By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
The public has mixed feelings about the performance of Prof. Vanansius Baryamureeba; the acting Vice Chancellor of Makerere University who has held that office now for ten months. Whereas the university has improved in Webometrics Ranking of World Universities (July 2010) making it among the top 15 highly ranked universities in Africa, analysts attribute this raking to improved media relations employed by the flamboyant Baryamureeba than actual progressive works and innovation. The current ranking (September 2010) indicates that the university has again improved by two places to an enviable position of 13. Baryamureeba will go down in history books as having been the first university vice chancellor to open the gates of the institution to the media. He has liberalized media access to the university to such an extent that Makerere today favourably competes with the well known newsmakers in the country which seek to polish their image through regular press conferences. Baryamureeba seems to have learnt from the mistake his predecessor, Prof. Livingstone Luboobi made of deliberately antagonizing the media. Vanansius knows the power of the media. Although one can argue that Luboobi was arguably one of the most inconsequential vice chancellors Makerere has had in history, his undoing can be greatly attributed to his poor working relations with the media than his actual achievements. His management weaknesses not withstanding, he had a weak public relations system. A combination of poor management, lack of innovation and bad press made Luboobi’s days at the helm of Makerere the most gloom in the history of the once internationally acclaimed institution.
The public is yet to correlate the message that Baryamureeba depicts in the soon-to- become-monotonous press conferences with what is actually taking place at the university. Questions abound as to whether the rosy picture that Baryamureeba portrays in his media relations is what is pertaining on the ground. I have talked to a few people both teaching and non teaching staff about their opinions of Baryamureeba’s performance so far after ten months in office. The greater number think that Vanansius is more of a loud talker than an implementer. They also accuse him of high- handedness, intolerance and desire to portray himself as a hands-on, result oriented corporate guy. They go ahead to down play his much taunted achievements particularly that of spearheading the establishment of the faculty of ICT as a project that was bound to be successful because of the amount of resources provided by the donors. Baryamurereba’s critics think that with the amount of money that was availed to put up the ICT faculty together with the commitment exhibited by the donors; any person in charge would have pulled off the project’s execution with minimum glitches. In fact Baryamureeba is accused of having embezzled a lot of funds from the project which he used to live a lifestyle similar to that of crazy, fame-seeking young carefree celebrity, a description not fit for any serious academic.
Although Baryamureeba claims to be a promoter of institutions and systems, he is sometimes too ambitious and impatient that he often sidesteps the very systems he himself advocates for. He is on record as having told the media that the university was soon to lay off 500 part-time lecturers. He announced this without consulting the appropriate organ of the university. Senior staff were shocked to read the story in the newspapers when the issue had not been discussed nor had it been considered by any university policy making organ.
Recently the University suspended its doctor of philosophy degree (PhD) programme in Education Management and Administration over inadequate teaching staff. This became the twenty-first course to be suspended at Makerere this year. This may be a good move but it also points out to the inherent weaknesses at Makerere about lack of capacity especially in providing a conducive environment to train and retain eminent scholars within its ranks. One of the laudable actions by Baryamureeba’s administration was the successful recall and appointment of seasoned scholar Prof. Mahmood Mamdani to head the once powerful Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR). In a message posted on the Institute’s website Mamdani has already promised hope to bring to life a buzz of activities, from internet discussions to printed materials, ranging from working papers to workshops, journals to books, using methods from the unconventional to the orthodox, to create a market place of ideas, an arena of debate”. Mamdani argues that unlike a primary school that looks out for teachers who are trained from outside, universities and in this case Makerere should start training its own academics.
The problems of Makerere are well known. Apart from lack adequate financial support from government which has made the university to rely on private student’s fees contribution, the university has not yet gone out of its way to become an innovative centre of excellence. Makerere must wean itself from government and begin fending for her needs independently by getting multiple partnerships with multilateral international donors to fund its research especially in the scientific field. Before it does this however, it must considerably cut the number of students it admits to ensure quality. Baryamureeba and his entire team must understand its one thing to hoodwink the public through the media that a lot is being done and it is another to do actual wok that can propel the university to greater heights. Whereas every institution needs good public relations for its smooth running, a good press alone is not enough to turn an academic institution from a despised run down organization to a glorious internationally celebrated entity.
** The writer is a human rights defender
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
WHY IS LIFE SO CHEAP IN AFRICA?
By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
Africans die in large numbers because of many causes including diseases, wars, accidents, hunger and ignorance. There is too much death in Sub-Saharan countries that life seems to be of much lesser value than that in the west. One of the explanations given for the high death rates in Africa has been that we have high fertility and birth rates which makes life easy to beget and easy to destroy. Whereas the developed nations take every effort to protect and preserve every living person’s existence through providing dignified services, in Africa life, can be snapped out of a person in a twinkle of an eye and nobody seems to be bothered. Many people have become so accustomed to death in Africa that it doesn’t bother us as much. This is not to say that traditional Africa was any better. In fact it was worse.
