Why Uganda Cannot Dismiss Hand Hoes in Agriculture

As we head for Women’s Day tomorrow, I was thinking hard about the reality of our Ugandan women activists and i am not taking it it. I am rather still defiant.

My senior colleague Wambi Michael writes a story where the Uganda Women’s Network Executive Director, Rita Aciro Lakor said it is an embarrassment that hand hoe is still encouraged as a preferred tool in agriculture at a time when other countries are mechanizing agriculture.

The female activists actually propose that the use of hand hoes should be discouraged by government due to related implications such as low production, pains such as spinal pains among many others.

However, let me for now object to their views. First forward, several studies done on Agriculture in Uganda indicate that 99.4% smallholder farmers in Uganda use traditional, rudimentary and obsolete technologies and methodologies for pre and post-harvest operations.

Here, we’re talking about the 70% labor force in the country, people who are only doing agriculture to help sustain the country. If you went to markets in Uganda and see the various fresh products in Uganda being brought from gardens accross the various parts of the country, one must first of all thank the great men and women who toil to plant seeds in the soil to feed the entire populace. Hilda guide me where I go wrong this is your area.

Maybe for now, Ugandans are not yet ready for tractors. During the recent presidential elections (John Blanshe M) please remind me isnt it the time Mzee Museveni Kaguta promised to distribute over 18million hand hoes to distribute them to locals to enhance agriculture.

Whereas the activists might be having a point in that we need to now embrace mechanized agriculture for higher outputs, I think it is rather treacherous to advise that hand hoes should be banished. I have grown in a village where you must get a hoe and dig in order to secure food both for sell and and for home consumption.

We must first appreciate that given the population rise in Uganda, there has been pressure created on our land and most of the parts of the country especially in Western Uganda have been fragmented. Considering that mechanised agriculture requires land with good terrain, it might not be good advice to people to abandon hoes.

Especially following the recent reports on hunger crisis in the country, many people today either have been affected by the climate changes which has affected food production but this has also been due to unguided settlements and encroachments where people have for-instance encroached water catchment areas, forests depleted every natural resource at the expense of the climate.

A group of Abahingi women (subsistence farmers) from the village of Mirindi, Nangara clearing the land to plant beans.

We must all appreciate the fact that we need serious agriculture and a mechanized one for that matter but we cannot abandon the rudimentary tools when we do not have capacity as a country to establish agricultural farms to be able to produce for the ever growing population as a country. We need a strategy and I think we should be making noise to interest government on the need to do modern agriculture since like it is argued that our rudimentary modes of agriculture are not productive.

With this unpredictable climate change, government needs to strategically adopt some strategies of ensuring there is massive food production of food in the country. At the end of the day someone will not praise you for bringing piece when their children have slept on an empty stomach.

My friend and senior comrade Edgar Muvunyi Tabaro recently pondered on why China at this day age was donating the yellow rice to Uganda yet in a few years ago it used Uganda Used to be a food basket.

Media reports indicate that traders travel from as far as Rwanda to come to Mbarara and clear posho stocks in shops, Business men have gone an extra mile of paying off farmers in their gardens before even they plant. Mr. Justus Karuhanga let us not only focus on milk and meat production and we have people run out of food but also invest in serious crop agriculture.

The food situation in the country is not the best as many people are reportedly dying of hunger. If we must really have to help our population, we must ensure agriculture is embraced but not only through our traditional agriculture modes but also embracing modern mechanised agriculture which will take time. But there must be will by government.

I wish the passion that the government is running to clamp down kiosks and structures in parkyard market would be the same passion government is using in identifying areas which can accomodate irrigation and so national farms can be established.

One wonders that although Uganda is endowed with fertile soils and favourable climate, the major factors that influence agriculture, the country continues to produce at a law scale.

UNEB Officials Decry Social Media “Fake News”

Davidson Ndyabahika

IN SHORT:

Prof. Mary Okwakol, the UNEB board executive chairperson has said that before PLE examinations were conducted on November 2nd and 3rd last year, social media circulated a fake Mathematics paper which trapped students, and teachers leading to failure of pupils in the schools that relied on the paper.

The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) officials have decried the rate at which social media has been used to circulate false information purportedly originating from UNEB.

Speaking at the release of the 2016 Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) results recently at the president’s office conference room, Prof. Mary Okwakol, the UNEB board executive chairperson said there is a lot of misinformation that has been going around attributed to UNEB.

