Nature’s remedy for Queen Elizabeth buffaloes

Buffaloes take a bath along the road side in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Photo by Felix Basiime

By FELIX BASIIME

Posted Saturday, June 18 2016 at 01:00

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/Natures-remedy-for-Queen-Elizabeth-buffaloes/-/691232/3254278/-/c11qvn/-/index.html

When humans get sick, they get treatment either by self-medication or visit hospitals, clinics or traditional healers. And while on treatment, they rest in wards or sick bays but where do wild animals go or what do they do when they get sick. The buffaloes in Queen Elizabeth National Park have found a sick bay in Lake Nyamunuka.

Nyamunuka is loosely translated as bad smell and according to the manager Queen Elizabeth park conservation area, Edward Asalu, the bad smell emanates from the sulphur in the shallow crater lake that is one of the four salty lakes in the area.

This lake has other minerals that the wild animals lick on the muddy banks and get healed of wounds and other ailments. The old buffaloes also use the lake as a security measure for their safety.

“There are several reasons why buffaloes especially the old ones, find refuge at Lake Nyamunuka,” says Asalu, adding, “One of them is a security measure, the crater lake is shallow and wide enough to easily see the surroundings so that they can get ready to fight the enemy (especially the lions) coming.”

He adds: “The other reason is that the bad smell from the gas emitted from the sulphur acts as a healing drug so the buffaloes inhale it to get rid of ailments such as tick attacks among others.” The wounded buffaloes also find refuge at this lake until they get healed and go back to the savannah park.

“The old and sick wild animals at Lake Nyamunuka are very focused during the time they spend there, because they all have a common enemy. You don’t find them fighting each other, they are like patients in a hospital ward,” says Asalu.

The beautiful Lake Nyamunuka is a few kilometres along the road to Mweya Safari Lodge. Queen Elizabeth National Park is in western Uganda, covering parts of Kasese, Kamwenge, Mitooma, Rubirizi, Kanungu, Rukungiri and Ibanda districts. It is approximately 376kms, by road, south-west of Kampala, through Mityana-Fort Portal road.

Buffaloes have found another sick bay at a roadside pool of muddy water along Katunguru-Kikorongo road also in the same national park where they submerge in the water to smear themselves with the mud as a measure to fend off tick.

When it shines, they move out of the waters to graze as the mud dries, it falls off with the ticks from their skins.

Safe and comfortable

Queen Elizabeth National Park occupies an estimated 1,978 sq kms and extends from Lake George in the north-east to Lake Edward in the south-west and includes the Kazinga Channel connecting the two lakes.

The park is Uganda’s most popular tourist destination due to its diverse ecosystems which include sprawling savanna, shady humid forests, sparkling lakes and fertile wetlands which make it the ideal habitat for classic game.

The park can be accessed through Kampala-Mityana-Mubende-Fort Portal-Kasese road on a six hour drive viewing other beautiful scenery or through Kampala-Masaka-Mbarara-Bushenyi route on a five hour drive.

There is an airstrip at Mweya Safari Lodge inside Queen Elizabeth National Park served by charter flights from Entebbe airport.

About buffaloes
The African buffalo or Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is a large African bovine. Owing to its unpredictable nature, which makes it highly dangerous to humans, the African buffalo has never been domesticated unlike its Asian counterpart, the water buffalo. Other than humans, African Cape buffaloes have few predators aside from lions and are capable of defending themselves.

It is a member of the big five game and the most dangerous. The African buffalo is one of the fiercest animals in the park and their about 15, 000 according the recent census.

The agony of being a crippled husband and father

Ms Annet Kabarinzi pushes her husband Martin Kyansi in a wheel chair at their home at Kaburaisoke South village, Rwimi parish in Rwimi Sub County, Kabarole district. Photo by Felix Basiime

By Felix Basiime
Posted  Thursday, April 1  2010 at  00:00   http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/Health---Living/-/689846/890428/-/qyxivu/-/index.html

In one moment, Martin Kyansi, was electrocuted, something that led to the amputation of his limbs leaving him quite helpless, writes Felix Basiime

It is a sunny afternoon at Kaburaisoke South village, Rwimi parish in Rwimi Sub County, Kabarole district. Ms Annet Kabarinzi, a pretty young woman sits on a local mat with her three children and hulls maize grains off the cobs in front of their road side house on Fort Portal-Kasese road.

