There are numerous traders operating businesses at Kasenyi landing site, on Lake Victoria. Their wooden and metallic structures are placed about 50 metres into where the lake waters used to be. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Sep 23 2014 (IPS)

Over the years, Cassius Ntege, a fisherman from Kasenyi landing site on the Ugandan side of Lake Victoria, has observed the waters of the lake receding. And as one of the many who depend on the lake for their livelihoods, he has had to endure the disastrous consequences of the depleting lake.

Ntege told IPS that he first started going to the lake as teenager to fetch water for domestic use, then as a fisherman, and now as vice chairperson of the beach management unit — a body set up by the government to curb illegal fishing and stop depletion of fish stocks from the lake.

But the declining water levels of Lake Victoria have become his daily concern.Expected changes of plus or minus 10 percent from present annual rainfall totals may seem minimal, but it’s the shift in water patterns that are of concern.

“Look, where that wooden kiosk is placed was previously centre of the lake and now traders have put shops and food kiosks there,” said Ntege as he pointed to the wooden and metallic structures placed about 50 metres into where the lake waters used to be.

There are many traders operating businesses at Kasenyi landing site, which lies about 30 km from the country’s capital, Kampala. And for them, a drop in water levels means additional land to set up shop.

Ntege, like many fishermen here, believes the decline in Lake Victoria’s water levels is because of the effect of wind blowing across the waters from the land — a phenomenon known locally as “Muguundu”.

But climate experts state in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report that a rise in global temperature is what is affecting rainfall patterns over Lake Victoria — and the worst is yet to come.

The report states that increased warming in the western Indian Ocean and precipitation over the ocean system will bring about climate extremes in East Africa and increase precipitation during the short rainy season.

Professor Hannes Rautenbach from the University of Pretoria, and one of the authors of the report, told IPS that temperatures are projected to rise by +2°C in the next 50 years, and by +2.5°C in about 80 years. This, he said, would alter rainfall patterns over Africa’s biggest fresh water lake that is shared by the East African countries of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania.

Changes in sea surface temperatures in distant tropical oceans will strongly influence annual rainfall amounts and timing, Rautenbach said. He said expected changes of plus or minus 10 percent from present annual rainfall totals may seem minimal, but it’s the shift in water patterns that are of concern.

“The rain belt over Uganda will shift, in that areas like in the Northwest and Western regions, which have been receiving minimal rains, will receive more rains compared to the Lake Victoria region,” Rautenbach explained.

Lake Victoria, which has been receiving high volumes of rainfall, will experience a 20 percent drop in rainfall from present. This, coupled with evaporation due to an anticipated temperature rise of about 1°C over Lake Victoria, will cause a drop in water levels very soon.

East Africa is also projected to experience a change in mean annual precipitation. This will result in increased rainfall over the short September to November rainy season and it will mean that the long rainy season, which takes place between March and May, will reduce. This will negatively impact Uganda’s farmers particularly those in in areas were vital crops such as coffee, tea, cotton and maize are being grown.

Youba Sokona, chair of the IPCC Working Group III that looked at possible mitigation measures, advised that the Uganda government invest in research for varieties to withstand the changing climate.

“Crops varieties as we know them today could not withstand the change and Uganda like other East African governments has no option but to race against time and fund research into new varieties,” said Sokona.

The Ugandan government, however, say they are taking the warning seriously and are developing strategic interventions to mitigate the effects.

Dr. Anuciata Hakuza of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, said strategic interventions include promoting and encouraging highly adaptive and productive crop varieties and cultivars in drought-prone, flood-prone and rain-fed crop farming systems.

She said other adaptation strategies that the government was working on include highly adaptive and productive livestock breeds, conservation agriculture and ecologically compatible cropping systems to increase resilience to the impact of climate change.

Hakuza said the government was also promoting sustainable management of rangelands and pastures through integrated rangeland management.

Uganda’s climate change policy also provides support for community-based adaptation strategies.

Dr. Chebet Maikut, one of Uganda’s negotiators to the Conference of the Parties, told IPS that there are plans to develop innovative insurance schemes, such as low-premium micro-insurance policies, and low-interest credit facilities to insure farmers against crop failure and livestock loss due to droughts, pests, floods and other weather-related events.

“Traditional finance institutions have already been reluctant to fund farming so as the risks grow even further due to climate change there will be need to develop insurance polices,” he said.

Uganda also plans to promote irrigated agriculture, and improved post-harvest handling, storage and value-addition in order to mitigate rising climate-related losses and to improve food security and household incomes.

Maikut argued that all these plans require huge investments. He said in addition to the funds that Uganda was making available out of its national budget, developed countries should also be willing to make contributions.

Edited by: Nalisha Adams

This is part of a series sponsored by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN).

Female genital mutilation (FGM) traditional surgeon in Kapchorwa, Uganda speaking to a reporter. The women in this area are being trained by civil society organisation REACH in how to educate people to stop the practice. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Jun 20 2014 (IPS)

Could it be possible that if women in Africa had access to water, it could save them from undergoing the harmful practice of female genital mutilation (FGM)? It seems that according to yet-to-be released research by Ugandan-based Gwada Ogot Tao, FGM and other forms of circumcision in Africa could be linked to water.

Gwada, who conducted research among 20 ethnic groups across Africa, including Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, and South Africa, says that ethnic communities that practice FGM in Africa can be found in areas where the water supply is problematic.

Gwada found that in Kenya, for example, only three of the East African nation’s 63 ethnic groups did not practice any form of circumcision. And these three communities were found in the Rift Valley region, where there are water bodies like lakes and rivers.

The blue lines represent major rivers in Africa with the red circles showing areas where FGM is prevalent. Courtesy: Gwada Ogot Tao

He believes that FGM has become a prevalent cultural practice as a consequence of a lack of water.

FGM involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice, normally conducted by traditional surgeons, causes severe bleeding and is linked to many health issues, including cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications during childbirth.

It’s outlawed in many countries and the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling upon member states, civil society and all stakeholders to take concrete actions towards its elimination, yet the practice persists. The U.N. predicts that some 86 million young girls worldwide are likely to undergo the procedure in one form or the other by 2030 if current trends continue.

Gwada was commissioned by a local consortium the Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) that sought to answer governance issues among communities that circumcise and those that don’t. In Kenya, communities that circumcise believe that those that don’t are not capable of leading and this has raised governance issues. Gwada admits he made the discovery by accident.

But he says it’s no surprise that intervention strategies to stop the practice aren’t working because the wrong policies have been employed.

“Every thing is wrong, the policies are wrong, legislation is wrong because they were not informed by what made the communities start the practice in the first place,” Gwada tells IPS.

His research has not been made public but was shared recently with selected stake holders ahead of release.

Caroline Sekyewa the programme coordinator of DanChurchAid, says the research finding is convincing because in the communities that practice FGM, a girl who has gone through the ritual is regarded as “clean”. DanChurchAid is an international NGO that runs education programmes in two communities that practice FGM in Uganda — the Pokot community in Karamoja region, northeastern Uganda and the Sabiny community, who are found on on the foothills of mountain Elgon.

“Its may not necessarily mean that the provision of water is the solution to FGM, largely because culture has hijacked the practice, but the this could inform the intervention strategies towards its elimination,” Sekyewa tells IPS.

She says the organisation will also target policy makers to provide water in the affected areas. In Pokot, a region where FGM is rampant, women walk several kilometres to fetch water and the situation is complicated with insecurity caused by armed cattle rustlers.

An underground water aquaffer has been discovered in the Turkana region on the other side of Kenya, which borders the Pokot. Sekyewa says such a water resource, shared by the border communities, could solve the problem.

Beatrice Chelangat is an ethnic Sabiny from Kapchorwa district of Uganda, close to Kenya’s Turkana region, who has defied the dictates of her FGM-practicing culture and is campaigning against it. Chelangat’s works with civil society organisation, REACH, which conducts sensitisation campaigns about the dangers of FGM.

“There is a common belief among the Dodoma community of Kenya that a woman can catch Candidiasis [yeast infection] and other forms of diseases if they are not cut,” Chelangat tells IPS.

She says the research could be a new weapon in the fight against FGM.

Gwada agrees: “This new finding is going to compel a review of the understanding of the FGM procedures and intervention strategies including policies and legislation.”

Efforts to establish water as an agenda item in its own right in climate change negotiations are gaining momentum in Durban, South Africa. Water experts say doing this will lead to a greater focus on developing policy, and attract more resources into the water sector through adaptation programmes.

Access to water is an urgent issue here in the Southern Africa region. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

“For every one of us, the first thing you use when you wake up in the morning is water, and when we are going to bed, it is water. Yet, it’s taken for granted,” says Chris Moseki, research manager at the Water Research Commission (WRC) in South Africa. WRC is a member of the Global Water Partnership (GWP) – a global alliance of organisations working on water issues.

Access to water is an urgent issue here in the Southern Africa region, where nearly 100 million people lack adequate access to water. Modelling by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa shows the region will become hotter and drier over the next 50 to 100 years, putting farms, industry, domestic water supply and natural ecosystems at risk.

International water experts and policy makers are concerned that planning for changes to water availability is not getting the prominence it deserves. Bai-Mass Taal, the Executive Secretary of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), says they are working to raise the profile of water within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“We are saying to the parties, look: we appreciate what you are doing in other sectors, but without addressing water directly, all of that will be in vain,” says Taal.

At this point, water issues are being discussed by treaty negotiators as part of wider planning, prioritising and implementing of adaptation to a changing climate.

Dr. Ania Grobicki, GWP Executive Secretary, says that with growing numbers of countries expected to experience water scarcity, the current position of water in climate talks is inadequate.

“The GDP of many countries in the least developed countries is dependent on water. More than 50 percent of food for the world will come from Africa in the future, and this is dependent on availability of water,” she says. “That is why this discussion should go beyond where it’s now.”

More than 70 percent of the Southern African Development Community’s population depends directly on farming, overwhelmingly on rain-fed agriculture. The CSIR’s projections are among many drawing attention to how predicted changes to rainfall, limited resources for adaptation and a lack of institutions and capacity to regulate river and stream flow will leave people in Southern Africa and across the continent extremely vulnerable.

Similar challenges are predicted not only for Africa, but across the world as weather patterns change, but Africa’s lack of irrigation and other infrastructure is a factor that magnifies the need for urgent intervention.

Africa’s response

As rainfall patterns change, Africa is facing major crises. Millions faced famine in Niger and Mali in 2010 after drought hit farmers and herders. This year, the Horn of Africa has been facing its worst drought in 50 years and millions are suffering from hunger. According to the U.N. World Food Programme, some 12.3 million people in the Horn are in need of emergency assistance.

Rhoda Peace, the African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, points out that when African leaders talk about climate change; they invariably talk about droughts and floods’, showing that water is already a high priority.

In 2008, African heads of state agreed to make water and sanitation a priority.

“Leaders agreed to allocate at least 0.5 percent of their national budget to water,” says Peace. “Now whether that is actually the case is another story, but some countries are doing very well and may reach their targets.”

Providing adequate access to water across Africa will cost billions of dollars. And for the many African governments which are failing to honour earlier commitments will not be able to raise the required amounts without support.

Simon Thuo, the Eastern Africa coordinator for GWP, says he is surprised that despite the clear need, even the African negotiating group’s proposals mention water only in passing. Along with other experts, he believes that if climate negotiations address management of this essential commodity specifically, it will not receive the necessary attention and funding.

Deaths from natural disasters occur much more in developing countries. Credit: Andrew Green/IPS

By - - and Joshua Kyalimpa
DURBAN, South Africa, Nov 30 2011 (IPS)

Managing the impact of increased disasters due to climate change will only be possible if such efforts are led by local communities, say non-governmental organisations working in climate change.

Deaths from natural disasters occur much more in developing countries. Credit: Andrew Green/IPS

A deal on climate change at Durban might still be a far-fetched dream, but climate change-related disasters are already taking a toll around the globe.

According to a report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), increases in some extreme weather and climate events have already been observed and further increases are projected over the 21st century.

The Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, evaluates the role of climate change in altering characteristics of extreme events. It assesses experience with a wide range of options used by institutions, organizations, and communities to reduce exposure and vulnerability, and improve resilience, to climate extremes.

Speaking at a press conference at United Nations 17th Conference of the Parties in Durban, South Africa, IPCC executive director Dr. Kristie Ebi highlighted that while total economic losses from natural disasters could be high in developed countries; economic losses expressed as a proportion of GDP could be higher in developing countries.

Ebi says the IPCC will soon start meeting policy makers and politicians around the world to urge them take up measures for disaster reduction: “We are committed to outreach events over the coming months with a hope that politicians and policy makers will be encouraged to advance climate change adaptation.”

According to the IPCC report, deaths from natural disasters occur much more in developing countries. Information obtained from 1970 to 2008 by the experts’ shows that more than 95 percent of deaths from natural disasters were in developing countries.

Most governments have, however, not put in place policies for disaster risk reduction. Hopkins says governments, especially those in Africa, have to take to protect people and their property.

“People have to be given the right information because information on disaster reduction remains at the top and often the affected people don’t even get it,” says Hopkins

Professor Richard Klein, of the Stockholm Environment Institute and a member of the international panel of experts, says people actually don’t have to rely on international agreements.

“Local actions by the people need to be supported because they are the most vulnerable and are more likely to put effort into adaptation measures,” says Klein.

Klein says risk management works best when tailored to local circumstances.

But Nurudeen Adebola Olanrewaju of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, a Nigeria- based policy centre, says that while the report talks about what people are already experiencing, more was needed to drive action.

“Risk management requires actions, ranging from improving infrastructure to building individual and institutional capacity, in order to reduce risk and respond to disasters but these require money which politician must make available,” says Olanrewaju.

A separate report released by the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), the technical arm of the Climate for Development in Africa programme, based at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa shows that of the 29.2 billion dollars pledged since 2009, only between 2.8 and 7.0 billion dollars is “new” (i.e. not previously pledged).

The total amount of funds that are both “new and additional” (i.e. on top of aid budgets) would be less than 2 billion dollars. While 97 percent of the promised 30 billion dollars has been pledged, only 45 percent has been “committed”, 33 percent has been “allocated” and only about 7 percent has been “disbursed”.

The report released today on the sidelines of the climate talks here in Durban finds that there are many lessons to be learnt from the current “fast start finance” system. This system, agreed at the Copenhagen climate conference, was supposed to deliver 30 billion dollars in “new and additional” funding to developing countries.

Launching the report, Yacob Mulugetta, senior energy and climate specialist at the ACPC said: “The experience with the ‘fast-start’ pledges and discussions of the 100 billion dollars promise suggests that the adequacy and predictability of climate finance may remain very low if the future climate finance architecture reflects current practice.”

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Jul 15 2011 (IPS)

In pharmacies in the heart of Kampala men and women line up to buy drugs that you usually need a prescription for, like Coartem, a drug used to treat malaria.

Edna Nakyanzi had malaria symptoms, so she bought the antimalarial drug, Fansidar, without a prescription. According to Dr. Emmanuel Semugabi of Hope Clinic, Fansidar should only be prescribed to patients after the first line treatment of Coartem fails.

But Nakyanzi said that she prefers this drug because she has to take fewer doses of it. “I only take three tablets of Fansidar and go to bed and the next day I am fine. But with Coartem you have to swallow many tablets and I hate that,” said Nakyanzi.

But Nakyanzi’s story is a common one. In Uganda patients can easily buy drugs you normally need a prescription for over the counter as government has been lax in stopping the illegal practice. Under the Pharmacy and Drugs Act of 1970 sale of prescription drugs over the counter is prohibited. Those doing so could loose their pharmacy license and also face a jail term. While National Drug Authority inspectors are mandated to regulate this, they have never been effective.

And increasingly people are resorting to self-medication to treat themselves for malaria and other ailments, either to save the money they will have to spend on costly doctors fees, or because some areas lack health officers.

Thelma, another advocate of self-medication, told IPS she regrets spending the equivalent of 10 dollars in consultation fees when she was ill recently because doctors could not adequately diagnose what was wrong with her.

“They told me that I was suffering from fatigue because of over work and advised me to rest and gave me some painkillers. Imagine, I spent close to two hours there after a day at work,” Thelma said. The Uganda Medical Association warns that this commonplace unregulated self-medication is responsible for growing drug resistance in the country.

“Some drugs, like antibiotics, are (bought over) the counter and abused, which causes serious problems. Really those loopholes should be checked,” said Dr. Margaret Mungherera president of the Uganda Medical Association and a member of the Medical Council.

In many cases patients use strong combinations of drugs for minor illnesses, sometimes drugs are taken in inappropriate doses and sometimes the incorrect drugs are used.

Dr. Peter Langi of the malaria control unit at the Mulago National Referral hospital said self-medication is one of the reasons why the fight against malaria has not succeeded.

“When people self-medicate, they fail to take the adequate doses they need to cure malaria, which causes some to develop resistance against the drugs and hence (results in) their eventual death,” said Langi.

A report by the ministry of health says that in some districts resistance to malaria treatment is more than 60 percent. However, the national average of resistance to malaria treatment stands at 11.7 percent.

Aggrey Mubaale said he often suffers from bouts of malaria but swallows several doses of antimalarial tablets without going to a doctor.

