Aboneka Writes

 By Michael Aboneka Since Uganda became a multiparty dispensation, the struggle of parties has seemingly grown! The sole purpose to transit from Single party politics to multiparty politics was to allow the thriving of democratic competition which is very healthy for any democracy. By and large, one can say that it is evident that Uganda is a multiparty dispensation if they choose to go by the data. I last checked and we have  more than  29 Political parties in Uganda and to most of them, I have never heard about!  If one chooses to go by the data that Uganda has  over  29 political parties, they will quickly pass off as being the most democratic! However, given all these political parties, Uganda still runs as a single Political dispensation! The NRM has consolidated itself into power for the last 3 6  years and the "Multi party dispensation has seemingly died off! Of course, there are opposition parties that have stood the test of time to challenge the status quo but whether the

By Michael Aboneka Jr The need to appoint more judicial officers is a song that has been repeatedly sang by many for the sake of dispensing justice unabated. This is in a bid  to salvage the human resource shortage of Justices, Judges and magistrates. The plea seems  to have  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  has  re-surfaced again  at the swearing in of the new  Chief Justice  where he  pleaded for appointment and recruitment of more judicial officers  to clear back log and for the  dispensation of justice . It is almost two years now since the same call was made by the former  Chief Justice  a

By Michael Aboneka Jr It is  undebatable that COVID- 19 has caused deaths and left another lifelong impact on the lives of Ugandans since March 2020 when the pandemic was officially declared in Uganda. Majority of the focus has been on the prevention of further spread of COVID-19 and less about the social and economic life of Ugandans as many leaders have always retorted that they need to save life first and then deal with the rest later, which is not right. The model to fight COVID-19 needed to be a holistic one that touches all the spheres of life of Ugandans and not just focusing on one-saving lives yet actually more lives are being wasted away by men t al health related problems. COVID-19 has and continues to have a huge impact on the men t al well being of Ugandans and this cannot be ignored and only focus on asking us to wash hands and stay safe. Since March 2020, there have been incidents of severe metal illness manifesting into depression, suicide, hypertension among others. Th

By Michael Aboneka Jr In the recent past, the media was awash with debates on bail which is not the first time these conversations come up. There have been arguments for and against the President’s proposal to have Bail for capital offenders suspended or in what he calls postponed to 180 days. Much as I do not agree with the President’s proposal since the current status quo already cures his fears, we should not dwell on one component of the criminal justice system but the entire spectrum. It is time to review and reform the criminal justice system to ensure that every person can have a fair and speedy way since all judicial power is derived from the people and should be exercised in the name of the people and in conformity with the laws, norms, values, and aspirations of the people. As a people, there are several things that need an overhaul and others review if we are to have a justice system that reflects our aspirations. Manner of Arrest The Constitution under Article 23 provides f

By Michael Aboneka Jr As we are still dealing with the implied forceful Vaccination, yes, we have seen a number of institutions deny Ugandans services for lack of a vaccination certificate and also staff have been sent away. It may be looked at as a push factor to ensure Ugandans vaccinate against COVID-19 but we need to take a holistic approach to this issue. We should also allow room for debate on Vaccination because this will promote awareness in the long run. Much as the Government is putting a lot of emphasis on calling upon Ugandans to get vaccinated so that they fully open economy, it is not enough to just "call upon." By October 14th 2021, not more than 450,000 Ugandans have fully vaccinated which is only 0.9% and about only 2.3Million have so far recieved the first jab which is about only 4.9%. To reach atleast 7 million Ugandans fully vaccinated will have to take more effort. In order to do this, we need to do more on Education of our masses on the Vaccines, it is n

By Michael Aboneka Jr For long, schools have been left to determine their own set of rules including school fees and other sets of rubrics which have been normalized even though they are out rightly illogical and unacceptable. Many have argued that schools like any other business are in a free-market economy and therefore are entitled to charge exorbitant fees and demand for requirements that are unreasonable. It is now over 2 years since schools have been officially closed and much attention and time has been drawn to discussing how they recover their loans and survival and little about reforming our education sector, especially the curriculum. We should have spent the 2 years discussing the ideal education for our economy, regulation of the education sector including fees charged. It is unfortunate that as many schools closed, others continued to operate, and this has created two classes of citizens of the same generation widening the equality gap further as some are sitting home wai