Prof. Okwakol said that before the Christmas break, social media carried a story attributed to the UNEB Public Relations Officer to the effect that the Board had changed the UCE grading which caused a lot of public concern.

She said that before PLE examinations were conducted on November 2nd and 3rd last year, social media circulated a fake Mathematics paper which trapped students, and teachers leading to failure of pupils in the schools that relied on the paper.

“Las week the platform carried another story attributing it to the UNEB executive secretary setting the dates for releasing the PLE and UCE and when the results were not released on the dates they had  circulated, another rumor camesaying that UNEB is not releasing results because changes are being made,” Prof. Okwakol before she added that;

“UNEB has not changed results since the marking was completed. This has also caused confusion and you will hear a lot more but as I said please take the steps to find the truth.”

Prof. Okwakol noted that the examinations board has received information that there are some individuals who are soliciting money from different schools throughout the country through social media.
She warned the public not to be caught off guard and asked that they should only go to UNEB to find out the truth and the authenticity of such information. She has further warned the public to disregard future information through such platforms.

The sensational form that fake news takes makes it appealing. Research has shown that people respond more to fake news than accurate accounts of events.

Recently, social media carried fake reports that the Uganda Advanced Certificate Education results were to be released this week.

However, information from officials at UNEB is that the officials will brief the Minister of Education and Sports on UACE 2016 results on Monday 20th February,2017,11am at Nakasero. The official UACE release will be on Tuesday 21stFebruary,2017 at 11am at Office of the President.

I was Misquoted on Migingo Island – Uganda Police Boss

In short

Uganda Police Spokesperson AIGP Kaweesi told this website earlier today that the reports carried that the special Forces Command was taking charge of Migingo Islands by the media were fueling tension and were bound to breed bad blood between Uganda and Kenya. He noted that the police only transferred police officers after reports that the ones on the island had developed indiscipline.

Uganda Police Spokesperson AIGP Kaweesi told this site earlier today that the reports carried that the special Forces Command was taking charge of Migingo Islands by the media were fueling tension and were bound to breed bad blood between Uganda and Kenya. He noted that the police only transferred police officers after reports that the ones on the island had developed indiscipline.

“I told Journalists on Monday that we had changed our police which was deployed at Migingo Islands because the officers who were there had become indisciplined to which we took there other people. And this means that law and order will be maintained by Uganda Police in partnership with our Kenyan counterparts. The marine brigade of UPDF will only be in charge of activities carried out on water. The news published that SFC had taken  charge has brought tension on the Island and it has been interpreted as if there we are preparing to wage war on Kenya which is not true,” AIGP Felix Kaweesi Police Spokesman.

Kaweesi added that police has not been withdrawn from the island since it will be handing law breaking cases. He however noted that the marines’ brigade unit of UPDF will be in charge of all case related to water such as fishing.

SFC spokesperson Maj Chris Magezi, is reported to have previously said that SFC was only going to be part of the UPDF marine force that shall be deployed on all Ugandan national waters to combat illegal fishing as directed by President Museveni while in Masindi on NRM Liberation Day and recently in Apac District.

Adding that the directive of the president was being misinterpreted by the media.

This one-acre island is part of the troika of islands known as Migingo that has been at the centre of a boundary dispute between Uganda and Kenya.

The dispute flared in 2008 after then Kenyan leader Mwai Kibaki demanded that Uganda leaves.

A joint border demarcation team set up by the two countries in 2009 has since failed to resolve the dispute. Security on the island has been overseen by Uganda with a small presence of Kenya police.

Uganda’s claim to the island is based on the provisions of the Uganda Constitution and the 1926 British Order in Council that demarcated the boundary.

Kenya’s on the other hand is based on the 1926 British Order in Council and mostly sentimental reasons, among which is the islands are nearer to Kenya than Uganda and that the occupants are Luo of Kenya.

Kaweesi added that;

“UPDF was given a mandate to take charge of illigal fishing on our lakes and they will be led by a former SFC commando called Nuwagaba. However it is not SFC that will be doing the mandate but rather UPDF marine brigade. This doesnt mean that police will leave the Island as media had reported.”

CAN YOU JUST SHUT UP? MPS , BESIGYE

Apparently the 11 MPS who have joined Besigye on the fundraiser for MUK lecturers

I really don’t want to sound harsh or rude in any way on our MPS but hey, stop your comedy. We are not interested in your populist politics. Help people get out of poverty. Encourage people to work not always demand money from them.