“When I was still studying I would carry some antimalarial tablets just in case and still do, even after I left school. It (taking antimalarial tablets) has become a part of me,” said Mubaale.

Mungherera said her association has now teamed up with the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda, the National Drug Authority and the Association of Nurses and Midwives to address the growing problem. They intend to inspect pharmacies to find those that are dispensing prescription drugs over the counter. Those found to be doing so will have their licenses withdrawn or could face arrest.

“Most of the people dispensing medicine (in) most pharmacies are not trained and will not insist on getting a prescription. In fact, some cannot even read or understand the documents,” said Mungherera.

But this does not mean that all pharmacies in Uganda sell prescription medication over the counter. John Mukama, a dispenser at a pharmacy in Kampala, insists they do not sell prescription drugs to people without a doctor’s prescription.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA
, Jun 21 2011 (IPS)

The nurse at Najembe Health Centre in Buikwe district says the centre’s supply of malaria drugs will be finished in two days. A malaria epidemic has hit the area and the demand for the drugs is high. But the centre, which serves the entire sub-county, will have to wait up to six weeks before their supply will be replenished.

The health centre gets supplies from the Kawolo district referral hospital every two months and last received supplies at the end of May. The next supply will only be delivered at the end of July. Meanwhile, staff from the centre cannot make a special request to either the district hospital or the National Medical Stores for drugs that are in short supply. So those patients in need of anti-malarial drugs will have to go without or will have to privately purchase the drugs.

“They give us the same quantities of drugs irrespective of the needs and this means we are always running out of some drugs, while other drugs expire because nobody is using them,” says the nurse who prefers not to be named.

The Ugandan government changed the policy of distributing drugs to parish and sub-county health centres in 2009 by implementing a policy where the National Medical Stores decides what drugs to supply and in what quantities. (A parish health centre is a clinic that provides medical treatment for up to 12 villages.) Previously heads of these health centres requisitioned the drugs, depending on their needs. The National Medical Stores supply 70 percent of the drugs in public health centres and district health officials locally procure the remaining 30 percent.

Hamis Kaheru, spokesperson of the National Medical Stores, says the policy change was necessary because there was a lack of competent personnel at lower levels to handle the old system.

“Personnel at the health centres (at parish and sub-county level) had no capacity to ascertain their needs and were not sending their requests on time. In the end the National Medical Stores was not sending drugs on time and some items would be missing because they were omitted from the list,” Kaheru says. He adds that they have been reviewing the policy every six months and is convinced it is working.

But the system is not working according to Denis Kibira medicines advisor at the Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development (HEPS) a civil society organisation campaigning to stop the shortage of drugs. Kibira says the policy is wrong and should be reviewed.

“Drugs are out of stock most of the time and the moment people learn that some have been brought at their health centre they rush to get as much as possible to keep some for use during a shortage. This means the drugs will be always out of stock,” Kibira says. He says this is possible because most nurses at the parish and sub-county health centres do not test patients to identify their illnesses but instead treat them based on symptoms. He says most people fake symptoms to get the drugs that are in short supply.

Kibira says the HEPS have conducted research in at least 20 districts since government first revised the drug distribution system and found the system is not working, despite government’s assurances. At one health centre in Kayunga district villagers told IPS they did not have medicine for over two months and there was no nurse on duty.

Government implemented the current system in an attempt to reduce chronic shortages of essential medicines that were experienced by the parish and sub-country health centres from 2008 to 2009. Kibira, however, says those shortages were largely due to mismanagement of supplies, deficiencies in the procurement process and inadequate funding.

“We were under the impression that the original shortages were because of no money. Our expectation was that when the budget allocation to the National Medical Stores went up, the services would (improve). But what we are seeing is the reoccurrence of the disease we hoped to heal,” says Kibira.

In the 2009/2010 national budget the National Medical Stores received an allocation of almost 90 million dollars compared to a previous allocation of only 20 million dollars.

Kibira says with this kind of money the National Medical Stores should be in a position to supply vital drugs to health centres across the country without resorting to a policy change. Previously the National Medical Stores was not allocated funding through the national budget and would supply drugs on credit and then invoice the ministry of health and other health facilities for payment. This caused terrible delays.

But Kaheru says the policy has already been reviewed twice after consultations with the district medical officers, who should know the needs of their areas of jurisdiction.

“This policy solves more problems than it creates, the reason why drugs run out is because health officials at the lower levels are just giving people drugs under the clinical treatment based on symptoms and without testing. This (leads) to shortages and not because the policy is bad,” says Kaheru.

But HEPS have asked government to review the policy and increase funding. Currently government supplies about 400 dollars worth of drugs to each parish health centre monthly. Sub-county health centres receive about 800 dollars worth of drugs each.

Kibira says HEPS have met with ministry of health officials who have assured them that they will revert to the old system. The National Medical Stores, however, denies this will happen.

Meanwhile, the nurse at Najembe Health Centre has no option when the drugs run out. She will have to give her patients prescriptions for the anti-malarial drugs and hope that they will have the money to buy them.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa and Terna Gyuse
KAMPALA, Jun 14 2011 (IPS)

GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunisation, secured pledges of 4.3 billion dollars from donors in London on Jun. 13 with the aim of securing funding to ensure life-saving vaccinations for every child on the planet.

As many as two million children – overwhelmingly in low-income countries – die each year from diseases which could be prevented by vaccinations such as pneumonia and diarrhoea. GAVI’s programmes have already immunised well over a quarter million children in the past 10 years, and if the pledges from the London conference are honoured, the money will allow the alliance to reach a further 243 million by 2015.

Entering an age of immunisation

Thanks in large part to GAVI, the past decade has seen renewed attention to developing vaccines against diseases affecting the world’s poorest, including meningitis, pneumococcal disease and malaria.

Among the organisations whose investments have supported a breakthrough in prevention of one of the world’s most dangerous diseases is the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), a global programme of the independent non-governmental organisation PATH.

Malaria vaccines are a long-overdue means to prevent infection and work towards eradication of the disease. The eradication of malaria in the developed world has been cited as one reason developing a vaccine previously received little attention from pharmaceutical companies or government research facilities.

The debut of a first vaccine against malaria, for example, could now be less than five years away – final testing is under way in seven countries.

Yet developing an effective vaccine is only part of the challenge – effectively integrating it into public health will require careful planning and execution.

The recent history of Africa’s immunisation programmes – from the re-emergence of polio in West and Central Africa, to the persistence of meningitis and infant pneumonia – is littered with promising solutions that have failed to have the expected impact. Against a background of poverty and conflict, vaccination campaigns have been hampered by weak infrastructure, insufficient staff or funding, and even popular resistance to vaccinations.

Across the continent, there is new attention to the practical requirements of effective immunisation campaigns. Dr Seraphine Adibaku, head of Uganda’s malaria control programme, says his country has already started raising popular awareness of the coming availability of a malaria vaccine, with the most recent meeting of officials from the ministry of health and developers of the vaccine and other stake holders held in May.

“We are conscious not to cause excitement because it can lead to undesirable consequences but we have to tell the people that a vaccine could be here sooner than later,” says Adibaku.

Uganda is banking on using infrastructure like ware houses and refrigerators from the Uganda National Expanded Program on Immunisation, which is already in place and has been used on previous immunisation programmes, to roll out the malaria vaccine. Adibaku says training will be given to vaccinators on handling the new vaccine with funding from GAVI, all of which shall be in line with the national vaccination policy.

Adibaku has questions about the vaccine: “We do not know yet for how long the vaccine will offer protection. Do you get protection for six months, one year, or for the rest of your life? These are some on the questions not answered yet.”

He says for a vaccine to be effective, it should offer a high level of protection – between 80 and 90 percent – provide long-lasting resistance, and be affordable.

New resolve to get it right

The London conference on funding for vaccines is an important signal that the value of immunisation programmes is understood by both donors and governments seeking assistance.

“When GAVI got started, it was something that had never been tried before,” says Dr Helen Saxenian, from the Results for Development Institute.

“The idea was that prices would fall (once large-scale demand for vaccines was created) and so some countries would be able to afford them without assistance. GAVI quickly realised prices were not – and are not – falling fast enough, and realised the alliance would need to be involved with subsidising vaccines for a longer period of time.”

The reasons vaccine prices have not fallen include the cost and complexity of producing newer vaccines, as well as limited competition between a very small number of producers; but Saxenian points out that there have been some successes, notably for the rotavirus and pentavalent vaccines.

In 2008, GAVI introduced a requirement for recipients of assistance to co-finance the procurement of vaccines. The Results for Development Institute recently evaluated GAVI’s policy on co-payment, to assess the ability of countries receiving assistance to cover their share of the costs.

“The finding,” says Saxenian, “is that low-income countries will not be able to pay the full cost of vaccines any time soon. However co-payments (from national budgets) at 20 cents per dose would be affordable for almost all countries.”

Shared responsibility maximising impact

She argues that the co-financing requirement has been a valuable learning process for all involved. It has strengthened forward planning by national health ministries, communication between health ministries and finance ministers who must make appropriate and timely allocations from national budgets, and between various countries and the UNICEF Supply Division, through which all of Africa’s GAVI aid recipients purchase vaccines to meet their obligations.

Aid recipients have said that they prefer to contribute part of the cost of paying for vaccines, says Saxenian. “Immunisation managers would like to see national budgets for vaccinations grow. It’s a key priority for healthcare, and since one can’t assume that donor assistance will last forever, they would like to see national budgets for it grow,” she told IPS over the phone from the United States.

“A basic way of thinking about this is that if something is completely free, there’s not as much of a sense of ownership as when you’re paying for even part of it. When it’s free, then countries may think, I’ll take it, whether they’re ready or not to adopt it.”

Adibaku says that when one considers the cost of Malaria to the national economy, Uganda should be able to contribute to the vaccination programme but if it is within the range of what they have been spending on the disease

Alongside the pledges from public and private donors to support immunisation, developing countries also renewed their commitments to co-financing in London, with GAVI estimating their contribution will reach 100 million dollars a year by 2015.

Developing countries could be required to make substantial contributions towards a malaria vaccine but this could be a worthwhile investment considering the amount of money the economy looses because of their illness.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Apr 15 2011 (IPS)

The Ugandan opposition has announced it will continue protests against rising prices for fuel, food and other essential commodities, undeterred by violent police repression of the previous two days of action.

Opposition leader Kizza Besigye is led away from protest in Kampala. Credit: IPS

The “Walk to Work” protests against inflation are an ingenious twist on the protest march: the leaders of Ugandan opposition parties and civil society, united in a loose coalition called “Action 4 Change” announced they would be walking to work on Tuesday and Thursday, joining the hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens who must already walk to work – unable to afford other transport in an economy in the grip of fierce inflation. The pump price for petrol has risen by 50 percent since January, to 4,000 Uganda shillings per litre – about two U.S. dollars.

Protesters – who came out across the capital Kampala, as well as in the towns of Jinja, Mukono, Gulu and beyond – want the state to step in to control rising prices, but the government argues that the inflation are due to a global crisis beyond its control.

“How much are they spending on buying tear gas?” cried demonstrator Isa Kirunda a who bakes pans at a road side kiosk near Kampala and supporter of the opposition Democratic Party “Can’t that money be used to subsidise fuel? This government must go. We are fed up.”

Clashes with police

“We are fed up by this government,” shouted youth walking with the Forum for Democratic Change leader, just before they were confronted by police at Kasangati, not far from the residence of opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye, who finished as runner up to long-standing incumbent Yoweri Museveni in presidential elections in February.

Forty eight people were injured in clashes with police deployed against the protest, according to Uganda Red Cross spokesperson Catherine Ntabadde. Media reports said a four-month-old baby died after being exposed to tear gas,and an unidentified woman was badly wounded when she was hit directly by a tear gas canister, tearing her stomach open.

Besigye, who lost presidential elections to the long-standing incumbent, Yoweri Museveni in February, was told by stone-faced officers that orders from above were that he would not be allowed to proceed. He refused to yield, and sat down on the edge of the gutter by the roadside.

The opposition leader enjoys passionate support in his home district, and he was quickly surrounded by supporters to prevent his arrest. An eight-hour standoff began, which ended only with when police fired rubber bullets to break up the crowd; Besigye was among those injured, taken to the hospital after a shot struck him on his right hand.

Police spokeswoman Judith Nabakoba denied police were responsible for the opposition leader’s injury. “Besigye could have been injured him self with a sharp object during the confusion.”

Doctors who attended Besigye at Kololo hospital said the third finger of his right hand was shattered by a rubber bullet.

The protest and heavy police response shut down the city, with vehicles arriving from upcountry unable to enter the city for much of the day. The army was called in to reinforce police as large numbers of people joined the protests.

Activists critical

Human rights activist Dr Livingstone Sewanyana told IPS that government action against peaceful demonstrators was illegal and in contravention of the constitution.

“What is wrong with people walking to work? Does it call for army deployment and the mayhem that has wrecked the city?” asked Sewanyana, executive director of the Kampala-based Foundation for Human Rights Initiatives.

Lieutenant Dennis Omara, spokesperson for the military police a battle hardened army unit usually deployed to quell riots if the police are over powered says regular police  asked them for reinforcements after rowdy protesters began barricading roads and lighting fires.

“We were only a backup for police because the security situation was running out of hands. The roads are now clear and people can move in and out of the city the situation is under control,” Omara told a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Dr Aaron Mukwaya, a lecturer in the social sciences department at Makerere University, says the demonstrations show a growing determination to push for change, and even larger protests should be expected.

He cautioned that the Ugandan government is most likely to respond with an iron hand to break the protests, with the recent events in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and elsewhere in mind.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Dec 17 2010 (IPS)

Beatrice Namuzibira’s class of 90 pupils is not even considered a large one, compared to classes in other schools. Universal primary education has filled classrooms beyond capacity across Uganda, putting a strain on teachers.

Overcrowding in Ugandan Schools Credit: comms.wikimedia.org

“From the classroom, I would straight away start marking the books at home and later make the lesson plan for the next day; I had no time for my family.”

Under pressure, Namuzibira soon abandoned creating fresh lesson plans, a crucial aspect of her job. Over the years she came to rely on simply repeating the same lessons over and over.

But her teaching – and her home life – have received fresh inspiration, thanks to innovative online modules for teachers offered by the Teacher Education for Sub-Saharan Africa project (TESSA), a network created to support effective teaching in every subject area.

Richard Mutiibwa, the head teacher at Masajja Kibira Parents’ School on the outskirts of Kampala, says the modules have made teaching fun again. He told IPS that with the modules, teaching is like a game. Students are often guided to learning in the form of puzzles to be solved. “In one of the modules, numbers are also assigned different letters on the reverse side. When pupils put together the numbers, they find they have also made a word, such as POT,” says Mutiibwa. Doris Kaije, a lecturer at Kyambogo University and coordinator of TESSA in Uganda, says what Namuzibira was doing was wrong.

“A teacher has to be dynamic because the world is changing. You can’t keep repeating the same example you used last year. It simply can’t work because you will sound stale.”

Kaije says an ideal class should consist of 40 pupils or less but now that classes are overflowing, over-stretched teachers’ creativity is stifled.

Namuzibira still has to cope with the large classes but the TESSA modules save her precious time and allow her to come to work each day with an imaginative plan and fresh examples to use. Each TESSA lesson plan is a joint effort by different teachers who are members of the network.

The modules also help overcome a lack of books and other teaching aids at Namuzibira’s school, Buyala Church of Uganda Primary School.

“My school would never buy so many books but through the internet you can get several easy-to-read modules and it’s up to you to choose what to use,” says Namuzibira.

The project that Kaije is coordinating makes modules freely available on the internet. Kaije prints out some modules to distribute to teachers and participating schools because many still have no access to a computer or the internet.

The TESSA project was started by the Open University in the UK and is supported by Commonwealth of Learning. It is helping teachers in several African countries to share teaching modules and experiences online.

Kaije is convinced that the project is changing the job of teaching for the better.

“We started out with five coordinating primary teachers colleges and through those the project has been expanding to other schools where teachers are given printed teaching materials, although those in schools [with computer access] can readily get the materials online.”

She says the project has been embraced by teachers but limited resources means it cannot reach many who may wish to participate: If only schools could have computers and internet connection it would make our lives easier.”

The Open University gives Kaije $20,000 each year to print materials and conduct workshops with teachers but she would like to do much more.

Education consultant Fagil Monday worries that the modules could kill teachers’ own creativity if they are able to get everything they want on a virtual platter. But Doris Kaije says this fear is unfounded.

She says the online modules are not rigid and teachers are free to add their own thoughts and ideas, which means their own creativity can also be shared with others.

“What we are working on is to have an editor to ensure quality control of the content that gets onto the site.”

The TESSA modules are answering the challenges faced by many teachers in sub-Saharan Africa. For teachers like Beatrice Namuzibira, until now struggling outnumbered and alone in a rural classroom, TESSA links them with resources and a supportive community of colleagues across the continent.

Excerpt:

By Susan Anyangu-Amu and Joshua Kyalimpa
NAIROBI and KAMPALA, Sep 30 2010 (IPS)

Regina Namukasa has been twice dispossessed – first when her husband died and his clan left her out when dividing up his estate, and again when she was denied a share in her father’s land. But this time she’s fighting back.

