Dying bringing life: plight of rural expectant mothers

Mothers wait for medical services at Biguli Health centre II in Kamwenge District recently. Photo by Francis Tusiime  

By FELIX BASIIME

Posted  Thursday, April 14   2016 at  01:00  http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/Health---Living/Dying-bringing-life--plight-of-rural-Expectant-mothers/-/689846/3157846/-/tnaese/-/index.html

IN SUMMARY

The country’s current maternal mortality ratio is at 310 deaths per every 100,000 live births. In simple terms, three women die everyday while giving birth. In rural areas, the situation is dire, and if nothing is done, the numbers are bound to rise.

Last June, Grace Kobusinge, 35, died at Bukuuku Health centre IV, shortly after giving birth.
She had been rushed to the facility, located in Ibonde II village, Bukuuku sub-County, Kabarole District, by a boda boda rider after the onset of labour pains. The baby was Kobusinge’s third born following two teenagers. 
“From the time my daughter told me she was pregnant I feared for her life. I thought having a baby after 12 years was a bad idea,” Joyce Nkwenge, the mother of the deceased, says.

Nkwenge, 65, is the one who attended to Kobusinge at the health centre. She says immediately her daughter gave birth to a baby girl, her immediate concern was to let their relations know of the new addition. 


However, the celebration was short lived, because in a matter of minutes, medical workers had pronounced Kobusinge dead. Although she had given birth normally, she had developed internal complications.

Nkwenge was told by the medical workers that Kobusinge died due to concealed uterine rapture on the blood vessel which takes blood to the uterus. 


Nkwenge shares that medical workers at the health facility tried to save Kobusinge by ordering for an ambulance to take her to Fort Portal Referral Hospital for further management but the van came a little too late. 


The lone ambulance, which serves the Tooro sub-region, had to first deliver blood at another facility in Kibiito before heading to Bukuuku. Kibiito is about 27km on Fort Portal-Kasese road while Bukuuku Health Centre IV is about 15 km on Fort Portal-Bundibugyo road.

Kobusinge represents many mothers who die under similar circumstances in the countryside due to different factors including poor facilities, low staffing and small budgets.


At Bukuuku Health Centre IV, the facility does not have electricity.


Rwenzori Anti-corruption Coalition (RAC), an anti-graft body operating in the Rwenzori sub-region, was tipped off by their rural monitors about Kobusinge’s death.

In their report, RAC believes Kobusinge’s life would have been spared had there been facilities in place. 


“…What is shocking is that the life of Kobusinge would have been saved had there been power and blood at the health centre,” the report reads in part.


After Kobusinge’s death, Baylor Uganda offered to fund the power extension project to the health centre in a bid to curtail more maternal deaths. The project is estimated at Shs120m.
Baylor has also funded the construction of a fully-fledged maternity ward worth over Shs 400m.

Meagre funds

Kabarole District chairman, Richard Rwabuhinga says such cases are happening in the district due to the meagre health district budget.


“We are still receiving little funds to enable us improve health services to people’s expectation in the district,” Rwabuhinga says.


The district director of health services, Dr Nathan Ruhinda, says his office receives Shs10m every month for Primary Health Care (PHC) non-wage. 


“To run my activities well, my office needs at least Shs100m per quarter,” Dr Ruhinda says, adding that the district receives Shs397m for the health sector the whole year and for the financial year 2016; Shs200m was committed to Kabarole Hospital as Presidential pledge under the Public Private Partnership to private not for profit health centres. 


Ruhinda further explains that Shs150m was committed to Kasunganyanja Health Centre III to build the maternity ward there.


“So after these expenditures, my office was left with Shs 47 million for funding each and every activity,” Dr Ruhinda explains.


Ruhinda says the district has a total of 560 workers and only 28 per cent can be accommodated and those who get chance of being accommodated share or partition the small cubicles they are given. 


“Our health staff share staff quarters like police officers,” Dr Ruhinda observed.

He said the district has no money for development like construction. Our investigations revealed that health centre IIIs get Shs600,000 while health centre IIs get Shs400,000 every quarter respectively. “The healthy sector is grossly underfunded” Ruhinda asserts.

Dilemma of expectant mothers

However, Dr Ruhinda observes that delays by mothers to decide where to deliver from is one of the causes of maternal mortality in the district and many parts of the country. 


“Some mothers report to health centres long after the labour pains have kicked in making it impossible for health workers to save their lives” he explains.


According to Dr Ruhinda, mothers are supposed to report to the hospital or health centres a week before the day of delivery so that they can be given the attention they deserve.


He adds that health workers are few and the ones who are there are always overworked. 


“There are situations where you find that by the time a mother who is badly off is brought in, the doctor supposed to work on her is very tired after having worked on more than 12 operations,” Ruhinda reasons.

Poor transport

Transport, according to Dr Ruhinda, is another cause of maternal mortality. He says sometimes pregnant women reach the health centres late when they are already weak because of the long distances they have to trek to the health centre. 


This, when compared to the few health workers and lack of equipment at most health facilities, escalates the mortality rate. 


On a positive note, the district has tried to minimize neonatal health. 


“The percentage has gone down by 10 per cent. We have moved from 72 per cent in the last three to four years to 62 per cent to date in terms of maternal and neonatal,” he says.


According to the records at Fort Portal regional referral hospital, more than 5,348 women gave birth between July 2012 and 2013. Out of this number, 10 mothers died. The report further highlights that all these were from Kygegwa District.


Dr Ruhinda says most of these cases are brought in after traditional birth attendants have failed to manage the cases.