I have just heard that 11 Members of Parliament have joined the Mr. Besigye in a move to raise money to pay Lecturers incentives. What a comedy by the government and the president in waiting!

You guys tuswaara please forgive us. Give us a break please. Do these MPs have any moral authority to claim to be interested in the affairs of Makerere University? Where were they before the country’s largest and best University was being closed?

Are they not ashamed that it is the same MPs who have on several occasions said they need their salaries exempted from taxes?

These Members of Parliament are too selfish. On April 18, the Uganda Law Society (ULS) an umbrella body for professional lawyers in Uganda wrote to President Yoweri Museveni requesting him not to assent to the Income Tax Bill in which Members of Parliament voted to exempt their allowances from tax.

My friend Mr. Gimara Francis the new ULS president signed a document which had an argument that every Ugandan has an obligation to pay taxes irrespective of their standing in the country. Remember it is through these taxes that the government can be able to raise money to ably sustain and pay for professors at our country’s public Universities.

But what does one expect from a parliament full of people some of whom have been challenged through courts of law over lack of academic qualifications? Some are just S.6 drop outs. They are just feasting on Ugandan Citizen’s sweat through the taxes we pay and yet they never want to be taxed, what a shame? I painfully pay 200,000 monthly tax to the government and then some Mpigs just jumps to say they now sympathize with Makerere staff?

Did Makerere Staff inform you so called MPigs that their major problem was money? Why dont you unanimously sacrifice your funeral allowances instead to the lecturer’s pay if you are too concerned than straining us?

Sometimes I want to burst when I see such comedy. Fortunately, president Museveni has for the second time refused to ascent to the Income Tax bill Unfortunately still, this is going to be passed into law according to Rule 132.9 Parliamentary Rules of Procedure which mandates parliament to pass it into law once the bill is returned twice by the president.

President Museveni argued that the decision by the legislators to amend clause 21 of the Income Tax law to exempt themselves from paying taxes, doesn’t promote good practice, saying the move isn’t only injurious to revenue efforts, but not politically and morally correct.

Imagine an S.6 drop out earns more than a University Professor and when a professor asks for an incentive, some one who is allegedly an MP ignorantly says your role is to teach? Can you give us a break please?

Are you aware that it is actually even after paying taxes, it is the parents of students at Makerere who pay the 40% of the entire salaries of staff about 6bn? Why dont you resolve that the government must fully fund the university than this kwara kwara of yours?

Focus on things that will help Ugandans and act by examples. The bible says “Turyabareebera ahabyaana byaabo”

Apparently the 11 MPS who have joined Besigye on the fundraiser for MUK lecturers

Ndyemereire – Narishi Ekyareeteire Abantu Kugyenda Busimba

I LOVE RUNYANKORE

Jalada Africa

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Rukiga

Clare D Kyasiimire

Obunyakare abantu bakaba bagyendesa emikono namaguru nk’ezindi nyameishwa. Omukwiiruka bakaba nibasiga wakame, engwe n’engiri. Amaguru nemikono byaabo bikaba bihikeine kukira ebindi bichweeka byemibiri yaabo: engingo zaabo ezekichweeka kyomumeisho zirikwingana n’ezekichweka kyokugaruka enyima, bara ngu omukundi guri rwaagati) – amabega geingana n’enyugunyu, enkokora n’amaju, obugombamburi bwingana n’engingo zenyima y’engaro, ebigyere bingana n’engaro nkoku byombi biherurukana n’obwaara aha muheru hariho eminyoma omuri buri kaara. Engaro n’ebigyere bikaba biine enkora emwe birikukiraakirana omu bureingwa nobuhango. Yeego kwo amaguru n’emikono garikweetana ishe emwe.

Emikono n’Amaguru bikaba bihweerana kutooza omubiri eyi gwenda kuza – omu katare, amaduuka, temba-temburuka emiti, emishozi, nahandi hoona ahetengwa kugiibwa. N’omu meizi bikaba bikorengana kuhweera omubiri kugetibikamu, kwoga n’okuzeerera kutatobera. Bikaba bitaryaaryana omu nkora; biine oburingaaniza. Obwo manya arikwe birikukwaatagana nebindi bichweka byomubiri buri kimwe kukora ogwaakyo – eminwa okweeganza, amatu okuhurira, enyindo okukaga n’ameisho okureeba.