When Namukasa’s husband died fifteen years ago, she did not struggle with his relatives for a share of his estate; she moved back to her own family’s home in central Uganda’s Luwero district with her three children to start a new life.

But when her father died, his sisters decided only her younger brother was entitled to a share in the land, and asked her to leave.

Uganda’s constitution grants women equality and legal protection against discriminatory traditional practice, but there have been no reforms to the law and the constitutional provision has had little impact.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, customary law is hindering efforts to reform land tenure and increase women’s access to and ownership of land.

“Far fewer women own land than men,” says Fatou Diop Sall, “and often have access to land only through male family members, marking them as dependent mothers, wives or daughters. In cases where couples divorce, or a man dies, women often run the risk of losing their entitlement to land.”

Sall is the coordinator of a research project on gender and society at the University of Gaston Berger in Senegal.

Sall says Senegalese law stipulates that men and women have equal access to land. But just as in Uganda, the reality on the ground is markedly different. Women’s representation on village land councils, for example, is limited; when it comes to inheritance, women are also often excluded.

“Despite what the law says, women are blocked from land control by cultural and economic factors. Most women do not have the financial might required to purchase a piece of land. When families are sharing out pieces of land, women are not allocated portions,” Sall says.

Namukasa’s grandfather originally gave the piece of land in question to her father, and her aunts ruled it belongs to the clan; having been married, they say, Namukasa must look to her deceased husband’s family.

“It’s because of culture which dictates that girls are worthless and should get their share where they get married,” Namukasa told IPS.

She has turned to the courts to defend her rights. “I approached the resident district commissioner for Nakawa, Fred Bamwine, who helped me by taking [the case] to court.”

Namukasa is a defiant exception to the rule in Uganda and elsewhere.

Magadelena Ngaiza, a senior lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, says ignorance of their rights is still blocking women from land ownership.

In her native Tanzania, legal provisions to address land rights inequalities between men and women have not yet had the desired effect.

“The majority of women are not aware of what the law states with regard to land ownership. They are not informed that they have such rights and must demand for them. Most do not even consider themselves landowners and actually are surprised by such a suggestion,” she says.

She says attempts at improving women’s access to land must begin with massive awareness creation, educating women on existing land laws and policies.

Women must also be empowered economically to ensure they can access land and not just be tied to be small scale farmers.

“Any discussion towards improving women’s land rights must go beyond empowering them at a small scale. We must visualise a situation where they become large scale producers and this requires them to own large tracts of land. Financial might is what will make a difference here,” Sall says.

Back in Luwero district, Namukasa is sad that her own relatives have turned against her. “Imagine: it’s women mistreating a fellow woman. My father must be turning in his grave.”

“This government should help us women becasue they say that they are helping us but why should they look on when women are mistreated?”

Namukasa’s case is being heard in Nabweru court, and she is convinced she will get justice.

“I will not rest until I get my share, in fact even your very own brother can deny you a share because a girl should not not inherit property this is unfair,” she says.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Sep 2 2010 (IPS)

In a small garden at the Entebbe Botanical garden, about 40 kilometres from Kampala, a few yellowish plants are trying to adapt to their new environment.

Uganda hopes to improve local rice varieties to develop disease resistance and early maturity varieties as part of a wider program. Credit: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

“We believe that these rice species have genes that help them fight disease and we want to extract those to use them in developing new varieties or improving existing ones to fight disease such as yellow mottle, a notorious rice disease,” says Waswa.

The rice yellow mottle virus is common in Uganda and the biggest threat to the country’s move to become a major rice producer. According to the European Journal of Plant Pathology, the virus is stunts the growth of the plant, causing “crinkling, mottling and yellowish streaking of the leaves.”

Uganda produces 180,000 metric tonnes of rice compared to local demand for the cereal that stands at 240,000 metric tonnes. Figures from the Uganda revenue authority show that the East African country spends 60 million dollars annually on rice imports to cover the demand deficit. Though according to Dr. Geoffrey Asea, head of the cereal department at the National Crop Resources Research Institute (NACRRI) in Uganda, this deficit has reduced over the last few years. The introduction of the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) – rice developed by the West Africa Rice Development Association to improve the yield of African rice varieties – has aided with this reduction.

But the project to improve local rice varieties to develop disease resistance and early maturity varieties is part of a wider program to turn Uganda from a rice importer to a regional exporter.

Asea told IPS that more rice varieties will be collected, out of which a gene bank or germ plasma will be developed for further research.

“We have rice varieties such as: Supper, believed to have originated from Tanzania; (the) Sindano variety, also believed to be from Tanzania; and other varieties from Congo. All these will have to be improved,” Asea says.

Asea says some of the rice varieties, such as Supper, are renowned for their aroma but they have a long maturity period of between six to eight months. The plan is to shorten the period of maturity to between three to four months.

But Dr. David Kamukama, vice chairman of the National Organic Agriculture Movement in Uganda, says the country could instead lose out on the regional market by going GM when other countries in the region oppose the idea.

“We are part of the Common Market for East Africa which includes five other member states, many of them have said no to GMO’s (genetically modified organisms), so who will buy (the modified rice)? Our biggest market is Southern Sudan and Rwanda who will not allow GMO’s. And the East African Community has not harmonised their position on this,” says Kamukama.

Kamukama believes that Uganda can still increase rice production without tampering with the existing rice species by simply creating access to markets to stir production and teaching farmers better farming methods.

But the project for GM rice is still going ahead. NACRRI received six million dollars from the republic of Japan in July for the construction of a regional centre for farmers and scientists majoring in rice production.

Under Japan’s African Development initiative it also launched the Coalition for African Rice Development. It is a research collaboration on rice whose goal is to double rice production between 2008 and 2018. Asea hopes researchers will be able to develop a genetically modified rice variety soon.

Salongo Waswa, a paddy rice farmer in Wakiso district on the fringes of Kampala, is worried that the new rice varieties being promised may not be as tasty as the ones he has been growing for years.

“As a farmer I am interested in improving yields but will the farmers like their rice variety they want to bring? Will it taste like what I am growing now?” asks Salongo Waswa.

Salongo Waswa is also concerned if he will become dependent on suppliers for seed, like is currently the case with the farmers of NERICA rice. “With the Supper rice you see here I just pick a few seeds from the last harvest which I plant and I don’t have to buy (more seed). I hope that will be the case with the new rice.”

But Entebbe Botanical garden’s John Mulumba Waswa says that the modification of the wild rice is inevitable: “Many crops in present day cultivation are the result of domestication in ancient times and later improved. What we are doing is to extract those traits in the wild varieties which are being multiplied to form new cultivars.”

The wild rice varieties collected mostly from the Mabira natural forest in central Uganda may not be indigenous to Uganda but are believed to have adapted to the weather and climate here. It is a trait that scientists believe can be extracted and implanted in future varieties.

Excerpt:

The African Union summit opens in Kampala on July 19 amid heightened security following twin bomb attacks a week earlier.

Ugandan soldier with the AMISOM mission in Somalia. Credit: TS/IRIN

The official theme of child and maternal mortality will likely be overshadowed by discussion of the AU’s mission in Somalia.

The blasts, which killed at least 74 people and wounded 82 others watching the World Cup finals on big screens at the Ethiopian Village Restaurant in Kampala’s Kabalagala neighbourhood and at the Kyaddondo rugby grounds.

The attacks came just two days after a spokesperson for Somalia’s al-Shabaab group, which is fighting against the weak Transitional Federal Government (TFG) for control of the country, said Uganda would be targeted for its role in the conflict.

Targeting the AU mission in Somalia

Uganda contributes the majority of the 5,000 troops in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which has helped the TFG maintain a tenuous hold over parts of the capital, Mogadishu, but little more.

“We are sending a message to every country who is willing to send troops to Somalia that they will face attacks on their territory,” said al-Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamoud Rage following the attacks. He added that Burundi, the second-largest troop contributor to AMISOM after Uganda, “will face similar attacks if they don’t withdraw.”

“We have troops guarding the airport, the presidential palace, the port and other key installations. This leaves us with few men to defend the civilians,” says Barigye.

Security personnel in Uganda have so far made 20 arrests; two men have also been detained in neighbouring Kenya in connection with the bombings.

Despite previous commitments by members of the African Union to contribute to a force of 20,000 peacekeepers, there are only about 5,000 troops in the Somali capital in support of the weak transitional federal government. Over 3,000 of these are from Uganda, the rest are from Burundi.

Uganda undeterred

At a Jul. 14 meeting called after the Kampala bombings, the Inter Government Authority on Development, a regional bloc of countries in the Horn of Africa, agreed to send an additional 2,000 soldiers.

Uganda has indicated it will send in more of its own troops if other countries are not willing.

Addressing a news conference at his private home in Ntugamo, western Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni said, “It was a very big mistake on their side; we shall deal with the authors of this crime.” He is also reported to have assured the U.S., which takes an active interest in Somali Islamist activity, that Uganda would not try to disentangle itself from the conflict in Somalia.

The U.S. ambassador to Uganda, Jerry Lanier, said, “We believe the Uganda mission is more important than ever now.”

The ambassador said the U.S. planned to increase assistance to Uganda and AMISOM.

Political scientist Yassin Olum says the Ugandan president needed more time to reflect on the matter before making statements.

Fred Bwire, a Kampala city resident, voices the attitude of many ordinary Ugandans towards the Somali mission. “What are we doing there? Our people are being killed for nothing. Why aren’t Kenyans – who are neighbors with Somalia – bothered?”

Hussein Kyanjo, an opposition member of parliament, believes the main beneficiary of Uganda’s continued involvement in Somalia is President Museveni himself. “He knows that the United States of America opposes the al-Shabaab and so he fights U.S. enemies to blind them to his dictatorial tendencies.”

Amama Mbabazi, Uganda’s minister for security, responds that Kyanjo forgets that Uganda has suffered terrorist attacks long before it sent troops to Somalia.

“The Allied Democratic Forces – another rebel outfit with links to Al-Qaeda – killed many people in the past and my friend Kyanjo seems to have forgotten this.”

In their struggle against the government, the Islamist ADF rebels attacked police posts, schools and trade centres in the west of the country beginning in 1996; in 1998, it carried out several bombings in Kampala, killing five and wounding six others. Military action by the Ugandan army largely destroyed the group the following year.

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Jul 1 2010 (IPS)

HIV-positive Phiona* (19) had unprotected sex with her best friend and she prays that she did not infect him with the virus. She knew she should not have let it happen but Phiona was too scared to tell him her status, and the teenagers did not have access to condoms.

“He kept pestering me. I knew my problem but feared to disclose to him for fear he would hate me. He was my best friend at school,” says Phiona.

And now it has become a moment that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

Juliet* is also an HIV-positive teenager who was born with the virus. She too says she had unprotected sex with some members of her school drama group and also did not reveal her status to them.

“When we go out for trips in the drama group they somehow pair up and have sex back stage or in the toilet. And because of peer pressure you find yourself with no option but to have sex too,” Juliet says, adding that she has sexual desires too.

Juliet and Phiona are just a few of the many HIV-positive teenagers in Uganda born with the virus who are now becoming adolescents and exploring their sexuality.

At least 30,000 infants are born with HIV every year according to Dr. Steven Watiti of the Mildmay Centre, a health facility that offers treatment to mostly HIV-positive children. And with improved treatment for HIV, many of these infants have grown to adulthood posing a health risk to other teenagers through unsafe sex.

But the Ministries of Health and Education cannot agree on whether school going children should be provided with condoms to prevent further spread of the virus.

Minister of education Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire says school going children need to control their sex desires until they finish school.

“There is sex education in schools particularly in upper classes to prepare children for such a time when they should be ready. And that time is certainly after school when they get married,” Bitamazire says.

But Major Rubaramira Ruranga, head of the National Guidance and Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV, says the department of education’s approach is a time bomb.

“We need to combine ethics and responsibility. It’s true that children should delay sex but we all know that children are starting sex early. We need to save them from getting HIV from those who already have the virus and if condoms are the solution so be it.”

Rubaramira, who has been living with HIV for many years, says government has a responsibility to provide condoms even to school children so that they grow up understanding its normal to use them.

According to Dr. Jane Nakaweesi a paediatrician at the Mildmay Centre who also counsels adolescents, many want to live responsibly but have problems controlling their body’s desires and cannot freely access condoms.

“Some of them are in puberty stage and the desire, the sex desire is at its peak. Unfortunately this is the reality whether you are HIV-positive or not. The problem is that these teenagers will not have condoms at school or cannot afford them,” says Nakaweesi.

Zainab Akol, the AIDS Control Programme manager in Uganda’s ministry of health says HIV among children is a challenge to Uganda’s future generation since children make up the biggest proportion (56 percent) of the country’s population.

According to a study conducted among HIV-positive adolescents and young adults aged between 11-21 years, the majority of those interviewed preferred partners who are HIV-negative for fear of re-infection.

The study, conducted by the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic (PIDC), found that HIV-positive young adults are a potential source of infection to others as they hide their status to ‘hook’ unsuspecting HIV-negative partners.

“Even some who had chosen to abstain after counselling are beginning to ask themselves: ‘Abstain until when?’” the study concludes.

Dr Sabrina Bakeera-Kitaka head of adolescent programmes at the PIDC says: “They get a new sexual partner and this, coupled with pressure from the new partner to have unprotected sex, risks further spread of the disease.”

James Kakooza, minister for primary health care, says they are in talks with the ministry of education to come up with an amicable solution as to whether or not to distribute condoms in schools.

“For us we are ready to give the condoms (to schools) but there are some concerns we have to address with our counterparts in education. We have so far convinced them to allow sex education and now we are discussing to lower the age for sex education I am sure we shall reach an agreement on condoms,” says Kakooza.

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the minors.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Apr 12 2010 (IPS)

The proposed media law is a monster, says Dr George Lugalambi, chair of a coalition fighting to preserve press freedom in Uganda. Publishers and journalists would have to apply annually for a licence, which could be revoked at will in the interests of “national security, stability and unity,” or if coverage was deemed to be “economic sabotage.”


Presiding over the system under the proposed Press and Journalist (Amendment) Bill 2010 would be a new Media Council, appointed by the Minister of Information and National Guidance. To obtain a licence, publishers would need to show “proof of existence of adequate technical facilities” and the “social, cultural and economic values of the newspaper.

“

Journalists would have to prove they are qualified – a degree in journalism, or in another field but accompanied by a post graduate diploma in journalism or mass communications – plus a clean criminal record.

Professor Fredrick Jjuuko, a media law expert says such provisions violate the constitution.

“The constitution provides for a freedom of expression and media and the presumption is that means for everybody. The new bill is making this freedom exclusive for those with university degrees which is unfair.” says Jjuuko.

Lugalambi, who is also head of the Department of Mass Communication at Makerere University, says the Ugandan media is already burdened with repressive laws such as the one that makes it a crime to publish unfavorable information about government activities and public officials.



“Criminalising these activities opens up the media to the partisan and subjective actions of people in power. For instance, we have been asking ourselves: Who defines and what constitutes prejudice to national security or injury to Uganda’s relations with her neighbors or friendly countries?

“Won’t any politician or government functionary with interests in a particular business decide that certain reporting and commentary about the activities of that business amount to economic sabotage?”

Instead, Lugalambi’s coalition – known as Article 29 after the section of Uganda’s constitution that guarantees freedom of expression – calls on the government to support self-regulatory initiatives.

Uganda has more newspapers, and radio and television stations than ever before, and the media have consistently exposed corruption, human rights abuses and impunity for top politicians. The country boasted a vibrant independent press in the earlier years of President Yoweri Museveni – he assumed power in 1986 – but with growing opposition to his regime, those days could be drawing to a close, says Dr Livingstone Sewanyana, executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative.



One example is the case of the host of the talk show “Spectrum”, Kalundi Serumaga, who was taken off the air on Radio One on the orders of the Broadcasting Council. He was accused of abusing the president while appearing as a panelist on current affairs programme on WBS TV called “Kibazo on Friday.”

Jjuuko says the absence of public accountability mechanisms in the Broadcasting Council has stifled the culture of openly discussing public affairs on radio.

“Who is the Broadcasting Council working for?” he asks. “I think they are bound to want to appease the appointing authority who in this case will be government”

But Princess Kabakumba Labwoni Matsiko, Uganda’s minister for information, insists she will go ahead with the proposed bill.

“Freedoms go with responsibilities. Do you want a media that does not follow any rules? What we are proposing is to create a responsible media and Ugandans will have chance to contribute when it’s finally tabled in parliament.”

The minister told a pan-African media conference in Nairobi on Mar. 19 that media freedom in Uganda has been abused and legislation is necessary to put it back on track.

“They write (about) everything. They draw cartoons of the president and sometimes pornography, like in the Red Pepper tabloid,” Kabakumba says.

Media activists say government wants to gain the power to deny, revoke or refuse to renew newspaper licenses at will and without recourse to the courts of law. Article 29 has united various media organisations, including the Ugandan Journalists’ Association, to resist further encroachment on media freedom.