What is worrisome is that Africa’s population, though increasing, is constantly subjected to the full rigours of poverty and harsh conditions that often result in deaths which are in most cases preventable. If the rate at which Africans die was applicable to some of the western countries like Canada, their populations would be wiped out in a period not exceeding one century. In the west every person is of value no matter their economic and social status in society. Instead of our governments concentrating on providing people with adequate services and imploring them to focus of quality of lives, we are producing more children who would be able to live for a short time. In other words we are more preoccupied with reproduction than we are with maintenance and attainment of quality lives because anyone can produce a child but not every one can adequately look after a child to adulthood.
Our communities on a daily basis witness unwarranted death to such an extent that it makes one wonder whether this is the life some of us were predestined to live. In Uganda there are common headlines in newspapers which surprisingly never make it to first page. They include; “Man hacks wife to death” , “Man burns house, kills wife, children & self”, “Irate soldier kills five”, “Man goes on rampage, kills four, shoots self”, “Man hangs self”, “Man kills two in land dispute”, “Two left dead in family row”, “Woman strangles her two children, “Mob kills two suspected criminals”, “Mud slides burry five”, Three killed while siphoning fuel”. These are titles of stories that appear in our daily press. They are quite common that some people no longer read them.
Sub Saharan Africa today has a population of 840 million people with an annual growth rate of 2.4% and will double in the next 30 years. According to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), Sub Saharan Africa’s population growth is the fastest in the world despite the fact that the region has the highest death rates at the same time. In simple terms, too many people are being born in so short a time in Africa and they die in too large numbers in too short a time. Africa’s total population has just passed one Billion people. The continent’s population is growing by about 24 million per year. Uganda’s population (latest figures) is 32 million and is projected to rise to 96 million by 2050. USA, with a population of 307 million people has an annual death rate of 2.5 million people compared to Uganda’s annual death rate of 384,000. This means that at the current death rates, if Uganda’s population was like that of USA at 307 million people, Uganda would be losing approximately 4,876,000 people annually. With 1.4 million children being born (live births) in Uganda every year compared to 371,000 born in Canada, it means that Ugandan mothers stare death in the face every time they visit labour words than their Canadian counterparts. Our life is what one can term as “hopeless”.
We continue to live like our traditional forefathers that produced so many children because they believed that some would die and others would survive. Indeed in traditional Africa it was a miracle for a parent to produce five children and they all survive past the age of five. Some would produce up to ten children and only one would survive to adulthood. They attributed this phenomenon to curses and bad luck and constantly consulted their spirits to intervene forgetting that their children were dying because of ignorance and poor health conditions at the time.
It is a shame that thousands of years have passed since that era but not much has changed in a greater part of Africa. In fact there has not been any marked change between the living conditions of Africans who lived two hundred years ago and those living in the current age. The shelter, mode of transport, cultivation, and way of life in general remain similar for most people. To these people development and civilization is nothing but a mirage that neither them nor their children will enjoy. In relation to this scenario, some scholars have agued that Africa may not realise development and much of it may remain backward with nothing much changing in the next five hundred years unless we get focused and well-intentioned leaders that are real patriots in both word and deed.
African leaders have to a great extent let us down. They need to inspire the people they lead into believing that the children they produce shall live up to old age. This should not only be in words. They must begin by putting in place health systems that work. They need to drastically reduce mortality rates by providing basic health care services. They need to restore the hope and dignity of Africans by treating every death of a person with greater concern. Every person’s life should begin to matter. It is only thorough this that we can see death rates coming down and it is only then that every one will begin placing value in the lives of his or her fellow human beings and senseless deaths shall be no more.
Africans die in large numbers because of many causes including diseases, wars, accidents, hunger and ignorance. There is too much death in Sub-Saharan countries that life seems to be of much lesser value than that in the west. One of the explanations given for the high death rates in Africa has been that we have high fertility and birth rates which makes life easy to beget and easy to destroy. Whereas the developed nations take every effort to protect and preserve every living person’s existence through providing dignified services, in Africa life, can be snapped out of a person in a twinkle of an eye and nobody seems to be bothered. Many people have become so accustomed to death in Africa that it doesn’t bother us as much. This is not to say that traditional Africa was any better. In fact it was worse.
What is worrisome is that Africa’s population, though increasing, is constantly subjected to the full rigours of poverty and harsh conditions that often result in deaths which are in most cases preventable. If the rate at which Africans die was applicable to some of the western countries like Canada, their populations would be wiped out in a period not exceeding one century. In the west every person is of value no matter their economic and social status in society. Instead of our governments concentrating on providing people with adequate services and imploring them to focus of quality of lives, we are producing more children who would be able to live for a short time. In other words we are more preoccupied with reproduction than we are with maintenance and attainment of quality lives because anyone can produce a child but not every one can adequately look after a child to adulthood.
Our communities on a daily basis witness unwarranted death to such an extent that it makes one wonder whether this is the life some of us were predestined to live. In Uganda there are common headlines in newspapers which surprisingly never make it to first page. They include; “Man hacks wife to death” , “Man burns house, kills wife, children & self”, “Irate soldier kills five”, “Man goes on rampage, kills four, shoots self”, “Man hangs self”, “Man kills two in land dispute”, “Two left dead in family row”, “Woman strangles her two children, “Mob kills two suspected criminals”, “Mud slides burry five”, Three killed while siphoning fuel”. These are titles of stories that appear in our daily press. They are quite common that some people no longer read them.
