KASESE E-SOCIETY RESOURCE CENTRE GOVERNING COUNCIL ORIENTED

In the bid to prepare for future sustainability and governance of the E-society resource center in Kasese District, RIC-NET spear headed the E-society Governing council meeting. This was held at Rwenzori the Gardens Hotel in Kasese Municipality on 16th November 2011.
The meeting attracted all parties that compose the ESRC Governing council. Among these were representatives from the Civil society and Local government staff (civil servants) headed by the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Kasese Mr.Asaba Wilson.
The meeting that was chaired by the A.C.A.O started at about 11:00 am with a word of prayer led by one of the RIC-Net staff.
The ACAO welcomed all members who had turned for the meeting and having responded positively towards the invitation. He also said that meeting was as a result of a previous meeting that was held at the District that came up with a resolution of orienting the Governing council about their responsibilities towards the E-society resource center.

He later gave time to the Executive Director RIC-NET to highlight a number of issues about the E-society resource center.
The ED RIC-NET started by thanking the members for having honored the call and immediately outlined the composition of the governing council as follows;
• CAO Local Government to present three members chaired by the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)
• District Heads of departments atleast three with District Information Officer (DIO) inclusive
• Four members from the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) with the District Network
• RIC-NET was to remain as a member but not permanent also for technical back up
The ED also lamented that the CAO was to choose two other private sector partners working in the district to be part of this governing council.
He (ED) also highlighted the roles of the Governing council. Among others were;
• Governing council be the body proposing the policies in terms of governance, sustainability and operation of the E-Society center.
• Look at future plans and recommend the kind of direction that would be suitable
• Financial management
• Ownership of the E-society
• Governing council to look at how to expand and when to expand the ESRC
• Proper maintenance of documentation of the ESRC (minutes and other documents)

The District information Officer (DIO) later sited that a number of policies were already outlined by the ED and that therefore there would be need to translate these policies into a document that would go through the Governing council for approval, discussed to the District Technical Planning Committee and later signed by the Chief Administrative Officer to be a Governing document.
He (DIO) said the document would look at the;
• Mandate
• Vision
• Objective s
• Goal
• To describe membership and the tenure of membership
• Management/Administration
• It’s operations in terms of maintenance
• Sustainability
• Resource mobilization
• Need for partnerships among others.
Later a number of reactions were raised by the participants and action points were drawn. Among others were;
Technical sub committees be formed
At least two;
Policy and business plan committees.
The session was adjourned at around 1:00 pm.
Later in the afternoon the District Executive joined led by the District Vice chairperson Hon. Naome Mbambu to have lunch with the Governing Council E-society. The group later moved to the E-society resource center for inspection.
The ICT Officer RIC-NET took the District Executive through the District online resources that is the District website www.kasese.go.ug, kasese e-library, CSOs portal, the Kasese news portal and the D-group. They appreciated all efforts right from the beginning to date.

RIC-NET CONDUCTS D-GROUP TRAINING

As RIC-NET in partnership with RWECO try to improve social accountability and information sharing among the community and the leaders, D-group training was held on the 15th Nov.2011 at the E-Society resource center in Kasese District.
The D-group or simply Discussion group is one of the online platforms administered by RIC-NET. It allows members who have signed up with it to initiate, respond and receive messages or discussion topics. The training attracted a number of participants from Kasese and Kabarole Districts Local Governments, members of the CSOs and all RWECO focal persons.
The training started at 10:00 am being facilitated by the ICT Officer RIC-NET who introduced members to web browsing terms since these terms were to be used most often later in the practical session of the training. He explained a number of web terms to the participants.

He was later joined by the Executive Director RIC-NET who also went through the practical session of how one can sign up or join the D-group, and advantages of this discussion group. Participants signed up with the D-group and were approved as members to this group. They (participants) were challenged not to stop at that but go ahead and initiate discussion topics and respond to those that they receive. Members were also briefed that these discussion topics would automatically get to their e-mail inboxes as long they could have been approved by the administrator and that a member would be free to reply to that message just as he/she would reply to other e-mail messages.
Participants were also informed that they could initiate a discussion topic by sending it to dgroups@kasese.org which would later be approved by the administrator and then sent to the rest of the members. The administrator of the group reserves rights to reject a topic in as long as it may not be genuine.
The Executive Director later led participants through some other online platforms like the Uchaguzi platform, and informed them another platform has been designed called the huduma that is going to monitor service delivery. Blogging was yet another issue that was explained thoroughly.


He also informed members about the U-report that UNICEF is running. He told members to join this by sending join to 8500 and that every message sent is free of charge.
The training was successful and it was adjourned at around 2:00 pm.

Early marriages hamper Kasese education

Efforts by Kasese authorities to improve the education of girls have been frustrated by early marriages and unwanted pregnancies among school-going children, the district education department said.


“Pregnancy cases are high in our schools. The situation is not good, especially in secondary schools,” the district education officer, Mr George Mayinja, told Daily Monitor last week.

Mr Mayinja attributed the vice to superstitious and cultural practices among parents who do not believe and value girls education. According to Mr Mayinja, parents also contribute to this problem as they fail to provide their children with basic needs such as food, shelter and school fees. “Girls are easily lured by rich men for survival,” he said. The district chairman, Lt. Col. Dura Mawa Muhindo, said early marriages are part of Bakonzo culture, with girls and boys as young as nine years taken for nurturing and some would eventually get tempted to get married.

The district vice chairperson, Ms Naome Mbambu, said the district has already passed an ordinance about child protection with the help of Save the Children Uganda, an NGO.

