Wednesday 31 July 2013

PROMOTING ICT FOR DEMOCRACY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES IN KASESE



By; Mumbere Samuel

     E-Society Kasese


Since June 2011, Kasese District through the E-Society Resource Centre has been a beneficiary of iParticipate Uganda, a project aimed at enhancing the use of ICT in civic participation and monitoring service delivery in Uganda. Spearheaded by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), iParticipate Uganda is part of the wider ICT4Democracy in East Africa Network a consortium of organizations premised on the recognition that ICTs have the potential to increase citizen’s participation in decision making processes, thus strengthening democratization.
This was observed during the ICT4Democracy in East Africa Uganda National partner’s conference that was help at Kati Kati Restaurant in Kampala in which Kasese E-Society took part on 25.07.2013 . The Conference was organized by CIPESA in collaboration with the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), Transparency International Uganda and Toro Development Network (ToreDev).

Hon. Bagiire presenting to the conference participants
   



The conference was officiated by the Vice Chairperson ICT parliamentary committee Hon. Bagiire Vincent. In his opening remarks, the honorable appreciated the work Civil Society has done at grass root level in promoting ICT use.  Pointing to the laying of the National fiber backbone, the digital migration exercise and efforts to increase funding of the ICT ministry, Hon. Bagire noted that efforts to extend ICTs to all parts of the country are high on the government agenda.
CIPESA project Officer Ms. Ashna presenting






Tuesday 23 July 2013

Youth tipped on Museveni money

By; WILBER MUHWEZI

Kasese Mayor Godfrey Kabyanga has advised youth councillors to be strategic and befriend government if they are to get any support.
“I want to ask you, the youth demonstrating in Kisekka market in Kampala and those of Busoga who received a sack of Shs 250m, who are better off than the other? Please be strategic,” Kabyanga said recently, while meeting youth councillors at the district headquarters in Kasese.
The meeting was organised and funded by Good Hope Foundation for Rural Development, and other NGOs, with funding from the Dutch organisation Hivos. 

Monday 15 July 2013

Steps taken to solve conflicts a round the rwenzori region

News by E-Society
Story by Kabyanga Godfrey "The Mayor Kasese Municipal Council"
Members RDB, Col Mawa and myself have been engaged in some form of dialogue meetings with some community leaders in Kasese and Bundibugyo following the 30/06/2013 incidents. We basically wanted to familiarise ourselves with causes of the current confrontation. We have found out that land,roumors,mistrust,politics,disrespect , scewed distribution of services and faiure to implement the recommandation in the kajura report are some of the issues at the centre of confusion and have led to hatred. We have met some leaders of the Bamba and Bakonzo. We havent met the Banyabindi and Basongora yet but we believe they will tell the same story. Yesterday we met some elders in kasese and presented to them our findings and appealed to them to take over and be in the lead. They promised to do further consultations before an agreeable action plan can be rolled out on tuesday. But i heard promised this board that i would give you information yesterday. The reason why I am giving you this brief now. By tuesday, therefore, we shall have come out with a position to communicate to the public. But all is not lost and this time we are determined to persue it to the end.

No more fumes at Hima factory

 News by E-Society
Story By Enid Ninsiima


Hima Cement Limited has installed a new bag filter at its Kasese plant, a development that will eliminate emissions.
The $3.2 million (about Shs8 billion) technology investment will bring the stack emissions in line with the Global Environmental Standards. This is the second attempt the cement manufacturer is moving to eliminate the emissions at its old production line.
The installation is also a response to a public outcry from residents who had protested against the fumes which they say had caused deaths to their animals and different sicknesses among the community.
This is a follow up to the 2010 Gas Conditioning Tower investment to eliminate stack emissions on its old production line. This comes after the electrostatic precipitator installed earlier failed to eliminate the emissions because of frequent power cuts.
“Hima Cement invested significant resources to conduct environmental impact assessment to ensure that the plant operations met all the required environmental standards for its manufacturing processes and operations,” Mr Peter Robson, the Hima Cement’s plant manager, said on Wednesday, adding: “Apart from the benefit of improved efficiencies, the installation also goes a long way in compliance to Global environmental standards.”
Capacity
Mr Jackson Molo, the project manager, said the new technology is an industrial filtering system where they have used specially designed filter cloth bags with a capacity to hold high temperatures of up to 250 degrees centigrade.
The cement manufacture production capacity increased from 300,000 tonnes per year to 850,000 tonnes per year.

