanga said that for gratuity and pension arrears, the delay was mainly caused by lack of proper records to facilitate the payment process, inadequate funding and the reform in the Government payment system. 

The Government introduced the integrated personnel and payroll payment system following the payment of over sh160b to ghost benefi ciaries in 2013.

Former Ministry of Public Service permanent secretary Jimmy Lwamafa, the principal accountant, Christopher Obey, commissioner pensions Stephen Kiwanuka-Kunsa and other staff were interdicted and arraigned before the Anti-Corruption court. But the case was recently dismissed.

Muwanga attributed the delay in pension payment on the clinical approach to the new payment system.

“As we change the payment system, we are bound to face some challenges,” she said.

Pensioners speak out Emmanuel Ajedra, 63, worked in a number of ministries, until 1992 when he retired.

'Important money'

Speaking to New Vision from Arua, Ajedra said: “We are wondering whether there are no old men and women in the public service ministry. Senior retired citizens used to be paid by 15th of the month, but these days, there are so many delays. Why can’t these people respect us?”

 However, Ajedra thanked the Government for releasing their April pension.

“That small money is important to us. Timely payment is so paramount to us because we don’t want to beg from our children.”

George Ssemakula, 63, who worked as health inspector, concurred. “Last month, I checked, but there was nothing.

“If the Government has released the money, then it is good news. We always get the money, but it delays. If the Government can work on the delays, we shall be grateful.

 “That is the money we, the old people, bank on to settle a number of things, including debts,” he said.
 

UGANDA:  BUKADDE MAGEZI FFENNA TUKULAKULANE ASSOCIATION.

Ebigendererwa okutukirizibwa mu kibiina kino:

 

Okulaba nga obuvunanyizibwa bwe ddembe lyonna eryabantu bannansi abakadde litukirizibwa Okusobola okutukiriza obuntu-bulamu obwa bantu.

 

Okuvumirira okujjawo nokwanjala ensonga zonnna ezireeta okutwala mumaaso obulumi nokwonona eddembe lya bantu abakadde.

 

Okuyingirira nokuyamba abantu abakadde munsonga zabwe bwezibeera mu kooti za mateeka, mumalwaliro oba mukulabirirwa, mubulema ne mumakomera nga basibiddwa.

 

Okufuba okumanyisa nokukutiira banansi ne governmenti zonna okutwala obuvunanyizibwa bwe wabawo okwonona eddembe lyabantu abakadde.

 

Okuyita nobuvumu wabewo ekitekwa okukolebwa ekyamanyi okulongosa embera nokugikuuma nga nnungamu, eya Bantu Abakadde. Ensonga eno oluvanyuma yejja okukuuma abantu bonna abensi eno nokuberawo kwabwe.

 

Okuwa amagezi kukisanidde okukolebwa okutekawo okukolagana nensi zonna endala. Okutekamu amanyi kubuli nsonda zonna ezisoboka munsi yonna.

Okunyumya kwa Member:

Nze nga omu kubanange mukibiina kino njagala okukubira omulanga abantu ba Uganda ate ne Buganda okweyunira ekibiina kino okubeera ba member be kibiina kino.

Tofayo obanga oli muvubuka atanaba kuyitibwa mukadde. Kino ekibiina kikwetaga. Tuwulidde nti omukulembeze wa Uganda ye tayagala kuyitibwa mukadde ate nga emyaka gye egyobukadde gyatuuka dda. Munsi zebweru nyingi obukadde butandika ku myaka 50. Ekirese obuzibu munsi zino kwekusanga nga kifuse kizibu okulabirira abakadde abeyongedde okuba abangi mpozzi nokusinga abavubuka abakozi. Kubanga era okutuka okukaddiwa otekwa okuba nga obadde okola nga era welabirira nga abavubuka nabo bwebakola oluvanyuma notuuka emyaka emizibu nga tokyasobola kwelabirira ekimala. Wano mu nsi yaffe Uganda tugambe nti omukadde yabeera ne myaka 70 nokweyongerayo? Yo governmenti ya Uganda evuddeyo negamba nti eyagala kuyamba omukadde naye ate omukulembeze ye nagamba nti omukadde asobola okukola nokwelabirira nga naye bwakola ku myaka gyaliko 70. Kakati no nga ebizibu byaffe ffenna abantu abazaalibwa, netwavula, netutambula, netuyiga amagezi agokwebezawo munsi eno, ate oluvanyuma netukaddiwa nokufa netufa, netufuuka ekintu ekirala(afudde). Ekibiina kino mukijjumbire. Tukolaganire wamu. Tujja kufuna enkola etusanidde mumagezi gaffe okulaba nga tutwaliriza obulamu bwaffe mukuwangala. Omutonzi atuwa buwi kirabo kya bulamu munsi eno obanga tuli bato, bavubuka, bakulu oba bakadde.

