Aboneka Writes

Africa is the richest continent in the world. It is endowed with fresh waters, minerals, oil and gas, rich flora and fauna and beautiful people. We may not know what the Africa we want will be like in 2063 but we can work on things that we don’t want to see. The pre-colonial era (before 1963) Africa was busy dealing with struggles for independence, foreign supremacy and dominances, marginal ignorance and illiteracy, sicknesses and was basically operating in a survival mode. The post independent era brought a new Africa-Africans started to have freedoms, most countries gained independence, and ruthless policies like apartheid were defeated. We no longer had any new excuse, it was a new dawn for Africa-it was a bright morning for Africa to rise and make the best out of its endowments. The African Union Agenda 2063 is an aspiration of Africa premised on the above history; we needed to re-think and plan the Africa we want in the next 50 years. The Agenda will help us focus to deliver an

By Michael Aboneka Jr For the past few weeks, I have been engaged in debates over some practices that we have ignored as society and yetare harmful especially to children. The conversations raised a lot of dust as this subject touches many hearts as many think it is an attack on their tribes and customs. But if we must progress as a civilized society, we must transcend beyond tribal, cultural and religious sentiments to discussing real issues. Female genital mutilation (FGM) was once a “beautiful” cultural practice until society discovered that it was dangerous to the life of a woman and as such, it is now an offence under the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, 2010. In the same vain, rolling of girls over a cliff because they were pregnant was also outlawed because it was repugnant to the Constitution as it undermined one’s right to life. It is within the same ambit that we should discuss the forceful and harmful circumcision for boys and elongation of the labia minora

By Michael Aboneka jr (SOURCE: INTERNET) The right to dissent is by and large an extension of the freedom of conscience, expression, movement, religion, assembly and association enshrined under Article 29 of the Constitution of Uganda, 1995. Uganda too signed the African Charter on democracy, elections and good governance (ACDEG) in December 2008, which espouses the right to dissent and holding opinion important for any democracy. The charter further under Chapter 4 enjoins states to protect such freedoms and under article 27(8), States are enjoined to protect and promote the freedom of expression, opinion and the press and media. Now that Uganda has committed to promote and protect these freedoms, why is the right to dissent in this country becoming increasingly an offence? Recently, a group of students in Makerere university were opposed to the arbitral increment of tuition to which they took to the “streets” of the University for a peaceful demonstration exercising the right

By Michael Aboneka Jr A few weeks ago, the public was shocked with news that over 1000 couples' marriages were null and void as the place of worship that purportedly celebrated the marriage was not licensed and gazetted to do the same. There has been a lot of storm on this matter and notwithstanding this, the Church has not made any comment as to the future of the affected Couples. I have received numerous calls and messages concerning this issue and I think it is unfortunate that the Church, which is supposed to exemplify truth and honesty chose to wed couples well knowing that they had not been licensed and gazetted at the time they conducted the marriages. It will be justifiable for all the couples to sue the Church for damages and other reliefs. In another turn of the events, it has been reported that the MPs raised this issue on the floor of Parliament and the Government's response was that the position of the law takes precedence and therefore all the couples must re-

By Michael Aboneka jr For some time now, there have been certain issues regarding the administration of the judiciary especially with Judicial officers’ logistical details. This was barely a month after the judiciary received a new Permanent Secretary /secretary to the Judiciary. I am not sure whether this was a coincidence or something else. The judicial officers have been complaining of the erroneous deductions of their allowances, failure to avail operation costs, disturbance allowances, kilometrage allowances and settlement allowances. How do we expect judicial officers to carry out their constitutional mandate without facilitation? Why should a magistrate spend a full quarter without operational funds to buy stationery, fix bulbs among others? Why should judicial officers receive the same kilometrage allowances regardless of their different distances of their working stations? All these questions haven’t been answered. Be that as it may, I have carefully reflected on this matt

By Michael Aboneka jr The National Curriculum Review especially 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 children who are the future of this country and the Globe at large! There have been proposals made by the National Curriculum Development 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 thi

A few weeks ago, the public was shocked with news that over 1000 couples' marriages were null and void as the place of worship that purportedly celebrated the marriage was not licensed and gazetted to do the same. There has been a lot of storm on this matter and notwithstanding this, the Church has not made any comment as to the future of the affected Couples. I have received numerous calls and messages concerning this issue and I think it is unfortunate that the Church, which is supposed to exemplify truth and honesty chose to wed couples well knowing that they had not been licensed and gazetted at the time they conducted the marriages. It will be justifiable for all the couples to sue the Church for damages and other reliefs. In another turn of the events, it has been reported that the MPs raised this issue on the floor of Parliament and the Government's response was that the position of the law takes precedence and therefore all the couples must re-do their vows before a