From a business perspective, newspaper publishers also fear that the proposed amendments will hinder foreign investment into the publishing business; the annual registration introduces an element of uncertainty into any investment. Currently, newspapers and magazines are required by law to register just once, at the General Post Office.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
WAINHA, Uganda , Apr 6 2010 (IPS)

Mayuge district has 31,000 farming families served by just nine agricultural extension workers. In Wainha village, an internet centre run by the Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative is more than filling the gap in assisting farmers.

Farmers trade advice with each other - and the world - from the internet centre in Wainha. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

Comparative advantage

Not long ago, 56-year-old Wangolo was haggling with produce buyers who were offering him only 200 Ugandan shillings – about ten cents U.S. – per kilogramme for his maize. Not convinced by the offer, he went to the Busoga centre where he found that the going price 110 kilometres away in the capital, Kampala, was much higher.

“I just chased the buyers away! Can you imagine, those people were paying me only 200 shillings and yet the price of maize in Kampala was 800 shillings.”

At the internet centre run by the Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative (BROSDI), smallholder farmers of all ages, male and female alike, sit rapt before the rows of screens.

Some are already master web surfers, while others sit on benches in the corridor waiting for basic assistance ranging from help opening an email account to a hand looking up when the current rainy season will end, or how to improve soil fertility, or for ideas for small agribusinesses.

Most farmers here agree that the centre has opened a window on a world of useful knowledge.

Virtual and actual interactions

But the wonders of the world wide web are not the end of it. Edna Karamagi, executive director of BROSDI, says by facilitating knowledge forums where farmers interact directly, they have discovered that there is a lot farmers can learn from their peers within the district.   “You find that these people are experts in their own right, but this information has not been tapped,” she says. Farmers gather regularly at the BROSDI centre to exchange ideas and ask each other questions.

Listening in is Sophia Nyenda. Nyenda started working at the centre three years ago during her holidays, and is now a student at nearby Busoga university.

She has notebooks filled with stories from farmers, taken down in Kisoga, the language spoken in the area. With the notes that she and her counterparts in all 17 districts take down, pamphlets in both local languages and English are prepared and distributed to BROSDI-affiliated farmers through a network of 340 “knowledge brokers” who also help farmers implement practices where they may be unable to read.

Tips and suggestions are also sent out to farmers by SMS.

Nyenda enjoys the respect of villagers much older than she is, who respect her for her education in an area where literacy levels are very low. The respect is mutual: she says many traditional farming techniques are not widely-known, yet they offer effective and practical solutions to farmers’ problems.

“I did not know that the local herb mululuza can kill pests on tomatoes,” she says.

Nyenda’s work of listening and transcribing is a key part of the Collecting & Exchange of Local Agricultural Content (CELAC) project documenting traditional farming practices. It is proving a successful combination of indigenous knowledge, smart creation of networking opportunities, and newly-available information and communications technology.

Tangible impacts

The effect of the BROSDI centre’s work is easy to see. Alice Naikoba, a farmer from the nearby village of Bukhooli, was struggling on barren land which produced poor quality bananas. At one of the knowledge-sharing forums, she learnt that the type of bananas she was concentrating on is not suited for her soil.

She was advised to plant another type of banana locally known as endiizi. Since making the switch, her yields have quadrupled; better yet, she got the idea to brew waragi, a local beer made from bananas, to increase her earnings.

Advice she gathered at BROSDI has turned Naikoba and her family into a miniature whirlwind of production: bananas and beer, alongside the sale of produce from her vegetable garden, and from raising goats and chickens, enabled her to buy building materials to construct a new house – with her five children laying bricks – and move out of her thatched-roof hut.

The initiative begun here at Wainha village with support from the International Institute for Communication and Development, Canada’s International Development Research Centre and Dutch donor agency Hivos has spread wings to other parts of Uganda helping farmers share, access and implement good farming practices.

Agriculture minister Aggrey Bagiire – member of parliament for Bunya West constituency, where Wainha is found – says the agricultural potential of this area is high, but it has to be carefully managed to be sustainable.

“An increasing population and demand for food has put pressure on the available land. Soil erosion, over-cultivation and the cultivation of wetlands of Imanyiro, Baitambogwe and Malongo is degrading the land, causing declining yields.” says Bagiire

By giving the districts’ farmers ready access to the best of both local knowledge of farming and international research and best-practice via the internet, this corner of rural Uganda would seem to have been offered the best possible chance of securing a sustainable future.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Mar 9 2010 (IPS)

Fourteen-year-old Isaac Wadyegere of Bundesi village in Bududa district woke up to a rainy and chilly Monday morning and went to school as usual. But Mar. 1 was not a usual day in eastern Uganda.

Officials assessing the damage caused by the latest landslides in Kabale, western Uganda. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

But instead of finding the refuge he hoped for, disaster awaited Wadyegere.

His house and family were destroyed.

“My father, mother, step-mother, and five siblings all died when our house was covered by the landslides,” the boy says.

Orphaned Wadyegere now stays in a camp set up by the Uganda Red Cross for survivors of the landslides that buried three other villages including; Nametsi, Namakansa and Kubewo villages in the Bududa district.

So far 92 bodies have been dug out of the rubble by the army and rescue workers and over 300 people are still missing. More than 300,000 people will be displaced by the worst disaster in the region according to Joel Aguma, the police commander for eastern Uganda. “We never planned for this and here we are, with so many people to look after, the scale of this disaster is surely beyond our capacity but we are trying our best,” Aguma said as the rescue continued.

Government has now declared the scene of the Bududa landslides a mass grave.

Minister of state for disaster preparedness, Musa Ecweru, says government has called off the search for survivors after dysentery broke out and rescuers contracted it. “We realised it will take longer to get all the bodies out and it was increasingly risky for the rescuers,” Ecweru says.

Experts warn that the worst is yet to come. A weather outlook report released recently by the Intergovernment Authority on Development’s (IGAD) Climate Prediction and Adaptation Centre (ICPAC) based in Nairobi, stated that the region was expected to have higher rainfall than normal.

The statement was released during the Climate Outlook Forum for the Greater Horn of Africa held in Nairobi, Kenya in February. National, regional and international climate scientists reviewed the state of the global climate system and its implications on the seasonal rainfall over the region.

Experts said regional systems that include sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean, which are currently warmer than average, and Atlantic Ocean will have greater influence on the rainfall performance over Uganda

Professor Laban Ogalo, director of ICPAC advises countries in the region to plan accordingly as the changing rainfall pattern may be both a blessing and a curse.

“Rain is a good thing if managed well. The region can benefit from it if it’s used to spur food production for those who get it in plenty so they can supply others who will get less rain,” says Ogalo. He said heavy rains in the region could be destructive to infrastructure and may lead to loss life.

Ugandan weather experts are warning of more landslides and floods in the east, central and western parts of the country as heavy rains continue in most parts of the country. River Malaba in Busia district in eastern Uganda, near the Bududa district, has already burst its banks.

Bildard Baguma, deputy secretary general of the Uganda Red Cross, says there is an increasing possibility of flooding from the river if rains continue. Baguma says people in the affected areas will be evacuated from their villages to higher ground where temporary camps are to be set up.

Uganda’s government has asked residents in low-lying and flood-prone areas to move before tragedy hits. The ministry for disaster preparedness has already started registering people in high risk areas for relocation. Over 300,000 affected people in the Mountain Elgon region and the neighbouring lowlands of Butaleja, Budaka and Tororo are expected to be relocated.

Deus Bamanya, a senior meteorologist with the department of metrology, explains that extreme weather conditions in southern Europe weakened the high pressure systems in north Africa, which in turn pushed the rain belt down to Uganda. Heavy rains that could lead to flooding are expected to continue until June.

Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi has told parliament government is appealing for donor funds to carry out the relocation exercise before further rainfall causes more destruction.

As the country still mourns the death of those in Bududa district, landslides have displaced hundreds in western Uganda. Heavy rainfall resulted in landslides on Mar. 4. Officials from the ministry for disaster preparedness have rushed to Kabale, which borders Rwanda and DR Congo, to assess the extent of the damage.

District authorities say landslides hit Rubaya and Butanda sub-counties destroying houses and blocking the only access road. Rescuer workers spent an entire day clearing the road before they could access the area.

Three people have been confirmed dead after they were swept by fast running waters off Kigarama Bridge in Kabale district. Soldiers have joined Kabale district authorities in verifying reports that some people are still trapped under the collapsed mud walls of their houses.

Mark Choono, the United Nations Children’s Fund’s Uganda emergency coordinator, warns that an outbreak of water borne diseases is also likely.

“We are concentrating on providing safe drinking water, which is the biggest problem in areas affected by landslides and floods. We have begun providing water purifying chemicals to affected people,” says Choono.

Already in Bududa 60 people have contracted cholera.

But as the devastation continues some experts say that the destruction of the natural vegetation on the mountains by settlers, who have cleared the areas for cultivation of crops, has made the soil loose, resulting in the landslides.

Dr. Festus Bagoora, an expert on weathering and land formations at the Department of Geography at Makerere University, says past human activity has contributed to the catastrophe.

“A combination of factors is causing this, of course the rocks have been weakened due to weathering but people have removed all the natural vegetation on (the) mountains for faming and with the heavy rains landslides are bound to happen,” says Bagoora.

He told IPS that he and other experts submitted a study for the National Environment Management Authority warning of areas where landslides are more likely to happen but no action was taken.

He says they had recommended the relocation of people in areas they considered to be more prone to floods and landslides.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Mar 4 2010 (IPS)

Uganda’s members of parliament (MPs) are pressurising government to make public details of oil production-sharing agreements it signed with various international oil companies.

Uganda does not have the funds to finance the production of oil. Credit: Dirk Ingo Franke/Wikicommons

Concerns have been raised by various government officials and civil society organisations (CSOs) over the fairness of the deal after details emerged that President Yoweri Museveni held direct talks with oil investors without including government agencies.

John Arimpa Kigyagi, a member of the parliamentary committee on natural resources, says while on Feb. 21 the committee received copies of the oil production-sharing agreements (PSAs) signed between government and oil company Tullow Oil, they are not at liberty to disclose details to their electorate. (Tullow Oil is one of five oil companies involved in PSAs with Uganda.) The committee are also not at liberty to disclose details of the agreements to the rest of parliament.

However, 60 of over 300 MPs have signed a petition that will be presented to the house to force government to disclose to parliament contents of the agreements.

The petition began after consultative meetings were held with CSOs and MPs – including those from the natural resources and national economy committees. These two committees handle issues relating to the oil sector, which has taken centre stage since Uganda first struck oil in 2006.

Uganda’s oil discovery is already attracting major players like Italian oil giant Eni Spa, U.S. Exxon Mobil, France’s Total and of recent the China National Offshore Oil Company. The country does not have the funds to finance the production of oil and instead signed agreements with oil giants spelling out how the revenue will be shared with investors willing to fund the production phase.

The companies will build an oil refinery in Uganda and an oil pipeline to the Indian Ocean. This will enable the landlocked country to sell its estimated two billion barrels of crude oil internationally.

The petition by MPs is the latest in a series of protests against the PSAs. Late last year, with the help of the Human Rights Network (HURINET), journalists Charles Mwangushya and Angelo Ezama applied for a court order to compel government to disclose details of its agreement with Tullow Oil.

Judgment was in favour of government. On Feb. 4 chief magistrate Deo Sejjemba, of Nakawa district in the capital Kampala, declined to grant the order saying the petitioners failed to convince the court that obtaining access to the documents was in the public’s interest and would benefit all Ugandans. Sejjemba ruled that government is not obliged to disclose all the information in its possession and has the right not to disclose information to the public where it believed release of such information will be prejudicial to national security.

MP for central Kampala, Nabilah Sempala, says MP’s still want the PSAs made public. “We are only waiting for an appropriate parliament session to present the petition and we are convinced the petition will succeed,” says Sempala.

The issue of contracts spelling out how oil will be shared between government and its oil partners after production has been contentious because government refused to make them public since oil explorers struck oil in February 2008 in Albertine Graben, a region in the western rift valley neighbouring with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Government insists the contracts are favourable to Uganda but would rather they are kept secret for security reasons. Minister of state for energy, Peter Lokeris, says Uganda is unable to make the contracts public because of clauses to that effect within the agreements.

“The oil firms are in business and would not want details of their contracts made public for their competitors in business to know,” says Lokeris.

Mohamed Ndifuna, national coordinator of HURINET, told IPS the failed court application to disclose details of the agreement was a test of the country’s Access to Information Act 2005. The Act states that every citizen has right to access information and records in the possession of the state or any public body except where it interferes with state security, the country’s sovereignty or the right to privacy of an individual. Ndifuna says since the law was passed government has not met its obligation to make public information in its possession as required by the act.

The Ugandan government has already approved a 1.5 billion dollar offer by Tullow Oil to buyout a 50 percent stake of Uganda’s other oil-production partner, Heritage Oil. This marked the end of haggling between the oil companies after Heritage Oil announced they would sell their 50 percent stake to Italian firm Eni Spa for the same amount.

Civil society organisations are, however, concerned that while government is set to start the early production of oil, the PSAs between Uganda and the oil companies remain secret. Ndifuna said the fact that Museveni was directly involved in negotiations was a bad sign as he had not involved the appropriate state organisations in the PSAs.

“Parliament is not involved, the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) is also not involved. So who will prevail over (the situation) if things go wrong?” Ndifuna asked.

(The UIA is a semi-autonomous government agency that works in partnership with both the private sector and government to drive national economic growth and development.)

Dickens Kamugisha, the chief executive officer of the Africa Institute for Energy Governance, believes the contracts could be flawed and that is why government does not want to disclose the contents.

“Like many African countries producing oil, there is a conspiracy between the oil giants and governments to take citizens for a ride and the secrecy of the Uganda about the share agreements is suspicious,” Kamugisha says. Uganda minister for energy and minerals, Hilary Onek, insists Uganda has got a good share agreement with the oil companies.

He says if the agreements where to be made public it would scare away other would-be investors and would be contrary to the contracts signed with the oil companies that stipulate ultimate secrecy.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Jan 9 2010 (IPS)

The collapse of the Uganda Railway Corporation 15 years ago opened up lucrative opportunities for privately-owned road transporters. But the high cost of maintaining the highways carrying heavy truck and bus traffic is leading government to take a fresh look at the rails.

Rift Valley Railway train: after several false starts, there is new impetus to rebuilding an East African railway network. Credit: Frederick Onyango/Wikimedia

Also scheduled for repairs is the Kampala-Kasese line, and connections to Rwanda and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to reduce transport costs, according to Uganda’s public works minister, John Byabagambi.

“The cost is not only to governments. Transporters spend a fortune to repair trucks, which often break down because of potholes,” says Byabagambi.

Awali Mugwa, a truck driver for one of the private cargo transporters, says he has to repair his truck at least twice on each 820 kilometre journey from Kampala to Mombasa, the Kenyan port through which much of Uganda’s exports and imports pass. After 15 years of driving the Mombasa route, Mugwa says it’s risky to drive without a mechanic.

“There are known spots on the route where you will be lucky if your truck does not break down,” says Mugwa.

Unfortunately this cost is passed on to the consumer, making goods in the region very expensive. According to Isa Sekito, spokesperson of the Kampala City Traders’ Association, the owner of a 17-tonne truck will charge the equivalent of 5,000 dollars for a trip from Mombasa to Kampala.

Statistics indicate that 400,000 to 700,000 cargo trucks to the hinterland passed through Uganda last year, most of this traffic originating from the port of Mombasa. The Kenyan port handles virtually all cargo to and from Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, South Sudan and Uganda.

The Uganda government has been advising business people to shift from importing through the port of Mombasa, which is congested and expensive, to Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam. But the cost of bringing goods more than 1,600 kilometres over land – twice the distance to Mombasa, has discouraged most from switching.

In a desperate attempt to maintain the roads, East African states have introduced axle-load limits, against opposition from transporters. Axle load is the maximum weight of a container per pair of wheels allowable for a given section of road track.

“We lose millions in repairs to our trucks, and the axle load means further losses, because we are being asked to carry less cargo,” says Steven Tasobya, chairman of the Uganda Commercial Transporters’ Association.

East African states have made several previous efforts to revive the rail without success. A 25-year concession was granted to Rift Valley Railways (RVR) to run the 900km railway line from Mombasa to Kampala, but they are already in trouble.

Uganda and Kenya have been considering whether to terminate the contract or not, after RVR failed to improve the railway system, blaming financial constraints and disagreements among shareholders.

Until August 2008, South Africa-based Sheltam Ltd, owned by Roy Puffet, was the main investor in RVR with a 35 percent stake. But he was forced to step aside after disputes with financiers.

Uganda and Kenya are reluctant to terminate the services of RVR, despite claims of incompetence, because neither country is confident in its capacity to run the business themselves.

But now the World Bank is set to finance the rehabilitation of the regional rail network.

Robert Zoellick, World Bank Group president, has pledged to help Uganda develop access to the ports to ease trade, and deepen East Africa’s regional integration. “If it has the right infrastructure, such as railways, Uganda is well placed to overcome the hurdles of being landlocked and promote regional trade.”

To further regional integration, Zoellick said, the bank would finance rehabilitation of the line between Kampala and Mombasa port, as well as extensions to South Sudan and Tanzania, to further regional integration.