Sub Saharan Africa today has a population of 840 million people with an annual growth rate of 2.4% and will double in the next 30 years. According to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), Sub Saharan Africa’s population growth is the fastest in the world despite the fact that the region has the highest death rates at the same time. In simple terms, too many people are being born in so short a time in Africa and they die in too large numbers in too short a time. Africa’s total population has just passed one Billion people. The continent’s population is growing by about 24 million per year. Uganda’s population (latest figures) is 32 million and is projected to rise to 96 million by 2050. USA, with a population of 307 million people has an annual death rate of 2.5 million people compared to Uganda’s annual death rate of 384,000. This means that at the current death rates, if Uganda’s population was like that of USA at 307 million people, Uganda would be losing approximately 4,876,000 people annually. With 1.4 million children being born (live births) in Uganda every year compared to 371,000 born in Canada, it means that Ugandan mothers stare death in the face every time they visit labour words than their Canadian counterparts. Our life is what one can term as “hopeless”.
We continue to live like our traditional forefathers that produced so many children because they believed that some would die and others would survive. Indeed in traditional Africa it was a miracle for a parent to produce five children and they all survive past the age of five. Some would produce up to ten children and only one would survive to adulthood. They attributed this phenomenon to curses and bad luck and constantly consulted their spirits to intervene forgetting that their children were dying because of ignorance and poor health conditions at the time.
It is a shame that thousands of years have passed since that era but not much has changed in a greater part of Africa. In fact there has not been any marked change between the living conditions of Africans who lived two hundred years ago and those living in the current age. The shelter, mode of transport, cultivation, and way of life in general remain similar for most people. To these people development and civilization is nothing but a mirage that neither them nor their children will enjoy. In relation to this scenario, some scholars have agued that Africa may not realise development and much of it may remain backward with nothing much changing in the next five hundred years unless we get focused and well-intentioned leaders that are real patriots in both word and deed.
African leaders have to a great extent let us down. They need to inspire the people they lead into believing that the children they produce shall live up to old age. This should not only be in words. They must begin by putting in place health systems that work. They need to drastically reduce mortality rates by providing basic health care services. They need to restore the hope and dignity of Africans by treating every death of a person with greater concern. Every person’s life should begin to matter. It is only thorough this that we can see death rates coming down and it is only then that every one will begin placing value in the lives of his or her fellow human beings and senseless deaths shall be no more.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
QUOTE BY MICHAEL ELLNER
“Just look at us. Everything is backwards. Everything is upside-down.
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy
knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroys
information, and religion destroys spirituality.“
- Michael Ellner
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy
knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroys
information, and religion destroys spirituality.“
- Michael Ellner
Monday, June 28, 2010
A ROAD SHOULD BE CONSTRUCTED ABOVE NAKIVUBO CHANNEL
By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
People who have traveled to modern cities both in Africa and the West think Kampala is the largest slum in the world with no sense of direction in terms planning and human settlement management. They find it a mockery to call Kampala a city apart from, may be, the population density that reside in this area called Kampala. Things have been getting from bad to worse and worse to worst and there seems to be no signs of retraction. Everything that can perhaps go wrong in a city has possibly happened in Kampala. Because people have complained for too long without any response from those in charge, most of us have come to accept to live our lives in this city as if everything is normal. This has made people at KCC to relax, going to office every day, pretending to be working when in actual sense they are not producing any results.
There is need to exert a lot of pressure on KCC if we are to put Kampala at the same level of orderliness and development as other cities in the world. The pressure must be unwavering and firm on specific personalities like the Mayor and the Town clerk until they may not be able to take it any more which would force them either to act to our expectations or to abdicate and resign their positions. This act should be repeated on new office bearers until we get better managers who can positively change the appearance of Kampala.
People at KCC seem to be preoccupied with harassing traders to pay tax which has made them forget their role of planning for the city. The city’s infrastructure keeps getting worse every passing day and hopes are quickly fading as to when we shall have long term visionary thinkers that can get us out of this mess. A friend of mine from Belgium who had come to visit was appalled by the state of our city. He remarked that it would take absolutely dormant people to accept the status quo. He said it was incomprehensible that Ugandans are not raising hard questions to their leaders about the state of things in the city. He said Kampala passes as one of the filthiest cities and added that if citizens do not rise up to demand for better services, the leadership will “keep sleeping”.
We need people who think beyond allowances and personal aggrandizement to take charge at KCC. We needs long term planners who are outward looking to help change the face of this city. We need radical measures that would see outright demolition of illegal structures that sprout up in every division within the city. Someone with resolute steadfastness needs to be in charge and must be entrusted with full responsibility of transforming the appearance of the city in a specified period of time.