What ought to be done

Dr Ruhinda says there is need for health systems to be strengthened with quality facilities, personnel, equipment and medicine made accessible to all women. This also calls for comprehensive sexuality education and services for young people must also be made available. 


Supervised deliveries, improved antenatal services and increased use of contraception, access to emergency obstetric care, ensuring skilled medical attendance to mothers at birth, universal access to family planning and antenatal care.


Rwabuhinga on the other hand calls for innovation. “There is need to improve roads to facilitate access to 
health units, provision of standby ambulance for referral, car and bicycle ambulances, telephone communication to health units and carrying out public sensitisation campaigns.”

Maternal mortality rate in Uganda

Maternal Mortality Rate. MMR is the annual number of female deaths per 100,000 live births from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes). The MMR includes deaths during pregnancy, childbirth, or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, for a specified year.


According to CIA World Factbook, maternal mortality rate in Uganda stands at 310 deaths/100,000 live births.


According to a report by Centre for Health, Human rights and development (Cehurd) published on June 27, 2014, maternal deaths have reduced by 45 per cent since 1990.

According to a report by World Health Organisation, there were 523,000 deaths that occurred from complications in pregnancy or childbirth in 1990; in 2013, the number stood at 289,000. 


Despite this global progress, most countries were not on track to meet the fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5) target on maternal mortality, which was cutting maternal mortality ratio by 75 per cent by 2015.

Breakdown.

 The report reveals that 10 countries accounted for around 60 per cent of all maternal deaths: India (50,000), Nigeria (40,000), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (21,000), Ethiopia (13,000), Indonesia (8,800), Pakistan (7,900), the United Republic of Tanzania (7,900), Kenya (6,300), China (5,900) and Uganda (5,900).

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

How soil nature impacts construction industry in Kabarole District

District officials visit Igasa Bridge recently along Ruboona-Bukuuku road in Kabarole District that was washed away by the March-April heavy rains. Kabarole requires over Shs600 million to reconstruct its bridges. Photo by FELIX BASIIME 

By FELIX BASIIME

Posted  Tuesday, March 29   2016 at  01:00 (http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/Soil-nature-impacts-construction-industry-Kabarole-District/-/691232/3136898/-/gngwqe/-/index.html)

IN SUMMARY

Loam soil has not only affected individual developers but also the district budget by 30 per cent

George Sande Amooti aka Pecasa is the managing director of Pecasa Enterprises in Fort Portal, Kabarole District.

He has been in the construction industry for the last 25 years and his work involves construction of roads, buildings, bridges and other works across the country.

His biggest challenge, however, is the loam soils that cover almost the entire district. 

“It is more expensive to carry out any construction works in Kabarole than elsewhere in the country due to loam soils and earthquakes,” Sande says.

“For example, a three-bedroom house costs over Shs30 million to raise in Fort Portal compared to the same unit in Kasese which costs Shs20 million.”

A constructor in Kabarole has to dig deeper to reach the red soil while on road construction, it is difficult to get murram and gravel.

Collapsing toilets and bridges

Sande observes that the government makes the same design for most of the construction work around the country without regard to other factors like earthquakes, soils, topography. In the end, money is wasted in collapsed bridges, toilets and poor road works.

“Some of the latrines at schools in Kabarole District collapse because government gives us the same design for the whole country. When works collapse, they claim we carried out shoddy work,” he says.

He says also in Kabarole, it rains throughout the year and it is very difficult to work during heavy rains.

“These loam soils are the backbone of Kabarole. However, they also present a challenge on infrastructure, especially when it comes to roads. 70 per cent of the district is covered by loam soils yet we get the same amount of money all local governments get to do the same work despite appeals,” says Mr Sam Mugume, the Kabarole district planner.

“As a result,” he adds, “We are moving at a slower pace than other districts.” Mugume says under the Luweero Rwenzori Development Programme (LRDP), some districts, including Kabarole, are given little more funding on the criteria having been affected by the war or in hard- to-reach areas but they don’t consider other factors.

The LRDP targets 40 districts from central and western Uganda, including: Buliisa, Bundibugyo, Ntoroko, Hoima, Ibanda, Isingiro, Kabarole, Kalangala, Kampala, Kamwenge, Kasese, Kayunga, Kibaale, Kiboga, Kyankwanzi, Kiruhura, Kyenjojo, Kyegegwa, Luwero, Lyantonde, Masaka, Bukomansimbi, Kalungu, Lwengo, Masindi, Kiryandongo, others include: Mbarara, Mityana, Mpigi, Gombe, Mubende, Mukono, Buikwe, Buvuma, Nakaseke, Nakasongola, Wakiso, Rakai, Sembabule and Gomba. 

“Funding depends on population size of the district and poverty levels, so when we are offering contracts, we increase the rates to accommodate such costs that would be faced by a contractor,” Mugume says.
Loam soil has not only affected individual developers but also the district budget by 30 per cent according to Mugume.

Change in construction methods

Mr David Mijumbi, an engineering assistant in charge of buildings at Kabarole District administration says every year, residents demonstrate over poor roads because they tear off quickly.

He adds, “Because of loam soils, it is very expensive here to carry out site leveling when raising a building. We have to do a lot of excavation, the loam soils are spongy, not easy to compact, we are forced to put up buttress walls which increases the cost of construction.”

“When it comes to latrines, soils are loose, latrines collapse very fast, because of that, we have to change the technology lining up the pits with concrete which leads to extra costs” he says.

He says an ordinary pit latrine would cost about Shs15 million to construct as compared to the improved one at Shs20 million inclusive of taxes on depending on the distance. “Earthquakes and loam soils in Kabarole make a developer dig deeper in his pocket than elsewhere both at individual and institutional levels” Mijumbi reasons.