The East African states are planning use the World Bank funding to replace the 100-year-old rail link from Mombasa to Kampala, badly dilapidated due to age and lack of maintenance, with a modern standard-gauge railway.

The World Bank will bring in expertise from countries like India to advise on effective design and coordination of this cross-border infrastructure project.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Jan 6 2010 (IPS)

Few Ugandans are able to find a bank willing to loan them money to buy a house; in a culture where every man is expected to own his house, moves by Stanbic Bank to provide financing for home and auto purchases are welcome.

A story making the rounds in Kampala begins with a man proposing marriage to his sweetheart.

“Do you have a house?” she responds. When he responds no, she says, “Try me again when you have grown up.”

Robert Okumu, a property consultant in Kampala, says jokes not withstanding, the property market is in distress.

“The fact is that everybody – be it a woman or man – would wish to have a house but very few can afford it,” says Okumu, who runs Ideal Home Property Consultants.

In the past every man was able to own his home – albeit a hut with a thatched roof – but today’s homes, brick and mortar and indoor plumbing at least for the upwardly-mobile middle class, are prohibitively expensive.

Almost half of urban residents stay in rented accommodation; the global economic downturn has rendered many people homeless because they cannot afford the rent.

Even for people with stable, well-paid jobs, few Ugandans are able to take out a mortgage in order to buy a house. A fall in the country’s levels of savings has led to a lack of liquidity for most banks, who consequently do not offer long-term financing. Of the few banks that do offer home loans, many have drastically reduced the lending amount.

The experience of Kampala resident Moses Mukasa is typical.

“I was told by my banker to get a letter of undertaking from my employer on top of letters from my local councilor, which I did. But still I could not get the mortgage.”

Mukasa says that his bank, Barclays Bank of Uganda, later told him that the facility of home loans was being stopped save for the staff at the bank.

While access to home mortgages remains difficult government is concerned that a housing crisis looms.

Ugandan Minister for Housing, Michael Werikhe, says there could be 2.5 million homeless people in urban centres by 2020; one million could be without shelter in Kampala alone. 
Werikhe is convinced that the country can only avert a crisis if drastic measures are taken to accelerate the pace of growth in the housing development sector.

The recent issuance of a long-term bond by Stanbic Bank, part of South Africa’s Standard Bank, could be the beginnings of change in the financial sector.

The bond – for about 15 million dollars – is to be used for long-term liquidity and capital management purposes. It means the bank will have money at its disposal for more Ugandans to access credit; buy homes and cars; and to start businesses and other ventures.

The Stanbic Bank bond is the first long-term bond on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE). It could mean that more people would be able to gain access to home loans.

Stanbic Bank intends to move into the home, asset and vehicle financing areas, which most financial institutions have abandoned.

Anne Aliker, head of Stanbic’s Investment Banking division in East Africa, says once the bank raises the money they should be in a position to lend to people seeking long-term loans for housing as well as short-term loans.

Financial analyst Frank Katusiime says this is one of the largest corporate debt issues in the country and will spur the nascent bond market on the USE which has seen no activity for a long time, as the share price for listed companies continue to fall.

Simon Rutega, executive director of the USE, says that by Stanbic coming on board means they have confidence in the exchange and the public. This, he says, is good for the country’s economic growth.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Dec 18 2009 (IPS)

The Electoral Commission of Uganda says if they tightened the noose around parties which fail to declare election funding, all of them would probably be deregistered.

This would be a setback to the country’s democracy as the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and all the opposition parties have failed to declare their source of funding for elections.

Under the Uganda Constitution and the Political Parties and Organisations Act of 2005 (PPOA), political parties must disclose their sources of income to the electoral commission.

Parties are also supposed to audit their books of account every year, and the commission appoints independent auditors to verify.

Waswa Lule, former deputy inspector-general of government and member of parliament, says this requirement is crucial to ensure parties adhere to good governance.

“The framers of the constitution and the subsequent laws were aware that parties can be abused by their leaders, who may not be accountable to the members, and we have seen this before in almost all parties,” says Lule

But electoral commission chairman Badru Kigunddu says none of the parties – including the ruling NRM – has turned in their books of account.

“If we are to follow this requirement religiously we shall not have any functioning political party, because they have all not complied.

“The law mandates us to de-register parties that do not comply with the law, but we are still talking to comply with the law,” says Kigunddu.

Wafula Oguttu, spokesperson of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda’s main opposition party, says they find it difficult to declare the source of their funds because sponsors could be reprimanded for supporting the opposition.

“Government views the opposition us enemies, and anybody who supports us financially may be regarded an enemy of the state.”

Oguttu says they find it unsafe to declare to the electoral commission because they are not independent and could therefore volunteer the same information to the government.

“President Yoweri Museveni, leader of the NRM, collects billions of shillings from the business people and his foreign friends, but will ensure that the opposition follows the law and does not raise any serious money,” says Oguttu.

He claims that business people who fund the opposition can be harassed. Garuga Musinguzi one the key financial supporters of the opposition FDC was forced to abandon ship because his business empire allegedly started crumbling as government denied him contracts.

Oguttu claims some businesses are blacklisted, never to do business with the government if it became aware they support the opposition.

Under the Uganda law private individuals and corporations cannot fund political parties as private businesses, and as such they can only bankroll them up to 00 million Uganda shillings (210,526 dollars), according to Article 71 (e) of the 1995 Constitution.

Jasper Tuhimbise, executive director of the Anti-corruption Coalition of Uganda, says non disclosure of income by parties should be taken seriously.

“There have been invisible funds allotted to candidates behind the scenes. It may not be permissible, but it has been acceptable and used around Uganda’s political sphere,” says Tuhimbise.

He tells IPS the parties are failing to account for such money, even to their members, and this poses a serious issue of accountability.

“These are governments-in-waiting, and some are already in government. They are supposed to lead by example, and if they cannot account now, what guarantees do we have that they will be accountable tomorrow?”

Section 14 of the PPOA also restricts corporations from using business profits to become sole funders of political parties.

They are restricted to 600 million Uganda shillings (315,789 dollars) a year in donations. But according to the global integrity report for 2008, some parties have succeeded in receiving more than this despite the inhibiting clause.

The then director of economic affairs in the External Security Organisation, Teddy Seezi Cheeye, revealed that the ruling NRM spent more than 52 billion Uganda shillings (about 25 million dollars) in the 2006 general elections. The party has never denied spending the money or explained where they got it from.

But party spokesman Ofono Opondo says Cheeye’s comments cannot be taken seriously, as he was not a party official privy to the information.

The Ugandan public is as divided on the matter as the politicians. Joseph Semuwemba, a Kampala trader, believes if the opposition discloses their funds it will enable the government to gauge how much to get from the state coffers to counter balance.

“Government are the ones who have set a wrong precedent. If the ruling party is not disclosing the source of their funds, how do you expect the opposition to do so?” asks Charles Mubiru.

“The electoral commission will not act on this because the ruling party is also guilty, and they cannot selectively apply the law – especially now that the opposition have demanded that they be replaced,” says Joseph Kikonyogo chairman of Forum for Democratic Change in for Kampala. Under Section 20 of the PPOA, political parties are not allowed to spend more than one billion Uganda shillings (526,316 dollars) a year, but most of the parties spend above that – especially during election year.

Opondo says most of the NRM’s funding is not registered because the masses inject money at grassroots level “out of love for the party, and never ask for recognition”.

But he says it is necessary for parties to disclose to the public the political items and activities they spend on, so that bribery and corruption – especially in the electoral process – can be checked.

Opondo says the declarations can then help identify the real areas on needs for raising and spending, and build consensus. “Since parties and their leaders seek to control state power, public policy and resources, it is imperative that their true driving force (funders and objectives) are clearly known.”

Tuhimbise says although corporate funding to political parties cannot exceed 600 million Uganda shillings (315,789 dollars) a year, in some cases the inhibiting clause has been flouted. He says some parties are receiving and transferring huge sums of money into pseudo accounts in order to avoid being questioned by the legitimate authority.

The law also requires political party candidates, especially presidential candidates, to account for all the money received during electoral campaigns, and disclose the sources of their funds, but there are no effective mechanisms to monitor how individuals or the parties get their funds, says Tuhimbise.

As a result, individuals and corporations fund parties and candidates as they wish.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
COPENHAGEN, Dec 11 2009 (IPS)

The world’s poorest countries want two billion dollars from the developed world to replenish the Least Developed Countries Fund.

LDC delegates briefing the press. Credit: Ana Libisch/IPS

Ephraim Mwepya Shitima, a delegate from Zambia, told journalists that the demands they have put forward need to be met in the Copenhagen agreement and its implementation.

The Least Developed Countries Fund was established under the 2001 Marrakech Accords and is administered by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

LDC representatives say the money has been used to support the preparation of National Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPAs) for 43 of the LDCs. GEF has already requested the immediate bankrolling of the Least Developed Countries Fund. The two billion dollars demanded by LDCs is the expected cost of full implementation of the NAPAs.

Bruno Tseliso Sekoli, the chief negotiator for Lesotho, says guaranteed, long-term financing for  technology and capacity-building will be needed if least developed countries are to avoid sinking further into poverty.

“There is need for considerable additional financial and other forms of assistance for adaptation.”

Tseliso complains that while funds have been available for adaptation, it has been difficult for poor countries to access.

There are 49 countries classified as least developed, mostly in Africa and Asia. The LDCs are members of the Group of 77 and China negotiating bloc here, but have increasingly developed a distinct, shared position amongst themselves, with a contrast against far more developed bloc members like India and China.

But Adao Soares Barbosa, representing Timor Leste, says this is not a move towards leaving the bloc, but an attempt to re-inforce the G77 plus China’s position.

The “Climate Change Negotiations 2009: An LDC perspective” document calls for binding commitments from Annex I parties to sharply reduce emissions.

It argues that no matter how well adaptation is supported and implemented in LDCs, it will not be sufficient to cope with the drastic climatic changes that will occur unless drastic reductions in emissions are also achieved quickly.

“Adaptation is a complement to mitigation and not an alternative,” argues Fatou Ndeye Gaye, senior climate officer from the Gambia.

She also demands corresponding reductions from the handful of developing countries that are major polluters.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the 2000-plus scientists who assess global warming – have predicted that the least developed countries will be most affected by its disastrous effects, yet have the least capacity to cope and adapt to climate challenges.

The LDC representatives told assembled journalists that while their vulnerability is recognised and their special needs generally acknowledged by all parties to the climate change negotiation process, the decisions and responses to LDCs’ with the draft proposals for a treaty have been very weak.

More than 750 million of the world’s most vulnerable people want their voices to be heard.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Dec 9 2009 (IPS)

Sam Kubo had gone to lease out his 600 hectares of land in Kayunga district. But instead he went to his death.

Uganda chief justice Benjamin Odoki says arbitration will help reduce the backlog in the courts. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

So when Kubo arrived with surveyors, in part of the process of granting a lease out on the land, the illegal squatters would not let him. They would rather he died than lease out the land. The angry mob lynched him and burnt his body and his car.

The surveyors whom Kubo had hired escaped from the killer residents to tell the story. And it was an incident that sent shockwaves through the country.

But this was not merely a case of mad vigilantism. It unfolded into a story of people desperate for justice, who were unable to access it and resorted to take the law into their own hands. This ugly incident is linked to the judicial crisis that has hit the country, as many feel justice is moving too slowly and more and more people are now taking matters into their own hands.

Mohamed Ndifuna, of the Human Rights Network, says there are increasing incidents of mob justice, because people have lost trust in judicial services.

“People are skeptical, and feel the judiciary will fail them,” says Ndifuna, whose organisation runs a campaign against mob justice.

Overwhelmed by the number of unresolved cases, the judiciary is resorting to arbitration as an alternative to what they see as the cumbersome judicial system inherited from Britain.

During a workshop by the Justice, Law and Order sector, a consortium bringing together organisations working on access to judicial services, participants resolved to use arbitration to solve minor disputes.

Bruce Kyerere, president of the Uganda Law Society, says under arbitration the parties agree to an arbiter whose decision will be respected by both. It cuts the court process and eases the clogged judicial system.

“Justice is not about just going to court; it’s also about being able to get the decision and in time,” Kyerere says.

A ministerial policy statement for 2008-2009 presented to parliament by justice and constitutional affairs minister, Dr Khiddu Makubuya, says more than 76 percent of cases filed in the courts had not been disposed off by the middle of this year.

By June 30 this year only 34,178 of the 144,444 cases lodged in the courts had been heard.

The judiciary report says 110,266 cases are pending, a backlog of 76.3 percent – meaning the judiciary will have to more than double its efforts to clear the backlog. Also, more than half of the 29,826 people in prisons across the country are on remand awaiting trial.

This state of affairs has made judicial officers adopt arbitration. Uganda chief justice Benjamin Odoki says this will help reduce the backlog. He says arbitration is a legal practice also adopted in Commonwealth countries to settle disputes without going to court. It saves litigants time and money.

Swithin Minyantwali, executive director of the International Law Institute says arbitration is an African way of dispute resolution. He told IPS the system faced resistance at first, because judges and lawyers said it was outside their jurisdiction, but it is now being embraced.

Minyantwali says alternative dispute resolution is a way of promoting judicial effectiveness and legal reform in sub-Saharan Africa.

Meanwhile mobs are on the loose, and the murder of Kubo, a lecturer at Kyambogo University, was not the only incident in Kayunga district. In the three weeks after the highly publicised murder of Kubo, three more cases of mob justice were recorded in the area.

The crisis in the judicial process has led to a blame game, with each section blaming the other. The inspector-general of police, who visited the district, blamed mob justice on the failure by the courts to resolve land conflicts. Many cases in the Uganda courts are related to such disputes.

Odoki says he has too few judges to hear cases. He says the problem is compounded by the fact that the police take long to conclude investigations, which delays prosecution and exacerbates the backlog of cases. “Some of the cases are delayed because the prosecution keeps on asking for extensions, saying investigations are continuing.”

With the police blaming the judiciary and the chief justice blaming the police for the backlog, arbitration comes at the right time.

Joseph Bwire, who has been in court for eight years over ownership of a house which he claims to have bought from the Departed Asians Custodian Board, but which another person now claims, sees the problem elsewhere. The board was set up to manage property that was left behind by Asians expelled from Uganda in 1972. Most of the property has been returned to former owners but property that was not claimed is still managed by the board, who are mandated to distribute the property.

He believes corruption causes the delays. “In my case the file has disappeared several times, and where we have been able to put together another file, either the judge is absent or the defence lawyer is allegedly sick.”

Bwire, who spoke to IPS at the Uganda High Court, where he had gone to check on the date for the hearing, is not interested in the blame game.

“They are all corrupt. When you go to the police they will ask for transport to go to investigate, the judges will want money to hear the case – it’s a waste of time and money.”

Bwire says he has on a number of occasions been asked by the police to provide transport for them to investigate his case. Although the case is civil, the police got involved after reports of the forgery of documents by officials of the custodian board.

Bwire’s allegations are significant after a grade one lower court magistrate, Moses Ndifuna of the Mbarara district, was arrested for accepting a bribe of about 100 dollars to alter a judgment in favour of an accused. The case is before the anti-corruption court, and investigations continue.

But Elias Kisawuzi, spokesperson for the judiciary, says there are many other factors that delay cases. In his opinion all parties, including judges, witnesses and lawyers, are ready to expedite cases.

Kisawuzi says some lawyers are in the habit of seeking unnecessary adjournments. “Some of the parties often ask for constitutional interpretations of matters arising from the case, causing further delays.”

Thousands of prison inmates are also affected by the slow judicial process. As the judiciary chokes with cases, so too do the Uganda Prisons. Spokesperson for prisons Frank Baine is worried that arbitration may not reduce numbers in the prisons. He says 57 percent of inmates are facing defilement charges, which might not be among those handled by arbitration.

There are 41 High Court judges after the Judicial Service Commission recruited a few more recently. The number practising has been dwindling. Some go on leave to take up positions abroad, such as Justice Julie Ssebutinde, who is with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Ugandan judge Daniel Nsereko is also working with the ICC, and there are many others whose posts will not be filled because they are “on assignment”.

The Judicial Service Commission has decided to increase the number of judges and magistrates, in a bid to clear the case backlog. Odoki tells IPS there is a need for expansion at various court levels.

The Supreme Court will get another five judges to make it 12 in total. The Court of Appeal needs another seven to make the total 15, and the High Court of Uganda needs 32 more to total 82.

But until that happens, all Bwire can do is to continue pursuing his case in the hope that he will eventually get a fair hearing.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
PALEMY, Uganda, Oct 23 2009 (IPS)

Dusk gathers in the thickets of Palemy village, in the Gulu district of northern Uganda. Men, women, and children follow foot paths through the dark to the residence of Mzee Otto Yuvani.

Villagers are reviving community traditions disrupted by 20 years of armed conflict. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

In Palemy, it is like the coming of the rains after a long dry season of fear. Villagers are busy building new huts and opening up fields.

And, as the sun sets each evening, children and elders meet around the fire place in Yuvani’s compound to hear stories, make riddles; to sing and talk. It is a deliberate community initiative to revive an important aspect of their culture that was damaged by the war.

