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Torture chambers Drug resistant Total Oil E&P frustrated but

or safe houses? bacteria in DR Congo willing to go on with project

Issue No. 592 Oct. 04 - 10 2019 Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8

Hoima and 2021

election battles
Different ways opposition plans
to force Museveni out of power

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Issue No. 592 Oct. 04 - 10 2019

News analysis Business Health Arts Motoring

Cover story
Hoima and 2021 election battles
Different ways opposition plans to force Museveni out of power

5 The Week
30 Comments
Ugandan investigative journalist Solomon
Serwanjja wins BBC Dumor Award False climate solutions:
How hyping misleading
promises allows the rich
9 The Last Word
to continue profiting from
Lesson from Hoima by-election:Why climate crisis they created
NRM should be worried and why
the opposition needs to rethink their
32 Health
political strategy
Drug resistant bacteria
14 Analysis in DR Congo: It’s fueled
by HIV prevalence and
Torture chambers or safe houses?: multidrug resistance (MDR)
ISO boss, Security minister face
tough questions
35 Arts & Culture
27 Business
Oil brushes that conserve
Global brands scramble for African birds: Artist turns
market: Growing middle class, economy childhood affection into a
attracts investments in the hotel industry challenge for me and you

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MANAGING EDITOR: Joseph Were Patricia Akankwatsa, Julius Businge.
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2 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
 inbox

‘‘I get surprised to hear that the

opposition is asking you for votes.
What have they done? Nothing!’’
A person who has never done anything
comes to ask for votes from you?
Museveni
L-R; Minister for Finance, Matia Kaisaja, Prof Mondo Kagonyera Chancellor of Kampala University and
Prof Badru Kateregga, Vice- Chancellor of Kampala University officiate the 4th graduation of Kampala
University School of Nursing and Health Sciences with 493 graduands in a ceremony held on Sept 26 in
Mutundwe.   INDEPENDENT /ALFRED OCHWO

Ministry of Water and

Environment director
wetland, Colin Oloya
addresses volunteers
who participated in
Masese Landing Site
cleaning exercise ‘‘Do not allow anyone to discriminate
organised to mark
the International you on the basis of gender or to
Coastal Clean-up Day underrate you in terms of managing
held on Sept 27. The
EU Ambassador to a newsroom.’’Ask for what is rightfully
Uganda, Attilio Pacifici yours without fear or favour. Mary Karooro
(L) said plastic pollution Okurut
in water bodies is
becoming a problem
globally.   INDEPENDENT /
ALFRED OCHWO

The Ministry of Health

Permanent secretary, Dr
Diana Atwine (R) speaks
during the monthly media
breakfast meeting in
addressing eye health
and the disease burden in
the country. She said the
public must seek for early ‘‘A man like me cannot open an offshore
eye check-up, held on Sept account because I have to buy sugar,
30 at Lourdel Towers in crates and vehicles for my beverage
Kampala.   INDEPENDENT /
ALFRED OCHWO business. If Ugandans have a lot of
money, yes, they need to keep it safe’’
Amos Nzeeyi on Ugandans owning offshore
accounts

Estimated amount of money that the Number of jobs Total investment

Shs. 58.4b Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference
delegates pumped into Ugandan economy
3million E-commerce can
create by 2025
Shs. 2.2tn worth of China
in Uganda

Oct. 04 - 10 2019 3
week
NRM Wins Hoima, Kabong Woman Mp By-elections
The ruling National Resistance Movement
(NRM) candidates won both Hoima and
Kaabong Woman Member Of Parliament
seats against the Forum Democratic Change
(FDC) opposition.
Hoima elected Harriet Businge with
33,301 votes beating FDC contestant
Ms Asinasi Nyakato with 28,789 votes.
Ugandan investigative
journalist Solomon Serwanjja
wins BBC Dumor Award
Ugandan investigative journalist Solomon
Serwanjja won the Komla Dumor Award
sponsored by BBC.
Serwanjja who reports for NBS television
becomes the second Ugandan to win the
award in its five years history after Nancy
Kacungira, ex KTN news presenter.
He bagged the prestigious award after
starring with his documentary ‘stealing from
the sick’ that unmasked drug theft in Ugan-
da made him hit the headlines worldwide. 
 “Komla brought so much to the African
narrative – his perspective was a breath of
fresh air, as he believed Africa was rising and
that the world needed to see the continent
from a different angle,” Serwanjja told BBC
after he was named the award winner.
 As part of the prize, Serwanjja now earns
a three months development contract in
which he will spend at the BBC in London
gaining skills and experience before traveling
back to Africa to report on a story.
 Other journalists who have won the
award are Waihiga Mwaura from Kenya,
Amina Yuguda and Didi Akinyelure both
from Nigeria.
 The face of Africa award that aims at
celebrating African Journalism was incepted
to honor Komla Dumor, an exceptional
Ghanaian broadcaster and presenter for BBC
World News. He died suddenly aged 41 in
2014.
 According to BBC, the award goes
annually to outstanding African journalists
with an exceptional talent in telling African
stories.
4 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
According to Douglas Matsiko, the
Returning Officer Hoima Electoral district,
the total number of valid votes was 62,090
and invalid votes 1,690. In Kaabong district,
Ms Christine Tubo Nakwang of NRM won
with 22,532 votes while her contender Ms
Judith Nalibe Adyaka of FDC got 1,692 out
of 26,189 total votes in the area.
Uganda Cranes names new coach
Northern Irishman Jonathan ‘Johnny’ was generated by a panel of experts that
McKinstry was on Monday named the new included African legend Kalusha Bwalya,
Uganda Cranes head coach. FUFA CEO Edgar Watson, Stone Kyambad-
McKinstry, 34, replaces Frenchman Sebas- de.
tien Desabre who resigned after the AFCON He is of late been head coach at Bangla-
2019 finals in Egypt in July 2019. desh entity Saif Sporting Club having previ-
He was officially unveiled by the FUFA ously handled the Sierra Leone and Rwanda
CEO Edgar Watson who was flanked by the national teams.
acting FUFA President Justus Mugisha and McKinstry’s immediate task at hand will
Communications Director, Ahmed Hussein. be to handle the return leg of the CHAN
The tactician was the successful choice 2020 qualifier as Uganda Cranes host Burun-
from the 137 coaches that applied for the job. di in Kampala.
The final three-man shortlist that had Uganda triumphed 3-0 during the open-
McKinstry, Hugo Broos and Luc Eymael ing leg played a fortnight ago in Bujumbura.
Uganda set to host organisation
of Islamic cooperation meeting
After successfully Kadaga revealed that
hosting the over 400 dignitaries from
Commonwealth 57 member countries
Parliamentary of the organisation of
Conference, Uganda Islamic cooperation are
is set to host the expected for the meeting
42 nd meeting of the that will be held at Sky’s
parliamentary Union of Hotel in Kampala.
Islamic cooperation on The meeting will be
the 1 st and 2nd October of parliament Rebecca graced by legislators,
this year. Kadaga and Kawempe speakers from the likes
This was announced North MP Hajji Abdul of Mauritania, Malaysia,
at a press conference Latif Ssengendo Iraq, Lebanon, among
addressed by the speaker Ssebaggala on Monday. others.
 week
Uganda heads to Kenya for tourism showcase China celebrates 70th
Team Uganda comprising of 18 tour oper- from Kenya and across the world. We shall founding anniversary
ators led by Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) is
set to showcase Uganda’ tourism offerings at
have the opportunity to showcase to varied
group trade buyers and ensure that our tour in Uganda
the 8th edition of the Magical Kenya Travel operators get business as they sell Uganda.
Expo (MKTE) to be held from the 2nd -4th She added; “UTB will conduct destination The People’s Republic of China
October 2019, at Kenyatta International Con- training for 50 key expatriate communities celebrated its 70th founding
vention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, Kenya. living in Kenya, government officials and anniversary at a dinner held at Serena
The annual expo will attract over 170 Kenya Tour Operators. As part of our strat- hotel. The ceremony was graced by the
exhibitors and 180 hosted buyers registered egy to work with foreign missions, we shall president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
from 20 countries around the World; offer- also train embassy officials at the Uganda Other Several diplomats, ministers,
ing an attractive platform for Uganda to High Commission in Nairobi on how to and heads of institutions attended the
showcase. market Uganda’s tourism at their various dinner which featured performances
Uganda will this year showcase Adven- platforms.” by a cast of Ugandan and Chinese
ture, Golf Tourism and Nightlife under the Kenya remains Uganda’s biggest source performers.
theme; “Uganda: The adventure capital of market for tourists in the region accounting The event celebrates the ascension
East Africa.” for 29% of total tourism arrivals registered to power by communists led by Mao
Commenting Uganda’s participation, UTB in 2018. African land markets (regional and Zedong on October 1, 1949, four years
Chief Executive Officer, Lilly Ajarova said, neighboring countries) that entered Uganda after the end of World War II.
“This is a very good opportunity for Uganda by road makeup 69% of Uganda’s interna- It marked the birth of modern China
to tap into various operators and visitors tional arrivals, and grew by 6.1% in 2018. under the leadership of the Communist
Party of China (CPC), which has
overseen the country’s transformation
into a global power.
Former UPC vice president Joseph Bbosa passes on China’s ambassador to Uganda,
Zheng Zhuqiang said the 70th
Former Uganda occurred in The Hague, anniversary was a reflection of the
People’s Congress (UPC) Netherlands”, read country’s journey to the top, fraught
Party Vice President Muyita’s message. with challenges including aggression
Joseph Bbosa passed on Bbosa assumed the from western powers.
last week in The Hague, UPC party presidency
Netherlands. when Dr Olara Otunnu
Solomon Muyita, the bowed out in May 2016
Judiciary Spokesperson, to pave way for elections,
in a statement said which led to a protracted
Bbosa, who is also court battles.
the husband to the The development saw
International Criminal the party splitting in two
Court-ICC Judge, Salome rival factions allied to
Balungi Bbosa breathed Akena and Bbosa.
his last at a hospital He is a lawyer
in Netherlands where by profession and
he had been receiving Bbosa, the husband to he was Otunnu’s
treatment. the Hon. Lady Justice guild government as
“We regret to Salome Balungi Bbosa minister for justice and
announce the sudden of the International constitutional affairs.
passing of Joseph Criminal Court, which

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Dial *133*2# *terms and conditions apply |

Regulated by Uganda Communications Commission

for more bundles

Oct. 04 - 10 2019 5
week
EU cleans up Jinja’s Lake Victoria shores
Masese residents and EU staff cleaned Masese Landing Site
Hundreds of residents of Masese
Landing Site in Jinja town on Sept. 27 joined
members of the EU diplomatic missions
in Uganda, civil society and the Ministry
of Agriculture in a clean-up exercise of the
Lake Victoria shores. The clean-up coincided
6 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
with the International Coastal Clean-
up Day, a day commemorated around
the world to create awareness about the
dangers of plastic pollution in water bodies.
Plastic materials litter has become a global
concern affecting the blue environment. The
world’s oceans, seas, lakes and rivers are
increasingly being clogged with fast food
wrappers, juice containers, bubble wands
and housing insulation materials. Attilio
Pacifici, the EU Ambassador to Uganda
who led the delegation said this is the third
year the EU has participated internationally,
campaigning for the Ocean Governance
agenda. “We share a love for our planet and
we all hold responsibility for making and
keeping it healthy through avoiding single
use plastic as well as ensuring that our waste
does not become anyone else’s problem,”
Pacifici said, “I am also overwhelmed with
the number of partners who joined us for
this action which show us that when we
act together, we can bring change.” Majid
Batambuze, the Jinja Municipality Mayor
said plastic waste disposal in his area is
alarming and is a matter that affects all
walks of life, no matter how old one is. “We
pledge to continue contributing to keep our
lake cleaner and healthier,” he said. Colin
Oloya, director wetland in the Ministry of
Water and Environment said communities
living within the landing sites have bad
waste management habits. He urged
residents to act responsibly.
Humour Did you know?
Dreams help brain forget
useless memories

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is one

of several sleep stages the body cycles
through every night. It first occurs about
90 minutes after falling asleep and is
characterised by darting eyes, raised
heart rates, paralysed limbs, awakened
Parliament spent shs18bn on procuring 64 vehicles for commonwealth parliamentary conference brain waves - and dreaming.
Now, says a new study, it’s during
REM when our brains clear out the
memories we’ve made while we’re
awake, deciding what to keep and
what to discard. In a study published
in the journal `Science’, the scientists
say “forgetting is an active process”.
They explain that during REM the brain
cells work to actively forget useless
memories. But less is known about this
process during the different phases of
sleep.
The team found that during the rapid
eye movement (REM) sleep phase—or
active sleep when we are thought to
dream—special nerve cells appear to
actively contribute to forgetting. What
are known as melanin-concentrating
hormone-producing (MCH) neurons sit
in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain
that helps with a range of functions
Science teachers have broken away to form their own body called Uganda National Science Teacher’s union (UNASTU) such as sleep, appetite, and emotions.
Past research has suggested these cells
help to control REM sleep patterns:
activating the MCH neurons increasing
time spent in this phase, while
inhibiting them reducing transitions
into this phase.
When the team looked at MCH cells
in mice, they found 52.8 percent were
active during REM sleep, compared
with 35 percent when the mice were
awake. The study was funded by the
National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part
of the National Institutes of Health.
“Our results suggest that the firing of
a particular group of neurons during
REM sleep controls whether the brain
remembers new information after
a good night’s sleep,” said Thomas
Kilduff, Ph.D., director of the Center
for Neuroscience at SRI International,
Menlo Park, California, and a senior
President met with Pentecostal evangelical pastors over wealth creation among their flock author of the study.

Oct. 04 - 10 2019

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concise letters from our esteemed
readers on topical issues. Please
send them to:
The Editor, The Independent
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Kampala,Uganda.
Email: editor@independent.co.ug
Advice for Museveni
on Americans
Refer to: “America’s human rights
imperialism 2: Why we should be
suspicious of America’s attempts to
insert itself in our national politics” (The
Independent Sept.27). Andrew Mwenda
I love the fact that you’re finally realising
that President Yoweri Museveni’s
relationship with the U.S. and the
European Union has fallen. Try reaching
out to the President and tell him to hang
his boots before the Americans eject him
out in a very inhuman way. Tell him to
ask the likes of former Kenyan President
Daniel arap Moi who is now enjoying a
peaceful retirement in his Kabarak home
or go down in history just like his friend
Robert Mugabe, Hussein Mubarak and
Muamar Gadhafi.
I personally have a problem with the
likes of Bobi Wine but blame all this on
Museveni who failed to nurture a leader
to succeed him. He has been running the
country like a one man show. Let me be
very categorical and advise Museveni not
to run for office come 2021 because the
G7 countries will deal with him and leave
the whole country bleeding. The G7 are
not bothered about our welfare so long us
their interest is being well taken care of.
Ask your neighbours, Kenya. Museveni
might think that he has a strong army but
it will come down crumbling. Museveni
has done allot for this country but it
is time he called it a day before he is
humiliated before his bazukulu.
Erick Eling
8 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
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www.facebook.com/TheIndependentMagazineUganda
Why ban People Power red berets?
Refer to: “Uganda People’s Defence Forc-
es dress code gazetted, warns about head
gear” (The Independent online). This is all
intimidation and signs of fear of the opposi-
tion People Power but you cannot fight the
people’s will. Soon or later you, NRM, will
Does Museveni fear Bobi Wine?
Refer to: “America’s human rights impe-
rialism 2: Why we should be suspicious of
America’s attempts to insert itself in our
national politics” (The Independent Sept.27).
There is contradiction on part of Mwenda
here. He states that the U.S. is now not
interested in Africa and there is no Assistant
Secretary of State for Africa Affairs. If this is
Embrace independence
milestones
Uganda is rich in most of the mineral
resources and on top of that possesses the
most favorable climate and environment,
and I guess it is why they called it the
pearl of Africa. The World Bank analysis
showed Uganda is one of the fast growing
economies. In order to enjoy harmony we
are having as of today, we had to first gain
independence from our colonial masters.
So we should embrace the coming inde-
pendence celebrations.
It’s an honor to see it that in this year’s
celebrations, we are hosting Emmerson
Mnangagwa, the president of Zimbabwe as
the chief guest. This year’s theme, consoli-
dation of national unity, security, freedom
and prosperity, is worth the celebrations
because most of the content in the theme
have been achieved. Many milestones
have been achieved ever since Uganda
attained her independence although agi-
tation for more and more achievements is
rising. Many Ugandans now have equal
opportunity to be what they want to be in
life which wasn’t the case before indepen-
dence. We had no peace in our Country
and on top of it we had no sovereignty.
Today we do have such things in our coun-
try, so why not go to Sironko District to
celebrate the Independence that we got?
Kevin Seguya
News analysis Health Business
Kayihura sanctions Is that supplement Experts on NSSF’s
in perspective safe to take? Shs402billion loss
Issue No. 591 Sept. 27 - Oct. 03, 2019
Ushs 5,000,Kshs 200, RwF 1,500, SDP 8
Pouyanné:
‘Total Oil
boss ready
to teach
Museveni
a lesson’
www.independent.co.ug
have to surrender to Ugandans. We have
had enough of suffering caused by dictator-
ship governments so this is the time we have
decided to show our emotionally tough feel-
ing that we have been holding for long time.
Asuman
the case, then why does Mwenda write that
Americans are using Bobi Wine as a Trojan
horse? To what end of they are not interest-
ed in us anymore? Second, do the last three
paragraphs of article also seem to suggest
that Museveni is afraid of Bobi Wine and
free elections in general?
Paul Muwanga
involve parents, learners in
national curriculum review
The National Curriculum Review; espe-
cially for the O’Level section, is undergoing
review with those in charge saying it is for
the good of our education. The curriculum
is key to the educational needs of our chil-
dren and nation. There have been proposals
made by the National Curriculum Devel-
opment Centre and I am not aware of any
deliberate consultations of parents and the
learners. There can be nothing for us without
us. As such, there cannot be a curriculum
review without the input of those it is being
reviewed for. We have had several proposals
coming from different corridors concerning
what kind of education our children are
getting and the strongest argument has been
to design a curriculum that suits our context
and needs rather than importing certain
systems. How many students or student
bodies have been consulted on this process?
How many parents have participated in
this review? We should not take this review
lightly as it has adverse effects on the future
of children and hence the entire country.
Let us consult widely as possible and not
rush the process and we need to have core
subjects that will be useful to our children
and the future of this country. Parents and
students should take this matter seriously
and demand that they are consulted for the
outcome is as good as the process.
Michael Aboneka