Construction of bridges too has changed. The span has to be very long as opposed to two metres from the river bank.

“The local bridges are now anchored far away, costing Shs 50 million instead of Shs30 million,” he observes adding that the district has lost billions of shillings in latrines and bridges that collapse each year.

According to the district chairman, Mr Richard Rwabuhinga, loamy soils have made it impossible for engineers to build strong feeder roads and bridges in the district.

Rwabuhinga says government has been on several occasions asked to consider the soils, topography, high intensity of rains, maintenance and inaccessible materials like marrum in the district before deciding on the funds to allocate to Kabarole District. He says the district needs over Shs6 billion to make strong and lasting roads and over Shs10 billion to construct strong bridges.

But the Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Finance, Mr Jim Mugunga says they don’t control budgets at local governments.

“It is their role, (local governments) to control budgets. The Ministry of Finance does not do budgets, the local governments know what they should draw and plan for their budgets through the accounting officers,” he said.

He added, “The CAO drawa the budget with his team and gives us what they think is required at their local level. We cannot ignore this when they raise it to us in their budgets.”

He said it is the role of the local government that should explain “that look this road passes through a mountainous area and needs this funding”

However, in areas like Rwimi, Kabonero, Kateebwa, Bukuuku, Kicwamba and Kasenda and parts of Hakibale sub-countys have seen some constructors hired later abandon the job due to the high cost of transporting materials to the sites as the roads are so slippery with loam soils.

Kabarole at a glance

It is covered by black loams over red sandy clay loams (volcanic soils) and red sandy loams occasionally under laid by soft laterites on the top layer in most parts of the District.

Bridges and latrines at times collapse due to the loamy soils which make up about 70 percent of the district.
Kabarole in Western Uganda has a total area of 1, 814km2 of which 1,569 km2 is covered by arable land and 198 km2 is covered by open water and wetlands.

Most valleys have many flowing rivers and streams, a thing that makes farming easy as animals and people have several options on water points and there is almost no dry season throughout the year.
It has 56 crater lakes meaning that there was a lot of vulcanicity activity in this area. This also explains why pozzolana, the mineral used in manufacturing cement has high deposits in Fort Portal. 
[Source: Kabarole district 5 year development plan (2011-2016).

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

Why NRM lost Kasese District vote

Soldiers disperse a crowd demanding the release of parliamentary election results last month in Kasese District. A 13-year-old boy was killed during the scuffle between security personnel and residents. Photo by Moris Mumbere 

By FELIX BASIIME & MORIS MUMBERE

Posted  Sunday, March 20   2016 at  14:50   http://www.monitor.co.ug/Elections/NRM-lost-Kasese-District-vote/-/2787154/3125692/-/15cnrvn/-/index.html

IN SUMMARY

Changing guard. They tightly guarded their votes, hang on amid harassment by security personnel until their victory over the ruling party was announced. Why could Kasese have massively voted the Opposition?

Of all districts in the western Uganda, Kasese has remained a cog in the regional politics in an area predominated by the ruling NRM party. But the cog is now beginning to turn in the opposite direction.
In the 1996 elections, President Museveni won 97 per cent of the vote in Kasese and scooped 87 per cent in the 2001 election.

On August 17, 2015, Daily Monitor in an article Kings will hold sway as NRM stumbles in Rwenzori predicted the fall of NRM in the district due to unresolved long-standing local cultural grievances.

In that article, we reported that unresolved cultural issues, ethnic conflicts in the Rwenzori sub-region, land issues, unfulfilled promises by the government, would play a significant role in influencing the outcome of the 2016 elections in the region and mainly Kasese. Indeed it did.

For the first time in 30 years, the Opposition snatched Kasese District chairman’s seat from the NRM. They also got the Bukonzo West parliamentary seat, which had for long been under the grip of NRM historical and Defence Minister, Dr Crispus Kiyonga, since the NRM captured power in 1986.

In last month’s general elections, the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party swept the votes for the president, parliamentary and district top seats except the town mayor slot. Last week, the Opposition humbled the ruling party further during the local council elections by getting the majority number of councillors and chairmen at division and sub-county levels in Kasese. The district has 29 sub-counties and 17 of them went to FDC leaving the NRM with only 12.

Kiyonga is one of the strong pillars of the NRM government and party in the region who even represented the constituency in Parliament in Obote II regime in 1980 as the only MP from Uganda Patriotic Movement, the predecessor of NRM.

FDC support has been growing in the area since 2001. By then, the country was still under the monolithic governance of the Movement where leaders were only elected on “individual merit” as opposed to party basis. 

Dr Kizza Besigye, Museveni’s former personal physician and 1980-1985 Bush War comrade, who had just retired from the army, made a surprise challenge to his former commander in chief. Dr Besigye raided Museveni’s political space to challenge him for the presidency under his Reform Agenda pressure group. The balance of power tilted, the status quo could no longer hold and things started falling apart for the NRM in Kasese.

Christopher Kibanzanga, the chief prince in the Rwenzururu Kingdom introduced and popularised Besigye in Kasese and as a result, out of the five parliamentary seats in the district, the Opposition won one of Busongora South, which went to Kibanzanga.

By 2006, the country had reverted to the multiparty political system and the FDC, a byproduct of Reform Agenda, won three out of the five parliamentary seats in Kasese through Winnie Kiiza (District Woman MP), her husband Yokasi Bihande (Bukonzo East) and Kibanzanga (Busongora South).

The FDC and the NRM in Kasese were now moving in opposite directions of the political gradient and had gone past the meeting point. 