Recently, one of the dailies published a photo on its cover page depicting poor maintenance and misuse of Nakivubo Channel by the people that operate near it. All kinds of garbage are dumped into the channel including plastic bottles and garbage. The 9.1 Km channel was rehabilitated in 2002 and completed in 2004 at cost of 23 billion by a Chinese company, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC). City dwellers were promised during construction that flooding in Kampala would be no more at the completion of the channel. It was meant to be wide enough to take up all the water from the raised areas of the city into Lake Victoria. As of now however the channel seems not to have had much impact. Flooding has instead worsened in the city and the channel is a real ugly sight because it is not regularly silted. It is one of the many failed hopes that has kept city dwellers wondering if they have any competent leadership at KCC that is capable of planning for and developing the city for the good of our capital city.
There seem to be no innovativeness whatsoever at the City Hall. For Instance I would have imagined that someone would bring the idea of building a road above Nakivubo channel. The channel that passes through the city right from the northern part to the southern would help to ease the incessant traffic jams that we have today. The channel would be widened a bit further and above it a road would be constructed supported by strong pillars. This would mean that the channel is well protected while the road would de-congest Bombo, Kampala and Jinja roads that run parallel to the channel. This is not rocket science. It is simply because people at KCC do not think hard enough to come up with solutions to our problems. I am waiting for a miracle when KCC do something right for our city, at least for once.
People who have traveled to modern cities both in Africa and the West think Kampala is the largest slum in the world with no sense of direction in terms planning and human settlement management. They find it a mockery to call Kampala a city apart from, may be, the population density that reside in this area called Kampala. Things have been getting from bad to worse and worse to worst and there seems to be no signs of retraction. Everything that can perhaps go wrong in a city has possibly happened in Kampala. Because people have complained for too long without any response from those in charge, most of us have come to accept to live our lives in this city as if everything is normal. This has made people at KCC to relax, going to office every day, pretending to be working when in actual sense they are not producing any results.
There is need to exert a lot of pressure on KCC if we are to put Kampala at the same level of orderliness and development as other cities in the world. The pressure must be unwavering and firm on specific personalities like the Mayor and the Town clerk until they may not be able to take it any more which would force them either to act to our expectations or to abdicate and resign their positions. This act should be repeated on new office bearers until we get better managers who can positively change the appearance of Kampala.
People at KCC seem to be preoccupied with harassing traders to pay tax which has made them forget their role of planning for the city. The city’s infrastructure keeps getting worse every passing day and hopes are quickly fading as to when we shall have long term visionary thinkers that can get us out of this mess. A friend of mine from Belgium who had come to visit was appalled by the state of our city. He remarked that it would take absolutely dormant people to accept the status quo. He said it was incomprehensible that Ugandans are not raising hard questions to their leaders about the state of things in the city. He said Kampala passes as one of the filthiest cities and added that if citizens do not rise up to demand for better services, the leadership will “keep sleeping”.
We need people who think beyond allowances and personal aggrandizement to take charge at KCC. We needs long term planners who are outward looking to help change the face of this city. We need radical measures that would see outright demolition of illegal structures that sprout up in every division within the city. Someone with resolute steadfastness needs to be in charge and must be entrusted with full responsibility of transforming the appearance of the city in a specified period of time.
Recently, one of the dailies published a photo on its cover page depicting poor maintenance and misuse of Nakivubo Channel by the people that operate near it. All kinds of garbage are dumped into the channel including plastic bottles and garbage. The 9.1 Km channel was rehabilitated in 2002 and completed in 2004 at cost of 23 billion by a Chinese company, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC). City dwellers were promised during construction that flooding in Kampala would be no more at the completion of the channel. It was meant to be wide enough to take up all the water from the raised areas of the city into Lake Victoria. As of now however the channel seems not to have had much impact. Flooding has instead worsened in the city and the channel is a real ugly sight because it is not regularly silted. It is one of the many failed hopes that has kept city dwellers wondering if they have any competent leadership at KCC that is capable of planning for and developing the city for the good of our capital city.
There seem to be no innovativeness whatsoever at the City Hall. For Instance I would have imagined that someone would bring the idea of building a road above Nakivubo channel. The channel that passes through the city right from the northern part to the southern would help to ease the incessant traffic jams that we have today. The channel would be widened a bit further and above it a road would be constructed supported by strong pillars. This would mean that the channel is well protected while the road would de-congest Bombo, Kampala and Jinja roads that run parallel to the channel. This is not rocket science. It is simply because people at KCC do not think hard enough to come up with solutions to our problems. I am waiting for a miracle when KCC do something right for our city, at least for once.
Friday, June 18, 2010
ANDREW MWENDA YOU ARE GROWING OLD
By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
Andrew, if private cars, shopping malls and bars are what you term as economic growth, then I am afraid the Economics you studied is lopsided. For Christ sake Andrew you should know that what has been termed as growth in Uganda is mere consumerism, importing cheap goods from China. We are an import oriented country. Shut our boarders for even one week and you will not even get a match box in Kampala shops. The reason why Zimbabwe survived the international sanctions is because its economy was to a great extent self sustaining. Uganda would not survive for a month like Zimbabwe did if we faced similar sanctions. In plain language, Uganda has not yet laid a foundation on which development can thrive. I think Uganda has the poorest public infrastructure in the world today.