Lesson from Hoima by-election
By Andrew M. Mwenda
Why NRM should be worried and why the opposition
needs to rethink their political strategy
L
ast week, the NRM narrowly won the
elections for women MP in Hoima
district. According to results, NRM’s
Harriet Businge got 33,000 votes
(54%) against FDC’s Asinansi Nyakato with
29,000 votes (46%). This is a major setback
for NRM, which has historically won
Hoima with huge margins. In 2006, the FDC
candidate for Women MP in Hoima got only
15% of the votes the NRM candidate got, in
2011 only 10% and in 2016 25%. In this by
election, the FDC candidate got 86% of the
votes the NRM candidate got.
Yet before the opposition can celebrate,
they should first look at voter turnout. Only
62,000 (43%) out of 144,000 registered voters
showed up. One can say by-elections have
low turnout. Yet the opposition deployed a
large number of its best and most renowned
politicians and activists in the district for
weeks. Even the popular Kyadondo East
MP, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine,
was there. This should have bolstered voter
enthusiasm but it didn’t. Why?
While NRM’s political fortunes are
declining, the opposition is not inspiring
much confidence. The growth in the
opposition’s is far below the growth and
spread of disaffection with NRM and
President Yoweri Museveni. The radical
extremism of the two most popular cults of
the opposition – Defiance and its bastard
child, People Power – has led to levels of
intolerance of divergent views that most
Ugandans have decided to keep away from
electoral politics.
NRM continues to win elections in spite
of declining support. The opposition claims
this is because NRM steals their votes but
fails to explain why they won Kyadondo
East, Bugiri and Arua. NRM wins because
of low voter turnout. In this by election the
NRM candidate’s got only 23% of registered
voters, 77% didn’t vote her.
Uganda’s opposition is deluded. They
believe they occupy such a superior moral
ground, that they are so awesome and cool,
their position is so self-evidently righteous;
so they do not need to win over people.
They believe everyone should support them
as of right because they are “liberators.”
They believe, and I think correctly, that most
Ugandans are frustrated with Museveni and
his NRM. However, they mistake this to
mean most Ugandans love them.
The fact that most people are frustrated
The Last Word
with Museveni does not mean they
would automatically support anyone who
opposes him. The fact that a given woman
is angry with her abusive husband does
not necessarily mean she wants to quit her
marriage. Even if she quit, it does not mean
she is necessarily willing to marry the next
suitor who comes telling her love stories.
Let us assume, just for argument’s sake,
that NRM stole votes in Hoima. How does
one explain 82,000 (57%) of registered
voters keeping away? Is the opposition
saying NRM blocked these people from the
polling stations or are they ghost voters? The
reason is simple: the opposition in Uganda
is consumed by its own misguided sense of
moral righteousness and its deluded sense of
destiny that is has forgotten the interests of
the people in whose name it claims to fight.
This is because the opposition in Uganda
is driven only by the desire for power and
nothing more.
The opposition in Uganda believes that
power is everything. They believe one
does not need better policies backed by
the appropriate social forces – only a good
heart. That once in power the rest will work
out with “iron necessity” to a desirable
end. Yet it is difficult to rally people whose
actual interests you do not understand. For
then, you cannot organise them around
what they want (bottom-up). Instead you
promise what you think they want (top-
down welfare/charity) This is the reason the
opposition has no plan to address the real
challenges of Uganda’s economy: to create
better jobs and opportunities for trade etc.
Consequently, the opposition has pitched
its message on dolling out more welfare.
Where Museveni has offered free education
and free health, the opposition promises to
make it better i.e. “we want to be a better
version of Museveni”. Bobi Wine went
even further when asked about his policy
proposals. He said he intends to implement
NRM’s Ten Point Program because
Museveni has been poor at doing exactly
that. This hogwash can win over the angriest
sections of the population and nothing more.
For the NRM, its electoral performance
is a tragedy not of poor performance but
of contradiction. Museveni has actually
been a very successful president by both
historical and contemporary records. He
has stabilised the political dispensation in
a country that had once been plagued by
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
opinion
military coups and civil wars, thereby giving
Uganda a prolonged period of stability. He
has buttressed this by putting the economy
on a long-term growth trajectory thereby
guaranteeing economic prosperity for a
sizeable section of the population. He has
tolerated a decent level of freedom and
individual liberty, both political but most
especially economic.
Yet in spite of this, and also largely
because of it, middleclass Ugandans are
angry and frustrated. This is even the more
ironic because Museveni is in the most
developmental phase of his presidency –
witness the investments in infrastructure
for roads, electricity, water, air transport,
hospitals, schools etc. Any government
would be reaping windfalls of political
support from such massive investments.
Yet the Museveni government seems to be
reaping the opposite – increasing popular
anger and frustration. Why?
NRM abandoned siasa (strategic
communication and political mobilisation)
long ago. Today it believes in crass bribery,
dolling out envelopes of cash to supporters
and critics alike backed by a sizeable doze
of repression. The contradiction is that the
NRM were most effective at communicating
when they were doing very little and
abandoned it when they are doing so much.
Perhaps they have also deluded themselves
into the belief that the investments they are
making are self-evident. Yet making such
investments without communication is like
winking at someone in the dark: you know
what you are doing, they don’t.
More critically, economic transformation
has greater potential to generate mass
discontent than economic stagnation. This is
because as people are more educated, come
to urban areas and are exposed to the world,
they become more aspirational. The rate of
growth in expectations outstrips the rate
of growth in opportunities. The mismatch
between expectations and available
opportunities lead to social frustrations.
This is why strategic communication and
political mobilisation are absolutely vital
for a rapidly transforming society. This is
the logic Museveni and NRM have failed
to register.
amwenda@independent.co.ug
9
cover story

Hoima and 2021

election battles
Different ways opposition plans
to force Museveni out of power

By Julius Businge

10 Oct. 04 - 10 2019

E
ven after the Electoral
Commission announced that
their candidate had lost the
recent by-election for Hoima
District Woman MP, the
opposition insists they won.
Unlike in the past when the opposition
rushed to court to attempt to nullify such
results, by press time they were yet to
decide on that. Instead most of them told
The Independent that they are focusing
on 2021.
Kyadondo East MP Robert Ssentamu
Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine who led the
opposition campaign was reflective.
He said that the victory of the Hoima
people was stolen by President Yoweri
Museveni and his rigging machinery.
“While I understand their
disappointment and sadness, I am
encouraging them to hold fort-this is
only temporary,” he said, “Our role is to
reflect, reorganise, and do everything we
need to do while trusting God…remain
strong while believing in yourself.”
Expert election watchers hearing this
are saying that based on the Hoima
experience and results, the 2021 is not
going to be an easy election for either
the opposition or President Yoweri
Museveni.
“What happened in Hoima is what
awaits the country in 2021,” said Ibrahim
Semujju Nganda, the FDC spokesperson
at the Party’s weekly press conference on
Sept.30 in Kampala.
Semujju told journalists that the NRM
used state resources – vehicles, money,
security agencies (UPDF) and public
servants, which is illegal under election
laws.
Semujju displayed photocopies of pre-
ticked ballot papers that were in favour
of the NRM candidate and read out the
number plate of the vehicle that was
used to transport the ballots. He also
displayed pictures of a UPDF official
who he said helped in vote rigging.
He said one of their own; Michael
Kabaziguruka (the MP for Nakawa
constituency) fought with the NRM
rigging machinery and confiscated 51
pre-ticked ballot papers which he later
on handed over to the IEC officials.
Semujju said the party would officially
write to the EC about the observed
electoral malpractices.
The Hoima seat fell vacant after the
former district woman MP Tophace
Byagira Kaahwa decided to cross and
represent the newly created Kikuube
district.
Asanansi Nyakato Kabanda ran on the
Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)
ticket but she was backed by almost
all opposition parties under the People
Facts and numbers
  Following the voters’ register
update exercise held from Aug.12-
16, 2019, Hoima registered
143,2732voters.
  There was a reduction of 5,398
voters removed from the register
for several reasons including
transfers and deletions
  According to the National
Population and Housing Census
2014, Hoima District has a
population of 572,986 of which
287,906 are males and 285,080 are
females
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
cover story
Power umbrella.
All opposition forces united and
worked together from August 29 when
campaigns started to polling day on
Sept.26.
Popular names – Dr. Kizza Besigye,
the former FDC Presidential Candidate,
Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine), the
Kyadondo East Member of Parliament
and People Power head, Patrick Amuriat
Oboi, the FDC President, Gen. Mugisha
Muntu from the Alliance for National
Transformation party and other
opposition leaders were on the ground to
canvass support for Nyakato Kabanda.
They faced off with President
Museveni and a number of his cadres
campaigned for the NRM candidate
Harriet Businge aka ‘baby face’.
Rigging allegations
Museveni campaigned for Businge
basing on the NRM programmes in
Hoima which is the new oil hinterland
of Uganda. Museveni said in Hoima,
the government has reduced poverty
levels and boosted economic activities.
He pointed at about 300km of new road
networks that the government has built
and electricity lines and social services
in health and education that have been
extended to Hoima.
He said the opposition claim that the
NRM government has done nothing is “a
big shame but it is good for the NRM”.
“You cannot dissolve a road, a power
line or a school by lies,” he said, “You
only dissolve yourself politically by
lies and that is what will happen to the
so-called opposition, working for foreign
interests that we know well and will
expose at the right time.”
11
cover story
When the EC announced the results
at 03:30am on Friday Sept. 27, the NRM
candidate Businge had won with 33,
301 votes (53.63%). According to the
EC results Nyakato polled 28, 789 votes
(46.37%).
The opposition immediately dismissed
the EC results. They alleged there
were election malpractices which
compromised the legitimacy of the
results and the entire exercise.
“There is every indicator to show that
Nyakato won but the regime machinery
affected the result,” Alice Alaso, the
national coordinator in charge of finance
and administration at the Alliance for
National Transformation (ANT), a
newly formed political party, told The
Independent.
But Museveni shot back, alleging
that it is the opposition that rigged. In a
public statement in the media, Museveni
said he doubted the number of votes the
opposition candidate got were genuine.
“We are auditing the voting to
discover the cheating which is
characteristic of the opposition (Jinja,
Bugiri, Arua, etc),” Museveni said.
The alleged rigging by opposition,
he said, is partly due to the weaknesses
of the NRM in terms of organisation
, inspecting the registers of voters to
discover the imported voters, using
exercise books to record people that
come to vote and comparing the list to
the votes in the box among others.
He said that the opposition rigging
machinery was aided by a police force
that had been infiltrated by, Kawukumi
(pests).
Asked to comment on allegations that
the opposition engaged in cheating as
Museveni put it, Semujju said Museveni
12 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
should not lie – at his age. The President
is 75 years old.
As the accusations and counter-
accusations raged, election observers
such as Crispin Kaheru, the coordinator
of Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral
Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) issued
verbose statements.
CCEDU said that whereas the
opposition parties and formations
benefited a great deal from uniting
behind a single candidate, the NRM
leveraged its access to (and use of)
state resources including government
vehicles, and public officers to campaign
for, and get the NRM candidate
announced as winner in the Hoima
District Woman MP By-election.
He said there is a likelihood that
allegations and realities of occurrences
such as circulation of pre-ticked ballot
papers in favour of the NRM candidate
(on polling day), arrests of agents from
the opposition parties (for whichever
reason) and the partisan involvement
of some security agents to the point of
attempting to subvert the will of the
people in some areas within Hoima,
affected the election and how it later
turned out to be.
“It is possible that these issues could
in future be brought up to query the
credibility of the Hoima District Woman
MP By-election,” Kaheru said in a notice.
NRM losing Hoima
What is not in dispute is that, despite
the win, the numbers are the worst
result for NRM in Hoima. It is the worst
historical performance.
The opposition also won a majority;
four out seven LC-3 chairperson position
in Hoima and swept the grassroots sub-
county councilor positions; 35 out of 47.
The NRM swept the higher offices of
LC-5 councillors; 11 out of 12.
Compare that with the outcome of
another election that was held the same
day in Kaabong District, northeast
Uganda. In Kaabong the NRM won
the District Woman MP seat, all six
LC-3 chairpersons positions, all 8 LC-5
Councilors positions, and all 27 sub-
county councilors.
The numbers show that the opposition
is gaining more political ground in
Hoima as its vote tally has increased
while that of NRM has slipped– even
after considering that the district has
been chopped into two.
For instance, in the 2016 general
elections, the NRM candidate who won
the Hoima district woman representative
seat (Tophace Byagira Kaahwa) garnered
96, 277 votes beating the FDC candidate
(Rehemah Nabisere) with a very big
margin of 86, 498. Nabisere, who only
got 9, 779 votes, was not even in the
second position.
Based on such results and others
across the country where they have won
elections, the opposition says they are
ready to defeat Museveni and his NRM
party in 2021.
That sets the stage for what many
say will be a contest requiring sweat,
organization - and guarding the vote.
Many members of the opposition who
participated in the Hoima election and
had been involved elsewhere told The
Independent that guarding the vote in
Hoima was difficult because the district
is big. They said it was easy to guard the
vote and win in Bugiri and Arua because
they are small municipalities with about
40 polling stations compared to Hoima

district which has 266 polling stations.
Tough times ahead
But Museveni is equally determined to
defeat the opposition.
Opposition leaders that have spoken
to The Independent since the Hoima
results have pointed to working as one
unit, with one common agenda – to oust
Museveni.
Alaso said that key lesson learned
from Hoima is that whenever the
opposition come together and pool
resources; they win.
She says come 2021 all efforts should
be put on a joint candidate to ensure
Museveni leaves.
“I am convinced Museveni’s time is
up,” she said, “God has a plan….as a
party we continue to mobilise ahead of
2021.”
Gerald Siranda, the Democratic Party
Secretary General agrees with Alaso.
“For us, that was a referendum and we
believe…this is a reflection that nobody
can defeat Museveni without a joint
effort,” he told The Independent.
He said the NRM’s narrow win in
Hoima; amidst their state machinery,
“shows that people have woken up”.
He said “the regime did whatever it
takes to win and use this as an insulator
to show that they are still in control”.
“The country must worry because the
base that Museveni has now is the gun
and the money,” he said.
He said it is going to be tough in 2021
because Museveni is going to be the
candidate himself.
“If he has sampled us on an election
where he is not a candidate we expect
more than that when he is a candidate,”
he said.
Ahead of 2021, Siranda said, the
opposition is pushing for electoral law
reforms. They want an independent
Electoral Commission, clear
understanding of the role of the UPDF
in the electioneering process, a special
police for the electoral process, and
allowing devices like mobile phones
at polling areas. They also want
presidential election results declared
at polling station level and then tallied
at constituency level like is done in the
neighboring Kenya.
Accident of history
Mwambutsya Ndebesa, a renowned
pundit on elections and democracy and
lecturer at Makerere University told The
Independent that the key lesson from
Hoima is that winning is not about the
numbers one gets at the ballot but is
about demonstrating political support
for the fight.
First he said, winning is determined
by many factors – political and some
organisational. That opposition could
have lost because they did not have
money, had limited access to radio
and other media, had organisational
challenges, no state machinery. The
NRM had all these factors in their favor
including the Electoral Commission,
Ndebesa said.
But he said that by looking at the
figures, one could easily say the
opposition is gaining ground in the
hearts of the people.
“It does not matter whether you win
an election in Africa. What matters is a
demonstration or a feeling out there that
there is political support for a side in a
particular region,” he added.
“The NRM people are not fools,”
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
cover story
Ndebesa said, “they know that they may
have won the votes in terms of the ballot
but in terms of political support it has
been eroded.”
He said there are clear examples in
Egypt and Tunisia that winning at the
ballot may not be sustainable for a party
that has lost political support of the
people.
“If you win at the ballot yet the
political support at heart is with other
people, there can be an accident of
history and you will see real support
coming up.
“This winning of the ballot business is
not the will of the people that is echoed
in the ballot box, it is the money that
the state has; it is political influence and
intimidation they have that is echoed in
the ballot paper,” he explained further.
Museveni can’t be defeated
As the opposition continues to
mobilise for 2021, Ndebesa says it
is impossible to defeat Museveni at
the ballot and “you get the Electoral
Commission declaring you the winner.”
He said this has happened in Zimbabwe
under the late Robert Mugabe.
The solution, Ndebesa said is for the
opposition to just continue mobilising
the people and create a political climate
where NRM knows that in terms of
positive support it has declined.
Once that is achieved, he said NRM
and Museveni would be forced to
negotiate on the political issues of the
land. “Negotiations in one case can
actually force the NRM regime to opt for
a national dialogue and force Museveni
to step down,” Ndebesa said.
13
news analysis
The Hoima election
How Museveni escaped being bitten by Bobi Wine
By Independent Team
T
he loose coalition of opposi-
tion politicians, activists, and
campaign strategists under the
People Power umbrella entered
Hoima district early to canvass support
for the Forum for Deomcratic Change
(FDC) candidate. They appeared in
force and determined even as they lit-
erally walked into their opponent, the
ruling NRM’s killing field. It was an
ambitious mission.
Hoima has for years been a 100%
yellow region, the colour of the ruling
NRM party with five out of five area
MPs belonging to the ruling party.
The FDC winning the Hoima District
Woman seat would have blotched they
yellow with unwanted red (the colour
of the People Power group). It was not
surprising that the local politicians and
government officials led by President
Yoweri Museveni came out in force to
14 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
ensure Hoima remained pure yellow.
In the end, the opposition lost.
According to many election observers
and politicians that The Independent
spoke to, the opposition loss in Hoima
was largely down to some well-known
campaign issues; including that a char-
ismatic campaign amounts to nothing
if it cannot get voters into the voting
booth. And it does not matter what
blocks the voter’s path.
During the campaign, it had become
clear that although Harriet Businge;
the flag-bearer of the ruling NRM and
Asanansi Nyakato of the Forum for
Democratic Change (FDC) were the
candidates in Hoima, they were incon-
sequential. The contest was clearly
between the red of People Power and
yellow of NRM. The main prize would
not be winning the Hoima race. The
race was about winning the right to
claim national popularity.
In the NRM camp, local politicians
attempted to raise local issues but
they were quickly quashed. President
Museveni took charge. Hoima even got
a new police boss to oversee the elec-
tion.
And in the other camp, the FDC
which was fielding a candidate played
second-fiddle to music star turned
Kyadondo East MP Robert Sentamu
Kyagulanyi aka Bobi who was the de
facto leader of the opposition campaign
in Hoima because he is believed to have
a winning talisman.
But the opposition strategists must
have realised that they were losing
even before the official results were
announced. Many of them, perhaps
fully aware that low voter turnout usu-
ally shows that voters believe their vote
does not matter tried to rally voters to
the booth.
Many opposition politicians and
election observers asked why the mili-
tary and police in anti-riot gear, riding