In 2009, the Resident District Commissioner James Mwesigye convinced Museveni at a church fundraising in Kasese that the only contention against NRM in the area was failure by government to recognise the cultural institution (Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu). People at the function made wild ululations in approval of his assertion and the President pledged to endorse the monarchy.

In the same year, on October 19, King Charles Mumbere was recognised by government at a function attended by both Museveni and Besigye at Kasese Golf Course.

Besigye arrived late and attracted wild ululations from hundreds of people who waived to him with his party’s V-sign and he nearly stole the show. The then Kasese district chairman, Rev Canon Julius Kithahenda, was forced to cut his speech short and resumed it after Besigye had sat down in a tent next to the President.

After the function, as Museveni, Mumbere and other guests left the venue, Besigye stayed behind.
NRM cadres in the Rwenzori sub-region kept wondering if the recognition of the cultural institution would push Kasese people back to theparty fold. 

During the 2010 campaigns, Besigye took credit for the recognition of the Rwenzururu kingship. He told people of Kasese that their kingship had been recognised only because of pressure the Opposition had exerted on government. Indeed in the elections in the subsequent year 2011, FDC and NRM shared the six parliamentary seats in Kasese. By that time, Kasese Town had been elevated to a municipality and became a new parliamentary constituency.

The cultural conflicts
After recognising Obusinga (Bakonzo cultural institution), the government seemed to have rested thinking the problem had been resolved and the Rwenzori sub-region, especially Kasese was theirs to take.

However underlying cultural issues and ethnic conflicts remained unresolved and seething and continued to impact on the security, development and local elections.

The Kasese ethnic clashes are not much different from the Buganda 2009 riots that broke out after the government installed a non-traditional cultural leader within the Buganda Kingdom. The Basongora and Banyabindi chiefdoms that were created in 2012 sparked a series of ethnic conflicts between them and the Bakonzo. The latter blame the government for Article 246 in the Constitution that allows any community with the same culture to form a chiefdom.

There is also an unresolved land conflict between the Bakonzo and Basongora. During the 2007 resettlement of Basongora pastoralists by government, both parties were allocated land from Mubuku prison with a ratio of three to one. 

The Basongora cattle keepers took the bigger rations than the Bakonzo cultivators, which became a bone of contention between the two. Since then, the cultivators have accused the Basongora of encroaching on their land to the extent of forcing some to vacate. Few years after this, the Bakonzo would cut the Basongora cows and the Basongora would retaliate by cutting the Bakonzo’s maize. In these fights, more than seven people died.

In 1993, the government restored traditional institutions, which have been used by the NRM to gain political capital. In some areas, it has delivered the political dividends, but in others it has not. 

In Kasese, the cultural institution despite being in place for more than 30 years, waited until October 2009 to be recognised by the government after a lot of pushing and pulling. Prior to this, the Obusinga was a big issue which influenced how the elections played out in 2001 and 2006 with the Opposition taking advantage. 

Opposition politicians made the issue a key plank of their campaign, winning the hearts of many Bakonjo. Elders in Kasese over 30 years wanted to revive the cultural institution but some local politicians, especially of the ruling NRM party, resisted the move. Due to this objection, two contending groups emerged; those opposed to and in support of Obusinga.

“There are certain issues that the NRM has not handled well like the Rwenzori attacks (of July 5, 2014), which the Opposition may jump on and take the day,” Kibanzanga told this paper last year.

Rehema Muhindo, an NRM cadre in Kasese and twice former District Woman MP aspirant, thinks differently. She says the NRM woes were caused by other factors other than just cultural issues. She says NRM had a poor mobilisation strategy in Kasese in 2016 elections than in the previous elections.

“There was greed to go grab the flags by many aspirants, failure to agree on who to carry the flag and lack of loyalty to the party failed us in Kasese,” she contended.

“This does not mean that the NRM has no numbers here but the confusion in primaries affected the elections wholly. When you add up the NRM votes for Bukonzo East and West, they are higher than the Opposition’s but our votes were divided among the flag bearers and our breakaway independent candidates. This is what failed Kiyonga,” Ms Muhindo says.

Her view is replicated by minister Kiyonga.

Division in NRM


“My supporters have been saying I was busy in government security programmes but the cause of my defeat was Sausi Justus Capson who joined the race as an independent and diverted the votes that would make my victory,” Kiyonga told this paper last month as he conceded defeat in the parliamentary elections.

“My support which has all along been solid was split by Capson because he took away 4,000 votes and this man Katusabe (FDC) won by 2,000 votes. It’s this Capson who disorganised our support,” Kiyonga reasoned.


Muhindo says the same problem affected NRM in other constituencies such as Busongora South and Kasese Municipality where aggrieved NRM cadres who lost the primaries supported the opposition candidates.
Lukus Buhaka, a local elder, says there was confusion in the NRM from the start.

“Confusion started with vetting where the party involved many people in the process and yet the vetting would have been for only a few selected members,” he observed. After vetting, those who failed went with their supporters, which increased the number of independents because they were disgruntled.”


Buhaka says NRM lacks a spokesperson in the district to respond to political issues in time before they explode.

Didas Baluku, a resident, observed that the unresolved land issues in the district increased the odds against the NRM in Kasese.

“For many years, residents have been complaining of poor land distribution, which even caused the July 5, 2014 attacks in Kasese District. As a result, people vote the Opposition to show their anger to government,” Baluku said.

FDC infiltrates Yellow Book

Rehema Muhindo claims that in Busongora North NRM got a beating because the Opposition infiltrated the NRM Yellow Book, the party’s voter register.

