Aboneka Writes

There has been too much activity since Uganda announced its fist cased of COVID-19. The Ministry of Health requested for a supplementary budget before Parliament and what should have been a simple task was a hard one. after days of debate, the supplementary budget was passed and MPS still continued to complain that their role in the fight against COVID is not clear. I was wondering whether MPs have quickly forgotten their role, the role of Parliament is clearly established which among others is to make laws, appropriation and over sight. it seems MPs want to tune to being health workers and drivers so that they are at the front line fighting COVID-19? Who then shall carry out the oversight function over Ministry of Health? As we were still healing from this, Parliament passed 10 Billion shillings translating to 20 Million for each MPs so that they join the fight against COVID-19. The question is, what exactly are the MPs going to do with the money yet they passed a supplementary bu...

Transparency and accountability are one of the principles that this Government boasts of and continues to preach. COVID-19 is here and several developments have happened. First, Parliament approved a supplementary budget of 284 Billion Shillings to fight COVID-19. This was approved under Addendum 2, of the Supplementary Expenditure Schedule No. 2 for Financial Year 2019/2020 and the 284 billion shillings will be used by the Health, Security and Local Government sectors, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees. Of the 284 Billion Shillings, the security sector was to receive Shs 77.4 billion; Shs 36.1 billion for Local Governments; Shs 59.4 billion for disaster response and Shs 2 billion to KCCA. The balance, which is about 109.1 Billion was to the health ministry. We thank the Parliament for approving this fund to help in the fight against COVID and we hope that the money will be accounted for to the latter and that Parliament wi...

I salute the Ministry of Health for the efforts so far in as far as managing the Corona Pandemic and providing timely information to the general public. The President on March 18th, 2020 delivered a speech on the Country's position on the Corona Pandemic and stated several what he termed as strategies. Below are issues that are still hanging in the balance: 1. Is the Speech legally enforceable? The President made a speech on Wednesday 17:00hrs and this was one of the shortest speeches in history I have observed. Th Speech had consequential orders and I am wondering how they will legally be enforceable. I don’t think Presidential orders from a speech are legally biding. There needs a legal process by a Minister tabling or exercising her powers under the Public Health Act by first making a statutory order of the Corona to be brought under the Public Health Act and then make a special Statutory Instrument detailing the rules and their sanctions. As it stands, what will be t...

The President has so far had four addresses of which he progressively issues new directives to the public. I have been part of those challenging the legality of the directives in the absence of the Statutory Instrument by the Minister of Health. We kept pushing until the Statutory Instrument were issued on 24th March 2020. Will these act retrospectively? Those who ere arrested for defying the directives before the issuance of the Statutory Instrument by the Minister on Mach 24th 2020, what was the basis for their arrests? Isn't this an an infringement of rights and a rape on rule of law especially Article 28 of our Constitution that bars any arrest of individuals in absence of any law demanding so? Secondly, I have seen security agencies beat up people in Mityana, Busia and other parts of the country in the name of enforcing the directives. This is illegal and a violation of human rights as there is no law subjecting "offenders" to corporal punishment and the security ...

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...