Aboneka Writes

For long, food and nutrition has been given less attention and yet it is the major driver of human health. You cannot speak of a healthy nation and a vibrant economy while ignoring nutrition. Recently at the civil society review meeting of the Food and Nutrition Policy 2003, it was discovered that the responsible authorities are spending more time and money in the process rather than producing tangible results. It should be noted that more than two million children are malnourished and according to World Food Programme, malnutrition costs Uganda 5 per cent of its GDP and these are serious consequences on a nation like Uganda. I am aware that the ministries of Health and Agriculture have put in place strategies to tame this through various programmes but many are either pilots, or are still lacking the implementation infrastructure. In a bid to have a prosperous nation with happy and healthy people, the authorities should expedite the implementation of policies such as the mandat

Religion is a belief with traditions and set facts that individuals hold or believe in and this affects their well being. Religion has taken center stage in many aspects of life that is social, political and economic being of individuals. The universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, wor¬ship and observance. This right is provided for every individual in any community of any nation and every nation domesticates this provision, for example Ugandan constitution provides for freedom of religion and even the penal Code makes it crime for anyone who sabotages one’s religion. Diana Deck in her teaching says that the most challenges in the world is trying to deal with this notion of diversity of religion. This i

Many people perceive leadership in different ways but what is important is to ask the question as to whether whatever kind of leadership provides what the citizens want and demand from the leaders. The type of leadership that is commonly practiced is the political leadership where leaders hold a social contract with the citizens who elect them into power. According to Robert Rotberg, governance is performance and the delivery of high political goods to citizens. These political goods include security, rule of law, participation and human rights and development. These goods are translated into the basic services like good roads, quality education, good health, better salaries and that the Governments are obliged to provide these to the community who elected them into power-the social contract. What therefore makes poor leadership is when leaders relax providing the good to the citizens and the citizens too lose trust in their leaders, when the bridge between leaders and citizens is

Colonialism in Africa was really rooted in the social, political and economic aspects of African people and it is evident that today people associate themselves with the effect of colonialism like foreign languages, culture, and political system among others. Colonialism has taken centre in all aspects of African life and it is very hard to start drilling it out of the lives of Africans. My stand therefore is that the efforts to decolonize Africa will do more harm than good. Economic Aspects Before colonialism, Africans used to trade amongst themselves (barter trade), the intracastrine trade, the use of cowrie shells as medium of exchange among others. Much as these were African concepts and mechanisms to do things, they were not efficient enough. For example trade did not follow any protocol and there was a lot cheating, unfair bargains, and lack of transparency among others. There were no banks, no financial institutions, credit institutions and the economy was not boosting. Exa

I took time this afternoon to do a little investigative study on the rampant and seemingly never ceasing Iron-hiting (Katayimbwa) on the boda boda men and below are my findings: METHODOLOGY: Interactions with 5 Boda Boda men: SCOPE: Kampala...Muyenga, Namuwongo, Nakasero, Wandeya and Clock tower) FINDINGS 1.The hit men are always people who know the victim very well normally those working at the same stage. 2. The Katayimbwa scheme is always a planned series of activities which involves a number of people and not only the hit man/passenger 3. The hit man/Woman will always insist they take them to an area with minimum traffic and pedestrian movement 4. The hit man/woman will always create a scenario of delay when they get to the so called "destination" e.g they will on purpose pass on bigger notes to the boda man so as he looks for the change.... 5. The hit man/woman who earlier informed his colleagues that he is on the way with victim now signals to their colleagues

There has been a lot of public appraisal for the police's action recently when they joined and supported Makerere University students while demonstrating against the 4,000 Ush as money proposed for feeding by the University Council and of course I will also take that with a pinch of salt. For long, demonstrations at Makerere University have always been violent with Police crashing the students and vice versa and I am wondering that if the Police had done what it did that time by protecting and even joining the students lobbying for their right, we would not have had ugly situations of death and destruction of property. Be that as it may, The police has also played double standards on the issue of protecting people lobbying for their rights and entiltlements by dispersing organised groups, teargassing them and even shooting at them? If it is the role of the police to protect and serve, why do they protect a few and beat others who are peaceful demonstrating and demanding action o

I have come to learn through media about a certain organization which was operating as a home for children with different age categories and it collected them from various places. What is disheartening is that this organization misrepresented to the donor that the children were orphans and yet their parents were alive and thus used this as a scheme to get money from the donor. As if this is not enough they further went and taught/inculcated a new religion into the children to the effect that the children were told to deny their parents and follow God’s path just as Abraham did. I was again at pains when one of the children denied his parent relying on the Bible as justification. Children are a blessing to the parents from God and as such parents ought to take care of their children as enunciated in Article 34 of the Constitution and also Section 5 of the Children Act. The same article, 34 of the Constitution provides that every child deserves the right to know and be taken care o

1.ARRESTING OF PEOPLE WHO BUY FROM HAWKERS- (SECTION 16 TRADE LICENSING ACT CAP 101) After chasing the hawkers off the street, KCCA embarked on yet another journey of arresting people who buy from Hawkers-this they chose to call it "abetting hawking." A number of people were arrested, spent more than 48hours in detention, appeared before the magistrate and found guilty Under Section 16(1). Section 16(1) of the Act provides that "No person shall act as a hawker unless he or she is in possession of a valid hawkers licence granted to him or her for that purpose by the licensing authority." Section 1 defines a hawker as; "means a person who, whether on his or her own account or as the servant of another person, sells goods by retail other than in trading premises or in a market established under the Markets Act." The reading of these two sections clearly spelt out that the subject matter in this legislation is the hawker and not the buyer. Unless there is