Enkwaatanisa yaabyo ekaba ereetera ebindi bichweeka byomubiri kugira eihari. Omwinazi ayanga…

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Smoked Out: Uganda Gay Exhibitors Arrested by Police in Kabalagala

Uganda police last evening raided gay exhibition expo dubbed #MrandMissPrideUganda2016 at club Venom in Kabalagala a Kampala Suburb and arrested over 12 gay exhibitors.

According to a gay activist and the embattled Makerere University nudist professor Dr. Stella Nyanzi, the arrests by Uganda Police Forces are a move to violate human rights.

“Human rights from Sexual Minority Uganda and other The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender people have been arrested by human rights violators Uganda Police Forces, ” Said Dr. Nyanzi before she added; “I condemn in the strongest terms possible these arrests of peace-loving Ugandan citizens.”

The event was to mark the 5th annual Gay Pride Week in Uganda started on August 2. Uganda has continued to have an austere stand on homosexuality and thus they regard themselves as a minority group in the country.

 

According to the Kuchu Times a blog known for promoting homosexuality in Uganda, most of the contestants have been arrested including attendees of the function.

 

Among the arrested Dr. Frank Mugisha the Sexual Minorities Uganda Executive Director and other 10 Ugandan gay activists were arrested, in his tweet Dr. Mugisha revealed to have been arrested by police in Uganda

Contestors included Contestant number one ; Sash from Congo contestant number 2 Nansubuga Emmanuella, Contestant Number #3 Desire Jojo from Mbale , Contestant No. #4 Kevin from Burundi, Contestant No #5Princess Rihana, Contestant, Contestant #6 Isabella Redapple – Mbale , Contestant #7 Poison Ivy, Contestant #8 Shakirah Abdul , Contestant #10 Arthur Mubiru , Contestant #11 Rashid,

 

MY LOVE FOR SIM SIM, UGANDA’S YUMMY GOLD

Have you traveled to Uganda? Do you know Sim Sim? Have you eaten it before, or its products? If you haven’t, you no longer have a reason to say you dint know. Just a trip to northern Uganda or eastern parts of the country, try asking these yummy cereals, they will be at your service. 

Sesame seed and sesame dessert with caramel

 

When I visited my sister in Kinyamaseke Village, in Kinyamaseke Parish, Munkunyu Subcounty in Kasese where she has been married for about 12 years now, I began to appreciate different food prepared by people in a traditional setting.

 

The warm air that escaped the house to the wintry chill behind me was infused with the aroma of the freshly prepared Sim Sim cake. Looking at them, my mouth started watering and i could barely wait to feast on these little, seeds.

 

Anyone who walks on the streets of Kampala can tell he/she has seen these little, yummy food stuffs called Sim Sim. It is some times called Sesame.

 

Usually, Sim Sim products are hawked in the traffic jam and some time with street vendors beautifully packed in a water and air tight polythene. They are made in different forms to please consumers. Some take square shapes, others circular while others are sold together with roasted G.nuts.

 

Interestingly, when you keenly interest yourself on who Usually sells these yummy little seeds, it will be young beautiful ladies and trust me these will not be Baganda. It will be someone with a true deep African beauty hidden in her dark skin color. Most probably this person will have origins from dry land areas of Uganda such as Acholi, Teso, Lango, and West Nile areas because that is where they are usually grown.

Black Sesame Seeds

 

If you have not eaten these, Oh My God you don’t know what you are missing. Sim Sim is used in many ways to and is a delicacy.Bakeries add sim sim seeds to bread and the top of hamburgers to give them a rich nutty taste, if you have tasted it, you can testify.

 

The beauty about delicacy is that you can eat these seeds raw or you may roast them (Okukaranga in Runyankore). Once roasted, they can pound its paste can be added to smoked meat, fish and some types of vegetables to make delicious soup. Lakorokoro is a dish of smoked meat and cooked sim sim. One to be regarded as a pure Acholi. “We eat this meal usually with Karo and sweet potatoes,” my friend Oyeki Gerald from Gulu excited me.

 

Sim Sim paste which the Luo people call ‘Odi’ is very sweet. When you advance to South Sudan, this white Sim Sim is used to make “Halawa” usually referred to as the “African Chocolate”

 

Sim Sim once pound oil can be extracted and used for smearing

 

If you have been to areas of Lira, Aduku, Dokolo and Apac, Gulu towns, then you know what i am talking about Please try and ask this delicacy.