“They did it purposely to vote weak aspirants who finally failed in the general elections,” Muhindo claims.
This claim is replicated by elder Buhaka who alleged that the Opposition even attended NRM meetings to decide on important party issues. However, none of them gave specific examples of opposition infiltration to support the claims.

Besigye factor
Muhindo also believes that Besigye visiting King Mumbere during the campaigns swayed the votes towards the opposition. 

She speculated that after Besigye’s visit to the palace, it appears some clan leaders went down to the local people to mobilise them and this affected the NRM vote. But Muhindo also hinted on poor facilitation by the NRM during the campaigns.

“Campaign structures were not facilitated as before, we used our own resources. This affected us,” she adds.

At an FDC regional conference in Fort Portal in 2015, Kasese District FDC chairman Saulo Mate said: “We made some mistakes in 2011 elections, which we shall correct in 2016 by sweeping all MP seats.”

Many delegates did not believe his word until last month’s election results vindicated him. After the February 18 polls, Mate asked FDC supporters in Kasese to sweep the remaining lower council seats in the district. They did not disappoint him.

Prisons struggle to hold 3,000 inmates

Inmates at Katojo Prison in Fort Portal attend a workshop organised by the Justice Law and Order Sector on the rights of inmates in 2011. Many of the structures in the 12 prisons of western Uganda have been condemned. PHOTO BY FELIX BASIIME. 

By FELIX BASIIME & RUTH KATUSABE

Posted  Wednesday, June 5   2013 at  01:00  http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/Prisons-struggle-to-hold-3-000-inmates/-/688342/1872360/-/uyq244/-/index.html

IN SUMMARY

In our series on prisons in the country, we look at the jails in western Uganda. The 12 prisons, accommodating about 3,000 inmates, have many structures that have been condemned. The inmates practise agriculture on the fertile land owned by the Prisons, and supply food to other units countrywide.

KABAROLE

All the 12 government prisons in the western region are housed in dilapidated and condemned structures, this newspaper’s survey has revealed.

During an interview with the Uganda Prison Service (UPS) regional prisons commander (RPC) for western region, Mr Allan Okello, said many of their structures are very small and old. “These were prisons originally with the central government and or local governments, the structures are not very strong and are small, and as such some staff stay (rent) outside the prisons,” said Mr Okello at the regional headquarters in Fort Portal.

He said some of the prisons were established in the 1950s, like Katojo in Fort Portal which is the oldest.
“Most of the structures are condemned, some of the staff come from their own private homes due to poor and lack of enough accommodation, some structures of Rwimi Prison and Katojo are weak, they were affected by the 1994 earth quake,” said the RPC.

Fertile land
With about 3,000 prisoners in the 12 prison facilities, UPS owns prime fertile land in the Western Rift Valley basin, where they have established three prison farms at Ibuga, Rwimi and Mubuku. The farms not only offering agricultural skills to the inmates, but also produce food that is distributed across other units around the country.

Katojo Prison in Fort Portal was constructed in 1957, and since then, no renovations has been made except on the female wing which recently got a facelift with support from the Swedish government. Katojo, Mubuku, Rwimi and Ibuga are the major prisons in the western region; others were inherited from the local governments.

Despite the weak and old structures, no prison breaks have ever been reported, according to Mr Okello. At Katojo, prisoners have blankets, mattresses and available space is only 105sqm which is enough for 293 prisoners at a standard space of 3.6 square meters per person. “Inmates sleep on blankets and mats, but those who can afford mattresses are allowed to bring in,” Mr Okello said.

Location
Other than the prison farms, prisons were established near administrative units and courts since they offer intertwined services to the public. “They are linked to administrative and justice and the population, but for farms, that is our initiative, we look for fertile lands,” said Mr Okello. Most of the prisons are accessible to the courts by walking, those that are far, the Prison has three lorries, purposely for transporting suspects to courts.

“We have services of a lorry at Butiiti, Bundibugyo, Mubuku and Katojo strictly for court purposes,” the RPC said, adding that the location of some prisons also depended on population density.
Katojo Prison in Fort Portal is 5km to court, Butiiti in Kyenjojo Town 20km, and Bubukwanga 20km to Bundibugyo Town.

Asked about plans they have for the old structures in western region, the spokesperson for the Uganda Prisons Service, Mr Frank Mbaine said: “Our capital development is moving on a slow pace due to limited funds, but we are soon going to renovate and expand Katojo in Fort Portal and Bwera in Kasese, we have damaged wards at Rwimi and Ibuga but we are yet to get funds.”

Experiences of former prisoners Mr Bon-Bon Kasaija, a resident of Njara, East division, Fort Portal. I was in Katojo Prison from 2010 to 2011. Health at Katojo was 99 per cent good. Prisoners were well catered for. Every three months, they could carry general checkups for Sexually Transmitted Diseases, HIV/Aids and Tuberculosis.

Doctors and nurses could keep on checking on the sick at night. Accommodation was okay, every prisoner, even if he or she was new or old, could get 2 blankets with a mattress and we were allowed to get blankets from home and beddings, our rooms, bathrooms and latrine were always clean. We used to eat grade number 2 of posho, which was best for our body building, and fried beans. Our prison wardens never mistreated us.

Mr Patrick Byamaana, 52, from Byakalimira village, Ndogo Sub-county in Kabale District.
I was at Katojo Prison since 1994, but I was later transferred to Ibuga. We used to sleep on bare cement and insects could bite us and we had no blankets to cover ourselves. 

Feeding was bad, we used to take half cups of porridge for breakfast and eat one sweet potato a day. Some prison wardens used to sell our sugar and posho.