Rwenzururu king tastes bitter side of Museveni

On June 30, 1962, the Kingdom of Rwenzururu was created by a ‘unilateral declaration’ by a one Isaya Mukirania. By this declaration, the predominantly Bakonzo-inhabited Rwenzori region ‘gained’ independence from Uganda and her British colonial overlords in Entebbe.
In the lead up to national independence from Britain, no one cared about an obscure former Grade One teacher declaring a unilateral independence and secession of a remote area. But the government was shocked into a reality check when the new kingdom’s armed forces, kitted with spears, machetes and arrows, started attacking government establishments and their staff.
With the disruption of the social and security system, it was now clear to see the impact of the unilateral declaration of independence and creation of a kingdom for what it was: secession. The government had to take action. What followed is captured in history as the Rwenzururu Rebellion which ended on August 15, 1982. The Rwenzururu Kingdom is now a recognised cultural establishment.
After the recognition by government, the kingdom administration changed what they hitherto called Independence Day to Peace Day. This year’s anniversary was supposed to be celebrated in Bundibugyo District, the ancestral home of the reigning king, Charles Wesley Mumbere. But the government forbade the Rwenzururu king from going to Bundibugyo to preside over the Peace Day. Reason? The Bamba community threatened to disrupt the Peace Day celebrations.

Museveni’s vassal kings
The word Ssabagabe (king of kings) was coined by President Museveni to exact fealty from the traditional leaders recognised by the government. And we all know that being a traditional leader in Uganda depends on the mood and prospective loyalty one is expected to give to President Museveni. It is therefore not uncommon to have men with no traces of blue blood to reign as king of this or that particular undefined area or district(s) in the name of culture and tradition.
King Mumbere does not come from some royal clan or other. His claim to some bluish blood comes from her mother’s side, the inimitable Christine Mukirania. Mr Ruhandika, Christine Mukirania’s grandfather (Charles Mumbere’s maternal great grandfather) was a chief. Ruhandika begot Samuel Bukombi, who begot Christine Mukirania; the mother of Omusinga Mumbere. And George Kahiwa, Mukirania’s brother, was to be the first Mukonzo to be appointed as sub-county chief in Tooro Kingdom.
It is Chief Ruhandika who hid a young Tooro Prince in the mountain reaches of Bundibugyo from the marauding armed forces of Omukama Kabalega. The Tooro prince Ruhandika saved from fatal danger was the sole male survivor of the Tooro royal family and he was later to be become King Kasagama of Tooro.
In remembrance of Ruhandika’s contribution to the survival of Tooro royal clan, a major road in Fort Portal Municipality, Ruhandika Road, was named after him. But you risk being skinned alive if you challenged Mumbere’s royalty.
In 2009, President Museveni graced one of the Kingdom’s ceremonies in an act that was interpreted as an official recognition of (actually mainstreaming) their kingdom in the national political narrative.
I always wonder why Uganda’s kings fail to appreciate their situation in President Museveni’s scheme of things: they are just Museveni’s vassals. Yet it was not necessary for the police to humiliate the king (and the whole district leadership) in front of his people. No one says the police should not have intervened. But the operational and administrative guidance of intervention portrays the police as whimsical and partisan.
Mumbere humiliated
My understanding is that the primary relationship between the state and Mumbere is citizenship. His honorific styling as Omusinga or other by his people or family cannot vary his benefits from the Bill of Rights as accruals from this citizenship. If Citizen X exercises or wants to exercise an item in the Bill of Rights and there is some curtailment or fear of one such or other, what would guide police intervention?
And to what extent does the non-absoluteness of rights refer or under what circumstances would this be brought to bear? In the general, shouldn’t the police facilitate citizen X to enjoy a right by addressing the situation that might infringe on the right? Yet I know that these arguments are merely pure romance.
Not so long ago, Mumbere refused to meet Dr Kizza Besigye in order not to alienate himself from President Museveni’s patronage. But the Bakonzo have a saying that goes like: Omwehi w’obwokwe syaliminya oyu wateraya omughogho (the harvester of mushrooms from a rotting log may not know the person who fell the log). And Banyarwanda have one that goes like: Ingoma Sw’Umwami, n’Abagabo (secure the men, you have secured the throne). It all started when President Museveni graced one of the ceremonies in Rwenzuru Kingdom in 2009. The crowds were huge and tempting for a man whose main business stock is numbers of people (votes).
Museveni then pampered Omusinga Mumbere to the annoyance of some quarters. The Tooro Kingdom establishment was scandalised by Museveni’s closeness to Kasese and Mumbere. Matters came to a head when Museveni threatened not to grace ceremony celebrating King Oyo’s acquisition of majority age if they (Tooro Kingdom) didn’t invite Mumbere.
Museveni was clearly asking too much from Tooro. But they relented and sent an invitation. With some advice, the Rwenzururu king (who had thought he would stick it out on the Batooro) delegated former MP Loice Bwambale to attend on his behalf.
When Maj. Gen. Wilson Mbadi was recently appointed Chief of Staff of the UPDF, some Bakonzo even hinted on the centre of gravity shifting from Fort Portal to Kasese. But President Museveni, in spite of himself, knows that popular local leadership has a way disorganising political calculations. From his experience in Buganda kingdom, the Rwenzururu king had to be trimmed to a politically manageable size. He was too popular for politics.