A man preparing sim sim after harvesting in northern Uganda

 

Just like it is believed that eating G.nuts increases Male sexual performance, the same argument is also advanced for Sim sim. That is not why i take it anyway but true this crop has been proved to have important health benefits for one who eats them.

 

For instance, it contains calcium, which helps build bones, enhance bone density and lower the risk of Osteoporosis (the holes in bones). Eating Sim sim has also been proven to bring relief to people suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis, a Chronic joint disease that causes damage to joints in the body. These seeds are high in dietary fibre and add roughage to the intestines which improves bowel movements and helps prevent constipation.

 

Facts reveal that Uganda is the fifth largest producer of Sim Sim in the world producing about 170,000 metric tons annually. It is believed that Sim Sim growing in Uganda started in 1910 when it was first introduced from Kenya and then distributed to Eastern and Northern Parts of Uganda. I hope you will testify on testing the delicacy. 

Woman of the year: Angela Merkel Named most powerful woman of the year

 

While East Africans and Africans are still shocked with the way the current president of Tanzania who recently attained office is heavily doing work in Tanzania, UK magazine “TIME” has named the most powerful woman of the year in the world.

 The German chancellor has been awarded honor for leading Europe through debt crisis and standing firm in support of aid to refugees. She becomes the first woman to bag the honorary award since 1986.

According to the time magazine, Europe’s most powerful leader is a refugee from a time and place where her power would have been unimaginable. The German Democratic Republic, where Angela Merkel grew up, was neither democratic nor a republic; it was an Orwellian horror show, where the Iron Curtain found literal expression in the form of the Berlin Wall. 

A shortlist of candidates chosen by TIME magazine’s editors for the 2015 Person of the Year included the eight contenders, in alphabetical order include:

1. Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi,who as leader of ISIS has inspired followers to both fight in his self-declared caliphate of Iraq and Syria, and also stage attacks in countries like Tunisia and France.
2. Black Lives Matter activists,who have protested inequality towards African Americans, especially in their treatment by law enforcement.
3. Caitlyn Jenner,whose coming out as a transgender woman prompted widespread conversations about gender identity and issues of equality for the LGBT community.
4. Travis Kalanick,who as CEO of Uber drove his car-hailing company to an early $70 billion valuation, but also drew criticism about the downside of the sharing economy.
5. Angela Merkel,who as German chancellor has been at the center of major news events this year, from economic strife in the Eurozone to Europe’s ongoing migrant crisis.
6. Vladimir Putin,who as president of Russia has defied Western sanctions over his country’s military activity in Ukraine to play a critical but precarious role in the war on ISIS.
7. Hassan Rouhani,who as president of Iran is seeking to bring his country out of pariah status and repair its sanctions-crippled economy by pursuing a nuclear deal with the West.
8. Donald Trump,whose populist rhetoric has made him frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential candidacy and stirred debate about the party’s future.

Every year since 1927, TIME has chosen a Person of the Year that influenced the world, for better or worse. From Charles Lindbergh to the Ebola Fighters, see past Persons of the Year.

In 1936, Time magazine opened up this contest to women. She is the first to be awarded the title since 1986.

The future of Social Media as Museveni scoops 5th term

MAKERERE 60 % TUITION POLICY, HOW IT WAS BORN,BURRIED SEE SUMMARY

Students went on a week-long strike in April in protest against the debt-ridden university’s controversial fee payment policy.

Makerere has been demanding UGX21 billion (US$6.3 million) from about 45% of the 39,417 students currently enrolled.

Problems with tuition fee payment have placed the institution into debt and rendered it unable to meet financial obligations, especially to staff who have been demanding salary arrears.

The policy students were striking over in April, established in 2012, required students to pay at least 60% of their tuition fees by the sixth week of a semester, which allowed them to register, submit coursework and sit for exams.

But the policy provoked unrest every time the university tried to enforce it, and students then requested that all tuition fees rather be paid by the end of the twelfth week.

The government represented by Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda  and Inspector General of Police General Kale Kayihura  convened a meeting with Makerere University Council Finance Committee Chair Thomas Tayebwa, Vice-chancellor Professor Ddumba Ssentamu and students leaders and resolved to shelve the policy.

Critics contend that government should not interfere in the running of universities if it does not provide them with alternative means to raise revenue to run their activities and pay salaries however, i find this lame. The same critics will dis government if it doesn’t intervene since this is a public institution.