The British government is planning to change the present tourist visa conditions. This move, will not only affect new applicants but also the individuals inviting them to visit. In the new plans, visitors to the United Kingdom (UK) would have to leave after three months instead of the current six and British families or individuals inviting their relatives or friends to visit might also have to pay a financial deposit to ensure relatives from outside the European Union whose visit they were sponsoring left the UK on time.
Whenever you listen to the local radio stations in Uganda, you can note that a large percentage of commercials are from the herbal doctors calling on clients to go and get treatment from these herbal doctors. It might be ethically wrong for a doctor to advertise his services but now its more than a year that this has been going on. Many people in Uganda now are visiting these doctors for their health services. This is actually a turning point in the sphere of medicine in the country. Unlike in the 1990s where by these doctors were associated with witch crafty, these days people have seen a difference between witch crafty and herbs.
Government through the judiciary is to set up the first ever anti-corruption court early 2008.
President Yoweri Museveni will appoint special judges to handle all forms of corruption most especially those involving high ranking officials in government. The state minister for ethics and integrity in the office of the president Dr. James Nsaba Buturo says the new judges will expeditiously handle the cases to avoid the current situation where cases take long, owing to not enough judges to handle them in time.
A survey commissioned by DENIVA (Development Networks of Indigenous Voluntary Associations) and I-Network(Information Network) in May - June 2007, in Uganda , has shown a close link between ICT and poverty reduction. The countrywide survey indicates that developments of ICTs tend to increase income inequality within a country and it requires relatively good education and special skills to make full use of ICT.
Dear Mr. President and Hon. Kamya.
I write to you with great disappointment following your letters that recently appeared in the press. To begin with, it strikes me, regardless of how certain it was that the President took time to reply Honourable Kamya’s letter. What I gathered from his response is that he has been a good and wonderful musician who sings one tune and maintains it. At this point, even the unborn Ugandan knows that without Museveni, Uganda would have been Amin and Amin would have been Uganda! It is now evident to a one day old Ugandan that without Museveni, there would have been no jobs because no earlier president had thought of decentralization.
Ok, it is now two weeks since Kenyans strode to the polling stations to cast their votes and about a week ago since the ECK chairperson, Samuel Kivuitu said he was unsure Emilio Mwai Kibaki had fairly won the elections. The BBC, CNN, Reuters, AFP, local papers and TV stations anywhere featured the violence that erupted in Kenya following the stolen elections. All reporters have termed the chaos as ‘ethnic/tribal violence’. But this so called ‘ethnic/tribal violence’ has caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans, brought businesses to a halt, caused unnecessary deaths and tensions in the country. In Rift Valley alone, it is reported that about 150,000 people have been displaced, dead bodies were found in Burnt forest, women have been gang-raped and children are starving. At Mombasa port, trucks are packed instead of delivering goods to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and DRC.
As we welcome the new year, we are so touched by our brothers and sisters of Kenya with all the chaos and death they have gone through due to what one of the loosing parties has called “crying out for democracy” giving Uganda a lesson to learn. This reminds me of what Mr Museveni said once that a mere vote couldn’t take him just like a chicken thief.
Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi crowned the year with a surprise by changing the administration at the mighty Mengo establishment. Four former ministers and other new entrants were assigned the posts of ministers as nine were dropped. JB Walusimbi was assigned the post of Katikiro replacing Ambassador Emanuel Ssendawula who has served the kingdom for more than a year, he now becomes a deputy in the office he has been holding.
I was a little, naive primary seven girl when I learnt that Uganda had started the UPE policy. Being in my last year of primary level, I was a bit unhappy that I would not enjoy the benefits of this new policy but now that I think about it, I regret to having been so naive then. My parents had not yet agreed upon the manufacturing of our current last born so I counted who among my siblings would enjoy UPE. My count took in two of my brothers and I smiled thinking that the poor man would be saved a dime.
Most of the time, before you look for the solution of any problem, it is better to first trace the cause. You might not be able to reverse the condition, but at least you get where to begin from. The grievances surrounding land in Uganda raised by both the landlords and tenants need critical studying by looking at social and historical factors which all rotate around the politics of the country. Some things even appear to be occurring not accidentally but with prior planning done by a cocoon of people who have selfish long term intentions aimed at serving only one group of people in Uganda leaving others crying foul.
On 24th September, 2007, while addressing Student Guild Council Officials from 12 Universities in Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni publicly announced that ‘to die of AIDS is treason’. According to Mr. Museveni, this is so because the patient will have betrayed the family which invested in him/her with hopes that s/he would in future be a productive member. In this narrative of whether it is ‘treason’ to die of AIDS, attention will be paid to innocent HIV/AIDS patients especially women. In 1986, when the current leadership came to power, the country had been recovering from a civil war only to be challenged by the impact of HIV/AIDS which was on the rise. Despite haunting development problems however, Uganda featured as one of the successful countries in fighting the impacts of HIV/AIDS as reflected in the declining epidemic rate in the 1990s.
I am a wonderful reader of the blind dates that one of the local newspapers in Uganda arranges. In one of those blind dates, a mysterious couple met and seemed to have liked each other but the lady (herein referred to as Belinda) was a bit disappointed at how the man (later referred to as Mike) had treated her. That she expected the man to welcome her warmly with a hug or a peck if need be, followed by pulling the chair for her before she relaxes her bones.
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