The heath services sector is a unique sector whose top-notch mission is to ensure a healthy world by saving all lives when they can. However, I have witnessed several incidents where hospitals demand a down payment of the full amounts before a patient can be attended to and some ask for 90% deposit. This is done regardless of the condition of the patient. I witnessed an incident at one of the so called major hospitals in Kampala where one had to undergo surgery resulting from the damage occasioned by the boda-boda hit men. The Hospital demanded that the Four Million Shillings be paid before the patient can be operated and without it, they will leave him to die. Even when the relatives beseeched the hospital management to have their son operated and they have the money paid before he is discharged; all this fell on deaf ears of the Hospital management. The family had to struggle and raised Four Million in about three days yet their son was wailing in pain and at the point of death. Th

By Michael Aboneka SOURCE: Internet Uganda purchased two Bombardiers which were received with a lot of excitement and a big ceremony, as usual we want to make big events even when necessary. The two Birds touched down in April 2019 and we were promised that they will take it to the skies soonest. They flew to South Africa for a tourism expo at a cost of course. I am not sure how many tickets the Airlines sold while in South Africa to justify their presence in the tourism expo. I have not seen any flier nor any communication of the offices of this Airline. I do not know where they operate from. I have checked the website and there isnt any information relevant as to routes, fares and flight schedule and yet the maiden flight will be end of August! I need to travel in August and I want to fly with our national Bird but i do not even know what routes will be operating next months. I dont know the schedule of the flights neither the fare! But we are still told that the birds will be

There have been more than 37 cases of robbery of the mobile money agents across the Country. This comes barely few months after the call and installation of street cameras in a bid to curb crime. It is sickening to see that crime keeps increasing despite billions spent in recruiting LDUs, installing Cameras, purchasing tri-cycles (which by the way I have never seen them in use). There should be no reason why security lapses should exist with all these measures that have cost tax payers handsomely. Recently, the Police has now abdicated its responsibility of protecting its citizens to asking them to protect themselves. The Police has instructed mobile money agents to hire personal guards from private security firms to provide them with security. This is deplorable; this is the sole duty of the police and security agencies; to protect their citizens. One wonders why the Police is vying the agents to hire private guards; is it a business ploy? Secondly, the Mobile Money agents are tax

We need to be genuine about Electoral reforms Uganda will go to polls again in 2021 which is barely 2 years from now. The electioneering year will start next year (2020) as the Electoral Commission and some Political Parties have already launched their roadmaps towards the 2021 elections. I have observed and participated in Uganda’s elections for some time and one thing remains common, the rush to put things in order towards election time. We always want to do things last minute including forming new constituencies that were not earlier planned for days towards elections so that some political rewards can be made. For all the elections we have held, a number of observers have released observations and made recommendations and then packed their bags and left us promising to come back again to do the same thing in a another election. There have been processes for development of reforms that go deep to the electoral democracy and Uganda and it is unfortunate that these proposals are

For the past few weeks, I have been engaged in debates over some practices that we have ignored as society and yet are harmful especially to children. The conversations raised a lot of dust as this subject touches many hearts as many think it is an attack on their tribes and customs. But if we must progress as a civilized society, we must transcend beyond tribal, cultural and religious sentiments to discussing real issues. Female genital mutilation (FGM) was once a “beautiful” cultural practice until society discovered that it was dangerous to the life of a woman and as such, it is now an offence under the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, 2010. In the same vain, rolling of girls over a cliff because they were pregnant was also outlawed because it was repugnant to the Constitution as it undermined one’s right to life. It is within the same ambit that we should discuss the forceful and harmful circumcision for boys and elongation of the labia minora (“pulling”) for girls a

In Uganda, we exercise representative democracy; that is where every individual receives direct representation for issues that are under debate through a representative, an MP. Whereas it is impossible to have every Ugandan vote on an issue, they (voters) exercise this through voting their representative in the parliament. As citizens, we give government two things, Votes (Power and Authority) and taxes and what we expect in return is the effective quality service delivery. Notwithstanding the above, I have noted with concern that actually this type of democracy is a sham and cannot deliver the citizens’ concerns. How do you treat dissenting views? The MP in the house is there because they won with majority votes. But they are representing the entire constituency including those that did not vote for them. It is common that these voters will always front dissenting views or even with their opinions, it is unlikely that the MP will take them since they are viewed as those that did