Her wrinkled face is dark beneath a white snow-cap of hair. Sixty-seven-year-old Frieda Okello tells story after story. She opens the evening with the story of a man who had five wives but mistreated one of them.



As fate would have it, one day the man fell ill and his family sought the services of a medicine man to save his life. She reminds her audience that the medicine men of those days were knowledgeable herbalists, not quacks like today.



The story goes that this traditional healer advised that for the man to be healed, medicine would have to be extracted from a bamboo tree in the middle of the ocean.



All five wives of the sick man were to swim the waters and whichever one managed to extract the medicine and swim back to save the man would become the darling of the saved man.


One after another, his four favoured wives tried to swim the waters, but heavy storms rose a on the ocean and they almost drowned. In the end it’s the fifth wife, the woman the man had treated badly, who managed to get the medicine and the man was saved.

Betty Apio, 13, says what she learns from the story is that men should not abuse women. “A woman that you mistreat may be the one to save you, just like in the story.”

David Okot draws a very different lesson. “Marrying many wives is not good it only disorganises the family because you cannot love them equally,” the thoughtful 14-year-old says.

Elder Otto Yuvani is behind the revival of this long-standing Acholi ritual in Palemy. Wango’o, the practice of gathering around the fire in the evening to tell stories, was one of many casualties of the 20-year insurgency by the LRA. People were not at liberty to practice wango’o during the conflict.



Seated on a cow skin, Santina Akot recalls that the last time she sat round the bonfire was before the insurgency, 20 or more years ago.

“In the camp you could not sit around the fireplace because, well, there were no fires in the first place. And soldiers would order you to go and sleep as early as 6:00 pm,” Yuvani recalls. “It was also dangerous, because (fire) would alert the rebels as well.”

“Wango’o is a way of life for us because we the Acholis, the way we build our home… you have the house for children, then the main house, and then the kitchen. And the best way to interact with members of the home is an open place. We cannot change this, even if time keeps on changing,” says Yuvani.



Acholi Paramount chief Achana II says wango’o is an important aspect of Acholi culture. He tells IPS that children who have taken part in the ritual tend to be more disciplined and intelligent compared to others.



“We have a generation of children who never saw the wango’o, that is why we have thefts and all forms of bad manners.”

Yuvani heads the Koro Cultural Trust, a group that with financial support from the Norwegian Refugee Council is spearheading the local effort to return to the bonfire. He says the ritual is more important now than ever before, if a new generation of Acholis that grew up in the camps are to learn their culture.

A reminder that rebuilding communities shattered by war is not just a question of putting up new houses and planting crops; it is also about repairing the battered fabric of shared stories that hold make a collection of people a community.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Oct 22 2009 (IPS)

More than half of Ugandan girls who enrol in grade one drop out before sitting for their primary school-leaving examinations.

The fact that girls are dropping out between age 11 and 13 is being linked to the beginning of the menstruation cycle and its associated challenges.

Research conducted by a non-government organisation, the Forum of African Women Educationalists (FAWE), reveals that the lack of sanitary pads, coupled with other factors like the absence of water or separate toilet facilities for girls in many schools, is responsible for the drop-out rate.

Despite tax waivers introduced to reduce the cost of sanitary pads, finding money to buy them each month is a challenge for many grown women, never mind pre-teen girls.

A packet of sanitary pads costs the equivalent of $1.50 in Uganda – for the same amount you could get a kilo of sugar for the whole household. Girls whose parents can’t afford to give them the money improvise with strips of toilet paper or old cloth.   “Sometimes you buy two packets depending on the flow,” says Florence Kanyike, national coordinator of FAWE in Uganda. “For some girls the flow is heavy and they will need to change pad in the course of the day.”

In their study of challenges to girl child education, FAWE researchers found that taboos and silence associated with menstruation in many communities mean some girls are in any case unable to ask their parents for money to buy pads, and forced to find ways of getting money on their own.

Raising the subject can put unwanted pressures on a young girl. Kanyike says that for some parents, when a girl starts menstruating, it’s a sign that she is mature enough for marriage. This is the age at which many girls in rural areas are sent into forced marriages.

Maimuna Kagoya has just started secondary school. She’s fortunate that her aunt, Aisha, buys pads for her. In her Muslim family, Maimuna will be assumed to be ripe for marriage once she’s known to be menstruating.

Speaking to IPS in the presence of her aunt, Maimuna says many of her friends dropped out of school although she is not sure if it was related to menstruation.

One risky means girls less fortunate than Maimuna turn to to raise the money on their own is through sexual relationships with much older men who can provide the cash; one consequence of this is a large number of unwanted pregnancies, which then force girls to drop out of school.

Dropping out of school affects girls in the long-term by limiting their future earning potential.

FAWE has launched a campaign to de-stigmatise menstruation through “girl education movement” clubs in schools, where girls are taught to treat their periods as a normal occurrence not to be scared of.

The campaign to dispel silence around menstruation and advocate for affordable sanitary pads to be made available in local markets across the country piloted in five districts earlier this year.

The project is dealing with twelve primary schools in each district, conducting workshops with pupils to open up dialogue on the topic of menstruation. The pupils discuss anything from lack of sanitary pads, poor facilities for menstruation at school and in the community, as well as try to find solutions.

Fatuma Wamala, programme officer at FAWE, says through the workshops they found that poor menstrual hygiene on the part of adolescent girls stem from beliefs, myths and attitudes within the community coupled with poverty.

“Many parents do not allocate any budget to sanitary materials for the girls especially in day schools,” says Wamala.

She says FAWE’S advocacy has led to lower prices for sanitary towels on the open market and increased demand for sanitary towels in rural areas, where local shops are beginning to stock them.

It was FAWE’s workshops with members of parliament and government officials which led to tax waivers on sanitary pads being announced by the finance minister in the 2006 national budget.

Now the lawmakers want government to go further and buy sanitary pads for female pupils in primary schools. Nabilah Sempala, a woman member of parliament for Kampala Central constituency, says government should  include the cost of sanitary pads in the budget of the universal primary education.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Sep 28 2009 (IPS)

John Owor is a paid spokesperson for brides and grooms. His job is to represent one of the parties during traditional marriage negotiations, which involves the payment of a bride price.

In Uganda bride price is traditionally the money given as a token of appreciation by grooms to the families of their brides.

It is a controversial practice that saw earlier this month women’s rights activists petitioning the Ugandan Constitutional Court to declare this old traditional practice unconstitutional.

Owor has been in this business for 15 years, and has joined others in the trade to form an association of about 200 men in Kampala alone, who work as negotiators for either the bride or groom.

He admits that negotiating on behalf of the groom is particularly challenging, as you may end up being blamed for giving in to the demands of the bride's family too easily.

During the ritualised negotiations the family of the bride presents the groom's side with a list of how many cows and/or other material or monetary considerations they would find acceptable before allowing their daughter to take the groom’s hand in marriage.

"Some families are inconsiderate, and will ask for many things ranging from Friesian cows to a car or sofa sets etc. And as spokesperson you are supposed to negotiate a fair deal for your side," says Owor.

He says because of transport difficulties and the unavailability of animals in some areas, some families will opt for a cash bride price running into millions of Uganda shillings. (One dollar is approximately 1,900 Uganda shillings.)

According to customary match-making, a man who wishes to marry a woman lets it be known. He then gets a delegation of about ten men to go to the woman's home, where a delegation of men from the her side awaits them.

The speaker of the delegation from the man's side introduces himself, and makes clear the intention of their visit. The two sides then begin negotiating.

The speaker from the woman's side makes known the number of cows, goats and money they consider "worth" their daughter and the speaker from the man's side tells what they are willing to pay.

The process of "please reduce", "no, you must increase" continues, as if both parties are in a commercial or political negotiation.

In the traditional marriage preliminaries the groom is not supposed to speak during the ceremony, and this has made the job of a paid spokesperson crucial to ensure the groom pays less, just as the spokesperson on the bride’s side tries to ensure they get as much as possible.

Keturah Kamugasha, editor of Bride and Groom magazine, says the bride's family gain pride and prestige when their daughter fetches a substantial dowry, but often the bride feels the practice is dehumanising.

"There are always two ceremonies, like among the Banyankole ethnic group in western Uganda. Kuhingira (the give-away), as they call it, used to be enough, but today there is a church marriage that day or later."

Miria Matembe, a women's rights activist and former Ugandan Minister for Ethics and Integrity, told IPS the bride price should be discarded immediately, as it turned women into property.

"It's degrading, and intended to entrench men’s dominance over women. Insecure men think their selfish interests are safeguarded when the bride price is paid," says Matembe.

Rebecca Mudoi was working as a nurse in the Mukono district of Uganda until she got married. Her husband stopped her from working, and sent her to their village in Tororo, eastern Uganda, where she had to till the land and look after their children.

In later years her husband, who was working in Kampala, came home less frequently. At first he did not return to his rural home for three months, then a year, and eventually several years.

"I felt my future had been ruined by the marriage. I was tortured psychologically," Mudoi says.

In the end her husband returned home as an invalid. Mudoi became worried and went for an HIV test in the Tororo government hospital, which turned out positive. Today, she is a member of the Aids Support Organisation branch in Tororo.

Speaking to IPS in Kampala on the issue of bride price, Mudoi traced her fate to the cows her husband paid to marry her and take her away from her family. "I had no way of refusing. I had no power to decide for myself," she says.

"If there had been no bride price, I wouldn't have gone to the village."

Atuki Turner, executive director of the Mifumi Development Association, which petitioned the court to declare the bride price unconstitutional, says across Africa women suffer health hazards because of the practice.

She said that a man who has paid believes he has the right to sex with his wife, even if he has a mistress, and the wife fears this might put her at risk of contracting HIV.

She can neither refuse to have sex with him nor ask him to use a condom. Nor can she refuse if he wishes to take a second wife, even if she is aware that if her husband has intercourse with another woman, while continuing a sexual relationship with her, increases the risk of HIV.

"Bride price renders the notion that a man has purchased a wife, including her sexual consent, labour and obedience," Turner said.

In a traditional setting the delegation from the man's side cannot be given food until both sides have agreed on how much is to be paid.

If the man is not able to pay all that is required, he will not be allowed to marry the woman.

Hope Turyasingura of the Domestic Violence Prevention Center says this has caused financial trouble for many newly married couples because it results in the prospective groom borrowing money until he has enough to pay the full price.

"By the time the two get married the man finds himself in poverty, his life devoted to paying off debt. He becomes frustrated and resorts to beating or mistreating the wife, saying that after all, she is the cause of their misery," says Turyasingura.

When arguing the case before the Ugandan Constitutional Court, Turner had said that demand for payment of a bride price gave rise to conditions of inequality during marriage.

It was an argument dismissed by the state.

"In all marriages, be it Christian, Muslim or even at the registrars’ office, there is a cost incurred and the issue of price cannot arise," the state argued. Judgment is yet to be heard.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Sep 8 2009 (IPS)

Deborah Awori could not stop her husband from selling their 14-year-old daughter away in marriage using the time-honoured tradition of asking for a "bride price".

Awori, from Bugayi parish in Busia district, was in the Ugandan Constitutional Court this afternoon testifying in a trial that has asked the court to declare the practice of asking for a "bride price" unconstitutional. In Uganda "bride price" is traditionally the money given as a token of appreciation by grooms to the families of their brides.

Awori told the court that she tried in vain to stop her husband from forcefully marrying of their daughter, Evelyn, so that he could benefit from the "bride price" she received.

Awori was kicked out of the matrimonial home and her daughter married off.

Women rights activists have petitioned the Constitutional Court to declare this old traditional practice of demanding for payment of a "bride price" unconstitutional.

The petitioners told a fully packed court room in Kampala this afternoon that demand for payment of a "bride price" by the parents of the bride from the groom – a tradition practiced by many communities in Uganda – gives rise to conditions of inequality during marriage. These, the petitioners argued, were contrary to the provisions of the constitution.

The petition was led by Atuki Turner, a lawyer and executive director of a women’s and child’s rights agency called MIFUMI and supported by women rights lawyer Ladislaus Rwakafuzi.

MIFUMI is derived from a village in Tororo eastern Uganda where Turner comes from. Because she was a lawyer women in the village used to approach her for legal advice, which made her start the organisation to rescue girls and women suffering because of bride price.

Both lawyers argued that the "bride price" contravenes the Uganda constitution, which demands that men and women shall be accorded equal rights in marriage and upon its dissolution.

The petitioners asked the panel of five judges led by Deputy Chief Justice Leticia Mukasa Kikonyogo, Alive Mpagi Bahigeine, Amos Twinomujuni, Constantine Kategaya Byamugisha and Steven Kavuma to also rely on testimony from witnesses

Besides Awori, Jagweri James also testified against the constitutionality of "bride price". James’ wife was denied burial for one week as he struggled in his grief to raise her "bride price". In communities where "bride price" is tradition, a man will be forced to pay the price with a fine if the partner dies before he has paid the "bride price" in full. James is another witness who will anxiously await the ruling.

The petitioners argued that the demand and refund of "bride price" as a condition of divorce interferes with the exercise of free consent of the parties in the marriage, and this was contrary to the demands of the country’s constitution.

They further argued that the custom of "bride price" causes domestic violence so that the woman is subjected to cruel and degrading treatment.

"If "bride price" is declared unconstitutional, the implication will be that hundreds of women and girls who marry under customary law will experience a milestone in their bid for equal treatment in marriage and be free from cruel and degrading treatment," Argued Turner.

She told IPS outside the courtroom that many young men were forced to sell their land and property due to the extortionate demands of "bride price" would also benefit if court decides in their favour.

But senior state attorney Partricia Mbezi has asked the constitutional court to dismiss the case. She argued that the same constitution quoted by the petitioners protects customary marriages

The state argued that there is no single African country that has declared "bride price" unconstitutional and asked the Ugandan Constitutional Court not to set the wrong precedent.

"In all marriages, be it Christian, Muslim or even at the registrars’ office, there is a cost incurred and the issue of price can not arise," Mbezi said.

Kenneth Kakuru an independent lawyer, who joined the attorney general’s side to argue for the case of Ankole traditional marriage of which the "bride price" is a part, argued that all petitioners are from one region and particularly from Tororo in eastern Uganda. He said they should not be allowed to make a local issue look national.

He said that in Ankole bride price is like a gift and should be allowed to continue because no body in Ankole has complained about it.

"Petitioners should have gone to the High Court to present their grievances rather than running to the constitutional court," Kakuru argued.

MIFUMI filed a petition to the constitutional court seeking to declare the "bride price" unconstitutional in 2007. They did so after they held a referendum in 2001 and succeeded in getting a majority vote for the reform of the "bride price".

The constitutional court will give their ruling on notice.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 14 2009 (IPS)

Florence Mukambi will always bear the brunt of the country’s post-election violence.

Florence Mukambi (left) will always bear the brunt of the country's post-election violence after her two young children were burnt alive in their beds while she was disfigured and rendered destitute. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa

Mukambi and her children are just three of the victims of the widespread violence that ensued after the disputed December presidential election where almost 1,000 people were killed and as many as 350,000 displaced.

Mukambi still lives in the Kibera slum where it all happened. Kibera is a sprawling settlement of shacks constructed upon what is largely a refuse site. Just a few kilometres southwest of Nairobi, the slum is estimated to house over a million people. Residents of all ethnicities live tightly packed together alongside open sewerage – mixed with human and animal faeces, dust and ash.

When the violence broke out rowdy youths set her shack ablaze and in that fire her only two children were burnt to death. Her crime was that she was a Kikuyu mother capable of bearing Kikuyu children, living in a predominantly Luo slum. "These are the ones producing our enemies" her attackers had shouted.

The tension between those of Kikuyu and Luo ethnicity was sparked after Mwai Kibaki, a member of the Kikuyu, was declared winner in the presidential elections over Raila Odinga, a member of the Luo.

As was her routine, that day Mukambi had bought sweet bananas to sell at her veranda the next day so she could raise school fees for her children.

Mukambi never imagined her girl – then 11 – and her eight-year-old son would not see daylight again.

With tears rolling down her cheek, Mukambi recounts her ordeal. She can no longer work for her self because her right hand was badly burnt; she has no ears and the cavities that represent her hearing channel are covered with skin which builds up over and over again. "I cannot hear nor can I work to feed myself. And my children who would look after me are dead."

Carol Ogengo, executive director of the Tomorrow’s Child Initiative which has been giving Mukambi some assistance, says she requires skin grafting and corrective surgery. The organisation took interest after Mukambi contacted them, not because of her own situation, but to report the death of her children.

"She is outside our mandate, but we were touched because of the trauma she experienced after the death of her children."

But Mukambi is just the tip of the iceberg. She was probably maimed by strangers. Thousands of women in Kenya – just like in many other countries in Africa – experience violence daily, not from strangers but some times from someone dear to them.

At the Gender Violence Recovery Centre (GVRC), a charity division of the Nairobi Women's Hospital, Teresa Omondi tells harrowing stories of gender-based violence. "We receive all sorts of cases. From sexual violence including rape, to sexual assault such as putting fingers and other objects such as sticks in women’s private parts, and some children being forced to suck the penises of the abusers."