Armoured Personel Carriers and backed
by water canon trucks were patrolling
the few Hoima town streets and the
many village paths.
As the soldiers mounted road blocks
along major roads and frisked travellers
in and out of Hoima, the Chairperson
of the Electoral Commission, Mugenyi
Byabakama defended them saying they
were there to protect the voters.
To counter the heavy deployment,
at campaign rally, after rally, clad in
red berets, head-kerchiefs and scarfs,
opposition politician lured the voters
with music, star studded speakers on
the podium, and fiery speeches. They
emphasized the importance of each vot-
er coming out to vote.
Opposition stalwarts Kizza Besigye
and Amuriat of FDC, and Mugisha
Muntu of the Alliance for National
Transformation (ANT), jostled for space
on the podium ruled by musicians, Jose
Chameleone, Ronald Mayinja.
Bobi Wine led them as they pleaded
with the voters to defy the heavy secu-
rity deployment and turnout to vote.
They attempted to bring to Hoima the
tricks they had deployed elsewhere,
including heavy reliance on youthful
and excitable boda boda riders.
“How will you guard the vote?”
Bobi Wine challenged the crowds that
thronged the rallies. His advice was for
the boda boda youth to deploy at each
polling station to guard the vote.
“That is how we did it in Kyadondo
East, Jinja Municipality East, Bugiri
Municipality and Arua Municipality,”
he told them. But Hoima does not have
as many boda boda as Jinja, Bugiri, or
Arua.
Then videos circulated of a few vot-
ers who dared go out to protect the
vote being beaten up and bundled onto
police cars to be detained, especially in
Kabaale sub-county. The FDC Deputy
Secretary General, Harold Kaija, was
among those arrested and beaten up.
His boss, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, was
equally roughed up.
In one of the videos, an assistant RDC
Richard Tabaro was captured whipping
a woman who later was identified as
a sister to the opposition candidate,
Asanansi Nyakato.
Fights within NRM
From that point, it became a wait and
see affairs as voters stayed away from
voting in the morning. Momentum
appeared to increase as the day pro-
gressed but by the time voting closed at
4pm; it was a relief because most poll-
ing officials had been waiting without
voters coming in.
In the end voter turnout was just 43%
despite the high stakes campaign.
Many observers told The Indepen-
dent that whether by design or not, the
heavy military appears to have scared
voters away from the polling booths.
According to many observers, the
other reason for the low voter turnout
was that although this election hap-
pened because Hoima district had been
chopped into two almost equal halves,
the district that retained the old name
remains big and rural. It is bigger than
most districts such as Jinja, Masaka or
Tororo. Although this area retained the
more urban areas, it is still more rural
than most of Uganda, with very poor
infrastructure. It is here that voters were
expected to trek to 266 polling stations
spread in 69 parishes over 17 sub-coun-
ties.
This is also Uganda’s oil territory and
in some cases, the voting areas were
new as voters had been moved to make
way for oil production infrastructure
such as roads. Now many of them were
expected to walk long distances from
polling stations. In Mparo, Kyabigam-
bire, and Kitoba sub-counties, many
villages were at least 2kms away from a
polling station.
Then there was the politics of oil
money and jobs, and shifting alliances.
According to many commentators, this
is a new Hoima, and the narrow vote
margin between Businge and her chal-
lenger, Asanansi Nyakato is a sign of
its new face. The opposition is gaining
a foothold. The opposition candidate
got 28,789 votes against the NRM candi-
date’s 33,301 votes. That is a difference
of 4512 votes. President Museveni was
unimpressed. In a statement after the
election, he said he doubts the opposi-
tion actually got those votes.
“We are auditing the voting to discov-
er the cheating which is characteristic
of the opposition,” he wrote, “all this
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
news analysis
is partly, due to the weaknesses of the
NRM.”
Museveni said the NRM in Hoima
was divided, especially in Hoima town.
He is right but the NRM divisions
are nothing new. In 2010 the NRM in
Hoima was split during the party pri-
mary contests that saw Kaahwa Tophas
Byagiira defeat Beatrice Byenkya Nya-
kaisiki who was the incumbent woman
MP. Byenkya threatened to tear up the
NRM card and accused then Prime
Minister Henry Kajura who is also the
district NRM chairperson of unleashing
ineligible voters to defeat her. Similar
fights were seen within NRM in Hoima
in 2005. The new thing is the emergence
of the opposition.
In the last Hoima District Woman MP
election, the winner and NRM candi-
date Tophace Byagira Kaahwa gathered
96,277 votes compared to a paltry 9,779
votes for the FDC candidate Rehema
Nabisere. But there is more to the story
because Harriet Businge, who has won
this time, ran as an independent in 2016
following squabbles within her party;
the NRM. In a sign of how deep the
divisions were in NRM, Businge got
43,038 votes. There was also another
independent candidate, Ruth Akorae
birungi who got just 1343 votes. That
means that the two candidates allied
to NRM in 2016, Kaahwa and Businge,
scooped 93% of the vote in 2016.
One of the biggest misses of the
Hoima election is that Businge and Nya-
kato were not had enough. The podi-
ums at their rallies were jammed with
many speakers – mainly men and from
faraway Kampala.
The lost candidates
That was unfortunate because
Businge and Nyakato are formidable
politicians who pursue their passions
15
news analysis
with zest. It would have been interest-
ing to see how Banyoro choose between
two establishment candidates who
happen to be for and against President
Museveni’s government.
Nyakato was the perfect anti-Museve-
ni candidate and appeared to be a god-
send in a hostile region for the youthful
wave of opposition led by Kyadondo
East MP Robert Sentamu Kyagulanyi;
the music superstar turned politician of
People Power fame.
A graduate with a degree in social
work, Nyakato has worked as a pol-
icy analyst in parliament and quit to
become a fighter for the rights of her
kingdom and community affected by oil
and gas developments.
She ran for the Hoima Woman par-
liamentary seat in 2011 and lost to Bya-
gira. Many expected her to try again in
2016 but she did not. The by-election
possibly looked like too good a chance
to miss.
She is a princess in the Bunyoro king-
dom and she nurses grudges against
the NRM government that are shared
by many Banyoro. A true firebrand,
Nyakato wants Bunyoro to get special
allocations from oil money and has led
protests and written petitions to parlia-
ment on these issues.
The grudges are deep and, according
to some observers, led Museveni to this
year to snub the Empango celebrations
that mark the restoration of the king-
dom. The Empango marked this year on
June 11 was doubly significant because
it marked the silver jubilee of Bunyoro
king, Solomon Gafabusa Iguru’s corona-
tion. Banyoro royal enthusiasts were not
impressed that just two-weeks earlier
in May, Museveni had spent days in
Hoima town at an NRM zonal leaders’
conference. Museveni and NRM leaders
from eight districts that constitute Bun-
yoro Sub-region were at Kontiki Hotel
not far from the king’s Karuzika palace
16 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
Many observers
say it was a tense
election with
many potential
flash points but
general apathy.
There were
allegations of
stuffing pre-ticked
ballots into ballot
boxes
in the municipality.
Banyoro are also unhappy that they
no longer have powerful area politicians
in Museveni’s government. They recall
the time when Bunyoro boasted former
prime minister and long-serving elderly
politician, Muganwa Kajura and former
powerful permanent secretary in the
Energy Ministry, Kabagambe Kaliisa.
On the campaign trail, Nyakato fed
into this anger. She vowed that if elect-
ed she would speak up against prob-
lems of compensations over land the
government has taken from the Banyoro
to develop oil production infrastructure,
the grievances of displaced people, and
the plight of Banyoro who remain poor
in spite of having the oil wealth.
Nyakato is a smart politician who has
previously negotiated the NRM-dom-
inated Hoima election to become the
Hoima Municipality Council general
secretary despite her known loyalty to
FDC. She was once Secretary for Envi-
ronment in the FDC Youth League and
is currently the FDC’s Secretary for
Health Services and member of the FDC
national executive.
Meanwhile, the MP-elect, Businge, is
a woman with an imposing presence,
soft-spoken eloquence, and determined
spirit. She ran for the position in the
2016 and lost to Bagyira. President
Museveni gave her a consolation job as
RDC in 2018 and she rejected it.
Back then she was new in politics,
having revealed her ambition a year
before in 2015. So she possibly preferred
to continue running her Good Samari-
tan Community School in Hoima Town
while waiting for an opportunity to try
again in 2021. It came earlier than she
expected.
She was this time the perfect NRM
candidate in Hoima as she has high
credentials in three critical areas; the
powerful Bunyoro kingdom, the ruling
NRM party, and the business commu-
nity.
A charismatic former teacher, Businge
is an educationist at heart. Her school is
known for giving bright children from
disadvantaged backgrounds opportuni-
ty to study free. When she was minister
of education in the Bunyoro kingdom
government, she was central to initi-
ating the Bunyoro Kitara Royal Uni-
versity. She was in this job for 10 years
and chaired the kingdom’s Education
Fund. But all this did not matter in the
end as the contest proved to be between
the red of People Power and yellow of
NRM.
Many observers say it was a tense
election with many potential flash
points but general apathy. There were
allegations of stuffing pre-ticked ballots
into ballot boxes. One of the NGOs that
had a visible Election Observer Mission
(EOM) in the election, the Citizens’
Coalition for Electoral Democracy in
Uganda (CCEDU), said in a statement
that throughout the polling day, it had
noted numerous allegations and count-
er allegations of voter bribery as well as
claims and counter claims of pre-ticked
ballots by both FDC and NRM political
parties. CCEDU said, however, it was
unable to verify the allegations.
Note that CCEDU’s views or those
of any other observers would have
mattered. The main outcome was that
when the final results were announced
at 3am on Sept.27, President Museveni’s
candidate, Harriet Businge had won.
And Bobi Wine’s talisman had failed.

People walk along a plaza at United Nations Headquarters Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019. (Craig Ruttle/Associated Press)
African presidents at the UN
They dance delicately between painting a bleak a picture to
get help but not spark queries about money from last year
By Sarah Dilorenzo
A
t the modernist U.N. building on
New York’s East Side, “United Na-
tions” means the trappings of pro-
tocol, the gravitas and pettiness of
diplomatic relations, the grandiose speeches
and agendas of heads of state. But out in the
world — the place where the nations that
unite here actually are — the words evoke
something different.
In the field, sure, there is still bureaucracy
and its maddening assault on language, but
there is less showmanship. In the field, to
many, the “United Nations” means water
wells and mosquito nets and vaccination
drives. It means busloads of peacekeepers
and truckloads of cooking oil and rice.
One by one this week, African leaders
brought the field to the headquarters as they
spoke in front of a green marble backdrop
and told stories of illiteracy and malnutri-
tion, about people living with HIV and with-
out electricity.
“As I speak, poverty thrives in the
least-developed countries,” President Peter
Mutharika said on sept.26. And sub-Saharan
Africa “has more people trapped in poverty
than any other part the world.”
Guinean President Alpha Condé told
world leaders that two-thirds of Africans
do not have access to electricity. Zambian
President Edgar Lungu reminded them that
1 billion people still live in extreme poverty.
And Burkina Faso’s president, Roch Marc
Christian Kaboré, warned that attacks by
Islamic extremists had forced his govern-
ment to divert money to security that had
been meant for education, health and other
social programs.
This is very different from the material
that the big-ticket speakers bring to the
podium. For the leaders of the world’s most
powerful nations, the General Assembly is a
chance to meet one another, often in swank
New York hotels outside the vast riverside
compound. For countries locked in pro-
tracted conflicts, it’s an opportunity to face
off against rivals and argue their case on a
world stage.
The dance the African leaders must per-
form each year is delicate. Paint too bleak a
picture, and rich countries, global funds and
the U.N. system itself might wonder: What
happened to the money we gave last year?
But fail to lay out the very real challenges
of people living through drought and rebel
attacks and crop failure and malaria, and
they will fail to ignite the urgency needed to
solve those problems.
President Idriss Deby of Chad lamented
on Sept.25 that the “excitement in the air”
when countries adopted the “Agenda 2030”
plan to eradicate poverty four years ago
“was not followed by far-reaching results
compared to the commitments that were
made.” But he was careful to note, too, that
the country had continued to invest in edu-
cation despite an economic crisis.
The dance is not limited to African
nations. El Salvador’s President Nayib
Bukele addressed it with reporters after a
speech in which he urged the U.N. to over-
haul how it holds the General Assembly.
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
news analysis
When asked why he hadn’t used his speech
to talk about his country’s problems — that
is, to do what we expect of a leader from a
poor country beset by violence — Bukele
said he had already spoken about them else-
where. Doing so here, he said, would add
nothing.
“What should I have done? Tell fairy tales,
as other presidents who have presented
a version of El Salvador that didn’t exist?
‘We’ve fought poverty, inequality, we’ve
grown, people are fine, as well as health
and education,’” he told reporters after his
speech. He might have been talking about an
African nation.
On Sept.27, Sierra Leonean protesters
gathered outside the U.N. building while
their president spoke inside. They accused
him of propagating that kind of fiction.
“We see the U.N. week as a hypocritical
stage for African leaders to set out their
agenda to the international community,”
said Joseph Kalokoh, who was among the
protesters. “Falsely!” a fellow protester add-
ed. Inside, their president, Julius Maada Bio,
touted his country’s investment in educa-
tion, especially for girls, its provision of skills
training for young people, and its adoption
of progressive sex-crimes legislation.
But, he warned: “The threat of inequality,
lack of opportunity and exclusion of our
youth still persist.” In other words, it’s get-
ting better, but we’re not there yet. And the
dance goes on.
Sarah DiLorenzo covers global affairs for The
Associated Press.
17
 news analysis
MP Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine was tortured to near death by security operatives following the Arua Municipality by-election in September, 2018
Torture chambers
or safe houses?
ISO boss, Security minister face tough questions
By Ronald Musoke
U
gandan human rights activists
say as much as they support the
government in cracking down on
criminals, the security agencies
must act within the confines of the law
while performing their duties.
While speaking at a recent engagement
with the Uganda Police, Prisons, the
Uganda Human Rights Commission
and several civil society organisations
on experiences of existing initiatives to
address pre-trial detention in Uganda,
Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana, the executive
director of the Foundation for Human
Rights Initiative (FHRI) said unlawful pre-
trial detention remains a big challenge in
Uganda.
MPs who sit on the human rights
committee in Parliament recently put
to task the Minister for Security, Gen.
18 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
Elly Tumwine, to explain the continued
existence of safe houses where Ugandans
are allegedly being tortured by security
operatives.
“We human rights defenders are of the
view that the government needs to be
very tough on crime but it does not mean
deprivation of due process of the law,”
Sewanyana said, “You cannot subject
people to detention in ungazetted places
because the minimum standards cannot be
guaranteed there.”
“Safe houses have no room in Uganda’s
criminal justice system,” he said, “If you
want to detain anyone in a place other
than prison or police stations, issue
a statutory instrument declaring that
these places have been designated for
detention.”
Sewanyana noted that out of 59, 723
inmates across Uganda prisons, 28,324
are persons held in pre-trial detention.
However, an unknown number of
suspects is said to be languishing in illegal
detention facilities around the country.
On Sept. 4, Gen. Tumwine confirmed
that there are several safe houses but could
not reveal how many they are, where
they are and how many people are being
held there. Tumwine, however, noted that
although safe houses exist around the
country, they are not detention torture
centres.
“They are designed to provide space
for the country to coordinate covert
intelligence operations, de-brief and
re-brief intelligence, as well as secure
and protect witnesses in danger,
especially criminals who have turned into
witnesses,” he said.
“Safe houses are places used to secure
persons who seek to be protected by
the state for various security reasons; to
manage hardcore criminals who require