***This was a response to Andrew Mwenda’s piece titled “The Politics behind Musevenomics where he hailed Uganda’s growth Miracle” Published in The Independent Magazine of 13th June 2010
Andrew, if private cars, shopping malls and bars are what you term as economic growth, then I am afraid the Economics you studied is lopsided. For Christ sake Andrew you should know that what has been termed as growth in Uganda is mere consumerism, importing cheap goods from China. We are an import oriented country. Shut our boarders for even one week and you will not even get a match box in Kampala shops. The reason why Zimbabwe survived the international sanctions is because its economy was to a great extent self sustaining. Uganda would not survive for a month like Zimbabwe did if we faced similar sanctions. In plain language, Uganda has not yet laid a foundation on which development can thrive. I think Uganda has the poorest public infrastructure in the world today.
***This was a response to Andrew Mwenda’s piece titled “The Politics behind Musevenomics where he hailed Uganda’s growth Miracle” Published in The Independent Magazine of 13th June 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
THE DOZEN HATS WORN BY HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
Human rights activists are expected to be: agenda setters, catalysts,
promoters, conveners, finders of seed money, collectors, disseminators,
advocates, educators, linkers, sponsors, defenders, observers, judges,
presenters of the proper and contesters of the faulty evidence, pushers of
changes-people-can-believe-in (D. Gwatkin), visionaries that see tomorrow
when others only see today, active opponents of corporations that violate
social and environmental standards in their operations, vectors/promoters/
announcers of the new human rights (HR) paradigm?
From the Human Rights Reader 240, The Social Medicine Portal http://www.socialmedicine.org
promoters, conveners, finders of seed money, collectors, disseminators,
advocates, educators, linkers, sponsors, defenders, observers, judges,
presenters of the proper and contesters of the faulty evidence, pushers of
changes-people-can-believe-in (D. Gwatkin), visionaries that see tomorrow
when others only see today, active opponents of corporations that violate
social and environmental standards in their operations, vectors/promoters/
announcers of the new human rights (HR) paradigm?
From the Human Rights Reader 240, The Social Medicine Portal http://www.socialmedicine.org
Thursday, May 20, 2010
UGANDA’S MONEY LOOSING VALUE; ANY HOPE IN SIGHT SOON?
By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
Although President Yoweri Museveni’s government has presided over a relatively stable economy for the last 24 years the Ugandan currency has steadily depreciated against major currencies both in Africa and the world at large. During the 1987 currency reform that saw the issuance of what was then termed as the “New Museveni Dollar, one Dollar was trading at approximately 85 Uganda shillings. Ugandans were however to enjoy the strength of their currency for only a short time. The highest currency denomination was 1,000 shillings. Coins of one, five and ten shillings were still widely in circulation and had a lot of value. A liter of milk was for instance sold at eight shillings. By 1990, the shilling had lost considerable value and was now trading at a much lower value of 350 shillings to one Dollar.
The situation worsened between 1991 and 1993 after the liberalization of the economy. The Ugandan currency was now trading at 700 to one dollar. The shilling held on to this position for a very long time. At that time prices were stable. A litre of petrol was trading at almost the same amount. The prices of food were much lower than they are today. Transport fares within the country were affordable to even the poorest. The price of land including urban areas was very affordable. The salary of an average Ugandan was not much but had more value than today. In essence many Ugandans were contented with the status quo. The full rigours of liberalization were however to be felt between 1995-1996. The shilling lost even more value as capitalistic market competition set in. The price of house rent especially in Kampala shot up and so was the cost of land especially with the entrance of property agencies like Akright Projects Limited.
By 1997, the Dollar had reached an incredible price of 1500 Uganda shillings. The increase of prices of basic commodities led to a higher cost of living especially in the city but this did not deter a continuous influx of people migrating from rural areas to Kampala and its suburbs. The upsurge of the population put a further strain on the price of land in Kampala and its environs. The ever sky locating cost of rent in the city forced many people to buy small plots of land where they put up poor housing units in a haphazard manner to escape the biting rental charges. Since then, the housing sector has been the fastest growing sector in Uganda and has had a spillover effect on the entire economy.
As the economy continues to expand, the cost of living is becoming more and more expensive especially for the majority urban poor. The shilling has continued to lose value and has become quite unpredictable. For instance whereas it was trading at 1600 in November 2009, it is currently going at 2080. Previously in June last it had touched an all time high of 2300 shilling, the lowest the shilling had ever gone since 1987. New currency denominations have been introduced by the central bank with the largest being a fifty thousand shilling note. There is speculation that if the current condition persists, a new bank note worth 100,000 many soon be issued to match the ever depreciating value of the shilling.
Although the shilling is fully convertible into major international currencies, it remains one of the weakest currencies in Africa together with that of Zambia-the Kwacha. The strongest currency in Africa today is the New Sudanese Pound which is currently trading at two units to one Dollar. The second strongest currency is the Egyptian Pound trading at Five Egyptian Pound to one Dollar. A strong currency may not necessarily be good for an economy but neither is the weak one. High value currency is certainly good for transaction and for feel-good-effect for nationals and for stability purposes which leads to investor confidence.