Since its inception in 2001, the centre has handled well over 14,000 cases. Of the cases received 49 percent are women 45 percent are children while 6 percent are men.

The hospital offers treatment, counselling and helps women seek justice using the relevant organs of state.

Omondi, a former lawyer, says she is disappointed with the way cases of domestic violence are handled. Although the sexual offences law in Kenya provides that a report from any licensed doctor could be used as evidence in court, in many cases a government doctor will produce a contradictory report exonerating the accused.

"I am sometimes confronted by even my fellow lawyers saying: ‘You people, how do your doctors conduct medical examinations?’ And I wonder, is this a conspiracy to keep women brutalised?"

Omondi, who has practiced law in Kenya, says there far more women who come to seek treatment that those who seek legal aid. "Some people just want to be treated to feel well and just forget about the whole situation."

Carol Njeri, a doctor at the centre, says on a normal day she handles between to three to four cases of rape in her six hour shift.

There are normally three doctors on a shift, so the cases she sees are roughly a third of the occurrences.

Omondi believes people are afraid to pursue cases of gender-based violence because in most cases the violence is meted by people they know.

"In most cases it’s father, uncle, cousin, neighbour, shop keeper – you name it." Omondi says this, plus the unfriendly judicial system, makes many victims not pursue legal redress.

"There is a case I remember a 5-year-old girl who was left home with her twin brothers aged 14. They dragged her from the house and raped her in turns." She says the mother was overwhelmed and had to go through a lot of counselling.

Patricia Nyaundi, executive director of Kenya Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA) says there is a lot that still needs to be done for the thousands of victims of gender-based violence in Kenya to get justice. During the country’s post-election violence in January and February 2008, over 1,000 women were estimated to have been raped and assaulted.

Nyaundi was speaking to journalists from Eastern and Southern Africa who attended a workshop on reporting gender-based violence in Nairobi organised by Inter Press Service Africa.

Nyaundi says many women would rather stay away than be embarrassed. She says the justice system, from the police to the courts of law, is not gender sensitive.

"At the police (station) you can go to report a rape and the officer at the counter will ask you why you were out that late" says Nyaundi. "In courts, it’s the same story. You feel like you are going through the same violence again.

"How do you deal with the court system when you are mentally challenged, deaf, etc?" Nyaundi called for the creation of a fund to help victims of gender-based violence so they are empowered to follow cases through the legal system.

"This country is rich enough to put up a fund to help 20,2000 victims of gender-based violence every month."

According to Nyaundi, in cases of violence against children, intermediaries should be used instead of putting victims together in the same room with their abusers to testify. This, she says, is another form of torture. And intimidation of the victim often occurs.

With a long journey still ahead in combating gender-based violence in Kenya, hope lies in the expansion of services of the Gender Violence Recovery Centre.

Omondi says the GVRC was able to extend services to the outlying areas of Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu and Mombasa during the post-election violence, but lack of funding made them close afterwards.

According to national statistics, Naivasha, a market town in the Rift Valley Province in Kenya and a popular tourist destination, has the highest cases of gender-based violence. Omondi and her team want to partner with Naivasha’s district hospital to take their service closer to those who need it.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Jun 19 2009 (IPS)

Widespread gender-based violence against women and children in the conflict zones of the Great Lakes region has received some attention in recent years; less well-known is the extent of sexual violence against men.

Three out of ten men reporting to the Refugee Law Project say they have been raped. Credit: Refugee Law Project

“You are worth nothing. You are like women,” says one of the male rape survivors in the film, recounting what government soldiers told him. “They would ask you to bend and remove your trousers and different soldiers would penetrate you through the anus.”

“They put their penis wherever they could see an opening: in the ears, mouth, and the anus. By the time they were done I had sperm all over my body,” another survivor of sexual abuse recounts.

Women and men alike are raped in conflict situations in order to dominate them physically and psychologically. Male survivors are humiliated in terms of socially-accepted sexual and gender roles.

Survivors in the film describe women being told to lie on top of their husbands while being assaulted by soldiers; of men raped in front of their wives to demonstrate their weakness vis-à-vis government soldiers.

Just as is the case for women, comprehensive statistics on the extent of sexual violence against men in the region is difficult to come by.

The Refugee Law Project of the Makerere University faculty of law provides counselling, documentation and advocacy on refugee issues towards better refugee policies in Uganda. Dr Chris Doran, director of the project, told IPS at the launch of the film in Kampala that at least three out of 10 male refugees reporting to the centre have been sexually abused.

Moses Chrispus Okello, the centre’s head of research and advocacy, says many more men could be suffering in silence, fearing society may shun them if they speak out.

According to the Refugee Law Project, there are cases where police, rather than going after the perpetrators, have accused male survivors of rape of engaging in homosexual acts – outlawed in Uganda.

Women’s rights activists Akina Mama wa Africa argue that gender inequality, inadequate laws and poor-or non-existent-enforcement contribute to the problem; inadequate statistics and funding mean support for survivors is limited. Men who suffer rape find themselves living in a woman’s reality.

Dr Sylvia Tamale, former dean of the faculty of law at Makerere University and advisor to the RLP, says because the penal code does not recognise rape committed against men, perpetrators can only be charged with “indecent assault” which attracts much lighter punishment.

The documentary will be used to expose the realities of sexual assault against the men to governments in the region and the donor community.

The film-makers believe it should open up research into the issue and lead to a clearer understanding of sexual violence in the conflict-ridden Great Lakes region.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA and Gombe, UGANDA, Apr 6 2009 (IPS)

Primary health care in Uganda is hampered by a shortage of doctors and nurses, but trained volunteers from the community are stepping into the breach.

Village health team focal person Robert Kito giving guidelines to his team members at Gombe hospital compound. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

Kito is one of more than 3,000 village health team (VHT) members recruited to help in the provision of health services to the people of Mpigi district 40 kilometres from the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

VHTs are involved in community mobilisation for treating minor ailments, routine immunisation, HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, and informing the community about services available at health units.

Kito and other VHT volunteers have been given kits called "Homepacks" which contains drugs like the anti-malarial Fansidar and Panadol, a pain-killer commonly taken for just about any sickness – self-medication is being encouraged by government, over opposition by Uganda's medical association.

Doctor Ruth Nasanga, Mpigi's district director of health services, told IPS that the volunteers are helping extend health services to a population of 1.4 million people who are underserved by formally–trained health practitioners.

"We had only 62 health centres in the district and just a few health personnel running the facilities, which made it difficult for us to give health services to the people," says Nasanga.

The doctor-patient ratio of less than 1:24,000, according to a 2008 World Health Organisation report, is alarmingly high. The situation for nurses is quite similar. Government is striving to reduce this by training more nurses and doctors and by encouraging private institutions to invest in the health sector.

But a combination of factors, including the exodus of trained health practitioners to Europe and other countries in Africa able to pay more, means that the doctor patient ratio has gotten worse in recent years. Two hundred new doctors graduate in Uganda every year according to the ministry of health, but a third of these soon seek greener pastures elsewhere.

The situation is worst in rural Uganda because health practitioners who do stay in the country prefer to work in urban central region where better facilities are available.

Training community workers

Mpigi district is succeeding in providing health services using the community volunteers and the results are encouraging.

Reste Nanziri, a nurse in Gombe hospital and the village health team coordinator, says the number of malaria cases among children under five reported at the hospital has decreased and there are also fewer cases of anaemia diagnosed among the under fives at other health facilities.

The district is also registering an increase in immunisation coverage and new antenatal clinic attendance thanks to active village health teams.

"We need to pat ourselves at the back for the achievement, but credit should also go to the village health teams who have been instrumental in reducing malaria and other diseases especially among children below five years," says Reste Nanziri, a nurse in Gombe hospital.

Mpigi district launched the village health team programme in August 2004, shortly after receiving a grant of $40,000 from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria . Fifty one people took part in a workshop preparing them to train VHT members, and the programme was explained to local councillors at the local government level, who then took responsibility to select just over 3,000 people for the village health teams.

Women make up 1,759 of the selected team members. Just over half of those selected were already informal pharmacists in their areas, selling medication throughout the district. The village health teams are linked to nearby health units and have been provided with identification badges, t-shirts, bicycles, pay phones and household registers to facilitate their work.

They carry out health education during home visits to members of the community and at community gatherings and distribute anti-malarials, vitamin A, condoms, albendazole – a drug used for de-worming – and oral rehydration solution for use in cases of diarrhoea.

During home visits, they collect data and maintain registries on disease symptoms seen; they are instructed to identify, notify and refer cases they cannot handle.

The Mpigi District experience and the increased coverage of key interventions registered is an example of what community participation in the health delivery system can do but consolidating this will still require government to increase support for community-based providers and attend to referrals.

James Kakooza, state minister for primary health care, says Village Health Teams are being recruited all over the Country to strengthen care at the village level.

According to the Uganda health consumer’s organization, a civil society organization advocating for the rights of health consumers, there is a need for government to match policy with resources evidenced by fund allocation and actual provision of funds.

On the ground in Gombe, Kito worries that recent irregular re-supply of "Homepack" kits to his members means that health facilities will soon be crowded again because the volunteers will not be in a position to give first line treatment to minor cases.

It's not perfect yet, but it's an improvement.

Excerpt:

By Joshua Kyalimpa
Katosi, UGANDA, Mar 21 2009 (IPS)

Uganda spends close to $10 million each year treating waterborne diseases; the productive time lost to illness and caring for the sick has an even greater financial impact. But residents of Katosi village on the shores of Lake Victoria aren’t waiting for the government to find a solution.

Members of the Katosi Women Development Trust building a cistern to store rainwater. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

But between 40 and 60 percent of Ugandans – the situation is worse in rural areas and amongst poor urban residents – still lack access to safe drinking water, according to Uganda’s directorate of Water Development.

Ninety percent of residents of the fishing village of Katosi, in the Mukono district suffer from bilharzia or some form of worms because of drinking unsafe water from Lake Victoria. Leonard Kulumba, outreach officer of the Katosi Women Development Trust, is encouraging rain water harvesting as a way of mitigating the problem.

“We wanted to create what we call a safe water chain, because pupils were drinking dirty water from ponds and the time they take to collect that water from the wells was longer than necessary. It could take them almost 2 hours to collect water from those wells, which time they would have used to be in class. So we helped them by putting up cement tanks to [store rainwater and] save them from that task.”

Kulumba says on a number of occasions fights would erupt between villagers and the children sent to fetch water. “Girls were not safe with villagers at the wells. Sometimes battles would erupt between the villagers and the pupils, in which case some pupils would get hurt. So we wanted to save them from those dangers.”

Katosi’s women build the tanks for themselves and train community members in basic hygiene. Namaganda Masitulah, a community leader and one of the beneficiaries, says her rain harvesting tank has saved her a lot of money she used to spend on buying water for domestic use and animals.

“I have benefited very much because when I didn’t have a water harvesting tank, I had to buy water from the people who fetch water from the lake. Some of us are widows, and the project has helped us very much. When people came to research us, they found that most of the people had bilharzia because of the lake water being contaminated. We were advised to get treatment for it and also be de-wormed because of water which is not safe in the community.”

Bilharzia, also known as schistosomiasis, is caused by a parasitic flatworm found in freshwater along the shorelines of lakes and ponds, closely associated with snails. The disease is rarely fatal, but it damages internal organs and can impair the growth and cognitive development of children.

Apart from harvesting rain water for domestic use, The Katosi Women Development Trust realized that while their children enjoy safe clean water at home, they were taking dirty water at school. They have now provided rain water harvesting tanks for the four primary schools in the area.

Reverend Kintu Yosamu, the headmaster of the school, says the rain harvesting project has helped the children access safe drinking water. “Before the tank was constructed, we were badly off. Since we are near the lake shore we could not get clean water. We are now getting clean water and pupils are using it very well.”

Harvesting water is only the first part of the safe water chain the Trust is building. The Trust’s members are also teaching community members to wash hands, The importance of boiling water to kill germs, keeping water containers clean and most recently the use of Biosand filters to sterilise water.

The filters are concrete boxes filled with a layer of very fine sand, and some coarser sand then gravel at the bottom. When water is poured into the top, it filters slowly through the sand and can be collected from a pipe built into the bottom. Within three weeks of use, a biofilm forms, consisting of micro-organisms found in the water being filtered; along with the fine sand, these trapped micro-organisms become a highly effective means of sterilising water.

The Uganda Water and Sanitation Network, a national grouping of non-governmental and community-based organisations, is recommending the model set up in Katosi be rolled out in all rural areas if Uganda is to improve access to safe water. But some water experts, such as professor Charles Basalirwa of the Makerere University Department of Geography, believe even this may not be enough.

“In areas like northern Uganda where the majority of roofing is grass, rain water can be harvested just from trees like it was done in the old days. But this is very limited [source of water],” the professor says. “What’s more, there is a problem: where do you keep this water? The costs of storage containers like plastic tanks are very high, and even those which can be built using cement… cement these days is very expensive.”

But for the members of the Katosi Women Development Trust at least, rain water harvesting has already proved itself a sustainable solution to a challenging problem.

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By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Feb 27 2009 (IPS)

Alice Anywar lives in the Pagak resettlement camp in Gulu and at 39 is a multiple victim of the over 20 year-old Lords Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in northern Uganda. The rebels first attacked her home in Kilak village in 1987 killing both her parents and abducting her 12-year old brother. In 2002 they murdered her husband whom she had met in a refugee camp.

The rebels have retreated into the jungle in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) but Anywar, like many other residents fear they could re-enter Uganda.

“I never went to school because of this war, what I want is peace so I can till the land and look after my children.”

The elusive peace was dealt a near deathblow, many argue, in 2004 when Yoweri Museveni?s government requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague to indict and prosecute the rebels. The body has since become a source of further tension between the warring parties. The LRA has accused the ICC of bias for not charging their adversaries in the Ugandan army.

“I am not opposed to the [ICC] indictments per se but I am concerned about the impact they are having on the peace process,” explained Gulu Archbishop, John Baptist Odama, who led a peace effort at a time when the government was hell bent on militarily putting down the insurgency.

A flicker of hope emerged in July 2006 when the government and the rebels converged in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan to negotiate a comprehensive peace agreement. The talks failed. But a framework, referred to as the Juba peace protocols, laid the basis for traditional forms of justice and national courts to handle cases against the rebels.

The ICC indictments were again catapulted into prominence by recent reports that the LRA second-in-command wanted to surrender after sustaining injuries during skirmishes in the DRC. Okot Odhiambo allegedly contacted the International Organisation for Migration two months ago seeking safe passage into Uganda and assurances that he would not be prosecuted.

“Ours is to facilitate the return of the rebels but not to prescribe what should be done to them,” army spokesperson, major Felix Kulaigye told IPS.

At a press conference on 9 Feb President Museveni, prompted by questions about Odhiambo’s imminent surrender, confirmed that the LRA would face national courts and traditional justice.

Just how close local initiatives by traditional leaders of the Acholi tribe came to bringing peace to northern Uganda, is documented in research by the Beyond Juba Project at the Makerere University in Kampala. In 2005 the elders traveled to The Hague and implored the ICC to drop indictments against LRA commanders. They ventured into the jungles of the DRC and Sudan and pressed the LRA to abandon their rebellion. The chiefs and religious leaders asked that the “Mato Oput” traditional justice system be given a chance to resolve the conflict.

The Mato Oput ritual is initiated by one side of a conflict sending an emissary to the elders seeking their help in reconciliation. The guilty party has to crush a raw egg “Nyono Togweno” to symbolise a new beginning and step over a bamboo stick or “opobo” to represent a move from the past.

The offending party provides a goat that is shared equally with the other party as a sign of unity. The guilty party has to drink a bitter juice extracted from Oput leaves as a promise that they never wish to taste such bitterness again. More serious offences require offenders to compensate victims.

According to Leandra Komaketch of the Refugee Law Project the ritual has inbuilt mechanisms to prevent a recurrence of violence.

“A person who goes through the ritual would be banished by the community if they committed the sin again and to the Acholi being banished is worse than even life imprisonment.”

What the people of northern Uganda desire is justice that allows for healing, Acholi paramount chief, Rwot David Onen Acana, told IPS.

“Some people have argued that Mato Oput will breed impunity, what the people want now is peace and not revenge.”

But not everyone has been won over. Justice should not be sacrificed for peace, retorts Livingstone Sewanyana of the Foundation for Human Rights based in Kampala. “The solution lies in catering for peace and justice.”

The ICC office in Kampala also maintains that Mato Oput has its weaknesses: it will not give redress to victims and war crimes were committed outside Acholi territory where the ritual is widely accepted.

Traditional justice is applied across northern Uganda and southern Sudan to resolve conflicts at a community level. There foundation is all the same; they are built on the principle of victims and the community forgiving and integrating.

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By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Feb 17 2009 (IPS)

The average income in the Kyenjojo district in western Uganda is less than a dollar a day. Spending twice that on a single sanitary pad is an unaffordable luxury for most women.

Bagging papyrus - women are creating livelihoods and providing an affordable alternative for menstrual hygiene. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

Poor women here have traditionally used softened bark cloth for pads. But with this cloth, made from ficus natalensis trees, getting harder to find, women make do re-using a variety of fabric they can spare.