a long time to reform, especially those
who have rescinded to criminality after
serving long prison sentences, and need
observation and surveillance,” he said.
Tumwine said as government, they do
not condone torture of anybody in any
place, but wants people to know that for
the sake of security, the government keeps
people who are afraid of harm.
But when members of the Parliamentary
Committee on Human Rights insisted on
visiting these illegal detention facilities,
Tumwine said no legislator would be
given access to the facilities.
Tumwine told the committee that
Parliament needs to trust the government
because “the people in safe houses are
in good condition,” adding that they are
also preferred places to live by some of
them including reformed criminals such as
Sobi(Paddy Serunjogi) who are reportedly
helping ISO in fighting crime.
In yet another interview carried by
the government-owned Sunday Vision
on Sept. 22, Col. Kaka Bagyenda, the
Internal Security Organization (ISO)
Director General denied claims by MPs
Latif Ssebagala (Kawempe North, DP),
Kassiano Wadri (Arua Municipality)
and Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi
(Butambala County) that ISO runs safe
houses from which it tortures suspects.
Kaka said some of the alleged victims
of torture who appeared before the
parliamentary Committee on Human
Rights and narrated harrowing tales “were
paraded by some political elements who
want to achieve their own selfish motives
and that this would not derail him from
ensuring the security of the country.”
The ISO director admitted that ISO
operates some safe houses but noted that
they are for keeping suspects safe but not
torturing them. Kaka said the politicians
and lawyers were out of touch with reality
and that time will be the best judge.
“Those that are criticizing are out of
touch with reality; some of them have been
part and parcel of the mess that was going
on,” he said, “When they hear the names
Sobi they start getting worried.”
Bagyenda says safe houses have been
around for many years adding that they
are used for other purposes and not
torturing suspects. He said between 2017
and 2018, they initiated an operation code-
named “Dumisha Usalaama,” in which
hundreds of criminals were arrested but
noted that six months later, 80% of these
people (criminals) had returned to the
streets to terrorize the public.
Kaka said their investigations found
out that the criminals were part of a well
networked syndicate including lawyers,
the judiciary and police officers noting that
these had helped the criminals released.
“I said we could not sit like clowns and
watch this happen. We built intelligence
positions on these groups and started
harvesting the cream or hardcore criminals
but at the same time had to protect our
assets who gave us information about the
criminals.”
Kaka said it is at this time that safe
houses became more prominent but noted
that they are used to protect suspects
whose life is in danger or their assets are
threatened.”
But Nicholas Opio, the executive
director of Chapter Four, Kampala-
based civil liberties non-profit told The
Independent that the Internal Security
Organisation (ISO), the Chieftaincy of
Military Intelligence (CMI) and the Joint
Anti-Terrorism Task Force do not have the
legal mandate to run gazetted places of
detention.
Nobody allows
you access to
safe houses so
the stories we
get are normally
from people who
have survived
detention
Opio told The Independent on Sept.
26 that since safe houses are opaque by
nature, it is difficult to know how many
are in operation. Still, he said, Chapter
Four has recorded up to 12 safe houses
scattered around Kampala, Wakiso and
Mpigi.
“Nobody allows you access to them
so the stories you get are normally from
people who have survived detention,” he
says.
“We know for example that ‘Block C’
at the CMI headquarters in Mbuya, a
Kampala suburb has an underground
detention facility where close associates
of Kale Kayihura are being detained.”
“We know this because somebody
came out of there.”
Opio told The Independent that Chapter
Four intends to sue the directors of the
security institutions for running safe
houses or places that are not gazetted for
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
news analysis
detention.
Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana of the
Foundation for Human Rights Initiative
(FHRI) insists that unlawful pre-trial
detention exposes suspects to human
rights violations such as torture,
deprivation of personal liberty, right
to the health and adequate standard of
living.
Sewanyana said the causes of unlawful
pre-trial detention include but are not
limited to arrest before investigation,
poor implementation of the mandatory
bail and lack of investigative capacity.
Sewanyana told The Independentthat in
the coming months FHRI will work with
security agencies including the UPDF,
CMI, ISO to make them understand “that
much as we are asking them to act tough
on crime, we also need to ensure that
there are measures that uphold the rights
of offenders.”
Dr. Fred Sekindi, the head of research,
advocacy and lobbying at FHRI told The
Independentthat when the writers of the
1995 Constitution insisted on protecting
the right to personal liberty, they had
Uganda’s ‘horrible’ history in mind.
“The framers of our Constitution had
our history in mind in trying to fasten the
right to personal liberty, in saying that
it would be violated if you are not kept
in a place authorized by law, in saying
that you must have access to a lawyer, in
saying that you must be told the reason
why you are being detained and in saying
that you must not be detained longer than
48 hours; they thought of where we came
from and wanted us not to go back.”
“There is no other right in the
Constitution that attracts compensation
when breached other than the right
to personal liberty,” Sekindi told The
Independent, “ That is quite unique and
I think they looked at where we came
from.”
“They looked at the thousands of
Ugandans under President Idi Amin who
were picked off the streets and thrown into
detention facilities without committing
any offence.”
Sekindi says Uganda’s Constitution
clearly defines the places where Ugandans
or anybody within Uganda can be
detained. It is in a gazetted place and it is
up to the government to declare a place a
gazetted place for detention.
Sekindi told The Independent that the
purpose of gazetting places of detention
is important for the suspects and their
families.
“If you are my relative, I know where to
find you, if you are my lawyer, you know
where to find me or if the detained person
needs a doctor, then they know where to
find them.”
19
news analysis
Decongesting
Kampala-Entebbe road
Why the Expressway has not really eased the traffic
By Julian E. Sabiiti
O
n the face of it, the Kampala-En-
tebbe Expressway has not lived up
to its purpose – so far. Since Pres-
ident Yoweri Museveni officially
launched it for public use it has attracted
very little traffic.
The four-lane dual carriage expressway
was designed to be a toll road with users
paying to drive on it. But for 15 months
now it has been open to the public at no
cost although the toll booths are in place at
Busega where it starts and at midpoints at
Kajjansi and Mpala which have exits.
Isaac Menya, an engineer of the Uganda
National Roads Authority (UNRA) told The
Independent that just 13,720 vehicles on aver-
age use the road per day while the old Kam-
pala Entebbe road clocks in about 109,005
vehicles per day. That is a whopping differ-
ence of 95, 285 cars in daily traffic between
Kampala and Entebbe. Whether that is by
design or accident, however, it might be
good news.
20 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
According to its designers, the Kampa-
la-Entebbe Expressway conceived as a way
of reducing the bumper to bumper traffic
that is typical on the old Entebbe Road; a
narrow two partly dual carriage road that
was first constructed in the 1960s colonial
period. Despite numerous expansions, it has
proved impossible to ease traffic flow on this
road, which is the second busiest in Uganda.
At one point, the old Entebbe road was
reported to have 635,656 vehicles annually
in 2011 or just 1700 vehicles daily. But that
changed dramatically as the economic envi-
ronment improved and international travel
by locals and foreigners became more neces-
sary and common.
The growth in volume of traffic left resi-
dents and travellers along the old Entebbe
road with stories of frustration over the
traffic jams.
Isaac Kwebiiha understands firsthand
what headache the Entebbe Road traffic
causes for travellers to Uganda’s only inter-
national airport at Entebbe. He says he once
got delayed at a meeting on a day he was
supposed to fly out and realised he did not
have the two hours he needed to be at the
airport in time to catch his flight.
“I immediately knew driving was out
of the question with the traffic on Entebbe
road. I simply got onto a bike,” he told The
Independent.
Expressway relieves frustration
Then there is Christine Iyura, a mother of
one who lives in Entebbe and works in Kam-
pala, who told The Independent about having
to be on the road by 6am in order to hope-
fully be at work by 8.30am. Spending quality
time with her four year old or a school drop-
off was out of the question as there simply
was never enough time.
Iyura says the opening of the Kampa-
la-Entebbe Expressway has eased things a
bit. She now uses the Expressway and the
drive between Kampala and Entebbe that
used to take two hours now takes 40 min-
utes. That is partly because vehicles on the
expressway are expected to cruise at nothing
less than 50km/h.

She loves the expressway because it is
less congested and does not have the gaping
potholes that characterize the old road. The
smooth quality of the road means one can
drive fast without worrying that much about
bumping into something.
But Iyura says she still uses the old Enteb-
be Road more because, although only a few
people have moved to the expressway, she
feels like most people have moved there.
“This road is no longer congested either,”
she says of the old road. She says she now
drives to work within a maximum of one
hour and has ample time to drop her daugh-
ter off at school and to get her into bed by
8pm. According to Iyura, although the Kam-
pala-Entebbe expressway is less congested,
it feels much the longer route at 51km com-
pared to the 40km on the old road.
President Museveni officially opened
the Entebbe Expressway to the public on
June 15, 2018. Construction of the Entebbe
expressway started in late 2012 and was
completed in June 2018. Construction was
done by a Chinese company, China Com-
munication Construction Company and cost
$476 million (Approx. Shs1 trillion) which,
according to some people, makes it the most
expensive road of similar scope in the east
African region. It was financed in part by a
loan from China through the Exim Bank of
China ($350 million) and in part by the Gov-
ernment of Uganda ($126 million).
Initially the road launch was delayed
because installing the toll-payment technolo-
gy at the payment booths could not be done
without parliament passing the law allowing
construction and use of road tolls.
On May 16, 2019, Parliament passed the
Roads Bill tabled in 2018. The Bill provides
for collection of road tolls which are sup-
posed to assist the government in paying
off the loan used to construct the road. The
Expressway has three toll plazas and a total
of 16 toll gates. The government still has
to procure a company to execute the toll-
ing. The Ministry of Works and Transport
together and UNRA also have to agree on
the levy.
There has previously been some criticism
of the government’s decision to subject the
road to tolling as a mechanism of earning
money for repayment of the loan from Chi-
na.
Fred Muhumuza, a member of the Minis-
try of Works committee that negotiated the
Entebbe expressway repayment mechanism
says it is dangerous to ask for a fee from the
road users as a way of repaying the loan.
He says it means the road users will have
to pay high tolls in order to pay the loan
within the specified 13-year period. In his
view, the government should repay the loan
and charge users a lower toll over a longer
period.
“The major aim of constructing the
expressway was to provide an alternative
route for Entebbe-Kampala road users since
it has for long been congested,” Muhumuza
told The Independent in an earlier interview.
President Museveni signed into law the
tolling Bill. Since then, the tolling has been
delayed because of delays in the procure-
ment process for the tolling technology. That
could be resolved soon because, according to
the Commissioner for Public Infrastructure
at the Ministry of Works and Transport,
Edward Ssimbwa, the procurement and
installation of the technology can now go
ahead. He told The Independent in July that
his Ministry has set end of the year as the
possible starting date for the tolling system.
The jam continues
For now the traffic jam nightmare remains
for most travellers to Entebbe from Kampala
because most public transport has failed
to switch to the expressway. That is partly
because if the goal of the expressway was
to decongest traffic between Entebbe and
Kampala, two emerging issues show that the
designers went about their mission in a very
roundabout way.
The Expressway appears to have avoided
tackling the worst traffic congestion spots
which are between Kampala and Lweza
along the old Entebbe Road. Here the traffic
crawls at just 34km/h north according to
Old Kampala Entebbe road
Road Total motorized
traffic/day
South of Nyanama Rd 39,814
South of Lubowa Terrace Rd 28,096
South of Wankulukulu Rd 26,769
South of Sekiwunga Rd 14,326
Total 109,005
a Travel Time Survey. At that speed and
moments at peak hour when traffic stays
still, one needs two hours to complete the
40km journey from Kampala to Entebbe Air-
port. The Travel Time Survey shows average
travel speeds in both directions on the Kam-
pala Entebbe Expressway to be 108km/h.
On the other hand, after Lweza, the Enteb-
be traffic is fairly smooth, with most drivers
managing an average 57km/h in both direc-
tions south of Lweza on the old Kampala
Entebbe road, according to the same survey.
That makes venturing to the expressway
almost pointless. It is not clear if this is by
design or by accident.
Logically, it appears, the designers of the
expressway should have focused directly
on easing the traffic between Clock Tower
in Kampala city and Lweza which is about
25km. But that, it appears, just might have
spread-out the problem without solving it.
Instead, the Entebbe expressway was
designed to run almost parallel but away
from the old Entebbe Road. Each road ends
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
news analysis
up handling totally different traffic.
Most travellers to Entebbe now realise
that the smartest way to get to Entebbe from
Kampala is to find one’s way to the North-
ern Bypass, another expressway that forms
a ring around the northern part of Kampala
city. The set-up is such that connecting
from the Clock Tower heavy traffic is quite
convoluted and one has to make the deci-
sion to avoid it much earlier – before getting
trapped in it.
Most public transporters might not make
the decision because it means taking a longer
route. But many travellers in a hurry will
jump on it because, once one hits the North-
ern Bypass, arrival to Entebbe is usually
less than 40 minutes. Of course a lot on how
quickly one reaches the Busega junction,
where the Entebbe-Kampala Expressway
starts.
Since it opened, the expressway has
attracted many admirers.
Phillip Sozi says driving to the airport
using the expressway saves him 40 minutes
to an hour of driving. Then there is also the
reality of Entebbe as a favoured lovely desti-
nation for Kampala city residents hoping to
laze-off the stress by relaxing in Entebbe; a
cool Lake Victoria waterfront city with many
shore points and beaches.
Kampala Entebbe Expressway
Toll Plaza Total motorized
traffic/day
Busega 3,390
Kajjansi 5,310
Mpala 5,020
Total 13,720
Beach goers particularly crowd Entebbe
road over the weekends. Many used to set
off from Kampala at midday hoping to reach
their destinations at 3pm. But that is also
about the same time travellers catching after-
noon flights at Entebbe International Airport
often chose to leave Kampala. The smarter
travellers learnt to start driving as early as
10am to avoid mishaps. Many got caught up
in traffic jams.
Diana Ashaba, a resident of Munyonyo
who used to loath the congestion whenever
she drove to Entebbe over the weekend is
excited about the expressway. She says she
now drives to her favourite waterfront resort
in Entebbe in just 40 minutes. She says driv-
ing on the smooth road gallows her peace of
mind too.
The government plans to build a Southern
Bypass that will make a ring around the
southern section of Kampala city. That might
possibly bring more relief to the traffic with-
in Kampala’s Central Business District.
21
NEWS ANALYSIS
Polar bears depend on Arctic sea ice. FloridaStock/Shutterstock
Not convinced on the need
for urgent climate action?
Here’s what happens to our planet
between 1.5°C and 2°C of global warming
By Rachel Warren and Sally Brown
M
any numbers are bandied
around in climate
emergency discussions.
Of them, 1.5°C is perhaps
the most important. At the Paris
Agreement in 2015, governments
agreed to limit global warming to well
below 2°C and to aim for 1.5°C. By
2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change – the UN body tasked
with relaying the science of climate
breakdown to the world – had made
worryingly clear in a special report
how much graver the consequences of
the higher number would be.
Together with the University of
Queensland’s Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
and colleagues around the world, we
have explored in newly published
22 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
work just how much sticking to 1.5°C
matters.
Climate breakdown is already
harming livelihoods, cities and
ecosystems. From heatwaves and
droughts to cyclones and floods,
devastating extreme weather events are
more frequent, more intense and more
unpredictable than they would be in
the absence of global heating. Warming
and acidifying oceans are causing
severe coral bleaching to occur twice as
often as in 1980, leaving many unable
to recover.
Shrinking habitats are increasingly
forcing wildlife into conflict with
human settlements. Increasing
wildfires are damaging vital carbon
stores in North America and Siberia,
while the advance of spring is
throwing species who depend on each
other out of sync.
The more we destabilise our climate,
the greater the risk to human societies
and ecosystems. Even at 1.5°C of global
heating, tough times are in store for the
living planet. But the space between
1.5°C and 2°C of heating is a crucial
battleground, within which risks to
humanity and ecosystems amplify
rapidly.
Climate battleground
At 1.5°C of warming, about one in
twenty insect and vertebrate species
will disappear from half of the
area they currently inhabit, as will
around one in ten plants. At 2°C, this
proportion doubles for plants and
vertebrates. For insects, it triples.
Such high levels of species loss will
put many ecosystems across the world