Uganda’s money has lost value in the recent past that consumers are routinely cheated without raising a finger. For example, an increase in the price of the Dollar for as low as 2%, may result in an immediate increase in the price of fuel by about 10%. On the other hand the loss of value of the dollar to the Uganda shilling often does not lead to reduction on local fuel prices. The other problem of a weak currency is that increase in prices of goods and services is often in bigger currency points than is always necessary. For instance an increase in the prices of fuel by, say, 100 shillings may result in an increase in transport costs for upcountry routes by about 2000 shilling. This is irrational and is mainly the major cause of inflationary tendencies in Uganda. The regulatory framework to monitor pricing of essential goods is lacking which leaves poor people go without basic necessities because of unscrupulous traders and service providers.
As we prepare for the 2011 general elections, the value of the Uganda shilling is likely to loose more of its current value and even more after the elections. The best alternative would be to carry out a fresh currency reform that would see a new stronger shilling that would help to propel our economy from the current stagnation where only one sector of housing and construction seems to dwarf all the others. I would be very happy, and I believe many others too, to once again see the Ugandan shilling trading at 200 shillings to a Dollar. I would be even happier if that exchange rate was maintained for a longer period of about five years. The Ministry of Finance and the central Bank should seriously think about this.
Although President Yoweri Museveni’s government has presided over a relatively stable economy for the last 24 years the Ugandan currency has steadily depreciated against major currencies both in Africa and the world at large. During the 1987 currency reform that saw the issuance of what was then termed as the “New Museveni Dollar, one Dollar was trading at approximately 85 Uganda shillings. Ugandans were however to enjoy the strength of their currency for only a short time. The highest currency denomination was 1,000 shillings. Coins of one, five and ten shillings were still widely in circulation and had a lot of value. A liter of milk was for instance sold at eight shillings. By 1990, the shilling had lost considerable value and was now trading at a much lower value of 350 shillings to one Dollar.
The situation worsened between 1991 and 1993 after the liberalization of the economy. The Ugandan currency was now trading at 700 to one dollar. The shilling held on to this position for a very long time. At that time prices were stable. A litre of petrol was trading at almost the same amount. The prices of food were much lower than they are today. Transport fares within the country were affordable to even the poorest. The price of land including urban areas was very affordable. The salary of an average Ugandan was not much but had more value than today. In essence many Ugandans were contented with the status quo. The full rigours of liberalization were however to be felt between 1995-1996. The shilling lost even more value as capitalistic market competition set in. The price of house rent especially in Kampala shot up and so was the cost of land especially with the entrance of property agencies like Akright Projects Limited.
By 1997, the Dollar had reached an incredible price of 1500 Uganda shillings. The increase of prices of basic commodities led to a higher cost of living especially in the city but this did not deter a continuous influx of people migrating from rural areas to Kampala and its suburbs. The upsurge of the population put a further strain on the price of land in Kampala and its environs. The ever sky locating cost of rent in the city forced many people to buy small plots of land where they put up poor housing units in a haphazard manner to escape the biting rental charges. Since then, the housing sector has been the fastest growing sector in Uganda and has had a spillover effect on the entire economy.
As the economy continues to expand, the cost of living is becoming more and more expensive especially for the majority urban poor. The shilling has continued to lose value and has become quite unpredictable. For instance whereas it was trading at 1600 in November 2009, it is currently going at 2080. Previously in June last it had touched an all time high of 2300 shilling, the lowest the shilling had ever gone since 1987. New currency denominations have been introduced by the central bank with the largest being a fifty thousand shilling note. There is speculation that if the current condition persists, a new bank note worth 100,000 many soon be issued to match the ever depreciating value of the shilling.
Although the shilling is fully convertible into major international currencies, it remains one of the weakest currencies in Africa together with that of Zambia-the Kwacha. The strongest currency in Africa today is the New Sudanese Pound which is currently trading at two units to one Dollar. The second strongest currency is the Egyptian Pound trading at Five Egyptian Pound to one Dollar. A strong currency may not necessarily be good for an economy but neither is the weak one. High value currency is certainly good for transaction and for feel-good-effect for nationals and for stability purposes which leads to investor confidence.
Uganda’s money has lost value in the recent past that consumers are routinely cheated without raising a finger. For example, an increase in the price of the Dollar for as low as 2%, may result in an immediate increase in the price of fuel by about 10%. On the other hand the loss of value of the dollar to the Uganda shilling often does not lead to reduction on local fuel prices. The other problem of a weak currency is that increase in prices of goods and services is often in bigger currency points than is always necessary. For instance an increase in the prices of fuel by, say, 100 shillings may result in an increase in transport costs for upcountry routes by about 2000 shilling. This is irrational and is mainly the major cause of inflationary tendencies in Uganda. The regulatory framework to monitor pricing of essential goods is lacking which leaves poor people go without basic necessities because of unscrupulous traders and service providers.
As we prepare for the 2011 general elections, the value of the Uganda shilling is likely to loose more of its current value and even more after the elections. The best alternative would be to carry out a fresh currency reform that would see a new stronger shilling that would help to propel our economy from the current stagnation where only one sector of housing and construction seems to dwarf all the others. I would be very happy, and I believe many others too, to once again see the Ugandan shilling trading at 200 shillings to a Dollar. I would be even happier if that exchange rate was maintained for a longer period of about five years. The Ministry of Finance and the central Bank should seriously think about this.