Mwebale nyo kumpa kukiseera kyammwe okusoma website yaffe eno.

Nze muganda wammwe,

Paul,

Owekika kye nkima, wano mu nsi Buganda, eya Uganda.

Nyama ntono okayana ekuli munkwawa! Mwebale omukwano ogwo banyabo ba Buganda nabazadde mwenna. 

Abakadde be Buganda

English translation:

 A member's conversation:

As one of the members in this association, I wish to recommend all the people to join this association so that we can work together in the development of the various projects under this organization.

It does not matter whether you are very young or you are an energetic youth. Your membership is very much required. Recently we heard from the President of Uganda that he does not want to be branded an old man.  

That is very unfortunate but in many countries old age starts at 50 years old. Presently in most countries these days, there are many old age citizens probably much more than the youth of working age. That is why it is becoming ever difficult for most governments in their various capacities to assist the elderly of these countries.

The elderly have been young of recent and had been working hard for themselves to look after their lives and that of their families until they have sunccumbed to the inevitable problems of old age.

In this country, old age is jokingly taken as 70 years old and the government of the day seems to have come out to say that old people are able to work for themselves as it is with so many of the government officials who are past the age of 70 years old and are busy working well for the government.

As life goes on by in a life circle, and one is a baby, and then one learns to crawl, and walk and then one becomes a youth and starts to fend for one self, gradually one has got to become old and die. Let us join this association with all the determination to help the elderly as best as we can.

By joining we are trying to make the point that we are sitting together as a team to try and solve some of the immense problems facing the elderly on the continent of Africa.

Yours faithfully,

Paul,

Of the Monkey clan in the State of Buganda and Uganda.

Govt of Uganda withdraws retirement Bill from Parliament. 

By Yasiin Mugerwa

 

Posted  Saturday, October 11  2014

The Uganda Parliament of 50 years

The Bill was first tabled in the previous Parliament and had never been withdrawn yet the government brought another draft in the current Parliament

The Parliament of Uganda.

Government on Wednesday withdrew the Retirement Benefits Sector Liberalisation Bill 2011 from Parliament and admitted “duplicating” issues in the disputed law that seeks to restructure the pension sector.

It emerged that ministry of Finance officials, either “knowingly or unknowingly” brought two Bills on pension reforms to Parliament.

The MPs said this “serious omission” misled the Parliament’s Finance Committee and the Speaker to proceed on a wrong Bill.

The Bill was read for the first time on September 19 and referred to the committee for further scrutiny.

This same Bill was first tabled in the previous Parliament and had never been withdrawn yet the government brought another draft in the current Parliament.

In the process of scrutinising the proposed pension reforms, the Finance Committee wrote to the Speaker on July 7 citing the anomalies.

The Speaker wrote back to the committee on July 27 ordering the government to withdraw the Bill.

“We apologised to the Speaker, to the Finance Committee…for duplicating the bill,” Mr Fred Omach, the junior Finance minister (General Duties) said and sought leave of Parliament to officially withdraw the Bill. The stalled pension reforms seek to end the National Social Security Fund’s monopoly and open up the sector to competition.

MPs are divided on how the proposed pension sector reforms should deal with NSSF after the government presented the planned legislation to the Finance Committee in September last year.

While many MPs admitted they had not yet “internalised” the Bill in 2010, those who had ‘perused’ opposed the proposal to give NSSF a transition of five years before the Fund joins other private players in a liberalised market.

ymugerwa@ug.nationmedia.com

Ezadde lituuse abaana 17:

Ogumu ku mirimu gye nsigazza ku nsi kuzaala kati ndi mu baana 17

Kampala, Uganda.

Mar 08, 2015


WALAKKIRA Nyanzi sipiika w’eggombolola y’e Makindye okuzaala abaana okujjuza ekika kimusuza akukunadde nga lumonde mu kikata. Ali mu bulumi olw’okulemwa okutuukiriza olubimbi lwe yeesalira okuzaala abaana 20 mu myaka ena n’asobola kufuna 17 bokka. “Ekinnuma njagala bwe mpeze emyaka 45 nga nnina abaana 100 naye kati mpezezza emyaka 37 ndi mu baana 17 bokka. 

Walakira mutabani w’abagenzi Maj. Emannuel Nyanzi Walakira ne Capt. Mary Nakiganda abaabeeran¬ga e Namasuba.

Agamba nti kitaabwe yalina abaana abasoba mu 30 naye bazze bafa nga kati basigadde abaana basatu bokka era bonna balwana okulaba nga baweza ekika. Mukulu waabwe Michael Ddumba agamba nti, awezezza abaana 50 ne Ismail John Bugembe ali mu 20 naye luno lubimbi lwe okuyisa bakulu be ekika kiwere. Omwana we eyasooka yamufuna mu 2007 nga Justine Nabbanja ye yamuzaala.