at risk of collapse. We rely on healthy
ecosystems to pollinate crops, maintain
fertile soil, prevent floods, purify
water, and much more. Conserving
them is essential for human survival
and prosperity.
Between 1.5°C and 2°C, the number
of extremely hot days increases
exponentially. Some parts of the world
can also expect less rain and more
consecutive dry days, while others
will receive more extreme floods.
Collectively, this will place agriculture,
water levels and human health under
severe stress – especially in southern
African nations, where temperatures
will increase faster than the global
average. The Mediterranean is another
key area at particular risk above 1.5°C
of heating, where increased drought
will alter flora and fauna in a way
without precedent in ten millennia.
At 1.5°C of warming, we could
expect to lose between 70% and 90%
of our coral reefs. While this would be
catastrophic for the millions of ocean
creatures and human livelihoods these
beautiful ecosystems support, there
would still be a chance of recovery in
the long term if oceans warm slowly.
But at 2°C of warming, we could kill
99% of reefs. To be clear, this is a line
that once crossed cannot be easily
uncrossed. It could mean the extinction
of thousands of species.
Arctic sea ice has been a constant on
our planet for hundreds of thousands,
perhaps millions of years. If we limit
global heating to 1.5°C, there’s a 70%
chance of it remaining that way. But
at 2°C, some Arctic summers will be
ice-free. Polar bears and other species
who depend on frozen sea ice to eat
and breed will be left homeless and
struggling to survive.
Studies show that at 1.5°C, we
could expect one metre of sea-level
rise in 2300, with an extra 26cm at
2°C. However, between these two
levels of global heating, the risk of
the Greenland and West Antarctic
Ice Sheets starting a slow process of
decline dramatically increases. For
the Greenland sheet, this is likeliest to
happen at 1.6°C, with the Antarctic ice
sheet’s tipping point hovering not far
above this mark.
If these ice sheets melt, seas could
rise by up to two metres over the next
two centuries. These rises could lead
to millions more people being exposed
to flooding each year. Many of those
living in coastal cities, deltas, or small
islands will be faced with little option
but to build upwards or relocate.
Way off track
The impacts of climate breakdown
are accelerating. The planet has
warmed by 1.1°C since 1850-79, but
0.2°C of this warming happened
between 2011 and 2015 alone. The last
four years were the warmest in the
global temperature record.
Despite knowing all the above, many
country-level commitments and action
are nowhere near enough to limit
warming to 2°C, let alone 1.5°C. We’re
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
NEWS ANALYSIS
heading for 2.9°C to 3.4°C of warming.
By this point, many dangerous tipping
points could be crossed, leading to
rainforest die-back, deadly heatwaves,
and significant sea-level rise. Half of all
insect and plant species are projected
to disappear from more than half of the
area they currently inhabit, potentially
causing widespread ecosystem collapse
and threatening organised human
civilisation itself.
Limiting warming to 1.5°C will save
the global economy trillions of dollars
in the long run, even accounting for
the seemingly gargantuan cost of
transitioning our energy systems. But
this is more than just an economic or
academic issue – it’s a matter of life
and death for millions of humans and
animal species, and a severe threat to
the well-being of billions.
Tackling climate breakdown is perhaps
the tallest order humanity has ever
faced, and there is no simple solution.
The only way forward is accepting that
we must fundamentally change the way
we live our lives. It won’t be an easy
transition, but there is no alternative
if we are to preserve the well-being of
humans, wildlife, and ecosystems. The
coming year is vital, and there’s too
much at stake not to act now.
Source: theconversation
23
interview

Total E&P frustrated but

willing to go on with project
On Aug.29, Tullow’s proposed sale and
purchase agreement stipulating the US$900
million farm down to its Joint Venture Partners,
Total and CNOOC, terminated. This news
was followed a week later, on Sept. 05, with
Total’s suspension of technical activities on its
flagship pipeline project—the EACOP. Pierre
Jessua, the General Manager of Total E&P
Uganda Ltd explained to The Independent’s
Ronald Musoke why Total took this decision.

What exactly led to the termination and collapse of

T
Tullow Oil’s farm-down deal?
here were a lot of discussions with the Uganda
Revenue Authority (URA) right from the
beginning of Tullow’s transaction, but these
basically came down to two main subjects.
One was on Capital Gains Tax—the tax that the
seller must pay and the other on issues regarding
the transfer of the ‘tax deductibility” associated with
past costs/investments. To cut a long story short, as
far as the CGT is concerned, despite the fact there
was a fundamental disagreement on the nature of
the transaction and therefore the amount of tax to
be paid, in order to allow the matter to be resolved
and the project to move forward, our CEO (Patrick
Pouyanné) met H.E President Yoweri Museveni and
there was an agreement for the buyers to supplement
the amount of tax that the seller accepted to pay in
order for the government to receive the amount it
considered payable. As part of this agreement,
there was an understanding from Total
that the buyers were inheriting the rights
and obligations associated with the
percentage participating interest being
acquired from the seller, Tullow. This
inheritance of rights and obligations
from our perspective was to include
the pre-development costs associated
with the interest being acquired
that had been spent in the past by
Tullow in developing Uganda’s
oil resources. We understood we
would inherit those costs since
we were reimbursing Tullow
these expenditures. Of the US$
900 million payable to Tullow,
there was US$617 million which
was recognized by both the

24 Oct. 04 - 10 2019

government and the URA as expenditure
linked to the oil exploration and
appraisal activities—or costs which are
recoverable. So, we needed to recognize
that the US$ 617 million is “cost oil”
or in other words investment which is
recovered (as per the Production Sharing
Contracts) via the sale of oil once
production starts. In order to ensure
this investment is recovered, the US$617
million must also be tax deductible
for the purposes of the income tax
calculation, otherwise, only 70% of the
US$617 million is recovered once tax
is applied to the revenues earned from
sale of the cost oil. Therefore, it was
not a favour which was requested or
exemption but rather the application of
a legitimate principle of the agreements
we signed with the government to
ensure that costs which are recoverable
are not taxed. Total is happy to pay all
the taxes that we must pay.
Some sections of the Ugandan
public say the oil companies are
using “bullying tactics” to make the
government submit and give you what
you want?
We do not play politics. The way
Total behaves and does its business is
not in any way done to pressurize the
government. This is purely business
logic and adhering to a principle of
not taxing investments. Total is a listed
company and we must be disciplined
with our expenditures when we don’t
have clear visibility of the schedule of
our activities.
Is it true Total ‘suspended activities’ on
the EACOP following the termination
of Tullow’s farm-down?
Total has been at the forefront of the
EACOP from Day-1. We have spent so
far about US$ 325 million and we have
been pushing everything we could
without any financial contribution
from the potential shareholders (of
the pipeline project). However, we
could not continue to perform further
technical activities without realizing
a breakthrough on a shareholding
agreement and the legal framework
for the pipeline. The reality is that we
had to suspend technical activities of
the pipeline but of course we kept the
commercial, legal and contractual teams
mobilized to discuss and work with our
partners and the governments.
How frustrating is it for you to
know that after two-and-half years’
negotiations, the Tullow farm-down to
you has been terminated?
Definitely all the parties are frustrated.
I must respect and recognize that the
government has its frustrations and the
joint venture partners have their own
frustrations. But we are business people
working all over the world and we
have to continue to discuss and explain
things. Most importantly, we must learn
from what didn’t work in the way of
presenting and discussing the recent
issues.
How would youdescribe the Lake
Albert Oil Development project you
have been nurturing since 2012?
The oil in the Lake Albert region is a
mature discovery.We are talking about
6bn plus barrels of oil although we are
talking more about 1bn barrels of oil that
can be turned into what we call reserves
We do not play
politics. The way
Total behaves
and does its
business is not
in any way done
to pressurize the
government
following our demonstration that it is
recoverable. It is a significant volume of
oil when you contextualize it with other
discoveries from around the world. This
project has a refinery component and a
pipeline to transport crude oil to Tanga
for the international market; so, it is a big
project which requires a lot of (financial
and human) resources to develop it and
Total has strongly and steadily been
working with its partners—CNOOC
and Tullow to realise it. We have made
a lot of progress as far as the technical
elements are concerned; for example,
we have made engineering studies and
acquired land. We have performed
the environmental and social impact
assessment (ESIA) for the Tilenga project
and we are in the final stages of the
ESIA for the pipeline in Uganda. A lot
of activity has gone on so far to be in
a situation to take a final investment
decision (FID).
At one point, Tullow’s US$ 900 million
farm-down to you (and CNOOC)
looked like a done deal to the extent
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
interview
that even before the sale was concluded,
the government gave you the green
light to operate Tullow’s acreage. What
is the status of operatorship of Tullow’s
acreage now?
There were some agreements reached
amongst ourselves and the government
as far as the operatorship is concerned
and they were conditioned on the
farm-down, therefore, Tullow retains
its existing participating interest and
operatorship role.
It appears the oil companies have
suddenly based their FID on the
outcome of the Tullow farm-down.
Why has this been the case?
When you make a final investment
decision, it means that you have a
project where the board of the investing
company has looked and assessed
several parameters. You need to de-risk
the technical issues, the commercial
issues and many others. Once you
have ticked all the boxes, each of
the investment boards then takes a
decision. I would say Tullow’s farm-
down is not a goal in itself but linked
to the financing of the project. That is
why in 2017, Tullow looked at a partial
farm-down of their stake in Uganda. I
would still say the Tullow deal was an
important element. However, you cannot
summarize the final investment decision
is the only requisite to the Tullow deal. It
is the overall environment of the project
that the JV partners are looking at. The
project is large and complex because
you have various upstream activities,
you have a pipeline and you have two
countries involved and by definition it
means that it is encompassing various
issues that we try to progress in
collaboration with the authorities.
Lastly, given the current circumstances
surrounding Uganda’s oil project, are
you able to put a date upon which the
JV partners will agree on FID?
I know so well that there are many
expectations and the goodwill from
everybody to regain momentum and to
redefine dates but, unfortunately, what
I can say today is that it is absolutely
premature to start talking about a final
investment decision date. I would say
we need a little bit of patience; we need
to work among ourselves, discuss with
the partners and build up a scheme
and share it with the government. I am
sure that we will be able to come back
with the appropriate dates, but I am
not keen at all to start giving any kind
of assumptions and speculation at this
stage. It is too premature and we need to
be patient.
25
Global hotel brands
scramble for African market
Growing middle class, growing economies and growing
FDI attracts investments in the hotel industry
N
By Isaac Khisa
early six years ago, 18
countries in Africa did not
have any global branded
hotel as prospective own-
ers and operators did not
see business opportunities.
But this has now reduced to only five
countries – Central African Republic, Er-
itrea, Gambia, Liberia and Somalia – on
the continent.
Hotel brands such as Accor, Marriot,
Hilton, Sheraton, Radisson Blue, and City
Blue are now casting their nets wider
on the continent owed to the growing
26 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
middle class, growing economies and
increase in foreign direct investments.
This comes as Sub-Saharan Africa econ-
omy continue to show signs of robust
recovery, with the Gross Domestic Prod-
ucts forecast to grow 2.8 this year, accord-
ing to the World Bank.
Similarly, FDI inflow into the continent
is on an upward trend, recording an 11%
increase to $46bn in 2018.
Latest data from STR, an American firm
that tracks supply and demand data for
multiple market sectors including hotel
industry, shows that Accor and Marriott
that leads the hotel rooms in Africa, with
24,512 and 24,508 rooms, respectively,
have lined up approximately 20,000 and
15,000 rooms, respectively, to be opened
in the few years to come.
Radisson Group Hotels and Hilton
Worldwide, which currently have 16,230
and 11,289 rooms in Africa, plans to add
approx. 10,000 and 11,000 rooms, respec-
tively. Other global brands planning to
increase their operations on the continent
include; Intercontinental Hotel, Best
Western Hotels and Resorts, and Hilton
Garden Inn.
Some of the cities that the hotel brands
are investing in include; Cape Town,
Kampala, Lusaka, Abidjan, Nairobi, Abu-
ja, Addis Ababa and Cairo. Currently,

Africa has 5,000 hotels.
On Sept. 24, Accor Hotels that current-
ly operates 164 hotels across 22 countries
in Africa, signed a partnership deal with
the Compagnie Hôtelière et Immobilière
du Congo (CHIC), owned by leading
Democratic Republic of Congo conglom-
erates, to open Novotel properties in the
capital, Kinshasa, and its two major min-
ing centres in the south, Lubumbashi and
Kolwezi.
The partnership will introduce 337 keys
to Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country.
Mark Willis, CEO, Accor Middle East &
Africa, said “With Africa tipped as the
next global market and DRC one of the
continent’s fastest-expanding economies
with an affluent middle class, the time is
right to introduce our flagship midscale
lifestyle brand in three major growth
markets.”
The hotel brand already operates two
properties under the upscale Pullman
brand in DRC – the Pullman Kinshasa
Grand Hotel and the Pullman Grand Kar-
avia in Lubumbashi.
City Blue hotels with operations in
Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia, plans to
open doors to the Tanzanian market in
Dar es Salaam. The hotel group plans to
open the 65 bedroom facility in March
2020.
The Hotel is also eyeing at having
properties in Arusha, Mwanza, and Zan-
zibar as well as Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Similarly, the InterContinental Hotels
Group, has signed a Master Development
Agreement (MDA) with Aleph Hospital-
ity to develop ten franchise hotels across
IHG’s portfolio of brands in midscale and
upscale segments.
The MDA will see IHG expand its pres-
ence in Africa across key countries such
as Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Morocco,
Algeria and Ghana. The addition of new
hotels, as a part of the agreement, will
solidify IHG’s position as one of the lead-
ing hospitality players in the MEA region
and will strengthen IHG’s portfolio in
the continent, across six brands including
Crowne Plaza, voco, Hotel Indigo, Holi-
day Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Stay-
bridge Suites.
With a portfolio including nine hotels
across five countries on the continent and
plans to expand to 35 hotels across the
MEA region by 2025, Aleph Hospitality is
a pioneering hotel management company
offering a results-driven alternative to
traditional hotel management models.
The Dubai-based company manages
hotels directly for owners and leverag-
es its in-depth market knowledge and
extensive experience of working with the
world’s largest hotel companies to gener-
ate superior returns for hotel owners.
Thomas Emanuel, the Business Devel-
Average daily room rate in various African countries
opment Director at STR revealed during
the Africa Hotel Investment Forum held
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sept. 24 that
the leading hotel’s scramble for the Afri-
can continent is attributed to the fact that
there has been low hotel room supplies.
“There were no enough rooms in these
cities particularly from international
brands compared with particularly devel-
oped part of the world,” he said.
“There is a growing middle class,
growing connectivity, growing econo-
mies across various markets, available of
natural resources and inflow of Foreign
Direct Investments on the continent, and
the global brands wants to be in these
markets because they see opportunities
for growth.”
However, approximately 17 cities
including Nairobi, Durban, Cape Town,
Windhoek, Johannesburg, Abuja, Lagos,
Accra, and Casablanca are experiencing a
medium room occupancy rates of 50-65%
due to high hotel supplies.
Kampala, Kigali, Lusaka, Victoria Falls,
Bamako and Conakry have room occu-
pancy rates of below 50%.
On the other hand, Mauritius, Cape
Verde, Cairo, Seychelles, Alexandria,
Marrakech, Dakar, Agadir are experi-
encing high room occupancy rates above
65%.
In terms of rates, cities such as Sey-
chelles, Mauritius, Addis Ababa, Khar-
toum, Abuja, Accra and Marrakech are
fetching higher average daily room rate of
US$150 compared with other cities on the
continent.
Kampala, Nairobi, Kigali, Dar es
Salaam, Lagos, Conakry, Casablanca and
Cairo hotel facilities are fetching between
US$101 and US$150 average daily room
rate.
However, Durban, Johannesburg,
Windhoek, Cape Verde, Agadir and Alex-
andria are fetching an average daily room
rate of below US$100.
Revenue per available room (RevPAR),
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
business
which is calculated by multiplying a
hotel’s average daily room rate (ADR) by
its occupancy rate, has sharply declined
in Kampala, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam,
Victoria Falls, Mauritius, Casablanca,
Algiers, Khartoum and Abidjan, owed to
a combination of factors including high
hotel supplies, insecurity, mineral discov-
eries , among others in various markets.
KEANE forecasts 700 new hotel
restaurants and bars in Africa
Meanwhile, a new study by the food
and beverage (F&B) strategy & design
firm KEANE, forecasts that 700 new hotel
restaurants and bars will be opened in
Africa by 2025, in internationally branded
hotels.
The prediction is based on KEANE’s
research into 410 F&B venues across the
100 internationally branded hotels in the
major 10 cities in Africa and W Hospital-
ity Group’s authoritative hotel develop-
ment pipeline report.
Stefan Breg, Group Strategy Director of
KEANE said: “Over the last 70 years,
the restaurant market internationally
has been built on three factors; growing
towns and cities, broad distribution of
income and a growing middle class.
When you take into account that the
anticipated rate of urbanization, expected
across Africa, will outpace India and Chi-
na in the next 25 years, Africa will become
one of the world’s most vibrant dining
scenes.”
He said Africa’s hotels could follow dif-
ferent routes forward for F&B. First, the
European/North American model of 2-3
F&B venues per hotel with F&B playing a
secondary role to the marketing of rooms.
The alternative was the Middle Eastern/
Dubai model of four or more venues,
a proportion of which, are operated in
association with third parties; a scenario
where F&B plays not only a strategic role
but also a significant source of income.
27
business
Lipimile (2-L) and Okilangole (2-R) displaying copies of the COMESA Competition Commission Guidelines, 2019.
COMESA sees more business
mergers, acquisitions
Executives urge ‘sleeping giants’ to quickly
enact competition law for job creation
By Julius Businge
T
here are mega opportunities that
mergers and acquisitions are creating
within the Common Market for East-
ern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
Statistics from the Zambian-based COME-
SA Competition Commission (CCC) that
oversees transactions in 21 African member
states shows that more than 220 transac-
tions have been notified to the commission
between 2013 and July 2019.
Out of this total, conditions have been
attached to, 17 transactions to avert
anti-competitive behavior and safeguard
interest of the public during the post-merger
period.
Willard Mwemba, the officer in charge of
mergers and acquisitions at CCC told The
Independent at a recent workshop in Nairobi,
Kenya that the new developments signals
increasing attractiveness of the region as an
investment destination, both within and out-
side COMESA.
He said the total turnover in the bloc’s
transactions involving mergers and acquisi-
tions from inception amounts to more than
$110bn.
Most transactions reviewed by the com-
mission involved parties with operations in
Kenya, Zambia, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and
Uganda, in various sectors – construction,
28 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
energy, banking and financial services and
ICT. He said the commission hopes to regis-
ter more mergers and acquisition in the near
future.
Boosting foreign direct investment
George K. Lipimile, the director and
chief executive officer for CCC said the new
development comes at the time the world
is increasingly recording fewer new invest-
ments (greenfield investments) because
investors now find it easy to acquire or
merge with an existing entity.
He, however, said that there is empirical
evidence that transnational corporations
are more likely to invest in a country where
there is a robust competition law and policy.
He said this legal framework ensures a
high level playing field and certainty for
business growth.
“A good and robust competition law and
its constituent merger control regime is
instrumental to attracting FDI,” he said.
Four countries out of the 21 member states
in COMESA have been labeled ‘sleeping
giants’ for being slow on enacting competi-
tion laws.
These are; Uganda (which is in advanced
stages), Somalia, Eritrea and Libya.
The CCC executives said these countries
are missing out on economic opportunities
brought about by mergers but are continu-
ing to engage them to speed up the process.
However, experts say competition
regimes should be designed and implement-
ed in such a way that does not discourage
mergers and acquisitions because of the fees/
costs that come with these transactions.
Mwemba said that COMESA regional
merger control regime provides an import-
ant tool for easing costs of compliance and
promoting confidence for investors in the
region which is partly why the number of
mergers and acquisitions has increased over
the years in the bloc.
He, however, said the varying instruments
of FDI may have different implications for
the competition landscape which requires
the competition authorities and the media to
remain vigilant
Patrick Okilangole, the chairperson of the
Board of Commissioners of the COMESA
Competition Commission also supplement-
ed on the views of Mwemba and Lipimile
saying competition legal regimes stir coun-
try competitiveness in terms of business in
trading blocs.
“A recurrent empirical result found in sev-
eral of our member states suggest that firms
facing more competitive pressure are more
likely to have introduced new products and
upgraded existing product lines,” he said.
He added that firms usually acquire many
of their inputs, for example, transportation,