Monday, April 19, 2010
KAMPALA BOUNDARIES SHOULD BE EXPANDED, ADMINISTERED BY CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
Development of a country is not cheap. It doesn’t come easy. It is very costly because, to achieve it various factors must be harmonized, proper planning executed, hard decisions and choices made, resources mobilized, masses rallied, negotiations held, sacrifices made, and commitment from leaders guaranteed. These are just a few of the many issues to be considered for countries to be transformed economically. President Yoweri Museveni has been advocating for the transformation of Uganda from a backward economy to a developed one that is self-sustaining since 1986. The country is yet to achieve this feat. The major hindrance to this is lack of clearly defined sequential planning to determine the priorities of our country and the execution of those plans with maximum clarity.
Development takes many trends but what defines it in its best form is the economic well-being of the majority of citizens. The other equally important characteristic of development is orderliness and systematic execution of various functions and activities within the entire state or country. The reason why I am raising all these issues is because of the challenges that Uganda currently faces. There are many but the common one that defines our ineptness is the way we continue to live in a completely disorganized city of Kampala. Our capital city arguably remains one of the most muddled insular towns in the world today. Many people have written about this but less is being done to rectify the situation before it gets out of hand.
Kampala is simply not planned. People build anywhere, anyhow and anytime. It is only in Kampala that you find roads that end (closes). It is common in most suburbs to follow a road which normally starts as a normal public way but finally stops at some one’s residence. KCC does not regularly monitor structure that are being put up. People build within road reserves; roads are narrow and winding instead of being straight. In plain language, development of structures in Kampala is simply misguided without any centralized planning and coordinating system. The few law enforcement officers who are supposed to look out for illegal structures in the city are always compromised by a few bribes hence they allow fake buildings, some without plans to go on. All this would not be a big problem if Kampala was a big city. As it is today, Kampala district is the smallest district in Uganda measuring only 195 sq km yet it has the highest population of over 2.5 million people
Of late there was a proposal by government to take over the management of the city through the Kampala Capital City Bill that proposes among others the appointment of an Executive Director to mange the city and the expansion of its boundaries to incorporate parts of Wakiso, and Mukono districts. Some people have come out to vehemently oppose this otherwise good move thus in the process have vulgarized an excellent idea that would make our capital city become an admirable cosmopolitan metropolis that it is meant to be. The opponents of this idea fail to realise that Kampala in its current form will never be developed to modern standards.
The city needs good wide roads, better leisure parks, well protected green belts, enough parking space for the ever increasing traffic, bigger shopping malls and many more things that define a city. Other people have argued that since the central government has failed to deliver in other areas, they don’t think it can positively mange and transform Kampala city either. I am among those who think that the current government is very incompetent in terms of management. This is evident infrastructure including hospitals, schools and other government installations that have been run down over the years. However, at the same time, I am of the view that the state in which our city is presently can not be any worse. I can’t fathom Kampala in a worse scenario than what it is now. Entrusting our city to Al Hajji Nasser Ntege Sebaggala was one of the worst blunders the voters of Kampala ever made. Conceding and yielding to Buganda’s demands not to expand the boundaries of the city is to condemn the city to perpetual mismanagement, an action that would lead Kampala to become a befuddled slum. I would rather we support the central government move to administer the city after all we have less to lose in the present circumstances.
Development of a country is not cheap. It doesn’t come easy. It is very costly because, to achieve it various factors must be harmonized, proper planning executed, hard decisions and choices made, resources mobilized, masses rallied, negotiations held, sacrifices made, and commitment from leaders guaranteed. These are just a few of the many issues to be considered for countries to be transformed economically. President Yoweri Museveni has been advocating for the transformation of Uganda from a backward economy to a developed one that is self-sustaining since 1986. The country is yet to achieve this feat. The major hindrance to this is lack of clearly defined sequential planning to determine the priorities of our country and the execution of those plans with maximum clarity.
Development takes many trends but what defines it in its best form is the economic well-being of the majority of citizens. The other equally important characteristic of development is orderliness and systematic execution of various functions and activities within the entire state or country. The reason why I am raising all these issues is because of the challenges that Uganda currently faces. There are many but the common one that defines our ineptness is the way we continue to live in a completely disorganized city of Kampala. Our capital city arguably remains one of the most muddled insular towns in the world today. Many people have written about this but less is being done to rectify the situation before it gets out of hand.
Kampala is simply not planned. People build anywhere, anyhow and anytime. It is only in Kampala that you find roads that end (closes). It is common in most suburbs to follow a road which normally starts as a normal public way but finally stops at some one’s residence. KCC does not regularly monitor structure that are being put up. People build within road reserves; roads are narrow and winding instead of being straight. In plain language, development of structures in Kampala is simply misguided without any centralized planning and coordinating system. The few law enforcement officers who are supposed to look out for illegal structures in the city are always compromised by a few bribes hence they allow fake buildings, some without plans to go on. All this would not be a big problem if Kampala was a big city. As it is today, Kampala district is the smallest district in Uganda measuring only 195 sq km yet it has the highest population of over 2.5 million people
Of late there was a proposal by government to take over the management of the city through the Kampala Capital City Bill that proposes among others the appointment of an Executive Director to mange the city and the expansion of its boundaries to incorporate parts of Wakiso, and Mukono districts. Some people have come out to vehemently oppose this otherwise good move thus in the process have vulgarized an excellent idea that would make our capital city become an admirable cosmopolitan metropolis that it is meant to be. The opponents of this idea fail to realise that Kampala in its current form will never be developed to modern standards.