Ref .....

Monday 8 July 2013

Bundibudyo belongs to the Bakonzo too

 Story by;
Nassur Taban El-tablaz


I am a 30- year-old Mukonzo living in Izahura, Bundibugyo District. My parents, grand parents, and I were born and bred here for as long as we can all remember! I am, however, puzzled and enigmatic whenever one tells me that Bundibugyo, as a district, belongs to the Bamba and Bawiisi and not us the Bakonzo!
The Bakonzo of Bundibugyo, not those of Kasese, the Bawiisi and Bamba fought against the Tooro Kingdom, hence the Rwenzururu uprising that resulted in the creation of Bundibugyo District ordained by Idi Amin Dada. Then how do some people get the audacity to say that the Bakonzo in Bundibugyo belong to Kasese District? When I go hunting with you and kill an animal, do you tell me to go share my brother’s hunt which I did not contribute to? Isn’t this hypocritical and double standard? This, to me, seems to be what my brothers and sisters, the Bamba and Bawiisi are doing!
I request the government to clearly demarcate the tribal districts or boundaries so as to alleviate these tribal squabbles and to enable different tribes pay allegiance to their cultural leaders. With this poverty, do you expect all the Bakonzo living in Bundibugyo to be ferried to Kasese whenever there is any Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu function? Will they never host any Rwenzururu cultural ceremony? Maybe they too should ask for their own kingship, just like the Bawiisi and Bamba are doing - after all, the Businga is ‘Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu’ and not ‘Obusinga bwa Bakonzo’!
Ideally, the government can as well compensate the Bakonzo in Bundibugyo for their property and inconvenience and then relocate them to Kasese District. Queen Elizabeth National Park would be an ideal location (relocate the animals to Bundibugyo where the Bakonzo currently reside!). Maybe this would be cheaper than just providing security and allow the Omusinga wa Rwenzururu visit his subjects in Bundibugyo. I will not delve into the possibility of constructing another road through the mountain ranges directly into Bughendera County so that our king can give us a treat of happiness, joy and pride.
As a nation, we ought to borrow a leaf from what happened in Rwanda and South Africa; maybe we should also read Peter Abraham’s ‘Mine Boy’ to understand that we are all men first, before we become Bakonzo, Bawiisi, Bamba, Batooro, Baganda, Banyakole, name it. Mr President, this swinging pendulum is going daringly too fast, we barely can hold onto it! Long live the omusinga wa rwenzururu! Long live the President! Long live Uganda! I rest my case!
Nassur Taban El-tablaz,
enassurtaban@yahoo.com

Ref... 

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Poison suspected in Kaese Water

News by; E-Society


Throughout last night and today earl morning, a rumor had been circulating all around that water had been poisoned right from reservoir tank in base Camp, panic was every where and some people who heard about it before sleeping, had sleepless night. this caused the National Water and Sewerage Corporation to cut off water supply from Kasese Town and the surrounding areas.

Early this morning at about 6.00am,The manager NWSC Kasese area Mr. Stanley addressed the people over Guide radio and said they were going to make all tests with the water lab technician just with in 3 hours and would come up with a conclusive report. The emphasized that it was just propaganda, because "we have our guards at the water source and the padlocks are okey, not tempered with'', an immediate meeting was called for all leaders and stake holders in kasese to discuss the issue. 

At this moment, propaganda had then turned it into a trible issue where tribes had started pinpointing at each other.

At around 10am after thorough tests had been made, it was confirmed that water is safe, results were out and the manager national water and sewerage corporation-kasese tested on the water physically and people were cooled down.