energy, construction, and financial and
professional services in local markets when
competition laws and policies are at play.
He explained that once upstream markets
lack competition, goods and services neces-
sary for production cannot be provided at
competitive prices and, as a result, firms may
be less competitive than their foreign rivals
and less likely to compete globally.
He also added that competition has pos-
itive effects on innovation, productivity,
foreign direct investment and economic
growth.
He also said that competition laws lead
to competitive domestic markets which are
necessary to realize the benefits of trade.
Indeed, in 2014, in Zambia, the entry of
Dangote Cement in 2015 led to an immedi-
ate decline in average retail cement prices
from $12.19 in 2014 to $6.96 in the second
half of 2015. Dangote has further plans to
takeover cement manufacturing giant PPC
which has operations in South Africa, Zim-
babwe, Rwanda, Burundi, and DRC. This
is expected to lead to further reduction of
cement prices in the region.
Implementation challenges
Lipimile said that implementation of com-
petition laws and policies face many chal-
lenges including protectionism which has
continued to be a biggest dagger to many
economies.
As such, economies continue to face bad
market practices including firm collusion,
market foreclosure, and discrimination
against new entrants—practices which also
limit firms’ competitiveness and affordabili-
ty of key consumer goods.
“Competition laws are (therefore) here to
promote and protect the process of competi-
tion,” Okilangole said.
He added that competition rules are not
meant to punish large companies on account
of their size or commercial success but are
there to create a level playing field for all
business players in the market.
Going forward, Lipimile and Okilangole
said the countries must strengthen competi-
tion laws and policies to be able to address
challenges of high unemployment and pov-
erty levels.
Key facts and figures
 According to CCC data, a review of
cartels and collusion cases in developing
countries show a staggering effect of
anticompetitive practices on both pro-
ducers and consumers, with prices being
inflated up to 25-30%.
 CCC has over the years assessed
approx.220 merger transactions
 Over $30 million has been received in
notification fees by CCC
 CCC has used this income to partly offer
technical assistance and capacity build-
ing to member states
Next big thing at NSSF
Byarugaba pegs future performance
on innovation, businesses
By Julius Businge
T
he National Social Security Fund
Managing Director, Richard
Byarugaba, has spoken out on his
plan to grow the Fund in the coming
year.
This comes as the Fund declared a loss of
Shs402bn and a lower interest rate payable to
members for FY2018/2019.
Byarugaba, who spoke to The Independent
on the sidelines of the 7th Annual Members
Meeting held at Serena Hotel on Sept.27,
said the new plan rotates around the
company’s innovation strategy set to be
implemented internally and externally.
Externally, he said the pension firm has
a fund where it is paying $20, 000 (about
Shs74million) to start-up companies with
good ideas but failing to come to the
market.
“This money will help them to test and
pilot the market and if those ideas are
scalable, we will fund them,” he said.
Internally, he said, the fund plans to scale
up the awarding of good performing staff
who come up with best ideas to grow the
fund and improve its performance.
He said, the best idea would be paid
Shs100million and that the awarding
ceremony would go on quarterly.
“We have already run our first
competition internally and generated
four ideas which we are developing,”
Byarugaba said, adding that the new plan
would not only contribute to the Fund’s
good performance but also boost economic
development. The Fund’s Board Chairman,
Patrick Kaberenge, said the future
performance is linked to the proposed
amendment to the NSSF Act.
“The way this bill will be handled can
be a good deal or bad for the future of
the Fund,” he said citing issues of taxing
benefits, government borrowing, mid-term
access and mandatory contribution.
For instance, on taxing retirement
benefits for those accessing their savings at
the age of 55, Kaberenge said that this issue
has remained difficult for them to explain to
the members and that many have failed to
understand it. He said it should be left out.
“If something is not broken, why do you
fix it,” he said.
On mandatory contribution of
companies/firms employing below five
people, this too, he said should be left out or
be left to fall under voluntary contribution
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
business
arrangement that is currently running at the
Fund.
“Let’s go slow; people should come on
seamlessly and spontaneously as they gain
confidence in the fund,” he said.
He also said mid-term access should not
only apply to the members under voluntary
contribution but to all that have saved with
the NSSF.
On government borrowing form the
Fund, he said, this is not new given that
the government has been doing it through
treasury bonds – which is internationally
recognized – and issued by Bank of
Uganda. But he said that they might have
to review this clause and say for anybody
intending to borrow from them should go
with some guarantee that the money will
be paid back; or with something similar to
a bond.
“It should be expedited fast because it is
good for members and the economy,” he
said.
Speaking as the chief guest at the
meeting, Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija,
said the government’s wish is to have the
NSSF Act amended by end of this year to
make it flexible for members to deal with
their savings and for the Fund to grow
faster.
Minister’s lowest rate
Kasaija announced 11% interest to be
paid to members for FY2018/2019, lower
than the 15% declared in FY2017/2018.
The new rate was also lower than that
recorded in each of the last financial years
over a seven year period.
The Fund paid interest rate of 11.23% for
2016/17, 12.3% for 2015/16, 13% for 2014/15
and 11.23 in 2012/13.
Officials attributed the lower interest
rate to equity investment class and foreign
exchange losses that the Fund incurred
during the year. This meant that during the
year, the equity class experienced loss of
share value for companies where the Fund is
a shareholder across the East African Stock
markets.
Asset base
In FY2018/2019, the Fund’s assets under
management increased by 13% from
9.9trillion to Shs11.3trillion driven by
increased contributions and interest incomes.
It invested its money in three asset classes
– fixed income (79%), equity (15%) and real
estate (6%).
29
business
BANKING
Afreximbank president wins an award
Afreximbank President Prof. Benedict Oramah
displays the 2019 African Renaissance and Diaspora
Network Private Sector Development Award
P
rof. Benedict Oramah, President
of the African Export-Import Bank
(Afreximbank), has received the
2019 African Renaissance and Dias-
pora Network Private Sector Development
Award. The award, presented by the African
Renaissance and Diaspora Network (ARDN)
during the “Africa: Open for Business Sum-
INSURANCE
Insurance broker, Marsh
moves to attack cyber risk
A
s the world continues to register
developments in information tech-
nology, insurance broker Marsh
Uganda Limited is on the ground
to help its clients understand cyber risks.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting
for its clients held in Kampala on Sept.26,
Alex Mukasa, the company’s managing
director, said that they have built capacity
globally in insurance and general business
risk management to aid their clients’ man-
agement a range of business deadlocks.
Globally, the company records over
$15bn in annual turnover. It has over 70,
000 experts in different fields in over 130
countries.
“As insurance brokers, we are also in
wider risk management,” Mukasa said.  He
said businesses should take on risk head-on
by looking at cyber and other risk expo-
sures and design strategies to mitigate that.
For instance, he said that where you have
one ethical hacker, there is probably anoth-
er 100 or 1000 unethical trying to disrupt
business.
According to Cybercrime Magazine,
it is estimated that cybercrime will cost
the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up
from $3 trillion in 2015. Experts say this
represents the greatest transfer of economic
wealth in history, risks the incentives for
innovation and investment.
30 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
mit” on the sidelines of the United Nations
General Assembly on Sept. 27, celebrates
leadership for and from the African conti-
nent in pursuit of the 2030 UN Agenda for
Sustainable Development and the African
Union’s Agenda 2063.
Constance Newman, Chairman of ARDN
and a former United States Assistant Secre-
tary of State for African Affairs, said Prof.
Oramah was selected as the 2019 recipient
in recognition of his exemplary leadership
in the fields of trade, trade finance and eco-
nomics, and as a scholar and prolific writer.
“As the leader of Afreximbank, you have
not only overseen the strengthening of trade
activities throughout Africa, you have also
played pivotal roles in the application of the
Bank’s expertise to support humanitarian
emergency relief programmes,” she said.
In an acceptance speech, Prof. Oramah
said that he saw the award as a call to action
to do more to support Africa’s effort to
achieve economic growth, arguing that Afri-
ca needed economic independence as politi-
cal independence was not enough.
CSR
Vivo energy donates to Kiswa Primary School
Vivo officials pose for a group photo with pupils and other guests at the handover ceremony.
V
ivo Energy Uganda, the dis-
tributor of Shell branded fuels
and lubricants has donated 400
school text books and sanitary
towels worth Shs15million to Kiswa Pri-
mary School in Bugoloobi, Kampala, as
part of the company’s Schools’ Education
Support Programme.
The school has a population of 2000
pupils. Vivo’s Managing Director, Gilbert
Assi, and Vivo Energy Group Chairman,
John Daly, and other officials handed
TECH
Nigerian firm acquires
Kenya’s iHub
N
igerian tech innovation
centre CcHub has acquired
Kenyan technology incubator
iHub for an undisclosed sum.
This is the second change of
ownership for iHub which was in 2017
acquired by venture capital firm BSP
Fund LLC, according to Business Daily.
“CcHUB’s mandate is to build a
formidable innovation ecosystem with
a deeply rooted network, cultivating
strategic partnerships and practical
industry know-how that can support
entrepreneurs in building thoughtful,
relevant and scalable solutions.
We believe we can only do this if
we are intentional and proactive in
how we scale and grow our reach,
not only across Africa, but also
internationally,” CcHUB CEO Bosun
Tijani, said.
CcHub is using the acquisition as a
pivot into its Africa-wide expansion.
over the materials to the school manage-
ment on Sept.26.
They said the donation cements their
belief that by empowering schooling
going children they would contribute to
having a future generation of leaders.
“This gives them opportunities to
learn,” Assi said. He said the support giv-
en will in turn improve literacy, grades
and overall improvement of the school’s
performance.
 business

Medical Concierge Group to offer

health services to UAP clients
By Julius Businge affordable access to medical

T
he Medical Concierge
Group through its
direct-to-consumer
service called Rocket
Health has entered into
partnership with UAP Old
Mutual Insurance Uganda
Limited (UAPOM) to extend
telemedicine services to the
insurer’s members.
The partnership will
enable the group’s team
Pirelli Regional Manager, Christophe Vanier, (C) showcase the new Pirelli of health professionals to
tyres for the next session. Looking on is Mandela Group of Companies CEO monitor, coordinate and
Venkatesh Kumar (L).  INDEPENDENT /ALFRED OCHWO
extend healthcare needs of the
insurer’s group of clients.
The Group’s Managing
Director, Dr. Davis Musinguzi,
said on Sept.25 that through
their mobile phones, clients
will be able to access services
such as prevention and curative
healthcare information,
prevention and management of
complications, periodic follow
up to gauge the progress of
their treatment and counselling
services.
“We have combined
our diverse expertise in
telemedicine solutions for
patients in Africa to bring you
Vincent Omoth – Marketing Manager Brookside Limited (C) hands the advantage of unlimited and
over a basket full of Brookside Fruit yoghurt to Tany Bakes (R) and
Tambiti Lucas ( L) winners of the Brookside Fruit yoghurt- My Food
Network Every Fruit Counts challenge on Sept.27. The Challenge is
aimed at encouraging people to consume Brookside Fruit Yoghurt as a
healthy and nutritious snack containing real fruits.
services at your convenience,”
he said.
He said the Group will
ensure that the standard of
care is provided to the client
throughout the period of illness
to achieve optimal utilization of
the members’ insurance cover.
This development comes as
more clients are now seeking
for medical insurance covers.
Data from the Insurance
Regulatory Authority shows
that medical insurance
premiums grew by 24.5% to
Shs200.5 billion in 2018.
The segment contributed
23.4 per cent to the sector gross
premiums written in 2018,
overtaking motor insurance—
the only product whose
premiums have consistently
remained above the
Shs100billion mark, but whose
growth has been sluggish in
recent years.
Stephen Chikovore, the
managing director of UAPOM
said by leveraging on digital
technologies to deliver
insurance solutions, they are
partly contributing to efforts for
achieving universal health care
coverage.

Share price movement (Oct. 01)

Security Oct. 01 Aug.08 Movement
BATU 30,000 30000 00
BOBU 128 128 00
CENT 1,060 1,157 8.4
QCL 128 130 1.5
DFCU 650 650 00
EABL 7,054 7,243 2.6
EBL 1,341 1,446 7.2
JHL 11,668 13,261 12
KA 86 105 18
KCB 1,416 1,411 0.3
NIC 12 12 00
NMG 1,449 1,609 9.9
NVL 325 329 1.2
SBU 27 29 6.8
Centenary Bank General Manager Retail and Outreach Division, Charles Kabanda, UCHM 10 12 16.6
and the General Manager Corporate Communication, Beatrice Lugalambi ,displays UCL 13 14 7.1
the accolades worn as best digital customer experience and best brand on social UMEME 297 297 00
media awarded to the bank at the Digital Impact Awards Africa (DIAA) held at ALSI -- -- --
Mestil Hotel on Sept. 20.   INDEPENDENT /ALFRED OCHWO