The city needs good wide roads, better leisure parks, well protected green belts, enough parking space for the ever increasing traffic, bigger shopping malls and many more things that define a city. Other people have argued that since the central government has failed to deliver in other areas, they don’t think it can positively mange and transform Kampala city either. I am among those who think that the current government is very incompetent in terms of management. This is evident infrastructure including hospitals, schools and other government installations that have been run down over the years. However, at the same time, I am of the view that the state in which our city is presently can not be any worse. I can’t fathom Kampala in a worse scenario than what it is now. Entrusting our city to Al Hajji Nasser Ntege Sebaggala was one of the worst blunders the voters of Kampala ever made. Conceding and yielding to Buganda’s demands not to expand the boundaries of the city is to condemn the city to perpetual mismanagement, an action that would lead Kampala to become a befuddled slum. I would rather we support the central government move to administer the city after all we have less to lose in the present circumstances.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
INTERESTING QUOTE BY MUTABAZI SAM STEWART ABOUT TAXATION
"Taxation, just like medicine, is only good when administered in moderation; its consequences can be catastrophic when the patient (read people) is forced to take an overdose".
By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
31st March 2010
By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
31st March 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
WHY UGANDA SHOULD BRACE FOR HIGH PRICES OF FOOD FOR A LONG TIME
By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
The global recession is about to be brought to a successful end thanks to good macro economic policies by the new administration in the United States of America. Economists in developing countries including Uganda waited with abated breath wondering how the credit crunch would affect their fragile economies. Some argued that it would only be a matter of time before the depression would spread to our country while others reasoned that given the fact that a country like Uganda is not yet a highly monetized economy, the impact of the crunch would not have the same shock it had on well developed economies in the Western World. Today we can state with certainty that the credit crunch is waning having had a slight brunt on Uganda’s economy.
Economies world wide react to depressions differently. The world has witnessed various economic slumps during the last one hundred years although the most pronounced have been that of 1920’s and the current one that peaked in 2008. In between these periods however there were intermittent shocks and distresses with varying magnitudes. Some have been handled by technocrats without allowing the world to get to know about their extent.
Although Uganda did not experience the true recession as some people had anticipated, no body in government should claim that the crunch did not happen here because of any preconditioned policies and programmes that shielded us from the depression spank. It is true that the crunch did not affect our financial institutions because very few are engaged in mortgages. It did not affect our industries because most of them do not directly rely on inputs from the developed countries which were experiencing the real chomp.
The direct effect however came in the form of increased prices of food throughout the country brought about by the hike in international oil prices. Analysts are already predicting that the price of food in Uganda may never normalize to the former cost that most of us had been accustomed to for a very long time. Prior to 2008, Uganda perhaps, was one of the few countries in the world with the lowest prices of food. All this has been altered and is likely to remain so for quite a long time. As readers may recall, during peak harvest period, one would buy a bunch of Matooke at as little as 1000 shilling or less especially in villages. As of today, you can not get the same bunch at twice this amount even in the most remote part of western Uganda, the leading Matooke producing area in the country.
This state of affairs is explained by largely two factors; namely the credit crunch and secondly by a general decrease in production of food in the entire country. The former is not as strong a factor as the latter. It is critical that policy makers in government take careful procedures to address the problem of food shortage in Uganda before it gets out of hand. What has happened is that, of late, there is an unprecedented movement of persons from rural areas into towns and cities by young energetic persons. Majority of them are engaged in petty business but mainly in boda boda business. In effect this means that the people who would have provided the much needed labour to produce the food, have instead migrated in search of other jobs which are considered “superior” to farming using the traditional hand hoe.
The little food that is being produced by the few, (moreover old and weak) farmers that remain in the villages can not satisfy the demand from the ever increasing numbers of people in towns. This in itself would not be a problem if there was a premeditated plan by government to encourage people to start large scale mechanized farming that is capable of meeting the food needs of the country both during and out of season. Large scale farming in Uganda is very difficult to implement because of continued land fragmentation that makes it almost impossible to get one whole piece of land that favors such type of agriculture. Indeed, it is hard today to get free land, say of 1000 acres, in the western and central parts of Uganda without human settlement. Therefore, if our agriculture sector no longer has small holder farmers because of rural-urban migration, and at the same time our land tenure system does not support large scale farming, the obvious, which unfortunately has already happened will continue to ensue until the same people who flocked into towns go back to where the came from or government implements a not-so-popular maneuver of pushing people off the land en-mass to release it for large scale agriculture and farming. In the meantime, while the credit crunch shall be history in a few months or years to come in the countries like USA, Uganda shall have its share of a serious depression that may last longer and is difficult to deal with because of no other reason than not acting in good time.
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