The relations between Uganda and Rwanda have in the recent past been sour with several accusations and counter-accusations flying the air by both Countries. Rwanda closed its Boarder late February citing many reasons among which it accused Uganda of illegal arrests, torture and deportation of their citizens. The close off of the boarder not only affected Ugandan traders but also Rwandan Citizens who were not allowed to cross to Uganda for "their own safety." We saw stories of students who missed classes, Rwandan citizens arrested for attempting to buy food across the boarder and the situation still remains ugly. The two countries may have issues, but to what extent should its citizens suffer? Both Countries are members of the East Africa Community and as a matter of fact, Uganda has just recently passed on the chairmanship to Rwanda! It is clear that both Ugandans and Rwandans are not at war-neither are they involved in any acute conflicts-for they share a lot in common an

The debate on the removal of the age limit exposed Uganda as one which does not tolerate dissenting views on any matter by the manner in which the NRM, police and other militia chastised those who held dissenting views on the matter while protecting those in support. Uganda is a democratic Country (or supposed to be) and this means that certain rights are non-negotiable. Our dear constitution gives us the right to express our opinions on any subject and further enjoins citizens to participate in the affairs of government individually or in association with others especially on how they should be governed. As we near the 2021 elections, the ghosts are back! It is wrong to assume that only one party has a right to speak over the others and that anyone else with a contrary view is an enemy of the state. In any democracy, critique is healthy as it tends to see deeper what would otherwise been neglected. There have been several debates going on such as the specialized Lubowa Hospit

Six Districts were created and became operational 1st July 2018 and these include Nabilatuk, Bugweri, Kasanda, Kwania, Kapelebyong and Kikuube. The Government made a case for the creation of these districts and that they were ready to operationalize them which has not been the issue. Much as I am against the creation of more administrative units because of their huge budgets-it costs about 139 Billion to set up a fully functional district; I am perplexed that even the ones Government has created it cannot run them. The bigger question is why does Government always want to rush to create these districts even when there is no money to run them? I am not sure how many districts have a district Service Commission as mandated by Article 198 of our Constitution or how many even have a veterinary and land valuer! It is fetching water in a basket to continue creating new administrative districts yet we cannot even service fully the ones we have! Article 78 (b) of the Constitution provides th

Over the past days media has been awash with the pleas by the judiciary and the Uganda Law society to have more judicial officers appointed and recruited in a bid to salvage the human resource shortage of Justices, Judges and magistrates. The plea to have these officers has been made for some time now and it seems it has fallen on deaf ears or chosen to be ignored. I have read , participated in development of various reports and one of the major observations about the Justice sector has always been case backlog due to lack of human resource to handle it. The same reports have always recommended for appointment of more justices, judges and recruitment of magistrates and other officers to facilitate the dispensation of justice in Uganda. The call re-surfaced again when the Chief Justice pleaded for appointment and recruitment of judicial officers for the dispensation of justice during the annual Judges’ Conference that took place between 28th January and 1st February 2019. The presiden

I have in the recent passed encountered scenarios where students and pupils have failed to get back to school simply because the fees is hiked every term with no clear justification but only one reason is always given, the economy is doing bad. This is always done by schools even without notification of the parents. Everyone has a right to education and it is unfortunate that the schools that are meant to promote this right are in actual sense violating it by their irregular fees causing many to drop off or not join at all-leaving education only for the rich. For instance, I have known schools that ask for more than UGX 1,500,000 as fees per term and this is without school requirements-which are by and large irregular. Some schools demand for materials like paint, barbed wires, rakes, spades, cement, brooms, 12 rolls of toilet papers, 12 reams of paper per student among others and one wonders whether their children are going to set up hardware and stationery shops or actually

Many churches have been conducting marriages while they have never been licensed to do so. I have come to know of churches that have conducted marriages yes they do not have any license. Under the Marriage Act, the Minister must grant license to the place of Worship and to the Celebrant of the wedding. It is not enough for a building to be licensed but the minister too should be licensed. I have noted that some churches especially those with branches use the umbrella cover of the parent church’s license to wed couples in at their local churches. What is interesting is that the Marriage certificate will contain details of the parent church yet in actual sense the wedding took place from somewhere else-which is fraud and may jeopardize the legality of that marriage. Couples therefore should always be mindful when considering where to wed. It is acceptable to demand the church to pronounce itself of its legal status as far as celebrating marriages is concerned and if this is so har