Oct. 04 - 10 2019 31
Drug resistant
bacteria in DR Congo
It’s fueled by HIV prevalence and multidrug resistance (MDR)
I
By Agencies
t looks like it’s time to pay the piper.
The first extensively drug-resistant
(XDR) strain of Salmonella typh-
imurium, called ST313 sublineage II.1,
has cropped up in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). This fails
to respond to any of the antibiotics that are
commonly used in the DRC, except for cip-
rofloxacin. And to make things worse, one
sample has been isolated that shows incom-
plete response even to this last drug.
The bacterium S. typhimurium, which
many researchers say originated in sub-Sa-
haran Africa some decades ago, has been
showing increasingly broad resistance to
antibiotics over the last decades. According
to the new study which reports the emer-
gence of this new strain of S. typhimurium
in the journal `Nature Communications’ on
September 19, 2019, this is a threat which
will need the close cooperation of microbi-
ologists, geneticists, and epidemiologists, in
addition to clinicians and other specialists, if
it is to be identified and controlled in differ-
ent locations.
Salmonella is more commonly known
to cause food poisoning, not necessarily
life-threatening though very uncomfortable.
32 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
However, things are different when it comes
to S. typhimurium and related strains, which
are better known to cause two-thirds of
bloodstream infections in this region. In fact,
these have gained their own name: invasive
non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) infections.
Such infections affect almost 3.5 million
people a year, and almost 700,000 thousand
people meet their death this way – with the
greatest danger coming from S. typhimuri-
um. The worst thing is that iNTS infections
are rife in the very places which have the
lowest availability of healthcare, a poorly
equipped system, and low levels of immuni-
ty. In these places, it is the children under 5
years of age who bear the brunt.
The exact strain of S. typhimurium pro-
ducing iNTS in this region is typically ST313,
which is known to be resistant to drugs.
This has also given rise to two new variants
called lineage I and lineage II, which have
spread independently to cover most of Afri-
ca, fueled by two factors: HIV prevalence
and multidrug resistance (MDR). Lineage II
infections are now the main cause of iNTS.
What does XDR mean?
MDR pathogens are resistant to ampi-
cillin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and
chloramphenicol. This should not create
a problem with iNTS, which is typically
treated with the fluoroquinolone antibiotic
ciprofloxacin. On the other hand, compli-
cated iNTS requires ceftriaxone – but ST313
lineage II is now showing the presence of
extended-spectrum beta-lactamase enzymes,
which means they do not respond to newer
cephalosporins either, like ceftriaxone. This
fits the definition of XDR as applied to S.
typhi, that is, resistant to five drugs.
Expanded, this means the bacteria show
MDR along with resistance to the two sec-
ond-line drugs, ceftriaxone (through extend-
ed-spectrum beta-lactamase enzymes),
and azithromycin. This leaves only the
fluoroquinolones. However, one sample has
already been isolated which is not suscepti-
ble to this either – a pan-resistant pathogen.
This evolving strain, dubbed lineage II.1, is
responsible for more than 10% of isolates in
the central part of the DRC.
New invasive changes
The most worrying part is yet to come.
Not only is the bacterium becoming increas-
ingly resistant to all antibiotics, but it is
shifting towards becoming a primary blood-
stream pathogen. In the first case, research-
ers found that a single plasmid carried all
the resistance genes. A plasmid is a package

of genetic material that can be transferred
from cell to cell. Moreover, the new lineage II
strain is undergoing several changes, both in
its genome and in its behavior, which means
it is becoming more and more geared up for
bloodstream infections – becoming “inva-
sive”, in other words.
Invasive characteristics have been detected
both in laboratory experiments as well as
by the innovative use of machine learning
algorithms. These techniques helped to pick
up characteristic patterns in the DNA that
indicate which strains are becoming inva-
sive. These include less stimulation of the
host immune system, lower metabolism, loss
of one type of flagella and greater tendency
to form biofilms.
Why did this happen?
It could be due to the excessive use of
antibiotics, says the study. Azithromycin was
recently used in a mass campaign to wipe
out trachoma, an infectious cause of blind-
ness, and also is extensively used in children.
The plasmid found in lineage II strains has
previously been found in other iNTS-associ-
ated S. typhimurium.
Looking ahead
Over the past decade, all bloodstream
infections have been put under surveillance
by two agencies, the DRC’s Institut National
de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) and the
Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Ant-
werp. The routine isolation of the causative
organisms from patients across the country
has proved a great help in picking up the
earliest indications of bloodstream infections
with this XDR strain of S. typhimurium.
With hundreds of blood samples collected
from patients in the DRC who were suspect-
ed to have sepsis, the emergence of drug
resistance to S. typhimurium on an order
never before imagined is becoming clear.
Scientists have put in place a worldwide
effort to trace the continuing development
of ST313, and to assess its resistance to anti-
biotics.
Bioinformatics is becoming more import-
ant as it helps detect these signs of invasive-
ness. Researcher Nicole Wheeler says, “The
hope is that in the near future we’ll be able to
deploy machine learning in a more predic-
tive role to help control the emergence and
spread of drug-resistant strains of bacteria
such as S. typhimurium.”
Cambridge Professor Gordon Dougan
comments: “Studies like this are unique as
we are making the bridge between the most
important health issues observed in hospitals
across the world with in-depth biological
research for which we apply cutting edge
technologies. Collaborations like this are key
and will be important in the future to gain
further insights on emerging diseases.”
Medical News Today
Red meat doesn’t
hurt your heart!
By Agencies
W
e’ve heard it for years:
Cut back on red meat in
favour of lean meats like
fish or chicken. But now
researchers say there’s evidence red
meat may not be quite as bad for our
health as we have thought.
A rigorous review of the evidence
finds little to no health benefit from
reducing red or processed meat
consumption from average levels. But
don’t think this means you can go and
eat meet every day.
The findings were published in
the Annals
of Internal
Medicine.
Researchers
claim average
consumption
won’t affect
health
While the
study seems to
fly in the face
of decades of
research, the
study authors
actually looked
at past research to understand the risks
of consuming red meat.
Researchers did not find a
statistically significant or important
association between meat eating and
heart disease, diabetes, or cancer risk
after looking at 12 randomised trials
involving about 54,000 people.
They found there was less risk for
those consuming three fewer servings
of red or processed meat per week,
although they claim “the association
was very uncertain.”
Based on a series of five high-quality
systematic reviews investigating the
relationship between meat and health,
a panel of experts with NutriRECS
advises that most people can eat red
and processed meat at present average
consumption levels. For adults in
North America and Europe this means
about 3 to 4 times per week.
The researchers were aware
that current guidelines on red and
processed meat consumption left
room for improvement, “particularly
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
HEALTH
with respect to systematic review
methodology, and presentation of the
absolute magnitude of effect,” which
is the absolute risk per 1,000 people
followed over time.
After looking at the randomized
trials, the researchers discovered that
eating meat did not appear to put
people at increased risk for a host of
health conditions, including heart
disease and cancer.
However, after analyzing additional
studies with millions of participants,
the researchers did find evidence of
small reduction in risk.
According to Shelley Wood, MPH,
RDN, with the
Santa Clara
Valley Medical
Center, there’s
recent research
investigating
cancer risk
from the way
red meat is
prepared.
She
said high-
temperature
cooking like
frying and
grilling has been associated with
potentially carcinogenic chemicals
created by the flame and smoke they
create. The findings also don’t mean
we can eat unlimited amounts of meat.
The bottom line
An examination of several studies
involving a very large number
of people finds that moderate
consumption of red and processed
meats doesn’t negatively affect health.
Experts say that this doesn’t mean
that eating these foods is necessarily
healthy or that we can eat unlimited
quantities without consequences. They
add that high sodium and saturated fat
consumption are still associated with
increased health risks.
They also point out the
overwhelming positive health impact
associated with a plant-based diet that
includes generous amounts of fruits
and vegetables.
Source: Healthline
33
HEALTH
Giving up alcohol
Stopping for just 1 month has lasting benefits
By Agencies
M
any of us enjoyed glasses of
wine, beer, or other alcoholic
beverages. Sometimes we may
feel the need to take a break
from alcohol. An alcohol-free month is the
best choice we could possibly make for our
health, British researchers conclude.
Dry January is an initiative of the charity
organistion Alcohol Change United King-
dom, which encourages people to try giving
up alcohol for 1 month at the start of the
year. Although the charity that promotes
this effort is UK-based, thousands of people
around the world pledge to take part in this
campaign each year.
It is fairly logical to assume that giving up
alcohol for 31 days can only benefit health,
since drinking regularly is a major risk factor
for cancer, liver disease, and cardiovascular
diseases, among other issues.
Now, a study by researchers from the
University of Sussex in Falmer, UK, shows
just how much skipping alcohol for 1 month
can improve your life and concludes that
these benefits are long-lasting.
The research, which Dr. Richard de Visser
from the University of Sussex led, found that
people who took part in Dry January in 2018
reported higher energy levels and healthier
body weight. They also felt less need to
drink alcohol, even several months after par-
ticipating in this initiative.
Long-term health
Dr. de Visser and team analysed data that
they collected from Dry January participants
in three online surveys. A total of 2,821 peo-
ple filled in a survey upon registering for
the campaign at the beginning of January. In
the first week of February, 1,715 participants
completed a survey, and 816 participants
submitted additional data in August 2018.
The researchers found that giving up
34 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
alcohol for a month helped the participants
reduce their number of drinking days later
in the year. The number decreased from an
average of 4.3 days per week before taking
part in Dry January to an average of 3.3 days
per week afterward.
Moreover, people who went teetotal for
a month also got drunk a lot less frequent-
ly later on in the year. Rates of excessive
drinking fell from an average of 3.4 times
per month at baseline to 2.1 times per month
on average. In fact, Dry January participants
also learned to drink less. They went from
consuming an average of 8.6 units of alcohol
per drinking day at baseline to 7.1 units of
alcohol per drinking day later on.
“The simple act of taking a month off alco-
hol helps people drink less in the long term;
by August, people are reporting one extra
dry day per week,” notes Dr. de Visser.
“There are also considerable immediate
benefits: nine in 10 people save money, sev-
en in 10 sleep better, and three in five lose
weight,” he adds. Important benefits, how-
ever, are also available to those who give up
alcohol for shorter periods. An alcohol-free
month would be better, but even less than
that can still boost a person’s health, Dr. de
Visser says. “Interestingly, these changes in
alcohol consumption have also been seen
in the participants who didn’t manage to
stay alcohol-free for the whole month —
although they are a bit smaller. This shows
that there are real benefits to just trying
to complete Dry January,” the researcher
emphasises.
A long list of benefits
The people who took part in Dry January
last year noted numerous mental and phys-
ical health benefits as well as a “healthier”
bank account. More specifically:
 93 percent of participants reported expe-
riencing a sense of achievement at the
end of the alcohol-free month
 88 percent had saved the money that
they would otherwise have spent on
drinks
 82 percent of participants reported an
enhanced awareness of their relationship
with alcohol
 80 percent felt more in control of their
drinking habits
 76 percent understood when they felt
more tempted to drink and why
 71 percent of participants learned that
they did not need alcohol to have fun
 71 percent said that they enjoyed a better
quality of sleep
 70 percent reported better overall health
 67 percent had higher energy levels
 58 percent of participants lost weight
 57 percent reported improved concen-
tration
 54 percent said that they noticed better
skin health
“The brilliant thing about Dry January
is that it’s not really about January. Being
alcohol-free for 31 days shows us that we
don’t need alcohol to have fun, to relax, to
socialise,” says Dr. Richard Piper, the CEO
of Alcohol Change UK. “That means that
for the rest of the year, we are better able
to make decisions about our drinking and
to avoid slipping into drinking more than
we really want to,” Dr. Piper notes. “Many
of us know about the health risks of alco-
hol — seven forms of cancer, liver disease,
mental health problems — but we are often
unaware that drinking less has more imme-
diate benefits too. Sleeping better, feeling
more energetic, saving money, better skin,
losing weight... The list goes on,” he says.
So, be it in January or later in the year,
you may want to try swapping alcohol for
tea, juice, or water for a month or even a
few weeks. It could make you happier and
healthier, and your bank account will thank
you too.
Source: Medical News Today