When our relatives could come to check on us and leave behind some money with us, prison wardens could come ask for the money and take it away forcefully and they could beat us.

Retrenched man’s quest for pension

Mr Joseph Mpamya is a former agricultural officer. PHOTO BY Felix Basiime 

By Felix Basiime and Amanda Kawaisolya

Posted  Saturday, July 13   2013 at  01:00  http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Retrenched-man-s-quest-for-pension/-/688334/1912956/-/14cdacn/-/index.html

Pension woes. When Mr Joseph Mpamya was retrenchment in 1992, he was the Rwenzori sub-region agricultural officer. Due to his struggles to get his pension, other pensioners elected him as their national chairman. Mr Mpamya, a technical adviser to Kabarole Farmers Association, told Felix Basiime and Amanda Kawaisolya about the pursuit for his pension. Below are excerpts:

Kabarole- It all started in 1992 when the government made an announcement that 6,337 civil servants were to be retrenched. 

My name appeared on the list, so we were asked to fill forms and be given packages of appreciation. I was then working as a regional agricultural officer for the Rwenzori sub-region.

Government had considered the following for one to be retrenched: 55 years and above, a non-performer and those unqualified, but I decided to push for my pension although I did not belong to any of those.

For me I got my package but in the process I learnt that I was maliciously retrenched because I was below 55 years and I had just been promoted as principal agricultural officer.

Legal process

The legal process took me and others eight years to win our pension rights In 1998. I prepared my case through my lawyer M/s John Matovu & Co. Advocates and sued government for nonpayment of my pension which World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had advised government to do.

This lawyer was so shrewd and decided to include all the retrenched 6,337 in this matter. In order to achieve this, he placed adverts in newspapers inviting all the retrenched across the country. 

Others didn’t turn up because some were already in villages in sorrow and could not access the newspapers then.

The lawyers contacted Public Service, asking why government refused to pay pension to people retrenched in 1992.

The minister of Public Service then responded that this was because they were dismissed and that the exercise was done to reduce the number of civil servants and they be given some package to go home and pave way for the ones left behind to be paid better salaries.

But considering the Constitution, all the retired civil servants were entitled to pension, so through our lawyers we went to court. 

We were 15 but when a group suing is more than three people, court allows you to choose three people to represent you. We elected Charles Abola as the chairman, Sylvester Agwaru as the assistant and A. Kasirivu. They were representing the 6,337 with our hired lawyer Mr Matovu and we started the process.

The trial Judge ES Lugayizi did not find difficulty in determining our case, he just ruled that: You people should be entitled to pension. 
That was in 1998. Court ordered that we be declared pensioners with effect from the day we left office since June 28, 1992.

But unfortunately this ruling came at a time when some of the pensioners had died, so some officials in the Public Service started their game.

They started creating ghost files and since they had the records, they knew who was coming and who was not because they are the ones who had requisitioned the money from the Treasury.

Since they had authorisation from the government backed by court ruling, they could get as much money as they could from the pensioners. So they knew that when some people die no one would go to claim that money.

They had the data and could create and add files since some pensioners didn’t know about the money. 
To make matters worse, our lawyer didn’t bother to look for his clients.

When the Public Service officials realised that they would be discovered, they started inviting people informally, pensioners or not from different districts to be given some of this money so that the unclaimed files show that the money was claimed.

When some of us later went back to court over money for the remaining seven years, the High Court presided over by Justice V.F. Musoke Kibuuka awarded a uniform sum of Shs4.5 million as general damages in respect of each pensioner. This was on August 4, 2011. 

Then the Public Service started paying us, the claimants of this money. But when I reached Kampala, my colleagues told me that some amount was deducted from it.

On asking them why, they said they were waiting for me to come and find out as their chairperson.

When I reached the ministry, they told me that our lawyer said the money we gave him was not enough so he wanted more money and that’s why they deducted Shs1.4 million from every pensioner’s account which was wrong because we had paid him earlier in full.

In 2000, we made an agreement with our lawyer to deduct only 15 per cent of the money due to each pensioner and this money was amounting to Shs1.2 billion in total and he was not supposed to get any more money even if we needed assistance from him later on the same matter.

The ministry officials told me that maybe my colleagues could have separately agreed on this with the lawyer in my absence.

I told them that I am alive, I am not dead and I am the chairman. How can this be done without consulting me? So they told me to go back home in Fort Portal and that they would find a way to pay me the whole amount due to me.

When I checked my account later, I realised they had duped me, they had deducted the Shs1.4 million and I became mad. 

So I went back to Kampala and I asked them what authority they had used to deduct my money. I demanded for an explanation why they had doubled rate from 15 per cent to 30 that made it Shs8 billion accruing from 6,337 claimants.

I went to the Attorney General and he told me that they paid this money to a law firm called M/s Mable Law Firm but who did not represent us in court. Public Service officials knew what they were doing, they created this law firm and this was authorised by the Attorney General.

So it became very strange and complicated having Public Service paying money to a strange law firm behind the backs of the claimants. We were defeated and we settled with what they wished to pay us.

Money received
I first received Shs6 million for the first seven years I spent without payment after leaving my job from 1992-1999. Then starting with January 2000, I was put on a monthly payment of Shs270,000 which has since risen to Shs1,150,000 due to general salary increments.

I have had all my plans shattered, I had started a fruit processing factory in Fort Portal after I was retrenched knowing that I would get my pension very soon, but this project has since collapsed due to lack of capital.

I was forced to sell my few exotic cows in Kabarole to survive and to educate my children, so the dairy farm is no more.

