Aboneka Writes

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...