By Karin Nansen
False climate solutions
How hyping misleading promises allows the rich to
continue profiting from climate crisis they created
I
n a recent special report, the Intergovern-
mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
argues that addressing climate change
will require fundamental changes to the
way we manage forests and farmland. The
data are new, but the underlying conclusion
isn’t: for over a decade, scientists, environ-
mentalists, and civil-society organisations
have been warning that our prevailing – and
deeply unjust – model of production and
consumption lies at the root of the climate
crisis. Protecting the planet on which our
survival depends will require nothing short
than system change
The world – and the developed coun-
tries, in particular – has built an economic
system focused on capital accumulation,
which privileges corporate profits over
the wellbeing of people and the environ-
ment, entrenching injustice and rewarding
its perpetrators. This process has been
unfolding for centuries, but has acceler-
ated in recent decades, as a select few have
acquired an ever-larger share of total wealth
and political influence. Today, just 100 cor-
porations produce 71% of greenhouse-gas
(GHG) emissions. The wealthiest 10% of
people are responsible for around 50% of
GHG emissions, while the poorest 50%
produce 10% of emissions.
Unwilling to stand up to those who are
destroying our planet, political leaders
have latched onto technological solutions,
including geoengineering approaches that
promise to suck already-emitted carbon out
of the atmosphere. Even the IPCC included
assumptions about such technologies in
many of its modeled pathways for keeping
global temperatures from rising more than
1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.
But geoengineering technologies are
unproven, unsafe, and unrealistic. Con-
sider bio-energy with carbon capture and
storage (BECCS), the leading proposed
path to “net-negative” emissions. BECCS
entails growing certain crops as biomass,
burning the plant material for energy,
capturing the CO2 emitted during com-
bustion, and storing it underground.
That sounds promising until one recog-
nises that growing biomass on the nec-
essary scale would require an estimated
three billion hectares – twice the Earth’s
currently cultivated land. Any attempt
to implement BECCS would thus be
impossible without mass deforestation
and soil degradation in the tropical belt
of the Southern Hemisphere, where most
fast-growing biomass is produced. Land
grabs are virtually guaranteed. Moreover,
as agricultural land was transformed to
produce biomass, food prices could rise,
fueling hunger and malnutrition. And
the destruction of vital ecosystems would
eliminate the livelihoods of local commu-
nities and indigenous peoples.
Hyping BECCS and other misleading
promises – such as Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
(REDD+) initiatives and carbon-trading
schemes – is expedient for rich countries,
corporations, and elites, because the tech-
nology charade enables them to continue
profiting from the climate crisis they have
created. But, by distracting from real imper-
atives, it allows the crisis to deepen and
disproportionately affect those who have
contributed the least.
It is time for those who caused the
climate crisis to take responsibility
for addressing it. To this end, devel-
oped-country governments must take
the lead in drastically cutting emissions
at source by pursuing a comprehensive
transformation of their energy, transport,
food and economic systems.
Essential steps include ending invest-
It is time
for those
who caused
the climate
crisis to take
responsibility
for
addressing it
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
COMMENT
ment in fossil fuels; transforming our
energy systems towards community
and public renewable energy systems;
abandoning destructive practices like
industrial agriculture and logging; com-
munity management of biodiversity and
water resources; and reorganising urban
life to support sustainability. Neoliberal
trade and investment agreements that
prioritise the interests of business over
environmental sustainability and human
rights must be reversed to allow for these
solutions.
At the same time, developed-country
governments must provide large-scale
public financing to support the much-
needed transformation in the developing
world. To succeed, the transition must
be just and ensure the rights of workers,
peasants, women, migrants, and indige-
nous peoples. Here, public and commu-
nity ownership is crucial.
Social movements in the Global South are
already providing models of this approach.
For example, La Via Campesina – an inter-
national movement comprising peasants,
smallholder farmers, agricultural workers,
rural women and youth, indigenous people,
and others – has shown how peasant agri-
culture and agroecology can cool the planet,
feed its inhabitants, nurture its soil, support
its forests, safeguard seed diversity, and pro-
tect water basins.
Moreover, community forest management
helps to safeguard the forests, protecting the
livelihoods of those who depend on them
and preserving biodiversity. (As it stands,
only 8% of the world’s forests are in the
hands of communities.)
With strong political will and the right
policies, we can systemically tackle cli-
mate change and related crises, including
biodiversity loss, water scarcity, hunger,
and rising inequality. If, however, we keep
indulging the fantasy that some “silver
bullet” solution will rescue us, progress will
be impossible.
Karin Nansen is the chair of Friends of the
Earth International.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019.
35
COMMENT
By Emma Navarro and Nanda Jichkar
Greening our cities
We must do far more to reduce energy consumption
by improving energy efficiency in urban areas
W
ith global leaders gathering in
New York City for the UN Cli-
mate Action Summit recently, it
was important to remember that
cities are not just convenient settings for our
coexistence and dialogue, but also leading
sources of greenhouse-gas emissions.
As hubs of employment, trade, and inno-
vation, cities are the engines of our economic
growth, accounting for over 80% of global
GDP. By mid-century, more than six billion
people – almost 70% of the world’s popula-
tion – will live in urban areas, up from about
four billion today. Yet cities already use more
than two-thirds of the world’s resources and
energy, accounting for over 70% of carbon
dioxide emissions. As cities continue to
grow, so will these numbers. Between 2011
and 2013, China used more cement in cities
development than the United States did
during the entire twentieth century.
The future of our planet, then, depends
on how we manage urban development. In
addition to being the biggest contributors
to climate change, cities are also among the
most at risk, and thus have the most to gain
from going green. With 90% of the world’s
urban areas on coastlines and at risk from
rising sea levels, there is significant work to
be done to protect the bulk of the world’s
population from these and other climate-re-
lated threats. Cities are where spending on
climate action will have the biggest impact.
Making cities more compact, connected, and
coordinated around green policies could
yield economic savings of up to $17 trillion
by 2050.
For starters, we must do far more to reduce
energy consumption, harmful emissions,
and air pollution, not least by improving
energy efficiency in urban areas. Given
that urban infrastructure is hard to change
quickly (and lasts a long time), the time for a
new conversation about urbanisation is now.
Cities need to develop plans to reduce CO2
emissions, build resilience, and involve all
relevant sectors of the economy in the shift
toward clean energy. Policymakers should
be planning for adaptations to existing infra-
structure and new long-term investments.
Many cities around the world are already
integrating climate goals into their urban-de-
velopment plans. Copenhagen has empha-
sised increasing its buildings’ energy effi-
ciency. Bangalore is investing in sustainable
36 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
transport. And, among other good examples,
Mexico City is focused on strengthening the
resilience of its most vulnerable residents to
extreme weather events.
More and more cities have come to realise
that climate-friendly policies have imme-
diate benefits in terms of both quality of life
and economic growth. Green investment
makes economic sense, because it tends to
result in better municipal services, cleaner
air, and safer water. Indeed, solar energy
is now often cheaper than fossil fuels, and
plastic recycling – a key to cleaning up our
oceans – is a source of steady jobs.
But cities also need to go further, by rec-
ognising the benefits of a circular economy
that minimises waste. “The 15 circular
steps for cities,” a guide from the European
Investment Bank, shows that cities and their
residents have much to gain – including a
smaller carbon footprint – from reduced con-
sumption and reuse of resources. Around
the world, international development
banks are providing cities with financing
and technical assistance for climate-re-
lated projects. For the EIB, the priorities
are energy efficiency, renewables, and
sustainable transport.
At the same time, governments need to
introduce new regulations and offer bigger
incentives to get projects off the ground, and
to encourage more innovation among busi-
nesses. To that end, we need all stakeholders
For starters, we
must do far more
to reduce energy
consumption,
harmful
emissions, and
air pollution, not
least by improving
energy efficiency
in urban areas
to be connected and on the same page. City
networks such as C40 Cities, ICLEI – Local
Governments for Sustainability, and the
Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate &
Energy offer a good starting point. These
groups have the power and influence
to get the right people around the same
table, discussing concrete policies.
For its part, the EIB and the Global Cov-
enant of Mayors have joined forces to help
cities finance climate action and build
greener cities for future generations. Under
this new partnership, we launched the
Global Climate City Challenge a year ago
to provide technical assistance that helps
prepare and fast-track the financing of urban
climate action projects. After soliciting 145
climate-policy ideas from more than 100
cities around the world, we have selected
20 proposals involving a total investment
potential of €1.4 billion (Approx. Shs 565
billion). By extending technical assis-
tance and financing for climate projects
to cities in Africa, Asia, Latin America,
and the EU, the program will create jobs,
cut energy bills, improve air quality,
strengthen the management of waste and
wastewater, and build resilience.
To address the critical lack of grant
funding necessary to advance projects
to a stage where they are ready for feasi-
bility analysis and ultimately investment,
the City Climate Finance Gap Fund was
launched during the United Nations
Climate Action Summit. It aims to raise
more than €100 million in grants in order
to unlock at least €4 billion in projects.
Government and financial leaders gath-
ering in New York City had to bear in
mind that they are not alone. They have the
support of a growing global community of
mayors, local officials, and private-sector
leaders who are determined to usher in
greener cities for all citizens. Our task is to
ensure that these voices are heard.
Emma Navarro is Vice President of the
European Investment Bank. Nanda Jichkar is
Mayor of Nagpur, India and a Board Member
of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate
& Energy.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019.
 ART | BOOKS | SOCIETY | TRAVEL | CULTURE
Oil brushes that conserve birds
Artist turns childhood affection into a challenge for me and you
F
By Dominic Muwanguzi
arid Mahfudh loves birds. He
cares for birds; lovingly cud-
dling them and nursing them if
they accidently wander into his
studio. He helps them to free-
dom in the open skies.
Born in Masaka town, Farid has fond
memories of he and his playmates, nursing
abandoned hatchlings; feeding them and
improvising grassy shelters for them. These
became lifelong bonds between him, the
birds, and the wild.
The unfortunate death of over two million
quelea birds by spraying at Kibimba Rice
Farm, in Eastern Uganda ignited this conser-
vationist streak. It coincided as he finished
his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art (BIFA) at
Margaret Trowel School of Industrial and
Fine Art, Makerere University in Kampala
where he specialised in oil painting and
anatomy study. The latter discipline influ-
enced his studio technique to drawing with
a strong bias to detailing a painting - unlike
the usual abstract or realistic approach.
Fast forward to today, Farid is now a bird-
er. He describes himself as a wildlife artist
with a penchant for painting and drawing
birds on canvas. Farid’s birds on canvas
emerge in hyper-realistic style, integrated
with their surroundings. The integration is
critical for him as a wildlife artist because the
environment is as important as the wildlife.
The interplay of bird and vegetation also
mirrors his conservation conversation with
the public. To save the wildlife, you should
save the vegetation in which the wildlife
lives. The painting of the vegetation in the
background validates the school of thought
that art should never appear blunt. The
proponents of this philosophy argue that art
is not a poster that promotes a product, art
is a subject that offers entertainment to the
public. In Farid’s paintings, entertainment is
everywhere. The public find his art fun.
He paints birds as sensitive and vulnera-
ble creatures and representing other life in
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
the wild. To achieve this effect, he plays with
light and bright hues on canvas. Purples,
pink burnt ember and pyne grey portray the
bird’s vulnerability and the environment
they live in. Beyond the figurative conno-
tation, the colour scheme is aesthetically
appealing. Audiences are drawn to the
painting because the palette is not dull, but
playful and almost casual.
Farid’s passion for birds and their sur-
roundings offers valuable conversations
on the topic of nature conservation that is
critical globally. The safety of birds can only
be guaranteed if the environment is handled
responsibly and vice-versa. Farid’s dream is
to see birds not only on paintings or photo-
graphs but in the sky flocking like they have
always done. He implies that each one of us
can do something to conserve the wildlife
and environment we live in. Farid preserves
nature by painting it on canvas; as the rest of
humanity, what are you doing?
Image courtesy of the artist.
37
Police hunt man who divorced wife without telling her
An American man is in trouble after Nixon filed for divorce on February 15 and a
police discovered that he was trying to judge signed an order that made the divorce
divorce his wife without her even knowing official in April. Police told journalists
he was divorcing her. The Texas man is now that his wife only learned that Nixon had
wanted on an aggravated forgery charge. divorced her in May, when she confronted
Paul Nixon, 51, allegedly forged his wife’s him about his unusual money spending on
signature as well as that of a public notary to jewelry. He told her that they were actually
make it look as if his spouse had consented divorced. She reported the case to police.
to the divorce. According to court records,
It’s confusing when royals don’t want protocol
that met them. According
to one report, while security
remained as tight as ever,
the couple asked that peo-
ple do not bow or curtsy
and call them by their first
names instead of his/her
royal highness. This appears
to have confused some
officials. Take this secretary
of the Bo-Kaap Civic and
Ratepayers Association
Jacky Poking who told the
Sunday Times: “I have no
idea how to speak to them.
We haven’t received any
official brief on etiquette.
When Meghan Markle Africa recently, they threw I don’t even know how to
and Prince Harry, formally protocol out the win- greet them.” Baby Archie
the Duke and Duchess of dow—and it caused some performing his first royal
Sussex, visited southern confusion for the people duties possibly helped.
This 96-year-old is
oldest fashion model
Most female fashion models start their
careers in their late teens and retire in their
early 30’s, but 96-year-old Alice Pang is not
your ordinary fashion model. She started
modeling at 93, so you could say she’s
still a beginner. A resident of Hong Kong,
Alice always liked dressing well and look-
ing elegant, but never actually considered
a career in modeling. But her granddaugh-
ter always thought she had it in her, so
when she saw an online ad for senior
models of 65, she sent in Alice’s pictures
and she was chosen for a photo shoot.
Never one to back away from a challenge,
Pang decided to give it a shot and even
though she knew nothing about modeling,
she had all the natural qualities to succeed
at it. Today, she is recognized as one of the
best senior models in Asia, as well as the
oldest. She models for high-end fashion
brands like Gucci, Ellery or Valentino.

This coffee cup is 22-years
old, costs Shs3.4m
The Münch, a small coffee house in Osaka, Japan,
is probably the only place in the world where you
can enjoy a cup of freshly brewed 22-year-old coffee.
That’s if you can afford it, as a cup will set you back a
whopping $914 (Approx. Shs3.4 million). The story of
what many consider the world’s most expensive cup
of coffee started decades ago, totally by mistake. But
he now uses raw coffee beans aged for 20 years, roast-
ing them himself, grinding them and finally brewing
his now famous vintage coffee. Only he has his own
way of doing things. You’re probably wondering how
Kanji Tanaka makes a living; after all it’s not every day
that people come asking for a cup
of his $914 brew. Well, The
Münch serves a wide range
of coffee drinks, most of
which are much more
affordable (in the $10-
20 range), and judging
by reviews, they’re
pretty tasty too.
Village pond becomes underwater selfie hot-spot
About 15
years ago, Pong-
gok was a poor,
obscure Indone-
sian village, and
its immaculate
Umbul Ponggok
pond was a
dirty, polluted
cesspool where
locals used to bathe and wash their
dirty clothes. Unemployment was
high and locals barely earned a living
farming and mining in nearby quar-
ries. Today, that same village ranks
among the 10 richest in Indonesia,
unemployment is almost non-existent,
and tourism drives the local econo-
my. And it was all possible thanks to
Umbul Ponggok and Instagram. But
then again Umbul Ponggok is not
your usual village pond. Located in
Indonesia’s Cen-
tral Java region,
it measures just
20 meters by 50
meters. It boasts
the cleanest crystal
clear water imag-
inable because it is
continuously fed
with fresh water
from 40 different springs, at a rate of
800 liters per second. It’s this fascinat-
ing property that makes Umbul Pong-
gok an ideal location for underwater
selfies, and in the age of Instagram
you’d best believe people are taking
advantage of it. The rehabilitation of
this underwater Instagram attraction
can be credited to Junaedi Mulyono,
who took it upon himself to turn Pong-
gok into a tourist attraction soon after
he was elected village head, in 2006.

38 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
Volkswagen Rwanda
starts ride-hailing service
By Agencies
V
olkswagen (VW) is testing
a new ride-hailing business
in Rwanda that it hopes to
expand in Africa starting with
Ghana and Ethiopia.
The ride-hailing service is
Volkswagen’s South Africa chief
Thomas Schaefer’s Trojan horse for
breaking into the new car market.
VW’s ride-hailing cars are assembled
in Kigali at a new $20 million plant
that also produces vehicles for the
relatively few customers able to afford
a brand new Polo, Passat or Teramont.
Employers can also access VWs to
transport their workers, and VW plans
to launch car-sharing, where customers
can drive themselves and are charged
for the time they’ve used a vehicle.
All those vehicles are owned by VW,
which after a year or two of service
will sell them onto the second-hand
market at a price more accessible to
average Rwandans. VW is also opening
certified service centres.
VW hopes combining all these
businesses - new car sales, ride-hailing,
car-sharing, used car sales, parts and
service - can make the company’s
investment in Rwanda worthwhile.
What is being described as “an
industrial experiment with Rwanda
as the laboratory” was imagined after
Schaefer set out to conquer Africa for
VW but study after study showed
the same thing: there was no demand
for new cars. Low purchasing power
and a lack of financing put them out
of the reach of most Africans, while
competition from used imports gave
buyers a cheaper alternative.
Schaefer quickly realised he needed
more than a flashy new product. He
needed a new business model for
Volkswagen.
So Schaefer is placing a $50 million
bet on a new business built around
ride-hailing and car-sharing.
The ride-service called “Move”
already has over 23,000 registered
users in Kigali although only around
2,200 of those are active users in the
city of 850,000 people.
In July, the ride-hailing service
averaged 384 rides per day, a figure
VW said it wanted to double.
It may be a longshot but, if
successful, the Rwandan gamble
could help plot a future course for
Volkswagen, and others, in Africa’s
challenging auto sector by securing
a foothold in the region’s rapidly
Oct. 04 - 10 2019
growing ride-hailing space.
Schaefer says he’d like to give the
business model a two-year test run
before assessing it.
Volkswagen told Reuters it was
already looking to Ghana in West
Africa and Ethiopia, a rapidly
reforming market of some 100 million
people, as initial targets for an
expansion of its mobility business.
The German carmaker’s project
was launched with some fanfare last
December in the capital Kigali but
since then scant information has been
disclosed about how it has progressed.
Global automakers like VW,
Nissan, Toyota, Honda and Peugeot,
are waking up to the potential in
Africa, where incomes and consumer
aspirations are rising.
But the region accounted for less
than 1% of global new passenger car
sales last year, making it hard to justify
investing in local manufacturing and
assembly.
Schaefer believes VW will eventually
need around 800 cars on the road in
the city for ride-hailing and sharing.
The company will begin introducing
its E-Golf electric vehicle into the
mobility fleet next year.
39
global comment
By Hector R. Torres
Global retreat of free trade
World headed toward a new world order where trade
deals and raw power politics replace trade rules
I
n the 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Rea-
gan’s administration forced Japan to ac-
cept “voluntary” restraints on its exports,
particularly of automobiles, in order to
reduce America’s trade deficit and protect its
companies from Japanese competition. By
1994, the deficit hadn’t shrunk, but U.S. car
manufacturers had become more compet-
itive, so the restrictions were discontinued.
The next year, the World Trade Organisation
was established, and such unfair “volun-
tary” restraints were outlawed.
Since then, Japan – for which trade
represents about 35% of GDP – has
been a staunch defender of multilateral
trade rules. But that may be changing
in response to U.S. President Donald
Trump’s escalating attacks on the rules-
based trading system.
Japan recently agreed to negotiate a
preferential trade agreement with the
United States that could challenge one
of the pillars of the multilateral trading
system: the “most favored nation” (MFN)
obligation, which states that any conces-
sions or privileges granted to one country
in a trade deal must be extended to all
WTO members. Here, Japan is again
acting “voluntarily,” under strong pres-
sure from the U.S.
According to press reports, Trump
has presented Japan with a stark choice:
open its (very protected) market to
American agricultural exports, or face
increased U.S. tariffs on automobiles and
other industrial goods. Gaining access
to Japan’s agricultural market would, it
seems, render moot Trump’s “national
security” concerns over imported Toyotas
and Hondas – the justification that allows
him to circumvent WTO rules with his
tariffs.
According to the MFN obligation,
however, whatever concessions the deal
produces would have to be extended to
the rest of the WTO. This would not be
the case if the U.S. and Japan were to
create a free-trade area to which the MFN
obligation did not apply. But qualifying
as an FTA requires the elimination of
duties and other restrictive regulations
on “substantially all the trade” – inter-
preted to mean no less than 90% of all
bilateral exchanges. The impending U.S-
Japan trade deal would go nowhere near
meeting that standard.
The Trump administration is unlikely
40 Oct. 04 - 10 2019
to be deterred. In the brave new world
of managed trade toward which Trump
is dragging us, his own negotiated deals
matter more than multilateral rules or
norms. As with the national security
exception, he might try to game the
system, claiming that the bilateral deal
is the first step in a process that will cul-
minate in a comprehensive FTA, even
though, technically, that still wouldn’t
exempt it from the MFN obligation.
The United Nations is – perhaps unwit-
tingly – adding another nail to the WTO’s
coffin with its Convention on Interna-
tional Settlement Agreements Resulting
from Mediation. Although the WTO
already has a proven dispute-settlement
mechanism, the convention, now open for
signature, is supposed to offer an “alter-
native and effective method” of resolving
trade disputes.
The WTO’s dispute-settlement mecha-
nism has long been considered one of its
crown jewels. The body has compulsory
jurisdiction over disputes arising under
its covered agreements, with members
required to comply with “panel reports”
(recommendations produced by three
independent experts). Appeals of those
reports are heard by the seven-member
Appellate Body, which can uphold,
modify, or reverse the panel’s findings.
Once adopted by the Dispute Settlement
Body, Appellate Body reports must be
accepted by all parties to the dispute.
Thanks to Trump, this system is on the
brink of death. His administration has
been blocking the replacement of Appel-
late Body judges once their terms expire,
claiming that they have exceeded their
mandate. The Appellate Body now has
just three members, the minimum needed
to sign off on rulings. Unless the U.S.
changes course by mid-December, when
the terms of two more judges expire,
the Appellate Body will be rendered
impotent. At that point, a country that is
unhappy with a panel report could send
the ruling into limbo by filing an appeal.
The new UN convention aims to fill
the vacuum that the Appellate Body
will leave behind. But mediators cannot
interpret rules or impose solutions; they
can only help parties to reach agreement.
(Good luck convincing the Trump admin-
istration to budge.) Saving the WTO
dispute-settlement mechanism would go
a long way toward preserving the multi-
lateral trading system. Replacing it with
something weaker could have the oppo-
site effect.
To be sure, the U.S. is not alone in
undermining the WTO, though it has
undoubtedly provided a major boost
to those eager to challenge the body. A
group of hard-nosed developing econ-
omies – especially Cuba, India, South
Africa, and Venezuela – have also been
doing their part.
Ignoring the negative impact of
domestic policy on their economic pros-
pects, these countries claim that the WTO
is biased against developing countries.
(Trump insists that the opposite is true.)
So, they want to condition any WTO
reforms on the satisfactory conclusion of
the all-but-defunct Doha Development
Round. In doing so, they are abetting
Trump’s effort to dismantle a rules-based
system that provided predictability to
investors and thus enabled many devel-
oping countries to prosper.
Even Japan has been mounting its
own challenge to free trade. Last month,
apparently inspired by Trump, it imposed
tighter controls on chemicals that South
Korea imports to produce semiconduc-
tors (Korea’s top export item), ostensibly
over national security concerns. It then
removed South Korea from its “whitelist”
of trusted trade partners, prompting
South Korea to demote Japan on its own
list of trade partners and to withdraw
from a military intelligence-sharing pact.
At last month’s G7 summit in Biarritz,
leaders again paid lip service to reforming
the WTO. But there is little reason to hope
that they will follow through. Instead, we
may well be headed toward a new world
order, in which trade deals replace trade
rules, and raw power politics stand in for
dispute adjudication.
Hector R. Torres, a senior fellow with
the Centre for International Governance
Innovation’s International Law Research
Program, was previously Executive Director
for Argentina at the International Monetary
Fund and a staff member at the World Trade
Organization.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019.
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