Walakkira agamba nti, azadde mu bakyala ab’enjawulo wakati wa 2007 ne 2015 era bonna abamanyi. 
Agamba omukyala gwe yasooka okuwasa baafuna obutakkaanya ne baawukana wabula Mukama n’amuwa omulala gw’agamba nti Katonda yamuwa kirabo kubanga ono ayagala buli mwana era olumutegeeza nti, yazadde ng’amugamba amuleete awaka amulere baweze ekika.

The old people's social protection charter: Uganda makes progress, but challenges persist

Written by Edward Ssekika

The 82-year-old is a resident of Kyesiga, a suburb of Hoima municipality, Hoima district. Though he is too old for any kind of work, he still meets his basics of life.

“I am a pensioner,” he says adding: “My pension money is enough to cater for basic needs.” Much as he could not disclose his monthly pension, Bahemirwa even uses part of it to pay tuition fees for one of his granddaughters.

“This little pension money is very important, especially when you are aged,” he narrates. Without pension, he says, he could possibly either be depending on his children or living a destitute life. In addition to a monthly pension, he also received gratuity that he used to set up a small cattle farm, where he further earns money.

Bahemirwa is one of a few Ugandans who enjoy social protection on retirement or when they can longer work. The 52-year-old Jackson Irumba, on the other hand, was sent into early retirement due to health complications. He was a primary school teacher in a privately-run school in Nyamarunda trading centre, Kibaale district.

In his energetic days, Irumba planted three acres of coffee and an acre of bananas for local brew as ‘an insurance’ of where he would get income in old age. However, both the bananas and coffee were attacked and wiped out by banana bacterial wilt and coffee wilt respectively.

To make matters worse, he never made any savings for the future yet he was not a civil servant to qualify for government pension. “I normally receive financial support from my daughter who is a teacher,” he said. With no income of his own, and would therefore live a destitute live, if the daughter wasn’t offering a hand.

Many Ugandans face similar difficulties like Irumba. Majority work in the informal sector and when they cease to work either due to advanced age or other reasons, they fall back into a poverty trap, because while they worked, they never saved for their future. Therefore, they either depend on handouts from their immediate relatives or live destitute. That is why every person needs some kind of social protection.

SOCIAL PROTECTION

Irumba calls on government to also enroll him on the senior citizens grants to be able to earn an income. However, the senior citizens grants under Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE), is currently run only in 14 districts, where elder persons are given a monthly cash transfer of Shs 25,000. However, Kibaale is not one of them.

Even then, he may still not quality because the grants are available to persons above 60 years of age. Due to SAGE interventions, most Ugandans look at social protection in terms of ‘cash transfers’ to senior citizens grants. However, Stephen Kasaija, the head of Social Protection Secretariat in the ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, says social protection is much broader than cash transfers.

Social protection, Kasaija explains, is any public or private interventions that address issues of risk and vulnerabilities that occur in the life cycle of every individual. It includes protection of orphans and other vulnerable children, the disabled, youth, women, unemployed and elder persons, among others. Social protection in Uganda is enshrined in the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy in the constitution.

But how is the country faring on the social protection front? Kasaija believes that Uganda is making serious inroads in as far as social protection is concerned, though there is still a lot to do. “We now have a draft policy in place that looks at social protection broadly,” he said. The draft policy outlines two key interventions to social protection; namely, social security and social care.

Social security, he says, includes contributory schemes for those employed in salaried jobs in the private sector. Such schemes include mandatory contributory schemes for retirement like National Social Security Fund (NSSF) where employers and employees save 15 per cent of one’s monthly salary to the fund for the future, and insurance, among others.

Besides contributory schemes, there are also non-contributory schemes like government pension where civil servants who qualify earn gratuity and a monthly pension and cash transfers schemes like senior citizens grants and others.

SOCIAL CARE

Beside social security, the policy also identifies social care as another strategic component of social protection. Social care involves direct interventions like providing a home and other basics to orphaned or abandoned children, the extremely disabled or extremely old and vulnerable elders.

However, government has not invested a lot in social protection, leaving the bulk of the interventions to non-government organisations (NGOs) that have built foster homes for abandoned children and others.

“At the moment, the country has only one government-run reception centre in Naguru for abandoned children and the rest are handled by NGOs without government support. But this is a responsibility of government. We need more reception centers in the country,” he says.

NARROW CATCHEMENT

A 2014 report authored by the World Bank titled Reducing Old Age and Economic Vulnerabilities:  Why Uganda Should Improve Its Pension System”, reveals that Uganda’s work force is estimated to be 15 million people. However, only 2.5 million are employed in the formal wage-paying jobs.