About 2 decades ago, the masses jubilated and thus drummed support for the president for scrapping the Graduated tax which to them was a bother (to contribute to the economy of the country). They welcomed the idea by pouring votes to the President, by then I was a young boy in primary school and I watched these events with interest. Much as the populace thinks the graduated tax was scrapped, the authorities say it was suspended to study a few economics on the same and it will be re-introduced which I doubt especially in this regime. The introduction of heavy indirect tax regime is now being felt by the same who jubilated when the graduated tax was scrapped. Taxes on essentials such as salt, paraffin, sugar, seeds, hoes, fertilizers are the latest worst scenarios the former jubilants have to face. It is worth noting that Agriculture is the backbone of this country and as such helping this sector grow will improve the economy, but with the introduction of new taxes on hoes, seeds, p

I have learned and read about officers responsible for disbursement of funds creating accounts on which they hold either people's salary or project money for months in order to earn an interest on the same. Project activities will stall and employees will not receive their salary for months just because some selfish individual is holding their money for his own benefit. Holding people's money first is wrong because they need to earn for the work done and it is unfortunate that some individuals will turn this into a fortune by making others suffer painfully waiting for money all in vain. These same officers usually use the excuse of late disbursement and yet the money was released. It is unfortunate that the Banks also allow these lucrative deals at the expense of others. The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Finance promised to investigate the same and come up with an appropriate solution and hope it is soon. Immediate investigations should be carried out to find out

I have learned that Hon. Ekanya has moved a proposal to introduce Phone Tax of 5,000/= per year on every holder of a phone. In his argument, he stresses that this will increase government revenue and this came up because the EC wanted salary increase which money Ministry of Finance did not have at the moment! I think there is need for an objective test rather than the subjective while dealing with issues of taxes. 5000/= may look so small to Hon. Ekanya but very much to some one else. There is a new trend of shifting burden to tax payers in this country, first it was tax on kerosene for the reason that Diesel was being adulterated and yet we have a fully mandated institution, UNBS responsible for quality but again the Minister had to shift the burden to the tax payers! We already pay taxes when buying a phone, its accessories and also VAT on airtime, isn't this enough? I am sure the cost of collecting such tax will be more higher than the revenue and this is against the canon

Time Check: 01:10am Officer: How r u sir? Me: M fine Officer: We are checking for guns, do u have any in your car? Me: I don't carry guns and I love my country Officer: Do u love and support Mbabazi? Me: Why? Officer: U cannot claim to love Uganda today without supporting Mbabazi Me: Since when? Officer: Brother, drive safely...and do you have some water for me? Me: Sorry sir, i dint carry any in my car Officer: You know what I mean..because we people protect you on this road and at least water for me is oke Me: Nice talking to you Afande and bye-- Michael Aboneka Jr

As the ex-officio ministers grapple with pay rise, I also find it disturbing that the tax payers and voters at that have to pay their MPs shs 150,000 per plenary sitting. This to me does not make sense because we vote the MPs to represent us in Parliament and discuss issues affecting us and why should we then pay them to do their Job?The MPs receive salary, millage allowances, travel allowances, constituency mileage of 2.5m (even when some dont come to constituency), among others and paying them 150,000 shs per plenary is not only disturbing but misuse of tax payers money. Tax payers have to part with about 45M per plenary for about 300 MPs and 135M for 3 plenary sessions and this takes a toll on the public fiance and it is more disturbing to hear that a hospital has no power or water or doctors are not being paid yet money is being spent on MPs for the work they are paid to do! This is not a good example of equity in our country and much as allowances are good, this particular one is

I had read about the demand for pay rise by the ex-officio ministers who represent no constituency and I am disturbed especially with their reasons. Much as it is true that earnings should match with the economic times, justification for the same is crucial. I am saddened to learn that among other reasons for pay rise are that the ministers do not have enough to donate at public functions! For God's sake, is it the minister's role to donate at functions? It is his own doing so why does one bother tax payers for his own interests? I also find the reason on "Carrying high titles therefore higher payer" very lacking in reason! I am sure these ministers received an appointment letter to which they accepted to serve the country and we should pay for the work they do and not the title, who care about the title? All we care about is service delivered. Comparing the pay of their colleagues who represent constituencies is short of reason because the two can never be the same

The prophets proclaimed that the messiah is to come and save mankind. The Angel proclaimed to the virgin Mary that she will bear a son, his name Jesus. He was born in a kraal and behold his birth caused chaos in the world as Herold was threatened (why get threatened if you are a good governor). Many babies were slained because of Jesus’ birth and yet they live in eternity today. Then came the time, the great and triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a donkey and its clot; (For the first time in his history to move on a donkey, a donkey which was on a rope, for the first time was freed and carried the “King” to the great city of Jerusalem in Majesty and praises only to save mankind. To the rulers, He was a rebel and to the people, he was King, Savior, Healer, Miracle worker and God’s Son. Not long enough, the police commander was disturbed by the massive support of Jesus at downtown and there he made a report to his bosses. As seen today, the commander had to bribe one of Jesus’ discip