I pity other pensioners who are not part of the retrenched. When they will retire, they will move up and down chasing their pension until they give up because it becomes costly and others die so when all this happens, all the money remains with the Ministry of Public Service yet the next of kin are supposed to get this money but they are at times not aware.

What brews conflicts in Rwenzori region?

Some of the residents of the affected areas shift to Bundibugyo Town for their safety last week. 

By Felix Basiime, Enid Ninsiima & Scovia Atuhaire

Posted  Tuesday, March 15  2016 at  13:50

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/Brews-conflicts-Rwenzori-region/-/691232/3119766/-/xfw11uz/-/index.html

IN SUMMARY

Conflicts in the region started in 2009 when government recognised Charles Wesley Mumbere as the King of the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu Kingdom. This was not welcomed by the Basongora and Banyabindi in Kasese as well as Bawisi and Bamba in Bundibugyo District. On July 11, 2012, an attack at Muhokya Police Station in Kasese left five people dead after the Basongora installed their king, the Late Ivan Bwebale Rwigi IV. The attackers fled with Bwebale’s regalia.

Ms Gorreti Nsonisyabo, 30, is admitted with her eight- month-old baby boy to Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital nursing deep cuts.

They are residents of Busengerwa, Kirundi Parish in Bundibugyo District. She is a mother of six children.

On the night of February 26, she was attacked by panga-wielding men. The attackers killed her four daughters but she narrowly escaped death with her baby boy. She says her husband was not at home at the time of the attack.

“Before the LC5 elections, there was no sign of violence. After two days, I saw two men in my compound holding knives, pangas and a spear in the middle of the night. My husband was not around. I entered the house but people kept on increasing in our compound,” she says.

“Two men forced themselves into my house and started cutting me. I fell down with my baby who I was carrying. He was cut on the left thigh,” Nsonisyabo says, adding that the men thought they had died.

“Then they killed my four daughters who were also in the house before they left,” Nsonisyabo narrates.

She says her in-law who later came to the house called the police who took her to Bundibugyo hospital and she was later transferred to Fort Portal hospital.

Mr Coleneli Kisembo, 31, also one of the victims admitted to the same hospital, says on the day of elections (February 24), he slept in the bush fearing for his life. He hails from Kasulenge II village, Bundimulange parish, Kirumya Sub-county.

“At night, when they first announced Jolly Tibemanya (the incumbent LC5 chairman and independent) as the winner, the supporters of a rival candidate picked knives, pangas and spears and started killing people,” he says.

He adds; “At 3pm on Friday (February 26), I was at home, I saw a gang carrying knives, pangas and iron bars. They said, ‘this is also a Mudhingiya (King Kamya’s subject), kill him’.”
The attackers first ate everything edible in Kisembo’s shop before they started cutting me,” he recalls.

“When I fell down, the attackers thought I had died and they ran away. My wife made an alarm and the chairperson LC1 came and called police that took me to the hospital,” he adds.

Both Nsonisyabo and Kisembo are some of the several victims of the post-election violence that erupted in Bundibugyo District two weeks ago following announcements of the results in which the incumbent Mr Tibemanya lost to Mr Ronald Mutegeki in a hotly contested race.

According to the Rwenzori Region police commander, Mr Dennis Namuwoza, the clashes and tension in the district sparked off from the provisional results released by the district returning officer, Mr Daniel Nayebare.

He says Nayebare first announced Tibemanya as leading on the polling night before he declared Mr Mutegeki winner the next day. This led to jubilation in both camps and later clashes leaving more than 10 people dead, several others injured and houses torched.

However, Nayebare reasons that the first declaration was a result of a mismatch of only three polling stations but after it was corrected, Mutegeki won by a 300-vote margin.

“It is not true that I declared two people but there is a difference between announcing and declaring. 

People started celebrating as we were announcing results. They were at the tally centre and as I was about to declare the winner, we realised that some presiding officers had changed the order of the candidates’ names on the Results Declaration Forms. We were forced to delete all we had tallied to re-tally but not recount until we declared the rightful winner,” explains Nayebare.

Nayebare also reasons that the clashes were not entirely related to the LC5 elections rather tribal differences that had been brewing ahead of the elections. These hit fever the climax on the day of elections.

Centre of conflict
However, all these clashes are just a tip of the ice bag indicating a bigger problem in the region; an unresolved set of conflicts cutting across the entire Rwenzori sub-region that usually cause insecurity and affect the voting patterns during elections.

Opinion leaders in the region say after the July 5, 2014 attacks in Kasese, Ntoroko and Bundibugyo districts in which more than 90 people were killed and several others injured, government did not address the causes of the attacks and the measures later used to stem off the conflict were just cosmetic.

For the last four years, Rwenzori sub-region has been the centre of tribal conflicts, especially in Kasese and Bundibugyo following government’s recognition of cultural institutions that never existed before.

Conflicts in the region started in 2009 when government recognised Charles Wesley Mumbere as the King of the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu (OBR) Kingdom. This was not welcomed by the Basongora and Banyabindi in Kasese as well as Bawisi and Bamba in Bundibugyo District.

On July 11, 2012, there was an attack at Muhokya Police Station in Kasese which left more than five people dead after the Basongora installed their king, the Late Ivan Bwebale Rwigi IV. The attackers fled with Bwebale’s regalia.

On several occasions, King Mumbere has been blocked to freely meet his subjects in some parts of Kasese and Bundibugyo districts. Other tribes in some of these areas say they do not pay allegiance to the Rwenzururu king.

On June 30, 2012, the first clashes in Bundibugyo ensued after King Charles Mumbere visited the area and among others set up a shrine and raised the kingdom flag at his father’s home area in Kirindi, Busaru, Bwamba County. Mumbere was celebrating his kingdom’s Peace Day at Kirindi, the area believed to be historical to their kingdom.