Maize growing is the main business in Rwimi Sub County and the main trade in the nearby Rwimi town council. The family has a small plot of land where they have a small house and a pit latrine. Lack of enough space forces the family to hire other people’s land in Rwimi to cultivate food for domestic use and some for sale.

Before she goes to dig every morning, Kabarinzi has to first attend to the children and her crippled husband, Mr Martin Kyansi. She lifts her husband to the bath room daily and bathes him, feeds him breakfast, lunch and supper like a baby on top of feeding and dressing the young ones.

When her husband needs to brush his teeth, ease himself or dress up Kabarinzi needs to be there because Kyansi lost his limbs in an accident he got in 2005 when they had just been married.

What Kabarinzi is facing today, is a calamity that struck the family five years ago when Kyansi went to work on the road as usual with a Chinese road construction company that repaired Fort Portal-Hima Road but never returned home the same.

The contract to rehabilitate the 55 km road was awarded to China Chongqing International Construction Corporation (Cico) from July 22, 2004 and completed in May 2007 at Shs27 billion and funded by the World Bank and Government of Uganda.

Kyansi says, “I completed S.4 at King Jesus college at Mubuku (in Kasese) in 2005 and then I joined Cico in November 2005. At that time, Kyansi recalls, work on the road had reached at Rubona government farm. I was employed in the Survey department as a staff man.”

A staff man according to surveyors is someone employed to hold a surveyors staff ahead of the surveyors to ease surveys. According to a senior surveyor in Mbarara town, Mr Nathan Muganga, “A surveyor’s staff is a tool used in topographic survey in levelling to establish heights.”

It is a long stick marked with measurements on it and is made out of aluminum which conducts electricity like any metal. It is this staff tool that Kyansi says he was employed to hold daily at work ahead of the surveyors until the fateful day, on December 15, 2005 when the staff he was holding accidentally landed on high voltage transmission wires and he was electrocuted.

He was rushed to Fort Portal based Virika Hospital, a catholic founded medical facility where he spent five months before his four limbs were amputated. 

“I thank Cico. They footed my hospital bills at Virika. I was discharged and went home, my wife with whom I had one child by then, has been nursing me till now,” Kyansi says, adding, “I also thank Sister Saverina of Virika Hospital. She used to pray for me at my hospital bed, and the same hospital gave me this wheel chair. Since then, I haven’t been able to feed myself, dress up, bathe, or pick the phone. It is my wife who does everything.”

For better or for worse
“I found him okay with all the four limbs. He was very normal and we got married and after the accident I remained firm with my husband despite the stigma from some women around the village,” Kabarinzi says, adding, “I have nothing to do because he is my husband and I have to cope with the situation.”

Because the family is still young and has numerous needs, Kyansi is pushed in a wheel chair to a nearby trading centre called Aha piida where he has a scale and buys maize from farmers and sells it to earn a living. “I buy maize from farmers between Shs150 to Shs200 a kilo depending on supply and sell it at Shs220 to Shs250 depending on the market forces,” says Kyansi.

Cheated?
Kyansi says when he was still sick, his Godfather, Mr Patrick Bahemuka of Rwimi negotiated for his compensation with Cico out of court before the Kasese Probation Officer, Mr Didas Bingambwa Since then, he has never seen any document to that regard.

“Bahemuka told me he was paid Shs6m as compensation but he refused to show me any document. He gave me Shs800,000 which I bought this small piece of land with and Shs 1m to set up this house. From then, he started dodging me up to now.”

Bahemuka says, he actually negotiated on Kyansi’s behalf.

“Yes, I settled with Cico out of court at Shs6m on behalf of Martin (Kyansi) but now I can’t trace the papers. You have to give me more time to trace them,” said, Bahemuka, a catechist at Rwimi.

Mr Bingambwa, the labour officer says, “I visited the family of Martin and they told me that Bahemuka, a catechist, was trustworthy person. So we gave him Shs6m on their behalf. It is very unfortunate that Martin never got full payment as he says.”

Appeal
“I appeal to Good Samaritans out there to help my husband get at least artificial limbs, so that he can walk,” says Kabarinzi. 

“We have little income, my children have started nursery school, we lack school fees and other essential commodities, but we have to buy food, and hire land to cultivate,” Kyansi says, adding “My wheel chair is getting old, the tires are torn and to replace one, I need Shs 10, 000.” 

The family's situation is still the same today (April 2016) Kyansi can be reached on the mobile phone: 0783055072

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.