Out of the 15 million workforce in the country, Kasaija says, only 750,000 save for their future with NSSF while only 250,000 civil servants on government payroll are potential pensioners and only 50,000 are on government pension. These statistics reveal that less than one million Ugandans in formal employment are eligible for retirement benefits.

The report calls for improved pension system even for those in the informal sector to help reduce old-age vulnerabilities, promote social transformation and accelerate economic development.

In a bid to widen the catchment area, government enacted the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) Act as an important step towards liberalization the pensions sector and making it user-friendly.

David Nyakundi, the Chief Executive Officer of URBRA, said the Authority has so far made a number of regulations under the act in execution of its mandate. The authority also licenses and supervises other employer or institution-based pension schemes, where employer helps employees save for their retirement.

“So far, we have 92 [retirement benefits schemes] schemes both private and public,” he said. He observes that all these schemes have a narrow catchment area.

“Currently the system is designed for people assumed to be earning monthly salary. It is a colonial-designed sector that left out the informal sector,” he says.
“Now that we have the huge and powerful informal sector reality, we need to design a retirement benefit scheme that incorporates them,” he argues. 

REFORM GOVERNMENT PENSION 

Under government pension scheme, civil servants don’t contribute to their pension and gratuity and running such a scheme is costly to the taxpayers. Dan Ngabirano, a lecturer of law at Makerere University, argues: “So, there is that whole burden on government and which the government will not sustain because as the population is increasingly becoming healthier, people live longer and as such you will have more people on pension,” he said.

Kasaija observes that in future the government pension may be too huge for government and, therefore, needs to be reformed. He wants it to be made contributory, so that civil servants just like employees in the private sector, contribute towards their pension.

“We are trying to make it also contributory. We need to harmonize the pension system and make government pension contributory like in the private sector,” he argues.

Kasaija also argues that contributions to NSSF and other retirement benefits funds should not be rigid. For instance, these schemes should allow a member to withdraw a certain percentage in case he or she becomes temporarily unemployed as he or she looks for another job or be able to use the savings as a mortgage.

Jim Yong Kim, World Bank president, in a statement issued on June 30, 2015, called for universal social protection. He said social protection is going to be a strong pillar in the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  He calls on countries, Uganda inclusive, to implement social protection laws and policies to achieve substantially for the poor and vulnerable.

MINIMUM WAGE

Another tool of social protection the country is looking at is the recently-reconstituted Minimum Wages Advisory Board. Cabinet approved the board recently. The board, headed by former secretary to the treasury Chris Kassami, is expected to undertake a comprehensive study on the wage trends in different sectors of the economy by analyzing employment trends, the cost of living, and wage trends according to professions in different countries.

In a paper titled Minimum Wage in Uganda: An Urgent Call authored by Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES), an international NGO, observes that a minimum wage is first and foremost a basic social protection floor to guarantee a basic survival standard in a given society.

“Many Ugandans are working, but their earnings are too meagre to lift them out of poverty. They are known as working poor, who need protection,” the report reads.

Uganda last set a minimum wage of Shs 6,000(2 dollars) per month in 1984, which is currently the minimum wage. The Minimum Wage Advisory Board in 1995 recommended it be revised to Shs 75,000 monthly for unskilled workers, but the recommended was never adopted. 

ssekika@observer.ug

A warning has been put out concerning the very high cost of wages for the Members of Parliament in Uganda:

By Billy Rwothungeyo

Posted on 8th March 2016

Yiga (R) flanked by Imelda Namagga the senior

program officer at Uganda Debt Network during the

press briefing.

Photo by Agnes Nantambi

The increasing weight of parliamentarians’ wage bill is becoming too big a burden that it will break the backs of tax payers sooner than later, the Uganda Debt Network (UDN) has warned.

The number of MPs has increased from 365 in the ninth parliament to 458 in the 10thparliament due to the newly created constituencies.

“Holding other factors constant, the wage bill for parliamentarians will be over sh11b per month.

This will be a big burden on the tax payers as the cost of public administration is too high and unsustainable with time,” said Iga Christopher, a board member of the Uganda Debt Network.

Speaking a press on Sunday at UDN offices in Kampala, Yiga reasoned that the implications of this rising wage bill could lead to more government borrowing.

“While borrowing is not a problem per se, what do we say of the Uganda case, for instance, where external borrowing increased by 82% between FY 2014/15 and FY 2013/14? Over a longer horizon, total external debt for Uganda was said to be $6.27b at the end of February 2015, compared to $0.99b in 2006.”

Julius Kapwepwe Mishambi, director of programmes at UDN slammed the ninth parliament—and urged MPs in the upcoming parliament to justify their obese wages by getting to work.

“Even at the 11th hour, the ninth parliament did not perform. We have about 36 reports that have not been tackled; we have about 40 petitions from across Uganda that has not been handled. We have a number of other bills that are lying idle in the 9th parliament,” he said.