Rwenziruru Kingdom Health Minister Enock Muhindo Rwenzururu said early marriages are a serious issue because it is embedded in the Bakonzo culture, where women are still regarded as a form of reward. Mr Herizon Masereka, a head teacher at Maliba Secondary School, said his school had more than 40 girls who declared themselves young mothers.

Ms Janet Mujungu, 19, a student at Maliba SS said she decided to get married after her mother died. “My father re-married and my stepmother never gave us food. I was forced to get a boyfriend who unfortunately impregnated me and my father chased me away from home” she said.

She said she has since rented a house where her relatives support her to look after her child and pay her school fees.
District authorities said in 2009, seven girls sat for their PLE exams with babies.

In a research carried out by Women International Cross Cultural Exchange, a women’s organisation based in Geneva, last month in Munkunyu, Karambi, Maliba, Mpondwe-lhubiriha town council and Lake Katwe sub-counties, Munkunyu and Maliba were found with the highest number of young mothers numbering more than 400.

Save the Children Uganda has come up with the Accelerated Learning Programme to empower school drop-outs with necessary vocational skills.

Kasese Municipality MP faces court over building in wetland

Kasese Municipality MP James Mbahimba could be prosecuted after the municipal authorities accused him of constructing a structure in a wetland on Kilembe Road in Nyamwamba Division.

The municipal authorities claim that the legislator is erecting an illegal structure and ordered him to stop forthwith but he has since defied the order. Mr Mbahimba is accused of erecting a structure said to be a shopping mall in a drainage channel and under the high power voltage line without an approved plan.

Legal route
Kasese Town Clerk Francis Byabagambi on October 13, reportedly issued a notice to Mr Mbahimba quoting section 32 of the Physical Planning Act, 2010, directing him to immediately stop the construction of the building in the channel and to wait for the council’s decision on his plans.

“Immediately stop the construction since your building is in a channel. Wait for advice from council officials and failure to comply with the notice you are entitled to pay 48 currency points (Shs960,000) fine, prosecution in courts of law and demolition of the structure,” the notice addressed to Mr Mbahimba reads in part.

The Kasese Municipal Mayor, Mr Godfrey Kabyanga, described Mr Mbahimba’s action as a controversy to his slogan during campaigns of ‘a clean and well-planned town’. Some of the councillors have since vowed to make sure Mr Mbahimba’s construction is stopped.


Councillors claim that the land, on plots 136 to 138, was reserved as a green belt and for washing bays. Attempts to get a comment from Mr Mbahimba were futile as he could not pick our calls but his political assistant Johnson Mwanamwolho claimed that the MP is being witch- hunted by his political rivals. “That is political persecution,” he said.

Cholera Kills 4 in Kasese

Authorities in Kasese District have ordered the closure of all eating places that do not meet minimum health standards following a cholera outbreak that has left four people dead and 50 others admitted to hospital.
The district health officer Yusuf Baseka said the sale of cooked food and juices along the roads and in markets has also been temporarily banned until the spread of the disease has been contained.

“The disease is spreading very fast. It is now in Bukonzo West and East and Busongora North and South constituencies. Four people have so far died and by this evening we have about 50 cases admitted at various health units in the district,” Dr Baseka said on Saturday. He said the disease was first reported in September in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) fishing villages of Kyavinyonge and Kasindi Pole along Lake Edward which are adjacent to Kasese.

The two eastern DRC fishing villages correspond in cross-border business with Uganda’s fishing village of Kayanzi where the first cases in Kasese were reported during the last week of October.

Dr Baseka, who met health workers from the eastern DRC at Kasindi on Friday before briefing the press in Bwera, said a joint strategy had been drawn by the two sides, which he said will involve intensive educating the people along the common border villages on how to prevent infections.


Bwera Hospital Administrator Pedson Buthalha said a temporary isolation centre had been established at Kayanzi Fishing Village. He said children aged between one-and-half and 10 years were among the affected but most of those admitted so far were aged between 22 and 49. “But we have a problem of lack of protective gears, spray pumps and polythene bags to wrap the dead,” Mr Buthalha said.

The district health educator, Mr Gabriel Tibuhwa, said although the district boasts of 84 per cent latrine coverage, the latrines are not up to the minimum standards.

HIS MAJESTY OMUSINGA CALLS FOR UNITY IN THE RWENZORI REGION

His Majesty Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere Irema-Ngoma has hailed the Kabarole resource Centre (KRC) for beginning a historical land mark that will reconcile the two Kingdoms of Toro and the Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu.
In the early 60’s, the representatives of the Bakonzo/bamba led by Isaya Mukirania walked out of the Toro Kingdom parliament citing mistreatment of the Bakaonzo/bamba by the Toro Kingdom.
Omusinga Made the remarks yesterday while closing a regional leaders training at Kasunga conference centre in Kyenjojo district.
His Majesty Charles Wesley was closing a training that was opened by the regent of Toro Kingdom who represented King Oyo.
Mumbere encouraged the people of Rwenzori to forget the past in order to enhance development in the two Kingdoms.
The training that was organized by Kabarole Research centre attracted members of Parliament, RDC’S, Chairperson LC5’s, civil society organisations and Cultural leaders among others.
The training was organized under the theme “Enhancing adoptive capacity to the variability climate change”.
In His speech, the Minister of Defence Dr. Crispus Kiyonga commended the efforts of the two Kingdoms for endorsing unity of the region that has begun with the conference.
His Majesty Omusinga was accompanied by the 3rd Deputy Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Thembo Kitsumbire among other Ministers.