UgandAshis 42 Newspaper Clippings

UgandAshis 42

August 2, 2009

Kampala, Uganda

Newspaper clippings

Man steals bag from muzungu (white person) and gets 5 years prison versus police high ranking officer steals 175 million shilling ($80.000) from the pension funds of his staff getting 4 years. Talk about class injustice. In the first case the judge reasoned that the thief may bring a bad name to Uganda abroad and therefore must be punished severely. The police officer well...it is as it is.

There is an ongoing discussion in the newspaper about the benefit of the 1.5 bonus scheme on application for females introduced in 1990 at Makerere University for public sponsorship to assure higher percentage of enrollment. From 1990 to today the percentage has shot up from 25 to 49%. However girls still lag in mathematics and science, yet dominate arts courses. (If I recall correctly 80% of the first year law students are females). Critics talk about the discrimination against boys. Positive discrimination or affirmative action has always been scrutinized. Yet on the basic level when a family has 4 girls and 3 boys (Ugandans fertility rate lies at 6.9) and cash is lacking it will be the boys sent to school and the girls kept home. Girls have many more hurdles to jump from primary education onwards to even have a fair chance at education.

The issue of Bunyoro is getting front page coverage. The issue is about the oil rich region which for decades has had influx (migration) of many tribes so much that the original inhabitants (Bunyoro) are now a minority. President Museveni after long deliberation has now come with a report recommending all leadership position in the region to be secured for Bunyoro tribe members. Uganda has 64 recognized tribes (3rd schedule of the Constitution February 1, 1926) and the country is slowly being divided in more and more districts (from less than 20 in 1986 to over 100 today). Intertribal tension in certain districts is on the rise, especially in resource rich or resource poor areas. The report has inflamed the migrants to Bunyoro as they claim it is their constitutional right to be represented as Ugandans where they live by their own candidates.

Elections for 2011: the scene is heating up as the opposition seems to be uniting with as one of their main attempts to propose one presidential candidate for all parties. Also they want to highlight the failed promises of the NRM (National Resistance Movement), the greed and corruption by those in power since 1986.

Kampala lies in the heart of the Buganda kingdom. For years it has function as the seat of both the kingdom as well as Uganda’s parliament. Of late there has been a move to wrest away Kampala from the kabaka (king of Buganda) and make expansions to Kampala City Council. This has lead to tensions between the parliament of the Buganda and the central government. Currently the Buganda parliament is raising a petition hoping to get 1 million signatures.

Namaskar,

Ashis