But Congolese refugees in the Kyaka 2 settlement are producing more affordable pads for themselves and the local market as well.

Dust fills the air as women fill white polythene bags with dry powder made from papyrus reeds, ready for weighing. The refugees are engaged in a project run by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to make thousands of refugees in Uganda and beyond producers who are able to at least partially support themselves despite their displacement.

The motivation for UNHCR is practical and urgent.

“Contributions to UNHCR are declining yet the refugee problem is growing and the situation is not being helped by the global economic down turn,” says Stephano Svere the Uganda country representative for UNHCR.

Jeannette Bakirabo is one of hundreds of Congolese refugees uprooted by fighting between CNDP rebels and the DR Congo army. When the rebels attacked her home village of Rutshuru in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bakirabo’s husband had gone to sell their goat in a nearby market at Kateguru. She has heard nothing from him since and fears the worst could have happened.

After three days of walking, she found herself in southwestern Uganda, at the border town of Kisoro, from where she was moved to Kyaka 2 settlement by the UNHCR.

Today she is one of about 60 Congolese refugees making sanitary pads for refugees and other women in the vicinity of the refugee camp.

“I have been able to buy a new mattress and thank God I can do my hair and look after my children.”

The manufacturing process for these innovative pads was developed by Dr Moses Kiiza Musaazi at Makerere University in Kampala. Refugees at Kyaka 2 make around a thousand pads a day using nothing more than reeds harvested from a nearby swamp, waste paper and water, processed with human-powered machinery designed and manufactured by the Faculty of Technology at Makerere.

Jean-Claude Molumba, one of only three men employed by the project, uses one machine to smooth and soften the rough sheets of dried papyrus and paper before they are cut to their final size.

“As you can see, the materials we soften here will be trimmed into pads of 5 by 20 cm by the women in the next room using a paper cutter,” says Molumba, pointing at a small room where absorbent pads are being individually wrapped in polythene cases.

On a normal day the refugees make more than enough for their own use and that of the surrounding community. Some of the pads are bought by UNHCR for delivery to other refugee camps across the region.

Juliette Nakibuule, assistant manager of Makapads, the company set up to market this innovative product, says they are still importing some of the components for making the pads because they cannot be sourced anywhere in Uganda or Africa.

Dr Musaazi says he pays the refugees per pad produced. He says each person earns more than 200 dollars a month. Those who prepare papyrus reeds for use are paid roughly !$1.50 per kilogram of dried up “flour” of papyrus.

“UNHCR has been importing 100,000 packets of sanitary pads for refugee women and girls a year at a cost of half a million dollars a year. Makapads are now providing 3,500 pads a year, which reduces on the expense incurred,” says Musaazi.

Imported pads cost close to two dollars each on the Ugandan market, but a pack of ten of the locally made pads is sold for 900 Ugandan shillings, working out to roughly 50 US cents a pad.

Rosette Rubaza, another of the refugee women employed at the Kyaka 2 refugee settlement, says with the earnings from her job she is able to buy food for her family of four including her unemployed husband.

“I earn on average 200 US dollars a month and this is plus the food rations I get from UNHCR is enough to cater for our needs.”

There are eight million women in need of pads in Uganda and pads made by the Kyaka 2 refugees are feeding into a market with a value estimated at about one million dollars a month.

The Makapads project is also expanding to different parts of the country. There are other manufacturing centres in Kampala – at Kawempe, Nateete, Massajja, Bukoto, Gaba, Kagoma and Makerere University – each employing 30 women each.

Musaazi told IPS that UNHCR has asked him to teach refugees in neighbouring Kenya to make pads and he has fielded inquiries from Ethiopia, Southern Sudan and Rwanda.

He says the project is seeking to avoid becoming capital intensive by investing in any more advanced technology, preferring to focus on locally-sourced materials and machinery that enable refugees and other poor women in Uganda to earn a livelihood.

Affordable sanitary pads go beyond convenience. The Forum for African Women Educationalists, a Ugandan association promoting girls’ education, is pushing for the government to supply free sanitary napkins to girls at schools; menstruation is a key factor affecting drop-out rates for girls. FAWE has also held workshops to bring the subject of menstruation and menstrual hygiene into the open.

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By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Jan 14 2009 (IPS)

Ten years of negotiations over a new protocol governing shared use of the Nile River are hanging in the balance, with Egypt and Sudan refusing to give up their present power over how much water is used by countries further upstream.

Sustainable and equitable management is needed to preserve livelihoods along the Nile River. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

"The technocrats had worked out all the paper work for a good protocol but the politicians have thrown a clean piece of cloth in the mud," says Professor Afuna Aduula, chair of the Nile Basin Discourse Forum, a consortium of civil society organisations looking at issues along the world's longest river.

The article in the new draft which has caused the stalemate is 14b, concerning water security. Water use by countries upstream has long been restricted by the terms of the colonial agreement signed on their behalf by Britain in 1929, and re-affirmed in 1954.

The Nile basin has a population of 160 million people in an area of 3.1 million square kilometres – including 81,500 sq km of lakes and 70,000 sq km of swamps, according to statistics from the Nile Basin Initiative, a body set up by Nile riparian states with funding from various donors to harmonise policy over the Nile.

Over the years, water levels in Lake Victoria, a major source of water for the Nile, have been falling. Water levels in 2008, were 2.5 metres lower than three years earlier. This is believed to be due to a combination of factors, including declining rainfall and increased use – and it is causing panic among states that share the Nile.

The 10 countries sharing the river under the Nile Basin Initiative have been negotiating a new framework agreement to manage the river's water for the last 10 years. The countries are Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, DR Congo and Uganda.

The Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework's article 6 talks about protection and conservation of the basin and its ecosystem and environmentalists look at this as a milestone in maintaining the water levels from a wider catchment area feeding into the lake.

But Frank Muramuzi of Uganda's National Association of Professional Environmentalists believes a deadlock could undermine regional conservation and development activities under the Nile Basin Initiative. He thinks a new protocol would guarantee countries like Egypt and Sudan more water.

"The protocol would set a framework for sustainable use of water resources from the river Nile," says Muramuzi. But if the status quo remains, waters from Lake Victoria the major reservoir for the Nile will continue to recede and shortages may result into conflicts, he adds.

The treaty being considered now also has five other major clauses which generated heated debate in previous negotiations. These include article 4, which is on equitable and reasonable use of the Nile waters, article 5 (prevention of harm to the waters), article 6 (protection and conservation of the basin and its ecosystem) and article 8 (prior informed consent before using the waters).

Egypt and Sudan, which have largely desert land, have been opposed to the treaty, fearing it would cut them off from the Nile waters.

In the new document, clause 14b concerning on prior informed consent was amended after Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo pushed for its alteration to "information concerning planned measures".

The new wording puts a check on the 1929 treaty, which required the riparian states to seek permission before using the Nile waters. The document further provides for establishment of a Nile Basin Commission, with its headquarters in Entebbe, Uganda.

The decision on the matter is now in suspense because negotiators have passed the issue on to the 10 heads of state of the Nile basin to conclude.

Callist Tindimugaya, Uganda's commissioner in the Ministry of Water, told IPS that what can be done now is to continue cooperating, pending the resolution of the contentious clause in the new protocol.

According to Professor Patrick Rubaihayo, an expert on development based in Makerere University, Kampala, many of the upstream countries risk missing millennium development goal targets should a new and more equitable protocol not be signed.

"Continuing extreme poverty is one of the consequences if a new protocol is not signed," he said.

A vibrant agriculture sector is seen as an essential vehicle for development, but Rubaihayo cannot envision this developing without investment in massive irrigation schemes. The colonial agreement on sharing the Nile's waters makes these schemes difficult because Egypt and Sudan must approve irrigation projects, and flatly refuse.

Uganda's Minister for Water, Jennifer Namuyangu, says the discussion is an opportunity for countries like Uganda to correct a historical anomaly. She says Uganda will not accept a lopsided pact over the use of the Nile.

Professor Aduula believes Egypt's refusal to sign a new protocol could be based on a calculation that one of their own is in line to become head of the Nile Basin Initiative and therefore influence the process. According to the charter that set up the Initiative, the head rotates among the member countries of the basin and the director serves a term of two years. The current head is Henrietta Ndombe a Congolese who will lead the organisation until September 2010 when someone from Egypt will take over.

Egypt wants a clause which states that other countries sharing the Nile should not use water to the detriment of another country. Other countries want that clause deleted altogether because of the implication that countries' upstream will have to get consent to construct hydro-electric dams and irrigation projects.

But according to Gordon Mumbo, who is in charge of confidence building among member states of the Nile basin, there is now thinking that the matter should be passed on to the council of foreign ministers because the heads of state have been hard to get together for a signing.

He says the chance to sign at the sidelines of the Africa union summit in Cairo, Egypt, four months ago was missed because of disagreements.

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By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Dec 1 2008 (IPS)

In her village they call her ‘councillor’. But Jenipher Namugwere is no ordinary councillor elected by the people to represent them in the local council.

Sarah Kagino with her prized Friesian cow. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

Palisa is one of three districts which is implementing a gender budget initiative spearheaded by the Uganda-based Forum for Women in Democracy (Fowode), with support from the UN women’s agency, UNIFEM.

Namugwere says all the women in Kadoto want access to credit. While she wants a loan for rice farming, others want to start small businesses like poultry and piggery. She claims that following her report to the Bulangira parish development committee last year that women were walking long distances to fetch water, a borehole well was drilled at the village primary school.

“The money for credit schemes hasn’t reached Kadoto,” says Namugwere, but expectations are high among the women. Sarah Kagino from the Bulangira parish is frustrated by the delay. She says she has given up on promises made by the government to help women like her.

Instead she has put all her energies on a Friesian cow she got through Heifer International, a non-profit organisation. “I see women meeting in SACCO’s (a cooperative society network), waiting for money and it hasn’t come. They have been attending trainings for poultry, bee keeping, but I don’t see them getting started on any project.” Kagino is dismissive.

A former agricultural extension worker, Kagino says by concentrating on her cow, she can earn the equivalent of 25 dollars daily just from the sale of milk.

Women in Uganda represent 80 percent of the agricultural labour force, and are responsible for the bulk of food crop production. But they have no control over the key factors of production like land.

Isa Taligoola, Palisa district chairperson, is convinced the money will come. “The most important part was to put the needs of women in the budget and this has been achieved. What is remaining is to disburse the money which we shall certainly do once the central government releases the money.”

The main economic activity in Kadoto, one of the poorest villages in the district, is farming. The most common food crops are millet, potatoes, beans, bananas, simsim (sesame, sunflower, and cash crop, cotton.

Any investment in agriculture in Palisa district, aimed at improving production, will directly benefit women, district officials aver.

The Yoweri Museveni government has received international acclaim for putting in place an active affirmative action policy to reduce gender imbalances in higher education, governance, politics and management.

Palisa district has four government dispensaries, 25 health centres and one hospital. The health centre in Bulangira parish is run by a management committee, a majority of the members women as per the government’s affirmative action policy.

Minister of Gender, Syda Bumba, believes this is a successful way to mainstream gender in the national planning process.

Julius Mukunda, director of the gender budget programme at Fowode, says the pilot project launched in the districts of Palisa, Kibaale and Kabale is set to roll out to several other districts. Fowode and UNIFEM have been working on influencing budgetary allocations to issues that affect women since 1999.

Mukunda explains they have conducted workshops with members of parliament, district councillors and other stakeholders as a way of influencing the budget processes.

In the 2008/09 budget for example the government has allocated an additional four million dollars to the education sector, to support the twin goals of universal primary and secondary education.

Taligoola is optimistic that some of that money will reach schools in his district. Palisa has a total of 197 primary and 37 secondary schools.

Patricia Munabe, executive director of Fowode, affirms that while the Universal Primary Education policy, initiated by the government in 1997, has significantly narrowed the gender enrollment gap, just 42 percent of girls complete their primary education compared to 55 percent boys.

She says dropouts are due to a variety of reasons including financial constraints, family responsibilities, illness, early marriages and pregnancies. She claims Fowode’s gender budget initiative is designed to tackle such issues.

Results are already coming in from his district, according to chairperson Taligoola. Drop out rates have come down to 40 percent among girls in Palisa.

UNIFEM’S Christine Nankubuge Ndaula in Kampala tells IPS that there will be susbstantive change when the gender budget advocacy campaign expands to more districts. The gender budget initiative, according to Mukunda, was launched following intense lobbying and advocacy with members of parliament who first enacted a law giving themselves a role in the earliest stages of budget formation.

“We made sure that we enlist the support of members of parliament on issues of gender budgeting and that means that they are themselves aware of issues of gender and can input into the budget process,” he explains.

The campaign calls for public participation in the budget process to develop a gender sensitive budget system. Fowode’s Munabe sees the process as opening the way for a more transparent and participatory budget process.

*This is the third of a three-part series that looks at gender equality in finance in Uganda.

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By Joshua Kyalimpa
KAMPALA, Nov 28 2008 (IPS)

Uganda's finance ministry has ambitious plans to reduce the country’s donor dependence. With foreign funds accounting for almost 50 percent of the national budget, officials believe a slew of measures announced in the 2008/09 budget could bring that down to about 30 percent.

The budget may fail women like these. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

Hopes are pinned on booming agricultural exports of tea, coffee, cotton, fruits, honey, rice, potatoes, dairy products, vegetable oil, poultry and fish. The government is investing billions in greater commercialisation of agriculture, improved seeds, building warehouses, upgrading the marketing infrastructure and the Commodity Exchange.

Tea exports touched 44,015 tonnes of tea last year. This is expected to increase to 46,000 tonnes, according to Isaac Munabi, executive secretary of the Uganda Tea Association.  In 2007, earnings from tea exports were 47.6 million dollars as per official records. With some 21,000 hectares of tea gardens, average yields in Uganda are about 2,500 kgs per hectare, according to the association. Last year, coffee exports too fetched an impressive 21 million dollars, the coffee development board says.

The resource envelope for the current 2008/09 financial year is based on the assumption that a projected real growth rate of 8.1 percent will be achieved and that low and stable inflation will be maintained.

Roughly three million dollars will come from domestic revenues comprising tax revenues of another three million dollars, non-tax revenues of over 70 million dollars and loan repayments from government parastatals,15 million dollars.

Financing from the domestic banking system amounts to 160 million dollars. The difference of some 100 million dollars is support from external sources.

For the country’s landless and subsistence farmers (70 percent of farm labour is women) the government has set up a land acquisition loan facility – a revolving fund of roughly 3 million dollars. The facility is to be disbursed through Post Bank and participating small farmers grouped in cooperative societies or SACCOs.

Rose Nakito (40) is a resident of Mayuge district, in eastern Uganda. She and her husband Bosco Baligeya are farmers like their aging parents.

Nakito tends coffee on a small plantation owned by her husband, to supplement the meagre salary he draws as a teacher at the nearby Wandegeya primary school. Nakito also works on a separate garden growing food crops such as maize, beans and potatoes to feed the family of seven and sells anything left over.

There is rarely any surplus to earn her cash and she largely depends on her teacher husband for some money from the sale of coffee sales or his salary.

Uganda’s secretary to the treasury Keith Muhakanizi told IPS that Nakito will be able to draw money from the revolving fund. An agreement has already been signed with Post Bank to ensure timely and efficient disbursement of the facility.

But independent analysts warn the budget may not be able to deliver on promises.

Social scientist Dr Aaron Mukwaya of Makerere University says most of the plans may never be implemented since a significant portion of the funds are projected to come from donors who may renege on their promises due to the global financial crisis.

According to Mukwaya, the areas that Uganda’s national budget seeks to address are popular with donors but are not necessarily likely to lead the nation to prosperity. "Our budget is almost 50 percent donor funded and when we look at the current economic situation globally, donors cannot provide the money. Yet the budget is emphasising public sector spending and the private sector seems to have been ignored."

The Uganda government has put aside about 60 million dollars for the National Agricultural Advisory Services – to supply improved varieties of seeds and inputs to farmers linked to the production of specific commodities including coffee, tea, cotton, fish and fruits.

But Uganda has no control over world markets, argues Mukwaya. In addition, the budget’s emphasis on technologically improved inputs are linked to the production of cash crops, which are largely the preserve of men.

The government intends to draw more farmers into commercial agriculture by improving marketing infrastructure, refurbishing 173 commodity stores, constructing warehouses and extending support to the operations of the Uganda Commodity Exchange (UCE).

But Dr Lawrence Bategeka, a research fellow at the Kampala-based economic policy research centre, says most of the farmers in Uganda work small land holdings and the national budget seems to be ignoring them. He says the emphasis of the budget should be on how to empower subsistence farmers.

"I was moving around upcountry and met a farmer who had 100 goats on a one-acre farm and could earn from the farm about 10 million shillings per year. That kind of small farmer could up his earnings if helped by the government," Bategeka says Finance Minister Suruma insists various stakeholders were consulted during the budget process but argues that while the 2008/2009 Budget may not have answered all the issues, it lays the foundation for progress.

But then can his budget bring "prosperity for all"? The jury is still out on this.

*This is the first of a three-part series that looks at gender equality in finance in Uganda.

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