This action did not go down well with the Bamba and Bawisi as they believed that Mumbere’s move was intended to conquer their territory. This was followed by clashes between Bamba and Bakonzo.

On May 30, 2014, government recognised Lt Col Martin Kamya as the first King of the new cultural institution; Obudingiya Bwa Bwamba (OBB).

This was also followed by simultaneous attacks on July 5, 2014 in the three districts but mainly centred in Bundibugyo and Kasese.

The attacks were led by spear and panga wielding youths who in broad day light attacked the army barracks at Kanyamwirima in Bundibugyo and several other police stations in the three districts.

Some of the Bakonzo then claimed that government was oppressing them by creating other cultural institutions in their area of jurisdiction and leaving Mumbere in one district of Kasese.

One of the recent clash victims in Bundibugyo, Mr Daniel Bailinga, from Kirumya Sub-county reasoned; “Government pardoned people who never appreciated the amnesty accorded to them since then, a majority of them have gone back to the mountains for re-training to carry out similar acts”.
Mr Bailinga attributes the recent clashes allegedly as revenge by some annoyed Bakonzo who lost their loved ones during the July 5, 2014 attacks that claimed some people in Kirumya.

“We have been seeing some youths mobilising with the help of some local leaders to the extent of relocating them to Kisege in Itojo Sub-county, Ntoroko District. We reported to police earlier but they ignored our reports saying they are tired of us,” Bailinga says.

Bailanga’s claims have been confirmed by the Ntoroko Resident District Commissioner, Mr Wilson Isingoma but says they are closely monitoring the situation in the area.

“It is true Kisege is full of immigrants from Congo and Bundibugyo due to tribal tensions but we are monitoring them closely. We have written reports and we believe that we are going to take action,” he says.

Mr Bailinga also attributes the recent attacks to some OBB officials who he says backed some politicians in the process dividing subjects further.

But deputy premier of OBB Rev. Tomas Kamuhanda says they never mobilised their people to kill others apart from telling them to support government given the historical attachment Bundibugyo has with the government.

“Why should people of Kasese come to Bundibugyo to destabilise us by influencing the communities to rebel against government and their neighbours? We shall not sit and watch,” Rev Kamuhanda observes.

But Mr Edward Mumbere, a former Rwenzururu kingdom minister and former Bundibugyo NRM district chairperson attributes the current conflict to the alleged mismanagement of the NRM primary elections that brought back the July 5, 2014 memories. He says the last NRM primaries were allegedly based on ethnic lines.

“These people (OBB) made an agreement before the recognition of the kingdom that since the Omudingiya (King) and the premier were Bawisi, the LC5 chairperson should be a Mwamba in order to balance the responsibilities. That is why the OBB officials meddled into politics to back the incumbent LC5 chairman to maintain their stand but were resisted,” reasoned Mumbere.

However, Mumbere’s claims have been rejected by the OBB spokesperson Rev. Geoffrey Kyomuhendo as baseless.

“There is no such agreement at all,” Rev Kyomuhendo said, adding, “OBB refutes these allegations and considers all this to be malicious propaganda intended to tarnish the name and image of our cultural institution.”

“What happened was not clashes between Bamba and Bakonzo but it was Bakonzo militia group commonly known as “Esyomango” who jealously invaded some Bwamba homes and started butchering people, burning houses and forcefully evicting Bamba from their homes hence causing displacements especially among the Bamba communities,” Rev Kyomuhendo adds.

Rev Kamuhanda observes that the recent clashes were not as a result of the election results but a continuation of the July 5, 2014 attacks.

After the 2014 attacks, government arrested hundreds of suspected attackers in Bundibugyo, Ntoroko and Kasese districts and paraded them before the army general court martial that was sitting in Kasese and Bundibugyo towns.

The suspects were later freed after government said they had lost interest in the case. Other hundreds who had fled into hiding fearing arrests, returned after government set an amnesty.

Other opinion leaders in the region observe that government releasing the suspects while not arresting others is another source of conflict. They believe the government is taking sides with some categories of people.

Government in 1993 restored monarchy through the Constituent assembly (CA) and the restored institutions along the way have been used by the sitting government to gain political capital. In some areas it has worked but not in others.

Possible solutions to the conflicts

Seeing all this bounce back in a vicious circle, a question arises, was justice ever achieved after the 2014 attacks and if not, what needs to be done to bring back normalcy in the region.

Mr Edward Mumbere, a former Rwenzururu kingdom minister appeals to government to have a clear policy on the establishment of cultural institutions reasoning that until government realizes that cultural institutions are not supposed to have established governments, their issues will never end.

“Why should for example cultural institutions have defense ministers and other ministries not related to culture. As long as this still exists, 

those ministries will keep on colliding with government ministries” Mumbere observes.
He also wants government to stop using cultural institutions as a stepping stone to achieve its political agendas.

“Cultural institutions in the region are being used as a political platform at the expense of people’s lives” he says.

He advises the cultural institutions in Uganda and especially in Rwenzori to operate like the Asante in Ghana where he says is purely cultural and should leave politics outside their operations.

Bailinga wants government to replace all the police officers hailing from Bundibugyo District for their alleged failure to protect the lives and property of the people during the recent clashes and should restrain some people from Kasese who come to Bundibugyo to plant seeds of discord to the people under pretense of peace building.

Rev. Kyomuhendo believes that a cultural dialogue should be held in order to bring matters on board but their efforts to hold one has always failed by their counterparts in other cultural institutions. He says they have issues which have not been known and need to be investigated by government.